The Hot Zone (2019) s02e03 Episode Script
Neither Rain Nor Sleet...
1
IVINS: Previously on
The Hot Zone: Anthrax.
RYKER: I just got a call from Florida, they're tracking a possible anthrax attack.
The last natural human infection on American soil was almost 30 years ago.
JENNY: You're not the only one that's supposed to see things coming.
RYKER: But what if I do this time? And no one listens? The results came back.
It's Ames.
CLEMONS: I didn't think it existed outside - our high-security research labs.
- RYKER: It doesn't.
JUDITH [OVER TV.]
: I share the concern about Iraq's biological weapons program.
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.
RYKER: Anthrax spores do not die off.
They lie in wait.
What we are talking about is a ticking time bomb.
MOORE: Where might the letter have been dropped off? - QUINTON: One of our blue boxes? - MOORE: How many of those blue boxes - are we talking? - QUINTON: Over 600.
KURZ: Bruce, we got some samples coming in from Florida.
HALSTROM: Do you suspect someone at work is possibly involved? BROKAW [OVER TV.]
: NBC was not the only target.
Other news outlets including The New York Post were targeted as well.
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.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: And from Capitol Hill, the White House continues to gather support to pass the Patriot Act, which would expand the government's surveillance powers.
Critics charged that it would take away vital protections for personal privacy.
The most contentious issues revolve around removing the FISA requirement that the surveillance target be a foreign national.
This means the government can gather what they call foreign intelligence, even if the target involved is a US citizen.
The man with the task of passing the controversial bill is Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
WOMAN: Start over there with distribution.
MAN: Hold on, you got all the [BEEPING.]
[BEEPING.]
[PHONES RINGING.]
MAILMAN: Morning.
Here you go.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: The White House is pushing - for a Senate vote later this week.
- BILLY: At least nobody calls you - Samantha behind your back.
- REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: But Daschle insisting his members have adequate time to debate the USA PATRIOT Act, an acronym for - "Uniting " - ALL: "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required To Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.
" [LAUGHING.]
WOMAN: Man, somebody got really excited - when they came up with that one.
- BILLY: Mm-hmm.
GRANT: Oh.
Shocker.
More hate mail.
WOMAN: Want me to drop it off in Leahy's office? - [LAUGHING.]
- GRANT: Ooh.
Please, let it be cute drawings instead of misspelled profanity.
- [GASPS.]
- BILLY: Oh, my God.
GRANT: Okay, what did they say in the training? No one move more than you have to.
Billy, call the Capitol Police.
Steve, the FBI? STEVE: Got it.
GRANT: Close the door.
[PHONE RINGING.]
TORETTI: Toretti.
Counterterrorism.
Okay.
I need a team at Capitol Hill right now.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING.]
TORETTI: Toretti, Profiler with Counterterrorism.
SERGEANT: Profiler? You're like a shrink or something? TORETTI: Yeah, if disco was still a thing.
Where's the letter? SERGEANT: I got a guard on it.
Forensics is on their way.
Listen, we've responded two of these hoaxes already today.
There's no reason to think this is any different.
TORETTI: Oh, there's a lot of reasons, actually.
I got a Hazmat team on their way.
You seal that contaminated room until they decon it.
Get me somebody in facilities.
It could be pumping spores through this entire building right now.
Shut this ventilation system down! Tell Hazmat I need rapid tests, swabs, and Cipro.
Are you the one that found it? - GRANT: Yeah.
- TORETTI: Okay.
GRANT: Is it really anthrax? TORETTI: We can't run it until the letter's been swabbed for evidence.
But either way, we're gonna start you on antibiotics.
So if you were exposed, hammering it with Cipro before symptoms appear should knock it out.
It's what they did in New York.
- GRANT: What about the others? - TORETTI: It's the same protocol.
You gotta hit 'em before they hit you, that's what my mom always says.
GRANT: I got the South Dakota version.
Better to be cautious than sorry.
TORETTI: That's right.
You'll be okay.
JENNY [OVER PHONE.]
: Hey, Matty, not sure if you're back yet.
Uh, don't forget Kari's birthday party on the 17th.
Hope you can make it.
But just be forewarned, Devon's been a bit of a handful lately with his dad off the grid.
Miss you.
[BEEPS.]
VOICE [OVER PHONE.]
: You've reached the end of your messages.
To repeat this message, press one.
[PHONE RINGS.]
RYKER: Ryker.
COPAK [OVER PHONE.]
: If you're thinking of unpacking your suitcase, gonna have to wait.
Hill just got hit.
Anthrax letter.
- RYKER: Where? - COPAK: Senator Daschle's office.
But there's already an agent on the ground, she caught the call when it came in.
RYKER: I'm on my way in.
I need to see that letter.
TORETTI: Uh, Special Agent Ryker, forensics is doing a sweep right now on the Daschle letter for hair, skin, any particles.
I know you didn't find anything on the New York letters, - but I thought - RYKER: Worth a shot.
Who are you? TORETTI: Special Agent Toretti.
Dani.
RYKER: What division? TORETTI: Counterterrorism.
I lead a fly team.
Washington Field Office called us in.
- RYKER: On Hazmat? - TORETTI: Mm-hmm.
- RYKER: So I'll take it from here.
- TORETTI: No, that is not how this is gonna go.
I was first boots on the ground.
I read your briefings on Florida and New York, I've seen copies of the letters.
It's the same block handwriting, slanted to the right.
- This sure as hell looks like the same guy to me.
- RYKER: Guy? - You mean Al-Qaeda? - TORETTI: No, that would not be my first thought.
I would lean more towards a lone wolf.
RYKER: Three weeks after terrorists started a war? - Not a chance.
- TORETTI: Here's the thing, it was postmarked three weeks after the New York letters.
RYKER: After Bob Stevens? TORETTI: Yeah, and after the entire country saw it on TV.
So our sender knew he had killed someone.
He wants more people to die.
And we've swabbed all the interns in the room now, I'm gonna order anthrax tests for everybody - that was in the Hart building today.
- RYKER: We need a wider sweep.
I'd quarantine all the mail in the Capitol until we can get it tested.
TORETTI: You wanna just shut down the entire United States government? RYKER: The Hill anyway, until we can get the staffers tested in the office and deconned.
In a perfect world, I'd set up a full BSL4 lab - to handle that kind of volume.
- TORETTI: Daschle had the President on the phone - and we've been offered all resources.
- RYKER: Good, I'll get someone scouting locations to start the build.
Also, we need to get the head of pathology from USAMRIID over here and take a look at that letter, send it back to the lab, and see if it comes back positive.
RYKER: Thanks.
We'll take it from here.
Uh, the type of writing is the same, but the powder is different from the Brokaw and Post letters.
Take a look.
It's whiter, less clumpy, no debris.
I need to know if it's the same strain.
TORETTI: You'll notice something different about this letter.
- RYKER: A return address.
- TORETTI: Our guy is smart.
He knows that the anthrax letters have been in the news, people are nervous.
You see a letter with strange handwriting, you're gonna chuck it.
- But from a bunch of kids.
- RYKER: Yeah.
We have to track down the address and get this to USAMRIID for testing.
MOORE: Both the Brokaw and The Post letters are postmarked here, so our agents are gonna swab all 600 plus mailboxes that feed into this facility, full hazmat gear.
This is gonna be tedious, okay, but if we can identify this specific box, it's gonna help lead us to the terrorists.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Excuse me.
Hey, it's Chris Moore.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: Hey, put another agent on the boxes, I need you on something else.
RYKER: The Daschle letter has a return address.
It's an elementary school in Franklin Park.
MOORE [OVER PHONE.]
: Franklin Park? That's, that can't be more than 20 miles from here.
WOMAN: That fed guy is up in Quinton's office again.
Wonder what he got himself into.
KURZ: Testing the sample is gonna take me a few hours in the lab.
SOLDIER: You got it.
I'll let him know we're heading over now.
[INDISTINCTIVE CHATTER.]
SOLDIER: I can give him an ETA.
IVINS: Is that from the Daschle letter? KURZ: Bruce.
I didn't you were here.
IVINS: Mind if I take a look? KURZ: Sure.
IVINS: I've never seen anthrax so aerosolized.
It's far more lethal in this form.
Jody, what if the anthrax killer is one of us? JODY: I think you're letting all this get to you.
IVINS: Think about it, Jod.
The terrorists would still need some patsy here on the ground to help them carry it out.
Someone who has access to anthrax and knows how to handle it.
JODY: I know there's been a flood of new faces around here with all with all the added help for testing but they were brought in after the letters were found.
- Be careful pointing fingers.
- IVINS: Maybe it's not someone new.
For shirts and giggles, let's just say this person was part of the old guard around here.
Someone we've been working with on a daily basis.
JODY: Bruce, there's enough division around here as it is, science versus military, old gen, new gen and without creating more, I just.
.
I'm not sure I'm the one you should be talking to.
IVINS: I tell you everything.
I would never keep something like this from you.
JODY: If you really have concerns, Bruce, you should tell the Colonel.
IVINS: I just think we have a duty here, you know.
I mean, what if a person could weasel their way into a position where they could impede the FBI's investigation, maybe even destroy evidence? It'd be up to us to stop them, wouldn't it? [PHONE RINGING.]
- WILLIS: Hey, Matt, I have to call you back.
- RYKER: Where are you? WILLIS: Not where I'm supposed to be.
Small Biz Committee started three minutes ago.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: On the Hill? - WILLIS: Yeah, why? - RYKER: I want you to get out of the building.
WILLIS: What's going on? RYKER: The Hill's been attacked, it's anthrax.
- In a few minutes, every building's - WILLIS: Oh, my God.
gonna be evacuated.
Listen, head to Constitution and Second.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: There's three buses arriving to take people to Bethesda to get tested.
RYKER: Get on the first bus, okay? I'll call you later.
WILLIS: Matthew? REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: As the evacuation on Capitol Hill continues, FBI teams scour for evidence.
Growing sources insist there is a direct link between the New York and D.
C.
mailings to terrorists, and possibly Iraq.
So far, the FBI has declined to comment.
MAN: Move it along, please.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
WOMAN: Okay, do you have a fever? [PHONE RINGING.]
WOMAN: Take the next person out here.
WILLIS: Hi.
Sheila Willis.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: The FBI is quarantining all mail on Capitol Hill.
And reportedly, the Bureau is building a lab as no labs on the East Coast can handle the volume.
RYKER: Vacuum seals capable of sustaining directional airflow, uh, self-closing doors, - decontamination stations.
- COPAK: You're building an entire BSL4 lab in an unsecure, unsterile space? RYKER: Uh, it'll be both once we're done.
Daschle got a green light directly from the White House.
COPAK: With this splashed all over the news, whole damn seaboard is terrified to touch their mail.
RYKER: Once we prove the rest of the mail on the Hill is clean, it'll put people's minds at ease about their own.
COPAK: Fine, the administration is shelling out millions, you better deliver more than just another envelope filled with white powder.
Hand them the connection to terrorists.
RYKER: Look, I'll find the terrorists, but I've been hearing all the rumblings in the press, and I don't know that this came from Iraq.
COPAK: You and I aren't cleared for all classified intel.
Who knows where those bastards are hiding out? Just find them.
[PHONE RINGS.]
RYKER: Chris, tell me you got something at the school.
MOORE: So, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this return address is bogus.
There actually aren't any schools called Greendale in Franklin Park.
The closest match we could find was a Greenbrook Elementary, it's in Kendall Park.
But we've been here since the doors opened, there's nobody on any FBI Watchlist associated with the school.
MOORE: CIA's got nothing.
RYKER: Students, faculty, no one from Iraq? MOORE: Uh, five students, three staff from the Middle East.
But I mean, these people have all been vetted since 9/11.
And there's none that are of Iraqi descent.
There's nothing here, Matt.
MOORE [OVER PHONE.]
: Sorry.
Look, I don't wanna overstep here, but MOORE: Didn't you say Iraq never had the Ames strain? RYKER: Yeah, we'll know more once we find out where those letters were mailed.
In the meantime, get everyone up there swabbing mailboxes, okay? MOORE: Okay.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Many US citizens have stopped opening their mail, even tossing it on the curb.
We now join a live conference at the Brentwood Mail Facility in D.
C.
MANAGER [OVER TV.]
: Thank you for joining us here today at the postal services in Washington, D.
C.
processing and distribution center.
As you know, one letter from among the more than 3.
5 million pieces of mail handled here each day contained anthrax.
- And there is no - CURSEEN: I don't know why they made you stay after your shift and sweep up round the sorters.
You can't even see them on the TV.
MANAGER [OVER TV.]
: This afternoon, I am announcing the offer of a reward of up to $1 million for the information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the mailing of the anthrax.
- MILLER: You leavin'? - CURSEEN: There's enough smoke being blown up certain places around here.
And I'm feeling a little run-down anyway.
Later.
RYKER: How many others on the Hill have been infected? [SIGHS.]
TORETTI: We got 28 new cases, hundreds more to test.
RYKER: And I've got three more right here.
TORETTI: Okay, let's pin 'em.
The green indicates where infected people worked, the red is where our hazmat teams found spores, here, high concentration in Feingold's offices, in the central atrium, and the courtyard in front of Daschle's suite.
What about your three? RYKER: I got Alicia Herrera, - works in Feingold's basement office.
- TORETTI: Okay.
RYKER: Mike Wakefield, uh, Capitol Police, first responders.
He was one of the first into the Hart Building after the attack.
TORETTI: That'd be atrium.
RYKER: And Peter Browning, a contractor in the State Department Building.
TORETTI: Ryker? RYKER: We shut the Hill down too late.
Somebody opened another letter.
Mr.
Browning, I just need to confirm, you were nowhere near the Hart Building this morning, correct? BROWNING: I stay in the annex.
Keep my distance from the senators and staffers, the egos.
TORETTI: How long have you had symptoms? BROWNING: I've felt like crap for two days.
RYKER: Well, you could have been exposed days ago from an entirely different letter.
We need to know when that letter arrived and who might've been the target.
TORETTI: Mr.
Browning, think back, do you remember opening any suspicious mail over the past week? It would've likely look similar to the anthrax letters that you've seen on TV, with all caps and childish handwriting.
BROWNING: I don't really see what comes in or where it's going.
I'm a supervisor.
I don't open mail.
Ever.
- RYKER: Uh, give me a minute, okay? - TORETTI: Yeah.
RYKER: Hey.
WILLIS: Hey.
- How bad is this? - RYKER: I'm not really sure.
Are you okay? WILLIS: Yeah.
I'm still waiting to find out, - and they're getting us Cipro.
- RYKER: Mm-hmm.
- WILLIS: I'm trying not to freak out.
- RYKER: Hey, you're gonna be okay, all right? The important thing is they caught everyone on the Hill early.
WILLIS: Okay.
RYKER: Um, I really gotta go.
- I'll check in with you later? - WILLIS: Okay.
NURSE: It's a little high, but not so bad.
- Flu's going around.
- MILLER: It don't feel like the flu.
You know, Joe left after his shift.
Looked like hell.
Said he wasn't feeling good neither.
NURSE: Joe said he hit the crab cake buffet at Milton's yesterday.
Chances are it's food poisoning.
MILLER: But they had me shut down number 17.
You don't think maybe it had to do with what's happening on the Hill with the anthrax mail? NURSE: They held a whole press conference here.
All the big wigs were down on the floor.
They wouldn't do that if it weren't safe.
Look, just take a few aspirin and finish up.
You don't wanna use a whole sick day just 'cause you're feeling warm.
[BEEPING.]
Go tell it on the mountains Over the hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born PRIEST: It is a blessing to see so many faces here tonight.
I only wish it was for different reasons, but the atrocities of 9/11 have left us searching for answers and comfort in the house of our Lord.
Go tell it on the mountain Over the hills and everywhere WOMAN: Honey? Go tell it on the mountain - That Jesus Christ is born - WOMAN: Joe, you okay? WOMAN 2: What's going on? Go tell it on the mountain - Over the hills and everywhere - [YELLING.]
- [KNOCKING.]
- COLONEL: Come in.
IVINS: Colonel Charles, evening.
Sorry to barge in on you this late.
COLONEL: Not a problem, Dr.
Ivins, especially if you keep it quick.
- Wife's making pot roast tonight.
- IVINS: Oh.
[LAUGHS.]
It's about the anthrax investigation, sir.
I'd like to have a word with you about Simon Kurz.
COLONEL: You have an issue with how Kurz's running things? IVINS: I do, sir.
As you know I've spent my whole career working on anthrax, I pretty much wrote the book on it, uh, at least a cornucopia of articles.
And Simon has not consulted with me about the Daschle letter.
COLONEL: Not that strange, Bruce.
Situations like this always fall - to the head of the department.
- IVINS: With all due respect to Dr.
Kurz, sir, I'm the one here who's worked on not one, but two anthrax vaccines and I just I think something's amiss.
COLONEL: You think Kurz is purposely keeping you out? IVINS: I don't want to speculate, sir.
I just want to help.
If I could have a couple of hours with the Daschle letter, there's some tests that Simon hasn't run yet.
RYKER: They're the same stock as the attack envelopes? TORETTI: Yes, how can a person who didn't even open the letter get infected? I thought it took, like, 8,000 spores? RYKER: Do you know how they got those estimates? Tests on monkeys.
For humans, they don't know exactly.
Now, this cocoa powder is just about the same particle size as the anthrax.
So last week in New York, a woman from The Post, said she was infected, who swears she never opened an envelope.
- TORETTI: Like Browning? - RYKER: Exactly.
So I thought she just couldn't remember opening it.
Then we found it, and it was sealed.
TORETTI: But how can even a few spores escape an envelope - that's been taped shut? - RYKER: I don't think they did.
This morning, we got a call from Dr.
Kurz over at USAMRIID.
He said that the second batch of spores were the most refined he's ever seen.
[THUDS.]
Powder's not leaking from the edges of the tape.
TORETTI: It's coming right through the fibers of the envelope.
RYKER: Which means that anyone even in the vicinity of the anthrax letters is at risk.
TORETTI: There could be a whole string of victims we don't know anything about, all the way back to Jersey where the letters were mailed.
RYKER: So we need to know each stop that they made along the way.
- RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: Shut it down! - QUINTON: What, all of it? There must be a dozen DBCS machines down there.
RYKER: Yes, you need to evacuate every employee - and get them all on Cipro.
- QUINTON: We'd have mountains of mail.
It's a federal offense.
RYKER: I've contacted the CDC and you should be hearing from the Governor any minute.
- This needs to happen right now! - QUINTON: The Governor? RYKER: Your machines could be spewing poison throughout the entire building.
We already know of three letters full of anthrax have passed through your equipment, there could be more.
RYKER: The anthrax is coming through the envelopes.
MOORE: One of your employees was already admitted into St.
Francis.
They found a lesion on her arm.
- QUINTON: Who? - MOORE: Angela Lowman.
We're checking in with another employee who might also be infected.
QUINTON: I'm gonna have the floor evacuated immediately.
RYKER: Inspector, sorry to keep you waiting.
Here's a copy of what I faxed to your office.
- PARRISH: Happy to help.
- RYKER: Thank you.
We shut down the Hamilton facility in New Jersey.
But what we need to know is everywhere the letter went between there and Senator Daschle's office.
TORETTI: We need to test everyone along the way, so we just wanna know how precise we can get.
PARRISH: Well, you see those series of hash marks? It's actually an encoded time stamp.
It traces a letter's path, - marks every facility it went through.
- [COMPUTER BINGS.]
- TORETTI: Huh.
- PARRISH: Oh, there we go.
Okay, on October 9th, the envelope went through the Automatic Flats Canceling and Sorting machine at Hamilton at 4:57 pm.
At 5:15, it was encoded by a DBCS machine according to its zip plus four, and sorted into a mail bin that was loaded onto Truck number 468.
The truck left Hamilton at 7:18 am the next morning, and drove to Newark Airport, where it was loaded on a USPS airliner.
TORETTI: We need to track down that driver, the pilot, and the co-pilot, and those baggage handlers.
PARRISH: Plane landed in D.
C.
on the night of the October 10th, and from there, the letter went to its final USPS stop Brentwood.
Brentwood's one of the largest mail facilities on the East Coast.
It employs almost 2,000 workers.
RYKER: Can you trace the exact machines that letter went through? PARRISH: Just one.
DBCS machine number 17.
RYKER: We need to get all those workers out of there.
[BEEPING.]
What the TORETTI: They didn't evacuate? How can they just let these employees come to work in a contaminated space? [LAUGHING.]
RYKER: I'm looking for Jerry Reid.
- REID: You found him.
- RYKER: Special Agent Ryker, FBI.
This place should have been evacuated hours ago.
REID: We got your recommendation.
We shut down DBCS 17 and I passed it on up the chain, they said that was enough.
RYKER: Letters filled with anthrax came through here days ago.
We've had two positive cases in a postal facility in New Jersey.
They shut down.
- Why haven't you? - REID: Hamilton is a fraction of our size.
We service the entire U.
S.
Government, - every embassy and - RYKER: You need to shut this place down.
[SCOFFS.]
FBI doesn't have carte blanche jurisdiction.
Look, there's a whole chain of heavy hitters above the two of us.
RYKER: What part of this do you guys not understand? - People are dying! - REID: Not postal workers.
They're all fine.
You don't understand what we do, what we are.
Social Security checks, mortgages.
You don't let somebody's house get foreclosed on, 'cause they missed a payment? And what about the insulin that's sitting in one of our carts on its way to some diabetic? People's lives rely on the postal service.
We don't "shut down.
" Ever.
What you're looking at on that floor is an essential service.
They're essential.
RYKER: Don't you mean expendable? I may not have the authority to evacuate your employees, but let's see how many of them stick around when they start seeing a hazmat team sweeping through.
MAN: Rough pass first.
Get suited up.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
WOMAN: What are they all doing here? [OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
WOMAN: Excuse me? Uh, can you tell us what is going on here? Is the floor contaminated or something? TORETTI: We don't know yet, but I'm gonna be honest with you.
There are probably a few workers here in this facility that have been exposed to anthrax spores.
Now, I'm trying to track down anyone who's been sick, so we can get them help.
Are you feeling ill in any way? WOMAN: Not, not me.
TORETTI: Somebody else then? Their best chance is for us to get to them as soon as possible.
WOMAN: A friend of mine, Louis Miller, he, he's never left mid-shift his whole life until today.
- I'll give you his number.
- TORETTI: Please, yes.
RYKER: He wasn't home and he isn't picking up his cell.
TORETTI [OVER PHONE.]
: He wasn't at his HMO's urgent care either.
I'm heading over to Central Hospital.
RYKER: All right.
I'll tell you what I find out here.
I'm looking for a patient, African-American male in his 40s.
Place of employment is the Brentwood Mail Facility.
- I have his name and address right here.
- NURSE: Is it Thomas Morris? Qieth McQue? I've also got a Joseph Curseen.
- RYKER: These men all work at Brentwood? - NURSE: Yeah.
RYKER: And they're all current patients? NURSE: Two of them are in the ICU, but Joe is in Room 311.
RYKER: Thank you.
TORETTI: Hi.
I'm looking for a patient, he's a middle-aged man, African-American named Louis Miller.
NURSE: He hasn't seen a doctor yet.
He's in the waiting area.
TORETTI: Okay, I need someone now.
Louis Miller? MILLER: Over here.
TORETTI: Mr.
Miller? From the Brentwood Mail Facility? MILLER: Yeah, what's, what's going on? TORETTI: Are you experiencing flu-like symptoms? MILLER: Oh, something's not right.
I'm sorry, who are you? TORETTI: Dani Toretti, FBI, we believe you may have been exposed to anthrax at Brentwood, we just need to make sure.
Okay.
Chest X-ray and a spinal tap.
It'll show that Mr.
Miller has anthrax.
But first start him on Cipro, right now.
NURSE: I'll get a doctor.
TORETTI: Once we have you on antibiotics, - you should be okay.
- MILLER: There are others, you know, who've been sick all of a sudden.
TORETTI: Yeah.
Yeah.
We know.
Just give me one minute, okay? Ryker, I found him.
We caught it just in time.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: No, we didn't.
RYKER: I just found Joe Curseen.
He works with Louis.
He passed out in church yesterday.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: By the time he got to the hospital, it was already too late.
RYKER: He's dead.
[CRYING.]
TORETTI: All right, thanks.
MORRIS [OVER TAPE.]
: My breathing is labored and my chest feels constricted.
Uh, I am getting air, but just to get up and walk and what have you.
I feel like I might just pass out.
911 OPERATOR [OVER TAPE.]
: And you said you work at the post office? - Which one? - MORRIS [OVER TAPE.]
: The post office downtown, Brentwood Road.
They never let us know if that thing had anthrax or not.
The doctor thought it was just a virus or something, so I was taking aspirin for the achiness.
But now there's the shortness of breath.
[LABORED BREATHING.]
RYKER: The person who called 911 was one of your employees.
REID: Is he okay? RYKER: Thomas Morris, he's dead.
So is Joe Curseen.
[SIGHS.]
REID: I don't know what to say.
RYKER: Well, maybe there's a reason the workers here call this place "The Plantation.
" REID: Look, I shut the machines down and started closing the place up after you left here.
My heart goes out to them, their families.
RYKER: Your team knew there could be anthrax here multiple shifts ago.
REID: We were assured it wasn't a problem.
I was following orders, trusting the people who are supposed to know more about this.
RYKER: "Supposed to" doesn't mean anything to the people who have lost someone.
IVINS: Uh, it's pretty straightforward.
We examined the powder from the Daschle letter under an electron microscope which can magnify up to 2,000 times and identified the augmentation and presence on a molecular level.
COLONEL: Layman's terms.
I'll have to spell it out for them.
IVINS: We found that something had been added to the spores.
COLONEL: And based on your expertise in anthrax, how certain are you about what that substance is? IVINS: Bentonite? 100%.
Will they know what that means? COLONEL: They might not understand microbiology, but they've read enough intelligence briefings.
There's only one country we know of that's added bentonite to anthrax.
IVINS: Iraq.
[KNOCKING.]
TORETTI: You're not answering your phone.
RYKER: I hadn't slept since New York.
TORETTI: I haven't eaten.
Do you mind? RYKER: No, make yourself right at home.
Not exactly a meal.
[SIGHS.]
TORETTI: This is cozy.
RYKER: Well, I spend a lot of time on the road.
Sorry, I'm a little late.
It's just, I have a, a dinner date tonight and then I have a family birthday thing that totally slipped my mind, kind of a two birds with one stone situation.
TORETTI: Who's the lucky girl? Is she the stone or one of the birds? RYKER: What are you doing here again? TORETTI: They found a hot drum full of mail, led them to another anthrax letter.
It's the one we think infected Browning.
RYKER: Who was the target? TORETTI: Senator Leahy.
RYKER: Leahy.
Judiciary Committee.
Why wasn't it in the mail from his office? TORETTI: The postal machine misread the handwritten zip code, so it ended up unopened, way down at the State Department building.
Which is a very good thing, because it had triple the amount of powder than the Daschle letter.
RYKER: That's enough spores to kill thousands of people.
No other hot spots? TORETTI: No, not that they found so far.
RYKER: So then why target Daschle and Leahy and then no one else? TORETTI: Two Democratic Senators both needed to push the Patriot Act through.
RYKER: Since when does Al-Qaeda care about our internal politics? Is that what you're implying? TORETTI: I'm not implying.
It's just a fact.
This is the perfect storm for a copycat after thousands of hoax letters over the past few months.
Clumsily we're just throwing the blame on Al-Qaeda.
KARI: Uncle Matty! RYKER: Oh, hello, you.
Happy birthday, girl! How are you? - KARI: Good.
- RYKER: Yeah? All right.
- Hey, I like you to meet my friend, Sheila.
- KARI: Hi.
WILLIS: Hi, happy birthday.
RYKER: Look what I have.
Look what I have here - for a special someone.
- KARI: Is it for me? RYKER: It is for you, would you like it now? - KARI: Yes.
- RYKER: All right.
Go ahead.
Take it.
KARI: Thank you.
WILLIS: Wow.
Valedictorian and debate captain, huh? RYKER: Yeah, welcome to our time capsule.
[LAUGHS.]
WILLIS: Oh, wow.
How long did your dad serve? RYKER: Uh, about six years.
He actually wanted to stay longer, but he got sick.
- WILLIS: Oh.
- RYKER: Chemical exposure, had to come home.
WILLIS: I'm sorry.
He looks really happy in this picture.
RYKER: Ah, he was smiling for the photo.
- WOMAN: It's my Mattie! - RYKER: Hi, Mom.
WOMAN: Hello, sweetheart.
- JENNY: Come on here, loser.
- RYKER: Hey, you.
[LAUGHS.]
RYKER: Uh, Jenny, Mom, I would love you to meet Sheila Willis.
- WOMAN: Hi, Sheila.
- WILLIS: Hi, nice to meet you.
WOMAN: So nice to meet you.
WILLIS: Thank you for inviting me.
RYKER: We just, uh, we're dropping by on our way to dinner.
JENNY: Oh, come on now, we have plenty of food.
RYKER: Uh, actually, we have a reservation.
WOMAN: That's totally enough time to get to know her.
WILLIS: Oh.
WOMAN: You'll have to come over for dinner.
WILLIS: Oh, um, I'd like that.
Thank you.
JENNY: So how long have you two - been seeing each other? - RYKER: Hey, I have an idea.
How about we save the third degree until after cake? - [LAUGHS.]
- JENNY: Come on back.
We're about to play pin-the-tail-on-the Shrek.
- WILLIS: Okay.
- JENNY: Which means copious amounts of wine.
- WILLIS: Oh.
- JENNY: I like copious.
- RYKER: Hey.
- DEVON: Hey.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: There are rumors circulating D.
C.
about a possible war in RYKER: Sorry I missed your game.
DEVON: Didn't miss much.
We got our asses handed to us.
Dad thinks we need a new coach.
RYKER: You heard from him this week? DEVON: Called from the base.
Said there's talk.
Maybe they're going to get deployed to Iraq.
If we go after Saddam, will we even get Al-Qaeda? All the terrorists who did all this? RYKER: Your dad's gonna be okay.
DEVON: Is that what they train you to tell us? [SCOFFS.]
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Two more victims have died of anthrax exposure.
Ottilie Lundgren and Kathy Nguyen.
Their cases are particularly troubling as they have no connection to the media, politics, or the U.
S.
Postal Service, which have so far been the targets.
RYKER: So you heard about Lundgren and Nguyen? TORETTI: You're thinking cross contamination? RYKER: I just found out that Lundgren had a letter that went through the DBCS machine at Brentwood 15 seconds after Leahy's.
TORETTI: Well, your hunch was right.
And that powder was so fine, it just blasted itself all through those machines, so it makes sense.
RYKER: So tell me more about your lone wolf theory.
TORETTI: Finally coming to your senses? RYKER: My senses aren't in question.
- I'm just curious.
- TORETTI: Okay.
I've been working with our handwriting analyst.
We believe that the sender tried to disguise his writing with this block lettering.
Now, this is a penmanship style that was taught to American schoolchildren from the 1940s through the 1960s.
RYKER: American, born and raised.
TORETTI: Next up is this "take penicillin" bit.
Somebody knows enough to reference a specific antibiotic, but they don't know how to spell it? And why would Al-Qaeda warn their victims anyways? RYKER: So "Allah is Great" was a misdirect, to put the focus on foreigners? TORETTI: Probably.
Yeah.
All signs point to our perp being a highly educated American citizen with scientific expertise.
Most likely works in isolation, suffers from mental illness.
RYKER: Someone spurred by 9/11, which is why the first letters bore that date, despite being mailed later.
TORETTI: I drew up this profile to send to the American Society of Microbiology.
I suspect one of their members knows or is the anthrax mailer.
RYKER: It's risky, tipping off a suspect.
TORETTI: Or it's a very smart way to smoke him out.
- RYKER: How many members are there? - TORETTI: 30,000.
And if we get any hits, we send field agents out to do interviews.
RYKER: The Bureau's interest is squarely on terrorists, I doubt TORETTI: I sent it through my own channels already.
[DISTANT SIRENS.]
IVINS: Evening, Colonel.
COLONEL: Got a call from the Hill to commend you.
IVINS: Oh, I was just doing my job, sir.
COLONEL: Your name's come up for commendations.
I wouldn't be surprised to see you decorated one of these days.
You did a real service for your country, Dr.
Ivins.
IVINS: Oh.
Well, that means a lot to me, sir.
Thank you.
It's an honor, sir.
RYKER: I just got a call from Florida, they're tracking a possible anthrax attack.
The last natural human infection on American soil was almost 30 years ago.
JENNY: You're not the only one that's supposed to see things coming.
RYKER: But what if I do this time? And no one listens? The results came back.
It's Ames.
CLEMONS: I didn't think it existed outside - our high-security research labs.
- RYKER: It doesn't.
JUDITH [OVER TV.]
: I share the concern about Iraq's biological weapons program.
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.
RYKER: Anthrax spores do not die off.
They lie in wait.
What we are talking about is a ticking time bomb.
MOORE: Where might the letter have been dropped off? - QUINTON: One of our blue boxes? - MOORE: How many of those blue boxes - are we talking? - QUINTON: Over 600.
KURZ: Bruce, we got some samples coming in from Florida.
HALSTROM: Do you suspect someone at work is possibly involved? BROKAW [OVER TV.]
: NBC was not the only target.
Other news outlets including The New York Post were targeted as well.
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.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: And from Capitol Hill, the White House continues to gather support to pass the Patriot Act, which would expand the government's surveillance powers.
Critics charged that it would take away vital protections for personal privacy.
The most contentious issues revolve around removing the FISA requirement that the surveillance target be a foreign national.
This means the government can gather what they call foreign intelligence, even if the target involved is a US citizen.
The man with the task of passing the controversial bill is Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
WOMAN: Start over there with distribution.
MAN: Hold on, you got all the [BEEPING.]
[BEEPING.]
[PHONES RINGING.]
MAILMAN: Morning.
Here you go.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: The White House is pushing - for a Senate vote later this week.
- BILLY: At least nobody calls you - Samantha behind your back.
- REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: But Daschle insisting his members have adequate time to debate the USA PATRIOT Act, an acronym for - "Uniting " - ALL: "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required To Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism.
" [LAUGHING.]
WOMAN: Man, somebody got really excited - when they came up with that one.
- BILLY: Mm-hmm.
GRANT: Oh.
Shocker.
More hate mail.
WOMAN: Want me to drop it off in Leahy's office? - [LAUGHING.]
- GRANT: Ooh.
Please, let it be cute drawings instead of misspelled profanity.
- [GASPS.]
- BILLY: Oh, my God.
GRANT: Okay, what did they say in the training? No one move more than you have to.
Billy, call the Capitol Police.
Steve, the FBI? STEVE: Got it.
GRANT: Close the door.
[PHONE RINGING.]
TORETTI: Toretti.
Counterterrorism.
Okay.
I need a team at Capitol Hill right now.
[THEME MUSIC PLAYING.]
TORETTI: Toretti, Profiler with Counterterrorism.
SERGEANT: Profiler? You're like a shrink or something? TORETTI: Yeah, if disco was still a thing.
Where's the letter? SERGEANT: I got a guard on it.
Forensics is on their way.
Listen, we've responded two of these hoaxes already today.
There's no reason to think this is any different.
TORETTI: Oh, there's a lot of reasons, actually.
I got a Hazmat team on their way.
You seal that contaminated room until they decon it.
Get me somebody in facilities.
It could be pumping spores through this entire building right now.
Shut this ventilation system down! Tell Hazmat I need rapid tests, swabs, and Cipro.
Are you the one that found it? - GRANT: Yeah.
- TORETTI: Okay.
GRANT: Is it really anthrax? TORETTI: We can't run it until the letter's been swabbed for evidence.
But either way, we're gonna start you on antibiotics.
So if you were exposed, hammering it with Cipro before symptoms appear should knock it out.
It's what they did in New York.
- GRANT: What about the others? - TORETTI: It's the same protocol.
You gotta hit 'em before they hit you, that's what my mom always says.
GRANT: I got the South Dakota version.
Better to be cautious than sorry.
TORETTI: That's right.
You'll be okay.
JENNY [OVER PHONE.]
: Hey, Matty, not sure if you're back yet.
Uh, don't forget Kari's birthday party on the 17th.
Hope you can make it.
But just be forewarned, Devon's been a bit of a handful lately with his dad off the grid.
Miss you.
[BEEPS.]
VOICE [OVER PHONE.]
: You've reached the end of your messages.
To repeat this message, press one.
[PHONE RINGS.]
RYKER: Ryker.
COPAK [OVER PHONE.]
: If you're thinking of unpacking your suitcase, gonna have to wait.
Hill just got hit.
Anthrax letter.
- RYKER: Where? - COPAK: Senator Daschle's office.
But there's already an agent on the ground, she caught the call when it came in.
RYKER: I'm on my way in.
I need to see that letter.
TORETTI: Uh, Special Agent Ryker, forensics is doing a sweep right now on the Daschle letter for hair, skin, any particles.
I know you didn't find anything on the New York letters, - but I thought - RYKER: Worth a shot.
Who are you? TORETTI: Special Agent Toretti.
Dani.
RYKER: What division? TORETTI: Counterterrorism.
I lead a fly team.
Washington Field Office called us in.
- RYKER: On Hazmat? - TORETTI: Mm-hmm.
- RYKER: So I'll take it from here.
- TORETTI: No, that is not how this is gonna go.
I was first boots on the ground.
I read your briefings on Florida and New York, I've seen copies of the letters.
It's the same block handwriting, slanted to the right.
- This sure as hell looks like the same guy to me.
- RYKER: Guy? - You mean Al-Qaeda? - TORETTI: No, that would not be my first thought.
I would lean more towards a lone wolf.
RYKER: Three weeks after terrorists started a war? - Not a chance.
- TORETTI: Here's the thing, it was postmarked three weeks after the New York letters.
RYKER: After Bob Stevens? TORETTI: Yeah, and after the entire country saw it on TV.
So our sender knew he had killed someone.
He wants more people to die.
And we've swabbed all the interns in the room now, I'm gonna order anthrax tests for everybody - that was in the Hart building today.
- RYKER: We need a wider sweep.
I'd quarantine all the mail in the Capitol until we can get it tested.
TORETTI: You wanna just shut down the entire United States government? RYKER: The Hill anyway, until we can get the staffers tested in the office and deconned.
In a perfect world, I'd set up a full BSL4 lab - to handle that kind of volume.
- TORETTI: Daschle had the President on the phone - and we've been offered all resources.
- RYKER: Good, I'll get someone scouting locations to start the build.
Also, we need to get the head of pathology from USAMRIID over here and take a look at that letter, send it back to the lab, and see if it comes back positive.
RYKER: Thanks.
We'll take it from here.
Uh, the type of writing is the same, but the powder is different from the Brokaw and Post letters.
Take a look.
It's whiter, less clumpy, no debris.
I need to know if it's the same strain.
TORETTI: You'll notice something different about this letter.
- RYKER: A return address.
- TORETTI: Our guy is smart.
He knows that the anthrax letters have been in the news, people are nervous.
You see a letter with strange handwriting, you're gonna chuck it.
- But from a bunch of kids.
- RYKER: Yeah.
We have to track down the address and get this to USAMRIID for testing.
MOORE: Both the Brokaw and The Post letters are postmarked here, so our agents are gonna swab all 600 plus mailboxes that feed into this facility, full hazmat gear.
This is gonna be tedious, okay, but if we can identify this specific box, it's gonna help lead us to the terrorists.
[PHONE RINGING.]
Excuse me.
Hey, it's Chris Moore.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: Hey, put another agent on the boxes, I need you on something else.
RYKER: The Daschle letter has a return address.
It's an elementary school in Franklin Park.
MOORE [OVER PHONE.]
: Franklin Park? That's, that can't be more than 20 miles from here.
WOMAN: That fed guy is up in Quinton's office again.
Wonder what he got himself into.
KURZ: Testing the sample is gonna take me a few hours in the lab.
SOLDIER: You got it.
I'll let him know we're heading over now.
[INDISTINCTIVE CHATTER.]
SOLDIER: I can give him an ETA.
IVINS: Is that from the Daschle letter? KURZ: Bruce.
I didn't you were here.
IVINS: Mind if I take a look? KURZ: Sure.
IVINS: I've never seen anthrax so aerosolized.
It's far more lethal in this form.
Jody, what if the anthrax killer is one of us? JODY: I think you're letting all this get to you.
IVINS: Think about it, Jod.
The terrorists would still need some patsy here on the ground to help them carry it out.
Someone who has access to anthrax and knows how to handle it.
JODY: I know there's been a flood of new faces around here with all with all the added help for testing but they were brought in after the letters were found.
- Be careful pointing fingers.
- IVINS: Maybe it's not someone new.
For shirts and giggles, let's just say this person was part of the old guard around here.
Someone we've been working with on a daily basis.
JODY: Bruce, there's enough division around here as it is, science versus military, old gen, new gen and without creating more, I just.
.
I'm not sure I'm the one you should be talking to.
IVINS: I tell you everything.
I would never keep something like this from you.
JODY: If you really have concerns, Bruce, you should tell the Colonel.
IVINS: I just think we have a duty here, you know.
I mean, what if a person could weasel their way into a position where they could impede the FBI's investigation, maybe even destroy evidence? It'd be up to us to stop them, wouldn't it? [PHONE RINGING.]
- WILLIS: Hey, Matt, I have to call you back.
- RYKER: Where are you? WILLIS: Not where I'm supposed to be.
Small Biz Committee started three minutes ago.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: On the Hill? - WILLIS: Yeah, why? - RYKER: I want you to get out of the building.
WILLIS: What's going on? RYKER: The Hill's been attacked, it's anthrax.
- In a few minutes, every building's - WILLIS: Oh, my God.
gonna be evacuated.
Listen, head to Constitution and Second.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: There's three buses arriving to take people to Bethesda to get tested.
RYKER: Get on the first bus, okay? I'll call you later.
WILLIS: Matthew? REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: As the evacuation on Capitol Hill continues, FBI teams scour for evidence.
Growing sources insist there is a direct link between the New York and D.
C.
mailings to terrorists, and possibly Iraq.
So far, the FBI has declined to comment.
MAN: Move it along, please.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
WOMAN: Okay, do you have a fever? [PHONE RINGING.]
WOMAN: Take the next person out here.
WILLIS: Hi.
Sheila Willis.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: The FBI is quarantining all mail on Capitol Hill.
And reportedly, the Bureau is building a lab as no labs on the East Coast can handle the volume.
RYKER: Vacuum seals capable of sustaining directional airflow, uh, self-closing doors, - decontamination stations.
- COPAK: You're building an entire BSL4 lab in an unsecure, unsterile space? RYKER: Uh, it'll be both once we're done.
Daschle got a green light directly from the White House.
COPAK: With this splashed all over the news, whole damn seaboard is terrified to touch their mail.
RYKER: Once we prove the rest of the mail on the Hill is clean, it'll put people's minds at ease about their own.
COPAK: Fine, the administration is shelling out millions, you better deliver more than just another envelope filled with white powder.
Hand them the connection to terrorists.
RYKER: Look, I'll find the terrorists, but I've been hearing all the rumblings in the press, and I don't know that this came from Iraq.
COPAK: You and I aren't cleared for all classified intel.
Who knows where those bastards are hiding out? Just find them.
[PHONE RINGS.]
RYKER: Chris, tell me you got something at the school.
MOORE: So, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but this return address is bogus.
There actually aren't any schools called Greendale in Franklin Park.
The closest match we could find was a Greenbrook Elementary, it's in Kendall Park.
But we've been here since the doors opened, there's nobody on any FBI Watchlist associated with the school.
MOORE: CIA's got nothing.
RYKER: Students, faculty, no one from Iraq? MOORE: Uh, five students, three staff from the Middle East.
But I mean, these people have all been vetted since 9/11.
And there's none that are of Iraqi descent.
There's nothing here, Matt.
MOORE [OVER PHONE.]
: Sorry.
Look, I don't wanna overstep here, but MOORE: Didn't you say Iraq never had the Ames strain? RYKER: Yeah, we'll know more once we find out where those letters were mailed.
In the meantime, get everyone up there swabbing mailboxes, okay? MOORE: Okay.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Many US citizens have stopped opening their mail, even tossing it on the curb.
We now join a live conference at the Brentwood Mail Facility in D.
C.
MANAGER [OVER TV.]
: Thank you for joining us here today at the postal services in Washington, D.
C.
processing and distribution center.
As you know, one letter from among the more than 3.
5 million pieces of mail handled here each day contained anthrax.
- And there is no - CURSEEN: I don't know why they made you stay after your shift and sweep up round the sorters.
You can't even see them on the TV.
MANAGER [OVER TV.]
: This afternoon, I am announcing the offer of a reward of up to $1 million for the information leading to the arrest and conviction of those responsible for the mailing of the anthrax.
- MILLER: You leavin'? - CURSEEN: There's enough smoke being blown up certain places around here.
And I'm feeling a little run-down anyway.
Later.
RYKER: How many others on the Hill have been infected? [SIGHS.]
TORETTI: We got 28 new cases, hundreds more to test.
RYKER: And I've got three more right here.
TORETTI: Okay, let's pin 'em.
The green indicates where infected people worked, the red is where our hazmat teams found spores, here, high concentration in Feingold's offices, in the central atrium, and the courtyard in front of Daschle's suite.
What about your three? RYKER: I got Alicia Herrera, - works in Feingold's basement office.
- TORETTI: Okay.
RYKER: Mike Wakefield, uh, Capitol Police, first responders.
He was one of the first into the Hart Building after the attack.
TORETTI: That'd be atrium.
RYKER: And Peter Browning, a contractor in the State Department Building.
TORETTI: Ryker? RYKER: We shut the Hill down too late.
Somebody opened another letter.
Mr.
Browning, I just need to confirm, you were nowhere near the Hart Building this morning, correct? BROWNING: I stay in the annex.
Keep my distance from the senators and staffers, the egos.
TORETTI: How long have you had symptoms? BROWNING: I've felt like crap for two days.
RYKER: Well, you could have been exposed days ago from an entirely different letter.
We need to know when that letter arrived and who might've been the target.
TORETTI: Mr.
Browning, think back, do you remember opening any suspicious mail over the past week? It would've likely look similar to the anthrax letters that you've seen on TV, with all caps and childish handwriting.
BROWNING: I don't really see what comes in or where it's going.
I'm a supervisor.
I don't open mail.
Ever.
- RYKER: Uh, give me a minute, okay? - TORETTI: Yeah.
RYKER: Hey.
WILLIS: Hey.
- How bad is this? - RYKER: I'm not really sure.
Are you okay? WILLIS: Yeah.
I'm still waiting to find out, - and they're getting us Cipro.
- RYKER: Mm-hmm.
- WILLIS: I'm trying not to freak out.
- RYKER: Hey, you're gonna be okay, all right? The important thing is they caught everyone on the Hill early.
WILLIS: Okay.
RYKER: Um, I really gotta go.
- I'll check in with you later? - WILLIS: Okay.
NURSE: It's a little high, but not so bad.
- Flu's going around.
- MILLER: It don't feel like the flu.
You know, Joe left after his shift.
Looked like hell.
Said he wasn't feeling good neither.
NURSE: Joe said he hit the crab cake buffet at Milton's yesterday.
Chances are it's food poisoning.
MILLER: But they had me shut down number 17.
You don't think maybe it had to do with what's happening on the Hill with the anthrax mail? NURSE: They held a whole press conference here.
All the big wigs were down on the floor.
They wouldn't do that if it weren't safe.
Look, just take a few aspirin and finish up.
You don't wanna use a whole sick day just 'cause you're feeling warm.
[BEEPING.]
Go tell it on the mountains Over the hills and everywhere Go tell it on the mountain That Jesus Christ is born PRIEST: It is a blessing to see so many faces here tonight.
I only wish it was for different reasons, but the atrocities of 9/11 have left us searching for answers and comfort in the house of our Lord.
Go tell it on the mountain Over the hills and everywhere WOMAN: Honey? Go tell it on the mountain - That Jesus Christ is born - WOMAN: Joe, you okay? WOMAN 2: What's going on? Go tell it on the mountain - Over the hills and everywhere - [YELLING.]
- [KNOCKING.]
- COLONEL: Come in.
IVINS: Colonel Charles, evening.
Sorry to barge in on you this late.
COLONEL: Not a problem, Dr.
Ivins, especially if you keep it quick.
- Wife's making pot roast tonight.
- IVINS: Oh.
[LAUGHS.]
It's about the anthrax investigation, sir.
I'd like to have a word with you about Simon Kurz.
COLONEL: You have an issue with how Kurz's running things? IVINS: I do, sir.
As you know I've spent my whole career working on anthrax, I pretty much wrote the book on it, uh, at least a cornucopia of articles.
And Simon has not consulted with me about the Daschle letter.
COLONEL: Not that strange, Bruce.
Situations like this always fall - to the head of the department.
- IVINS: With all due respect to Dr.
Kurz, sir, I'm the one here who's worked on not one, but two anthrax vaccines and I just I think something's amiss.
COLONEL: You think Kurz is purposely keeping you out? IVINS: I don't want to speculate, sir.
I just want to help.
If I could have a couple of hours with the Daschle letter, there's some tests that Simon hasn't run yet.
RYKER: They're the same stock as the attack envelopes? TORETTI: Yes, how can a person who didn't even open the letter get infected? I thought it took, like, 8,000 spores? RYKER: Do you know how they got those estimates? Tests on monkeys.
For humans, they don't know exactly.
Now, this cocoa powder is just about the same particle size as the anthrax.
So last week in New York, a woman from The Post, said she was infected, who swears she never opened an envelope.
- TORETTI: Like Browning? - RYKER: Exactly.
So I thought she just couldn't remember opening it.
Then we found it, and it was sealed.
TORETTI: But how can even a few spores escape an envelope - that's been taped shut? - RYKER: I don't think they did.
This morning, we got a call from Dr.
Kurz over at USAMRIID.
He said that the second batch of spores were the most refined he's ever seen.
[THUDS.]
Powder's not leaking from the edges of the tape.
TORETTI: It's coming right through the fibers of the envelope.
RYKER: Which means that anyone even in the vicinity of the anthrax letters is at risk.
TORETTI: There could be a whole string of victims we don't know anything about, all the way back to Jersey where the letters were mailed.
RYKER: So we need to know each stop that they made along the way.
- RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: Shut it down! - QUINTON: What, all of it? There must be a dozen DBCS machines down there.
RYKER: Yes, you need to evacuate every employee - and get them all on Cipro.
- QUINTON: We'd have mountains of mail.
It's a federal offense.
RYKER: I've contacted the CDC and you should be hearing from the Governor any minute.
- This needs to happen right now! - QUINTON: The Governor? RYKER: Your machines could be spewing poison throughout the entire building.
We already know of three letters full of anthrax have passed through your equipment, there could be more.
RYKER: The anthrax is coming through the envelopes.
MOORE: One of your employees was already admitted into St.
Francis.
They found a lesion on her arm.
- QUINTON: Who? - MOORE: Angela Lowman.
We're checking in with another employee who might also be infected.
QUINTON: I'm gonna have the floor evacuated immediately.
RYKER: Inspector, sorry to keep you waiting.
Here's a copy of what I faxed to your office.
- PARRISH: Happy to help.
- RYKER: Thank you.
We shut down the Hamilton facility in New Jersey.
But what we need to know is everywhere the letter went between there and Senator Daschle's office.
TORETTI: We need to test everyone along the way, so we just wanna know how precise we can get.
PARRISH: Well, you see those series of hash marks? It's actually an encoded time stamp.
It traces a letter's path, - marks every facility it went through.
- [COMPUTER BINGS.]
- TORETTI: Huh.
- PARRISH: Oh, there we go.
Okay, on October 9th, the envelope went through the Automatic Flats Canceling and Sorting machine at Hamilton at 4:57 pm.
At 5:15, it was encoded by a DBCS machine according to its zip plus four, and sorted into a mail bin that was loaded onto Truck number 468.
The truck left Hamilton at 7:18 am the next morning, and drove to Newark Airport, where it was loaded on a USPS airliner.
TORETTI: We need to track down that driver, the pilot, and the co-pilot, and those baggage handlers.
PARRISH: Plane landed in D.
C.
on the night of the October 10th, and from there, the letter went to its final USPS stop Brentwood.
Brentwood's one of the largest mail facilities on the East Coast.
It employs almost 2,000 workers.
RYKER: Can you trace the exact machines that letter went through? PARRISH: Just one.
DBCS machine number 17.
RYKER: We need to get all those workers out of there.
[BEEPING.]
What the TORETTI: They didn't evacuate? How can they just let these employees come to work in a contaminated space? [LAUGHING.]
RYKER: I'm looking for Jerry Reid.
- REID: You found him.
- RYKER: Special Agent Ryker, FBI.
This place should have been evacuated hours ago.
REID: We got your recommendation.
We shut down DBCS 17 and I passed it on up the chain, they said that was enough.
RYKER: Letters filled with anthrax came through here days ago.
We've had two positive cases in a postal facility in New Jersey.
They shut down.
- Why haven't you? - REID: Hamilton is a fraction of our size.
We service the entire U.
S.
Government, - every embassy and - RYKER: You need to shut this place down.
[SCOFFS.]
FBI doesn't have carte blanche jurisdiction.
Look, there's a whole chain of heavy hitters above the two of us.
RYKER: What part of this do you guys not understand? - People are dying! - REID: Not postal workers.
They're all fine.
You don't understand what we do, what we are.
Social Security checks, mortgages.
You don't let somebody's house get foreclosed on, 'cause they missed a payment? And what about the insulin that's sitting in one of our carts on its way to some diabetic? People's lives rely on the postal service.
We don't "shut down.
" Ever.
What you're looking at on that floor is an essential service.
They're essential.
RYKER: Don't you mean expendable? I may not have the authority to evacuate your employees, but let's see how many of them stick around when they start seeing a hazmat team sweeping through.
MAN: Rough pass first.
Get suited up.
[OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
WOMAN: What are they all doing here? [OVERLAPPING CHATTER.]
WOMAN: Excuse me? Uh, can you tell us what is going on here? Is the floor contaminated or something? TORETTI: We don't know yet, but I'm gonna be honest with you.
There are probably a few workers here in this facility that have been exposed to anthrax spores.
Now, I'm trying to track down anyone who's been sick, so we can get them help.
Are you feeling ill in any way? WOMAN: Not, not me.
TORETTI: Somebody else then? Their best chance is for us to get to them as soon as possible.
WOMAN: A friend of mine, Louis Miller, he, he's never left mid-shift his whole life until today.
- I'll give you his number.
- TORETTI: Please, yes.
RYKER: He wasn't home and he isn't picking up his cell.
TORETTI [OVER PHONE.]
: He wasn't at his HMO's urgent care either.
I'm heading over to Central Hospital.
RYKER: All right.
I'll tell you what I find out here.
I'm looking for a patient, African-American male in his 40s.
Place of employment is the Brentwood Mail Facility.
- I have his name and address right here.
- NURSE: Is it Thomas Morris? Qieth McQue? I've also got a Joseph Curseen.
- RYKER: These men all work at Brentwood? - NURSE: Yeah.
RYKER: And they're all current patients? NURSE: Two of them are in the ICU, but Joe is in Room 311.
RYKER: Thank you.
TORETTI: Hi.
I'm looking for a patient, he's a middle-aged man, African-American named Louis Miller.
NURSE: He hasn't seen a doctor yet.
He's in the waiting area.
TORETTI: Okay, I need someone now.
Louis Miller? MILLER: Over here.
TORETTI: Mr.
Miller? From the Brentwood Mail Facility? MILLER: Yeah, what's, what's going on? TORETTI: Are you experiencing flu-like symptoms? MILLER: Oh, something's not right.
I'm sorry, who are you? TORETTI: Dani Toretti, FBI, we believe you may have been exposed to anthrax at Brentwood, we just need to make sure.
Okay.
Chest X-ray and a spinal tap.
It'll show that Mr.
Miller has anthrax.
But first start him on Cipro, right now.
NURSE: I'll get a doctor.
TORETTI: Once we have you on antibiotics, - you should be okay.
- MILLER: There are others, you know, who've been sick all of a sudden.
TORETTI: Yeah.
Yeah.
We know.
Just give me one minute, okay? Ryker, I found him.
We caught it just in time.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: No, we didn't.
RYKER: I just found Joe Curseen.
He works with Louis.
He passed out in church yesterday.
RYKER [OVER PHONE.]
: By the time he got to the hospital, it was already too late.
RYKER: He's dead.
[CRYING.]
TORETTI: All right, thanks.
MORRIS [OVER TAPE.]
: My breathing is labored and my chest feels constricted.
Uh, I am getting air, but just to get up and walk and what have you.
I feel like I might just pass out.
911 OPERATOR [OVER TAPE.]
: And you said you work at the post office? - Which one? - MORRIS [OVER TAPE.]
: The post office downtown, Brentwood Road.
They never let us know if that thing had anthrax or not.
The doctor thought it was just a virus or something, so I was taking aspirin for the achiness.
But now there's the shortness of breath.
[LABORED BREATHING.]
RYKER: The person who called 911 was one of your employees.
REID: Is he okay? RYKER: Thomas Morris, he's dead.
So is Joe Curseen.
[SIGHS.]
REID: I don't know what to say.
RYKER: Well, maybe there's a reason the workers here call this place "The Plantation.
" REID: Look, I shut the machines down and started closing the place up after you left here.
My heart goes out to them, their families.
RYKER: Your team knew there could be anthrax here multiple shifts ago.
REID: We were assured it wasn't a problem.
I was following orders, trusting the people who are supposed to know more about this.
RYKER: "Supposed to" doesn't mean anything to the people who have lost someone.
IVINS: Uh, it's pretty straightforward.
We examined the powder from the Daschle letter under an electron microscope which can magnify up to 2,000 times and identified the augmentation and presence on a molecular level.
COLONEL: Layman's terms.
I'll have to spell it out for them.
IVINS: We found that something had been added to the spores.
COLONEL: And based on your expertise in anthrax, how certain are you about what that substance is? IVINS: Bentonite? 100%.
Will they know what that means? COLONEL: They might not understand microbiology, but they've read enough intelligence briefings.
There's only one country we know of that's added bentonite to anthrax.
IVINS: Iraq.
[KNOCKING.]
TORETTI: You're not answering your phone.
RYKER: I hadn't slept since New York.
TORETTI: I haven't eaten.
Do you mind? RYKER: No, make yourself right at home.
Not exactly a meal.
[SIGHS.]
TORETTI: This is cozy.
RYKER: Well, I spend a lot of time on the road.
Sorry, I'm a little late.
It's just, I have a, a dinner date tonight and then I have a family birthday thing that totally slipped my mind, kind of a two birds with one stone situation.
TORETTI: Who's the lucky girl? Is she the stone or one of the birds? RYKER: What are you doing here again? TORETTI: They found a hot drum full of mail, led them to another anthrax letter.
It's the one we think infected Browning.
RYKER: Who was the target? TORETTI: Senator Leahy.
RYKER: Leahy.
Judiciary Committee.
Why wasn't it in the mail from his office? TORETTI: The postal machine misread the handwritten zip code, so it ended up unopened, way down at the State Department building.
Which is a very good thing, because it had triple the amount of powder than the Daschle letter.
RYKER: That's enough spores to kill thousands of people.
No other hot spots? TORETTI: No, not that they found so far.
RYKER: So then why target Daschle and Leahy and then no one else? TORETTI: Two Democratic Senators both needed to push the Patriot Act through.
RYKER: Since when does Al-Qaeda care about our internal politics? Is that what you're implying? TORETTI: I'm not implying.
It's just a fact.
This is the perfect storm for a copycat after thousands of hoax letters over the past few months.
Clumsily we're just throwing the blame on Al-Qaeda.
KARI: Uncle Matty! RYKER: Oh, hello, you.
Happy birthday, girl! How are you? - KARI: Good.
- RYKER: Yeah? All right.
- Hey, I like you to meet my friend, Sheila.
- KARI: Hi.
WILLIS: Hi, happy birthday.
RYKER: Look what I have.
Look what I have here - for a special someone.
- KARI: Is it for me? RYKER: It is for you, would you like it now? - KARI: Yes.
- RYKER: All right.
Go ahead.
Take it.
KARI: Thank you.
WILLIS: Wow.
Valedictorian and debate captain, huh? RYKER: Yeah, welcome to our time capsule.
[LAUGHS.]
WILLIS: Oh, wow.
How long did your dad serve? RYKER: Uh, about six years.
He actually wanted to stay longer, but he got sick.
- WILLIS: Oh.
- RYKER: Chemical exposure, had to come home.
WILLIS: I'm sorry.
He looks really happy in this picture.
RYKER: Ah, he was smiling for the photo.
- WOMAN: It's my Mattie! - RYKER: Hi, Mom.
WOMAN: Hello, sweetheart.
- JENNY: Come on here, loser.
- RYKER: Hey, you.
[LAUGHS.]
RYKER: Uh, Jenny, Mom, I would love you to meet Sheila Willis.
- WOMAN: Hi, Sheila.
- WILLIS: Hi, nice to meet you.
WOMAN: So nice to meet you.
WILLIS: Thank you for inviting me.
RYKER: We just, uh, we're dropping by on our way to dinner.
JENNY: Oh, come on now, we have plenty of food.
RYKER: Uh, actually, we have a reservation.
WOMAN: That's totally enough time to get to know her.
WILLIS: Oh.
WOMAN: You'll have to come over for dinner.
WILLIS: Oh, um, I'd like that.
Thank you.
JENNY: So how long have you two - been seeing each other? - RYKER: Hey, I have an idea.
How about we save the third degree until after cake? - [LAUGHS.]
- JENNY: Come on back.
We're about to play pin-the-tail-on-the Shrek.
- WILLIS: Okay.
- JENNY: Which means copious amounts of wine.
- WILLIS: Oh.
- JENNY: I like copious.
- RYKER: Hey.
- DEVON: Hey.
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: There are rumors circulating D.
C.
about a possible war in RYKER: Sorry I missed your game.
DEVON: Didn't miss much.
We got our asses handed to us.
Dad thinks we need a new coach.
RYKER: You heard from him this week? DEVON: Called from the base.
Said there's talk.
Maybe they're going to get deployed to Iraq.
If we go after Saddam, will we even get Al-Qaeda? All the terrorists who did all this? RYKER: Your dad's gonna be okay.
DEVON: Is that what they train you to tell us? [SCOFFS.]
REPORTER [OVER TV.]
: Two more victims have died of anthrax exposure.
Ottilie Lundgren and Kathy Nguyen.
Their cases are particularly troubling as they have no connection to the media, politics, or the U.
S.
Postal Service, which have so far been the targets.
RYKER: So you heard about Lundgren and Nguyen? TORETTI: You're thinking cross contamination? RYKER: I just found out that Lundgren had a letter that went through the DBCS machine at Brentwood 15 seconds after Leahy's.
TORETTI: Well, your hunch was right.
And that powder was so fine, it just blasted itself all through those machines, so it makes sense.
RYKER: So tell me more about your lone wolf theory.
TORETTI: Finally coming to your senses? RYKER: My senses aren't in question.
- I'm just curious.
- TORETTI: Okay.
I've been working with our handwriting analyst.
We believe that the sender tried to disguise his writing with this block lettering.
Now, this is a penmanship style that was taught to American schoolchildren from the 1940s through the 1960s.
RYKER: American, born and raised.
TORETTI: Next up is this "take penicillin" bit.
Somebody knows enough to reference a specific antibiotic, but they don't know how to spell it? And why would Al-Qaeda warn their victims anyways? RYKER: So "Allah is Great" was a misdirect, to put the focus on foreigners? TORETTI: Probably.
Yeah.
All signs point to our perp being a highly educated American citizen with scientific expertise.
Most likely works in isolation, suffers from mental illness.
RYKER: Someone spurred by 9/11, which is why the first letters bore that date, despite being mailed later.
TORETTI: I drew up this profile to send to the American Society of Microbiology.
I suspect one of their members knows or is the anthrax mailer.
RYKER: It's risky, tipping off a suspect.
TORETTI: Or it's a very smart way to smoke him out.
- RYKER: How many members are there? - TORETTI: 30,000.
And if we get any hits, we send field agents out to do interviews.
RYKER: The Bureau's interest is squarely on terrorists, I doubt TORETTI: I sent it through my own channels already.
[DISTANT SIRENS.]
IVINS: Evening, Colonel.
COLONEL: Got a call from the Hill to commend you.
IVINS: Oh, I was just doing my job, sir.
COLONEL: Your name's come up for commendations.
I wouldn't be surprised to see you decorated one of these days.
You did a real service for your country, Dr.
Ivins.
IVINS: Oh.
Well, that means a lot to me, sir.
Thank you.
It's an honor, sir.