"Thirteen... fourteen..." "Comin' to getcha!" "Fifteen... sixteen... seventeen, eighteen, nineteen, twenty." "Ready or not, here I come!" "What do you make of the news, uh, 55 cents a share they're gonna report for the first quarter." "American Policy Institute." "How may I help you?" "One moment." "Well, five down." "What do lucky lepidoptera larvae eat?" "Oh..." "Lepidoptera larvae eat clover, among other plants." "If they're lucky..." "Four-leaf clover." "Four-leaf clover." "Uh-huh." "Well..." "No, uh-uh." "I need 19 letters." "Try the Gaelic." "Yeah." "Which is?" "I don't know." "The only Gaelic I know is Pog mo thoin." "What does that mean?" "Uh, try Latin." "Uh, marsilea quadrifolia." "Marsi... yes." "Mm-hmm." "That'll work." "There you go." "Why do I drive myself crazy?" "Keep it." "Hi, David." "Uh, watch that number." "So, how are we feeling?" "I'm-I'm fine." "Fine." "You?" "What day is today, Will?" "Wednesday?" "Yeah..." "Yeah." "April 8." "My birthday." "Get cracking." "I'm taking you to lunch in four hours." "Maggie, I really..." "You forgot to bring the donuts." "Shit." "Sorry." "Getting the donuts is your most important job." "Good morning, boys and girls." "Okay." "Last night's intakes." "We got satellite photos of Grant's favorite imaginary missile silos." "Well, now..." "Better safe than sorry." "The Iranians are not currently our best friends." "Miles, why don't you take a look at our brothers in Pakistan?" "They've taken a sudden interest in telemarketing." "Telemarketing?" "!" "Yeah." "Run it through Hal." "Will... want to take another run at Yuri the missile salesman?" "Not without more financials." "He's running everything through the Caymans..." "Well, seems CIA borrowed his briefcase yesterday, and it's just full of bank statements." "And last, but not least, Tanya, as our newest member, you, of course, get the most difficult and tedious of the day's intake." "Thank you." "Read it and weep." "...weapons, organizational structure..." "This will take me... the rest of my life." "Ugh!" "I..." "I need your help." "Will's help." "I'm just pitching in." "Yeah." "All right." "Lanarca, Seville, Ajaccio all have fountains in their main public square, but not Dubrovnik." "Uh, Dubrovnik and Lanarca have university hospitals, but not Seville and Ajaccio." "I mean, what-what, what the hell's the pattern?" "This is the Malaysian cipher?" "Yeah." "Maybe some kind of syllae algorithm?" "Yeah, yeah, I tried that." "Even Hal drew a blank." "They were all part of the Roman Empire." "They all have Palearctic Mediterranean rain forest and are part of the chapparal biome;" "they're all in countries that spend less than five percent of their GDP on the military, but maybe we are asking the wrong question." "You're looking at the past and the present." "What about the future?" "Itinerary possibly?" "Let's go." "Up and out." "Lunch." "Can I take a rain check?" "I knew it." "I-I..." "I'm..." "I have so much work to do, I just..." "Rain check then." "I'm not giving up." "What's with the broom?" "Um..." "Mitchell was sweeping up the other night as I was leaving." "He brushed against my foot w"by accident." "Let me guess." "Ten years bad luck?" "Worse." "Much worse." "Brings imprisonment or death." "The only way around it is to spit on the broom, so I bought it from him and did what I had to do." "It's ridiculous, I know." "David, I, um..." "I think I found a pattern in the big ticket papers." "There might be others..." "I'm not sure... but it's not just the repetition." "Three down." "Two chambers of the legislative branch." "Bicameral." "Simple enough." "Two across..." "Fillmore, where the Warlocks, later known as the Grateful Dead, played in San Francisco." "But also, Millard Fillmore... lard-ass, know-nothing 13th President." "The executive." "Four down... would-be alma mater of felonious record-holding wide receiver." "Answer:" "Marshall, as in Randy Moss," "Marshall University Thundering Herd." "But also, Thurgood Marshall, judicial." "Five down." "What do lucky lepidoptera larvae eat?" "Answer: marsilea quadrifolia." "Which is?" "Four-leaf clover." "Our three branches of government are here... legislative, executive, judicial." "What or who does that fourth leaf represent?" "And what's the message?" "I've seen this before." "Crossword editors, quirky sense of humor." "Probably some kind of inside joke." "No, no, no, no, no." "I've done my share of crosswords, and I've never seen anything quite like this." "I mean..." "I can see why this caught your eye." "Thanks, Will." "American Policy Institute." "How may I help you?" "80 years of work to build a business, five hours of trading to put it on life support." "All from a few artfully chosen words." "It's a thing of beauty." "Something in the crossword today." "I've never seen anything like it." "Crossword?" "Which paper?" "All the indicators." "Someone either didn't expect the pattern to be caught, or wasn't afraid if it was." "Anybody else see this?" "Internally?" "No." "Good catch." "Why cereal for lunch?" "Cornflakes, specifically." "Every day." "Spangler's a man of habits." "Have you ever talked to him?" "I bumped into him once, and, uh said I'm sorry." "This is inedible." "So, tell me something." "Why is Will Travers so mopey?" "He's not mopey." "He's, well, just introspective." "He walks around every day looking like his favorite cat just died." "Try wife and child." "Try 9/11." "Morning of, he was supposed to meet his wife and daughter at the top of the World Trade Center." "A surprise for his daughter's birthday." "He was late." "He was always late." "He was coming out of the subway when the first plane hit the tower." "And he's never been late for anything since." "I'll have the same." "Uh, for both of them." "Happy birthday." "Thank you, David." "So, uh, I want you to know I'm almost done with a first draft on the Nigeria thing." "Good." "How is it?" "It's what you asked for." "We're dealing with the hypotheticals of instability, but I think the more interesting story is in the infant democracy." "What's the big picture here?" "You'll know soon enough." "And how's Miles doing with North Korea?" "You know what the biggest joke is here?" "It's my business, our business, to tell people what to think." "And the truth is," "I have no idea what to think anymore." "About what?" "This." "What we do." "Happy birthday." "Road food!" "Well!" "You reading minds these days?" "Look, I don't blame you for taking stock and weighing your options." "With a workload like yours..." "No, it's not that." "I don't work too much." "It's just that when I leave," "I can't talk to anybody about it." "That's the hardest thing in this job, you know, keeping secrets." "What..." "What are your birthday plans tonight?" "Count the minutes till it's over." "No." "No, no, no." "Why don't you..." "Why don't you come and eat dinner with us?" "No." "Huh?" "Why not?" "Days like these I..." "I used to spend with Natalie and Shauny." "I miss 'em too much." "I do, too." "But they're gone, Will." "They're gone, and that's just something both of us have to accept." "This goes with the book." "Don't open it till you get home." "David." "David, your Norton?" "Uh, it's..." "Are you crazy?" "I can't keep this." "You're smiling." "I can hear you smiling, Will." "You're keeping it." "The bike, the note." "Why-Why now?" "I'll tell you in the morning." "I'm catching the 5:51 out of Putnam Station." "Meet me at the Annex Bar." "I'll see you there." "Oh, wait." "Wait." "David..." "Which was part of a firecracker ceremony that's intended to scare off bad spirits." "They were very loud and I enjoyed it very much." "Basically, I learned, at a very young age, it's part of your culture and heritage, so it's very important." "Thomas K. Rhumor died in his sleep last night at the age of 64." "I'm writing." "I'm fine." "Rhumor was a self-made billionaire whose philanthropy focused here at home on the needs of the underprivileged." "And we go back now to the breaking news story... we just told you about." "Wow. you see this?" "We're getting the first pictures..." "Damn shame." "...of a train crash that's taken place just outside of Putnam Station on the Fairchester line." "Emergency crews are on the scene." "Early reports indicate multiple fatalities." "But what I admired most about my friend was his loyalty." "We all slept a little better knowing that someone with his integrity was in our lives." "He was a devoted husband to Joan, father-in-law to Will, father to Anna, Kevin and Natalie," "God rest her soul." "David was an affirming flame, and we should all feel grateful for having known him." "Will..." "I know." "I know." "It's okay." "It's okay." "I am so sorry, Will." "So am I." "You spoke eloquently." "Thank you, Ms. Young." "I'll catch up." "We have something pressing to discuss, Will." "David's position was far too integral to leave open for even a week or a month good decorum would demand." "So I'd like to put off this conversation, but I can't." "People I answer to, upstairs and elsewhere, are, uh... eager for resolution." "I'd like you to step into his position." "Well, I'd say I'm better off staying where I am, but I don't know if that's true anymore." "It might be best for me to leave." "I expected that." "Well, take a couple of days to think it over." "If your mind doesn't change," "I'll accept that answer and your resignation." "Knight to king's bishop three." "Knight to king's bishop three." "Who is this?" "Let me talk to David." "Where's David?" "Uh, no, uh..." "There was an accident." "Are you Ed Bancroft?" "My-My name is Will Travers." "I answered the phone when you called David's office." "May I come inside and speak to you for a moment?" "David's been killed." "He died in a train accident on his way to work." "Can I get you some tea?" "No, thank you." "I'm addicted to Earl Grey." "Sit." "David said you were very bright." "One of the best in the building." "That true?" "I keep up." "I'll never be a legend like you." "What does the legend say about me?" "You were a genius at cracking codes, until the codes cracked you like an egg." "Like an egg." "Not my metaphor." "David was the only one who stayed in touch." "We played our endless chess games." "Talked." "I really can't believe he's dead." "He was very fond of you." "You never broke his heart like that idiot son of his, up in Vermont." "Evan's troubled." "He's a nut." "Ed..." "I need to show you something." "Have you... you ever seen any?" "Four crossword puzzles shared across several newspapers." "No." "This is new to me." "Sorry." "They showed up the day before David died." "Coincidence?" "It was nice to meet you, Will." "I'm feeling very tired." "You can let yourself out." "Right." "Good night." "Sorry to wake you." "I didn't know where else to go." "I know how this is going to sound, but all his rituals, his rituals, how superstitious he was..." "Slow down." "His biggest phobia by far was 13." "I mean, he respected and feared it, he constantly watched out for it." "He would never get on a boat, an elevator, train, a boat, a taxi..." "Will, can you lower your voice?" "...or train that started or ended with 13, was divisible by 13, aggregated to 13..." "Will..." "Will, your voice." "They haven't... they haven't retrieved his car yet." "His car is still there at the train depot where he left it." "Where he supposedly left it." "Supposedly?" "It was parked in spot 13." "Well, maybe he didn't see the number." "He saw it." "Well, maybe he just needed to get to work, he saw the train coming up, and he took the only spot that was there." "No, no, no." "There's no way David Hadas would have parked in that spot." "So if he didn't park in the spot..." "Then he didn't get on the train." "But his remains were identified." "I know that." "So, how were they found there in the wreckage?" "I don't know." "I don't know." "I don't know." "I don't know." "What happened was horrible, but it happened." "He's gone." "He boarded the train, and it crashed." "He died with 36 strangers." "Maybe there is no why." "There's always a why." "Will." "You just don't understand it." "When's the last time you had a good night's sleep?" "You need to rest." "This is hard." "Yeah." "Mommy?" "I'm-I'm sorry." "I'm-I'm so sorry." "I, uh..." "Did you get any rest?" "I'm sorry about last night." "Is your daughter, is she...?" "Uh, she-she's fine." "What's that?" "My resignation." "Don't worry," "I won't be here, but your life isn't going to change much." "You don't call working for Grant Test a change?" "You know they're gonna put him in David's job the minute you turn it down." "And where are you going?" "Away." "I'm going away." "You can't resign." "Why not?" "Because I would have to work for Grant." "Glory has its price." "I'm serious." "You can't quit." "You do not have that option." "Sure I do." "No, you don't." "It was my birthday last week." "I had no idea." "Maggie reminded me." "Yeah, I forget stuff all the time." "So what?" "Your own birthday?" "We all get a little preoccupied." "It goes without saying." "It is the nature of the job." "Miles, this place is a tomb." "I'm really sorry about David." "I... know what he meant to you." "I know he brought you here." "And I..." "I know he took care of you." "But I really don't think that he would want you to quit." "I'm not so sure about that." "I think that he would want you to pick up the torch." "Go away." "Well, if nothing else, stay for David." "What changed your mind?" "You know what?" "I don't care." "Let's introduce you upstairs." "The last time was just plain embarrassing." "Well, you can't bring that kind of stuff home with you." "Yeah, leave it at work, please." "Oh, what, me?" "All right, look, I'm hanging up now." "Yes, I am." "Mr. Spangler got called down to Washington." "He wants to meet you tomorrow morning." "9:00 sharp." "Old one, please." "This is your new security agreement." "You'll be cleared to a higher level:" "G5." "Sign here, here and here." "Anybody double-check that Tom is actually dead?" "He blew his brains out." "I saw his body, for God's sake." "Good." "We're back on track."