24

7:00 A.M.-7:10 A.M.: A commuter train moves through the Santa Clarita Valley bound for Los Angeles. A passenger, Brody, is handcuffed to a titanium briefcase with two guards protecting him. Suddenly, the conductor sees a truck full of metal drums on the tracks. He brakes the train, but the drums ignite on impact resulting in an explosion. A helmeted dirt bike rider, Dar, sees the explosion and rides to the crash site. A woman pleads for help, but Dar sees Brody winching in pain. Dar walks over to Brody, gets out a sound-suppressed pistol, and shoots Brody at point blank range. Dar gets bolt cutters and cuts the handcuffs off Brody. He takes the briefcase, and drives off into the morning sun.

Sarah Gavin and Chloe O'Brian find out that Tomas Sherak was spotted on the FBI Watch list in the city. CTU Director Erin Driscoll gets word on the train crash. Chloe walks into the director's office and talks about a scheduled attack at 8 A.M., but states the train incident happened at 7 A.M. Jack Bauer is coming to a Department of Defense meeting, Driscoll says. Jack hasn't been back since Driscoll fired him 16 months ago.

A weary Jack Bauer dresses in a hotel room with Audrey Raines, his lover. Secretary Heller is Audrey's father and doesn't know about their relationship. Jack thinks it'll be uncomfortable being back at CTU. Both Jack and Audrey work for Heller. They kiss each other passionately.

Agent Curtis Manning briefs Driscoll, Chloe, Sarah, and chief analyst Edgar Stiles about Tomas Sherak. CTU assumes that Sherek would leave LA after the train crash. Chloe wonders if the attack at 7 A.M. does not correlate with the scheduled attack at 8 A.M. Driscoll orders her to track Sherek's flight out of LA.

Tomas Sherak walks on the streets of Los Angeles and calls a Turkish man named Navi Araz at his home. Sherak says Dar has acquired the briefcase. Navi hangs up and talks to his wife, Dina, about their son, Behrooz. Navi thinks his son is still seeing an American girl, Debbie, behind their backs. Dina tells Behrooz to come downstairs. Navi tells him he forbids him from ever seeing that girl. Navi read Behrooz's e-mails. Behrooz is infuriated at his dad for looking into his private business. As long as Behrooz lives under Navi's roof, he is told there's no such thing as his "business."

On the TV, a reporter recounts the story of a train accident ten minutes ago at 7 A.M. Navi reassures Behrooz everything is in place. "What we will accomplish today will change the world. We're fortunate our family has been chosen to do this. We cannot fail." Dina and Navi smile at Behrooz.



7:20 A.M.-7:22 A.M.: At a graphic designer startup center, Melanie sees that her friend, Andrew Paige has worked through the night. As he is stealing software, he sees there are nodes in place to corrupt the Internet as a dangerous Internet virus is on his screen. He agrees to call the authorities from a payphone so that his activities can't be traced.



7:22 A.M.-7:39 A.M.: Jack and Audrey go down to the hotel entrance and meet Secretary of Defense Heller. Heller got word of 32 confirmed dead in the train bombing on his phone and tells Jack. Heller wants Jack to find out more at CTU. Heller asks why Audrey didn't return his phone calls. She said was having dinner with a friend. Jack says he will call Heller once he gets to CTU.

Andrew calls his friend Chloe at CTU and tells her what he saw on the Internet. Chloe reminds him that he's not supposed to call her. He reveals that some of the damaging code is in Arabic or Turkish languages.

Sarah digs up somebody on her computer who owns a dry cleaning store which is owned by a Turkish holding company. Chloe tells Driscoll about what Andrew told her. Driscoll orders her to pass it on to the FBI and focus on the train bombing.

Jack walks into CTU and sees some changes. He walks around looking at the new layout. Sarah motions to Jack and asks Chloe if she knows who he is. Chloe tells her that his name is Jack Bauer, and she says hi to him. Jack tells her that Kim and Chase are living together after he left CTU. Curtis welcomes Jack and introduces Ronnie Lobell, the head of Field Ops, who replaced Jack after his termination. Jack senses the urgency in the air as he waits for Driscoll.

Audrey rides with her father in a limousine to visit her brother, Richard. Secretary Heller wants to convince his son not to take part in a protest that could embarrass the President. President Keeler phones Secretary Heller to consider raising the terror alert level on the bombing.

Jack meets with Driscoll about the Department of Defense's budget for CTU. Jack, who is the special advisor to Secretary Heller, thinks that some of Driscoll's proposals for increasing funds are questionable. Driscoll is frustrated, but excuses herself so that she can watch the video feed Ronnie set up as he entered the dry cleaning store.

Jack and Driscoll watch the surveillance feed. Ronnie fruitlessly asks the man at the counter questions, while Jack thinks the man is hiding something. Driscoll shakes off his belief. Suspiciously, the man keeps looking to the right of the counter. This Jack points out. Driscoll radios Ronnie to warn him. Ronnie asks if he could check behind the shelf to his right. Suddenly, Sherak stands up and runs for the door. Ronnie runs after him as the agents’ raid and grabs Sherak. Driscoll says well done but Jack turns around and smiles, shaking his head.



7:39 A.M.-: Secretary Heller walks in alone as his Secret Service guard the house. Jack calls Audrey and explains that CTU has the prime suspect behind the train bombing in custody. As she is about to hang up, Jack tells her to wait. He tells Audrey that he doesn't want to move too fast with their relationship, but goes on to reveal that he hasn't felt this strongly about someone since Teri died. He tells Audrey that he's falling in love with her. Audrey's pleased but Jack has to hang up the phone because Driscoll's coming. He asks Driscoll for information but Driscoll won't divulge anything.

Despite his father's plea, Richard will protest because it's something he believes in. Heller tells him these people could be using you. Richard thinks having 25,000 nuclear warheads is bad enough we lost friends from other countries for our "psychotic need" to control the world. The men continue to argue about national security.

Andrew returns to the startup with coffee and hears Melanie crying. He then sees a bald man interrogating Melanie, who’s tied to a chair. Melanie confesses that Andrew saw the damaging code but she doesn't know what it is. The bald man takes out a gun with a silencer and shoots her at point blank range. Andrew is shocked. He leaves in a panic, tripping over the dead body of a friend with a bullet wound to his head. Andrew exits and then runs for the door. The two hit men hear noises and run after Andrew. Outside, Andrew gets his bike and steers in front of an 18-wheeler and disappears on the other side. The hit men come out, seeing that Andrew escaped. They leave.

Driscoll gives Jack an open socket to look up the budget numbers. He then sees Sherak being escorted in by Ronnie and other CTU guards. Surprisingly enough, Jack recognizes Sherak but knows him under the name Jann Bolek. Jack explains that he traced Sherak to bombings back in the 90's, and is adamant that Sherak wouldn't risk coming to LA just for a train bombing. Driscoll refuses to heed Jack's warning, and reminds him that Sherak is CTU's problem.

Jack turns to Chloe and asks for any indications that there was more than one attack. Chloe's not comfortable doing this behind Driscoll's back, but Jack pleads his case. After helping him login the account, she tells him that there was a time discrepancy. The bombing happened at 7 A.M. Logged into Interpol's servers, Jack sees that Sherak didn't come for a train bombing. Something else is going to happen at 8:00 A.M.



7:54 A.M.-8:00 A.M.: Audrey phones her estranged ex-husband Paul about their divorce and she wants to proceed with it. Suddenly, Jack interrupts her with an urgent call. He needs clearance from Heller so that he could talk to Sherak, but Heller is still in Richard's house. Jack tells her about a possible second terrorist strike at 8 A.M. Audrey comments that it is almost 8 A.M. now, and Jack reiterates that he needs to talk to Heller now. Audrey gets out of the limo and heads into the house. Audrey gives the phone to her father and Richard didn't expect to see her. She tells him to stop trying to hurt their father.

Secretary Heller tells Jack he's hesitant on stepping on Driscoll's toes and let CTU handle it. Heller hangs up because of a call from President Keeler.

Jack looks at his watch and sees that the time is 7:57 A.M. He takes matters into his own hands and sneaks into the interrogation room where Ronnie is talking to Sherak ineffectively. Jack quickly neutralizes a guard and goes inside jamming the controls. Jack takes out a gun and points it at Sherak. Driscoll tells Jack she'll call security if Jack doesn't leave. Jack picks up the metal table and throws it on the ground, screaming at Sherak to divulge his primary objective. The man does not talk, so Jack shoots Sherak in his right leg without hesitation. Sherak is screaming as blood squirts out. Jack is about to shoot him in the other leg when Sherak shouts that the target is the Secretary of Defense. Jack demands that Driscoll call the Secret Service immediately.

Audrey and Secretary Heller are discussing their schedule when Jack calls that the train bombing was a diversionary target and tells her that Secretary Heller is the real target. A missile passes behind Audrey and hits a car, exploding into flames. Secretary Heller gets Audrey on the ground as two vans swerve in a large group of bandana-masked goons gun down every Secret Service Agent. Gunfights ensure as the they grab Heller and Audrey into a van. Audrey screams for Jack, as he listens helplessly over the phone.

Andrew rides on his bike to safety. Dar walks into the Araz Family house and embraces Navi with the titanium briefcase in his hand, as Behrooz watches them. In the van, the terrorists blindfold Secretary Heller and Audrey, who is crying quietly.



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