"Are they alive?" "Yes." "Your mate and child are being held by Karen." "Where?" "Unfortunately, we do not have that information." "Maybe Karen's planning on using them as bargaining chips." "Quite possible." "Possible?" "Our operatives are trying to learn more and should have further information in a few days." "A few days?" "They could be dead in a few days." "Tom." "Tom, where are you going?" "I'm going after them." "I'm with you, Dad." "You don't even know where they are." " I'll find them." " How?" "We'll figure that out." "You know that you're acting crazy." "Dan, in case you hadn't noticed, crazy is where I live right now." "I've got a half-alien daughter." "You want to tell me how that happened?" "I wish I had the answer." "I know who has the answer." "Karen." "Now, you think that you're going to help anybody," "Anne, Alexis, anybody..." "by going off half-cocked?" "You're not going to help Anne, you're not going to help Alexis..." "I'm not doing anybody any good sitting around here doing nothing." "If you get captured or killed." "Dad, listen to me." "Our best shot is to wait for the rebels to find out where they're being held." "Just..." "Just give it 24 hours." " I will find..." " What if Karen kills them while we're sitting around on our butts?" "If Karen's using them, they're no good to her dead." "She'll try to contact us, make a deal." "We got time to do this the smart way." "Tom!" "Listen to me." "You know that if anybody understands what you're feeling right now, it's me." "24 hours." "If we haven't heard anything by then, you go with my blessing." "Okay, 24 hours." "This is..." "Dad, this is crazy." "Every second we wait" " puts them in greater danger." " I know how you feel." "They're right." "Tom..." "can I have a word?" "Nice job." "Anne and Lexie wind up dead, it's on you." "What's with your brother?" "Just..." "scared of losing them." "Dad, too." "I understand why you're upset, but I need you to take a step back, look at the big picture." "Hal?" "We going to look for Anne and Lexie?" "Hal?" "You Okay?" "Hal?" "I get why you want to go after them." "But frankly, the timing couldn't be worse." "With Cochise and the president missing" "I presume dead..." "This plan never hinged on the president." "The Volm were prepared to take casualties." "They can proceed without Cochise." "They can proceed without me if they have to." "You've got one overriding priority... complete construction of the rail spur to the Carolina Southern track by the end of the month." "You can put extra people on it if you have to, but it needs to be done by the time the Volm finish their device." "Well, we need to talk about that." "I showed Dr. Kadar your photos." "Those photos were locked up." "You went into my desk?" "It's not important how I got them." "The point is, Kadar thinks that the Volm are lying to us about their device." "I highly recommend that we stop this project." "Absolutely not!" "This is the only way that we're going to win this war." "Torn, we don't know what this thing does." "I did not put you in charge so you could derail the entire war strategy." "This has taken a lot of planning, a lot of resources, and a hell of a lot of" " diplomacy to pull off." " And you might be wrong." "I'm not the enemy here." "I'm just trying to get you to think clearly." "You can't leave me in charge and not give me the authority to make decisions." "I didn't give you" " the authority to go into my..." " Dad!" " But..." " Coming with me." "Hal, what the hell are you doing?" "Put your guns down." "Hal." "Do it, or I'll shoot her." "Now get up." "Get up!" "Get in." "You're driving." "Oh!" "Punch it!" "Talk to me, Hal." "What's going on?" " Where are we going?" " We're going to see Karen." "Maggie." "It's Hal." "He's got a gun on Tom." "Stop him." "Hal, what's going on?" "Come on!" "Talk to me!" "Get that gun out of my face!" "Damn it, Hal!" "What's going on?" "Dad, I..." "I can't." "It won't let me." "Out of the way!" "Go!" "Go!" "Don't even think about it!" "Whoa!" "Hal?" "Next one goes through his skull." "Everybody, put your guns down." "Everybody, drop your guns!" "That's an order, damn it!" "All right, all right." "Just put them down." "Put them down." "You try anything..." "I will kill him." "Hal?" "Hal?" "Damn it, tell me what's going on!" "Sit!" "You're not my son." "Oh, good for you, Professor." "But I'm controlling him." "So play nice." "I might let you see him again." "So, what's your next move?" "Looks to me like your plan just got shot to hell." "Weaver's out there right now surrounding the building." "You do something like that again, and you're going to get worse." "Who are you?" "That doesn't matter." "What matters is Anne and your daughter." "I can give you an opportunity to save them." "How?" "You tell me everything that you know about the device that the Volm are building where it's being deployed and when." "I'm never going to give you that information." "Yeah, we'll see about that." "Second squad's covering the back entrance." "Nobody's getting in or out of that place without us seeing them, Colonel." "Very well." "Get comms set up between the units." "On it." "Hey." "I thought I told you to get to the infirmary." "I'm fine." "I'm fine." "Do you have any idea what triggered this?" "I wish I knew." "Maybe it's post-traumatic stress." " We all have breaking points." " It's worse than that." "Hal's been having emotional problems for weeks." "What kind of emotional problems?" "Nightmares about Karen that he's been meeting her outside the lines." "He's convinced she implanted something in him, and I didn't want to believe it was true, but Hal did." "Wait a minute." "Are you saying the mole we've been looking for is Hal?" "I should have told you." "You knew?" "You knew, and you've been covering up for him." "Un-freaking-believable." "So I guess it's your fault our illustrious President has a gun to his head." "Pointing fingers won't change anything." "Right now, we got to figure out a way to get Hal and Tom out of that building unharmed." "Unharmed?" "Hal Mason murdered Arthur Manchester." "You have no proof of that." "Stop it." "Stop defending him." "You knew he leaked information to his Espheni girlfriend." "He got dozens of us killed." "That boy has saved the lives of everyone out here at one time or another." "He was a loyal soldier till Karen got her claws into him." "And you of all people should know better." "Instead, you bend over backwards to make excuses for him." "Why?" "Because a Mason couldn't possibly be a traitor." "Hey, Hal's not any more responsible for his actions than a harnessed kid." "So says spike boy, huh?" "Refuses to get his own studs removed." "Just going to get a taste of that little alien DNA, huh?" "Mason family trait, I suppose." "Hey!" "Hey!" "Get control of yourselves, both of you." "I'll kick both your butts off the line!" " Tector." " Sir?" "Cover me." "You got it, Colonel." "Hal." "Don't get yourself killed out there." "Hal!" "No one opens fire unless I give the word, understood?" "Hal, I'm unarmed." "I'm coming in to talk." "Hal?" "Hal?" "Stay down." "I'm coming in to talk." "Here I am." "Can I come in?" "That's close enough, Colonel." "I can hear just fine." "We know Karen did something to you." "Maggie's down here." "Your brothers, too." "We all care about you, Hal." "We're real worried about you." "What did Karen do to you?" "It doesn't matter now." "It was last year when she held us captive." "She kissed you." "She put something inside of you." "Let's work on this together, Hal." "Find a way to resolve it so no one gets hurt." "Hal, I know that you're still in there fighting that thing." "Tell me how I can help you." "Hal?" "Hal?" "Talk to me, Hal." "Tell me what you need." "How can I help you?" "Hal?" "I need a a gassed-up Humvee and a safe passage to the perimeter." "That didn't work before." "It's not going to work now." "I can't let you leave." "You give me what I need, Colonel!" "Or you're going to be burying Tom Mason!" "You know you won't kill your dad, Hal." "Cease fire!" "Cease fire, damn it!" "I said no shooting!" "Hal?" "Tom?" "Tom?" "Hal?" "Easy." "Easy." "Hal?" "Tom?" "Go ahead." "Answer him." "Yeah, Dan!" "We're okay!" "Let's not try that again, though, huh?" "Everything's under control now." "Where do we go from here?" "Colonel, give me that Humvee." "Okay, Hal." "Maggie shot the hell out of the one you were in." "It's going to take us a while to get a new one gassed up, though, but okay." "My patience is wearing thin, Colonel." "Roger that." "One Humvee, coming up." "Sergeant." "Colonel, I think I can get in there." "What are you talking about?" "Right up the side of the building." "He won't expect that." "Your brother's picked his spot pretty well, don't you think?" "He's got clear lines of sight all the way around the building." "No matter which way you go, he'll see you coming." "He won't shoot me." "Yesterday, you'd have said he'd never pull a gun on your father." "Too risky." "Might cost us your father, your brother, you." "Colonel, I'm going in there to talk to Hal." "Didn't you hear what I just said to Ben?" "He'll listen to me." "I can get through to him." "I know I can." "And if you can't, you'll be giving him one more hostage that he can use against us." "No." "Got to be a better way." "Can somebody explain something to me?" "Why is it that if anybody else had have acted like an alien and shoot people, you'd have blown their brains out and used what's left of their skull as an ash tray?" "Hal didn't shoot anybody." "He could have killed the colonel." "He chose not to." "I'm just saying, Mags, we can't count on your boyfriend's restraint from here on in." "You don't have to count on anything, Pope." "I need cool heads up here who do as they're told." "Take your Berserkers and get lost." "Dismissed." "That's the smartest idea I've heard all day," "Colonel, sir." "Come on." "Let's head over to the nest." "I don't think we need any more front seats to the latest Mason family drama." "Lyle, you're buying first round." "No, I'm not." "Sergeant." "Ma'am." "Can you stop Hal from shooting Tom if it comes to that?" "Yes, ma'am." "About 300 yards, give or take." "Switch is right here." "Put a round through there, it'll turn him off like a light." "Colonel, if this situation falls apart, we might end up with a split-second decision between saving Tom and saving Hal." "Won't come to that." "You can't promise that, Dan." "I know how close you are to Tom." "I know how difficult it would be to order the death of his son." "But if push comes to shove and you can't give that order," "I will relieve you." "They still okay?" "As far as I know." "Nothing's changed." "What's going on up there?" "I want to know where Hal is." "I want to know where Tom is..." "what they're doing." "I was scoping it out." "There's a couple places" "I could lay eyes on the target without being spotted." "Let's make one thing perfectly clear, Tector..." "Hal is not the target." "He's one of ours." "The aliens messed him up, but we're not going to let them get away with that." "We're going to get him back." "This situation ends with everybody alive, understood?" "Roger that, sir." "Can do." "Anthony." "You're not going to shoot my brother, are you?" "Orders say not to." "Orders can change." "Yes, they can." "This sucks." "Yeah." "I don't see how this ends without Hal getting hurt." "Or your dad." "Or both." "You were right." "You should go up there and talk to Hal." "There's no way to get in there without being seen." "There is." "Show me." "Count me in." "You know as soon as you get near that Humvee," "Weaver's going to take you out." "I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't have Tector lining you up in his sights right now." "You're going to die for nothing." "Colonel Weaver ain't going to kill his best friend's son." "No, Dan Weaver wouldn't do that." "But he's not calling the shots down there." "Marina Peralta is." "And if you're betting that she wouldn't give the order or that Tector would miss..." "You're going to lose." "Look, there is one way that I can see us getting out of this." "You have Karen release Anne and Lexie, bring them safely back to Charleston." "We can talk about the Volm plan." "Or you give me the Volm plan, and I'll give you Anne and your daughter." "We're here." "You sure?" "Of course I am." "These tunnels run all through Charleston." "My buds and I have been through most of them." "Ditching school?" "Paid off, don't you think?" "Okay, the odds against both Masons living through this little drama have just gone up." "And why not put a little down on the long shot?" "Could pay off quite handsomely if the Gods intervene." "Lyle, what do you say?" "Yeah, I'd lose my bet on Tector missing the shot." "Come on, Lyle." "Maybe they'll, uh..." "they'll talk their way out of this thing." "And if you win, you can buy a couple of keggers for that trip down to Mexico." "Yeah, and how long do they have to survive before you pay off?" "I mean, if Hal is the traitor that murdered Manchester..." "Hal Mason doesn't even need to survive a trial in order to pay off in that category." "Put $20 on "both die" for me, and I'll take them out myself." "No, no, no." "Easy, there, amigo." "This is not a call to action, my friends." "It's just a friendly wager on the fates of a couple of guys." "Don't even think about it." "You in or out?" "Okay." "Up here." "Okay." "So, if you don't care about your own life, consider who else might get hurt if you don't give me the information I need." "Aah!" "Now, I could have killed Weaver." "I believe you know that." "Next time, it might be Ben or maybe Matt." "Why don't you think about that?" "I should have seen this coming." "I should have noticed what was going on with you." "I'd love to say that it was because I was too busy with my job, but..." "I think we both know that it started way before that." "Before the invasion even." "I missed a lot of lacrosse games." "I missed a lot of dinners." "But your morn was always there." "You know what she thought you were going to be?" "A fighter pilot." "Oh, really?" "Personally, though, I didn't see it." "And why not?" "Well, the thing about being a pilot is one lapse in concentration, one wrong judgment, and you're dead." "I didn't think you had that kind of focus." "But after fighting next to you for the last two years, side by side, watching you lead men and women into battle," "I realized that, as usual, your mom was right." "And I really wish that she'd lived to see the man that you've become." "She really loved you, Hal." "Come on, Hal." "Give it to me." "Shut up!" "And sit down!" "Or I'm going to shoot." "I don't think that you will." "It's that one." "I'll go first." "Maggie." "Yeah." "Hal." " Hey!" " Don't do this." "This isn't you." "You can beat this, Hal." "You're stronger than Karen." "Give me the gun." "Hal." "You can do it, Hal." "You can fight it." "Give me the gun." "No." "Y-you're not going to hurt him." "You're not going to hurt your family." "Hal." "Baby." "Give me the gun." "Hal." "Come on." "That's it." "You can do it." "Give me the gun." "No." "I'm sorry." " I can't..." " Don't." "Hal." "Baby." "Don't." "Hal." "Aah!" "Anthony, go!" "Let's move!" "He's alive." "And kicking!" "But he's not out of the woods yet, so, no, I will not be paying out on "both survive,"" "at least not until this little family drama plays itself out." "Once we have final determination, the house will make good on all bets." "In the meantime, if Hal Mason survives, the next pool will be odds on whether or not the son of our esteemed civic leader will be charged with espionage the murder of Arthur Manchester, or he walks scot-free." "No way!" "Drink up." "Ponder the possible..." "Whiskey." "One for the road." "Colonel." "If anybody tries to affect the odds on that board one way or another," "I will personally mount your head on the wall of this establishment." "I'd call that a safe bet." "Hey, Lyle?" "Why don't you head over to the infirmary?" "If you see any funny business, you take the comedy right out of it." "Count on it, boss." "Hey." "He'll be fine." "Bullet just grazed his head." "Scalp is lacerated, but no cranial damage." "Possible concussion." "I won't know for sure until I do some more tests." "All in all, though, I'd say he's pretty lucky." "Could we see him?" "In a couple hours." "He's still not fully conscious." "Did you find anything that could have caused this, like an eyebug?" "I took a full set of head and neck X-rays." "There's nothing that showed any sign of that." "That doesn't mean nothing's there." "I'm going to follow up with a full blood panel." "What will that tell you?" "Well, a foreign body in the brain causes surrounding cells to release proteins." "If his protein level is high enough, we might detect it in the blood." "How does any of this help Hal?" "I can't remove what I can't see." "Maybe it's already gone." "It knew we had Hal." "It might have escaped." "Sounds like we need more information." "Exactly." "Eyebugs are Espheni technology." "If anyone knows about the fishheads..." "It's the rebel Skitters." "Each one of these bugs is genetically engineered to be controlled by a single individual, the individual who implanted it." "Removal is most easily accomplished by that same individual." "But if that individual is not available, you have another way to take it out?" "Yes." "We have developed a biological hunter-killer." "It's a very..." "aggressive remedy designed to hunt for the bug on a molecular level." "Would that even work on a human being?" "In theory, but it is an instrument of last resort." "You must understand that there are risks." "Our anatomy, our biology, our body chemistry are vastly different from your own." "But I'm out of options." "I need to know that if I give this to my son, it's going to kill the bug inside of him." "It will kill the bug if there is one." "If not, it will kill your son instead." "How does it work?" "I've got an impossible choice to make." "If I do nothing, my son is lost to me." "And if I do the thing that I need to do to save him," "I could still lose him." "My grandmother used to say," ""The minute we love, the world has something to use against us."" " Smart woman." " Hmm." "She also said, "Death is not the worst of all evils."" "Maggie." "You got to get me out of here." "I can't." "You can." "The bug's gone." "It left." "I felt it leave." "Lourdes told me what they're going to do to me." "They're going to kill me." "There's no bug." "It's gone." "Nobody believes me." "You know I'm not going to survive this." "You got to help me." "Hal." "I know where Karen's keeping Anne and Lexie." "Where?" "Come with me." "If you come with me, if I get them and I rescue them," "I bring them back alive, they'll have to believe me." "It'll prove I'm fine." "It's them or me, Maggie." "Help me." "Just help me." "I can't." "Maggie, you're not listening to me." "I swear to you this bug's gone." "Don't let them do this." "Look at me." "Hey." "Look at me." "Hey." "Undo that strap." "I want to believe you, Hal." "Do it." "Just undo that strap." "Maggie." "I can't." "Do it!" "Maggie!" "Mag..." "Dad." "You got to believe me." "Dad, listen, you got to cancel this thing." "I don't want to die like this." "I'm sorry, Hal." "I don't want to die, Dad." "I'm not going to let them take you from me." "I don't want to die like this, Dad!" "Dad." "No." "No!" "No!" "Dad!" "Da..." "Da..." "You're killing your own son!" "Son of a bitch!" "Ben, take your brother out of here." "Come on." "We don't need to see this." "No, no, no." "Aah!" "Aah!" "Syringe." "His heart's stopped." "Hal!" "Grab the epinephrine." "Take over." "Move." "Hey." "What's going on?" "You don't remember?" "Last thing I remember was going to talk to you about these nightmares I was having with Karen, but you were gone." "And Colonel Weaver wouldn't tell me where you went." "That was a week ago." "What happened?" "You don't remember taking your father hostage?" "What?" "You had a bug, Hal." "We got it out." "So, I was right." "Yeah." "I was wrong." "I'm sorry." "I'm the mole." "Not anymore." "So that means I did all those things." "I'm responsible for all that." "No, Hal." "You're not responsible for anything Karen made you do." "She is." "Not you." "Maggie's right." "Rebel Skitters came through." "Anne and Lexie are being held in an Espheni outpost in Mechanicsville." "So, you're going after them?" "I am." "I know it's occurred to you that Karen took Anne to draw you out of Charleston." "It's a trap." "Tom, this is not smart." "No, it's not smart, but like you said, Marina, the minute that we love, the world has something to use against us." "I'm fighting for people I love with people I love." "That should give me an edge." "Project Orange." "The complete file, not just the photographs." "Everything you need to know about the Volm device, when it's going to be deployed, and what we need to do to get it there." "And that is my signed letter of resignation." "Effective immediately." "I, uh..." "I'm going to do things my way." "Haven't you already been doing that?" "Making your own decisions?" "One word of advice - be straight with the Volm." "We need them to win." "If you have any problems or any concerns you should really go to Dan Weaver." "He's been my strong right arm." "He can be yours, too." " Tom..." " The buck stops with you." "Good luck to you." "Good luck to you, Tom." "Maggie." "I love you." "Remember that." "Everybody ready?" "Yep." "Let's go." "All right, got food, water for the next few days, maps, plenty of ammo." "What else do you need?" "You." "Wish to hell I was going with you." "Doesn't feel right." "I know." "You got to be here." "Somebody got to hold down this fort." "And you know I got Jeanne to think about now." "I know." "I understand." "So, get it done." "If you're not back soon, I'm going to come looking for you." "Noted." "Hey." "We all know the bug made you do it." "Now go find Anne." "Let's mount up." "Hey, Lyle." "Remind me to pull the old eyebug defense next time somebody wants to lock me up." "Don't let it get to you." "Raise your right hand." "Repeat after me." "I, Marina Louise Peralta..." "I, Marina Louise Peralta... do solemnly swear do solemnly swear to faithfully execute the office of President of the new United States." "...to faithfully execute the office of President of the new United States." "To preserve, protect, and defend the constitution." "We're going to find them, Dad." "Yep." "...to preserve, protect, and defend the constitution ...so help me, God." "...so help me, God."