The Agency (2024) s02e01 Episode Script
Kick the Wasp's Nest
1
[BLAKE] How long were you undercover?
This last hop, six years.
[BLAKE] You had an
ordinary life out there?
[MARTIAN] Just had to look like one.
[BLAKE] And sexual relationships?
Samia. How do you cope with that?
[NAOMI] How's Martian settling in?
It's not always easy to switch off.
I want you to train a new agent.
Daniela Ruiz Morata.
[GRUNTS]
You're being sent to Tehran
to identify Iranian nuclear engineers.
Coyote was arrested.
[HENRY] The Russians have him.
Coyote knows that operation's
currently ongoing in Ukraine.
All covert activities
may be compromised.
I believe Samia Zahir
to be of enormous value.
And you want us to recruit her.
[MARTIAN] The agency needs
to know about the negotiations.
They need someone in the same room.
I will never betray my country.
They will find out about us.
They will arrest you and kill you.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
- Is he in?
- He's meeting the Brits.
You two know each other?
[ROBINSHAW] We know what he wants.
Find out what
he's prepared to do to get it.
You're asking me to become a double.
They don't know Coyote like I know him.
- [MARTIAN] We need a break.
- [HENRY] So we make one.
[MARTIAN] Get on the ground.
Get into his apartment.
Intel's saying Coyote's been
moved behind enemy lines
by Valhalla.
Rescue is a go.
That's him. He had Coyote.
[NAOMI] Whatever happens,
you keep going.
I'm in Tehran.
[TIRES SCREECHING]
[MARTIAN] You almost killed me.
I never "almost" do anything.
Can you get Samia out?
You tell me.
All you have to do
is keep a secret.
[INSECTS TRILLING]
[WIND WHISTLING]
[DISTANT EXPLOSIONS]
[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE]
[DISTANT SHOUTING]
[GUNFIRE CONTINUES]
[TENSE, DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[SPEAKING ARABIC]
[PLEADING IN ARABIC]
- [SOBS]
- [ENGINE STARTS]
[PANTING]
[IN ARABIC]
[DARK, INTENSE MUSIC]
[PANTING]
[TIRES SCREECH]
♪♪♪
[BRAKES SCREECH]
[BOTH GRUNT]
[BULLETS RICOCHETING OFF CAR]
[BULLETS RICOCHETING]
[GUNFIRE CONTINUES]
- [TIRES SCREECH]
- [SHOUTING]
[INTENSE MUSIC]
[SCREAMING]
[PANTING]
[ "LOVE IS BLINDNESS" BY JACK WHITE] ♪
Love is blindness ♪
I don't want to see ♪
Won't you wrap the night ♪
Around me ♪
Oh, my heart ♪
Love is blindness ♪
Blindness ♪
Love is blindness ♪
I don't want to see ♪
Won't you wrap the night ♪
Around me, yeah ♪
Oh ♪
My love ♪
Love is blindness ♪
Oh, love is blindness ♪
Blindness ♪
[ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC]
[PHONE RINGING]
♪♪♪
[MARTIAN] We're taught
that emotions aren't the truth.
Impulses.
Memories.
Smell, touch, taste.
[QUIET, HAUNTING MUSIC]
I will lie.
I will sacrifice people.
All in service of a single,
impossible goal:
To prove everything I felt
everything I feel
is the truth.
♪♪♪
I've never met anyone
who works in the S and T.
S and T don't socialize.
We're mostly geeky,
- friendless loners.
- [CHUCKLES]
But we know all your secret shit,
- so don't fuck with us.
- Oh.
So, what do you do?
You already know. You're bugging me.
My depo doesn't listen internally.
- [CHUCKLES]
- But I know who to ask.
Let's just say I handle parts of Africa.
Let's say I handle parts of Europe.
Small world.
I was a field agent.
Non-Official Cover.
Now I run NOCs from behind a desk.
Well, I keep an ear
on our British friends.
Thought you said
you didn't have any friends.
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
[MARTIAN] 1452-H8ks/17.
Hannah Watson.
Working surveillance of GCHQ.
Divorced, one kid.
[GUARD] Thank you, sir.
1452-H8ks/17.
Never leave a trace.
No electronic or physical evidence.
No email. No paper.
No recordings.
I have a very good memory.
But a sharp memory has a double edge.
[DARK, MELANCHOLY MUSIC]
When what you do hurts people,
being able to forget is a gift.
A faultless memory weighs
heavier and heavier
until it's a curse.
1452-H8ks/17.
Hannah Watson.
Mr. Colby. Here for physio.
♪♪♪
[BEEPS]
[LATCH CLICKS]
Already done that.
Don't you trust us?
What's the matter? Lost your bottle?
Scared of being caught?
I'm scared.
I'm scared of being stopped
before Sami is released.
After that, doesn't matter.
[SIGHS]
Hannah Watson.
Divorced. One kid. Lonely.
Job's her life. Various
exploitable vulnerabilities.
And she's watching you Brits.
She's a perfect target.
Mm.
Great work.
So what's going on?
It's been two months.
An operation was attempted.
When?
Recently.
Why didn't you tell me? Where?
The RSF were moving her
from a police station in Mogran,
where she'd been interrogated,
back to Kober Prison.
Our SAS surveillance team saw a chance.
- And failed.
- I'm sorry.
Is she alive?
Samia's alive.
We have confirmation of that.
Then you know where she is.
We're working on that.
Great work. You kicked
the fuckin' wasp's nest.
Now they know she's valuable.
This was all for nothing.
I'm out.
[TIRES SQUEALING]
[ENGINE REVVING]
[ENGINE REVVING]
[TIRES SCREECHING]
[ENGINE REVVING]
- [BRAKES SCREECHING]
- [TIRES SQUEALING]
[ENGINE IDLING]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[PHONE BUZZING]
- Yes?
- [OWEN] Hey. He's here.
We're ready. Where are you?
I'm on my way.
- Peter.
- Martian.
Hey.
How are you holding up?
Ah, better than having
a bag over my head.
I bet.
[CHUCKLING]
Which safe house they stash you in?
The farm?
- Pigeon shit, mice
- [CHUCKLES]
canned beans
I loved every minute of it.
Look, I heard what you did.
Um All of you.
Thank you guys. Thank you.
Can we get you anything before we start?
Vodka.
- [LAUGHS]
- Make it a bottle.
[OWEN CHUCKLES]
Uh, interview resumed at 1503.
Let's follow the money.
[OWEN OVER SPEAKER]
So the night you went missing,
who else was there?
[COYOTE] I was at the Hilton
with Micky Lavrov.
We had business together.
[OWEN] What kind of business?
Rich Russian guy. Wanted a yield.
Commodity trading. Currency deals.
Lots of linked transactions.
Almost-legal small-scale speculation.
- Almost?
- Yeah, these guys expect a high return.
Fully legit won't cut it.
[MARTIAN] Could Lavrov have drugged you?
[COYOTE] Nah.
He's just a money guy.
[OWEN] Were you aware that
Lavrov and
a number of your other clients
had their profits funneled
into shell companies
straight into Valhalla bank accounts?
Impossible.
I'd know.
Right.
You'd know.
Are you fucking joking me?
[CHUCKLES]
Are you f
That was my cover.
Assholes, you gave me the cover.
I'm out there trying to save lives,
not put money
in Russian fucking coffers.
Are you saying my cover
did more damage to us
than my mission did to them?
Aw, fuck you! Fuck you both.
You know better than that.
[MARTIAN] Let's take a break.
Eight years of my life,
and you think I'd flip
for a fucking ruble?
Was that an act?
I read no fear signals.
Nothing that would suggest masking.
Volatility, disorientation
It's to be expected.
You of all people know that.
[OWEN] He's got a point, though.
About what?
If it was worth it.
None of us know the full extent
of the intelligence
that man brought home.
Not you. Not you. Not me.
You want to sit around
asking was it worth it?
Give me a fucking break.
[SIGHS]
[DOOR OPENS]
[EXPANSIVE MUSIC]
Zak!
Can we stop for a second, please?
Yes.
Take off your hijab.
The morality police don't tend
to climb this high.
So
this is Iran.
So what exactly is the university
looking to build out here?
Uh, an electricity transformer.
For, uh, photovoltaic research.
Right.
A transformer. All the way out here.
And the real plan?
I have no idea what you mean.
Dude, I'm messing with you.
Oh.
[STONES RATTLING]
Whoa. What the?
Do you feel that?
- What's happening?
- [STONES CLATTERING]
It's a little one.
Meaning a bigger one's coming?
Let's set up and take readings.
Answer a million-dollar question.
What question?
Is Zak about to buy it in a huge,
range-flattening magnitude 9.5?
[LAUGHS]
[CHUCKLES]
[LAUGHS] Okay.
[EXPANSIVE, PULSING MUSIC]
[DANNY] Spent the day with Buzzard.
Took readings in a zone on Mount Alborz.
Coordinates to follow.
♪♪♪
Target has access to data relevant to
selection of zones suited
to burying nuclear material.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[KNOCKS]
Zak is the kid? The researcher?
[NAOMI] Buzzard. Yeah.
Looks like his faculty are looking
for sites in the mountains
to bury radioactive waste.
First swing, stand-up double. Not bad.
- [KNOCK AT DOOR]
- Henry. Naomi.
Seems that God himself has come to call.
Why am I scared? I shouldn't be
scared. Should I be scared?
You know how little praise
we survive on in this agency?
We're beaten children.
Pat us on the back
we flinch.
[CIA DIRECTOR] In order to avoid
admitting strategic defeat,
the, uh, Kremlin has issued
its official version:
- [CHUCKLING]
- General Volchok
and a column of renegade mercenaries
attempted to launch a coup.
In the ensuing contact,
security forces were able
to subdue said revolt
and prevent a wider uprising.
In other news from our, uh, friends
with their ears to the rails
at the NSA
um, as of last week,
Leo Kravitsky has been confirmed,
in Kremlin cross chatter,
as the new commander
- of Valhalla.
- [BOSKO] Incredible.
[CIA DIRECTOR] So, I want to
thank everybody here in this room.
Not only did you get our boy home,
but it's down to you
that this agency has
a high-value asset at the heart
of Russian mercenary operations.
So, thank you. Thank you all.
I have, uh, fine Cubanos
- and an ancient Cognac.
- Hmm.
- Okay.
- Tonight, we celebrate.
["WON'T BE POSSIBLE" BY TIËSTO,
ODDMOB & GOODBOYS PLAYING]
[ENGINE REVS]
♪♪♪
[LIVELY CHATTER]
Won't be possible ♪
[SPEAKING ARABIC]
Oh, uh it's okay.
Please. You go.
- Okay.
- I'll be there.
♪♪♪
- [WOMEN LAUGHING]
- [LIVELY CHATTER]
♪♪♪
First time at a party at Hassan's?
Zak invited me.
Danny. I'm I work at the university.
You are not Iranian.
I'm Spanish.
I'm Darya. I am cohosting the party.
Tell me: Do you love the mullahs?
Not particularly, no.
Good. Then let me.
♪♪♪
Mm. That's better.
Beautiful.
["JIBETE" BY ERFAN
& AMIR KHALVAT PLAYING]
[LOUD CHATTER]
♪♪♪
Oh, wow. That really is
something else, huh?
[BOSKO] To think what mankind
has been going through
for the last 90 years,
that this has been sitting in a cask
somewhere in France.
- [CHUCKLES]
- Well, here's to your station.
And spinning total failure
into pure gold.
- [BOSKO] Yeah.
- [GLASSES CLINK]
[BEEPS]
[TOM] Incoming.
I think this is the one
all the chatter is about.
Supposed to be brutal.
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
Oh, Jesus.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
[MAN BREATHING HARD ON VIDEO]
- [LOUD THUD]
- [SQUELCH]
[TOM] I've seen some shit.
Pull it back.
- What?
- Just ten seconds.
It's pretty cut and dried
Just go back. Ten seconds.
Sh Get Bosko.
And the money trail, too.
And getting inside Valhalla.
Careers are made on that shit.
Wait. Is this a dirty grab
for my job, Jim?
- [LAUGHTER]
- [PHONE RINGING]
Can you get that for me? Thanks.
[RINGING]
[BOSKO] I don't have
the stomach for the swamp.
And I'm retiring.
- Bosko's office.
- [CIA DIRECTOR] Ah, horseshit.
- Yes.
- [CIA DIRECTOR] You're a player.
And when you move up the log,
Henry moves up, too.
That's the way it works. Hey, Henry?
I'm actually thinking of
running for President.
[LAUGHTER]
[DARK, INTENSE MUSIC]
[SIMON] The recording's
cued up and ready, sir.
All right. Play it.
[KEY CLICKS]
- [LOUD THUD]
- [SQUELCH]
[SIGHS]
- All right, take it back.
- [KEYS CLICKING]
Just before.
[BOSKO] Leo Kravitsky.
Our guy.
New leader of Valhalla.
How did this happen?
Okay, first of all, are we
certain that's him in the video?
Facial recognition got a 96% match.
So four percent chance it isn't.
That's not how it works.
96% of the available data
was a hundred percent match
for known images.
Not that you need it. I mean,
it's well-lit, it's high res.
Where did this happen?
[SIMON] Uh, Valhalla base,
Central African Republic.
Your show.
Let's circle the wagons.
We need an up-to-the-second
temperature check
of these assholes' ops on the ground.
I'll prod every GRU or SVR asset
with an angle on
Valhalla's command and control.
[CONVERSING INDISTINCTLY]
[MARTIAN] Can we enlarge this part?
Mm-hmm.
Where's Grandpa?
[BEEPS]
[BEEPS]
Take your shirt off.
Please. Take it off.
[TENSE MUSIC]
What does that look like to you?
[CIA DIRECTOR]
What, you're saying the Russian
mercenary who turned my prize asset's
head into peanut butter
has a U.S. Marine Corps tattoo?
He's a merc, but he's not Russian.
To join the Corps,
you need a high school diploma
and residence in the U.S.
between the ages of 17 and 28.
That man was or still is
an American citizen.
- [LOUD DANCE MUSIC PLAYING]
- Like, a like a gesture.
For who?
♪♪♪
Who's that girl?
Uh, it's Darya.
Hassan's girlfriend.
♪♪♪
[INHALES]
[LOUD CHATTER]
♪♪♪
[SPEAKING FARSI]
Hey.
Hey. Relax, con. Take it easy.
[GRUNTING]
[GUESTS GASPING]
- Hey!
- [GRUNTS]
[ZAK CHOKING]
[GRUNTS]
[SCREAMS]
- Hassan!
- [ZAK COUGHING]
[DARYA WHISPERING IN FARSI]
- ♪♪♪
- [DANNY] Ah!
[DANNY] Zak
[PANTING]
Zak.
Zak, are you okay?
That guy went fucking insane.
He is a spoiled brat.
- I'm taking you to a hospital.
- No.
I'm so humiliated.
I just want to go home.
[GULPS]
- [LOCK CLICKS]
- [DOOR OPENS, CLOSES]
[HIGH-HEELED SHOES CLATTERING RAPIDLY]
[LINE RINGING]
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
- [KEYS JINGLE]
- [LOCK CLICKS]
[PANTING]
[LINE CONTINUES RINGING]
[LINE CLICKS]
Hi.
This is Daniela Acosta.
I'm in Iran and
I'm having an asthma attack.
My inhaler isn't working.
What should I do?
[MALE VOICE OVER PHONE]
On a scale of one to five,
how bad is the attack?
Three?
Try to relax.
Do you have your cortisol on you?
Take one tablet, and call tomorrow.
O Okay.
Thanks.
[CALL HANGS UP]
[EXHALES]
If that fucker's American,
we're headed for a
jurisdictional and legal clusterfuck.
Not to mention the turf war
with the Bureau.
As far as I'm concerned,
the day this guy took Putin's
ruble, he became the enemy.
[HENRY] Well, Africa helps.
We've got some top cover
to target AMCITs overseas
under the precedent established
with the drone strike
on al-Awlaki.
Get OGC to bless this
and the DOJ to sprinkle it with incense.
And get me a report
the moment I arrive at Andrews.
The Joint Chiefs want a briefing.
Yes, sir.
Fuck.
Didn't use to be like this.
Us on defense. Every day.
When did everyone stop
being scared of us?
I mean, we're nasty.
I mean, we still play rough.
Must have been how the Romans felt.
Goths at the gates. And on our watch.
The gates, I would be happy.
But inside the walls
All right. ID sledgehammer boy.
I need a a very restful
20 minutes of sleep
and a barrel of coffee.
Am I writing algo for this ID on my own?
I mean, I've got video. No face,
but lots of data points.
How old is the target?
My guess late 20s to mid 30s.
Over 40 gets tricky. But that age?
[INHALES] Whole life's online.
A chew through biomarkers
will tell you who he is in a few hours.
- Any other data refs?
- He was in the U.S. Marines.
That should narrow it down.
- Actually, that makes it harder.
- How?
Those guys actually do
all look the same.
Mm.
[NAOMI] At the top of Gremlin's
target list is Buzzard.
He's been assigned to work with
her on the geological surveys
and has high-level access
to the Iranian government's
nuclear program.
[MARTIAN] Who's this?
Hassan Zamani. Youngest son of
a powerful political clan.
The dad's a big cheese.
He's a businessman, politician, lawyer.
He has their president's ear
on all things nuclear.
Awarding of contracts,
international agreements
And he isn't a target?
No. Way too high profile.
Surrounded by security, home
and office constantly swept.
Historically, the Zamani family
are progressive anti-fundamentalists.
What about the son?
[NAOMI] Risky.
He's volatile.
We don't know what he's worth.
Do we have any more on him?
[CRAIG] He just finished a degree.
Good grades. It's hard to know if
he earned them or bought them.
Behind the scenes,
Hassan likes to party.
Booze, drugs, girls.
All makes a perfect target.
He's unstable.
Hassan just attacked Buzzard,
who is now pressing charges
and wants Gremlin to testify.
Ooh. Uh-uh. No way.
Hassan's father will conduct the trial.
Should be traditional, discreet.
A hearing?
Under Iranian law?
Testifying against the son
of a government advisor?
We will lose Buzzard if she doesn't.
And cop a ton of heat if she does.
Outline the risks and exposure.
Gremlin's in the dirt.
She's capable.
Make this her call.
She's a baby.
She's an agent.
Henry's right. Trust her.
[CALL TO PRAYER PLAYING
OVER LOUDSPEAKERS]
This is very good work.
This is the data we used.
- How about this one?
- [ZAK] I am, uh
I'm sorry to interrupt.
My God. Are you okay?
[ZAK] Yes. I'm healing.
Professor, would you mind if
I spoke to Danny in private?
- [INDISTINCT CHATTER]
- [LAUGHTER]
Have you given it some thought?
Everyone is backing out. I'm on my own.
How does it work?
Hassan's father will convene a hearing.
If he believes I was assaulted,
there will be a full legal trial.
First hearing is Thursday.
And you want me to be your witness?
Will you?
Of course.
[EXHALES]
Okay.
Thank you.
[FOREBODING MUSIC]
Let's run scenarios in your office.
Listen
I didn't want to bring this up
with the DCI around,
but it's only a matter of time
before Langley think it.
We need to get out ahead.
This may be a random event
but what if it's not?
[SIGHS]
Is that a hypothetical?
We get an asset deep in
and high up in Russia.
Weeks later, he's dead.
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
It's worse than you think.
Operation Felix didn't go to plan.
[STAMMERS] You're telling me.
Well, that minister
was not the original target.
Are you saying we had intel that
Moscow changed plans, last-minute.
They knew.
This bucket leaks.
Clean house. Push everyone through.
Fine-tooth comb.
Anyone so much as ordered
a Russian salad
in the last five years, I want to know.
Trust no one.
Not even me.
You want Langley to know about this?
No, no. No, not if you can avoid it.
If we got a mole,
I want them smoked out, staked
out on a fucking barbecue
before they know I'm even looking.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
♪♪♪
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[MARTIAN] What is this?
Well, thought I'd come
have a poke around.
See if you'd been up to
anything interesting.
- What are you doing?
- Ah, relax.
I'm cleared for this floor.
FC 2645. I'm legit.
What the fuck are you doing?
I was worried about you.
Your accident. It sounds awful.
T-boned by a car?
Intra-cranial bleed?
Death-defying surgery? [CHUCKLES]
You ask why I'm here?
You're a hero.
You're a superman. Aren't you?
I'm touched by your concern.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
I always knew you were a big softy
underneath that
hard-man exterior of yours.
[RICHARDSON] Oh. London used
to be such a safe place.
I almost feel responsible, like
like I should apologize.
Like it's my fault or something.
Well, no need.
I'm fine now.
[CHUCKLING] You just raised my mood.
Good to hear.
Thanks for swinging by.
- Well
- I appreciate it.
No, no. Not at all, old boy.
You fancy a drink next week?
Are we good for that?
♪♪♪
Are we good?
I wouldn't miss it for anything.
Great.
Then I won't need to have
stiff words with Henry
about letting you take the night off.
[QUIET SCOFF]
[CONTROLLED EXHALE]
During your time being held by Valhalla,
did you encounter any foreign recruits?
Any non-Russians.
[SIGHS SHAKILY]
[SIGHS]
Thanks for jumping in,
helping us on this.
We appreciate it.
We know it's hard.
Are you okay?
No, Owen, I'm not okay, okay?
I may never be okay, so
can we just
[SIGHS HEAVILY]
Valhalla, right?
Valhalla. Well, Valhalla had
guys from all over. I
[SIGHS] I saw PMCs
who looked Libyan, Syrian.
A few Asian-looking fellas, but
I guess they were from the 'stans.
Anyone else?
Anyone who stood out?
Are you fishing here?
You mean the Viking, right?
No, I never saw him.
Apparently, he's in Africa.
But I did hear them talk about him.
What did they say?
Why are we being coy here, fellas?
He's an American.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
Here's what I can tell you.
Everyone all of them
sounded scared shitless of him.
I think
he got close to Volchok in Syria.
Proved himself as his
personal killer and hit man.
But it was more than that.
See, these guys, they all
sounded wounded by where they've
been and what they've seen.
But they talk like, uh,
Viking had a taste for it.
Happy birthday to you ♪
[CHEERING]
[CHEERING CONTINUES]
["ABOUT DAMN TIME" BY LIZZO PLAYING]
[LIVELY CHATTER]
♪♪♪
It's bad bitch o'clock ♪
Yeah, it's thicc-thirty ♪
You knew.
How could you tell?
You sold your shock. They all bought it.
No one here can keep a secret.
I got two emails inviting me
to my own surprise party.
- [LAUGHS]
- Not one
two.
Oh, I been so down
and under pressure ♪
Have you heard anything?
From Sami?
Oh, I'm not the girl I was
or used to be ♪
No news is
better than bad news?
Turn down the lights ♪
Go and enjoy your surprise.
You deserve it.
Hmph.
I'm middle-aged!
Whoo.
[TURN UP THE MUSIC]
Let's celebrate ♪
[DARK, INTENSE MUSIC]
- ♪♪♪
- [DIALOGUE INAUDIBLE]
- ♪♪♪
- [DIALOGUE INAUDIBLE]
How you bearing up?
Ah, you know me.
[CHUCKLING] Yeah. That's why I'm asking.
How would you feel
if someone kidnapped your wife
and tortured her in a windowless cell?
Turn down the lights ♪
With all due respect,
she's not your wife.
Not your partner of 25 years.
Thanks, Henry.
- Martian
- Okay. Just You know,
fuck you. Okay?
Fuck me?
With all due respect.
Martian, we're on the same side here.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
Got a problem here?
- No.
- [BOSKO] Good.
The executioner's been ID'd.
'Cause, uh ♪
You know what time it is ♪
I'm coming out tonight,
I'm coming out tonight ♪
[LIVELY CHATTER]
I'm coming out tonight ♪
- [PHONE RINGING]
- [OWEN GROANS]
[RINGING CONTINUES]
Yes?
[NAOMI] Where the fuck are you?
I'm I left.
Uh
Martian needs you back up here, now.
Okay. All right, all right.
Hey, hey. I gotta go back.
- To the party?
- To work.
[CHUCKLES] Like hell you do.
- Oh, wait. Also
- Huh?
I have a girlfriend.
What the fuck?
[OWEN GRUNTS]
[VEHICLE DOOR CLOSES]
Vernon Crawford.
Born 1986, Terre Haute, Indiana,
second of three children.
After divorce,
when Vernon was ten years old,
moved to Dunbar, West Virginia,
with mother and sisters.
Attended high school there,
graduated in 2003.
After a few manual jobs,
he enlisted in the Marines.
Where was he posted?
Served one tour of Afghanistan, 2008,
as an aviation ordnance technician,
during which he barely left
Bagram Air Base.
Dr. Blake? We'll need a full profile.
[BLAKE] Already on it, paying
particular attention to this:
On return to the U.S.,
his service transformed
into a fiction he recounted online
and in person.
He claimed to have served
in a frontline unit,
3rd Force Recon in the Waigal Valley.
Company he never was part of,
a province he never was in.
[MARTIAN] After a bar fight
in Parkersburg
with another veteran,
he was imprisoned for aggravated
assault with a weapon,
serving two years in
USP Hazelton high security.
Aka Misery Mountain.
There, he got into far-right ideology.
Joined the Aryan Brotherhood
and a group called 1488.
Released in 2014,
he vanishes before cropping up
in social media posts
of an international volunteer
unit in Syria, fighting ISIS.
[MARTIAN] Whereupon he disappears.
But we've linked, uh, SIGINT chatter
through mercenary message boards
referring to someone called Varyag,
a Russian word for Viking.
Viking appears to have moved
with private military contractors
through Syria, Egypt, Libya,
and currently serves in a Valhalla unit
in Central African Republic.
[TENSE, PULSING MUSIC]
Viking is category one.
This isn't a fishing trip.
This is a manhunt. Kill or capture.
Flush this motherfucker out.
[ETHEREAL, MELANCHOLY MUSIC]
♪♪♪
- [FOOTSTEPS PASSING]
- [DISTANT VOICES]
♪♪♪
[PHONE BUZZING]
Hello?
[FEMALE VOICE OVER PHONE]
We are calling to confirm
your appointment in the morning
at St. Tobias' physio department.
I'll be there.
[CALL HANGS UP]
[MARTIAN] Coming
to my office was a mistake.
People will start asking questions.
[ROBINSHAW] He had a meeting
with a junior analyst on your floor.
It was in his diary.
Popping in to see you for a chat
won't raise suspicion.
If I was Bosko,
I'd be shaking the place down
to its fucking socks.
Don't let Richardson screw this up
playing power games with me.
You quit.
Now you're back.
Who's playing games here?
Where is she?
Dr. Zahir has been moved several times.
They're about to move her again.
We know where. We know
who she's about to meet.
This is no longer a kinetic rescue.
- It will require diplomacy.
- With who?
You need to offer us something valuable.
Something new.
[INCREDULOUS LAUGH] I gave you
Something of use to us,
in order to proceed.
dark, inexorable music
[EXHALES]
What do you want?
Something big.
Big enough to make it worth our time.
Something to not stake you out
naked in front of the U.S. embassy
with a sign around your neck
that says, "I'm a traitor."
I can give you a source in Iran.
[SPEAKING FARSI]
[ROBINSHAW]
You know we have no one in Iran.
Who would handle them?
Us.
But I'd share everything.
Who's the source?
There's a government special
advisor on nuclear affairs.
Energy, not weapons; it's a gray area.
He was on the committee that negotiated
delivery of short to medium
range ballistic missiles
to Hezbollah for use against Israel
and to Russia against Ukraine.
That's big.
A high-powered
government official would
Not him. His son. His eldest son.
One of our NOCs is close to him.
Which agent?
I won't identify our agent.
But I can use the op
to deliver you the asset.
We'll be in touch.
[PULSING, DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪♪♪
[BLAKE] How long were you undercover?
This last hop, six years.
[BLAKE] You had an
ordinary life out there?
[MARTIAN] Just had to look like one.
[BLAKE] And sexual relationships?
Samia. How do you cope with that?
[NAOMI] How's Martian settling in?
It's not always easy to switch off.
I want you to train a new agent.
Daniela Ruiz Morata.
[GRUNTS]
You're being sent to Tehran
to identify Iranian nuclear engineers.
Coyote was arrested.
[HENRY] The Russians have him.
Coyote knows that operation's
currently ongoing in Ukraine.
All covert activities
may be compromised.
I believe Samia Zahir
to be of enormous value.
And you want us to recruit her.
[MARTIAN] The agency needs
to know about the negotiations.
They need someone in the same room.
I will never betray my country.
They will find out about us.
They will arrest you and kill you.
[DRAMATIC MUSIC]
- Is he in?
- He's meeting the Brits.
You two know each other?
[ROBINSHAW] We know what he wants.
Find out what
he's prepared to do to get it.
You're asking me to become a double.
They don't know Coyote like I know him.
- [MARTIAN] We need a break.
- [HENRY] So we make one.
[MARTIAN] Get on the ground.
Get into his apartment.
Intel's saying Coyote's been
moved behind enemy lines
by Valhalla.
Rescue is a go.
That's him. He had Coyote.
[NAOMI] Whatever happens,
you keep going.
I'm in Tehran.
[TIRES SCREECHING]
[MARTIAN] You almost killed me.
I never "almost" do anything.
Can you get Samia out?
You tell me.
All you have to do
is keep a secret.
[INSECTS TRILLING]
[WIND WHISTLING]
[DISTANT EXPLOSIONS]
[AUTOMATIC GUNFIRE]
[DISTANT SHOUTING]
[GUNFIRE CONTINUES]
[TENSE, DRAMATIC MUSIC]
[SPEAKING ARABIC]
[PLEADING IN ARABIC]
- [SOBS]
- [ENGINE STARTS]
[PANTING]
[IN ARABIC]
[DARK, INTENSE MUSIC]
[PANTING]
[TIRES SCREECH]
♪♪♪
[BRAKES SCREECH]
[BOTH GRUNT]
[BULLETS RICOCHETING OFF CAR]
[BULLETS RICOCHETING]
[GUNFIRE CONTINUES]
- [TIRES SCREECH]
- [SHOUTING]
[INTENSE MUSIC]
[SCREAMING]
[PANTING]
[ "LOVE IS BLINDNESS" BY JACK WHITE] ♪
Love is blindness ♪
I don't want to see ♪
Won't you wrap the night ♪
Around me ♪
Oh, my heart ♪
Love is blindness ♪
Blindness ♪
Love is blindness ♪
I don't want to see ♪
Won't you wrap the night ♪
Around me, yeah ♪
Oh ♪
My love ♪
Love is blindness ♪
Oh, love is blindness ♪
Blindness ♪
[ATMOSPHERIC MUSIC]
[PHONE RINGING]
♪♪♪
[MARTIAN] We're taught
that emotions aren't the truth.
Impulses.
Memories.
Smell, touch, taste.
[QUIET, HAUNTING MUSIC]
I will lie.
I will sacrifice people.
All in service of a single,
impossible goal:
To prove everything I felt
everything I feel
is the truth.
♪♪♪
I've never met anyone
who works in the S and T.
S and T don't socialize.
We're mostly geeky,
- friendless loners.
- [CHUCKLES]
But we know all your secret shit,
- so don't fuck with us.
- Oh.
So, what do you do?
You already know. You're bugging me.
My depo doesn't listen internally.
- [CHUCKLES]
- But I know who to ask.
Let's just say I handle parts of Africa.
Let's say I handle parts of Europe.
Small world.
I was a field agent.
Non-Official Cover.
Now I run NOCs from behind a desk.
Well, I keep an ear
on our British friends.
Thought you said
you didn't have any friends.
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
[MARTIAN] 1452-H8ks/17.
Hannah Watson.
Working surveillance of GCHQ.
Divorced, one kid.
[GUARD] Thank you, sir.
1452-H8ks/17.
Never leave a trace.
No electronic or physical evidence.
No email. No paper.
No recordings.
I have a very good memory.
But a sharp memory has a double edge.
[DARK, MELANCHOLY MUSIC]
When what you do hurts people,
being able to forget is a gift.
A faultless memory weighs
heavier and heavier
until it's a curse.
1452-H8ks/17.
Hannah Watson.
Mr. Colby. Here for physio.
♪♪♪
[BEEPS]
[LATCH CLICKS]
Already done that.
Don't you trust us?
What's the matter? Lost your bottle?
Scared of being caught?
I'm scared.
I'm scared of being stopped
before Sami is released.
After that, doesn't matter.
[SIGHS]
Hannah Watson.
Divorced. One kid. Lonely.
Job's her life. Various
exploitable vulnerabilities.
And she's watching you Brits.
She's a perfect target.
Mm.
Great work.
So what's going on?
It's been two months.
An operation was attempted.
When?
Recently.
Why didn't you tell me? Where?
The RSF were moving her
from a police station in Mogran,
where she'd been interrogated,
back to Kober Prison.
Our SAS surveillance team saw a chance.
- And failed.
- I'm sorry.
Is she alive?
Samia's alive.
We have confirmation of that.
Then you know where she is.
We're working on that.
Great work. You kicked
the fuckin' wasp's nest.
Now they know she's valuable.
This was all for nothing.
I'm out.
[TIRES SQUEALING]
[ENGINE REVVING]
[ENGINE REVVING]
[TIRES SCREECHING]
[ENGINE REVVING]
- [BRAKES SCREECHING]
- [TIRES SQUEALING]
[ENGINE IDLING]
[BREATHING HEAVILY]
[PHONE BUZZING]
- Yes?
- [OWEN] Hey. He's here.
We're ready. Where are you?
I'm on my way.
- Peter.
- Martian.
Hey.
How are you holding up?
Ah, better than having
a bag over my head.
I bet.
[CHUCKLING]
Which safe house they stash you in?
The farm?
- Pigeon shit, mice
- [CHUCKLES]
canned beans
I loved every minute of it.
Look, I heard what you did.
Um All of you.
Thank you guys. Thank you.
Can we get you anything before we start?
Vodka.
- [LAUGHS]
- Make it a bottle.
[OWEN CHUCKLES]
Uh, interview resumed at 1503.
Let's follow the money.
[OWEN OVER SPEAKER]
So the night you went missing,
who else was there?
[COYOTE] I was at the Hilton
with Micky Lavrov.
We had business together.
[OWEN] What kind of business?
Rich Russian guy. Wanted a yield.
Commodity trading. Currency deals.
Lots of linked transactions.
Almost-legal small-scale speculation.
- Almost?
- Yeah, these guys expect a high return.
Fully legit won't cut it.
[MARTIAN] Could Lavrov have drugged you?
[COYOTE] Nah.
He's just a money guy.
[OWEN] Were you aware that
Lavrov and
a number of your other clients
had their profits funneled
into shell companies
straight into Valhalla bank accounts?
Impossible.
I'd know.
Right.
You'd know.
Are you fucking joking me?
[CHUCKLES]
Are you f
That was my cover.
Assholes, you gave me the cover.
I'm out there trying to save lives,
not put money
in Russian fucking coffers.
Are you saying my cover
did more damage to us
than my mission did to them?
Aw, fuck you! Fuck you both.
You know better than that.
[MARTIAN] Let's take a break.
Eight years of my life,
and you think I'd flip
for a fucking ruble?
Was that an act?
I read no fear signals.
Nothing that would suggest masking.
Volatility, disorientation
It's to be expected.
You of all people know that.
[OWEN] He's got a point, though.
About what?
If it was worth it.
None of us know the full extent
of the intelligence
that man brought home.
Not you. Not you. Not me.
You want to sit around
asking was it worth it?
Give me a fucking break.
[SIGHS]
[DOOR OPENS]
[EXPANSIVE MUSIC]
Zak!
Can we stop for a second, please?
Yes.
Take off your hijab.
The morality police don't tend
to climb this high.
So
this is Iran.
So what exactly is the university
looking to build out here?
Uh, an electricity transformer.
For, uh, photovoltaic research.
Right.
A transformer. All the way out here.
And the real plan?
I have no idea what you mean.
Dude, I'm messing with you.
Oh.
[STONES RATTLING]
Whoa. What the?
Do you feel that?
- What's happening?
- [STONES CLATTERING]
It's a little one.
Meaning a bigger one's coming?
Let's set up and take readings.
Answer a million-dollar question.
What question?
Is Zak about to buy it in a huge,
range-flattening magnitude 9.5?
[LAUGHS]
[CHUCKLES]
[LAUGHS] Okay.
[EXPANSIVE, PULSING MUSIC]
[DANNY] Spent the day with Buzzard.
Took readings in a zone on Mount Alborz.
Coordinates to follow.
♪♪♪
Target has access to data relevant to
selection of zones suited
to burying nuclear material.
[COMPUTER BEEPS]
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[KNOCKS]
Zak is the kid? The researcher?
[NAOMI] Buzzard. Yeah.
Looks like his faculty are looking
for sites in the mountains
to bury radioactive waste.
First swing, stand-up double. Not bad.
- [KNOCK AT DOOR]
- Henry. Naomi.
Seems that God himself has come to call.
Why am I scared? I shouldn't be
scared. Should I be scared?
You know how little praise
we survive on in this agency?
We're beaten children.
Pat us on the back
we flinch.
[CIA DIRECTOR] In order to avoid
admitting strategic defeat,
the, uh, Kremlin has issued
its official version:
- [CHUCKLING]
- General Volchok
and a column of renegade mercenaries
attempted to launch a coup.
In the ensuing contact,
security forces were able
to subdue said revolt
and prevent a wider uprising.
In other news from our, uh, friends
with their ears to the rails
at the NSA
um, as of last week,
Leo Kravitsky has been confirmed,
in Kremlin cross chatter,
as the new commander
- of Valhalla.
- [BOSKO] Incredible.
[CIA DIRECTOR] So, I want to
thank everybody here in this room.
Not only did you get our boy home,
but it's down to you
that this agency has
a high-value asset at the heart
of Russian mercenary operations.
So, thank you. Thank you all.
I have, uh, fine Cubanos
- and an ancient Cognac.
- Hmm.
- Okay.
- Tonight, we celebrate.
["WON'T BE POSSIBLE" BY TIËSTO,
ODDMOB & GOODBOYS PLAYING]
[ENGINE REVS]
♪♪♪
[LIVELY CHATTER]
Won't be possible ♪
[SPEAKING ARABIC]
Oh, uh it's okay.
Please. You go.
- Okay.
- I'll be there.
♪♪♪
- [WOMEN LAUGHING]
- [LIVELY CHATTER]
♪♪♪
First time at a party at Hassan's?
Zak invited me.
Danny. I'm I work at the university.
You are not Iranian.
I'm Spanish.
I'm Darya. I am cohosting the party.
Tell me: Do you love the mullahs?
Not particularly, no.
Good. Then let me.
♪♪♪
Mm. That's better.
Beautiful.
["JIBETE" BY ERFAN
& AMIR KHALVAT PLAYING]
[LOUD CHATTER]
♪♪♪
Oh, wow. That really is
something else, huh?
[BOSKO] To think what mankind
has been going through
for the last 90 years,
that this has been sitting in a cask
somewhere in France.
- [CHUCKLES]
- Well, here's to your station.
And spinning total failure
into pure gold.
- [BOSKO] Yeah.
- [GLASSES CLINK]
[BEEPS]
[TOM] Incoming.
I think this is the one
all the chatter is about.
Supposed to be brutal.
[SPEAKING RUSSIAN]
Oh, Jesus.
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
[MAN BREATHING HARD ON VIDEO]
- [LOUD THUD]
- [SQUELCH]
[TOM] I've seen some shit.
Pull it back.
- What?
- Just ten seconds.
It's pretty cut and dried
Just go back. Ten seconds.
Sh Get Bosko.
And the money trail, too.
And getting inside Valhalla.
Careers are made on that shit.
Wait. Is this a dirty grab
for my job, Jim?
- [LAUGHTER]
- [PHONE RINGING]
Can you get that for me? Thanks.
[RINGING]
[BOSKO] I don't have
the stomach for the swamp.
And I'm retiring.
- Bosko's office.
- [CIA DIRECTOR] Ah, horseshit.
- Yes.
- [CIA DIRECTOR] You're a player.
And when you move up the log,
Henry moves up, too.
That's the way it works. Hey, Henry?
I'm actually thinking of
running for President.
[LAUGHTER]
[DARK, INTENSE MUSIC]
[SIMON] The recording's
cued up and ready, sir.
All right. Play it.
[KEY CLICKS]
- [LOUD THUD]
- [SQUELCH]
[SIGHS]
- All right, take it back.
- [KEYS CLICKING]
Just before.
[BOSKO] Leo Kravitsky.
Our guy.
New leader of Valhalla.
How did this happen?
Okay, first of all, are we
certain that's him in the video?
Facial recognition got a 96% match.
So four percent chance it isn't.
That's not how it works.
96% of the available data
was a hundred percent match
for known images.
Not that you need it. I mean,
it's well-lit, it's high res.
Where did this happen?
[SIMON] Uh, Valhalla base,
Central African Republic.
Your show.
Let's circle the wagons.
We need an up-to-the-second
temperature check
of these assholes' ops on the ground.
I'll prod every GRU or SVR asset
with an angle on
Valhalla's command and control.
[CONVERSING INDISTINCTLY]
[MARTIAN] Can we enlarge this part?
Mm-hmm.
Where's Grandpa?
[BEEPS]
[BEEPS]
Take your shirt off.
Please. Take it off.
[TENSE MUSIC]
What does that look like to you?
[CIA DIRECTOR]
What, you're saying the Russian
mercenary who turned my prize asset's
head into peanut butter
has a U.S. Marine Corps tattoo?
He's a merc, but he's not Russian.
To join the Corps,
you need a high school diploma
and residence in the U.S.
between the ages of 17 and 28.
That man was or still is
an American citizen.
- [LOUD DANCE MUSIC PLAYING]
- Like, a like a gesture.
For who?
♪♪♪
Who's that girl?
Uh, it's Darya.
Hassan's girlfriend.
♪♪♪
[INHALES]
[LOUD CHATTER]
♪♪♪
[SPEAKING FARSI]
Hey.
Hey. Relax, con. Take it easy.
[GRUNTING]
[GUESTS GASPING]
- Hey!
- [GRUNTS]
[ZAK CHOKING]
[GRUNTS]
[SCREAMS]
- Hassan!
- [ZAK COUGHING]
[DARYA WHISPERING IN FARSI]
- ♪♪♪
- [DANNY] Ah!
[DANNY] Zak
[PANTING]
Zak.
Zak, are you okay?
That guy went fucking insane.
He is a spoiled brat.
- I'm taking you to a hospital.
- No.
I'm so humiliated.
I just want to go home.
[GULPS]
- [LOCK CLICKS]
- [DOOR OPENS, CLOSES]
[HIGH-HEELED SHOES CLATTERING RAPIDLY]
[LINE RINGING]
[OMINOUS MUSIC]
- [KEYS JINGLE]
- [LOCK CLICKS]
[PANTING]
[LINE CONTINUES RINGING]
[LINE CLICKS]
Hi.
This is Daniela Acosta.
I'm in Iran and
I'm having an asthma attack.
My inhaler isn't working.
What should I do?
[MALE VOICE OVER PHONE]
On a scale of one to five,
how bad is the attack?
Three?
Try to relax.
Do you have your cortisol on you?
Take one tablet, and call tomorrow.
O Okay.
Thanks.
[CALL HANGS UP]
[EXHALES]
If that fucker's American,
we're headed for a
jurisdictional and legal clusterfuck.
Not to mention the turf war
with the Bureau.
As far as I'm concerned,
the day this guy took Putin's
ruble, he became the enemy.
[HENRY] Well, Africa helps.
We've got some top cover
to target AMCITs overseas
under the precedent established
with the drone strike
on al-Awlaki.
Get OGC to bless this
and the DOJ to sprinkle it with incense.
And get me a report
the moment I arrive at Andrews.
The Joint Chiefs want a briefing.
Yes, sir.
Fuck.
Didn't use to be like this.
Us on defense. Every day.
When did everyone stop
being scared of us?
I mean, we're nasty.
I mean, we still play rough.
Must have been how the Romans felt.
Goths at the gates. And on our watch.
The gates, I would be happy.
But inside the walls
All right. ID sledgehammer boy.
I need a a very restful
20 minutes of sleep
and a barrel of coffee.
Am I writing algo for this ID on my own?
I mean, I've got video. No face,
but lots of data points.
How old is the target?
My guess late 20s to mid 30s.
Over 40 gets tricky. But that age?
[INHALES] Whole life's online.
A chew through biomarkers
will tell you who he is in a few hours.
- Any other data refs?
- He was in the U.S. Marines.
That should narrow it down.
- Actually, that makes it harder.
- How?
Those guys actually do
all look the same.
Mm.
[NAOMI] At the top of Gremlin's
target list is Buzzard.
He's been assigned to work with
her on the geological surveys
and has high-level access
to the Iranian government's
nuclear program.
[MARTIAN] Who's this?
Hassan Zamani. Youngest son of
a powerful political clan.
The dad's a big cheese.
He's a businessman, politician, lawyer.
He has their president's ear
on all things nuclear.
Awarding of contracts,
international agreements
And he isn't a target?
No. Way too high profile.
Surrounded by security, home
and office constantly swept.
Historically, the Zamani family
are progressive anti-fundamentalists.
What about the son?
[NAOMI] Risky.
He's volatile.
We don't know what he's worth.
Do we have any more on him?
[CRAIG] He just finished a degree.
Good grades. It's hard to know if
he earned them or bought them.
Behind the scenes,
Hassan likes to party.
Booze, drugs, girls.
All makes a perfect target.
He's unstable.
Hassan just attacked Buzzard,
who is now pressing charges
and wants Gremlin to testify.
Ooh. Uh-uh. No way.
Hassan's father will conduct the trial.
Should be traditional, discreet.
A hearing?
Under Iranian law?
Testifying against the son
of a government advisor?
We will lose Buzzard if she doesn't.
And cop a ton of heat if she does.
Outline the risks and exposure.
Gremlin's in the dirt.
She's capable.
Make this her call.
She's a baby.
She's an agent.
Henry's right. Trust her.
[CALL TO PRAYER PLAYING
OVER LOUDSPEAKERS]
This is very good work.
This is the data we used.
- How about this one?
- [ZAK] I am, uh
I'm sorry to interrupt.
My God. Are you okay?
[ZAK] Yes. I'm healing.
Professor, would you mind if
I spoke to Danny in private?
- [INDISTINCT CHATTER]
- [LAUGHTER]
Have you given it some thought?
Everyone is backing out. I'm on my own.
How does it work?
Hassan's father will convene a hearing.
If he believes I was assaulted,
there will be a full legal trial.
First hearing is Thursday.
And you want me to be your witness?
Will you?
Of course.
[EXHALES]
Okay.
Thank you.
[FOREBODING MUSIC]
Let's run scenarios in your office.
Listen
I didn't want to bring this up
with the DCI around,
but it's only a matter of time
before Langley think it.
We need to get out ahead.
This may be a random event
but what if it's not?
[SIGHS]
Is that a hypothetical?
We get an asset deep in
and high up in Russia.
Weeks later, he's dead.
[QUIET, TENSE MUSIC]
It's worse than you think.
Operation Felix didn't go to plan.
[STAMMERS] You're telling me.
Well, that minister
was not the original target.
Are you saying we had intel that
Moscow changed plans, last-minute.
They knew.
This bucket leaks.
Clean house. Push everyone through.
Fine-tooth comb.
Anyone so much as ordered
a Russian salad
in the last five years, I want to know.
Trust no one.
Not even me.
You want Langley to know about this?
No, no. No, not if you can avoid it.
If we got a mole,
I want them smoked out, staked
out on a fucking barbecue
before they know I'm even looking.
[DOOR OPENS]
[DOOR CLOSES]
♪♪♪
[INDISTINCT CHATTER]
[MARTIAN] What is this?
Well, thought I'd come
have a poke around.
See if you'd been up to
anything interesting.
- What are you doing?
- Ah, relax.
I'm cleared for this floor.
FC 2645. I'm legit.
What the fuck are you doing?
I was worried about you.
Your accident. It sounds awful.
T-boned by a car?
Intra-cranial bleed?
Death-defying surgery? [CHUCKLES]
You ask why I'm here?
You're a hero.
You're a superman. Aren't you?
I'm touched by your concern.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
I always knew you were a big softy
underneath that
hard-man exterior of yours.
[RICHARDSON] Oh. London used
to be such a safe place.
I almost feel responsible, like
like I should apologize.
Like it's my fault or something.
Well, no need.
I'm fine now.
[CHUCKLING] You just raised my mood.
Good to hear.
Thanks for swinging by.
- Well
- I appreciate it.
No, no. Not at all, old boy.
You fancy a drink next week?
Are we good for that?
♪♪♪
Are we good?
I wouldn't miss it for anything.
Great.
Then I won't need to have
stiff words with Henry
about letting you take the night off.
[QUIET SCOFF]
[CONTROLLED EXHALE]
During your time being held by Valhalla,
did you encounter any foreign recruits?
Any non-Russians.
[SIGHS SHAKILY]
[SIGHS]
Thanks for jumping in,
helping us on this.
We appreciate it.
We know it's hard.
Are you okay?
No, Owen, I'm not okay, okay?
I may never be okay, so
can we just
[SIGHS HEAVILY]
Valhalla, right?
Valhalla. Well, Valhalla had
guys from all over. I
[SIGHS] I saw PMCs
who looked Libyan, Syrian.
A few Asian-looking fellas, but
I guess they were from the 'stans.
Anyone else?
Anyone who stood out?
Are you fishing here?
You mean the Viking, right?
No, I never saw him.
Apparently, he's in Africa.
But I did hear them talk about him.
What did they say?
Why are we being coy here, fellas?
He's an American.
[SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC]
Here's what I can tell you.
Everyone all of them
sounded scared shitless of him.
I think
he got close to Volchok in Syria.
Proved himself as his
personal killer and hit man.
But it was more than that.
See, these guys, they all
sounded wounded by where they've
been and what they've seen.
But they talk like, uh,
Viking had a taste for it.
Happy birthday to you ♪
[CHEERING]
[CHEERING CONTINUES]
["ABOUT DAMN TIME" BY LIZZO PLAYING]
[LIVELY CHATTER]
♪♪♪
It's bad bitch o'clock ♪
Yeah, it's thicc-thirty ♪
You knew.
How could you tell?
You sold your shock. They all bought it.
No one here can keep a secret.
I got two emails inviting me
to my own surprise party.
- [LAUGHS]
- Not one
two.
Oh, I been so down
and under pressure ♪
Have you heard anything?
From Sami?
Oh, I'm not the girl I was
or used to be ♪
No news is
better than bad news?
Turn down the lights ♪
Go and enjoy your surprise.
You deserve it.
Hmph.
I'm middle-aged!
Whoo.
[TURN UP THE MUSIC]
Let's celebrate ♪
[DARK, INTENSE MUSIC]
- ♪♪♪
- [DIALOGUE INAUDIBLE]
- ♪♪♪
- [DIALOGUE INAUDIBLE]
How you bearing up?
Ah, you know me.
[CHUCKLING] Yeah. That's why I'm asking.
How would you feel
if someone kidnapped your wife
and tortured her in a windowless cell?
Turn down the lights ♪
With all due respect,
she's not your wife.
Not your partner of 25 years.
Thanks, Henry.
- Martian
- Okay. Just You know,
fuck you. Okay?
Fuck me?
With all due respect.
Martian, we're on the same side here.
What the fuck is wrong with you?
Got a problem here?
- No.
- [BOSKO] Good.
The executioner's been ID'd.
'Cause, uh ♪
You know what time it is ♪
I'm coming out tonight,
I'm coming out tonight ♪
[LIVELY CHATTER]
I'm coming out tonight ♪
- [PHONE RINGING]
- [OWEN GROANS]
[RINGING CONTINUES]
Yes?
[NAOMI] Where the fuck are you?
I'm I left.
Uh
Martian needs you back up here, now.
Okay. All right, all right.
Hey, hey. I gotta go back.
- To the party?
- To work.
[CHUCKLES] Like hell you do.
- Oh, wait. Also
- Huh?
I have a girlfriend.
What the fuck?
[OWEN GRUNTS]
[VEHICLE DOOR CLOSES]
Vernon Crawford.
Born 1986, Terre Haute, Indiana,
second of three children.
After divorce,
when Vernon was ten years old,
moved to Dunbar, West Virginia,
with mother and sisters.
Attended high school there,
graduated in 2003.
After a few manual jobs,
he enlisted in the Marines.
Where was he posted?
Served one tour of Afghanistan, 2008,
as an aviation ordnance technician,
during which he barely left
Bagram Air Base.
Dr. Blake? We'll need a full profile.
[BLAKE] Already on it, paying
particular attention to this:
On return to the U.S.,
his service transformed
into a fiction he recounted online
and in person.
He claimed to have served
in a frontline unit,
3rd Force Recon in the Waigal Valley.
Company he never was part of,
a province he never was in.
[MARTIAN] After a bar fight
in Parkersburg
with another veteran,
he was imprisoned for aggravated
assault with a weapon,
serving two years in
USP Hazelton high security.
Aka Misery Mountain.
There, he got into far-right ideology.
Joined the Aryan Brotherhood
and a group called 1488.
Released in 2014,
he vanishes before cropping up
in social media posts
of an international volunteer
unit in Syria, fighting ISIS.
[MARTIAN] Whereupon he disappears.
But we've linked, uh, SIGINT chatter
through mercenary message boards
referring to someone called Varyag,
a Russian word for Viking.
Viking appears to have moved
with private military contractors
through Syria, Egypt, Libya,
and currently serves in a Valhalla unit
in Central African Republic.
[TENSE, PULSING MUSIC]
Viking is category one.
This isn't a fishing trip.
This is a manhunt. Kill or capture.
Flush this motherfucker out.
[ETHEREAL, MELANCHOLY MUSIC]
♪♪♪
- [FOOTSTEPS PASSING]
- [DISTANT VOICES]
♪♪♪
[PHONE BUZZING]
Hello?
[FEMALE VOICE OVER PHONE]
We are calling to confirm
your appointment in the morning
at St. Tobias' physio department.
I'll be there.
[CALL HANGS UP]
[MARTIAN] Coming
to my office was a mistake.
People will start asking questions.
[ROBINSHAW] He had a meeting
with a junior analyst on your floor.
It was in his diary.
Popping in to see you for a chat
won't raise suspicion.
If I was Bosko,
I'd be shaking the place down
to its fucking socks.
Don't let Richardson screw this up
playing power games with me.
You quit.
Now you're back.
Who's playing games here?
Where is she?
Dr. Zahir has been moved several times.
They're about to move her again.
We know where. We know
who she's about to meet.
This is no longer a kinetic rescue.
- It will require diplomacy.
- With who?
You need to offer us something valuable.
Something new.
[INCREDULOUS LAUGH] I gave you
Something of use to us,
in order to proceed.
dark, inexorable music
[EXHALES]
What do you want?
Something big.
Big enough to make it worth our time.
Something to not stake you out
naked in front of the U.S. embassy
with a sign around your neck
that says, "I'm a traitor."
I can give you a source in Iran.
[SPEAKING FARSI]
[ROBINSHAW]
You know we have no one in Iran.
Who would handle them?
Us.
But I'd share everything.
Who's the source?
There's a government special
advisor on nuclear affairs.
Energy, not weapons; it's a gray area.
He was on the committee that negotiated
delivery of short to medium
range ballistic missiles
to Hezbollah for use against Israel
and to Russia against Ukraine.
That's big.
A high-powered
government official would
Not him. His son. His eldest son.
One of our NOCs is close to him.
Which agent?
I won't identify our agent.
But I can use the op
to deliver you the asset.
We'll be in touch.
[PULSING, DRAMATIC MUSIC]
♪♪♪