"She couldn't do that again." "We go ahead!" "Pi, Pi, Pi, Pi, we got the heat Pi, Pi, Pi, Pi, can't be beat!" "Gentlemen." "Driver of a Jeep, licence LY46757, your lights are on," "All right!" " Where are you going?" " I left my lights on." "Hey!" " You're a really good bowler." " Gee, thanks." "That's, like, the nicest thing anyone's ever said to me." "Hey..." "Did you move my car?" "OK, greatjoke, Nick." "Come on, where are my keys?" "Nick..." "Nick?" "Boo!" "Nick!" " Help me!" "Some guy just attacked us!" " Where?" "He's right there." "This is the most recent footage of the victim, Taylor Watts." "It was taken in August, just before she was getting ready to go off to college at William and Mary, where she was a well-liked freshman." "Now, I don't need to tell you that this one is different, people." "This is family." "Peter." "First, I know that you have all been pulled off pressing assignments." "My wife and I thank you." "A fellow student, Nick Carfagna, was the sole witness." "He's been cleared of any involvement, but provided a description of the kidnapper." "It's on the last page of your fact sheets." "There's not much to go on." "He wore a mask of the type issued to the troops in Kuwait, now widely available at surplus." "The crime scene was equally nonproductive." "Slide, please." "No useful prints were developed from the car." "Fibre evidence was inconclusive." "No footprints were developed." "It's been 16 hours since she was taken." "We have not heard from the kidnappers." "That's all I have." "Let's get her back." "Hollis." "The man's daughter has been abducted." " I understand that." " Well, I don't appreciate your attitude." "With all respect, I think it's naive to talk about Taylor Watts like she's some co-ed that got taken by chance." "You know something that we don't?" "Sir, the Millennium Group was not mentioned." " Or their enemies." "Now..." " You and Frank..." "Where is Frank?" "If it were my daughter, I'd want him on this case." "Why doesn't Watts?" "Frank declined to become involved." "I'm sorry about your daughter." "I know Taylor, It's a terrible thing," "They told me you refused to help." "It didn't sound like you." " You believe she was actually kidnapped?" " Don't you?" "With Watts involved, I don't know what to believe." "Well, they took her." "They took her right from here." "They?" "The witness described a single attacker." "Doubtful." "Not with Taylor Watts." "It was planned." "A precise operation." "Do you think she's still alive?" "Considering the amount of energy they expended to get her, the one thing we can be sure of is that she's alive." "Don't hurt me, please!" "Please don't hurt me!" "What do you want?" "I can get money!" "Help me!" "No!" "Help me!" "What are you doing to me?" "No!" "Ow!" "Please stop!" "Please!" "You're hurting me!" "Please try to relax." "This is kinda uncomfortable for me, but I'm gonna have to ask you the same questions I'd ask any father in this situation." "Everything OK at home?" "We're a very close family." "Uh..." "What about boyfriends, ex-boyfriend?" "Just what's on the fact sheet." "I interviewed them all." "You're welcome to try that, too." "What about the Millennium Group?" "Cases that you've worked?" "The Group's investigating those possibilities." "It would help if we had a list of members." "I don't disagree with you, but there are issues with that." " You know, policy." " This is your daughter's life." "Can't somebody make an exception?" "McClaren." "OK, good." "Highway patrol found the car used in the abduction." "It's clean." " What's that smell?" " The odour of spectramaldehyde." " A spectracide disinfectant." " Destroying genetic evidence." " Maybe he was just trying to protect himself." " From what?" "They switched cars." "A second vehicle was here, away from the light." "Here's a tyre track." "Boot print." "The cavalry." "We're still on scene." "We'll let you know when we're ready." "Copy," "Forget it's Watts for a moment." "Just think high-risk target." "Difficult location." "Elaborate planning." "It's a textbook case." " Kidnap for ransom." " So what's missing?" "The ransom demand." "Communication from the kidnappers." "No, they've got communication." "We just haven't seen it." "What kind of father..." "You know what kind." "Frank?" "Are you planning to let me know what you make of all this?" " Sins of the father." " Based on what?" "There's not one single fact that points in that direction." "Peter didn't ask you in on this, did he?" "You didn't hear about it from him." "We were notified originally by the local PD." "So what?" "He didn't ask for our help because he doesn't want it." "Now look, Frank..." "I was very happy that you were working on this on your own." "But you got to tell me, are you in or are you out?" "I can't have you sniping from the sidelines." "You're looking for possibly two men." "Military or police training, high IQ." "They feel they're on a mission." "At war, even." "And that warrants a high degree of personal risk." "What kind of mission?" "I don't know yet." "Well, you're right about the military part." "That tyre tread you pointed us to?" "It was only sold at military PXs." "So was the boot." "I've got agents digging through receipts at 42 bases, trying to make a match." " I think we can narrow it down further." " How?" "They bought a large quantity of a disinfectant known as spectramaldehyde." "FBI!" "Put up your hands!" "Put up your hands and turn around!" "Now!" "Damn." "David Cougar, Gulf War vet, Fifth Special Forces Group." "He was one of the abductors." "The boots match." "He was tortured." "Electrical shock, fingernails removed, both corneas ruptured." "Execution wound point blank to the back of the head." "We've seen this before." "Now look, the dead guy in there, David Cougar, fits your profile to a T." "He's military, Desert Storm, spent time in a psych ward when he got back." "But his partner's the sick one." "He got Cougar to help him grab the Watts girl, then rewarded him like that." "I'm not sure the other kidnapper did this." "Excuse me." "Shot point blank to the back of the head." "Just like the skulls in Maine." "It's a Millennium Group execution." "The head shot's gratuitous, given everything else they did to him." "It's a sign for members who arrive." "Behave accordingly." " Think we'll find anything in there?" " No evidence." "That scene is severe by anyone's standards." "The Group is getting desperate about it." "Whatever it is." "Please." "My father will do whatever you want." "Just call him." "He'll pay anything." "I know it." "He already said no." "I'm sorry, but that's what happened." " What do you mean?" " He said... no." "He's your father." "Maybe you understand it." "No." "I don't." "Who are you?" "Let me talk to him." "He'll listen to me." "He'll pay it." "I know he will!" "I don't want money." "I want the truth." "About what he does, about the people he works with." "What are you talking about?" "You wouldn't believe it unless you heard it from his mouth." "No one would." "Which, unfortunately, makes all of this necessary." "Please!" "I don't understand." "I never thought it would go this far." "That a father would do this." "I never wanted to kill anyone." "Sergeant David Cougar was one of two kidnappers who abducted Taylor Watts." "We identified and located Cougar too late, after he had been tortured and killed by his partner." "A profile of that partner is in your briefing packets, supplied by the Millennium Group." "He's impulsive but intelligent." "He has periods of lucidity interrupted by psychotic breaks." " Presumably, during one such break, he..." " He didn't kill his partner." "Who did, then?" " Ask that man." "Ask Peter Watts." " All right, that's enough, Frank." "The Group got there before us." "Anything you think you learned, they planted there." "I said, that's enough." "Hollis." "David Cougar," "I can't believe he was murdered." "After all he went through." " In Desert Storm?" " Oh, and afterwards." "Each war has its own syndrome." "World War II, it was shell shock." "Vietnam was post-traumatic stress disorder." "The Gulf War gave us, uh... paranoia, I guess." "Veterans were obsessed with disease." "They thought they were being poisoned." " Had they?" " Who knows?" "It's a psych ward." "But a lot of them thought so." " Other than Cougar?" " He was mild compared to some in his group." "And he got better." "He stopped coming, even for outpatients, about a year ago." "I can't believe that he took that girl." "Quite likely he was involved with someone from his group." "Do you have any files?" "We're the government." "Of course we have files." " What are you looking for?" " High intelligence, special training." "He wouldn't be infantry." "Oh, this isn't checked out." "All the records are just gone." "Eric Swan." "Do you know him?" "Oh, yeah." "He's the talk-show king." "He ran up a major phone bill here in the office, telling everyone the truth about Desert Storm." " Do you have an address on him?" " It should be there." "She's your daughter, Peter." "They don't even have a name for what you're doing." "I'm doing everything I can to get her back." "You think we're not trying?" " We took a big hit when you left." " Don't flatter me." " It's true." " You don't even know the truth any more." "What do they want?" "How many times have you talked to them?" "Their demands are never gonna be met." " Never be met by you, her father?" " Not by me." "By the Group." "Desert Storm." "Is that what this is about?" "What's the Group's involvement?" " Group intelligence kept casualties down to..." " Another lie!" "Then stop asking me questions you know I can't answer!" "You know I can't!" "Will you help me find her?" " That's what I've been doing." " But I'm asking you." "They can't know about it." "The Group can't know." "Will you help me?" "Yes, I will." "I got two photographs." "This came yesterday." "I was heartened." "She looked OK." "This came today." "What's this?" "What is this canister?" "Judging from her condition, she has no more than 36 hours to live." " So this is our guy, huh?" " He worked closely with Cougar." "They spent time together in a psych ward at Walter Reed." "Both were obsessed by biological agents they said were used in Desert Storm." "Swan wrote letters, called in to radio talk shows." "Then he stopped talking." "Good God." " What did he do to her?" " She's been infected with a biological agent." "I don't think we have much time." " Where'd you get this?" " It was delivered to Walter Reed." "So, what does he want?" "Somebody to tell his story?" "He told his story, no one listened." "He wants a confession from the people responsible." "For what?" "Some figment of his imagination?" "No, the same people that killed his partner." "There's a reason he chose Taylor Watts." " So what do you suggest we do?" " He used to call into Art Bell's talk show." "It's conspiracy stuff, a forum for people like Swan." "He called in dozens of times under the name Thomas Paine." "If he's still listening, I think we can get him to talk." "To call in." "And then trace it?" "We don't have much else to go on now." "Peter Watts is her father." "He stays in the loop." "Watts can work the trace van with me." "From the high desert in the great American Southwest," "I'm Art Bell and this is Coast to Coast AM Live, where you never know what's gonna happen next - except, perhaps, right now." "And you're clear." "Mr Black, you know, a lot of my listeners consider you the enemy." " Me?" " FBI, NSA, CIA." "Government." "I let 'em talk." "That doesn't mean I agree with them." " Sometimes I agree with them." " Back in five, Art." "Well, hello." "I see in the news that Saddam is back." "And before the war machine of the Great Satan - that would be us - begins rolling and mowing down Iraqis," "I'd like to take, I think, a moment to think about what happened last time," "Our guys, Remember our guys?" "Sick, poisoned, victims of chemical warfare, biotoxins - a lot of people say our own," "Or were they?" "I wanna hear from you, 888-555-0111, Call toll-free from anywhere in the greatest country in the world," " Chuck from Cincinnati, you're on the air." " Uh, yeah, Hey, listen," "I was an MP in Kuwait, I've heard all this flap about Gulf War syndrome, You know what?" "Seems like it always comes from someone with their hand out," " Are you saying nothing happened?" " Something happened," "Some yahoo figured out free money and started whining," "Let's hear what some other listeners have to say." "Line 4, Thomas Paine, you're on the air." "Some of us never asked for a cent." "Good to have you back, It's been a while," "I've been wondering what happened." "I've been pretty busy." "OK, a lot of guys never saw anything weird in Desert Storm..." "It's a mobile phone in the DC area." "I have cell information." "Covers an area of about 11 square miles." " What do you know?" " February 25, 1991." "Ground war's well underway." "We're on some mop-up assignment." "Not a lot of Saddam's armour left, so who do we fire on?" "Friendly-fire accidents are well documented." "This is not some accident, not some mistake." "This was premeditated." "Totally, totally deliberate," " How far?" " South." "I'm tracking..." "Other countries make biological weapons." "We say we don't." "Does anybody believe that?" "And these weapons we supposedly don't make," "After you've taken out a bunch of half-starved Iraqis, won't you want to test them on some real soldiers?" "Fully inoculated, in state-of-the-art gear?" "The best fighting force in the world, under actual combat conditions." "That's what they had, and that's what they did." " Who did?" " I did!" "OK?" "The coordinates came in, and an order to fire." "I loaded the shell." "I launched it." "We're getting close." "The next day, they denied anything ever happened." "But I found them." "A whole platoon dead in a medical tent." "Then they said the Iraqis did it." "But I know." "I was 19." "They gave me the coordinates, and I followed orders." "Thomas Paine, are you there?" "I pulled the trigger." "So don't anybody tell me it didn't happen." "Frank, we're closing in, but you've got to keep him on the air." "Thomas, I believe you." "In the studio I have Frank Black." " Who are you?" " They did the same thing in this country." "I'm talking about something that actually happened in Kuwait to American soldiers." "And I'm talking about the death of my wife." "Yellowing skin, purple lesions, bleeding out in the Northwest last year with 70 other people, OK?" "So don't tell me that never happened." "Because I'm tired of it." "I'm tired." "I'm tired of not knowing what killed her." "Microplasma flavivirus." "That's what they call it." "They'll screw you up with denials." "Don't be pushed into something you shouldn't do, because if you do, they've got you right where they want you." "Now, we're listening." "I'm done talking." "Thomas, are you there?" "Thomas?" "Thomas?" "Now they have to talk." "They have to." "They have to admit what they've done." "Who?" "The army?" "That's who I thought at first, but that wasn't them." "Who?" "Who does what the government can't do?" "They know who they are." "And they'll admit it," "If they're human, they'll admit it." "You can't count on others." "You know that." "I can hear in your voice you're a decent man," "What you say you did..." "What I did." "What you did in Kuwait, that doesn't make you a killer." " Don't do this," " They have the antidote now." "How do you know?" "I just know." "Believe me, I know." " I'm in trouble." " Then you can stop this," "You have the truth on your side, Thomas." "That's not everything." "We both know that." "But it's something." "Right here." "We got him." "Don't let them win, Thomas." "Don't let them win." "A relay." "The call was forwarded." "We lost him when we opened the door." "I'm sorry." "He wasn't about to let that call be traced." "It was retransmitted four times, finally by CB radio in Silver Spring." " How large an area would this reach?" " Virginia, Maryland..." "Millions of homes." "They're trying to narrow it down, but it'll take days." "We don't have days." "I was with Peter Watts when we got to that house and his daughter wasn't there." " This is destroying him." " I know." "So why won't he talk?" "The Millennium Group." " We have no idea what he's going through." " He's her father." "Swan wanted to talk." "As long as Taylor's alive, I've got to believe that we can reach him." "His toxin, he called it microplasma flavivirus." "Already checked it out." "They say it doesn't exist." "For Swan, it exists." "And maybe for others." "Please talk to me." "I heard what you said on the phone." "Is it true?" "Yes." "But it's not my father." "It can't be." "It is." "The Millennium Group who he works with." "It's what they did." "It's what he did." "It's not." "The Internet's Conspiracy Central." "His posts as Thomas stopped six months ago, when he stopped calling Art Bell." " You think he's still posting?" " Not publicly." "But there are a number of private mailing lists devoted to conspiracy topics." "Subscribers to every private mailing list that's discussed microplasma flavivirus." "A lot of patriotic pseudonyms." " More than one Thomas Paine." " There." "He subscribes to lists on Desert Storm, germ warfare, black ops..." "He's got a local address and telephone number." "In range of the repeater." "We gotta get there before the Group does." " News?" " Could be." "Excuse me." " Stop right there, or I'll kill her." " It's Frank Black." " Don't come any closer," " I can help you." "I want to help." "I don't need help." "I need the truth." "Listen, I know what they've done to you, I know other things they've done," "But you don't wanna kill that girl, You don't want her to die," "Eric," "Are you there?" "How do you know?" "How do you know what they've done?" "I know because I was once one of them, until I found out what they are," "Why haven't you told anyone?" "I've tried," "No one listens." "We can make them." "We can do it together." "I'll protect you from them." " I'm coming in," " No!" "I got a gun!" "Look, I'm coming in." "I'm unarmed." "You know I'm on your side." "I think we can make them talk." "Frank." " They'll be here soon." " Listen..." "Eric, are you all right?" "Watts!" "Watts!" " We'll take it from here." " It's an FBI crime scene." "I order you to leave." " That's my daughter in there!" " Eric, are you there?" " What's happening?" " You missed." "Is that her father?" "Is it?" "You tell him she's dying!" "Get outta here!" "Leave!" "I got the antidote right here." "And she's dying!" "Got it?" "It's up to him." "Vector 83.2, range 1200 yards." "We delivered those coordinates to you through extramilitary channels, with an order to fire." "You challenged it." "That challenge was noted and recorded under Article 15, document number BX732, dated 25 February, 1991," "I want my daughter back." "Bless us, Lord, for these thy gifts which we are about to receive from thy bounty," "And thank you, Lord, for Taylor, whom you returned to us safe and sound in answer to our prayers," "In these troubled times, please show us the way." "And forgive us... our many trespasses." "Amen." "Amen." "Daddy?" "It's true, isn't it?" "What that man said." "I made this!"