"Xylella fastidiosa." "In Brazil, it's responsible for the destruction of over 34 % of the citrus crop." "Isn't Brazil a little out of our jurisdiction?" "It is." "Florida isn't." "Salvador Charringa has over 10,000 acres of citrus groves" " outside Miami..." " The same Salvador Charringa who openly admits he helped finance the Bay of Pigs." "He lost a lot when he was exiled by Castro." "10,000 acres of Florida oranges:" " looks like he landed on his feet." " Not quite." "This is what 1,500 of those acres looked like as of last week." "Charringa's scientists are claiming it's a biologically engineered form of the bacterium and the only cure for it is to kill the patient." "What are we talking about?" "Agricultural terrorism?" "A little over 2 months ago, 3 teenagers where caught in Charringa's grove." "They admitted taking money to release a dozen crates of an insect called a leafhopper into his" " Could you be more specific?" " More specific?" " It was a sharpshooter leafhopper." " Oh, that makes sense." "What makes sense?" "Well it explains why the bacterium is spreading so fast." "See, the X. fastidiosa bacterium multiplies in the foregut of the sharpshooter." "Then they spread it from tree to tree where it multiplies again and then other sharpshooters pick it up and they pass it on to other trees..." "Did those kids say who paid them?" "Quote. "Old Cuban dudes with bad breath and real shiny shoes." End quote." "That sounds pretty thin, Connor." "Charringa made it thick enough to convince the US." "to demand an inspection of Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology." " And?" " It came up clean." "So what's the problem?" "The US has insisted upon looking at 7 other suspected labs." "And Cuba doesn't want to play along anymore." "They're claiming the old labs are nothing but empty shells." "According to some experts," "Florida could be on the verge of a plague of biblical proportions." "We'd like to know if it's God's will or Fidel's?" "2.06" " Our Men in Havana" "In 1936, there was Dora Maar, she was a photographer." "And in 1943, there was Françoise Gilot, she was a..." "She was a painter." "Then there was Jacqueline Roque." "Picasso changed his women as often as he changed his painting styles." "So what are you saying, that if you had left mom you would have been as great as Picasso?" "Is that it?" "I'm just saying that the right woman can be inspiring." "Jesus." "Did you ever love her?" "You want soup?" "No." "Picasso was a showman, you know?" "Dad, look, I made some phone calls..." "He knew how to sell the world all that crap he was painting." "It's all a big show." "I know you'd never want to move out of here so..." "Dad?" " What are you looking for?" " Bowls!" "She keeps moving things around." " Aren't you having any?" " No!" "Look, I want you to..." "I want you to meet with a care giver, all right?" "A what?" "You know, someone to help you out around here." "Why the hell would I need that?" " What's that?" " It's me." " Hey." " How is it going, David?" "Oh, have you got a pandemic or something to amuse me with?" "Look, I know you don't need me calling you right now." "No, I need you to call me right now." "Well, we have a problem in Florida, possibly bioterrorism." " What are you doing?" " I'm on the phone." "Oh, Jesus." "No, not you." "Sorry." "So..." "What is, uh..." "Is Carlos down there already?" "Yeah, but I like you to go down as soon as you can." "Ok, well I can be down there" " first thing tomorrow morning." " Oh, that's great, thank you." "Bye." "Good." "I'm glad he's on board." "What's your take on this, Connor?" "The US is a nation of sheep, Caroline." "Herded by a President who feels" ""ordained" to stop terrorist acts at any cost." "He wouldn't hesitate to drive his herd over a cliff" " if it served his purpose." " God bless America." "I'm... under a lot of pressure from Homeland Security to get this resolved." "Call me anytime, Caroline." "Sure you don't want any soup?" "No." "Me neither." "Why did you do it then?" " I'm going to give it to him." " No you're not." "David, I'm not going to let you do this." "You don't understand, your father can't survive without us." "I don't care." "Yeah, hey, Lilith." "Do you even check your messages?" "Because this is like, the fifteenth one from me." "I'm not nagging, I'm just..." "Call me, ok?" "I want to talk to you about putting a bullet in my head when I get old." "I'm thinking a .38, back of the right ear," "But if you want to go Kurt Cobain on me, that's fine." "You're nuts." "Gotta go." " Where is she?" " Who, Lilith?" "No, your..." "Never mind..." "Let's go back in the house, Dad." "Who's that?" "Oh, I called an assisted care service." "And what do I need that for?" "Just someone to have around the house and make things easier... for you." "Dad..." "I'd like you to meet Charlotte Whenning." "Oh, Charlie's ok." "Hello, Mr. Sandstrom." "I'm sorry to hear about your wife." "Oh, why?" "You didn't know her." "Dad, come on." "Be nice." "Charlotte's here to help." "How?" "How are you going to help me?" "Well, I can cook 3 square meals, pick up, and I stuff a pretty mean pipe." "Well, I don't need anyone to stuff my pipe." "OK, so she won't stuff your pipe." "Come on Dad, this'll be good." "What else can you do?" "As much or as little as you want me to." "All right, now I want to have a bath." "Sure." "You have trouble getting in the tub?" "No." "He's Swedish." " Simon, I thought you went back to London." " You know, they're very reluctant to let you leave the country when you lose your passport." "You lost your passport?" "It's ok." "Not the first time." "I'll have another one in a couple of days." "How are you doing?" "Well, actually, if you have 2 minutes," "I have a friend who is in a persistent vegetative state." "That's tough." "He's 18 now." "Had a stroke while he was running." "He lost all higher cerebral power, but he still maintains sleep/wake cycles and full hypothalamic and brain stem autonomic functions." "Ok." "What about visual, auditory, tactile stimuli?" "Well, it's unusual." "Because... when I talk to him, sometimes he responds." " How do you mean?" " He moves his foot." "I mean, he doesn't do it every time I talk to him, but sometimes." "Bob, PVS patients don't do that." "So, he's either been misdiagnosed, or he's progressed toward emergence." "Yeah." "In England, we've been experimenting with MRI to track brain activity in mimimally conscious patients." "Results are inconclusive, but I would bet my last pound that some of those people can hear and understand." "See, that's what I think." "I think he's closer to the surface than we thought." " I'd really like to see your results." " Oh yeah, yeah." "I'll e-mail you my study." "But listen..." "I wouldn't get your hopes up, you know." "This stuff is way off the map." "I know." "But that's exactly where you have to go if you want to find a miracle." "It's ok." "It's ok." "So the last report indicates the bacterium has spread to neighboring groves." "Close to 1,700 acres." "You know, David, I can review the research down here by myself" " if you like." " Oh no." "It's fine." "You know, I never understood why my mother stayed with my father." "She never told me." "I don't think he'll ever be able to." "Does it really matter why she stayed?" "It all matters, Carlos." "It all fits together." "It all fits together, somehow." "I think we're here." "Yes, we are always aggressive when it comes to protecting a billion dollar industry." "You've read our report haven't you?" " Of course." " Then you are aware that we are not dealing with a known strain of the Xylella fastidiosa bacterium." "According to your research that's what it appears." "You say that as if our research is not credible." "I'm sorry, no." "I didn't mean to discredit your" "Please!" "I understand the severity of your accusation." "No, no, no." "It's good to get a second, third, fourth opinion." "But I don't believe the science will change." "I am not suggesting it will." "So tell me:" "why this is any business of some..." "Canadian Biology Lab?" "Let me take a crack at that one." " David..." " No, no, no." "It's a good question." "You see Hernando, some people with cooler heads get it cooler." "They just want to make sure that if Georgie boy is going to drop 400 megatons of shit on a country that that country is actually responsible for what they're accused of." "So far, I'd say he's oh for one." "This way." "This way." "Come on, Glenn, you're falling behind." "We're almost there." "We've got to get to the top." " Faster, Glenn, come on." " Ok, stop." "All right, again." "Why are you stopping Glenn?" "I'm way up here on top of the hill." "I'm running down now Glenn." "There's Caroline." "You recognize her, don't you?" "I'm going to beat you to her." "Catch me if you can." "Ok." "Look fine." "Stop." "It's pretty likely a response." "I know." "He can hear me, can't he?" "It does seem more than random, yeah, but..." "I don't want to get ahead of ourselves." "Ok, so I've looked into the Cognitive Stimulation Program, and the Traumatic Brain Injury Project, and I've talked to people at the Centre for Neuro Skills in Texas and California..." " Ok, Bob" " They're all very interesting programs but I just don't know what is best for Glenn, and I thought looking at your, which is impressive and inspiring that you might be able to point me in the right direction." "Tell me what to do!" "What's the best thing I can do for Glenn?" "Bob!" "These things take a little time." "I know." "I understand." "I mean, will his parents be willing to volunteer him?" "His parents are gone." "Caroline is his legal guardian." "Caroline Morrison?" "I think that's probably where we start." "Fuck!" "What?" "Here you go." "A fucking empire of dirt in the gut of a leafhopper." "Just where Charringa's scientists said it would be." "You think we're being set up?" "What do you mean?" "I mean, Charringa and the White House start a little conspiracy, go after Castro..." "So Charringa infests his own groves with fastidiosa, claims it's done by the Cubans" " to justify the invasion of Cuba." " Yeah, what do you think?" "That's insane." "He will destroy everything he has." "You're right." "Maybe I've just been hanging out with too many crazy old men lately." "Let's take it apart." "I've got to go, Connor." "Thanks for calling." "Bye bye." "Yeah?" "David and Carlos called." "They have nothing to report." "Well actually, they won't report anything until they have finished their investigation in Florida." " What is that about?" "I don't know." "They weren't really talking." "All right." "I want to talk to David." "McGuinn is leaning on us and I need some answers." "All right, I'll give it a try." "Hi Bob." " Simon?" " Hello." "Caroline, I know you wanted to keep this between us but I guess the only reason I got involved is because I saw you and you allowed me to get involved but I wanted more." "So, I asked Simon if he could help me and he said some very good things, that I think might help us." " It's all right Bob." " But I didn't want to say anything until I knew that Simon could help us." " Help us?" " Stimulate Glenn's brain." " Oh Bob..." " Caroline, listen to Simon... please." "All right." "Sit down." "Caroline..." "I don't want to mislead you in any way." "I believe that Glenn is in a minimally-conscious state and that he can and is responding to outside stimuli." "Ok Simon, I know your work." "I respect you as a scientist." "But..." "Do you really think there is hope?" "There's a glimmer." "And that's enough for most neuroscientists to want to take things further." "Ok, tell me." "Ok." "We're getting some motor reactions when Bob talks to him about running." "I tell him stories and his foot moves." "He's trying to run." "Ok, and the first thing would be to boost that stimuli." "And this is where you would come in." "But more tests... to what end?" "I mean, Simon, do you really believe..." "Do you really believe Glenn could wake up?" "One step at a time." "Ok, we both agree this is a completely new strain of fastidiosa, right?" "But not necessarily engineered." "Right." "But the closest match to it is a strain that comes out of Cuba." "So?" "David I cannot..." "I won't say with 100% certainty, that it came from there." "Two million gene sequences on the NCBI database." "But it's not an identical match." "Well, it's going to be enough evidence for the Americans." "Fuck!" "What are we going to tell Caroline?" "I'm not sure." "We tell her what we know, we're pretty much putting the bullets in that gun aimed at Fidel." "Look, if they want us to find out exactly what's in those Cuban labs, we're going to have to inspect them." "If they'll let us." "How much time we got?" "Little over 48 hours." "Peachy." "Wrong fruit." "Buenos tardes mis amigo de NorBac." "Charringa?" "I think so." "Ven por favor." "Acompaname a cenar." "I think he just invited us to supper." "General Batista was never the answer." "He had his own agenda dictated by the US." "But Castro, that was an abysmal alternative." "Uh, Senor Charringa do you really think that Castro is behind this plague in your orange groves?" "I was there when Camilo and Che lead their guerrilla columns into Havana." "When my land, my family's land, was expropriated and turned into state farms." "When my very own sister, stripped our bank accounts to support that mad man." "Fifteen thousand machine guns that's what 5 generations of Charringa blood and sweat, and pride were reduced to." "Tu mujer y tu hija son muy vacas." "I hope your knowledge of science is better than your Spanish." "David, you just referred to his wife and daughter, hmm... as cows." "Pretty." "Pretty, pretty." "Ah..." "Guapas." " Muy Grappas." " Gua-pas." "Guapas." "Muy guapas." "Dr. Sandstrom and I are not convinced that the bacterium was manufactured." "That's absurd." "Or you know, maybe it is man-made." "Maybe it was man-made." "Sent over to destroy your oranges and ruin you as a million dollar citrus supplier." "Billion dollar." "Billion dollar citrus supplier." "In that case, should Castro be avenged?" "I didn't say Castro was behind this." "I think you did." "But to your point:" "if he is behind this?" "Sure." "Drop all the bombs on him you want if it'll make you feel better." "It would." "You'll have one dead 80 year old revolutionary and he will still have destroyed a billion dollar citrus crop." " Your point?" " Who cares where the bacteria came from." "Wouldn't it be better to figure out how to get rid of it?" "I care where it came from." "Yeah, come in." "Well apparently, the Cubans are open to David and Carlos going." "So let's send them before they change their minds." "I will, Connor." " Hey." " Hi." " What's up?" " Look..." "I know it's none of my business, but is everything OK with you and Bob?" " Yeah, everything's fine." " Yeah?" " Yeah." " Ok." "This just arrived." "Thought I'd bring it up to you." "Thanks." "So... is there anything we can do to help you with, uh..." " Whatever." " Yeah, whatever." "I'm fine." " Ok." "Yep." " Of course you are." "I'm sorry." "Yeah." "Ok." "Hey guys." "You want to sit down for a couple of minutes?" "Glenn was born with an enlarged heart." "His father had the same kind of heart and he died when Glenn was barely a year old." "He was your sister's only child?" "Yeah." "I was half way across the world on a job for N.A.T.O." "when Glenn collapsed at a track meet." "It was a complication with his heart." "A clot hit his brain." "It was really tough for Meg." "She'd just been diagnosed with cancer and she went downhill from that day on." "But I promised her I would take care of him and I didn't..." "I just don't know how." "You must be going through hell." "Yeah." "Thank you for... making me talk about it." "I don't do that enough." " Well, is there anything that we can do?" " No." "Meg believed that... one day a miracle would happen and she would see her baby run again." "Maybe, I don't know, maybe... we can make it happen." "Ellos son los inspectores de NorBAC." "Mucho gracias." "Hola." "Doctore Eva Ramone." "Director del Instituto para la Investigación Biológica." " How do you do?" " Hola." "Doctor Carlos Serrano." "North American Biotechnology Advisory Commission." "David Sandstrom." "So this is the lab we're supposed to inspect?" "Yes." "One of them." "This used to be a state of the art lab, until all our funds were diverted for our vaccine effort." "Podrian esperar afuera." "No hay suficiente espacio para todos adentro de mi oficina." "Por favore, please." "Back in 1998, 5 of our agriculture labs were working on the fastidiosa bacterium, because it was attacking our sugar cane crop." "President Castro visited us in this lab to congratulate us for our efforts in eradicating the bacterium." "This is the fastidiosa bacterium." "B-F 1998C." "This is the one from the NCBI data base?" "Yes." "You have a sample of the fastidiosa bacterium from the orange grove?" " Yes, we do." " Very well." "Please, if you believe we have engineered it into a more virulent strain, you should have everything you need to compare the samples." "Thank you." "Let's get to work." "There's nothing growing on the trimethoprim or the kanamycin." "It's a nice comparative antibiotic susceptibility except with the chloramphenicol." "Is it enough to call off the dogs?" "It's enough to prove that whatever brought us here isn't the same as what's in those orange groves in Florida." "This Laboratorio Bioquímico." "Can we see it next?" "Of course." "You will be very disappointed." "The lab is right now a warehouse for sugar cane." "We still need to see it." "Would you like to meet the ex-director of the lab?" "That might be helpful." "I can make arrangements for tomorrow." "Any chance we can do it without them?" "Do you have a problem with authority, Dr. Sandstrom?" "Uh, it's David, and yes I do." "Let's see what I can do." "He's a what?" "A tennis coach for the tourists." "And he's almost as good at that as he is at yeast biology." "PhD?" "Why isn't he in a lab?" "He is." "He works at the National Biopreparations Center," "He's a lab assistant." "He's a PhD in yeast biology and he's a lab assistant." "We have only very limited resources and limited positions but he's hoping for a promotion soon." "In the meantime, he rhumbas." "Do you see the redhead at the bar?" "Yeah." "Probably one of the best microbiologists I've ever worked with." "Really?" "She's has a beauty parlor in La Bodeguita." " FIN PARTIE 2" "Enrico!" " Como está usted?" " Muy bien, y tu?" "Muy bien." "Gracias." "David, I would like to introduce you to Dr. Enrico Castillo," " David Sandstrom." " Doctor..." " It's a great honor to meet you." " You didn't have to dress up." "Oh, this." "Oh, well, I'm sorry." "I just finished work." "I deal blackjack at the Hotel Nacional." "Eva was telling me all about your investigation." " Is it going well?" " So far so good, I guess." "As I understand it you are looking for a strain of Xylella fastidiosa bacterium." "A form of it, yes." "And a vector to spread it." "You claim it's a leafhopper." "No?" "Well, that's what we found in Florida." "The truth is that this leafhopper," "Homalodisca coagulata, we did have a problem with in the late 80's." "But I led the team to eradicate it." "Oh..." "Well, maybe they're back." "Possible." "But, oh!" "I have here my report." "We sexually neutered the insect, and it was not able to reproduce on the island for over 15 years." "You are looking at 3 years of work." "Well, I'll have a look at it." "Doctor, it was a great honour and a pleasure to meet you." "Thank you." "That guy worked on the fastidiosa in the sugar cane?" "Yes." "And now he's dealing blackjack?" "He has 7 younger brothers and a sick mother to feed." "This is the only job he can find." "It's a fucking waste." "Hey, get us a otra cerveza" "I understood cerveza." "I'll get them." "I have good stuff from Canada." "Hidden behind the milk." "In the fridge in mi casa." "Ahh." "I'll be right back." "Usted es uno de los cientificos americanos, no?" "Excuse me?" "You're one of the American scientists?" "Investigating the plague in Florida?" "Yes, I mean, no." "I'm David Sandstrom." "I'm from Canada." "I am Rose Charringa." "Salvador Charringa's sister." "You're here because of him." "I'm here because of him." "You'd like a cigar?" "No thanks, I just had one." "My brother has become a very important man." "Very successful man." "An orange grove in Florida, a vineyard in California," "I guess that would be considered successful to some." "For others it may be the enjoyment of a well rolled cigar." "Why didn't you leave?" "With your brother?" "My family lived a very privileged life at the cost of my countrymen." "Fidel opened my eyes to that." "My brother closed his eyes to Fidel." "Do you think, hmm..." "Castro communism made things better?" "There was a time when I thought yes, it was better." "But..." "But when things went bad you still stayed." "I could never leave." "Do you have the letter, David?" "David?" "His eyes must never see this." "Why?" "Because I won't leave him." "Why?" "Because I love him." "And I love you." " I hate him." " No, you don't." "I just wanted to be with you." "I just wanted you to be happy." "David, 30% of life is sadness," "30% of life is happiness, the rest is what you make it." "I'm happy." "I spent my life trying to face the struggle, not to run from it." "Dr. Sandstrom?" "Sorry." "My mother died the other day." "I'm sorry." "She finally got to leave him." "Are you happy you stayed?" "This is my home." "Do you remember the last Christmas we spent together?" "Your mom and I we never used to fight." "But we did that morning." "Language." "Memory." "Visual." "It's like he is imagining everything she's saying." "This is fantastic." "At first, we fought about how much onion to put in the stuffing." "And then we fought about how she always treated me like a baby." "And then we fought about how" "I never came to see you, and how I forgot to call." "I forgot call you on your birthday." "So, I went outside to get some air and there you were, sitting in the arm of the big oak on the lawn." "And you asked me to go for a run." "It was below freezing, 11:00 a.m. on Christmas morning," "but I went and I got my shoes." "And we ran." "You are very quiet this morning." "Sorry." "I had fun last night." "Me too." "I wish you would stay longer." " And maybe say good-bye when you left." " Sorry about that." " I guess I" " It's okay." "So, why was Rose Charringa at your house last night?" "Rose is my mother." "Why did I not tell you that Salvador Charringa is my uncle ?" "Would that have made a difference?" "I don't know." "I have no respect for my uncle, for the things he has done, for the things he has said." "But I will never let that come in the way of the truth." "I don't think you would." "Right, ok." "I'll call you after we take a look." "Right." "Well?" "So they want us to take a look at the other 2 labs." "Oh, for Christ's sake." "Did you tell them the fastidiosa wasn't a match?" "Yes, and that the leafhopper could not have come out of Cuba." "All right, so much for working on my tan." "Connor, the Cubans have been more than cooperative." "Oh, I'm sure they have, considering what they might be facing." "Or maybe they just don't have anything to hide." "Caroline, the US military is not going to stand down until they have undeniable proof." "Tell me something:" "Have they already made up their mind to hit Cuba?" "Bioterrorism is on everyone's lips down here." "I got Senators worried about everything from corn in Iowa to potatoes in Idaho." "But there's no proof it's bioterrorism, this could be just a naturally occurring bacterium." "Get me the proof Caroline, I'll try to put out fires down here, but that's not going to stop the clock from ticking." "Ok, I'll make sure sDavid gets the message." " Damn." " What?" "The Senate has just called a special session." "They're considering declaring this an act of war by Cuba." "And if they do?" "Forget about any deadlines, the bombs are going to start dropping." "Haven't we been here before?" "One abandoned lab looks just like the next." "This used to be our genetic engineering lab." "We did so many things here:" "Hybrid sugar cane - disease resistant -, tobacco plants" " Excuse me." " Yeah." "You know we had in this lab, one of the first DNA sequencers." "Really." "What happened to it?" "I'm not sure." "Probably got traded on the black market for a tractor." "Or something more practical." "David!" "I don't know what this is." "Yeah, well, let's find out." "What did the neurologist say?" "Well, uh, since Glenn responded to your voice, he's no longer considered to be in a persistent vegetative state." " So he was misdiagnosed?" " That's possible" "So he's either minimally conscious, or he's moved to the spectrum of consciousness." "Right." "I mean, we'll never know exactly what happened, both those scenarios aren't uncommon." "But now that we do know that he's minimally conscious, we can form a new plan of care." "New tests, towards total emergence." "Ok, total emergence meaning he regains the ability to move his body at will, right?" " Right." "Yes." "Plus the ability to speak." " Ok, how do we encourage him to emerge?" "Well we know that he can hear, we need to test and see if he can understand." " How?" " We ask him to respond." "Fuck!" "David?" "Eva, we have either been set up or we've been lied to since we got off the airplane." "Because everything matches to the Florida strain!" "Every, goddamn thing." "It's every excuse the Americans need to turn Cuba into a parking lot." "Do you like horror movies?" "Yes." "Incredible." "So Simon, what's next?" "Brain surgery." "And brain surgery is never easy on the patient or the patient's family." "Well, if we can't do a MRI or ask him to respond, how we gonna know it's working?" "He'll emerge." "Owen." "What are you doing here?" "I got rid of the weed." "And now, the 2 guys who own the weed," " well, they want to kill me." " What?" "Look I just need a place for a bit." "Carlos, hey!" "Did you get my cigars yet?" "Hey, funny you should ask." "I'm sending them by Air Express." "Ok, really?" "These are very special, Mayko, and... please do not share them with anyone." "Sandstrom won't bring them back." "I know that, sir." "Holy shit." "And they say Cuba is behind all this..." "Eva, I have no idea why NorBAC would say that."