The Hot Zone (2019) s02e02 Episode Script
Hell's Chimney
1
NARRATOR: Previously
on The Hot Zone Anthrax.
WOMAN: Usually when he gets the flu, it just passes in a day or two.
NURSE: This doesn't present like a flu.
KURZ: Bruce, we got some samples coming in from Florida.
- IVINS: Not it! - KURZ: We need an anthrax expert.
LAYTON: Patient's spinal fluid showed rod-like bacteria.
MAN: You better call the FBI.
RYKER: Anthrax uses its host as a live incubator and 95% of confirmed cases worldwide are cutaneous, which means it gets into a cut where someone touches it.
But Bob Stevens inhaled it, which is insanely rare unless it's aerosolized.
O'CONNOR: I don't think AMI was the only media attack.
- BROKAW: What do you mean? - O'CONNOR: The doctor thought - it was just a spider bite.
- REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: And tragic news, we've just learned that photo editor Robert Stevens has died from his anthrax exposure.
RYKER: Results came back.
It's Ames.
MAN: Ames stream? I didn't think it existed outside a high-security research labs.
RYKER: It doesn't.
IVINS: Hey, did somebody just pass you guys on the hallway? SOLDIER: No, didn't see anyone.
IVINS: Really? [VENTILATED BREATHING.]
[BANGING.]
IVINS: Shelly, get out of there! Come on, the plane just hit the World Trade Center.
We got to go now.
We could be next.
Come on people, get out of there, go, go, go.
Everybody out.
Come on, we got to evacuate.
We need shelter, get off the phone.
New York City is under attack.
Some plane just hit the World Trade Center, all right.
They're alerting all military bases.
We could be next.
Come on guys, get out, guys! Go! Go ahead, just leave your stuff.
Out, out, out, out, right out.
Move, move, move, move, move.
GUMBEL [OVER TV.]
: For us to tell exactly how large an aircraft it is there or whether or not that was intentional, um.
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
AGENT: FAA is banning all departures nationwide for any flights heading through NYC airspace.
AGENT 2: And what about the 3,300 flights already in the air? - Who's got NORAD on their line? - RYKER: What do we know? MOORE: Passenger list is already in, names of interest are being looked into, but we're still waiting on the cargo manifests.
RYKER: Oh, these guys wouldn't have any check luggage.
Anything they need they would already had on them.
Still, we can't rule out the potential of a bio-agent.
These planes could've been used as a method of dispersal.
Hit the highest point in the city, let gravity do the rest.
Get the Hazmat units mobilized.
I'll start running it up the chain.
REPORTER [OVER RADIO.]
: As reports came in, that the first hijack RYKER: Yeah, this is Ryker.
We're on the road.
We're on our way to New York.
No, you have to wait.
No.
Until I can get a team on the ground, we can't rule out some sort of biological threat.
REPORTER [OVER RADIO.]
: Both towers of the World Trade Center have been hit by large - MOORE: You got to be kidding me.
- [HORN BLARING.]
Come on, let's move! RYKER: Yes, extreme heat can destroy a toxin like botulinum, but the spores that produce the toxic are heat resistant.
Yes.
[RATTLING.]
MOORE: Oh, my God.
- It's headed right for - RYKER: The Pentagon.
[DISTANT CHATTER.]
[WHISPERING.]
WOMAN: Oh.
Oh, sir.
I need you to please return to your seat.
MAN: Sorry.
[WHISPERING.]
RYKER: You can't even stretch your legs on a flight anymore.
[LAUGHS.]
Terrorists brought us all right to the edge.
MOORE: So you think it's related? This new anthrax case at NBC? RYKER: Related to what, - 9/11 or the anthrax in Florida? - MOORE: Florida.
Already know the answer to Al-Qaeda is a big old yes.
RYKER: Well, there hasn't been a case of inhalational anthrax since 1976 and suddenly you start seeing them? It's all got to be connected.
MOORE: So that's an affirmative? RYKER: Uh, no.
That's a working hypothesis.
Start with the obvious but can't know more until we get some actual evidence.
BROKAW [OVER TV.]
: Osama Bin Laden continues to make threats against America and our allies all over the world.
But it has not hampered the military's response.
Tonight, correspondent Michael Smith has this report.
SMITH [OVER TV.]
: After the airing of two shocking tapes made by Bin Laden, and then another by his followers, the administration has asked the networks for restraint in coverage of this crisis.
LAYTON: Uh, thanks for agreeing to see me.
I'm Dr.
Marci Layton from the Department of Health.
How are you doing Ms.
O'Connor? O'CONNOR: How do you think? The guy in Florida, he died in days, didn't he? LAYTON: Unfortunately, yes.
However, I understand you went to see your doctor a week ago? Thought it was a spider bite, put you on Cipro? - O'CONNOR: Mm-hmm.
- LAYTON: Okay.
That's good.
If it is anthrax, Cipro is our best defense against it.
PRODUCER: In five, four, three SMITH [OVER TV.]
: Intelligence related to terrorism.
BROKAW: After six years serving as Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge has retired.
LAYTON: Do you remember opening any mail or a package that may have contained some sort of a powder? Uh, the mail in question likely arrived a week or two ago.
O'CONNOR: Casey and I open mail all day.
I can't, I can't remember if [LAUGHS.]
LAYTON: Memory could be a tricky thing, just take a breath, okay? [TAKES DEEP BREATH.]
If there was a piece of mail that was flagged, something seemed off or threatening, who would you have alerted? O'CONNOR: I would, uh, - I'd contact security.
- LAYTON: Okay.
Now think back to the last time you called security about something suspicious, maybe there was a particular phrase, or message, a color? O'CONNOR: A green bag.
The, yeah, the last time I called security on a letter, they took it away in a green shopping bag.
- LAYTON: Agent Ryker? - RYKER: Yes.
- LAYTON: Agent Moore? - MOORE: How's it going? LAYTON: I'm Dr.
Layton, New York's Public Health Director of Communicable Diseases.
Apologies for the rushed retrieval but with one nightmare scenario after another, didn't have time to wait around for your baggage claim.
So, I saw O'Connor's wound.
- RYKER: Necrotic eschars? - LAYTON: Yeah.
It sure looks like cutaneous anthrax lesion to me.
RYKER: Okay.
Did they find the letter or the envelope, - however the anthrax was delivered? - LAYTON: No, not yet.
But it's been flagged.
It should be in the building.
RYKER: Good.
We need to get our hands on it.
All the mail at AMI was incinerated.
LAYTON: Info on 30 Rock, it's where NBC News is located.
It's not your typical office building, massive tourist destination, iconic landmark.
RYKER: When were you first alerted to the situation over at NBC? LAYTON: Late last night.
Took Tom Brokaw calling half New York to get the situation taken seriously.
MOORE: Ground Zero.
RYKER [OFF-SCREEN.]
: 30 days.
Still burning.
LAYTON: We call it Hell's Chimney.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING.]
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: The United States Government says you should be on alert because new terror attacks could come at any moment.
REPORTER 2 [OVER TV.]
: The enemy is hidden, the enemy is very often right here within our own country.
REPORTER 3 [OVER TV.]
: Law enforcement nationwide has been put on the highest state of alert.
REPORTER 4 [OVER TV.]
: National Guard troops are stationed - throughout the airport.
- REPORTER 5 [OVER TV.]
: Operation enduring.
PRESIDENT BUSH [OVER TV.]
: I want justice.
REPORTER 6 [OVER TV.]
: Kill and demoralized.
REPORTER 7 [OVER TV.]
: Front lines in Northern Afghanistan, direct hit from laser guided bombs.
Explosions were heard near the Kabul Airport.
PRESIDENT BUSH [OVER TV.]
: Wanted dead or alive.
[PHONE RINGING.]
[GROANS.]
[PHONE RINGING.]
- IVINS: Hello? - KURZ [OVER PHONE.]
: Bruce, I know you put in a long day, but we need you.
Biopsy came in for testing.
IVINS: I'll be right there.
Diane? Sweetheart? Di? Di? I have to go.
The lab needs me.
DIANE: Okay.
IVINS: What's the status? KURZ: Status is its too damn dark outside for you to be so awake.
IVINS: Sue me for wanting to help stop the bad guys.
So, where did this biopsy come from? KURZ: The city that never sleeps.
- See you in there.
- IVINS: Okay.
Who's towel is this? Am I your maid? Put it in the bin.
MOORE: Layton says they can't keep up with all the hoax letters that are coming in.
You really think we'll find this thing? RYKER: We need to.
It's just a matter of tracking it.
MOORE: Assuming it's just one.
- BROKAW: Are you with the FBI? - RYKER: Yes.
BROKAW: I need a microbiologist.
Dr.
Layton said he was on his way over.
RYKER: You're talking to him, Mr.
Brokaw.
I'm Special agent Matthew Ryker.
BROKAW: Oh, Agent Ryker, my assistant called authorities days ago.
And apparently testing is log-jammed and I'm for the life of me, trying to figure out why it is that this is not a higher priority.
RYKER: Well, it's my understanding that the CDC's been swamped with samples from Florida.
- But I - BROKAW: Now listen, I've had enough of that, okay? And no action.
I've got a sick employee upstairs and we've had enough of the runaround.
We still don't know what Erin has.
RYKER: Well, I just flew in from D.
C.
I've only been on the ground a couple of hours but we have the best minds in the field working on it.
I've pulled them out of bed to do it.
And Dr.
Layton will make sure the CDC's on it.
You should have results by tomorrow.
BROKAW: Hmm.
Well, I'm trusting you agent because my next call is to Ashcroft.
Excuse me.
MOORE: You think he's just worried about his assistant? RYKER: No, he's right.
But this thing will start going sideways fast if we start taking special consideration to big titles.
MOORE: Copy that.
Elevators are just around the corner.
RYKER: Until we find a source, we need to shut down the entire building.
SERGEANT: Whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought you just said we were just here as a specialist? RYKER: As a specialist, I'm telling you - we need to shut the building down.
- SERGEANT: On who's authority? RYKER: Just tell everyone this investigation now falls under Operation Noble Eagle.
MOORE: Hey, uh, should we call Copak first? I mean, if we're gonna be pulling the Presidential card? RYKER: If not now, then when? Listen Sergeant, somewhere in this building is a lethal agent and we cannot let anyone else be exposed.
- Which way? - MOORE: Uh, it's up here to the right.
RYKER: Thousands of employees, acres of office space.
Any idea how much mail must come through a building like this? Single letter is like finding a needle in a MOORE: I'd prefer a haystack.
MAN: I take it you're the agent asking for me? What can I do for you? RYKER: What's your hate mail protocol? MAN: I wouldn't call it much of a protocol.
Any threatening letters get funneled down through here.
So you fellas collect it for testing.
It's a little backed up right now because of Ground Zero.
RYKER: Chris, clear out this whole area and let's get a Hazmat team in here.
We're gonna go through every single piece of mail.
That letter's got to be in here somewhere.
[INDISTINCTIVE CHATTER.]
Check everything carefully.
The letter Erin opened has to be here and if you find anything with powder, stop immediately.
We need to preserve all the source as we can.
MAN: This one has a flagged corner.
WOMAN: That's on the right.
- MAN: Right.
- [INDISTINCTIVE CHATTER.]
WOMAN: Copy that.
MAN: We're almost halfway through the mail here, sir, still nothing.
[ELEVATOR BELL RINGS.]
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
RYKER: What the hell? Hey, hey.
This building is contaminated.
Why are people flooding in here like it's any other Friday? SERGEANT: Agent Ryker, it wasn't my call.
- RYKER: Then whose was it? - GIULIANI: Not that it's your business.
SERGEANT: Mayor Giuliani.
GIULIANI: The call was mine.
No one is shutting down 30 Rock.
- RYKER: Mr.
Mayor, you're not hearing me.
- GIULIANI: Really? Because it seems you're not hearing me.
You're not the acting superior in this jurisdiction.
RYKER: Erin O'Connor is infected.
Not only are all of her colleagues at risk but so is every person who steps into the building.
We need to evacuate, we need to get a Hazmat team in there so we can scan every inch of the place.
GIULIANI: Do you have a positive test, - a confirmation on the victim? - RYKER: No, not yet.
GIULIANI: Any other sick workers? Any proof? I'm talking absolute that anthrax is in this building.
- RYKER: That's why we're searching.
- GIULIANI: Just because one person who might have it, might've been exposed weeks ago, uh, is already being treated and nobody else is showing symptoms, yet you're trying to shut down one of the, - the busiest buildings in my city.
- RYKER: Sir, with all due respect.
GIULIANI: You're here looking through a microscope but, uh, I've got to see the big picture.
RYKER: Okay.
Well here's an image, anthrax spores do not die off.
They settle, they lie in wait.
What we are talking about is a ticking time bomb.
Mayor Giuliani, please.
GIULIANI: Plenty of twisted pricks get their rocks off by scaring people.
If they shut down every building that had a hoax, wouldn't be a building open come Christmas.
[SIGHS.]
Do you have any idea what the good people of this city - have been through these last weeks? - RYKER: I understand.
GIULIANI: Hell, the city gets threats every day.
RYKER: I need at least the third floor.
NBC and it's adjacent offices.
Look, I can use the freight entrance.
Mr.
Mayor, you haven't seen what this bacteria does to a body.
[SIRENS BLARING.]
AGENT: Clear the entrance.
Let's move, guys, move.
Just make sure it's taped off.
[INDISTINCTIVE CHATTER.]
RYKER: Block that corner off.
And you guys got to rotate it out of the suit.
We've only got the third floor, but make sure you swab everything.
WOMAN: Copy that.
IVINS: Didn't they say the subject had a lesion indicating cutaneous anthrax? It's negative.
KURZ: Negative? - IVINS: I think maybe we should test it again.
- [LAUGHS.]
KURZ: We tested it twice, Bruce.
IVINS: Are you in a hurry to get out of here? KURZ: After 20-plus hours of straight lab work? Yes, Bruce, I am.
I don't know about you, but if I'm gonna do that again, I'm gonna need some sleep.
IVINS: Hey, Simon.
- Did you open my - [DOOR SLAMS.]
[PHONES RINGING.]
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
SYKES: I'll call you back.
WOMAN: There's a flight leaving at 12:25.
COPAK: Great.
Get me on it.
SYKES: Morning, sir.
Wasn't trying to be nosy, but I was looking for you earlier.
Susan said you were up in the Director's office.
[SIGHS.]
COPAK: Yeah.
SYKES: Lot of heads rolling this morning? COPAK: Just a friendly reminder that we either get out front of this story or we become the story.
SYKES: Hmm, locking horns right out of the gate? - COPAK: With the Director? - No.
We go back.
SYKES: Princeton, right? Yeah.
Before the bronze star, Purple Heart.
He took the law firm, Attorney General route and I dedicated my life to the bureau.
My mistake.
Always easier climbing new stairs than the ones you've been slogging up for years.
SYKES: Well, Van Harp's keeping me busy, but if you need extra hands on the anthrax case.
COPAK: Oh, Ryker's on it.
SYKES: I know the cells in our AOR better than anyone, sir.
COPAK: If I start pulling agents off 9/11 without confirmation this is an attack.
SYKES: Of course, sir.
But if it is, this whole thing could blow wide open.
MOORE: We went through everything in there.
RYKER: Did you find the letter? MOORE: I thought we had something but it was just a hoax.
I don't know what to tell you.
There's no anthrax letter in that room.
RYKER: That makes no sense.
That lesion on Erin O'Connor's shoulder is no hoax.
- That letter's gotta be here somewhere.
- MOORE: About that, they just brought in O'Connor's biopsy.
RYKER: And? - MOORE: Tested negative.
- RYKER: What? Actually, O'Connor's been on Cipro for days.
Once Cipro is established in the bloodstream, I'm thinking it could result in a false gram-negative.
Dr.
Zaki over at the CDC is working on an experimental strip to expedite gram-positive testing.
It'll be more conclusive.
- Give them a call.
- MOORE: Yeah.
IVINS: Things are good.
Lately with Diane and the kids, everything's clicking.
I mean, the only stressful thing is HALSTROM: And how has work been lately? IVINS: And other than that, how was the play, Mrs.
Lincoln? HALSTROM: Do you want to expand on that? IVINS: Stressful.
I mean, you know, we're at the epicenter of this anthrax business and the country under attack.
Haven't been able to see the kids much lately.
HALSTROM: It's quite common to pull away when there is stress in the workplace.
IVINS: There is nothing common about my work.
HALSTROM: What's happening there? What's adding anxiety? [SCOFFS.]
Bruce? - Where did you just go? - IVINS: Sorry.
HALSTROM: I know 9/11 really rattled you, but it's good that you've come here for more support.
IVINS: My work at USAMRIID, dealing with DOD, it's high clearance stuff.
HALSTROM: These conversations are confidential.
IVINS: Since the situation in Florida, things have been unhinged.
And now with New York, the samples keep flooding in and it's up to us to separate the hoaxes from the real deal.
We're this line of defense nobody even knows exists.
HALSTROM: Would you say you feel under-appreciated? IVINS: What? No.
What I'm saying is that it's just us in there, this select group of scientists, some of us barely know each other.
Even in a vacuum, how do you trust someone with something so paramount as the safety of our nation? HALSTROM: Bruce, do you suspect someone at work is possibly involved? MAN: This way.
They're still working on those contaminants as well.
WOMAN: Yeah, they are.
[BEEPING.]
COPAK: I assure you, this won't get blown out of proportion.
GIULIANI: Better not.
I asked for a babysitter and was promised you'd have an iron grip on the situation.
RYKER: Mayor.
Sir.
We just got results from Erin O'Connor's latest biopsy.
She's positive for anthrax.
Her first test was a false negative because she'd already been on Cipro.
GIULIANI: Didn't I already give you what you asked for? RYKER: We need to do a lot more than close off one floor.
Anthrax is here.
- COPAK: Who ran the test? - RYKER: CDC.
Brand new testing method.
GIULIANI: And by new, is that some sort of experimental thing? RYKER: And? GIULIANI: Unless you have any new proof that she got it here - at 30 Rock - RYKER: How is a positive biopsy result not enough? COPAK: Ryker.
- GIULIANI: I'll take that as a no.
- STAFFER: Mayor Giuliani, the press is ready for you.
And Assistant Director Mawn is standing by.
GIULIANI: Thank you.
COPAK: You gotta understand, the local team is doing everything by the book.
They're good.
But they need more to go on.
Conjecture is the enemy here.
You get an attack letter in an evidence bag and hold it up in front of the cameras, I can get us anything we want.
RYKER: We went through every inch of that mailroom.
Erin knows she handed the letter off.
COPAK: Then you jumped a step when you retraced it.
The truth is never about what should have happened.
GIULIANI: Thank you all for coming.
I just wanna be clear that we're, we're, we're talking with you today because we're being overly cautious.
All employees, as well as areas of the building that may have been exposed will be tested.
RYKER: We're missing something.
MOORE: We've been through every piece of hate mail twice.
RYKER: Mailroom doesn't bag them, though, do they? MOORE: Uh, no.
I think security guards collect potential threats from each floor.
RYKER: Which guard handles the mail from NBC? GIULIANI [OVER TV.]
: After a long talk with the CDC, - the chances that this is contained, uh - [KNOCKS.]
GUARD: What do you need, pal? MOORE: FBI.
RYKER: We're looking for a letter that was addressed to Tom Brokaw, came in a green plastic bag.
- Seen anything like that? - GUARD: I don't know.
It can be anywhere in here.
RYKER: Start over there.
GIULIANI: While the powder in the letter, uh, proved negative for anthrax, a skin biopsy did test positive.
And since this incident could date back as early as September 25th, there's a decent shot that, uh, anyone who might have been exposed, uh, would be by now.
That is our hope.
I encourage everyone not to overreacting.
NBC's in control of the situation and cooperation with governmental agencies, that's including the CDC and the FBI.
If anyone receives any suspicious mail, the best thing to do, contact the police or FBI.
RYKER: Get out.
Leave the sandwich.
Chris, stay back.
I'm vaccinated, but you need to leave.
And get that guy on Cipro.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Excuse me, Mr.
Giuliani.
REPORTER 2 [OVER TV.]
: Mayor, clarify what the CDC told you today? Exactly how safe is 30 Rock right now? GIULIANI [OVER TV.]
: The CDC and the FBI have informed us that the chances that this is contained are very good.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
REPORTER: Any connection to 9/11? GIULIANI: I'll let our local Assistant Director Mawn - answer that.
Barry? - MAWN: Thank you, Mayor.
MAWN [OVER TV.]
: Uh, at this moment, we see absolutely zero link to 9/11.
LAYTON: So it is terrorists.
RYKER: Our forensics might find more, but I'm not seeing any identifiers, Dr.
Layton.
And there's no obvious fingerprints, there's no hair.
The envelope has been taped, not licked, so we're not gonna pull any DNA evidence.
The letter itself is photocopied, so we're not gonna get any ink samples.
MOORE: They did leave us something to go off of, postmark.
RYKER: Maybe it could be traced back to the point of origin.
MOORE: Right.
And track it down to where it was first dropped off.
RYKER: Yeah.
Follow up with the postal service.
MOORE: Okay.
Got it.
LAYTON: If this is a match for Florida, we've got a full-blown bioweapons attack on our hands.
Question is, who else is a target? RYKER: Well letters were sent to AMI and NBC.
I'm starting to think this is an attack on the media.
HUDEN: First showed up over a week ago.
My doctor prescribed antibiotics.
He said it was a spider bite.
But it's not, is it? RYKER: What's important is that it looks to be resolving.
We'll need to run some tests, though.
HUDEN: Whatever you need to do to take down the cowards who are doing this.
RYKER: Do you remember opening any suspicious mail? Something that might look similar to this letter here.
[SCOFFS.]
HUDEN: I remember an envelope just like this.
I didn't open it, though.
RYKER: What do you mean? HUDEN: The letter, I, I never opened it.
RYKER: We got a case at the Post.
A woman with a cutaneous wound on her finger.
And I just got word that Dan Rather's assistant over at CBS tested positive.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: She noticed the lesion a couple of days ago.
MOORE: Did you find any letters at CBS? RYKER: No, but we did find spores, some of them at Rather's desk.
Look, uh, I'm at ABC News right now.
Um, I got a lot of newsrooms to sweep.
RYKERS [OVER PHONE.]
: What about you? What's your status? MOORE: I'm heading into the mail facility in Trenton now.
I'll let you know if the postmark gets us anywhere.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: Good.
Thanks.
COPAK: All right, uh Rest assured, the tests we will be performing are just a precaution.
Uh, several employees at other news outlets have tested positive for anthrax, so we wanna make sure that everyone here at ABC News is safe.
Special Agent Ryker.
RYKER: As Assistant Director Copak may have mentioned, we will need to know the names of anyone who came to visit you here at work over the past two weeks.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
Everyone, please, please, let's, let's stay calm.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
[PHONE LINE RINGING.]
- WOMAN [OVER PHONE.]
: Hey, honey.
- MAN: Is he any worse? WOMAN: Getting pretty fussy.
He's, he's little owie is looking kind of ugly.
[BABY FUSSING.]
RYKER: Is everything okay? MOORE: Excuse me, ma'am.
Hi, my name is Agent Moore.
I'm with the FBI.
Uh, I'm just looking for your floor manager.
ANGELA: Uh, Quinton? What'd he get himself into? MOORE: Uh, no, he's not in any trouble.
I just got a couple of questions for him.
ANGELA: Quinton! Feds are looking for ya! He's right in there.
MOORE: Thanks.
- QUINTON: You see these hash marks down here? - MOORE: Right.
QUINTON: That big metal beast out there doing all the clanking stamps the code, then sends it on down the line to the others to be sorted accordingly.
MOORE: Okay.
Meaning the code then serves as a, sort of, road map for the letter's journey? QUINTON: Uh, this one, after leaving here was dispatched to our route that covers 30 Rock.
MOORE: Okay.
And where might the letter been dropped off before it made its way to this facility? QUINTON: Could have been any box in our region.
One of our blue boxes, if I had to guess.
MOORE: Blue boxes? Okay.
How many of those blue boxes are we talking? QUINTON: Over 600.
[SIGHS.]
IVINS: Thought you went home already? [CHUCKLES.]
KURZ: Got called back in.
You? IVINS: Yeah.
Same.
KURZ: You know, I'm practically drowning in samples that need testing, and now word is, we're about to get new spores from the New York letter.
How much you wanna bet if it turns out to be Ames just like the Florida strain.
IVINS: You sound pretty confident.
KURZ: Well, you wanna know what worries me? If it is Ames, only advanced labs have it.
IVINS: Then how'd Al-Qaeda get ahold of it? KURZ: Exactly.
This thing, this thing could get messy.
You heading out? IVINS: Yeah.
I just have some things to finish up first.
KURZ: Well, - suit yourself.
Goodnight, Bruce.
- IVINS: Good night.
DOCTOR: We tried administrating oral antibiotics but little Joey keeps spitting them up.
We're running out of options.
RYKER: How long has the infection been active? DOCTOR: I can't tell you any more than the father did.
He said his wife and the baby came by the office a few days ago.
We don't have many options to stave off the spread of the infection in an infant.
RYKER: Anthrax isn't something you stave off.
If it's already systemic, which this is, this boy needs to be on Cipro.
- DOCTOR: I told you, he can't keep them down.
- RYKER: No, no, not oral, intravenously.
It's his only shot.
DOCTOR: Agent, this is my ICU, my call.
Do not mistake this update as anything more - than a professional courtesy.
- RYKER: Before today, I was one of only a handful of people in this country to have ever seen a case of anthrax in a human.
DOCTOR: And babies? Ever seen an anthrax case in an infant before? You wanna take a guess at the odds of a human weighing less than 20 pounds surviving that much Cipro intravenously? RYKER: Is it better than zero? Because those are Joey's odds if we don't kill the anthrax.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Oh, you're up late.
WILLIS: Correction, I'm up early.
You, my friend, are the one that's up late.
RYKER: Well, you know, can't sleep.
WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: What's new? So I got your text.
RYKER: So, what's got you up before the dawn? WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: The Patriot Act Bill, has everyone on Capitol Hill scrambling right now.
WILLIS: You know, half the groups I lobby for don't even know which way they want this vote to go.
Turns out that allowing the FBI to freely spy on Americans makes some folks uneasy.
RYKER: You know this isn't public, but the anthrax we found, all signs point to it leading back to Florida.
WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: Well, you're afraid that'd be the case.
RYKER: Only it's worse.
Several victims.
One's an infant.
WILLIS: Jesus, Matthew.
WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: I know word around D.
C.
is that it's terrorist that's behind these letters.
Is that what you're thinking? RYKER: Well, Al-Qaeda declared war on 9/11.
No reason to think they'd stop with the first strike.
[SIRENS BLARING.]
WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: You still there? Matthew? RYKER: Uh, yeah, I'm still here.
Uh, why don't we talk more once I get back to D.
C.
, okay? WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: Yeah, sure.
Call me when you land.
Nearer, my God, to Thee Nearer to Thee E'en though it be a cross That raiseth me Still all my song shall be Nearer, my God, to Thee - Nearer, my God, to Thee - HALSTROM: Bruce, do you suspect someone at work is possibly involved? IVINS: The other night I swabbed a few places around USAMRIID looking for something peculiar.
HALSTROM: Peculiar, meaning? IVINS: Connected to the anthrax attacks obviously.
HALSTROM: And? IVINS: Inconclusive.
HALSTROM: Bruce, at minimum, this is a massive burden you've taken upon yourself, and worst case a matter of National Security.
IVINS: Yes, I'm aware.
HALSTROM: Have you considered as a means of lifting this burden contacting the authorities? - Possibly the FBI? - IVINS: What if I'm wrong? What if this colleague is innocent, I could destroy his entire world.
No.
Not without something concrete.
HALSTROM: I understand your trepidation.
Will you at least consider it, please? MAN: No need to wait around on our account.
RYKER: I was just heading to the field office.
I thought I'd stop by and check in on your son.
MAN: Doctors still won't say much.
Though from what they have said, it sounds like making it through the night was a pretty major milestone.
So, thank you for that.
- RYKER: No need to thank me.
I didn't do any.
- MAN: Don't.
The pediatrician said you talked him into the intravenous treatment.
RYKER: I'm happy to help.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Excuse me.
- Dr.
Layton? - LAYTON [OVER PHONE.]
: Hey, our teams got their hands on that letter that infected the woman at the Post.
LAYTON: Here's the troubling thing, the letter is still sealed.
RYKER: No one opened it, not even ripped a corner or something? LAYTON: No.
The powder must've worked its way around the seal.
The things is we've been operating under the assumption that just a few spores couldn't infect anyone.
MILLER [OVER TV.]
: To know how to do this, make sure that they don't link up with people like Osama bin Laden uh, for not panicking in the situation.
I think most of what we're going to see will COPAK: Hey, any leads on the letter? RYKER: Not yet.
It's with the CDC now.
COPAK: Get a load of this.
News got their hands on some tidbit and it's blowing up all over the airwaves.
KING [OVER TV.]
: Should we be concerned that Iraq may be able to do that? MILLER [OVER TV.]
: I have always been concerned about Iraq.
I share the concern about Iraq's biological weapons program.
Uh, I found it very curious indeed - that Saddam Hussein - MOORE: Iraq? COPAK: No, no, this is, I've had a couple of calls from Washington already.
Fumbled my way through.
It's like talking to people about a party they think you were invited to.
MOORE: Is Al-Qaeda even in Iraq? RYKER: Iraq's bioweapons capabilities were shut down after the war.
COPAK: As far as you and I - have been told.
- PRESIDENT BUSH [OVER TV.]
: It's clear that, uh, Mr.
Bin Laden is a man who's, uh, an evil man.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: FBI investigators are frantically searching for leads in the case and the CDC has been quick to provide testing and laboratory services.
[PHONE LINE RINGING.]
You have reached the Federal Bureau of Investigation tip line.
If you are calling in regards to an open investigation, press one.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Infections in humans and especially - DIANE: Hey.
- IVINS: Hi.
DIANE: Who are you calling, Bruce? IVINS: Oh, just work stuff.
DIANE: All right.
[SIGHS.]
PRODUCER: In five, four, three BROKAW: Good evening.
Tonight we find ourselves in the unusual and unhappy position of reporting on one of our own.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Anthrax, war, terror and threats of more, the USA is in an understandable state of anxiety.
REPORTER 2 [OVER TV.]
: It is concern in the country about anthrax as a weapon.
REPORTER 3 [OVER TV.]
: How does the FBI find out who is responsible for sending out anthrax? MAN [OVER TV.]
: We don't have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Reinforced by the President that more terror attacks could be coming.
REPORTER 2 [OVER TV.]
: In Rockefeller Center, an anthrax case in NBC.
BROKAW [OVER TV.]
: But NBC was not the only target.
Anthrax spores were also found on the desk of my colleague Dan Rather at CBS.
Other news outlets including ABC and the New York Post were targeted as well.
BROKAW: And today anthrax attack victim Robert Stevens was laid to rest in Florida.
Our thoughts are with his family.
The other two original victims from Florida are recovering.
But now with multiple attacks along the Eastern Seaboard and no suspect yet identified, our nation is gripped with fear.
We can only hope there will be no more victims.
WOMAN: Usually when he gets the flu, it just passes in a day or two.
NURSE: This doesn't present like a flu.
KURZ: Bruce, we got some samples coming in from Florida.
- IVINS: Not it! - KURZ: We need an anthrax expert.
LAYTON: Patient's spinal fluid showed rod-like bacteria.
MAN: You better call the FBI.
RYKER: Anthrax uses its host as a live incubator and 95% of confirmed cases worldwide are cutaneous, which means it gets into a cut where someone touches it.
But Bob Stevens inhaled it, which is insanely rare unless it's aerosolized.
O'CONNOR: I don't think AMI was the only media attack.
- BROKAW: What do you mean? - O'CONNOR: The doctor thought - it was just a spider bite.
- REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: And tragic news, we've just learned that photo editor Robert Stevens has died from his anthrax exposure.
RYKER: Results came back.
It's Ames.
MAN: Ames stream? I didn't think it existed outside a high-security research labs.
RYKER: It doesn't.
IVINS: Hey, did somebody just pass you guys on the hallway? SOLDIER: No, didn't see anyone.
IVINS: Really? [VENTILATED BREATHING.]
[BANGING.]
IVINS: Shelly, get out of there! Come on, the plane just hit the World Trade Center.
We got to go now.
We could be next.
Come on people, get out of there, go, go, go.
Everybody out.
Come on, we got to evacuate.
We need shelter, get off the phone.
New York City is under attack.
Some plane just hit the World Trade Center, all right.
They're alerting all military bases.
We could be next.
Come on guys, get out, guys! Go! Go ahead, just leave your stuff.
Out, out, out, out, right out.
Move, move, move, move, move.
GUMBEL [OVER TV.]
: For us to tell exactly how large an aircraft it is there or whether or not that was intentional, um.
Go ahead, I'm sorry.
AGENT: FAA is banning all departures nationwide for any flights heading through NYC airspace.
AGENT 2: And what about the 3,300 flights already in the air? - Who's got NORAD on their line? - RYKER: What do we know? MOORE: Passenger list is already in, names of interest are being looked into, but we're still waiting on the cargo manifests.
RYKER: Oh, these guys wouldn't have any check luggage.
Anything they need they would already had on them.
Still, we can't rule out the potential of a bio-agent.
These planes could've been used as a method of dispersal.
Hit the highest point in the city, let gravity do the rest.
Get the Hazmat units mobilized.
I'll start running it up the chain.
REPORTER [OVER RADIO.]
: As reports came in, that the first hijack RYKER: Yeah, this is Ryker.
We're on the road.
We're on our way to New York.
No, you have to wait.
No.
Until I can get a team on the ground, we can't rule out some sort of biological threat.
REPORTER [OVER RADIO.]
: Both towers of the World Trade Center have been hit by large - MOORE: You got to be kidding me.
- [HORN BLARING.]
Come on, let's move! RYKER: Yes, extreme heat can destroy a toxin like botulinum, but the spores that produce the toxic are heat resistant.
Yes.
[RATTLING.]
MOORE: Oh, my God.
- It's headed right for - RYKER: The Pentagon.
[DISTANT CHATTER.]
[WHISPERING.]
WOMAN: Oh.
Oh, sir.
I need you to please return to your seat.
MAN: Sorry.
[WHISPERING.]
RYKER: You can't even stretch your legs on a flight anymore.
[LAUGHS.]
Terrorists brought us all right to the edge.
MOORE: So you think it's related? This new anthrax case at NBC? RYKER: Related to what, - 9/11 or the anthrax in Florida? - MOORE: Florida.
Already know the answer to Al-Qaeda is a big old yes.
RYKER: Well, there hasn't been a case of inhalational anthrax since 1976 and suddenly you start seeing them? It's all got to be connected.
MOORE: So that's an affirmative? RYKER: Uh, no.
That's a working hypothesis.
Start with the obvious but can't know more until we get some actual evidence.
BROKAW [OVER TV.]
: Osama Bin Laden continues to make threats against America and our allies all over the world.
But it has not hampered the military's response.
Tonight, correspondent Michael Smith has this report.
SMITH [OVER TV.]
: After the airing of two shocking tapes made by Bin Laden, and then another by his followers, the administration has asked the networks for restraint in coverage of this crisis.
LAYTON: Uh, thanks for agreeing to see me.
I'm Dr.
Marci Layton from the Department of Health.
How are you doing Ms.
O'Connor? O'CONNOR: How do you think? The guy in Florida, he died in days, didn't he? LAYTON: Unfortunately, yes.
However, I understand you went to see your doctor a week ago? Thought it was a spider bite, put you on Cipro? - O'CONNOR: Mm-hmm.
- LAYTON: Okay.
That's good.
If it is anthrax, Cipro is our best defense against it.
PRODUCER: In five, four, three SMITH [OVER TV.]
: Intelligence related to terrorism.
BROKAW: After six years serving as Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, Tom Ridge has retired.
LAYTON: Do you remember opening any mail or a package that may have contained some sort of a powder? Uh, the mail in question likely arrived a week or two ago.
O'CONNOR: Casey and I open mail all day.
I can't, I can't remember if [LAUGHS.]
LAYTON: Memory could be a tricky thing, just take a breath, okay? [TAKES DEEP BREATH.]
If there was a piece of mail that was flagged, something seemed off or threatening, who would you have alerted? O'CONNOR: I would, uh, - I'd contact security.
- LAYTON: Okay.
Now think back to the last time you called security about something suspicious, maybe there was a particular phrase, or message, a color? O'CONNOR: A green bag.
The, yeah, the last time I called security on a letter, they took it away in a green shopping bag.
- LAYTON: Agent Ryker? - RYKER: Yes.
- LAYTON: Agent Moore? - MOORE: How's it going? LAYTON: I'm Dr.
Layton, New York's Public Health Director of Communicable Diseases.
Apologies for the rushed retrieval but with one nightmare scenario after another, didn't have time to wait around for your baggage claim.
So, I saw O'Connor's wound.
- RYKER: Necrotic eschars? - LAYTON: Yeah.
It sure looks like cutaneous anthrax lesion to me.
RYKER: Okay.
Did they find the letter or the envelope, - however the anthrax was delivered? - LAYTON: No, not yet.
But it's been flagged.
It should be in the building.
RYKER: Good.
We need to get our hands on it.
All the mail at AMI was incinerated.
LAYTON: Info on 30 Rock, it's where NBC News is located.
It's not your typical office building, massive tourist destination, iconic landmark.
RYKER: When were you first alerted to the situation over at NBC? LAYTON: Late last night.
Took Tom Brokaw calling half New York to get the situation taken seriously.
MOORE: Ground Zero.
RYKER [OFF-SCREEN.]
: 30 days.
Still burning.
LAYTON: We call it Hell's Chimney.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING.]
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: The United States Government says you should be on alert because new terror attacks could come at any moment.
REPORTER 2 [OVER TV.]
: The enemy is hidden, the enemy is very often right here within our own country.
REPORTER 3 [OVER TV.]
: Law enforcement nationwide has been put on the highest state of alert.
REPORTER 4 [OVER TV.]
: National Guard troops are stationed - throughout the airport.
- REPORTER 5 [OVER TV.]
: Operation enduring.
PRESIDENT BUSH [OVER TV.]
: I want justice.
REPORTER 6 [OVER TV.]
: Kill and demoralized.
REPORTER 7 [OVER TV.]
: Front lines in Northern Afghanistan, direct hit from laser guided bombs.
Explosions were heard near the Kabul Airport.
PRESIDENT BUSH [OVER TV.]
: Wanted dead or alive.
[PHONE RINGING.]
[GROANS.]
[PHONE RINGING.]
- IVINS: Hello? - KURZ [OVER PHONE.]
: Bruce, I know you put in a long day, but we need you.
Biopsy came in for testing.
IVINS: I'll be right there.
Diane? Sweetheart? Di? Di? I have to go.
The lab needs me.
DIANE: Okay.
IVINS: What's the status? KURZ: Status is its too damn dark outside for you to be so awake.
IVINS: Sue me for wanting to help stop the bad guys.
So, where did this biopsy come from? KURZ: The city that never sleeps.
- See you in there.
- IVINS: Okay.
Who's towel is this? Am I your maid? Put it in the bin.
MOORE: Layton says they can't keep up with all the hoax letters that are coming in.
You really think we'll find this thing? RYKER: We need to.
It's just a matter of tracking it.
MOORE: Assuming it's just one.
- BROKAW: Are you with the FBI? - RYKER: Yes.
BROKAW: I need a microbiologist.
Dr.
Layton said he was on his way over.
RYKER: You're talking to him, Mr.
Brokaw.
I'm Special agent Matthew Ryker.
BROKAW: Oh, Agent Ryker, my assistant called authorities days ago.
And apparently testing is log-jammed and I'm for the life of me, trying to figure out why it is that this is not a higher priority.
RYKER: Well, it's my understanding that the CDC's been swamped with samples from Florida.
- But I - BROKAW: Now listen, I've had enough of that, okay? And no action.
I've got a sick employee upstairs and we've had enough of the runaround.
We still don't know what Erin has.
RYKER: Well, I just flew in from D.
C.
I've only been on the ground a couple of hours but we have the best minds in the field working on it.
I've pulled them out of bed to do it.
And Dr.
Layton will make sure the CDC's on it.
You should have results by tomorrow.
BROKAW: Hmm.
Well, I'm trusting you agent because my next call is to Ashcroft.
Excuse me.
MOORE: You think he's just worried about his assistant? RYKER: No, he's right.
But this thing will start going sideways fast if we start taking special consideration to big titles.
MOORE: Copy that.
Elevators are just around the corner.
RYKER: Until we find a source, we need to shut down the entire building.
SERGEANT: Whoa, whoa, whoa, I thought you just said we were just here as a specialist? RYKER: As a specialist, I'm telling you - we need to shut the building down.
- SERGEANT: On who's authority? RYKER: Just tell everyone this investigation now falls under Operation Noble Eagle.
MOORE: Hey, uh, should we call Copak first? I mean, if we're gonna be pulling the Presidential card? RYKER: If not now, then when? Listen Sergeant, somewhere in this building is a lethal agent and we cannot let anyone else be exposed.
- Which way? - MOORE: Uh, it's up here to the right.
RYKER: Thousands of employees, acres of office space.
Any idea how much mail must come through a building like this? Single letter is like finding a needle in a MOORE: I'd prefer a haystack.
MAN: I take it you're the agent asking for me? What can I do for you? RYKER: What's your hate mail protocol? MAN: I wouldn't call it much of a protocol.
Any threatening letters get funneled down through here.
So you fellas collect it for testing.
It's a little backed up right now because of Ground Zero.
RYKER: Chris, clear out this whole area and let's get a Hazmat team in here.
We're gonna go through every single piece of mail.
That letter's got to be in here somewhere.
[INDISTINCTIVE CHATTER.]
Check everything carefully.
The letter Erin opened has to be here and if you find anything with powder, stop immediately.
We need to preserve all the source as we can.
MAN: This one has a flagged corner.
WOMAN: That's on the right.
- MAN: Right.
- [INDISTINCTIVE CHATTER.]
WOMAN: Copy that.
MAN: We're almost halfway through the mail here, sir, still nothing.
[ELEVATOR BELL RINGS.]
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
RYKER: What the hell? Hey, hey.
This building is contaminated.
Why are people flooding in here like it's any other Friday? SERGEANT: Agent Ryker, it wasn't my call.
- RYKER: Then whose was it? - GIULIANI: Not that it's your business.
SERGEANT: Mayor Giuliani.
GIULIANI: The call was mine.
No one is shutting down 30 Rock.
- RYKER: Mr.
Mayor, you're not hearing me.
- GIULIANI: Really? Because it seems you're not hearing me.
You're not the acting superior in this jurisdiction.
RYKER: Erin O'Connor is infected.
Not only are all of her colleagues at risk but so is every person who steps into the building.
We need to evacuate, we need to get a Hazmat team in there so we can scan every inch of the place.
GIULIANI: Do you have a positive test, - a confirmation on the victim? - RYKER: No, not yet.
GIULIANI: Any other sick workers? Any proof? I'm talking absolute that anthrax is in this building.
- RYKER: That's why we're searching.
- GIULIANI: Just because one person who might have it, might've been exposed weeks ago, uh, is already being treated and nobody else is showing symptoms, yet you're trying to shut down one of the, - the busiest buildings in my city.
- RYKER: Sir, with all due respect.
GIULIANI: You're here looking through a microscope but, uh, I've got to see the big picture.
RYKER: Okay.
Well here's an image, anthrax spores do not die off.
They settle, they lie in wait.
What we are talking about is a ticking time bomb.
Mayor Giuliani, please.
GIULIANI: Plenty of twisted pricks get their rocks off by scaring people.
If they shut down every building that had a hoax, wouldn't be a building open come Christmas.
[SIGHS.]
Do you have any idea what the good people of this city - have been through these last weeks? - RYKER: I understand.
GIULIANI: Hell, the city gets threats every day.
RYKER: I need at least the third floor.
NBC and it's adjacent offices.
Look, I can use the freight entrance.
Mr.
Mayor, you haven't seen what this bacteria does to a body.
[SIRENS BLARING.]
AGENT: Clear the entrance.
Let's move, guys, move.
Just make sure it's taped off.
[INDISTINCTIVE CHATTER.]
RYKER: Block that corner off.
And you guys got to rotate it out of the suit.
We've only got the third floor, but make sure you swab everything.
WOMAN: Copy that.
IVINS: Didn't they say the subject had a lesion indicating cutaneous anthrax? It's negative.
KURZ: Negative? - IVINS: I think maybe we should test it again.
- [LAUGHS.]
KURZ: We tested it twice, Bruce.
IVINS: Are you in a hurry to get out of here? KURZ: After 20-plus hours of straight lab work? Yes, Bruce, I am.
I don't know about you, but if I'm gonna do that again, I'm gonna need some sleep.
IVINS: Hey, Simon.
- Did you open my - [DOOR SLAMS.]
[PHONES RINGING.]
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
SYKES: I'll call you back.
WOMAN: There's a flight leaving at 12:25.
COPAK: Great.
Get me on it.
SYKES: Morning, sir.
Wasn't trying to be nosy, but I was looking for you earlier.
Susan said you were up in the Director's office.
[SIGHS.]
COPAK: Yeah.
SYKES: Lot of heads rolling this morning? COPAK: Just a friendly reminder that we either get out front of this story or we become the story.
SYKES: Hmm, locking horns right out of the gate? - COPAK: With the Director? - No.
We go back.
SYKES: Princeton, right? Yeah.
Before the bronze star, Purple Heart.
He took the law firm, Attorney General route and I dedicated my life to the bureau.
My mistake.
Always easier climbing new stairs than the ones you've been slogging up for years.
SYKES: Well, Van Harp's keeping me busy, but if you need extra hands on the anthrax case.
COPAK: Oh, Ryker's on it.
SYKES: I know the cells in our AOR better than anyone, sir.
COPAK: If I start pulling agents off 9/11 without confirmation this is an attack.
SYKES: Of course, sir.
But if it is, this whole thing could blow wide open.
MOORE: We went through everything in there.
RYKER: Did you find the letter? MOORE: I thought we had something but it was just a hoax.
I don't know what to tell you.
There's no anthrax letter in that room.
RYKER: That makes no sense.
That lesion on Erin O'Connor's shoulder is no hoax.
- That letter's gotta be here somewhere.
- MOORE: About that, they just brought in O'Connor's biopsy.
RYKER: And? - MOORE: Tested negative.
- RYKER: What? Actually, O'Connor's been on Cipro for days.
Once Cipro is established in the bloodstream, I'm thinking it could result in a false gram-negative.
Dr.
Zaki over at the CDC is working on an experimental strip to expedite gram-positive testing.
It'll be more conclusive.
- Give them a call.
- MOORE: Yeah.
IVINS: Things are good.
Lately with Diane and the kids, everything's clicking.
I mean, the only stressful thing is HALSTROM: And how has work been lately? IVINS: And other than that, how was the play, Mrs.
Lincoln? HALSTROM: Do you want to expand on that? IVINS: Stressful.
I mean, you know, we're at the epicenter of this anthrax business and the country under attack.
Haven't been able to see the kids much lately.
HALSTROM: It's quite common to pull away when there is stress in the workplace.
IVINS: There is nothing common about my work.
HALSTROM: What's happening there? What's adding anxiety? [SCOFFS.]
Bruce? - Where did you just go? - IVINS: Sorry.
HALSTROM: I know 9/11 really rattled you, but it's good that you've come here for more support.
IVINS: My work at USAMRIID, dealing with DOD, it's high clearance stuff.
HALSTROM: These conversations are confidential.
IVINS: Since the situation in Florida, things have been unhinged.
And now with New York, the samples keep flooding in and it's up to us to separate the hoaxes from the real deal.
We're this line of defense nobody even knows exists.
HALSTROM: Would you say you feel under-appreciated? IVINS: What? No.
What I'm saying is that it's just us in there, this select group of scientists, some of us barely know each other.
Even in a vacuum, how do you trust someone with something so paramount as the safety of our nation? HALSTROM: Bruce, do you suspect someone at work is possibly involved? MAN: This way.
They're still working on those contaminants as well.
WOMAN: Yeah, they are.
[BEEPING.]
COPAK: I assure you, this won't get blown out of proportion.
GIULIANI: Better not.
I asked for a babysitter and was promised you'd have an iron grip on the situation.
RYKER: Mayor.
Sir.
We just got results from Erin O'Connor's latest biopsy.
She's positive for anthrax.
Her first test was a false negative because she'd already been on Cipro.
GIULIANI: Didn't I already give you what you asked for? RYKER: We need to do a lot more than close off one floor.
Anthrax is here.
- COPAK: Who ran the test? - RYKER: CDC.
Brand new testing method.
GIULIANI: And by new, is that some sort of experimental thing? RYKER: And? GIULIANI: Unless you have any new proof that she got it here - at 30 Rock - RYKER: How is a positive biopsy result not enough? COPAK: Ryker.
- GIULIANI: I'll take that as a no.
- STAFFER: Mayor Giuliani, the press is ready for you.
And Assistant Director Mawn is standing by.
GIULIANI: Thank you.
COPAK: You gotta understand, the local team is doing everything by the book.
They're good.
But they need more to go on.
Conjecture is the enemy here.
You get an attack letter in an evidence bag and hold it up in front of the cameras, I can get us anything we want.
RYKER: We went through every inch of that mailroom.
Erin knows she handed the letter off.
COPAK: Then you jumped a step when you retraced it.
The truth is never about what should have happened.
GIULIANI: Thank you all for coming.
I just wanna be clear that we're, we're, we're talking with you today because we're being overly cautious.
All employees, as well as areas of the building that may have been exposed will be tested.
RYKER: We're missing something.
MOORE: We've been through every piece of hate mail twice.
RYKER: Mailroom doesn't bag them, though, do they? MOORE: Uh, no.
I think security guards collect potential threats from each floor.
RYKER: Which guard handles the mail from NBC? GIULIANI [OVER TV.]
: After a long talk with the CDC, - the chances that this is contained, uh - [KNOCKS.]
GUARD: What do you need, pal? MOORE: FBI.
RYKER: We're looking for a letter that was addressed to Tom Brokaw, came in a green plastic bag.
- Seen anything like that? - GUARD: I don't know.
It can be anywhere in here.
RYKER: Start over there.
GIULIANI: While the powder in the letter, uh, proved negative for anthrax, a skin biopsy did test positive.
And since this incident could date back as early as September 25th, there's a decent shot that, uh, anyone who might have been exposed, uh, would be by now.
That is our hope.
I encourage everyone not to overreacting.
NBC's in control of the situation and cooperation with governmental agencies, that's including the CDC and the FBI.
If anyone receives any suspicious mail, the best thing to do, contact the police or FBI.
RYKER: Get out.
Leave the sandwich.
Chris, stay back.
I'm vaccinated, but you need to leave.
And get that guy on Cipro.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Excuse me, Mr.
Giuliani.
REPORTER 2 [OVER TV.]
: Mayor, clarify what the CDC told you today? Exactly how safe is 30 Rock right now? GIULIANI [OVER TV.]
: The CDC and the FBI have informed us that the chances that this is contained are very good.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
REPORTER: Any connection to 9/11? GIULIANI: I'll let our local Assistant Director Mawn - answer that.
Barry? - MAWN: Thank you, Mayor.
MAWN [OVER TV.]
: Uh, at this moment, we see absolutely zero link to 9/11.
LAYTON: So it is terrorists.
RYKER: Our forensics might find more, but I'm not seeing any identifiers, Dr.
Layton.
And there's no obvious fingerprints, there's no hair.
The envelope has been taped, not licked, so we're not gonna pull any DNA evidence.
The letter itself is photocopied, so we're not gonna get any ink samples.
MOORE: They did leave us something to go off of, postmark.
RYKER: Maybe it could be traced back to the point of origin.
MOORE: Right.
And track it down to where it was first dropped off.
RYKER: Yeah.
Follow up with the postal service.
MOORE: Okay.
Got it.
LAYTON: If this is a match for Florida, we've got a full-blown bioweapons attack on our hands.
Question is, who else is a target? RYKER: Well letters were sent to AMI and NBC.
I'm starting to think this is an attack on the media.
HUDEN: First showed up over a week ago.
My doctor prescribed antibiotics.
He said it was a spider bite.
But it's not, is it? RYKER: What's important is that it looks to be resolving.
We'll need to run some tests, though.
HUDEN: Whatever you need to do to take down the cowards who are doing this.
RYKER: Do you remember opening any suspicious mail? Something that might look similar to this letter here.
[SCOFFS.]
HUDEN: I remember an envelope just like this.
I didn't open it, though.
RYKER: What do you mean? HUDEN: The letter, I, I never opened it.
RYKER: We got a case at the Post.
A woman with a cutaneous wound on her finger.
And I just got word that Dan Rather's assistant over at CBS tested positive.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: She noticed the lesion a couple of days ago.
MOORE: Did you find any letters at CBS? RYKER: No, but we did find spores, some of them at Rather's desk.
Look, uh, I'm at ABC News right now.
Um, I got a lot of newsrooms to sweep.
RYKERS [OVER PHONE.]
: What about you? What's your status? MOORE: I'm heading into the mail facility in Trenton now.
I'll let you know if the postmark gets us anywhere.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: Good.
Thanks.
COPAK: All right, uh Rest assured, the tests we will be performing are just a precaution.
Uh, several employees at other news outlets have tested positive for anthrax, so we wanna make sure that everyone here at ABC News is safe.
Special Agent Ryker.
RYKER: As Assistant Director Copak may have mentioned, we will need to know the names of anyone who came to visit you here at work over the past two weeks.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
Everyone, please, please, let's, let's stay calm.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
[PHONE LINE RINGING.]
- WOMAN [OVER PHONE.]
: Hey, honey.
- MAN: Is he any worse? WOMAN: Getting pretty fussy.
He's, he's little owie is looking kind of ugly.
[BABY FUSSING.]
RYKER: Is everything okay? MOORE: Excuse me, ma'am.
Hi, my name is Agent Moore.
I'm with the FBI.
Uh, I'm just looking for your floor manager.
ANGELA: Uh, Quinton? What'd he get himself into? MOORE: Uh, no, he's not in any trouble.
I just got a couple of questions for him.
ANGELA: Quinton! Feds are looking for ya! He's right in there.
MOORE: Thanks.
- QUINTON: You see these hash marks down here? - MOORE: Right.
QUINTON: That big metal beast out there doing all the clanking stamps the code, then sends it on down the line to the others to be sorted accordingly.
MOORE: Okay.
Meaning the code then serves as a, sort of, road map for the letter's journey? QUINTON: Uh, this one, after leaving here was dispatched to our route that covers 30 Rock.
MOORE: Okay.
And where might the letter been dropped off before it made its way to this facility? QUINTON: Could have been any box in our region.
One of our blue boxes, if I had to guess.
MOORE: Blue boxes? Okay.
How many of those blue boxes are we talking? QUINTON: Over 600.
[SIGHS.]
IVINS: Thought you went home already? [CHUCKLES.]
KURZ: Got called back in.
You? IVINS: Yeah.
Same.
KURZ: You know, I'm practically drowning in samples that need testing, and now word is, we're about to get new spores from the New York letter.
How much you wanna bet if it turns out to be Ames just like the Florida strain.
IVINS: You sound pretty confident.
KURZ: Well, you wanna know what worries me? If it is Ames, only advanced labs have it.
IVINS: Then how'd Al-Qaeda get ahold of it? KURZ: Exactly.
This thing, this thing could get messy.
You heading out? IVINS: Yeah.
I just have some things to finish up first.
KURZ: Well, - suit yourself.
Goodnight, Bruce.
- IVINS: Good night.
DOCTOR: We tried administrating oral antibiotics but little Joey keeps spitting them up.
We're running out of options.
RYKER: How long has the infection been active? DOCTOR: I can't tell you any more than the father did.
He said his wife and the baby came by the office a few days ago.
We don't have many options to stave off the spread of the infection in an infant.
RYKER: Anthrax isn't something you stave off.
If it's already systemic, which this is, this boy needs to be on Cipro.
- DOCTOR: I told you, he can't keep them down.
- RYKER: No, no, not oral, intravenously.
It's his only shot.
DOCTOR: Agent, this is my ICU, my call.
Do not mistake this update as anything more - than a professional courtesy.
- RYKER: Before today, I was one of only a handful of people in this country to have ever seen a case of anthrax in a human.
DOCTOR: And babies? Ever seen an anthrax case in an infant before? You wanna take a guess at the odds of a human weighing less than 20 pounds surviving that much Cipro intravenously? RYKER: Is it better than zero? Because those are Joey's odds if we don't kill the anthrax.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Oh, you're up late.
WILLIS: Correction, I'm up early.
You, my friend, are the one that's up late.
RYKER: Well, you know, can't sleep.
WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: What's new? So I got your text.
RYKER: So, what's got you up before the dawn? WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: The Patriot Act Bill, has everyone on Capitol Hill scrambling right now.
WILLIS: You know, half the groups I lobby for don't even know which way they want this vote to go.
Turns out that allowing the FBI to freely spy on Americans makes some folks uneasy.
RYKER: You know this isn't public, but the anthrax we found, all signs point to it leading back to Florida.
WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: Well, you're afraid that'd be the case.
RYKER: Only it's worse.
Several victims.
One's an infant.
WILLIS: Jesus, Matthew.
WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: I know word around D.
C.
is that it's terrorist that's behind these letters.
Is that what you're thinking? RYKER: Well, Al-Qaeda declared war on 9/11.
No reason to think they'd stop with the first strike.
[SIRENS BLARING.]
WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: You still there? Matthew? RYKER: Uh, yeah, I'm still here.
Uh, why don't we talk more once I get back to D.
C.
, okay? WILLIS [OVER PHONE.]
: Yeah, sure.
Call me when you land.
Nearer, my God, to Thee Nearer to Thee E'en though it be a cross That raiseth me Still all my song shall be Nearer, my God, to Thee - Nearer, my God, to Thee - HALSTROM: Bruce, do you suspect someone at work is possibly involved? IVINS: The other night I swabbed a few places around USAMRIID looking for something peculiar.
HALSTROM: Peculiar, meaning? IVINS: Connected to the anthrax attacks obviously.
HALSTROM: And? IVINS: Inconclusive.
HALSTROM: Bruce, at minimum, this is a massive burden you've taken upon yourself, and worst case a matter of National Security.
IVINS: Yes, I'm aware.
HALSTROM: Have you considered as a means of lifting this burden contacting the authorities? - Possibly the FBI? - IVINS: What if I'm wrong? What if this colleague is innocent, I could destroy his entire world.
No.
Not without something concrete.
HALSTROM: I understand your trepidation.
Will you at least consider it, please? MAN: No need to wait around on our account.
RYKER: I was just heading to the field office.
I thought I'd stop by and check in on your son.
MAN: Doctors still won't say much.
Though from what they have said, it sounds like making it through the night was a pretty major milestone.
So, thank you for that.
- RYKER: No need to thank me.
I didn't do any.
- MAN: Don't.
The pediatrician said you talked him into the intravenous treatment.
RYKER: I'm happy to help.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Excuse me.
- Dr.
Layton? - LAYTON [OVER PHONE.]
: Hey, our teams got their hands on that letter that infected the woman at the Post.
LAYTON: Here's the troubling thing, the letter is still sealed.
RYKER: No one opened it, not even ripped a corner or something? LAYTON: No.
The powder must've worked its way around the seal.
The things is we've been operating under the assumption that just a few spores couldn't infect anyone.
MILLER [OVER TV.]
: To know how to do this, make sure that they don't link up with people like Osama bin Laden uh, for not panicking in the situation.
I think most of what we're going to see will COPAK: Hey, any leads on the letter? RYKER: Not yet.
It's with the CDC now.
COPAK: Get a load of this.
News got their hands on some tidbit and it's blowing up all over the airwaves.
KING [OVER TV.]
: Should we be concerned that Iraq may be able to do that? MILLER [OVER TV.]
: I have always been concerned about Iraq.
I share the concern about Iraq's biological weapons program.
Uh, I found it very curious indeed - that Saddam Hussein - MOORE: Iraq? COPAK: No, no, this is, I've had a couple of calls from Washington already.
Fumbled my way through.
It's like talking to people about a party they think you were invited to.
MOORE: Is Al-Qaeda even in Iraq? RYKER: Iraq's bioweapons capabilities were shut down after the war.
COPAK: As far as you and I - have been told.
- PRESIDENT BUSH [OVER TV.]
: It's clear that, uh, Mr.
Bin Laden is a man who's, uh, an evil man.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: FBI investigators are frantically searching for leads in the case and the CDC has been quick to provide testing and laboratory services.
[PHONE LINE RINGING.]
You have reached the Federal Bureau of Investigation tip line.
If you are calling in regards to an open investigation, press one.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Infections in humans and especially - DIANE: Hey.
- IVINS: Hi.
DIANE: Who are you calling, Bruce? IVINS: Oh, just work stuff.
DIANE: All right.
[SIGHS.]
PRODUCER: In five, four, three BROKAW: Good evening.
Tonight we find ourselves in the unusual and unhappy position of reporting on one of our own.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Anthrax, war, terror and threats of more, the USA is in an understandable state of anxiety.
REPORTER 2 [OVER TV.]
: It is concern in the country about anthrax as a weapon.
REPORTER 3 [OVER TV.]
: How does the FBI find out who is responsible for sending out anthrax? MAN [OVER TV.]
: We don't have enough information to know whether this could be related to terrorism.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Reinforced by the President that more terror attacks could be coming.
REPORTER 2 [OVER TV.]
: In Rockefeller Center, an anthrax case in NBC.
BROKAW [OVER TV.]
: But NBC was not the only target.
Anthrax spores were also found on the desk of my colleague Dan Rather at CBS.
Other news outlets including ABC and the New York Post were targeted as well.
BROKAW: And today anthrax attack victim Robert Stevens was laid to rest in Florida.
Our thoughts are with his family.
The other two original victims from Florida are recovering.
But now with multiple attacks along the Eastern Seaboard and no suspect yet identified, our nation is gripped with fear.
We can only hope there will be no more victims.