Numb3rs s02e23 Episode Script
Undercurrents
There's hardly anyone out.
You complaining? No, it's just that big storm last night.
I think I read somewhere the runoff is toxic.
That's fascinating.
Are you always such a chick in the morning? Come on.
Hey.
Look.
My God.
All right, so you're good? All right, good.
Bye.
So, Dad's all right.
He's going to take the shuttle back from the airport.
He appreciates that we at least tried to pick him up.
All right, well, I'm sorry I had to drag you out here.
Oh, believe me, I don't mind.
Hmm.
Charlie, don't forget this is a crime scene.
Right.
All right, don't go touching anything.
Hey, guys.
We got four bodies that washed up on the beach early this morning.
All Asian, all female, no IDs.
Any idea where ty're from? It can't be too far away, otherwise the bodies probably would've drifted further apart.
Coast Guard called us in.
They're calling this a crime on the high seas.
Over there with Megan is a marine science officer.
He's supposed to know something about the local currents out here.
All right.
What's Charlie doing? No idea.
Big storm, but we've had very few distress calls in the past 24 hours.
Yeah.
Hey, this is Special Agent Eppes.
Hey, how're you doing? And why is that you think? A storm that big keeps all the small craft in port.
And we had nothing up near Palos Verdes that explains this.
Wait.
Why there? The prevailing current in this area moves down from the north.
They were in the water less than 24 hours.
They had to go in off Palos Verdes to end up here.
Uh What? Yeah, but a flow from the north wouldn't be sustaining rip currents in this bay.
Well, that's true, but, uh I'm sorry, who are you? He's all right, he's with us.
You see those surfers there? They're struggling against a significant riptide.
So I would say that the coastal flow is moving counter to the prevailing currents from the south.
We do get rips when the southwest swell starts to push against the What is that in the water? Hey, I got a heartbeat here.
Paramedic! Come on.
Any theories on how these girls ended up on the beach? I don't think they were out for a swim.
Yeah, it's tough to swim with your shoes on.
All right, so nothing from the Coast Guard.
No witnesses, no distress calls.
And what about the girl you pulled from the ocean? Still unconscious.
Actually, someone should check her status and someone should talk to the coroner and see if we can get those autopsies fast-tracked, you know? You want to draw straws? Nah, I'll take the morgue.
You can owe me one.
Thanks.
Hey, Don.
Charter company called for you.
They said your boat's ready? All right.
Your boat? Yeah.
So we need to keep dropping these buoys at one minute intervals.
Right, and I am recording the ID numbers.
Then what? Well, then we use the drift routes to identify what I hope will be an atypical shift in the local currents.
Charlie, do you really think we're going to see any of these buoys again? It's a very big ocean.
Yeah, but for our objective, we really only need to be looking for them in one place.
Right.
The beach where the girls washed up.
You got it.
Charles? Is this practical exercise really necessary? We could have produced a highly functional theoretical result and never left dry land.
Larry, without your kinematic flow mapping, we wouldn't know where to drop these buoys.
I know, I know.
I know.
All right, I'm going below decks in a desperate search for more Dramamine.
So last night ended up being pretty fun, huh? Yeah, that was fun for a lecture on theories of axiomatic sets.
Yeah, not exactly the obvious outcome.
No.
You know Claude Faugert is giving a lecture next week on Point-Set Topology.
Want to go together? Sure, why not? It'd be like, um like a "math date"? I like that.
Maybe there's hope for us.
Hey.
So you were at the hospital? She's in ICU.
Yeah, and? There's complications from the hypothermia.
What, like, as in not gonna make it? That's what the doctor says.
It doesn't look good.
All right.
Claudia? How you been? David? I didn't expect to see you so soon.
Look, you have any idea who's handling the four girls from the beach? Yeah.
Me.
Claudia? Catching a lot of homicide cases, okay? You have a cause of death? Mmm, they drowned.
Well, not that surprising, but all four showed signs of acute dehydration.
That's crazy.
You're surrounded by water, but still you're dehydrated? The sea water actually accelerates dehydration.
It's the salt.
But I'd say tissue retraction started before they went in the water.
Meaning? Meaning you can rule out a luxury cruise.
You have any idea where they might be from? From what little dental work there is, I'd say these three are from mainland China.
But this one over here She's had exteive orthodontic work.
I'd say she's American.
Or at least grew up here.
She's also older than the other girls.
The rest are still in their teens.
How'd she end up in the water with three teenage girls from China? If you can figure out where she got that tattoo, might help you answer that.
This was done recently.
The bottom of her foot.
How recent? The skin's fully healed, but from the keloid scarring, I'd say a couple months.
Maybe three.
I'm sorry I can't be more specific.
Nah, don't be.
It's so quiet.
It's so early.
It's damn early.
Thanks for coming out here with me again.
Glad to help.
It's actually nice to be away from school.
What would you think of doing something else outside of school, like seeing a movie? Are you asking me out on a non-math date? Yeah, is that weird? No.
I would like that.
But, um But what? Don't say "but.
" Come on, I know we've had our problems this year, but No, Charlie, it's not that.
Susan Berry wa not a big thing.
She was here briefly and she couldn't wait to get back to the UK.
Charlie, I've been offered a-a job.
It's an assistant professorship in the Math Department.
It's, um, at Harvard.
Harvard? It's a three year appointment.
It's Massachusetts Harvard.
That's the one.
That's I mean that's really amazing.
Three years is a long time.
Hey Isn't that a third buoy? What? Where? There.
C-8.
Well, that's enough data to sustain your theory.
Currents have shifted.
Which means the Coast Guard was looking for witnesses and survivors in the wrong place.
Colby get any hits on the tattoo? Nothing.
It seems that the trail's hit a wall.
Maybe Charlie's high seas adventure will give us something, you think? Yeah, we could use a break.
Even if it does require a math lesson.
Can we help you? This is Claudia Gomez from the coroner's office.
Oh, from the "you'll take the morgue and I'll owe you one"? Excuse me? Ah, it's nothing.
I brought over the pathology reports.
I didn't think it should wait.
What happened? One of the girls from the beach, I found the H5N1 strain in her system.
H H5N1.
It's Bird Flu.
The Central for Desease Control has looked at this and so far we've been lucky The last pandemic flu killed almost 50 million people.
Right.
And I didn't think the bird flu was contagious for people.
Okay.
H5N1 mostly effects avian populations, but it spreads very quickly, and it will infect people if they come in contact with the birds.
So it can adapt.
And rapidly.
Now, the current strains of the virus settle deep in the lungs, too deep for a cough to get it airborne.
But if it mutates It could spread rapidly through a human population.
That's our fear.
And most of us think that it's only a matter of time.
Well, we think these girls are Chinese.
Wait a minute, I was told we were talking about a single case.
We're investigating several deaths, one case of the flu so far.
So what about linking the girl to an outbreak in China? Yeah well, Chinese government hasn't exactly been open about their health issues.
And what about a quarantine? Agent Eppes, we haven't had a case of Avian Flu in North America yet, and what you're telling me doesn't change that.
So you're just going to quash this? Our containment protocols are useless if we don't know where the girl contracted the flu.
All right, well what do you suggest we do, cover it up? I'm not saying this isn't serious.
It is deadly serious.
But I don't think it's worth causing a widespread panic until we have more information on the girl.
So here's my tory.
The storm caused a sandbar to form at the north end of the bay.
Right.
The shift in the bottom features disrupted the tidal flow.
All right, so it's like a car race.
The flow around the track is even and thus predictable.
But let's say there's a crash the flow is disrupted, cars have to steer around the wreckage.
Now if they don't clear that raceway, the flow is permanently changed.
The parallel isn't exact, but you get the idea: All right.
the currents shifted.
So where'd the girls come from? Well, they were dumped in the inbound shipping lanes, and these are the approximate coordinates.
Alright, well, I mean, the Coast Guard's going to have to do another search.
Hey, look, if the girl with the flu was on a boat, then there's a high probability she came into close quarters with other people.
Right.
If that virus was able to mutate I know, it might be spreading big time.
Hey, guys.
Hey.
If you're looking for Charlie, I think he's at the FBI.
Ah, shoot, yeah, I was.
Don wanted me to drop off these search grids from the Coast Guard.
Well, I can take them and give them to him.
Can you? Thanks.
Sure.
Oop.
Oo Hold on, let me get those.
Boy, hat's a strange tattoo.
Thanks.
Hey, wait a second.
These characters, are these from the I Ching? You know, we don't know what those are, actually.
What's the I Ching? Oh, it's an ancient book of Chinese divination.
It's still pretty influential.
I - I think these are from there.
Is this related to the drownings? Yeah, it's a tattoo we found on the bottom of one of the dead girls' feet.
That's a strange place for a tattoo.
Yeah, that's what I thought, too it's like a toe tag.
But it got me thinking.
I remembered there were these guys in Special Forces that used to have their dog tags tattooed on their bodies in case their heads were You know? You know, in case And you think this young woman might have similar inclinations toward post mortem identification? Maybe.
Do you have any idea what those characters might mean? No.
But Well, I'm afraid my own expertise is not that specific.
But you may be correct in thinking that it does mean something.
How's that? If I could just get you to hold that.
See, each of these characters, that has its own unique correspondence to its own unique number.
For instance, if you're looking at 31.
Wait a minute, if these are all numbers, do you think it's possible this is some kind of code? Well, if it is, Charlie's a code-breaking machine, and he should be back really soon.
Yeah, that'd be great, we could use his help.
You know, it's perfectly understandable a soldier's reasons for tattooing himself he's walking into war.
But this girl, now her tattoo begs the question: What was she walking into? Hey.
Hey.
Been going through the ship information from the Port Authority.
There were more than 30 ships in the area Charlie gave us.
All right, well, the coroner said they were Chinese.
Why don't you try anything from Asia.
All right.
Yeah, that cuts it down a bit, but we've still got four or five cargo ships.
Right, well, it wouldn't be the first time they dumped bodies from those things, right? Yeah.
Oh, Don, take a look at this.
One of these ships can carry, what You realize we could be talking about 2000 containers.
No, David, we're talking about one container.
We've tried every permutation possible for a Caesar shift.
Reading from left to right, from right to left You know, the I Ching is Chinese, maybe we need to consider phonetic chacters.
I already did.
And? There's only 37 symbols.
Yeah, yeah, which doesn't get us to 55 or 61.
Okay, I know.
I do get it.
We've been at this for six hours.
Nope, six and a half.
Ooh.
Uh-oh, this doesn't look good.
No.
Our breakthrough eludes us.
What, are you guys still thinking this is some kind of encrypted message? It's too short to run a cryptanalysis.
If it were longer, I could run a Kasiski exam, or try an index-of-coincidence assessment.
All we have is a mere ten digits.
It's just not enough for a frequency analysis.
Well, maybe the problem is the underlying assumption.
I don't know, maybe she's right, maybe we're looking for complexity here when all there really is is simplicity.
Well, wait, how do you mean? Maybe it's not a code.
Charles.
It's a phone number.
It's ringing.
It's going to voicemail.
This is Susan Lim.
If you've reached this number, then I guess I'm dead.
Please call Jeremy Wang, he's a reporter at the Tribune.
Tell him what happened.
That's a message from a dead woman.
She's one of five women that washed up on a beach yesterday.
We don't know who they are or where they came from.
Her name's Susan Lim.
We worked together.
I'm sorry.
Um, do you have any idea how this might have happened? She called me maybe three weeks ago.
She'd gotten as far as Shanghai, and her cousin helped her find a snakehead.
Um, a "snakehead"? Yeah, someone who arranged for her to get on a cargo ship.
She said there was 20 women on an 8'x40' container.
Did she say the name of the ship? I don't think she knew.
She was working on a story? A book.
Last year, we did a series of articles on the underground sex trade.
We heard how they were bringing the girls in.
She convinced the publisher to back an expose.
And just like that she could pull off going undercover in China? Susan's first-generation Chinese-American, she grew up speaking Mandarin, and her mother's family's still in Zhejiang Province, in the countryside.
They helped her.
Last thing she told me she pulls this off, she's a lock for a Pulitzer.
Well, I'd really like to look at her notes.
So who is she? Who's who? Charlie, whenever you look like this, it's always a problem with a girl.
Look like what? Michelle Robinson, remember her? Seventh grade? Yeah.
When she wouldn't go with you to the dance at school you looked just like this for a week.
Amita got offered a job.
A great job.
But it's back East.
Amita, huh? I thought you two weren't, um We weren't.
But lately Oh, I see.
So you decided not to try so hard, huh? I guess that's part of it.
I I just felt like things were finally starting to happen.
So, uh, she might get a job back East, huh? Well, she hasn't decided, but it's Harvard.
How can she pass that up? Well, you know, "starting to happen" is, um That's not really worth fighting for.
I think when you focus on your feelings about her your real ones that, uh, you'll you'll know what to do.
Can you pass the milk? Eight million containers pass through this port every year, man.
Phew! Wow.
How we supposed to find just one? I don't know.
Given what might be in it, we better figure that out.
We think the ship might have sailed from Shanghai.
Shanghai.
Well, that narrows it down to two.
The Li-Po, still here, but unloaded.
The other ship, the Nanking, 75% clear.
All right.
Well, we're going to need you to search all the cargo still on that ship.
Now, you're talking about more than a thousand containers.
I'd have to pull every able-bodied man I have for something like that.
So pull them.
What exactly are you guys looking for? About 15 Chinese girls locked up in a container.
That's not going to be enough.
Excuse me? Look, I hate to say it, but a few undocumented workers it's not a priority for us.
We're more worried about a bomb.
Now, look, this may qualify.
I don't follow.
We already found one of the girls from the container.
She had the Bird Flu.
You got to be kidding me.
No, I wish we were.
Okay.
We'll impound every container left on the Nanking.
Maybe we get lucky, your girls are still on board.
And if they're not? Who unloaded the ship? Uh, longshoremen from Ja Morrison's the rep, but I wouldn't count on much help.
Why is that? Guys who work the docks not exactly Boy Scouts.
I got a message you're not releasing Susan Lim's notes.
After you left, I started thinking.
Why is the FBI so interested in these girls? Because a reporter, your partner, was probably murdered.
I get that, but you were already on the case when this was just a Chinese girl being brought in for the sex trade.
I don't see how that matters.
When we were doing our story, we saw 12-year-old girls being sold by their families.
Prostitutes beaten by their pimps, left on the sidewalk to die.
We knew who was behind it.
But they were hidden behind dummy import companies, and we couldn't get to them.
I don't see where this is going.
We called the FBI.
They said if it wasn't terrorism, it wasn't a priority.
But here you are now, the same FBI, wanting her notes.
It's just a murder investigation.
Agent Reeves, if-if what you're looking for is related to Susan's death, these boxes are important.
I can subpoena these boxes, and her notes, and all of your notes, all of it.
You know my paper won't give them up without a fight.
The courts could take weeks, months even, to sort it out.
I just want to know what happened to her.
I'll give you the rest of the story, but you can't run with it until after I close the case.
Nail whoever did this.
The FBI the reason my guys on the Nanking are sitting on their butts? That ship should have been unloaded by now.
We wouldn't be holdg you up if it weren't important.
Important, huh? Poll numbers slipping in Washington? We need your help finding a container.
It came off either the Li-Po or the Nanking.
We just take 'em off the ship.
We don't look inside.
You run the dockworkers' union, and you've never heard anything about contraband coming off these ships, huh? That's right.
So we look into your finances, we won't find anything but union dues? Wee looking for a container that just came in.
It's full of Chinese girls.
I don't know about anything like that.
I'll have a warrant for your books in less than an hour.
Okay, okay.
I'll talk to the guys who worked the ships.
See what I can find out.
If something got through the port that shouldn't have, you ought to be talking to Customs.
They have a new security system.
Uses some kind of algorithm to figure out what boxes to search.
I'm sorry.
Did you just say algorithm? Hey.
Dad just told me.
Yeah.
It stinks.
Oh! Well, not for Amita, but It's a great opportunity for her.
I just Well, look, I mean, maybe you should just go.
What? Well, you know, you get all those, uh, visiting professor offers, right? So go visit.
Man, we haven't even gone on a halfway decent date.
I can hardly go chasing her across the country.
What's up? What do you need? That container it's gone.
It's already been unloaded.
But the port says they use some kind of a security algorithm.
Yeah.
Yeah, it analyzes a probability matrix for high-risk or dangerous cargo.
Ranks containers according to threat potential.
All right, good, you know about it.
I was on the team that designed it.
No way? Oh.
You want to know if you can use the algorithm, work backwards, to find this container? Yeah.
I mean, we have 15 girls they're going out into the workforce, and-and I mean, they might have this deadly virus, so I don't know what else to do.
You realize the initial rate of transmission for a disease like influenza amongst prostitutes.
Even I can do that math.
So, let me know what you get, all right? And don't worry, you're gonna be all right.
It'll be fine.
Think this tip's gonna pan out? It will if Morrison believes your threat about getting a warrant for his finances.
That was no threat.
Hey, guys, I'll be right with you.
Jack Morrison sent us over.
That's your guy right over there.
Wait a minute.
You're serving drinks to that kid? He said he was 21.
What else did he say? Well, last couple nights, uh, he comes in about this same time.
Um, gets drunk as fast as he can.
Then he starts crying about, uh, throwing girls off a ship.
Did you call the police? I didn't think he was serious.
Not until, uh, Morrison came by, asked about Chinese girls.
Hey, wait a minute! Raymond! FBI! FBI, Raymond! Hands behind your back.
Why do they always run? 'Cause we wear suits, man.
Guys figure you can outrun a guy in a suit.
Stand up.
Let's go.
You work on the Li-Po? In the kusina.
Since I leave Manila.
Well, I just spoke to the hospital, and that last girl didn't make it.
So I'm looking at you for five murders.
I don't understand what you're I - I didn't hurt them.
It doesn't matter.
You were there.
You want to tell me what happened maybe I can help you.
One girl she was sick.
The captain call the people who pay him to bring the girls.
They say kill the sick one.
Who did he call? You know who he called? The other girls that went overboard they were sick, too? Five of them come on the ship together.
I don't know what that means.
Farm farm girls? Farm girls? Right.
They We throw those away, then wait, see if any else get sick.
You'd throw them away? The captain says he lose too much money if he kill them all.
Where are they now? Another box.
In-In a box.
The container? Yeah.
And where is that? It's gone.
Okay.
Cobbled together some code.
It will parse the cargo data.
I appreciate the help.
Is that the stuff from the reporter? Yeah.
Megan brought it over.
It's the reporter's notes on the illegal sex trade in Los Angeles.
It's fairly disturbing.
And you're going to use that to reconsider the risk variables for the port security algorithm? Yeah.
Is that going to be enough data? No, but th will be.
Yeah.
It's more of the same from the FBI.
Hey, uh, you know what? I know it's late, but can you do one last thing for me? What do you need? This is a list of the companies that were used to launder money.
No.
There's already a table for that in the database.
You already put it in? Yeah.
I mean, I figured that you're trying to find the owner of this missing container, and you needed a way to connect the import-export business with the sex trade.
All right.
We work pretty well together, don't we? Actually, you're a little bossy.
I'm being serious.
Serious about what? Greg Michaels is taking a three-year sabbatical.
Yeah, I heard.
And to cover his course load, they're creating an assistant professorship.
You'd be a perfect candidate for that job.
What? Did I say something I shouldn't have? I don't know, Charlie.
It's just that my job is starting to feel like it's all about your job.
Coast Guard just called.
Pulled another body out of the water this morning.
Another girl? No.
Captain of the Li-Po.
Really? You think somebody noticed the kitchen boy went missing from the ship, and decided to start cleaning up some loose ends? Yeah, seems that way.
Whoever's doing the cleanup's got to know that Nipay's talking to us.
Yeah.
What do you think about that union guy? Morrison? Yeah.
I don't know.
Why give us Nipay in the first place? Wait a minute.
Even a cabin boy gets a phone call, right? Yeah.
Let's find out who Nipay called.
So, the port security algorithm analyzes potential terrorist threats.
However, it misses things like drugs, contraband, even human cargo.
So, we could potentially stop a dirty bomb, but a pandemic flu is in like Flynn? Not anymore.
Not anymore if this works.
I love this part.
So, the security algorithm uses inputs like point of origin, the company shipping the goods, the volume and type of cargo.
It highlhts trouble areas.
Think of a a dandelion? The ones you used to blow into the wind when you're a kid.
The algorithm evaluates the threat potential of each seed.
Harmless seeds are released.
Bad seeds are identified and contained.
So if we change the-the inputs, we can track different seeds.
Exactly, and I used Susan Lim's research to create a whole new set of input variables.
So, you found the container? Containers.
Plural.
There's more than one? No, but there are limits to how precise the algorithm can be.
I ran it against the cargo manifest of the Li-Po, and I narrowed it down to four possibilities.
One of the import companies on this list has your container.
Raymond Nipay he made a call to a private club in Little Taipei.
It took some doing, but we were able to sort through the IRS database.
We were able to run down an owner Steven Jintao.
This guy not only owns the private club but he also owns three massage parlors in the area.
We can definitely connect him to the container? Yeah, using the reporter's notes.
Yeah, Jintao built this little empire smuggling in Chinese girls.
Got their families to pay for the freight.
Most of the time, they had no idea what was happening to them on the other end.
Guy saw an opportunity to exploit the girls on both sides of the smuggling.
He brings them over, and then he puts them to work in the massage parlors and the clubs.
Right.
They promise them the moon, they pimp them out.
Pretty twisted version of the American dream.
And where is he? LAPD says he has an office at his club.
Go get him.
Let's go.
We're the only white people in here.
Yes, we are.
Probably already made us.
We don't exactly blend in.
Hi.
Are you looking for a girlfriend? Actually, we're looking for this guy right here.
I've never seen him.
There's another one running.
He's moving out the back.
Yeah, yeah.
Get down on the car.
We're looking for the girls from the Li-Po.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Really? 'Cause I think you do.
That hurts.
I'll start the search.
You guys with me.
Where's the container? I want my lawyer.
That wasn't the question.
We lost his paperwork last night, but we're gonna have to let him talk to his lawyer.
Fine, let the lawyer file a writ.
We're not giving them a technicality they can use in court.
Megan, we're talking about a pandemic flu here.
I don't really care about a technicality.
Don, we have enough information to put this slime-bag down a very deep hole.
It's not deep enough, not yet.
Okay, Granger, explain to me why it is we only care about these girls when there's a risk that their customers might get sick.
Captain called you.
And you told him to throw that girl and everyone with her in the water.
You know how I know that? One of those girls was a reporter working a story.
You're lying.
One more of those girls gets sick I'd like to go back to my cell.
You're not going anywhere, you understand me, you slime?! You're gonna sit down and tell me exactly what I want to know! Don! Don! Take a break, ok? Just calm down.
Alright? Let him call his lawyer, and then throw him in that hole.
Stop it.
What? Okay, maybe we should just take a break, huh? I'm all right, I'm just a little distracted at the moment.
Yeah? What, Amita? How'd you know? The look I know all your looks.
Have you been conferring with my father? No.
Hey, Charlie.
Look, we're in trouble here.
I mean, I can't get anything out of this guy Jintao.
Those girls are still out there, not to mention the threat of pandemic flu.
We've been working on a destination probability matrix using Susan Lim's notes, your list of Jintao's businesses That's why I'm here.
What do you got? Something's not right in the data or there's a bug somewhere in this matrix.
Because my equation keeps returning an empty set.
Wait a second.
Hold on here.
What if, Charles, what if the matrix equation is working? What if? Then we'd have an answer.
Yeah, but what if the empty set is the answer.
They never left the port.
The algorithm wasn't pointing to a destination, because the girls never left their starting point.
Green Jade Corp? No.
What's that, like, strike number 12? We just need one warehouse to match one of Jintao's businesses.
How about this.
Let's sort them according to when they took the space.
Maybe Jintao had to rent something new to store the container.
Okay.
there's one port warehouse.
Wai Gong Imports.
Company signed a lease the day before we found the girls on the beach.
You said Wai Gong? Yeah.
We got him.
Yeah.
Nice.
This is the building Wai Gong Imports subleased.
I have movement inside.
You guys, cover the warehouse! We got to get them out of there.
We can't, not yet.
We need to get a medic and a translator in here now! Ladies, just give us a minute, okay? So your guy Jintao used this warehouse for quarantine? Till he decides to cut his losses, yeah.
He just left these ladies here to die.
So none of the girls turned up with the flu? Well, they're still under quarantine.
But so far it looks like we got lucky, this time.
Susan's publisher offered me a book deal.
They want me to write about what happened to her, the girls, all of it.
Well, it's a heck of a story.
Maybe you'll be the one who ends up with a Pulitzer.
It'd be nice to say that Susan's up there somewhere, looking down, happy about this.
But She was so damn competitive.
I'm sure she's furious that I landed an exclusive.
Well, we did bring down Steven Jintao, and we rescued the girls from the container.
We couldn't have done any of that without Susan's notes.
That is something she can be happy about.
Oh, yeah.
May I come in? Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Sure.
I wanted to say that I'm sorry about yesterday.
You were just trying to help, and I was out of line.
Actually I think you were right.
Not too long ago, you made the point that my work and my work for the FBI got in the way of personal relationships.
Yeah, I remember.
Just let me finish.
You said a relationship could work, but only if I was willing.
I was talking about Don.
I was talking about your brother.
Were you? It's not Charlie fair of me to ask you to sacrifice your career if I'm not willing to sacrifice mine.
Thank you for that.
This year turned out a whole lot differently than I'd expected.
Yeah, for me, too.
So what are we going to do? Well, Harvard called.
And they need an answer by next week.
So what are you going to do? I don't know.
I really don't know.
Charlie Oh, that's it, that's gin, kid.
Again?! Yep.
How do you get so lucky? So you owe me 120 bucks.
What?! Unless of course you want to go again.
I'm taking you down.
Yeah? Yeah.
And I'm dealing.
No, I'm dealing.
No, it's my deal.
No, you cheat.
I cheat? Listen to this guy.
Hey, Charlie, would you figure the odds on your brother winning 11 games of gin in a row if he's not cheating? He's the one who taught me how to count cards.
Was that Amita? Yeah.
She just left.
Yeah? So you moving back East? No.
No, I'm not moving to Massachusetts.
Ah, come on, Bruins games, pal.
Season tickets.
What about Amita? I'm not sure.
You all right? I'm not sure about that either.
He gonna love Beantown.
Especially in the winter.
Oh, yeah.
Can't go to Red Sox games, though, that's the thing, right? No Red Sox games.
No cheating.
You complaining? No, it's just that big storm last night.
I think I read somewhere the runoff is toxic.
That's fascinating.
Are you always such a chick in the morning? Come on.
Hey.
Look.
My God.
All right, so you're good? All right, good.
Bye.
So, Dad's all right.
He's going to take the shuttle back from the airport.
He appreciates that we at least tried to pick him up.
All right, well, I'm sorry I had to drag you out here.
Oh, believe me, I don't mind.
Hmm.
Charlie, don't forget this is a crime scene.
Right.
All right, don't go touching anything.
Hey, guys.
We got four bodies that washed up on the beach early this morning.
All Asian, all female, no IDs.
Any idea where ty're from? It can't be too far away, otherwise the bodies probably would've drifted further apart.
Coast Guard called us in.
They're calling this a crime on the high seas.
Over there with Megan is a marine science officer.
He's supposed to know something about the local currents out here.
All right.
What's Charlie doing? No idea.
Big storm, but we've had very few distress calls in the past 24 hours.
Yeah.
Hey, this is Special Agent Eppes.
Hey, how're you doing? And why is that you think? A storm that big keeps all the small craft in port.
And we had nothing up near Palos Verdes that explains this.
Wait.
Why there? The prevailing current in this area moves down from the north.
They were in the water less than 24 hours.
They had to go in off Palos Verdes to end up here.
Uh What? Yeah, but a flow from the north wouldn't be sustaining rip currents in this bay.
Well, that's true, but, uh I'm sorry, who are you? He's all right, he's with us.
You see those surfers there? They're struggling against a significant riptide.
So I would say that the coastal flow is moving counter to the prevailing currents from the south.
We do get rips when the southwest swell starts to push against the What is that in the water? Hey, I got a heartbeat here.
Paramedic! Come on.
Any theories on how these girls ended up on the beach? I don't think they were out for a swim.
Yeah, it's tough to swim with your shoes on.
All right, so nothing from the Coast Guard.
No witnesses, no distress calls.
And what about the girl you pulled from the ocean? Still unconscious.
Actually, someone should check her status and someone should talk to the coroner and see if we can get those autopsies fast-tracked, you know? You want to draw straws? Nah, I'll take the morgue.
You can owe me one.
Thanks.
Hey, Don.
Charter company called for you.
They said your boat's ready? All right.
Your boat? Yeah.
So we need to keep dropping these buoys at one minute intervals.
Right, and I am recording the ID numbers.
Then what? Well, then we use the drift routes to identify what I hope will be an atypical shift in the local currents.
Charlie, do you really think we're going to see any of these buoys again? It's a very big ocean.
Yeah, but for our objective, we really only need to be looking for them in one place.
Right.
The beach where the girls washed up.
You got it.
Charles? Is this practical exercise really necessary? We could have produced a highly functional theoretical result and never left dry land.
Larry, without your kinematic flow mapping, we wouldn't know where to drop these buoys.
I know, I know.
I know.
All right, I'm going below decks in a desperate search for more Dramamine.
So last night ended up being pretty fun, huh? Yeah, that was fun for a lecture on theories of axiomatic sets.
Yeah, not exactly the obvious outcome.
No.
You know Claude Faugert is giving a lecture next week on Point-Set Topology.
Want to go together? Sure, why not? It'd be like, um like a "math date"? I like that.
Maybe there's hope for us.
Hey.
So you were at the hospital? She's in ICU.
Yeah, and? There's complications from the hypothermia.
What, like, as in not gonna make it? That's what the doctor says.
It doesn't look good.
All right.
Claudia? How you been? David? I didn't expect to see you so soon.
Look, you have any idea who's handling the four girls from the beach? Yeah.
Me.
Claudia? Catching a lot of homicide cases, okay? You have a cause of death? Mmm, they drowned.
Well, not that surprising, but all four showed signs of acute dehydration.
That's crazy.
You're surrounded by water, but still you're dehydrated? The sea water actually accelerates dehydration.
It's the salt.
But I'd say tissue retraction started before they went in the water.
Meaning? Meaning you can rule out a luxury cruise.
You have any idea where they might be from? From what little dental work there is, I'd say these three are from mainland China.
But this one over here She's had exteive orthodontic work.
I'd say she's American.
Or at least grew up here.
She's also older than the other girls.
The rest are still in their teens.
How'd she end up in the water with three teenage girls from China? If you can figure out where she got that tattoo, might help you answer that.
This was done recently.
The bottom of her foot.
How recent? The skin's fully healed, but from the keloid scarring, I'd say a couple months.
Maybe three.
I'm sorry I can't be more specific.
Nah, don't be.
It's so quiet.
It's so early.
It's damn early.
Thanks for coming out here with me again.
Glad to help.
It's actually nice to be away from school.
What would you think of doing something else outside of school, like seeing a movie? Are you asking me out on a non-math date? Yeah, is that weird? No.
I would like that.
But, um But what? Don't say "but.
" Come on, I know we've had our problems this year, but No, Charlie, it's not that.
Susan Berry wa not a big thing.
She was here briefly and she couldn't wait to get back to the UK.
Charlie, I've been offered a-a job.
It's an assistant professorship in the Math Department.
It's, um, at Harvard.
Harvard? It's a three year appointment.
It's Massachusetts Harvard.
That's the one.
That's I mean that's really amazing.
Three years is a long time.
Hey Isn't that a third buoy? What? Where? There.
C-8.
Well, that's enough data to sustain your theory.
Currents have shifted.
Which means the Coast Guard was looking for witnesses and survivors in the wrong place.
Colby get any hits on the tattoo? Nothing.
It seems that the trail's hit a wall.
Maybe Charlie's high seas adventure will give us something, you think? Yeah, we could use a break.
Even if it does require a math lesson.
Can we help you? This is Claudia Gomez from the coroner's office.
Oh, from the "you'll take the morgue and I'll owe you one"? Excuse me? Ah, it's nothing.
I brought over the pathology reports.
I didn't think it should wait.
What happened? One of the girls from the beach, I found the H5N1 strain in her system.
H H5N1.
It's Bird Flu.
The Central for Desease Control has looked at this and so far we've been lucky The last pandemic flu killed almost 50 million people.
Right.
And I didn't think the bird flu was contagious for people.
Okay.
H5N1 mostly effects avian populations, but it spreads very quickly, and it will infect people if they come in contact with the birds.
So it can adapt.
And rapidly.
Now, the current strains of the virus settle deep in the lungs, too deep for a cough to get it airborne.
But if it mutates It could spread rapidly through a human population.
That's our fear.
And most of us think that it's only a matter of time.
Well, we think these girls are Chinese.
Wait a minute, I was told we were talking about a single case.
We're investigating several deaths, one case of the flu so far.
So what about linking the girl to an outbreak in China? Yeah well, Chinese government hasn't exactly been open about their health issues.
And what about a quarantine? Agent Eppes, we haven't had a case of Avian Flu in North America yet, and what you're telling me doesn't change that.
So you're just going to quash this? Our containment protocols are useless if we don't know where the girl contracted the flu.
All right, well what do you suggest we do, cover it up? I'm not saying this isn't serious.
It is deadly serious.
But I don't think it's worth causing a widespread panic until we have more information on the girl.
So here's my tory.
The storm caused a sandbar to form at the north end of the bay.
Right.
The shift in the bottom features disrupted the tidal flow.
All right, so it's like a car race.
The flow around the track is even and thus predictable.
But let's say there's a crash the flow is disrupted, cars have to steer around the wreckage.
Now if they don't clear that raceway, the flow is permanently changed.
The parallel isn't exact, but you get the idea: All right.
the currents shifted.
So where'd the girls come from? Well, they were dumped in the inbound shipping lanes, and these are the approximate coordinates.
Alright, well, I mean, the Coast Guard's going to have to do another search.
Hey, look, if the girl with the flu was on a boat, then there's a high probability she came into close quarters with other people.
Right.
If that virus was able to mutate I know, it might be spreading big time.
Hey, guys.
Hey.
If you're looking for Charlie, I think he's at the FBI.
Ah, shoot, yeah, I was.
Don wanted me to drop off these search grids from the Coast Guard.
Well, I can take them and give them to him.
Can you? Thanks.
Sure.
Oop.
Oo Hold on, let me get those.
Boy, hat's a strange tattoo.
Thanks.
Hey, wait a second.
These characters, are these from the I Ching? You know, we don't know what those are, actually.
What's the I Ching? Oh, it's an ancient book of Chinese divination.
It's still pretty influential.
I - I think these are from there.
Is this related to the drownings? Yeah, it's a tattoo we found on the bottom of one of the dead girls' feet.
That's a strange place for a tattoo.
Yeah, that's what I thought, too it's like a toe tag.
But it got me thinking.
I remembered there were these guys in Special Forces that used to have their dog tags tattooed on their bodies in case their heads were You know? You know, in case And you think this young woman might have similar inclinations toward post mortem identification? Maybe.
Do you have any idea what those characters might mean? No.
But Well, I'm afraid my own expertise is not that specific.
But you may be correct in thinking that it does mean something.
How's that? If I could just get you to hold that.
See, each of these characters, that has its own unique correspondence to its own unique number.
For instance, if you're looking at 31.
Wait a minute, if these are all numbers, do you think it's possible this is some kind of code? Well, if it is, Charlie's a code-breaking machine, and he should be back really soon.
Yeah, that'd be great, we could use his help.
You know, it's perfectly understandable a soldier's reasons for tattooing himself he's walking into war.
But this girl, now her tattoo begs the question: What was she walking into? Hey.
Hey.
Been going through the ship information from the Port Authority.
There were more than 30 ships in the area Charlie gave us.
All right, well, the coroner said they were Chinese.
Why don't you try anything from Asia.
All right.
Yeah, that cuts it down a bit, but we've still got four or five cargo ships.
Right, well, it wouldn't be the first time they dumped bodies from those things, right? Yeah.
Oh, Don, take a look at this.
One of these ships can carry, what You realize we could be talking about 2000 containers.
No, David, we're talking about one container.
We've tried every permutation possible for a Caesar shift.
Reading from left to right, from right to left You know, the I Ching is Chinese, maybe we need to consider phonetic chacters.
I already did.
And? There's only 37 symbols.
Yeah, yeah, which doesn't get us to 55 or 61.
Okay, I know.
I do get it.
We've been at this for six hours.
Nope, six and a half.
Ooh.
Uh-oh, this doesn't look good.
No.
Our breakthrough eludes us.
What, are you guys still thinking this is some kind of encrypted message? It's too short to run a cryptanalysis.
If it were longer, I could run a Kasiski exam, or try an index-of-coincidence assessment.
All we have is a mere ten digits.
It's just not enough for a frequency analysis.
Well, maybe the problem is the underlying assumption.
I don't know, maybe she's right, maybe we're looking for complexity here when all there really is is simplicity.
Well, wait, how do you mean? Maybe it's not a code.
Charles.
It's a phone number.
It's ringing.
It's going to voicemail.
This is Susan Lim.
If you've reached this number, then I guess I'm dead.
Please call Jeremy Wang, he's a reporter at the Tribune.
Tell him what happened.
That's a message from a dead woman.
She's one of five women that washed up on a beach yesterday.
We don't know who they are or where they came from.
Her name's Susan Lim.
We worked together.
I'm sorry.
Um, do you have any idea how this might have happened? She called me maybe three weeks ago.
She'd gotten as far as Shanghai, and her cousin helped her find a snakehead.
Um, a "snakehead"? Yeah, someone who arranged for her to get on a cargo ship.
She said there was 20 women on an 8'x40' container.
Did she say the name of the ship? I don't think she knew.
She was working on a story? A book.
Last year, we did a series of articles on the underground sex trade.
We heard how they were bringing the girls in.
She convinced the publisher to back an expose.
And just like that she could pull off going undercover in China? Susan's first-generation Chinese-American, she grew up speaking Mandarin, and her mother's family's still in Zhejiang Province, in the countryside.
They helped her.
Last thing she told me she pulls this off, she's a lock for a Pulitzer.
Well, I'd really like to look at her notes.
So who is she? Who's who? Charlie, whenever you look like this, it's always a problem with a girl.
Look like what? Michelle Robinson, remember her? Seventh grade? Yeah.
When she wouldn't go with you to the dance at school you looked just like this for a week.
Amita got offered a job.
A great job.
But it's back East.
Amita, huh? I thought you two weren't, um We weren't.
But lately Oh, I see.
So you decided not to try so hard, huh? I guess that's part of it.
I I just felt like things were finally starting to happen.
So, uh, she might get a job back East, huh? Well, she hasn't decided, but it's Harvard.
How can she pass that up? Well, you know, "starting to happen" is, um That's not really worth fighting for.
I think when you focus on your feelings about her your real ones that, uh, you'll you'll know what to do.
Can you pass the milk? Eight million containers pass through this port every year, man.
Phew! Wow.
How we supposed to find just one? I don't know.
Given what might be in it, we better figure that out.
We think the ship might have sailed from Shanghai.
Shanghai.
Well, that narrows it down to two.
The Li-Po, still here, but unloaded.
The other ship, the Nanking, 75% clear.
All right.
Well, we're going to need you to search all the cargo still on that ship.
Now, you're talking about more than a thousand containers.
I'd have to pull every able-bodied man I have for something like that.
So pull them.
What exactly are you guys looking for? About 15 Chinese girls locked up in a container.
That's not going to be enough.
Excuse me? Look, I hate to say it, but a few undocumented workers it's not a priority for us.
We're more worried about a bomb.
Now, look, this may qualify.
I don't follow.
We already found one of the girls from the container.
She had the Bird Flu.
You got to be kidding me.
No, I wish we were.
Okay.
We'll impound every container left on the Nanking.
Maybe we get lucky, your girls are still on board.
And if they're not? Who unloaded the ship? Uh, longshoremen from Ja Morrison's the rep, but I wouldn't count on much help.
Why is that? Guys who work the docks not exactly Boy Scouts.
I got a message you're not releasing Susan Lim's notes.
After you left, I started thinking.
Why is the FBI so interested in these girls? Because a reporter, your partner, was probably murdered.
I get that, but you were already on the case when this was just a Chinese girl being brought in for the sex trade.
I don't see how that matters.
When we were doing our story, we saw 12-year-old girls being sold by their families.
Prostitutes beaten by their pimps, left on the sidewalk to die.
We knew who was behind it.
But they were hidden behind dummy import companies, and we couldn't get to them.
I don't see where this is going.
We called the FBI.
They said if it wasn't terrorism, it wasn't a priority.
But here you are now, the same FBI, wanting her notes.
It's just a murder investigation.
Agent Reeves, if-if what you're looking for is related to Susan's death, these boxes are important.
I can subpoena these boxes, and her notes, and all of your notes, all of it.
You know my paper won't give them up without a fight.
The courts could take weeks, months even, to sort it out.
I just want to know what happened to her.
I'll give you the rest of the story, but you can't run with it until after I close the case.
Nail whoever did this.
The FBI the reason my guys on the Nanking are sitting on their butts? That ship should have been unloaded by now.
We wouldn't be holdg you up if it weren't important.
Important, huh? Poll numbers slipping in Washington? We need your help finding a container.
It came off either the Li-Po or the Nanking.
We just take 'em off the ship.
We don't look inside.
You run the dockworkers' union, and you've never heard anything about contraband coming off these ships, huh? That's right.
So we look into your finances, we won't find anything but union dues? Wee looking for a container that just came in.
It's full of Chinese girls.
I don't know about anything like that.
I'll have a warrant for your books in less than an hour.
Okay, okay.
I'll talk to the guys who worked the ships.
See what I can find out.
If something got through the port that shouldn't have, you ought to be talking to Customs.
They have a new security system.
Uses some kind of algorithm to figure out what boxes to search.
I'm sorry.
Did you just say algorithm? Hey.
Dad just told me.
Yeah.
It stinks.
Oh! Well, not for Amita, but It's a great opportunity for her.
I just Well, look, I mean, maybe you should just go.
What? Well, you know, you get all those, uh, visiting professor offers, right? So go visit.
Man, we haven't even gone on a halfway decent date.
I can hardly go chasing her across the country.
What's up? What do you need? That container it's gone.
It's already been unloaded.
But the port says they use some kind of a security algorithm.
Yeah.
Yeah, it analyzes a probability matrix for high-risk or dangerous cargo.
Ranks containers according to threat potential.
All right, good, you know about it.
I was on the team that designed it.
No way? Oh.
You want to know if you can use the algorithm, work backwards, to find this container? Yeah.
I mean, we have 15 girls they're going out into the workforce, and-and I mean, they might have this deadly virus, so I don't know what else to do.
You realize the initial rate of transmission for a disease like influenza amongst prostitutes.
Even I can do that math.
So, let me know what you get, all right? And don't worry, you're gonna be all right.
It'll be fine.
Think this tip's gonna pan out? It will if Morrison believes your threat about getting a warrant for his finances.
That was no threat.
Hey, guys, I'll be right with you.
Jack Morrison sent us over.
That's your guy right over there.
Wait a minute.
You're serving drinks to that kid? He said he was 21.
What else did he say? Well, last couple nights, uh, he comes in about this same time.
Um, gets drunk as fast as he can.
Then he starts crying about, uh, throwing girls off a ship.
Did you call the police? I didn't think he was serious.
Not until, uh, Morrison came by, asked about Chinese girls.
Hey, wait a minute! Raymond! FBI! FBI, Raymond! Hands behind your back.
Why do they always run? 'Cause we wear suits, man.
Guys figure you can outrun a guy in a suit.
Stand up.
Let's go.
You work on the Li-Po? In the kusina.
Since I leave Manila.
Well, I just spoke to the hospital, and that last girl didn't make it.
So I'm looking at you for five murders.
I don't understand what you're I - I didn't hurt them.
It doesn't matter.
You were there.
You want to tell me what happened maybe I can help you.
One girl she was sick.
The captain call the people who pay him to bring the girls.
They say kill the sick one.
Who did he call? You know who he called? The other girls that went overboard they were sick, too? Five of them come on the ship together.
I don't know what that means.
Farm farm girls? Farm girls? Right.
They We throw those away, then wait, see if any else get sick.
You'd throw them away? The captain says he lose too much money if he kill them all.
Where are they now? Another box.
In-In a box.
The container? Yeah.
And where is that? It's gone.
Okay.
Cobbled together some code.
It will parse the cargo data.
I appreciate the help.
Is that the stuff from the reporter? Yeah.
Megan brought it over.
It's the reporter's notes on the illegal sex trade in Los Angeles.
It's fairly disturbing.
And you're going to use that to reconsider the risk variables for the port security algorithm? Yeah.
Is that going to be enough data? No, but th will be.
Yeah.
It's more of the same from the FBI.
Hey, uh, you know what? I know it's late, but can you do one last thing for me? What do you need? This is a list of the companies that were used to launder money.
No.
There's already a table for that in the database.
You already put it in? Yeah.
I mean, I figured that you're trying to find the owner of this missing container, and you needed a way to connect the import-export business with the sex trade.
All right.
We work pretty well together, don't we? Actually, you're a little bossy.
I'm being serious.
Serious about what? Greg Michaels is taking a three-year sabbatical.
Yeah, I heard.
And to cover his course load, they're creating an assistant professorship.
You'd be a perfect candidate for that job.
What? Did I say something I shouldn't have? I don't know, Charlie.
It's just that my job is starting to feel like it's all about your job.
Coast Guard just called.
Pulled another body out of the water this morning.
Another girl? No.
Captain of the Li-Po.
Really? You think somebody noticed the kitchen boy went missing from the ship, and decided to start cleaning up some loose ends? Yeah, seems that way.
Whoever's doing the cleanup's got to know that Nipay's talking to us.
Yeah.
What do you think about that union guy? Morrison? Yeah.
I don't know.
Why give us Nipay in the first place? Wait a minute.
Even a cabin boy gets a phone call, right? Yeah.
Let's find out who Nipay called.
So, the port security algorithm analyzes potential terrorist threats.
However, it misses things like drugs, contraband, even human cargo.
So, we could potentially stop a dirty bomb, but a pandemic flu is in like Flynn? Not anymore.
Not anymore if this works.
I love this part.
So, the security algorithm uses inputs like point of origin, the company shipping the goods, the volume and type of cargo.
It highlhts trouble areas.
Think of a a dandelion? The ones you used to blow into the wind when you're a kid.
The algorithm evaluates the threat potential of each seed.
Harmless seeds are released.
Bad seeds are identified and contained.
So if we change the-the inputs, we can track different seeds.
Exactly, and I used Susan Lim's research to create a whole new set of input variables.
So, you found the container? Containers.
Plural.
There's more than one? No, but there are limits to how precise the algorithm can be.
I ran it against the cargo manifest of the Li-Po, and I narrowed it down to four possibilities.
One of the import companies on this list has your container.
Raymond Nipay he made a call to a private club in Little Taipei.
It took some doing, but we were able to sort through the IRS database.
We were able to run down an owner Steven Jintao.
This guy not only owns the private club but he also owns three massage parlors in the area.
We can definitely connect him to the container? Yeah, using the reporter's notes.
Yeah, Jintao built this little empire smuggling in Chinese girls.
Got their families to pay for the freight.
Most of the time, they had no idea what was happening to them on the other end.
Guy saw an opportunity to exploit the girls on both sides of the smuggling.
He brings them over, and then he puts them to work in the massage parlors and the clubs.
Right.
They promise them the moon, they pimp them out.
Pretty twisted version of the American dream.
And where is he? LAPD says he has an office at his club.
Go get him.
Let's go.
We're the only white people in here.
Yes, we are.
Probably already made us.
We don't exactly blend in.
Hi.
Are you looking for a girlfriend? Actually, we're looking for this guy right here.
I've never seen him.
There's another one running.
He's moving out the back.
Yeah, yeah.
Get down on the car.
We're looking for the girls from the Li-Po.
I don't know what you're talking about.
Really? 'Cause I think you do.
That hurts.
I'll start the search.
You guys with me.
Where's the container? I want my lawyer.
That wasn't the question.
We lost his paperwork last night, but we're gonna have to let him talk to his lawyer.
Fine, let the lawyer file a writ.
We're not giving them a technicality they can use in court.
Megan, we're talking about a pandemic flu here.
I don't really care about a technicality.
Don, we have enough information to put this slime-bag down a very deep hole.
It's not deep enough, not yet.
Okay, Granger, explain to me why it is we only care about these girls when there's a risk that their customers might get sick.
Captain called you.
And you told him to throw that girl and everyone with her in the water.
You know how I know that? One of those girls was a reporter working a story.
You're lying.
One more of those girls gets sick I'd like to go back to my cell.
You're not going anywhere, you understand me, you slime?! You're gonna sit down and tell me exactly what I want to know! Don! Don! Take a break, ok? Just calm down.
Alright? Let him call his lawyer, and then throw him in that hole.
Stop it.
What? Okay, maybe we should just take a break, huh? I'm all right, I'm just a little distracted at the moment.
Yeah? What, Amita? How'd you know? The look I know all your looks.
Have you been conferring with my father? No.
Hey, Charlie.
Look, we're in trouble here.
I mean, I can't get anything out of this guy Jintao.
Those girls are still out there, not to mention the threat of pandemic flu.
We've been working on a destination probability matrix using Susan Lim's notes, your list of Jintao's businesses That's why I'm here.
What do you got? Something's not right in the data or there's a bug somewhere in this matrix.
Because my equation keeps returning an empty set.
Wait a second.
Hold on here.
What if, Charles, what if the matrix equation is working? What if? Then we'd have an answer.
Yeah, but what if the empty set is the answer.
They never left the port.
The algorithm wasn't pointing to a destination, because the girls never left their starting point.
Green Jade Corp? No.
What's that, like, strike number 12? We just need one warehouse to match one of Jintao's businesses.
How about this.
Let's sort them according to when they took the space.
Maybe Jintao had to rent something new to store the container.
Okay.
there's one port warehouse.
Wai Gong Imports.
Company signed a lease the day before we found the girls on the beach.
You said Wai Gong? Yeah.
We got him.
Yeah.
Nice.
This is the building Wai Gong Imports subleased.
I have movement inside.
You guys, cover the warehouse! We got to get them out of there.
We can't, not yet.
We need to get a medic and a translator in here now! Ladies, just give us a minute, okay? So your guy Jintao used this warehouse for quarantine? Till he decides to cut his losses, yeah.
He just left these ladies here to die.
So none of the girls turned up with the flu? Well, they're still under quarantine.
But so far it looks like we got lucky, this time.
Susan's publisher offered me a book deal.
They want me to write about what happened to her, the girls, all of it.
Well, it's a heck of a story.
Maybe you'll be the one who ends up with a Pulitzer.
It'd be nice to say that Susan's up there somewhere, looking down, happy about this.
But She was so damn competitive.
I'm sure she's furious that I landed an exclusive.
Well, we did bring down Steven Jintao, and we rescued the girls from the container.
We couldn't have done any of that without Susan's notes.
That is something she can be happy about.
Oh, yeah.
May I come in? Oh, yeah.
Yeah.
Sure.
I wanted to say that I'm sorry about yesterday.
You were just trying to help, and I was out of line.
Actually I think you were right.
Not too long ago, you made the point that my work and my work for the FBI got in the way of personal relationships.
Yeah, I remember.
Just let me finish.
You said a relationship could work, but only if I was willing.
I was talking about Don.
I was talking about your brother.
Were you? It's not Charlie fair of me to ask you to sacrifice your career if I'm not willing to sacrifice mine.
Thank you for that.
This year turned out a whole lot differently than I'd expected.
Yeah, for me, too.
So what are we going to do? Well, Harvard called.
And they need an answer by next week.
So what are you going to do? I don't know.
I really don't know.
Charlie Oh, that's it, that's gin, kid.
Again?! Yep.
How do you get so lucky? So you owe me 120 bucks.
What?! Unless of course you want to go again.
I'm taking you down.
Yeah? Yeah.
And I'm dealing.
No, I'm dealing.
No, it's my deal.
No, you cheat.
I cheat? Listen to this guy.
Hey, Charlie, would you figure the odds on your brother winning 11 games of gin in a row if he's not cheating? He's the one who taught me how to count cards.
Was that Amita? Yeah.
She just left.
Yeah? So you moving back East? No.
No, I'm not moving to Massachusetts.
Ah, come on, Bruins games, pal.
Season tickets.
What about Amita? I'm not sure.
You all right? I'm not sure about that either.
He gonna love Beantown.
Especially in the winter.
Oh, yeah.
Can't go to Red Sox games, though, that's the thing, right? No Red Sox games.
No cheating.