Allegiance (2015) s01e02 Episode Script
Teamwork
1 (Katya) Previously on Allegiance - Alex O'Connor.
- You're Bill Adams.
Don't use your real name with me.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- Our comrades in Moscow have a task for you.
You turn your son into a spy.
An SVR defector was caught last week and dealt with.
The man had stolen hundreds of thousands of computer files and hid them somewhere.
You don't understand Alex.
He'll turn us in the moment he finds out who we are.
Then you're stuck.
An SVR officer said he was close to launching an operation that would bring America to it's knees.
Do you know what an Easter egg is? A hidden digital cache.
I think there's a trove of information vital to the SVR still out there.
Maybe if we can figure out who Mikhail was, we can find it before the Russians do.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- You may actually be crazier than she is.
They get what they want from Alex without him knowing.
He trusts us.
We have access to his car, his phone, his computer.
We're the perfect people to spy on him.
Langley has our deceased narrowed down to one name: Mikhail Vostrov.
I remember one time when I was a kid you called your friend Nikolai "Mikhail" by mistake.
You can tell me everything, or I can turn you in.
Hey, Alex.
Who died? (Alex) You can tell me everything from the beginning, or I can turn you in.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- Everything's fine, Sarah.
Go to your room.
Seriously? You guys are all crazy Go to your room, Sarah.
[Phone rings.]
DA? - [Speaking Russian.]
- This is impossible.
He was like a brother to me growing up.
If you grew up with him, then you knew his name was Mikhail.
Then why did you lie about it? Alex, I lost touch with Mikhail in 1975 when I was sent outside Russia to go to boarding school.
12 years later, I'm walking down 5th Avenue with your father, and I see Mikhail across the street.
I yelled out his name, I ran to him.
[Engine starts.]
Instead of a smile and a hug, he told me that he was living here under an assumed name after barely escaping arrest So the whole house is bugged? - [Speaking Russian.]
- Mikhail is a dissident, Alex.
He is not a spy.
Dissidents don't do the things listed in that file.
He was no dissident.
He was a Russian spy.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- Katya, maybe Alex is right.
Maybe he Wh what are you talking about? You know Mikhail.
Well, he bumped into us nine months after I started at Roche Aerospace.
I just started working on their most classified project.
No, no.
I saw him.
He he didn't bump into me.
He put himself where you could see him.
I'm calling Mikhail right now.
- He won't answer.
- What? But you know that.
Alex, what are you talking about? He's dead.
He was executed.
What? The SVR discovered he was a traitor.
Who? The Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki.
The Russian foreign intelligence service.
The KGB rebranded itself after the Soviet Union broke up, but she knows that since she works for them.
What is wrong with you? What the [honk.]
Is wrong with you? - - (Katya) You accuse me of spying for the Russians? Because one time I called my old friend by his name? - Because - August 18, 1994.
You snuck out of the house at midnight, didn't come back till 5:00 A.
M.
Your mother was working in the ER back then on call.
I know.
You told me that's where you were when you came home and found me waiting at the top of the stairs.
But Kings County Medical Center was evacuated on August 18, 1994.
Tropical storm Beryl flooded the bottom two floors and blew out all the power.
You lied to me.
Alex, I know that I wasn't around enough when you were young and struggling.
- I know that.
- June '96, dad was in Beijing.
You left me with Natalie to go to a pediatric oncology conference in Boston.
The conference never happened.
It didn't exist.
I can keep going.
- Stop.
- Then stop lying to me! Alex, you don't want to know the truth about where I went all those nights.
Tell me the truth, or tell the FBI.
Your choice.
Okay.
I was having an affair.
Mark, I'm so sorry.
Please tell me that's not true.
You were overseas for months at a time and making a living for us.
- I was I was so lonely.
- Lonely? I was lonely too.
I I'm so ashamed.
You wanted the truth, so now you have it.
Dad, uh I'm sorry.
I Alex, please.
I think you should go.
Your mom and I need to talk.
Your mother is very good.
[Tense music.]
- [Speaking Russian.]
- Cheap energy, Wall Street gambling, and propaganda are the only things propping it up.
This operation will answer the American aggression forcefully.
Collapsing their economy in a single blow.
American influence over the world will erode, and we will be able to operate as we wish in the Ukraine, in Europe, and beyond.
We are calling it "Black Dagger".
Madness.
This plan will kill thousands of Americans.
Tens of thousands.
Madness is the last of Russian sovereignty.
Madness is American sanctions forbidding us from accessing our own bank account.
Now even in Switzerland.
This is madness.
There is a line, Mr.
Bok.
Black Dagger crosses it.
We're merely answering sanctions with sanctions.
American sanctions don't have a blast radius.
[Phone vibrating.]
- [Both speaking Russian.]
- [Electronic warbling.]
[Sighs.]
You don't have to destroy the house.
I want them gone.
I should have come to you first.
Everything's going to be all right.
Alex knew I was lying about all those nights that I wasn't here.
I reached for the only explanation that he wouldn't have considered.
And it worked.
You know what would have happened if you couldn't convince him? The SVR would have killed us.
I'm afraid he'll never forgive me.
He will.
You are his mother.
He'll get past it.
You're late for work.
Go.
I'm sorry.
I'll see you tonight.
Using our K-31 ramjet, with the doped fuel mixture, we can produce a block V that would fly at Mach 4.
75.
Same range and payload as the block IVS the Navy's currently using but with six times the speed.
It's a no-brainer.
[Voice fades out.]
Alex, how long have I been following you? - What? - Three blocks.
You looked straight ahead the whole time.
I was walking forward.
Am I in trouble? I don't know is there something you're not telling me? No.
Good.
Then stop blabbing and walk with me.
Irina's murder convinced Washington that the SVR really is planning attack on U.
S.
soil.
DC is setting up a joint task force to stop it.
You're being detailed to it.
Really? And you? Look, I'm just saying, Jeter really was the heart and soul of the team, man.
Can't talk shop when a stranger's passing nearby.
I'll have a kind of observer status.
Can't run a New York station if I'm assigned to a task force.
Since this is a domestic investigation, the Bureau will have final say on what you do.
But don't forget, you still work for me too.
We're in here.
(Alex) This is not a government building.
(Sam) Oh, it's not.
This is a covert task force, Bill.
- Hey, Jeff.
- Sir.
[Beep.]
(Receptionist) Gentlemen.
[Beep.]
Phone.
[Beep.]
Come on.
Sam, good to see you again.
Michelle, keeping out of trouble? Mm, courting it.
Ah, this is Alex O'Connor, but out in the world, he's in alias as Bill Adams.
Isn't that right, Bill? - Michelle Prado.
- Alex O'Connor.
Uh, Adams.
Damn it.
Let me introduce you to Special Agent Brock.
Whatever this plot is, it appears bad enough to convince two SVR lifers to try and defect.
Bob? [Typing.]
The best plan we have to stop it is to find the SVR files Mikhail stole.
His, uh, Easter egg, as it's been called.
It means digging deep into Mikhail's life, which we've already begun.
As of 20 minutes ago, we found Mikhail's apartment, rented under an alias, Carroll Gardens.
We're moving on it now.
It's guaranteed the SVR has already scrubbed the place.
And? Let's put a surveillance team on it, see if the Russians send in a second wave.
We're not here to sit on our asses, Sam.
SVR is planning an attack against us.
I know, William.
CIA supplied the intelligence.
And FBI will assume that attack is happening today, every day until we stop it.
So we move now.
Walk with me.
You were right.
About what? Alex O'Connor.
We could never have recruited him.
Yesterday he was ready to turn his own parents in for being spies.
I actually ordered Akos to kill the whole family to protect our operations.
Of course, you countermanded that.
Only because the threat was gone.
Katya turned things around.
For now.
I didn't want to lose Alex as a source.
Still, you took it upon yourself to determine our priorities.
I'm sorry.
Don't apologize to me.
Apologize to Akos.
[Grunting.]
He disobeyed a direct order.
You overstepped your authority.
There's a difference.
There's A small difference.
- [Both speaking Russian.]
- As you know, the FBI just detailed Alex O'Connor to a task force set up to find Mikhail's files.
And the bug in Alex's phone cannot transmit from inside their offices.
We cannot let them get to those files before we do.
We need to track their investigation.
We need audio in their offices.
Inside the office will be very challenging.
Should I tell Moscow you're unable to rise to the challenge? Perhaps I can get a micro recorder onto Alex O'Connor.
Something that can record while he's inside the office and burst transmit to us when he's outside the building.
Good idea.
Report back to me when it's done.
Completely scrubbed.
Nothing at all? A few stray hairs, a few shards of what I think is fiberglass from the hallway, not much else.
(Michelle) Where did you find him? NCS Director.
In her infinite wisdom.
You should watch him debrief a defector someday.
I heard about what he did.
He's how we found what's left of Mikhail's body.
And the whole Easter egg theory is his.
But he's going to need some coaching in the field.
I can coach.
- [Chuckles.]
- What? I thought you liked girls.
Oh, Sam, you have such a constrained view of me.
Yeah, you really should have joined the Agency.
How do you survive at a place as stodgy as the FBI? What about him? He's turned away two fares.
(Sam) Could be having his lunch.
I don't see him eating.
No fare.
No fare.
(Alex) I don't want a ride.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- [Grunts.]
[Police siren blaring.]
(Brock) He's gotta be SVR.
(Sam) Why would SVR have an officer outside waiting on the inevitable wave of federal agents to descend? It's too risky.
(Michelle) The cab was stolen.
Another risky choice.
He kept his face down the entire run.
Not a single usable image for facial recognition.
The cab was clean.
Basically we know nothing about this guy.
He had sticky fingers.
What? There was a discoloration in the pattern on the fingers of his right hand.
I think it was from being wrapped in tape.
A boxer.
The guy could fight.
Michelle, get a list of local boxing gyms.
A boxer? Well, that's a start.
Why don't you go back to your hotel and clean up? I don't have any more clean shirts left.
I only packed for three days.
We're in Manhattan.
It is possible to buy more here.
(Natalie) So why did you call me, not mom? Mom doesn't pick out my shirts.
Not anymore.
You mean as of tonight when I'm doing it instead? I don't have great taste.
So what? [Chuckles.]
I'm just giving you a hard time.
I knew that.
No, you didn't.
But that's okay.
How about this one? Pink? Are are you kidding me? [Chuckles.]
Pink's back.
Blue is blue back too? Blue never went away, but, um, frankly it's about the cut, not the color.
So you were going to tell me? Tell you what? What's up with you and mom? (Alex) It's hard to explain.
(Natalie) Then don't explain it, just tell me what it is.
When we were kids, do you remember how much mom was gone? I remember when she was there 'cause most of the time she wasn't.
Sometimes even in the middle of the night.
A lot of times.
(Natalie) Dad told me what happened.
(Alex) I can't believe what I did.
What's going to happen to mom and dad now? You didn't do anything.
I hate to say it, but But what? Alex, everybody knew she was having an affair.
- Dad didn't know.
- Dad didn't want to know then.
(Alex) Well, I didn't know.
(Natalie) You were a kid.
Mom made mistakes.
Now she has to pay for them.
That's the way life is.
Look, Alex, what's between mom and dad is their business.
If I were you, I would just leave it alone.
She had to play it that way, Katya.
She didn't have to enjoy it.
[Etta Jones' "Till There Was You" playing.]
No, I never heard them at all Till there was you There were birds Dance with me.
In the sky But I never I don't think so.
Just for a few minutes.
Are we really going to do this again? It didn't work out so well last time.
Now it it isn't even safe.
[Sighs.]
Was it ever? It's worse now.
Believe me.
They tell me Do you ever think about me? It's not enough to make it make sense.
[Chuckles.]
When my mother came to me the other day about the family leaving, I said she was crazy.
I had a life here, a job, friends, an apartment.
I told her I couldn't leave it all.
I was talking about you.
[Musical ringtone.]
- Yes? - Telecom research.
Right, I need a primer on fiber optics.
- We can do that.
- [Beep.]
Can you hang on a second? Uh, I'm back.
(Alex) This is Alex O'Connor.
Please leave a message.
[Beep.]
Hi, Alex.
It's mom.
Call me.
You're making it harder, Katya.
It's my home.
Think what you did will stop the rezident from bugging it again? If I find a strange man in my house, he may end up with a bullet in his head.
My home is off-limits.
Alex's new offices are completely walled off electronically.
We need to get a micro recorder inside.
Good luck.
Duplicates of the shirts Alex bought tonight.
One button on each is a recorder with a burst transmitter.
It will upload the audio when a signal is available.
I need you to switch the shirts tonight.
Alex isn't even talking to me.
You'll figure something out.
Yesterday proved you haven't lost a step.
An affair? - [Both speaking Russian.]
- I mean it.
You are an exceptionally gifted spy, Katya.
Accept who you are.
Everything will go better for both of us.
So we just need to figure out how to get into Alex's hotel room.
Are you with me right now? I heard you.
What's wrong? When Alex was 12, he was suppose to memorize the Gettysburg address for school.
Instead he memorized every single speech Lincoln ever gave.
In a week, just in case.
He remembers everything.
Everything from his whole life.
And? That night Alex mentioned when you said you were at the hospital, but it was actually flooded, do you remember where you really were? No idea.
Why? I was just thinking about it earlier today.
That night.
The night of the storm.
I was in Saudi Arabia negotiating a radar sale.
CNN reported on it, on the storm.
It was bad.
I was worried.
I called several times.
You didn't pick up.
Yeah, I made up the affair story, Mark.
Okay? And not just to save myself but to save you.
And Alex hates me because of it.
And now you're gonna turn on me? I just asked a question, Katya.
Well, we don't have time for questions.
Here's what I remember.
I remember the deal that we made with Victor, the deal that you forced me to make, saying we had access to Alex's car, his phone, - his computer - We had no other option.
You could have let me turn myself in.
And destroy our family? That's not a choice you get to make.
We get what the SVR needs, or they go after Alex directly.
What words do you need me to say, Mark? That I didn't cheat on you? I didn't.
I didn't have an affair.
The affair was so long ago, I almost forgot that it happened.
How do you forget something like that? If you don't want to remember.
- This doesn't - It it was a mistake.
It just doesn't seem like you.
It is me.
[Sighs.]
Your father was traveling so much then.
I felt neglected.
But that's it's not a excuse.
There is no excuse.
And the worst thing about it is that it took time away from you and Natalie.
I hurt you then, and to be doing that again now, I feel horrible.
Alex [chuckles.]
Do you remember when you were young how much you loved the Carnegie Deli? It's right around the corner.
Mom, I can't.
I have to work.
You have to eat.
Okay.
[Sighs.]
I'm not the mother I wanted to be, Alex.
I'm sorry.
I love you, mama.
[Elevator dings.]
We went through every frame of footage from every surveillance camera in the area again.
Nothing, no prints on the cab, inside or out.
Great a dozen of the top counterintelligence agents in the Bureau, blank check for a budget, the entire U.
S.
Intelligence Community on tap, and we're reduced to sweeping local gyms for Russian boxers.
(Alex) We should stop doing that.
Our cabbie's not a boxer.
The tape residue was only on his right hand, and I think our guy's left-handed.
Based on what? During the foot chase, he went left four times are right twice before we lost him.
A review of the video cameras that caught him before he disappeared into the subway showed three more lefts and no rights.
He went left seven times and right twice.
And that means he's left-handed? More than likely, yes, according to the literature on unconscious biases, and that got me thinking.
I mean, I couldn't stop thinking about the fiberglass shards we found in the hallway outside Mikhail's apartment they were high quality.
Something called siprnet-grade fiber optics according to our techs.
Last night I spoke to a CIA S&T expert about fiber optics.
Turns out fiber optics engineers wear double-sided tape on their non dominant hand to protect themselves from fiberglass shards embedding in the skin.
And then there are his glasses.
They're unusual.
The lenses have an optical density of 4+ in the 850 to 1,700 nanometer range.
Take a breath, Alex.
Uh, right.
850 to 1,700 nanometers is the most common wavelengths encountered in fiber optics applications.
Are you talking about his work? Yes.
He lays fiber optic cable for a living.
And given the particular grade of his equipment, I say he does so for a data management company or a high-end security firm.
There have to be dozens of firms that do that in the tri-state area.
How many of them have Russian employees? I don't know.
But the cabbie's accent was Georgian, and only one of those firms employees a Georgian national.
His name is Vasso Matiashvili.
All that from one all-nighter? No, I slept.
The firm says he works from a home office, but they wouldn't give me an address.
We're gonna need a warrant.
No way a cyber-security firm opens up their personnel files out of the goodness of their heart.
I'll walk it into the U.
S.
Attorney's office.
You go with her.
Do I have food in my teeth or something? No.
Uh, no.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- You okay? Yeah.
You're protecting him, dad.
The truth would destroy him.
Well, the lies might destroy me.
They don't come naturally to you like they do to mom.
What's that supposed to mean? Forget it.
You think she had an affair? I don't know.
It's none of my business.
No, it's not.
[Scoffs.]
Are you uncomfortable? I don't like vinyl surfaces.
No one does, really.
According to his file, Mikhail was in internal counterintelligence.
He didn't have any computer skills really at all.
That was in his file? I really don't like these seats.
It's a government car.
You're not supposed to like anything about it.
And I think it's leather, actually.
No, it's vinyl.
And it wasn't in his file.
But you don't need computer skills to be in counterintelligence.
You need to have a nose for defectors.
Okay, what does that mean? [Sighs.]
I don't know yet.
(Alex) He lays fiber optic cable for a living.
[Clears throat.]
Any idea who he's talking about? Vasso Matiashvili.
We recruited him from a Georgian paramilitary unit ten years ago.
Came to America on a work VISA, we placed him in corporate security.
What was he doing hovering around Mikhail's apartment pretending to be a cab driver? I plan to ask him that.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- [Man on phone speaking Russian.]
(Michelle) We've been here for four hours.
How much longer? Really? Fine.
It's just a warrant.
What takes these judges so long? [Phone ringing.]
Hello? (Vasso) Getting that warrant isn't going to help you find me.
If you want to talk, do as I say.
Vasso? (Vasso) Toss the batteries from your cell phones out the window.
I'm tracking the MSID pings.
I'll know if you've complied.
And if we don't? (Vasso) I hang up, and you'll never know what I know about Mikhail.
So let's talk.
(Vasso) Drive across the Williamsburg Bridge.
Park on 11th.
We could be driving into a trap.
If he wanted us dead, he'd have put a bomb in the car, not a cell phone.
I don't think he wants to kill us or anyone.
So what does he want then? I think he wants to defect.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- He's with two federal agents.
How are they going to grab him? Carefully.
Use force against U.
S.
federal agents in their own country? This is a line Moscow has never crossed.
I don't think you understand the stakes, Victor.
I do.
If it goes wrong, if they end up dead, that's the kind of thing that could restart the cold war.
If the Americans get their hands on the files Mikhail stole, it will start an actual war.
We need Vasso.
At any cost.
Where are they? 11th Street in Brooklyn, but that's just a first stop.
Where after that? I don't know, but it feels like a trap.
[Phone ringing.]
We're in Brooklyn.
(Vasso) Yes, I know.
Southwest Corner of the Old Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Bond Street's the fastest way to the Navy Yard.
No, there's construction at Livingston.
We'll get stuck.
You ready for this? - [Gunshot.]
- [Glass shattering.]
That was a gunshot.
Go, go, go! [Phone rings.]
(Vasso) Put your weapon away, or this will be a very short meeting.
Building 17.
Half mile down this road.
Come on foot.
What is your eta on site? - [Speaking Russian.]
- You have to move faster.
Where's Mikhail? Did he defect? He's dead.
When? Three days ago.
Killed by the SVR.
It was you.
You stole the SVR's files, not Mikhail.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- English, Alex.
Mikhail disappeared.
I was outside of his apartment hoping he'd show up.
I stole the files.
Mikhail caught me.
But he didn't turn you in.
Why? Because of what I found in them.
The SVR operation against America? They're calling it "Black Dagger.
" I don't know the operation specifics, but the scope is monumental.
[Speaking Russian.]
I didn't sign up to kill innocent people or do something that will start a war between our countries.
Why would Moscow do this? [Scoffs.]
It's not Moscow, at least not the political authorities in Moscow.
(Michelle) What are you saying? That the Kremlin's lost control of the SVR.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- Mikhail secured new aliases for us.
Aliases the SVR was unaware of.
He was about to make contact with the Americans.
Offering to trade the files I downloaded.
Where are the files now? They're on an encrypted hard drive secured inside a laptop.
Take us there.
We'll protect you.
I don't know where it is.
What? I gave it to Mikhail to hide.
Only he knows where it is.
Only I know the password to open the drive and how to stop the deletion timer.
Deletion timer? I uploaded a virus onto the laptop, one that will auto-delete the files.
It was a safeguard against either of us betraying the other.
How long? 48 hours.
What's wrong? - Someone's out there.
- Don't.
Don't.
[Gunfire.]
Give me the phone.
(Operator) 911, where's your emergency? Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Building 17.
Multiple shots fired.
Federal agent requesting help.
[Gunfire.]
Move him away from the door.
We got to hold them off for three or four minutes tops until NYPD gets here.
[Distant sirens wailing.]
You know how to use that? - Not really.
- Well, get it.
And don't point it at me.
Get down! [Grunts.]
[Gunshots.]
I'm going to tourniquet your shoulder.
[Radio static.]
[Groans.]
Oh.
Uh You want to make the people who did this pay, we need to find the hard drive with your files.
How? The aliases Mikhail didn't tell the SVR about he must have used them in hiding the drive.
Give them to us.
We'll find it.
[Sirens continue approaching.]
(Vasso) First alias: Vladimir Kuznetsov.
Second alias: Anatoly Motinkin.
- [Both speaking Russian.]
- [Gunshot.]
[Sirens continue approaching.]
- You're Bill Adams.
Don't use your real name with me.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- Our comrades in Moscow have a task for you.
You turn your son into a spy.
An SVR defector was caught last week and dealt with.
The man had stolen hundreds of thousands of computer files and hid them somewhere.
You don't understand Alex.
He'll turn us in the moment he finds out who we are.
Then you're stuck.
An SVR officer said he was close to launching an operation that would bring America to it's knees.
Do you know what an Easter egg is? A hidden digital cache.
I think there's a trove of information vital to the SVR still out there.
Maybe if we can figure out who Mikhail was, we can find it before the Russians do.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- You may actually be crazier than she is.
They get what they want from Alex without him knowing.
He trusts us.
We have access to his car, his phone, his computer.
We're the perfect people to spy on him.
Langley has our deceased narrowed down to one name: Mikhail Vostrov.
I remember one time when I was a kid you called your friend Nikolai "Mikhail" by mistake.
You can tell me everything, or I can turn you in.
Hey, Alex.
Who died? (Alex) You can tell me everything from the beginning, or I can turn you in.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- Everything's fine, Sarah.
Go to your room.
Seriously? You guys are all crazy Go to your room, Sarah.
[Phone rings.]
DA? - [Speaking Russian.]
- This is impossible.
He was like a brother to me growing up.
If you grew up with him, then you knew his name was Mikhail.
Then why did you lie about it? Alex, I lost touch with Mikhail in 1975 when I was sent outside Russia to go to boarding school.
12 years later, I'm walking down 5th Avenue with your father, and I see Mikhail across the street.
I yelled out his name, I ran to him.
[Engine starts.]
Instead of a smile and a hug, he told me that he was living here under an assumed name after barely escaping arrest So the whole house is bugged? - [Speaking Russian.]
- Mikhail is a dissident, Alex.
He is not a spy.
Dissidents don't do the things listed in that file.
He was no dissident.
He was a Russian spy.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- Katya, maybe Alex is right.
Maybe he Wh what are you talking about? You know Mikhail.
Well, he bumped into us nine months after I started at Roche Aerospace.
I just started working on their most classified project.
No, no.
I saw him.
He he didn't bump into me.
He put himself where you could see him.
I'm calling Mikhail right now.
- He won't answer.
- What? But you know that.
Alex, what are you talking about? He's dead.
He was executed.
What? The SVR discovered he was a traitor.
Who? The Sluzhba Vneshney Razvedki.
The Russian foreign intelligence service.
The KGB rebranded itself after the Soviet Union broke up, but she knows that since she works for them.
What is wrong with you? What the [honk.]
Is wrong with you? - - (Katya) You accuse me of spying for the Russians? Because one time I called my old friend by his name? - Because - August 18, 1994.
You snuck out of the house at midnight, didn't come back till 5:00 A.
M.
Your mother was working in the ER back then on call.
I know.
You told me that's where you were when you came home and found me waiting at the top of the stairs.
But Kings County Medical Center was evacuated on August 18, 1994.
Tropical storm Beryl flooded the bottom two floors and blew out all the power.
You lied to me.
Alex, I know that I wasn't around enough when you were young and struggling.
- I know that.
- June '96, dad was in Beijing.
You left me with Natalie to go to a pediatric oncology conference in Boston.
The conference never happened.
It didn't exist.
I can keep going.
- Stop.
- Then stop lying to me! Alex, you don't want to know the truth about where I went all those nights.
Tell me the truth, or tell the FBI.
Your choice.
Okay.
I was having an affair.
Mark, I'm so sorry.
Please tell me that's not true.
You were overseas for months at a time and making a living for us.
- I was I was so lonely.
- Lonely? I was lonely too.
I I'm so ashamed.
You wanted the truth, so now you have it.
Dad, uh I'm sorry.
I Alex, please.
I think you should go.
Your mom and I need to talk.
Your mother is very good.
[Tense music.]
- [Speaking Russian.]
- Cheap energy, Wall Street gambling, and propaganda are the only things propping it up.
This operation will answer the American aggression forcefully.
Collapsing their economy in a single blow.
American influence over the world will erode, and we will be able to operate as we wish in the Ukraine, in Europe, and beyond.
We are calling it "Black Dagger".
Madness.
This plan will kill thousands of Americans.
Tens of thousands.
Madness is the last of Russian sovereignty.
Madness is American sanctions forbidding us from accessing our own bank account.
Now even in Switzerland.
This is madness.
There is a line, Mr.
Bok.
Black Dagger crosses it.
We're merely answering sanctions with sanctions.
American sanctions don't have a blast radius.
[Phone vibrating.]
- [Both speaking Russian.]
- [Electronic warbling.]
[Sighs.]
You don't have to destroy the house.
I want them gone.
I should have come to you first.
Everything's going to be all right.
Alex knew I was lying about all those nights that I wasn't here.
I reached for the only explanation that he wouldn't have considered.
And it worked.
You know what would have happened if you couldn't convince him? The SVR would have killed us.
I'm afraid he'll never forgive me.
He will.
You are his mother.
He'll get past it.
You're late for work.
Go.
I'm sorry.
I'll see you tonight.
Using our K-31 ramjet, with the doped fuel mixture, we can produce a block V that would fly at Mach 4.
75.
Same range and payload as the block IVS the Navy's currently using but with six times the speed.
It's a no-brainer.
[Voice fades out.]
Alex, how long have I been following you? - What? - Three blocks.
You looked straight ahead the whole time.
I was walking forward.
Am I in trouble? I don't know is there something you're not telling me? No.
Good.
Then stop blabbing and walk with me.
Irina's murder convinced Washington that the SVR really is planning attack on U.
S.
soil.
DC is setting up a joint task force to stop it.
You're being detailed to it.
Really? And you? Look, I'm just saying, Jeter really was the heart and soul of the team, man.
Can't talk shop when a stranger's passing nearby.
I'll have a kind of observer status.
Can't run a New York station if I'm assigned to a task force.
Since this is a domestic investigation, the Bureau will have final say on what you do.
But don't forget, you still work for me too.
We're in here.
(Alex) This is not a government building.
(Sam) Oh, it's not.
This is a covert task force, Bill.
- Hey, Jeff.
- Sir.
[Beep.]
(Receptionist) Gentlemen.
[Beep.]
Phone.
[Beep.]
Come on.
Sam, good to see you again.
Michelle, keeping out of trouble? Mm, courting it.
Ah, this is Alex O'Connor, but out in the world, he's in alias as Bill Adams.
Isn't that right, Bill? - Michelle Prado.
- Alex O'Connor.
Uh, Adams.
Damn it.
Let me introduce you to Special Agent Brock.
Whatever this plot is, it appears bad enough to convince two SVR lifers to try and defect.
Bob? [Typing.]
The best plan we have to stop it is to find the SVR files Mikhail stole.
His, uh, Easter egg, as it's been called.
It means digging deep into Mikhail's life, which we've already begun.
As of 20 minutes ago, we found Mikhail's apartment, rented under an alias, Carroll Gardens.
We're moving on it now.
It's guaranteed the SVR has already scrubbed the place.
And? Let's put a surveillance team on it, see if the Russians send in a second wave.
We're not here to sit on our asses, Sam.
SVR is planning an attack against us.
I know, William.
CIA supplied the intelligence.
And FBI will assume that attack is happening today, every day until we stop it.
So we move now.
Walk with me.
You were right.
About what? Alex O'Connor.
We could never have recruited him.
Yesterday he was ready to turn his own parents in for being spies.
I actually ordered Akos to kill the whole family to protect our operations.
Of course, you countermanded that.
Only because the threat was gone.
Katya turned things around.
For now.
I didn't want to lose Alex as a source.
Still, you took it upon yourself to determine our priorities.
I'm sorry.
Don't apologize to me.
Apologize to Akos.
[Grunting.]
He disobeyed a direct order.
You overstepped your authority.
There's a difference.
There's A small difference.
- [Both speaking Russian.]
- As you know, the FBI just detailed Alex O'Connor to a task force set up to find Mikhail's files.
And the bug in Alex's phone cannot transmit from inside their offices.
We cannot let them get to those files before we do.
We need to track their investigation.
We need audio in their offices.
Inside the office will be very challenging.
Should I tell Moscow you're unable to rise to the challenge? Perhaps I can get a micro recorder onto Alex O'Connor.
Something that can record while he's inside the office and burst transmit to us when he's outside the building.
Good idea.
Report back to me when it's done.
Completely scrubbed.
Nothing at all? A few stray hairs, a few shards of what I think is fiberglass from the hallway, not much else.
(Michelle) Where did you find him? NCS Director.
In her infinite wisdom.
You should watch him debrief a defector someday.
I heard about what he did.
He's how we found what's left of Mikhail's body.
And the whole Easter egg theory is his.
But he's going to need some coaching in the field.
I can coach.
- [Chuckles.]
- What? I thought you liked girls.
Oh, Sam, you have such a constrained view of me.
Yeah, you really should have joined the Agency.
How do you survive at a place as stodgy as the FBI? What about him? He's turned away two fares.
(Sam) Could be having his lunch.
I don't see him eating.
No fare.
No fare.
(Alex) I don't want a ride.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- [Grunts.]
[Police siren blaring.]
(Brock) He's gotta be SVR.
(Sam) Why would SVR have an officer outside waiting on the inevitable wave of federal agents to descend? It's too risky.
(Michelle) The cab was stolen.
Another risky choice.
He kept his face down the entire run.
Not a single usable image for facial recognition.
The cab was clean.
Basically we know nothing about this guy.
He had sticky fingers.
What? There was a discoloration in the pattern on the fingers of his right hand.
I think it was from being wrapped in tape.
A boxer.
The guy could fight.
Michelle, get a list of local boxing gyms.
A boxer? Well, that's a start.
Why don't you go back to your hotel and clean up? I don't have any more clean shirts left.
I only packed for three days.
We're in Manhattan.
It is possible to buy more here.
(Natalie) So why did you call me, not mom? Mom doesn't pick out my shirts.
Not anymore.
You mean as of tonight when I'm doing it instead? I don't have great taste.
So what? [Chuckles.]
I'm just giving you a hard time.
I knew that.
No, you didn't.
But that's okay.
How about this one? Pink? Are are you kidding me? [Chuckles.]
Pink's back.
Blue is blue back too? Blue never went away, but, um, frankly it's about the cut, not the color.
So you were going to tell me? Tell you what? What's up with you and mom? (Alex) It's hard to explain.
(Natalie) Then don't explain it, just tell me what it is.
When we were kids, do you remember how much mom was gone? I remember when she was there 'cause most of the time she wasn't.
Sometimes even in the middle of the night.
A lot of times.
(Natalie) Dad told me what happened.
(Alex) I can't believe what I did.
What's going to happen to mom and dad now? You didn't do anything.
I hate to say it, but But what? Alex, everybody knew she was having an affair.
- Dad didn't know.
- Dad didn't want to know then.
(Alex) Well, I didn't know.
(Natalie) You were a kid.
Mom made mistakes.
Now she has to pay for them.
That's the way life is.
Look, Alex, what's between mom and dad is their business.
If I were you, I would just leave it alone.
She had to play it that way, Katya.
She didn't have to enjoy it.
[Etta Jones' "Till There Was You" playing.]
No, I never heard them at all Till there was you There were birds Dance with me.
In the sky But I never I don't think so.
Just for a few minutes.
Are we really going to do this again? It didn't work out so well last time.
Now it it isn't even safe.
[Sighs.]
Was it ever? It's worse now.
Believe me.
They tell me Do you ever think about me? It's not enough to make it make sense.
[Chuckles.]
When my mother came to me the other day about the family leaving, I said she was crazy.
I had a life here, a job, friends, an apartment.
I told her I couldn't leave it all.
I was talking about you.
[Musical ringtone.]
- Yes? - Telecom research.
Right, I need a primer on fiber optics.
- We can do that.
- [Beep.]
Can you hang on a second? Uh, I'm back.
(Alex) This is Alex O'Connor.
Please leave a message.
[Beep.]
Hi, Alex.
It's mom.
Call me.
You're making it harder, Katya.
It's my home.
Think what you did will stop the rezident from bugging it again? If I find a strange man in my house, he may end up with a bullet in his head.
My home is off-limits.
Alex's new offices are completely walled off electronically.
We need to get a micro recorder inside.
Good luck.
Duplicates of the shirts Alex bought tonight.
One button on each is a recorder with a burst transmitter.
It will upload the audio when a signal is available.
I need you to switch the shirts tonight.
Alex isn't even talking to me.
You'll figure something out.
Yesterday proved you haven't lost a step.
An affair? - [Both speaking Russian.]
- I mean it.
You are an exceptionally gifted spy, Katya.
Accept who you are.
Everything will go better for both of us.
So we just need to figure out how to get into Alex's hotel room.
Are you with me right now? I heard you.
What's wrong? When Alex was 12, he was suppose to memorize the Gettysburg address for school.
Instead he memorized every single speech Lincoln ever gave.
In a week, just in case.
He remembers everything.
Everything from his whole life.
And? That night Alex mentioned when you said you were at the hospital, but it was actually flooded, do you remember where you really were? No idea.
Why? I was just thinking about it earlier today.
That night.
The night of the storm.
I was in Saudi Arabia negotiating a radar sale.
CNN reported on it, on the storm.
It was bad.
I was worried.
I called several times.
You didn't pick up.
Yeah, I made up the affair story, Mark.
Okay? And not just to save myself but to save you.
And Alex hates me because of it.
And now you're gonna turn on me? I just asked a question, Katya.
Well, we don't have time for questions.
Here's what I remember.
I remember the deal that we made with Victor, the deal that you forced me to make, saying we had access to Alex's car, his phone, - his computer - We had no other option.
You could have let me turn myself in.
And destroy our family? That's not a choice you get to make.
We get what the SVR needs, or they go after Alex directly.
What words do you need me to say, Mark? That I didn't cheat on you? I didn't.
I didn't have an affair.
The affair was so long ago, I almost forgot that it happened.
How do you forget something like that? If you don't want to remember.
- This doesn't - It it was a mistake.
It just doesn't seem like you.
It is me.
[Sighs.]
Your father was traveling so much then.
I felt neglected.
But that's it's not a excuse.
There is no excuse.
And the worst thing about it is that it took time away from you and Natalie.
I hurt you then, and to be doing that again now, I feel horrible.
Alex [chuckles.]
Do you remember when you were young how much you loved the Carnegie Deli? It's right around the corner.
Mom, I can't.
I have to work.
You have to eat.
Okay.
[Sighs.]
I'm not the mother I wanted to be, Alex.
I'm sorry.
I love you, mama.
[Elevator dings.]
We went through every frame of footage from every surveillance camera in the area again.
Nothing, no prints on the cab, inside or out.
Great a dozen of the top counterintelligence agents in the Bureau, blank check for a budget, the entire U.
S.
Intelligence Community on tap, and we're reduced to sweeping local gyms for Russian boxers.
(Alex) We should stop doing that.
Our cabbie's not a boxer.
The tape residue was only on his right hand, and I think our guy's left-handed.
Based on what? During the foot chase, he went left four times are right twice before we lost him.
A review of the video cameras that caught him before he disappeared into the subway showed three more lefts and no rights.
He went left seven times and right twice.
And that means he's left-handed? More than likely, yes, according to the literature on unconscious biases, and that got me thinking.
I mean, I couldn't stop thinking about the fiberglass shards we found in the hallway outside Mikhail's apartment they were high quality.
Something called siprnet-grade fiber optics according to our techs.
Last night I spoke to a CIA S&T expert about fiber optics.
Turns out fiber optics engineers wear double-sided tape on their non dominant hand to protect themselves from fiberglass shards embedding in the skin.
And then there are his glasses.
They're unusual.
The lenses have an optical density of 4+ in the 850 to 1,700 nanometer range.
Take a breath, Alex.
Uh, right.
850 to 1,700 nanometers is the most common wavelengths encountered in fiber optics applications.
Are you talking about his work? Yes.
He lays fiber optic cable for a living.
And given the particular grade of his equipment, I say he does so for a data management company or a high-end security firm.
There have to be dozens of firms that do that in the tri-state area.
How many of them have Russian employees? I don't know.
But the cabbie's accent was Georgian, and only one of those firms employees a Georgian national.
His name is Vasso Matiashvili.
All that from one all-nighter? No, I slept.
The firm says he works from a home office, but they wouldn't give me an address.
We're gonna need a warrant.
No way a cyber-security firm opens up their personnel files out of the goodness of their heart.
I'll walk it into the U.
S.
Attorney's office.
You go with her.
Do I have food in my teeth or something? No.
Uh, no.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- You okay? Yeah.
You're protecting him, dad.
The truth would destroy him.
Well, the lies might destroy me.
They don't come naturally to you like they do to mom.
What's that supposed to mean? Forget it.
You think she had an affair? I don't know.
It's none of my business.
No, it's not.
[Scoffs.]
Are you uncomfortable? I don't like vinyl surfaces.
No one does, really.
According to his file, Mikhail was in internal counterintelligence.
He didn't have any computer skills really at all.
That was in his file? I really don't like these seats.
It's a government car.
You're not supposed to like anything about it.
And I think it's leather, actually.
No, it's vinyl.
And it wasn't in his file.
But you don't need computer skills to be in counterintelligence.
You need to have a nose for defectors.
Okay, what does that mean? [Sighs.]
I don't know yet.
(Alex) He lays fiber optic cable for a living.
[Clears throat.]
Any idea who he's talking about? Vasso Matiashvili.
We recruited him from a Georgian paramilitary unit ten years ago.
Came to America on a work VISA, we placed him in corporate security.
What was he doing hovering around Mikhail's apartment pretending to be a cab driver? I plan to ask him that.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- [Man on phone speaking Russian.]
(Michelle) We've been here for four hours.
How much longer? Really? Fine.
It's just a warrant.
What takes these judges so long? [Phone ringing.]
Hello? (Vasso) Getting that warrant isn't going to help you find me.
If you want to talk, do as I say.
Vasso? (Vasso) Toss the batteries from your cell phones out the window.
I'm tracking the MSID pings.
I'll know if you've complied.
And if we don't? (Vasso) I hang up, and you'll never know what I know about Mikhail.
So let's talk.
(Vasso) Drive across the Williamsburg Bridge.
Park on 11th.
We could be driving into a trap.
If he wanted us dead, he'd have put a bomb in the car, not a cell phone.
I don't think he wants to kill us or anyone.
So what does he want then? I think he wants to defect.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- He's with two federal agents.
How are they going to grab him? Carefully.
Use force against U.
S.
federal agents in their own country? This is a line Moscow has never crossed.
I don't think you understand the stakes, Victor.
I do.
If it goes wrong, if they end up dead, that's the kind of thing that could restart the cold war.
If the Americans get their hands on the files Mikhail stole, it will start an actual war.
We need Vasso.
At any cost.
Where are they? 11th Street in Brooklyn, but that's just a first stop.
Where after that? I don't know, but it feels like a trap.
[Phone ringing.]
We're in Brooklyn.
(Vasso) Yes, I know.
Southwest Corner of the Old Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Bond Street's the fastest way to the Navy Yard.
No, there's construction at Livingston.
We'll get stuck.
You ready for this? - [Gunshot.]
- [Glass shattering.]
That was a gunshot.
Go, go, go! [Phone rings.]
(Vasso) Put your weapon away, or this will be a very short meeting.
Building 17.
Half mile down this road.
Come on foot.
What is your eta on site? - [Speaking Russian.]
- You have to move faster.
Where's Mikhail? Did he defect? He's dead.
When? Three days ago.
Killed by the SVR.
It was you.
You stole the SVR's files, not Mikhail.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- English, Alex.
Mikhail disappeared.
I was outside of his apartment hoping he'd show up.
I stole the files.
Mikhail caught me.
But he didn't turn you in.
Why? Because of what I found in them.
The SVR operation against America? They're calling it "Black Dagger.
" I don't know the operation specifics, but the scope is monumental.
[Speaking Russian.]
I didn't sign up to kill innocent people or do something that will start a war between our countries.
Why would Moscow do this? [Scoffs.]
It's not Moscow, at least not the political authorities in Moscow.
(Michelle) What are you saying? That the Kremlin's lost control of the SVR.
- [Speaking Russian.]
- Mikhail secured new aliases for us.
Aliases the SVR was unaware of.
He was about to make contact with the Americans.
Offering to trade the files I downloaded.
Where are the files now? They're on an encrypted hard drive secured inside a laptop.
Take us there.
We'll protect you.
I don't know where it is.
What? I gave it to Mikhail to hide.
Only he knows where it is.
Only I know the password to open the drive and how to stop the deletion timer.
Deletion timer? I uploaded a virus onto the laptop, one that will auto-delete the files.
It was a safeguard against either of us betraying the other.
How long? 48 hours.
What's wrong? - Someone's out there.
- Don't.
Don't.
[Gunfire.]
Give me the phone.
(Operator) 911, where's your emergency? Brooklyn Navy Yard.
Building 17.
Multiple shots fired.
Federal agent requesting help.
[Gunfire.]
Move him away from the door.
We got to hold them off for three or four minutes tops until NYPD gets here.
[Distant sirens wailing.]
You know how to use that? - Not really.
- Well, get it.
And don't point it at me.
Get down! [Grunts.]
[Gunshots.]
I'm going to tourniquet your shoulder.
[Radio static.]
[Groans.]
Oh.
Uh You want to make the people who did this pay, we need to find the hard drive with your files.
How? The aliases Mikhail didn't tell the SVR about he must have used them in hiding the drive.
Give them to us.
We'll find it.
[Sirens continue approaching.]
(Vasso) First alias: Vladimir Kuznetsov.
Second alias: Anatoly Motinkin.
- [Both speaking Russian.]
- [Gunshot.]
[Sirens continue approaching.]