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The trigger on the nuke is tamper-proof, and there's no way to disarm it. It will go off in less than an hour, so Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) decides to get on a plane and fly it away from the city. Palmer's (Dennis Haysbert) people determine that the safest thing to do is to detonate the bomb way out in the desert. Jack will only have enough time to fly to the location before the bomb goes off. Mason (Xander Berkeley) shows up at the airport, and offers to fly the plane, since he's dying anyway, but Jack isn't certain Mason will survive long enough to get to the designated detonation area. At CTU, the team decodes an encrypted recording, which seems to be of Syed Ali and the leaders of three Arab nations planning the nuclear attack. Yusuf Auda (Donnie Keshawarz), an intelligence agent sent by one of those countries to help in the investigation, tries to get Tony (Carlos Bernard) to tell him what's on the tape, and gets angry when he's rebuffed. Palmer gets word about the tape, and begins thinking about retaliation. Kim (Elisha Cuthbert) is trying to hitch a ride to her aunt's house in San Jose, and ends up having to use the gun Lonnie gave her to defend herself on the road. Eventually, she does get a ride, and uses the driver's cell phone to call CTU. Tony puts her through to Jack, who's already in the air. Jack explains the situation and says goodbye to her. Kim, distraught, gets out of the car and sits by the side of the road. As his plane nears the detonation site, Jack is surprised to discover that Mason has stowed away aboard the plane, and has a parachute for Jack to use.