Magic Lamp

24 – Two Days Later – Hour 19

The following takes place between 1 pm and 2 pm

1:00 pm – Fenster says, “Jack? Jack!” and slams down the telephone. He looks at the computer monitor above the doorway. The monitor shows Jack, Morris, Chloe and Bill standing on scaffolding next to the tip of a rocket.

1:01 pm – Bill lets out a yell when he realizes he’s standing high up in the air and grabs on to the scaffolding. A moment later, shots are fired. Jack looks down and sees that one level below them, a man in a black astronaut suit is trying to break into the rocket. Below that, on the ground, more men dressed in black are trying to do something with the rocket. One of them is firing a gun at them.

Everyone scrambles to avoid being shot, including Bill who scrambles with the precision of someone attempting to scramble while still holding on for dear life.

1:04 pm – Jack searches his pockets for something he can use, and realizes he still has on Batman’s utility belt. He pulls out a grappling hook with a line attached to it. He lets some of the line out and attaches the hook to a pole above him. He yells, “I sure hope this works!” and swings out and away from the rocket in a wide arc.

He swings around and back towards the man in the black astronaut suit. The man turns just in time to see Jack’s feet hit him in the face, and proceeds to learn the law of gravity the hard way as the pavement below breaks his fall, and him.

1:06 pm – Chloe and Morris run down to this level just in time to see Jack’s momentum carry him past where he wanted to gracefully land. He continues to ungracefully fall further down the rocket, still holding on to the line. The line suddenly pulls tight as Jack uses up all of the slack. He heads right back towards the scaffold. He hits one of the scaffold poles, lets go of the line and starts to slide down the pole. He has the presence of mind to try and stop himself. Unfortunately, gravity has other ideas and keeps pulling him towards the ground. He grabs onto one of the floor grates as he passes, and pulls himself onto the floor. One of the terrorists yells, “He’s not dead! Plan 2 is set! Run for it!” Sirens in the distance and jeeps heading towards the rocket cause the men at the base of the rocket to run away. Jack rolls over and sees them running away. He gets up and starts running down the stairs.

1:08 pm – Meanwhile, Morris and Chloe look through a window and see an astronaut inside the compartment the man was trying to break into. Morris yells for Bill to come down from the level above them as he and Chloe both try to open the door to let out the astronaut who’s trapped inside. They knock on the window and give the astronaut the thumbs up, and OK signs, trying to tell him that everything is alright. The astronaut comes to the door and starts to open the hatch as Chloe and Morris hear someone behind them. Morris says, “Bill, help me with this door!”

1:09 pm – Morris turns around and a short blonde woman dressed in a pink belly dancing outfit. He says, “Uh, Chloe? Did you order a belly dancer with a missing belly button?”

Chloe continues to struggle with the door and says, “Morris, quit goofing around!” The woman folds her arms, nods her head, and blinks. Morris disappears!

When he doesn’t respond, Chloe says, “Morris? Morris?” She turns around and sees the woman. The woman is folding her arms again, ready to make Chloe disappear too.

The astronaut yells something, but it’s muffled because his visor is still down. He pulls off his helmet, and yells, “Jeannie! Stop it! They were helping me!”

1:10 pm – Chloe and Jeannie help the astronaut out of the space capsule, and as they do, they hear Jack yelling to them from the ground, “Get out of here! This thing is going to blow!” Jack struggles with something that’s been attached to the rocket.

The astronaut looks down, at what Jack is doing and says, “Jeannie! Get us out of here!” Jeannie folds her arms and blinks again.

Commercial

1:15 pm – They all find themselves in an office. Chloe is disoriented. Jack is attempting to disable thin air. Bill holds on to the edge of a desk with all his might. Morris is nowhere to be seen.

The astronaut says, “Now, I know that was a little disorienting, but let me explain…”

Jack says, “No need to explain, we do that sort of thing all the time.”

The astronaut and Jeannie look at each other, surprised, and then look at Chloe and Jack. The astronaut says, “What? Really? I’m… I’m surprised.. but if you’ve… Oh, never mind. My name is Tony Nelson. You’ve met Jeannie.” He shakes Jack’s hand. Jack introduces everyone.

Jack says, “We’ve been chasing after those terrorists for some time now.”

Tony asks, “How do you know they’re terrorists?”

Bill says, “Well, the whole “shooting, planting explosives and wearing a black space suit was a giveaway to me…”

1:18 pm – In the warehouse, Fenster reads out of a manual titled “Moron’s Guide to Evil Computers” while trying to adjust some knobs on the console he’s standing in front of. He turns several knobs, double checks the manual, and then presses a button. The lights go out.

1:20 pm – Chloe looks around. She says, “Wait a minute! Where’s Morris? What did you do with Morris?” The door to the office starts to open. Jeannie looks panicked. She folds her arms, blinks and disappears.

1:21 pm – A colonel walks into the room, and is surprised to see Tony and everyone else in the room. “Major Nelson! What are you doing here? I thought you were scheduled to go into orbit this morning?”

Major Nelson says, “Dr Bellows! I’m so glad to see you!”

Dr Bellows says, “You are?”

Major Nelson says, “Yes! We have to get the MPs! I was scheduled to be on that flight. I was all suited up and ready to go and someone hit me from behind. I must have been dazed, because the next thing I knew, I was here in my office.”

1:24 pm – A very loud explosion can be heard from somewhere outside. Dr. Bellows yells, “That sounded like a nuclear weapon!”

Jack says, “No, those sound a LOT different.” Major Nelson and Dr. Bellows run to the office window and look out. The rocket that was on the launch pad has exploded!

Commercial

1:29 pm – Fenster has gotten the lights back on in the warehouse, but still hasn’t figured out how to get into the computer, because it is password protected and he can’t find any yellow sticky notes on the monitor that might give him a hint.

He looks up at the TV screen, and sees that Jack is talking to someone from the military and an astronaut. He can’t hear what they’re saying, but moves closer to the screen to have a better look. As he’s watching, he looks over and sees a small display next to the doorway. It has a countdown timer and reads:

31 minutes
Cocoa Beach, FL
Milwaukee, WI
Scranton, PA

Fenster taps on the display, but nothing happens.

1:30 pm – Back in the office, Dr. Bellows continues to talk to Major Nelson. “We need a description of the people that did this. What did this man that hit you look like?”

Major Nelson says, “Well, it all happened so fast, I’m not sure. I was hit from behind…”

1:31 pm -Another man walks into the office. “Dr. Bellows! We’ve been looking all over for you. Tony’s space capsule just exploded on the launch pad! He’s dead! It’s terrible! You have to come with me!”

He looks over at Major Nelson, and says, “Hi, Tony” He looks back at Dr. Bellows and then does a double take, looking back at Major Nelson. ‘TONY!” He runs up and hugs Major Nelson. “Thank God you’re all right! What happened? Who are these people?” He points at Jack, Bill and Chloe.

Major Nelson says, “Um…. You know my cousins, Roger!”

Roger looks at Jack and says, “What a coincidence! My name is ‘Roger’ too!”

Jack says, “I think you misunderstood. My name…”

Roger looks at Chloe. “Your name is Roger too? A woman? That’s pretty unusual. All the people in my family named ‘Roger’ were guys!”

1:33 pm – Dr. Bellows says, “Enough of this!” He turns to Major Nelson. “These are your relatives? I don’t recall seeing their names on the VIP list…”

Major Nelson says, “Well… Yes! They were my guests today for the launch.”

Jack nods in agreement. “Yes! That’s right. We were here as guests of Maj… I mean Tony.”

Roger says, “Cousins? You said all your cousins were in Montan… OUCH!” Major Nelson stamps on Roger’s foot.

Dr. Bellows squints his eyes, “There’s something not right about this. I don’t know what it is, but there’s something that’s not right.” He starts to leave, and stops at the door. He says, “I’m sure the base commanders are going to want to speak to you about this incident, but considering you’ve been hit in the head, I think it would be best for you to go home and get some bed rest. I’ll be checking in with you later.” He leaves.

1:36 pm – Bill finally loosens his grip on the desk and says, “A major explosion happens, you’re involved, and he sends you HOME? Wow, security is pretty lax around here.”

Chloe asks Bill, “What are you talking about? You’ve done the same thing…”

Roger holds his foot and asks Tony, “What did you do that for? That really hurt!”

Tony says, “I had to stop you from talking! Someone tried to break into my capsule, and set a bomb to blow it up! We have to figure this out… and away from here.” He looks up and yells, “Jeannie!”

The blonde woman reappears out of thin air. “Yes, Master?” She looks over to Roger and says, “Oh hello, Major Healey.”

Tony says, “Jeannie, I want you to take us all back home. We have to figure out what’s going on.”

Roger says, “I’m going to have to get back to see Dr. Bellows. I’ll be by later this afternoon.”

1:39 pm – Jeannie blinks. They all disappear, and Roger leaves the room.

Commercial

1:44 pm – At the warehouse, Fenster realizes he forgot something. He grabs a phone and dials the number for CTU. No one answers. He looks down at his watch. “Figures! Those people ALWAYS take long lunches.”

1:45 pm – At Tony’s home, Jeannie serves everyone a drink. Tony asks, “What were you people doing up there anyway? How did you know that was going to happen?”

Jack says, “We didn’t. It’s a long story.”

Chloe takes a sip, looks around the room, and says, “Hey! You never told me what happened to Morris? Where is he?” She looks at Jeannie, “You know… The bald guy that was with me, trying to get Tony out of that capsule… Before it EXPLODED?”

Tony asks Jeannie, “Oh no! Jeannie, what did you do with him?”

Jeannie says, “Sorry, Master!” She blinks and Morris reappears.

1:47 pm – Morris gasps for air, see Jeannie and says, “Stay away from me!” He looks at Chloe, and says, “It was horrible! Horrific images kept flashing before my eyes!”

Chloe asks, “Where were you?”

Morris says, “I was forced to listen to celebrities pretend they understood politics!”

Chloe gasps.

1:48 pm – Jack tells them both to quiet down. He turns to Tony and says, “Why would anyone want to blow up the rocket you were in?”

Tony says, “I have no idea! I don’t have any enemies!” He stands up and walks around the room. “The Soviets have their own space program. I doubt they’d be desperate enough to try and sabotage ours just to make their program look better.” He walks to the front window to look out over his front lawn and laughs, “It’s not like someone is trying to assassinate me!”

These words startle Jack when he realizes the implications of what Tony just said. He jumps up from his chair, yells, “Get down!” and tackles Tony. A gun fires from somewhere outside. A bullet hole is in the window right where Tony was standing. The glass Chloe was holding has been shattered. She yelps and hits the floor. Everyone else decides that’s a good idea too, and also hit the floor.

Tony gasps as he stays low to the floor, “How did you know that was going to happen?”

Jack says, “Um… experience…”

1:50 pm – They hear footsteps upstairs. They hear a dog bark and a man scream. The man stumbles down the stairs, desperately moving his feet as if trying to shake something off of them. He falls down the stairs.

Jack jumps up and grabs the man. The man tries to hit Jack over the head with a bottle, while at the same time trying to shake something off of his leg. Jeannie screams, runs over and grabs the bottle away from the man as Jack wrestles the man into submission. Jack pulls out a rope from his Batman utility belt and ties the man’s hands. The man continues scream and kick his feet.

Jeannie says, “Djinn Djinn! Good boy! Come here!” A dog appears beside Jeannie, and she bends down to pet him. The man stops kicking his feet.

Tony mutters, “I hate that dog…”

Jack pulls the man to his feet, and pushes him against the wall, yelling “What are you doing here? What do you want?” The man doesn’t say anything. Jack looks around, and then says, “Jeannie, bring that dog back over here.”

The man gets a wild look on his face and says, “No! No! Not that! I’ll tell you! I was just sent here to get the bottle, that’s all! I don’t know anything else!”

Jack seems satisfied with this answer, so he punches the guy in the face, knocking him out. He walks over to Jeannie. “What’s so special about that bottle?”

Jeannie says, “Why, it’s my bottle! It’s my home!”

Chloe gives Jeannie a strange look. “Your … home?”

Jeannie says, “Yes! Let me show you!” She sets the bottle down on the table, folds her arm and blinks. She and Chloe both dissolve into two streams of smoke, both of which go into the bottle!

1:52 pm – Chloe and Jeannie rematerialize inside of the bottle. There is a set of circular purple cushions up against the room’s walls. Orange pillows sit on top of the cushions.

Chloe looks around, up, and then at Jeannie. “You live in a bottle.” Jeannie nods. “You’re a real genie?” Jeannie nods. “A genie named Jeannie.”

Jeannie nods again, “I prefer the term ‘Genie-American’”.

Chloe lets out a sigh, sits down, and says, “Well, now I’ve heard everything.”

Jeannie sits down next to Chloe and says, “How long has he been yours?”

Chloe doesn’t understand. “What do you mean?”

Jeannie says, “The blonde one. How long has he been your master?”

Chloe jumps up, “Hey, now! He’s not my master! I’m not a genie! What made you think that?”

Jeannie says, “Well, when you said you went from place to place like that before, I just assumed that…”

Chloe says, “Well, don’t assume anything! I don’t even think YOU should be calling Tony ‘Master’. It’s degrading!

A loud booming voice says, “Chloe?”

She looks up, and sees an eyeball staring back at her. She tells Jeannie, “OK, that’s it! Get me out of here!”

1:55 pm – Jeannie blinks and they both dissolve into smoke again. The smoke goes shooting out of the bottle, and Chloe and Jeannie rematerialize in the room.

Chloe tells Jeannie, “Don’t EVER do that again.” She looks at Jeannie’s costume, and says “Stand up for yourself! Put on some real clothes and find a belly button, would you?”

Morris smirks and says, “You should have kept her in there. She’d be easier to handle.”

Chloe gives him a dirty look.

1:56 pm – Jack says, “I’m confused. Why would they want to steal an old bottle like that? And want Tony dead?”

Everyone thinks about this for a moment. Jeannie speaks up, very quietly, “I think I might know.” She looks very scared.

Tony puts his arm around her. “What is it? What’s the matter?”

Jeannie says, “If a genie’s master dies, then the person who holds the bottle controls the genie.”

Bill snaps his fingers, “That’s it! They must have wanted to kill you, and take Jeannie so they could use her magic!”

Tony says, “Well, what can we do to stop that from happening?”

1:58 pm – Jack says, “Keep that bottle in a very safe place. Without it, they won’t be able to control Jeannie. I’ll be willing to bet that once NASA does an analysis of the launch pad site, and they see the bullet hole here, they’ll put extra security on you too. Besides, now that you know someone is after you, I doubt they’ll try anything else, especially with Jeannie here to protect you.” He looks over at Morris, who’s over near the man that’s been tied up. Morris is trying to shake something off of his feet. Jack says, “And I think that dog will help protect things around here too.”

Tony asks, “What do we do with that guy?” He points at the tied-up man.

1:59 pm – There’s a bright flash.

At the warehouse, Fenster continues to wait on hold for CTU, but no one answers the phone. He says to himself, “Lunch has to be over by now… Where could they be?”

Jack, Chloe, Morris and Bill are standing in a driveway. They hear a loud scream coming from across the street: “ABNER!”

2:00 pm -Time’s up!