Spooks s06e01 Episode Script

Ebrahim! prime minister has offered an olive branch to a nation his predecessor refused to rule out invading.
The home secretary is with me.
This regional charter for stability.
The prime minister's talked of a turning point in British relations with Iran.
It's been greeted positively but with all the hostile rhetoric and flashpoints of recent months can there ever be lasting peace with Iran? - Can it be achieved? - Yes, it can.
I'll call you in a minute.
The PM set out his stall when he began a direct dialogue with Tehran, something which no other western politician has attempted in recent years.
Iran and Great Britain are entering a new era, with a new relationship based on firm foundations, proving the cynics wrong.
You mean the Iranian hardliners who want to derail the whole process.
Can such strong opposition be overcome? Britain and Iran have worked hard to get here.
We have people in place whose job is to ensure that this opportunity for a lasting peace will not be brought down by violence.
yesterday's bomb blast in Tehran Come on.
We've got a meeting to go to.
We'll be late.
You're late.
- Sorry.
- OK.
You're conversant with events? That we may be on the brink of peace with Iraq? A brink to some is a precipice to others.
The closer we get, the less we can afford to let things go wrong.
What's the weather like out there? Zaf's reports from Tehran only mention expected rumblings from local dissidents.
- He's gonna maintain his position there.
- Ros? Most Iranians want the same accord as us, but I'm meeting with an asset who has something for us.
Any idea what? For all I know, an invitation to his daughter's wedding, - but he is a good source.
- Follow that up.
Adam? I'm maintaining watch and ward on the Iranian special consul's movements via his wife.
It's quiet.
Long may it remain that way.
So go to it.
Oh, Adam.
The review board have passed on your latest psychiatric assessment.
It seems you've made good progress in the last few sessions.
Good.
I'm glad to hear it.
Working in this field it's important to have some kind of equilibrium.
Come on, Harry, who are you kidding? No one in this place has time for a real life.
Adam, she's on her way.
She's not what I imagined.
She's half English.
They met and married in London.
She's not very popular in Tehran, but he is, so she's tolerated.
Does anyone ever come in here to actually buy a book? Please my security detail is outside.
When can I see you again? You're seeing me now.
You know what I mean.
I wish I could but next week I have the glorious total of one free evening and only because we're cancelling an engagement.
He's going to the country on Thursday.
Adam, that's the night of the Anglo-Persian Forum.
Why would he miss that? An attack in London.
Mehan Asnik.
Iranian Intelligence.
A great deal of blood on his hands.
Iraqi, European and Iranian, naturally.
He's planning a trip to London.
I thought we were all friends now.
- Under what name? By what route? - We don't know.
What we do know if Asnik's leaving Iran, atrocity's not far behind him.
I need more on your source.
Look, intelligence on Asnik isn't easy to come by.
What we've established is this: Tomorrow he leaves Tehran.
We know what time, what train.
After that, it goes cold.
Here he is.
The honeytrap.
- How was your day? - It had its ups and downs.
You? One of the Iranians Zaf's been keeping an eye on for Operation Greenleaf - is planning a trip to London.
- Which one? Asnik's tried and failed to disrupt this process inside Tehran.
- He's not coming to London to shop.
- Do we have times and places? All we know is that his departure's imminent inside the next 24 hours.
- And your source, Ros? - Always reliable so far.
I met with the special consul's wife today, sounding out his diary.
He's cancelled his appointment on Thursday at the Anglo-Persian Development Forum.
The first fruits of the peace process.
It's a prime target.
There's no evidence to link Bakhshi with Asnik's cause.
He may've been ordered out of the city on Thursday, which suggests that it could be the scene of the attack.
Get me the home secretary's secure line.
The intelligence secured was part of a foreign infiltration.
It can't be independently corroborated.
It's in the nature of these things.
You can't be entirely sure.
Harry, the PM's barely warmed his chair yet, but he's made it abundantly clear that he's the peacemaker, the waver of olive branches.
If this lunatic's a threat to all that, why hasn't Tehran stamped on him? He's protected.
Operation Greenleaf has exposed the division inside Iranian Secret Services.
The reactionary element, the diehards, are opposed to the peace deal.
Whatever his personal motivation, Asnik is still an agent of the Iranian state.
If he attacks London, it means Iran attack London.
You know how close we are, Harry.
Asnik can't be permitted to step onto British soil, let alone unleash his carnage here.
Are we clear? Asnik is about to destroy the peace process with Iran, so deal with him.
Over there.
Zaf's told us that Asnik hasn't visited any of his known addresses in the last 72 hours, so our best intelligence points to the train he's taking.
- Bomb a civilian train? - Why not shoot him? The assassination must look like part of Iran's internal power struggle.
A bomb on a train fits their MO.
It mustn't lead back to us.
Not a trace.
You liaise with Zaf in Tehran tonight.
You're on the plane in one hour.
You courier the bomb to Zaf personally.
- Anything.
- Nothing.
If Asnik's on the move, he's doing it in silence.
Well, let's make it permanent.
Subject's boarding the train.
That's confirmation that the subject's boarded the train.
Adam, how many people in Asnik's carriage? - One or two.
Hard to be sure.
- Stay on line.
Have we re-tasked the satellite over Tehran? - Coming on line.
- We hit the train here, outside the city to keep casualties to their absolute minimum.
It's pulling out of the station.
- Hello? - Michael Lord? Jeff, hi.
Yeah.
Actually, I was just about to call you.
- Excellent.
No, it's looking good.
- Stand by.
OK.
I'll hold.
Ros.
The train's losing speed.
- It's stopping.
- What's its position? Still inside Tehran.
There's a second train.
That's slowing down too.
It's a passenger train coming into Tehran, re-routed.
This time of morning it'll be packed.
He's not taking chances.
He's swapping trains.
If he wants to lose any tail, he's about to succeed.
That'll be it till he attacks London.
- How many people are on that train? - You're looking at 30 deaths, possibly 40.
All of them civilians.
So we abort, right? Harry Pearce.
I want to speak to the home secretary.
I don't care, I need to speak to him now.
- The train has stopped.
- Hold your nerve.
- I'm compromised.
- You're not.
Maintain position.
An operation on foreign soil is one thing.
Killing civilians is another.
The alternative is something much worse.
The loss of British lives.
The loss of the greatest opportunity ever to put things right in the Middle East.
By bombing? If I'm found with this, do you know what they'll do to me? Stay with the vial till it's time to make the switch.
Just hold your nerve, Mehan.
Jeff This is not to be negotiated.
So, you go ahead.
You do your job and you swallow it.
Harry? Proceed with the operation.
Zaf The train's a few hundred metres away.
Get your head down and go.
Everybody, there's a bomb.
Get under your desks.
Now! Now! Detonation confirmed.
I know this is not why any of you joined the service.
Well done, everyone.
- Casualties? - Nobody's getting close.
It's like Area 51.
- What's the story with the second train? - The intelligence was imperfect.
We think Asnik had planned on making a switch.
Look, Zaf, I know it was a difficult call, but the point of the operation was to fabricate an inside job.
Make it look like Iranian spies killing Iranian spies.
You warned that whole office.
If that gets back to the wrong people, this entire operation is blown.
The consequences of that? If the Iranians discover what we've done And what would you have done, Adam? Do not move! Stand still! That's Mehan Asnik! He's still alive.
I am Mehan Asnik! I'm here to defect! I'm here to defect! My name is Mehan Asnik.
I'm here to defect.
They lied to you.
I never made an atrocity.
Your intelligence is gravely in error.
Why would I detonate a bomb in London? Your country and mine, we actually seem to be getting somewhere.
- Why should I undermine that? - Peace doesn't interest men like you.
Men like us, you mean? If so, know yourself for a liar because men like us, you know what we are.
We are peacemakers.
We would trade those we love, in order to save them.
You know this.
I'm a traitor.
A double agent.
I've been leaking intelligence.
Iran's missile acquisition.
Her nuclear programme.
Working for who? The Russians? The Americans? Israel? - For peace.
And for money.
- Whose money? My handler is codenamed Copenhagen.
Copenhagen instructed me to be on that train.
- As it turns out, there was a bomb on it.
- Intended for you.
No.
My death was to be entirely incidental.
Copenhagen had another motive for destroying that train.
What do you mean, Mehan? - Who's Copenhagen? - Take me to London.
Today.
Now.
And I will explain.
Asnik had no intention of attacking London.
Someone used us to take him out.
- Why? - I don't know, but he's scared.
Of whom? He claims his handler's codenamed Copenhagen.
Let's assume he's not lying.
That means Copenhagen manipulated Ml5 into doing his dirty work, so we urgently need to establish who he's working for.
- And his agenda.
- To achieve that we have to bring him in.
All the airports and border crossings are closed, - but Zaf's organised a plane from Turkey.
- Bring him in.
Scenes of panic and confusion throughout the streets of Tehran today.
It is proving unusually difficult to get any hard information about the blast.
The army have put a cordon around the entire area and are preventing access to press and the public.
From the roof of our hotel I can see fleets of ambulances streaming away from the site of the explosion where a huge plume of smoke hangs in the air.
The unusual way that the army are dealing with this catastrophe certainly does mark it out as unique.
The question is, why are the authorities treating this incident so differently, and why the news blackout? Ros.
Sit down.
Mani's intel was bad.
Asnik had no intention of attacking London.
- Harry, if I screwed up - We all screwed up.
And it seems we may also have been set up.
Pull in Mani.
- Find out about his source in Iran.
- Done.
Melanie, it's Miriam.
If you're not here in five minutes, I'm coming looking for you.
Do you understand? Harry.
Thanks for coming along.
Please, sit.
Trust me, you're gonna need a drop.
They're thrown a massive cordon sanitaire around the train.
They're erecting field hospitals.
Far more capacity than can be explained away by a modest bomb blast.
Old friend, I think we've got a big problem.
This is ears only, OK? I'm stretching my discretionary powers to the limit here.
Mid 1980s, we sold bio-weapons to Saddam.
A little deniable Doomsday package for use on Tehran, if it should become expedient.
What sort of bio-weapons? Strain E-34.
This is bad stuff, incubates in 18 hours.
After that, the carrier coughs up blood.
He infects anyone he comes near.
All this stuff does, it kills people.
And I think maybe your guy in Tehran just blew open a case of it.
Zaf.
Zaf.
Comms are down.
We must've been hit by a magnetic pulse weapon.
It's knocked out the electrics.
Turn around! Turn around! Back to the airport.
Now.
- What happened? - The electronics are dead.
We were hit with a pulse weapon.
EMP, HMP maybe.
It must be Copenhagen's men trying to recover Asnik.
- How the hell did Iran get hold of it? - The border's like the Wild West.
Some Iraqi general wants to retire to Dubai, some scientist's got it buried in his backyard, he's after making a buck.
- How can you be sure it's E-34? - Who's sure? We're applying Occam's Razor here.
You've got a cordon sanitaire in Tehran, you've got NBC suits, no sign of radiation leakage.
So we gotta be looking at bio-weapons.
Who supplied the only known bio-weapon in the area? We did.
Run down the checklist, chances are this is our baby.
How very proud you must be.
- L-I need to say something.
- Not now! Yes, now.
I think I'm sick.
I think I'm very sick.
As far as we're aware, we picked up every last cubic ounce of E-34, so smart money says the Iraqis managed to culture this strain, and if they did that, they probably also pimped it a little.
- "Pimped" it? - Tinkered around.
Modified it.
- Modified it how much? - Enough.
I was infected when the train exploded.
I'd planned to be in quarantine long before I became infectious.
- How long before that happens? - I'm not infectious until I cough blood.
Are you telling me you don't have a cure for it? I'm telling you the chances are, no one does.
This thing, it's an abomination.
Turn left here.
We've got to get him to a safe house.
- Ros.
- Harry, my source Mani There's no sign of him.
Not at the rendezvous, home, work - He's either disappeared - Or he's been disappeared.
Listen, Ros.
The point of all this wasn't to assassinate Asnik.
Somebody used him and us to release a biological weapon in Tehran.
- A what? - Someone wants to wreck any prospect of peace with Iran.
Asnik wasn't meant to survive the bomb, but he did.
There's every chance he has the virus.
18 hours after exposure he becomes contagious.
We've got two hours to prevent an outbreak that will kill thousands.
Contact Adam and Zaf, get Asnik into quarantine immediately.
- We've lost power.
- Shit.
The car is armour-plated.
We stay inside till we've assessed their numbers and position.
Armour plating is no good against a rocket-propelled grenade.
Yeah, thanks for that, Mehan.
We stay, we go.
Neither option's perfect.
Scott, try and make it back to the others.
- See if you can call it in, somehow.
- Got it.
- That was a double tap.
Automatic weapon.
- Classic special forces.
He's down.
We've got a serious problem.
We know they're due south.
Take Asnik.
Head north.
Get back to the airport.
- We'll go south.
- All right.
- You ready? - Yeah.
Let's go.
Get up.
It's self-corrected.
Oh, God! Get checked out by a medic before reporting back here.
That's an order.
Where are they? They were ambushed.
Both Asnik and Zaf were taken.
- By who? - A snatch squad.
Well trained.
Possibly Copenhagen, working this end.
Now, putting aside our concerns for our fellow officer, we know that Asnik is carrying a highly-contagious virus.
If we don't find him in the next few hours, that pathogen will break free from its host and start spreading across London, and the only option will be national quarantine and burial pits.
We need to find Asnik.
Special Consul.
Thank you for meeting me.
- Pleased to meet you again, Mr Pearce.
- Harry, please, and likewise.
This catastrophe.
Obviously the nature of it is somewhat of an embarrassment to Tehran, and less than fortunate, given the improving relationship between our two countries.
There'll be a lot of rhetoric from the United Nations and the United States.
Rhetoric? There will be renewed sanctions and weapons inspections.
And the intelligence services.
Yours, ours, all of them on high alert.
It's due in no small part to your own efforts that we came very close to something momentous.
I suggest that you and I try to minimise this new tension - and avoid any misunderstanding.
- Thank you for your message.
Forgive me if I have no assurances to offer in response.
Not today, when we're still counting the dead.
- Adam.
- I'm fine.
Asnik was asymptomatic, but he won't be for long, so we must find him before he infects Zaf.
What've we got? Nothing.
Special Branch is searching all buildings in a five-mile radius.
There's no CCTV footage.
All we've got is this.
Zaf's phone self-corrected and rebooted for a few moments.
This operation's been put together in a hurry.
The tactics, equipment These men were mercenaries.
- Go in close on the final image.
- I've already tried.
The ghillie suit's standard.
He's wearing camo paint under the mask.
- He doesn't speak, there's nothing to go on.
- What's that? It's a grenade.
How close can you go? Centre on the firing pin.
- This here.
Can you clean that up? - It'll take time.
Not too much.
This could be the only link to the mercenaries and Zaf.
- Ana.
- Peter.
- I've just seen the news.
How are you? - How do you think? To see Iran get so close, then see it thrown away again by men of violence.
Could it be germ warfare? It hardly matters, does it? All that matters is more people are dead.
I hate to hear you like this, but it's really busy for me at work.
Could we meet later? - I mean, we need to talk about this.
- How can I? OK.
I understand.
If you change your mind just call me, OK? Mood she's in, she'll tell me anything.
The trouble is, Adam, she doesn't know anything.
- And Mr Bakhshi? - They don't know what the hell happened.
How the virus came to be on the train or that we blew it up.
Well, that's something.
If the world learns we unleashed a bio-weapon in Tehran, the consequences will be catastrophic.
But God help us if anyone discovers you brought that virus back with you.
Thousands dead.
You gave the order which killed 40 people.
- Now your sole concern is passing blame - My sole concern is this country.
Intelligence-gathering is a game of imperfect information.
We can't be sure we've made the right guess until the game is over.
Oh, this game is over now, Harry.
Run this thing into the ground.
Stop it dead.
Before it stops us.
- Malcolm.
- I've got it.
It's a smoke grenade.
Manufactured in Switzerland.
Main batch was brokered in Helsinki via bogus companies in Chicago and Delaware.
But the end user is this man.
Nick Ronson.
Owner of Strategic Force, a private security company.
Katie? Katie? I let myself in, Nick.
Hope you don't mind.
Don't go tripping any alarms, Nick.
I won't be here long enough.
Come on, be nice.
I made coffee.
- Who are you? - No-names-no-pact drill.
Security services, then.
What flavour? Friendly.
For the moment.
Late yesterday or early today, you chartered out a snatch team.
Rush job.
I need you to contact them and bring them in.
- Come on - I have no time for niceties.
Contact them.
Bring them in.
Look.
All I do is I mediate.
Between buyers and sellers.
I put people in contact.
I'm a broker.
- Yeah.
I know every war criminal, petty dictator, assassin, scumbag warlord - you've ever brokered for - Then you'll know I'm an asset.
I've given Ml6 a lot of useful material over the years.
Yeah.
Exactly the kind of thing you'd like to keep from the clients you've so quietly sold down the river, because if they were to find out, well - You wouldn't blow an Ml6 asset.
- I would if it was worth it.
OK.
It's a weaponized virus.
It mimics pneumonic plague.
You're all infected.
And it's going to kill you.
The team's being led by Angus Leonard.
Special forces.
Good man, actually.
- Yesterday I got a call.
- By whom? An old contact.
Albanian.
I assumed it was, er you know, an Albanian thing.
- But this isn't an Albanian thing, is it? - Contact Leonard.
Bring him in.
Straight in.
He and his team stay in that truck.
They contact nobody.
You do as I say, you and Leonard walk away.
Fine.
He's dying.
And by now so are we.
Whoever hired you knew they were exposing you to this.
They were trying to kill you.
Pick your enemy.
The people who exposed you to this are Ml5.
I'm in Ronson's flat.
It was definitely his team.
- So, who hired them? - Some go-between.
Albanian.
It'll be a little while before I can give you anymore.
- So, what happened? - Sniper.
- Who? - The mercenaries covering their tracks, the Iranians, Copenhagen, or the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.
- Any news on the mercenaries? - Looking into Angus Leonard.
His service record is excellent and this isn't his usual job.
Other than that, there's nothing of much use.
We need to get to the people who hired the mercenaries.
That could be Copenhagen, or the Iranians.
Bakhshi's at a charity event today.
Get me routes from the embassy to the venue.
- Got it.
- No, no way.
- You'll lose your source.
The wife.
- We have two priorities.
Getting Zaf back and getting that virus off the streets.
We lose a few resources on the way, so be it.
What's going on? Pull over.
I'm an officer of the British Security Services.
Please open the door.
- I have something to say.
- Well, get in and say it.
I'm asking you to return our officer alive, before you make a mistake that can never be undone.
You are in Iranian diplomatic territory now.
This is Iran, Mr Carter.
Iran does not respond well to invasion.
Now, please leave.
Drive on.
Think we lost your embassy source.
Worth it? - Did you plant the device? - Yep.
- Then yes.
- They'll find it on the next sweep.
Time enough.
Yes.
Apparently there's been some aggressive operation in London.
Something of strategic value has been stolen and they've got an officer down.
It might have something to do with what happened in Tehran.
Yes.
Find out anything you can.
So, it wasn't the Iranians.
No.
You blew your source.
The special consul's wife is now useless to us.
Worse, she's now a liability.
- I know this is going to cause problems - Problems? - It was a studied risk.
- You forced your way into Iranian territory.
Best case, he wants your head on a stick.
Worst case, you've linked us to the bomb.
- We had to move quickly.
- Precipitously.
It wasn't the Iranians that hired the mercenaries.
- It was Copenhagen.
- Whoever that is It means that Zaf and Asnik are still in play.
They're still out there somewhere.
It's incubating inside you.
In a few hours, you'll be wishing to God you listened to me.
The only way to survive this - is Ml5.
- Do you have anything? Please.
You must have something for the pain! I'll still need my money.
You'll get your money.
Ronson was about to access information from it.
It's a biometric security matrix.
It's fingerprint recognition.
If I log on without that fingerprint, it'll destroy the hard drive.
Which is why I brought this along.
To point you in the right direction.
Er I'll go and fetch some tweezers.
Ros.
There's something you should see.
You've got one hour to free up £30 million and produce the vaccine for this disease.
Enough for eight men.
Don't waste time.
Don't try to find us.
We'll make contact in 60 minutes.
Jo, can you locate them? They're too good.
I've isolated elements of the ambient soundtrack, hoping for some positional indices.
- Any idea which airport? - None of them.
It's a recorded loop.
They know what we're looking for, which blind alleys to lead us down.
Asnik's lethal.
30 million's small change.
Money is not a problem.
The vaccine is.
We don't have it.
It doesn't exist.
They don't know that.
Let's give them a fake one.
They'll kill you when they find out.
What choice do we have? - Time's short.
- It's loaded with trip wires.
Secondary levels of encryption.
One misstep, I erase everything and maybe lose a hand too.
Adam is heading out into the unknown.
The data on here might give us working knowledge of who the mercenaries are.
We need any advantage, however slight.
Send one officer.
Send more than one officer, and everyone dies.
Including me.
There's an alley off Kenburn Road.
In that alley you'll find a cellphone.
Then you'll receive further instructions.
Ros, tell Adam we've heard.
- Good luck.
- Thanks.
- You scared? - Do I look scared? - Adam - You couldn't have known.
- It's my job to know.
- No.
It's your job to assess.
You assessed and we took appropriate action.
Besides I'm the one who brought this thing back.
How do you think I feel? Embarrassed.
Yeah.
So, I'm gonna contain this thing.
I'm gonna find Zaf, I'm gonna find Asnik, and after that, we sit down, you and I, we work out who did this to us.
Fake antidote.
Good luck.
Your bag.
You're carrying no listening devices? No trackers? No.
OK, strip.
Shoes first.
The false vaccine was loaded with Smart Dust, transmitters smaller than a grain of sand, activated by body heat.
Once they inject themselves, we'll know their position.
- What's their effective life? - About three minutes.
Until they inject it, we've no idea where they are.
None.
Out.
Move! Stand there.
Phone.
Catch.
I'm giving you details to a bank account.
Instruct your boss to deposit the money in it.
Not without proof of life.
Asnik.
Is he alive? Just.
Give me the details.
- Adam.
- Transfer the money into this account.
Right.
Enter the truck.
No, that's not what we agreed.
You've got your money, get me Asnik and my officer.
Oh, God! Up! Look I don't care who you are, I just want to stop this virus from spreading.
Get up.
Up.
Now! Move! I want to believe this is the vaccine, because I don't want to die.
Not like that.
Trouble is, you know that, don't you? So, if I injected you with it, what would happen? You wouldn't die, would you? Got them.
Jo, they're on the move.
They've turned into Bankford Road.
- That's two miles from you.
Your beast.
- OK.
Bankford Road.
There'll be at least seven of them, in a van or a truck.
I've got their signal.
- What are you doing? - Get out the way.
Get up! What are you doing? No! Don't! He'll infect everyone he passes.
We won't be able to control it.
- You'll kill thousands! - I'd rather Ml5 look for him than for me.
Don't! Don't do this! That man needs to be quarantined now! Right now! The signal's fading.
You've got a minute.
OK, I'm half a mile away.
Look, I warned you not to make us your enemy.
You stupid bastard! You stupid, stupid bastard.
Grenade! Shoot me and I'll let go of the firing mechanism.
You go up - and so does the vaccine.
- Zaf It's all right, mate.
Back off.
Back off! Don't think I'll hesitate.
OK.
What now? You let him go.
Pull over.
You heard him.
Go! We need Asnik off the streets and quarantined before it's too late.
Your priority is the safety of the people out there.
Go, Adam! Go! He lives or I come for you.
We all come for you.
Jo, can you trace them? Yeah, they're turning into Northlight Road.
Asnik! Asnik! Asnik! Have we got CCTV at Northlight Road? Northlight Road.
Here it is.
Adam's been injected with the Smart Dust.
He's calling Asnik's name.
Asnik's free.
He's in the wind.
We've lost him.
Asnik! Asnik! Asnik! So, it's finally happened.
After 300 years, a plague is loose in London.
Asnik! - What are the projections? - Half a million dead in a week.
We've got wild vectors.
Carriers we can't trace.
- We need time.
- We don't have time.
Just drive! If Cuvier's telling the truth it could lead us to Zaf.
That could lead us to Copenhagen.
It'll be spy on spy.
In 12 hours, you'll be on this quarantine ward.
- I need you.
- No, you don't.
One of my officers is about to die.
Use whatever leverage you have and get them to call off their dogs.