Author's Note:

Ok, this is my first venture into the realm of fanfiction, and to be honest, I'm not really a good writer compare to good folks behinds some of 24 fan-fics on here and LJ. This is the result of me dealing with the infamous 8x17 and its aftermath. Basically, everything that was shown on TV still counts. There's only one exception: Unknown best to Jack and rest of the characters in season 8, Renee Walker is revived and extracted by the good guys in a manner somewhat similar to Tony in season 5. This "hidden chapter", or "deleted scene" as I'd like to call it, is me trying to ret-con what happened after 8x17. The chapter will be based entirely from original characters' point of view in order to avoid plot conflicts with post-8x17 episodes. It also serves as a prologue setting up the events for my version of "Day 9".

I will be using Tony's revival as the case for arguing the possibility of Renee's revival since in Tony's case is filled with fridge logic. Tony was pronounced clinically dead (his heart stopped) in season 5. Normally, if the person is pronounced clinically dead, there's only a very few minutes of window for the possible resuscitation (longer if the patient is under extreme temperature). Anything beyond that window will result in brain damage. There's no way for season 7's Emerson to extract Tony's body from CTU to an undisclosed location and assemble the medical team in mere 5 minutes assuming Henderson called him after he escaped from CTU! Therefore, Tony was clinically dead for longer than 5 minutes and got resuscitated with no brain damage what so ever (Well, he was still lucid enough to come up with such elaborate revenge scheme LOL). Therefore, since it's the world of 24, same thing can apply in Renee's case (Well, except for the revenge and turn bad part). Again, I'm not a doctor, nor do I work in medical industries so the medical situations I described in the story here are strictly fictions.

Anyway enough with my rambling :)

Additional Research Notes:

OPR: Short for "Office of Professional Responsibility ". It's a branch of US Department of Justice that is responsible for investigating attorneys or federal employees in case of misconducts. (Those who watched the show "White Collar" should heard of them: P)

SVR: The Foreign Intelligence Service of Russian. After KGB split into two separated agencies (SVR and FSB, which handles the internal security of Russia), the SVR is the successor of First Chief Directorate (FCD) of the KGB.

GRU: Short for Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye, which is Russian's military intelligence directorate and currently Russian's largest foreign intelligence agency.

Disclaimer: I don't own 24 and any of the characters. However I do own the OC's I created though: P

Prologue

08:55:34

FBI Special agent Scott Riley rushed to his car from his favorite coffee shop, almost spilling his latte after he received a call from those guys at the tech. Scott was part of a small counter-intelligence task force in FBI's New York Field Office which was responsible for investigating the possibility of Russian coverts agents operating in United State. Despite the fact Cold War had ended, Russians had never cease to stop their espionage operations against the United State, and as time and technology progresses, their agents had perfected and adapted every means that would allow them to stay covert. Since the start of the investigation Scott's team had been getting nowhere. They know the spy network existed but cannot find any solid lead since every promising lead they had encountered had either been killed or te lead disappeared without a trace. That was until a week ago, his team caught a break in the form of Andrei Stukov. Stukov, a former sergeant in the Russian army, was a low-level operative that does most of dirty works. He is capable, but also careless. The FBI managed to put a bug inside his car to see if they can get any information that may eventually lead to the top level operatives in the Russian spy network in New York. The call Scott received a couple minutes ago was the result. However, that didn't mean it was all good news. From the content of the short exchange between Stukov and his boss, it appeared that Stukov's boss shot a potential witness and ordered Stukov to rush to St. Andrew's hospital to check her status. If she's not dead, then Stukov will finish the job. Scott, after starting his car, just remembered that his high school buddy, David Hughes, was a doctor who was currently working in St. Andrew's. He quickly dialed a number he hasn't dialed for a while…

"Hello?" An African American man dressed in green surgical scrubs answered.

Thank god he is working the morning shift Scott thought. "It's Scott. Listen to me, Dave. There's gonna be a female gunshot victim arriving in St. Andrews any moment from now. I want you to do whatever it takes to keep her alive you understand me?" Scott stated as quickly as humanly could.

"What? Scott? How did you know that? CTU just called and said it is top priority to keep her alive also so don't worry about it. Besides, it's my job to keep people alive…"

"CTU called it in?" Damn it Scott cursed. "Look I don't want to get into a jurisdiction pissing contest with those CTU asswipes! After the surgery can you do me a favor that makes sure I'm the first one who talk to her before those CTU paper pushers get to her first…Please" That was one of the reasons. The main reason Scott want to beat the CTU to the witness was because from what he heard, CTU was compromised by Russian sleeper agent a few hours ago. Despite CTU didn't officially state that to other agencies because of the embarrassment, this kind of information always had the way of slipping through the crack.

David hesitated for a moment. His high school friend was always straight with him, so there's no reason to think otherwise this time. "Alright! I will see what I can do, but I have to save the patient first before you play the jurisdiction tug-of-war with those CTU agents."

"Thank you Dave. I'm almost at the St. Andrews we'll talk then" Scott hanged up the phone and mentally cursed the New York traffic for the tenth time. Right now he just wished that potential witness makes out of the surgery, alive and conscious.

"OK see you then" Feeling nervous, David sighed and then hanged up the phone. Just as David hanged up he stepped into the hall in front of the operating room and saw the nurses wheeling a woman wrapped in a bloody white sheet to his direction. The dark auburn hair woman's pale face showed that she's obviously in a lot of pain. Also following the nurses was a man in a bloody shirt. The man was obviously worried about the woman who was currently lying on the stretcher, ready to be carried into the operating room.

"We're here. We gonna take care of you" The man in the bloody shirt said softly to the woman lying on the stretcher.

"O.R. 5 let' go!" One of the nurses shouted.

Ah shit! From the looks of it she's losing a lot of blood. David thought, then said in a professional manner. "How many gunshot wound?"

"One in the chest!" the nurse stated and then quickly turned to the man in the bloody shirt "Sir you need to stay right here" with her hand pointing to the space in front of the operating room. The man complied.

"Is the patient typing crossed?" David said to one of the nurses

"No"

"Call the blood bank; send up four units of O-negative."

"Right away!"

"Come on, come on, come on" Another nurse shouted.

As David began preparing the patient for the operation, another nurses said to him that there was no exist wound. This is gonna be a tough one David thought.

08:58:50

Dave and nurses walked out of the operating room and saw the man in the bloody shirt talking on a cell phone worriedly. After David talked briefly to the nurses he then walked toward to the man in the bloody shirt. David really felt terrible about this despite the fact that he must have seen the similar tragedy on daily basis.

"I'm sorry she didn't make it. There was just too much arterial damage and blood loss. I'm very sorry" This is not some obligated response, but a sincere apology. David was very sorry about the whole situation. The woman's heart stopped and was pronounced clinically dead shortly before he got a chance to operate. He didn't even have a chance to exam the damage done by the large caliber round that was inside her. But from his experience dealing with gunshot wound victims, he thought the arterial damage and huge blood loss would be the correct deduction. When David told the man in bloody shirt the sad news, the man, who was obviously someone close to the woman, was shocked, and then began to break down. As the man's face conveyed the profound sadness. David then walked away from the man. He felt sick in his stomach and was about to throw up, but he fought the urge and started making the arrangements and telling the nurses to carried the unfortunate woman's body out of operating room.

At the same time, Andrei Stukov, was sitting on the hospital chair far down of the hallway. He was trying to act as inconspicuous as possible. To hospital staff and bystanders, he was just another person waiting for either doctor's appointment or waiting for someone. He kept his eyes on the operating room No.5 while trying to act normal. He then saw the door of the operating room opened, from the glimpse of it, it looked like the patient inside the operating room had died, and the reaction from the man who was waiting beside the operating room confirms that. He also saw the woman's body being wheeled out with a white sheet pulling over her head and the man in bloody shirt broken down in tears. Quickly walking away from the scene and trying to act casual, he called his boss

"Boss, that bitch is dead" Stukov's voice was barely above a whisper.

"You sure about that?" Pavel Tokarev said in an inquisitional tone. He knew that Stukov, despite capable, wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed.

"Yeah, I caught a glimpse of the operating room. She looks pretty dead. Those doctors wheeled out the body covered in sheet and that boyfriend of hers looked devastated. Should I end his misery?"

"No, ignore the secondary target. He's no longer a concern. We should be focusing on the Dana Walsh situation as of the moment"

"da" Stukov hanged up and quickly left the hospital.

After the nurses and David carried the woman's body out of the operating room and moving it along the hallway, Scott walked towards them and saw the body covered in white sheet. He flashed his FBI badge and told the nurses to excuse him and David for a moment. The nurses complied.

"Damn it!" He cursed.

"Sorry man, we did everything we could. The bullet just lodged inside her chest and her heart just stopped before…"

This cannot happen! This cannot fucking happen! We just caught a break in this case now this…Goddamn it! As Scott let out a string of curses mentally. All the sudden, he had crazy an idea.

"Hey...Do you remember that time you resuscitate one of the Moretti brothers?" Scott said it to David. "I think this is the same situation as that" What Scott was talking about was an incident that happened a couple of years back when he was still working in organized crimes in NYPD. Morretti brothers were the made-men for the Gravelli crime family. One night the younger Morretti was shot in the chest by a rival gangster so the older Moretti brought his brother to St. Andrew's. David Hughes was on the shift that night and he also failed to save the younger Morretti initially because his heart stopped and the bullet was still lodged inside his chest. However, the older Moretti pulled a gun on David and the rest of the trauma team and demanded them to fix his brother. Afraid for his life, David had no choice but to comply even though the younger Morretti was pronounced clinically dead. Maybe it was the grace under pressure, or maybe it was just pure luck, David and the trauma team managed to restarted younger Morretti's heart just as the police, lead by Scott, arrived at the hospital and arrested David. Both Morretti brothers turned state witnesses and probably sitting on their asses in some dump in Arkansas.

"What?" David said while shooting a 'Are you serious?' look to Scott. "I think that time was just…pure fluke you know? Now you're asking me to pull miracles out of my ass again…"

"Look could you at least try? Please. I'm not gonna lose another witness in my investigation. If I don't find any shred of evidence the brass is gonna shut my investigation down, so please, just try again…"

What the hell? Why the hell do you treat me like some evangelist who claims to have healing power? David thought. David hesitated for a very short moment and said "OK. I think I read some research about resuscitating clinical dead patient in a medical journal a while back. I will do what I can, but it's a long shot. If anyone finds out I could lose my license. You own be big, G-man." David stated while pointing his finger at Scott. "By the way, you might want to talk to her boyfriend over there"

"Deal. I'll handle the boyfriend. I also don't want the CTU to find out about this so I'll keep your ass safe. If anyone in the hospital ask question about this I will try to run interference to keep you from taking the heat by using my FBI authority"

"OK, I gonna get the body into another O.R. and call those nurses back. Now would you excuse me, I got to play Dr. Frankenstein again…" David pulled the woman's body into another operating room and started paging the nurses.

As he saw the nurses going into the operating room, Scott started to strategize the next move. CTU probably gonna expect an autopsy report but these things took time and the morticians were always late with those, so he wasn't overly concern about it. But what if CTU decided to send people to St. Andrew's? Scott pondered. I guess I can think of some B.S. if they decided to show up. Now I need to find that boyfriend of hers…wait did her boyfriend get her here? Where is he now?

As the surgery continued, Scott asked around about the woman's boyfriend. The nurses told him that the man left a short while ago and he was looking like someone who would likely to go postal. After Scott got a brief description of the boyfriend he thought it's best to keep him in the dark for now and let him know Scott's involvement after the surgery, since he didn't want to get that poor guy's hope up and then get it crashing down again. Although Scott was unsure what the outcome of the surgery will be, he believed in his friend's abilities. Thank you so much for doing this, buddy. He thought, then he silently prayed for the best outcome.

10:12:34

As David performed the surgery, Scott decided to call his boss at the Bureau to brief him on what happened.

"Agent Donahue" A man in his mid 50's answered.

"Hey boss, it's me. "

"Scott. Where the hell have you been? The boys at the tech told me that they got something from the bug that was in Stukov's car an hour ago, and it said that his boss shot a witness. Please tell me you secured the said witness…"

"Yeah boss. However there's something you should know. I kinda talked the trauma team into trying to resuscitate her after she's clinically dead…Right now only you, I and the trauma team at St. Andrew's know this. The Russians probably thought she's dead. Hell, I think even those jackwards at CTU thought she's dead."

"What the hell are you thinking?" Inside his office, Donahue coughed and shouted angrily. Fortunately his office door was closed and none of his words got out. With his palm on his forehead, Donahue said "Look, kid, this is the FBI not the organize crime task force in NYPD, we don't pull any cowboy shit like that you hear me? We have protocols which you should have followed: call NYPD to send uniforms to the hospital to secure the witness and then call CTU and brief them about Stukov and the possibility of resuscitation"

"Sir, with all due respect this is our investigation I won't let those bastards take the case away from us, again. They probably just put the case on their back burner like they usually do. Besides, wasn't CTU compromised by a Russian sleeper agent a couple hours earlier? What if there are more Russian sleeper agents in CTU? We can't take that chance without the risk of losing our only possible witness at the moment. Therefore I made a correct judgment call. If those assholes from OPR what make a fuss about this I'll take the heat…"

Donahue thought about it for a moment and said "Alright. I suppose that makes sense. How do you want to play it?"

"Sir, right now the trauma team is still working on resuscitating her. To be honest it's all touch and go at the moment. Right now I would suggest keeping CTU or other agencies out of loop and keep this information between us only. The outside world thinks she's dead and we need to keep it that way. You might need to use your authority to run some interference if anyone tries to look into this. After the trauma team finishes we'll decide our next course of action. By the way I didn't get the chance to take her picture and I need a warrant to access her medical files. Any idea who she is?"

"I got Eleanor checking through all the calls made to the St. Andrew's through the emergency channel. There's only one gunshot victim brought to that hospital. According to the call, her name is Renee Walker."

"Renee Walker" That name rings a bell. Scott thought "Wait…isn't that the chick who got fired for torturing a suspect right inside the DC Field Office?"

"That's her. How did you know that? That information is only privileged to HR and senior agents."

"Well, let's just say I hang out around the water-cooler a little too often. What her connection with our Russian spy ring?"

"As soon as her name came up I pulled her files from Bureau's employee database. According to her files, she served 16 months undercover in a Russian arm smuggling group. The crew was eventually arrested except theirs leader, Vladimir Laitanan. However, recent report states that he was found dead in a garage in downtown. The details are still sketchy at the moment. We found no evidence that this arm smuggling gang had any connection to Stukov or our Russian spy network. However, in her case report she did mention that she heard a rumor about a mysterious Russian crime syndicate called 'Red Square' when she was under, but she didn't find any evidence to prove it existed. I'm thinking that maybe this 'Red Square' is part of the Spy network we're looking for…Oh by the way, it seems like CTU also pulled her files last night and didn't bother to tell us why…"

Typical CTU behavior Scott thought. "Well just like any other foreign intelligence service, Russians often use their ethnic criminal group aboard to smuggle equipments into the country. There might be two possibilities on why Russians want her dead. One, it's possible she's dirty and the Russians are cleaning house. I mean, I've seen cops return from undercover who sold out later." Scott suspected, since she did tortured a suspect.

"Well, I've briefly looked over her files and there's nothing indicate that. Besides, judging her files she was an outstanding agent."

"Ok, then another possibility might be that she somehow found the connection between this smuggler group, the 'Red Square', and the spy network, so Russians tries to take her out because of that. If you say she's not dirty then I'm very happy to think this is the case. Either way we might need to put her in our protective custody when she makes it out of the surgery alive"

"IF she makes it out of the surgery alive" Donahue emphasized on the IF part. "I will try to cover for you here. If anyone asks just say you're chasing down a lead, and remember this: If the shit hit the fan you are gonna take the whole responsibility. There's already an interagency alert which requires all hands on deck so other agencies probably won't poking around this case at the moment. Just stay in the hospital for now and make sure nothing goes wrong. I'll monitor the situation from my end."

"Copy that boss" Now Scott was really worried. If other agency, especially CTU, got a wind of it he could lose his job, but that's not the least of his worries. If that woman couldn't be resuscitated, he will be facing possible charges of evidence tempering if those bastards from CTU decide to press charges. She better be breathing again. If she dies on that operating table then I'm royally screwed Scott thought. At the same time, another thought crossed his mind. Donahue mentioned that there's an interagency situation. He checked his messages on his phone and found out there's a BOLO on a retired CTU agent name Jack Bauer. It stated that he's armed and extremely dangerous and possibility delusional due to stress. Scott couldn't have care less about it at the moment and luckily, it's the distraction that kept other agencies from snooping around his case. He decided that once the surgery is finished he will look into it.

1:20:55

In the past few hours Scott's boss had been calling him on a few times to check the development, and also to keep him updated on the surrounding situations. So far, they got the situation under the wrap as CTU and other agencies were more concerned about capturing the federal fugitive named Jack Bauer. Scott's phone rang again. The call was from his boss.

"Has Walker come out of the surgery yet?" Donahue asked.

"Yeah, it's been 3 hours and…"

Suddenly the door of the operating room opened. David walked out land taking off his surgical mask. He looked like a doctor after working through the 24 hours shift. Scott told his boss that he will get back to him and hanged up. He then asked David the million dollar question.

"Is she…"

"It wasn't easy but we managed to restart her heart again and repaired the arterial damage done by the bullet. She actually flat-lined once in the surgery but we managed to overcome that. It's fortunate that she's a fighter." Said David

Thank God. Scott thought.

"However, she's in a medically induced coma right now. You probably won't even able to talk to her until she wakes up, could be days due to the seriousness of her wound or possible infections, I'll be moving her to ICU for the time being"

"Yeah, can you please keep the situation under the wrap just a little longer please? I will talk to my boss then we'll decide whether or not to let the world know that she's still breathing." Scott then looked at David sincerely. "And thank you for doing this today."

David grinned. "As I said, you own me big. Besides, it's my job to save life and I just pulled a miracle out of my ass. That's gonna earn me some bragging rights…"

"Yeah" Scott also grinned. "Excuse me I gotta talk to my Boss" Scott called his boss again. David nodded and went into the operating room to help the nurses wheeling the resuscitated and a very pale Renee Walker out. With various see-through tubes attached to her body, she looked like a mess.

"Boss, good news, she's alive but she's unconscious…" Scott said.

"Well, I wish I could say the same thing on my end. We gonna have to shut down this case for now…"

"Why? What's wrong? Boss, we got a live potential witness…" Scott couldn't believe he's hearing.

"Andrei Stuko is dead, so as his boss…"

"What? How?"

"There's been an incident down at Turner's Department Store. It is reported that the federal fugitive, Jack Bauer, had engaged in a gun battle against three unknown assailants, and all three of them are dead. NYPD was the first responder and according to their first officer on the scene, one of gunmen matches the description of Andrei Stukov. However, CTU got there while the NYPD were still processing the scene and threw NYPD out. They locked down the crime scene under CTU jurisdiction. I tried to get our guys in but so far those assholes are stonewalling us with the usual national security crap."

"Typical asshole behavior" Scott said, while rolled his eyes upward.

"However, I spoke to the detective who processed the scene before CTU arrived. He managed to get a name, Pavel Tokerav, from Stukov's phone before it got confiscated by CTU agents. I already ran that name through every database I can think of. Turns out he's one of diplomatic attachés in the Russian delegation. Now here's the interesting part. I also looked up agent Walker's case files from her undercover assignment; he was also in a couple surveillance photos. In Walker's reports he was identified as Boris Baikov, one of Vladimir Laitanan's business associates. Since you said that Russian Intelligence like SVR loves to use Russian mob as the cover for their espionage operation, so I was thinking: What if this Tokerav character somehow found out about Walker and thinks she can ID him so…"

"He tries to take her out in order to stay in the shadow. He is the man behind Stukov. Great! Let's call the Justice and have them work out a warrant."

"I'm afraid that's not possible…"

"Why? Because that asshole got diplomatic immunity?" Scott tried to guess the reason.

"Because he's dead. NYPD found his body inside a building adjacent to Turner's Department Store. He was gutted like a fish…Those CTU agents have also taken jurisdiction control of that crime scene so we don't have much to go on and the reports are still quite sketchy at best. Right now our only two promising leads are dead. Therefore, this case is going nowhere."

"Why the hell does CTU try to act like they're covering up something with Russians?"

"I really don't know. Probably some quid-pro-quo is going on under the table".

Assholes Scott cursed silently in his mind. "I bet Walker probably knows more…"

"I already double checked her case files with ours. No common denominator pops up except Tokerav, who we only found out about now. She probably can identify Tokerav but since he's dead and the evidences surrounding his death are being taken away by CTU, we can't do anything…I'll be calling US Marshals and get her into WITSEC since I doubt Tokerav kept this information to himself. If the Russian found out Walker's still alive they will come after her because they don't want their espionage operations exposed…"

"Yes boss, I'll wait for the Marshals and get a list of people who know at the hospital…"

"Good." Donahue said "Funny coincidence though. She actually worked with our current fugitive, Jack Bauer, a year ago for one day…"

Just as Donahue said that to Scott, Scott suddenly had an epiphany: From the nurses' description of her boyfriend actually matches the description of Jack Bauer. It's obvious that Walker knows Bauer since they had worked together before...Damn it why didn't he realize that earlier. It all makes sense.

"Boss, I forgot to tell you this before because at the time I thought it's not an issue. According to the nurses, Walker was carried to the hospital by a man. I didn't see him but judging from the descriptions provided by those nurses and what you just said I'm a hundred percent certain that man is Jack Bauer. Now I'm guessing Walker is the reason why Bauer is on the interagency BOLO since the BOLO didn't say the reason why a former CTU agent became a wanted fugitive aside from the usual armed and dangerous crap. And that maybe related to why CTU seems to try to cover shit up for Russians? All of these are definitely related. Maybe if we get Bauer to come in by telling him Walker's alive, he will come in and maybe he can shed some light on this whole situation..."

"That's assuming that IF we can find him." Donahue emphasized on the IF part again "Besides, how do we get the word to him? We can't broadcast through other agencies since they might be compromised by Russian Intelligence, hence putting Walker in danger and you and I both know that protective custody won't stop those Russian SVR type. Even if we do get the word out discreetly is he gonna believe anything we said and come in like a good boy? I doubt that." Donahue sighed. "Look, right now our priority is to get Walker safely into WITSEC. We'll worry about this Bauer situation later once Walker is somewhere safe. I want you to go with US Marshals and make sure you question her as soon as she wakes up. And I want you to take good care of her before she disappeared into WITSEC. Despite her mistake, she was one of us…"

Scott agreed whole heartily about the last part. "Yes boss, I'll stay put and work with the Marshals when they arrive"

"Good. Keep me updated" Donahue said then hanged up

After Scott hanged up the phone, he still couldn't shake the regretful feeling that he should have track down Jack Bauer first and then tell him what he was trying to resuscitate her in the first place.

03:47:42

After President Taylor's shocking announcement that stated U.S. is withdrawing from the treaty at the Peace According signing, Russian President Yuri Suvarov, along with the Russian delegation, were preparing to leave the UN and headed to the Russian Consulate in New York to discuss the next course of actions. President Suvarov did not anticipate such drastic change of course of action from the President of United State. After all, she was involved in the cover-up. Now President Taylor was going down and she seems to want to drag me down with her. What a bitch. Suvarov thought. After he got into the limousine he asked his assistant for the encrypted satellite phone. President Suvarov never had thought he needed to call this particular person and ask him to do things his way, but now with the failed peace accord and the possibility of damaging Russian's international reputation hanging on his head, he knew that he had no choice. As the motorcade started to move, he dialed the satellite phone.

"Mr. President" Inside a lavish mansion in the outskirt of Moscow, A man in his early 50's answered.

"Have you been monitoring the situation in New York?" Suvarov asked.

"Both news networks and my assets in New York have kept me very well informed." The man was not only talking about what he had seen on various news channels. His network of assets within US government and law enforcement agencies had also kept him updated on the information that was not broadcast on TV.

"Then you know what to do. I want every trace of our involvements erased. Do you still have your people in New York?"

"They are already on stand-by, sir. As soon as I have your authorization they will begin to mobilize" The man actually lied. He already mobilized all of his teams and assets in New York as soon as President Taylor made the shocking announcement.

"You have my authorization to do whatever it takes to handle the situation. I don't need to remind you that your butt is on the line too" Suvarov hanged up. Suvarov thought since the man he was one the phone with was also the one who was instrumental for getting the nuclear fuel rod to the hands of the "Red Square", he will have more incentives to make sure the situation was completely sanitized and not to screw him over.

If that imbecile Suvarov had listened to my suggestions 7 hours ago we won't be in this fucking mess in the first place. Former GRU Colonel Nicholai Kirilenko thought after the conversation with President Suvarov. Instead, he had to listen to that fruitcake politician Novakovich. Months ago I already told them that we need to take out Hassan's family too in case they decided to use Dalia Hassan to continue the peace treaty, but those weak-minded fools insisted that we're not barbarians. Now shit happened and that asshole Charles Logan was blackmailing us back to support the peace signing. Hell, my assets in New York were ready to take out both Dalia Hassan and Charles Logan covertly so those Americans have nothing to continue with their hypocritical peace treaty, and Russia can withdraw from it without damaging her international standing. Again, when I pitched the plan I got shot down by Novakovich. 'It's too risky' he said. So instead we caved in to Charles Logan's blackmail? What a weak-minded fool…

As Kirilenko got up to refill his cup of Cognac from the mini bar, he also mused. Despite the fact the past 24 hours didn't go as planned, this day wasn't a total loss. At least the peace treaty is off and that asshole Novakovich and his SVR posse, that smug-face Tokerav, lie dead thanks to that lunatic Jack Bauer. However there's also the possibility of me being exposed. Nevertheless, according to an old oriental saying, Crisis means danger and opportunity. I could easily handle the danger of being exposed or being used as sacrificial lamb if I plan my cards right. Now, with that meddlesome Novakovich gone, I can use this opportunity to expand my influence inside the walls of Kremlin…