24 Declassified: 04 - Cat's Claw

by John Whitman

  It had nothing to do with disloyalty of any kind. She was furious Jack for leaving Kim, but she knew he loved her. Ultimately, though, Teri was beginning to sense that his deepest loyalty lay with his country. Or maybe it wasn’t even his country. It was his mission.

  “Are you all right?” Teri asked.

  Kim was holding her head in her hands now. “Yeah. Just tired, I guess. I feel hot. I think I’ll go lie down.”

  6:18 P.M. PST Cat & Fiddle Pub, Los Angeles

  One of the shooters was dead. The other wouldn’t be eating solid food for a long time, and he was currently gagging uncontrollably thanks to his swollen throat where Jack had punched him.

  Jessi Bandison hugged Kelly Sharpton, who winced visibly. His right arm was covered in blood. “Are you—?” she started.

  “Not too bad,” he said. He rolled up his shirtsleeve. The

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  round had slid along the inside of his arm, plowing a furrow from his wrist to his elbow, but never fully penetrating.

  He looked a little older than Jack remembered him from his short stint at CTU. There was weight in his face and gray in his hair. Jack had worked well enough with Sharpton, though they were never friends and didn’t see eye to eye politically; still, he’d drawn fire when Jack needed it, and Jack felt grateful. “She called you,” he said.

  Sharpton nodded. “Odolova was my contact from way back.”

  “I was nervous about doing fieldwork,” Jessi said. “I’m sorry I didn’t tell you.”

  Jack waved her off. The end counted far more than the means, and they were all alive.

  Black and white patrol cars materialized out of the gloom. Sharpton, no longer commissioned, put his gun away. Jack held up his badge, and after a moment or two of explanation, the uniformed officers lowered their weapons and began to cordon off the block. LAPD radioed for paramedics. The surviving shooter was choking to death. “I need him alive,” Jack said. “I’ve got questions.”

  “You want to fill me in?” Sharpton asked.

  Jack shook his head. “You’re a civilian.”

  “A civilian who saved your ass!” Sharpton said amusedly.

  Jack nodded. “And for that you have the thanks of a grateful nation.”

  “That and a dollar . . .” Sharpton sighed without finishing the sentence.

  “Jessi,” Jack said, turning to the analyst, “make sure these uniforms keep a close watch on that one. I want him taken back to CTU for interrogation. Don’t let them give you any crap about medical attention. Go tell them.”

  He turned away, ignoring her look of panic, and dialed headquarters on his borrowed phone. A moment later he was talking to the head of field operations, Henderson’s voice echoed by the speakerphone he was using.

  “They took a shot at us,” Jack said, describing the attack in brief. “I guess al-Libbi’s got some friends in town.” He explained what Odolova had told them about the RPG–29s, and her oblique confirmation of an event happening that evening.

  He summed up: “Russia, the U.S., and China are having a secret meeting tonight around seven. Al-Libbi almost definitely wants to attack it.”

  Henderson replied, “RPG–29s are tank killers. He’s got to be going after the presidential limo. It’d take a tank round to do any real damage to that thing. But there’s no way the meeting is at Marcus Lee’s house. The Secret Service wouldn’t have picked it even if he wasn’t Chinese intelligence. So why were they there?”

  Jack told him about his conversation with Mercy Bennet. “The Vanderbilt Complex.”

  “That makes sense,” Nina Myers broke in, her voice softer and more distant from the microphone. “I was up there. Lee’s house looks right down on the place. That’s got to be why the Secret Service was staking it out.”

  “Tell them what’s going on,” Jack said.

  “Stand by,” Henderson said. The line dulled and Jack knew he was on hold.

  “Never a dull moment for you,” Sharpton said during the interlude.

  “That’s because I didn’t retire.”

  The line came alive again. “Jack,” Henderson said, “the Secret Service tells us everything is under control at the Lee house. They checked with their men up there and all’s well.”

  It’s not right, Jack thought. Ayman al-Libbi with high-powered rocket-propelled grenades, eco-terrorists with killer viruses, and the heads of three of the world’s most powerful

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  countries all meeting together. “I don’t care what the Secret Service says. We need to be up there.”

  “Bauer.” Jack recognized the angry nasal voice immediately. Chappelle. “We’ve already discussed options internally. I’ve passed along word to the President himself. This meeting is important, and the Secret Service has guaranteed security. We need to stand down.”

  Jack banged the phone against his forehead in frustration. “What we need to do,” he said at last, “is send someone up there to have a look. I’m going. Are you sending me any backup?”

  Ryan Chappelle’s voice rose an octave. “Bauer, you’re coming in. Right now. You’ve got problems you don’t even know about—”

  “What was that?” Jack said, shaking the phone. “You’re breaking up.”

  “Bauer! Report back here immediate—”

  “Bad connection. It’s a borrowed phone, sorry!” Bauer yelled. He hung up.

  Sharpton shook his head, but his eyes were smiling. “I see a lot has changed,” he said sarcastically.

  Bauer ignored that. He was already thinking of the fastest route to the Vanderbilt Complex. If al-Libbi was there, stopping him alone was going to be difficult. He stopped and looked at Sharpton. “How retired are you?”

  6:30 P.M. PST Mountaingate Drive, Los Angeles

  It had been easy, really. Disguised as the gardener, al-Libbi had had several hours to listen to the Secret Service communications. He’d heard how they responded to communications through their ear pieces and quickly memorized their call signs. And he had always, always been good at voices.

  So each time they called in, he gave the call sign in a voice that approximated the man who had possessed the ear bud. Possessed it, that is, before al-Libbi had cut his throat and dumped his body into a closet.

  It was almost time. The terrorist ignored the dead bodies and hefted several large, long boxes one at a time out of the truck and carried them into the backyard. A tall screen of bamboo marked the borders of Lee’s house, and hid part of the Vanderbilt Complex from view. Al-Libbi stacked his boxes there, then picked up the shears he’d used to kill Tuman and clipped a hole in the bamboo hedge. Once it was clear, he had a clear line of sight to the Vanderbilt Complex below. In fact, his sightline was clear straight to the reception hall at the heart of the building. The RPG–29s’ five-hundredmeter range would be more than enough to do the job.

  Al-Libbi’s cell phone rang. Anyone who had his number was important enough to speak to, but he was surprised to see this particular number on his screen. “I thought we were done with our dealings,” he said by way of hello.

  “There’s been a change in management,” said Frankie Michaelmas. “I’m in charge now, and yeah, I want to make a deal.”

  6:36 P.M. PST Vanderbilt Complex

  If Stan Chupnik was nervous, he didn’t show it. Hell, he didn’t even feel it.

  He started and finished his wardrobe slowly and fastidiously. His pants were pressed and the pleat stood up nice and straight. His shirt was wrinkle-free and as white as bone. He had shaved twice for the occasion.

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  After more than ten minutes of primping, Stan stood before the dressing mirror nailed to the door of the men’s locker room and sized himself up. His bow tie was a little crooked, so he plucked it loose and began to retie it. No clipons. That was the sort of detail that differentiated the Vanderbilt from pretty much everywhere else.

  Stan had worked as a waiter at the Vanderbilt—or “the Van” as the employees called
it—ever since it had been constructed, and had served at every important shindig the complex had hosted. Of course, the real money was made waiting tables across the plaza at the Almandine, the five-star restaurant where dinner for four ran about four hundred dollars. That was Stan’s bread and butter. But exclusive events at the Reception Hall allowed Stan to breathe the same air as celebrities and world leaders. As far as he was concerned, that was worth the loss of a few hundred dollars in tips now and then. That was certainly true of tonight.

  “Did they hassle you?” Daniel Schuman was saying to one of the other waiters in the locker room. “They asked me about a thousand questions. I take that back, they asked me the same four or five questions about a thousand times.”

  One of the guys on the catering staff said, “What kind of questions?”

  Daniel tugged at his bow tie, trying to even it out. “All about Arabs. I’ve been to Jerusalem a couple of times, and each time I go I try to make a side visit, you know? Damascus, Iran, places like that.”

  “Jesus,” said the other waiter, “you’re asking for trouble.”

  “Yeah, well, those bastards gave me some. I almost didn’t get to do this gig. They’d have given it to Lopez. Can you believe that? Lopez!”

  Stan chimed in. “Well, it’s all your fault. What do you think they’re going to do, the world like it is now?”

  “Oh, and I suppose you’ve never traveled anywhere?” Schuman retorted.

  “All over the place, baby,” said Stan smugly. “But not places that raise eyebrows. I’m a big Costa Rica fan. Brazil, Peru. I love it down there.”

  “You surf down there?” Schuman asked.

  “Some, but mostly I do hikes up in the jungle.”

  “I did that once,” the other waiter said. “Eco-tourist stuff.”

  “That’s right,” Stan agreed with a hint of pride. “I’m an eco-tourist.”

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  THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 7 P.M. AND 8 P.M. PACIFIC STANDARD TIME

  7:00 P.M. PST Mountaingate Drive, Los Angeles

  The sun was little more than a line of orange fire along the rim of the world. To the east the world was dark, but over the Santa Monica Mountains the sky looked bloody.

  Jack parked several doors down from the Marcus Lee address. He and Sharpton, both rearmed, slipped out of the car quietly and padded along the street lined with the demimansions that were so in vogue. Streetlights had come on, and Jack skirted the pools of light until he reached the correct address—a tall white house at the end of the lane, removed from the others.

  The porch light was on, as were several lights inside, but the place was quiet. The Secret Service said they had been checking in with the agents there on a regular basis, but Jack refused to believe it. If he was wrong, Chappelle could (and would) throw the book at him.

  7:07 P.M. PST Vanderbilt Complex

  President Barnes walked into the Reception Hall with a conscious and confident stride. The hall was empty except for the priceless art on the wall, a dining table with two chairs, and the Premier of China.

  Xu Boxiong. The name was as inscrutable as the man, as far as Barnes was concerned. Xu stood there, at the far side of the table, his arms straight down at his sides, his round face composed into a warm but unreadable expression, neither friendly nor otherwise. Though Xu was in his sixties, his hair was jet black and thick. The Chinese leader wore a pair of Coke-bottle glasses, though Mitch Rasher had told Barnes that Xu’s eyesight was perfect. He wore the glasses like curtains over the windows to his soul.

  It occurred to Barnes that, in all his political career, this was the first time he’d met a Communist.

  Barnes crossed the distance between them, extended his hand, and said, “Mr. Premier, it’s a pleasure to meet you at last.”

  Xu smiled and tipped his upper body. “The pleasure is mine, Mr. President,” he said in gently accented English.

  And, as if the greeting had broken a spell, others flooded into the room. Four security agents, two from each country, stationed themselves at either of the two exits. Waiters entered bearing the favorite drinks of each leader. Barnes raised his glass to Xu, who did likewise. They sipped together.

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  “It is a shame Mr. Novartov could not join us,” Xu said. “Something to do with the flu. But perhaps in some way, better. We can speak more directly.”

  Barnes nodded, not ready to enter the deeper discussion yet. “Would you like to sit down, or shall we admire the art?”

  “I have often heard of the Vanderbilt collection,” Xu replied, his small eyes scanning the room. “Perhaps a circuit around the room?”

  Barnes nodded and motioned with his arm. Xu stepped forward, and together they walked the perimeter of the room, stopping at each portrait to admire it or, in Barnes’s case, to pretend to admire it. He wasn’t much for fine art. He passed a picture of a bearded man that evoked strength but did nothing for him, and a picture of a young man in red that he vaguely remembered as being painted by Raphael. Both he and Xu stopped, as if by some unspoken signal, before a tall portrait of Louis XIV, the Sun King.

  “Now there,” said Xu thoughtfully, “was a ruler.”

  “Not a member of the party, though,” Barnes pointed out.

  Xu turned to him and gave the slightest nod. “None of us, unfortunately, is perfect. But I was speaking of his leadership, not his politics. I aspire to be this sort of leader, and I am curious if you, too, have such aspirations, Mr. President.”

  “One can hope”—Barnes decided to take the initiative— “that your leadership will include accommodating the wishes of the nations that wish to invite you into the Group of Eight.”

  Xu sipped his drink. “What accommodations would those be?”

  “Human rights,” the American President said simply. “We need movement on human rights to stop the kind of scene we had out here today.”

  The Chinese leader turned to face Barnes fully, and lowered his drink so that nothing stood between the other man and him. “It is interesting to us that the U.S. is so concerned about human rights in China when it maintains detention camps around the globe.”

  Barnes was ready for this, of course. Politics aside, human rights was an issue close to his heart, and one that had pained him during his entire presidency. He had stuck his integrity in his back pocket countless times, but never at the expense of those who suffered under injustice.

  “Sir,” he said firmly, “if we are to have any sort of dialogue whatsoever, you will never again compare our detention of terrorists and murderers to the incarceration of those who simply disagree with you.”

  Xu did not respond immediately. He studied Barnes, the eyes behind the Coke-bottle glasses slowly traveling across the American’s face. The statement, Barnes knew, had been calculated. Those closest to him knew of his famous temper, and he suspected Xu was testing him. If this was how they were going to play, Barnes thought, it was going to be a long night.

  7:24 P.M. PST Outside the Vanderbilt Complex

  Mercy didn’t stop her car until the bumper was touching the agent’s knees. She got out as the man in the dark suit came around to the front of her car, his hand held up, palm out.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said, “but the museum is closed this evening for a private affair.”

  “I know. I called,” she said, holding up the badge she’d reacquired. “Detective Bennet. I need to talk to whoever is in charge.”

  The agent kept his hand upheld and turned to mutter into his microphone. After listening, he nodded and turned back

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  to Mercy. “They got your call up the hill, ma’am. I’ll take you up there, but you’ll have to leave the car. This way.”

  The agent motioned her toward the white stucco building, the station for the tram. Several more agents were there; they checked Mercy’s ID again, and then allowed her onto the tram.

 
“Hurry, please,” Mercy said. “This is urgent.”

  “Yes, ma’am,” the agent said. The tram hummed up the hill to the Vanderbilt Complex, but it moved with interminable slowness. Mercy was sure she could have walked it faster. At last they came to the top, where the tram ended next to a set of acre-wide, shallow steps made of travertine that led up to the massive double doors of the Vanderbilt. Two more agents were trotting down the steps. One in the lead held his hand out to Mercy, who shook it quickly.

  “Adam Carter, Agent in Charge,” said the man. “What’s this all about?”

  “I told you over the phone,” she said. “There’s a—”

  “—plot against the President, yes, you said that. What is this about a virus?”

  Mercy repeated what she had relayed on the drive over. “There’s an eco-terrorist group that is trying to make a statement. They have some kind of virus like Ebola and I think they are going to try to release it here, tonight.”

  “Do you have any idea who’s delivering it, or how?” Carter asked earnestly. “Because frankly, I’m totally willing to believe you if the President’s safety is even slightly compromised, but I need more information.”

  “I’m not sure how,” Mercy admitted, “but I got the information directly from the man who plotted the whole thing.”

  Agent Carter frowned, and Mercy realized how odd her statement had sounded. “And where is he now, ma’am?”

  She groaned inwardly. “He’s dead.”

  “Well, if he’s dead—”

  “Agent Carter, please don’t be an ass,” she said impatiently. “The virus is real. You can check with the L.A. office of the Counter Terrorist Unit. They know about it.”

  Carter nodded. “I’m really not trying to be uncooperative, ma’am,” he said. “You’re a detective and we take local law enforcement’s warnings seriously. But we’ve had calls already from CTU. They warned us about the house up on the hill, and our agents confirm that everything’s fine.” He pointed up the slope to the right of the complex, where the silhouette of a house stood out from the hilltop. She wondered what the house had to do with anything, and if Jack Bauer was there. Carter continued. “But you’re not giving me anything to go on. I’m not sure that I can evacuate the President on a rumor, especially when our agents are in complete control of the environment.”