After several failed bait operations, CTU finally concluded that Makarov had never intended to take Owen's life at this stage—perhaps he wasn't even in the United States. The high-intensity sweep could not be sustained indefinitely. Congress launched another round of inquiries, and CTU was forced to scale back. The sweeping operations came to an end, but intelligence gathering continued.
The Quick Response Team returned to Washington. Nikki also returned to the NSA, though in reality, she spent more time working on Owen's case than her official duties.
The phrase "Happy America, a gunfight every day" wasn't just an exaggeration. Lately, there had been at least one mass shooting incident nearly every week. Fortunately, the perpetrators were generally not terrorists, but rather mentally unstable young men under pressure, or middle-aged individuals suffering life crises.
On the media front, the war between gun control advocates and opponents raged on daily. One side claimed gun bans would significantly improve public safety, while the other argued that only with guns could people truly feel safe in such a volatile society.
This tug-of-war between the two viewpoints never ceased, and both sides had substantial support. But the common response was to head to a gun store or supermarket and buy a firearm—armed self-defense made people feel secure.
In the end, the anti-gun control lobby had the upper hand. In America, gun ownership had already become a habit.
However, President David Palmer supported gun control. Many of his policies differed from past administrations; he was truly pushing for peace. He even proposed a gradual drawdown of overseas troops, including those stationed in the Middle East and around the globe. This, naturally, meant direct confrontation with the arms industry.
The arms industry was a financial behemoth and an undeniably powerful force in the U.S. They had always hedged their bets politically, backing candidates from both major parties. For decades, they had pushed for American expansionism—stationing troops worldwide, interfering in foreign politics, and manufacturing conflict—so their weapons would continue to sell.
President Palmer's policies were effectively cutting off one of their arms. As a result, the public debate over gun control had, in some ways, become a proxy war between the arms industry and the government.
Palmer couldn't control Congress, but he was doing everything he could to amplify his voice—and that undoubtedly rubbed the arms industry the wrong way. In fact, many foreign terrorist groups were often indirectly supported by these conglomerates, which would dispatch intermediaries to contact them. There had even been news reports of terrorist weapons being traced back to stock meant for the military.
Just in the past few days, CTU received a bulletin from the FBI: a shipment of six newly manufactured Stinger surface-to-air missiles had been hijacked in transit, and all guards were killed.
The FBI was handling the case, but due to the nature of the stolen Stingers—and their potential use in terrorist attacks—they notified CTU as well.
Along with the report came drone footage. The arms manufacturer had assigned a surveillance drone to monitor the transport, which managed to capture the entire hijacking.
Unbelievably, the missiles were taken by just three individuals.
The footage showed two escort vehicles sandwiching a transport truck moving down a road. Suddenly, the rear escort vehicle exploded, flipping over.
Security personnel from the lead vehicle got out to investigate, only to be gunned down by snipers seconds later. Two masked attackers then emerged from the roadside, swiftly eliminating the remaining guards. Despite being highly paid professionals, the guards were gunned down like helpless civilians—completely outmatched.
One of the two masked assailants moved to drive the truck, while the sniper emerged from hiding. The last attacker removed her mask and, spotting the drone in the sky, the sniper took aim and shot it down.
But in that brief moment, something clicked in Owen's mind—the woman without the mask looked familiar.
"Janet, can you reconstruct the face of that person?" he asked.
"Give me a few minutes…"
Janet, head of the tech division, got to work on enhancing the female attacker's facial features. The drone footage wasn't clear and lacked a close-up, but that was exactly what the tech team was for.
"Done. I'm sending it to your computer."
Moments later, the file transfer was complete. On-screen appeared a refined facial image—without question, it was Avril.
It really was her.
Owen hadn't expected that after all his efforts chasing Makarov, he'd end up stumbling across Avril instead.
White Mask, the group Avril belonged to, had collaborated with Makarov during the plutonium incident. During the Venice operation, neither Avril nor Zheng Anshun had been found. Now it was clear—they'd come to the U.S.
Owen reviewed the footage again. Based on body shape and movements, he concluded that the driver was likely Zheng Anshun. As for the sniper who had taken out most of the guards, he suspected it was the same one who had nearly assassinated him in Istanbul.
Whether this theft of Stinger missiles was directly tied to Makarov or not remained unclear. But White Mask certainly wasn't stealing missiles for fun—they had something serious planned.
Given White Mask's past actions—helping Cruel Angel bomb L.A., placing nerve gas on a plane bound for the U.S., and working with Makarov on the plutonium—every time they made a move, it was significant. Whatever they were planning now was bound to be dangerous.
White Mask currently held CTU's highest threat classification—shoot-on-sight without questions. Knowing they had six Stingers in their possession made Owen deeply uneasy.
He immediately called Jack Bauer, who, upon receiving the news, ordered a temporary shift in CTU's operational focus: from Makarov to White Mask. God only knew what White Mask was planning this time, but this was their best chance to stop them early—preferably during the planning phase, or by killing them outright.
"Nikki, can I ask a favor? Use your facial recognition system to scan all recent surveillance in the Washington area and see if Avril or Zheng Anshun has shown up. I'll send you their photos in a second."
"Sure thing."
Owen sent Nikki their images. These two had left a deep impression on him. As for the sniper, he had no image and didn't even know their gender—there was nothing he could do about that for now.
"Janet, notify all airports to be on high alert. White Mask may attempt to use those Stingers against commercial aircraft. Also, inform the Secret Service and escalate this to Air Force One security."
Having received Owen's report, Jack Bauer arrived at CTU and, after some thought, issued his first command.
(End of Chapter)
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