Wisdom of the Crowd (2017) s01e08 Episode Script
Denial of Service
1 Hi, I'm Jeffrey Tanner.
Welcome to Sophe.
We all know the Internet changed the world.
The only question is: into what? It can be a platform to bring us together or to tear us apart.
I know, because I spent my life trying to turn it into something that would connect us all.
Then - I love you, Dad.
- my daughter was murdered.
Nothing else mattered anymore.
Everyone was sure they knew who did it the police, my ex-wife but I was convinced the wrong man had been convicted and the real killer was still out there.
So together with my team, I built Sophe, a crowdsource crime solving platform powered by the smartest, most diverse, independent collection of detectives on the planet: you.
Let's get to work.
Ron.
Brought you a present, you sick degenerate.
Dude, that party last night was epic.
To $25 million.
To half a billion.
That's the VCs' valuation after this round.
- We built that.
- Yeah.
- You helped a little bit.
- (LAUGHS): Shut up.
Oh, here.
Oh.
What I'm talking about.
All right.
Here's to caffeine addiction.
Ah.
Oops.
Hey, sorry about your rug.
But, man, what about Mason and Faith, huh? (âFIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTâ BY THE BEASTIE BOYS PLAYING) (BOTH LAUGHING) Get a room! (LAUGHS) The first thing I'm doing after the IPO: - buying a jet.
- Dude, you hate to fly.
You don't even like to leave the house.
Why don't you just burn the IPO money.
It'll be prettier.
Ow.
(LAUGHS) You got to fight All you lushes can get out of my house.
To party I need my beauty sleep.
BEN: Ron, where the hell is your lazy ass? Wake up.
(WOMAN SCREAMS) BEN: We should have stayed to keep an eye on him.
Ron was wasted out of his mind.
He was so happy, you know? Like like everything we've done was worth it.
This IPO was gonna change our lives.
And then this happens? Falling down the stairs of your own house? Like, what kind of cosmic joke is that? If I had just stayed This didn't have to happen.
I'm so sorry.
Thanks.
(SIGHS) Listen I-I dig Sophe and how you're putting your crowdsourcing work to use and everything, but why are you here? I mean, no offense.
SARA: Uh, Sophe consults with the SFPD.
And since this case is tech-related, they asked for our help.
Wait, what case? Ron fell.
It was an accident.
CAVANAUGH: Not quite.
For the moment, at least, our M.
E.
has labeled this a homicide.
According to the doc, Ron was murdered.
What? Everybody loved Ron.
Someone didn't.
And the exterior surveillance cameras show that no one snuck into the house.
The M.
E.
puts the time of death at 2:30 a.
m.
when only three people were left at the party, you being one of them.
I-I've known Ron since we were interns at Google.
We-we came up together.
We built JavaWell from nothing into a powerhouse together.
I did not kill him.
No, Captain Picard was a diplomat.
He was a philosopher.
But if you push too far, he could still kick your ass.
Two words: tactical ability.
And we wouldn't even be having this debate if it wasn't for Kirk.
He set the standard, and you can't argue with that.
I can argue with that.
This is me, arguing with that.
Dude, what is Prudence doing? JOSH: I forgot to lock my terminal.
Should I say something? I can't say something.
We're in that weird âkind of datingâ place where we're not talking about it.
I don't want to mess that up.
Yeah.
Good luck with that.
Hey.
What are you doing? I-I thought you were in the bathroom or something.
Yeah, I was.
But that's when I got to thinking about how you clearly don't appreciate the sociocultural critique that death metal represents.
But why are you, uh I swear you're trolling me with the whole death metal thing.
I mean, you don't really listen - to that stuff, do you? - (CHUCKLES) Best day off ever.
TANNER: Hey.
What do we got? On JavaWell? The sweater from Mia's apartment.
Our best lead yet on the killer? Right.
Course.
Um users have submitted a whole bunch of pictures of different men wearing it, and Sophe's using the measurement diagram to compare sizes, but no extra-larges yet.
That's it? That's all you have? With under a thousand of those sweaters sold, - that's pretty good.
- No, no.
Until we find something, it's not.
- (RINGING) - That's Sara.
Uh, put her up.
Yeah.
Did you get the data I just sent from Ben Oberly's interview? Uber for coffee.
Even for a tech start-up, that's elitist.
Well, you can hate all you want, but these guys paid their dues, and their financials are real.
This IPO isn't happening by accident.
And Howland didn't die by accident, either.
The M.
E.
said he fell, but it's the blow on the head that killed him.
We found the murder weapon on top of the stairs, wiped clean.
Here.
TARIQ: Death by hackathon trophy.
What a way to go.
Keep that under wraps for now.
We have three suspects and no physical evidence that points to anyone.
The less they think we know, better chance they slip up on their own.
We have the other two interviews coming in soon the head of product and a woman who works for U.
X.
or something.
User experience.
Great.
She knows.
Anyway, I'm going after all of them, so any ammunition you have, now's the time.
Well, you got to ask nicely, Detective.
Or I could just arrest you for obstructing justice.
Tariq.
Fine.
I found something weird on the victim's computer.
It's a memo he was writing criticizing diversity initiatives in the tech world.
It looks like he was gonna send it out to the entire company.
Like that asinine Google post that said women were inferior.
I think that's what he was responding to.
âDiversity has become the tech world's third rail.
âWe're not allowed to question it, âbut, as engineers, it's our duty âto question everything.
âAnd hiring more women and minorities âisn't actually making us more successful, just more politically correct.
â Lovely.
And it's your ammunition.
Uber took a big hit from that sexism scandal.
It lost market shares, publicity and goodwill.
A start-up like JavaWell could lose everything if that memo got out.
Could be a motive for murder.
JOSH: Hey, look at this.
Users keep focusing on JavaWell's proprietary app.
They're saying it could help crack the case.
Why? How would their app help? I'm asking the crowd right now.
(ALARM BLARING) Yeah, what's that? That's the server overload warning.
Talk to me.
What's happening? Traffic's spiking.
It's overloading the system.
TARIQ: We're being slammed with too many requests to handle.
Try to black hole the traffic.
W-We can't.
It's too distributed.
It's coming from everywhere.
It's a DDoS.
CAVANAUGH: Okay, what is that? It's a denial-of-service attack.
Cybercriminals use it to knock websites off-line.
They send so much traffic to the site that the servers just get overwhelmed.
It's like directing a fire hose through your pipes nothing else can make it through.
Can't you just stop it, or What? JOSH: What the hell just happened? Sophe's off-line.
If you can get enough servers online The basement.
The guys in the server room could use your help.
All hands on deck.
Anything? Working on it.
SARA: Jeffrey, we can't access Sophe at all.
The DDoS took us down.
Without Sophe, we'll never solve Mia's case, which is exactly why we need to fix this.
JOSH: We're doing everything we can, but we're getting slammed with over 600 gigabits per second.
The only thing that could generate this much traffic - is a massive botnet like Mirai.
- TARIQ: Baby monitors.
We're being taken down by unsecured baby monitors, home routers, freaking DVRs.
S-Sara, what are they babbling about? Botnets take over devices connected to the Internet.
Things like home appliances.
They use them to direct traffic to websites.
Huge ones like Mirai have control of so many devices, the sites can't handle the traffic, so they just crash.
TANNER: Well, someone has to be controlling these baby monitors.
You were just making progress at the JavaWell case, right? CAVANAUGH: You think someone at JavaWell took Sophe down so we wouldn't solve the murder? TANNER: They're a tech company.
Their people have skills.
Right? Plus, you can rent time on the botnet on the dark web for what $20,000 in bitcoin? I wouldn't know anything about that.
SARA: Well, actually, when we interviewed Ben Oberly, he knew about Sophe.
He was asking us why we were involved.
TANNER: And there it is.
Sara, stay right there.
Figure out who at JavaWell is behind this.
The faster we solve this murder, the faster we get Sophe back.
(SIGHS) But no pressure.
Looks like our next interview's here.
Faith Laferty.
(âFIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTâ BY ZEN BOY & KARMA GIRL PLAYING) - Faith, lighten up.
- No, I'm good.
After 12 failed start-ups, I deserve this.
(DISTORTED): Lucky number 13.
RON: Get a room, Mason.
Hey, get off me.
(DISTORTED): Faith.
All right, when we IPO, I'm buying Jet Skis.
And a yacht to pull them.
(LAUGHS) You hate water.
Well, with this much money, I'll learn to like it.
Man, living at home is such a drag Faith.
(DISTORTED): Faith.
Busted You got to fight Faith.
To party CAVANAUGH: Do you remember anything else about that night? Honestly, I was pretty trashed.
My LSD microdose turned out to be a lot less micro than I thought.
SARA: Some people in the tech industry think it helps you stay focused.
Uh-huh.
FAITH: I needed to be somewhere quiet, so I stayed in the bathroom.
But I left when Ron kicked everyone out.
RON: All you lushes can get out of my house.
Party And now he's just gone.
You said Mason hassled you.
What about Ron? Ron never gave me any trouble.
He even helped me when I wanted to move teams to get more technical experience.
He was a good boss.
SARA: When I was at university, I had this computer science T.
A.
who used to call me Mary Poppins.
Kept asking for a spoonful of sugar.
Yeah.
At my first internship, my supervisor would say, âYou should just sit there and look pretty.
â (SCOFFS) Funny how my ideas always ended up being his ideas.
Well, that's all just boys being boys, right? Look, whatever happened, you can tell us.
It will stay in this room.
This is not me being loyal.
Ron was awkward so are a lot of programmers but he never hassled me.
Not like the others.
SARA: Did you know that he was writing a memo questioning the value of women and minorities in the workplace? No.
But, then, I guess you never really know anyone, do you? Now that Ron's dead, what happens to his ownership stake in the company? It'll get redistributed between the current employees.
The guys set it up that way.
Yes, my stake will be worth more.
No, I wouldn't kill for it.
SARA: This, um, microdose that you took, I'm assuming you bought it online? CAVANAUGH: Girl, please, I'm here to solve a murder, not bust you for being stupid.
There's a guy in our tech support division.
He supplies it.
So you didn't pay for it with bitcoin? Please.
Crypto-currency? That's a bubble about to pop.
I never touch it.
Talk to Mason.
He loves that stuff.
MASON: Come on, Faith, cut it out.
Hey, people are watching.
You bet they are.
(LAUGHS) You know, if this is what a VC round does to you, - I can't wait for the IPO.
- (GIGGLES) Mason, this is not your bedroom.
Shh, shh, shh, shh.
(GLASS SHATTERS) (GROANS) I think I'm gonna be sick.
First IPO present to myself: brand-new skis.
(LAUGHS): Dude, you hate the snow.
Well, let's just say I'm warming up to it.
(âFIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTâ" BY THE DAGMARS PLAYING) I'll kick you out of my home if you don't cut that hair Aw, your mama busted in All you lushes can get out of my house.
I need my beauty sleep.
'Cause you gotta fight For your right CAVANAUGH: And you didn't see where Ron went? Nah.
Last I saw, he was wasted but still on his feet.
Alive.
None of this makes sense.
We were going to Vegas for Thanksgiving the high-roller suite and everything.
He was so stoked.
And now What about Faith? She was wasted, too? (SIGHS): I guess.
Girls and liquor, man.
(CHUCKLES) Just another reason why women don't belong in tech, right? No need to be defensive.
Okay? I love women in tech.
Ron said the same thing in a memo about how female programmers aren't as qualified as the men around them.
No way.
I talked him out of that.
So you knew about the memo.
Ron thought he was some kind of intellectual out to change the industry.
But I'm the one that convinced him not to be an idiot.
I mean, look, you can think whatever you want, you just can't say it.
You don't want to scare the investors.
But you love women in tech, right? (SIGHS) Shouldn't you be off fixing Sophe? Heard it crashed.
Bummer.
Tell me, who takes over Ron's duties now? I don't know.
Me, probably.
Of course.
And you'll get a bigger stake in the company, too, as well, right? We all will.
Look, I know what you're thinking.
I didn't kill Ron.
When my last job completely overreacted to this joking text I sent, Ron was the only one that had my back he was my friend.
He was my friend, and I never would have hurt him.
So, with the IPO on the horizon, they all stood to benefit - from his death.
- Mm-hmm.
As much as I hate to admit it, Faith could have found out about the memo and saw it as an opportunity to get rich and get rid of a techbro.
Two birds with one stone.
Yeah.
Tell me something.
Did you notice anything off about their accounts of that night? They were all different.
Except the end.
They all said they were drunk or high or both, and then every other detail was different But Ron's last words were exactly the same.
All you lushes can get out of my house.
I need my beauty sleep.
So you're saying they huddled together and got their stories straight.
Even if they're covering for each other, only one of them hit Ron over the head.
Question is, which one? PRUDENCE: The thing that people don't get about death metal is that it's a response to the superficiality of consumerist culture.
It's people screaming.
It's an expression of the chaos of being.
It speaks to those who won't conform.
By screaming.
You two are perfect for each other.
Okay, this is no use.
The techs keep bringing on more servers, but they keep crashing.
And the techs keep crying.
The traffic's coming in from everywhere.
Who knew baby monitors could do this much damage? I hope Tanner's got an idea, 'cause we're tapped out.
(PHONE BEEPS) (PHONE BEEPS) What do you want, Jeffrey? I need your help, all right? Sophe's down.
We're under attack by a botnet.
The only way for us to get back online is to host the site on a network so big, no amount of traffic can take it down.
A site like Ratchet.
Millions of people search Ratchet simultaneously all over the world it could easily handle the kind of traffic that is keeping Sophe off-line.
Jeffrey, even if I wanted to help you, Vikram won't help you.
He hates you.
But he adores you.
If you called him as a friend and appealed to him You are literally so unbelievable.
I have been begging you to stop this whole thing, and now you're asking for my help to get it back online.
Really? I know it's a lot to ask, but this isn't just about Mia anymore.
We're helping people.
We're giving parents the kind of closure that we wish we had.
But we can't do it without Sophe.
We can't.
Please, Alex.
Okay, I'll call Vikram.
But no guarantees.
Thank you.
You know, I really appreciate this, and (PHONE BEEPS) (DOOR CLOSES) WOMAN: FBI! Everyone step away from your computers.
Away.
Everyone.
Mr.
Tanner, I presume? Special Agent Driscoll.
This is our tech expert, Isaac Wallace.
And this is a federal warrant giving us access to Sophe.
Your network, your personnel, everything.
What-what the hell is going on? You're under attack by a botnet.
- Yeah, no kidding.
- We believe it's one the FBI has been tracking, run by a foreign criminal organization.
Our intel suggests it may be planning a strike on U.
S.
infrastructure soon.
We don't have any time for this, okay? We're pretty sure that JavaWell is behind all this it's a company that we're investigating Well, anything is possible.
But JavaWell could very well be renting the botnet in order to launch its attack.
Either way, in the interests of national security, the FBI will need access to Sophe's servers to investigate.
We'll also need to question everyone here.
Starting with you.
You want a suspect? You got one: JavaWell.
And we're looking into that, but we need to consider all angles, Mr.
Tanner.
For example, could someone out there think Sophe knows something it shouldn't? Yeah.
JavaWell.
Or, is this more about you, and Sophe's just collateral damage? You've certainly made enemies.
Vikram Singh, for example.
VIKRAM (ON VIDEO): Jeffrey and I had different visions for AllSourcer.
And when it became clear they were incompatible, I chose to leave and focus on Ratchet instead.
Now, Ratchet's market cap surpassed AllSourcer's three years ago.
I'd say I made a wise move.
Ratchet's stock is inflated.
And ousted CEOs don't let things go.
Sounds like motive to me.
There's 116 bad things I could say about Vikram, but he wouldn't waste his time on this.
Then maybe it's closer to home.
How much do you know about Tariq Bakari? (CHUCKLES): Oh, come on.
Tariq has nothing to do with this.
He's a known gray-hat hacker.
He's made enemies, too.
Can you tell us how it is that you hired Mr.
Bakari? Tariq demonstrated skills that we needed.
He hacked you.
It was a bold move.
DRISCOLL: The way I see it, Mr.
Tanner, while you may be focused on JavaWell, there are multiple people who might want to take Sophe out.
Maybe you should widen your view.
Well, maybe you shouldn't ignore what's right in front of your face.
JavaWell.
What's happening? Congratulations.
You've been raided by the federal government.
Check that off the bucket list.
JOSH: Sara, this is Prudence she's just visiting - on her day off.
- Oh.
Right.
The girlfriend, yes.
What? No, she's not I Can we move on, please? TARIQ: The FBI are investigating the denial-of- service attack, and they want to talk to all of us.
Yay.
DRISCOLL: Sara Morton.
Please come with me.
Is someone out there punishing Sophe for your sins, Ms.
Morton? You think this is my fault? How is this my fault? Of course it's the brown guy's fault.
AllSourcer has a temporary restraining order barring you from working at Sophe, and yet here you are.
On the advice of our C.
O.
O.
, Mike Leigh, I'm staying pending a hearing.
So maybe this attack is a power play.
Could it be AllSourcer's attempt to try and stop you from using technology that it says it owns? AllSourcer wouldn't do that.
I mean, I hope they wouldn't.
I used to work there they're not that evil.
Are they? It's JavaWell, right? I-I mean, they're about to IPO.
It makes sense.
Why are you so nervous, Josh? I've been doing this a long time.
If there's one thing I know how to spot, it's a guilty conscience.
Trust me, you'll feel better once you get it off your chest.
In grad school, I hacked into MIT's server to delete an e-mail I sent to a girl.
But I was, like, really wasted.
I-I can't be held responsible for that, right? - Oh, God, I'm going to prison.
- WALLACE: Do you make it a habit of taking liberties with other people's networks? I'm a curious guy.
But whatever I did, it's to expose fat cats who take advantage of people who don't know any better.
If that makes them mad, good.
So maybe this botnet attack is payback for your misdeeds.
- Who, Tariq? - Yes.
Have you noticed any suspicious behavior from him? What, because Tariq's Muslim, he must be a criminal? What's next? Are you gonna call him a terrorist? - Disappear him off somewhere? - Think about it.
What do you really know about Tariq? He's my punishment, put on Earth to torture me.
Wait, why are you asking about him? WALLACE: Did you know that Tariq has made a lot of money from bug bounty programs? So what? Companies ask hackers to find flaws in their networks.
If I happen to be awesome at what I do, that's hardly a crime.
But where does all that money go? Back to your friends and family in India? - (SCOFFS) - Maybe Pakistan? Dude, try âI help my parents pay for their house.
â You know how expensive it is to live in San Francisco? WALLACE: Fine.
So if this botnet attack isn't because of you, is it because of other Sophe users? Are there any other hackers among them? Any government employees? You have no idea what's going on, do you? You're just fishing.
And you're wasting everybody's time.
We done here? (COMPUTERS WHIRRING) (APPLAUSE) (CHEERING) You don't deserve me, you know.
I never did.
Sophe's back on.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
It was great to connect with Vikram.
It gave me an excuse to reminisce about the good old days, you know.
The three of us and some ramen.
I miss the good old days.
Even the ramen.
Um, I'm gonna go ahead and forward you all of the technical stuff so you can have a look at this.
I don't understand it, and I don't want to pretend to.
Well, I appreciate it.
Now if I can just get the FBI off my back, I'll be all right.
Wait, Jeffrey, what about the FBI? They're getting in the way here.
I actually have to go.
Seriously, Alex, thank you.
David? What did you do? This wasn't us.
No, it was me.
Sophe is being hosted on Ratchet's network.
For the time being, anyway.
I have an investigation to run, Mr.
Tanner.
So do we.
You'll have access to Sophe.
Interview anyone you want.
Just try to stay out of our way.
Just calm down, people.
It's a Band-Aid.
Ratchet's only hosting us for eight hours.
- And after that? - There is no âafter that.
â I created Sophe to find Mia's killer, and I refuse to let him just go free.
So I don't care what you do or how you do it.
We have to fix this, all right? Let's go.
Users are realizing we're back up.
Submissions aren't at their pre-outage levels, but they're growing.
They like us.
They really like us.
- What about Mia's investigation? - Uh, we got a couple more photos of people wearing the sweater.
Which won't matter if Sophe goes down again when we're kicked off Ratchet's servers.
We have to find out who's behind the DDoS attack and stop it.
That means the JavaWell case has to come first.
Hey, uh, remember how users were obsessing about the JavaWell app before we went down? They're back at it.
SARA: I still don't understand how that's important.
Well, uh, CoffeeCrazy78 says the app automatically connects phones that have it if they're within ten feet of each other.
TANNER: That's like Airport.
People don't notice phones are being synced anymore.
Wait, got another message here.
âCheck the user logs from the suspects' phones.
â This one's from DearPrudence95.
TARIQ: We won't have to check anything.
User CityGal154 quit JavaWell last week, but they haven't revoked her admin access.
She just submitted the data logs from that night.
Ben, Mason, and Faith all told us that Ron was alive when they left.
But-but these records, they prove that all three of them were within ten feet of Ron when he was killed.
They've all been lying.
And now we have the evidence.
Go.
Yeah.
I messed up.
What do you mean? What happened? This morning, I went to get something to eat.
And when I came back, Prudence was at my computer.
And she wouldn't tell me what she was doing on it, but it was right before the attack.
If I ask her about it, she'll think that I'm accusing her of something or that I don't trust her.
Which I do! It's just a little suspicious, but it's not that suspicious.
This is a really weird conversation to be having with my boss, isn't it? Yes, but I'm rolling with it.
Things are kind of undefined and awkward and you don't want to mess it up.
I get it.
So, how about this? I will talk to Prudence when I get back and I will leave you out of it.
Unless Prudence is some sort of stealth JavaWell plant, which I highly doubt, I think we're fine.
From now on, just, uh, keep your terminal locked, yeah? - Yeah.
- And maybe define your relationships a little better? Yeah.
Thank you.
CAVANAUGH: These are data logs from the JavaWell app.
They prove you were within ten feet of Ron Howland when he died.
You all were.
You've been lying to us.
Okay, so we lied.
Doesn't mean I killed him.
No, but I showed these to Faith and Mason and, guess what, they gave you up.
They said you got in a fight with Ron.
It got physical.
Then you murdered him.
It's a fun story, but that's all it is.
I'd like a lawyer now.
No.
No, there's no way Ben and Faith would turn on me.
But they did.
You know, I did this prisoner's dilemma experiment in college.
And the thing I learned is, if you want to win, you stay silent.
So I'll be exercising that right.
Thanks.
Of course they turned on me.
Did you expect anything different? They were always gonna do what was best for them.
(SNIFFLES) It was an accident.
Why don't you tell us what happened that night, Faith.
(SNIFFLES) We were all wasted.
Are you out of your mind, writing a memo like that? There's a reason that Google fired that guy.
The customers won't stand for it, especially not our wealthy, liberal ones! Calm down, all right? You're overreacting.
FAITH: Oh, don't patronize me.
You know what happened with Uber.
Do you want to destroy this company? Wait.
Wait, I'm-I'm sorry.
You actually wrote that stupid think piece? Are you joking? Oh, come on.
It's no big deal.
We've talked about this.
What you do reflects on us.
FAITH: This is the kind of thing that could kill the IPO.
- The entire company! - Faith, chill.
I know that your feelings are hurt.
Maybe just take some time, think about what you're saying.
- No.
We're going to talk about this.
- Wha Hey, let go of me.
We're gonna talk about Let go, Faith.
Do you know how much this shirt costs?! (BOTH GRUNTING) - Oh, my God! - BEN: Ron! What the hell, Faith? FAITH: You saw! I didn't mean it! BEN: Oh, my God.
(SNIFFLES) It was an accident.
Ben thought if we got our stories straight, everyone would think that he just fell.
The death of a founder was bad enough.
This way, we could avoid the bad press about the memo.
It would be a tragedy, not a scandal.
I didn't mean to hurt him.
(SNIFFLES) I just lost it.
Another guy I trusted who didn't even think that I deserved to be there.
If that memo got out, people were gonna think he was talking about me.
You're really trying to sell it as an accident? That he fell? That's what happened.
Why are you still lying, Faith? I'm not.
CAVANAUGH: You are.
Ron didn't fall.
He was bashed in the head with this.
- What the hell is that? - That's what killed him.
(SCOFFS, SNIFFLES) You know what, you see this? What? You see here? Here's where the award cracked his skull.
Here's the indentation that matches perfectly.
No.
What? No.
No.
I didn't hit him.
I have no idea what you're talking about.
Please, just take these away from me.
(SNIFFLES) Please! Either she's the best liar I ever saw or she's telling the truth.
She believed that he fell.
Which means when someone hit him over the head with that trophy, it had to be at the bottom of the stairs.
Ron had those damn awards all over the house, right? We assumed that the murder weapon came from upstairs, 'cause that's where we found it.
But what if it didn't? (EXHALES) Look here.
Here.
Look at this.
This is a picture of the awards upstairs.
And this is a picture of the award table downstairs.
Look, the dates don't line up.
So Ron was killed with a 2016 award.
All the awards upstairs were, what, from '07, '08, '09.
All the ones downstairs were more recent.
2014, 2015.
They were all there, but Faith said Mason went to go check on him.
SARA: She had no reason to lie about it.
She thought she'd killed Ron.
CAVANAUGH: So Mason found him still alive, grabbed an award, and bashed him over the head with it.
And then tried to cover it up.
My client is not saying a word.
CAVANAUGH: That's okay.
He can just listen.
We know you killed Ron.
I guess you guys were friends, but there's friendship and then there's business, right? The memo he wrote would have destroyed your company, right before the big IPO.
So after he fell, you went to check on him.
And when you realized he was still alive, you grabbed the first thing you saw one of his hackathon awards, then you finished him off with it.
And then you used it to frame Faith.
SARA: Typical overcompensating male.
Too clever by a third.
That's what you've got? Really? No evidence, no fingerprints.
Your client might have been smart enough to wipe off his prints, but DNA tends to stick around.
You see these sharp edges? They dig in to your hands.
You see any cuts? CAVANAUGH: You don't need to cut yourself to transfer DNA.
All it takes is one or two skin cells left behind.
Now how sure are you that when we test those cells, they won't match yours? Get the D.
A.
in here, and we can make a deal.
Ron was your friend.
And he told me he wouldn't write that damn memo.
(SCOFFS) All he had to do was wait for the IPO.
Yeah, it was all his fault.
But since we know the truth, you can call off your denial-of-service attack on Sophe now.
- What are you talking about? - SARA: You didn't want us solving the case, so you rented a botnet to crash Sophe, but it's over now.
I don't know anything about that.
(LAUGHS SOFTLY) Typical hysterical female.
(SCOFFS) Any change in the traffic? Yeah, it looks like Mason was telling the truth.
JavaWell didn't launch the attack.
We only have four hours left on Rachet's servers, and then Sophe goes down again.
If the attack wasn't about the JavaWell case, then what? Who the hell is the ghost in the machine? Hey, boss? In the middle of blaming me, did the feds ask either of you about Sophe users in government? Yeah.
Yeah.
Where our users work ought to be irrelevant.
Why would they care? Because they're not here investigating the attack.
(PHONE RINGING) Everything all right, Alex? We looked into the FBI's Sophe investigation.
And? Well, there isn't one.
Not officially, anyway.
Alex, I got guys in suits at my terminals right now.
Well, there is no FBI investigation, but the Bureau is sometimes used by another agency.
Let me guess.
Begins with an âNâ and ends with an âAâ? Is there any reason the NSA would be interested in you? Yeah, we had a case a couple weeks ago, and a source helped us out.
Then Sophe gets attacked, the NSA comes in to investigate.
That's a pretty big coincidence, Jeffrey.
That was the plan.
The NSA took Sophe down so that they can gain access.
Well, here's what I know.
If the NSA wants Sophe off-line, it's staying off-line.
Uh-huh.
We'll see about that.
- You needed me? - Come here.
Can you get remote access to Sophe and cover your tracks? - What do you think? - Good.
I got a new job for you.
For something with such grand artistic merit, death metal is sure widely hated.
Because it's not controllable.
Besides, being hated by the powers that be is a badge of honor.
Anything new here? We're still getting sustained traffic of over 600 gigabits per second.
Ratchet's servers are handling it for now.
(ALARM BLARES) What the hell? Did the attack take down Ratchet? No, this is just Sophe.
What's going on? I thought you had, uh, three more hours on Ratchet's server.
When Driscoll got here, she showed us her badge, and you didn't.
Why is that? Do you have a point, Mr.
Tanner? No.
I'm just making conversation.
Hey, you guys hear about the NSA's website? I guess that we're not the only ones having a bad day.
What the hell? TANNER: Kind of embarrassing, though.
You know, when the country's top computer spies get owned.
Let's play out a little hypothetical.
Let's say that there was an agency who, uh, was paranoid about leakers.
See, some of their own people had gone rogue.
People with names like I don't know Snowden and Manning.
Let's say that they thought that someone else had gone rogue, and contacted a site like Sophe, but they didn't know why.
I bet they would do anything in their power to figure out who that leaker was, including setting up a denial-of-service attack so they could swoop in and investigate.
It's very creative, Mr.
Tanner.
You've got a career in airport novels.
TANNER: Now, if all that were true, if the NSA directed all that traffic directly at Sophe to cripple it, then wouldn't it be smart if Sophe then directed all of its traffic at the NSA site? Give it a taste of its own medicine.
Something like that would take the NSA site right down.
But if the NSA really was behind all of this, they could just stop the attack at any time.
And I hear that you used to play ball with the government.
I do a lot of things differently now.
(PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) Look at that.
The NSA site's back up and running.
Looks like the attack has been shut down, which means we can probably get Sophe back online now, too.
(SCOFFS) Pack it up.
We're done here.
The United States government thanks you for your cooperation.
Pleasure doing business with you! SARA: So this whole thing was about the suicide game investigation? That user that gave us information on microdots? It seems like it, but if they really think that's the leaker, they're not gonna give up that easily.
The NSA didn't get what they were looking for.
They'll be looking for leverage so that we'll cooperate.
It's not over.
(SIGHS) This is probably not what you imagined from your day off.
You mean it's not always like this? Bummer.
I, um, wanted to talk to you about something.
I heard that you were on Josh's computer this morning.
(LOUD DEATH METAL BLARING) It won't stop! What the hell? TARIQ: Aren't you supposed to be - some kind of genius? - (MUSIC STOPS) Don't fear chaos, Josh! (WHOOPS) That's what you were doing on his computer? You were playing a prank? Yeah, I'm just trying to get Josh out of his shell.
I thought you were a file clerk.
For now.
I mean, I tried working at a couple start-ups, but the dudebro contingent's really a drag, so Well, you shouldn't give up on the tech world just yet.
We're not all bad.
Here's my number.
- If you ever want to talk.
- (PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) TARIQ: Ah, man, she totally got you.
Whatever.
You gonna go over there and talk to her or what? Sara talked to her.
It's fine.
Dear Prudence, Josh wants to talk to you.
I got you.
Don't worry.
First Picard, and now this? Is there no end to your betrayal? I got more in store.
What's the matter, Josh? - You scared of me? - No.
Is this, um about that "girlfriend" thing from earlier? Look, I-I just don't want things to get weird, or, like, pressurey or whatever.
What, do you hate that term? 'Cause I don't.
I'm-I'm cool with it.
TARIQ: Look alive, Hive.
We're ready here! We're all set to port Sophe from Ratchet's servers to our own.
Well done.
I don't want to be dependent on Vikram for another second.
(COMPUTERS WHOOSHING) (APPLAUSE AND CHEERING) And traffic is normal.
The denial-of-service attack is over.
We've lost some users, but if we don't have any more outages, our growth should resume apace.
Well done, everyone.
Now, - back to work.
- (PHONE RINGING) Mike, you surviving your time with the lawyers? Yeah, that sounds fascinating.
My day? Well, you know what? It's been interesting.
We'll have to get into it over a drink sometime.
Okay, stay on it.
If the leaker contacts Sophe again, we need to know.
(GOAT BLEATING) (EVIDENCE ALERT BLARING) What is it? It's about Mia.
A user in San Francisco said he spotted a homeless man wearing a sweater like the one - in Mia's video.
- A homeless man? Yeah, the user says he asked him where he got it, but the guy just said he found it in the trash somewhere.
- In the trash? Where? - TARIQ: He doesn't know.
He got spooked and left.
Let's set up a meeting with this user, see what we can learn.
What are you thinking? Well, why would anyone throw away an expensive sweater? SARA: You wouldn't, unless you thought it would implicate you.
He knows we're looking for him.
The killer's on Sophe.
He's watching us.
Welcome to Sophe.
We all know the Internet changed the world.
The only question is: into what? It can be a platform to bring us together or to tear us apart.
I know, because I spent my life trying to turn it into something that would connect us all.
Then - I love you, Dad.
- my daughter was murdered.
Nothing else mattered anymore.
Everyone was sure they knew who did it the police, my ex-wife but I was convinced the wrong man had been convicted and the real killer was still out there.
So together with my team, I built Sophe, a crowdsource crime solving platform powered by the smartest, most diverse, independent collection of detectives on the planet: you.
Let's get to work.
Ron.
Brought you a present, you sick degenerate.
Dude, that party last night was epic.
To $25 million.
To half a billion.
That's the VCs' valuation after this round.
- We built that.
- Yeah.
- You helped a little bit.
- (LAUGHS): Shut up.
Oh, here.
Oh.
What I'm talking about.
All right.
Here's to caffeine addiction.
Ah.
Oops.
Hey, sorry about your rug.
But, man, what about Mason and Faith, huh? (âFIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTâ BY THE BEASTIE BOYS PLAYING) (BOTH LAUGHING) Get a room! (LAUGHS) The first thing I'm doing after the IPO: - buying a jet.
- Dude, you hate to fly.
You don't even like to leave the house.
Why don't you just burn the IPO money.
It'll be prettier.
Ow.
(LAUGHS) You got to fight All you lushes can get out of my house.
To party I need my beauty sleep.
BEN: Ron, where the hell is your lazy ass? Wake up.
(WOMAN SCREAMS) BEN: We should have stayed to keep an eye on him.
Ron was wasted out of his mind.
He was so happy, you know? Like like everything we've done was worth it.
This IPO was gonna change our lives.
And then this happens? Falling down the stairs of your own house? Like, what kind of cosmic joke is that? If I had just stayed This didn't have to happen.
I'm so sorry.
Thanks.
(SIGHS) Listen I-I dig Sophe and how you're putting your crowdsourcing work to use and everything, but why are you here? I mean, no offense.
SARA: Uh, Sophe consults with the SFPD.
And since this case is tech-related, they asked for our help.
Wait, what case? Ron fell.
It was an accident.
CAVANAUGH: Not quite.
For the moment, at least, our M.
E.
has labeled this a homicide.
According to the doc, Ron was murdered.
What? Everybody loved Ron.
Someone didn't.
And the exterior surveillance cameras show that no one snuck into the house.
The M.
E.
puts the time of death at 2:30 a.
m.
when only three people were left at the party, you being one of them.
I-I've known Ron since we were interns at Google.
We-we came up together.
We built JavaWell from nothing into a powerhouse together.
I did not kill him.
No, Captain Picard was a diplomat.
He was a philosopher.
But if you push too far, he could still kick your ass.
Two words: tactical ability.
And we wouldn't even be having this debate if it wasn't for Kirk.
He set the standard, and you can't argue with that.
I can argue with that.
This is me, arguing with that.
Dude, what is Prudence doing? JOSH: I forgot to lock my terminal.
Should I say something? I can't say something.
We're in that weird âkind of datingâ place where we're not talking about it.
I don't want to mess that up.
Yeah.
Good luck with that.
Hey.
What are you doing? I-I thought you were in the bathroom or something.
Yeah, I was.
But that's when I got to thinking about how you clearly don't appreciate the sociocultural critique that death metal represents.
But why are you, uh I swear you're trolling me with the whole death metal thing.
I mean, you don't really listen - to that stuff, do you? - (CHUCKLES) Best day off ever.
TANNER: Hey.
What do we got? On JavaWell? The sweater from Mia's apartment.
Our best lead yet on the killer? Right.
Course.
Um users have submitted a whole bunch of pictures of different men wearing it, and Sophe's using the measurement diagram to compare sizes, but no extra-larges yet.
That's it? That's all you have? With under a thousand of those sweaters sold, - that's pretty good.
- No, no.
Until we find something, it's not.
- (RINGING) - That's Sara.
Uh, put her up.
Yeah.
Did you get the data I just sent from Ben Oberly's interview? Uber for coffee.
Even for a tech start-up, that's elitist.
Well, you can hate all you want, but these guys paid their dues, and their financials are real.
This IPO isn't happening by accident.
And Howland didn't die by accident, either.
The M.
E.
said he fell, but it's the blow on the head that killed him.
We found the murder weapon on top of the stairs, wiped clean.
Here.
TARIQ: Death by hackathon trophy.
What a way to go.
Keep that under wraps for now.
We have three suspects and no physical evidence that points to anyone.
The less they think we know, better chance they slip up on their own.
We have the other two interviews coming in soon the head of product and a woman who works for U.
X.
or something.
User experience.
Great.
She knows.
Anyway, I'm going after all of them, so any ammunition you have, now's the time.
Well, you got to ask nicely, Detective.
Or I could just arrest you for obstructing justice.
Tariq.
Fine.
I found something weird on the victim's computer.
It's a memo he was writing criticizing diversity initiatives in the tech world.
It looks like he was gonna send it out to the entire company.
Like that asinine Google post that said women were inferior.
I think that's what he was responding to.
âDiversity has become the tech world's third rail.
âWe're not allowed to question it, âbut, as engineers, it's our duty âto question everything.
âAnd hiring more women and minorities âisn't actually making us more successful, just more politically correct.
â Lovely.
And it's your ammunition.
Uber took a big hit from that sexism scandal.
It lost market shares, publicity and goodwill.
A start-up like JavaWell could lose everything if that memo got out.
Could be a motive for murder.
JOSH: Hey, look at this.
Users keep focusing on JavaWell's proprietary app.
They're saying it could help crack the case.
Why? How would their app help? I'm asking the crowd right now.
(ALARM BLARING) Yeah, what's that? That's the server overload warning.
Talk to me.
What's happening? Traffic's spiking.
It's overloading the system.
TARIQ: We're being slammed with too many requests to handle.
Try to black hole the traffic.
W-We can't.
It's too distributed.
It's coming from everywhere.
It's a DDoS.
CAVANAUGH: Okay, what is that? It's a denial-of-service attack.
Cybercriminals use it to knock websites off-line.
They send so much traffic to the site that the servers just get overwhelmed.
It's like directing a fire hose through your pipes nothing else can make it through.
Can't you just stop it, or What? JOSH: What the hell just happened? Sophe's off-line.
If you can get enough servers online The basement.
The guys in the server room could use your help.
All hands on deck.
Anything? Working on it.
SARA: Jeffrey, we can't access Sophe at all.
The DDoS took us down.
Without Sophe, we'll never solve Mia's case, which is exactly why we need to fix this.
JOSH: We're doing everything we can, but we're getting slammed with over 600 gigabits per second.
The only thing that could generate this much traffic - is a massive botnet like Mirai.
- TARIQ: Baby monitors.
We're being taken down by unsecured baby monitors, home routers, freaking DVRs.
S-Sara, what are they babbling about? Botnets take over devices connected to the Internet.
Things like home appliances.
They use them to direct traffic to websites.
Huge ones like Mirai have control of so many devices, the sites can't handle the traffic, so they just crash.
TANNER: Well, someone has to be controlling these baby monitors.
You were just making progress at the JavaWell case, right? CAVANAUGH: You think someone at JavaWell took Sophe down so we wouldn't solve the murder? TANNER: They're a tech company.
Their people have skills.
Right? Plus, you can rent time on the botnet on the dark web for what $20,000 in bitcoin? I wouldn't know anything about that.
SARA: Well, actually, when we interviewed Ben Oberly, he knew about Sophe.
He was asking us why we were involved.
TANNER: And there it is.
Sara, stay right there.
Figure out who at JavaWell is behind this.
The faster we solve this murder, the faster we get Sophe back.
(SIGHS) But no pressure.
Looks like our next interview's here.
Faith Laferty.
(âFIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHTâ BY ZEN BOY & KARMA GIRL PLAYING) - Faith, lighten up.
- No, I'm good.
After 12 failed start-ups, I deserve this.
(DISTORTED): Lucky number 13.
RON: Get a room, Mason.
Hey, get off me.
(DISTORTED): Faith.
All right, when we IPO, I'm buying Jet Skis.
And a yacht to pull them.
(LAUGHS) You hate water.
Well, with this much money, I'll learn to like it.
Man, living at home is such a drag Faith.
(DISTORTED): Faith.
Busted You got to fight Faith.
To party CAVANAUGH: Do you remember anything else about that night? Honestly, I was pretty trashed.
My LSD microdose turned out to be a lot less micro than I thought.
SARA: Some people in the tech industry think it helps you stay focused.
Uh-huh.
FAITH: I needed to be somewhere quiet, so I stayed in the bathroom.
But I left when Ron kicked everyone out.
RON: All you lushes can get out of my house.
Party And now he's just gone.
You said Mason hassled you.
What about Ron? Ron never gave me any trouble.
He even helped me when I wanted to move teams to get more technical experience.
He was a good boss.
SARA: When I was at university, I had this computer science T.
A.
who used to call me Mary Poppins.
Kept asking for a spoonful of sugar.
Yeah.
At my first internship, my supervisor would say, âYou should just sit there and look pretty.
â (SCOFFS) Funny how my ideas always ended up being his ideas.
Well, that's all just boys being boys, right? Look, whatever happened, you can tell us.
It will stay in this room.
This is not me being loyal.
Ron was awkward so are a lot of programmers but he never hassled me.
Not like the others.
SARA: Did you know that he was writing a memo questioning the value of women and minorities in the workplace? No.
But, then, I guess you never really know anyone, do you? Now that Ron's dead, what happens to his ownership stake in the company? It'll get redistributed between the current employees.
The guys set it up that way.
Yes, my stake will be worth more.
No, I wouldn't kill for it.
SARA: This, um, microdose that you took, I'm assuming you bought it online? CAVANAUGH: Girl, please, I'm here to solve a murder, not bust you for being stupid.
There's a guy in our tech support division.
He supplies it.
So you didn't pay for it with bitcoin? Please.
Crypto-currency? That's a bubble about to pop.
I never touch it.
Talk to Mason.
He loves that stuff.
MASON: Come on, Faith, cut it out.
Hey, people are watching.
You bet they are.
(LAUGHS) You know, if this is what a VC round does to you, - I can't wait for the IPO.
- (GIGGLES) Mason, this is not your bedroom.
Shh, shh, shh, shh.
(GLASS SHATTERS) (GROANS) I think I'm gonna be sick.
First IPO present to myself: brand-new skis.
(LAUGHS): Dude, you hate the snow.
Well, let's just say I'm warming up to it.
(âFIGHT FOR YOUR RIGHT TO PARTâ" BY THE DAGMARS PLAYING) I'll kick you out of my home if you don't cut that hair Aw, your mama busted in All you lushes can get out of my house.
I need my beauty sleep.
'Cause you gotta fight For your right CAVANAUGH: And you didn't see where Ron went? Nah.
Last I saw, he was wasted but still on his feet.
Alive.
None of this makes sense.
We were going to Vegas for Thanksgiving the high-roller suite and everything.
He was so stoked.
And now What about Faith? She was wasted, too? (SIGHS): I guess.
Girls and liquor, man.
(CHUCKLES) Just another reason why women don't belong in tech, right? No need to be defensive.
Okay? I love women in tech.
Ron said the same thing in a memo about how female programmers aren't as qualified as the men around them.
No way.
I talked him out of that.
So you knew about the memo.
Ron thought he was some kind of intellectual out to change the industry.
But I'm the one that convinced him not to be an idiot.
I mean, look, you can think whatever you want, you just can't say it.
You don't want to scare the investors.
But you love women in tech, right? (SIGHS) Shouldn't you be off fixing Sophe? Heard it crashed.
Bummer.
Tell me, who takes over Ron's duties now? I don't know.
Me, probably.
Of course.
And you'll get a bigger stake in the company, too, as well, right? We all will.
Look, I know what you're thinking.
I didn't kill Ron.
When my last job completely overreacted to this joking text I sent, Ron was the only one that had my back he was my friend.
He was my friend, and I never would have hurt him.
So, with the IPO on the horizon, they all stood to benefit - from his death.
- Mm-hmm.
As much as I hate to admit it, Faith could have found out about the memo and saw it as an opportunity to get rich and get rid of a techbro.
Two birds with one stone.
Yeah.
Tell me something.
Did you notice anything off about their accounts of that night? They were all different.
Except the end.
They all said they were drunk or high or both, and then every other detail was different But Ron's last words were exactly the same.
All you lushes can get out of my house.
I need my beauty sleep.
So you're saying they huddled together and got their stories straight.
Even if they're covering for each other, only one of them hit Ron over the head.
Question is, which one? PRUDENCE: The thing that people don't get about death metal is that it's a response to the superficiality of consumerist culture.
It's people screaming.
It's an expression of the chaos of being.
It speaks to those who won't conform.
By screaming.
You two are perfect for each other.
Okay, this is no use.
The techs keep bringing on more servers, but they keep crashing.
And the techs keep crying.
The traffic's coming in from everywhere.
Who knew baby monitors could do this much damage? I hope Tanner's got an idea, 'cause we're tapped out.
(PHONE BEEPS) (PHONE BEEPS) What do you want, Jeffrey? I need your help, all right? Sophe's down.
We're under attack by a botnet.
The only way for us to get back online is to host the site on a network so big, no amount of traffic can take it down.
A site like Ratchet.
Millions of people search Ratchet simultaneously all over the world it could easily handle the kind of traffic that is keeping Sophe off-line.
Jeffrey, even if I wanted to help you, Vikram won't help you.
He hates you.
But he adores you.
If you called him as a friend and appealed to him You are literally so unbelievable.
I have been begging you to stop this whole thing, and now you're asking for my help to get it back online.
Really? I know it's a lot to ask, but this isn't just about Mia anymore.
We're helping people.
We're giving parents the kind of closure that we wish we had.
But we can't do it without Sophe.
We can't.
Please, Alex.
Okay, I'll call Vikram.
But no guarantees.
Thank you.
You know, I really appreciate this, and (PHONE BEEPS) (DOOR CLOSES) WOMAN: FBI! Everyone step away from your computers.
Away.
Everyone.
Mr.
Tanner, I presume? Special Agent Driscoll.
This is our tech expert, Isaac Wallace.
And this is a federal warrant giving us access to Sophe.
Your network, your personnel, everything.
What-what the hell is going on? You're under attack by a botnet.
- Yeah, no kidding.
- We believe it's one the FBI has been tracking, run by a foreign criminal organization.
Our intel suggests it may be planning a strike on U.
S.
infrastructure soon.
We don't have any time for this, okay? We're pretty sure that JavaWell is behind all this it's a company that we're investigating Well, anything is possible.
But JavaWell could very well be renting the botnet in order to launch its attack.
Either way, in the interests of national security, the FBI will need access to Sophe's servers to investigate.
We'll also need to question everyone here.
Starting with you.
You want a suspect? You got one: JavaWell.
And we're looking into that, but we need to consider all angles, Mr.
Tanner.
For example, could someone out there think Sophe knows something it shouldn't? Yeah.
JavaWell.
Or, is this more about you, and Sophe's just collateral damage? You've certainly made enemies.
Vikram Singh, for example.
VIKRAM (ON VIDEO): Jeffrey and I had different visions for AllSourcer.
And when it became clear they were incompatible, I chose to leave and focus on Ratchet instead.
Now, Ratchet's market cap surpassed AllSourcer's three years ago.
I'd say I made a wise move.
Ratchet's stock is inflated.
And ousted CEOs don't let things go.
Sounds like motive to me.
There's 116 bad things I could say about Vikram, but he wouldn't waste his time on this.
Then maybe it's closer to home.
How much do you know about Tariq Bakari? (CHUCKLES): Oh, come on.
Tariq has nothing to do with this.
He's a known gray-hat hacker.
He's made enemies, too.
Can you tell us how it is that you hired Mr.
Bakari? Tariq demonstrated skills that we needed.
He hacked you.
It was a bold move.
DRISCOLL: The way I see it, Mr.
Tanner, while you may be focused on JavaWell, there are multiple people who might want to take Sophe out.
Maybe you should widen your view.
Well, maybe you shouldn't ignore what's right in front of your face.
JavaWell.
What's happening? Congratulations.
You've been raided by the federal government.
Check that off the bucket list.
JOSH: Sara, this is Prudence she's just visiting - on her day off.
- Oh.
Right.
The girlfriend, yes.
What? No, she's not I Can we move on, please? TARIQ: The FBI are investigating the denial-of- service attack, and they want to talk to all of us.
Yay.
DRISCOLL: Sara Morton.
Please come with me.
Is someone out there punishing Sophe for your sins, Ms.
Morton? You think this is my fault? How is this my fault? Of course it's the brown guy's fault.
AllSourcer has a temporary restraining order barring you from working at Sophe, and yet here you are.
On the advice of our C.
O.
O.
, Mike Leigh, I'm staying pending a hearing.
So maybe this attack is a power play.
Could it be AllSourcer's attempt to try and stop you from using technology that it says it owns? AllSourcer wouldn't do that.
I mean, I hope they wouldn't.
I used to work there they're not that evil.
Are they? It's JavaWell, right? I-I mean, they're about to IPO.
It makes sense.
Why are you so nervous, Josh? I've been doing this a long time.
If there's one thing I know how to spot, it's a guilty conscience.
Trust me, you'll feel better once you get it off your chest.
In grad school, I hacked into MIT's server to delete an e-mail I sent to a girl.
But I was, like, really wasted.
I-I can't be held responsible for that, right? - Oh, God, I'm going to prison.
- WALLACE: Do you make it a habit of taking liberties with other people's networks? I'm a curious guy.
But whatever I did, it's to expose fat cats who take advantage of people who don't know any better.
If that makes them mad, good.
So maybe this botnet attack is payback for your misdeeds.
- Who, Tariq? - Yes.
Have you noticed any suspicious behavior from him? What, because Tariq's Muslim, he must be a criminal? What's next? Are you gonna call him a terrorist? - Disappear him off somewhere? - Think about it.
What do you really know about Tariq? He's my punishment, put on Earth to torture me.
Wait, why are you asking about him? WALLACE: Did you know that Tariq has made a lot of money from bug bounty programs? So what? Companies ask hackers to find flaws in their networks.
If I happen to be awesome at what I do, that's hardly a crime.
But where does all that money go? Back to your friends and family in India? - (SCOFFS) - Maybe Pakistan? Dude, try âI help my parents pay for their house.
â You know how expensive it is to live in San Francisco? WALLACE: Fine.
So if this botnet attack isn't because of you, is it because of other Sophe users? Are there any other hackers among them? Any government employees? You have no idea what's going on, do you? You're just fishing.
And you're wasting everybody's time.
We done here? (COMPUTERS WHIRRING) (APPLAUSE) (CHEERING) You don't deserve me, you know.
I never did.
Sophe's back on.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
It was great to connect with Vikram.
It gave me an excuse to reminisce about the good old days, you know.
The three of us and some ramen.
I miss the good old days.
Even the ramen.
Um, I'm gonna go ahead and forward you all of the technical stuff so you can have a look at this.
I don't understand it, and I don't want to pretend to.
Well, I appreciate it.
Now if I can just get the FBI off my back, I'll be all right.
Wait, Jeffrey, what about the FBI? They're getting in the way here.
I actually have to go.
Seriously, Alex, thank you.
David? What did you do? This wasn't us.
No, it was me.
Sophe is being hosted on Ratchet's network.
For the time being, anyway.
I have an investigation to run, Mr.
Tanner.
So do we.
You'll have access to Sophe.
Interview anyone you want.
Just try to stay out of our way.
Just calm down, people.
It's a Band-Aid.
Ratchet's only hosting us for eight hours.
- And after that? - There is no âafter that.
â I created Sophe to find Mia's killer, and I refuse to let him just go free.
So I don't care what you do or how you do it.
We have to fix this, all right? Let's go.
Users are realizing we're back up.
Submissions aren't at their pre-outage levels, but they're growing.
They like us.
They really like us.
- What about Mia's investigation? - Uh, we got a couple more photos of people wearing the sweater.
Which won't matter if Sophe goes down again when we're kicked off Ratchet's servers.
We have to find out who's behind the DDoS attack and stop it.
That means the JavaWell case has to come first.
Hey, uh, remember how users were obsessing about the JavaWell app before we went down? They're back at it.
SARA: I still don't understand how that's important.
Well, uh, CoffeeCrazy78 says the app automatically connects phones that have it if they're within ten feet of each other.
TANNER: That's like Airport.
People don't notice phones are being synced anymore.
Wait, got another message here.
âCheck the user logs from the suspects' phones.
â This one's from DearPrudence95.
TARIQ: We won't have to check anything.
User CityGal154 quit JavaWell last week, but they haven't revoked her admin access.
She just submitted the data logs from that night.
Ben, Mason, and Faith all told us that Ron was alive when they left.
But-but these records, they prove that all three of them were within ten feet of Ron when he was killed.
They've all been lying.
And now we have the evidence.
Go.
Yeah.
I messed up.
What do you mean? What happened? This morning, I went to get something to eat.
And when I came back, Prudence was at my computer.
And she wouldn't tell me what she was doing on it, but it was right before the attack.
If I ask her about it, she'll think that I'm accusing her of something or that I don't trust her.
Which I do! It's just a little suspicious, but it's not that suspicious.
This is a really weird conversation to be having with my boss, isn't it? Yes, but I'm rolling with it.
Things are kind of undefined and awkward and you don't want to mess it up.
I get it.
So, how about this? I will talk to Prudence when I get back and I will leave you out of it.
Unless Prudence is some sort of stealth JavaWell plant, which I highly doubt, I think we're fine.
From now on, just, uh, keep your terminal locked, yeah? - Yeah.
- And maybe define your relationships a little better? Yeah.
Thank you.
CAVANAUGH: These are data logs from the JavaWell app.
They prove you were within ten feet of Ron Howland when he died.
You all were.
You've been lying to us.
Okay, so we lied.
Doesn't mean I killed him.
No, but I showed these to Faith and Mason and, guess what, they gave you up.
They said you got in a fight with Ron.
It got physical.
Then you murdered him.
It's a fun story, but that's all it is.
I'd like a lawyer now.
No.
No, there's no way Ben and Faith would turn on me.
But they did.
You know, I did this prisoner's dilemma experiment in college.
And the thing I learned is, if you want to win, you stay silent.
So I'll be exercising that right.
Thanks.
Of course they turned on me.
Did you expect anything different? They were always gonna do what was best for them.
(SNIFFLES) It was an accident.
Why don't you tell us what happened that night, Faith.
(SNIFFLES) We were all wasted.
Are you out of your mind, writing a memo like that? There's a reason that Google fired that guy.
The customers won't stand for it, especially not our wealthy, liberal ones! Calm down, all right? You're overreacting.
FAITH: Oh, don't patronize me.
You know what happened with Uber.
Do you want to destroy this company? Wait.
Wait, I'm-I'm sorry.
You actually wrote that stupid think piece? Are you joking? Oh, come on.
It's no big deal.
We've talked about this.
What you do reflects on us.
FAITH: This is the kind of thing that could kill the IPO.
- The entire company! - Faith, chill.
I know that your feelings are hurt.
Maybe just take some time, think about what you're saying.
- No.
We're going to talk about this.
- Wha Hey, let go of me.
We're gonna talk about Let go, Faith.
Do you know how much this shirt costs?! (BOTH GRUNTING) - Oh, my God! - BEN: Ron! What the hell, Faith? FAITH: You saw! I didn't mean it! BEN: Oh, my God.
(SNIFFLES) It was an accident.
Ben thought if we got our stories straight, everyone would think that he just fell.
The death of a founder was bad enough.
This way, we could avoid the bad press about the memo.
It would be a tragedy, not a scandal.
I didn't mean to hurt him.
(SNIFFLES) I just lost it.
Another guy I trusted who didn't even think that I deserved to be there.
If that memo got out, people were gonna think he was talking about me.
You're really trying to sell it as an accident? That he fell? That's what happened.
Why are you still lying, Faith? I'm not.
CAVANAUGH: You are.
Ron didn't fall.
He was bashed in the head with this.
- What the hell is that? - That's what killed him.
(SCOFFS, SNIFFLES) You know what, you see this? What? You see here? Here's where the award cracked his skull.
Here's the indentation that matches perfectly.
No.
What? No.
No.
I didn't hit him.
I have no idea what you're talking about.
Please, just take these away from me.
(SNIFFLES) Please! Either she's the best liar I ever saw or she's telling the truth.
She believed that he fell.
Which means when someone hit him over the head with that trophy, it had to be at the bottom of the stairs.
Ron had those damn awards all over the house, right? We assumed that the murder weapon came from upstairs, 'cause that's where we found it.
But what if it didn't? (EXHALES) Look here.
Here.
Look at this.
This is a picture of the awards upstairs.
And this is a picture of the award table downstairs.
Look, the dates don't line up.
So Ron was killed with a 2016 award.
All the awards upstairs were, what, from '07, '08, '09.
All the ones downstairs were more recent.
2014, 2015.
They were all there, but Faith said Mason went to go check on him.
SARA: She had no reason to lie about it.
She thought she'd killed Ron.
CAVANAUGH: So Mason found him still alive, grabbed an award, and bashed him over the head with it.
And then tried to cover it up.
My client is not saying a word.
CAVANAUGH: That's okay.
He can just listen.
We know you killed Ron.
I guess you guys were friends, but there's friendship and then there's business, right? The memo he wrote would have destroyed your company, right before the big IPO.
So after he fell, you went to check on him.
And when you realized he was still alive, you grabbed the first thing you saw one of his hackathon awards, then you finished him off with it.
And then you used it to frame Faith.
SARA: Typical overcompensating male.
Too clever by a third.
That's what you've got? Really? No evidence, no fingerprints.
Your client might have been smart enough to wipe off his prints, but DNA tends to stick around.
You see these sharp edges? They dig in to your hands.
You see any cuts? CAVANAUGH: You don't need to cut yourself to transfer DNA.
All it takes is one or two skin cells left behind.
Now how sure are you that when we test those cells, they won't match yours? Get the D.
A.
in here, and we can make a deal.
Ron was your friend.
And he told me he wouldn't write that damn memo.
(SCOFFS) All he had to do was wait for the IPO.
Yeah, it was all his fault.
But since we know the truth, you can call off your denial-of-service attack on Sophe now.
- What are you talking about? - SARA: You didn't want us solving the case, so you rented a botnet to crash Sophe, but it's over now.
I don't know anything about that.
(LAUGHS SOFTLY) Typical hysterical female.
(SCOFFS) Any change in the traffic? Yeah, it looks like Mason was telling the truth.
JavaWell didn't launch the attack.
We only have four hours left on Rachet's servers, and then Sophe goes down again.
If the attack wasn't about the JavaWell case, then what? Who the hell is the ghost in the machine? Hey, boss? In the middle of blaming me, did the feds ask either of you about Sophe users in government? Yeah.
Yeah.
Where our users work ought to be irrelevant.
Why would they care? Because they're not here investigating the attack.
(PHONE RINGING) Everything all right, Alex? We looked into the FBI's Sophe investigation.
And? Well, there isn't one.
Not officially, anyway.
Alex, I got guys in suits at my terminals right now.
Well, there is no FBI investigation, but the Bureau is sometimes used by another agency.
Let me guess.
Begins with an âNâ and ends with an âAâ? Is there any reason the NSA would be interested in you? Yeah, we had a case a couple weeks ago, and a source helped us out.
Then Sophe gets attacked, the NSA comes in to investigate.
That's a pretty big coincidence, Jeffrey.
That was the plan.
The NSA took Sophe down so that they can gain access.
Well, here's what I know.
If the NSA wants Sophe off-line, it's staying off-line.
Uh-huh.
We'll see about that.
- You needed me? - Come here.
Can you get remote access to Sophe and cover your tracks? - What do you think? - Good.
I got a new job for you.
For something with such grand artistic merit, death metal is sure widely hated.
Because it's not controllable.
Besides, being hated by the powers that be is a badge of honor.
Anything new here? We're still getting sustained traffic of over 600 gigabits per second.
Ratchet's servers are handling it for now.
(ALARM BLARES) What the hell? Did the attack take down Ratchet? No, this is just Sophe.
What's going on? I thought you had, uh, three more hours on Ratchet's server.
When Driscoll got here, she showed us her badge, and you didn't.
Why is that? Do you have a point, Mr.
Tanner? No.
I'm just making conversation.
Hey, you guys hear about the NSA's website? I guess that we're not the only ones having a bad day.
What the hell? TANNER: Kind of embarrassing, though.
You know, when the country's top computer spies get owned.
Let's play out a little hypothetical.
Let's say that there was an agency who, uh, was paranoid about leakers.
See, some of their own people had gone rogue.
People with names like I don't know Snowden and Manning.
Let's say that they thought that someone else had gone rogue, and contacted a site like Sophe, but they didn't know why.
I bet they would do anything in their power to figure out who that leaker was, including setting up a denial-of-service attack so they could swoop in and investigate.
It's very creative, Mr.
Tanner.
You've got a career in airport novels.
TANNER: Now, if all that were true, if the NSA directed all that traffic directly at Sophe to cripple it, then wouldn't it be smart if Sophe then directed all of its traffic at the NSA site? Give it a taste of its own medicine.
Something like that would take the NSA site right down.
But if the NSA really was behind all of this, they could just stop the attack at any time.
And I hear that you used to play ball with the government.
I do a lot of things differently now.
(PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) Look at that.
The NSA site's back up and running.
Looks like the attack has been shut down, which means we can probably get Sophe back online now, too.
(SCOFFS) Pack it up.
We're done here.
The United States government thanks you for your cooperation.
Pleasure doing business with you! SARA: So this whole thing was about the suicide game investigation? That user that gave us information on microdots? It seems like it, but if they really think that's the leaker, they're not gonna give up that easily.
The NSA didn't get what they were looking for.
They'll be looking for leverage so that we'll cooperate.
It's not over.
(SIGHS) This is probably not what you imagined from your day off.
You mean it's not always like this? Bummer.
I, um, wanted to talk to you about something.
I heard that you were on Josh's computer this morning.
(LOUD DEATH METAL BLARING) It won't stop! What the hell? TARIQ: Aren't you supposed to be - some kind of genius? - (MUSIC STOPS) Don't fear chaos, Josh! (WHOOPS) That's what you were doing on his computer? You were playing a prank? Yeah, I'm just trying to get Josh out of his shell.
I thought you were a file clerk.
For now.
I mean, I tried working at a couple start-ups, but the dudebro contingent's really a drag, so Well, you shouldn't give up on the tech world just yet.
We're not all bad.
Here's my number.
- If you ever want to talk.
- (PHONE CHIMES, VIBRATES) TARIQ: Ah, man, she totally got you.
Whatever.
You gonna go over there and talk to her or what? Sara talked to her.
It's fine.
Dear Prudence, Josh wants to talk to you.
I got you.
Don't worry.
First Picard, and now this? Is there no end to your betrayal? I got more in store.
What's the matter, Josh? - You scared of me? - No.
Is this, um about that "girlfriend" thing from earlier? Look, I-I just don't want things to get weird, or, like, pressurey or whatever.
What, do you hate that term? 'Cause I don't.
I'm-I'm cool with it.
TARIQ: Look alive, Hive.
We're ready here! We're all set to port Sophe from Ratchet's servers to our own.
Well done.
I don't want to be dependent on Vikram for another second.
(COMPUTERS WHOOSHING) (APPLAUSE AND CHEERING) And traffic is normal.
The denial-of-service attack is over.
We've lost some users, but if we don't have any more outages, our growth should resume apace.
Well done, everyone.
Now, - back to work.
- (PHONE RINGING) Mike, you surviving your time with the lawyers? Yeah, that sounds fascinating.
My day? Well, you know what? It's been interesting.
We'll have to get into it over a drink sometime.
Okay, stay on it.
If the leaker contacts Sophe again, we need to know.
(GOAT BLEATING) (EVIDENCE ALERT BLARING) What is it? It's about Mia.
A user in San Francisco said he spotted a homeless man wearing a sweater like the one - in Mia's video.
- A homeless man? Yeah, the user says he asked him where he got it, but the guy just said he found it in the trash somewhere.
- In the trash? Where? - TARIQ: He doesn't know.
He got spooked and left.
Let's set up a meeting with this user, see what we can learn.
What are you thinking? Well, why would anyone throw away an expensive sweater? SARA: You wouldn't, unless you thought it would implicate you.
He knows we're looking for him.
The killer's on Sophe.
He's watching us.