The Blacklist

Chapter 326 Nuclear Crisis Twenty-four Hours
More than forty minutes later, Palmer returned to the White House. A group of senior NSC officials were waiting for him in the conference room, including White House Chief of Staff and Legal Counsel Mike Novick, National Security Advisor Wright, Chairman of the JCS (Joint Chiefs of Staff), Secretary of the DHS (Department of Homeland Security), Director of the NSA (National Security Agency), Director of the CIA (Central Intelligence Agency), Director of the CTU (Counter-Terrorism Investigation Bureau), Director of the DIS (Defense Investigative Service) and others.

Palmer sat down at the head seat at the end of the conference table and signaled the meeting to begin.

NSA Director Eric Rayburn said first: "Mr. President, we have received accurate intelligence that a terrorist organization in the Middle East called 'Second Wave' has controlled a nuclear bomb from the former Soviet Union and has secretly transported it to Los Angeles. It is scheduled to be detonated today, Western Time. At present, we have not been able to track the trace of the nuclear bomb..."

Palmer was keenly aware of the details and asked, "What is this 'second wave' organization?"

Rayburn replied: "'Second Wave' is a fundamentalist terrorist organization that is nominally wanted by countries in the Middle East, but we have evidence that its main bases are in Iran."

Palmer nodded to show that he understood, and then asked: "What do we know about this nuclear bomb now? What level of weapon is it? Is it a regular nuclear warhead or a dirty bomb?"

Rayburn said: "According to the intelligence we have obtained, it is confirmed that this is a ballistic missile nuclear warhead from the former Soviet era. The TNT equivalent should be between 40 and 100 million tons."

Palmer said seriously, "If this warhead explodes in Los Angeles, how much damage will it cause?"

"If the warhead explodes 150 meters above the city in the correct manner, the explosion will have a radius of 10 miles, and the shock wave will directly kill 15 to 40 people and destroy a large number of buildings and municipal facilities. The subsequent radiation and dust will kill hundreds of thousands of people and will last for more than ten years. It will have a direct impact on the atmosphere and even endanger more than a dozen states in the entire western region, affecting tens of millions of people..."

After hearing this, all the participants became nervous. The consequences were too serious!

Palmer sighed, suppressed his annoyance, and asked, "What are your countermeasures now?"

Rayburn said: "As soon as I confirmed the intelligence, I notified Director Cooper of CTU..."

Cooper followed up, "I have arranged for the California State Police and the Los Angeles Police Department to investigate, but the information we have received so far is too little, and there has been no report yet."

Palmer asked, "What about the CIA? Don't you have any intelligence at all?"

CIA Director Terrence Laurel was a little embarrassed. They did not receive any intelligence in advance. When he heard the president's question, he could only say, "Mr. President, unfortunately, we did not receive any relevant intelligence... But our CIA is willing to fully cooperate with the NSA and CTU to find the nuclear bomb and protect the safety of the people!"

Everyone present knew that this old sly guy was trying to pass the buck in order to reduce the responsibility of the CIA's poor foreign intelligence work, but these people were all political veterans and of course they would not expose him. After all, everyone would encounter such a situation. When something goes wrong, it is the right thing to cover up for each other. Why offend others? You will have to rely on others for help in the future! Palmer was very dissatisfied and immediately said, "Director Laurel, among all intelligence departments, the CIA alone occupies 90% of the funds. They can't even get such important intelligence about the influx of nuclear weapons into the country. I really want to know, what are you doing?"

As soon as he said this, the atmosphere at the scene suddenly froze. Laurel was extremely embarrassed by the questioning and didn't know how to explain it for a moment...

White House Chief of Staff Mike Novick came to the rescue and said, "Mr. President, the most important thing now is to deal with the nuclear crisis. As for the CIA's overseas intelligence work, we can discuss it later."

Upon hearing this, other high-ranking officials nodded in agreement and began to discuss the nuclear bomb issue, thus successfully brushing aside this issue!

Palmer also knew that it was not the time to pursue the matter, so he said, "Director Rayburn, Director Cooper, NSA and CTU must cooperate well to resolve this crisis. We cannot let the nuclear bomb explode..."
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After Carrie returned to the post office, he called back the key members of the SLR and SER departments to work overtime. Although the case investigation was mainly in Los Angeles, they also had to be prepared to provide support at any time.

By this time, of course, he had realized that this was the plot of the second season of "CTU". He knew that even if he did not intervene, the magical Jack Bauer would be able to prevent the explosion of the nuclear bomb, so he was not very anxious.

However, at the Los Angeles branch, the chief George Mason still had no way to recall the suspended Jack Bauer, so Carrie could only make a call himself. Because of the friendship and prestige he had gained from the last time, Jack accepted the order and reported back. The rest was left to the Los Angeles branch to handle on their own!
Afterwards, Kerry asked Gina to retrieve the work report of the Los Angeles branch from the headquarters to check what had happened there over the past year...

In March last year, Carrey personally took charge of the Los Angeles police station and uncovered the assassination plot against David Palmer. He changed part of the original plot. Jack Bauer's wife Terri did not die in the operation, but he was very dissatisfied with Jack's daughter-slave style of behavior. Although he retained his position as the head of the operations team, he was not optimistic about his future. Facts have proved that his judgment was correct.

In October last year, Jack quarreled with Terry again over the education of their daughter Kim. After he left for work, Terry died in a car accident on the way to the supermarket to shop. Kim blamed Jack for this and left home to live alone, and the family broke up.

Unable to bear the blow, Jack submitted his resignation to the bureau. According to the requirements of intelligence departments at the level of CTU, resigned personnel must undergo a one-year confidentiality desensitization period, so he is still in a suspension period and cannot completely leave the department.

After Jack was suspended, the former intelligence team leader Tony Almeida took over the operations team. The California State Bureau sent a female agent named Michelle Desler to take over as the intelligence team leader. There were no changes to other people. Technical team leader Milo Pressman and service team leader Rebecca Nice were both appointed by Carrie that year.
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Los Angeles uses Western Standard Time, which is three hours later than Washington. A little after eight o'clock in the morning, CTU's Los Angeles branch received an order from the headquarters, and all personnel were recalled to work overtime to investigate the nuclear crisis.

In accordance with the requirements of the General Administration, Branch Chief George Mason temporarily restored Jack's investigation authority and arranged for him to investigate the Joseph Wald gang that was most likely to carry out the terrorist attack in Los Angeles...

(End of this chapter)