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Dubaku is killed in the hospital, while General Juma himself prepares his invasion of the White House from across the Potomac, even as his secret accomplice Ryan Burnett is stuck inside. Ethan and Taylor try to get Burnett's boss Senator Mayer to back off Kiefer, but Mayer isn't budging. As for Kiefer himself, he suits up and infiltrates the White House and subdues both a military guard and Bill Buchanan to get to Burnett.
Chloe tries to erase Burnett's name from the list, but Janis busts her, allowing Moss to give Taylor the heads-up that Kiefer's in her house and leaning on Burnett. That gets Kiefer busted, just when he's trying to torture the goods out of Burnett. Taylor and Ethan take over Burnett's interrogation themselves, and unsurprisingly get nowhere.
Walker, suspecting foul play in Dubaku's death, tracks a rogue orderly to Juma's secret staging area just minutes before he and his unit deploy via houseboat. She manages to sneak aboard, but not without dropping her gun and soaking her cell phone in the river. She learns that the target is the White House just before having to dive over the side and make a run for it. Meanwhile, Juma's marine commandos are already drilling up into something from below.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!The previouslies contain a lot of stuff we really don't need to know, given that the season is essentially starting over this hour. But the episode is only so long and there are always a few minutes at the beginning that still need killing.
Dubaku appears stabilized in the ICU, plus there are now a couple of other FBI agents there to keep him safe. Making him even safer is the fact that neither of those FBI agents is Renee Walker. As an orderly starts to pull a laundry tub into the curtain area, the agents stop him, take a cursory glance at the ID badge hanging from his scrubs, and let him through. He's got an ID badge, after all, so obviously he's legit. In the foreground, a nurse answers a phone call that she says is from a doctor, and calls another nurse over to handle it. Of course the doctor isn't actually on the other end of the line, but while the nurse is thus distracted, the orderly sneakily produces a syringe from the pocket of his scrubs, which he shoots unnoticed into Dubaku's arm. Dubaku begins seizing seconds later, and the nurse calls a Code Blue. One of the FBI agents pages Walker, while nobody bothers to have a word with the orderly who was there when it happened. Or with the nurse who's clearly in on it as well.
CNB news is reporting that the U.S. invasion of Sangala is, in a word, "decisive." In the sense that it's almost over already. I also notice that the news crawl is telling viewers about the two airplanes that nearly collided at JFK. Man, that seems like months ago. Taylor and Ethan are watching from the Oval Office, along with Admiral Smith from the Joint Chiefs. By the way, CNB refers to General Benjamin Juma as the "Sangalese leader," which doesn't clear things up any. But they've got video of him, looking evil in his red beret as he glowers at the camera and claims that his men are repelling the U.S. invasion. "We survived your slave ships. We will survive your warships, too." Oh, thanks for bringing that old business up, Ben. That hurts me. That hurts me right here. Taylor turns off the TV and wonders when the video was made. Given how divorced the message is from reality, Admiral Smith thinks it was made in advance, which of course raises the question of where Juma is now. Smith says the search is on, but they have intel that Juma has already left Sangala. You think? Taylor climbs all over Smith's ass, telling him to find Juma, wherever he is. She's gotten pretty used to people getting found when she wants them found today, hasn't she?
In fact, Madame President, Juma is closer than you think. Now that night has fallen over D.C., he's standing on the south bank of the Potomac, gazing across at the Lincoln Memorial, with the Capitol Dome and the ubiquitous Washington Monument further off in the distance. So he's been in the U.S. all along? He must not have expected Dubaku's plan to work at all. A young man in Sangalan fatigues who looks a great deal like Dulé Hill addresses him quietly from behind. Juma comments on the beauty of the view, and asks if the men are ready. The young man says they are and asks Juma, "Have you heard from my father yet?" So I think we can assume that this is the son of Colonel Dubaku that we've heard so much about, even if he looks about the same age as Dubaku's late brother. Juma assures Dubaku, Jr. that his father will be there.
Eh, not so much, because Dubaku is currently in cardiac arrest. Juma gets a cell phone call from that sneaky orderly, who reports that Dubaku is dead. "His son just asked me about him," Juma says. "He must never know about this, or his father's cowardice." The orderly ditches the syringe in a bin and walks out as Juma says their timing has to be just right. It's only his first episode, but he already knows how this show works.
Behind the orderly, Walker comes running down the hall, wide-eyed and straight armed, arriving just in time to see the doctor call Dubaku's time of death as 6:06 p.m. Walker asks him what happened, but he won't have any answers until the autopsy. You think he could expedite that so we could find out what happened before the end of the season?
It's still 6:06:29 as Moss continues holding forth to his troops about the conspiracy they've been uncovering, and finally gets to the part where they get to do something about it: he's assigning team leaders to make arrests at various departments at the same time throughout the district. Unless something else comes up, of course, but what are the chances of that?
Behind Moss, in the conference room, Chloe answers her cell phone to find Kiefer on the other end. He's already riding in Tony's SUV, where he's changed into a shirt and tie that he must have gotten from the Jos A. Bank store on Massachusetts some time in the last eight minutes. He asks Chloe if the names have been distributed to the FBI yet, and when she says they haven't, he informs her that another attack is in the offing, although they don't yet know the target. Right now, Kiefer wants Chloe to take Ryan Burnett off the list. "If the FBI start to move in on him, he'll lawyer up and no one will get the information on time." Kiefer already knows that Burnett and Mayer are at the White House to meet with Taylor. He must have gotten that from Buchanan, since he's currently on his way for a debriefing with him. Which would explain why he's wearing the suit, if not where he got it. "You don't expect to interrogate a suspect in the White House?" Chloe protests. Uh, why wouldn't he?
After hanging up, Chloe sighs and pulls up the list of names, quickly finding Ryan Burnett's. Her finger hesitates over the delete key, but when she sees Janis coming, she hits it and the letters take their sweet time disappearing from the screen. Janis comes in, and their first face-to-face meeting is quite anticlimactic; Janis simply offers to help Chloe with getting the names ready for distribution. Chloe is quite agreeable to the idea and grateful for the offer. Of course Janis hasn't known Chloe long enough to realize that agreeability and gratitude are the biggest and reddest flags Chloe has in her giant collection of big red flags.
Tony pulls up outside the White House and asks Kiefer to think about bringing Buchanan into the loop, but Kiefer doesn't like that idea. "I'm driving off a cliff here, Tony. I don't need to put Bill in the passenger seat." Besides, even if they were going to do that, Kiefer would be Thelma and Buchanan would be Louise. Tony offers to go with him as backup, but Kiefer says that won't fly, with Tony being a wanted felon and all. And besides, Tony might be the only one able to stop the attack. "See you on the other side," he says as he gets out of the car. Which is the kind of thing people say when they expect to die. Could you maybe not be such a downer for five minutes, Kiefer?
It's 6:09:53 and Burnett is in the White House, on the phone to Juma to try to extend the attack window and give him time to clear out. But he has to hang up quickly when Ethan comes down the hall to meet him. They share the secret Washington Chiefs of Staffs handshake (not really), and Burnett ushers Ethan into a guest office where Senator Mayer already has himself all set up. Ethan tries to charm Mayer by joining him for a glass of bourbon, but it doesn't work. "The president didn't call me up here at the ass-end of the day to drink her booze and flip through a briefing book," Mayer barks, like Ethan is Hyde from That 70's Show. Ethan explains that he wanted to bring Mayer up to speed, and when Mayer wants to know what the day's events have to do with Kiefer, Ethan tells him about how invaluable Kiefer was in uncovering the conspiracy. Mayer's shocked that Kiefer's been active, and that the White House has been "colluding with a rogue operative from a disbanded agency." Ethan says the president sees it differently: "Jack Bauer saved lives today, plain and simple. Including her husband's." But Mayer isn't about to back off of Kiefer. "He's a thug, Ethan. He's Exhibit A." I know we're supposed to hate this guy, but he has yet to say anything I really disagree with. So Ethan starts bargaining: Taylor will back Mayer's war crimes act amendment if he'll let Kiefer off the hook. Otherwise, Ethan hints, there might just be a pardon coming. "You tell her she just walked into a street fight," Mayer says. Ethan invites him to tell her himself. I know this "street fight" crap is just a blustery political metaphor, but how much would you pay to see Kurtwood Smith and Cherry Jones actually throw down on Pennsylvania Avenue?
At 6:12:52, Kiefer has already cleared security and is inside the White House. A uniformed soldier ushers him into the office that Buchanan's been using, and gets clubbed unconscious by Kiefer for his trouble. Buchanan's shocked, and even more so when Kiefer takes the guard's gun and points it Buchanan, ordering him to disarm. Buchanan knows enough to get very obedient, even though Kiefer can't seem to talk nicely even to his friends when he's pointing guns at them. Kiefer wants to know where Ryan Burnett is, and when Buchanan refuses to tell him without knowing what's going on, Kiefer tells Buchanan what they know about the upcoming attack that's occurring with Burnett's support. "So you can either tell me where he is, or I will find him myself." Wow, that is one ice-cold ultimatum, right there. Buchanan refuses, and argues that there are other methods as Kiefer handcuffs him. Kiefer says there's no time for other methods, and commandeers Buchanan's laptop to look up where in the White House Burnett is supposed to be. At the same time, Buchanan alerts Kiefer that Taylor's trying to get him off the hook, but Kiefer's current project won't exactly help with that. Kiefer's not only not swayed, but says he has to do this alone to keep Buchanan out of it. And then comes one of his patented "Don't fight it" sleeper holds that he uses on his friends, and it's naptime for Billy. Before going back out to the hallway, Kiefer takes a taser gun off the belt of the unconscious soldier and gives it a test-zap. You know, just to juice things up a bit. It's 6:15:02.
6:19:25. Moss is in his office when he gets a call from Walker telling him that Dubaku is dead. What's she been doing for the last 13 minutes, anyway? Well, she's been busy, actually. She did a little homework and found out that Dubaku had an eight-member team around him in the ICU, but there was a ninth guy there at the time he crashed. See, this kind of incisive investigative thinking is exactly why we need the FBI. She's even printed out a security camera photo of the dude, and nobody knows who he is. "Are you saying you think Dubaku was murdered?" Moss duhs. Walker admits that the orderly might have been a floater from another hospital, but what if Dubaku was silenced? "Is this Bauer's theory too?" Moss wonders. That gets Walker all kinds of irritated, as she says that Kiefer's not even there and claims that she's been in charge of the investigation all along. Right, it was her idea to threaten a baby a few hours ago. Now I remember. Moss mildly says he wasn't implying anything, and reassures her that they've got what they needed from Dubaku. He also gives her the green light to wrap up her little investigation with hospital security first. See how much more agreeable he is when Kiefer isn't around?
As Walker hangs up, a hospital security guy comes up with more security screen grab printouts. Her mystery-orderly left fifteen minutes ago, but the camera in the parking ramp got a nice, clear view of his license plate number: ZX 20K7. She gets back on her cell phone, this time to the DMV. Which means she should have a vital clue in her hands within days.
Janis returns to the conference room to bug Chloe some more. She's found an "orphaned header fragment," which, according to the file on the jump drive she hands Chloe, means that someone's name was deleted from Dubaku's list. Chloe tries to blow it off, and then says she'll run a recovery program. Janis offers to do it for her, but Chloe declines. Janis leaves the room with this gripping passive-aggressive-off currently in a draw. So Chloe wisely gets Kiefer on the line at 6:22:43 to let him know what's up and that he's going to need to move fast. Torture quickly, Kiefer!
Elsewhere in the White House, Burnett has figured out an excuse to get out of there: he's going back to the Hill to work on a press release for Senator Mayer as part of the media offensive Mayer is already planning. "We've got to make pardoning Jack Bauer as politically toxic for the president as possible. She's a woman in a highly emotional state. Her husband's been shot." Okay, that was kind of dickish, but just because he's a patronizing ass doesn't mean I'm suddenly going to be all, "Yay, torture!" A staffer and a guard come to escort Mayer to the Oval Office, and Burnett says he'll take care of the rest. Then, when Burnett is alone, he calls Juma to confirm a planned 7:30 rendezvous. He's still packing up when someone walks into the office, and isn't aware that anything's amiss until he looks up and sees Kiefer, pointing a weapon at him. "You and I?" Kiefer says as he sends the taser probe flying across the room and into Burnett's chest. "We're gonna have a talk." It's 6:24:15.
At 6:28:43, Moss is on his office phone chattering about an FBI command post at EEOB, which is not as much fun to say as its old name, OEOB. Say them back-to-back out loud for a few minutes and decide for yourself which one you prefer. It only works if you say it as loud as you can, preferably while you're at work. Janis comes in and waits until he's off the phone. She pops a drive into his computer, babbling, "She's supposed to be this whiz-bang systems analyst, which is exactly what tipped me off in the first place, and her demeanor is--" Oh, Janis, you don't want to venture into the territory of Chloe's "demeanor." Trust me, all you'll find there are my footprints. Moss calms her down enough so she can tell him what's on her mind: she's found evidence that Chloe's up to no good, and plays back a clip of Chloe's last call. That would be the one where she told Kiefer that someone was onto her regarding her deletion of Burnett's name from the list, and it's pretty damning. Without a word, Moss leads Janis out into the hallway back to the conference room, snagging a hall guard by name as he goes. The guard takes Chloe by the arm and frog-marches her away from the computer, while she and Janis stare at each other. Meanwhile, Moss is already trying to reach the White House on his cell phone.
Where Mayer is in the Oval Office, arguing with Taylor over Kiefer. He says Kiefer has committed atrocities, and she reminds him, as though it's relevant, "Mr. Bauer has served under the aegis of three presidents, not just me." Yes, Palmer's predecessor, Palmer, Keeler, Logan (not Ray Wise, since Kiefer was in China throughout that administration), Palmer II, Daniels, and... whoa, POTUS is really shitty at math. She argues that she just wants Mayer to excuse Kiefer, "As an expression of gratitude for what he's done today." Mayer warns, "Pardon Jack Bauer, and you're telling every interrogator in the field that it's open season again." Before she can formulate a reply to what is actually an excellent argument, Moss's call is put through on speaker. He confirms that Mayer is in the White House, with Burnett, and informs them, "I have reason to believe that Jack Bauer is carrying out an off-book interrogation of Mr. Burnett as we speak." Mayer pops up out of his seat. This has got to be like some kind of atavistic nightmare for him: "Jack Bauer is coming to get me!"
Kiefer's still pulling the trigger on the taser gun, whose wires are still attached to Burnett. "I can pull the trigger 128 more times before this battery dies," he says. Burnett is maintaining his innocence and ignorance, claiming he loves his country. Kiefer hates it when people say that, so of course he zaps Burnett again. Then he disconnects the wires from the gun, activating direct-contact mode, which he says will up the voltage from 120 volts to 40 times that. I come up with 4,800 volts, but we can't expect Kiefer to be doing math when he's so occupied with his favorite pastime. Burnett begins blubbering, and makes the mistake of asking Kiefer what he wants him to say, so Kiefer fries his leg for him. "Don't even try and play that game with me," he hisses into Burnett's ear. He tells Burnett, "I've been doing this a long time," and he knows when a subject is lying. From which I guess we can assume that when he was just starting out as an apprentice torturer, he had to do a lot of learning by trial and error. Comforting. Then he tells Burnett that the hit will be to his throat, which risks a "complete neuromuscular shutdown." Paralysis, in other words. "Mr. Burnett, you built the entire federal case against me. You of all people should know how far I'm willing to go to stop this attack from happening. So I'm going to ask you one last time, where is the target?" Burnett doesn't start talking until the taser is pressed up against his neck, and then he starts dribbling info as slowly as he can. "Soldiers... a unit... Juma's presidential guard... it already started." Kiefer is asking where, when suddenly Taylor's voice interrupts over the speakerphone. Kiefer tries to ignore it, but he has too much respect for the office to do that. Which is why he's torturing someone in the White House in the first place. We see that Taylor, Mayer, and Ethan are standing in the outer office as Kiefer tells them that there will be another attack within minutes. Soldiers are meanwhile busy attaching explosives to the outside of the locked door, while the President of the United States stands just feet away. I can't imagine the Secret Service would love that visual. Kiefer argues with Taylor until she pulls rank as his commander-in-chief and orders him to stand down. Which is when he fries the phone with the taser. But now he only has 125 jolts left! Sadly for him, he never gets to use another one, because Taylor gives the order to blow the door. It vanishes in a shower of smoke and splinters, sending Kiefer sprawling against the wall. Burnett's fine, because Kiefer's body shielded him from the worst of the blast. But I guess I should say he's fine other than having just been tortured. Soldiers rush in to arrest Kiefer and call the EMTs in for Burnett. Mayer is the first civilian to enter, and as he spots Kiefer pouting in a chair, he tells him he's finished. "He was talking," Kiefer insists. "Whatever is happening is happening now and it's on your conscience." Oh, Kiefer, don't get in a conscience match with... well, anyone. Taylor and Ethan come in to ask what Kiefer knows about this attack, and he doesn't help his credibility much when he reluctantly says that his source was Tony Almeida. Mayer scoffs and tells Taylor, "I don't care if his source is the blessed Virgin Mary. Nothing justifies what went on in this room." Taylor asks if that's true even if Kiefer's right. "Look at that and tell me it's not barbarism," says Mayer, indicating his bloody, shaking Chief of Staff. "Is that something you can live with?" Maybe if Burnett's hair was sticking up in an electrical afro and his pupils had been replaced by little voltage meters and he was doodling his fingers over his lips and going, "Blububublububulub." Kiefer reminds Taylor of the plane crashes earlier today. "Is that something you can live with?" Mayer calls Kiefer reprehensible, and Kiefer retorts, "And you, sir, are weak! Unwilling and unable to look evil in the eye and deal with it." Okay, Taylor, first of all, how is it weak to want to prevent the country from abandoning its principles and giving into its basest instincts out of naked fear? And secondly, Mayer is looking Kiefer in the eye right now and has, by all accounts, been trying to deal with him for some time now.
At 6:36:43, Taylor calls Ethan out for a sidebar as the paramedics are arriving (good to see that the White House paramedics have such a short response time, at least). She asks his opinion, and he says, "If Bauer says there's going to be an attack, my belief is, there's going to be an attack." She says, "Torture was originally intended to force false confessions. No we use it to try and find the truth." Yeah, except that doesn't work. Embarrassing, really. Ethan reels her in by reminding her that they murdered her son and tried to murder her husband. "They will stop at nothing." Taylor makes up her mind, steps back into the smoky suite, and orders Kiefer's arrest. As he's led out, she tells him that he should have come to her instead. "We didn't have time. And would it really have made a difference, ma'am?" Well, we'll never know now, will we? After he's gone, Mayer tells Taylor that she's doing the right thing. She says she wishes it felt that way, and orders the threat levels raised. "And get Tim down here." After that, she wants to talk to Burnett herself. Mayer offers to take care of that for her. "I know the man," he says, leaving himself wide open. "Apparently you don't," she responds pointedly. Ouch. POTUS totally schooled you, Senator. It's 6:38:26.
At 6:42:52, Ethan and Taylor have a quick hallway conversation with Tiny Tim from Homeland about response plans, and the fact that they don't have any intel at all on what the target might be. It's like everyone is determined not to even consider the possibility that they might be soaking in it. Which leaves them with Burnett as their only possible source. "You realize we're going to have to offer this bastard a free pass?" Taylor says to Ethan. "Bauer's going to prison and a traitor walks. What's wrong with this picture?" Well, at least before he got hauled off to jail, Kiefer was doing his best to make sure Burnett wouldn't walk anywhere.
Taylor and Ethan return to the bombed-out office, where Burnett's now laid out on a gurney. Taylor takes on the role of bad cop, threatening Burnett with charges of treason. He just looks up at the ceiling and demands a lawyer. Taylor says he'll tell her what he knows first. "Not in this lifetime," he says, pissing her off. She steps back so Ethan can play good cop, offering full immunity and protection to Burnett in exchange for help in stopping the attack. Taylor even threatens him with capital punishment. So what does Burnett do? He asks, "Where's my lawyer?" Which, I do not believe for a minute that anyone in Burnett's position would not leap at the deal they're offering. Particularly when he knows that the attack is going to be on the building he's in right now. But of course so much of the whole pro-torture argument is based on assuming people do things they would never actually do.
6:45:26, and Walker drives the beat-up sedan that she still hasn't returned to the White House motor pool up to a warehouse somewhere. That orderly who killed Dubaku was considerate enough to park his car right outside where she can see it, complete with visible plates that shine in the moonlight. And to have the car registered to his boss's secret hideout, apparently. Clearly he likes things very orderly indeed. Walker draws her weapon and sneaks inside and down a flight of stairs to the warehouse basement, where nobody is aware that they have a visitor. From the shadows and around a corner, she spots a unit of soldiers walking around in the main room. Luckily she remembered to put her cell on vibrate, so she's able to answer Moss's call in a whisper without giving herself away. She tells him that the orderly "just joined up with about a dozen soldiers. Africans. Heavily armed." She gives him the address, and he tells her about the word that another attack is coming within the hour. She says she's looking at it right now. He tells her he's on his way there, with backup. After hanging up, he orders a chopper from Janis. "Okay, but also," she begins, and he cuts her off with a sharp, "Just do it!" Another thing Janis has in common with Chloe: people say that to her a lot. In the hallway, Moss calls Metro Police and snags a couple of agents in the hallway to join him. Something we're learning about Moss this hour is that he knows even the peons in his office by name. Makes him more likable, but then I tend to like anyone who calls out Kiefer on his bullshit. People like that are kind of rare on this show.
As Walker watches, Dubaku, Jr. approaches Juma to ask about his father again. Juma claims that he just talked to Dubaku, who won't be able to join them because of a holdup getting them passage out of the country. The kid asks to take his father's place for the assault. Juma approvingly says, "Spoken like a true Dubaku," but insists that he needs Dubaku, Jr. in position as his "recon officer," which is a fancy way of saying "lookout guy." And it's time to go.
Walker gets back on her cell phone with Moss to tell him that she thinks Juma is leading the attack. As he gets off the elevator, Moss is obviously surprised to hear that Juma's even in the country. Moss asks if she knows what the target is, which she doesn't, but he tells her to try and find out without taking any chances. Sure she won't. Meanwhile, Juma and his team have boarded a freight elevator going up. She's lucky they didn't take the stairs. They emerge from the warehouse at 6:48:26 while Walker tries to both stay hidden and see what they're doing. It turns out the warehouse opens up on a jetty where a houseboat is docked. They board it, not bothering to look behind them at any of the moments when Walker is not only exposed but lit up beneath the dock lights. She tries to sneak closer, her gun drawn, but when she hears the boat's engine start up, she makes a running leap off the dock to catch it. She lands half in the water and half on the aft diving platform, but she loses her grip on her gun, which disappears into the Potomac. And by the time she hauls soaked ass out of the boat's wake and up onto the platform, her cell phone is useless as well. But at least none of Juma's men realizes they have a stowaway. It's 6:50:04.
At 6:54:32, one of the splitscreen windows shows Kiefer being stashed in the White House brig. By now, Buchanan is awake, and as he reholsters his gun he confirms that Kiefer is in holding. He then dials his cell phone and reaches Tony, who's still sitting in his car right outside the White House. Which is an outstanding place for a wanted felon to be, of course. Buchanan tells Tony that they didn't get anything out of Burnett, and asks if they can have another talk with Tony's source on the intel. "That's highly unlikely," Tony says. Which is his charming way of saying that he tortured him to death. Buchanan's pissed that they don't have any kind of back-up plan, and just hangs up in disgust. That's the trouble with putting together a freelance team on the cheap: you can't fire them when they fuck up.
Moss is in the helicopter over D.C. and on the line to Janis, who reports that Walker's phone is down. "Either the battery's dead or her cell got damaged somehow." Walker has been burning through the phones today, hasn't she?
At 6:56:16, Walker climbs over the aft railing onto the outer deck of the boat, still unnoticed by any of the soldiers inside the cabin. What I love about this is that this is clearly a pleasure boat, complete with a main cabin that looks like a little living room, so some of the heavily armed, camouflaged soldiers look a bit self-conscious about how incongruous they are in this setting. Walker crawls along the outside port deck until she reaches a window where she can see Juma pointing out stuff on maps and ordering radio silence from now on. "You all have your assignments," he pronounces. "May God be with us!" The whole group moves out to the aft deck, while Walker moves forward to stay out of sight. All of the soldiers save Dubaku, Jr. don scuba masks and tanks and jump into the river in their fatigues. Now that it's a little less crowded, Walker takes the opportunity to enter the cabin and start rifling through the charts. She's not finding anything definitive, until she gets to a big illustration of a front view of the White House. Because Juma's men are going to need to be able to recognize it from the street? Unfortunately, right then is when Dubaku, Jr. spots her and comes in after her. She runs out of the cabin and dives right over the rail into the water, striking out for shore as Dubaku, Jr. fires a machine-gun burst into the darkness. He doesn't hit her, of course. As far as I can tell, he doesn't even hit the river.
Splitscreen. Walker swims; Kiefer cools his heels in holding, as does Chloe; Moss looks worried; and Dubaku, Jr. launches a rubber dinghy in pursuit of Walker. That radio silence rule that Juma gave just got damned inconvenient.
Beneath the river, Juma leads his men to a submerged cave -- under the Potomac, mind you -- while Walker climbs out onto the rocky bank, her pursuer not far behind. As the splitscreens continue with Kiefer and Taylor in their various locations inside the White House -- and a shot of the White House itself, cleverly positioned in the top half of the screen with the subterranean invaders in the bottom half -- one of Juma's men produces a big-ass drill and starts breaking through the stone above them. Or at least scratching at it. It's 7:00:00, and if that bit doesn't start digging in soon, the hour is going to be very, very long.
M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter (mgiant), or just e-mail him at M.Giant[at]gmail.com.
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