July 16 - Evening

[chelleuncurled]

Michelle's listening to Nadia's update, but mostly her thoughts are elsewhere, on the program she has running in the background on her workstation that is pulling up satellite images, five seconds apart, of Chris's condo for six hours before the bomb hit.

It hurts to see Chris so distraught. So hopeless.

So much like me

After the brief meeting, she's stopped by Nadia, who asks if she's noticed anyone using an exorbitant amount of system resources.

Michelle lies and says no, but when she gets back to her workstation she gives a silent apology and shuts down the search.

With Chris away at Division and everyone focusing on the possibility of more nukes out there, and intel points to at least one more, Michelle again wonders if they missed something with the Palmer assassination. Jack was set up and the only conclusion he reached was that there was no link. Their attention's been elsewhere, but Michelle has a hard time accepting that it was a separate attack and not connected to the series of bombings or the nuclear bomb that went off in Valencia.

Or what happened in China

Even Jack seems too willing to accept this conclusion. Although he's also been reluctant to investigate his abduction for reasons she understands but does not support.

And in the back of her mind is the thought that whoever's responsible for China is also responsible for Tony's death.

Making a decision, Michelle waits until everyone's engrossed in their work and closes the list of suspects she's been researching and double checking. She opens the link to the W drive and after a few moments of searching she finds the archive of Palmer's files.

Some items, mostly related to images and physical evidence had been accessed recently. The files on his computer, however, had been quickly searched and discarded. It's a complete shot in the dark, but Michelle's more than familiar with encryption and security. Tony once told her about how the best way to hide important information was in a plain sight. "They look right over the information that doesn't belong," he'd smiled, "now that doesn't mean you should start going through my files." She'd teasingly went for his computer and he'd grabbed her from behind and she'd laughed and then relaxed against his chest -- she mentally shakes herself, before opening up Palmer's documents. She still feels Tony's arms around her and she tries to will him away from her consciousness. She knows it's a losing battle, but usually she doesn't imagine he's with her. At least not anymore.

She starts opening up documents, going carefully through each page, but finding nothing. She is starting to wonder if there's anything to find, if maybe she's invented connections that don't exist, when she opens the latest draft of Palmer's press conference notes. The file's encrypted, which is unusual, but these are private thoughts. She opens up CTU's decryption program and a few commands later is granted access to the file.

After going through so many of his speeches, she's struck all over again by how much they lost a few days ago, and how deeply she admired him.

No, no time for sorrow, stop it, Michelle.

While scanning one of his later points, she sees a string of letters and numbers that doesn't seem to connect to anything around them. Her heart beats a little quicker as she re-reads to make sure she's right. "NDP-48102004D" she mouths, the code having no meaning to her. But it's an obvious code. And a possible link.

She runs it through a database of every known acronym or abbreviation but nothing makes sense.This was important and it had to mean something.

She has to tell someone, but needs to be careful. She spots Jack making his way to the situation room. "Jack!" she calls out, trying to get his attention.

Comments

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

Jack's heading for the situation room, the main area where he can spread out files and pore over them without being in anyone's way or taking up too much desk space; particularly now that almost every staff member is on active duty and the place is bursting at the seams. It doesn't hurt that there's a phone in there that he can use to call Chris, though he's trying to resist the urge. There's nothing he can say, so there's no reason to call her every ten minutes like he wants to, except to soothe his own worries and fears, and she wouldn't appreciate his constantly checking up on her.

He's about to open the glass door to the situation room when he hears Michelle calling form across the floor, and he turns. He knows as soon as he sees her face that she's found something, and he immediately detours over to the station she's using.

"What is it, what have you found?" he asks.

[chelleuncurled]

Michelle glances around to make sure that no one else is listening. Until she's sure she doesn't want to bring this to CTU's attention.

"I was looking through Palmer's documents and - " she begins in a hushed voice and points at the screen. "Palmer put this here for a reason," she looks up at him, her expression determined. "I believe his assassination is connected to the attacks."

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

Jack leans over her shoulder, looking at the screen. Something about the code--particularly the three-letter prefix--seems familiar, but he can't place it. "You ran this through the database?"

[chelleuncurled]

She nods, "The only matches are inconseqential and the string of numbers aren't the same."

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

"I've seen the prefix before, but I'm not sure where," he says, reading the code again. NDP. It has to stand for something, but then why wouldn't it be in CTU's database of government departments and identifying codes?

"It has to stand for something. A n-word... National, nuc--" Jack stops, suddenly. That was it--the first word is the key to the memory he's been trying to unlock. "Nuclear Disarmament Program. I saw it at DoD; it's a top secret program, that's why you didn't get any hits."

[chelleuncurled]

If he stats trying to talk out the code they could be here all day. When he stops after a word and a half, she notices he has that look he has when he's put something together. "Are you sure?" A chill runs down her spine. "I heard rumors about the government negotating with the Russian Mafia to get ahold of the suitcase nukes back when I was with DARPA, but I didn't think it was a program that ever went forward."

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

Jack shakes his head, looking around to see if anyone's close enough to hear. "We were working more with the Russian Federal Security Service, at least as far as I know," he says, his voice low, "The people responsible for the program basically turned a blind eye on what was happening on the Russians' end, but officially it's used to disarm nuclear devices that were decommissioned after the end of the Cold War and that were ending up on the black market, or for devices seized by law enforcement over there. Russia basically got blackmailed into having us do it when evidence came up around the turn of the last century that weapons were falling into terrorists' hands. In return, we keep quiet about the problem and lend them resources to help them find weapons that are being sold. If the weapons are ending up in the wrong hands on this side of the Pacific..."

[chelleuncurled]

"...then there could be a lot more than two armed suitcase nukes out there," Michelle finishes the thought. "But former Presidents would know top secret information, and no one would kill him over it, unless this identification code can be traced back to a single source." She looks back at the screen, pretty sure that her assessment of it being an ID is correct. "Do you think the Russians could be involved?" She has to ask, even if his answer could mean that they're going to have to bring this information to the attention of not just Bill, but also President Logan.

Last time they had a nuclear crisis, Logan made the country more anxious and hid in his bunker until the danger had passed.

There's also the little fact that someone in his administration had tried to have Jack killed and they still had no idea who was responsible.

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

"Maybe someone gave him the information for some reason; because they didn't know who else to go to," Jack says, though with Palmer dead he's not sure they'll ever know. "And I don't know. If this refers to the suitcase nukes... From what I remember hearing about the program, the ID number is assigned to each shipment when it arrives in the States. There's a good chance to the problem isn't in Russia, it's here."

[chelleuncurled]

That's both good and bad news.

"If someone gave him the information...they wouldn't have done it in public and since it's inserted into the document I think we can assume it was a verbal communication," she looks back up at him. "It has to be someone on the phone logs or they must have met in person somewhere." She knows that search could take days and since this is the second day in a row where a nuclear device went off or was threatened, they might not have that kind of time.

At least if it's not an international problem they could investigate a little further before making the information open to all of CTU.

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

Jack nods. "First things first--I'll try calling a couple people I worked with that would have that kind of clearance, see if they can get me the information on that shipment. If these nukes are all part of one shipment we need to know where they went when they reached the U.S."

[chelleuncurled]

"And these are all people that know you're alive?" She's wondering about his former contacts.

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

"I don't know. They might have heard; if not, they're going to find out now," he says.

[chelleuncurled]

Michelle can't imagine the levels of awkwardness those conversations might reach. "Okay, let me know when you find out anything. Once we get more solid intel, then we can open this up to the rest of CTU."

She pauses, her expression softening. "Have you talked to Chris?"

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

Jack sighs. "Not since she went ho--went back to your place to try and get some rest. I don't want to disturb her if she's actually managed to get to sleep."

[chelleuncurled]

She notices the slip and wonders what she wanted to hear. "I hope she did," she says. "If you talk to her before I do, tell her that I'm there for her the - the way she was there for me."

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

"I will," he says, briefly putting a hand on her arm. "Thanks, Michelle, for everything."

[chelleuncurled]

She nods, her neck muscles tightening as she forces back tears. One note of gratitude and she's ready to cry. She'll be so glad when this is over.

"It's the least I could do," she says quietly. "But, I - thank you."

[action-antihero.livejournal.com]

Jack nods. "I'm going to call DoD; I'll tell you as soon as I have anything," he says, then turns to head back to the Situation Room and make the call.

[chelleuncurled]

"Good. I'll go through the rest of the files, see if I can find any more information," she lightly touches his arm, waits until he leaves, and then focuses her attention back on the files scrolling in front of her.

Nothing here will help Chris, but at least it might lead to an answer.