Prime Target (2025) s01e08 Episode Script

World War II.
The German wolf pack prowled the Atlantic.
Their orders sent in code.
The codes were unlocked by this.
Enigma. A kind of key.
Every submarine commander had one.
Inevitably, during the sea battles,
one fell into enemy hands
and the cipher was broken.
Key sharing led to the fall of the Nazis.
So, how do we deal with this problem
in the silicon age?
How do we keep our precious keys safe
whilst still making them
readily available?
Answer.
For every piece of treasure,
we create a special kind of lock.
A lock that needs one key to close it
and a different one to open it.
Two different keys,
two different processes.
The first key, the locking key,
we make available to everyone.
A public key.
The second one,
we make impossible to replicate.
They're linked by a mathematical function.
An algorithm using prime numbers.
[murmuring]
Public key cryptography.
[Ed] Are you in?
Taylah.
They can't know.
Delete every record
of the work I did there.
- They had cameras everywhere.
- [inhales sharply] Yeah, not anymore.
It's all gone?
It's all gone.
- Everything?
- Everything.
Erased. Every last trace of what you did.
The Prime Finder only exists
on this phone now.
[sighs]
Hey. You okay?
[inhales deeply] All right.
[sighs] Let's go.
[engine starts]
We've sent everyone else home.
What happened in London?
Nothing happened in London.
- We think they're here.
- What? In Cambridge?
We caught them on CCTV
heading towards the M11 out of London.
What's their game plan?
[sighs] I think they want to hurt us.
They'll break cover at some point.
Let's be ready for them.
[bell tolling]
[sighs] There's two.
Hmm. Cheers.
[inhales deeply] Oh,
did someone hand in my sports kit?
I can't find it anywhere.
Um, I'll have a look
in the back room for you.
Thank you, Keith.
[door opens]
[door closes]
Uh, no. Nothing back there at all,
I'm afraid.
Oh, weird. [sighs] I'm so sorry.
[door opens, closes]
[sighs]
[door closes]
[sighs]
Um, you need to eat.
Okay?
You know, Professor Osborne
got me into college.
And then he got me this room. [sighs]
Everyone else wanted it.
He said I'd like the view. [scoffs]
And we'd go out there and
we'd do our tutorials on the grass.
I would've been lost without him.
It was the first time
I ever felt like I belonged anywhere.
And now he's dead.
'Cause I wouldn't stop.
[sighs]
He cared a about you a lot, Ed.
Anyone could see that.
[inhales deeply, sighs]
I thought this was beautiful.
But now
[inhales deeply] I wanna fight back.
Good. Kaplar, Carter, Axiorn, Jane.
Let's burn 'em all to hell.
[sniffs] We use it once
and then we destroy it.
I think we just gotta be careful.
'Cause they'll track it.
It's like shooting a flare
- in a dark room.
- [door opens]
- [Fiona] Ed? What the hell is going on?
- [sighs] Hey.
- [groans]
- Whoa, you look like shit.
[stammers] You Uh, you shouldn't be here.
Well, first you disappear
for I don't know how long.
[Ed] O Okay, I'm sorry.
Well, I thought you'd done something
crazy, like run away with Bar Guy.
Who's this?
[stammers, sighs] Fi, Taylah.
Taylah, Fi.
Wait, are you two
- No.
- [Ed] No.
[inhales sharply, stammers] Listen, Fi.
You've been amazing.
I'm so grateful, but
[stammers] Please, you cannot be here.
- Okay.
- Okay.
Uh, just wait a second. Um.
He has one last thing
he needs you to do for him.
[door slams]
Okay. You got anything?
[Bobby] Nothing. Not yet.
[inhales deeply, sighs]
All right.
[inhales sharply] Call Cambridge police.
A body was found in the city of London
last night, dumped in a back street.
Edward Brooks is a person of interest.
We say he's in Cambridge.
What if they arrest him?
We track their inquiries
and get there first.
[Keith] Sorry to bother you, Master.
The police are at the front desk.
Police?
[Keith] Yes, looking for Edward Brooks.
Brooks? He's not with us anymore.
He's been sent down.
- Did you tell them?
- I did.
They said they had good reason
to believe he is in Cambridge, sir.
[inhales deeply] All right.
Uh. [sighs, clicks tongue]
Stall them for ten minutes.
- I'll make a few calls.
- Sir.
[inhales deeply, sighs]
Heya.
- Here.
- Cheers. Thank you.
[beeps]
[phone rings]
Hi. Yeah, hi.
Sorry. Can you Can you wait a sec?
[sighs]
Yeah.
I'm just, um I'm just taking a call.
- I'll be right back.
- [administrator] No problem.
Done. It'll log out in two minutes.
Okay. Go.
[receptionist] Darnell College.
Can you put me through to admin, please?
One moment, please.
[ringing]
[administrator] Darnell College, Admin.
Hello?
Hello?
[chimes]
[sighs] Okay.
[Bobby] He's out in the open.
Show us.
[Bobby] Trinity Lane.
[Nield sighs]
Get down there.
Take everyone with you.
Now!
What's he up to?
[Bobby] Come on. Let's go!
Trinity Lane. Go. Go, go, go.
[Nield] Brooks last seen heading
from Trinity Lane,
north onto Smith Street.
Okay, he's on foot.
He can't have gone far. We'll spread out.
- Nield.
- [Nield] Mm-hmm?
Do you see that?
Operating glitch.
[Nield] Shit.
She's infiltrating the system.
Look, there's there's protocols.
We're We're drilled for this.
No. Not for this.
This Prime Finder can break
through any computer system.
All we can do now is find them. And fast.
- She's
- [computer beeping]
Jesus. She's decrypting the entire system.
She's taking the Axiorn project.
Emails, surveillance. Everything.
Damn it. [sucks teeth]
Trace the attack back to its source.
Let me see
if I can get a location for her.
She's sending our data someplace.
Where are you? Come on. Come on, come on.
Look, look, look, look.
I've got her. She's here.
- Did you get her cell phone?
- No.
She's not on her cell.
- She's in Darnell College.
- [computer beeping]
[Jane] She's hiding behind
the college security system.
[sighs]
- Kill the Kaplar data center.
- [Poppy sighs] I can't get in.
She's completely locked us out.
[Bobby pants]
[Nield] Signal picked up
at Darnell College. Get over there. Now.
[tires screech]
[guide] Right, ladies and gentlemen, step
in line for the tour of Darnell College.
This way.
All right, I'm in. Where is she?
[Nield] The signal's not very clear.
Hold on. Got it.
Steer me.
[Taylah] Come on.
You're close.
She's right there. Can you see her?
You got her?
Jane?
Clean house.
- [phone buzzes]
- [sighs]
- [sighs]
- [phone buzzes]
Right. We've gotta quit the office. Now.
Clear out everything.
You know the protocol.
[clamoring]
Doesn't look like much, does it?
Except it was enough to bring
your entire house crashing down.
Everything's been sent off to Fort Meade.
Everything handed over on a silver platter
- to all of the NSA analysts.
- [sighs]
Everything Axiorn has ever done.
The hits, the deaths, suicides, all of it.
You know what hurts
is how you of all people--
Jane, don't make it about us.
It's about accountability.
And you think me going to prison
is gonna fix anything?
Well, it might make me feel better.
Aha. It'll make you feel better.
And then what?
You think Axiorn is finished?
They have all the money.
They are the money.
And you know what?
Nobody likes a whistleblower.
And believe it or not,
you your life is precious to me.
Because you think you own it?
- 'Cause you gave it back?
- What?
That's not happiness, Jane.
It's not justice either.
I took someone's life.
So you're owed
a little righteous suffering?
Yes! Something.
[sighs] That thing.
That phone you have in your pocket.
You know what it can do.
Do you understand the chaos that's coming?
And what about Edward Brooks?
- He's fine.
- He's not fine. He's not fine.
He's a fugitive.
And he will be for the rest of his life.
You made him that, Taylah.
He's another body
that you just stepped over.
People like you and me
we're not free to do what we want.
And sometimes we have to do brutal things.
All we can do is pray to God
that the people we love never find out.
I did.
I did find out about you, Jane.
Well, I love you. I do.
And I forgive you.
I don't want your forgiveness.
I don't need it.
[door closes]
- Hi.
- [yelps]
- Sorry.
- Ed. [sighs]
- Jesus.
- Didn't mean to scare you.
[Andrea sighs]
How are you? I've been worried sick.
I found it.
Our missing piece. I found it.
So?
You got everything you wanted.
Back in Baghdad,
in the hotel, y you you said
you needed to know how Robert died.
Do you still wanna know?
Yes.
[inhales deeply]
Their name is Axiorn.
[swallows]
[smacks lips]
It's a private security company.
Mercenaries in the pockets
of a number of banks.
It's the maths.
The Prime Finder,
that's what they're scared of.
Opening up the floodgates.
All that stuff they want locked down.
I mean, it it goes back years.
Decades.
Suppressing, killing.
Killing Safiya, killing Robert.
- Killing anyone--
- All right.
He died trying to protect me.
We weren't perfect. But I do miss him.
[phone ringing]
Oh, it's
- James.
- [Alderman] Caught you at a bad time?
No, it's fine.
[stammers] It's just that I'm I'm rather
concerned about Edward Brooks.
Why?
Well, we've had the police here,
in college, wanting to speak to him.
Apparently it's all very urgent.
I do want to help, so if you've any idea
where he might be found
Um, he's Well, as a matter of fact,
he's here with me.
Well, in in that case, um, I don't suppose
you could send him my way?
[Ed] I shouldn't be here.
Everyone's looking for me.
It's fine. James will know what to do.
Mr. Brooks.
The man of the hour.
Andrea, thanks for faithfully
delivering him safe and sound.
- Shall I--
- Ooh. Uh,
could you step out for a minute?
[whispers indistinctly]
And then we'll all meet together
and have a drink, okay?
- Okay. Sure.
- I want to talk to him. Thank you.
Please.
So, bit of a day, I gather.
And now we have police officers buzzing
around college, would you believe?
I know what this is about.
Professor Osborne.
Whatever's happened,
none of this is your fault.
It is. It is.
[birds chirping]
Do you hear that?
That's our blackbird.
[blackbird whistling]
Yes. It was always Cambridge for me.
Stanford was and remains
a hive of excellence,
but it's the presence of the past.
The direct plumb line from Newton
to Alan Turing to Stephen Hawking.
And now, Edward
to you.
[inhales deeply]
The twin prime conjecture.
Fascinating field.
[chuckles] Word gets around.
You're a mathematician?
[inhales deeply] Well, I cut my teeth
on computer science.
I I did my master's at Stanford.
I was part of the research group
that invented public key cryptography.
I didn't know.
Well, no reason why you would.
- [sighs]
- A general formula for primes.
Funny. Your greatest achievement
might be the thing that destroys mine.
How far have you got with it?
I've s I've solved it.
Solved it.
Oh, Edward. What age are you now?
[stammers] Uh, 26.
Twenty-six. My God.
Almost the same age I was.
A kindred spirit.
Do you feel it?
The hand of history?
Strange, the fear.
The hair rising on the back of your neck.
Nobody expects that.
What now?
Come.
I can help you with that.
[inhales sharply]
[Taylah sighs]
[Taylah] Hello?
Ed?
[sighs]
[sighs]
Oh, shit.
[sighs]
[line ringing]
- [Andrea] Hello?
- Hey, uh, Andrea, it's Taylah.
I'm in Cambridge. I can't find Ed.
Is he with you?
No, I just left him
with the Master of College.
He's fine.
Listen, I can meet you there
and take you to him if you like?
- Yeah, sure.
- Yeah? Okay. See you there.
[speaks Arabic]
[Ed inhales deeply]
- [Ed sighs]
- [door closes]
This feel like a place you could work in?
This was Robert's office.
He was a professor.
As would you be.
I know you don't care for all that.
But I'm offering you a sanctuary.
The proof.
In what form does it exist?
I wrote it down in my notebook.
Oh.
May I see it?
I burnt it.
You burnt it?
Yes. I don't want it anymore.
But it's still in your head.
Isn't it?
You need protection.
You need a home.
Here.
Alongside Newton and Ramanujan.
You told me it was your dream, Edward.
[sighs]
Akram!
Andrea.
- You remember my daughter, Afina.
- Hi. [chuckles]
[Andrea] Hi.
So what brings you to Cambridge?
I, um, got a place.
I'm starting in September.
[chuckles] I got a full scholarship.
Really? Which college?
Uh, Darnell.
Darnell. My college.
I thought all of the scholarships
had been allocated.
You must have friends in high places.
Well, it wasn't quite like that.
Only one person
has the authority to do that.
[inhales deeply, sighs]
Andrea.
Andrea!
What you have to understand
is that the code that I pioneered
was meant to keep people safe.
To give them personal security.
But then big governments got hold of it
and it became a tool
to hide their worst crimes.
That was never the intention.
And I have to make amends
for my part in it.
Post 9/11,
do you know how many people were tortured?
Beaten?
All hidden by my code.
[sighs]
That's my monster.
That's the guilt that I live with.
But your work, your proof
could redress the balance.
Walk with me.
[door opens]
- Hi.
- Hey.
Okay, we need to find Alderman,
the Master of College.
- What?
- He's the missing piece.
He's a very dangerous man, Taylah,
and I just led Ed straight to him.
All those years taking me under his wing,
encouraging me to keep looking
for Bayt al-Hikma like some useful idiot.
[Alderman] Every weapons trade,
every classified secret,
every evil.
You name it.
We can rip away the curtain.
Drag it all into the light.
An end to tyranny.
A new beginning.
[bell tolling]
Just think of all the good you can do.
In the right hands.
[Ed] You're talking
about rebuilding the system.
Crashing the digital world.
[inhales sharply] First strike.
We're going to send a message,
from right here in Cambridge
to our friends in Wall Street.
Use your theorem to break the banks.
Unlock their digital vaults.
They'll all be destroyed.
Let me tell you, that's just the start.
What about the fallout?
The cost to the rest of us?
Revolution doesn't, uh, come gently.
You need to put a hammer to our world.
There's going to be collateral damage.
You mean Baghdad.
Setting off an explosion in a busy street.
That was you?
Those people died in the name of progress.
Okay.
How many more lives is this gonna cost?
Oh, Ed.
Your friends, your colleagues all died.
Because of people like you
trying to unleash my theorem.
No. You must never blame the science.
I used to think that.
I I I was the same once.
Now you've solved it, it's only
a matter of time before it's out.
The world will change, Edward.
We are the authors.
The people who make the first footprints.
[clicks tongue]
What about Professor Osborne?
[sighs] He's out of his misery,
poor fellow.
But he nurtured you for greatness.
And now that it's here, your time,
he would be happy.
He would be proud.
I watched my friend get killed
right in front of me.
My theorem is a poison.
It makes people tear each other apart.
That's my legacy.
The thing that will be carved
next to my name.
- No, no.
- The destroyer of worlds.
[stammers]
I have nothing else.
Nothing.
This was This is the only thing
that I will leave behind.
I convinced myself that it it was pure.
But
There's always a human cost.
There is no bad science unless we make it.
[Alderman] It's out there now.
I told you.
And if it isn't you,
then I'll find someone else.
Another young mind.
You won't stop, will you?
No.
[breathes shakily]
[breathes shakily]
[gunshot]
[Taylah] Ed.
[Taylah] Ed.
Ed. Ed, are you okay?
Ed, are you okay?
[Taylah] Oh, my God.
[Andrea] Hey. Edward. Edward.
Taylah, get him out of here. Take my car.
Free School Lane. Take my keys.
- Go, go, go!
- [Taylah] Okay. Quick. Let's go.
Ed, what are you doing?
We gotta go. Come on!
Let's go! Get in!
[sighs]
[sniffs]
[sighs]
[breathing shakily]
[sirens wailing in distance]
I should've
What?
I should've
No. Stop.
The proof is in my head.
I'm the weapon.
- Okay.
- [sighs]
[both sigh]
Then use it for something good.
[sighs]
Okay. You're gonna have to go.
- What?
- Look, you're a target.
[stammers] These people
are gonna come looking for you
and if they find you,
they're gonna hurt you.
- [sighs]
- They'll use you, Ed.
You're not safe anymore.
Sometimes things happen
and we have to make sacrifices.
And somebody's gonna have
to be held accountable.
What are you gonna tell them?
Something.
Something not involving you.
Taylah [sighs]
Look, Ed, someone I loved died
because of me.
And I never paid for it.
[sighs] Just don't let anyone tell you
how to run your shit.
[sighs] Like you did.
Like I did.
But not anymore.
Um, look, it doesn't matter
if they take me.
You've got the Prime Finder.
It matters to me. [inhales deeply]
You matter to me.
More than this.
[siren wailing in distance]
- Listen, just go.
- [sighs]
Go.
[sighs]
[sirens wailing]
[panting]
[panting]
[breathing heavily]
[sighs]
[journalists chattering]
[spokesperson clears throat] Good morning.
Following the recent
unprecedented data leaks,
the National Security Agency
has launched an investigation
into allegations of corruption.
Several key projects have been closed down
and senior personnel dismissed.
We will also be cooperating fully
with the Senate Select Committee
on Intelligence.
At the direction
of the National Security Advisor,
the NSA has promoted Andrew Carter
to Chief Director
of Surveillance Operations.
He will be taking on full responsibility
of the overall operational and strategic
direction of the surveillance division.
I will hand things over now
to Chief Director Carter
who will answer your questions
after delivering some brief remarks.
[journalists clamoring]
[journalists] Mr. Carter, over here!
Washington Post.
[clamoring]
Good morning.
[no audible dialogue]
[sighs]