8:58, by paladin24

[ed-84.livejournal.com]

Fandom Category: 24
Pairing: Jack/Renee
Fic Title: 8:58
Author: paladin24
Link: http://paladin24.livejournal.com/13205.html
Rating/Warning(s): Adult, for sexual content and spoilers for events from 8x17.
Genre: Episode Related, Drama
WIP?: no

Why This Must Be Read: I can't really say much without mentioning a major spoiler for 8.17, so I'll keep this brief. This fic is gloriously written, with such an intense and authentic Jack POV that I'm kinda left breathless at the end of it. It's the best 8.17-related fic I've read to date, and I doubt anyone can do it better.

This is the real Jack, and... damn.

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He worked quickly to find Dana Walsh. Or Rebecca Clark, as she was now known, attempting to set herself up as an experienced systems analyst in the private sector. He caught up with her near Atlanta and she never suspected that one day, when she stepped into her brand-new Ford Mustang convertible, that her car was wired. The bomb was placed just beneath the driver's seat and she was killed instantly. The resulting fire, however, had made identification of the body difficult. Explosives experts who examined the crime scene noted that the bomb was a sophisticated and well-constructed, the sort of device that appeared in classified CIA and special operations field manuals.

Mikhail Novakovich, Russian Foreign Minister, was the most difficult target. Jack managed to leave the United States and arrive in Russia unnoticed, and he wasted no time in setting up surveillance on his target, patiently stalking him from afar, learning his daily habits and routine, his security arrangements, and memorizing his itinerary.

Jack saw his opportunity when Novakovich decided to spend a weekend with his mistress at a cabin near the Baltic coast.

When the Premier and his chief of staff could not reach the Foreign Minister, they began to worry. They found him dead on his kitchen floor with two gunshot wounds to the chest and one to the head..

Later American officials, suspicious because of his role in the attempted attacks on New York and the assassination of Omar Hassan, managed to obtain some of the case files, the ballistics reports were of particular interest. High-magnification images of firing pin marks and rifling grooves were found to be an identical match with the data on a weapon obtained in a CTU investigation of the deaths of two agents during a riverside shootout on the day of Hassan's murder. The weapon was a Glock 17 semi-automatic 9mm pistol legally registered to Jack Bauer and listed as in the possession of former FBI Special Agent Renee Walker.