Marcos Al-Zacar

Marcos Al-Zacar was one of the agents of Kamistan's splinter cell operating under Samir Mehran during Day 8. He was dispatched to take out Farhad Hassan after a falsified report indicated he was alive.

Before Day 8

Marcos Al-Zacar was born in the US to a Kamistani father (Marcos Al-Zacar, Sr.) and an American mother (Elaine Al-Zacar). His father was a college professor of politics and Middle Eastern studies that had emigrated to the US before marrying Elaine.

Marcos was deeply affected when his father was arrested for alleged connections with extremists during Wayne Palmer's administration. Although the charges were dropped after four months in jail, Mr. Al-Zacar had trouble getting employed afterwards and eventually committed suicide. This worsened Marcos hatred against the US government. He was successfully recruited as an undercover agent for the IRK two months after his father's death by Ali.

Day 8

Marcos was with Samir Mehran and Ali when the nuclear rods were brought to the warehouse in Forest Hills. When Farhad Hassan claimed knowing someone that could fabricate a detonator, Samir send him to contact him under the surveillance of Ali. Marcos, however, watched them from a distance. When Farhad knocked down Ali and fled, Marcos ran to help him.

Marcos later guarded the rods outside a diner while Samir and some others waited inside for Ali's return. When Ali came back, the group was deceived by a falsified news report which stated that Ali's target, Farhad Hassan, actually survived the shooting. Samir ordered Marcos to sacrifice himself to ensure the kill. Willing to die for their cause, Marcos suited up with a doctor's scrubs and a hidden suicide vest and drove to the hospital.

Marcos finds out that he's been set up.

There, he was confronted by Agent Owen at the door. Owen was informed of his arrival and submitted to Marcos' threat, agreeing to lead the terrorist to the target. Along the way, Owen tricked Marcos into revealing his vest to a camera. Unknown to him, his vest was eventually deactivated by Chloe O'Brian and Arlo Glass.

When Marcos entered the room with Farhad's body, he ordered Owen to the ground and tried to detonate the bombs. When this failed, he opened fire with Owen's pistol, but observed the deception that Farhad was already dead. He fired at Jack Bauer and CTU agents as they rushed in, and after a moment of hesitation, threw himself out the window to avoid capture. The fall was not fatal, and he stumbled into a pressurized room where he locked himself in. When he and Samir spoke on the phone, he learned that he would have to detonate the bombs manually. Marcos destroyed the camera when Jack Bauer tried to communicate with him.

Marcos worked to arm his vest by reconfiguring four circuits on his vest. As he worked on it, Jack Bauer tried unsuccessfully to talk him down. Drilling through the oxygen chamber was also out of the question, as it would take too long. Jack's only remaining option was to bring in Marcos' mother Elaine to help talk him out of exploding his vest. By this time, Marcos had already reconfigured all four circuits. They spoke about his deceased father, but Elaine also failed and was taken from the room in hysterics. Jack then re-entered the room, and resorted to threatening Elaine's life should Marcos detonate the vest.

Elaine desperately tries to talk Marcos out of setting up the bomb.

He told Marcos that if he did so detonate the bomb, he would drive his mother to the blast zone and that she would become poisoned by the radiation. Terrified for his mother's safety, he laid down the detonator and surrendered. However, Samir's men (including Al-Zacar's recruiter, Ali) who were surveying the room activated the fail-safe by radio. Jack was unable to defuse the vest in under sixty seconds, and pleaded for Marcos to give him information. Marcos gave CTU their next lead by naming Tarin Faroush, the head of President Omar Hassan's security. When Jack revealed that he would be unable to stop the explosion, Marcos asked him to inform his mother that he was sorry. He got up and Jack helped him rush back into the oxygen chamber alone to contain the blast, which killed him instantly.