Season 7 episode 3

The following takes place between 2:00am and 3:00am

Jack stood staring at the holding room until Laura broke his thoughts by standing in front of him. “Jack what is the matter? Who was the person that encoded that information?”
Jack set his jaw. “Marilyn.”
Laura gasped. “But she…how the…how does Chloe know?”
“I don’t know,” Jack stormed off and entered the holding room. Jack looked at Josh. “I need you to step outside for a minute.”
Marilyn latched onto her boy. “I’m not leaving my son.”
Jack pulled out his gun and pointed it as Marilyn. “You will do as I say!” he yelled. He turned to Josh. “I said, GET OUT!”
Josh ran out of the room and Jack turned back to Marilyn. “You better start talking now or I’m gonna hurt Josh.”
“Jack, he’s your nephew. He loves you. Why would you do that?” Marilyn looked at him desperately.
Jack pointed his gun at her head. “Who has Karen and the twins? Tell me NOW!”
“Jack I don’t know what you’re talking about?”
“Okay then; what is so important on that server? Why is it in German?”
“Jack, I don’t know!” Marilyn shrieked and cowered into a corner.
Jack began to doubt but set his mind. She was the only one that could have done it. “I mean it Marilyn. You have no idea how much trouble you are in. Tell me or I’m sending Burke after your son.”
Marilyn’s eyes got wide. “Who is that?”
“Well, first they strap him to a chair. Then Burke gets out his three inch needle and sticks it in Josh. The needle makes your entire nervous system seem on fire and you can’t move. Then you feel like you’ve been electrocuted. He takes the needle out, waits a minute or two, and does it again. Would you like Josh to go through that kind of torture?”
Marilyn glared at Jack. “How dare you? He has done nothing but love you.”
“And I have done nothing but love him, Marilyn. But I need you to give me what you know NOW!! We are running out of time!”
Marilyn just stared at Jack. “I know nothing.”
Jack looked back. “Fine. Then you can watch Josh suffer, because Burke will do it right in front of you.”
Jack left the room and turned to Josh. “You can go back in with your mom now. But I’m afraid that she’s holding crucial information from me. So, both of you are going to have to go through something very bad.”
Josh frowned. “Jack, I’m eighteen years old. I’m not a baby. If you’re going to torture me come out and say it.”
“Okay, then, I’m gonna have to torture you.”
Josh gave Jack a look of betrayal and anger. “Fine, then. But I thought you cared about us. I guess I was wrong; you’re no better than your father.”
He walked back into the room before Jack could reply. But Josh’s words had stung him. He looked in and saw Marilyn embrace her son. Jack wondered, again, if he was doing the right thing. But he had to follow through.
Jack left the room and almost walked straight into Nadia. “What’s going on in there? I thought I heard yelling.”
“I need you to get Burke for me, please.”
Nadia breathed in sharply. “Jack, I can’t let you have him. I need to know what you’re doing and why. You can’t just torture innocent people!”
“They’re not innocent,” Jack said angrily. “And I thought you were going to get me everything you could?!”
Nadia put her head in her hands. “Jack, this is beyond me. I could lose my job and be arrested for helping you! Bill never told me that you had to do something like this!”
“Fine. Then, you never knew I did this and we never talked. When you found out that I had forced Burke on them you got me away and made me leave. Simple as that.” Jack walked away and approached Laura. “Do you have anything off those files yet?”
“Yes, and Jack, it’s not good. There are definitely blueprints to a building on here as well as an email to someone. The outlines are coming through, but I can’t make it go any faster.”
“Well, Marilyn isn’t telling us anything, so try and go as quickly as possible. I need some information over her and fast. I need to get her to talk.”
Laura stood up. “Jack, are you sure that Marilyn is your woman? Maybe Josh did it or someone on their computer did it.”
“If it was someone else Josh would have talked by now. He is a truthful guy. He has been since he was born.”
“Jack, maybe he’s changed.”
Jack looked worried. “Please, just decode those files. We need something.”

****************

Chloe, Morris, and Bill ducked behind a tree and stopped. “I don’t know how much farther I can go” Bill was panting heavily and his face was turning white again. “I’m not exactly twenty years old anymore.”
“We need a weapon and a car!” Chloe said in a frustrated tone. “We can’t run forever, they’ll eventually catch us.”
“We might have to split up,” Morris said casually.
“No!!” Bill and Chloe exclaimed at the same time.
“We stay together. No one can be on their own,” Bill replied. “We can’t afford losing anyone right now.”
“Well, then, what do you two suggest?” Morris said a little snidely.
“They are probably setting up a perimeter around us. We need to get outta here and find a road. Maybe then we can call the police and have them go after the men,” Bill said, ignoring Morris’ tone.
“Let’s keep looking then,” Chloe said a little warily. “These woods can’t be much deeper.”

2:11:45 2:11:46 2:11:47 2:11:48
2:15:46 2:15:47 2:15:48 2:15:49

Karen kept looking around for some sort of way to get out of the cell, but there was nothing. No windows, no huge cracks in the walls, no false floors and walls. She slid to the floor and put her head in her hands.
Edgar walked up to Karen and put his hand on her shoulder. “It’s okay, Mrs. Karen. Mommy will save us.”
“Yeah, Mommy AND Daddy,” Milo emphasized as he walked up to her.
Karen looked up at them with tears in her eyes. “You both know that I will never let them hurt you right?”
“Right!” Milo said. “And we’ll never let them hurt you.” He leaned over and hugged her. When Edgar saw his brother, he did the same. Karen held them tightly and quickly wiped her eyes. “Boys, we need to get out of here. But we need to get something straight. If we ever have a chance to escape then I want you both to run. Okay?”
Milo frowned, not understanding.
Karen looked at both of them. “If I ever tell you to run, you need to run and not stop, okay?”
Edgar nodded. And you come with us?”
“Hopefully,” Karen said. “If not, don’t stop for me. Got it?”
“Why not?” Milo looked at her quizzically.
“Because you’re more important than I am. So if I tell you to run, run!”
The boys nodded, but looked a little scared.
Suddenly, the door flew open and a man grabbed Karen. He dragged her into a room with the blonde man again. “Okay, Karen, here’s the deal. Your little friends are decoding that information too fast. I need you to call them and tell them to stop or we’ll kill you.”
“No!” Karen looked at him defiantly. One of the men hit her across the face.
“I said” the man stood up menacingly, “do it, or we’ll just kill you and have the boys call.”
“Fine, then. Kill me. See if I care.” Karen looked at the kidnapper who motioned to his thug again. He punched her in the stomach this time and she doubled over in pain.
The kidnapper shoved the phone to her ear. “Talk!”
Karen pushed it away, and she received another punch in the stomach.
“You all…are a couple…of…bastards” she spit out. “I will…NEVER… make that call.” Karen stood up and received a few more slaps to the face.
“Well, you are a tough little lady,” the man teased after seeing Karen remain stone faced. “I guess you just weren’t tough enough to save your husband, huh?”
Tears sprung to her eyes and she turned to the kidnapper. “Bill was a great man who saved lives in this country. Don’t you EVER talk about him that way. He’s ten times the man you could ever dream of being.”
He laughed. “Well, since he’s no longer with us, I guess I win, don’t you?”
“You son of a b!tch!” Karen snarled and dove at the man. She punched him square in the face before he was able to get a hold of himself and throw her against the wall. Karen wiped tears and blood from her face and looked at him nastily.
“Show her who is in charge here, and bring me those boys! I’m gonna kill them!”
“No!” Karen stood up and walked back to him. “Don’t you touch them, or I’ll kill you this time.”
“Really? You could just make that phone call and things would be much easier,” his tone reminded her of Miles Papazian and Karen took a few deep breaths. “Give me the damn phone,” and she wrenched it out of his hands.

2:21:34 2:21:35 2:21:36 2:21:37
2:25:57 2:25:58 2:25:59 2:26:00
Jack was just about to enter the holding room with Marilyn when Laura called out. “Jack, I’ve decoded the email message.”
Jack ran over to her and she pointed to the screen. “This took place two days ago between Marilyn and a man named Mitch Anderson. It looks like they are discussing… Jack?”
Jack’s mind flashed back to the man on the phone…the explosion…Air Force One… he pulled himself together and looked at Laura. “That’s the man that shot down Air Force One!”
“What? Jack! You can’t mean President John Keeler?”
“Yes, I do.” Jack said. “What is the email about?”
Laura blinked a few times and looked back at the screen and pointed. “It was in German and it was a conversation about destroying the country’s missiles. Something about the greater good and oil…”
“He changed her.” Jack snarled.
“Huh?”
“Graem. He made Marilyn into what he was.” Jack looked back at Laura. “We need those blueprints…” Jack’s phone rang and he quickly picked it up. “Chloe, is that you?”
“No, Jack, it’s Karen.”
“Karen, what the…? What’s going on, are you okay?”
“I’m fine Jack, listen, they’ve got me and the boys here and the roads…” Jack heard a slap and some fuzz before her voice came back on. “I’m supposed to tell you that you need to back off those files and delete them. If not, they’ll kill me.”
Jack heard another slap. “And the boys,” she said it between her teeth.
Jack took a deep breath.” Tell them okay. We will back off.”
The line went dead and Jack immediately dialed Chloe’s cell. He heard her voice mail go off and he hung up the phone quickly before turning to Laura. “You’ve got to erase those files or they’ll get killed.”
Laura stood up abruptly. “Jack, we can’t! Those blueprints are almost decoded! It may be the location where they’re being held!”
“Which is exactly why the kidnappers want us to erase them” Jack leaned over and deleted the files before turning back to Laura. “However, they said nothing about pursuing any leads we may have already gotten.”
Jack started walking away. “I need you to follow me to holding. I need to talk to Marilyn and Josh again, and you need to keep trying Chloe’s phone until they pick up.” He handed her the phone and strolled into the room.
Josh was sitting in a chair next to Marilyn and Burke had already started. The boy’s screams wrenched at Jack’s heart but he was focused on Marilyn’s face. She no longer looked scared or upset. She looked…defiant. Jack’s eyes narrowed into slits and he barged in.
“Burke, that’s enough for now.” Burke nodded and left. Jack glanced at Josh who was still shaking and turned back to Marilyn.
“We read the email you sent to Mitch Anderson about the missiles. If you tell me what you know now, I will stop hurting Josh and I will defend you in court.”
“Jack, I’ve never heard of any Mitch Anderson.”
“Well, that can’t be true now can it?! He shot down President Keeler in Air Force One over six years ago. It was all over TV! I swear Marilyn; you better start talking now!”
Marilyn looked at Jack coldly. “I’m telling you nothing.”
Jack took out his gun and pointed it at her head. “I will kill you if you don’t start.”
Marilyn continued to stare at him until Jack aimed and shot her in the arm.
She screamed bloody murder and Josh gave Jack a horrified look. “Uncle Jack, you’re insane!! Leave her alone!!”
Marilyn calmed down and stared at Jack with loathing. “You have got to do better than this to get information out of me!”
Jack slammed her arm on the table and pushed it with the butt of his gun. She screamed louder.
“TELL ME NOW!! This is just gonna get worse for you. Would you like me to shoot you in the knee? Then you’ll never walk again!” Jack hit her bullet wound and she screamed again.
“Uncle Jack, stop! Please stop and I’ll tell you what I know!” Jack turned to Josh in horror and the boy sniffed.
Jack pushed Marilyn away and looked at Josh. “You know information, and you never told me?”
Josh looked away. “After my father died, my mother started acting strange. I don’t know if it was the stress of being alone with me or what, but she began to disappear for long stretches at night. She wouldn’t tell me where she was going and would always go straight to the computer. One night I sneaked on her computer and found out that she and this guy, Anderson, were planning to rob the arsenal in L.A. I guess his men made the chatter appear. Anderson grew up in Germany so that’s where his friends are. Mom caught me and made me promise never to tell or…” he gulped, “she would send me to China like Grandpa was going to do.” He looked at his mom. “They were planning it this afternoon and no one was supposed to know about it. But even I know about contingency plans when things go wrong…that’s probably why your friends were kidnapped.”
Jack looked at Josh. “Do you know where to find Anderson or where Karen and the boys are being held?”
Josh shook his head. “But I heard my mom mention Central Court one time; maybe that’s where he lives.”
“Thank you for your help, Josh.” Jack turned to Marilyn. “You’re going to be in jail for a long time.”
Marilyn looked at Jack and Josh and snarled. “You both will pay. I swear you both will die before the day is up!”
Jack untied Josh and grabbed his shoulders, looking into his eyes. “You need to come with me so that I can keep you safe.”
Josh looked ready to cry but nodded. Jack left the room and told the security guards to watch her before turning to Laura. “Have you gotten to Chloe yet?”
She shook her head.
Jack looked at Nadia who was approaching them. “I need you to place Marilyn Bauer in federal custody immediately. The three of us need to leave without being noticed. Can I borrow a laptop, PDA, and car without a trace on it?”
Nadia blinked for a second before nodding. “Sure. But, Jack…I need a reason for placing her under arrest.”
“Just say she withheld national security information. Oh, and she’ll need someone from Medical.” “
Nadia still looked a little confused but nodded. “Um…okay. If you need anything else, just let me know.”
Jack smiled. “I really appreciate it.”

2:35:45 2:35:46 2:35:47 2:35:48
2:39:32 2:39:33 2:39:34 2:39:35

Chloe stood in the middle of a little clearing and cleared her throat. “Help! Morris I can’t find you! They’re gonna get me!!!” Chloe shouted at the top of her lungs.
Suddenly she heard leaves rustle and a man appeared a few minutes later. “Got ya girly!” He pointed the gun at her.
Suddenly, Bill and Morris jumped out of a nearby tree and landed on the man, knocking him out. They grabbed his gun, his phone, and took off towards the main road.
Chloe turned on her cell phone and quickly dialed Jack’s number.
“Chloe!”
“Yeah, Jack it’s me. We just took a guy out and grabbed his gun. We are right by a car on the main road and we need you to tell us how to hotwire it.”
Jack sighed with relief. He heard the sound of crashing glass and then doors opening and closing.
“Okay,” Jack said “open the bottom panel underneath the driver’s side and pull out the wires. Rub the two middle ones together and the engine should start.”
Jack heard sparks and the engine came to life. “Thanks, Jack. We’ll meet you at C.T.U.”
“No!” Jack exclaimed. “Meet me at the abandoned lot on freeway 118. We had to ditch C.T.U. and bring Josh with us. It’s a long story but I’ll explain it there. Just hurry!”
“We’re on our way.”

**************

Audrey rolled onto her side again, but she just couldn’t fall asleep. She knew that she’d have that nightmare again and just what she needed was to wake up screaming. She glanced at her clock. 2:44. She sighed. There was no point in trying. She would get up in 4 hours anyway. Audrey stood up and put her robe on. As she walked out the door she heard her father on the phone.
“Yes, I’m sorry to have woken you up in the middle of the night but Audrey’s been having some problems with a nightmare. Yes. Yes, it’s Jack Bauer again. Three weeks. No, look, I know we should have told you earlier but she refused. Memory? Okay. No, still no memory before Jack disappeared. Uh huh. Sure. Thank you, Dr. Anderson. Good-bye.”
Audrey jerked open the door. “Dad? Why are you calling a different doctor?”
Heller spun around and put a hand to his chest. “Audie, you scared me! What are you doing up at this time of night?”
Audrey frowned and crossed her arms. “I don’t want to go to a different doctor; I want to go to Dr. Martinelli.”
“But Audrey, I think you need a psychologist. Dr. Martinelli can only help you with your strength and memory.
Audrey took a deep breath. “I really hope that he is a good doctor and is very secretive. Just what we need is for him to blabbing to our family and other doctors about this.”
“Don’t worry, Audie. And he was just recently married so she assists him with patients like you.”
Audrey put a hand to her head. That name was sending off warning signals in her head. She knew that many people were named Anderson in the country but for some reason…
Heller came over and looked at Audrey closely. “Honey, are you sure you’re okay? You look funny.”
Audrey blinked a few times and cleared her head. “The name just made me think of something…”
Heller looked at her strangely. “Many people have that name in this country, you know that. How can you know this guy?”
“I…I don’t know. It just seems…Dad can we please just go to someone else?”
Heller shook his head. “No. It’s been arranged already. Your appointment is at 7:30. I suggest that you get some sleep so that he doesn’t think that I like to keep you up all night.”
Audrey turned around and walked back into her room ignoring the horrible feeling that was rising inside of her.

***************

Jack screeched his brakes behind an old barn next to the lot and crept out with Josh and Laura. They hid behind an old oak tree and not even five minutes later, an old Chrysler cam speeding up and the person inside also slammed on their brakes. Bill, Chloe, and Morris quickly emerged and looked around.
Jack whistled and the three ran to meet them. Jack hugged Chloe and shook Morris’ hand before turning to Bill. Jack grimaced. “Are you sure that you are okay?”
Bill gave Jack a quick hug. “Never been better. Do you have any information?”
“Well, we decoded an email and was about to decode some blueprints when I receive a phone call from Karen.”
“What?!” Bill eyes got wide. “What happened? Is she okay? What did they do to her, did she escape?”
“She said that Laura and I,” Jack gestured to his friend, “needed to delete everything or they’d kill her and the twins.”
Chloe gasped and grabbed Jack’s arms. “Jack, please tell me my boys are safe!”
Jack nodded. “We immediately deleted everything but we had already gotten the email. It was a message between Marilyn Bauer and Mitch Anderson. They were going to steal missiles from the arsenal.”
Chloe and Bill both gasped. Chloe looked at Jack with her hands over her mouth. “Surely, you don’t mean that guy who shot down…”
Jack nodded sullenly.
Laura turned to the group. “The blueprints appeared to be some sort of old prison building or barn. I do a lot of decoding at NSA so I’ve learned to start guessing ahead of time. I’m assuming that that is where your family is being held.”
Morris turned t her desperately. “Do you have any idea where it is?”
Laura shook her head sadly. “I wasn’t able to get that far. But if we can find Mitch Anderson we may be able to find them.”
“My mom mentioned Central Court about two days ago. I think that may be where this guy lives.” Josh added.
“Alright, we should all go. We have two guns and two cell phones between the six of us and when we get there we can split into two threesomes. We’ll get around quicker.”
Jack began to turn to get back in his car when the phone rang. “Bauer.”
“Is this Jack Bauer?”
Jack frowned. “Yes, who’s this?”
“I am looking for Bill Buchanan. I know he’s with you and I’d like to speak to him.”
Jack looked up worriedly and covered the phone. “I think it’s the kidnappers. They’re asking for Bill.”
Bill walked up to Jack. “Is it about Karen?”
Jack shrugged and handed him the phone. Bill hit the speaker button.
“This is Bill Buchanan.”
“Why, hello, Mr. Buchanan. I haven’t seen you in a while. How are you?”
“Just cut to the chase” Bill said angrily. “What have you done with my wife?”
The man laughed cruelly. “Nothing. She’s not dead yet, if that’s what you’re asking. But I had just called Jack Bauer and asked him to delete those files.”
“Which he did!” Bill said, clearly exasperated.
“Yes, he did. But he didn’t stop following the lead. He’s on his way to Central Court with you right now and you’ve got Marilyn in holding. I’m afraid that he didn’t listen.”
“You never said anything about that!” Bill shouted.
“Well, sorry, then buddy. But I’m afraid I’m gonna have to kill her because of Jack’s stupid mistake. I just wanted to tell you myself.”
“Don’t you touch her!” Bill yelled. “Don’t you touch her or I’ll kill you!”
“Oh, you will, huh? Gotta find me first. And since you can’t follow any more leads, we won’t be having another conversation.” The line went dead.
“Hello? Hello? HELLO?!!!” Bill yelled into the phone and then threw it on the ground and started shaking. “They can’t kill her. They can’t kill her.” He moaned over and over.
Jack looked at a distraught Bill and a whole new wave of guilt swept through him. “Bill, I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry.” Jack took a step towards him.
“Don’t you touch me!” Bill stepped back and gave Jack a pained expression. “My wife is about to be killed and all you can say is your sorry? Leave me alone.” He turned his back away from everybody and walked away. Jack looked around at the group who were all staring at Bill’s back. Chloe turned to Jack with tears in her eyes and could only shake her head.

2:56:07

Karen was sitting in the corner of the cell holding Milo and Edgar when the door burst open. Two men barged in and grabbed Karen dragging her to her feet. They dragged her outside and threw her on her knees. One of the men cocked the gun and pointed it at her head.
“Why are you doing this? I haven’t done anything!” She looked really scared.
He shoved the butt against her head. “Shut up and it’ll be way less painful.”
Karen started to cry. “Please don’t. I can’t leave those boys by themselves. Please. I’ll behave from now on. I‘ll do whatever you want!”
“We have our orders.” The man put his gun against her head and she closed her eyes while her body shook with sobs. Suddenly the man’s walkie talkie beeped.
“Yeah.”
“Bring her back. Henderson wants her alive. But the others think she’s dead. So it’s had the effect.”
“You sure?”
“Yeah, bring her back.”
Karen took a deep breath and opened her eyes. She cried even harder. She was alive. She could watch the boys. She was alive. And she was going to continue to protect them with her life.

2:59:57 2:59:58 2:59:59 3:00:00