Numb3rs s04e08 Episode Script
Tabu
Harper! It's a party, not a funeral.
Uh, it was my mom's.
God, you can be such a bitch sometimes.
Yeah.
Eppes.
All right, all right, all right, I'm on my way.
Did you recognize any of them, Miss Simms? It all happened so fast, I didn't even see them.
What about before? Did you see anyone hanging around, watching Ella? Everyone.
I mean, she's Ella.
Right.
Thanks very much.
Mm-hmm.
Straight-up grab? Yeah, with flash grenades and automatic weapons, and they were professional enough not to hurt anyone.
Well, a lot of witnesses.
And not a good one in the bunch.
It's not any ordinary club kid.
It's Ella Pierce.
What, that rich kid? The party girl? Someone's been trolling Internet fan sites.
Her father is Warren Pierce.
He's worth, like, $2 billion.
He's got textile factories in every country in the world without a minimum wage.
He been notified? I talked to him on his plane en route to Aspen.
He's on his way back.
Uh-huh.
How you doing? Jeff Upchurch.
Hi, there.
Critical Incident Response.
Hey.
Don Eppes.
I was on my way to Guadalajara, and they rerouted me.
I'm guessing I was the nearest specialist in the area, so Specialist in what? You guys do, what, ten, Mexico City, I do 15 a month.
Work kidnappings Europe, Asia, Afghanistan.
It's always different, always the same.
So, what's different about this one? I don't know yet.
But the big money snatches tend to put you in contact with a higher class of lowlife.
If they know their business, and I'm certainly guessing they do, we're looking at simultaneous movement, expected payouts, bargaining strategies.
Lot of variables here.
You guys talking about imperfect information games? Checking in You must be Professor Eppes.
Hi.
Bureau gave me a copy of the action report from the Che Lobo kidnapping last year.
Got to tell you, I'm very impressed with the maze math.
Thanks.
Could use some similar inspiration here.
Sounds like you might have already started.
You were just talking about game theory? I was.
Assuming that our kidnappers are experienced, or they have benefited from the experience of other kidnappers, we can use an optimization method here called a tabu search, which is basically a way of excluding bad data.
Places where the kidnappers won't go to isolate where they will go.
I guess that's w they call it tabu, right? These kidnappers- they're like a group of hikers.
But they've mapped out a very specific route.
That route is complicated by the terrain, by the density of foliage, by dangerous animals, by water barriers.
They deal with these obstacles using their experience, using the accuracy of their maps, their needs.
And a tabu search can pinpoint the optimal route that the hikers can then choose.
Now, assuming that our kidnappers' goal is the safe collection of a ransom, I can interpret their methodology; I can predict their actions.
Okay.
How soon? Not a lot of information here, you know? My projections are going to be fairly general.
But as always, the more data that comes in, the more helpful I can be.
Yeah.
Eppes.
Key's still in the ignition.
I got something.
Check this out.
Warren Pierce is a criminal, a ruthless parasite who lives off the backs of the workers he exploits.
His debt to society has come due, and if he doesn't pay it the People's Nationalist Agenda will take it in the blood of his daughter.
We'll contact Mr.
Pierce with our demands at noon today.
?Agenda, aka the PNA.
Anti-corporate, anti-free trade.
Anti-Warren Pierce.
The guy who runs the Web site- he calls himself Santee, but the Bureau's counterterrorism unit- they don't have a face to go with that name.
They don't even think it's one person.
Thing is, we don't even have any identifiable members.
I mean, the banners go up at antiglobalization protests, somebody spray-paints "PNA" at a vandalized construction site, but there doesn't seem to be any re, centralized organization.
All right, so maybe they're just messing with us, you know? Maybe they're just hiding behind these guys.
Okay, so the van used in the abduction was registered to a Diamond Lane Rentals, reported stolen last week.
Start with anyone who'd know the girl's schedule, right? That's got to be half of Los Angeles.
Yeah, the good-looking half.
These celebrity socialites- they live electronically, so, I'll go deep on the e-mails, text messages, phone logs, the works.
Yeah, good.
So what happened last night? I don't know.
You know, it was late, and I took the call.
I thought I'd let you sleep.
That's it? That's all you're going to give me? That's all there is.
Look, Don, we both know things haven't been clicking nce Leah was killed.
I think you just wanted me out of your face for a few hours, right? I don't know.
Look, even if that's true, is it that big a deal? It's something to talk about, yeah.
Well, I mean, I'm in the middle of a kidnapping here.
Come on.
All right.
You know, I'll just wait for a bank robbery.
Ever since Ella became a media darling, a power partier, I've been waiting for something like this to happen.
And you never saw to it that she got any security? She turned down bodyguards.
Said any kidnapper would pay to give her back after two days.
And with the joke, you let the issue drop? That's not at all what I meant.
Anything Ella ever asked for, ever needed, I've always given her gladly.
What you need to understand, Mr.
Pierce, is that ransom is enough business to make a fellow like yourself confused.
Meaning? Kidnappers will position.
They will establish bargaining power.
Gentleman such as yourself that's used to calling the shots, used to winning You're asking me to be humble.
I'm asking you to be smart.
Okay, this is what we talked about.
Want to stay calm, engaged.
Keep them on the phone as long as possible.
Is everybody ready? Whenever you are, sir.
Hello.
If this isn't Warren Pierce, Ella Pierce is as good as dead.
Who are you? Don't ask who I am.
Ask how much I want.
I need to know my daughter is all right.
Dad? Daddy? Ella? Demand 1: shut down all of your company's sweatshops operating in the Third World.
If it's me you want Demand 2: $40 million in restitution paid to the thousands of men, women and children your company has exploited in the Third World.
I'll give you $10 million.
In a secured Swiss account.
Guy's using a sat phone.
He's bouncing the signal.
What the hell was that? A counteroffer.
You're lowballing on your daughter's life? I talked to him in a language he understands.
Do you understand that they hung up on you? That you put your daughter's life in more danger? He'll call back.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make arrangements for payment.
Guys like that- it's all about money and power.
Actually, that was the right call, straight out of the playbook.
He pays too much, too fast, too soon, PNA's going to figure they didn't ask enough.
They're going to come back looking for more.
You really think he could be operating out of your playbook? You got a different theory? That his daughter's just another negotiable asset.
You get this out of your favorite head shop? No, Charles.
This cannot be purchased in any shop.
I've constructed my own Hero's fountain.
Named after Hero of Alexandria, the Greek mathematician and engineer.
You see, once the pressure is right, the water will flow under its own power.
And how is this part of your achieving Zen, Larry Einstein said religion should arise from the experience of all things natural and spiritual in a meaningful unity.
Now, made from the parcels of my former self, this fountain perfectly analogizes the seamless integration of both my physical and spiritual lives.
Shouldn't you be at the FBI? The kidnapping is all over the news.
Oh.
Yeah.
The ransom negotiation cut short, so I may need to rethink my tabu search.
Maybe weight the data with a Bayesian prior.
While I condone none of the major felonies, do have to say, kidnapping- that does hold a certain conceptual intrigue, this business of affixing value to a human life.
Oh, I think it's almost there.
Observe, Charles: water rising to a new level, as is my own hope.
I'm out of here.
It dawned on me while I was looking at Larry's Zen rock garden.
What? Larry has a Zen rock garden? Yeah, actually, it was his Hero fountain that got me going, but it's an even longer story.
Let's reconsider my hiker analogy, all right? Uh-huh.
And think of a mudslide falling in front of the hikers.
It changes terrain, it changes their direction.
Right, okay.
So my tabu search accounted for the kidnappers following a planned path, but with Pierce's counteroffer, they've had to break off contact.
They've essentially been detoured.
They have to find a new way to get to their waterfall.
We're expecting them to make another ransom-oriented decision, to hike around the mudslide, right? But I-I think they're going to abandon that path completely.
I think they're going to find another way.
Everyone down on the ground! Open the safe.
So what do you think, kill the Pierce girl and go underground? Oh, that would be giving up.
Essentially turning around.
I based my analysis on the information the PNA put up on their Web site: their stated goals, their state of mind.
I think they're going to going to bulldoze through this mudslide.
I think they're going going to do something sudden, something violent, something completely unexpected.
All right, so the safe holds cash deliveries from payroll trucks and they drop off two to $300,000 a day.
But these geniuses hit two hours after the money went to the bank.
So they got six, maybe seven grand in petty cash.
Not the hit they were hoping for.
are really synchronized; it suggests a high degree of discipline, a high degree of conviction.
Let's not dance around it.
What are we thinking here? Judging by the way she's balancing that rifle, my money says it isn't even loaded.
That girl could be holding a gun behind her back.
I mean, look at this face.
That is the face of a scared little girl.
So they lose the ransom, they hit Pierce's business, but I don't get why drag the girl along? Puts her in the line of fire.
Human shield, maybe it's their counteroffer to Pierce.
They placed her in deliberate frame of that security camera.
They want us to see her face.
They're asserting dominance.
I think they just want to violate Pierce and show him that they control his destiny.
That looks like an alpha to me.
Think he's our mythical Santee? Warner.
What? Pierce just e-mailed the PNA's Web site and told them he isn't paying.
I've dealt with rogue governments, guerilla fighters, organized crime.
They all understand the rules of negotiation.
If these animals aren't going to speak to me in a language I can understand Well, that's why I'm here, sir.
To help translate.
Look, we both know that if I cave in, they're going to bleed me dry.
And still won't get Ella back.
That's always possible.
So what was my choice? Well, you had a couple of options, sir, the worst of which was negotiate with the PNA without talking to me first.
So you think I should back down? Tell them I'll pay.
No, you change your direction too quick, it's just going to confuse them.
We definitely don't want these guys panicking.
The next move is theirs.
Let's just hope it's not killing your daughter.
You don't have much of a bedside manner.
Must be why I don't get invited to many parties.
Still trying to break into Ella Pierce's e- mail account.
It turns out it's encrypted.
It's locked with a software tool used primarily by IT programmers at major corporations.
That's funny, huh? I mean, why would she be doing that? If you don't, that stuff will turn up on some online celebrity gossip site.
You know the whole world knows your business.
Let me ask you something.
I mean, not about this.
About Liz? Yeah, how'd you know? You asked permission to ask.
Hey, I got to end it.
I mean, it's just way too complicated with work.
The thing is, every time I do, we end up in bed.
Hey, man, you guys work funky hours, long stakeouts, you're dodging bullets together.
It sounds like adrenaline.
I mean, adrenaline is great, but, you know, I don't know if that's a real relationship.
I'm sorry, you wanted to ask me a question.
I think you just answered it.
So what kind of lizard decides that his daughter isn't worth a fraction of his bank account? Loathe as I am to contradict you, the decision is so entirely out of character.
It suggests true emotional anguish.
Larry, what the hell would you know about his character? I think what he's simply pointing out is that Pierce has violated his own corporate game theory.
It's standard minimax.
It's a tug of war, a demonstration of brute strength between two opposing sides where one side can pull the other side across a center line.
However, after the competition started, one team can embarrass the other by letting go of the rope.
That team humiliates its opponent, but they've lost.
So essentially, Pierce has let go of his rope.
He's struck back in the way least likely to achieve a positive result.
Which runs counter to the instincts responsible for his corporate success, ergo my observation that his judgment is clouded by a high state of distress.
Yeah, but, Larry, I went through Ella's things, and I found letters from her father, throughout her childhood that were typed.
They were dictated to a secretary.
I know, because his secretary's name is cc'd on them.
What kind of father would do that? So you two just stick to the blackboard and I'll take care of the profiling.
I expect that from my brother.
Any idea what's going on there? Yeah, some.
So PNA put this up ten minutes ago.
The People's Nationalist Agenda is not to be taken lightly.
Their recent action towards my father's corrupt business interests are just a taste of what's to come until he responds to the PNA's demands.
Close the sweatshops.
Pay the ransom.
Sent directly to the national news outlets as well.
It'll be all over TV tonight.
So what, he piss on them, they piss on him? All right, meanwhile, we've made some headway on your alpha.
He's looking more and more like our "Santee.
" Facial recognition software connected him to several antiglobalization protests and then a gun store robbery in Seattle, two months ago.
Similar MO.
All the same characters.
My guess is that this is where they decided to graduate from tree hugging and disorderly conduct to heavy felonies.
The problem is that Santee managed to keep his nose clean, at least on paper.
There's no rap sheet, no ID.
Listen, um I know this isn't the right time to talk.
But I just want to make sure we make the time.
I think so, too.
I mean, uh We will.
Okay.
It's an MPEG file, and from its resolution, I think it came from a sat phone.
Okay, how does that help us? I mean, if we had a DTMF decoder it's a dual-tone multi-frequency.
It's touchtone.
You couldn't have just said that to begin with? Yeah, but it wouldn't have been as much fun.
The decoder works kind of like a prism.
Instead of refracting light into its individual frequencies, its component colors, the decoder separates the phone signal into different tones and numeric values.
From which we can then decipher the actual phone number.
Okay, where can we get one of these things? If the kidnappers are using a land line or a cell phone, you can buy a DTMF decoder from a consumer electronics store.
Right, but they're using a sat phone, so Hacking a satellite signal requires a little more sophistication, but I can put a unit together.
I mean, I built my first computer when I was 13.
I know my way around a circuit board.
And, you know, the Electrical Engineering Department has all the parts I need.
All right, so If they're using a satellite phone, this thing is going to tell us where they were, not where they are now, right? Yeah, that's why I've been patiently waiting here.
I think the additional information has helped my tabu search, and I think I have an idea where the PNA might show up next.
As far as hunches go, I certainly played worse.
They appear where he works, so his neighborhood could be next.
When it comes from Charlie, it's kind of a hunch-plus.
So I've heard.
Also heard some stuff about you.
Yeah, like what? You like to run with the tactical boys.
The first rough the door, that sort of thing.
Cowboy enough to get your name out there, but not unsafe.
I just had a few things on my mind, man.
Kicking in doors and dodging bullets? That's my kind of therapy.
I came up through Special Forces.
Nearly bounced off the walls in that damn field office.
You ever consider going for the adrenaline fix full-time? You get to travel, leave the paperwork to guys like Well, you.
MAN Report of a silent alarm at 7626 East Ellendale.
Ellendale, that's two blocks from here.
It's also Harper Simms' address.
That's Ella Pierce's friend.
FBI! Nobody moves! Let me see your hands! You in the car! Up! Let me see them hands! Back off! It's never gonna happen.
What the hell just happened here? Looks like our rescue mission just turned into a manhunt.
? us what you saw.
They were waving guns around.
Yelling I thought I was going to die.
And Ella? Was showing them where everything was the cash, my mom's jewelry, the safe.
She was acting like the brat that she is, except with a gun.
And that loser Steffen, calling himself Santee now You, uh, you recognized Santee? Yes.
Steffen Cavani- the stoner we went to high school with.
Come on! She's totally with him.
Yes and no.
How no? She's young and she's vulnerable, and she hasn't had any contact with anyone outside of heraptors.
What, like, brainwashing? She would not be the first person to identify with her victimizers and then act accordingly.
She's with them a day and a half.
You have no idea how quickly someone's will can be broken.
Mr.
Pierce.
You have my full cooperation.
Thank you.
The sooner Ella's apprehended, the sooner my legal team can prepare her defense.
Wow.
There's no "There must be some kind of mistake," or "My daughter's not capable of that?" Do you have children? Do you? I did some background.
After your wife died, your daughter came into a large inheritance and sued for emancipation.
Ella went through a great deal after her mother's death, and she lashed out at me.
Yeah, and you lashed back with a team full of lawyers and put her back inside her glass jar.
She was a 16-year-old girl, emotionally overwrought, and I was not going to let her ruin her life.
No, you were just going to hold her hostage instead.
It is a small wonder she is identifying with her kidnappers.
It's probably the only love she's ever know.
All right, all right.
Hey.
Hey.
How goes the decoder? Who knew tracing a phone call could do so much damage to a manicure? What? Is it wrong to get turned on at the sight of you in goggles and rubber gloves? Oh, damn it.
Whoa.
Are you all right? Yeah.
That's the third circuit I've blown today.
I've got a spare in my office.
I'll be back.
Okay.
Excuse me, Professor.
Oh, hey.
Is that a decoder? Yeah, this is it.
Not exactly what I imagined after reading some of your more ethereal musings on cake-cutting theory, I've got to tell you.
Well, sometimes cake is a series of algorithms that help formulate an analysis.
And other times, cake is just cake.
Listen, I wanted to spitball something at you about that Tabu search.
It's funny you mention that because I've been giving it some thought.
It's quite possible that the PNA's tactical shift might actually help us.
Hittinthe house makes no tactical sense whatsoever.
I agree.
It's like your hikers just It's like they decided to chase after a butterfly.
You know what? That's a great analogy.
Because once the hikers veer off, chasing after that butterfly, they reveal the butterfly's path with the evidence that they leave in their wake- with footprints and with broken branches.
That evidence allows me to analyze their tactics using decision analysis.
Figure out which butterfly they're chasing.
Steffen Cavani.
He went to high school with Ella Pierce and Harper Simms.
Gets expelled from Berkeley after a semester for disruptive behavior, then falls straight off the grid.
The techs finally cracked Ella Pierce's e-mail account.
Turns out her and Cavani have been going back and forth for nearly a year.
You have to listen to this stuff.
"Can't believe you're the same guy in Moscowitz' history class.
"If I'd known the real you, I would've jumped you a long time ago.
" Lots more where that came from, all in the same vein.
All right, so, what, she hooks up with the loser guy and hides it from Harper.
He starts working on her poor little rich girl complex, makes her feel guilty about Daddy's sweatshops.
Sounds like Megan's department.
Yeah, well, Megan's on a little bit of a time out, so Again? What about the dead shooter? Reggie Woods, 25.
String of arrests for disorderly conduct, mostly related to antiglobalization rallies in Seattle.
Reggie was busted in Glendale His partner in crime was Lucas Cavani, who purely coincidentally happens to be Steffen's cousin.
We've got a call into his parole officer.
Delivery van.
You still purging the office? I'm trying to find suitable homes for the material shards of my past that no longer inform my present.
Now, it seemed to me you an affection Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances.
Oh, thank you.
Still no respite from the case? Oh, Ella Pierce was kicked out of boarding schools from New York to Lausanne.
I got DUIs, stint in rehab.
It's like a textbook example of trying to draw love from her father through negative attention.
Unless I'm just seeing too much of myself in the case.
As your friend, I would not presume to speculate, particularly given our last exchange on the matter.
Oh, Larry, I'm I'm really sorry about that.
I had no right to snap at you.
I mean, maybe you could just not be my friend for a minute and tell me the truth.
Mm You know, I've always been cautious in addressing the issues you have with your father.
Well, I know there's profound pain there.
But having said that, it is surprising to me that humanity was able to arrive so quickly at a correct model of the solar system.
There's this driving tendency to orient the universe in rotation around well, our own little world.
Thanks for the Respighi.
Lucas, FBI! Open up! Yeah, nice try, Frank.
I'll have your rent tomorrow.
Get up against the wall! I want to see your hands! Against the wall! I didn't do anything.
Hey Reggie Woods is dead.
What? He made a mistake of pointing a gun in my general direction.
Your cousin happened to be standing right next to him.
Steffen? Yeah.
Oh, man, that idiot.
He hasn't been right since he got involved with that bitch.
Ella Pierce? Yeah, I guess you never get over the one who wouldn't talk to you in high school.
I'm all for fighting the power, but she talked scary way above my tolerance.
That's why I got some distance.
You can check, whatever you want to check.
I don't run with those guys anymore.
Yeah, so where do they run? Reggie told me they had a squat in East LA, near the freeway.
That was a few months ago, though.
While you're out there fighting the power, try recycling.
Something Larry said got me thinking about a misspent youth.
You and Larry warming up again? I think we're making our way off the back burner.
Hmm.
How are you and Don? How's that been going? Trying not to get burned.
It's a challenge.
I think you should get hazard pay for even trying.
Speaking of, I got a seduction going on here in these e-mails, only Ella seems to be the aggressor.
She flatters Santee, she speaks to his political convictions, he mostly agrees with her.
He begs her for sex.
Certain words jumped out.
How the hell would he even get near a girl like this? She's famous, she's insulated by money and privilege, and he barely registers outside of the website.
It's a lot easier for the "it" girl to reach out to the class burnout.
Which is also the perfect instrument to lash out at her father.
Oh, God.
Ella must have planned this whole thing.
So I used decision analysis to reset the parameters of my predictive model.
I factored in the impulse motive of the PNA.
Find our butterfly? Yeah, my analysis keeps pointing back to Warren Pierce.
So why did they hit Harper Simms' house? It seems to predicate on opportunity and familiarity.
Look, they're attacking locations that Ella Pierce can facilitate.
So what's the next inside job? I can answer that.
Intel says this posted in the last ten minutes.
I have seen the harm and wrong my business practices have caused to the great working peoples of the world.
I call on my board of directors to immediately dismantle my factories, for my bank to dissolve all of my assets immediately.
Warren Pierce Industries has 24 hours to show us their sincerity.
In the great struggle for world justice,? to divest all interests in Asia and Latin America and donate the proceeds to relief agencies.
As of tomorrow, Warren Pierce Industries will cease to exist.
I don't understand.
I thought we had eyes on the guy.
We did, but we pulled them all when this stopped being a kidnapping.
And he has his own security.
Well, where were they? He's buying time.
The board will never go along with dissolving his company.
Yeah, but he's out of time.
His refusal to pay the ransom pushed her over the edge.
Daddy didn't play with her her whole life.
If he doesn't play with her now There's only one way this is going to end up for Pierce.
How's it going, guys? Good, good.
We're almost there.
We've intercepted the PNA's upload of Pierce's communique to their website, and she's running it through the decoder.
I isolated the CDMA code, and separated the information on the MPEG.
And this is gonna lead us to where the signal was transmitted from, right? Mm-hmm.
Provided we don't blow another circuit.
Okay, I got a lock on the phone number North 34 degrees, west 118 degrees, That's East L.
A.
Cavani said they were squatting near the freeway.
Ah, there it is.
Knocking on the door from 300 miles above Earth.
We're about to knock a lot harder.
David, talk to me- you got a visual? I have Piee.
Confirming five bad gu: three men, two women, including Ella Pierce.
Liz? Locked and loaded- we're in position.
Hey.
I've got the Web cam set up, and I'm hacking into the PNA Web site.
All right, good.
Now, listen, Megan, you know, if this girl is in your head She is- that's why I'm the best person for the job.
Any word? Nothing.
Looks like the old man's been lying to us, trying to save his ass.
Time's running out, dude.
Ella, we gotta do something.
Show him we're not messing around.
Maybe if we start sending him back in pieces.
Why are you doing this? It's what Pierces do- taking control of your life, telling you what to do with your money.
We're in.
Steffen Steffen Cavani, this is Agent Megan Reeves from the FBI.
We have the house surrounded.
Take the perimeter! I got nothing to say.
You're gonna have to let Piece go.
Why, so you can blow us all away? So maybe you're not going to spend threst of your life behind bars.
Steffen, I know this whole thing wasn't your idea.
I know Ella roped you into it.
What are you talking about? She's the heiress to a multibillion-dollar empire, Steffen.
Don't you think she could've just written a $40-million check to a relief agency? Do you really think she cares about sweatshops? They paid for her Maserati.
She's trying to divide us.
Steffen, the only thing she cares about is hurting her father.
You're just the ride to the prom.
She's got other plans for the night.
No more talk! I think I lost them.
Ella, what are you doing? All right, we fire over their heads, fire over their heads! I want them walking out of here! Roger that.
David, talk to me.
No target acquisition, Don- they're too dug in.
Not all of 'em.
Two boys, two girls left.
Ella! They're going to kill you! Who cares? You already killed me, just like you killed Mom.
She didn't die from the cancer, she just didn't want to live in that house any more! You know that's not true! Your mother wanted to live! I promised her I would take care of you! By trapping me in your world? Honey, please! You turned me into a tabloid princess, a punchline on David Letterman, all so you could sell some damn clothes! Well, now you're in my headline.
Please! If this escalates, we scare them into shooting Pierce.
All right, let's go- tear gas 'em, tear gas 'em! They're not gonna let us out of here! Do not punk out on me now, Steffan.
I have had enough of people making promises they won't keep.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
I got two coming out.
Come here! Come here.
All right, we got 'em.
we got 'em, we got 'em.
The rest of you inside, you have 15 seconds to come out with your hands up in the air.
It's over.
Don't do it, Steffan! I'm bringing out Pierce! Don't shoot! You're not leaving me! I don't see Ella.
Shots fired! Shots fired! David? No, there's too much smoke.
In the arm? What kind of cowboy is that? Not a cowboy.
Just a field agent.
Don't say anything.
Don't say anything, honey.
I have the best lawyers! I love you, too, Dad.
Hey.
Hey.
So it got pretty hairy out there today, huh? Yeah, well Loquacious, as always.
You want to order some food? What are we doing? Tonight? Look, the last few days, we've tried to talk, and, you know, now I just I feel tired.
I think we just keep coming back out of habit you know? I don't want to feel like we lead each other on.
I mean, you deserve so much more than that and I just keep screwing these things up.
See you tomorrow, boss.
You managed to bring the monastery with you.
It's calming.
Well, feel free to find your center here, anytime you wish.
Every time I think I'm over my father or my childhood, I I think I let this case take me for a ride.
Struggle is not altogether a bad thing.
The charged particles of the solar wind require heat and combustion to escape the gravitational pull of the sun.
From tumult comes freedom.
You have this great way of making my neuroses sound cosmic.
My center is back east, so I'm gonna go visit my dad.
I already booked the airplane ticket, it's nonrefundable You want to come with me? Oh, really? Um are you serious? I don't know, it just sort of came out.
I guess not.
This is very odd, because for some time now, my wanderlust has stoked in me this deep inner urge to visit New York.
I would have to talk to Brother Theo.
While he's in deep meditation, I've been made custodian of his rabbit.
Lucky rabbit.
Uh, it was my mom's.
God, you can be such a bitch sometimes.
Yeah.
Eppes.
All right, all right, all right, I'm on my way.
Did you recognize any of them, Miss Simms? It all happened so fast, I didn't even see them.
What about before? Did you see anyone hanging around, watching Ella? Everyone.
I mean, she's Ella.
Right.
Thanks very much.
Mm-hmm.
Straight-up grab? Yeah, with flash grenades and automatic weapons, and they were professional enough not to hurt anyone.
Well, a lot of witnesses.
And not a good one in the bunch.
It's not any ordinary club kid.
It's Ella Pierce.
What, that rich kid? The party girl? Someone's been trolling Internet fan sites.
Her father is Warren Pierce.
He's worth, like, $2 billion.
He's got textile factories in every country in the world without a minimum wage.
He been notified? I talked to him on his plane en route to Aspen.
He's on his way back.
Uh-huh.
How you doing? Jeff Upchurch.
Hi, there.
Critical Incident Response.
Hey.
Don Eppes.
I was on my way to Guadalajara, and they rerouted me.
I'm guessing I was the nearest specialist in the area, so Specialist in what? You guys do, what, ten, Mexico City, I do 15 a month.
Work kidnappings Europe, Asia, Afghanistan.
It's always different, always the same.
So, what's different about this one? I don't know yet.
But the big money snatches tend to put you in contact with a higher class of lowlife.
If they know their business, and I'm certainly guessing they do, we're looking at simultaneous movement, expected payouts, bargaining strategies.
Lot of variables here.
You guys talking about imperfect information games? Checking in You must be Professor Eppes.
Hi.
Bureau gave me a copy of the action report from the Che Lobo kidnapping last year.
Got to tell you, I'm very impressed with the maze math.
Thanks.
Could use some similar inspiration here.
Sounds like you might have already started.
You were just talking about game theory? I was.
Assuming that our kidnappers are experienced, or they have benefited from the experience of other kidnappers, we can use an optimization method here called a tabu search, which is basically a way of excluding bad data.
Places where the kidnappers won't go to isolate where they will go.
I guess that's w they call it tabu, right? These kidnappers- they're like a group of hikers.
But they've mapped out a very specific route.
That route is complicated by the terrain, by the density of foliage, by dangerous animals, by water barriers.
They deal with these obstacles using their experience, using the accuracy of their maps, their needs.
And a tabu search can pinpoint the optimal route that the hikers can then choose.
Now, assuming that our kidnappers' goal is the safe collection of a ransom, I can interpret their methodology; I can predict their actions.
Okay.
How soon? Not a lot of information here, you know? My projections are going to be fairly general.
But as always, the more data that comes in, the more helpful I can be.
Yeah.
Eppes.
Key's still in the ignition.
I got something.
Check this out.
Warren Pierce is a criminal, a ruthless parasite who lives off the backs of the workers he exploits.
His debt to society has come due, and if he doesn't pay it the People's Nationalist Agenda will take it in the blood of his daughter.
We'll contact Mr.
Pierce with our demands at noon today.
?Agenda, aka the PNA.
Anti-corporate, anti-free trade.
Anti-Warren Pierce.
The guy who runs the Web site- he calls himself Santee, but the Bureau's counterterrorism unit- they don't have a face to go with that name.
They don't even think it's one person.
Thing is, we don't even have any identifiable members.
I mean, the banners go up at antiglobalization protests, somebody spray-paints "PNA" at a vandalized construction site, but there doesn't seem to be any re, centralized organization.
All right, so maybe they're just messing with us, you know? Maybe they're just hiding behind these guys.
Okay, so the van used in the abduction was registered to a Diamond Lane Rentals, reported stolen last week.
Start with anyone who'd know the girl's schedule, right? That's got to be half of Los Angeles.
Yeah, the good-looking half.
These celebrity socialites- they live electronically, so, I'll go deep on the e-mails, text messages, phone logs, the works.
Yeah, good.
So what happened last night? I don't know.
You know, it was late, and I took the call.
I thought I'd let you sleep.
That's it? That's all you're going to give me? That's all there is.
Look, Don, we both know things haven't been clicking nce Leah was killed.
I think you just wanted me out of your face for a few hours, right? I don't know.
Look, even if that's true, is it that big a deal? It's something to talk about, yeah.
Well, I mean, I'm in the middle of a kidnapping here.
Come on.
All right.
You know, I'll just wait for a bank robbery.
Ever since Ella became a media darling, a power partier, I've been waiting for something like this to happen.
And you never saw to it that she got any security? She turned down bodyguards.
Said any kidnapper would pay to give her back after two days.
And with the joke, you let the issue drop? That's not at all what I meant.
Anything Ella ever asked for, ever needed, I've always given her gladly.
What you need to understand, Mr.
Pierce, is that ransom is enough business to make a fellow like yourself confused.
Meaning? Kidnappers will position.
They will establish bargaining power.
Gentleman such as yourself that's used to calling the shots, used to winning You're asking me to be humble.
I'm asking you to be smart.
Okay, this is what we talked about.
Want to stay calm, engaged.
Keep them on the phone as long as possible.
Is everybody ready? Whenever you are, sir.
Hello.
If this isn't Warren Pierce, Ella Pierce is as good as dead.
Who are you? Don't ask who I am.
Ask how much I want.
I need to know my daughter is all right.
Dad? Daddy? Ella? Demand 1: shut down all of your company's sweatshops operating in the Third World.
If it's me you want Demand 2: $40 million in restitution paid to the thousands of men, women and children your company has exploited in the Third World.
I'll give you $10 million.
In a secured Swiss account.
Guy's using a sat phone.
He's bouncing the signal.
What the hell was that? A counteroffer.
You're lowballing on your daughter's life? I talked to him in a language he understands.
Do you understand that they hung up on you? That you put your daughter's life in more danger? He'll call back.
And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to make arrangements for payment.
Guys like that- it's all about money and power.
Actually, that was the right call, straight out of the playbook.
He pays too much, too fast, too soon, PNA's going to figure they didn't ask enough.
They're going to come back looking for more.
You really think he could be operating out of your playbook? You got a different theory? That his daughter's just another negotiable asset.
You get this out of your favorite head shop? No, Charles.
This cannot be purchased in any shop.
I've constructed my own Hero's fountain.
Named after Hero of Alexandria, the Greek mathematician and engineer.
You see, once the pressure is right, the water will flow under its own power.
And how is this part of your achieving Zen, Larry Einstein said religion should arise from the experience of all things natural and spiritual in a meaningful unity.
Now, made from the parcels of my former self, this fountain perfectly analogizes the seamless integration of both my physical and spiritual lives.
Shouldn't you be at the FBI? The kidnapping is all over the news.
Oh.
Yeah.
The ransom negotiation cut short, so I may need to rethink my tabu search.
Maybe weight the data with a Bayesian prior.
While I condone none of the major felonies, do have to say, kidnapping- that does hold a certain conceptual intrigue, this business of affixing value to a human life.
Oh, I think it's almost there.
Observe, Charles: water rising to a new level, as is my own hope.
I'm out of here.
It dawned on me while I was looking at Larry's Zen rock garden.
What? Larry has a Zen rock garden? Yeah, actually, it was his Hero fountain that got me going, but it's an even longer story.
Let's reconsider my hiker analogy, all right? Uh-huh.
And think of a mudslide falling in front of the hikers.
It changes terrain, it changes their direction.
Right, okay.
So my tabu search accounted for the kidnappers following a planned path, but with Pierce's counteroffer, they've had to break off contact.
They've essentially been detoured.
They have to find a new way to get to their waterfall.
We're expecting them to make another ransom-oriented decision, to hike around the mudslide, right? But I-I think they're going to abandon that path completely.
I think they're going to find another way.
Everyone down on the ground! Open the safe.
So what do you think, kill the Pierce girl and go underground? Oh, that would be giving up.
Essentially turning around.
I based my analysis on the information the PNA put up on their Web site: their stated goals, their state of mind.
I think they're going to going to bulldoze through this mudslide.
I think they're going going to do something sudden, something violent, something completely unexpected.
All right, so the safe holds cash deliveries from payroll trucks and they drop off two to $300,000 a day.
But these geniuses hit two hours after the money went to the bank.
So they got six, maybe seven grand in petty cash.
Not the hit they were hoping for.
are really synchronized; it suggests a high degree of discipline, a high degree of conviction.
Let's not dance around it.
What are we thinking here? Judging by the way she's balancing that rifle, my money says it isn't even loaded.
That girl could be holding a gun behind her back.
I mean, look at this face.
That is the face of a scared little girl.
So they lose the ransom, they hit Pierce's business, but I don't get why drag the girl along? Puts her in the line of fire.
Human shield, maybe it's their counteroffer to Pierce.
They placed her in deliberate frame of that security camera.
They want us to see her face.
They're asserting dominance.
I think they just want to violate Pierce and show him that they control his destiny.
That looks like an alpha to me.
Think he's our mythical Santee? Warner.
What? Pierce just e-mailed the PNA's Web site and told them he isn't paying.
I've dealt with rogue governments, guerilla fighters, organized crime.
They all understand the rules of negotiation.
If these animals aren't going to speak to me in a language I can understand Well, that's why I'm here, sir.
To help translate.
Look, we both know that if I cave in, they're going to bleed me dry.
And still won't get Ella back.
That's always possible.
So what was my choice? Well, you had a couple of options, sir, the worst of which was negotiate with the PNA without talking to me first.
So you think I should back down? Tell them I'll pay.
No, you change your direction too quick, it's just going to confuse them.
We definitely don't want these guys panicking.
The next move is theirs.
Let's just hope it's not killing your daughter.
You don't have much of a bedside manner.
Must be why I don't get invited to many parties.
Still trying to break into Ella Pierce's e- mail account.
It turns out it's encrypted.
It's locked with a software tool used primarily by IT programmers at major corporations.
That's funny, huh? I mean, why would she be doing that? If you don't, that stuff will turn up on some online celebrity gossip site.
You know the whole world knows your business.
Let me ask you something.
I mean, not about this.
About Liz? Yeah, how'd you know? You asked permission to ask.
Hey, I got to end it.
I mean, it's just way too complicated with work.
The thing is, every time I do, we end up in bed.
Hey, man, you guys work funky hours, long stakeouts, you're dodging bullets together.
It sounds like adrenaline.
I mean, adrenaline is great, but, you know, I don't know if that's a real relationship.
I'm sorry, you wanted to ask me a question.
I think you just answered it.
So what kind of lizard decides that his daughter isn't worth a fraction of his bank account? Loathe as I am to contradict you, the decision is so entirely out of character.
It suggests true emotional anguish.
Larry, what the hell would you know about his character? I think what he's simply pointing out is that Pierce has violated his own corporate game theory.
It's standard minimax.
It's a tug of war, a demonstration of brute strength between two opposing sides where one side can pull the other side across a center line.
However, after the competition started, one team can embarrass the other by letting go of the rope.
That team humiliates its opponent, but they've lost.
So essentially, Pierce has let go of his rope.
He's struck back in the way least likely to achieve a positive result.
Which runs counter to the instincts responsible for his corporate success, ergo my observation that his judgment is clouded by a high state of distress.
Yeah, but, Larry, I went through Ella's things, and I found letters from her father, throughout her childhood that were typed.
They were dictated to a secretary.
I know, because his secretary's name is cc'd on them.
What kind of father would do that? So you two just stick to the blackboard and I'll take care of the profiling.
I expect that from my brother.
Any idea what's going on there? Yeah, some.
So PNA put this up ten minutes ago.
The People's Nationalist Agenda is not to be taken lightly.
Their recent action towards my father's corrupt business interests are just a taste of what's to come until he responds to the PNA's demands.
Close the sweatshops.
Pay the ransom.
Sent directly to the national news outlets as well.
It'll be all over TV tonight.
So what, he piss on them, they piss on him? All right, meanwhile, we've made some headway on your alpha.
He's looking more and more like our "Santee.
" Facial recognition software connected him to several antiglobalization protests and then a gun store robbery in Seattle, two months ago.
Similar MO.
All the same characters.
My guess is that this is where they decided to graduate from tree hugging and disorderly conduct to heavy felonies.
The problem is that Santee managed to keep his nose clean, at least on paper.
There's no rap sheet, no ID.
Listen, um I know this isn't the right time to talk.
But I just want to make sure we make the time.
I think so, too.
I mean, uh We will.
Okay.
It's an MPEG file, and from its resolution, I think it came from a sat phone.
Okay, how does that help us? I mean, if we had a DTMF decoder it's a dual-tone multi-frequency.
It's touchtone.
You couldn't have just said that to begin with? Yeah, but it wouldn't have been as much fun.
The decoder works kind of like a prism.
Instead of refracting light into its individual frequencies, its component colors, the decoder separates the phone signal into different tones and numeric values.
From which we can then decipher the actual phone number.
Okay, where can we get one of these things? If the kidnappers are using a land line or a cell phone, you can buy a DTMF decoder from a consumer electronics store.
Right, but they're using a sat phone, so Hacking a satellite signal requires a little more sophistication, but I can put a unit together.
I mean, I built my first computer when I was 13.
I know my way around a circuit board.
And, you know, the Electrical Engineering Department has all the parts I need.
All right, so If they're using a satellite phone, this thing is going to tell us where they were, not where they are now, right? Yeah, that's why I've been patiently waiting here.
I think the additional information has helped my tabu search, and I think I have an idea where the PNA might show up next.
As far as hunches go, I certainly played worse.
They appear where he works, so his neighborhood could be next.
When it comes from Charlie, it's kind of a hunch-plus.
So I've heard.
Also heard some stuff about you.
Yeah, like what? You like to run with the tactical boys.
The first rough the door, that sort of thing.
Cowboy enough to get your name out there, but not unsafe.
I just had a few things on my mind, man.
Kicking in doors and dodging bullets? That's my kind of therapy.
I came up through Special Forces.
Nearly bounced off the walls in that damn field office.
You ever consider going for the adrenaline fix full-time? You get to travel, leave the paperwork to guys like Well, you.
MAN Report of a silent alarm at 7626 East Ellendale.
Ellendale, that's two blocks from here.
It's also Harper Simms' address.
That's Ella Pierce's friend.
FBI! Nobody moves! Let me see your hands! You in the car! Up! Let me see them hands! Back off! It's never gonna happen.
What the hell just happened here? Looks like our rescue mission just turned into a manhunt.
? us what you saw.
They were waving guns around.
Yelling I thought I was going to die.
And Ella? Was showing them where everything was the cash, my mom's jewelry, the safe.
She was acting like the brat that she is, except with a gun.
And that loser Steffen, calling himself Santee now You, uh, you recognized Santee? Yes.
Steffen Cavani- the stoner we went to high school with.
Come on! She's totally with him.
Yes and no.
How no? She's young and she's vulnerable, and she hasn't had any contact with anyone outside of heraptors.
What, like, brainwashing? She would not be the first person to identify with her victimizers and then act accordingly.
She's with them a day and a half.
You have no idea how quickly someone's will can be broken.
Mr.
Pierce.
You have my full cooperation.
Thank you.
The sooner Ella's apprehended, the sooner my legal team can prepare her defense.
Wow.
There's no "There must be some kind of mistake," or "My daughter's not capable of that?" Do you have children? Do you? I did some background.
After your wife died, your daughter came into a large inheritance and sued for emancipation.
Ella went through a great deal after her mother's death, and she lashed out at me.
Yeah, and you lashed back with a team full of lawyers and put her back inside her glass jar.
She was a 16-year-old girl, emotionally overwrought, and I was not going to let her ruin her life.
No, you were just going to hold her hostage instead.
It is a small wonder she is identifying with her kidnappers.
It's probably the only love she's ever know.
All right, all right.
Hey.
Hey.
How goes the decoder? Who knew tracing a phone call could do so much damage to a manicure? What? Is it wrong to get turned on at the sight of you in goggles and rubber gloves? Oh, damn it.
Whoa.
Are you all right? Yeah.
That's the third circuit I've blown today.
I've got a spare in my office.
I'll be back.
Okay.
Excuse me, Professor.
Oh, hey.
Is that a decoder? Yeah, this is it.
Not exactly what I imagined after reading some of your more ethereal musings on cake-cutting theory, I've got to tell you.
Well, sometimes cake is a series of algorithms that help formulate an analysis.
And other times, cake is just cake.
Listen, I wanted to spitball something at you about that Tabu search.
It's funny you mention that because I've been giving it some thought.
It's quite possible that the PNA's tactical shift might actually help us.
Hittinthe house makes no tactical sense whatsoever.
I agree.
It's like your hikers just It's like they decided to chase after a butterfly.
You know what? That's a great analogy.
Because once the hikers veer off, chasing after that butterfly, they reveal the butterfly's path with the evidence that they leave in their wake- with footprints and with broken branches.
That evidence allows me to analyze their tactics using decision analysis.
Figure out which butterfly they're chasing.
Steffen Cavani.
He went to high school with Ella Pierce and Harper Simms.
Gets expelled from Berkeley after a semester for disruptive behavior, then falls straight off the grid.
The techs finally cracked Ella Pierce's e-mail account.
Turns out her and Cavani have been going back and forth for nearly a year.
You have to listen to this stuff.
"Can't believe you're the same guy in Moscowitz' history class.
"If I'd known the real you, I would've jumped you a long time ago.
" Lots more where that came from, all in the same vein.
All right, so, what, she hooks up with the loser guy and hides it from Harper.
He starts working on her poor little rich girl complex, makes her feel guilty about Daddy's sweatshops.
Sounds like Megan's department.
Yeah, well, Megan's on a little bit of a time out, so Again? What about the dead shooter? Reggie Woods, 25.
String of arrests for disorderly conduct, mostly related to antiglobalization rallies in Seattle.
Reggie was busted in Glendale His partner in crime was Lucas Cavani, who purely coincidentally happens to be Steffen's cousin.
We've got a call into his parole officer.
Delivery van.
You still purging the office? I'm trying to find suitable homes for the material shards of my past that no longer inform my present.
Now, it seemed to me you an affection Respighi's Ancient Airs and Dances.
Oh, thank you.
Still no respite from the case? Oh, Ella Pierce was kicked out of boarding schools from New York to Lausanne.
I got DUIs, stint in rehab.
It's like a textbook example of trying to draw love from her father through negative attention.
Unless I'm just seeing too much of myself in the case.
As your friend, I would not presume to speculate, particularly given our last exchange on the matter.
Oh, Larry, I'm I'm really sorry about that.
I had no right to snap at you.
I mean, maybe you could just not be my friend for a minute and tell me the truth.
Mm You know, I've always been cautious in addressing the issues you have with your father.
Well, I know there's profound pain there.
But having said that, it is surprising to me that humanity was able to arrive so quickly at a correct model of the solar system.
There's this driving tendency to orient the universe in rotation around well, our own little world.
Thanks for the Respighi.
Lucas, FBI! Open up! Yeah, nice try, Frank.
I'll have your rent tomorrow.
Get up against the wall! I want to see your hands! Against the wall! I didn't do anything.
Hey Reggie Woods is dead.
What? He made a mistake of pointing a gun in my general direction.
Your cousin happened to be standing right next to him.
Steffen? Yeah.
Oh, man, that idiot.
He hasn't been right since he got involved with that bitch.
Ella Pierce? Yeah, I guess you never get over the one who wouldn't talk to you in high school.
I'm all for fighting the power, but she talked scary way above my tolerance.
That's why I got some distance.
You can check, whatever you want to check.
I don't run with those guys anymore.
Yeah, so where do they run? Reggie told me they had a squat in East LA, near the freeway.
That was a few months ago, though.
While you're out there fighting the power, try recycling.
Something Larry said got me thinking about a misspent youth.
You and Larry warming up again? I think we're making our way off the back burner.
Hmm.
How are you and Don? How's that been going? Trying not to get burned.
It's a challenge.
I think you should get hazard pay for even trying.
Speaking of, I got a seduction going on here in these e-mails, only Ella seems to be the aggressor.
She flatters Santee, she speaks to his political convictions, he mostly agrees with her.
He begs her for sex.
Certain words jumped out.
How the hell would he even get near a girl like this? She's famous, she's insulated by money and privilege, and he barely registers outside of the website.
It's a lot easier for the "it" girl to reach out to the class burnout.
Which is also the perfect instrument to lash out at her father.
Oh, God.
Ella must have planned this whole thing.
So I used decision analysis to reset the parameters of my predictive model.
I factored in the impulse motive of the PNA.
Find our butterfly? Yeah, my analysis keeps pointing back to Warren Pierce.
So why did they hit Harper Simms' house? It seems to predicate on opportunity and familiarity.
Look, they're attacking locations that Ella Pierce can facilitate.
So what's the next inside job? I can answer that.
Intel says this posted in the last ten minutes.
I have seen the harm and wrong my business practices have caused to the great working peoples of the world.
I call on my board of directors to immediately dismantle my factories, for my bank to dissolve all of my assets immediately.
Warren Pierce Industries has 24 hours to show us their sincerity.
In the great struggle for world justice,? to divest all interests in Asia and Latin America and donate the proceeds to relief agencies.
As of tomorrow, Warren Pierce Industries will cease to exist.
I don't understand.
I thought we had eyes on the guy.
We did, but we pulled them all when this stopped being a kidnapping.
And he has his own security.
Well, where were they? He's buying time.
The board will never go along with dissolving his company.
Yeah, but he's out of time.
His refusal to pay the ransom pushed her over the edge.
Daddy didn't play with her her whole life.
If he doesn't play with her now There's only one way this is going to end up for Pierce.
How's it going, guys? Good, good.
We're almost there.
We've intercepted the PNA's upload of Pierce's communique to their website, and she's running it through the decoder.
I isolated the CDMA code, and separated the information on the MPEG.
And this is gonna lead us to where the signal was transmitted from, right? Mm-hmm.
Provided we don't blow another circuit.
Okay, I got a lock on the phone number North 34 degrees, west 118 degrees, That's East L.
A.
Cavani said they were squatting near the freeway.
Ah, there it is.
Knocking on the door from 300 miles above Earth.
We're about to knock a lot harder.
David, talk to me- you got a visual? I have Piee.
Confirming five bad gu: three men, two women, including Ella Pierce.
Liz? Locked and loaded- we're in position.
Hey.
I've got the Web cam set up, and I'm hacking into the PNA Web site.
All right, good.
Now, listen, Megan, you know, if this girl is in your head She is- that's why I'm the best person for the job.
Any word? Nothing.
Looks like the old man's been lying to us, trying to save his ass.
Time's running out, dude.
Ella, we gotta do something.
Show him we're not messing around.
Maybe if we start sending him back in pieces.
Why are you doing this? It's what Pierces do- taking control of your life, telling you what to do with your money.
We're in.
Steffen Steffen Cavani, this is Agent Megan Reeves from the FBI.
We have the house surrounded.
Take the perimeter! I got nothing to say.
You're gonna have to let Piece go.
Why, so you can blow us all away? So maybe you're not going to spend threst of your life behind bars.
Steffen, I know this whole thing wasn't your idea.
I know Ella roped you into it.
What are you talking about? She's the heiress to a multibillion-dollar empire, Steffen.
Don't you think she could've just written a $40-million check to a relief agency? Do you really think she cares about sweatshops? They paid for her Maserati.
She's trying to divide us.
Steffen, the only thing she cares about is hurting her father.
You're just the ride to the prom.
She's got other plans for the night.
No more talk! I think I lost them.
Ella, what are you doing? All right, we fire over their heads, fire over their heads! I want them walking out of here! Roger that.
David, talk to me.
No target acquisition, Don- they're too dug in.
Not all of 'em.
Two boys, two girls left.
Ella! They're going to kill you! Who cares? You already killed me, just like you killed Mom.
She didn't die from the cancer, she just didn't want to live in that house any more! You know that's not true! Your mother wanted to live! I promised her I would take care of you! By trapping me in your world? Honey, please! You turned me into a tabloid princess, a punchline on David Letterman, all so you could sell some damn clothes! Well, now you're in my headline.
Please! If this escalates, we scare them into shooting Pierce.
All right, let's go- tear gas 'em, tear gas 'em! They're not gonna let us out of here! Do not punk out on me now, Steffan.
I have had enough of people making promises they won't keep.
Let's go, let's go, let's go.
I got two coming out.
Come here! Come here.
All right, we got 'em.
we got 'em, we got 'em.
The rest of you inside, you have 15 seconds to come out with your hands up in the air.
It's over.
Don't do it, Steffan! I'm bringing out Pierce! Don't shoot! You're not leaving me! I don't see Ella.
Shots fired! Shots fired! David? No, there's too much smoke.
In the arm? What kind of cowboy is that? Not a cowboy.
Just a field agent.
Don't say anything.
Don't say anything, honey.
I have the best lawyers! I love you, too, Dad.
Hey.
Hey.
So it got pretty hairy out there today, huh? Yeah, well Loquacious, as always.
You want to order some food? What are we doing? Tonight? Look, the last few days, we've tried to talk, and, you know, now I just I feel tired.
I think we just keep coming back out of habit you know? I don't want to feel like we lead each other on.
I mean, you deserve so much more than that and I just keep screwing these things up.
See you tomorrow, boss.
You managed to bring the monastery with you.
It's calming.
Well, feel free to find your center here, anytime you wish.
Every time I think I'm over my father or my childhood, I I think I let this case take me for a ride.
Struggle is not altogether a bad thing.
The charged particles of the solar wind require heat and combustion to escape the gravitational pull of the sun.
From tumult comes freedom.
You have this great way of making my neuroses sound cosmic.
My center is back east, so I'm gonna go visit my dad.
I already booked the airplane ticket, it's nonrefundable You want to come with me? Oh, really? Um are you serious? I don't know, it just sort of came out.
I guess not.
This is very odd, because for some time now, my wanderlust has stoked in me this deep inner urge to visit New York.
I would have to talk to Brother Theo.
While he's in deep meditation, I've been made custodian of his rabbit.
Lucky rabbit.