the ground, that’s what I’m gonna do.”
Nina Myers felt it was time to bring Ryan Chappelle up to speed on a number of developments, but she wasn’t about to face the sure-to-be-irate Regional Director alone. At her command, Jamey Farrell abandoned her work station to participate in a meeting in the conference room. Even Doris Soo Min — a young programming genius who had previously been tapped by CTU Los Angeles because of her impressive skills— interrupted her work on the Lesser Trojan horse to attend.
From the start, the atmosphere in the conference room was tense. “Where’s Jack?” Ryan asked, his voice simmering the moment he strode in and saw the Special Agent in Charge was missing.
“I just spoke with him. He’s on his way,” said Nina.
“From where?” Ryan sat down, adjusted his tightly knotted tie.
Nina took a breath, lowered her eyes. “Beverly Hills.”
“I presume he wasn’t there to visit the homes of the stars?”
“Jack Bauer followed up a promising lead in the Hasan investigation earlier today, a tip from a former colleague in the Los Angeles Police Department. Jack went to interrogate someone who may have had actual physical contact with the terrorist leader.”
Ryan frowned. “Why am I learning about this now, and not three hours ago?”
“Jack felt the lead was questionable, that he was on a wild goose chase. He didn’t want to bother you. Then, when things worked out, events happened too fast to keep you apprised. Jack made a major breakthrough once he contacted Omar al Farad—”
“The Saudi Deputy Minister of Finance?”
“The Deputy Minister’s son, Ibn al Farad, had met with Hasan, became a disciple, perhaps even a member of his terrorist cell. Jack hoped Ibn might be able to describe the man. Ibn al Farad did give Jack one promising lead before he was murdered—”
“
“Along with the Deputy Minister and his sister, Nareesa al-Bustani.”
Ryan placed his hands on the table. They were shaking. “Please tell me Jack had nothing to do with these deaths. That he was somewhere else.”
“Jack was at the al-Bustani home when it was attacked by a team of professional assassins,” Nina coolly replied. “CTU’s Tactical Unit arrived too late to save them. The assassins were unfortunately killed in the assault, so we have no immediate knowledge of who they were, why they wanted the Saudis dead.”
“On whose authority was the Tactical Unit mobilized?”
“Jack’s,” said Nina. “He felt he would need back up in case of trouble. He was right. CTU was monitoring the woman’s home through the mansion’s own security cameras. When Chet Blackburn’s unit observed the van enter the property, detected the sound of gunfire, they moved immediately. They were inside the house within three minutes, but they were still too late to save the minister and his sister.”
Ryan closed his eyes for a moment, fighting down his anger. When calm finally returned, he shifted his attention to Jamey Farrell. “I see you called in Doris Soo Min to help. Doris still has her Level Three security clearance from the Hell Gate incident?”
Jamey flinched when he’d first addressed her. She nodded timidly and Chappelle shifted his gaze to the younger woman. “Welcome back, Doris…”
“Er…Thank you, Mr. Chappelle.”
“I hope you’ve made some progress isolating Lesser’s virus.”
Jamey and Doris exchanged nervous glances. “Well—” said Jamey.
“Actually—” said Doris.
“Just give me the facts so I can deal with them,” Ryan said, his control slipping again.
“Well, actually this Trojan horse is a tough little bug,” said Doris. “It’s nearly impossible to separate it from the program it’s embedded in — you know, the movie download. Anyway, Frankie—”
“Who’s Frankie?”
“Frankenstein. A reverse-engineering program I created,” Doris explained. “Frankie’s on the job, and he’ll sort it all out eventually, but it will take hours, maybe days—”
“We don’t have days,” Nina said. “Time is running out.”
“What now?” Ryan asked.
“Milo Pressman made contact with Richard Lesser, who told Milo that an attack on the computer infrastructure of the world will be launched at midnight. Since Jack’s not here, I’ll need your permission to activate the Threat Clock—”
“I need to hear more,” Chappelle said.
“Richard Lesser has agreed to cooperate with CTU in exchange for protection from Hasan, who is masterminding the attack. Lesser is even providing a copy of the virus that will be launched—”
“That’s the first good news I’ve heard. Where’s Lesser now?”
“Milo refused to leave Tijuana without at least trying to rescue Tony Almeida, who’s been captured by the Mexican gang
“But Milo’s not a field agent,” Chappelle cried, losing it now. “He’s not even armed!”
“Milo’s getting help from a United States citizen named Cole Keegan,” said Nina, lifting a file from the stack on the table. “I’ve run Keegan’s name through the Pentagon computers. Cole Randall Keegan was a sergeant in the Army Rangers during the First Gulf War. He hasn’t held a job, or paid taxes since he received an honorable discharge from the military in 1992. Keegan’s last known associates are the Lords of Hell motorcycle gang out of Oakland, California.”
“So Milo and some expatriate biker are going to rescue an experienced field agent from the very people who outsmarted and captured him?” Ryan paused. “People, I am not hopeful. Get Milo on his cell
Nina cleared her throat. “Milo asked for two hours and I gave him the time. Milo feels Tony’s life is in danger. You see, Fay Hubley was murdered by the same men who captured Tony. Milo verified her death.”
Fay’s murder was news to Jamey. Though she remained outwardly calm, her lip trembled, her eyes misted when she heard the news.
“Does the virus embedded in the movie download have any connection to the virus that will be launched at midnight?” asked Chappelle.
“We don’t know,” said Nina. “Either way, we’ll need Richard Lesser’s expertise to prevent the imminent attack.”
“And he’s still down in Mexico—”
“He’ll be here in two hours, Ryan. Milo swore he would pull it off and I trust him,” said Nina.
Ryan nodded. “Okay, start the Threat Clock. Zero hour, twelve a.m.” Next he focused on Doris. “What do you need to isolate that virus. To speed up the process?”
“That’s easy,” Doris replied. “A copy of the virus program independent of the download. Just the execute file. But—”
“I know,” grunted Ryan. “It’s still down in Mexico with Milo Pressman.”
The room was not much bigger than a walk-in closet. A bed, a nightstand, a chair and a dresser with a flyspecked mirror above. In the corner a chipped, rust stained enameled sink trickled cold running water, the faucet long broken. There was no window in the air-less space, the fan above the door only sucked hot air from the narrow hallway into the cramped room. A single lamp burned in the corner, offering a constant, dim glow day and night.
A tall, tattooed man who said he was a married truck driver from Portland sat on the edge of the bed, scribbling in a small notebook.
“I figure the CTU operatives will try to cross the border in the next two hours,” said Brandy, “just as soon as they rescue their agent.”
“You’re absolutely certain they don’t suspect you?”
Brandy nodded. “Positive. Cole Keegan bought my cover story and sold it to the others. With luck they’ll whisk
