FBI: International (2021) s01e16 Episode Script

1 No, not your vibe.
Nick? Yeah.
Oh, my God.
It's you.
- How are you? - I'm good.
How are you? Yeah, I'm okay.
Oh, I live around the corner, and I heard about this new gym, so, you know, I just decided wait, what are you doing in Europe? Uh, wow.
Lot to catch up on, huh? Yeah.
Hey, how about we how about we grab a beer? Hm? I know this hole-in-the-wall place with a bunch of expats and - I think I could swing that.
- Yeah? - Mm-hmm.
- All right.
Come on.
First round's on me.
So how's the Fly Team, huh? Wait, wait, wait, I think you still owe me what you're doing in Budapest.
Mm, I'm, uh I'm here for work.
When'd you get in? - Wow.
- Yeah, you impressed? - Yes.
- Yeah? You already know Hungarian.
Okay.
I mean, foreign language was never your strong suit.
Yeah, well, you know, phone apps.
- Ah, the secret comes out.
- Yes, it does.
Mm.
Are you still working that undercover op? Uh, no, no, I'm, uh I'm not at the Vegas Field Office anymore.
- Uh - Hm.
Where'd you transfer? I, uh Took an overseas gig, uh, in the in the private sector.
Uh, you quit the bureau? - Uh - Nick.
Your mom showed me a photo of you wearing your dad's FBI jacket when you were five.
Dude, I wouldn't have made it through Quantico if it weren't for you.
Look, um, I need your help, but I, uh I got to take care of something, okay? Um Is everything good? Yeah, yeah, all good.
All good.
I'll, um I'll reach out, okay? Okay.
Mm-mm.
Cash only.
Hey.
You called this in? - Yeah.
- What happened? I was having a drink with a friend, a former agent actually.
The victim walked in, started staring us down.
That's when my friend left, the victim followed him out.
20 seconds later, I heard the gunshot.
Where's your friend now? I don't know.
I mean, I tried calling him, but his number's not in service.
Huh.
A former agent wouldn't skip out if he heard a gunshot.
Do you think he could have been involved? I don't know.
All right.
I don't want you talking to the Hungarian police unless I'm around.
Okay.
What's the deal? The DOA is Roland Torok.
He's a local gambling regulator.
Missed calls in the past hour alone.
This is more serious than you think.
I can't have our team in Vo.
You remember Erin Padilla, our legat here in Hungary? Of course.
We need to have a private conversation.
Sure.
What's your relationship to Nick Thorpe? I knew him since we were kids.
We went to West Point, graduated from the same class in Quantico.
Did Thorpe know Roland Torok? I mean, that's the feeling I got based on their body language.
Any idea how he'd get mixed up with a gambling watchdog? Well, Thorpe worked out of the Vegas office, so I assumed that they've crossed paths before.
There weren't any cameras around the pub.
Can you just confirm you were the first person on scene? Am I being questioned as a person of interest? Look, the Hungarians are breathing down my neck.
They placed you in a pub with their number one suspect.
If I can't clear this up with the U.
S.
Ambassador, your team may have to find a new home in Europe.
That's not happening.
Vo, you said Thorpe mentioned something about an overseas job.
You know who he's working for? We never got that far in the conversation.
Okay.
Anything else significant? Uh, yeah.
Uh, he said that he quit the bureau, which, I mean, doesn't make any sense, because the bureau lives in his DNA.
Well, he didn't quit.
He was fired ten months ago.
For what? Falsified info on an affidavit to get a search warrant.
You know the drill you lie, you lose your credibility, you're gone.
The ambassador is requesting you put her on ice until we sort this out.
You got it.
Okay.
Thank you.
Talk soon.
If there is anything else that I need to know about Thorpe, now is the time before I run this through with the Hungarians.
I literally gave you everything.
Okay.
Type up a 302.
Account for every last minute since you woke up.
Then you can go home after you're finished.
And if this guy reaches out look at me call me.
Got it.
- Hey.
- Hey.
This is Lieutenant Colonel Akos Valkó from the Hungarian National Bureau of Investigation.
Follow me.
Ah, bullet entered through Roland Torok's left temporal lobe.
And ballistics examined the bullet? Nine-millimeter.
NATO.
This was found in an IWB holster on Torok's body.
Well, it's a custom piece, no serial number.
- It's a ghost gun.
- What's a regulator from the Gambling Authority doing with a ghost gun to begin with? One of the many things we need to figure out.
- What about Torok's phone? - Wasn't on his body.
- Anyone try tracking it? - It was turned off.
My team will do a sweep of Torok's residence to see what we can find out.
Okay.
I want Raines there.
This is a Hungarian matter.
That involves one of our former agents.
So I want one of my team members there in case you find anything that requires us to track a lead down in the U.
S.
- Jesus! - Hey.
Hey.
- Nick! - Hey, I did not kill that man.
- Okay? - I am breaking a handful of international laws right now just by talking to you.
I know, but you're the only person I trust.
I need you to believe me.
Then why'd you skip out? The guy I work for had that gambling regulator killed for skimming cash.
I came to you because I was trying to get on top of it.
Things just things just went sideways, okay? - Who's this guy you work for? - His name's Paul Kovács.
After I left the bureau, I took a private security gig with him in Vegas.
Yes, I've read about him Hungarian American, he inherited one of the casinos here in Budapest.
Yeah, well, you probably didn't read the part about him being in bed with the Russians.
Kovács had this had this plan to build a luxury casino in Vegas and use his chain of low-rent casinos in North Vegas as collateral.
He got upside down to the tune of 450 mill.
That's when he started his partnership with the Russians through a an old family connection.
What's your involvement? Well, they provide him with the 450 mill to finish the project if Kovács agrees to launder their cash through his casino in Budapest.
But once the new casino opens in Vegas, they'll use it to launder cash from Eurasian organized crime networks expanding in the U.
S.
You left the bureau.
I'm sure you heard.
Well, I want your version.
They pulled me from an undercover op when my informant decided to change his story.
The bureau accused me of falsifying info on an affidavit.
Hey, no.
No, no, no, no.
Don't answer that.
It's a fellow agent.
You're the only person I trust, Cam, no.
I am not getting arrested for obstruction of justice.
So if you trust me, you trust her.
Yeah, okay.
All right.
Hey.
I need to ask you a few questions about Thorpe's background.
Mind if I what's wrong? - Thorpe's here.
- What? Look, he needs our help.
Just hear him out.
What the hell are you doing? I didn't know he'd be here.
Why does he have a key to your apartment? Nick had six years in the bureau.
Okay, he knows how to get into an apartment.
Well, he just put you in a vise with the Hungarians, the bureau, and the State Department.
He is wrapped up in some shady business at a casino here in Budapest, and he wants to come out of the cold.
Let me guess, he's claiming he didn't kill Torok, and he wants immunity? I know Nick.
And if he pulled that trigger, he would've been on another continent by now.
Cameron, Thorpe was fired because he signed an affidavit stating an informant gave him a tip in order to get a search warrant.
It was investigated, and the informant never existed.
The case was dismissed, and ten defendants walked.
Hello? Nick, if you are on the other end, you better start talking right now, or you're gonna drag my career down the drain with you.
Cam, I'm sorry.
I know we've always dreamed of being agents.
The last thing I'd do is take that away from you.
If you care about me, then you'll talk to my team.
I'll talk, but I need protection and immunity, queen for a day.
Let me see what I can do.
Meet me inside the control room at the abandoned power station in the 18th district.
Put your hands out to your side.
- He the boss? - Yeah.
Who the hell is she? Katrin Jaeger, Europol.
I just got off the phone with the Hungarian prosecutor.
He'll enter into an immunity agreement if you agree to testify and tell us what happened.
I told Paul Kovács, the guy I work for, that Torok was skimming from the cash being laundered through Kovács' casino.
I came to you because I had a suspicion something bad was gonna go down.
So you put a bullseye on Torok's chest? Hey, Torok made his own bed.
All right? That cash he was skimming was coming from the Russians.
So how long have you known Kovács' been laundering money through the casino in Budapest? Since he asked me to do the books and records when I moved here.
Which is how long? I don't know.
Uh, six months.
Torok then offered me a cut of the stolen money if I kept my mouth shut.
That's when he got popped.
By who? Kovács' muscle.
Goes by the name Benkó.
Did this Benkó see you and Vo together? Benkó mentioned it to Kovács, and I told him you were a contact from my Vegas days looking to clean some cash.
And how's that the solution? We slide you in.
All right, you'll be under the custody of the bureau until we figure out how we're gonna play this.
Fine.
You'll need to validate Thorpe's story or the defense attorney will tear him to shreds on the stand.
Look, Nick, he screwed up big time.
But, I mean, I'll do it, because at the end of the day, he risked his life for mine once.
So I owe him this.
What'd he do? Over a beer some time.
Just did a registry analysis on Torok's laptop.
He was repeatedly accessing an external hard drive over the last week.
It's possible he was using it to access something he didn't want seen on his work computer.
All right, I'll have Lieutenant Valkó do another sweep of Torok's office at the GSA.
What's your take on this guy? Very punchable.
But do you trust him? I don't need to.
Vo does.
So Kovács hired me as the legitimate front to the Queen Casino.
I've never bought any shady business before, but as soon as I sold him the story about you looking to clean some cash, he was begging to meet you.
Okay, how much is he in the hole after the money was stolen? Torok pocketed roughly six mill from loads coming in.
But Kovács was was paranoid and desperate to begin with.
I mean, he would've laundered your socks if it meant paying back the Russians.
What led you to realize Torok was stealing the money? Well, Kovács knew my background in finance.
So he asked me to set up the casino shell accounts under fictitious names.
Hey.
Hey, hey, hey, Cam.
Look, I I know you're pissed at me, all right? Before we do this, I just well, I I need to know you believe me.
Yes, Nick.
I believe you.
Any thoughts on a cover story? Uh, yeah.
I met Vo's family when they were pushing cash through some small casinos in downtown Vegas.
We just need a reason to explain why she's in Europe.
Well, there are a dozen Vietnamese gangs in Prague involved in drug smuggling.
Let's run with, uh, synthetic drug production.
Vo was washing money through the casinos in Prague.
Government's been cracking down.
- That works.
- Then let's set up a meet.
Raines will go with you, act as a bodyguard.
No, no, no, no.
No need.
Me and Cam have got this.
Apparently you're still living in this fantasy world that you work for the bureau.
You don't.
So you're gonna do what I tell you to do when I tell you to do it.
Or we can hand you over to the Hungarians, and you can try your luck with them.
Whatever you say.
Good.
I've got eyes on Vo and Raines.
That your idea of smart casual? Nice Patek.
Did you buy that on layaway? They're heading up to the VIP floor.
Copy.
I'm at the VIP bar.
This is my contact from Vegas, Nichole.
And who are you? Her security.
I will let Kovács know she's here.
That's Benkó, the guy who killed Torok.
Got a visual on Benkó.
He's packing a gray nine-millimeter pistol.
Looks identical to Torok's ghost gun.
Most of the guys who work for Kovács are in the system or trying to fly under the radar.
Let's put a surveillance team out on Benkó once he leaves the casino.
We'll pick him up now and run a ballistics exam on the pistol.
Hold off.
If we get ahead of ourselves, we'll spook the case.
Paul, this is Nichole Parker.
Nicole, this is my boss, Paul Kovács.
So you two met in Vegas? That's right.
Back when my family was doing business through a few casinos there.
Mm, a babe like you, I would've thought you'd met at the Ling Ling Club at Hakkasan, eh? I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
I'd never say that to a woman back in the States nowadays, but we're in Budapest, so I could give a rat's ass.
Mm? Roulette.
My usual numbers.
Yes, ma'am.
I like you.
I like her a lot.
How 'bout we'll go a little more private? Eh, just Nichole and I? Nick told me you're building another casino in Vegas.
Congratulations.
Thank you.
A five-star carpet joint.
I'll put you up in the penthouse once we're open.
How long until construction's finished? Mm.
Another eight months if everything goes according to plan.
1964 Exclusivo Maduro.
Make that two.
Ooh.
Beautiful.
Light it up.
Mm.
All right.
You want to do business, what do you propose? The people I work for have a network distribution across Europe.
The higher demand for synthetic drugs means the more cash I need cleaned, and the casinos in Prague aren't cutting it.
I'm only interested in going into business with clients looking to push a minimum of six mill through my casino a month.
Any less isn't worth the risk.
Make it seven million.
Keep the casino chandeliers burning.
We can start with 2.
5 million in cash.
Yes, I'm a rascal, but not easily manipulated.
One, the full seven, and 15% cut, or no deal.
I'll have it pushed through my casino in three weeks.
I'll agree to that if Queen Casino can give us an advance for 30% up front.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
Not until I see the money.
We'll bring a truck to Mangalica Restaurant in Józsefváros.
My family does business with the owner.
Oh.
You know, you are you're stunning.
Do we have a deal? Yes.
Hey, great job last night.
Oh, minus the fact that we got zero PC on Benkó to prove he's complicit.
We'll pick him up after the drop.
Thorpe said he'll be there.
Hey, Vo.
Can I talk to you for a minute? Look, Thorpe is still involved in a homicide investigation.
And I'm taking your word on trusting him.
If we go through with this, so I have to ask you are you romantically involved? There's a reason why I don't date within the bureau.
It gets messy when it doesn't work out.
Before the bureau? No.
We're close friends, and I would have told you that.
Everybody's got blind spots for people who they care about, Vo.
The trick is not to let them send you over the edge.
You need to see what Lieutenant Valkó's team just found.
Okay.
Can you play this please, Andre? Thanks.
Pause it here.
Recognize this man in the security footage? Benkó, Kovács' heavy.
We ran the footage through facial rec.
Legal name, István Benkó, Hungarian national.
Did two stints at Kalocsai Prison for vehicle crime.
Arrested on multiple occasions for assault and possession of illegal firearms.
That gives him a pretty damn good reason to carry a ghost gun.
When was this recorded? Ten minutes after Torok was shot.
Valkó's team pulled it from a bank less than a kilometer from the pub.
So Thorpe's story wasn't just smoke and mirrors.
That places Benkó in the area at the time of the shooting.
It doesn't change the fact that we have zero inculpatory evidence to prove who pulled that trigger.
We need to take a run at this guy.
After the bust.
Let's gear up.
Raines, Vo, we are standing by until Kovács and Thorpe arrive with their crew to pick up the cash.
Something's up.
They should have been here by now.
Change of plan.
We are meeting Kovács at another location to do the drop.
That wasn't part of the deal.
New location or no deal.
One of our surveillance teams just watched Kovács' crew go into a train graveyard outside the city.
Looks like they're doing the drop in an old depot built with concrete and steel.
Steel can hinder wire transmissions.
We'll issue a high-risk warrant.
They're moving.
Headed north.
Pull up to the depot.
Park the truck inside.
Truck's inside the depot.
Damn it.
Wire signal's down.
How far is the tac team? Ten minutes.
Search them.
We will need your firearms.
Nah.
Not if you want to do business.
Just standard procedure, all right? It's okay.
Let's see the cash.
Where the hell is it? There.
You screw with me? Hm? You screw with me.
Full seven mill.
The truck's yours once we get our 30% advance we agreed upon.
There's no service in here.
I got to go outside to make the transfer.
You have the account info? Come on.
Thank you.
- Hey.
- Whoa, whoa, whoa.
Hey.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
Mm, hey.
Trust me, you do not want to kill us.
Sure we do.
Hey.
Hey.
Since when was this part of the plan, huh? That regulator stole well over six million from the casino.
Kovács isn't wasting his time making 15% to pay back the Bratva.
He'll take 100%.
Kovács is rolling in a white Escalade with one of his bodyguards.
All right.
All right.
Shots fired.
Let me see your hands.
Come on, Cam, let's go.
- Let the tac team handle him.
- Shh.
Go, go, go.
So you're telling me you didn't know anything about Kovács' plan at the depot? I swear to God.
You know, Vo really stuck her neck out for you on this.
I hope you realize that.
Trust me, I do.
I mean, she mentioned you all dated.
Why'd it end? Let me guess, Cam told you we didn't date, which is the truth.
And you think she's lying, so you're trying to bust her.
Am I right, Agent Forrester? It wasn't for lack of trying, I'll tell you that much.
Now, that's the first thing out of your mouth that I actually believe.
Lieutenant Valkó is a bit upset Benkó is dead, but on the plus side, we matched the barrel of his pistol to the bullet that killed Torok.
Should've chucked it in the Danube.
We took a run at Kovács, but he's keeping his mouth shut until his hotshot attorney flies in from Nevada.
We've got plenty on the wire from his initial conversation with Vo.
Guess you're off the hook for Torok's murder.
Doesn't excuse what went down at the trainyard.
What was found during the sweep at Queen Casino? Two sets of books and records, a box of burner phones, six gray ghost guns And Torok's missing hard drive.
Stashed in a safe in the back office.
It has ledgers on the shell accounts used to launder money.
I'm still working on encryption keys to access the files.
- Great.
- Like I said, Torok was embezzling.
The Hungarians want to put you up in a safe house during prosecution planning.
After the trial, they'll cut you loose with a clean record.
Okay.
Look, I, um I got to grab my stuff from my hotel room at the Queen Casino.
I got some files you can use for the prosecution.
I'll take him.
You okay? Six months.
You were in town for six months, and you didn't try to reach out? I was ashamed, okay? I felt I let you down as much as anybody when I got fired.
So you didn't falsify info on an affidavit to get a search warrant? Hell, no.
Listen, when I transferred to Crimes Against Children, I was investigating videos of minors being uploaded to the dark web.
It took my UCO two years before I had reason to believe those videos were coming from ten admins working out of a trailer park in Reno.
Yes, I I knew my informant was shaky, but there was so much at stake.
We ended up gathering all this evidence, but But a bunch of pedophiles walked free.
Yeah.
Yeah, they did.
You know, Cam, there'll come a time in your career when you have to make an impossible decision to do the right thing.
- Forrester? - You with Thorpe? Yeah, we're about to grab his stuff.
Bring him into the office ASAP.
Why, what's wrong? Just bring him in now.
Nick.
Nick! Hey! Nick! Nick! Sorry, ma'am, you need a key card.
Do you know what room Nick Thorpe's in? I'm not supposed to give out guest information.
Plus, we're being shut down.
Oh.
He's an employee? Yes.
We have Nick Thorpe in the system, but he checked out two days ago.
Forrester, Thorpe's in the wind.
I decrypted the files on Torok's drive, and let me tell you, everything Thorpe told us, it ain't the whole truth.
Torok wasn't embezzling money from the Russians.
Thorpe was.
Torok's drive must have spooked him when Raines mentioned the shell accounts.
They both had access to the money, but when the numbers weren't lining up, Torok started doing a digital forensic analysis on Thorpe.
That's what I found on the drive.
Thorpe was diverting a percentage of money being laundered to a hidden shell account and then fudging the numbers.
Technically, a Ponzi scheme.
He was borrowing money from the next load to make up for the missing funds from the previous delivery.
He faked the paperwork to show that the casino had the money, but in reality, they didn't.
It's possible Torok was blackmailing Thorpe with the info he had on the drive, which explains why he followed him to the pub and held off on going to Kovács.
My theory is Thorpe flipped the story on Torok and ratted him out for scheming before he blew him out of the water.
Then he checked out of his room at the casino and went directly to Vo to take out their entire operation before things went south.
But things went south.
He wiped Torok off his shoe with Kovács, and he wiped Kovács off his shoe with Vo.
The last domino falls, but no one saw the first.
You cannot prove any of this off of a couple of ledgers.
In theory, but I cross-referenced the casino's books and records with the drive.
Plus, the fact that he boogied And he worked in white collar crimes before he put in a transfer to Vegas.
How much is in the shell accounts? Based on the casino's books and records, a little over six mill.
But it was all transferred out of the account.
That is the same amount he said Torok skimmed off the cash coming in.
Does Lieutenant Valkó know? No, as far as the Hungarians are concerned, they owe Thorpe a medal.
How do we want to play this? Search the system, see if Thorpe's name pops up on any flight records.
Already did.
Not finding Nick Thorpe in any flight, train, or bus records.
All right, put out a BOLO, and then you all can take off.
We'll be notified if he tries to flee the country.
Raines thought you might be here.
Well, this is his spot.
And I wasn't gonna go to the Castle District where all the girls train in Lulus.
I'm with you on that.
How are you holding up? Like a sucker.
Vo, when you went to West Point, did you ever hear the military term "left of boom?" Yeah, my dad used to say it, but I never knew what it meant.
Well, the boom is when the bomb goes off, right? The gun is fired, the damage is done.
You want to be left of boom to get ahead of it.
Don't make a case personal and miss the warning signs.
- Hello? - Hey, Raines.
- Hey.
- Thorpe mentioned that he opened the shell accounts the casino was using to launder money under fictitious names, so that means it's likely he was using fake passports to open the bank accounts, right? I see where you're going.
I'll put a BOLO out under the names he used to open the accounts in case he tries to use one of the passports.
- Thank you, Raines.
- Sure thing.
That was fast.
Just ran a search under the fictitious names he used to open the shell accounts.
An Austin Miller purchased a one-way ticket to Marrakesh about an hour ago.
First flight out tomorrow morning.
You think it's Thorpe? Morocco doesn't have an extradition treaty with the U.
S.
What you doing here, Cam? Got some PTO? We know what's on Torok's hard drive.
We know you stole the money.
My flight leaves in ten minutes.
No one has to know you let me go.
You know, sometimes we have to make impossible decisions to do the right thing.
Last round's on me.
Nick Thorpe, you're under arrest for conspiracy to commit murder and money laundering.
All right.
He created this whole house of cards that hinged on Vo believing him.
Think she'll ever forgive him? The most painful betrayal never comes from your enemies.
It comes from the people you trust the most.