Prime Target (2025) s01e05 Episode Script

[bell tolling]
[reporter speaks French on radio]
[door opens, closes]
[footsteps approaching]
Hey.
It's so good to see you.
[Taylah] Hey.
It's been too long.
Cathedral burned down.
[Jane sighs]
Yeah. The whole city's in mourning.
I saw the smoke
when I came in on the train.
[Jane sighs] It's a tragedy. For everyone.
What about you? How are you doing?
[Taylah sighing]
Have you spoken to the boy's parents?
[Taylah inhales deeply]
Are you okay in there?
- [sighs]
- It's really good to see you.
[Taylah sighs]
[breathes deeply]
You were always such a smart kid.
Precocious.
Always had to have the last word.
- [sighs]
- Like a professional litigator.
- Even at four years old.
- Look, Jane
if you're trying to make me smile
or laugh, it's it's it's not gonna work.
Okay.
What am I doing here?
Your mom didn't tell you?
She told me you had a job for me.
And you were curious enough
to get on a plane?
Good for you.
I wanted to thank you for what you did.
What I did?
I know it was you.
What? You think I can just
wave my magic wand?
- [scoffs] Yeah.
- [chuckles]
[chuckles]
You know what I think?
I think something happened.
And it was very sad.
And now you can either let it define you
or you can put it in the past.
Where it belongs.
If you understand that going to jail
isn't going to bring him back,
then you can move forward with your life.
Some people,
just born to burn very brightly.
And you're one of them.
You're gifted.
All we have to do now is figure out how.
Here's my work details.
Give me a call. When you're settled.
Okay?
- [footsteps departing]
- [sniffles]
[door opens, closes]
- Are you free?
- [driver] Yes. Please, come on. Get in.
[clears throat]
[phone rings]
Taylah, you there yet?
[Taylah] Just landed. We need to speak to
Andrea Lavin and get access to the site.
Okay, listen. I did some digging.
You were right.
Syracuse has been compromised.
Someone hacked the NSA's operating system.
So, it's just you and me now.
Closed circle. Report only to me.
- Yeah.
- Okay.
Just take care of yourself. [sighs]
You too.
[line clicks]
[Andrew] I love Baghdad.
City of unanswered questions.
You know, you can still disappear
pretty much anything in Baghdad.
Sure. [sighs]
You know, this Brooks kid
is something else. [clicks tongue]
- Too smart for his own good. Sadly.
- [file slams]
Problem, Jane?
No.
- No problem.
- Good.
I've just contacted Kasim.
Kasim's still in Iraq?
Oh, yes.
He's tracking Brooks as we speak.
Okay.
But, Andrew
Mm-hmm?
If she is harmed in any way,
I will hold you responsible.
Well, if she's harmed in any way,
I probably will be.
[buskers singing in Arabic]
[door opens]
- [Taylah] Hmm. Connecting rooms.
- [sighs]
Don't you knock?
- What?
- Nothing.
Yeah.
Look, I need you to
talk to Andrea Lavin. Now.
What do I What do I say to her
when she asks what we're doing here?
I don't know.
Tell her [stammers]
you have important information
and you gotta see her as soon as possible.
Look, we need access to that site, Ed.
- [sighs]
- That's why we're here, isn't it?
[phone beeps]
- [sighs]
- Hi, it's Andrea. I can't get to the
How is it going?
The inscriptions are extraordinary.
But my work has only just begun.
There's so much here to translate.
All of these were found
on the floor of the chamber.
It's French.
Seventeenth century.
We're not the only ones
who have been down here.
[market patrons chattering]
[Andrea] We need to trawl the records.
See if any excavations took place
in the late 1600s.
- [Akram chuckles]
- [phone rings]
- Excuse me.
- Of course.
[Ed] Andrea, I've been trying to call you.
- Edward.
- I'm in Baghdad.
What?
- I'm with someone.
- Wha
- We need to talk to you.
- Okay.
Yes, I know where that is.
Okay. We'll head there now.
[Andrea] Okay. See you there.
Everything okay?
Robert's PhD student.
He's here in Baghdad.
I have to go see him now.
Sure.
What's going on there?
[Akram sighs] The gas explosion.
There were a number of casualties.
How many?
Five dead. Others wounded.
[Andrea] Oh, my God.
Nothing's ever just clean, is it?
- [Akram sighs]
- There's always a cost.
Right. Uh
Okay. Um
Um, Andrea,
I know this may come as a surprise,
and I'm sorry that I'm the one
that has to say it
but your husband,
he didn't take his own life.
He was murdered.
Murdered?
[Taylah] Yes.
I'm sorry.
And this understanding
is based on what, exactly?
- Uh, she's
- [stammers]
She's an agent
with the US National Security Agency.
Sh She She does surveillance.
You've been watching my husband?
[Taylah] Yes.
For how long?
Years.
Years?
You were watching him.
And me, I suppose.
Our house. My home.
So basically, you've been spying on us.
The voicemail that he left you
on the day he died, it wasn't real.
It was generated by AI.
The message was faked.
And by who [stammers]
it's not exactly clear at this point.
[sighs]
But we think it has to do with the work
that he was doing on prime numbers.
That we, NSA, believed at the time
he was working on,
but actually, the work was Ed.
[sighs] Look,
I know that this is a lot to take in,
but we're here because we need your help.
Remember what we said about my work?
- About Safiya?
- Stop. Please.
You see, when I heard "suicide"
I didn't believe it.
I knew it wasn't Robert. I I knew.
[sighs]
I told you something wasn't right.
Remember?
I've been so angry with him.
Angry with him for leaving.
For being such a coward.
[Taylah sighs]
And now you need my help. Now.
After spying on me for years.
[breathes shakily]
Violating my privacy.
Well, no.
It doesn't work like that.
Look, I I know that this is a shock
Shock?
I've known you for ten minutes,
young lady.
All we need is access to the site,
so we can start to figure out why and
Don't push me.
- Andrea
- I'd like to be alone now.
[sighs]
Hmm.
[sniffles]
[Mallinder, on voicemail] This has to end.
I'm trying to say goodbye,
but it's not easy.
I'm so sorry.
I'm so sorry
that I couldn't give you more.
Just try to be happy.
It wasn't ever anything that you did.
This has to end.
I'm trying to say goodbye,
but it's not easy.
I'm so sorry.
[people speaking Arabic]
Why'd you really come find me?
[Taylah grunts]
The truth?
I couldn't let another person die
because of me.
Before Mallinder and Olson,
I lost the person I loved
in a motorcycle accident.
And I was driving.
I couldn't deal with it.
And then there was Jane. My Godmother.
- [Ed sighs]
- [scoffs]
You know, usually people say
something at this point.
Like, "It wasn't your fault," or
- [Ed stammers]
- [sighs]
Well, I [stammers] wasn't there.
- [chuckles]
- So
God, it amazes me.
How you're able to disconnect
from everything.
What do you mean?
All this death and chaos around you,
and somehow you just
still focus on the math.
[chuckles] Thanks.
Oh, that's not a compliment.
What I'm saying is that this is the price
you pay for things that you do.
Like, people can get hurt. People can die.
And that's my fault? [scoffs]
- Well, I
- Sorry, I'm just I'm
[stammers] What are you trying to say?
That it's about accountability.
Right. Accountability.
Yeah, I've heard that one before.
[inhales deeply]
- [scoffs]
- Scientists have had that thrown at them,
I don't know, since Galileo.
Servetus. Landau.
I'm just saying [stammers] the [sighs]
the truth, discoveries, ideas,
they're not intrinsically good or bad.
It's what you do,
it's what other people do with them.
- No, that's a cop-out.
- But it's not a cop-out.
You can't stop the truth.
That would be the real crime.
We weren't talking about me.
We were talking about you,
and now we're arguing.
[stammers] We're not arguing.
I'm just simply
- Never mind.
- [sighs]
[sighs]
Look, I know I'm I'm not like most people.
I do know that.
I don't have a lot going on in my life,
but I have this.
This idea.
And I know it's out there,
and I and I can't
I can't just walk away from it.
Okay, Archimedes.
I get it.
I guess it's up to me to keep us safe.
[knocks on door]
Hey, Cole [speaks indistinctly]
Okay, we got the green light
to execute Brooks.
Kasim is standing by.
That didn't take long.
I know. Reminds you
of the good old days, huh?
- [chuckles]
- But, Jane,
there's a lot at stake
for both of us here, so we do this fast.
We do this right. Before he unearths
something we can't shut down.
Okay. Let me take care of it.
[inhales deeply, sighs]
We need to get Brooks out in the open.
He's headed for the dig site later.
There she is.
Good to see you again, Jane.
[inhales deeply, sighs]
[line ringing]
- [Taylah] Hey.
- Hey. I'm just checking in.
How'd it go with Andrea Lavin?
[Taylah] Ugh, God. Horrible.
She kind of freaked out. Sh
Well, that sounds to me
like a shock reaction.
No, I I know, I know.
I'm just, um I'm worried
she won't let us into the site.
But we can try again later, right?
Yeah, yeah. I I hear you.
Um, but this time, let Edward go alone.
Um, you think?
Well, Andrea doesn't know you, right?
She knows Edward. So there's a connection.
Look, Jane, I don't know.
He's not really
I mean it.
Give him the space he needs.
Look, Jane, are y are you sure
that's the right move though?
It's the smart move.
Promise me.
- [Taylah stammers]
- [Ed] Hey.
- Uh, look, I gotta go. Bye.
- Taylah.
- [Ed] Should we go?
- Yeah.
Shit. [sighs]
We should talk about yesterday.
Look, I'm sorry.
Walk with me, will you?
I listened to the message again.
Okay.
[Andrea] I couldn't hear anything unusual.
[announcer speaking Arabic]
Your friend. How reliable is she?
Everything she's told me has proved true.
And she has her boss
at the NSA protecting us.
Target moving through the market.
[announcer speaking Arabic]
Who's with him?
[market patrons chattering]
Same white woman in her 50s.
Anybody else?
Concentrate on the target, Jane.
[Ed] That dinner at your house.
Your tablecloth.
I think Robert's death
was somehow connected.
[Jane] Kasim.
Nobody else. 100%.
Target locked?
Yes.
Neutralize target.
[Andrew sighs]
[inhales deeply, sighs]
Shit. [panting]
Ed!
[pants] Excuse me. Excuse me. Excuse me!
And I bet he was trying to get me
to abandon my work.
I think he was trying to protect me.
He knew more than he was letting on
and the answer might be in that chamber.
Ed! Ed, behind you! Move!
Ed!
- [announcer speaking Arabic]
- Excuse me! Move!
- [market patrons clamoring]
- What is this? What's going on?
- Kasim?
- [Kasim grunting]
- Kasim.
- [grunting]
[panting]
[both grunting]
[Bogdan panting]
[both grunting]
[breathing heavily]
[both grunting]
- [grunting, chokes]
- [grunts]
[Kasim panting, grunting]
[choking]
[Bogdan grunting]
[Kasim choking]
[panting]
[grunts, panting]
[panting]
Hey. [grunts] Hey.
[sighs]
Kasim?
- [grunts]
- [Jane] Kasim?
Did you get Brooks?
Kasim!
Did you get him?
[breathing heavily]
[gasps]
[Jane] Kasim?
[breathes shakily]
Edward Brooks. Akram Nizar,
our chief archaeologist.
- [Akram speaking Arabic]
- Hi.
[stammers]
Uh, it's a real honor to be here.
Is she giving you the grand tour?
- Yes. I can't wait.
- Okay. Let's do it.
Let's go.
[Taylah] Hey.
- Hey, you okay?
- Yeah.
Wait, wait, wait.
We don't want
too much disturbance down there.
- You'd better wait up here.
- Yeah. Okay.
Hey, what's going on?
Uh [sighs] nothing.
- [Ed] No. Something's wrong.
- [stammers] Go.
Just do your thing. I'll see you after.
[Ed] They stood here.
[Andrea] What?
The makers. The people who
actually created the maths.
Musa al-Khwarizmi. Father of algebra.
"The man who made zero."
Yeah.
You don't know what this means.
[sighs] To me. Being here.
Well, actually I do.
Nah, I mean, to be stood in this place
[sighs, stammers]
where the ideas were born.
[stammers] It changed everything.
[sighs]
Where are the maths tablets?
Here.
[speaking Arabic]
Prime numbers.
What else does it say?
I haven't translated it yet.
Uh, can you try? Please?
- "As for the set of"
- Wait. Wait, wait, wait. Hold on.
"As for [stammers] the set of
prime and incomposite numbers,
it is infinite."
Um.
"Just so are
the prime and incomposite number"
Are you able to decode this?
Yes.
The essence of maths is universal.
It's [stammers]
It's the language of ideas.
You can bury them for nine centuries,
but [sighs] they're still here.
His thoughts,
no one's ever been able to translate them.
But if if you did, then I might be able
to understand the concepts
and turn them into algebra.
This could be a prime number theorem.
[both chuckle]
[sighs]
[Bogdan grunts]
[shutter clicks]
[Andrea] "The ratio of two to" something.
"Constant number multiplied
by a a natural number."
Yeah, there's a gap here.
Quite a large part is missing.
The writing's been eroded.
[Ed] What?
No. No, no, no, no.
Wha What do you mean? What happened?
[Andrea] Most likely water erosion.
I need that part. With Without it,
this is this is meaningless.
I can do this, Andrea,
and and I haven't come all this way
- for something like this to stop me.
- Stop.
I understand, but I think
we should take a little break.
[Ed] Andrea.
I need I need to finish this.
It's waited 900 years.
- [sighs]
- It can wait another day.
[sighs]
[Andrea] Edward, come on.
[phone chimes]
[breathing deeply]
[Andrew]
I just got off the phone with Baghdad.
- [door closes]
- Local police filed a report.
Is that it?
Well, we're trying to get more CCTV.
We'll get more intel.
But look at this.
[sighs] What the hell happened?
Kasim was exceptional.
Well, clearly he was taken out
by someone better.
So we have company?
Yeah, someone else is tailing
our mathematician.
But who? State? Non-state?
- China?
- Organizatsiya?
Look, it doesn't matter who.
The fact is, it's out of the box now.
Ed Brooks? No longer our little secret.
So we need to back off.
We can't be seen anywhere near this.
Or
Or what?
Look, we're blind here.
Whoever these people are, we don't know
what they know about the prime finder.
We have to.
You're not suggesting we build it?
'Cause that's a dangerous game.
We've spent years trying to stop
this global threat. That's over now.
Brooks likes your girl, right?
So we keep them together,
we keep him safe.
Wrap him in Bubble Wrap if we have to.
Whatever it takes.
And when he finds his holy grail,
then we pounce.
But Jane, for this to work,
your girl has to be with us 100%.
We need to bring her
into our little circle.
Can you trust her?
- Of course.
- Jane.
Can you trust her?
Yes, Andrew. I can.
If we can't stop this weapon from
being created, we have to control it.
- [speaking Arabic]
- [vendor chuckles, speaking Arabic]
- [speaking Arabic]
- [speaking Arabic]
Bye.
[shouts] What are you
- Shh!
- [in Arabic] Leave me alone!
[in English] Andrea Lavin.
I do not wish to harm you.
[stammers] I'm a colleague of Charan's.
I I knew him.
[breathes heavily]
Read this. [inhales sharply]
This is a structural report
into the explosion at Bayt al-Hikma.
- Well, that was an accident.
- I I gave this report to Charan.
A And he said he would try to help
and and you see?
[breathes shakily]
You see what they did to him?
- [elevator dings]
- Who?
- I have to go.
- [stammers] Who are you?
- People are looking for me.
- Yes, but how did you get this?
[breathing heavily] I wrote it.
Don't trust anyone from the site.
- [Taylah] Andrea.
- Can I come in?
[Taylah] Yeah.
- [Andrea] Listen to this.
- [door closes]
"In my opinion, the gas explosion theory
does not fit the facts on the ground.
The chamber seems to have been revealed
by the use of a carefully positioned
explosive charge."
It was deliberate.
And he said he gave this to my friend,
and that's the last time he saw him alive.
[Taylah sighs]
Okay. So who else have you told?
No one. I came straight to you.
This is your world, not mine.
Hmm.
So now you need my help?
Okay. Well, first.
For your own safety, tell no one.
- We don't know who else knows about this.
- Mm-hmm.
I say you and Ed go back to work
and act like nothing ever happened.
I just
What?
No, I just keep thinking,
whoever killed Charan
were they the same people
who killed Robert?
Look, Andrea, I don't know.
But we'll figure it out.
I promise.
[door opens, closes]
- [speaks Arabic]
- [speaks Arabic]
[Bogdan speaks indistinctly]
[Nizar speaking indistinctly]
[water dripping]
[Ed] What are you searching for?
[shutter clicks]
You're looking at the damage
from the explosion. Why?
[Andrea] I'll tell you later.
Andrea, we need to figure out
this missing piece.
[sighs]
There's some evidence
French archaeologists were here,
back in the 17th century.
They kept excellent records.
I wonder if maybe
Look here.
I think those are paper fibers.
So?
Can you throw the light on?
Before photography, before scanners,
if you wanted to make a record
of something like this
[shutter clicks]
you either had an artist
make a copy of it
or you made an impression.
Like a brass rubbing.
So you'd press damp paper onto the stone
then peel it off very, very carefully.
The French call it estampage.
Then what happens to it?
Well, like most things from the past,
it disappears.
But if they survive,
they get collected in museums.
Berlin has a very big collection.
Athens too.
Maybe they did this
before it became eroded.
It's worth a shot.
[scoffs] Yeah. Okay.
Uh
So?
How is it going?
[Ed] Uh, we're not we're not there yet.
There's a missing section.
- [Akram] Right.
- Yeah.
[Akram]
Where does that leave you, exactly?
Not sure. And the
the French coin could be a lead.
You know, if any early archaeologists
- have been here
- We'd better be getting back.
Good night.
Good night.
[Andrea] I think we shouldn't talk to
other people about what we've found yet.
- Hey.
- [Taylah] Hey.
[in Arabic] I wonder
if the French archaeologists
[in English] Estampage
Of course.
[phone chimes]
[keys clacking]
[mutters] It's online.
[sighs]
[Andrea] Here, see.
That's it, isn't it?
Part of the Mersenne Collection,
housed in the university's archive.
Does it show the missing piece?
Is it legible?
They only show the upper half
of the panel. Sorry.
But it is the same panel. I'm sure of it.
It has the same spiral pattern
you were drawing.
How do I see the rest of it?
[footsteps approaching]
[Ed] We found it.
The missing piece from the chamber.
- Great.
- When do we go?
- Uh. [exhales sharply]
Look, there's something
I gotta tell you guys. Okay?
What's wrong?
Well, yesterday at the marketplace,
um [sighs]
- [Ed] What?
- I think that someone tried to kill you.
Wait. What? Kill me?
Yeah. The killer was stopped
before he even got to you.
- [Andrea] Stopped?
- Wait. Whoa, whoa.
- [sighs]
- How? By whom?
Um
This guy. His name is Bogdan Vlahovic.
- It's the guy from the dig.
- [Taylah] Exactly.
He's an ex-mercenary soldier
and gun for hire.
I mean, you name it.
- What are you saying? What? Uh
- [phone buzzing]
Uh.
Sorry. I'm saying that people
are paying attention, Ed.
To you and to everything
that you're doing.
Some people want you dead.
And other people want you alive.
Okay. And somebody, presumably one of
the above, blew up a street.
[Ed] Blew up a street.
- You, uh You mean the site?
- Yes.
So you've known this for how long?
Which part?
I mean, take your pick.
Look, Ed, there's so much going on.
I'm trying to understand it myself.
- Okay?
- Okay. But who actually are these people?
[stammers] Is it Kaplar?
Is it Is it cousins of Kaplar? Who?
- I don't know. Ed [stammers]
- Who's trying to kill me?
- please be quiet. Stop.
- [cutlery clangs]
[sighs]
[sighs] Look, I don't know.
I don't know. Okay.
I know as much as you do.
But I say we catch a flight to Paris.
Try to look at this missing piece
and create your prime finder.
And in that, we have control.
Something to bargain with.
And look, Andrea, I don't think
it's safe for you to stay here.
I can't leave.
Not before the chamber
has been documented. No.
I don't think you understand.
I do and thank you. But I will stay.
Take this.
All my translations are on there.
And please find out who killed Robert.
Be careful.
Let's go.
[Jane sighs]
[grunts]
- [groans]
- Okay, finally.
- [Jane sighs]
- Check your inbox.
What am I looking at?
[Andrew]
Courtesy of our friends in Baghdad.
Look.
- Who is that?
- They're running a match as we speak.
[sighs]
[Jane sighs]
[breathes deeply]
[sighs]
[phone buzzing]
[Taylah sighs]
[Ed] Hmm? You're not gonna get that?
Hmm? [sighs]
[buzzing continues]
Why aren't you getting it? It's It's Jane.
- [Taylah] Okay.
- [phone beeps]
[Jane] I sent you a text.
When you get to the airport,
go directly to check-in.
There are two tickets under your names.
We're going to get you
and Edward on that flight.
Let's just get you home. Okay?
Taylah.
[Taylah sniffles]
Taylah, what's wrong?
[sighs]
Did you get him?
What?
It's a shame about what happened to Kasim.
[sighs]
[sighs]