The House Special Subcommittee's Findings at CTU

by Marc Cerasini

  I was no longer sick about this—I was pissed. Really pissed. Nina had used me, compromised me, and was probably laughing at me behind my back.

  I asked her pointedly, “How long have you been playing me?”

  She denied everything, of course. I pressed, but her only responses to my accusations were anger and hurt.

  I took her down to the command center floor where I asked Jamey to show us the evidence. Jamey produced a record of the line-by-line activity. It clearly showed how the intel had been gathered on Nina’s computer, then burned onto the key card.

  Then Nina noticed the date when the transaction apparently occurred—January 14.

  “The second week in January, Jack,” Nina whispered to me.

  That’s all she had to say. It was the weekend we’d gone to Santa Barbara together. Nina had been with me the entire time. There was no way she could have slipped away, driven back to L.A., and burned the information onto that card. No way.

  I realized someone had hacked into her computer—or knew her password. At the time, a number of suspects raced through my mind, including Tony Almeida.

  DRISCOLL: Agent Bauer, wasn’t there a way to discover the truth at that time? Didn’t you have security camera footage on record to see who had tampered with Nina Myers’s computer?

  BAUER: Yes, of course, we had footage. And I made a mental note to order and review the digital files for that date. But you have to understand that access to past footage is relatively easy only up to thirty days. Beyond that, the data is compressed and stored in Washington, D.C., archives.

  I knew we’d have to wait as long as twenty-four to forty-eight hours for that footage to be accessed and sent to us—and before I could even think of ordering it, I had to begin damage control on Nina.

  I had just accused my chief of staff and former lover of treason and betrayal, and she was furious. As I’ve said before, I needed allies. And my priority at that moment was making sure Nina remained one.

  DRISCOLL: All right, let me understand this. You say that Nina Myers was with you on the weekend when the key card was encoded. So tell me again; who do you believe encoded it?

  BAUER: It’s pure speculation at this point, but I believe Jamey Farrell was the person who actually encoded the card. At the time, I didn’t suspect her, of course, because both Walsh and Baylor had advised me to trust her. But she was dirty, as we later found out.

  Whoever encoded that card knew that the ID info on it didn’t matter because it was something that could be wiped in a flash. The encrypted data, which was locked into the card, was the real risk because it could be matched to a personal terminal.

  Jamey knew how to hack into systems and uncover passwords. And, after she agreed to help Ira Gaines, she obviously began to look for loopholes in our systems to take advantage of.

  I believe Jamey used Nina’s computer to burn the card on January 14 because she knew I was her alibi that weekend. Using Nina’s terminal meant there would be no one to blame if the card was compromised. And that’s exactly what happened: I didn’t suspect Jamey because Walsh and Baylor trusted her, and I no longer suspected Nina because I had been with her when the card was burned. At the time, I was reeling—I had no idea who could have burned that card.

  DRISCOLL: So you believe that Jamey Parrell knew you and Nina Myers were seeing each other? And that you would be her alibi that weekend?

  BAUER: Yes. (After a pause) During this hour, Jamey made it clear to me that she had known about my affair with Nina…. I think it’s fairly accurate to say, Congresswoman, that office romances are seldom kept private for long.

  DRISCOLL: Yes, Agent Bauer, I think most office workers would agree that you don’t need to be a field agent in an intelligence division to detect these things. Water coolers are usually all it takes. (Soft laughter from subcommittee members.)

  FULBRIGHT: All right, okay…. Let’s take a short recess, shall we?

  3:00 A.M.-4:00 A.M.

  CHAIRMAN FULBRIGHT: Let’s talk about the lockdown, Agent Bauer. It occurred about 3:00 A.M., is that correct?

  SPECIAL AGENT JACK BAUER: That’s correct. Agent Tony Almeida had challenged me earlier in front of my staff. After that, he began to watch me very closely. Two agents had been killed since midnight. Naturally he became suspicious of my every action.

  Although Tony didn’t know why I was interrogating Nina Myers, he saw enough of it from a distance to consider it harassment. He called District Director George Mason, claiming I needed to be relieved of my command.

  REP. PAULINE P. DRISCOLL, (D) CONN.: Agent Bauer, there was personal animosity between you and Agent Almeida, is that fair to say?

  BAUER: Yes. (After a pause) Tony was sleeping with Nina Myers, and he knew I had also been involved with her. (Pause) I assure you all, I deeply regret that these personal conflicts occurred under my command. I take full responsibility for them. I can only say by way of explanation that I assumed professionals could act as professionals on the job—and that private lives could remain private.

  While I had always been confident that Nina and I could act professionally, I guess I never expected her to become involved so quickly with another man in our command center after we split. It’s understandable how her new lover could become overprotective of her and overly wary of me.

  Now, of course, I look back and clearly see why she needed to become involved so quickly with another man at CTU: she needed a malleable ally for her own purposes.

  DRISCOLL: Thank you for your honesty, Agent Bauer. Please go on. What happened when District Director George Mason arrived and called for the lockdown?

  BAUER: By the time Mason arrived, I was already on my way out. And I just kept on going.

  DRISCOLL: But doesn’t a lockdown mean no one can leave?

  BAUER: A presidential candidate’s life was at stake. Two agents had already been murdered attempting to uncover information regarding the assassination plot, and I wasn’t going to let what I saw as petty personal issues get in the way of following my only lead.

  FULBRIGHT: Back up a bit. What lead was that?

  BAUER: Jamey Farrell claimed it would take her many hours to decode the intricately encrypted data on the key card. The only thing she said she was able to find was an address on the key card: 18166 San Fernando Road.

  DRISCOLL: I assume, then, that she set you up? Sent you to that address with a shooter waiting?

  BAUEB: That’s a fair assumption—although the evidence is pretty much circumstantial. Scott Baylor may have already decoded the address when he started looking at the encryption on the card, and at that point there was nothing Jamey could do to hide it from us.

  Wherever it came from, though, that address was our only thread. I left CTU and drove to 18166 San Fernando Road. The location was a large abandoned warehouse in a desolate industrial park complex. After seeing a sliver of light through an open door, I went in with my weapon drawn.

  A man was waiting inside. He was lighting a cigarette, and I seemed to have surprised him. He fired at me, but missed.

  Outside, a policewoman named Jessie Hampton heard the gunfire and called for backup. She saw the shooter run off, but she stopped me. I showed her my badge and asked for her help. We pursued the shooter as a team into the warehouse. I made a point of telling Jessie that I needed the shooter alive for questioning.

  Police backup arrived in the form of a helicopter. The chopper’s searchlight caught me in its glare, and I dove for cover to avoid the shooter’s gunfire. Unfortunately, the shooter captured Jessie and held her at gunpoint.

  He warned me to drop my weapon or he’d kill her. She was very brave. She yelled for me not to do it or he’d shoot both of us.

  I took a chance that the shooter didn’t know Spanish, and I called to her in that language, telling her to move the second my weapon hit the ground.

  I dropped my weapon. She moved, and I charged the shooter. I got him, but he had already discharged his gun and Jessie caught the bullet. He’d kill
ed her.

  When the police arrived, the patrolmen were visibly furious to see that a fellow officer had been gunned down. The shooter, whose name was Greg Penticoff, was pretty disturbed. He knew my name, which alarmed me. Then he told me if I let the police take him, he was dead.

  At first I thought he was talking about the wrath of the officers, but he wasn’t. He said he was afraid of someone else getting to him and killing him. I wanted to know who, but he wouldn’t talk until he knew he wasn’t going to be arrested.

  I wanted to take Penticoff into my custody, but the police refused. As they hauled him off, Penticoff yelled to me, “If you ever want to see your daughter again, get me out of this!”

  I followed the squad car sick with the idea that Penticoff was telling me the truth. And he was. It was my first clue that there was a link between Palmer’s hit and Kim’s disappearance.

  4:00 A.M.-S:00 A.M.

  SPECIAL AGENT JACK BAUER: George Mason’s only reason for the lockdown at CTU was to question me. Once he heard my name on the police frequency, he knew where to find me, so at approximately 4:00 A.M. he ended the lockdown and drove to the Van Nuys police station.

  I had followed the squad cars there earlier. When Mason walked in, I was in the middle of trying to convince the desk sergeant to let me question Greg Penticoff, who was about to be booked for the murder of Police Officer Jessie Hampton—

  REP. ROY SCHNEIDER, (R) TEX.: (Interrupting) Excuse me, Agent Bauer, but you must know that George Mason’s written statements about your actions during this general period are highly critical. He states that in the previous hour you assaulted an agent who was guarding an exit during his lockdown. And in this hour, he accuses you of helping Penticoff escape. Is that true?

  BAUER: Please try to understand the bigger picture, Congressman—because that’s what I was considering. I wasn’t concerned with protocol, pleasing headquarters, or getting a bigger office. I did what I did because I was trying to save David Palmer’s life—and by then it appeared that my own daughter’s life was at stake, too.

  On my way to the Van Nuys station, my wife called to tell me that our daughter had been in touch again. Kim had confirmed that she was in trouble. She managed to get away from her abductors, but she was still in imminent danger. She was being chased down somewhere in North Hollywood. Meanwhile Kim’s friend, Janet York, was fighting for her life in a nearby hospital because she’d been hit by a car.

  So no, I didn’t play it safe. I didn’t play by the rules. Because if I had, I would have given up the only link we had to the Palmer assassination attempt and to my daughter’s fate.

  And frankly, as far as Mason’s criticism of my actions, you might want to consider the source. For as long as I’ve known him, George Mason has been a man preoccupied with power and pay-grades. It’s always been about the ladder for Mason, about covering his (pause) political aspirations.

  Do you know the only thing that got a reaction out of him during that hour? I warned him that if he didn’t question Penticoff, he could be implicated for impeding the investigation into the assassination plot against Senator Palmer. Possible damage to his career—that’s what finally got Mason interested in working the thread and interrogating the subject.

  SCHNEIDER: I get the picture. But you still haven’t sold me on the validity of helping a murderer escape police custody.

  CHAIRMAN FULBRIGHT: Take us through the events, Agent Bauer.

  BAUER: Mason said he would interrogate Penticoff himself, until Penticoff refused to talk to anyone but me. Mason had no choice. He allowed me into the interrogation room. Unfortunately, Mason and the other agents insisted on secretly watching behind a two-way mirror. I couldn’t allow that. I needed to hear what Penticoff had to say in private—

  REP. PAULINE P. DRISCOLL, (D) CONN.: (Interrupting) And why was that? Didn’t you want their help?

  BAUER: It wasn’t a question of help at that point, ma’am, it was a question of trust. I was in the same position as Walsh had been just a few hours ago. I knew there was a mole, but I didn’t know who it was. Two agents were already dead. I couldn’t take a chance with Mason.

  DRISCOLL: Yes … I understand your position. But … let me see here (papers shuffling) … Mason’s written statement claims you “sabotaged” the interrogation. Was that the reason?

  BAUER: Yes. I needed to speak to Penticoff without the possibility of dirty agents listening, so I entered the interrogation room and loudly announced to Penticoff that he wasn’t just talking to me, as he’d requested, he was talking to a number of people—and I gestured to the two-way mirror covering one wall of the interrogation room. Penticoff protested, which I expected.

  I then moved close and whispered so that the observers couldn’t hear. I told Penticoff I was going to give him my cell number to call, but he needed to raise hell first, pretend as if I’d whispered a threat to him. So he did.

  Penticoff shouted and got violent, and I played along, grabbing him by the hair. During the scuffle, I was able to slip a piece of paper with my cell number into Penticoff’s mouth. Once the agents burst into the interrogation room and pulled us apart, Penticoff demanded his right to a phone call. That’s how I got him to talk to me privately.

  SCHNEIDER: Well, that’s mighty quick thinking, son. (Chuckling) I’m sure glad you’re on our side—

  FULBRIGHT: Please, let’s refrain from personal commentary.

  SCHNEIDER: Sorry, Jayce. So what did this Penticoff character tell you?

  BAUER: He claimed that the “guys” who were holding my daughter would be calling a phone on San Fernando Road. If he was not there to answer, he claimed it would be too late to save her. In effect, he said either I got him out or my daughter was dead. Congressman, what would you do?

  FULBRIGHT: Agent Bauer, what Congressman Schneider would do is not the question. The question is, what did you do?

  BAUER: What I did, Mr. Chairman, was try to save my daughter’s life. I phoned Nina Myers back at CTU and asked her to search for phone lines at the 18166 San Fernando Road address. She found a nearby pay phone that was in service, so I asked her to set up a trace.

  DRISCOLL: Without a legal warrant, is that correct?

  BAUER: That’s correct.

  FULBRIGHT: Go on.

  BAUER: At the police station, I convinced an officer named Phillips to let me into the cell holding Penticoff so I could try to question him again. The cells were locked and unlocked with access cards. The officer had one. Once we were inside the holding cell with Penticoff, I baited the officer until he became angry with me.

  We struggled, and during the scuffle I got the card away from him without his knowing. Other officers rushed into the cell, and during the commotion I slipped the card to Penticoff. Once we had all cleared out of his cell, Penticoff freed himself and met me outside the station.

  I drove Penticoff to the phone booth on San Fernando Road. Although Nina was tracking the pay phone, a cell phone hidden inside the booth rang instead, and Nina couldn’t trace its frequency.

  Penticoff took the call. It was his employer, who we later discovered was Ira Gaines. Gaines directed him to dispose of a body in the trunk of a nearby car. There were car keys inside the phone booth.

  The moment I heard the words “body in the trunk,” my heart stopped.

  My daughter, Klmberly, was missing, this asshole claimed he was involved with people who had grabbed her, and now I heard the words “body in the trunk.” I took Penticoff with me to find the car. I don’t think I’ve ever felt as sick as I did when I opened that trunk. There was a bloody corpse wrapped in plastic. But it wasn’t Kim.

  The body was that of an adult Caucasian male, naked and badly mutilated. The murderer had done a professional job of slowing the ID process. The dead man’s fingers were clipped, his teeth were pulled, and most of his face had been sliced. About that moment, I realized that Penticoff and I were no longer alone. George Mason and a group of agents had arrived. Using a remote link to satellite images,
they had tracked me and Penticoff from the police station to the San Fernando Road location.

  Mason was furious, of course, and was ready to throw the book at me, but I assure you: I never had any intention of allowing Penticoff to go free. I needed him to answer the phone, and he did. And now we had another lead—a corpse. I showed Mason the body and reminded him that this, too, was connected to the hit on Palmer.

  I played Mason, hammering home what he cared about most: that if he didn’t allow me to follow this lead, and something happened to Palmer, it would “look bad” for us both. I also finally admitted to Mason what Walsh had told me: that someone inside CTU was involved in the assassination attempt. I had no choice anymore, I had to trust Mason—it was either that or find myself in handcuffs and off the job.

  My strategy worked—on both counts. Mason let me go. I drove the car with the mutilated body to CTU, and Penticoff was taken back to the police station.

  SCHNEIDER: Did you have any other leads to your daughter’s whereabouts by then?

  BAUER: Only one. My wife was still at the hospital where Janet York was undergoing surgery. By cell, I urged Teri to speak to the girl the moment she was conscious. I knew Janet was the best chance we had of finding Kim.

  TERI BAUER: We got to St. Mark’s Hospital about 4 A.M. and ran to the doors of the operating room to find Janet on the table. I waited with Alan—or the man I believed to be Alan York, and a police officer finally arrived to take down what little information we had.

  Jack phoned about that time and told me the reason he still wasn’t with me was that he wanted to question some man who might have seen Kim. He urged me to talk to Janet as soon as she got out of surgery.

  I have to admit, by that point I was furious with Jack. For the past four hours our daughter had been missing, and he had stayed at CTU. It seemed to me he was putting his job ahead of our daughter’s welfare.