Nina followed it through small winding canyons until she came to a few lonely houses inhabited by recluses seeking the solitude of the wilderness with all the comforts of city life. This was an ideal location — it felt like a whole different state, while being only an hour and a half from downtown.
The house was built ranch-style, one low, single-story building that would be easier to cool in the summer heat. The building was set back from the street, but there were few trees and no shrubbery. The lawn was brown with a few green sprouts fighting to stay alive. This morning’s
Nina, her attitude not changed the least since her visit to Marcia Tintfass, pounded on the door. There was no answer. She pounded again. “Federal agent!” she yelled. “I know you’re there. You answered Marcia’s phone call!”
She didn’t know what kind of reaction that would get, but she didn’t like being ignored.
The door opened, and a young, well-built man of Japanese descent answered. “Yes?”
Nina showed him her badge. “Agent Nina Myers.”
The man frowned, looked behind him uncertainly for a moment, then sighed and said, “That’s the second CTU badge I’ve seen in one day You guys are fucking unbelievable.” He reached into his pocket, intoning “ID” when Nina tensed. He pulled out a
small wallet of his own and showed her the badge inside. “Special Agent Jason Fujimora, FBI,” Nina read. “Can I come in?” “Why not,” the FBI agent said in disgust. “You’re clearly going to blow this whether we help you or not.”
Fujimora stepped aside and Nina walked in. There was another man, undoubtedly FBI, sitting on the couch in the living room. And, just stumbling out of his bedroom, sleepily tying his robe around his waist, was Adrian Tintfass.
CTU Headquarters was full of bleary-eyed agents and analysts when Tony walked in. His own eyes stung. It had been a long night with a weird ending. Tony had called ahead to make sure Henderson would still be around. Now he staggered into Henderson’s office and sat down heavily in the visitor’s chair.
Henderson looked like Tony felt. There were bags under his eyes, which were themselves bloodshot, and his skin was pale.
“Seriously?” Henderson said as though they’d already been talking for several minutes. “He was there?”
“Standing right there, close enough to touch. And of course I was undercover and couldn’t do a damned thing—”
“I get it, I get it,” Henderson said. “Any idea at all what he was up to?”
“First,” Tony said, “I have to ask, Chris. Was Jack undercover? Working on some case that none of us knew about? I won’t be pissed. I’ve been on tight operations, too.”
Chris met his gaze steadily. “No way, Tony. Nothing I knew about, and if I don’t know about it, my operators aren’t doing it.”
“Okay, then, if that’s true, here’s my idea.” Tony related his theory: Jack had set up Tintfass for a legal fall so he could take over his business. When that didn’t work, he’d killed him. “You and Jack were friends,” Tony ended, “so I don’t expect you to believe it.”
He was surprised to hear Henderson say, “I hate to admit it, but it’s not all that far-fetched.” He saw Tony’s astonishment. “Look, I’m not an idiot. Bauer never plays by the rules. His home life’s a mess. He’s just the kind of guy to look for an out. Maybe this Tintfass was it.”
Tony shrugged. “Well, I can’t wait to ask him. I heard they picked him up.”
Henderson sighed. “Old news. The new news is that he got away. Some kind of traffic accident. Peter Jiminez was there. Apparently Jack beat him up and took his car.”
Nina paced the width of the living room as she mulled over the story Fujimora had told her. “So why wasn’t the wife put into witness protection, too?”
The other FBI man, Holmquist, answered. “She will be, but we couldn’t come up with a plausible scenario where Bauer killed them both. It’s not his style. So the plan is — was, at least — to put him in hiding while she played the weeping widow. Then when the spotlights were off, we’d put them into their new identities.”
“Best vacation I ever had,” Tintfass commented.
“How many people are in on this operation?” Nina asked. She was surprised Henderson wasn’t aware of it.
“I don’t think you can even count us,” Fujimora said. “This is as much of it as we’ve got. Tintfass had to go into witness protection anyway. CTU was looking to set up one of its own agents for an undercover job inside the jail. What the mission is, I have no idea.”
“Why were you going into witness protection anyway?” Nina wondered. “What was the story?”
Tintfass shrugged and tucked in his bathrobe. “Truth is, it wasn’t my idea. A couple months ago I was looking to score off a weapons deal. I’d got my hands on some equipment from a guy I know out of Camp Pendleton. I made a connection with a guy, I don’t know much about him. I was supposed to meet his number two, I guess, but I got lost, walked in the wrong door or something, and I think I saw the guy your people want.”
Nina saw the rest. “Our people got ahold of the news somehow and caught up with you. They flipped you. Jack Bauer shooting you was the setup that put him in jail so he could hook up with someone.”
Peter Jiminez walked tenderly as he returned to CTU. His whole body ached from the impact of his intentional crash, but that was nothing compared to the throbbing in his jaw. He’d never been put to sleep by a punch like that.
Henderson met him practically at the entrance, his voice low but full of frustration. Peter headed off his initial outburst. “I know, sir, I’m sorry. I got him, but I didn’t expect—”
“I told you to be ready for anything with Bauer!” Henderson hissed. “You should have taken control of the situation sooner.” Jiminez didn’t have enough energy to argue. He let Henderson stare him down for a moment. The Operations Director held his anger for a minute, then released it in disgust. “Hell, at least the police don’t have him anymore. That’s something.” He jabbed Jiminez in the chest. “But next time you stay on him and you take care of him no matter what he does.”
Tony sat with Jamey Farrell and Seth in the conference room, with Nina patched in on the telephone.
“Unbelievable,” Tony said.
“Jack didn’t kill anyone.” Jamey almost laughed.
Nina piped in. “What I want to know is who knows? Someone’s running this operation without telling us. I can handle being treated like a mushroom, but who’s watching Jack’s back?”
Henderson walked in then. “What’s all this about?”
“I want you to tell me,” Tony said. “Apparently jailing Jack was a setup. He set himself up to go to jail so he could meet someone on the inside. Is this jailbreak some part of the plan?”
Henderson looked stunned. “What? What are you talking about?” “You didn’t set up this operation?” Nina asked over the line. Henderson looked at the phone as though it could answer his questions. “What operation?”
“Is the jailbreak part of it?” Tony asked again.
“What the f—!?” Henderson started to swear in frustration. “Stop asking me questions because I have no idea what you’re talking about. What operation is Jack on?”
Tony saw that they’d get nowhere asking Henderson anything. “Okay, if none of us know, we need to figure it out. Let’s go on the assumption that the prison break was part of the plan, either the original plan or something Jack worked up at the last minute.”
“So nothing’s an accident,” Nina said, following his logic.
“Yes, including the guy he broke out with. Let’s get everything we can on him.”
