Rubicon s01e04 Episode Script

It's Will.
I hope everything's still good for tonight.
I'm taking a morning train in, so I will call you when I arrive.
Morning.
Morning, sir.
You read Friedman's Piece on Sudan this morning? Yes, sir.
And? Still in lockstep with the state department, sir.
I detected a little more urgency in his tone.
I'll read it again.
Goodness I hope not.
All passengers departing for Washington D.
C.
, the acela 8:30 to Washington arrives on track 40 in five minutes.
That's us.
Team Rubicon I'm going to assume that you can all manage Will's absence without me looking too closely over your shoulders.
Let's put Yuri Boeck aside for a moment.
CIA just sent over a new field report from an agent in Jakarta A member of the Indonesian Mujahideen council, who provided very solid information for us in the past.
It looks like we may have a window of opportunity to eliminate Kateb.
Eliminate? Can't we grab him? Jakarta won't sanction that.
The best we can do is a hellfire strike from a predator.
How soon? Day after tomorrow.
NSC wants an assessment.
In 72 hours? The bad guys aren't going to sit still just because you got some more reading to catch up on.
When does Will get back from his teacher's pet tour? How's Wednesday? You guys prep the file, and he can help you write the final.
And it has to be unanimous.
There are no split decisions when it comes to irreversibles.
Irreversibles? People you can't un-kill.
Right.
Hello, darling, it's me.
Just a heads up.
The grandkids are coming over tomorrow.
I'm at the grocery store.
Let me know if there's anything you want.
Love you.
It's James.
If you keep this up, you know what's gonna happen.
It's James.
If you keep this up, you know what's gonna happen.
It's James.
If you keep this up, you know what's gonna happen.
Kateb.
Real name unknown, nationality unknown.
First popped up in the chatter after detachment 88 killed Azahari Husin in '04.
- '05.
- '05.
We still don't know how much operational authority he has in Jemaah Islamiyah, but we can link him directly to the bombing of the Australian embassy, the Ritz and the Marriott.
Our asset places him at the safe house near semarang at 0900 GMT on Thursday.
So it's a no-brainer.
He's a bad guy.
This kind of assessment requires us to build a solid foundation.
You do realize that "surgical strike" is a euphemism for a thermobaric warhead capable of demolishing this entire block? Can we at least agree Kateb is a legitimate target for lethal action? These are schoolchildren.
Executive order 12333 prohibits assassination unless the target is specifically engaged in combat against the United States.
None of this evidence points to Kateb attacking the United States.
He's a leader of al Qaeda.
Kateb is more than just another player.
He's a symbol.
He's an al Qaeda rock star.
If we take this guy out, we gain nothing new no intelligence, no leverage, no real justice.
Just one less player on a crowded field.
Do you guys need anything? Think we're going to need lunch.
Pays to study the local flora and fauna.
You really could use a good briefcase.
Nothing eye-catching of course, but something that lets people take you seriously.
- Kind of attached to the one I have.
- There's no handle.
For a security tether.
What? Handcuffs.
Avoid anything that announces its newness, its cost or its distinctiveness.
You need one that locks, preferably with a key.
Combinations have a nasty habit of locking themselves at the worst moments.
Clasps.
No zippers.
And none of those spring-loaded closures that announce to the whole world you're opening the store.
I prefer a single clasp.
Something that allows a file to go in without stopping or using two hands.
Spangler.
With a second source confirming this, our chances of success jumped to over 60%.
Where do you even get these numbers? Data.
Remember? We're never going to have a second source.
We have to proceed or not on the basis of this report.
And we're below 50%.
Is there any way to get visual confirmation of Kateb's arrival at the location? Then we don't know this is real.
Source reliability quotient: 71%.
Targeting accuracy differential: 4.
3.
You think that's real? She doesn't belong here.
Our task, gather allies in the intelligence community who will support our bid to keep API fully independent.
Make sure they remember the information they gather is useless unless they have us to make sense of it.
All right.
Now, I didn't receive any type of schedule.
We've got one meeting this afternoon, one in the morning and the big show tomorrow at 3:00.
I want you to meet an old friend of mine.
This man knows more about the intelligence business than all the analysts at API put together.
Travers here wrote that, Somalia report that you liked so much.
Nice work.
Thank you, Mr Don't worry.
Even this dinosaur doesn't know my real name.
And he came to my wedding.
Sit down.
Now You're going to have to excuse us.
All right.
I should probably go review some of the material for this afternoon.
It's nice meeting you, sir.
Don't be modest.
You're not just the deputy director of intelligence.
You're the voice of sanity around here.
I've got a file full of old performance reviews that say otherwise.
We all know how capable the gentlemen who wrote the reviews turned out to be.
You know where I stand.
But you're going to have to check the forecast in order to get a read on DIA or NSA.
Afraid I'm going to have to fight this one with the army I have.
We brought you an interesting tidbit.
One that I'm afraid we are not in a position to make use of.
We picked up something out of a Malaysian cipher.
We're pulling down the same data from NSA as you.
But the analysis we've done is pointing to something unusual.
A collection of cities roughly centered on the Mediterranean.
Dubrovnik, Larnaca, Seville, among others.
We believe we're looking at the travel itinerary of a nascent al-Qaeda operation.
You believe? Why don't we walk you through it? Has this agent ever given us time and place info before? Yeah, but nothing CIA has ever been able to have verified.
What's his supposed motivation? The original pitch the agency gave was primarily nationalist, but this guy has been steadily sucking down U.
S.
government cash for five years.
Why would he jeopardize that relationship by floating something big like this if it weren't true? Just because he thinks it's true doesn't mean it is.
There is no evidence he has ever lied to his case officer.
The guy is a professional.
All spies lie to somebody.
We have got to get past this.
Kateb is a good target.
This is a solid source.
This agent gave us great stuff on MILF.
The Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
In the Philippines.
Don't ask me to do this again.
You know what kind of hell I'd catch if the agency knew about this? I know.
I'm sorry.
You're totally cleared to see this.
Just do the paperwork.
It'd take me a month to get CIA to cough up these files.
And 30 people would be notified that I asked for it.
You're API.
Nobody's going to question it.
You'd be amazed.
What's the deal with my seven names? I could only find six.
All agency employees.
Mostly cold warriors, ops guys and black baggers.
One was a career case officer.
One was a station chief in Damascus.
Two worked on Dewey's counterterror crew for a while.
Number seven? Not sure.
His name didn't hit.
They worked in the middle east division in the 1980s? Where are they now? Two of them are stars on the wall at Langley.
One died of cancer a decade ago.
One's drooling in his applesauce down in Boca.
Two of them are still kicking.
- Only two? - One is that guy, C.
M.
Haddox, who writes those Johnny Gray thrillers.
The guy has made millions off of airport boredom.
The other guy is a Donald Bloom.
You going to tell me what this is about? I can't.
You got anything more? Ungrateful bastard.
Can I keep this? Thanks to you, I'm probably going to fail my next polygraph.
We want to avoid anything that undermines our ability to act as an effective partner to the secretary and the Pentagon.
We simply lack the resources this kind of reporting would require.
The preparation alone I hope you won't mind if we just skip the foreplay.
Certainly.
You don't have to explain to us why you don't want that bra-burning congresswoman poking into your business.
Nothing is clearer.
But with all due respect, Truxton, why should you be spared the same financial sodomizing we're subjected to twice a year? I see.
You want to know what's in it for you.
What's in it for colonel Mitchell? We maintain a unique position in the intelligence community.
By virtue of our interjurisdictional portfolio, we at API are Can you please just get to the point? API sees everything.
We ask for it, we get it.
FBI, homeland security, treasury, CIA, NRO, NSA We are aware.
We like to share with our friends.
That's my cell phone.
Betsy Table for one? - I want to do takeout.
- Sure.
Moo shu pork.
Rice? $12.
55.
Do you keep computer records of takeout orders? For a month.
Would you check an address for me? It's my husband.
Please? What's the address? 5181 east 73rd.
March 24th, two orders.
Chicken with cashew, shrimp and broccoli.
Did they pay with a credit card? What name? James Wheeler.
See these figures on the roof? Gotta be gunman, right? - I count at least half a dozen.
- What do we think that is? Looks residential for sure.
What's the distance from the target? Close.
Too close? It depends on how good a shot that pilot is.
Can you really call him a pilot when he's 3,000 miles away operating a joystick? So what do you estimate? Between ten and a hundred civilians in the target zone.
That's a complete WAG.
- What's a WAG? - "Wild-Ass Guess".
What's the CIA estimate? It doesn't matter.
They're guessing, too.
So what, that's it? Unfortunately.
It came in overnight.
- This is the building.
- Jesus.
That's the site.
Maybe those kids don't actually live in the building.
I don't remember it being this hard last time.
We had Will and Hadas And no girls.
She must hate us.
It's her first time.
I hate us.
What's going on in there? Do you need anything? A blunt instrument.
Miles or Grant? Both.
We're talking general slaughter.
Actually.
This is all we can do.
There's no need to pretend.
It's just a cost-benefit analysis.
I missed that part in graduate school where they explain the formula for collateral damage.
Three dead infants plus seven old ladies - and a dozen farm animals.
- But you invented that formula.
I did, but I'm still trying to figure out how to value Kateb's slaughter of multiple schoolgirls.
You're switching sides.
I just want to feel good about killing these people.
This is a mess.
There's been a change.
Our asset now says Kateb will be at the safe house tomorrow.
We have to finish our assessment today.
- That's impossible.
- He's right.
Will's not back, and our file is totally incomplete.
Our intelligence is incomplete.
Intelligence is incomplete! That's the nature of it.
You have to do this without Will.
On my desk by 5:00.
Sweetheart, I cannot have this conversation with you now.
Your mother and I pay for your car insurance for precisely I know what a deductible is.
Sweetheart, I'm gonna have to talk to you later.
Mr.
Travers? Your office in New York has been trying to reach you.
They've asked for a secure line.
Sweet Miles, I'm not there.
I don't have the intel.
You guys are gonna have to figure this out.
I trust you.
Listen, I need you to do a full trace on a former agency guy for me.
Bloom b-l-o-o-m Donald.
All right? I'll see you tomorrow.
If this were entirely our decision, we'd be more than happy to keep the entire intelligence community off-limits to congress, but, there are some political realities in play that make that impossible.
One final thought if I might, sir.
When you left the house this morning wearing that tie, perhaps your wife stopped you in the doorway.
Perhaps she told you how good you looked in that tie How handsome it was.
while I'm sure you love your wife, might I suggest you have many reasons to distrust her judgment about that tie.
Maybe she has a fond memory of another time you wore it.
A sentimental attachment or perhaps she knows your tie collection, and she's simply glad you didn't choose one of the ties she dislikes.
Perhaps she just sensed you were feeling a little fragile.
She felt like bucking you up a bit.
Now, imagine for a minute you sit down here with us, and I say to you how much I admired that tie.
Instantly, you have another opinion, but you don't know me.
There's nothing personal between us.
We have no sartorial history.
No emotional attachment.
Whose judgment are you going to trust, mine or your wife's.
The gentleman to my right is a remarkable intelligence analyst.
He is skilled in pattern recognition, systems analysis, emergence theories, but, but in truth, his greatest asset for you is that you don't know him and he doesn't know you.
He doesn't care about you Or your feelings.
He just knows What your tie Looks like.
You can trust him.
I know I'll regret this, but I say yes.
I'd rather live with the consequences of my action than my inaction.
Tanya? We have to put the assessment in by 5:00.
I heard you.
I know I'm supposed to say yes.
I just We have to be unanimous.
So? We say yes.
Take him out.
Thank you.
A job well done.
- Cheers.
- Cheers.
What did you think of our little show? Made me glad to be a lowly analyst.
Don't sell yourself short.
You were excellent this afternoon.
I didn't speak.
You'd be amazed how hard that is for most people.
Go ahead.
Thank you.
That's My eyes are shot.
What does that say? "Danielle".
That's my daughter.
She your only child? I have a son in college.
Where? I never knew my father much.
He was a remote man.
Presbyterian.
He thought our business was insidious.
Which business exactly? Intelligence, espionage.
Not that he ever really understood what I did.
Most people misunderstand, I find.
They can't see it for what it is.
It's a gift, you know? What is? The solitude, the The separation It's a gift.
That's what they don't see.
What does it mean, "Kateb"? In Arabic, it means "the writer".
They don't speak Arabic in Indonesia.
This guy is a genius.
A regular Will Travers.
Will would have done it just the same.
There's no special sauce on this shit.
Just data and decisions.
And us to connect the dots.
And morality, values? Not our job.
Values are for politicians, not analysts.
I'm gonna get good and drunk.
Welcome back.
How'd it go? Interesting.
That's it? Interesting? That's it.
It's good to be back.
Nice to see you.
Team a, team b, team c, team d, team f.
How was the trip? Good.
Productive.
It was an honor, you know? I know.
Why me? For some reason, he thinks you have potential.
Did you get anything on Donald Bloom? Very slippery character.
Just like you said, ex-CIA.
And I got you a license photo.
This guy's been in and out of Houston six times in the past year and he flew into JFK two days ago.
- He's here in New York? - He could be.
Trip's great.
Thank you.
Climbed the Washington monument.
Sat in Abraham Lincoln's lap.
We're wondering about Kateb.
Your recommendations were accepted.
9:10 GMT, a predator drone launched two missiles.
Both made their target.
And? That was only six hours ago.
We won't know if we were successful until Kateb either surfaces again or doesn't.
Two days of psychic torture, and that's it? I'm afraid so.
Let's try to refocus on Yuri, George and our mystery man.
What do we have? Well, this morning, DI sent up new humint from FKSN that has Yuri increasing arms sales outside his traditional territories.
He's up to something.
We see if we can't connect the dots there.
Still waiting on BND for the George Boeck file.
But NSA's telling us they may have Munich to Damascus intercepts that might shed some light.
We're still hoping one of our sources in Sophia will turn up something from the hotel registries and rail passenger lists, but, I don't think we should be