A crackling voice filled the cabin. “LaGuardia air traffic control responding. We read you nine- threeniner.”
“We’re on course and on schedule,” Captain Stoddard replied. “Estimated time of arrival over New York City airspace, eight-three-eight p.m., Eastern Daylight Time. Over. ”
22. THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 6 P.M. AND 7 P.M. EASTERN DAYLIGHT TIME
Jack Bauer and Caitlin O’Connor stood on the mezzanine inside Grand Central Station. Though Grand Central serviced only commuter trains these days, the marble-lined interior of the imposing Beaux Arts structure evoked the romance of railroad travel at the dawn of the twentieth century. Below the raised balcony where they stood, the expanse of the main concourse spread out before them. High above their heads a vaulted ceiling was adorned with murals depicting the twelve signs of the Zodiac.
As Jack predicted, the terminus was packed with commuters, the human tide swirling around the massive clock that topped the information stand in the center of the main concourse, and the sculptural groupings executed by artist Jules Coutan back in 1913 when the building was constructed. But Jack hardly noticed the impressive interior space. He was studying faces in the crowd.
“I’m supposed to meet the man calling himself Agent Ferrer under the big clock at six p.m. sharp,” Jack said, peering into the mob.
Caitlin looked, too, though she didn’t know what to search for. The phony CTU agent could be any one of the thousands of businessmen who thronged Grand Central at rush hour. How was she to know who the impostor was? More importantly, how was Jack to know? Caitlin sighed, glanced at Jack’s digital watch now on her own wrist.
“If you’re to meet him at six, then you’re late,” she said.
“That’s the point. I’m going to wait a few more minutes, scope out a couple of likely suspects from the people lingering near the clock. Then I’ll call Agent Ferrer on my cell, explain how I’m running late. If one of the people we’re watching answers his phone, I’ll know he’s the impostor.”
Jack’s cell chirped in his hand, interrupting them.
“Is it—?”
“It’s CTU,” Jack told her. He answered, listened to Nina Myers for a moment. Finally he spoke. “I’ll tell her,” Jack said, ending the conversation.
“Tell me what?” Caitlin demanded.
“Back at CTU, Jamey Farrell is monitoring all New York City police frequencies and emergency channels. A few moments ago she intercepted a Police Department accident report.”
Jack paused. Caitlin’s knees turned to water. “Tell me, Jack,” she said.
“Shamus Lynch is dead. He was killed by an explosion inside a parking garage in Queens. At the scene of the accident, your brother, Liam, turned himself in. The police have him now. They’re holding him in protective custody.”
Caitlin covered her mouth, shut her green eyes to stop the flow of tears that flooded them. “Ohgodthankgod,” she cried, throwing her arms around Jack’s neck.
He held her for a moment, then pulled away to look into her face.
“Listen to me very carefully. This whole thing is over for you now. Shamus is dead, Griffin is too busy running from CTU to chase after you. You don’t have to do this anymore. You can go to a policeman right now, any policeman, and ask him to put you in protective custody, too. In a few hours this will blow over. In the meantime, you’ll be safe. ”
Caitlin pushed her hair back and shook her head. “No, Jack. I’m going to see this through…Look, me and my brother were a party to this bloody mess out of the gate. We didn’t mean to be, but now that I know we are, I want to help clean it up…If there are any charges against me and my brother, then maybe at the end of the day my helping you will help a judge see his way clear to goin’ easy on us. You understand?”
Jack nodded and they went back to watching the crowd. It was Caitlin who spotted the most likely candidate.
“How about that one, Jack?” she said, pointing.
Bauer scoped the man through miniature tourist binoculars he’d bought at a newstand. The man was in his mid-thirties, physically fit, broad-shouldered, with either a dark complexion or a serious tan topped by golden, sun- bleached hair.
“He’s the right age, and time is running out,” said Jack. “Let’s give it a try.”
But just as Jack made the call, the blond man stepped behind the clock and out of sight. Meanwhile a voice answered on the second ring.
“Agent Ferrer here.”
“Jack Bauer. Look, I’m running a little late. Could you stay on the cell phone until I reach you. I’m with Caitlin, just outside Grand Central now. We’re on Forty-second Street. ”
While Jack talked, Caitlin waited for the blond man to reappear. When he finally showed, he clutched a cell phone to his ear. She slapped Jack’s arm; he nodded. Jack had seen it, too. While Agent Ferrer continued to speak, Jack hit the mute button so the caller could not hear them.
“Stay here,” Jack whispered. “I’m going to keep him on the line while I sneak up behind him, take him prisoner…”
She watched as Jack hurried down the massive marble stairs to the main concourse. Within a few seconds, he’d vanished in the dense, fast-moving crowd.
At the bottom of the stairs, Jack opened a hidden compartment on the cell phone case, extracted a tiny, single-wire headset. He slipped the wire over his head, the button-sized phones into his ear canal, the dot microphone under his chin without missing a beat in the conversation. Then he dropped the phone into his jacket, closed his right hand around the handle of his Mark 23.
With the headset, Jack was able to shut out the ambient noise from the people around him — to concentrate on “Agent Ferrer’s” words and the noises around
“Have you heard how the airport raids have gone?” asked Jack. “Did they stop the attacks in D.C., LA, Chicago…here in New York?”
Ferrer was silent for a moment, then he dodged the question.
“I’m not sure we should be discussing this on an unsecured line.”
“Perhaps you’re right.”
“How close are you, Special Agent Bauer?”
Jack could hear impatience — and perhaps suspicion — in the man’s tone. Meanwhile Jack slipped between knots of people until he saw the blond man’s back. The impostor was only a few yards away now, still talking on his cell. In his Brooks Brothers suit, an attache case in his hand, the impostor looked more like a stockbroker than an assassin, but Jack knew looks could be deceptive.
“I’m almost there,” said Jack, stepping behind the man and slipping his weapon out of its holster. With the gun still behind his jacket, he shoved the barrel of the.45 into the blond man’s ribs. “In fact, I’m right behind you,” said Jack.
The blond man lowered the cell, whirled to face Jack. “Hey, dude,” he cried. “At least say excuse me when you bump into—”
The man saw the gun in Jack’s hands, only partially hidden in the folds of the jacket. He backed away.
“Good try, Bauer,” the voice said in his ear. “But apparently you were stalking the wrong man.”
“Where are you?”
“Look up. Check on your friend.”
On the mezzanine Jack saw Caitlin, face pale. Beside her, a tall man with dark skin and bleached blond hair clutched her arm. Despite his Western clothes, Jack recognized him from the files on his PDA.
