PITTSBURGH,PENNSYLVANIA
Hey, Ned, we're gonna hit the pierogi stand You coming?
I got to call home first
order me a potato and cheese, and no skimping on the sour cream
Got it
Hello?
- Cath, it's me - Tell me you got it
Last dancing robot in Pittsburgh
I had to wrestle it away from a hockey mom
Those chicks are tough
We are going to have one very happy birthday boy
Just don't be late for his party
I'll be there, I swear
Put him on, okay, I want to say hi
Johnny, Daddy's on the phone
Hey, Dad
Happy birthday, champ You excited?
This is gonna be the best birthday ever
Lot of pressure on Mom and Dad to keep topping ourselves,
but we'll give it a shot What do you say?
- Yeah - Buddy, you there?
Johnny
Help me
JEdgar Hoover Building WASHINGTON,DC
Damn it
Rachel Young?
Walsh
What's it been three years?
A-At least
I haven't seen you since Quantico
Well, what are you doing here?
You're looking at the new Special Agent in Charge of the WMD directorate
I am now one of the movers and shakers in the world of nuclear non-proliferation
Sounds exciting
So where'd you end up?
Finally land that spot you wanted at Counter Terrorism?
Not exactly
I landed at the Office of the Director
Top of the food chain Impressive
Actually, I'm more of a handler for someone at the top of the food chain
but our, our cases are unique
Well, like what? Give me a taste
Are, are you familiar with the parameters of electroporation?
Neural implants? How about porphyria enzyme de
- Hey, I got to run - ficiency syndrome?
Gentlemen
- It was great seeing you, Rachel - Yeah
We should grab a drink sometime, do some more catching up
Yeah
What?
- oversight at bio - waste facilities Now, I admit it's not very sexy
Sorry to interrupt
Dr Hood, you have an urgent call from the Pennsylvania State Health Department
Some guy named Rigdon
Pittsburgh EMTs responded to a demolition worker found in advanced respiratory distress
with multiple organ failure and other anomalous complications
Anomalous complications?
Ones that suggest he may well have been exposed to a highly toxic substance,
one not commonly seen
Right now, authorities have it categorized as a possible public health concern
How serious a concern?
It's hard to say till we get the specifics,
but it's definitely something he ate or drank,
something absorbed through the skin, something airborne
Best-case scenario, it's an isolated incident one victim, one quickly identifiable cause
And the worst-case scenario?
Suffice to say, really, really bad
So tell me about your old buddy Calvert Rigdon
Cal spent the last eight years heading up the Pennsylvania Health Department
Before that, he ran the National Center for Preparedness, Detection
and Control of Infectious Diseases at the CDC,
and before that, he was fighting typhus and yellow fever in Angola and Sierra Leone
Pretty impressive
Actually, his most impressive contribution was when he introduced me to my wife
Whoa, whoa, this is a restricted area
Don't shoot We're the good guys
I'm Dr Hood, Special Science Advisor to the FBI
Jacob
Cal
Afraid you're going to need these
Victim's name is Christopher Fisher
A member of the demolition clean-up crew found him this morning at around 10:00
He was dead by 11:00
What is this place?
Native Americans used to bury their dead here for centuries
Early settlers at Fort Pitt did the same
When the city expanded in the 19th century, it was buried under new construction
The demo team rediscovered it while clearing debris from the old foundation
Personnel log says Fisher was a licensed mortician?
Yeah, brought in to oversee the proper handling of all human remains
How long has he been here?
48 hours tops
So whatever we're dealing with is aggressive and fast
Initial contact to full-blown disease followed by death in a matter of days
That's the good news
Take a closer look
Oh, that's incredible
It's behaving like a hemorrhagic fever
Exactly
That sounds really bad
Well, only if you categorize extensive bleeding into the skin, mucous membranes,
and gastrointestinal tract, followed by heart failure, pulmonary edema,
and an agonizingly painful death as bad
Definitely bad
What are you thinking?
Well, if we're knee deep in the Congo rain forest, I'd posit Shigellosis,
Marburg virus, even Ebola, but Pittsburgh doesn't have the same exotic palette
It has to be something else
Like maybe a cave full of ancient, disease-riddled corpses?
Rachel, you may just have something
I was sort of kidding
No, I didn't mean about the corpses
No biological contagion could survive 200 years without subzero suspension,
but the cave itself, now, that's a different story
You're saying the cave is sick?
Radiation poisoning
Here? How is that possible?
In 1984, a worker at the Limerick nuclear power plant right here in Pennsylvania
tested positive for nuclear exposure,
but the source wasn't the power plant
It was his own basement, where he'd been exposed to very high levels of radon gas seeping
from the natural rock foundation
The real hazard comes when radon breaks down
When inhaled, the particles get trapped in the lungs and flood the body with toxic alpha radiations
Well, any one of Fisher's coworkers could become symptomatic
We need to initiate HazMat protocol, start looking for air and rock core samples now
What's going on?
Somebody tell us what's going on
I'm going to go introduce myself to the officer in charge,
get a list of all the quarantined workers
- Top priority - What's going on?
My people are calibrating the radon sensors right now
If that cave is contaminated, we should have confirmation within the hour
Let's hope it is radiation
At least we'll know what we're dealing with
Media Just what we need
Oh, great
The only thing that spreads faster than a legitimate health crisis is the panic about one
What is the plan for dealing with the media?
Well, lie, of course
I'm going to let them know about the emergency preparedness drill we've been running
Dr Hood, radiation levels look normal
Do you believe this?
Can they even do this? Is this even legal?
I got to get home
They can't just keep us here all day
Radon sniffers detected only minute traces of the gas in the burial cave
but not nearly enough to explain rapid-onset radiation sickness
Jacob, did you hear what I said?
We're back to square one
Deeply embedded pustules sharply raised and round in shape
Extensive blistering, most notably on palms and soles of feet
Confluent rash on face and forearms
Individually, those symptomatic manifestations point to any number of culprits
But collectively they only point to one
Smallpox
Smallpox I thought that was wiped out
The World Health Organization declared the disease eradicated in 1979,
but there are still stocks of the virus stored at two laboratories: the CDC in Atlanta and the, uh
State Research Center for Virology and Biotechnology in Koltsovo, Russia
How'd it end up in Pittsburgh?
I don't know
The demolition workers are going to have to be inoculated,
along with any law enforcement and first responders who have had direct physical contact
That includes the three of us
Is that enough to protect us?
Well, unique strains have, uh, unpredictable resiliences
The vaccine has been enhanced with intranasal boosts
that should protect us from anything airborne,
but direct contact with infected fluids must be avoided
Words to live by
I'm going to notify the hospitals
It's a waste of time
There isn't a medical facility within a hundred miles equipped to deal with this level of biorisk
Hemorrhagic smallpox is the most deadly variation of the virus
It's highly infectious and efficiently lethal
So what do we do?
We improvise
Double the magnification
My God
The tests were conclusive
We got ourselves a smallpox outbreak
A full diagnostic panel's going to take time,
but preliminary mapping indicates genetic materials from multiple genomes
A hybrid
Two viruses mixed together?
Well, the toxin that killed Fisher was a combination of two distinct viral strains
We have to find the source
Well, the cave is clean
Wherever Fisher contracted the virus, it wasn't here
With every minute that passes, the likelihood of it spreading
Have additional victims becoming infected multiplies exponentially
It's imperative that we determine exactly where Fisher caught this virus
before this thing spirals into a full-blown epidemic
Landlord confirmed our first victim has rented here for the last five years
Keep a lookout for calcified scabs and flakes of skin
I always do
"Christopher Fisher, Christopher Fisher Christopher Fisher "
He lived alone
The only thing his co-workers knew was that he was divorced,
and had a daughter in college
Believe in luck, Rachel?
I'm in Pittsburgh dodging smallpox for a living
How much luckier can a girl get?
Well Good fortune is the result of careful planning
It's more of a statement than a karmic prediction
Can you make this kind of cash clearing bodies at a demolition site?
I don't know Maybe he was working two jobs
He was a mortician
If he was juggling two jobs, he might've put the number in speed dial
Try number four
Work, ex-wife, kid's cell, second job
ackson and Sons Mortuary
Your mask
Hello, Mr Jackson?
Yes?
I'm Jacob Hood
I'm part of a team investigating a serious public health matter involving your embalmer, Christopher
- Fisher - Fisher
I'd like you to tell me the names of everyone he worked with, and every dead body he worked on
Today's my son's birthday He's nine-years-old
We're, you know, throwing him a party
Check this out
Look at that
I am going to destroy you
You think he'll like it?
Sure, what kid wouldn't?
I'm not going to make it to his birthday, am I?
They said we can go home soon
They're lying
Keep us under control
The government's not going to help us
Even if they try, they'll screw it up
We're on our own here
Come this way
Just leave all your personal belongings right there
Hazmat's doing a full sweep of the funeral home
Rigdon's waiting to brief us on the status here
What's up?
How many workers do you count?
According to the foreman's report, there should be 21
I count 20
- Ned? - Cathy
It's after 3:00 I've been calling your cell for hours
They took it
What do you mean? Who took it?
It doesn't matter Cathy, just listen to me
Something happened
You promised John you would be home for his party
There isn't going to be a party
Cancel it and start packing
We have to get the kids out of here
What are you talking about?
Ned, you're scaring me
Please Cathy, just do it
What are you doing? What?
You You can't keep me locked up
I haven't done anything wrong
No, but you're about to
Ned
You've been exposed to a very dangerous, highly contagious virus
I want to see my family
I want to see my kids
I know you want to keep your family safe
You want to protect them from danger Ned
Ned, listen to me
You are the danger
Where are you keeping my husband? Explain to me Ned Ned
- Daddy - Hey, Johnny
Wait, wait Ned
Hey, buddy
This way, please
I got something for your birthday
Daddy
You go with these people now, son
I'll catch up with you later
No No
It's okay
Come on, honey
You'll see your dad later, okay?
They won't even remember me
They will, Ned I promise
Ned Warner's rash hasn't progressed beyond the macule phase
So it's still in the early stages?
When it's least contagious
That makes it highly unlikely he infected anyone else on his way home
Records from the funeral parlor
We'll find out which corpse infected Christopher Fisher
I'll oversee the decontamination in Ned's apartment
These are the people Christopher Fisher embalmed during the likely incubation period:
Susan Crane, retired civil servant, 72, cause of death, pneumonia
Gary Firth, doctor, 45, stomach cancer
Jack Ruddock, maintenance engineer, 56, industrial accident in a cold storage facility
My money's on the doctor
The man dealt with disease for a living
You just lost your money
Domesticated species lack a certain glycoprotein the virus needs in order to replicate
Excuse me?
The doctor was a veterinarian
You could've just said so
Even vets are familiar with medical safety protocol,
so let's focus on the other two candidates
We need a full background check, dietary history,
family illness, any recent travel out of the country
Who goes first?
The woman who died of pneumonia,
or the guy who died in the accident at the cold storage facility?
When in doubt, always use the scientific method
Heads or tails?
Yeah, we can provide pickup service
Give me your address
Mr Pulido?
Can you hold on a sec? Yeah? I'm your man
You looking for some cold storage?
We're here about your dead maintenance man
Jack Ruddock
I'm going to have to call you back
30,000 square feet kept at a constant 25 below
We're the largest public refrigeration facility east of the Allegheny
All the big companies and universities store their perishables here
What exactly are they storing?
Ice cream to rocket fuel
You name it, we got it in popsicle form
That's giant bluefin from the Gulf of Maine
Over there, we got CO2 pellets for industrial blast cleaning
And those, ice cores from the South Pole
From Penn's Antarctic survey
You can't be back there
Is this where Jack Ruddock had his accident?
Yeah He was fixing the refrigeration unit and he fell
OSHA's already cleared us
Do you know if he'd been out of the country recently?
Jack?
Nah, Jersey was a foreign country as far as he was concned
Look, I've got to take this
Just stop by my office, let me know when you're done
Why does it matter if the victims left the country?
Fisher is patient zero in this country because of our reporting system,
but some countries don't have one
And some countries wouldn't even tell us if they did have a case
Any chance they were in Latin America?
I want to know the villages in Guatemala they came from and exactly how long they've been in the country
How the hell should I know?
Hood, here
Pathology's back on Fisher
Tests were conclusive
It's definitely a hybrid form of variola major
Smallpox mixed with another virus
I told the CDC this would happen eventually
That we had to be more aggressive with our research
But what do they do? They restrict my work They slashed my funding
Cal, I know you're frustrated, but I need you to concentrate
We have to establish this strain's origin
It came from Central America, obviously
Something new Something manmade
What did the lab report say it was mixed with?
An adenovirus, serotype 14
That's a respiratory virus Is that combation even possible?
In virology, almost anything is possible
Sorry, I cannot help you translate That's not Spanish they're speaking
Then what is it?
Best guess? Garifuna
It's one of at least 20 Mayan dialects spoken in Guatemala
Great
Does anybody understand what I'm saying?
Comprende?
Your fly is down
Your coworker Jack had a bad infection when he died
There's a good chance he picked it up working here
We need to know how
Her brother arrived in the city last week
He stayed inside because he was too sick to work
Says he had a fever and a rash
What else?
Her village back home
There were sick people there, too
How many?
Everybody
Don't touch anything
Rachel, don't touch him
Everyone, stay away from this man and woman
- Folks, stay back, please - What?
They may both be very sick
*******Rachel?
Well, hybrid strains are notoriously resilient
And given so many unknown variables,timing, antibody count
20%, give or take
What about Xicalal, the Guatemalan village?
Oh, we contacted the Guatemalan Red Cross and the Pan American Health Organization
The place is being quarantined, so, we squashed a bug, Jacob
It's over
Cal, as long as Rachel and those people are at risk, it is far from over
Rachel's a hero, Jacob
Whatever happens next, we must never forget that
I want everybody's name when this is over
Payback's a bitch
You looking for something, Professor?
Rachel
I'm sorry
For what?
You did what you had to do
Is that Ned?
No It's one of the other workers
Ned's hanging on for now
How many have died?
Hood, how many?
Six
We think their viral loads overwhelmed the vaccine
Maybe if we got to them earlier
Do you have the number?
Rachel
Do you have it?
Yeah, I have it
I want you to make the call
Tell the bureau that your handler's been compromised
Tell them to send a replacement immediately
Rachel, I don't want a replacement
I don't care what you want You're my responsibility
You get some rest I got things I need to do
Hood Make the call Do you hear me?
Hood, I am serious
It doesn't add up, Calvert
What?
That apartment can't be ground zero The timing's all wrong
The Guatemalan patients are only now presenting symptoms
That's a full 12 hours after Christopher Fisher died
Well, not everyone suffers at the same rate
Viruses react with ethnospecific variabilities
Even if the illegals are not showing all the symptoms yet, they may all be dead by morning
So, we should write them off?
The way you wrote off the demolition workers?
I was being realistic
I want Rachel removed from general quarantine
Until we have confirmation of infection, protocol dictates she be in private isolation
We simply don't have another level three facility available for that approach
The rules apply to everyone, Jacob
Even the people we care about most
It not fair It's just the way it is
Until the blood work comes back on the Guatemalan carrier, Rachel stays where she is
Cath?
Is that you? Cathy?
Cath
I'm right here
I feel bad
It's okay We all do
No I don't mean that
I feel bad 'cause I'm leaving it all on you
I won't be here to help
You know, with the kids
Yes, you will Ned
You just have to hang in there
Yeah
Everything's gonna be okay
This is the dead Guatemalan's blood sample
So what we're looking for is the variola virus
Shaped like a brick with a surface like a ball of wool
You've seen it before?
Only in books
In 1979, when smallpox was eradicated,
the WHO had most of the live lab cultures destroyed
Since then, scientists have had to rely on computer simulations only
You said the smallpox virus was brick-shaped
That looked spherical
Wait a minute
Rachel? Get Agent Young out of there now
What? What are you doing?
- He was wrong - Who?
Rigdon The man you touched he didn't have smallpox He had chickenpox
Chickenpox?
I had chickenpox when I was five years old
That means you don't have it now
Somebody get me out of this damn thing now
I wish I could cheer, but right now, we're 12 hours into an outbreak of the variola virus,
and we're no closer to identifying the source
Excuse me
Variola means smallpox?
Yeah Why?
Customers rent the space by the pallet
Nobody asks any questions as long as the check clears
Ice cores from the south pole
Yeah, but ice cores are only viable in their original virgin state
These cores have been melted and refrozen
So, this isn't virgin ice?
Not even close
There 567 alpha
Frozen water doesn't lie, Manny
How about you?
You have any idea what's at stake here?
Jack screwed up the repairs on the fan
Fried the motor
He and Pulido, they stayed late one night to move the crates to another area
so everything wouldn't spoil
Their jobs were on the line
You're not gonna open that, are you?
Don't worry Anything viral would be benign at this temperature
Don't blame me if something leaps out and eats your face
Well, that would have been better than this
The samples are gone
Pulido's gone
He's taken the variola samples with him
Police and Hazmat have the city locked down They'll find him
The question is, how many innocent people will he infect before they do?
- What are you doing? - Getting directions
Pulido searched the 'Net for the quickest route from here to the intersection
of Fourth and Grant street 15 minutes ago
Pull over, sir, so we can search your vehicle
Turn off your engine
License and registration, please
Pulido?
Sorry to disappoint you, Professor
You knew that immigrant boy wasn't our source, didn't you?
The virus couldn't have come from Central America,
because it was from your laboratory, wasn't it?
I wasn't sure at first, Jacob
You got to believe me
But when it turned out to be Adeno 14
I-I knew it had to be one of mine It was an accident
An accident waiting to happen
How could you store a deadly hybrid smallpox virus in a commercial facility?
If it wasn't my strain that got out, it would've been someone else's
Are you listening to yourself, Calvert?
You've killed six people
You put the lives of an entire city at risk
How dare you try to rationalization that to me
We live in dangerous times
And mankind has got to come up with better vaccines, more powerful treatments
That can't be accomplished using computer simulations and theoretical models alone, you know that
Who are you trying to convince? Me? Or you?
Was it Pulido's idea to move the samples or yours?
When we rounded up his workers he realized what was in the cooler Demanded $75,000 for it
I was going to pay him, and I was going to destroy everything
I made a careless mistake, Jacob
Eventually you're going to make one, too
It happens to everyone who carries our kind of weight
You'll understand one day
Are you going to have her arrest me now?
Not yet
First you have a job to do
I want you to call your emergency response team, get them down here right now,
and you'll help clean this up, Calvert
You'll help clean this up
I'm sorry, Jacob
Hood
- Can't let him get away - I wasn't planning on it
Pulido Stay where you are
Don't make things worse
Pulido Pulido
FBI Everyone, stay where you are
Mr Pulido, don't touch anyone
You're infected with the virus
Right now, there's a microscopic army waging war inside of you
It's gonna invade your blood stream, attack your central nervous system
and destroy every healthy cell inside of you until there's nothing left
No, I got the vaccine
Too late to be effective
you and Jack were infected the night you moved the boxes
No, Jack wasn't sick
He fell and broke his neck
He was the lucky one
On the floor Now, Mr Pulido, or I'll shoot
Hey, you stay away from me
You need medical assistance, Alan
I need my money
Listen to yourself You're not making sense
It's the virus it's affecting your brain
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm gonna ask you to gently, quietly leave the premises
No, no, no, no
Nobody goes anywhere until I get my damn money
Listen to me
I want my money
Listen to me, no amount of money in the world is gonna stop this disease that's raging inside of you,
but you might be able to stop it hurting other people
Now, if you stay here, you are issuing a death sentence to every innocent person in this room
Do you understand that?
I don't care
I will shoot
Don't open it
There's one vial missing
It's done, Jacob
Oh, Cal
I ran into an old colleague the other day
He's doing really well
It made me so jealous I could taste it
And then, last night, sitting in that damn plastic tent,
helpless, thinking I was gonna die
made me question this assignment
what I do for a living
everything
And
you're a major pain in the ass
But you also do a lot of good
I'm gonna see this through, make everyone else jealous of me
Mom, Mom
That robot was designed by a NASA engineer
It's got artificial intelligence, seven servo motors
It dances, it snores
It even does little electric farts
That was a really cool thing you just did
Not really
I also got one for myself
Energy restored