David Emerson

David Emerson was the director of a domestic mercenary group including Tony Almeida, Alan Tanner, Masters, Morgan, Litvak, and Donnie Fox during Day 7. He had an established reputation based upon money and personal loyalty. His extensive military and private combat training and experience included special skills in urban warfare, sniping and hand-to-hand combat.

Before Day 5

 * View David Emerson's profile as of Day 5 at Character profiles.

Emerson was born in London on 5 September 1965. He studied at Middlesex University, receiving a B.S. in History. He had US citizenship and spoke both English and Farsi. He served in the British Army from 1985 to 1993. He served several combat tours as a sniper in the British SAS from 1993 - 2004. After this, he began work for the company Naughton Tactical. Upon Tony's imprisonment and dismissal from CTU, Emerson began to feel him out as a potential recruit for his mercenary group.

Day 5
No more than ten minutes after Tony Almeida was stabbed with a potentially-lethal dose of hyoscine-pentothal, Emerson's men revived Tony's heart by using a specific hypothermic compound. He predicted that Tony would make an excellent mercenary given his extensive government training, and had a desirable mindset because he was disillusioned at the death of his wife. Emerson believed that he predicted correctly, and Tony appeared to be loyal to him for three whole years.

After Day 5
When Emerson was hired to break the CIP firewall, only then did Tony reconsider his loyalty. Emerson did not know that Tony had reached out to Bill Buchanan and Chloe O'Brian to undermine Emerson's plans to protect national security.

Day 7
Emerson arrived at the docked cargo ship with two associates to collect the imprisoned Michael Latham for transfer. He explained to Tony that their next job would be the final one before he was paid. When Tony prodded for more information, he only told him that Alan Tanner could fill in the blanks for him. Emerson and his men left Almeida, Donnie Fox, and Masters aboard the ship, but assured Tony that Tanner would arrive with their next mission. Emerson took Latham to an undisclosed location where Iké Dubaku and Mr. Nichols were waiting.

Emerson then hid at a house at 2211 Chesterfield, and prepared with Morgan and Litvak to kidnap Ule Matobo, the former prime minister of Sangala, even though his best soldier Tony Almeida had been captured by the FBI. Tony and Jack Bauer escaped from the agency, however, and it was suggested that Jack wanted to join them. With some degree of knowledge concerning Jack, he decided the best option was to kill him and then prepare Tony for the next assignment. But this dawned on Jack and he single-handedly disarmed and beat both of Emerson's henchmen. Jack convinced him that he, too, had no other alternative, with his hearing underway and the likelihood of him going to prison. Morgan would not accept this, so Emerson executed him for trying to back out, then embraced Jack as a member of the team.



Emerson led both Jack and Tony on a raid through the Prime Minister's headquarters. After killing or incapacitating all of the bodyguards in their way, the men were stunned when Matobo and his wife locked themselves in a panic room. Emerson beat the lone surviving bodyguard of the Matobo family, threatening to kill him unless they broke the seal. But the bodyguard revealed it could only be opened from the inside. Jack and Tony then leaked a noxious ammonium dysterate into the safe-room, forcing Alama to release the latch to save both the lives of herself and husband.

Emerson and his men loaded the Matobos into their van when agent Renee Walker intervened. She was quickly captured by Litvak and taken to them. Emerson's first instinct was to execute her, but Jack insisted that they keep her alive, since she was an F.B.I. agent and they could hemorrhage information from her. He agreed and they took her with them. Half-way through the trip, however, he was called by Nichols, who revealed that agent Walker was useless. He demanded they execute her before meeting at the rendezvous-point.

In an effort to test Jack Bauer's commitment, he ordered him to kill agent Walker at a deserted road along the way. From the van, he watched as Jack seemingly shot her in the back of the head. He then ordered both Tony and Jack to bury her body to conceal the crime. Jack, who had not killed agent Walker, assisted Tony in burying her.

En route to the meeting point, he explained to Jack that Christopher Henderson was an accomplice of theirs. He had stabbed Tony with the syringe that seemingly killed him, but he purposely missed Tony's artery, allowing Emerson to revive him. When Jack gunned Henderson down at the end of Day 5, their plan was ruined—but he decided to keep Tony on because of a "brotherhood" between them. This conversation forced Tony to stare off distantly, hinting to Emerson that he was in danger.

The van arrived at Northwoods Airfield and pulled into an abandoned hangar. Emerson ordered both Litvak and Tony to close the doors of the hangar. He commanded Jack to take the Matobos from the back of the van and bring them to the front. But Emerson grabbed Jack as he turned around, pulling out his gun and sticking it to the side of Jack's head.



Before Litvak could draw his weapon, Tony shot him in the head beside the door. He turned and asked for Jack to be released. Emerson revealed that he knew for a long time that Tony was making another play, but wanted to know what that was. He expressed his belief that both Jack and Tony were trying to steal the diamonds from him. Tony answered him that it was because of the innocent people who would die. Emerson prepared to kill Jack, but was shot in the arm by Tony and reeled back in shock. He brought up his gun one more time, but Tony fired again, wounding him fatally in the neck. Emerson sprawled out on the floor, clutching at his bleeding neck, as Tony attempted to explain himself. Emerson then accused Tony of assisting the same government that killed his wife, Michelle Dessler. After saying all this, he died, his final words chastising Tony for his betrayal.