Tuesday, December 12, 2006
When Fiction Meets Reality - Pt. 12
Day Three.
Jack woke up minutes before his alarm went off and he made sure to shut it off before getting out of bed. He had set his ten minutes before Kiefer's, that way he could take a quick shower and be ready for when Kiefer got up. He hurried across the hall and tended to his business, making it back out of the bathroom just as Kiefer's alarm started to ring. By the time Kiefer was up and out of his shower, Jack had checked the premises and started the coffee. All it took was a flick of the wrist, so while he was in the kitchen to check it, he switched it on.
He was at the kitchen table, two cups of steaming coffee on the table when Kiefer walked in.
One could tell he hadn't slept much, but he wasn't as bad as the previous morning, he was awake this time. They had their coffee together, feeling no need whatsoever to make small talk and when it was time to leave, they almost moved as one. Jack repeated the procedure he had followed yesterday, getting Jack into the vehicle first and going back to lock the door after that. Kiefer was in safety inside the bulletproof vehicle, locks engaged until Jack reached the driver's side door.
Tony's vehicle was still parked half a block down the street, windows opaque so it wasn't easy to look inside, but as he approached it, the windows cleared somewhat and Jack nodded to Tony. He could now go home and get some sleep.
They reached the studio's without a single problem, cleared security and Jack parked the car right next to the entrance like he had the previous two days. There wasn't a parking spot marked off, but security knew it was his vehicle and it wouldn't be towed.
Ten minutes into the make-up session, Jack's cell phone buzzed and he fished it out.
"Bauer."
"Jack, it's Nina. Are you with Kiefer?"
"Of course I'm with him, where else would I be?" Jack replied, aggravated at Nina's stupid question.
He had been assigned to the man as a bodyguard, and Chapelle wanted him to stick to him like they were glued together. Where else could he be.
"Hey take it easy, it's just a question." Nina snapped back.
"I just wanted to ask you to let him know he was right."
"About what?"
"About the information being incorrect."
"Talk to me."
"Well, at first we got back to the same information the face recognition program had given us the first time, but since Kiefer was convinced it couldn't be true, I told Jamey to look into it when she came in this morning. She found what she called ‘a scratch' in the file, which meant someone had tampered with it. So she dug deeper, traced back to the origin of the tampering and we have a location."
"You do? That's great. Have you sent in a team yet?"
"No, not yet, she just told me about it. I haven't briefed Chapelle yet, I wanted to let you and Kiefer know first."
"Okay, keep me posted."
"Will do."
He hung up and turned to Kiefer.
"We've got something."
"What?" Kiefer asked, excitement breaking through.
"The information you said had to be wrong, turned out to be wrong. Someone had tampered with the files, patching the one we got to show up instead of the real information. One of our analysts managed to trace it back to the source and we'll be sending a team to check that out."
"That's fantastic." Kiefer exclaimed.
"So this might be over today?"
"It certainly could be." Jack agreed.
"If we find what we need at the location Jamey got and if we can make the arrests, it could very well be over today."
Jack could see the pressure lift off Kiefer's shoulders as he leaned back to let the make-up girl continue.
"Shouldn't you be there?"
"What do you mean?"
"To make those arrests."
"That will be up to Chapelle to decide. He'll probably send in a strike team, I'm a field agent, not a member of a strike team."
"I'd be more comfortable knowing you were there."
"Why's that?"
"Because I trust you." Kiefer replied quietly, locking his clear blue gaze on Jack.
"And I think I can count on you to get the job done."
"I appreciate the compliment." Jack replied a little shyly, "But like I said, I'm not a member of a strike team and I doubt Chapelle will call me off my assignment to be a part of this. He'll probably pull all the credit to himself."
"Well if anything goes wrong, I'll blame him for it." Kiefer said harshly, "And I'll make sure his superiors get wind of that."
Jack couldn't help but smile at Kiefer's words and it made Kiefer chuckle as well, lightly ashamed over the outburst. But he really didn't like that Chapelle guy and he did like Jack, and he trusted Jack.
He relaxed again and let the make-up ladies finish their job so he could get started on his. There were not too many scenes planned for today and he felt good about himself now, he knew it always seemed to have a positive effect on others as well, his energy worked like a magnet on others. If it was positive, things went well. If it was negative, things could go pretty damn wrong.
And since this whole thing started, his energy had been pretty negative at times.
But he was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now, thanks to Jack and his team. He would have to find a way to thank them for helping him get through this.
His day started for real when he walked into the studio and he let the worry about the situation slip into the back of his mind so he could keep his head clear and concentrate on what he was doing. His enthusiasm did, once again, rub off on the others and they were able to break for lunch having wrapped two scenes more than what they had anticipated. It left that much less to do in the afternoon and if things continued to run as smoothly, they would be able to quit early tonight. Jack and Kiefer were outside at the tables after lunch, Kiefer enjoying a smoke and the warm sun, Jack enjoying only the sun and keeping his eyes and ears wide open. He hadn't heard back from CTU yet and it bugged him, but he didn't want to show it to Kiefer.
But as he was thinking about it, his cellphone buzzed and he fished it out.
"Bauer."
"Jack, Nina."
"What's going on Nina?"
"The address checked out. The lease is made out to William Bonney, the rodeo rider. Unfortunately nobody was there when the team got there. We did find two computers inside, one of them had been used to tamper with the files so we came up with the wrong one through the face recognition program. The other one is used to monitor the camera's in Kiefer's dressing room at the studio."
"And?" Jack asked when Nina left a blank.
"Problem is, that's not the source. The place was used as a switch. We're trying to trace the source now, but that might take some time."
"And the rest of the apartment? Anything we can work with?"
"Nothing much, we pulled a few prints and they're being processed as we speak. Forensics went through it with a fine brush, but they haven't found much at all. These people know what they're doing."
"So it's a dead end aside from the computers?" Jack sighed.
He met Kiefer's eyes and shook his head.
"Maybe not. We spoke with a few of the other tenants and they told us three people used the apartment. Two of them ID'd Bonney and we've got three sketch artists on site, working with people to make up composite photos of the other two."
"You've got three artists on site?" Jack exclaimed, "We only have two at CTU."
"Yeah, well, Chapelle commandeered one from the LAPD."
"How come we need three artists on site anyway? Can't one of them get it done?"
"Actually the building's main population is made up of little old ladies who have nothing else to do with their days than to watch who comes and goes and they all want to help, but they all want to go first. We actually had to tell them we would proceed by apartment number to keep them in line."
"You're kidding me?" Jack chuckled.
"No I'm not, they were practically fighting over the first sketch artist when he got there. That's why we called in the second one as well and Chapelle called LAPD for help."
"Okay, well I hope we'll get something out of that, keep me posted."
"I will, but this might take a while. They all want to do better than the one before, you know how little old ladies get."
"Yeah, I know." Jack chuckled again.
They hung up and Jack turned back to Kiefer.
"Well we might get something after all. The place was empty when the team got there, but they found computers, one of them had been used to mess with the files we saw last night, the other one is tapped into the cameras in your dressing room here. But they're not the source so it wouldn't have served any purpose to put up surveillance. We got a few fingerprints and they're running them now. The lucky break is the nature of the other tenants though."
"What do you mean?"
"A lot of old ladies. They have nothing better to do all day than to watch everything and everyone and they told our agents three people used the apartment, two of them have recognized Bonney, so we're sure he's involved in this. And we have a few sketch artists over there who will be quit busy making up composite photos for the other two. If they get results that match, or come close enough to being a match from the different tenants, we'll have more to work with."
"So it wasn't a complete disaster?"
"No, it wasn't. Nor a waste of resources."
…
"We'll get them." Jack added, seeing the slight slump creep back into Kiefer's shoulders. "We'll get them off your back."
"I sure hope so, I'm getting tired of all this shit." Kiefer sighed.
"I'm supposed to pick my daughter up today and I can't. I haven't seen her in two months and it's starting to get to me."
"Why don't we go see her?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're not working tomorrow right?"
"No, I'm not."
"Well then, get up early, get in the car and we'll go see your daughter. I'll get Tony out of bed so he can tag along with us and we have the team Chapelle assigned to protect your daughter. There will be four of us with you at all times, I can't see a single reason why you couldn't spend some time with your daughter."
"Why would you get Tony out of bed? He was up all night outside my door, he hasn't slept enough. Leave him."
"If I let him sleep, he'll be in a night rhythm and I want him with me during the day tomorrow. I can't ask him to stay up all night tonight and all day tomorrow."
"I see."
"So? How about it?"
"Let me call her first, see if she's got anything planned."
Kiefer's hand lowered to his pocket, but then he remembered he was wearing his working clothes, so he didn't have his cellphone on him. But Jack slid his across the table.
"Thanks."
"Don't worry, I'll bill the call." Jack replied with a grin.
"I was just beginning to like you, you've ruined it for yourself there." Kiefer replied, a twinkle in his eyes.
"Yeah, I have a habit of doing that." Jack chuckled as he got up to give Kiefer some privacy with his daughter.
A few minutes later he heard Kiefer say goodbye and he turned back.
"So? Does she feel like spending any time with you?" he asked, knowing from experience that wasn't always the case with teenage kids.
"Absolutely, she was thrilled at the idea. She said she was supposed to go to the mall with a bunch of friends, but she prefers to see me instead. She said she could go to the mall anytime."
"Aren't you lucky." Jack chuckled, "Kim would probably have asked me if I didn't have some poor bastard to interrogate or something smart like that."
"I don't think our jobs can be compared."
"Hey, you do that stuff in front of a camera but so do I. A surveillance camera."
"I guess you're just as much an actor as I am then." Kiefer replied with a smile.
He had found that positive energy again and it oozed off him. No wonder everybody around him responded to it.
Jack quickly called Tony, telling him he needed him on a field trip the next day and they'd take turns sleeping tonight.
They went back into the building after that and Kiefer went to get his make-up touched up before joining the others in the studio. But the moment Jack entered the studio behind Kiefer, his sixth sense kicked in, alerting him. There were several people in the studio he hadn't seen before and he responded to it, his senses went to full alert and he scanned the group. There were two women and four men and something bugged him about one of the men. It wasn't because of anything he was doing, or saying, not even because of his general attitude. Jack couldn't place it, but it bugged him and he had to find out what he could about them.
"Who are they?" he asked softly.
Kiefer stopped to look at them.
"We need some extras on the next scene."
"What for?"
"To make it look like there are more people involved." Kiefer said lightly.
"What will they be doing?"
"Nothing. They'll just sit at the desks and pretend to be working."
"Where will you be?"
"What's wrong Jack?" Kiefer asked instead of answering the question.
Jack still had his eyes glued to the group and Kiefer put his hand on his arm, putting a little pressure to make Jack turn and look at him.
"What is it? We always work with extras on the show."
"I didn't know there were going to be extras today." Jack replied.
"Do you need to know?"
"Yes I need to know." Jack replied a little too harshly.
"Have they been checked?"
"Of course, they had to pass security."
Jack got frustrated and he grabbed Kiefer's arm, pulling him to the side, away from everybody else.
"What kind of a background check has been done on these people?"
"I don't know."
"Do you think any kind of background check has been done?"
"I don't know Jack. Does it matter?"
"With people threatening to kill you?" Jack replied bluntly, "I would say it does."
It killed Kiefer's positive energy on the spot.
"What do you know about these people?"
"I don't-"
"Who does?" Jack interrupted him.
"Jon might."
"Let's talk to Jon." Jack said, grabbing him by the arm again and taking him over to Jon.
"Mr. Cassar?" Jack said softly as they reached him.
"Not now." Jon snapped, he was going over some of the details of the script with the crew.
"Yes now." Jack snapped back, grabbing his arm and pulling him around to face him, "This is important."
Jon tried to pull his arm away from Jack, but he had a tight grip.
"Do you know those people?" Jack said, pointing to the group with his free hand, not letting go of Jon's arm.
"They're extras." Jon snapped, "Jeez man, let go of me."
"What do you know about those extras?" Jack continued.
"Where do you get them? What kind of a background check has been done?"
"I don't know." Jon replied, trying to get his arm out of Jack's vice-like grip again.
"Who does know?"
"The temp agency I suppose."
"Let's go call the temp agency." Jack said, pulling on Jon's arm.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I'm trying to keep the star of your show alive." Jack hissed.
"They're just a couple of extras, they'll sit at a desk and tap on a keyboard."
"And I'd like to know who they are and what their background looks like."
"Look-"
"Don't ‘look' me," Jack growled, "you won't start filming until I'm certain there isn't any danger to Kiefer."
"Okay fine." Jon said, a painful grimace on his face now, "Let go of me already, we'll go call the agency."
"Fine." Jack snapped, letting go of Jon's arm. "Let's."
He manoeuvred Kiefer ahead of him, putting himself between the group of extras and him and they left the studio.
"He's got a serious problem." Jon whispered to Kiefer.
"Yeah he does." Kiefer replied, "He's trying to stop a bunch of assholes from killing me. And they're pretty goddamned serious about this shit."
Jon stopped dead in his tracks and turned to Kiefer.
"How serious?"
"I got another threat Wednesday, if I attend the Globes, I won't walk away from them." Kiefer replied pretty coldly.
"Goddamn it Kiefer," Jon exclaimed, "why didn't you say anything?"
"For the obvious reasons of not causing a panic." Jack replied.
"Let's go call that temp agency. Any of those people don't check out, they're walking."
"Yeah, okay, all right." Jon stammered.
They went into the office and Jon called the temp agency, requesting information about the 6 people. Four of them had been working with them for years and there had never been any trouble. One of the women and one of the men were rather new to their agency and this was actually the first shoot the man did. Jon had put the conversation on speaker so Jack could hear everything first hand.
"What's the guy's name?" Jack interrupted.
"Henry Gunnard."
"Can you spell that for me?"
"G-U-N-N-A-R-D."
"What information do you have about him?"
"Not much."
"Can you fax it?"
"We don't usually do that sir."
"I'm a federal agent and I'm looking into a matter of security here, so I would appreciate your cooperation."
"Can I get your name sir?"
"My name is Jack Bauer, I work with CTU, that is the Counter Terrorist Unit, right here in Los Angeles. The man in charge at CTU is District Director Ryan Chapelle and he will verify my identity. Once he does, I would appreciate getting what information you have on Gunnard. You can fax it to the studios. Do you have that number?"
"Yes we do."
"I'll be waiting for it."
Jack ended the call and punched the number for CTU.
"Nina Meyers."
"Nina, Jack. I need you to do a background check on a Henry Gunnard, that's G-U-N-N-A-R-D. I need that yesterday."
"I'm already on it Jack."
"Thanks. Get back to me as soon as you have it."
He hung up and took a sharp breath. If this guy checked out, he'd have hell to pay.
"Do you need to do that scene with the extras right now or can you shoot another one first?" he asked, turning back to Jon and Kiefer.
"We've got two more scenes with this set-up." Jon replied.
"Can you get to those first? I'd like to wait for the information to come through."
"Yeah, sure. I'll let everybody know."
"Good, don't tell them anything and separate them in a room where they can be monitored and contained if needs be."
"Do you really think one of them could be in on this thing?" Kiefer asked softly.
"I don't know. I had a bad feeling the moment we walked in and my gut is rarely wrong in situations like this."
"I hope so." Jon said coldly.
"Yeah, me too." Jack replied, shifting his gaze away.
They would kick his ass for sure if he was wrong and made them waste time for no reason.
"Can you get them out of the studio and into a separate area?"
"I'll do that right now."
"Good, Kiefer stays in here until they're out of the studio."
Kiefer and Jon looked at each other for a short moment and Jack saw the understanding pass between them. They knew each other very well and didn't need too many words to know what they wanted to say. Jon left the room and went back to the studio, he made up a quick excuse and asked the extras to go wait in a room adjacent to the studio. He got one of the aids to get them drinks and snacks if they required any and went back to the office to get Kiefer. He showed Jack where the extras had been taken and Jack summoned two security guards to cover the exits, he wasn't taking any chances. His gut was seldom wrong and it had reacted strongly on this one.
They changed some of the cameras around for the different take and minutes later, everybody was ready to roll. The take went rather well considering the tension Jack felt in the air, but they did it three more times to have enough footage to choose from. In between the second and third take, Linda came into the studio with a folder, handed it to Jack and went back to her work. He looked over the file, but found nothing of interest. There wasn't much anyway and nothing that rang a bell. He went over to Kiefer after they were done with the take and showed him the file so he could have a long look at the man without actually being in his presence.
"Have you ever seen him before?"
"Not that I recall." Kiefer replied.
"Are you sure? In your neighbourhood, at a bar or a restaurant maybe?"
"No, I don't usually pay attention to that."
"I would've thought you would under these circumstances."
"I guess I'm not as paranoid as you."
"Being paranoid keeps me alive. And if my gut feeling proves right, being paranoid is what will keep you out of trouble as well."
"I hope it doesn't."
"Keep you out of trouble?"
"No, prove to be right."
"I'm almost inclined to say I do."
"Why?"
"I have a feeling someone's gonna take a nice big bite out of my ass." Jack sighed, looking at where Jon stood.
"He might, he's pretty pissed off at you for grabbing him like that."
"I'm sure he'll get over it."
"An apology might help the healing process." Kiefer suggested.
"Maybe, but I'm not ready to give that just yet. Let's see what Nina can dig up first."
"What if she can't find anything?"
"Then I'll be keeping a damn close eye on you while you're shooting that scene."
As if things had been rehearsed, his cellphone started to buzz in his pocket and he excused himself, taking the call on his way out.
"Bauer."
"It's Nina."
"Talk to me."
"Nothing, nada, absolutely not a goddamn thing."
"What do you mean?"
"Gunnard. We can't find a damn thing about him."
"As in ‘the man doesn't exist'?"
"Something like that."
"No known address, no social security number, no prior employers. Nothing aside his affiliation with the temp agency."
"Wait a minute. Back up here, no social security number? How the hell did he get a job if he doesn't have a social security number?"
"Beats me."
"Hang on, I have to check this, I didn't even look for that. Stay on the line."
He went back into the studio and picked up the file Linda had brought him. The file had a social security number on it.
"The file the temp agency sent me has a social security number on it Nina."
"Can you give it to me?"
Jack gave her the number and heard her tapping the keys.
"Hang on a sec."
"I'm holding."
"It's bogus."
"I'll go ask him about this."
"Do you need back-up?"
"No, I've got studio security in case I need a hand."
"Okay."
Jack woke up minutes before his alarm went off and he made sure to shut it off before getting out of bed. He had set his ten minutes before Kiefer's, that way he could take a quick shower and be ready for when Kiefer got up. He hurried across the hall and tended to his business, making it back out of the bathroom just as Kiefer's alarm started to ring. By the time Kiefer was up and out of his shower, Jack had checked the premises and started the coffee. All it took was a flick of the wrist, so while he was in the kitchen to check it, he switched it on.
He was at the kitchen table, two cups of steaming coffee on the table when Kiefer walked in.
One could tell he hadn't slept much, but he wasn't as bad as the previous morning, he was awake this time. They had their coffee together, feeling no need whatsoever to make small talk and when it was time to leave, they almost moved as one. Jack repeated the procedure he had followed yesterday, getting Jack into the vehicle first and going back to lock the door after that. Kiefer was in safety inside the bulletproof vehicle, locks engaged until Jack reached the driver's side door.
Tony's vehicle was still parked half a block down the street, windows opaque so it wasn't easy to look inside, but as he approached it, the windows cleared somewhat and Jack nodded to Tony. He could now go home and get some sleep.
They reached the studio's without a single problem, cleared security and Jack parked the car right next to the entrance like he had the previous two days. There wasn't a parking spot marked off, but security knew it was his vehicle and it wouldn't be towed.
Ten minutes into the make-up session, Jack's cell phone buzzed and he fished it out.
"Bauer."
"Jack, it's Nina. Are you with Kiefer?"
"Of course I'm with him, where else would I be?" Jack replied, aggravated at Nina's stupid question.
He had been assigned to the man as a bodyguard, and Chapelle wanted him to stick to him like they were glued together. Where else could he be.
"Hey take it easy, it's just a question." Nina snapped back.
"I just wanted to ask you to let him know he was right."
"About what?"
"About the information being incorrect."
"Talk to me."
"Well, at first we got back to the same information the face recognition program had given us the first time, but since Kiefer was convinced it couldn't be true, I told Jamey to look into it when she came in this morning. She found what she called ‘a scratch' in the file, which meant someone had tampered with it. So she dug deeper, traced back to the origin of the tampering and we have a location."
"You do? That's great. Have you sent in a team yet?"
"No, not yet, she just told me about it. I haven't briefed Chapelle yet, I wanted to let you and Kiefer know first."
"Okay, keep me posted."
"Will do."
He hung up and turned to Kiefer.
"We've got something."
"What?" Kiefer asked, excitement breaking through.
"The information you said had to be wrong, turned out to be wrong. Someone had tampered with the files, patching the one we got to show up instead of the real information. One of our analysts managed to trace it back to the source and we'll be sending a team to check that out."
"That's fantastic." Kiefer exclaimed.
"So this might be over today?"
"It certainly could be." Jack agreed.
"If we find what we need at the location Jamey got and if we can make the arrests, it could very well be over today."
Jack could see the pressure lift off Kiefer's shoulders as he leaned back to let the make-up girl continue.
"Shouldn't you be there?"
"What do you mean?"
"To make those arrests."
"That will be up to Chapelle to decide. He'll probably send in a strike team, I'm a field agent, not a member of a strike team."
"I'd be more comfortable knowing you were there."
"Why's that?"
"Because I trust you." Kiefer replied quietly, locking his clear blue gaze on Jack.
"And I think I can count on you to get the job done."
"I appreciate the compliment." Jack replied a little shyly, "But like I said, I'm not a member of a strike team and I doubt Chapelle will call me off my assignment to be a part of this. He'll probably pull all the credit to himself."
"Well if anything goes wrong, I'll blame him for it." Kiefer said harshly, "And I'll make sure his superiors get wind of that."
Jack couldn't help but smile at Kiefer's words and it made Kiefer chuckle as well, lightly ashamed over the outburst. But he really didn't like that Chapelle guy and he did like Jack, and he trusted Jack.
He relaxed again and let the make-up ladies finish their job so he could get started on his. There were not too many scenes planned for today and he felt good about himself now, he knew it always seemed to have a positive effect on others as well, his energy worked like a magnet on others. If it was positive, things went well. If it was negative, things could go pretty damn wrong.
And since this whole thing started, his energy had been pretty negative at times.
But he was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel now, thanks to Jack and his team. He would have to find a way to thank them for helping him get through this.
His day started for real when he walked into the studio and he let the worry about the situation slip into the back of his mind so he could keep his head clear and concentrate on what he was doing. His enthusiasm did, once again, rub off on the others and they were able to break for lunch having wrapped two scenes more than what they had anticipated. It left that much less to do in the afternoon and if things continued to run as smoothly, they would be able to quit early tonight. Jack and Kiefer were outside at the tables after lunch, Kiefer enjoying a smoke and the warm sun, Jack enjoying only the sun and keeping his eyes and ears wide open. He hadn't heard back from CTU yet and it bugged him, but he didn't want to show it to Kiefer.
But as he was thinking about it, his cellphone buzzed and he fished it out.
"Bauer."
"Jack, Nina."
"What's going on Nina?"
"The address checked out. The lease is made out to William Bonney, the rodeo rider. Unfortunately nobody was there when the team got there. We did find two computers inside, one of them had been used to tamper with the files so we came up with the wrong one through the face recognition program. The other one is used to monitor the camera's in Kiefer's dressing room at the studio."
"And?" Jack asked when Nina left a blank.
"Problem is, that's not the source. The place was used as a switch. We're trying to trace the source now, but that might take some time."
"And the rest of the apartment? Anything we can work with?"
"Nothing much, we pulled a few prints and they're being processed as we speak. Forensics went through it with a fine brush, but they haven't found much at all. These people know what they're doing."
"So it's a dead end aside from the computers?" Jack sighed.
He met Kiefer's eyes and shook his head.
"Maybe not. We spoke with a few of the other tenants and they told us three people used the apartment. Two of them ID'd Bonney and we've got three sketch artists on site, working with people to make up composite photos of the other two."
"You've got three artists on site?" Jack exclaimed, "We only have two at CTU."
"Yeah, well, Chapelle commandeered one from the LAPD."
"How come we need three artists on site anyway? Can't one of them get it done?"
"Actually the building's main population is made up of little old ladies who have nothing else to do with their days than to watch who comes and goes and they all want to help, but they all want to go first. We actually had to tell them we would proceed by apartment number to keep them in line."
"You're kidding me?" Jack chuckled.
"No I'm not, they were practically fighting over the first sketch artist when he got there. That's why we called in the second one as well and Chapelle called LAPD for help."
"Okay, well I hope we'll get something out of that, keep me posted."
"I will, but this might take a while. They all want to do better than the one before, you know how little old ladies get."
"Yeah, I know." Jack chuckled again.
They hung up and Jack turned back to Kiefer.
"Well we might get something after all. The place was empty when the team got there, but they found computers, one of them had been used to mess with the files we saw last night, the other one is tapped into the cameras in your dressing room here. But they're not the source so it wouldn't have served any purpose to put up surveillance. We got a few fingerprints and they're running them now. The lucky break is the nature of the other tenants though."
"What do you mean?"
"A lot of old ladies. They have nothing better to do all day than to watch everything and everyone and they told our agents three people used the apartment, two of them have recognized Bonney, so we're sure he's involved in this. And we have a few sketch artists over there who will be quit busy making up composite photos for the other two. If they get results that match, or come close enough to being a match from the different tenants, we'll have more to work with."
"So it wasn't a complete disaster?"
"No, it wasn't. Nor a waste of resources."
…
"We'll get them." Jack added, seeing the slight slump creep back into Kiefer's shoulders. "We'll get them off your back."
"I sure hope so, I'm getting tired of all this shit." Kiefer sighed.
"I'm supposed to pick my daughter up today and I can't. I haven't seen her in two months and it's starting to get to me."
"Why don't we go see her?"
"What do you mean?"
"You're not working tomorrow right?"
"No, I'm not."
"Well then, get up early, get in the car and we'll go see your daughter. I'll get Tony out of bed so he can tag along with us and we have the team Chapelle assigned to protect your daughter. There will be four of us with you at all times, I can't see a single reason why you couldn't spend some time with your daughter."
"Why would you get Tony out of bed? He was up all night outside my door, he hasn't slept enough. Leave him."
"If I let him sleep, he'll be in a night rhythm and I want him with me during the day tomorrow. I can't ask him to stay up all night tonight and all day tomorrow."
"I see."
"So? How about it?"
"Let me call her first, see if she's got anything planned."
Kiefer's hand lowered to his pocket, but then he remembered he was wearing his working clothes, so he didn't have his cellphone on him. But Jack slid his across the table.
"Thanks."
"Don't worry, I'll bill the call." Jack replied with a grin.
"I was just beginning to like you, you've ruined it for yourself there." Kiefer replied, a twinkle in his eyes.
"Yeah, I have a habit of doing that." Jack chuckled as he got up to give Kiefer some privacy with his daughter.
A few minutes later he heard Kiefer say goodbye and he turned back.
"So? Does she feel like spending any time with you?" he asked, knowing from experience that wasn't always the case with teenage kids.
"Absolutely, she was thrilled at the idea. She said she was supposed to go to the mall with a bunch of friends, but she prefers to see me instead. She said she could go to the mall anytime."
"Aren't you lucky." Jack chuckled, "Kim would probably have asked me if I didn't have some poor bastard to interrogate or something smart like that."
"I don't think our jobs can be compared."
"Hey, you do that stuff in front of a camera but so do I. A surveillance camera."
"I guess you're just as much an actor as I am then." Kiefer replied with a smile.
He had found that positive energy again and it oozed off him. No wonder everybody around him responded to it.
Jack quickly called Tony, telling him he needed him on a field trip the next day and they'd take turns sleeping tonight.
They went back into the building after that and Kiefer went to get his make-up touched up before joining the others in the studio. But the moment Jack entered the studio behind Kiefer, his sixth sense kicked in, alerting him. There were several people in the studio he hadn't seen before and he responded to it, his senses went to full alert and he scanned the group. There were two women and four men and something bugged him about one of the men. It wasn't because of anything he was doing, or saying, not even because of his general attitude. Jack couldn't place it, but it bugged him and he had to find out what he could about them.
"Who are they?" he asked softly.
Kiefer stopped to look at them.
"We need some extras on the next scene."
"What for?"
"To make it look like there are more people involved." Kiefer said lightly.
"What will they be doing?"
"Nothing. They'll just sit at the desks and pretend to be working."
"Where will you be?"
"What's wrong Jack?" Kiefer asked instead of answering the question.
Jack still had his eyes glued to the group and Kiefer put his hand on his arm, putting a little pressure to make Jack turn and look at him.
"What is it? We always work with extras on the show."
"I didn't know there were going to be extras today." Jack replied.
"Do you need to know?"
"Yes I need to know." Jack replied a little too harshly.
"Have they been checked?"
"Of course, they had to pass security."
Jack got frustrated and he grabbed Kiefer's arm, pulling him to the side, away from everybody else.
"What kind of a background check has been done on these people?"
"I don't know."
"Do you think any kind of background check has been done?"
"I don't know Jack. Does it matter?"
"With people threatening to kill you?" Jack replied bluntly, "I would say it does."
It killed Kiefer's positive energy on the spot.
"What do you know about these people?"
"I don't-"
"Who does?" Jack interrupted him.
"Jon might."
"Let's talk to Jon." Jack said, grabbing him by the arm again and taking him over to Jon.
"Mr. Cassar?" Jack said softly as they reached him.
"Not now." Jon snapped, he was going over some of the details of the script with the crew.
"Yes now." Jack snapped back, grabbing his arm and pulling him around to face him, "This is important."
Jon tried to pull his arm away from Jack, but he had a tight grip.
"Do you know those people?" Jack said, pointing to the group with his free hand, not letting go of Jon's arm.
"They're extras." Jon snapped, "Jeez man, let go of me."
"What do you know about those extras?" Jack continued.
"Where do you get them? What kind of a background check has been done?"
"I don't know." Jon replied, trying to get his arm out of Jack's vice-like grip again.
"Who does know?"
"The temp agency I suppose."
"Let's go call the temp agency." Jack said, pulling on Jon's arm.
"What the hell is wrong with you?"
"I'm trying to keep the star of your show alive." Jack hissed.
"They're just a couple of extras, they'll sit at a desk and tap on a keyboard."
"And I'd like to know who they are and what their background looks like."
"Look-"
"Don't ‘look' me," Jack growled, "you won't start filming until I'm certain there isn't any danger to Kiefer."
"Okay fine." Jon said, a painful grimace on his face now, "Let go of me already, we'll go call the agency."
"Fine." Jack snapped, letting go of Jon's arm. "Let's."
He manoeuvred Kiefer ahead of him, putting himself between the group of extras and him and they left the studio.
"He's got a serious problem." Jon whispered to Kiefer.
"Yeah he does." Kiefer replied, "He's trying to stop a bunch of assholes from killing me. And they're pretty goddamned serious about this shit."
Jon stopped dead in his tracks and turned to Kiefer.
"How serious?"
"I got another threat Wednesday, if I attend the Globes, I won't walk away from them." Kiefer replied pretty coldly.
"Goddamn it Kiefer," Jon exclaimed, "why didn't you say anything?"
"For the obvious reasons of not causing a panic." Jack replied.
"Let's go call that temp agency. Any of those people don't check out, they're walking."
"Yeah, okay, all right." Jon stammered.
They went into the office and Jon called the temp agency, requesting information about the 6 people. Four of them had been working with them for years and there had never been any trouble. One of the women and one of the men were rather new to their agency and this was actually the first shoot the man did. Jon had put the conversation on speaker so Jack could hear everything first hand.
"What's the guy's name?" Jack interrupted.
"Henry Gunnard."
"Can you spell that for me?"
"G-U-N-N-A-R-D."
"What information do you have about him?"
"Not much."
"Can you fax it?"
"We don't usually do that sir."
"I'm a federal agent and I'm looking into a matter of security here, so I would appreciate your cooperation."
"Can I get your name sir?"
"My name is Jack Bauer, I work with CTU, that is the Counter Terrorist Unit, right here in Los Angeles. The man in charge at CTU is District Director Ryan Chapelle and he will verify my identity. Once he does, I would appreciate getting what information you have on Gunnard. You can fax it to the studios. Do you have that number?"
"Yes we do."
"I'll be waiting for it."
Jack ended the call and punched the number for CTU.
"Nina Meyers."
"Nina, Jack. I need you to do a background check on a Henry Gunnard, that's G-U-N-N-A-R-D. I need that yesterday."
"I'm already on it Jack."
"Thanks. Get back to me as soon as you have it."
He hung up and took a sharp breath. If this guy checked out, he'd have hell to pay.
"Do you need to do that scene with the extras right now or can you shoot another one first?" he asked, turning back to Jon and Kiefer.
"We've got two more scenes with this set-up." Jon replied.
"Can you get to those first? I'd like to wait for the information to come through."
"Yeah, sure. I'll let everybody know."
"Good, don't tell them anything and separate them in a room where they can be monitored and contained if needs be."
"Do you really think one of them could be in on this thing?" Kiefer asked softly.
"I don't know. I had a bad feeling the moment we walked in and my gut is rarely wrong in situations like this."
"I hope so." Jon said coldly.
"Yeah, me too." Jack replied, shifting his gaze away.
They would kick his ass for sure if he was wrong and made them waste time for no reason.
"Can you get them out of the studio and into a separate area?"
"I'll do that right now."
"Good, Kiefer stays in here until they're out of the studio."
Kiefer and Jon looked at each other for a short moment and Jack saw the understanding pass between them. They knew each other very well and didn't need too many words to know what they wanted to say. Jon left the room and went back to the studio, he made up a quick excuse and asked the extras to go wait in a room adjacent to the studio. He got one of the aids to get them drinks and snacks if they required any and went back to the office to get Kiefer. He showed Jack where the extras had been taken and Jack summoned two security guards to cover the exits, he wasn't taking any chances. His gut was seldom wrong and it had reacted strongly on this one.
They changed some of the cameras around for the different take and minutes later, everybody was ready to roll. The take went rather well considering the tension Jack felt in the air, but they did it three more times to have enough footage to choose from. In between the second and third take, Linda came into the studio with a folder, handed it to Jack and went back to her work. He looked over the file, but found nothing of interest. There wasn't much anyway and nothing that rang a bell. He went over to Kiefer after they were done with the take and showed him the file so he could have a long look at the man without actually being in his presence.
"Have you ever seen him before?"
"Not that I recall." Kiefer replied.
"Are you sure? In your neighbourhood, at a bar or a restaurant maybe?"
"No, I don't usually pay attention to that."
"I would've thought you would under these circumstances."
"I guess I'm not as paranoid as you."
"Being paranoid keeps me alive. And if my gut feeling proves right, being paranoid is what will keep you out of trouble as well."
"I hope it doesn't."
"Keep you out of trouble?"
"No, prove to be right."
"I'm almost inclined to say I do."
"Why?"
"I have a feeling someone's gonna take a nice big bite out of my ass." Jack sighed, looking at where Jon stood.
"He might, he's pretty pissed off at you for grabbing him like that."
"I'm sure he'll get over it."
"An apology might help the healing process." Kiefer suggested.
"Maybe, but I'm not ready to give that just yet. Let's see what Nina can dig up first."
"What if she can't find anything?"
"Then I'll be keeping a damn close eye on you while you're shooting that scene."
As if things had been rehearsed, his cellphone started to buzz in his pocket and he excused himself, taking the call on his way out.
"Bauer."
"It's Nina."
"Talk to me."
"Nothing, nada, absolutely not a goddamn thing."
"What do you mean?"
"Gunnard. We can't find a damn thing about him."
"As in ‘the man doesn't exist'?"
"Something like that."
"No known address, no social security number, no prior employers. Nothing aside his affiliation with the temp agency."
"Wait a minute. Back up here, no social security number? How the hell did he get a job if he doesn't have a social security number?"
"Beats me."
"Hang on, I have to check this, I didn't even look for that. Stay on the line."
He went back into the studio and picked up the file Linda had brought him. The file had a social security number on it.
"The file the temp agency sent me has a social security number on it Nina."
"Can you give it to me?"
Jack gave her the number and heard her tapping the keys.
"Hang on a sec."
"I'm holding."
"It's bogus."
"I'll go ask him about this."
"Do you need back-up?"
"No, I've got studio security in case I need a hand."
"Okay."
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