Eleventh Hour s01e05 Episode Script
Containment
Hey, Ned, we're gonna hit the pierogi stand.
You coming? I got to call home first.
Uh Order me a potato and cheese, and no skimping on the sour cream.
Got it.
Hello? Cath, it's me.
Tell me you got it.
Last dancing robot in Pittsburgh.
I had to wrestle it away from a hockey mom.
Those chicks are tough.
We are going to have one very happy birthday boy.
Just don't be late for his party.
I'll be there, I swear.
Put him on, okay, I want to say hi.
Johnny, Daddy's on the phone.
- Hey, Dad.
- Happy birthday, champ.
You excited? Uh-huh.
This is gonna be the best birthday ever.
Lot of pressure on Mom and Dad to keep topping ourselves, but we'll give it a shot.
What do you say? Yeah Buddy, you there? Johnny.
Help me.
Help me.
Ow.
Damn it.
Rachel Young? Walsh.
- What's it been three years? - A-At least.
I haven't seen you since Quantico.
Well, what are you doing here? You're looking at the new Special Agent in Charge of the WMD directorate.
I am now one of the movers and shakers in the world of nuclear non-proliferation.
Sounds exciting.
So where'd you end up? Finally land that spot you wanted at Counter Terrorism? Not exactly.
I landed at the Office of the Director.
Top of the food chain.
- Impressive.
- Actually, I'm, I'm more of a handler for someone at the top of the food chain, but our, our cases are unique.
Well, like what? Give me a taste.
Uh Are, are you familiar with the parameters of electroporation? Neural implants? - How about porphyria enzyme de - Hey, I got to run.
ficiency syndrome? Gentlemen.
It was great seeing you, Rachel.
- Yeah.
- We should grab a drink sometime, do some more catching up.
Yeah.
What? oversight at bio-waste facilities.
Now, I admit it's not very sexy Sorry to interrupt.
Dr.
Hood, you have an urgent call from the Pennsylvanian State Health Department.
Some guy named Rigdon.
Pittsburgh EMTs responded to a demolition worker found in advanced respiratory distress with multiple organ failure and other anomalous complications.
Anomalous complications? Ones that suggest he may well have been exposed to a highly toxic substance, one not commonly seen.
Right now, authorities have it categorized as a possible public health concern.
How serious a concern? It's hard to say till we get the specifics, but it's definitely something he ate or drank, something absorbed through the skin, something airborne.
Best-case scenario, it's an isolated incident one victim, one quickly identifiable cause.
And the worst-case scenario? Suffice to say, really, really bad.
So tell me about your old buddy Calvert Rigdon.
Cal spent the last eight years heading up the Pennsylvania Health Department.
Before that, he ran the National Center for Preparedness, Detection and Control of Infectious Diseases at the CDC, and before that, he was fighting typhus and yellow fever in Angola and Sierra Leone.
Pretty impressive.
Actually, his most impressive contribution was when he introduced me to my wife.
Whoa, whoa, - This is a restricted area.
- Don't shoot.
We're the good guys.
I'm Dr.
Hood, Special Science Advisor to the FBI.
Jacob.
Hey.
Cal.
Afraid you're going to need these.
Victim's name is Christopher Fisher.
A member of the demolition clean-up crew found him this morning at around 10:00.
He was dead by 11:00.
What is this place? Native Americans used to bury their dead here for centuries.
Early settlers at Fort Pitt did the same.
When the city expanded in the 19th century, it was buried under new construction.
The demo team rediscovered it while clearing debris from the old foundation.
Personnel log says - Fisher was a licensed mortician? - Yeah, brought in to oversee the proper handling of all human remains.
How long has he been here? 48 hours tops.
So whatever we're dealing with is aggressive and fast.
Initial contact to full-blown disease followed by death in a matter of days.
That's the good news.
Take a closer look.
Oh, that's incredible.
It's behaving like a hemorrhagic fever.
Exactly.
That sounds really bad.
Well, only if you categorize extensive bleeding into the skin, mucous membranes, and gastrointestinal tract, followed by heart failure, pulmonary edema, and an agonizingly painful death as bad Definitely bad.
What are you thinking? Well, if we're knee deep in the Congo rain forest, I'd posit Shigellosis, Marburg virus, even Ebola, but Pittsburgh doesn't have the same exotic palette.
It has to be something else.
Like maybe a cave full of ancient, disease-riddled corpses? Rachel, you may just have something.
I was sort of kidding.
No, I didn't mean about the corpses.
No biological contagium could survive 200 years without subzero suspension, but the cave itself, - now, that's a different story.
- You're saying the cave is sick? Radiation poisoning.
Here? How is that possible? In 1984, a worker at the Limerick nuclear power plant right here in Pennsylvania tested positive for nuclear exposure, but the source wasn't the power plant.
It was his own basement, where he'd been exposed to very high levels of radon gas seeping from the natural rock foundation.
The real hazard comes when radon breaks down.
When inhaled, the particles get trapped in the lungs and flood the body with toxic alpha radiations.
Well, any one of Fisher's coworkers could become symptomatic.
We need to initiate HazMat protocol, start looking for air and rock core samples now.
What's going on? Somebody tell us what's going on.
I'm going to go introduce myself to the officer in charge, get a list of all the quarantined workers.
Top priority.
What's going on? My people are calibrating the radon sensors right now.
If that cave is contaminated, we should have confirmation within the hour.
Let's hope it is radiation.
At least we'll know what we're dealing with.
Media.
Just what we need.
Oh, great.
The only thing that spreads faster than a legitimate health crisis is the panic about one.
What is the plan for dealing with the media? Well, lie, of course.
I'm going to let them know about the emergency preparedness drill we've been running.
Dr.
Hood, radiation levels look normal.
Do you believe this? Can they even do this? Is this even legal? I got to get home.
Ha! They can't just keep us here all day.
Radon sniffers detected only minute traces of the gas in the burial cave but not nearly enough to explain rapid-onset radiation sickness.
Jacob, did you hear what I said? We're back to square one.
Deeply embedded pustules sharply raised and round in shape.
Extensive blistering, most notably on palms and soles of feet.
Confluent rash on face and forearms.
Individually, those symptomatic manifestations point to any number of culprits.
But collectively they only point to one.
Smallpox.
Smallpox I thought that was wiped out.
The World Health Organization declared the disease eradicated in 1979, but there are still stocks of the virus the CDC in Atlanta and the, uh State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo, Russia.
How'd it end up in Pittsburgh? I don't know.
The demolition workers are going to have to be inoculated, along with any law enforcement and first responders who have had direct physical contact.
That includes the three of us.
Is that enough to protect us? Well, unique strains have, uh, unpredictable resiliences.
The vaccine has been enhanced with intranasal boosts that should protect us from anything airborne, but direct contact with infected fluids must be avoided.
Words to live by.
I'm going to notify the hospitals.
It's a waste of time.
There isn't a medical facility within a hundred miles equipped to deal with this level of biorisk.
Hemorrhagic smallpox is the most deadly variation of the virus.
It's highly infectious and efficiently lethal.
So what do we do? We improvise.
Yo, man, over here! You got it? Right behind you.
Double the magnification.
My God The tests were conclusive.
We got ourselves a smallpox outbreak.
A full diagnostic panel's going to take time, but preliminary mapping indicates genetic materials from multiple genomes.
A hybrid.
Two viruses mixed together? Well, the toxin that killed Fisher was a combination of two distinct viral strains.
We have to find the source.
Well, the cave is clean.
Wherever Fisher contracted the virus, it wasn't here.
With every minute that passes, the likelihood of it spreading Have additional victims becoming infected multiplies exponentially.
It's imperative that we determine exactly where Fisher caught this virus before this thing spirals into a full-blown epidemic.
Landlord confirmed our first victim has rented here for the last five years.
Keep a lookout for calcified scabs and flakes of skin.
I always do.
"Christopher Fisher, Christopher Fisher Christopher Fisher.
" He lived alone.
The only thing his co-workers knew was that he was divorced, and had a daughter in college.
Believe in luck, Rachel? I'm in Pittsburgh dodging smallpox for a living.
- How much luckier can a girl get? - Well "Good fortune is the result of careful planning.
" It's more of a statement than a karmic prediction.
Whoa.
Can you make this kind of cash clearing bodies at a demolition site? I don't know.
Maybe he was working two jobs.
He was a mortician.
If he was juggling two jobs, he might've put the number in speed dial.
Try number four.
Work, ex-wife, kid's cell, second job.
Jackson and Sons Mortuary.
Your mask.
Hello, Mr.
Jackson? - Yes? - I'm Jacob Hood.
I'm part of a team investigating a serious public health matter involving your embalmer, Christopher - Fisher.
- Fisher.
I'd like you to tell me the names of everyone he worked with, and every dead body he worked on.
Today's my son's birthday.
- That's great.
- He's nine-years-old.
We're, you know, throwing him a party.
Check this out.
Look at that.
I am going to destroy you.
You think he'll like it? Sure, what kid wouldn't? I'm not going to make it to his birthday, am I? They said we can go home soon.
They're lying.
Keep us under control.
The government's not going to help us.
Even if they try, they'll screw it up.
Oh We're on our own here.
Come this way.
Just leave all your personal belongings right there.
Hazmat's doing a full sweep of the funeral home.
Rigdon's waiting to brief us on the status here.
What's up? How many workers do you count? According to the foreman's report, there should be 21.
I count 20.
Ned? Cathy! It's after 3:00.
I've been calling your cell for hours.
- They took it.
- What do you mean? - Who took it? - It doesn't matter.
Cathy, just listen to me.
Something happened.
You promised John you would be home for his party.
There isn't going to be a party.
Cancel it and start packing.
We have to get the kids out of here.
What are you talking about? Ned, you're scaring me.
Please! Cathy, just do it! What are you doing? What? You You can't keep me locked up.
I haven't done anything wrong.
No, but you're about to.
Ned! You've been exposed to a very dangerous, highly contagious virus.
I want to see my family.
I want to see my kids.
I know you want to keep your family safe.
You want to protect them from danger.
Ned! Ned, listen to me.
You are the danger.
Where are you keeping my husband? Explain to me Ned! - Ned! - Daddy! Hey, John.
Wait, wait! Ned! Hey, buddy This way, please.
I got something for your birthday.
Daddy.
You go with these people now, son.
I'll catch up with you later.
- No! No! - It's okay.
Come on, honey.
You'll see your dad later, okay? They won't even remember me.
They will, Ned.
I promise.
We caught a break.
Ned Warner's rash hasn't progressed beyond the macule phase.
So it's still in the early stages? When it's least contagious.
That makes it highly unlikely he infected anyone else on his way home.
- Records from the funeral parlor.
- We'll find out which corpse infected Christopher Fisher.
I'll oversee the decontamination in Ned's apartment.
These are the people Christopher Fisher embalmed during the likely period.
Susan Crane, retired civil servant, 72, cause of death, pneumonia.
Gary Firth, doctor, 45, stomach cancer.
Jack Ruddock, maintenance engineer, 56, industrial accident in a cold storage facility.
My money's on the doctor.
The man dealt with disease for a living.
You just lost your money.
Domesticated species lack a certain glycoprotein the virus needs - in order to replicate.
- Excuse me? The doctor was a veterinarian.
- You could've just said so.
- Even vets are familiar with medical safety protocol, so let's focus on the other two candidates.
We need a full background check, dietary history, family illness, any recent travel out of the country.
Who goes first? The woman who died of pneumonia, or the guy who died in the accident at the cold storage facility? When in doubt, always use the scientific method.
Heads or tails? Yeah, we can provide pickup service.
Give me your address.
Mr.
Pulido? Can you hold on a sec? Yeah? I'm your man.
You looking for some cold storage? We're here about your dead maintenance man.
Jack Ruddock.
I'm going to have to call you back.
30,000 square feet kept at a constant 25 below.
We're the largest public refrigeration facility east of the Allegheny.
All the big companies and universities store their perishables here.
What exactly are they storing? Ice cream to rocket fuel.
You name it, we got it in popsicle form.
That's giant bluefin from the Gulf of Maine.
Over there, we got CO2 pellets for industrial blast cleaning.
And those, ice cores from the South Pole.
From Penn's Antarctic survey.
Hey! You can't be back there! Is this where Jack Ruddock had his accident? Yeah.
He was fixing the refrigeration unit and he fell.
OSHA's already cleared us.
Do you know if he'd been out of the country recently? Jack? Nah, Jersey was a foreign country as far as he was concerned.
Look, I've got to take this.
Just stop by my office, let me know when you're done.
Why does it matter if the victims left the country? Fisher is patient zero in this country because of our reporting system, but some countries don't have one.
And some countries wouldn't even tell us if they did have a case.
Any chance they were in Latin America? I want to know the villages in Guatemala they came from and exactly how long they've been in the country.
How the hell should I know? Hood, here.
Pathology's back on Fisher.
Tests were conclusive.
It's definitely a hybrid form of variola major.
Smallpox mixed with another virus.
I told the CDC this would happen eventually.
That we had to be more aggressive with our research.
But what do they do? They restrict my work.
They slashed my funding! Cal, I know you're frustrated, but I need you to concentrate.
We have to establish this strain's origin.
It came from Central America, obviously.
Something new.
Something manmade.
What did the lab report say it was mixed with? An adenovirus, serotype 14.
That's a respiratory virus.
Is that combination even possible? In virology, almost anything is possible.
Sorry, I cannot help you translate.
That's not Spanish they're speaking.
Then what is it? Best guess? Garifuna.
It's one of at least 20 Mayan dialects spoken in Guatemala.
Great.
Does anybody understand what I'm saying? Comprehend? Your fly is down.
Your coworker Jack had a bad infection when he died.
There's a good chance he picked it up working here.
We need to know how.
Her brother arrived in the city last week.
He stayed inside because he was too sick to work.
Says he had a fever and a rash.
What else? Her village back home.
There were sick people there, too.
How many? Everybody.
Don't touch anything.
Rachel, don't touch him! Everyone, stay away from this man and wowon.
Folks, stay back, please.
What? They may both be very sick.
How much protection does vaccine give Rachel? Well, hybrid strains are notoriously resilient.
And given so many unknown variables, timing, antibody count 20%, give or take.
What about Xicalal, the Guatemalan village? Oh, we contacted the Guatemalan Red Cross and the Pan American Health Organization.
The place is being quarantined, so, we squashed a bug, Jacob.
- It's over.
- Cal, as long as Rachel and those people are at risk, it is far from over.
Rachel's a hero, Jacob.
Whatever happens next, we must never forget that.
I want everybody's name when this is over! Payback's a bitch! You looking for something, Professor? Rachel.
I'm sorry.
For what? You did what you had to do.
Is that Ned? No.
It's one of the other workers.
Ned's hanging on for now.
How many have died? Hood, how many? Six.
We think their viral loads overwhelmed the vaccine.
Maybe if we got to them earlier.
Do you have the number? Rachel.
Do you have it? Yeah, I have it.
I want you to make the call.
Tell the bureau that your handler's been compromised.
Tell them to send a replacement immediately.
Rachel, I don't want a replacement.
I don't care what you want.
You're my responsibility.
You get some rest.
I got things I need to do.
Hood! Make the call! Do you hear me? Hood, I am serious! It doesn't add up, Calvert.
What? That apartment can't be ground zero.
The timing's all wrong.
The Guatemalan patients are only now present in symptoms.
That's a full 12 hours after Christopher Fisher died.
Well, not everyone suffers at the same rate.
Viruses react with their specific variabilities.
Even if the illegals are not showing all the symptoms yet, they may all be dead by morning.
So, we should write them off? The way you wrote off the demolition workers? I was being realistic.
I want Rachel removed from general quarantine.
Until we have confirmation of infection, protocol dictates she be in private isolation.
We simply don't have another level three facility available for that approach.
The rules apply to everyone, Jacob.
Even the people we care about most.
It's not fair.
It's just the way it is.
Until the blood work comes back on the Guatemalan carrier, Rachel stays where she is.
Cath? Is that you? Cathy? Cath Cath.
Shh.
Shh.
I'm right here.
Oh.
I feel bad.
It's okay.
We all do.
No.
I don't mean that.
I feel bad because I'm leaving it all on you.
I won't be here to help.
You know, with the kids.
Yes, you will Ned.
You just have to hang in there.
Yeah.
Everything's gonna be okay.
Yeah.
This is the dead Guatemalan's blood sample.
So what we're looking for is the variola virus.
Shaped like a brick with a surface like a ball of wool.
You've seen it before? Only in books.
In 1979, when smallpox was eradicated, the WHO had most of the live lab cultures destroyed.
Since then, scientists have had to rely on computer simulations only.
You said the smallpox virus was brick-shaped.
That looked spherical.
Wait a minute.
Rachel?! Get Agent Young out of there now! - What? What are you doing? - He was wrong.
- Who? - Rigdon.
The man you touched he didn't have smallpox.
He had chickenpox.
Chickenpox? I had chickenpox when I was five years old.
That means you don't have it now.
Somebody get me out of this damn thing now! I wish I could cheer, but right now, we're 12 hours into an outbreak of the variola virus, and we're no closer to identifying the source.
Excuse me.
Variola means smallpox? Yeah.
Why? Customers rent the space by the pallet.
Nobody asks any questions as long as the check clears.
Ice cores from the south pole.
Yeah, but ice cores are only viable in their original virgin state.
These cores have been melted and refrozen.
So, this isn't virgin ice? Not even close.
There 567 alpha.
Frozen water doesn't lie, Manny.
How about you? You have any idea what's at stake here? Jack screwed up the repairs on the fan.
Fried the motor.
He and Pulido, they stayed late one night to move the crates to another area so everything wouldn't spoil.
Their jobs were on the line.
- You're not gonna open that, are you? - Don't worry Anything viral would be benign at this temperature Don't blame me if something leaps out and eats your face.
Well, that would have been better than this.
The samples were gone.
Pulido's gone.
He's taken the variola samples with him.
Police and Hazmat have the city locked down.
They'll find him.
The question is, how many innocent people will he infect before they do? What are you doing? Getting directions.
Pulido searched the 'Net for the quickest route from here to the intersection of Fourth and Grant street 15 minutes ago.
Pull over, sir, so we can search your vehicle.
Turn off your engine.
License and registration, please.
Pulido? Sorry to disappoint you, Professor.
You knew that immigrant boy wasn't our source,didn't you? The virus couldn't have come from Central America because it was from your laboratory, wasn't it? I wasn't sure at first, Jacob You got to believe me.
But when it turned out to be Adeno 14 I-I knew it had to be one of mine.
It was an accident.
An accident waiting to happen.
How could you store a deadly hybrid smallpox virus in a commercial facility? If it wasn't my strain that got out - it would've been someone else's.
- Are you listening to yourself, Calvert? You've killed six people.
You put the lives of an entire city at risk.
How dare you try to rationalization that to me! We live in dangerous times! And mankind has got to come up with better vaccines, more powerful treatments.
That can't be accomplished using computer simulations and theoretical models alone, you know that! Who are you trying to convince? Me? Or you? Was it Pulido's idea to move the samples or yours? When we rounded up his workers he realized what was in the cooler.
Demanded $75,000 for it.
I was going to pay him, and I was going to destroy everything I made a careless mistake Jacob Eventually you're going to make one, too.
It happens to everyone who carries our kind of weight.
You'll understand one day.
Are you going to have her arrest me now? Not yet.
First you have a job to do.
I want you to call your emergency response team, get them down here right now and you'll help clean this up, Calvert.
You'll help clean this up.
I'm sorry Jacob Hood.
Can't let him get away.
I wasn't planning on it.
Pulido! Stay where you are! Don't make things worse! Pulido! Pulido! FBI.
- Everyone, stay where you are - Mr.
Pulido, don't touch anyone.
You're infected with the virus Right now, there's a microscopic army waging war inside of you It's gonna invade your blood stream attack your central nervous system and destroy every healthy cell inside of you until there's nothing left No, I got the vaccine Too late to be effective you and Jack were infected the night you moved the boxes No Jack wasn't sick He fell and broke his neck He was the lucky one On the floor - Now Mr.
Pulido or I'll shoot.
- Hey you stay away from me.
You need medical assistance, Alan.
I need my money.
Listen to yourself.
You're not making sense.
It's the virus it's affecting your brain.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna ask you to gently, quietly leave the premises.
No, no,no, no! Nobody goes anywhere until I get my damn money! Listen to me.
I want my money! Listen to me, no amount of money in the world is gonna stop this disease that's raging inside of you, but you might be able to stop it hurting other people.
Now, if you stay here, you are issuing a death sentence to every innocent person in this room.
Do you understand that? I don't care.
I will shoot.
Don't open it.
There's one al missing.
It's done, Jacob.
Oh, Cal.
I ran into an old colleague the other day.
He's doing really well.
It made me so jealous, I could taste it.
And then, last night, sitting in that damn plastic tent, helpless, I thinking I was gonna die made me question this assignment what I do for a living everything.
And? And you're a major pain in the ass.
But you also do a lot of good.
I'm gonna see this through, make everyone else jealous of me.
Mom, Mom! That robot was designed by a NASA engineer.
It's got artificial intelligence, seven servo motors.
It dances, it snores.
It even does little electric farts.
That was a really cool thing you just did Not really I also got one for myself Energy restored
You coming? I got to call home first.
Uh Order me a potato and cheese, and no skimping on the sour cream.
Got it.
Hello? Cath, it's me.
Tell me you got it.
Last dancing robot in Pittsburgh.
I had to wrestle it away from a hockey mom.
Those chicks are tough.
We are going to have one very happy birthday boy.
Just don't be late for his party.
I'll be there, I swear.
Put him on, okay, I want to say hi.
Johnny, Daddy's on the phone.
- Hey, Dad.
- Happy birthday, champ.
You excited? Uh-huh.
This is gonna be the best birthday ever.
Lot of pressure on Mom and Dad to keep topping ourselves, but we'll give it a shot.
What do you say? Yeah Buddy, you there? Johnny.
Help me.
Help me.
Ow.
Damn it.
Rachel Young? Walsh.
- What's it been three years? - A-At least.
I haven't seen you since Quantico.
Well, what are you doing here? You're looking at the new Special Agent in Charge of the WMD directorate.
I am now one of the movers and shakers in the world of nuclear non-proliferation.
Sounds exciting.
So where'd you end up? Finally land that spot you wanted at Counter Terrorism? Not exactly.
I landed at the Office of the Director.
Top of the food chain.
- Impressive.
- Actually, I'm, I'm more of a handler for someone at the top of the food chain, but our, our cases are unique.
Well, like what? Give me a taste.
Uh Are, are you familiar with the parameters of electroporation? Neural implants? - How about porphyria enzyme de - Hey, I got to run.
ficiency syndrome? Gentlemen.
It was great seeing you, Rachel.
- Yeah.
- We should grab a drink sometime, do some more catching up.
Yeah.
What? oversight at bio-waste facilities.
Now, I admit it's not very sexy Sorry to interrupt.
Dr.
Hood, you have an urgent call from the Pennsylvanian State Health Department.
Some guy named Rigdon.
Pittsburgh EMTs responded to a demolition worker found in advanced respiratory distress with multiple organ failure and other anomalous complications.
Anomalous complications? Ones that suggest he may well have been exposed to a highly toxic substance, one not commonly seen.
Right now, authorities have it categorized as a possible public health concern.
How serious a concern? It's hard to say till we get the specifics, but it's definitely something he ate or drank, something absorbed through the skin, something airborne.
Best-case scenario, it's an isolated incident one victim, one quickly identifiable cause.
And the worst-case scenario? Suffice to say, really, really bad.
So tell me about your old buddy Calvert Rigdon.
Cal spent the last eight years heading up the Pennsylvania Health Department.
Before that, he ran the National Center for Preparedness, Detection and Control of Infectious Diseases at the CDC, and before that, he was fighting typhus and yellow fever in Angola and Sierra Leone.
Pretty impressive.
Actually, his most impressive contribution was when he introduced me to my wife.
Whoa, whoa, - This is a restricted area.
- Don't shoot.
We're the good guys.
I'm Dr.
Hood, Special Science Advisor to the FBI.
Jacob.
Hey.
Cal.
Afraid you're going to need these.
Victim's name is Christopher Fisher.
A member of the demolition clean-up crew found him this morning at around 10:00.
He was dead by 11:00.
What is this place? Native Americans used to bury their dead here for centuries.
Early settlers at Fort Pitt did the same.
When the city expanded in the 19th century, it was buried under new construction.
The demo team rediscovered it while clearing debris from the old foundation.
Personnel log says - Fisher was a licensed mortician? - Yeah, brought in to oversee the proper handling of all human remains.
How long has he been here? 48 hours tops.
So whatever we're dealing with is aggressive and fast.
Initial contact to full-blown disease followed by death in a matter of days.
That's the good news.
Take a closer look.
Oh, that's incredible.
It's behaving like a hemorrhagic fever.
Exactly.
That sounds really bad.
Well, only if you categorize extensive bleeding into the skin, mucous membranes, and gastrointestinal tract, followed by heart failure, pulmonary edema, and an agonizingly painful death as bad Definitely bad.
What are you thinking? Well, if we're knee deep in the Congo rain forest, I'd posit Shigellosis, Marburg virus, even Ebola, but Pittsburgh doesn't have the same exotic palette.
It has to be something else.
Like maybe a cave full of ancient, disease-riddled corpses? Rachel, you may just have something.
I was sort of kidding.
No, I didn't mean about the corpses.
No biological contagium could survive 200 years without subzero suspension, but the cave itself, - now, that's a different story.
- You're saying the cave is sick? Radiation poisoning.
Here? How is that possible? In 1984, a worker at the Limerick nuclear power plant right here in Pennsylvania tested positive for nuclear exposure, but the source wasn't the power plant.
It was his own basement, where he'd been exposed to very high levels of radon gas seeping from the natural rock foundation.
The real hazard comes when radon breaks down.
When inhaled, the particles get trapped in the lungs and flood the body with toxic alpha radiations.
Well, any one of Fisher's coworkers could become symptomatic.
We need to initiate HazMat protocol, start looking for air and rock core samples now.
What's going on? Somebody tell us what's going on.
I'm going to go introduce myself to the officer in charge, get a list of all the quarantined workers.
Top priority.
What's going on? My people are calibrating the radon sensors right now.
If that cave is contaminated, we should have confirmation within the hour.
Let's hope it is radiation.
At least we'll know what we're dealing with.
Media.
Just what we need.
Oh, great.
The only thing that spreads faster than a legitimate health crisis is the panic about one.
What is the plan for dealing with the media? Well, lie, of course.
I'm going to let them know about the emergency preparedness drill we've been running.
Dr.
Hood, radiation levels look normal.
Do you believe this? Can they even do this? Is this even legal? I got to get home.
Ha! They can't just keep us here all day.
Radon sniffers detected only minute traces of the gas in the burial cave but not nearly enough to explain rapid-onset radiation sickness.
Jacob, did you hear what I said? We're back to square one.
Deeply embedded pustules sharply raised and round in shape.
Extensive blistering, most notably on palms and soles of feet.
Confluent rash on face and forearms.
Individually, those symptomatic manifestations point to any number of culprits.
But collectively they only point to one.
Smallpox.
Smallpox I thought that was wiped out.
The World Health Organization declared the disease eradicated in 1979, but there are still stocks of the virus the CDC in Atlanta and the, uh State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo, Russia.
How'd it end up in Pittsburgh? I don't know.
The demolition workers are going to have to be inoculated, along with any law enforcement and first responders who have had direct physical contact.
That includes the three of us.
Is that enough to protect us? Well, unique strains have, uh, unpredictable resiliences.
The vaccine has been enhanced with intranasal boosts that should protect us from anything airborne, but direct contact with infected fluids must be avoided.
Words to live by.
I'm going to notify the hospitals.
It's a waste of time.
There isn't a medical facility within a hundred miles equipped to deal with this level of biorisk.
Hemorrhagic smallpox is the most deadly variation of the virus.
It's highly infectious and efficiently lethal.
So what do we do? We improvise.
Yo, man, over here! You got it? Right behind you.
Double the magnification.
My God The tests were conclusive.
We got ourselves a smallpox outbreak.
A full diagnostic panel's going to take time, but preliminary mapping indicates genetic materials from multiple genomes.
A hybrid.
Two viruses mixed together? Well, the toxin that killed Fisher was a combination of two distinct viral strains.
We have to find the source.
Well, the cave is clean.
Wherever Fisher contracted the virus, it wasn't here.
With every minute that passes, the likelihood of it spreading Have additional victims becoming infected multiplies exponentially.
It's imperative that we determine exactly where Fisher caught this virus before this thing spirals into a full-blown epidemic.
Landlord confirmed our first victim has rented here for the last five years.
Keep a lookout for calcified scabs and flakes of skin.
I always do.
"Christopher Fisher, Christopher Fisher Christopher Fisher.
" He lived alone.
The only thing his co-workers knew was that he was divorced, and had a daughter in college.
Believe in luck, Rachel? I'm in Pittsburgh dodging smallpox for a living.
- How much luckier can a girl get? - Well "Good fortune is the result of careful planning.
" It's more of a statement than a karmic prediction.
Whoa.
Can you make this kind of cash clearing bodies at a demolition site? I don't know.
Maybe he was working two jobs.
He was a mortician.
If he was juggling two jobs, he might've put the number in speed dial.
Try number four.
Work, ex-wife, kid's cell, second job.
Jackson and Sons Mortuary.
Your mask.
Hello, Mr.
Jackson? - Yes? - I'm Jacob Hood.
I'm part of a team investigating a serious public health matter involving your embalmer, Christopher - Fisher.
- Fisher.
I'd like you to tell me the names of everyone he worked with, and every dead body he worked on.
Today's my son's birthday.
- That's great.
- He's nine-years-old.
We're, you know, throwing him a party.
Check this out.
Look at that.
I am going to destroy you.
You think he'll like it? Sure, what kid wouldn't? I'm not going to make it to his birthday, am I? They said we can go home soon.
They're lying.
Keep us under control.
The government's not going to help us.
Even if they try, they'll screw it up.
Oh We're on our own here.
Come this way.
Just leave all your personal belongings right there.
Hazmat's doing a full sweep of the funeral home.
Rigdon's waiting to brief us on the status here.
What's up? How many workers do you count? According to the foreman's report, there should be 21.
I count 20.
Ned? Cathy! It's after 3:00.
I've been calling your cell for hours.
- They took it.
- What do you mean? - Who took it? - It doesn't matter.
Cathy, just listen to me.
Something happened.
You promised John you would be home for his party.
There isn't going to be a party.
Cancel it and start packing.
We have to get the kids out of here.
What are you talking about? Ned, you're scaring me.
Please! Cathy, just do it! What are you doing? What? You You can't keep me locked up.
I haven't done anything wrong.
No, but you're about to.
Ned! You've been exposed to a very dangerous, highly contagious virus.
I want to see my family.
I want to see my kids.
I know you want to keep your family safe.
You want to protect them from danger.
Ned! Ned, listen to me.
You are the danger.
Where are you keeping my husband? Explain to me Ned! - Ned! - Daddy! Hey, John.
Wait, wait! Ned! Hey, buddy This way, please.
I got something for your birthday.
Daddy.
You go with these people now, son.
I'll catch up with you later.
- No! No! - It's okay.
Come on, honey.
You'll see your dad later, okay? They won't even remember me.
They will, Ned.
I promise.
We caught a break.
Ned Warner's rash hasn't progressed beyond the macule phase.
So it's still in the early stages? When it's least contagious.
That makes it highly unlikely he infected anyone else on his way home.
- Records from the funeral parlor.
- We'll find out which corpse infected Christopher Fisher.
I'll oversee the decontamination in Ned's apartment.
These are the people Christopher Fisher embalmed during the likely period.
Susan Crane, retired civil servant, 72, cause of death, pneumonia.
Gary Firth, doctor, 45, stomach cancer.
Jack Ruddock, maintenance engineer, 56, industrial accident in a cold storage facility.
My money's on the doctor.
The man dealt with disease for a living.
You just lost your money.
Domesticated species lack a certain glycoprotein the virus needs - in order to replicate.
- Excuse me? The doctor was a veterinarian.
- You could've just said so.
- Even vets are familiar with medical safety protocol, so let's focus on the other two candidates.
We need a full background check, dietary history, family illness, any recent travel out of the country.
Who goes first? The woman who died of pneumonia, or the guy who died in the accident at the cold storage facility? When in doubt, always use the scientific method.
Heads or tails? Yeah, we can provide pickup service.
Give me your address.
Mr.
Pulido? Can you hold on a sec? Yeah? I'm your man.
You looking for some cold storage? We're here about your dead maintenance man.
Jack Ruddock.
I'm going to have to call you back.
30,000 square feet kept at a constant 25 below.
We're the largest public refrigeration facility east of the Allegheny.
All the big companies and universities store their perishables here.
What exactly are they storing? Ice cream to rocket fuel.
You name it, we got it in popsicle form.
That's giant bluefin from the Gulf of Maine.
Over there, we got CO2 pellets for industrial blast cleaning.
And those, ice cores from the South Pole.
From Penn's Antarctic survey.
Hey! You can't be back there! Is this where Jack Ruddock had his accident? Yeah.
He was fixing the refrigeration unit and he fell.
OSHA's already cleared us.
Do you know if he'd been out of the country recently? Jack? Nah, Jersey was a foreign country as far as he was concerned.
Look, I've got to take this.
Just stop by my office, let me know when you're done.
Why does it matter if the victims left the country? Fisher is patient zero in this country because of our reporting system, but some countries don't have one.
And some countries wouldn't even tell us if they did have a case.
Any chance they were in Latin America? I want to know the villages in Guatemala they came from and exactly how long they've been in the country.
How the hell should I know? Hood, here.
Pathology's back on Fisher.
Tests were conclusive.
It's definitely a hybrid form of variola major.
Smallpox mixed with another virus.
I told the CDC this would happen eventually.
That we had to be more aggressive with our research.
But what do they do? They restrict my work.
They slashed my funding! Cal, I know you're frustrated, but I need you to concentrate.
We have to establish this strain's origin.
It came from Central America, obviously.
Something new.
Something manmade.
What did the lab report say it was mixed with? An adenovirus, serotype 14.
That's a respiratory virus.
Is that combination even possible? In virology, almost anything is possible.
Sorry, I cannot help you translate.
That's not Spanish they're speaking.
Then what is it? Best guess? Garifuna.
It's one of at least 20 Mayan dialects spoken in Guatemala.
Great.
Does anybody understand what I'm saying? Comprehend? Your fly is down.
Your coworker Jack had a bad infection when he died.
There's a good chance he picked it up working here.
We need to know how.
Her brother arrived in the city last week.
He stayed inside because he was too sick to work.
Says he had a fever and a rash.
What else? Her village back home.
There were sick people there, too.
How many? Everybody.
Don't touch anything.
Rachel, don't touch him! Everyone, stay away from this man and wowon.
Folks, stay back, please.
What? They may both be very sick.
How much protection does vaccine give Rachel? Well, hybrid strains are notoriously resilient.
And given so many unknown variables, timing, antibody count 20%, give or take.
What about Xicalal, the Guatemalan village? Oh, we contacted the Guatemalan Red Cross and the Pan American Health Organization.
The place is being quarantined, so, we squashed a bug, Jacob.
- It's over.
- Cal, as long as Rachel and those people are at risk, it is far from over.
Rachel's a hero, Jacob.
Whatever happens next, we must never forget that.
I want everybody's name when this is over! Payback's a bitch! You looking for something, Professor? Rachel.
I'm sorry.
For what? You did what you had to do.
Is that Ned? No.
It's one of the other workers.
Ned's hanging on for now.
How many have died? Hood, how many? Six.
We think their viral loads overwhelmed the vaccine.
Maybe if we got to them earlier.
Do you have the number? Rachel.
Do you have it? Yeah, I have it.
I want you to make the call.
Tell the bureau that your handler's been compromised.
Tell them to send a replacement immediately.
Rachel, I don't want a replacement.
I don't care what you want.
You're my responsibility.
You get some rest.
I got things I need to do.
Hood! Make the call! Do you hear me? Hood, I am serious! It doesn't add up, Calvert.
What? That apartment can't be ground zero.
The timing's all wrong.
The Guatemalan patients are only now present in symptoms.
That's a full 12 hours after Christopher Fisher died.
Well, not everyone suffers at the same rate.
Viruses react with their specific variabilities.
Even if the illegals are not showing all the symptoms yet, they may all be dead by morning.
So, we should write them off? The way you wrote off the demolition workers? I was being realistic.
I want Rachel removed from general quarantine.
Until we have confirmation of infection, protocol dictates she be in private isolation.
We simply don't have another level three facility available for that approach.
The rules apply to everyone, Jacob.
Even the people we care about most.
It's not fair.
It's just the way it is.
Until the blood work comes back on the Guatemalan carrier, Rachel stays where she is.
Cath? Is that you? Cathy? Cath Cath.
Shh.
Shh.
I'm right here.
Oh.
I feel bad.
It's okay.
We all do.
No.
I don't mean that.
I feel bad because I'm leaving it all on you.
I won't be here to help.
You know, with the kids.
Yes, you will Ned.
You just have to hang in there.
Yeah.
Everything's gonna be okay.
Yeah.
This is the dead Guatemalan's blood sample.
So what we're looking for is the variola virus.
Shaped like a brick with a surface like a ball of wool.
You've seen it before? Only in books.
In 1979, when smallpox was eradicated, the WHO had most of the live lab cultures destroyed.
Since then, scientists have had to rely on computer simulations only.
You said the smallpox virus was brick-shaped.
That looked spherical.
Wait a minute.
Rachel?! Get Agent Young out of there now! - What? What are you doing? - He was wrong.
- Who? - Rigdon.
The man you touched he didn't have smallpox.
He had chickenpox.
Chickenpox? I had chickenpox when I was five years old.
That means you don't have it now.
Somebody get me out of this damn thing now! I wish I could cheer, but right now, we're 12 hours into an outbreak of the variola virus, and we're no closer to identifying the source.
Excuse me.
Variola means smallpox? Yeah.
Why? Customers rent the space by the pallet.
Nobody asks any questions as long as the check clears.
Ice cores from the south pole.
Yeah, but ice cores are only viable in their original virgin state.
These cores have been melted and refrozen.
So, this isn't virgin ice? Not even close.
There 567 alpha.
Frozen water doesn't lie, Manny.
How about you? You have any idea what's at stake here? Jack screwed up the repairs on the fan.
Fried the motor.
He and Pulido, they stayed late one night to move the crates to another area so everything wouldn't spoil.
Their jobs were on the line.
- You're not gonna open that, are you? - Don't worry Anything viral would be benign at this temperature Don't blame me if something leaps out and eats your face.
Well, that would have been better than this.
The samples were gone.
Pulido's gone.
He's taken the variola samples with him.
Police and Hazmat have the city locked down.
They'll find him.
The question is, how many innocent people will he infect before they do? What are you doing? Getting directions.
Pulido searched the 'Net for the quickest route from here to the intersection of Fourth and Grant street 15 minutes ago.
Pull over, sir, so we can search your vehicle.
Turn off your engine.
License and registration, please.
Pulido? Sorry to disappoint you, Professor.
You knew that immigrant boy wasn't our source,didn't you? The virus couldn't have come from Central America because it was from your laboratory, wasn't it? I wasn't sure at first, Jacob You got to believe me.
But when it turned out to be Adeno 14 I-I knew it had to be one of mine.
It was an accident.
An accident waiting to happen.
How could you store a deadly hybrid smallpox virus in a commercial facility? If it wasn't my strain that got out - it would've been someone else's.
- Are you listening to yourself, Calvert? You've killed six people.
You put the lives of an entire city at risk.
How dare you try to rationalization that to me! We live in dangerous times! And mankind has got to come up with better vaccines, more powerful treatments.
That can't be accomplished using computer simulations and theoretical models alone, you know that! Who are you trying to convince? Me? Or you? Was it Pulido's idea to move the samples or yours? When we rounded up his workers he realized what was in the cooler.
Demanded $75,000 for it.
I was going to pay him, and I was going to destroy everything I made a careless mistake Jacob Eventually you're going to make one, too.
It happens to everyone who carries our kind of weight.
You'll understand one day.
Are you going to have her arrest me now? Not yet.
First you have a job to do.
I want you to call your emergency response team, get them down here right now and you'll help clean this up, Calvert.
You'll help clean this up.
I'm sorry Jacob Hood.
Can't let him get away.
I wasn't planning on it.
Pulido! Stay where you are! Don't make things worse! Pulido! Pulido! FBI.
- Everyone, stay where you are - Mr.
Pulido, don't touch anyone.
You're infected with the virus Right now, there's a microscopic army waging war inside of you It's gonna invade your blood stream attack your central nervous system and destroy every healthy cell inside of you until there's nothing left No, I got the vaccine Too late to be effective you and Jack were infected the night you moved the boxes No Jack wasn't sick He fell and broke his neck He was the lucky one On the floor - Now Mr.
Pulido or I'll shoot.
- Hey you stay away from me.
You need medical assistance, Alan.
I need my money.
Listen to yourself.
You're not making sense.
It's the virus it's affecting your brain.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna ask you to gently, quietly leave the premises.
No, no,no, no! Nobody goes anywhere until I get my damn money! Listen to me.
I want my money! Listen to me, no amount of money in the world is gonna stop this disease that's raging inside of you, but you might be able to stop it hurting other people.
Now, if you stay here, you are issuing a death sentence to every innocent person in this room.
Do you understand that? I don't care.
I will shoot.
Don't open it.
There's one al missing.
It's done, Jacob.
Oh, Cal.
I ran into an old colleague the other day.
He's doing really well.
It made me so jealous, I could taste it.
And then, last night, sitting in that damn plastic tent, helpless, I thinking I was gonna die made me question this assignment what I do for a living everything.
And? And you're a major pain in the ass.
But you also do a lot of good.
I'm gonna see this through, make everyone else jealous of me.
Mom, Mom! That robot was designed by a NASA engineer.
It's got artificial intelligence, seven servo motors.
It dances, it snores.
It even does little electric farts.
That was a really cool thing you just did Not really I also got one for myself Energy restored