Hawaii Five-O (1968) s02e05 Episode Script

- Here you are, Mr.
Bridger.
- Oh, thank you.
- A good likeness.
- Helps pass the time.
Please ask the captain to radio this message - to the Honolulu control tower.
- Yes, sir.
Oh, there you are, my dear.
I was wondering, would it be too great an imposition if I borrowed a scrap of paper? Will this do? Splendid.
Get me Steve McGarrett, Hawaii Five-0, and hurry.
Mr.
Bridger, we're on the ground.
Mr.
Bridger? Mr.
Bridg? - All right.
Let's hear it.
- Bridger died on the plane.
We don't know how.
Doc's working on it.
He was tailing someone? The beast.
The one he mentioned in the message.
Beast? What is that, a code name? - Yeah.
- Kind of melodramatic, isn't it? - It may be, but it fits Erich Stoss.
- Erich Stoss? That may not be his real name.
He's got five more.
Claims to be Dutch.
He's probably a Nazi who can't go home again.
We think he's working for the Chinese Communists now.
How did you miss him, Danno? Without Bridger, we didn't know who to look for.
No description.
Never got one.
What about luggage? We held it up until we checked everyone.
If Stoss had any, it came in on a different plane.
Let's go.
Last stamp, Maracaibo, Venezuela, five days ago.
Well, I'm listening, Mr.
Hendricks.
It's a sticky business, Steve.
Plays way, way up in Washington.
Top secret.
You asked for my help.
Well, no one knows the rock like you.
But I don't know what happened in Maracaibo five days ago.
You tell me, I'm in.
You don't, I'm out.
Now name the players and tell me the stakes.
That's all I ask.
Well, there was a secret conference, revolutionary groups from all over the Caribbean.
Any leaks? The meeting took place in the America Hotel.
Bridger told us it was arranged by a high-level communist.
The day after the meeting, Stoss left for Mexico City with Bridger on his tail.
Yeah, but he flew from Mexico City, to Los Angeles, then to here.
Why? We don't know the short strokes.
But Bridger reported something big was planned and Stoss was dealing the cards.
Washington know anything you don't know? They haven't told me.
Well, ask.
And if they have a picture of Stoss, get that to me too.
- Do you know her? - No.
- Bridger's work? - He was a weekend artist.
What about it, Doc? Almost through, McGarrett.
Do you think the girl connects with Stoss? I'm betting Bridger thought so.
If she came in on the same flight, we missed her too.
How come someone from Five-0 missed a pretty girl? I guess I was thinking of the beast.
Well, as of now, we think of beauty and the beast, huh? Okay, what do we got, Doc? McGarrett, we have here a very interesting case.
As a matter of fact, first I've ever come across in all my years in the medical field.
Doc, do you mind telling me, or should I wait and read about it in the medical journal? All the classic symptoms of heart arrest, but it wasn't that at all.
Cause of death, Doc? Danno, turn around.
There.
Right there, to the left of the spinal column.
I almost missed it.
Gentlemen, what it is, is a puncture wound at the level of the lower thoracic spine.
How do you stab a man in the back when he's sitting down in an airplane? - With a long, thin blade.
- Correct.
Lumbar puncture, needle, small caliber.
Right through the back of the seat.
On a crowded plane? How come he didn't yell? Even if he did, with a torn aorta the sound would be postmortem.
If she came in on that flight, somebody must have seen her.
All right, I wanna know who she is, where she is, and what she's doing.
Check with the plane crew, hotel clerks, cab drivers.
- Anybody who might have seen her.
- If we find her? Don't move in, just tail her.
Give her plenty of rope, see if she tries to contact Stoss.
Steve, why not go after Stoss the same way? Stoss is smart enough to know we've got something on him.
He's gotta stay undercover.
We have a much better chance of getting to her.
Men like Stoss, wherever they go, bring death and destruction.
Why did he come to Hawaii, huh? Why? I can't figure that out.
Thank you, my boy.
Thank you.
There used to be a day when they made cars large enough so a man could get in and out with ease.
- Shall I carry your case, professor? - No, thank you.
The case has not left my hands for the past 72 hours.
- I have slept with it.
- It must be valuable.
Deadly, sir.
Deadly.
Well, now, this, I must assume, is our host.
Mr.
Quon Li, professor.
I chose this house because it's remote, secluded, and Mr.
Quon is happy to cooperate with us.
- Because you're a party member, sir? - No.
Because I have family still living in Shanghai who have been threatened with persecution unless I cooperate.
Ah, yes.
It's a wicked world, Mr.
Quon, indeed it is.
But we must all make the best of it.
And now, at the risk of imposing upon your hospitality, sir, I should like to go directly to my room.
I shall need precisely seven hours of solitude to compose and refresh myself.
Don't move an inch.
Now take your hand away slowly and carefully.
I want it clearly understood, Mr.
Quon, that no one, I repeat, no one but myself will ever so much as approach this case.
As you say.
Hail me a cab, please.
This is what I need.
Please have it ready at exactly 9:00 tomorrow morning.
- These ingredients are rare.
- They can be obtained.
It will be expensive.
Old man, I am a chemist.
I know the exact cost of every item on that list.
Then you also know this formula requires refrigeration.
Pack it in crushed ice in a thermos jug.
You're very young to have such knowledge.
And you are very old to be alive.
- What did he want? - He said you were followed.
- Is there another way out? - This way.
I will see you at 9:00 in the morning.
- How bad? - Bruises, shock, nothing broken.
- They're cleaning her up now.
- They holding her? - Twelve hours.
Observation.
- What happened? She ducked out the back way.
Got hit by a cab as she stepped out of an alley.
Look, there's an enemy agent loose, one lead to him, one, and you blew it.
Look, Steve, we gave her rope.
She may have spotted us.
Someone might have spotted you and tipped her.
All right, but we're still in the ball game because we got her.
I'm sorry, Danno.
I guess the beast is on my back.
Hendricks just called Bridger's wife.
She's coming to take the body home to his kids.
Let's go.
Steve, this is the formula she left with the chemist.
Does it mean anything? Hospital lab says some kind of spore-breeding mulch.
Weird.
No idea how the stuff is used, unless we wanna make our own penicillin.
- Did you ask the chemist about it? - Yeah, in the mother tongue.
He identified the chemicals.
He said if we put it together we could make purple water.
Beautiful.
Beautiful.
If you want my opinion, one part of the formula is missing.
Mr.
McGarrett, you can go in now, but just for five minutes.
- She's been sedated.
- Thank you.
Mr.
Kelly, there's a phone call for you.
My name is Steve McGarrett.
I'm with Hawaii Five-0.
That's the state police unit here.
Are you going to arrest me for getting hit by a cab? No, nothing like that.
I just wanna ask you a few questions, Miss de Nava.
Well, I am from Barranquilla, which is in Colombia, which is in South America.
And we are famous for our coffee and our bananas.
- And what brings you to Hawaii? - Vacation.
Now, what's this all about? You came in on flight 507, right? Did you know the man who died on that flight? I didn't know anyone had died.
He did that sketch of you.
- I wonder why? - So do I.
Name Erich Stoss mean anything to you? Stoss? Sorry.
This chemical formula matches the handwriting we found in your purse.
What does it mean? You really would like it to mean something, wouldn't you? I wish I could oblige, but it's a doodle, Mr.
McGarrett.
Some people draw lines, dots, tic-tac-toe.
I doodle formulas.
I used to be a chemistry student.
Now, why would you bring your doodle to a Chinese chemist? I was merely in his shop.
It looked exotic, so I went in to browse around.
Oh, I'm sorry.
It's nice to have met you.
We'll meet again.
Will we? Yeah, I have a strong feeling that Erich Stoss will bring us together.
Hendricks dug up a picture of Stoss.
Just sent this flier over.
- He had a thousand copies made.
- Good.
Now that we know what he looks like, let's make it a big game hunt.
Circulate it all over the islands.
Did you get anything from Miss de Nava? - Yeah.
- What? She's lying.
Now all we have to do is prove it.
One of the field hands brought it out from the city.
Five-0 is looking for you.
Taken from an old passport photograph.
These things never do justice.
Still, it does suggest a certain roguish quality.
This Five-0, Mr.
Lao, what can you tell me of it? Run by a man named McGarrett.
- Dangerous? - And ruthless.
A point to remember.
Well, now, gentlemen, I see we're all present and accounted for.
Gentlemen, I can now tell you that within the next 72 hours we shall have accomplished an act of sabotage of such magnitude I should not be surprised if it is considered almost a second Pearl Harbor.
But first, some background.
Stand up, my boy.
Stand up.
This is my colleague, Mr.
Esteban.
A citizen of one of the greatest sugar-producing countries in the world.
Unfortunately, due to embargoes, an evil institution, there is at present very little market for the product of his country.
Every year, more tons of it end up in warehouses already filled to the bursting point.
Now, then, where do we find buyers for this excellent sugar? How do we bring the world to our marketplace? You might well ask.
And yet the answer is quite simple.
We will create a shortage.
The contents of these vials, gentlemen, judiciously introduced into the cane fields here, here, here, and here, will effectively destroy the sugar industry in Hawaii for the next five years.
A brilliant plan.
Every country will have to buy their sugar from us at our prices.
- Precisely.
- When do we start? Tonight.
Gentlemen, I bid you good day.
Mr.
Lao.
Care to remain for a few minutes? Is there something wrong, professor? An important member of our organization is in a hospital.
She was involved in a street accident yesterday.
A piece of carelessness which cannot be excused.
- We must contact her, Lao.
- Is that a problem? Yes.
Our friend, McGarrett, has made it one.
He's having her watched.
Why is it necessary to make contact? Firstly, because the contents of these vials cannot be activated without Mariana's special knowledge.
Secondly, because as long as McGarrett has her, she's a threat to all of us.
But my own dossier on Miss de Nava indicates she is totally dedicated to the cause.
I deeply distrust people who are dedicated to abstractions.
Loyalty is a commodity bought and sold on the open market.
If she is an unreliable, what then? - Good morning, doctor.
- Miss de Nava's room, which is it? It's restricted, doctor.
The police I'm Dr.
Lao.
I've been called in for consultation.
There's been no clearance for you.
Perhaps I can reach Dr.
Webber.
- Your name, please? - Mako.
But nothing was said Nurse Mako, I have many patients of my own and seldom enough time to see them all.
I'm skipping my lunch in order to examine this woman at Dr.
Webber's request.
I will not squander it discussing the case with you.
I'm terribly sorry, doctor.
I'm sure it's all right.
But in a police matter, we must be careful.
Please, this way.
It's all right, officer.
Doctor Lao has been cleared by Dr.
Webber.
You know who I am? - You're Lao.
- Comrade, you have failed.
It was not my fault.
Excuses are not acceptable.
At best, you've been careless.
At worst, traitorous.
- No.
- Keep your voice down.
You'll have an opportunity to prove your loyalty.
- What shall I do? - First, the formula.
Four basic ingredients and one additive.
- This is the complete formula.
- Good.
Now, what do the police know? - I told them nothing.
- You'll be questioned again.
- Do you think I'd betray you? - That danger exists.
I am as good a party member as anyone.
I have never deviated.
I would die for the cause.
Yes.
- What is this? What are you doing? - There will be no discomfort.
You will become drowsy and quietly sleep away.
Please, I don't want to die.
It's an order.
The next time you are questioned you might slip.
You could endanger the plan.
No, I won't.
I promise.
You promised to die for the cause.
How are you today, Mariana? I have nothing to say to an oppressor of the people.
Is that what you think I am? If you function in a capitalistic society, so you are an oppressor.
And you're a communist.
I admit it with pride.
Yesterday when I questioned you, you wouldn't admit anything.
Maybe we're getting somewhere.
Nowhere.
- You are my enemy.
- Correction.
You came to my country and committed a murder.
If you didn't, Stoss did.
That makes you an accessory.
Now, help yourself, Mariana.
The party can't help you now.
Where is Stoss? Where is Stoss? They were right.
You will come back again, and again.
You will force me to - What is it? What's the matter? - I'm afraid.
I want to live whatever the consequences.
Help me, please.
Please, help me.
You took something.
What is it? - What is it? - They gave me poison.
Nurse, get a doctor in here quickly.
It's poison.
They said no pain.
They lied to me.
Who got to you? Who was it, Mariana? Stoss sold you out.
Who sent it? Who did he send? The one they call Lao.
- I'm afraid.
I don't want to die.
- Who? Who, beside Lao and Stoss? Who was it? Esteban.
Me.
McGarrett, I'm so cold.
Easy.
Easy.
Why did Stoss come to Hawaii? - Destroy.
- Destroy what? Sugar cane fields.
How are they gonna destroy the sugar cane fields? Fungus.
Fungus.
She's dead, Mr.
McGarrett.
What happened? She was killed by a beast.
Destroy the cane fields? - But that's diabolical.
- Yes, sir, but nonetheless true.
Gentlemen, any comments? I think Mr.
McGarrett has created a new credibility gap.
I'd be interested in viewing the evidence.
I asked for a representative from the Department of Agriculture to be here.
- May we hear from him now, sir? - This is Leonard Burleson.
The sugar cane plant is very susceptible to many, many diseases.
To name a few: Leaf scald, gumming, eye rot, root rot, smut, a whole range of viruses.
Cane has also been badly damaged by insect pests.
The moth borers, the froghopper, beetles, mealy bugs, moths, and many others.
But according to McGarrett, it's a fungus.
Could somebody destroy a crop that way? Good heavens, yes.
You'd also want to start with a parasitic fungus.
Preferably, one that would be able to attack a single host.
In this case, sugar cane.
That's no real difficulty.
There are more than 100,000 species of fungi to choose from.
You would probably want the faculative parasite.
After it's killed the living host, it could continue to feed on the dead tissue.
Then you'd have a reproduction cycle of spores to attack next year's crop.
We'll accept Leonard's expertise that it is possible.
I'll concede that it's possible.
How much of the world's raw sugar is produced in Hawaii? Forty-one point six percent.
For another country to gain that advantage would be a tremendous coup.
But for Hawaii to lose, it would be a stab in the heart.
Very well, gentlemen.
Let's sum it up.
One, a group of enemy agents, three professionals and an unspecified number of local recruits are somewhere on this island.
We'll need a coordinated effort by all law enforcement agencies to find their hideout.
And two, these people have already committed murders, and their assignment is the destruction of one of our major industries.
How will they introduce this fungus in the cane fields? By spores.
No problems with handling or dispersing.
What about disbursement? By plane, I should think.
Fly over a remote corner of a cane field, to the northeast, of course.
Then the trade winds will blow the spores for many miles.
Like crop-dusting.
Yes, sir.
Exactly.
Danny.
Good.
- Here it is.
- Go.
Crop dusting and spraying companies, by island.
Privately owned crop dusters.
Rental planes adaptable for crop dusting.
Private planes adaptable.
Helicopters.
- That's an awful lot of aircraft.
- Some fat in there.
Secret operation like this, you wouldn't go to a crop dusting company.
- Rent a plane, same thing.
- Privately owned dusters? - Some growers have their own.
- Yeah, but they don't rent them out.
There are other ways.
- Pressure? - The worst kind.
- What are you getting at, Chin? - Stoss is working for the Chinese.
If he could find a grower with family still in China, he's got it.
- Give that man a free foo yung.
- Haole food.
Not exclusively, brother.
All right, let's go over the list again.
It's almost midnight.
None of the places will be open.
Well, then we knock on doors.
Either we nail Stoss now, or we'll be growing toadstools instead of cane.
Let's go.
It's a pity, my dear Lao, that we don't have a whole fleet of these.
The entire job could be finished by now.
Still, tomorrow's another day.
Central dispatch.
Calling McGarrett, Five-0.
McGarrett.
Yeah, Danno.
Interisland Charter Service, nothing? Yeah, what else? Okay.
Okay.
Split the last few with Kono and hit it.
Sorry, I don't speak Chinese.
Okay, pal.
I asked if you bought a plane.
A crop duster from a man named Anderson.
Sure did.
Right over here.
Nice plane, huh, honorable cop? I bought it for a clubhouse for my kids.
- My name's Williams, Five-0.
- I can't hear you.
What can I do for you? I'd like to know what you're dusting for.
Are you an expert on plant disease? No, but I can get one out here in a hurry if I need him.
My foreman was the first to notice it.
Some kind of smut.
I've never seen anything just like it.
- Is it a fungus? - Sure is.
How are you, Quon Li? Steve McGarrett.
The eyes are not too ancient to recognize an old friend.
- Well, it's been a long time.
- Yes, it has.
And people change, don't they? Nothing has changed, Steve.
Do old friends stand outside and talk? There is sickness in my house.
The door is closed only to protect your health.
Well, it's not a social call.
I came to inspect your plane.
I have no plane.
- That's right.
You have a helicopter.
- Yes.
I use it to take me to and from the cane field.
Could it be equipped for dusting? Yes, it could.
Who flies it for you, Quon? I wanna talk to him.
And talk you shall, Mr.
McGarrett.
To me.
I never relished chess by letter.
The satisfaction of the game, any game, is to look your opponent in the eye.
Let me introduce myself properly.
The name is Stoss.
Yeah, I know, the beast.
Yes, I venture to say there's very little about me that has escaped you.
Right, including the murders of Bridger and Miss de Nava.
Distressing events, indeed.
And so close to success.
A plan brilliantly conceived and worked out in the finest detail.
A coup, sir.
Now mangled beyond repair.
First by their blundering, and now by yours.
Now then, we must consider what to do next.
You're under arrest, Stoss.
Look around you, Mr.
McGarrett.
Just look around you.
I'll have to do a lab test, of course, but we can be pretty sure of this much: It is a fungus, it was especially developed to attack cane, it's very fast acting, and we don't have a pesticide that will be effective.
- What do I have to do? - Burn it.
Kono, they started burning.
Where's Steve? We haven't heard from him.
Well, call me back as soon as you hear from him, huh? Quon.
Quon.
You will be hungry.
Quon.
Very well.
I betrayed you, Steve.
I had to choose between you and my own blood.
These people don't honor agreements.
Don't you understand that? Your relatives will pay the price anyway.
Now, please, Quon, help me.
Quon.
I cannot.
Please understand.
How long have you lived in Hawaii? Thirty years? Maybe longer? Now, stop looking back to the old country, old man.
Your home is here, right in these islands, and you owe a debt.
Now, when are you gonna make a payment? Steve Well, Mr.
McGarrett, it appears we'll have a little more time together.
I don't think you can afford it.
Unfortunately, the situation provides no option.
Such was the confidence in our plan that an emergency escape route was not provided for.
A shocking tactical error, of course.
That's the ball game, Stoss.
You've had it.
Not quite, sir.
There is in the harbor a ship of sympathetic registry.
The problem is how to get to it.
My sources of information tell me that there are roadblocks all over the island.
There is, of course, the helicopter, but I believe you will agree that there's a certain amount of risk involved in trying to land it near the harbor.
A risk which I would prefer to keep as a last resort.
And where does that leave us? It leaves us at the very reason why I have spared your life.
Oh, we make a deal? Let us say, a compromise that we can both live with.
As the saying goes.
You're a man of sound judgments.
I believe we can reach such a compromise.
What are you asking? One, free passage through all checkpoints between here and the harbor.
Two, your presence to ensure safe conduct.
And three, no interference with the sailing of the ship.
And what do you offer? You, sir.
- Unharmed in any way.
- No deal! - What could be fairer? - No deal.
- My final offer.
- A beast belongs in a cage.
When you hear the sound of the helicopter taking off, kill him.
- Mr.
Lao.
- Yes, professor? It seems that our activities here will have to be temporarily suspended.
Then we have failed.
A setback.
No question of that, sir.
But we've only lost a battle, not a war.
- He who will run away - Will run into a roadblock.
Unless you've discovered a way around them.
Why, I propose to fly over them.
Unfortunately, there will be space for only two.
- Yourself and? - And Esteban.
To pilot the helicopter, of course.
Then it's all been decided? And I have no voice in the matter? I'm to be left behind as sacrifice.
I refuse to accept.
Oh, I'm disappointed in you, Mr.
Lao.
I would expect a little more fatalism from a man of your race, and dedication.
After all, this is your cause, sir, not mine.
I'm only a poor mercenary trying to sell his unique talents for a small profit.
However, let us not quarrel.
The situation for you is by no means critical.
It should be comparatively easy for you to fade into the local population and eventually make your way to safety once all the hue and cry has died down.
Now, then, time presses.
I shall have to ask you to step aside.
- Quon, are you all right? - I'm all right, Steve.
I'm all right.
Stoss! - Stoss! - Esteban, I urge you to yield as gracefully as circumstances will permit.
We can only hope that Mr.
McGarrett will be a generous victor.
The fortunes of war have shifted, Mr.
McGarrett.
May I lower my arms, please? All this exertion for a man of my temperament.
I surrender to you, sir.
Drop it.
- Where you been, Danno? - I've been looking for you.
Check Stoss for cyanide pellets.
A ridiculous notion, Mr.
McGarrett.
Gestures are for fanatics and patriots.
I'm a businessman, pure and simple.
What's with the arm? Stoss was showing me how he killed Frank Bridger.
Wrong, sir.
It was Esteban.
He did it entirely without my knowledge or approval.
Now, please, fair is fair, Mr.
McGarrett.
I do expect justice.
You'll get it, Stoss.
Life, without parole.