"[BYSTANDER SCREAMING]" "So Wideband Mixer-Circulator Retro-reflector." " Obviously not." " Obviously." "How about ternary computing?" " Nah." " Nah." "Nanometre fabrication using sacrificial spacer layers." "Eh." "You gotta be kidding." "Nanometre fabrication." "Hey, nobody kids about nanometre fabrication." "[CHARLIE CHUCKLES]" "You still going through CalSci's consulting projects?" "Oh, yeah, my NSA clearance is suspended, so all I really get to do now is look." "My next paper's gonna be titled "Our Friend the Triangle."" "Actually, John Conway and Steven Sigur already wrote a book about that subject." "[FINGERS SNAP]" "It is surprising to see how much of our work intersects with top-secret government research." "You know, CalSci has even limited his access to the supercomputers." "Am I gonna sound too much like your father when I suggest that after the time for principle, there'd be occasion for a strategic, insincere apology?" "I wish it were that simple, Dad." "I..." "I have to petition to get my security clearance back." "Step one of that is an interview tomorrow with the FBI with someone called a security officer." "Well, Charlie, you do have a connection or two at the FBI." "I don't wanna drag Don into this one." "The facts are on my side." "None of the information I sent was a threat to national security." "ALAN:" "Listen, Charlie, when you're dealing with the government, it doesn't hurt to have more than just the facts on your side." "[SIRENS WAILING]" "DON:" "What do you say, Nikki?" "Alice DeMaire, 33." "An IT worker at a small day-trader office off Figueroa." "Two in the back, a.38 or a 9." " Oh, yeah, the lab boys been here?" " No, but I know bullet holes." "The perp was described as male, white, 30s, dark suit and sunglasses." "Fled in a brown truck." "Witnesses say a flower truck, bread truck, you know, like that?" "Probably stolen, right?" "Unless we're looking at a gang of rogue bakers." "ATM is this way." "You know you're not in East L.A. When $20 bills hit the ground and stay there." "DON:" "What do you say, Colb?" " This is our best photo of the shooter." " He slid back in the line twice." " Staying out of camera?" "Guy might have known where to stand, but he wasn't so careful where he ran." "Parking garage right here." "Every camera pointed toward the street." " Give that to L.A.P. D?" " Yeah, ten minutes ago." "A new-guy question." "But what are we doing here?" "I mean, this seems like a L.A.P.D. Shoot." "You got a woman who was kidnapped 23 hours ago, and her husband was told to make sure he has $3,000 in his bank account." "DAVID:" "They're called express kidnappings." "I saw a few of them when I was in Tel Aviv." "People are grabbed, held for a couple of days." "They're forced to drain their bank account before they're released." "[CELL PHONE RINGING]" "Victims' families are scared, but amounts are so small, they pay and report it after." "This is the fifth in seven weeks." "They're all middle-income working women." "Raped, assaulted and then dumped off." " First time they've killed." " First time anyone ran." "You run from somebody with a gun, you figure they're gonna use it anyway." "New guy, you're with me." "Why do I have a feeling that's gonna stick?" "A male, white, NFD, dumped the truck." "A grey four-door picked him up and took off." " Where'd they see it from?" " Far side of the roof." "Hence the "no further description."" "POLICEMAN:" "Firemen found evidence of a Molotov in the cabin." "Another new-guy question." "Yeah, how bad are the bad guys that kill their own partner for screwing up?" "NIKKI:" "Joey Herman, frequent flier with the California Department of Corrections." "Discharged from Chino last May after a three-year bid for hitting a jewellery exchange." "Guy's a high-end thief, but no mastermind." "Might explain the bullet in the head." "NIKKI:" "Matches the Suspect 3 description and composite sketch the victims gave us." "COLBY:" "Only three more to go." "Whoever's on the other side of the gun knows their business." "Lab says inside of the van was washed with bleach before it was torched." "So whatever forensic evidence we do recover probably won't work for us until after we catch them." "All right, five robberies, these guys have pulled down less than 20 grand." "Kidnapping, two homicides, that's a lot of exposure for not a lot of money." "Hey, in East L.A., people get stabbed over a six-pack." "But this isn't East L.A. And these guys aren't meth heads on a tear." "M.O. Says it's a serious crew." "DAVID:" "These express kidnappings, they make sense south of the border or in Third World countries where a bit of money's gonna take you far." "But nobody moves from six-figure jewellery hits to low-take thugging for no reason." "We're missing some pieces." "With a guy like this, there's always an ex-cellmate or a known associate somewhere in the picture." "Yeah, it sounds like a lot of gruntwork." "Yes, it does." "I wonder who's gonna get stuck with that." "It'd probably be a seniority thing, I think." "Mm." " That's gonna get old fast." " Yeah, maybe for you it will." "REPORTER [ON TV]:" "The facts of the shooting are still under investigation at this point..." " Hey, I'm glad you're here." " Hey." "So I'm watching the news here, and I see these..." " I mean, is this your case?" " Yeah." "I know you can't talk about it." "Just what you see there." "It occurred to me, and you know, it's just an idle thought, that a point-by-point analysis, using the math I've already refined for you guys, you just plug that data in and run with it." " Yeah, we're already on that." " You are?" " Uh-huh." " Good." "I mean, they aren't leaving us much." "We're gonna have to get them on the street." "Doesn't that mean you're waiting for another victim?" "Or a decoy." "I mean, we could put 10, 20, 30 women out there, see if maybe they pick one up." "You know, in marketing, there's something called the decoy effect." "It's like when you went out to buy that watch that you got on there." "You had a choice between a more expensive, higher-end, uh, waterproof, scratch-resistant watch with a tachometer and a less expensive watch that does nothing but tell time." "And you made your choice by how you balance function and cost." "But let's say a third watch is put on the market, more expensive but no tachometer." "Most buyers will gravitate toward the original higher-end product regardless of their prior preference, so that third watch is the decoy." "It exists solely to steer buyers to the bigger sale." " That's called asymmetric dominance." " So how...?" "You can't put targets out on the street that you want kidnappers to attack." "You create conditions that make them more desirable, uh, distribution of police patrols, inspection points." "This is stuff you'd normally do anyway, except funnelled through a series of algorithmic..." "Something Larry or Amita could do?" "Well, yeah." "No, sure, I..." "Sure, Larry and Amita are very highly skilled..." "I'm just saying I could come up with some very loose expressions and give them a push in the right direction." "Hey, so, what do you know about this FBI security officer, uh, McGowan?" " Carl?" " Yeah, Carl McGowan." "He's tough, but he's fair." "More tough, more fair?" "[SIGHS]" " You know, you'll be fine." " That's not an answer." "[CELL PHONE RINGS]" "[CELL PHONE BEEPS]" "DON:" "Yeah, Eppes." "We put out a five-county alert for any missing-persons reports that match our victim profile." "I start with today's, figuring these guys don't snatch more than one at a time." "[KEYBOARD CLACKING]" "NIKKI:" "Popped Janet Gerber." "Office manager at an HMO in Hollywood, left her job at 4:30." "Reported missing at 8." " That's pretty fast." " News has everyone on edge." "She is right in the sweet spot of our profile." " Female, 25, middle income." " Still..." "Hey, I wouldn't have dragged you back here if there wasn't more." " Oh, damn." " Their M.O. Holds up." "They'll dump the van, switch to a delivery truck." "Right, sure, blends in more, easier to control..." "I'm thinking press conference, right?" "Put her face on the news, these guys get rattled, let her go." "When things went bad before, that's exactly what they didn't do." "What am I looking for?" "Credit-card bills, bank statements, anything that might help us track her." "DORIS:" "She's never home past 6." "But when I called the police, I was hoping..." "Then they told me they'd kill her if I called you, but I already had." "They're gonna tell you what helps them, not what's gonna help Janet." "You did the right thing." "DORIS [CRYING]:" "Janet isn't reckless." "She's careful about where she goes." "She pays attention to everything around her." "If they can just grab you off the street, no rhyme or reason..." "[SNIFFS]" "How do you protect yourself from that?" "The woman on the TV, they killed her." "The ones before, they beat them, they raped them." "We're gonna do everything in our power to bring Janet back here safely." "Hey, guys, thanks for stepping up here, huh?" "Yeah, well, we're still getting up to speed." "Um, asymmetric dominance is pretty basic stuff." "Yeah, Charlie's applications of it are anything but basic." "DON:" "We're in the middle of a kidnapping right now, so it may end up being for nothing, but thanks." "I would remind you that the planet known as rho1 Cancri e was discovered purely by accident when scientists were modelling the motion of its home star." " What?" " There is no wasted work." "Right." "Nikki, what have we got?" "The National Bank network gave us access to SPIDER, a tracking programme for ATM usage that they use to detect fraud." "Almost every ATM in the country is on the system." "It provides real-time transactions at 400,000 cash machines nationwide." "Check this out." "It even shows how much cash is available in any machine at any one time." "That's how they know when they have to be refilled." "Okay, so?" "Every time you use an ATM card," "SPIDER calls the bank to make sure you have enough cash available." "Now, we have three hits already on Janet Gerber's cards." "Here, here and here." "The last one was two hours ago." " You get units in there?" " I notified L.A.P.D." "Colby and David are cruising the area." "Do we have any shots of her?" "NIKKI:" "We're running a facial recognition for the other customers." "Oh, what's that?" " Right there." " Staying just outside of camera range." "DON:" "That's the guy." "[COMPUTER BEEPING]" "We got a hit." "Someone's using one of her cards at..." "COLBY [OVER PHONE]:" "It's Fifth and Alameda." "[TYRES SCREECHING]" " In one piece, please." " Hey, you know the rule." "You complain, you drive." " Too late?" " Unless that's him." "COLBY:" "He doesn't look like any of these sketches." "Do they ever?" "DAVID:" "That matches the description of the kidnappers' van." "[TYRES SCREECHING]" "[THUD]" "[GEARSHIFT CLUNKS THEN ENGINE REVS]" "[HORN HONKS]" "DRIVER:" "Hey, look out!" "DAVID:" "FBI." "Stay in the truck." "DRIVER:" "Yeah, I didn't see him." "[PANTING]" "DAVID:" "He's pretty damn dead." " Van's empty." " That leaves two at large." "They still have Janet Gerber." "I've already told you everything that I remember." "There've been new developments, Miss Mooney." "We've got another victim out there." "I'm sorry." "I've been trying to forget what happened." "This one." "He'd get out of the van with me when they told me to get money." "He had a gun, he didn't..." "He wasn't a part of the rest of it." "Do you recognise anyone else?" " No." " You're sure?" "I spent 38 hours with those..." "Yes, I'm sure." "In the report, you said there was a fourth man, one they met in the parking lot." "He just talked to them for a few minutes and then he left." "They called someone every few hours after that." "I got the sense that it was him." " What did they talk about?" " Which banks to go to, maybe." "I think..." "I don't remember." "They had me on the floor most of the time." "This woman, the one that they have now..." "We're gonna do everything we can to get her back safe." "NIKKI:" "Zack Talling." "He was in County on a drug charge during three of the five kidnappings." "Okay, so they do Herman for screwing up, then they bring in Talling." "NIKKI:" "The minivan was scrubbed clean, and we figure Talling was supposed to dump it." "He decided to stop and buy a case instead." "He pockets one of Janet Gerber's ATM cards, decides to skim a little cash for himself." "DAVID:" "Definitely hit the discount rack with Talling." "Liquor stores, carjackings." "And there's no more activity on her other cards?" "No, they've gone cold." "If Talling doesn't come back, they gotta be nervous." "They should've closed up shop when they lost Herman." "Herman didn't participate in the rapes." "Maybe he was the alpha dog." "Then they turned on him." "That's the alpha." "He doesn't ride with them." "He tells them where to go, he tells them what ATMs to hit." "Doesn't care what his guys do to the women, but meticulous enough to scrub down the evidence." "He makes the ransom calls from burner phones, kills off his weak link." "Why is this professional pulling high exposure for pocket change?" "They don't even max out the withdrawals." "It's all these weird amounts, $420, 340." "Best guy to answer a strange digit question..." " Can't do that." " Okay." "[KNOCKING]" "CHARLIE:" "Agent McGowan?" "Have a seat, professor." " So, uh..." " Just a second." " You didn't bring an attorney with you?" " I didn't realise I needed one." "All the charges were dropped." "To avoid a black eye, I know." "Black eye?" "An FBI consultant sends classified and potentially dangerous information to an unauthorised foreign group." "I assume that a multiple Ph.D. Can infer the potential for embarrassment." "That information was for growing crops." "Embarrassment to the bureau, the United States government." " To your brother." " My brother..." "He probably committed a slow-acting career suicide the day he brought you in to work on that first case." "But that's on him." "You know, I get the impression that your mind is already made up." "The FBI's guidelines very specifically prohibit me from applying my personal opinion to the review of a suspended security clearance." "And I wouldn't be so unprofessional as to ignore agency guidelines." "You know, I've given a lot of my time, my work to the FBI." "But that isn't why you're here, is it?" "You're here because a loss of clearance keeps you from making money off some big government research projects." "Just saying that betrays how little you know about me." "Maybe not yet, but I'm going to." "Your life's going to become transparent to me." "I'm going to ask things you're going to think I have no business asking you." "Given the slenderness of the thread on which your professional future hangs, it will behove you to answer every one of them completely and honestly." "Then I will talk to my lawyer." "[HELICOPTER WHIRRING]" "Hey." "A couple of homeless guys were doing their weekly scrounge." "We didn't get her home." "One bullet to the back of the head." "No signs of assault, no indications of rape." "They were trying to get rid of her in a hurry." " They're getting sloppier." " And more violent." "NIKKI:" "Check this out." "Techs say these and these are fresh." "Two sets." "They dump one truck, have a backup ready." "They're not done." "[SIGHS]" "Using asymmetric dominance, we built a consideration set on the framework of the prior abductions, and we filtered all of that through a very powerful regression analysis." " What?" " You'll say that for three, four months," " then learn to go along with it." "AMITA:" "Let's call it decoy math." "It's a way of building optimal conditions for an off-the-street kidnapping by the strategic placement of not only the decoy, but of additional patrols and checkpoints." "We begin with the police patrols and the presumed boundaries created by those patrols." "Then we factor in all of this publicity surrounding the kidnappings, and then we can factor all of that onto the target pool." "[SPEAKS INDISTINCTLY]" "Most women are being more careful now." "So the red zones are optimal." "With the orange zones as secondary targets." "All of this presupposes that you'll be following our methods of shaping these target zones." "Disabling streetlights to create darkened conditions, and diverting traffic to isolate certain streets." "Yeah, but you got like 50 places there." "Uh, no, um, actually, 43." "You got a favourite?" "A favourite?" "No." "But I tell you what, I would incorporate in any distribution the corner of Wilshire and Grand." "That's based on?" "A hunch, I guess." "Guess I'm on the corner of Wilshire and Grand." "Whoa, who said you're anywhere?" "You need 43 decoys." "There are more than 42 other female, 20s agents hanging around the office?" "[SIGHS]" "CHARLIE:" "You see it in academia all the time." "A petty bureaucrat mired in 20 or 30 years of mindless habit." " An axe to grind." " And that axe is what, exactly?" "Any non-traditional investigative technique, or any alternative point of view." "Who the hell knows?" "Who cares?" "Well, you should, you should care." "What did your lawyer have to say?" "Same thing as McGowan, that I have no real option but to cooperate." "He's gonna go through the motions, but already closed the book on me." "Well, even if that's true, you have to fight it as if it isn't." "Yeah, you know what he said?" "You know what he said?" "Actually, he pretty clearly implied that I'd ruined Don's career." " What does Don have to say?" " I haven't talked to him about it yet." "Besides, you know, he'll just grunt and change the subject." "When I sent that research to Pakistan," "I was well aware of what it might do to my future." "I didn't stop to think of what it would do to Don's." "Not really." " Hey." " You gotta love that federal budget." "L.A.P.D. Comtecs are the size of a small brick." "That's right." "You're in the majors now." "[NIKKI CHUCKLES]" "You know that new-guy stuff is just part of..." "NIKKI:" "Being the new guy?" " Yeah." "It's when they stop busting your ass, that's when you start worrying." "No, I'm not sweating it." "I was just out of Quantico and they sent me to Detroit." "So I gotta answer phones for three weeks, which felt like three months." "And one day they..." "They were shorthanded so they sent me out on this no-knock warrant to these biker outlaws, right?" "The Ugly Bastards." "I, uh, volunteered to take point." "Yeah, so how'd that work out for you?" "I got my ass handed to me pretty damn good, and I was right back on the phones." "Wild guess, a point there somewhere?" "You got a long career here hopefully, so, you know, you don't have to prove everything in the first month." "My straight-out-of-the-Academy..." "Some Parker Center genius decides to dump me in Nickerson Gardens, doing buy-and-busts." "He figured fresh face, no cop habits, I'd be the perfect undercover." "Never mind that I hadn't learned to find my ass with both hands yet, you know." "Day five, citizen named Latwan Rivers sticks a.22 in my face." "Tries to stick something else somewhere else." "After medical leave, a psych evaluation, and a piece of paper that has me promising not to sue the city for stupidity, they offer me any assignment I want." "The next day, I'm back in Nickerson Gardens doing buy-and-busts." "This is a wild guess, is there some point there somewhere?" "I know there's a lot of answering phones and DMV checks in my immediate future." "You give me a chance to get dirty, I'm there." "All right, noted." "AGENT 1 [OVER RADIO]:" "Decoy 9 returning to start." "AGENT 2 [OVER RADIO]:" "Decoy 18 heading north." "DAVID [OVER RADIO]:" "Decoy 5 taking another pass." "And around the block again." "NIKKI [OVER RADIO]:" "You can back off a little." " You're ghosting me a little tight." " All right, thanks for that, new guy." "Uh, you know how it is." "Yeah, I know Betancourt can notch it back a little bit." "Right, because it was somebody else who nearly got me shot his second week showing tough to a Vietnamese biker gang." "Decoy 5 is moving south on Grand." "Billy, you better tell Hollywood patrol to back off another block." "June, you have 14 slow down on the next pass." "JUNE:" "Okay, hey, 14..." "Guys, I think we got a bite." "Plates come back to a Volkswagen Beetle." "COLBY:" "So, what do you think?" " I say we take that right." "Not a sound." "Get in the van, you might get out again." "We have a hit, we're on." "Five is active." "Five is active." "I want units rolling to Broadway and Ninth." "Await further." "Give me eyes and ears." "CHANEY [OVER RADIO]:" "On the floor." " Do not look." "NIKKI [OVER RADIO]:" "Not gonna fight." "CHANEY:" "Keep your mouth shut." "NIKKI:" "Take whatever you want." "[GASPING]" "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm scared." " There are two of you, you have a gun." "ROVE:" "You deaf?" "Hear that?" "Two in the truck." "Surveillance 5, what's her distress word?" "DAVID:" "Mexico." "You gave her our distress word?" "DAVID [OVER RADIO]:" "Truck's pulling over." "[VAN DOOR OPENS THEN CLOSES]" "One and two." "DAVID:" "We have visual confirmation on Suspect 1 and 2." "MAN:" "SOG 8 is two blocks away." "SOG 22 is four." "All right, everyone, stand by." "ROVE:" "Lisa Hillman, 2527 Tujunga Ave." "818-555-0189." "ROVE [OVER RADIO]:" "Four-sixty." "Three-forty, two-eighty." "Four-eighty." "One-twenty." "[VAN STARTS]" "DAVID [OVER RADIO]:" "We're moving." "All right, you better break off and run parallel." "DAVID:" "Got it." "DON [OVER RADIO]:" "Eight, pick it up at Grand." "AGENT [OVER RADIO]:" "SOG 8, we've picked up the subject." "[PHONE RINGING]" "[AGENTS CHATTERING]" "Quiet, everyone." "Hello?" "ALPHA [OVER PHONE]:" "We have your wife." "Lisa Hillman, driver's licence V72533849." "Don't do anything stupid." "We drop her off in 12 to 15 hours." "Can I...?" "Let me talk to her." "ALPHA:" "And stupid would be calling the police." "Cancelling all her credit cards." "Just make sure there's $5,000 in all three of your bank accounts." "Uh, 5,000 dol..." "I don't have that money." "DON:" "Please, let me talk to her." "Disposable phone from a 2-mile tower zone in West Los Angeles." "All right, push the three nearest units in that direction." "DON [OVER RADIO]:" "Five, copy that?" " Affirmative." "You're hoping they lead us to the alpha." "All right, unless Nikki calls it off." "CHANEY [OVER RADIO]:" "You are going to go take out $460." "You're going to walk back to this truck." " You are not going to talk to anyone." " Four-sixty?" "You are not going to make eye contact with anyone." "Nod yes." "Get up." "Get up." "[VAN DOOR OPENS THEN CLOSES OVER RADIO]" "[ATM BEEPING]" "CHARLIE:" "Tried revisiting the Yukawa potential?" "The exponential gives the interaction a finite range." "Oh, then you're back where you started." "Charles, as much as we appreciate your help..." "CHARLIE:" "Oh, please, non-collider related Higgs boson physics, one of my few pleasures these days." "I'm just so tired." "I wanna go home." "[CELL PHONE RINGING]" "Okay, that's me." " I thought you got rid of your cell." " Yeah, I did." "But your brother shoved another one at me." "Yes, Don." "I am on my way." "What is it, the ATM kidnapping case?" "Ahh..." "[SIGHS]" "You know, I suspect we're looking at a combinatorics problem." " Would you mind?" " Sure." " Uh, do you?" " No, of course." "Don't wait up." "[DOOR OPENS]" "[DOOR CLOSES]" "Third bank, and still no sign of our alpha." "DON [OVER RADIO]:" "All right, keep it tight." "[PANTING]" "[NIKKI GRUNTING OVER RADIO]" "If you have the Internet, I can just transfer you the money." "CHANEY [OVER RADIO]:" "Get back." "NIKKI [OVER RADIO]:" "You have a laptop." "SPIDER something..." "[THUD OVER RADIO]" "Can we just do this one and get another?" "DAVID:" "Don, we've gotta go." " On my signal, on my signal." "Sorry." "Okay?" "I'm sorry." " I've got $15,000." " What?" "Fifteen thousand dollars that my husband doesn't know about." "It's in a safe-deposit box." "I can get it for you when the bank opens." "You wouldn't lie to me just to keep yourself alive, would you, babe?" "I would, but I swear I'm not." "[LAUGHS]" "CHANEY [OVER RADIO]:" "Buckle up." "All right, stand down, everyone." "Just stand down, but stay tight." " Mirror everything into the Tech Room." "MAN:" "Yes, sir." "DON:" "SPIDER..." " A real-time ATM tracking programme." "Charlie and I did work on its distributed neural network, along with the CalSci Math and Computer Departments." "And Nikki tells me they can run the thing on a laptop." " Yeah." "DON:" "They're taking odd amounts." "Instead of like 100 or 200, it's like 460 or 340." "That's right, atypical amounts, but combined with specific knowledge of both nodes of the transaction." "The Hall effect." "He's tapping off a gold leaf." "He's applying a magnetic field perpendicular to the electrical current to uncover the potential difference on opposite sides of the conductor..." "Hold on, I don't have a clue." "I've lost you." "Help me." "By knowing the amount, the card, the ATM, the bank, he is able to watch the way money flows through SPIDER." "He's trying to find a way inside the programme." "To divert the flow, I suspect." " And it also..." "It does refills." "AMITA:" "Yeah, sure." "Every four or five days when the ATM gets low," "SPIDER sends a message to the armoured car servicing it, telling it to deliver a refill." "Okay, so if he can jack his way into the programme..." "He could schedule the delivery of large sums of money to the most vulnerable locations and at a time of his choosing." "What's the possibility of hacking to him?" "It's not easy." "All right, well, then get working on it, okay?" "Fifth and last one, Don." "They've maxed out her cards." "CHANEY [OVER RADIO]:" "All right, what time you got?" "ROVE [OVER RADIO]:" "Almost 4." "We're supposed to dump her before dawn." "Doesn't give us much time, does it?" " This is going bad." " Don?" "NIKKI [OVER RADIO]:" "Bank opens in four hours." "Fifteen thousand dollars, I swear to God." "You're right about that." "You will swear to God." "[GUN COCKS]" "[BOTH GRUNT]" "[GUNFIRE]" "Go, go, go, everybody." "Get in there, let's go, move!" "FBI." "Give me a damn reason." "FBI, don't move." "Show us your hands." "Get them in the air." "AGENT 1:" "On the right side." "AGENT 2:" "Turn around." "AGENT 1:" "We got both." "AGENT 3:" "Pack it up." " Is she okay?" " Yeah, she's okay." "[ELEVATOR BELL DINGS]" " DON:" "What's the distress word?" " Mexico." " Why didn't I hear it?" " We didn't have the alpha, I had..." "It took me five seconds to send them in." "Which is enough time for you to get your undisciplined head shot off at least five times." " Boss, I was just..." " Get changed, start writing." "And when you're done writing, you can start getting to know the P-904." "That's the telephone." "DON:" "It's the only piece of equipment you're gonna be using for a long time." " Morning." "ALAN:" "It's too late for breakfast." " But there's still coffee." " Yeah, no, thanks." "I owe Amita these lesson plans for her CBME seminar." "She's probably already waiting at CalSci." "Actually, when I left her at 4 a.m. This morning, uh, she was still at the FBI." "Yeah?" "Was there a break on that case?" "A break, yes." "Conclusion, no." "Okay, well, then I'll probably drop these off on the way to campus." "Now, he sure seems to have lost a step or two off his stride." "Yeah, it's this NSA-clearance thing." "There were more eggs in that basket than he realised." "Well, than any of us realised." "You know, as scientists, we tend to take our relationship with the government pretty much for granted." "And forget just how much our work depends on their wallet." "Now, Charlie's struggle is nothing short of existential." "Well, I guess we have nothing to worry about, then." "Charlie's always at his best when his back's against the wall." "So two more off the low end." "Gang affiliations, petty-crime jackets." "Chaney, the one in the middle, did time with Talling." "Guys were prepped, lawyered up as soon as we got bracelets on them." "Yeah, we got a death penalty here." "You tell Robin we wanna cut a deal." "COLBY:" "It's in the works." "Gonna take time." "DAVID:" "We have rape, kidnappings, now two murders." "This guy's gotta be rolling up his operations by now." "And we're skipping ahead." "So Joey Herman screws up, he kills him, replaces him." "Zach Talling goes down, powers through the guys he's got left." "All right, changes up his M.O., ramps up the timetable, only makes contact by phone." "I mean, he's smart, but I don't see him going this far and not getting paid." "AMITA:" "There is no indication of intrusion into the system." "SPIDER's administrators changed their codes, locked back doors." "It could take days, weeks even, to find a new way in." " But he could still be watching?" " Passively, sure." "So alpha dog sees every ATM reorder in the city." "AMITA:" "The country." "A real-time shopping list for armoured car robberies." "Hey, what...?" "I got the visitor's badge." "Jimmy walked me over." "These are for you." " How's it going, guys?" " Thanks." "And SPIDER is an independently owned and operated programme." "No clearance issue there." "I can tell you that the ATM kidnappings are a way to map into the programme by locating known transactions." "A back door we mentioned to the programmers two years ago..." "All right, stop, come on." "You can't." " You can't do this." "CHARLIE:" "No, I can help." "All right, McGowan can go to hell if he doesn't get that." " You don't understand the politics..." " I'm beginning to." "You have a guy who's kidnapped and murdered and facilitated rape." "He's smart, he's gonna do it again." "If it were you, would you let the rules get in the way of stopping him?" "[CHUCKLES]" "CHARLIE:" "Let's do this." "He's gonna move fast, he's gonna hit once in the next day or two." "If he can put together another crew that fast, right?" "Maybe he already has one." "Herman was the only high-end guy." "Maybe that's why he brought in Talling." "After losing Joey Herman, he wasn't willing to risk any more of his real talent." "Why risk Herman on the kidnapping in the first place?" "He's probably running his own version of a scheduling algorithm." "Computers use them to weigh the duration or difficulty of certain tasks against the system's resources, then allocate them." "You know, your alpha dog has finite resources." "Weapons, money, vehicles, manpower." "Now, some resources can be used for more than one job and others only have one function." "Because time is his greatest enemy, he's gonna try to schedule his tasks for maximum efficiency so that no resource sits idle if it doesn't have to." "All right, so..." "Interesting thing about scheduling algorithms is no one's come up with a perfect one yet." "No, there are thousands, the Smith Rule, the O2, the Beam Search." "Any programmer can design one, test it and name it." "CHARLIE:" "Just like a programmer's design or a guitarist's signature riff or a painter's brushstroke, a scheduling algorithm is the expression of a unique mind." "It not only shows us the choices that have been made, but it hints at the choices to come." "How he'll play that next chord, what brush strokes will follow." "MAN:" "Faster." "Come on, go." "[TYRES SCREECH]" "MAN:" "Where's the money?" " Get down on the ground." "FBI." "Don't move, get down!" "AGENT 1 [OVER RADIO]:" "Move in." "AGENT 2:" "Get your hands up." " Drop your weapon." "AGENT 1:" "Team 1 are due in." "AGENT 3:" "Let me see your hands." "AGENT 1:" "All units, stand down." "Suspects in custody, over." "How did it go?" "You should've been there." "Bullets flying, cars crashing." "[PHONE RINGING]" "FBI, Betancourt." "Look, one minute, please." "[PHONE BEEPING]" "So how long am I in trouble for?" "Well, um, pre-therapy Don, I'd think about three months, easy." " You got post-therapy Don." " Yeah, I bet ten weeks, 11 tops." "Listen, figure out how to forward the calls to the switchboard and we'll take you out for a beer." "[SIGHS]" "[KNOCKING ON DOOR]" " Hey." " Hey, Don." "I didn't think you came up to the 11th floor without an ADIC directive." "I wanted to talk to you about Charlie, if that's okay." "No kidding." "But I think it would be better if we wait for the formal interview." "I'm not here to defend him or anything, but what the guy does for us..." "A lot of people could do." "Not as well, maybe, but maybe more reliably." "Yeah, Carl, you've been out of the field a long time." "And you've been in it a long time." "Meaning?" "Just because it isn't papered doesn't mean I don't know about it." "Some questionable tactics, bureau-mandated therapy." "One of your agents quitting her job, now this thing with your brother." "I kind of have to wonder what the hell is going on down there." "Well, an 85 percent clearance rate..." "By any means necessary, because that's the Eppes way." "Don't think I didn't hear about you and your brother playing cute with the rules today and last week." "But the rules are for everyone else, aren't they?" "Hey, you know, Carl, you wanna come after me, fine, come after me." "But just don't make it about my brother, okay?" "Nothing's ever about one thing, Don." "If you can't see that, maybe that's where the problem begins." "I could write." "Yeah." "My publisher's been bothering me to do a follow-up book anyway, so..." "[SCOFFS]" "You hated every minute of it." "Not every minute." "Yesterday when you and Larry left me to go work on that case," "I felt like when I was a little kid and I..." "I stayed home sick from school." "AMITA:" "Hmm." "I always liked sick days." "Game shows, soap operas, chicken soup." "Chicken soup?" "Really?" "Yeah, really." "[AMITA CHUCKLES]" "You've worked with Don for four years, Charlie." "You know, of course it's gonna feel a bit weird." "Yeah." "I used to..." "I've always looked at my work for the FBI as an avocation." "You know, an occasional detour from the grand destiny that people have been predicting for me since I was 7 years old." "I even suspected that it was my excuse for not fulfilling that destiny." "I honestly never thought I'd miss it so much." "You're gonna get your clearance back." "I know."