The Assets (2014) s01e05 Episode Script

Previously on "The Assets" This is everyone.
All our assets.
Why are you doing this? My wife spends a lot of money.
We've missed you around here.
Things have really slipped.
- I don't know about that.
- They have.
No one knows counterintelligence like Jeanne does.
She will run this investigation.
- What to our asset losses? - Yes, exactly.
They've brought in someone.
- Does she suspect you? - She suspects everybody.
Arthur has you meeting at the Soviet embassy, but you don't have a record of that meeting in your log.
I think I just forgot to write it down.
Don't let it happen again.
There was yeah, yeah, it was a little.
Really? Yeah, yeah.
He didn't seem to mind at the time.
Oh, I got to get you an elevator, honey.
I got to get me an elevator.
So Was that opera really about tractors? Nothing gets me going like fat women singing about farm machines.
God.
Mm! Oh, you are you are so Six dead assets in seven months.
Word must have gotten around the KGB, 'cause we haven't had a new recruit in a year.
Nobody wants to be under CIA protection, and, quite honestly, who can blame them? To that end, I've given Jeanne greater leeway on our task force.
She'll need help, and we're it.
Everyone here reports to her now.
The nightmare begins.
This will be our headquarters the back room.
The door will be locked, and only the people you see around you now will be allowed in.
All documents are highly secure handling, and no document may leave this room.
What goes on in here stays in here.
Jeanne, you have the floor.
As far as I have determined, there are three possible explanations for our asset losses.
One is poor tradecraft.
We made mistakes in how we spy.
Two is communications failure.
The KGB is somehow intercepting our secure messages.
And three is human penetration.
Someone in this building is a traitor.
Sandy and Louisa, you will investigate tradecraft.
Did our assets use similar methods to each other? Could the KGB have figured out what those methods were? Mitch, I need you to assist Arthur, who will be testing our cable system.
We'll send out false messages from overseas stations and then see if the Soviets act on that false intelligence.
And I will continue looking for a mole.
Yeah.
Sandy? We're not gonna have trouble, are we? I don't know, Jeanne.
Are we? I hope not.
Same here.
Honey, did you pack a button-down shirt? Eh, it's vacation.
I think you're gonna regret that.
Honey? Have you seen my black boots? Uh, have you, uh, - checked the hall closet? - Yeah.
I did.
Not there.
I'll keep looking.
Listen, you know what? I've been thinking.
We've both been rushed off our feet.
Why don't we just, uh, cancel the trip, stay home, and relax? - - Hey If you're too tired that's no problem.
GT-Weigh always used microdots, and he signaled contact by opening a front-upstairs window halfway.
GT-Vanquish liked the rollover.
When he wanted to make contact, he left a black shirt on a clothesline.
GT-Fitness was fond of the brush pass.
He had his own method of dead-dropping microfilm.
I don't see any overlap.
This is a dead end.
Jeanne will want us to keep looking.
Next asset.
All these boxes of files can go back to records.
They're clear.
These files stay.
I want to interview each one of them.
- When are you going back to Cameroon? - Tomorrow.
There's a G.
R.
U.
colonel there.
Boris Noskov, pride of Soviet intelligence.
When he's not drunk, he's busy extorting money from minor officials.
Locals call him "The White Donkey.
" How'd you like to see him recalled back to Moscow? Nothing would please me or the nation of Cameroon more.
Write a cable.
Send it to a handful of people.
I'll give you a list.
In it, say that colonel Noskov now works for the CIA.
Care to tell me why? Just testing a theory.
I'm sorry about the cameras.
They were not my idea.
Code name GT-Prologue is a mid-ranking KGB officer.
Two nights ago, he approached Moscow station chief on the red arrow train to Leningrad, handed him surveillance photos from inside the chief's apartment.
He also handed him a letter saying he wanted to leave his wife and come to America, so until we can exfiltrate him, we are treating him as a full-blown KGB volunteer.
We have a new asset, people first one in almost a year.
- Whoo! That is - yeah, good news.
Art? Anyone vetted him? He's not controlled.
How do you know? The KGB doesn't dangle officers.
They're afraid they'll give up real information.
It's never happened.
That doesn't mean it won't happen in the future.
Statistically insignificant chance.
My gut says we should be careful.
Gut instincts sure path to ruin.
Well, reliance on statistics is delusional.
Oh, so it's delusional now Uh, okay, okay.
Let's assume for the moment he's not a KGB dangle, just like he's assuming that we fixed our internal problems.
Solve the breach.
How are the KGB getting our information? We need to keep him alive.
Meeting over.
You two remind me of my brothers.
You should just get it over with.
Punch her in the face.
Can I do that? Worked at my house.
Is this all the intel Prologue has given us? Um, I think so.
Why? It just strikes me as a little too careful.
Buon giorno.
Caffe per voi.
Rick! - Have you heard? - Y you can't - you can't be in here! - Paperwork for my transfer finally came through Italy.
You need to get out now! Please leave! What is this? - Rick! - Can't be in here.
You need to get out! - Oh, it's the, uh - Yes.
The investigation of the asset losses, right? Apologies, apologies.
Sorry.
Just thought I'd, uh, bring you the news.
Well, thank you.
My fault.
I forgot to lock it.
It won't happen again.
Think.
Think.
Tradecraft.
Communications.
Mole.
White Donkey still in Cameroon? I did as you asked, Art, but he's still here.
Saw him yesterday drunk as a skunk.
All right, thanks.
There's this woman at work.
I really hate her.
Hate? Strong language.
She's such a I just want to tear her eyes out.
I always found hate and love to be closely connected.
Please.
This isn't high school.
Sounds like high school to me.
You know what they say keep your friends close And your enemies closer.
No, you're right.
We have far too much sex.
Okay if I leave a little early? My boyfriend flew in from Ohio this morning.
Sure, Kara.
Knock yourself out.
Good night, Sir.
Night, Clayton.
Good night, Ma'am.
Hello? Anyone here? Hey.
You're home.
I found some wine and two glasses.
Forget the wine.
I want you.
Kara Jensen.
Who the hell are you?! You work at CIA, Moscow station.
For you.
Thanks.
Sorry I'm late.
Louisa and I cross-referenced all methods of tradecraft by every single one of our assets.
There's virtually no overlap.
Statistically insignificant chance poor spying is our problem.
Arthur? Secure cables went out to 25 different stations.
We dangled a G.
R.
U.
colonel in Africa, but nobody's rolled him up.
Can't be sure, but it doesn't seem to be communications, either.
Regarding human penetration, I've been going through H.
R.
files and interviewing case officers, and I've managed to narrow down our list of possible suspects from over 600 to 200.
S.
E.
division, are you ready for this? We have another new asset, people.
For the moment, we're calling him Mr.
X, and he says he has the answer to our problems.
"Mr.
X" that's original.
He says we have a communication breach.
The KGB can read our cables.
And for the sum of $50,000, he will elaborate on his claim.
They haven't read our most recent cable.
Two new assets in a few weeks You know what? I agree.
Don't we need to test him? We will test him, yes, but we don't want to scare him off right now.
Besides, the entire seventh floor, the chief of C.
I.
, and the deputy director all believe he's legit.
They figure the KGB is ultra-cautious.
I mean, Mr.
X turned up at a female officer's apartment after midnight.
Come on.
That's just not their style.
Or maybe we're putting too much weight on our preconceived notions about what the KGB's style is.
I mean, has anyone really gone over what GT-Prologue gave us? I'd say it's low-value, at best.
What, detailed accounts of how the assets were rolled up? Who? When? Where? But not why! He's told us what the KGB does once they find our assets, but he hasn't explained how they find them in the first place.
He might not know.
I think we're off base.
The KGB has always done things a certain way, and they know that we know this.
What if we've gotten comfortable with their behavior? What if they're using the assumptions we make about them against us? What if they're gaming us? It's what we would do to them.
Well, Sandy, that's a certain number of "what ifs.
" In any event, it doesn't matter.
We have to keep talking to both GT-Prologue and Mr.
X because if one of them can tell us what's happened to our people, that'll be worth considerably more than $50,000.
As of right now, they are both real assets.
Well We could have another look.
- Hey, let's do that now.
- All right.
You're right.
Excuse me? I agree with you.
The evidence points to us being taken for fools.
Keep up the good work.
Don't let it go to your head.
The KGB has a new plan.
They want to tie up the Moscow station.
Tie us up how? They're going to start sending you fake assets.
They will approach your people unawares Come, as you say, out of the woodwork.
You must treat these assets as you would real volunteers.
Otherwise, the KGB will know that they have a mole.
They will suspect me 'cause I have access to this information.
And then my life will be in danger.
He said they're all dangles? But Moscow station has to treat them all like they're real, which takes up time.
And manpower and ties up our case officers.
Which would seem to be exactly what the Soviets would want.
I want to take you to dinner.
They're gonna throw something else at us next.
When they do, you and I should be on the same side.
Do you eat here often? On Fridays.
- Every Friday? - Yes.
Wednesdays at Mario's.
Mondays at the Rod and Reel.
Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays, I cook.
Sundays, I get takeout.
You must know the menu pretty well.
No, I always ask for the same thing.
Look, Jeanne, I know you don't like me, but we need to put that aside I do like you.
You're just not living up to your potential.
Well, you see, that's what really gets in my craw you judging my potential.
Oh.
So you don't like me.
I don't know you.
You hardly speak, and when you do, you criticize me.
My criticism is meant to help you be the best case officer in the agency.
You have that in you.
I'd like to see it realized.
As for my not speaking, that's just who I am.
I'm too old to change that.
Chatter is for children.
I think both Prologue and Mr.
X were sent by the KGB.
I agree with that.
They were sent to fool us because they know we're looking for our breach, and they don't want us to find it.
I agree with that, too.
So we're on the same side? For the moment, yes.
"For the moment"? Meaning ? I'm not good at making political alliances within the agency.
I do my job.
I peel away the layers of the onion, and eventually, the truth is revealed.
Who's with me or against me, I can't control that.
I'm not really a people person.
Hey, Jeanne.
The usual? Yes, please.
And for you, ma'am? Uh, I'll have the linguini with clam sauce, a side salad with ranch, and a glass of white wine.
Very good two linguinis with clam sauce, two side salads with ranch, two white wines.
It's not that I don't like you.
I do.
I like you a lot.
And I would really like to be with you.
It's just that I'm a marine.
You know? We're not allowed to fraternize with foreign nationals.
I understand.
We will simply not see each other anymore, and that's it.
Hi.
Hi.
Thank you for coming.
I know it was a long flight.
We wanted to talk to you about Mr.
X.
You've never met him before? W when he came to my door is the first time I'd ever seen him.
And how about GT-Prologue? Never met him.
But I did meet his wife at an embassy function a few weeks ago.
Prologue said he was leaving her to defect to the U.
S.
Uh, I doubt that.
T they'd just come back from vacation in Odessa.
She was tan and beautiful and seemed very happily married.
Eric.
Jeanne here.
I need your help with forensics.
I can't let him in to the U.
S.
embassy.
But just as a tourist.
He's interested.
Well, all Russians are interested what mighty America is like.
That is breaking every rule.
But he's my uncle.
He's harmless.
Clayton, please.
For me? Hmm? everything since '82.
I need them brought to me, because I need to know That would be great.
Thank you.
Hey, Jeanne.
Have you heard? My transfer finally came through.
No, I didn't.
Yeah Italy.
How nice.
This time next year, I'll be Rome station chief.
Will you? Yes.
Tell me, how's the elephant hunt going? Oh.
It's going fine, Aldrich.
Well, that's that's that's good.
Good to hear.
Arrivederci.
Oh, Jeanne.
I have your, uh, forensics answer.
Forensics compared Mr.
X's handwriting with other KGB-generated material that we intercepted, and there's a strong resemblance.
So if Mr.
X is the KGB And he said it was communications Then there's no way it's communications.
Which makes sense, 'cause our Cameroon G.
R.
U.
colonel was never rolled up.
The truth is revealed.
I've completed my first round of interviews, and a further 45 officers are in the clear.
For the rest, I will be re-interviewing them, asking more specific questions.
In our hunt for this mole, we must remain focused.
We must let nothing distract us from this investigation.
Nothing.
My little princess.
You were actually twirling around the dance floor.
I thought you were gonna I thought you were gonna give that man a heart attack.
I didn't know.
- I thought he should get us to clear the - Sir? Yes? I, uh I just, uh Son, are you all right? No, sir, I am not.
Well, what is it? My name is Clayton Lonetree, I'm a marine guard at the U.
S.
embassy, and I have aided and abetted the KGB, sir.
You need to arrest me right away.
And her friend? He called himself Uncle Sasha.
And you let this Uncle Sasha into the U.
S.
embassy? I didn't know he was a KGB.
Like a Russian friend of a beautiful woman who asks to look inside the U.
S.
embassy? And you didn't think he might be a KGB agent?! I was in love with her.
I loved her.
I was just I was so lonely.
The building's been breached.
And we're gonna pack up the entire place every file, every bit of tradecraft, every lamp, every couch, every damn table and ship it back to Langley.
The entire U.
S.
embassy? Every stick of furniture? Yep, and copies of every cable that went through the embassy in the last five years.
This is insane.
A marine guard is not the breach.
He'd need computer access, door codes, passkeys.
I concur.
If it looks like a distraction and smells like a distraction I'm afraid to ask what's next.
I'll tell you exactly what's next.
GT-Prologue has finally asked to be exfiltrated.
We cannot exfiltrate Prologue.
He won't show.
No way.
I read your memo, Sandy.
You think he's lying about having marital problems.
I don't think he's lying.
I'm certain.
I'm telling you, he's controlled.
We can't give him a play-by-play of our exfiltration procedures.
Sandy Fine.
Don't believe me.
But at least listen to Jeanne.
Tell him, right? If we exfiltrate prologue and he is controlled, then the next time that we try and get an asset out of the country, the KGB will know exactly what to look for.
Sandy is correct in her assessment.
Prologue is happily married.
He has no interest in leaving the U.
S.
S.
R.
He is a KGB dangle.
Look, it's out of my hands.
Lonetree was most likely the root of the problem.
Lonetree is just another calculated distraction.
I don't know how the KGB manipulated him, but they did.
The seventh floor doesn't agree.
Moscow station has been packed up and shipped home.
We noticed.
And they want your group to do the review.
They want every page of every file organized, read, and disseminated.
If the KGB has access to our secure cables, we need to know exactly what they know.
That'll take months.
It'll keep us from doing the real work.
They think that is the real work.
Sandy, exfiltration of GT-Prologue starts in one hour.
Moscow station chief is meeting him on the Red Arrow at 0300.
By Friday, he'll be with us in Washington.
And since you two are such good friends now, you can be initial debrief.
Hello? Sandy, it's Art.
He didn't show.
What a waste of time.
We do our jobs.
Well? They bug us? No, sir.
Incoming.
The Lonetree case has been thoroughly investigated.
Moscow station is clean.
There's no way Lonetree could have gotten access to any asset files or other secure material.
I, uh I have more.
The good news is we haven't lost an asset in almost six months.
We believe the crisis may be over.
The seventh floor decided to put the past behind us, mark down our losses to a variety of causes, and shut down the task force.
- What?! - But you can't.
- Wallace, you can't do this! - You.
.
you you do do you know how hard we've worked?! Sandy, sit down! It's over.
Let's pack up the back room and get on with the task of running a spy agency.
From here on, we look to the future.
Thank you for your hard work.
Ahhhh! This is nuts.
You and I both know the problem still exists, and we both know that if we shut this down, then whoever compromised our assets will get away with it scot-free.
In fact, they're probably in this building now, drinking coffee, chatting up a secretary.
It's unconscionable! I'm not giving up, Jeanne.
I won't not ever.
Neither will I.