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Kiefer's on the run for killing Ryan Burnett, and he e-mails Walker a photo of Quinn (not Quentin, apparently) for her to ID. Even though Walker's suspended, she's able to ID Quinn and connect him to Hodges and Starkwood. She then directs Kiefer to find Senator Mayer, because his investigations mean that he's the most likely person to know what Starkwood's been up to. Ethan's in big trouble with Taylor for authorizing the interrogation, and when a reporter gets a hold of the story, Ethan blames Olivia for leaking it. Which does seem like her M.O., even though she denies it Walker's in even bigger trouble with Moss when he figures out she's been helping Kiefer. And while Kiefer and Senator Mayer are looking for proof of a connection between Starkwood and Juma, Moss brings Morris in and leans on him to help find Kiefer, which Morris does in order to get Chloe out of trouble. Kiefer and Mayer find a possible clue, and when Kiefer explains that Juma's been developing a bioweapon that's about to be in Starkwood's hands (I know, it's news to me, too), the two of them strike an unlikely truce. Mayer even offers to keep the heat off Kiefer's back when they come knocking. Except it's not the heat at the door, but Quinn, who guns Mayer down and goes chasing after Kiefer just as the real cops start arriving. Olivia not only turns up clean in the leak issue, but also quashes the story, which ends up making her look like the good kid and Ethan like the ass. Kiefer, now wanted for two murders instead of just one, goes mano a mano with Quinn and finds out the weapons are already in port. So he calls Tony for help. That's a lot of people in a lot of trouble for a lot of stuff.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!We've got Bill Buchanan, President Allison Taylor, FBI Agent Renee Walker, Jonas Hodges, and Jack Bauer in tonight's previouslies freeze-frames. What are they going to do, kill Buchanan again?
Still dodging the cops that have been called to the hospital to bust him for killing Ryan Burnett, Kiefer reaches the hospital parking lot and ducks behind a black Metallicar to wait for the sirens to pass. When he happens to peek into the car's window, he spots a laptop, half-covered on the front seat. Which is just asking for trouble, Winchesters, honestly. Sure enough, Kiefer provides it, by elbowing the back window out and hot-wiring the car. He's on the move, behind the wheel of some classic American muscle. Good luck catching him in that, FBI. Plus he's got a laptop now.
Morris O'Brian is now at FBI-DC, wanting to know where the hell his wife is. Good question; we haven't seen her for a few hours ourselves. Janis reminds him that they've kind of been dealing with various emergencies, which of course is exactly why Morris is worried. Janis says Chloe is fine, and when Morris asks where she is, Janis says that she's in holding, having been, uh, arrested. Obviously that doesn't satisfy Morris, but Janis can't tell him any more than she has, so she has a security guy park him in the conference room until Moss gets back. For a moment I wonder why Morris stops asking questions, but he probably figures, oh, Kiefer went rogue and Chloe helped him again. It's not like Chloe ever gets arrested for anything else. Meanwhile, does Kiefer even know or care that Chloe's in stir? Last time he talked to her was when he was on his way to go torture Ryan Burnett. I guess he's had other things on his mind. But back to the scene currently on our screens, in which Janis scampers back to her desk. As she gets word that Moss is on the phone for her, Walker is sitting to the desk of another agent, who's going through her suspension forms with her. Who knew the FBI did exit interviews around the clock? And I must say, for someone who took a dip in the Potomac just a couple of hours ago, her hair looks fabulous. She's only half paying attention, because she's watching across the floor when Janis picks up the call from Moss. Not that she's going to be able to hear any of the conversation, which begins thusly: "Ryan Burnett is dead," Moss tells Janis. "You're saying that Bauer killed Burnett?" Janis asks. Moss admits that he doesn't know. "I lost him, Janis. I lost him and it's on me to find him." Janis's crush on Moss has been played so comparatively subtly this season that I may be the only one aware of it (including the show itself), but you don't have to be a shipper to hear it in her voice when she calmly asks what he needs. He tells her to follow up on the APB he already sent out, and climbs on the helicopter so he can return to the office and coordinate the search from there. Janis hangs up and relays the order. She turns around to find Walker in her face, wanting to know what Kiefer got from Burnett. Janis is reluctant to talk to a suspended agent about this, but she tells Walker what she knows -- which isn't much, obviously -- and says she needs to get back to work. After all, she has plans this evening and was hoping to get out of here by midnight. At 9:05:04, Walker wanders off, looking rather confused.
Kiefer has not only gotten that laptop booted up in the Metallicar's shotgun seat, but has also loaded the CD-ROM he stole from the hospital's security system. He pages through some screen grabs and finds a shot of Burnett's killer, Quentin. While driving, he's doing this. I doubt the owner of this car and computer would appreciate the way the guy who stole them is using both at the same time. "Gotcha," Kiefer says to Quentin's photo. I don't know how; Quentin isn't exactly the only one roaming the hallways in these photos, and I'd like to know how Kiefer is able to recognize a shot of a man he only saw in a full-face gas mask while paralyzed and unable to lift his head. But he blows up Quinn's face, hooks that product-placed PDA he also stole into the laptop's USB port, and opens an application called "Anonymous Secure Email." That sure sounds handy for a man on the run. Thanks, Sprint! America's tech-savvy fugitives appreciate your contribution. Then he dials his cell phone.
His call goes through to Walker, who luckily is back in her office. He talks fast: "Renee, it's Jack. Don't hang up the phone, please. Whatever they told you, I did not kill Burnett." Walker stands there looking shocked that he actually used her first name. Kiefer's got it all figured out: he tells her that Buchanan was right, and there are people not on Dubaku's list who are still out there and up to no good. "They're trying to cover their tracks. They killed Burnett and they're framing me for it." Walker says she's not in any position to help him, but Kiefer says he just wants her to ID someone for him. As she opens up her laptop and finds the photo in her inbox, Kiefer says that Quentin is the only connection to the people behind the conspiracy, and asks for her help. "I know you don't agree with some of the things I did today, but I'm telling you the truth." She pauses for so long that Kiefer apologizes for calling her and says it was a mistake. Hey, Kiefer, maybe this is something Chloe could help you with? Or maybe not. But before he hangs up, she finally says she'll call him back. You know, if these two do ever end up together, I hope they don't have to make a go of it as a long-distance couple. They'd spend all their time on the phone with Kiefer just listening to Walker think. After she hangs up, she plugs Quentin's photo into some facial recognition software, which fortunately for national security is always one hundred percent accurate.
Driving along in his own vehicle, Quentin hears the police bulletin for Kiefer over his scanner. Looking annoyed, he calls Hodges's office and says that Kiefer got away, although he doesn't know how. "Bauer's an extremely impressive operative." "You don't have to tell me that," Hodges agrees. Yes, yes, Kiefer is awesome, let's keep it moving. At 9:07: 17, Quentin adds that Kiefer won't be able to evade the FBI dragnet for long. "Monitor the situation and keep me apprised," Hodges orders, and Seaton disconnects the call. He says, "If Bauer connects us to Juma it could seriously impede this operation." Whatever it might be. Hodges agrees, confirms that the "shipment" is due in port in the hour, and says, "Once the weapons are deployed, then it doesn't matter what Mr. Bauer or anyone else knows." Seaton looks a little sick at hearing the old, familiar "Soon it will be too late to stop us" speech, and Hodges suddenly just goes off on him, drawing on what was apparently an illustrious career in high school drama club. "Mister Seaton! I get no pleasure from the knowledge that people will die at our hands. One single soul, the loss of one soul is tragic to me, let alone the numbers we're talking about. But do not forget that every war worth fighting involves collateral damage. And what we're doing is fundamentally and absolutely necessary. And I know you understand that!" Looking uncomfortable, Seaton agrees and shifts in his chair, wondering how long he needs to wait before he can get up and pee without looking like he's trying to escape. Hodges orders, "Wake up our colleagues and have them assembled in one hour. And tell them to pack their pajamas, their toothbrushes. It's going to be a long night." That was quite an impassioned performance Hodges just gave. Let's see, who else do we know who likes to use the word "necessary" to justify his actions?
Walker has found a match to Kiefer's photo and calls him to tell him -- oh, shit, this is embarrassing. The guy I've been calling "Quentin" since last week is in fact John Quinn. This is what I get for recapping with the closed captioning off. Quinn is apparently a black ops vet. And another thing I missed is that he was in "Redemption," as one of the two guys who was sweating Roger's friend Chris. Thanks, forum posters. Anyway, Walker tells Kiefer what we already know, which is that Quinn works for Starkwood. Kiefer is familiar with the name as that of a defense consultant, but Walker says that in the years while Kiefer was gone, the Pentagon has been outsourcing to them like crazy. "Starkwood's basically a private army," she says. "Thousands of men deployed here and abroad." However, she's not aware of them having any connection to Juma. "You know, if anyone knows, it's Senator Mayer," she adds. Apparently Starkwood has been one of Mayer's pet targets after he took down CTU. "Supposedly Mayer has enough to put them out of business," she says. How convenient is that? Kiefer's so lucky that Starkwood wasn't targeted by some other senator, who doesn't want him in jail. Kiefer wants to talk to Mayer, and Walker hangs up, promising to find out where he is now. And how hard could that be?
At 9:09:47, Moss is back in the office, asking Janis about Walker. Janis says she's in her office, and when she tries to tell him about how Morris O'Brian is waiting in the conference room, he blows right past her. Even under the circumstances, you'd think he'd make time to take in a clever British quip or two.
Walker has opened a window on her computer that looks like a White House manifest, showing a bunch of unfamiliar names and photos, as well as those of Aaron Pierce, Bill Buchanan (which does not have Buchanan's eyes digitally X'ed out for some reason), Jack Bauer, Olivia Taylor, and the one she's looking for: Senator Blaine Mayer. She clicks on him and learns that he's in transit to 15 Deerbrook Avenue, which just happens to be his home. What are the chances? She drags that and Quinn's electronic dossier into a window that starts automatically encrypting the information, just as Moss taps on her door and steps inside. Luckily, she sits with her laptop facing away from the door so that he can't see the giant flashing letters on her screen that read "NOW UPLOADING FILE TO AID AND ABET WANTED SUSPECT," complete with progress bar. She quietly claims that she's just a few forms away from taking off for the night. Moss asks her if she heard what happened, and she doesn't deny knowing about it. "After everything Jack's done today, do you really believe that he murdered Burnett?" she asks. Moss doesn't actually know or care. "He's a federal fugitive and needs to be found." She continues to play it cool, which is easier now that her computer has finished encrypting the file and is somehow auto-sending it without her having to do anything else. Moss tells her to go home and get some sleep, and leaves the room. "Okay," Walker whispers. They're getting along pretty well, considering he just suspended her less than an hour ago. Think he'll un-suspend her? Not if he finds out what she's doing now, which is picking up her phone again to call Kiefer.
While walking away through the bullpen, a thoughtful Moss is intercepted by Janis, who again tells her about Morris waiting in the conference room. Again, Moss isn't listening. "Renee talked to Bauer," he realizes aloud. Janis asks, "How do you know?" Rather than wasting any time explaining, Moss tells Janis to snoop into Walker's phone logs and workstation to see what she's been up to for the last fifteen minutes. "We want to catch Bauer, she's our best shot," he says. It's 9:11:28.
At 9:15:54, Olivia and President Taylor are watching the CNB reports about the end of the White House attack, along with the press secretary who I thought was killed two hours ago. I guess that was just a deputy, although she looked an awful lot like the live one, I have to say. Good thing they had a backup. They're discussing an upcoming address, and after the press secretary leaves, Olivia talks Taylor into using the speech to not just reassure the public, but declare victory in Sangala. Since they're getting along so well -- Taylor even calling her daughter "Livvie" -- Ethan has to pick this moment come in with some "troubling news." At 9:17:16, he asks for a moment alone with the prez. She tells him that he can "speak freely in front of Olivia," which he really didn't want to do given how poorly he's been getting along with her, but here goes. He tells them about Kiefer and his theory last hour that Ryan Burnett might lead them to members of the conspiracy that were still at large, and about how he, Ethan, authorized the questioning. He leaves out the part where Larry Moss tried to talk him out of it and Ethan insisted on letting Kiefer go ahead. "It was a terrible mistake," he says. "What happened?" Taylor demands. "Burnett is dead," Ethan says. "The evidence suggests that he was killed by Bauer." Taylor is blown away, and even Olivia's jaw drops. Ethan adds that Kiefer may have just been trying to get to Burnett so he could avenge Buchanan. "No one knows. But Madam President, I take full responsibility. I was trying to insulate you, to provide you with deniability in case anything went wrong." So how did that go, then? Shaking her head, Olivia asks, "Or was it because you thought the president would say no?" Funny, Moss said the same thing. Taylor says her daughter's name warningly, and asks Ethan where Kiefer is now. When she learns that he's on the run, she tells Ethan, "Let me know the minute they find him." Ethan stops to apologize before leaving, but Taylor doesn't acknowledge it at all. Dude, bad hour at work for Ethan.
At FBI-DC, Walker hands over her badge and her gun to the agent that was handling her exit, and happens to look over at Janis. Who is turned around in her chair, looking at Walker and talking into her headset. Walker realizes they're onto her, and ducks into the hallway at 9:19:37. But Moss has her trapped in one of his trademark hallway pincer maneuvers, the same one he nabbed Sean with earlier. Don't nobody get out of this building on Larry Moss's watch. Other than terror suspects, obviously. "Where's Bauer?" he demands. She says she doesn't know, and he tells her not to lie to him. Well, technically she's not; all she knows is that right now Kiefer is somewhere between Mayer's house and wherever he was when she told him to go there. "We traced two calls from your cell to a phone that was reported stolen," Moss accuses. Reported stolen really fast, too. "And we know you accessed a classified government database and sent someone's name and address to Bauer." Which makes her an accessory after the fact, but Walker refuses to tell Moss where Kiefer is. "I still don't believe that he did this," she insists. Moss asks why he isn't coming in, if he's innocent. "Because he was framed and he doesn't trust our ability to work through it." And besides, why start now? "You're actually willing to sacrifice everything to protect him?" Moss asks wonderingly. Apparently so. "Once Jack finds the evidence, he will call us," Walker claims. Moss makes one more try, telling her that if she can tell him what she sent before Janis decrypts it, he'll make a note of her cooperation. She still isn't budging, so Moss has her arrested. Unfortunately, even that doesn't seem to make her love him.
At 9:20:53, a limousine pulls up to a large brick estate and drops off Senator Mayer. He lets himself in, taps the alarm keypad, and sets his briefcase down in the hallway. He looks like he's had a long day, and who could blame him? He's had his hearing interrupted and his star witness shanghaied, was summoned to the White House and held hostage there for almost an hour, and in the morning he needs to start looking for a new chief of staff. Plus, when he hears the printer in his study going, he realizes he's got an intruder. He slowly enters, as we see Quinn's face up on his monitor. He picks up his desk phone and finds it dead, just as we finally see Kiefer lurking in the room behind him. Kiefer shuts the study door, and orders, "Keep your hands where I can see them, Senator." "Bauer!" Mayer gasps. Kiefer tells Mayer to sit, and now we can see that he's holding a very large letter opener or kitchen knife. Mayer gathers his stones and says, "You want me dead, Bauer, you'll have to kill me where I stand." Kiefer retorts, "If I wanted to kill you, Senator, you'd be dead already. Now take a seat!" That's probably not as reassuring as Kiefer means it to be, but Mayer parks himself on the leather sofa and calls Kiefer a...wait for it...enigma. Ooh, burn! "An hour after you save the president from terrorists you murder a federal witness in cold blood," he remarks. Kiefer says that the man whose photo just came out of the printer is Burnett's real killer, and asks Mayer if he knows who it is. Mayer doesn't, so Kiefer tells him about Quinn and his connection to Starkwood. "What in the world does Starkwood have to do with this?" Mayer wonders, his curiosity aroused despite himself. Kiefer admits that he doesn't know, but he knows that Starkwood "sent someone to kill Burnett and frame me to cover up their involvement in everything that's happened today, including their attack on the White House." As Kiefer sits himself down at Mayer's desk, the senator is skeptical and says Kiefer will have to do better than that to get himself out of trouble. Oh, come on, how many times can he save the president in one day, after all? Kiefer growls that that isn't why he's here; he needs to know the connection between Juma and Starkwood. "There isn't one," Mayer says, which is so not what Kiefer wanted to hear. Mayer says that after conducting a six-month investigation, he of all people would know if there was a connection. Kiefer's not letting it go, and demands to see Mayer's files. Just to prove that he's not protecting Starkwood, Mayer lectures, "Starkwood has let their security teams run amok all over the world, with no oversight. They bribe their way into large contracts. They try to influence foreign policy, to their own benefit. All good reasons why this country should not be outsourcing its military operations to private corporations." Self-aggrandizing, sure, but I'm still waiting for Mayer to say something I disagree with. "I am going to shut them down," he promises. "But there is nothing to remotely suggest that they'd be involved in terrorist attacks on their own country. For any amount of money." Kiefer says there might be other reasons, and shows that Mayer's just won a little of his respect when he says, "Sir, I believe this country is still under attack and there has to be a reason." He still wants Mayer's files, and Mayer asks, "If the connection between Juma and Starkwood isn't there, will you turn yourself in then?" Long pause. Hmm, will Kiefer actually put his money where his mouth is? "Just open the files, sir," Kiefer insists. Well, he doesn't have to; he's the one with the knife. It's 9:24:56.
At 9:29:22, the White House press briefing room is absolutely packed. Either the Secret Service and the FBI is pretty sure that the building is completely secure in the hour after a major attack on the place, or they're not and this is just a way to potentially thin out the White House press corps a bit. The press secretary is announcing the president, who is getting good luck wishes and a hug from her daughter in the wings. Taylor takes the podium to a standing ovation of reporters, who are either just really happy to see her alive or are trying to win her favor if the building's invaded again and they're taken hostage this time. When they sit, Ethan is revealed standing behind the back row. Taylor begins her speech by invoking John Adams, who apparently prayed for heaven's blessings on the building. As this leads into her assertion that clearly she owes our second president a solid, one of the reporters notices Ethan in the back and gets up mid-speech to have a whispered conversation with him, asking for confirmation on something. "I'm going to be reporting on this evening's broadcast that a rogue ex-federal agent named Jack Bauer is the prime suspect in the murder of Ryan Burnett," he says. Ethan leads the guy out of the room to ask where he got it. The reporter isn't saying, and Ethan isn't confirming or denying anything. "I'll also be reporting that you authorized Bauer's release from custody and arranged for his access to the victim," the reporter adds. Ethan turns away without responding, and when the reporter tries to pursue it, Ethan simply whispers back, "I said no comment." Hmm, who does Ethan know in the White House who has a history of ill-advised leaks to the press? Tim from Homeland, you are in so much trouble!
Or perhaps not. As Taylor reaches the part of the speech declaring success in Sangala at 9:31:26, Ethan approaches Olivia and whispers, "I see you're up to your old tactics." Olivia whispers back that she has no idea what Ethan's talking about, and tries to walk away. Ethan follows her, saying very few people knew about the Burnett/Bauer thing. "So another one of your errors in judgment bites you in the ass and you think you can lay the blame on me?" she retorts. Ethan tells her that this is going to blow up in her mother's face. "The president has gone on record that torture is unacceptable under any circumstances. When this gets out, it'll look like Bauer was sent exactly for that." Which he was. "It'll be a political disaster. You've gone too far this time." Olivia seems to be hearing that part of what he's saying and taking it seriously, but then she turns away. Ethan grabs her and threatens that he won't let her get away with it. "Get your hands off me!" she hisses. It just became clear why Aaron was wounded during the attack; otherwise, Ethan would be dead right now. As it is, he can only watch her walk away, and turn back to watch the rest of the speech.
At FBI-DC, Janis presents herself at Moss's office door while he's on the phone with someone about the search for Kiefer. After he wraps up his call, she tells him that she can't decrypt what Walker sent to Kiefer. "She used her personal computer. This is very serious encryption. There are some high-level people who can do it." So a government employee has access to better encryption software than the actual government? Janis says that Chloe's one of the people who can crack it, but they both realize she isn't going to roll over on Kiefer. And how disappointing that we're not going to see another hack-off between Janis and Chloe, now that Janis has basically admitted Chloe's superiority in the field. Moss suddenly becomes interested in the fact that Morris is there. "According to her file, he's a level-six analyst, too." Handy! Turns out Moss has the remarkable ability to remember information he didn't give a crap about twenty minutes ago.
Morris is still in the conference room, apologetically on the phone to his kid's babysitter, which answers the question of where he ditched the kid while mom and dad were both in the bowels of FBI-DC. "Do me a favor and give Prescott his baboo before you put him down," he says. Only Carlo Rota can pronounce the word "baboo" with such seriousness. He hangs up as Moss and Janis enter the room at 9:33:47. Moss introduces himself and extends his hand, which Morris ignores. "Yeah, I'd like to see my wife," he snaps. Moss obliges by pawing the TV remote up off the conference table and putting up a live video feed of Chloe's holding room up on the screen. Moss tells Morris that Chloe's being held for obstruction and evidence tampering, and Morris can easily get her out. All he has to do is help them find Kiefer. Morris says he thought Kiefer was working with the Bureau. "That's you, if I'm not mistaken." Moss confirms as much, "until he snapped and murdered a federal witness." Morris doesn't buy that, but Moss points out that Chloe's going to be prosecuted unless Morris helps find him. Janis steps up and says that one of their agents sent Kiefer a file encrypted with Blowfish 148, which nobody knows how to crack. Morris tries to explain why he can't help them. "Jack Bauer and my wife have a very long history. I consider him to be a friend." Moss promises that Kiefer will get a chance to make his case, but Chloe's is open-and-shut, and she's looking at a minimum of fifteen years. "Your son will be nineteen by the time she gets out of prison." That hits Morris where he lives. I'm actually surprised it took him this long. Of course, they could have gotten him to fold a lot faster if they'd just busted out an electric drill. Morris scratches his beard and says he wants Chloe to get full immunity and expungement and the whole deal. Moss gives his word. "You are a witness to this agreement," Morris tells Janis, who readily agrees. He goes around the conference table to the computer setup Chloe was using earlier, technobabbling with Janis as the files flicker on the screen. He boasts that this kind of decryption is easy if you know the backdoor override codes, which he just happens to know (It's Hootie 149, of course). He gets to work, while Moss gets more and more impatient about exactly when the file will be decrypted. After a few more seconds, Morris says, "Now," and tells Moss that Kiefer's on his way to Senator Blaine Mayer's house. Moss and Janis split up, leaving Morris alone in the conference room, where I'm sure he couldn't possibly get up to any kind of mischief at all. Its 9:36:33.
9:40:54. Moss is getting ready to go, with his Kevlar vest and FBI windbreaker back on. Janis meets him and says that Mayer's home phone is shorted out, which Moss says sounds like Kiefer's doing. Janis asks about Kiefer's motives, and as Moss checks his gun, he explains, "Mayer spent the last six months trying to send Bauer to prison for the rest of his life." Simple enough. Moss meets with a team of agents and briefs them that Metro PD is on its way to Mayer's house. "I told them and I'm telling you, it is impossible to overestimate Bauer. He has more training and more experience than anybody in this room and that includes myself." Off they go, as Janis rattles off instructions into her headset. Careful, Janis, you don't know who might be listening.
Chloe is ushered back into the conference room, where she's kind of pissed at Morris for getting her sprung. She also doesn't look so pregnant any more. Well, it has been a few episodes since we've seen her; God knows what might have happened to her in that holding room. Morris isn't terribly apologetic: "I thought it might be nice to spare Prescott the inconvenience of having a convict for a mother," he says. "Jack saved your life," she bitches. Morris admits as much, "But my child and my marriage comes first, and it should for you too." She's still being an asshole about it, so Morris says she's helped Kiefer enough. "You can't go deciding to make this sacrifice on your own any more." Chloe insists that Kiefer didn't kill Burnett. "Then he can prove that when they take him into custody," Morris points out. "If they give him the chance," Chloe whines, watching the armed agents file out the door. Morris scratches his beard some more. Is the FBI really going to let these two wild cards hang around in a computer-equipped conference room by themselves indefinitely? Between the two of them, they could probably start a conspiracy of their own if they wanted to, financed entirely by the unsuspecting holders of PayPal accounts.
Watching Kiefer drive his computer, Mayer brings up something Kiefer said at that morning's hearings, namely his claim of not having any regrets. "Of course I have regrets, Senator. I regret losing my family. My wife was murdered because I was responsible for protecting David Palmer during an assassination attempt. My daughter can't even look at me. Every day I regret looking into the eyes of men, women, and children knowing that any moment, their lives might be deemed expendable in an effort to protect the greater good. I regret every decision, every mistake I might have made that resulted in the loss of innocent lives. But you know what I regret the most, is that this word even needs people like me." Perhaps soon he'll regret wasting all that time on a long speech when the FBI and local police are on their way to bust his ass. Mayer thinks Kiefer is calling him naïve. "Doesn't matter what I think, Senator," Kiefer says. "You just need to understand that where I work, things get a lot messier than where you work on the Hill." Mayer isn't about to let this drop, and at 9:43:53, he makes his case: "What you've lost, Mr. Bauer, is tragic. What you've been compelled to do in the name of saving innocent life is tragic. But sometimes we need to incur the most horrible losses in order to uphold the ideals that this country was founded on. How can we presume to lead the world unless we set an example?" Well, seriously. We send soldiers halfway around the world to die defending the Constitution; it seems hypocritical of us not to be willing to do it ourselves, and from the comfort of our own homes. Kiefer looks at Mayer and chuckles, "You make it sound so simple." Mayer says that maybe it is. "Maybe all the things that you've seen and all the things that you've done have clouded your vision." Aw, what a nice little talk they're having. They should finish the hearings right here, in Mayer's study, without all those cameras and reporters and stuff.
But for now, Kiefer turns back to the monitor, which is showing the scene of a deadly car accident. Mayer says it's not connected to Juma; the victim was a source at Starkwood. "Unfortunately he was also a drunk," he adds. Hence the accident. But Kiefer zooms in on the face of a state trooper at the scene; which happens to belong to one John Quinn. That's all Kiefer needs: "Your informant was murdered by the same man who took Ryan Burnett out this evening." Dude, how lucky is Kiefer that Starkwood only has one assassin? Mayer wonders about the meaning of this, and Kiefer in turn asks what the source knew. Mayer says that despite the source's wacky accusations, they just ended up with a lot of dead ends. "Maybe you didn't dig deep enough," Kiefer suggests, and asks exactly what the source told him. Mayer says that the man claimed Starkwood was blackmailing people at the Pentagon, "that they were involved in assassination plots, even that they were seeking to acquire their own WMDs." He suggests Kiefer check out the interview transcripts, which are there in the files. Kiefer pulls one up, and instantly sees that Starkwood was accused of trying to get a bioweapon. "That's your connection to Juma." Aha! Bingo! So there! Wait, what? Mayer doesn't get it either, so Kiefer explains that there were rumors that Juma was developing illegal weapons while he was in power. "The people that I knew in Sangala believed he was testing these weapons on his own population. He used a remote village, released some kind of pathogen. Everyone there was struck with dementia, paralysis, and eventually died." And then Juma firebombed the village before anyone could get there to investigate. Which is why we're just hearing about it now. "And U.N. officials had a hard time believing that Juma had the technology or the expertise to develop such a weapon," Kiefer continues. Indeed. "But Starkwood? They had both." So why did they need Juma? Kiefer says Juma provided "a safe haven to develop the weapon and an endless supply of victims to test it on." And then... he had to ship it back to them when he was done, and that's the "shipment" that Hodges and Seaton are expecting? This is getting way too X-Files for Mayer, who wants to know why Starkwood would want it in the first place. "Senator, you've been trying to dismantle Starkwood for the last six months. Maybe they planned on fighting back." Yes, with weapons of mass destruction. Oh, Starkwood, you scamps!
Just then there's a knock on the front door of the house, and a loud voice calling for Senator Mayer and identifying himself as Metro PD. Kiefer tells Mayer not to move and goes to the study door, drawing his knife. But Mayer stops Kiefer. "You're obviously onto something," Mayer says, and suggests Kiefer get help from the police instead of running from them. Kiefer reminds him that he's wanted for Burnett's murder, but Mayer offers to protect Kiefer and order the cops to help. "We'll keep the circle small," he promises. "It's time for you to start trusting the institutions that you sacrificed so much to protect." "Trust isn't my greatest asset," Kiefer understates. "Son, you have to start somewhere," Mayer tells him. You know, it's funny: I thought Kiefer could always tell whether someone's lying to him, as long as he's torturing them. I've got it: Mayer can offer to let Kiefer torture him, and then Kiefer will know if he's lying or not. But nobody on this show ever listens to my suggestions. After a long pause, during which there's more knocking and shouting at the door, Kiefer tells Mayer to let the officer in. It's all going to be okay now, right? But when Mayer goes to the door, while Kiefer watches from the end of the hallway, he opens it to find Quinn on his doorstep, gun at the ready, with which he shoots Mayer three times. Oh, yeah, Quinn has a police scanner. Dude, this is the kind of security a United States Senator gets? Some guy with a BFG can stand on his doorstep for like two minutes and nobody notices? Especially today? Apparently so. "No!" Kiefer roars, all echoey like Luke Skywalker. Quinn steps into the house and opens fire on Kiefer, who dives through the handy French doors behind him and into the dark yard. Quinn pursues, as Kiefer scrambles over a garden wall. But Quinn has to drop back and duck behind a tree when he sees the real cops come screaming up the nearby road. He ducks behind a tree to wait for them to pass, then continues the pursuit, trying to make up the head start that Kiefer got. It's 9:48:36. But why is Quinn trying to kill Kiefer, anyway? I thought the plan was to frame him, and you can't frame a dead dude. At least not without rigging up some way of making it looked like he committed suicide with an entire clip from an automatic weapon.
At 9:53:02, Olivia enters the Oval Office to see her mother behind her desk, and Ethan standing to her, both looking pretty severe. "You wanted to see me?" she chirps. Taylor calls her "Livvie" again and says that Ethan kind of just tattled on her about the leak to the media. Olivia calmly denies it, but Taylor says Ethan isn't convinced. "I need to hear what you have to say," Taylor tells her daughter. Ethan says, "There's nothing she can say, Madam President. She was one of the few people who knew all the details." Oh, stop acting like the sanctimonious older brother, Ethan. It doesn't suit you. "More people knew than you think," Olivia tells him. She adds that she's been on the phone to CNB, who says the leak came from the federal marshal's office. Oh, yeah, those guys. Ethan asks if this can be verified. Olivia offers up a slip of paper that she says has the name and phone number of the CNB producer. She adds that she offered the producer some exclusive time with Taylor in exchange for killing the story, and he accepted. A juicy story like that? Man, Taylor's going to have to sleep over at his house to pay that off. "So as long as we get Bauer in custody, we should be able to keep the fallout contained," says Olivia. So she not only denied creating the problem, she solved it. Which is more than Ethan even tried to do. Shrewd. Taylor is now smiling proudly up at her daughter, and tells Ethan that it looks like he was wrong. Ethan can only apologize. "I'm sorry, Olivia, if I misjudged the situation. And you." His second apology of the hour goes unacknowledged, and Taylor dismisses him from the room at 9:55:02. She apologizes to Olivia, who says, "I just hope they find Bauer before this gets any worse." I just hope someone actually calls that producer to verify Olivia's story.
Running down the street, Kiefer arrives at a construction lot with a high, barbed wire-topped chain link fence around it. He throws his suit jacket up over the wires, and, noticing that he's bleeding from one hand as a result of crashing through seven feet of plate glass, starts climbing.
He's out of sight by the time Quinn sprints into view up the street, gun still at the ready. Somehow Quinn is able to spot a tiny drop of blood on the pavement under the streetlights, and another right to it. How fast is Kiefer bleeding, anyway? Quinn follows the spoor to the gate, shoots the lock off, and enters the lot. At 9:56:23, he continues following the trail of blood drops to a trailer, with its door ajar and blood on the knob. This is just too easy. I wish they hadn't shown Kiefer noticing his wounded hand, because it totally defuses the suspense, and now we're just waiting for when he pops up behind Quinn. Carefully, Quinn goes inside, looks around, and rakes the far wall and door to the adjoining room with machine gun fire. So now it's time for the ambush, but I'm glad to say that Kiefer is doing it in a rather unpredictable way. Quinn hears the sound of heavy machinery starting up, and he goes to the window to look outside, just as the entire trailer starts tilting beneath him. Yes, Kiefer is rolling the trailer over with a front-end loader. Actually, that's rather awesome. Alas, Quinn is uninjured, and he climbs up to what is now the roof to break out the window and clamber out. Not really that much of an advantage Kiefer gave himself there. But as soon as Quinn's atop the trailer, Kiefer leaps on him from the loader's bucket, sending his gun flying and commencing a beating. But Quinn's no amateur, and that match-up that Hodges was so excited about last hour seems to be living up to the hype. The fight spills over onto the ground, and Quinn hurls Kiefer up against a parked SUV before swinging a crowbar at his head that only goes through the window. Kiefer gets Quinn down again, and dives after him, but Quinn gives him a little airplane ride that sends him sprawling to the ground. While Quinn is coming after him, Kiefer gets his hands on a handy screwdriver (people are really careless about leaving stuff lying around on this site), which he hurls right through the front of Quinn's Kevlar vest. Quinn's still standing there looking down at it when Kiefer then grabs a four-by-four that he slams into Quinn's head, swinging for the fences. Down goes Quinn. Kiefer rolls him over, takes in the blood gurgling out of his mouth, and informs him, "You're dying. Just tell me when the weapons are coming in. When are they getting here?" Quinn's last words are surprisingly clear: "They're already here," he says. Kiefer looks around in frustration, then gets Quinn's cell phone out of his pocket. There on the screen is exactly the text message he needs: "Port of Alexandria. Yard C. 2230." Well, how convenient. Apparently Quinn is not only Starkwood's one assassin, but their one delivery guy as well. With him out of the picture, Hodges will be paralyzed!
But Kiefer isn't taking any chances. He dials his own cell phone as the final splitscreen begins. In other windows, Olivia scowls; Walker sits in holding; and Moss, kneeling over the body of Senator Mayer, says to his walkie-talkie, "Janis, it's Larry. We got here too late. Bauer murdered Senator Mayer." Janis takes over Olivia's splitscreen window as Moss tells her to escalate the search. "At this point, orders are to shoot on sight." Oh, and someone had better cancel that subcommittee hearing that was scheduled for tomorrow morning. Tell C-SPAN to rerun Book TV or something.
Tony's sitting at an outdoor restaurant table somewhere when his phone rings. He springs up to get in his car as he answers it, telling Kiefer that he's been monitoring the FBI and wondering what's going on. Kiefer wants Tony to meet him at the Port of Alexandria. "I need you to bring a weapons and a surveillance package. Get there as soon as possible." Tony tells Kiefer to wait, possibly so he can ask where he's supposed to get a weapons and a surveillance package at this hour. "I can't," Kiefer interrupts. "I'll get back to you as soon as I'm on the road." With that, he hangs up, pulls the screwdriver out of Quinn's chest, sticks the gory tool into the ignition lock on that SUV, and drives off through the other site's locked gates and into 10:00:00. Good thing there are two gates into this place, or Kiefer wouldn't have had anything left to crash through.
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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