“urgent message” on screen in seconds.
The e-mail came from Chloe — the kinky bird from the computer department he’d been dating on the sly. Morris read the tagline, and his knees turned to jelly.
“Oh god,” he moaned, dropping into a chair. “She’s pregnant?”
As Jack descended into the valley, he entered a pall of smoke. Passing the ruins of the mobile homes, he saw everyday signs of human habitation among the ruins — refrigerators turned on their sides, doors wide, spilling their contents, burst mattress smoldering in the sun, a shattered baby crib, torn cereal boxes, broken dishes.
There were no signs of life, but plenty of signs of death.
The grisly remains of the citizens of Kurmastan were all around him.
Jack circled one of the intact mobile homes. Sheets of opaque plastic had been hung in place of windows. The door was unlocked, and Jack opened it. Inside he saw three filthy bunks, an aluminum sink filled with dirty Styrofoam plates, plastic utensils, and swarming ants. The tiny bathroom was crammed with empty ammunition boxes, all brand-name sportsman shells purchased legally, over the counter.
When Jack exited the cramped trailer, a braying goat stumbled into his path. Startled, he watched the frightened creature bolt for the forest, spindly legs kicking up dirt.
Crouching low, leading with the weapon he clutched with both hands, Jack moved along Kurmastan’s main street. He saw a small market, blown apart now, fruits and vegetables scattered on the scorched and blackened street.
Here the smoke was choking, and Jack had to cover his nose and mouth with a tattered prayer shawl soaked in the streaming flow from a shattered water pipe.
There were many bodies around the blasted Community Center, some of them intact. Jack examined two of the corpses and discovered they’d been shot — probably by Brice Holman in the escape Dani had described.
Jack wondered where Holman was now, if he was dead or alive.
He holstered his Glock, wiped smoky tears from his eyes with the sleeve of his CTU tactical assault uniform.
It was clear that the people of Kurmastan had committed mass suicide, after savagely attacking the church group and slaughtering almost everyone. But Jack had more questions than answers.
Why were Dani’s captors, and the ones who chased her up the hill, all women, children, and the elderly?
Cautiously, Jack peered through the door of the smoking Community Center. The stench of death permeated the place, but, mercifully, the roof had collapsed, so he couldn’t see much.
He circled the ruined building. In the back, he found two large Dumpsters that had been tipped over in the explosions. The smell of rotting food mingled with charred flesh, adding to the unbearable conditions.
Jack stopped in his tracks when he suddenly heard a human sound — a mad, tittering laugh.
“Hello?” Jack called.
More laughter followed, and Jack trailed the echo until he spied a six-foot pit reinforced with logs — the entrance to an underground bunker. Jack heard the laughter again, and knew it emanated from that earthen pit.
Reluctantly, he descended into the trench and entered the bunker. Inside, he found a long tunnel lined with wooden support beams. He found a light switch and tested it, but the generator was either destroyed or inactive and the naked bulbs remained dark. Jack paused, waiting for his eyes to adjust. The underground bunker was ten degrees cooler than the temperature outside, and smelled of raw wood and freshly turned earth. There was another odor, too, a kind of chemical smell Jack couldn’t identify.
He heard the mad chortling again. In this eerie place, the deranged voice set Jack’s flesh crawling. He slipped the emergency light from his utility belt and pinned it to his shoulder holster. Crouching, he proceeded along the dark, low-ceilinged tunnel.
After fifty paces, the tunnel ended with a spacious underground chamber. Large chemical barrels lined the walls. Jack played the flashlight beam over the plastic drums. All of them came from Rogan Pharmaceuticals, LLC. According to the labels, the barrels contained one of three substances — Hyperdrine, Androne, and something called Virilobil.
Curious, Jack squinted to read the fine print on one of the barrels. Then he heard the tittering laugh, this time right behind him. He played the flashlight beam into the shadowy corner and discovered he was not alone in the darkness.
Chains rattled as the other man threw up emaciated arms to ward off the harsh light. He moaned, and Jack saw a long, unkempt beard crawling with lice. The man’s hair was long, too, and hung in dull ringlets from a dirty scalp.
His fingernails were curved into filthy yellow talons.
The captive’s flesh was sallow, and there were chafing sores on his wrists and ankles where he’d been chained.
Despite the man’s horrible condition, Jack recognized him from the photos in the secret Kurmastan files. This wretch was Imam Ali Rahman al Sallifi, the supposed leader of this community.
The man trembled under the light, in the throes of some type of drug fugue or madness, Jack didn’t know which.
Only one thing was clear. This man had not been the spiritual leader of these people for a long time.
The bound figure shifted, and a new stench curled Jack’s nostrils. The old man was lying in his own offal.
“It’s inhuman. Not even an animal should be treated like this,” Jack muttered, moving to free the man. But as soon as he approached al Sallifi, the old man howled and lunged at him, raking the air with filthy claws. Jack cursed and stumbled back.
He waited a moment for the man to settle down, then Jack took a cautious step forward. Al Sallifi charged again, snarling as he strained against the rattling chains that bound him to the wall.
Knowing there was nothing more he could do, Jack quickly fled the bunker, into the smoke-shrouded afternoon.
Outside, he heard the roar of turboshaft engines, the steady beat of helicopter blades cutting the air.
The reinforcements had arrived.
Too impatient to wait for the strike teams, Jack headed back up the hill, through the ruined mobile home park, to the grove where he had left Layla Abernathy and Dani Taylor.
Layla Abernathy watched the CTU helicopters circle above the blazing compound, before setting down in a cyclone of smoke and burning embers.
She glanced at her wristwatch, wondering why Jack Bauer had not yet returned. Layla fished for the micro- binoculars on her belt, but before she peered through them, she glanced at Dani. The girl was squatting on the soft loam, legs folded under her. Then Layla recognized something shiny on the ground beside the girl, something that had fallen out of the pocket of her pants.
“Is that Brice Holman’s cell phone?” Layla asked.
Dani jumped as if startled, then snatched up the phone.
“No, it’s mine.”
“That phone belongs to Brice,” Layla insisted. “That’s what CTU was tracking when Jack found
She stared at the girl, her mind roiling. Holman could very well have the key to all this chaos locked inside that device. Digital recordings. Surveillance logs. Photographic images.
Layla knelt down beside the teenager. “You have to give me that cell phone,” she said urgently.
“No!” Dani cried.
“This is a matter of national security.” Layla reached for the phone.
