24 Veto Power (31 page)

This is what it came down to, always. There were the guns and the tactics and the unbelievable satellites that allowed you to read a note scribbled on the back of someone’s hand, but in the end, it always came down to this: someone sitting in a chair, trying (and sometimes failing) to put the pieces together in his head. Kelly forced himself to put away his anxiety and the pain in his hands and bend his thoughts to the various threads of evidence fluttering like a broken spider web in the breeze.

Newhouse had worked for the AG. If Newhouse did work in Maryland, he could have run into MS

13. There was one connection. If Newhouse wanted an alias that no one—not even the CIA and FBI— would track, the Attorney General could arrange it. There was another connection. Frank was working for Justice...Frank was also working for the Iranians...No, Frank wasn’t working for the Iranians. Marks was wrong. Farrah was pissed that the Iranians hadn’t stayed and worked for him. The Iranians had been killed ...before or after the terrorist plan was put into effect? Kelly had to assume they were killed prior to the event, because the event hadn’t happened yet. Why bring them into the country and then kill them? Had there been an argument? No. They were killed by the driver of the Ready-Rooter truck. The truck had planned to leave Cal Tech without being noticed. The murders of the Iranians had to be part of that plan. So again, the question: why go to the trouble of sneaking them into the country and then killing them?

Kelly couldn’t find a way to reorganize the loose strands. He had to change strategies. Stop thinking about the terrorist threat and Frank Newhouse. Think of it a different way. Think of what was easy to find and what was difficult. The facts that were difficult to uncover were the ones the bad guys feared the most.

Kelly wished he had Jack on the phone, but he wanted to sort out his thoughts first. The facts that were easy to find were, as far as he knew, these: there were terrorists in Los Angeles (Marks had told them so); the terrorists were Iranians; the terrorists had stolen an EMP device from Cal Tech; the terrorists were going to set off a bomb over Kansas.

Kelly reviewed that list, and scratched off one thing. It had not been easy to discover that the terrorists had stolen an EMP device. He looked at his burned hands for a minute—they had learned that only because he had gotten to the condo in time and stopped the bomb. In fact, the bad guys were so determined to keep the EMP clues away from them that they almost blew up two entire floors of a building. And apparently Frank Newhouse had tried to kill his own girlfriend, the only person who’d given them a lead on his alias. If CTU hadn’t learned about the EMP theft, what would they know: terrorists in Los Angeles; terrorists were Iranians ...terrorists planning to set off EMP device over Kansas.

Now how could we have learned about the Kansas strategy so easily without learning of the EMP device itself? Kelly thought. That information came easily because it came from . . .

“Oh, shit,” Kelly said out loud.

The information on the EMP burst over Kansas had come from Brett Marks.

The information on Frank Newhouse’s Iranian connections had come from Brett Marks.

The information on the terrorist cell in Los Angeles had come from Brett Marks.

And every single one of those pieces of information had been wrong.

11:40
P
.
M
. PST Century City, California

Los Angeles was not famous for its skyline. There was a small cluster of tall buildings downtown, and the Westwood area had another tiny forest of them. But the closer one got to the ocean, the fewer there were, until there were none at all, with only one exception: Century City. This tiny enclave, made up of a few residential blocs, FOX Studios, and the outdoor Century City shopping mall, also included the two massive Twin Towers of the Century City Plaza. These two towers, forty-four stories high, were prominent enough that, on the morning of 9/11, they were considered viable targets for a West Coast follow-up attack by al Qaeda operatives.

A massive plaza served as a foundation for the two massive buildings. The plaza also housed the Shubert Theater, Henry’s Grill (home, for those who were interested, of the Annual Bad Hemingway writing competition), and the ABC Network. But all these were only foothills clustered around the mountains that rose into the sky above.

It hadn’t taken long for Jack to drive from CTU to Century City. He arrived in time to see the last stragglers from the Shubert Theater easing their way up the parking ramps. He had driven down in the opposite direction. The parking attendants had tried to stop him until he flashed his badge. He had ridden his SUV along the first level, resisting the urge to duck as the low ceiling of the parking structure seemed to drop down to meet the high roof of his vehicle. When he’d reached the elevators he’d stopped, but they were shut down at this time of night. The escalators had stopped working, so he was forced to climb them like stairs until he reached the plaza level. He’d walked across the wide, flat steps to the North Tower and gone inside.

There was a late night security guard there, a young black man in a white uniform shirt, a security guard’s badge, and a name tag that said “Darryl.”

“Darryl, I’m Special Agent Jack Bauer,” Jack said, showing his credentials. “I need to get up to the 44th floor. I’m looking for the office of William Binns.”

Darryl looked unsure what to do. “Are you meeting him up there, sir?”

“I hope so.”

This told Darryl nothing, of course. “I mean, do you have an appointment? We’re not supposed to let anyone up there after hours without an escort.”

“Anybody been up to that office? Or that floor?”

Darryl shook his head.

“You can come with me if you want,” Jack offered.

Darryl didn’t seem to like this, either, but here he was talking to an actual Federal agent. He wasn’t about to say no. He came out from behind the handsome marble desk that was his home base, picked up a radio from the counter, and walked toward the elevators. He and Jack both entered.

“Have you ever met Mr. Binns?” Jack asked.

Darryl shook his head. He looked bright for a security guard. “I don’t really meet anyone, except some lawyers when they work late, and most of the accountants in March and April. How long have you been a . . . what kind of cop are you?” Darryl asked.

“I’m with the Federal government.”

“Like the FBI?” Darryl asked.

“Kind of like that.”

“I want to do that someday. I’m doing the police academy next year.”

Jack nodded absently. “That’s a good place to start.”

The elevator stopped and the doors opened to the twenty-third floor. Darryl led him down the hall, past several sets of double doors announcing law firms, to a small set of offices on the east side of the tower. Darryl used his master key to open them and Jack went into the office. He was in a small entryway with a receptionist desk and three chairs. Beyond were three offices, all with window views. Jack flipped the lights, which fluttered and then went on. The offices contained exactly what Jack expected them to contain: nothing. Frank Newhouse hadn’t rented these offices to use the space. He’d rented them to get access to the building.

The name on the door said “The Patrick Henry Company.” Jack clicked his tongue. “This guy’s got a thing for Patrick Henry.”

“What’s that?” Darryl asked.

Jack shrugged. “You want to be in law enforcement, you can start reading clues with me. This guy, uses the name William Binns. But he had another place under the name Patrick Henry, and this company he’s using here is called the Patrick Henry Company. I’m going to have to figure out what that means.”

Darryl said off-handedly, “He doesn’t like the government.”

Jack was surprised. “Yeah? Why do you say that?”

“You know the name, right? Patrick Henry. From American history.”

Jack nodded. “He was the ‘give me liberty or give me death’ guy.”

Darryl nodded. “That’s right. That’s what he was famous for. He was also one of the guys who didn’t want to ratify the Constitution.”

That stopped Jack in his tracks. “Really?” he asked, genuinely interested.

Darryl nodded even more. “Yeah. He thought the central government was too strong.”

“You’re a smart guy,” Jack said.

Darryl shrugged. “I read. Nights’re long, you know? You can only play so much Nintendo.”

But Jack wasn’t listening anymore.
He thought the central government was too strong.
“I don’t believe it,” he said in surprise. He reached for his phone. It was ringing by the time he had pulled it from his pocket.

“Jack, Kelly.”

“I was just calling you,” Jack said.

“Listen, I think I’ve got this figured. It’s been—”

“Brett Marks all along,” Jack ended.

Kelly paused. “Yeah. That’s pretty goddamned good. You didn’t even hear Farid or Julio talk.”

“No, but I’ve got Darryl.”

“What?”

“Nothing. Fill me in.”

Kelly spent a minute summarizing his conversations with Farid and Julio. With each word, Jack felt his anger and his embarrassment grow. He’d been played. He’d been one step behind on every play. Brett Marks had toyed with him.

“You’re got to admire it,” Jack said begrudgingly. “They set it up so that there are terrorists in the U.S.

They attack the President and the terrorists get blamed.”

“But you know what it means, right?” Kelly added. “It means Brett Marks wanted you to arrest him. He knew you were going to do it. It was the perfect cover for him. On the day the President gets attacked, he’s under arrest at CTU.”

“They slipped up twice,” Jack said. “Someone used Julio’s picture on an i.d. That led us to the coyotes earlier than expected. I bet that’s why they wanted Farid killed. And the other thing was the fingerprint. If we hadn’t found that fingerprint and gotten to Newhouse’s girlfriend, we wouldn’t know what the hell was going on tonight.”

“Jack, Air Force One flies over the city in a little more than an hour.”

Jack nodded. “I’ll be waiting.”

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THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLAC
E
BETWEEN THE HOURS OF
12 A.M. AND 1 A.M.
PACIFIC STANDARD TIME

12:00
A
.
M
. PST Air Force One

President Barnes was still wearing his tuxedo as he boarded Air Force One. These fund-raisers exhausted him, but the war chest could never be too full, espe
cially with that Senator Palmer rising in the polls. He would have preferred to stay in his hotel room once the Secret Service had given the all clear for the party to continue, but even the President had to make a buck. He’d have to sleep on the plane. There were early morning meetings in San Diego.

Barnes tugged at his tie as he dropped into the wide, soft chair in his private study. He’d barely had time to slip off his shoes before there was a knock at the door. “Come,” he growled.

One of his aides poked her head in. “The Attorney General, if you have a minute, Mr. President.”

“Send him in.”

Quincy entered a moment later. “Mr. President . . .”

“Who’s responsible for that disaster earlier, Jim?” Barnes asked. He was too tired to throw a full-fledged fit, but he was still angry. “I spent most of my time at that goddamned thousand-dollar-a-plate dinner explaining why my people shut down flights over Kansas for two hours. Shit, if I could have charged money for the excuses I came up with, we’d be flush for the next two elections.”

Quincy didn’t look embarrassed. In fact, he seemed energized. “Our guys followed the wrong lead, Mr. President. But they’re on the right track. There is a terrorist cell inside the country and they’re on it. I think . . . sir, I think concerns over this will push the NAP Act through.”

Barnes studied his Attorney General. He wished he had Mitch in the room with him—Rasher was an excellent strategist with a knack for seeing right into the heart of other people’s schemes. Barnes, however, had a talent for reading people themselves, and even if he couldn’t figure out the details, he sensed what Quincy was up to. “Then this has all been convenient for you, Jim,” the President noted.

The Attorney General’s face turned the lightest shade of pink. “It’s not about me, Mr. President. It’s about protecting our country from—”

“Of course it’s about you,” Barnes said. He spoke with no disdain, no judgment. He spoke in the matter-of-fact tones of one power seeker to another. “It’s about putting power into your own hands. Don’t deny it! I know, you think once you get more power you’ll do more good things. We all do, and maybe we’re right. But that comes second. First comes getting the power.”

“If you say so, sir.”

Barnes took a deep, thoughtful breath and exhaled it slowly. “There’s never been a lot of bullshit between us, Jim. This Privacy Act, even the name if it, it’s all dressed up to look like a gift to the people, but it’s dangerous. Once you break down these walls of privacy, well...those walls might never be rebuilt.”

“Sir . . .” Quincy hesitated. “Sir, if the NAP Act passes, are you going to veto it?”

Barnes let his head fall back against the cushion of his chair. “Yes, I think I might, Jim.”

“I understand, Mr. President.”

Barnes seemed eager to change the subject. “Are you flying down to San Diego with us?”

“No, sir,” Quincy replied. He knew in that moment that he had to get off the plane and make one more phone call. “I’ll be taking a different route.”

12:19
A
.
M
. PST Century City

Jack and Darryl rode the elevator back down to the lobby, then walked to the security station. Behind the desk, Jack saw a row of small, black-and-white screens—monitors hooked up to security cameras all around the building.