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The Veep consolidates his new position as Commander-in-Chief by mending fences with Tom and making out grossly with Lisa. Ick. Kiefer's on his way to get Audrey, and everyone at CTU is busy looking for Kiefer before he can hand the circuit board over to Cheng. When they're not fighting with each other, that is. In fact, things get so ugly between Morris and Chloe that Morris asks Buchanan for a transfer. Buchanan's got problems of his own, though: his wife just fired him. The reason has to do with Chad Lowe telling Justice Department investigators that Buchanan released Fayed two years ago, and with Karen's need to insulate Wayne from the political fallout (no pun intended). Buchanan's bummed, but he really did have the longest run as CTU boss ever. Nadia takes charge at CTU as Doyle tracks Kiefer to the abandoned hotel where he's set up to meet Cheng (and which he's wired to explode). The exchange starts to go through just the way Kiefer and Cheng anticipated in their respective and yet very different plans. But then Doyle, hiding in the bushes, opens fire and everything goes pear-shaped. Audrey's safe, but Kiefer takes a bullet in the vest before he can blow up the building. Cheng gets away into the mountains with the circuit board, which pisses off absolutely everyone but Cheng. And Kiefer's got additional reason to be pissed when he realizes that Audrey's been traumatized to the point where she isn't exactly all there. Understandable; after what he gave up in exchange for her, he had a right to expect he was getting all of her. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Doyle runs down the freeway embankment where Kiefer left him stranded, and right into traffic. Amazingly, he is not killed instantly, as he jumps from lane to lane futilely trying to signal drivers to pull over. At first, nobody does, but all of the swerving and braking he causes creates just enough of a traffic jam that he's able to get one driver to slow down and stop. Doyle Grand Theft Autos the dude right out of his car without even bothering to show a badge, and drives off. Does Doyle realize how lucky he is to have actually found some traffic? That was the most cars I've seen on the road at one time all season.
Meanwhile, further up the road, Kiefer is driving along alone when he spots a few rows of those huge steel power-line pylons -- the kind that look like utilitarian Eiffel Towers, only bigger. Those things always make me want to shield my gonads, but Kiefer starts driving right toward them. I suppose any Darwinian urges he might ever have possessed have been spotty at best today.
Doyle's luck keeps holding up, as he turns out to have jacked a car with a cell phone headset inside. Without any regard for where that thing might have been, he sticks it in his ear and calls CTU. He tells Buchanan that Kiefer got the drop on him; he admits that he screwed up and is now in pursuit. Morris reports that the tracker CTU attached to the circuit board from the suitcase nuke is still active and transmitting a signal, so for now, they can tell that Kiefer's still heading up the highway. Buchanan warns Doyle that Kiefer's going to ditch the tracker ASAP, and Doyle promises to catch Kiefer before that happens. Good luck with that. Buchanan finishes the call and announces to the floor that Kiefer's gone rogue. Amazingly, nobody responds, "Again?" Buchanan adds that Doyle's in pursuit and will need all their support. And then he goes over to where Chloe is just sitting at a desk with her chin in her hands and asks her to get back to work, even though he pulled her off this project less than half an hour ago. "I know what I said," Buchanan explains. "I need my best people on this." And also Chloe. He asks if he can trust Chloe, and she promises that he can. As long as Kiefer doesn't call her directly and Velvet-talk her into doing something treasonous again.
Kiefer drives his stolen CTU pickup right under those giant power lines, and the blip representing the chip-tracker promptly vanishes from Morris's screen. Now sitting at the computer to his, Chloe acts like it's somehow Morris's fault that they've lost the signal. Getting out of the truck and standing so close to the pylon that if he were holding a fluorescent light tube it would be glowing, Kiefer pries the tiny tracker chip off of the nuke component and flips it into the grass. With my luck, the chip would have caught the wind and blown right into the truck's open door and I'd have to spend the forty minutes searching for it under the seat. But then if Kiefer had my luck, he'd be dead. He gets back into the truck and drives off.
Back at CTU, which the electromagnetic interference from the power lines is preventing the tracker's signal from reaching, Morris and Chloe are engaging in some low-grade sniping at one another. "This doesn't have to be personal," says Chloe. "Can we just figure this out?" "It's not personal, and I've figured it out," says Morris, spotting the power lines on his satellite map and realizing that Kiefer must be using them to jam the tracker's signal. He asks Chloe to keep an eye on things while he goes upstairs to brief Buchanan. As soon as he's gone, Milo turns around to kibitz with Chloe: "I can't believe that Jack would give the circuit board to the Chinese." Chloe says that Kiefer would die first. Milo agrees, but wonders if he'd give up Audrey's life, too. Chloe doesn't have an answer for that. Uh, I do. It's kind of how we got here.
Up in Buchanan's office, he and Morris are on the line with Doyle, explaining about the power lines. They still think Doyle is headed in the right direction to catch up with Kiefer -- just eight miles behind, is all. Maybe time, Doyle will try to steal a faster car.
Back east, Wayne's Press Secretary takes the podium at the White House press briefing room. She tells the assembled reporters and the live TV cameras that Wayne's on his way to Bethesda Naval Hospital, that his prognosis is unknown, and that the Veep will be addressing the country at 9:00 Eastern, right after the season finale ends. And then she signs off without taking any questions. Remember how useless I said she was last hour for letting Wayne's hard drive crash in slow motion on live TV? She makes up for it by being a complete dud in front of the media. Wayne must be screwing her.
The Veep has been watching the broadcast in the Oval Office, along with Tom, Lisa, and a group of non-speaking advisors. At the end, the Veep shuts off the tube and dismisses everyone except Tom. He wants to "clear the air" about Tom's intentions for the recording he has of Lisa and the Veep conspiring to commit perjury. If it were me, I'd want Tom to clear the tape instead of the air, but then I lack the Veep's finesse. Tom gives the Veep a little lecture about his misbehavior. The Veep reminds Tom that the country could use a bit of stability right now. Tom says that he was only trying to protect himself and Wayne, and when the Veep brings up Wayne's blackmail, Tom disavows any involvement. Tom says that he agrees with the Veep on policy: "I simply hate how we got here." But the Veep can still count on Tom's support, as well as his word that he won't be holding the recording over the Veep's head. He's not tall enough, for one thing. They shake on it, and the Veep moves on to his subject, which is what to do about Karen Hayes. Tom says that Karen's "smart" and "brings balance," so the Veep agrees to keep her around, at least until she casts a vote he doesn't like and he decides to try retroactively firing her again.
AudreyCam. She's staring blankly into the middle distance when Cheng's cell phone rings in the background. The caller is Kiefer, telling Cheng where he is. Cheng starts to give Kiefer further directions to where he is, but Kiefer cuts him off and says he's calling the shots now. He says that since CTU wants to stop the exchange, and he knows CTU's satellite coverage, he needs to pick the location for their rendezvous. Cheng trusts Kiefer's intimate knowledge of CTU's orbital surveillance -- despite the fact that this is only Kiefer's third day at work in about five years -- and he agrees to let Kiefer name the spot. Kiefer tells Cheng to meet him at an abandoned hotel called the Calderone on the 305. Cheng warns Kiefer not to try anything stupid. This time it's Kiefer who gets to hang up first. Yeah, you show him. Cheng tells Audrey that they're leaving. Audrey doesn't react, but she flinches when Cheng starts yelling at his men in Mandarin. Or maybe it's Cantonese. I can't pretend to know the difference. It could be Afrikaans for all I know. Audrey is dragged to her feet and led stumbling towards Cheng's parked limousine. It's 12:10:17.
12:14:42. Tom and Karen are in the Oval Office with the Veep and Lisa; Karen says that CTU assures her that they're doing everything they can to find Kiefer. The Veep's unimpressed, since they let Kiefer steal the component in the first place: "Their assurances mean nothing." Aside from giving the Veep a long-overdue chance to be rude some more. Tom diplomatically steps in to suggest launching a multi-agency search, and everyone agrees on that. Not that anything's going to come of it. Tom and Karen leave. Lisa asks if the Veep needs anything else from her. I'm going to gloss over it, because it's really gross, but the Veep basically makes out with Lisa and asks her to "spend what's left of the night" at the White House. But where will she sleep? Does the White House have enough bedrooms? Lisa says she'll go home for a change of clothes. The Veep wisely refrains from suggesting that she not bother, and instead see if she can forage an old outfit of Martha Logan's or something.
Doyle has just reached Kiefer's last known location near the power line towers. As he pulls off the freeway, he's on the phone with Nadia and Buchanan, the latter of whom warns Doyle that if the Chinese get the circuit board, it'll cause an international incident. "I know the stakes, Bill," Doyle says shortly as he parks and gets out, because he watched the previouslies. There must be a full moon out tonight, or at least a glow-in-the-dark fallout cloud overhead, because Doyle is able to quickly spot Kiefer's pickup tracks in the dirt. As Nadia looks at a map on her computer screen, Doyle asks her what's east of there. Nadia names two state routes, and Doyle figures that Kiefer's taking the one that doesn't have traffic cameras on it. He also advises Nadia to check recent cell phone calls from the area, and has suddenly remembered that he saw Kiefer snag a terrorist's cell phone from Fayed's safe house last hour, in case that helps. Doyle gets back into his stolen car and peels out.
At 12:17:46, Nadia passes by Milo and tells him that Doyle knows where Kiefer is. Milo doubtfully wonders how his rival and nemesis managed that. "He figured it out," Nadia knife-twists, but that's only a throwaway moment to her real mission...
...which is to go over to the O'Brians and have Chloe get to work on sifting through cell phone calls per Doyle's suggestion. Chloe gets right on it, which would be fine, except that she also gets Morris right on it as well. She sends a buttload of data over to Morris's screen, obscuring what he was doing, which irritates him a bit. He wants to make a big deal out of it, going so far as to call her hostile. Which isn't really fair, because your version and mine of "hostile" is roughly equivalent to Chloe's best mood ever. Chloe says he pushed her halfway. "Yes, it's my fault -- all my fault," Morris deadpans sarcastically. Chloe says thatshe just said half, and turns it into how Morris never listens, which is why she took over his screen in the first place. Suddenly Milo is there, asking what's going on, returning Morris's favor from earlier. "My ex-wife is suddenly showing signs of irrational behavior," Morris tells Milo. I disagree with almost every word of that, especially the "suddenly," which confuses me. Milo is already regretting having waded into the middle of this. Chloe asks Milo to help instead, since Morris is being such a big baby. After Milo leaves, Morris says something sarcastic about Chloe getting "cozy" with Milo. Come on, you guys, this is ancient history from like fifteen hours ago. Chloe tells Morris to stop acting like this. Morris suggests, "Why don't you write down the way you want me to act, put it in a file -- tab-delimited, the way Milo likes it -- and...shove it?" By the way, that "tab-delimited" bit is the best, most subtle bit of continuity I've seen on this show in six seasons even if it is backwards, so I'm 99.4% positive that Carlo Rota just ad-libbed it. Chloe says that the first item on Morris's list will be to stop acting like such a jealous jerk. Morris says that the day he's jealous is the day he kills himself: "Anything else?" Actually, Chloe does have something: "How about, 'don't arm nuclear bombs for terrorists?'" ...eeeeyouch! You know how, if any argument goes on long enough, somebody's going to "go nuclear"? Id say Chloe just went nuclear. It's all in fun until someone gets his heart ripped out. Chloe instantly feels like shit, but taking it back doesn't seem to be working. Morris gets up and walks off. Probably to go have a drink.
At the White House, Karen and Tom are pedeconferencing through the White House hallways, all buddy-buddy about how they'll coordinate the multi-agency search for Kiefer. For a moment, it's almost like watching an old West Wing, only boringer. Karen's cell phone rings. She's surprised to hear what the person in the phone is telling her, and when she's done talking, she tells Tom that someone named Peter Hock from the Justice Department is waiting to talk to her in her office. Tom clunkily warns Karen that Hock's "got a lot of clout on the Hill." And then they split up so that Karen can go to her office and get clouted.
Once Karen arrives, Hock -- a middle-aged, goateed man we've never met before -- gets up from the chair where he's been waiting, and informs her that he's been interrogating Chad Lowe. All night? When do these fucking people sleep? The more I watch these scenes, the more I wonder how the 24 version of the United States is able to survive when it's being run by people who are so sleep-deprived they must be on the verge of a psychotic episode at all times. Karen isn't too surprised to hear that Chad Lowe is probably going to be up for the death penalty for his part in blowing up Wayne. As you'll recall, Chad Lowe's "part" was planting the bomb and detonating it, which, let's face it, is a pretty big "part." As a result, Chad Lowe has been spilling everything he knows to try to make a deal. Like what, Hilary Swank's grade-school nicknames? The chemical formula for sucrose? The lyrics to the closing theme from WKRP In Cincinnati? Well, no. As Hock says, Chad Lowe actually knows something that has to do with Karen and Buchanan. He opens up his laptop on her desk and cues up some video of Chad Lowe's interrogation. He plays her a bit where Chad Lowe offered some "key information that will help keep the blame [for the terror attacks] away from this administration." The administration he blew up that day, mind you. "He's such a weasel," Karen opines to Hock. Hock fast-forwards to the good bit, which is where Chad Lowe spilled the info that Tom used to blackmail Karen into resigning twelve hours ago. Specifically, Chad Lowe told Hock that Buchanan had Fayed in custody and let him go two years ago, and then Karen put it in a "blue file" at Homeland Security. He calls it a "cover-up." Hock stops the video and asks Karen if it's true. Karen says it all is, except for the cover-up part. Yes, Fayed was nabbed as part of a border sweep, but there wasn't enough evidence at the time to hold him. He wasn't anybody yet. And then the file got blue-coded, whatever that is, as part of standard operating procedure. Hock asks her, if that's the case, why she resigned over something that was nobody's fault. Karen reminds him that they were under attack, and that she needed to protect Wayne and Buchanan so that they could do their jobs. Hock says that now it's twelve hours later, Wayne's in a coma, 13,000 people are dead, "and all people are going to be asking is, 'Who let this happen?'" Ooh, I know! Scott's dad. Remember him? No? Never mind. Karen says no one's going to be blaming Buchanan, that's for sure. Hock lays it out for her: somebody's going to go down, and he wants it to be someone as far away from Wayne as possible: "It's going to be either you or Bill. Bill would be my preference. He's lower on the food chain. But you'll do." Hock and Karen glare at each other until the clock ticks past 12:23:53. I'm sorry, I thought Hock was from the Justice Department, not the Finding Political Scapegoats Department. By the way, that would be one Cabinet member you could never get rid of.
12:28:14. Kiefer pulls off the highway at the Calderone hotel, only to find out that in his two-year absence, it's been torn down to make way for a spiffy new nightclub with a bustling, brightly-lit parking lot. Not really, but he had no way of knowing that. Luckily for him, it's still there. It's a low, dark, dilapidated building, and he parks his truck around the side, kind of out of sight. He awkwardly slings his new man-purse over his shoulder and heads into the old office, finding the door conveniently ajar. He shines his flashlight around inside.
Doyle gets a call from Nadia, saying that they found Kiefer's last call to Cheng. It was encrypted, so she doesn't yet know what they said, but they were able to confirm from the location of the call that Doyle was right about the route Kiefer's taking. Doyle asks what's up ahead, and Nadia tells him that there isn't a whole lot for another nine miles. Doyle tells her to keep working on decoding the call. Probably a good idea, since Kiefer seems to be widening his lead.
As Nadia hangs up at 12:30:12, Buchanan comes up to ask for an update, but they don't get very far into their conversation before Buchanan's cell phone rings. It's his wife, asking if he has a minute to talk. He doesn't, so she asks him to call back when he has a chance. She doesn't mention that it's just a small matter of this bus she needs to throw him under. "Is everything all right?" Buchanan asks. "Just do what you have to do and call me when you can, okay?" Karen says. Which means no, he's fucked, and with his wife's dick. Still, after he hangs up, Buchanan's able to focus on Nadia as she confirms for him that Doyle's on the right track.
Karen goes to talk to her brand-new confidant, Tom, in his office. I guess you can't be picky about whom you open up to in a White House where only five people ever get any lines. Closing the door, she reminds him about the information he was threatening to use earlier. Tom impatiently says, yeah, he feels bad about that and all, but why drag up ancient, twelve-hour-old history? Karen says that's not it; Chad Lowe has already let that particular cat out of the bag to the Justice Department, and Hock wants to protect Wayne. Tom gets it, realizing that either Karen or Bill is going to have to take the blame for releasing Fayed. Karen says it's worse than that; lives are going to be ruined. Tom's not too sympathetic: "Not lives, careers. Rather, one career. And it can't be yours." Tom doesn't sugarcoat things, readily agreeing that Buchanan's done at CTU. Karen says that if that's the case, she'll resign too. Great, then neither of them will have benefits. And they're not exactly spring chickens. "Haven't you already resigned once today?" scoff Tom and millions of viewers. Karen wonders how she can screw over her husband like this. Tom just tells her to "remind him that the man he personally let out of jail killed over 13,000 people today." Karen says that's not Buchanan's fault, but Tom insists that the only way for Karen to survive is to distance herself from her husband. Would it be too literal-minded of me to point out that there's already considerable distance between them? Like about a continent's worth?
At what's left of the Calderone, Kiefer holds his flashlight between his teeth as he finishes wiring his makeshift bomb with its block of C-4. I forgot to mention last week that he was working on that selfsame bomb while riding with Doyle in the CTU pickup, and I have to say that rather than riding along with a bomb in progress, I would have preferred to follow Kiefer in another vehicle. On another road. Kiefer now takes out a small remote detonator and presses the button once. I assume that's only to arm the bomb, because all that happens is that a little red light comes on instead of the whole thing blowing up in Kiefer's face, which would have been quite embarrassing for him. Kiefer sets the charge between a couple of exposed wall studs, then hides it by leaning a loose scrap of drywall up against it. He should probably drive a few nails through that scrap just to cover his bases, but he doesn't bother. His task is to call Buchanan's voicemail. He tells Buchanan that he's about to make the trade for Audrey, and that he hopes she'll be safe by the time Buchanan hears the message. He adds that he promised to confirm for Wayne that the circuit board had been destroyed, and wants Buchanan to consider this message that confirmation, since the explosion that hasn't happened yet will destroy the component. Kiefer can not only withstand brutal torture, single-handedly shoot down an entire terrorist cell, and torture suspects; he can also count chickens before they've hatched. "The meeting will take place at the Calderone Hotel off highway 305," he says. He asks Buchanan's voicemail to take care of Audrey, and thanks it for being a good friend. Then he hangs up and goes over to stare out the window and wait for Cheng. It's 12:34:33.
12:38:53. Morris enters Buchanan's office and asks him for a transfer. "I need to get out of Comm," he non-explains, refusing to elaborate. Buchanan asks if this is about problems with Chloe. "You could say that," Morris agrees. Instead of pointing out that if he transferred everybody who ever had a problem with Chloe she'd have the whole building to herself, Buchanan says he doesn't want to lose Morris. Morris just wants to go anywhere else. Buchanan sighs and agrees to figure something out.
Speaking of marital strife, Buchanan decides that this is the time to return his wife's phone call. Sitting in her office, Karen tells Buchanan that "the DOJ investigator found out about Seattle." Buchanan is genuinely confused; as far as he knew, it wasn't a secret to begin with. It was all by the book, as he points out. Karen handles this as poorly as possible, saying that she can't let it "touch [her]" and that there's "guilt by association." Buchanan realizes that he's about to be scapegoated, left twisting in the wind, and that his wife is driving the bus, and all this reckless metaphor-mixing on my part is making him dizzy. But at least she's not asking him to resign. "I have to fire you," she says as gently as she can. Buchanan thinks that Karen's being pressured by someone, but it's even worse; she's doing this all on her own. He's pretty pissed that she's effectively ending his career to protect herself. She says that they'll get through it, and all that should matter is that she loves him. So Buchanan hangs up on her. When she tries to call back, he's too busy staring down at the floor through his glass office wall to answer. Hey, since he's not doing anything else, maybe he should check his voicemail?
Doyle is on the phone with Nadia from his stolen car, bitching about how long it's taking to decrypt Kiefer's call to Cheng. He also tells her that he's gotten off the freeway and is checking surface streets. I can't think of a joke to add to this paragraph, so I'll just insert, apropos of nothing, the shortest one I know: "Pretentious? Moi?"
At 12:42:52, Kiefer's still waiting for Cheng. Suddenly, something occurs to him, and he steps away from the window to dial his cell phone. Moments later, he's on the line with -- a taxi dispatcher. Even then he has to play his federal agent emergency card. Like that's going to get him better service.
Wouldn't you know it, the moment Kiefer's away from the window just happens to be the very same moment Doyle's driving past outside. Doyle's getting pretty frustrated with the search, until he happens to spot Kiefer's black pickup in the dead of night parked to the hotel. He pulls over to check it out, saying that he'll get back to Nadia and pulling out his borrowed earpiece. Like its owner is going to want it back now.
Carrying his briefcase, Buchanan appears on the floor and pulls Nadia into the Situation Room for a quick meeting. She's shocked and confused to hear that Buchanan is stepping down, and asks why he would quit today. He says he was fired. It doesn't matter by whom; all that matters is that Nadia's acting director now. Just then, a couple of uniformed CTU guards open the door and tell Buchanan that they have orders to escort him out. Wow, Karen didn't waste any time making things official, did she? Good to see her guilt wasn't too crippling. At 12:44:32, Buchanan asks for another minute to finish briefing Nadia. "One," agrees the guard, who clearly isn't a Buchanan fan, but he leaves them alone. I'll bet Buchanan is wishing he'd bothered to learn a couple of the guards' names right about now.
Nadia is still in denial about Buchanan's departure, calling Buchanan "the most ethical, dedicated person I've ever known" and saying that he couldn't have done anything to deserve this. "It's just politics" is Buchanan's non-explanation, and he says that Nadia can handle things until an interim director arrives from Division in the few hours. Whoever it is had better hurry. Nadia reminds him of the security measures she's facing as a result of Working Counterterrorism While Being Muslim, and Buchanan says that he's lifted them and she's all set to go. He tells Nadia to inform everyone before they find out on the CTU intranet or whatever. The guards open the door again; Buchanan's minute is up. He shakes Nadia's hand and tells her that what she said means a lot. He walks out of the room, the guards following. At least they're nice enough not to tip the contents of his briefcase onto the floor.
Morris answers his desk phone and finds Doyle on the other end. After a very short conversation, he hops up to tell Buchanan that Doyle found the KieferMobile. "Good," Buchanan says, and keeps walking. Morris only now notices the guards flanking Buchanan. To Nadia, who has just drifted up in Buchanan's wake, Morris asks, "What's happening to Buchanan?" Nadia says that Buchanan's gone and she's in charge. Then she steps into the middle of the floor to make the official announcement: Buchanan has stepped down, and Nadia's acting director. She says that nothing else is changing; they still need to get Kiefer before he can give the component to the Chinese. Hey, maybe now that Nadia's the boss, she can finally afford to buy herself a suit that fits. It's 12:47:13.
12:51:34. Doyle has gotten into Kiefer's truck and is raiding its stores for a live comm earpiece and a handgun with an ammo clip. Over the earpiece, he tells CTU that he's found the truck (which they've known for four minutes) and he's going to check out the buildings nearby. Nadia's about to have Chloe check the infrared satellite to see if that smokin' hot Kiefer shows up, but Doyle tells them not to bother. As he ducks into some bushes for cover, he notices a stretch limo coming up the road. Doyle calls for backup, so Nadia has Morris send two CTU field teams and three CTU helicopters.
From inside the hotel, Kiefer watches the limo pull up and Cheng get out of the back seat. "Cheng just left the car," Doyle tells CTU and any blind audience members. At 12:53:02, Cheng walks into the building alone and apparently unarmed. "That's far enough," Kiefer grunts. "Mr. Bauer!" Cheng smiles, since he hasn't seen Kiefer for a good eighteen hours. Kiefer asks where Audrey is, and Cheng says that she's still in the car. Kiefer says that nothing is going to happen until he sees Audrey and is satisfied that she's all right. Cheng slowly pulls a walkie-talkie out of his coat pocket and speaks Mandarin (or Cantonese, or Afrikaans) into it. The back of the limo opens again, and this time Audrey gets out with a thug at each elbow. The three figures start walking toward the building. Doyle whispers to CTU, "Audrey Raines is entering the premises. I think I'm gonna need that backup." No shit. Inside, Kiefer watches Audrey walk in. She seems to be wearing Kiefer's old pajamas, accessorized with a heavy, oversized jacket so shapeless that I initially mistook it for a blanket. Her hands are free, but she's got a black cotton gag in her mouth. She goes to Cheng like an obedient pet. Kiefer angrily tells Cheng to remove the gag. Cheng moves to comply, but Kiefer suddenly changes his mind: "I'll do it." Does either of them not see that Audrey's hands are free? Cheng sends Audrey over to Kiefer with a gesture and a word in Mandarin, and Kiefer gently removes the gag that Audrey could have taken out at any time. She's really kind of flinchy, even at Kiefer's touch. "I'm so sorry," he whispers, caressing her face gently. Audrey doesn't have much of a reaction, or anything at all to say. Cheng tells Kiefer to save it for later, and demands the circuit board. Kiefer says that Audrey's going to leave by herself, and then he'll give Cheng the component when she's out of range of Cheng's snipers. Apparently, Kiefer can see the split screen windows that are showing us more of Cheng's men are taking up positions around the outside of the building. None of them notice Doyle, who whispers to CTU, "There's at least ten guns. I need the field teams!" Back inside, Cheng's ready to make the trade already. Kiefer leans in close to Audrey and whispers instructions to her to walk a short way up the road to a cab that's waiting to take her to CTU. Good thing he remembered to call the taxi company, or she'd have a much longer walk ahead of her.
Audrey turns and walks out, in a sniper's crosshairs the whole way. In his hiding place, Doyle heroically tries not to lose his shit. Nadia says that the field teams will be there any minute, but Doyle knows that if Audrey's leaving, it means he's out of time. Audrey's put enough distance between herself and the gunmen for Cheng, who snaps at Kiefer, "Give me the circuit board or I'll kill her." Not so faux-friendly now, is he? Slowly holstering his gun, Kiefer reaches into his jacket pocket for the component.
Outside, Doyle can't take any more.
Kiefer tosses the component to Cheng.
And Doyle opens fire, killing the sniper taking aim at Audrey. Hearing the shots inside, Kiefer reaches into his other pocket for the detonator, but he neglects to dive for cover before doing so. That leaves him open to a burst of machine-gun fire from one of Cheng's men in the doorway. He goes down before he can hit the button. How much would it suck to get shot before you can blow yourself up? He's wearing a vest, but the rounds still knock him out. Outside, Doyle is finding himself in the middle of a pitched firefight. And yet he's luckier than ever, as none of the highly trained assassins in Cheng's employ seem to be able to figure out the one spot where the bullets are coming from. Cheng decides to make a break for it. Down the road, Audrey freezes where she is, just as the first CTU helicopter roars into view and CTUMobiles screech into position to join the battle. A couple of CTU agents nab Audrey, who is by now cowering against an embankment.
It looks like Cheng had the foresight to have three military Humvees parked in back without anyone, including Kiefer, knowing they were there. He hops into one of them, gives an order to the driver, and all three vehicles take off into the hills. This development is reported to Nadia by the CTU helicopter pilot, and she tells him to stay in pursuit. That becomes more difficult when one of the Hummers comes to a stop so that one of Cheng's men can launch an RPG at the CTU chopper. Everyone at CTU gets to hear the chopper go down. Alas, we don't get to see it. All that happens is that a smoke bomb goes off under the fuselage and the helicopter lurches sideways out of frame. At 12:57:13, all three Chinese Hummers are back on the move. They split up and head off in three separate directions. Cheng looks at the intact chip in his hand and allows himself a smile. Should be fun to get out of the country now.
Split screen time. In addition to Cheng, we see Nadia, not exactly reveling in her first quarter-hour as CTU boss; Buchanan driving home, tieless; and Karen in her office, looking at an incredibly cheesy honeymoon photo of herself and Buchanan in matching white outfits and flower leis. Okay, that marriage was doomed from the start anyway.
Kiefer comes to on the floor of the hotel. From his mostly hidden position, he can see two Chinese guys who are still in there, for some reason, instead of shooting at Americans or running away. Kiefer takes them both down without bothering to get up. He gets to his feet with his weapon still at the ready, but by this time nobody's left on the scene but CTU guys. They make him drop his weapon with what is either a hail of warning shots or an incredibly inaccurate shoot-to-kill salvo. They grab him and force him to the ground. "Who is your commanding officer?" Kiefer demands. Doyle comes in, all, "That would be me, dude." He asks where the circuit board is. Kiefer says that Cheng's got it, and that he was all ready to blow up the whole building until Doyle started shooting. He hands Doyle the detonator to prove it. Doyle tells Kiefer that Cheng escaped out the back, and makes sure that CTU got the message as well. Nadia acknowledges, and says that two more CTU choppers are on their way, and all they know for now is that Cheng escaped in "three black Hummers! In the mountains! Off road! Traveling north!" And, by the way, Nadia wants Doyle to arrest Kiefer now. After Doyle buzzes off the comm. call, Kiefer is all pissed at Doyle: "I had this handled! Why the hell didn't you listen to me?" Uh, because everyone was listening to the acting President of the United States. He outranks even you, Kiefer. Still, this is quite a screw-up on CTU's part no matter how you look at it. They might want to bring back Buchanan so that they can fire him again. Kiefer lets Doyle cuff him as other agents bundle Audrey into the building. Kiefer's first concern is for her, and he reassures her that she's safe. She robotically babbles, "Help me, Jack. Please don't let them do this to me." Finally, Kiefer figures out that Audrey's belt isn't currently going through all the loops. As Doyle tells his men to put Audrey in a chair and tries to hustle Kiefer out, Kiefer begs Doyle to help her. Doyle promises to do so. Audrey sits in her chair and pulls her feet up on the seat so that she can be fetal while she mutters. Even the musical score agrees that her elevator doesn't reach the top floor, as it chimes in with some of those random pizzicato string arpeggios that mean "bugs bugs bugs bugs bugs bugs bugs bugs bugs." So now they have to find the component and Audrey's marbles. It's 1:00:00.