24 Declassified: Chaos Theory

24 Declassified: Chaos Theory is the sixth novel in the 24: Declassified series.

From the publisher

A brilliant madman dedicated to anarchy has dark plans from the U.S. In twenty-four hours, America will be plunged into chaos - the result of an unthinkable assassination to be carried out flawlessly - and the government has no inkling of the catastrophe that is about to occur.

Only one man can prevent the nightmare: disgraced rogue CTU operative Jack Bauer. But Bauer's been cut loose, is wanted for murder, and is running from the police, who have orders to shoot to kill. And there's no one he can turn to for help - because a high-level traitor in CTU wants Jack Bauer dead.

Timeline

Chaos Theory is set before Day 1, and begins and ends at 8:00pm Pacific Standard Time, covering Friday to Saturday. The story takes place after late 2004, as reference is made to the September 9th bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta by Jemaah Islamiyah. Also, a presidential primary (possibly that of Season 1) is said to occur in the coming months, possibly placing the story in late 2007.

Format

Chaos Theory can be loosely divided into two acts:

1. The first act revolves around an undercover mission by Jack Bauer and Ryan Chappelle to get close to a notorious international terrorist, named Zapata, by incarcerating Jack inside the Federal Holding Facility as the cellmate of one of Zapata's subordinates, Emil Ramirez. Soon, Jack discovers that somebody has placed a bounty on his head and is forced to stage a prison break so that Ramirez can lead him to the people he works for. Meanwhile, Chappelle is mysteriously poisoned and hospitalized, while CTU - oblivious to the sting operation - investigates a possible threat to the Pacific Rim Forum the following day. The primary antagonists in this act are Encep Sungkar, Francis Aguillar, and Zapata. (8:00pm–6:00am)
2. After the end of the undercover phase, Jack and CTU must race to determine the nature of Zapata's planned attack before it is too late. Jack becomes drawn into helping Zapata's former gang in exchange for information, before discovering that the anarchist is planning a single assassination that will topple the United States' economy. Meanwhile, the true source of the hit on Jack is revealed. The primary antagonists in this act are Smiley Lopez, Sergei Petrenko, Zapata, and Christopher Henderson. (6:00am–8:00pm)

Major subplots

• Tony Almeida leads an investigation into Islamist militant group Jemaah Islamiyah, which may or may not be answering to Zapata.
• Christopher Henderson and a corrupt partner seek to silence Jack Bauer before he can incriminate them in wrongdoing at CTU.
• Martin Webb, Chairman of the Federal Reserve, contends with an economy on the brink of collapse.
• Former MMA fighter Mark Kendall, preparing to win back his title, struggles with a difficult choice.
• A gang war between MS-13 and the Ukrainian mob intensifies.
• Federal marshal Dan Pascal tracks Jack after his escape from prison, becoming drawn into the investigation.
• Teri Bauer struggles with her husband's incarceration.

Synopsis

After the 1993 World Trade Center attack, a division of the Central Intelligence Agency established a domestic unit tasked with protecting America from the threat of terrorism. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the Counter Terrorist Unit established field offices in several American cities. From its inception, CTU faced hostility and skepticism from other Federal law enforcement agencies. Despite bureaucratic resistance, within a few years CTU had become a major force in the war against terror. After the events of 9/11, a number of early CTU missions were declassified. The following is one of them.

Prologue

Three Weeks Ago

Gun at the ready, Jack Bauer kicks his way into a backroom game of cards, in pursuit of Adrian Tintfass. Tintfass, formerly a suspect in a CTU investigation, pleads for more time, but Jack advises the other players to clear out, and shoots Tintfass in the chest.

8:00pm-9:00pm

THE FOLLOWING TAKES PLACE BETWEEN THE HOURS OF 8 P.M. AND 9 P.M. PACIFIC STANDARD TIME.

Three weeks later, Jack is incarcerated for the shooting of Adrian Tintfass, serving time in the Federal Holding Facility in Los Angeles until his trial. After a call of support from new CTU recruit Peter Jiminez, he leaves to shower with the other inmates. In the shower, he comes under attack from three members of MS-13, a dangerous and brutal street gang, but manages to incapacitate each of them. Once back in his cell, Jack talks with his cellmate, Emil Ramirez, who explains why he landed in prison and confides that his associates have something big planned for tonight.

9:00pm-10:00pm

CTU Los Angeles holds a threat assessment meeting. Tony Almeida briefs the team on possible terrorist targets, which include the Pacific Rim Forum being held tomorrow. As the meeting is about to end, however, Ryan Chappelle unexpectedly loses consciousness and suffers a cardiac arrest; he is quickly rushed to the UCLA Medical Center.

Meanwhile, Jack Bauer and Emil Ramirez fight off another attack from MS-13 led by Oscar Cisneros, who is taking orders from an unidentified source outside the prison. Jack asks the senior corrections officer if he can speak to guard Adam Cox or the prison warden, but is shocked to hear that both have suddenly been killed or taken out of commission.

10:00pm-11:00pm

Peter Jiminez pays a visit to Teri Bauer at her home, hoping to learn something that might help investigators understand why Jack murdered a suspect. She is unable to tell him anything concrete, but advises him to remember that her husband is capable of anything. After leaving, Jiminez is stopped by a pair of FBI agents, Jason Fujimora and Holmquist, who sternly warn him to back off the Bauer case, but refuse to elaborate on their involvement.

Ryan Chappelle is admitted to the hospital, where his doctor prepares to run blood work and other tests. Director of Field Operations Christopher Henderson decides to wait at the medical center for the results.

Meanwhile, a mysterious traveler known as Zapata arrives in Union Station on the Pacific Surfliner from San Diego. That train explodes ten minutes later, while Zapata is en route in a taxi cab toward the Staples Center to meet an associate, Francis Aguillar.

11:00pm-12:00am

Upon learning that Ryan Chappelle has been hospitalized, Jack Bauer forms a plan to break out of the holding facility by opening all the cell doors and releasing the inmates, starting a prison riot. During the chaos, Jack and Emil Ramirez manage to escape from the facility, escaping into the city.

Zapata and Francis Aguillar go to the maintenance area of the Staples Center to meet Mark Kendall, an aging former MMA champion looking to win back his title in the Professional Reality Fighting Championship tomorrow night. Zapata offers Kendall a proposition: if he kills a certain man after the fight tomorrow, Zapata will pay for his sick daughter's medical care, ensuring that she will live a full life. Kendall angrily orders them to leave, but holds on to the envelope that contains the details of his "assignment."

Meanwhile, Tony Almeida follows up a lead on the Indonesian terrorist organization Jemaah Islamiyah, which intel suggests may be planning an attack on the Southeast Asian trade conference scheduled for tomorrow. Tony visits Riduan Bashir, an importer based in Van Nuys, and discovers that Bashir knows details of a previous JI attack that only an insider could know.

12:00am-1:00am

Tony Almeida follows Riduan Bashir to the Little Java Cafe on Atlantic in West Los Angeles, where he observes Bashir meeting with unknown Indonesian men. Sneaking in disguised as a busboy, Tony takes a teacup from one of the strangers, and returns to CTU. Seth Ludonowski runs the fingerprints and comes up with a match: Encep Sungkar, third in command of Jemaah Islamiyah.

While Deputy Marshal Dan Pascal and George Mason coordinate the manhunt for Jack Bauer at the Federal Holding Facility, Jack and Ramirez hole up in an abandoned thrift store, changing into new clothes and waiting for the police perimeter to pass their location. Jack tries to call CTU to explain his situation, but is forced to hang up when Ramirez comes close to overhearing. He then calls Teri at home and asks her to bring a saddlebag from their garage to a restaurant where they once had an argument.

1:00am-2:00am

At the UCLA Medical Center, an intruder breaks into the lab and switches Ryan Chappelle's blood sample with a fake.

Zapata and Frank Aguillar ride the L.A. Metro away from the Staples Center. While on the train, Zapata points out a middle-aged man speaking to a teenage girl, and tells Aguillar that he plans to rape her. Demonstrating an uncanny, brilliant insight into the patterns of human behavior, he explains how the man is imposing on the girl by creating a false "we" where it does not exist, and how society's rules prevent her from being rude and getting out of a dangerous situation - a perfect example of why the society must be destroyed. Changing his plans, Zapata follows the two of them off the train and brutally assaults the would-be rapist with a stun gun, warning him that they will find him again if he hurts any more women.

2:00am-3:00am

After stealing a car, Jack Bauer and Emil Ramirez arrive at La Strada in West Los Angeles, where they find both Teri's package and Teri herself. The three come under attack from an MS-13 drive-by; Jack manages to kill one of the shooters, but the car speeds away. Now armed with a SigSauer and false identification, he sends a terrified Teri home and tells Ramirez that they need to get in touch with his associates if they want to avoid going back to prison.

At CTU, Jamey Farrell and Seth Ludonowski manage to tap into Encep Sungkar's emails and instant messages, identifying one phrase, "Papa Rashad's factory," as a likely code for the Pacific Rim Forum. During the search, Jamey confronts Tony Almeida with evidence suggesting that Adrian Tintfass' shooting doesn't add up; Tony agrees to send Nina Myers to question Tintfass's widow Marcia.

At the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Century City, Martin Webb, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, awakens from a restless sleep and watches fight reruns on television. Meanwhile, MS-13 gang leader Smiley Lopez, watching the same broadcast in Boyle Heights, gets an angry call from the unknown source, threatening to burn his soldiers on the inside unless he has Jack Bauer killed.

3:00am-4:00am

Nina Myers questions Marcia Tintfass at her home in Van Nuys, and becomes convinced that Marcia is hiding something. She orders Jamey Farrell to place a tap on Tintfass's phone.

Agents at CTU intercept a call between Encep Sungkar and Bacharuddin Wahid, which sheds light on Jemaah Islamiyah's plans: with Bashir Riduan's funds, the group intends to purchase a weapons cache from a local dealer named Arturo Menifee, which in turn they will trade to an unknown party in exchange for a computer virus. A CTU team raids Menifee's warehouse, taking him into custody, and Tony launches a plan to attend the deal himself, posing as Menifee.

Emil Ramirez escorts Jack Bauer to the InterContinental Hotel to meet his boss, a weapons fence named Vanowen. After hearing his story, Vanowen is somewhat convinced of Jack's sincerity, but the meeting is interrupted by the arrival of Mark Kendall - Vanowen is one of his sponsors. While the two men are conversing in another room, Jack sneaks away to contact CTU. He explains to Christopher Henderson that everything he's been doing in the last three weeks was part of a deep-cover operation he was working with Ryan Chappelle. Unwilling to listen, Henderson orders him to turn himself in; Jack eventually hangs up when it becomes clear that Chappelle is still unreachable. However, Seth Ludonowski has traced the call, and Henderson puts in a call to Peter Jiminez.

4:00am-5:00am

Encep Sungkar and his entourage arrive at the warehouse in Inglewood, where Tony Almeida introduces himself as their contact, Arturo Menifee. Secretly, CTU field agents disable Sungkar's truck during the meeting, so that Tony can offer to drive them to the deal himself.

Vanowen comes out of the meeting with Kendall and tells Jack and Ramirez that they have a job to do: his boss has ordered him to oversee the delivery of a piece of software to an interested party in exchange for a weapons cache. He invites Jack along as hired muscle, noting that his skills will come in handy.

Both parties converge at the U-Pack Storage Facility in Playa del Rey, where both Jack and Tony, undercover, are dumbfounded to see the other at the exchange. Unexpectedly, the deal is interrupted by the arrival of Dan Pascal along with the Los Angeles Police Department, who happened to notice Jack on the hotel's cameras while surveilling Vanowen. In the ensuing firefight, Jack is clipped in the arm, but manages to get both Ramirez and an injured Vanowen back into their truck (now loaded with Menifee's weapons) and break through the police barricade.

5:00am-6:00am

Peter Jiminez arrives at the storage facility to assist the clean-up. Tony Almeida shares with him and Deputy Marshal Pascal his theory that Jack has turned traitor, using his government access to profit on the side. Jiminez doubts that he could ever do any such thing.

Jack, with Vanowen and Ramirez, hijacks a car and heads to the Biltmore Hotel to report the outcome of the botched deal to Vanowen's superiors. Jack waits outside a hotel room while the other two men talk with an unknown occupant, but then hears the sound of two gunshots as they are shot in the head. He pursues the assailant into the hotel stairwell, and manages to bring him down. Jack sits down in exhaustion, believing he has accomplished his goal: killing Zapata.

Eventually, Pascal arrives to bring Jack into custody. As they are led out the door, Jack is horrified to overhear that the dead man's name is Francis Aguillar - he killed the wrong man, and Zapata is still at large. The real Zapata, surprised to realize how close he came to being captured, chalks the experience up as a lesson and goes for a jog.

6:00am-7:00am

En route back to the holding facility, the marshals' car is unexpectedly rammed by Peter Jiminez while passing through Downtown. Peter handcuffs the marshals inside and tells Jack he needs to get him away from here, but Jack gets the upper hand and incapacitates the other agent, stealing his gun and car.

Nina Myers locates the address in Chatsworth that Marcia Tintfass called, and is surprised to find FBI agents Fujimora and Holmquist guarding the very alive Adrian Tintfass. They explain that his shooting death was staged, as part of an undercover operation to get Jack into the prison and close to a person of interest. Nina relays what she has learned back to Tony and Jamey at CTU. They all confront Christopher Henderson, believing he was running the operation, but he angrily denies any knowledge of it.

Jack Bauer heads to the UCLA Medical Center, entering the facility in disguise and proceeding to Ryan Chappelle's room. There, he finds Dr. Czikowlis, and orders her at gunpoint to wake Chappelle up immediately.

7:00am-8:00am

The doctor sets to work, preparing a treatment under her original assumption of a barbiturate overdose, and Chappelle responds almost immediately. Jack notes that whoever poisoned him could have falsified the test results, then leans in to speak to Chappelle. He says that he needs to know the name of Chappelle's resource on Zapata, and Chappelle manages, weakly, to tell him: Talia Gerwehr, with the RAND Corporation.

Mark Kendall wakes up, and gets a call from his wife. She is upset, saying that their daughter's condition is still getting worse, and the doctor says they may need to admit her to the hospital again. Kendall, looking at the envelope from Zapata, promises that he's going to win the match and get them what she needs.

Zapata, waiting outside a Starbucks, gets picked up by an associate, Kyle Risdow. Risdow agrees to let the anarchist stay at his house today, as long as he promises to provide "the kind of chaos I can profit from."

8:00am-9:00am

Nina Myers arrives at the hospital to question Dr. Czikowlis about Jack's visit. She is startled to hear the name Jack asked Chappelle about, Zapata, and departs immediately to return to CTU, leaving a confused Dan Pascal in her wake. Meanwhile, Jack Bauer heads to Talia Gerwehr's home address in Beverly Glen and breaks into her house. Startled at first, Talia quickly realizes who he is.

Almost simultaneously, Jack and the gathered agents at CTU begin to piece together the identity of the man Jack has been trying to locate. Zapata, formerly the brilliant computer scientist Jorge Rafael Marquez, is a Mexican anarchist responsible for numerous attacks and bombings across the world for the last decade. With no specific cause or ideology beyond pure anarchy, he has switched allegiances hundreds of times, contributing to attacks that are calculated to cause the greatest possible destruction in the cause of breaking down societies and governments. Zapata is brilliant, incredibly adept at foreseeing and avoiding patterns, and no government agency - the Russian GRU, Mossad, the CIA - has ever even come close to capturing him.

Jack guesses that Gerwehr was recruited by CTU to apply her area of expertise, chaos theory, to tracking Zapata's activities. She agrees, saying that every chaotic system has some kind of pattern, and so must he. Talia agrees to take Jack to her office to help investigate his last remaining lead: the MS-13 tattoo he found on Francis Aguillar's body. Meanwhile, a sickly Chappelle returns to CTU, demanding that none of the agents attempt to contact Jack in any way. If their operation is to succeed, Jack needs to remain completely outside the system and impossible to predict.

9:00am-10:00am

Zapata and Kyle Risdow meet with Franko at the Reel Inn in Malibu, where Zapata hires the Ukrainian to carry out a hit against a loose end that needs tying up.

At the Staples Center, Mark Kendall begins to seriously consider the offer from Zapata. In growing dread, he opens the anarchist's envelope and discovers the identity of the man he is supposed to kill.

Talia Gerwehr and Jack Bauer visit the RAND Corporation's office in Santa Monica, where Talia uses her access to federal records to identify the tattoo found on Francis Aguillar. As suspected, it was of MS-13 origin, so Jack asks her to get him the name of the gang's boss in Los Angeles. Dan Pascal unexpectedly bursts into the office, but Jack manages to incapacitate him, and heads for Smiley Lopez's address in Boyle Heights.

10:00am-11:00am

At the Boyle Heights address, Jack discovers the Ukrainian assassin Franko about to kill Lopez and his girlfriend. After injuring the gangster and chasing him off, Jack makes a deal with the MS-13 leader: his information on Zapata, in exchange for a large cache of crystal meth that the Ukrainians are preparing to move today.

At the Biltmore Hotel, Martin Webb eats breakfast with his grandson, Jake. They talk about the fights tonight; Jake will be going up a former champion by the name of Mark Kendall.

11:00am-12:00pm

Jack Bauer confronts Christopher Henderson

In need of government access, Jack Bauer returns to CTU Los Angeles, where he has a heated confrontation with the injured Deputy Marshal Pascal. He fills in the team on his activities in the last sixteen hours, and confers with the other agents about Zapata's activities in the city. Tony remains convinced that the attack will have something to do with the Pacific Rim Forum and Jemaah Islamiyah, but Jack warns that they need to remain suspicious of any leads that Zapata allows them to reach. He resolves to keep pursuing MS-13, since they led him to the Biltmore Hotel and closer to Zapata than any government agency has managed to get. With Jamey's help, Jack digs up intel about a planned deal between a local meth dealer and the Ukrainian mob, and forms a plan to go undercover as the drug dealer so that he can steal the meth for Lopez.

Before leaving, Jack angrily confronts Christopher Henderson about his lack of support and his efforts to impede his investigation. He warns that if he learns Henderson is screwing him to get back for the Internal Affairs investigation, things are going to turn ugly.

12:00pm-1:00pm

At Kyle Risdow's house, Zapata hears from Franko that he was unable to kill Smiley Lopez, and was interrupted by an unidentified gunman. Concerned, Zapata asks Risdow to get him a map of the Los Angeles freeway system.

Nina Myers and Tony Almeida arrest Felix Studhalter, the Ukrainians' meth dealer, in Los Feliz. Peter Jiminez arrives, explaining that he's been assigned to escort Studhalter back to CTU, while Nina and Tony are to oversee security for the Pacific Rim Forum in Marina del Rey. Jack makes the call to Sergei Petrenko, identifying himself as Studhalter and arranging a meeting in Santa Monica. Before he heads out, he remembers to call Teri, and apologizes for putting her in harm's way. Still upset, but glad to hear he is safe, she tells him to finish his work, and that she'll see him when he gets home.

1:00pm-2:00pm

Jack Bauer arrives at the arranged meeting place in Santa Monica and greets Sergei Petrenko, who lays out the plan: the two of them, accompanied by Petrenko's muscle Malenkiy, will drive to the safehouse in Topanga, where Jack will receive both the meth and a clean truck to transport it. After they leave the house, however, Petrenko directs Jack to pick up a third man: Franko, the wounded hitman Jack fought off at Smiley Lopez's house, who doesn't seem to have recognized him yet.

At CTU Los Angeles, Ryan Chappelle confronts Christopher Henderson with suspicions about his dispute with Jack Bauer, and warns him of the consequences should he discover Henderson was involved in impeding the Zapata investigation. Some time later, Chappelle gets a call from Peter Jiminez: Felix Studhalter has just overpowered him and escaped from custody. Chappelle tries to contact Jack, but he is already out of cell phone range.

Jack and the Ukrainians arrive at a remote cabin in the Santa Monica Mountains, where the meth shipment is waiting for them. Before the deal can go through, Petrenko gets a call from the real Felix Studhalter, blowing Jack's cover.

2:00pm-3:00pm

Jack tries to overpower the gangsters, but they wrestle him to ground, ignoring his insistence that he's not here to bust any of them. Malenkiy leads him up a trail behind the cabin toward a precipice, intending to dispose of his body, but Malenkiy is tazed from behind by a blonde woman, whom Franko had earlier introduced as the gang's cooker. Furious at Jack for ruining her cover, she identifies herself as Sue Mishler, an FBI agent undercover with the Ukrainians, but Jack is already running back to the cars in pursuit of Petrenko and Franko. After a chase down Topanga Canyon, Jack manages to run Petrenko's car off the road and commandeer the truck with the drugs from Franko. Mishler attempts to cut him off and keep him from getting away with the meth, so Jack rams her car at full speed into the side of the mountain.

3:00pm-4:00pm

At the Risdow house, Zapata explains his motivation to a bored Kyle Risdow. The present society is inherently broken; to fix it, the root cause must be attacked - the United States. The key to the U.S. is its economy, and by tonight he will have eliminated the one pillar standing in the way of its collapse.

After checking that Agent Mishler is not seriously injured, Jack returns to Smiley Lopez in Boyle Heights with the meth shipment. Lopez invites him inside the house, where Oscar Cisneros is waiting for him. Lopez and Cisneros, who also escaped from the holding facility last night, try to double-cross Jack and kill him as part of their deal, but Jack kills Cisneros and shoots Lopez in the foot, demanding the information he has on Zapata. In extreme pain, Lopez gives up a name: Kyle Risdow, whom he remembers as one of Zapata's contacts. Jack restrains the gang leader, then calls CTU to run a check on the name: the only possible candidate lives in Temescal Canyon. He tells Chappelle to send someone to the house in Boyle Heights; Jack has a suspect who knows who ordered MS-13 to kill him. Chappelle agrees to send Peter Jiminez to bring him in.

4:00pm-5:00pm

Zapata calculates accidents to suspend traffic throughout the city

At the house in Temescal Canyon, Jack apprehends a suspect, who identifies himself as Kyle Risdow. Impatiently, Jack questions him about Zapata, eventually coercing him into revealing that Zapata mentioned the Pacific Rim Forum. Risdow begs Jack to let him go, as he's only a businessman who abhors violence; Jack considers bringing him in, but decides against it, feeling that he is very hot on the anarchist's trail. Soon after he departs, however, a call from Jamey Farrell reveals that the Santa Monica PD just arrested the real Kyle Risdow on Lincoln Avenue - the man Jack interrogated was Zapata himself.

Gabriel Panatello, one of Zapata's hired hands, crashes his car on the 405 Freeway, while simultaneously five other men do the same on freeways and surface streets throughout the Los Angeles area. The perfect timing and location of the accidents reduces traffic throughout the city to a complete standstill, intended to hinder efforts to pursue Zapata once he carries out his attack.

Back at CTU, Chappelle furiously scolds Jack for literally letting Zapata walk away from him. The team is out of leads, still completely oblivious to what Zapata's real target is, until an offhand comment from Seth Ludonowski helps Jack figure it out: the Professional Reality Fighting Championship, which goes by the initials "PRF" — Papa Rashad's factory.

5:00pm-6:00pm

Martin Webb arrives at the Staples Center for the fights, barely beating the worst traffic that Los Angeles has ever seen – all the major arteries are at a complete standstill. Shortly thereafter, he is joined by Zapata himself, who takes a seat nearby.

Christopher Henderson receives a call from Internal Affairs agent Anthony Becker, who schedules a meeting for tomorrow regarding the missing funds investigation. Henderson calls in Peter Jiminez, and demands to know why Jack Bauer is still alive. It is revealed that Henderson and Jiminez, both of whom took some of the stolen money, have been using the opportunity of Jack's undercover mission to have him killed, and prevent him from testifying against them to IA. They were behind the MS-13 hit against Jack, as well as Chappelle's poisoning and Felix Studhalter's escape. Henderson says that Jiminez has one last chance to kill Jack before the investigation gets underway, and orders him to follow Jack to the Staples Center.

6:00pm-7:00pm

In CTU's server room, Christopher Henderson deletes all the logs of his calls to Peter Jiminez, while altering his calls to Lopez so that they appear to have come from Jiminez's phone.

The fights get underway. After the title match, Mark Kendall enters the cage to square off against Jake Webb. Despite a strong start, and his own determination to win the match for his daughter, Kendall begins to weaken under Webb's assault, and begins to succumb to the younger fighter.

Noticing a police presence around the Chairman, Zapata changes seats and moves across the arena - just before Jack Bauer arrives by chopper to warn the Chairman that somebody at the event may attempt to kill him. Before he can convince Webb to leave, Jamey calls him to report that Jiminez needs to meet him in the basement regarding Zapata. At the meeting place, Jack is ambushed by Jiminez, who shoots him in the shoulder.

7:00pm-8:00pm

After a vicious fight, Jack bests Peter Jiminez, putting three rounds in his back before racing back upstairs to the arena. Gaining a second wind, Mark Kendall throws off his opponent and manages to win the final round, surprising and enraging Zapata. In a last-ditch effort to complete his plan, he retrieves a machine pistol he hid at the Center the night before and attempts to assassinate Martin Webb, but Webb's bodyguard jumps in front and takes the bullets. In the ensuing chaos, Jack grazes Zapata in the neck and pursues him outside.

Both men on motorcycles, Jack chases Zapata through the traffic to a median strip on the 110 Freeway, where Zapata has hidden one of the RPGs from the arms deal. He fires a grenade to take out the LAPD helicopter pursuing him, just before Jack catches up and rams into him. Jack pursues Zapata through a hole in the fence, finally managing to corner him and put a stop to his escape. Defeated, Zapata compliments Jack on his resourcefulness and unpredictability; Jack simply replies that he's actually pretty predictable, and executes him.

Memorable quotes

• Adam Cox: Why were you causing trouble, Bauer?
• Jack Bauer: Bored. So when those three gang-bangers walked into the shower with all their clothes on for no reason, I jumped them.
• Adam Cox: They say that shiv's yours. You pulled it outta your ass, huh?
• Jack Bauer: That's what I do with everything.

• Oscar Cisneros: You gonna get fucked, blondie.
• Jack Bauer: Well, you're not gonna be doing it.

• Teri Bauer: You may or may not know that my marriage with Jack has had some pretty rough patches, and pretty recently. There've been times when we've barely spoken and when we did, it wasn't about his work. There are times when he's gone for days at a time, and he comes home without a single word about where he’s been or what he's done. For all I know, he’s saved the world from a nuclear bomb. Or maybe he's just been in somebody else's bed. I never know. So no, he’s never told me about any trouble at work. But I will tell you one thing I do know. The one thing I do know is that Jack is capable of anything.

• FBI Agent Jason Fujimora: Bauer's in the zoo where he belongs. Don't disturb the animals too much. Nobody wants to get bitten.

• Nina Myers: Jack Bauer breaks out of prison. Is anyone surprised?

• Nina Myers: The thing about Jack Bauer isn't that he's always right. The thing is that he's always eventually right. He just keeps fighting until he gets it right.

• Dan Pascal: (about Jack Bauer) We got to go catch Captain America.

• Jack Bauer: You missed the Chairman.
• Zapata: A shame, too. It would have been interesting to see the infrastructure of his company collapse. Oh well, sometimes events are unpredictable after all. (smiles) You, for instance. You're quite a tool for your government. A loose cannon, right? A maverick. Unpredictable.
• Jack Bauer: Not really. The truth is I'm pretty predictable. (executes him)

Appearances

• Characters
  • Francis Aguillar
  • Tony Almeida
  • Arguello (mentioned only)
  • Riduan Bashir
  • Jack Bauer
  • Kim Bauer (mentioned only)
  • Teri Bauer
  • Anthony Becker
  • Borges (mentioned only)
  • Kobe Bryant (mentioned only)
  • Ryan Chappelle
  • Oscar Cisneros
  • Joseph Conrad (mentioned only)
  • Adam Cox
  • Kris Czikowlis
  • Chico D'Amato
  • Doogie
  • Emerson
  • Jamey Farrell
  • Ferg
  • Franko
  • Lou Friedman
  • Jason Fujimora
  • Talia Gerwehr
  • Brian Greene (mentioned only)
  • Ben Harmon
  • Christopher Henderson
  • Holmquist
  • Khalid Ismahuddin (mentioned only)
  • Peter Jiminez
  • Johan
  • Keats (mentioned only)
  • Mark Kendall
  • Max Kominsky
  • Krasnoff (mentioned only)
  • Lafayette
  • Ruben "Smiley" Lopez
  • Seth Ludonowski
  • Ramon Machado
  • Mao (mentioned only)
  • Martina (mentioned only)
  • George Mason
  • Amistad Medved (mentioned only)
  • Arturo Menifee
  • Sue Mishler
  • Mullins
  • Nina Myers
  • Frank Nye
  • Juan Olivera (mentioned only)
  • Gabriel Panatello
  • Dan Pascal
  • Louis Pasteur (mentioned only)
  • Pedro
  • Pete
  • Malenkiy Petrenko
  • Sergei Petrenko
  • Emil Ramirez
  • Ricky
  • Kyle Risdow
  • Mike Santomiere
  • William Shakespeare (mentioned only)
  • Salvatore Silva
  • Sofia (mentioned only)
  • Darren Spitz
  • Felix Studhalter
  • Encep Sungkar
  • Tapia (mentioned only)
  • Tim (mentioned only)
  • Adrian Tintfass
  • Marcia Tintfass
  • Vanowen
  • Viv (mentioned only)
  • Bacharuddin Wahid
  • Megan Wallen
  • Jake Webb
  • Martin Webb
  • Max Webb (mentioned only)
  • Wong (mentioned only)
  • Zapata
  • Marion Zimmer
  • Gary Zukav (mentioned only)
• Locations
  • 17th Street
  • Arizona (mentioned only)
  • Atlantic
  • Australia (mentioned only)
  • Baden
  • Bali (mentioned only)
  • Beverly Glen
  • Beverly Wilshire Hotel
  • Biltmore Hotel
  • Boyle Heights
  • Brentwood (mentioned only)
  • Buenos Aires (mentioned only)
  • Buttonwillow (mentioned only)
  • California
  • Camp Pendleton (mentioned only)
  • Century City
  • Century Plaza Hotel
  • Chatsworth
  • Chiapas (mentioned only)
  • Chico (mentioned only)
  • Chino (mentioned only)
  • Church Street
  • CTU Los Angeles building
  • Downtown Los Angeles
  • DeLeone Avenue
  • Fairfax District
  • Federal Holding Facility
  • Florida (mentioned only)
  • Flower Street
  • Folsom (mentioned only)
  • Fort Hood (mentioned only)
  • Glendale (mentioned only)
  • Indonesia (mentioned only)
  • Inglewood
  • InterContinental Hotel
  • Interstate 5 (mentioned only)
  • Interstate 10 (mentioned only)
  • Interstate 110
  • Interstate 405
  • Jakarta (mentioned only)
  • Jordan (mentioned only)
  • Kester Avenue
  • La Strada
  • Larchmont
  • Larchmont Avenue
  • Lincoln Avenue (mentioned only)
  • Little Java Cafe
  • Los Angeles
  • Los Angeles Convention Center
  • Los Angeles Union Station
  • Louisiana (mentioned only)
  • Main Street (mentioned only)
  • Malibu
  • Marina del Rey
  • Marriott Hotel
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology (mentioned only)
  • Mataran Imports
  • McKittrick (mentioned only)
  • Mexico (mentioned only)
  • Mulholland Avenue (mentioned only)
  • Mulholland Drive
  • New Orleans (mentioned only)
  • North America
  • Oklahoma City (mentioned only)
  • Pacific Coast Highway
  • Pacific Palisades
  • Playa del Rey
  • RAND Corporation
  • Reel Inn
  • Ritz-Carlton Hotel
  • San Fernando Valley
  • San Joaquin Valley (mentioned only)
  • San Diego (mentioned only)
  • San Vicente Boulevard
  • Santa Fe (mentioned only)
  • Santa Monica
  • Santa Monica Mountains
  • Sepulveda Boulevard
  • Sepulveda Pass
  • Silver Springs (mentioned only)
  • Simi Valley (mentioned only)
  • Singapore (mentioned only)
  • Staples Center
  • Stoney Point Park
  • Sunset Boulevard
  • Temescal Canyon
  • Texas (mentioned only)
  • Topanga
  • Topanga Canyon
  • Ukraine (mentioned only)
  • U.S. Route 101
  • U-Pack Storage Rental
  • UCLA Medical Center
  • United States of America
  • Van Nuys
  • Van Nuys Boulevard
  • Venezuela (mentioned only)
  • Venice (mentioned only)
  • Washington, D.C.
  • Wilshire Boulevard
  • Winston's
  • Westwood
• Organizations
  • 7-Eleven
  • Aryan Bloc
  • Atlantic Monthly
  • Central Intelligence Agency
  • Counter Terrorist Unit
  • Diplomatic Security Service
  • Dow Jones
  • ETA
  • Extreme Fight
  • Federal Bureau of Investigation
  • GRU
  • Hudson Review
  • Jehovah's Witnesses
  • Jemaah Islamiyah
  • Los Angeles Department of Transportation
  • Los Angeles Police Department
  • Mara Salvatrucha
  • Mossad
  • Pacific Rim Forum
  • Professional Reality Fighting
  • RAND Corporation
  • Santa Monica Police Department
  • Starbucks
  • United States Federal Reserve
  • United States Marshals Service
  • The Watchtower
• Objects
  • Alcohol
  • Chrysler Sebring
  • Mojito
  • Nissan Maxima
  • Pacifico
  • SigAlert
• Events
  • Hurricane Andrew (mentioned only)
  • Northridge earthquake (mentioned only)

Background information and notes

• Chaos Theory addresses the Internal Affairs investigation that originally led to Christopher Henderson's dismissal from CTU. However, the novel implies that Henderson was ultimately indicted for stealing from the organization's funds, while "Day 5: 4:00pm-5:00pm" states that he was charged with "selling classified intelligence to defense contractors."
• In a continuity error, Martin Webb first awakens around 2:30am at the Century Plaza Hotel, but wakes up the next morning at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel.
• Jack Bauer steals a Chrysler Sebring from a parking garage in Westwood, but arrives at Talia Gerwehr's house in a Pathfinder.