Jack looked up. “I have to get back to CTU right away.”
“Carlos says you’re lookin’ for me.”
Milo glanced up from his warm beer. A woman leaned over him, her back to the busy bar, her long, wine-colored fingernails drumming the chipped table. She smiled but the expression on her full, generous mouth, painted the same dark red, did not extend to her eyes. Her complexion was the color of lightly creamed coffee; her long, blue-black hair danced around her naked shoulders. Her belly-baring halter top, pierced navel, and micro-mini faux-satin skirt left little to the imagination.
“Are you Brandy?” Milo asked timidly.
The woman moved her long fingernails from the table to the back of his neck. She lightly stroked his skin. “You must have been talkin’ to your gringo friends to hear about me. Hot news travels fast, eh, cowboy?”
“Actually Cole Keegan sent me.”
The woman’s attitude immediately changed. She looked around cautiously, then slid into the chair across the table from him.
“Where is that son of a bitch?!” the woman whispered.
“I’m here to make good on his promise to get you out of here, across the border,” Milo replied. “But first I need your help.”
Brandy shot Milo a sidelong glance. “It’s about the American dude the Chechens are torturing in the lab, isn’t it?”
Milo’s eyes went wide. “They’re torturing him?”
“They emptied out the lab about an hour ago. I knew they brought someone in earlier. Then, when I saw Ordog, I knew…”
“I need to get him out.”
“You need to get me out,” Brandy shot back. “I kicked my drug habit, and I’m ready to split. Only I owe my pimp so much money he’ll never let me go. That’s why I made a deal with Cole. He promised to get me out, across the border where I’ll be safe.”
“I need to get you and my American friend out, or nobody’s going.”
Brandy glowered at Milo as if sizing him up. He steadily met her challenging gaze. For a long moment, neither relented. Finally, the girl slapped the table with the palm of her hand.
“Go to the roof of the brick building behind the bar, Cole knows how to get up there. You find a barred window in the roof near Albino Street. Be ready to come through that window at three o’clock, sharp.”
“What are you going to do?” Milo asked.
“Make a lot of noise, empty this place out.”
“How?”
Brandy rose, touched Milo’s arm. This time her smile was genuine. “I’m gonna burn this fucking shit hole to 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—”
“Murdered. The Deputy Minister’s son was killed?”
“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 Seises Seises.”
“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.”