The Following Takes Place between 5 am and 6 am on the Day of Operation Nightfall Events Occur in Real Time
05:00
Two hours from Drazen’s compound in Dakovica, Kosovo, and the Nightfall team assembles on the ground on the edge of the forest which covered three quarters of the neighboring area. “Bury your halo gear and have some water, we’ve got a long walk ahead of us”, Jack shouted, his words being a suggestions, not needing to be an order. The friendly banter which had been commonplace on the plane had been replaced by a strict professionalism and the instinctive movements and procedures which the team where now completely familiar with.
05:04 — (20:04)
Davidoff had been thinking over the phone call he had just finished. Who was this government agent who claimed he could help with the “government interference” they were having. “You going to keep staring at that wall, or are you going to tell me what that was about?”, came a voice from behind Davidoff, it was that off his Boss, Rene Bonnier.
“That was someone who claims he can help with the ‘government interference, we’ve been having, he wants to meet at the Griffith park observatory in ninety minutes, alone.”
“Interesting, you of course wouldn’t be alone.”
“Of course.”
“It could be useful to find out what he knows, I don’t have time to follow this up myself, but keep me informed.”
“Yes, Sir.”
05:09
We’ve got to start moving; the Erenik River isn’t far from north of here.” Again Jack Bauer did not need to say any more. The team started to move in the direction Jack had implied. Behind them, hidden from view, the delta team ‘falling hammer’ shadowed Nightfall’s every move.
05:08
“Martina, why are you up already?”
“I can’t sleep.”, replied Victor Drazen’s daughter.
“Why not?”
“I’m not sure, jus don’t feel very well. “
“We should probably cut the trip short.”
“Mother, No, I’ll be fine.”
“No Martina, you won’t.”
05:13
Inside Drazen’s residence, Yelena and Drazen were talking about coordinating Drazen’s double. “My best double is on his way.”
“Good.”
“Yelena, tell me again why Dimitri sent you.”, Drazen’s question sounded reasonable, but actually he was testing Yelena. Although he had done has best to cover it, Yelena saw it, but she didn’t mind.
“Your to valuable an asset to them, to crucial to there future plans.”
“Them being?”
“Dimitri and the rest of his ex-KGB associates.”
“What are there future plans?”
“You’re testing me. “
“Yes, I am, tell me about there future plans.”
“Anything which is determinative to U.S. interests. They want to start a second Cold War, a rematch, one they think they can win.”
“How?”
“They have some agent planting cells in the U.S. intelligence agencies, to find out weaknesses, so they and you can exploit them.”
05:19 — (20:19)
“Coming-up reviews of the latest movies to the hit cinema, including high-concept drama ‘time code’…” Townsend flicked through the radio stations, trying to find something which would ease the boredom of his trip to the address which Walsh gave him. Finally Townsend stopped stopped at the beautiful sound of the who’s “won’t get fooled again.”
—-
Townsend was on his way to the fourth address, on the list of the four which Walsh and Mason had found only hours ago. Meanwhile Walsh pulled up the address which was second on the list. Like the last address, he didn’t waste anytime knocking. Instead he burst through the apartment’s door, to find exactly what he expected to find. Nothing.
—-
At the Third address on the list, Mason stared at the bare walls at the apartment. He was fed-up, why on earth did he agree to come in on his day off. He wanted to go home, but he knew he couldn’t, not until he spoke to Richard.
05:26 — (20:26)
A man known only to his colleagues as, Foxtrot, stared at a computer screen which displayed the CIA database. Foxtrot ran a search through the database for the name “Rene Bonnier”. Which a flicker the database vanished from the screen, replaced by a simple desktop. “The Hell.”. A man behind him heard the remark and looked over.
“What’s wrong?”
“Our tap on the CIA database just got broken.”
05:29 — (20:29)
L.A. Crime Lab, the night shift was just coming in, and the night supervisor was going through the usual boring admin. Work rotas and pay grades. Anything a little unusual would be a godsend. Oddly tonight of all nights, that godsend came. In the form of a note from his boss. ‘Please call Richard Walsh of the LA Counter Terrorist Unit when ID of John Doe No. 17894 is complete.” He picked up the phone which lay on his desk; he dialed the number which was scribbled at the bottom of the post-it note.
“Hi this is Richard Walsh, leave a message.”
“Hello, I’m George Huang from the L.A. Crime Lab, I was told you needed the ID info on a John Doe, his name was John Ackerman, we can’t find that much unusual on him, I’ll forward what we have got on him to your office.”
05:35 — (20:35)
Townsend arrived at the address he had been given, another run down apartment, from what he had been told, not un-similar to the other addresses on the list. Oddly Townsend thought, the door of the apartment was wide open. He walked in and had a look around; it was empty, completely empty. “There’s nothing here, we’ve already looked”. The unknown voice came from at the room at the end of the hall. Townsend proceeded towards the voice’s origin, pushing the door aside he saw the silhouette of man, shadow covering his face, he sat in a chair. “Who are you? CIA, FBI, LAPD, XYZ?”. Instinctively, Townsend’s arm motioned towards his gun, more an act of self assurance than a threat towards the unknown man. “You won’t need that.”
05:41 — (20:41)
Walsh walked out the door of the now abandoned apartment, towards his car. He didn’t have a clue what to do next, they where all hitting brick walls, and it was hurting. He fished out his cell and called Mason. “Mason’s Wild Goose Chase Incorporated, how may we waste our time?”.
“Very funny, I guess you didn’t find anything?”
“That is correct, Tracy what does he win?”. Richard did his best not the laugh, but he couldn’t resist. As his reply was forming in his head, he looked around at the apartment’s surroundings. He was just about to reply, when he saw a flicker of little from a grouping of tress which overlooked the apartment and gave a person a perfect vantage point of the apartment.
“George, I want you to go back to the office, see what my assistant’s found on the e-mail addresses, I’ll call you back in an hour or so.”
“What about you? I’ve got one more thing to check out.”
05:48 — (20:48)
“Who are you?”, Townsend finally got the nerve up to reply.
“I asked first.”
“None of the above.”
“So your just out for a midnight stroll, is that it?”
“Officially, I don’t work for any one, I’m ‘inactive’. Your turn.”
“I work for a secret branch of the government, set up during the Cold War, to oversee the other Intelligence agencies.”
“Oh come, you could have come up with something a little more original, or if your going to lie to me, at least make it funny, such as, If I told you I’d have to kill you.”
“I’m not lying, and I might actually have to kill you.”
“Okay, so what’s this ‘secret branch’ called?”
“It doesn’t have a name.”
“Oh come on, this isn’t a Robert Ludlum novel.”
“I’m going to ignore your cycnism, because if I didn’t we’d be here all night, the truth is, we want to recruit you, we believe a Rene Bonnier is in the process of setting up cells in U.S. intelligence agencies.”
“What do you want me to do about it?”
“We’ve got a meeting set up with one of Bonnier’s associates in half an hour at the Griffith park observatory, but were so short of man power, we haven’t got anyone to go to the meeting, so we want you to go.”
05:59:58 …. 05:59:59 …. 06:00:00