Primeval: New World s01e11 Episode Script

The Inquisition

(GRUNTS) (PANTING) - DYLAN: How many? - Three, maybe four? Crap! God damn it! (DOOR BUZZES) (DOOR BUZZES) Lieutenant Leeds, you're to come with us.
Colonel.
(CLEARS THROAT) Would you, uh, take a seat, Lieutenant? Good.
(SIGHS LOUDLY) So, yesterday an escaped specimen from the Project Magnet research facility killed two soldiers under my command.
Sir, are the handcuffs really necessary? They're a little uncomfortable.
Perhaps you didn't hear me.
Corporal Turner and Corporal Givens are dead.
I did hear you.
In fact, as you know, I was on the scene, but I would like to point out that I wasn't in charge of the operation to recapture the terror bird Specimen.
You put Major Douglas in charge, so I'm not really sure what the handcuffs are for.
I am acutely aware that you were on the scene, Lieutenant.
And instead of assisting in that operation, you shot Major Douglas with a tranquiliser dart.
A superior officer.
And I think that that's just the tip of your iceberg, Leeds.
You see, I think that you've been keeping secrets from me.
TOBY: Why would Leeds give you this key card without telling you what it was for? EVAN: He left it in his car, and I'm not sure yet if he meant for us to have it.
- Or he did, and it's a trap.
- Whoa, paranoid much? If Leeds had put that terror bird back where it belonged, yesterday wouldn't have happened.
But he stole it, and now people are dead.
Well, maybe giving you the key card was his way of saying he's sorry.
If he wanted to say sorry, he could've blown up that lab before they started doing experiments on Leggy.
You see, this is why we shouldn't name dinosaurs, because then you get all attached, and, you know, they eat people.
I agree with you, but right now Project Magnet is a bigger threat than the dinosaurs.
So will that key card get us into the lab or not? Well, 256-bit encryption, it opens a very specific high-security system lock, and I can't find anything that shows where that lock is.
It might not even be for that lab.
I know that's not the sound of Evan Cross admitting defeat.
(SNICKERS) You know those hacking skills I keep asking you not to talk about? Yeah, we're gonna need those right now.
Bring it.
Good luck.
So you're saying your intention was to tranquilise the terror bird.
Yes, sir.
Major Douglas was in the line of fire.
But you didn't tranquilise the terror bird.
You killed it.
On closer inspection, I discovered that the bird was wounded.
It wouldn't have survived.
I see.
I see.
- So it was a mercy killing.
- Yes, sir.
Except Major Douglas reports that there were two civilians in the room with the bird when he found it, Evan Cross and Dylan Weir.
I used a Ketamine tranq.
It's a common club drug.
Hallucinations are not uncommon.
Or you're covering up for Cross and Weir.
Which means that you're lying to me.
Well, people do sometimes interpret events differently, sir.
DYLAN: That's the login for Project Magnet? They took it off the national defence website years ago, but I managed to trace the code.
This may look simple, but it has better security than the Pentagon.
Wouldn't hacking it be a federal offence? TOBY: I'm going through four proxies.
- What about XSS vulnerabilities? - TOBY: No, they're way beyond that.
I'm actually trying an authorisation bypass.
Wait, I found a hole.
(MODEM TRILLING) (BEEPING) I'm in.
(CHUCKLES) But in what? I don't recognise that code.
That's because it was written before we were born.
May I? - Cobol? - Fortran.
Invented in 1954.
DYLAN: Isn't that when Project Magnet was officially shut down? They probably got it from the aliens.
What a mess.
This terminal belongs to Leeds.
That's why there's a hole in the firewall.
The guy's an idiot with computers.
So, what are we supposed to do with all that? Download it.
(COMPUTER TRILLING) You were authorised to support Evan Cross' efforts, not to put Project Magnet at his disposal.
I've always felt that my position gives me the latitude to explore that grey area, sir.
The military doesn't give latitude, Leeds, it gives orders.
Something that you have a history of disobeying.
Sir, if I may? If this is a court martial, there seem to be a few things missing.
Like a judge.
Lawyers.
Yeah.
Well, you see, you're part of a top-secret classified project, right, so the rules don't really apply to you.
Or me.
Noted, sir.
See, I don't think you're clear on the stakes, Lieutenant.
See, I'm trying to save the world, and I'm wondering, what is your agenda? We're all trying to help in our own way.
Is that right? Well, then maybe you can tell me why we're in this position at all? Magnet has been doing covert surveillance of paranormal phenomena for decades, so why did Cross find the dinosaurs first? Because one ate his wife, sir.
Well, most of her.
Do you have to kill a forest every time you read something? DYLAN: Don't hate me because I'm analogue.
Oh.
What? It's the police report about Brooke's death.
Oh, my God.
After a period of surveiling his activities, I first made contact through an intermediary.
- Is that right? - Mmm-hmm.
That's interesting.
The report says it wasn't you who initiated contact, that it was her.
Yes, sir.
Angelika Finch.
She came into my office.
I was very impressed with her.
- (CLEARS THROAT) - Oh, Ms Finch.
I will do anything in my power to be supportive of Mr Cross' dinosaur-related activities.
- I certainly hope so.
- Appearances can be deceiving.
He uses the word "striking" to describe her.
Three times.
Are you jealous? Come on, this isn't about Ange.
Isn't it? Really? She's the one that got us in bed with these people to begin with, and now she's gone.
We're the ones that are going to have to find some leverage with them to get them to back off, otherwise they're going to do damage we can't fix.
Okay.
I'm just making sure we're fighting the same enemy.
- (COMPUTER BEEPS) - Hey, guys? I found something.
I looked up his weekly expense report the day that we found the terror birds.
His "use of private vehicle report" shows that he drove 13 kilometres from Cross Photonics here, to the train yard, and then back to our building, and then another 17 clicks to this building.
To deliver the baby bird.
What shows up at that address? Nothing.
I mean, there's a building there, but there's no listing.
That has to be the lab.
Angelika Finch is the way to get to Cross? No, sir, not any more.
They had a, uh, a falling out.
And that's why my connection is so critical.
- And you think he trusts you? - Absolutely.
And because he trusts you, and only you, there's no way that I can remove you from your post.
I do try to make myself indispensable.
Ah, that's interesting.
You know, I You two are similar.
Sir? Well, Evan Cross thinks he can do whatever he wants because he holds the only key to the Anomalies, and you think that you can escape the consequences of your actions because you hold the only key to Evan Cross.
But I think what we need to do is cut out the middleman.
Take it down! (GRUNTING) EVAN: Coming! Under the National Security Act, all equipment, data, and records relating to the investigation of temporal vortices are hereby requisitioned for classified military purposes.
Hmm, really? Well, I wish I could comply, but All that stuff's gone.
Here, let me help.
AGENT 1: Upstairs is empty! AGENT 2: Nothing here, sir.
Mac? These goons pulled me right out of bed.
I thought this country was still a democracy.
I'm sorry.
For sucking me back into your mess? There's no point apologising if you're going to keep doing it.
- I've been wanting to talk to you.
- Why? Got something else in the freezer you want to show me? Mr Cross.
Colonel Henderson Hall.
You're Leeds' boss.
We should've talked a long time ago.
Come on.
Him, too.
He shouldn't even be here.
Oh? Did we somehow pick up the wrong Mac Rendell? No, sir.
He's not on my team, and he hasn't been for a while.
Whatever it is you're after, he can't give it to you.
Well, I just think we all have something to offer.
Let me put it a different way.
Cut him loose or this conversation is over.
Sorry for the inconvenience.
Sergeant.
Have a seat.
Hey, what am I supposed to do, walk home? Mac.
- How did you know I was here? - I didn't.
- I followed the people who took Evan.
- Where's Toby? We cleared out the Anomaly detection system.
She's setting it up someplace safe.
Get in.
Bankrupt.
Filing tomorrow.
Cross Photonics is finished.
You expect me to believe that you auctioned off your Anomaly detection equipment? To a scrap metal dealer.
With a PhD in Physics.
He paid top dollar.
I'm getting out of the dinosaur business anyway.
- Is that right? - Can't afford it.
You know, maybe you guys should take over.
But I guess you thought of that already, didn't you? Well, you don't mind if I verify your story with your colleagues? Dylan Weir and Hold on, I got it here somewhere.
Yes, your technical assistant, Toby Nance? Nice.
You checked the file even though you memorised it.
Just so I'll relax and lower my defences.
- Is it working? - Oh, absolutely.
'Cause I think we might have gotten off on the wrong foot.
No.
Breaking into someone's place to steal their stuff always strikes the right note.
Would you have handed it over if I had asked politely? Isn't that the justification for every war? Fair enough.
Still, I do believe there's a real opportunity here for us to deepen our relationship.
And here I wasn't even aware that we had a relationship.
Sure.
You've been accepting some costly assistance from Project Magnet for quite a while now.
How Lieutenant Leeds spends your money isn't up to me.
Why do you want my technology? Happy to tell you.
I want direct access to the time portals, the Anomalies, and Lieutenant Leeds seems to be very impressed with your handheld detectors.
And I'm sure you'd bring the same level of competence to using my equipment that you brought to recapturing a terror bird in the city.
How many of your men died, exactly? You know, I could've just seized your factory.
I don't need your permission.
You don't seem to need permission from anybody.
If you did, I'm sure somebody along the line would've asked you what the hell you think you're doing.
EVAN: I saw the scars on that animal.
You did surgery on it.
What are you up to, Colonel? I'm engineering dinosaur soldiers for World War III, obviously.
Don't mock me.
Well, I think you're jumping to conclusions about me.
Based on the evidence.
You know what I think? I think a good scientist approaches the truth with an open mind, and I think a bad scientist thinks he already knows the answer.
Which kind are you? MAC: So, this is the lab.
It looks abandoned.
It's the right address, but I don't see a card-reader that'll get us in.
Card-reader? - Where did you get that? - From Leeds.
- So we trust him this week, do we? - Come on.
Come on where? MAC: In there? DYLAN: We need leverage.
We have to find out what's going on in that lab.
Look, I know you're still upset about the body in the freezer.
Wait, is that what you think? That I've been sulking? - You've been missing for two weeks.
- I've been busy.
Researching.
- Researching what? - The patch on the uniform.
With the letters A.
R.
C? Toby said the Internet's been scrubbed clean of anything about it, - but I'm not gonna give up.
- Maybe you should just go.
What? Why? I don't know who that other Mac was.
I don't care.
Going into this place is dangerous.
I need this Mac here with me, focused.
(VEHICLE APPROACHING) Or else I'll just go in by myself.
- Yeah, got your papers? - Yeah.
Got 'em right here.
What are we going to use for weapons? If they catch us, that's the kind of trouble I don't want to be in.
I wasn't planning on getting caught.
They'll be logging the key card entries.
As soon as we use this card, they'll start looking for us.
(CARD-READER BEEPS OPEN) You really think you're going to tell me something that'll make me believe what you've done is justified? You know what? You're not the only great mind working on this problem, Mr Cross.
I've got a whole team of scientists coming up with a plan that's going to benefit everybody, including you.
Right.
And I'm supposed to trust you? Even though you lie to your own team.
If what you're doing in that lab is meant to help humanity, then why are you keeping your experiments a secret from Leeds? Oh, you see, he's a liar who can't be trusted.
Maybe so, but he's your problem, not mine.
Well, that would be true if he was only lying to me.
Lieutenant Leeds.
Listen, I think it's time we tell Mr Cross the truth about what it is we've been doing.
Leeds? I think we should with the event that led to the death of the two soldiers yesterday.
The event that led to those deaths was Leeds playing a shell game with that Anomaly so he could deliver a baby terror bird to you.
- To get funding to help you.
- Don't give me that.
You're not helping me by undercutting every single thing I've done to keep the past from changing around us.
You're focusing on something that isn't even a concern.
Isn't even a concern? Because you think you get to decide how to change the past? Because of the volcanoes, the comets, the boiled-off oceans.
There's no way the ripple effect from a single missing dinosaur is making it past any of those mass extinctions.
So you're repealing the law of unintended consequences.
When you're crossing the freeway, you don't worry about getting struck by lightning.
Unless, of course, you're in a thunderstorm, and carrying a metal umbrella, but the point is we have to focus on the threat that's right in front of us.
You guys aren't just invading some resource colony.
These creatures are part of the fabric of space-time.
We have to put them back where they came from.
No exception.
Have a seat, Lieutenant Leeds.
If Mr Cross is right, we might have made some serious mistakes.
(SIGHS) They never have one of those "you are here" maps when you need one.
There'll be Clean Rooms this way.
- Labs.
- Labs to do what? I'm glad I didn't know you in high school.
So, what now? I don't think Leggy was the only one.
I think there are other creatures in here.
So we're going to free Willy-saurus? - There's another key card in here.
- Grab it.
- Ready? - Yeah.
As per your report, Mr Cross and his team dragged the creature through the forest to the Anomaly.
Yes, sir.
It was an ornitholestes.
They'd tranquilised it.
Right, after which Mr Cross asked you to have your men guard the Anomaly.
To make sure no one went in or out until it closed, yes, sir.
HALL: But someone did go in.
You little bastard.
You went into the Anomalies? I delivered more than one specimen to Colonel Hall.
(CARD-READER BEEPS) Leeds doesn't have access to this one.
(CARD-READER BEEPS OPEN) It's okay.
You're going home now.
DYLAN: That's the plan.
It will want to go home.
KEN: In some cases, you had already subdued the creatures.
In others, our teams had to be more aggressive in collecting specimens.
Teams? How many people did you send in there? - I was trying to do the right thing.
- And what is that, exactly? (DOOR SLAMS) We've got to go.
I think we're done with the lieutenant for now, Sergeant.
I'm sorry, Mr Cross.
I know this is upsetting, but as you can see, there is no evidence to support your theory.
We have sent 53 people through different Anomalies, and life as we know it has yet to change.
Just because you've survived pulling the trigger five times doesn't mean you're going to win at Russian Roulette.
Yeah, but, you know, still, the evidence If an Anomaly would have closed, your men would have been marooned on the other side.
I know.
Okay, you're either really stupid, or incredibly insane, but either way, you'll never get my technology.
Actually, I have a much greater understanding than you will ever know, Mr Cross.
I have seen the future.
And believe me, it is nothing that either one of us wants to live through.
As a matter of fact, if anything, it's you that's misusing your technology in some futile attempt to make up for your wife's death.
Don't manipulate me.
I'm not doing this for myself.
My future died six years ago.
Well, then you know what I'm talking about.
Sometimes there is no way to go forward.
Sometimes the only way forward is back.
(SCOFFS) What are you saying? Are you familiar with the term "geoengineering?" Yeah.
Sure.
Crazy schemes to fix global warming.
Giant space mirrors.
Shooting sulphur up into the atmosphere.
What about it? Crazy, right? The cure could be much worse than the disease.
Unintended consequences.
Yes, but the scientists who are coming up with these schemes are not crazy.
They're terrified, and they've got very good reason to be.
Now, have you seen the military threat assessments on catastrophic climate change? You want to go back to the past to fix global warming? What if we could seed the ancient oceans with an algae that would produce a clean-burning fuel and fix our energy crisis at the same time? Yeah, sure.
I mean, hell, you could even put it in convenient places.
Exactly.
And global warming is just really one of our problems.
Take a look out that window, Mr Cross.
We have screwed up beyond the capacity of any species to ever screw up.
We have attacked our ecosystem which we depend on for life with every tool at our disposal, and we will continue to do so until it all collapses.
Our food supply.
Our energy supply.
Our water supply.
It's all going to crash, and all too soon before we can do anything about it.
You understand? It's too late.
You know what? Here's the thing, Mr Cross, and I don't like it.
Like you, I don't.
I don't like it, and I have two children, three and five, and I have to do something about it.
So you think that if you go back far enough, the extinction events will cover all your unintended consequences.
I don't see that I have an alternative.
Then you're a bad scientist.
Because you think you already know the answer.
- You don't know that it won't work.
- You're right.
Nobody could predict the consequences of your plan.
The only way to find out would be to do it, but then it would be too late go back.
See, we don't get do-overs here, Colonel.
Don't we? Thank you for coming, Ms Finch.
These people must have been following us for months, taking dinosaurs.
And for what? Just Evan was right.
These people are serious tossers.
Did you upload your photos? We better get out of here before we end up in an alien autopsy video.
- DYLAN: How many? - Three, maybe four.
Crap! God damn it! Come on! ANGE: I thought I was coming here to talk to you.
Nobody told me that Evan would be here.
Is there something that you have to say that you don't want Mr Cross to hear? No.
Well, then, please, let's have a seat.
Ange, what are you doing here? I thought that we were friends.
These guys are dangerous.
Evan, Project Magnet has what we never had.
Resources.
Weaponry.
The ability to control these creatures.
I've said from day one that somebody else should be handling this.
You don't understand this.
This is way bigger than dinosaurs.
They want my technology so they can go back to the past and fix the planet.
- Really? - Forgive me, Ms Finch.
Please.
I know that this is awkward, so I'm going to keep it brief.
I need your help.
With what? Well, I plan to fix the dinosaur problem, but as Mr Cross says, my agenda is a lot bigger than that.
I need the most brilliant minds working with me, to help me, so that I can avoid disaster.
I think that Evan Cross is the smartest man that I know.
You don't even know me, so why don't you save the flattery, Colonel? He's right.
But you're asking the wrong person.
And is that because he broke your heart? - That's none of your business.
- Why did you agree to come here? (SIGHS) I have things on my conscience.
I assumed somebody was finally going to ask me about them.
Would that be a relief? Yes.
And no.
People I care about are involved.
And you don't want to get them in trouble.
What is it that you came here to say, Ms Finch? Ange? Don't do this.
It's about two of our employees.
I mean, when I was working at Cross Photonics.
Bill Pearson and Samantha Sedaris.
You mean the industrial accident.
The lieutenant came up with that cover story.
I wasn't there when it happened.
(ROARING) (SCREAMING) I only saw the aftermath.
(ROARING) (SCREAMS) You brought that thing into our building.
I thought we were all going to prison, but Ken, he fixed it.
He made it all go away.
Only it didn't go away.
I knew those people, knew their families.
When Evan came to me that night, and he asked me to help him cover it up That's not why I came to you.
Ms Finch, I can't offer you absolution, but I can offer you a chance to atone.
If those two deaths weighed heavily on you, then imagine having the chance to save billions of lives.
I mean, there's still a connection between the two of you.
That's fairly obvious.
Will you just stop? You're not going get to me by going to her.
I'm never going to help you.
And why not? If you don't like what he wants to do, then change what he's going to do.
You have the technology.
That gives you all the power.
All you have to do is say the word, and he will put you in charge of Project Magnet.
That's the last thing I want.
They are going to do this with or without you.
If you let them do it their way, without participating, you'll have nobody to blame but yourself for what happens next.
Who is this talking to me? Hmm? I've accepted a job with the Soeng Group.
I'll be travelling for a while.
Goodbye, Evan.
(SIGHS) MAC: We won't have much time.
DYLAN: We have to figure out what they're up to.
Animal, vegetable, mineral.
More specimens.
MAC: What are they planning to do with all this stuff? MAC: Chromista? It's the biological kingdom of algae.
MAC: Bacteria.
Isn't that the kind of thing you really want to leave where you found it? - We should go.
- We need to find out what they're doing with all this stuff.
Bacterial growth charts.
They took these samples out of the dinosaurs.
It's time to discuss your future, Lieutenant.
- Permission to speak freely, Colonel? - Denied.
I'm prepared to accept the consequences of my actions, but I'd like to remind you that you owe this whole breakthrough to me.
To you? I'm the one who made you pay attention to Cross' activities, when all the military wanted me to do was file unread reports, get old in that little office.
I'm the one who took the initiative in capturing the original specimen.
I'm the one who led the collection teams through the Anomalies.
Noted.
The result of this proceeding, however, is that you're going to be buried so deeply that you'll never dig your way out.
But here's the good news.
You do get one last chance at reinstatement.
You agree, by whatever deception is necessary, to persuade Evan Cross to reveal the whereabouts of his Anomaly Detection Network.
Should I take your insubordinate silence to mean that you are considering it? You should take it to mean that I'm not like you, sir.
You can't do the right thing the wrong way.
And you know what's right? Evan Cross may not trust me any more, but I trust that he knows what's right.
If I can keep him on track, I know he'll solve our dinosaur problem, either with the technology he has now, or with whatever he invents next.
He will save untold lives.
So we're clear.
Your loyalty is to him.
Yes, sir.
Sergeant, get him out of here.
Time to leave.
SOLDIER: Subjects acquired.
Chromista lab.
(GRUNTS) - (MAC GROANS) - (TASER BUZZES) Mac! That's a top-secret government facility.
How did you find it? That's not really the point, is it? We should be talking about what's going on inside that facility.
Who gave you access? Was it Leeds? This is not about your paranoia.
This is about what you've done to those animals.
So you stood there and you played dumb while your people were breaking into my facility? Come on.
Don't tell me I hurt your feelings.
You sent tin soldier there to seize my technology.
And if that terror bird hadn't gotten out, we'd have never known you were running a covert operation.
Which does not concern you.
But now you're all in danger.
The photos on Rendell's phone alone are enough to put him in prison for decades, and Ms Weir had government property in her pocket.
This is really out of my hands.
I mean, so far your friends have done nothing to implicate you, because they want you to walk away, but I need you to understand something very clearly It is going to be a very, very long time before you ever see them again.
You understand? All right.
You win.
Evan They can't beat us if we stick together.
Look, I destroyed my Anomaly Detection Network, - but I can build you a new one.
- Don't.
Yeah, I don't believe for a second that you destroyed your own network, but I will intervene to release Rendell and Weir, except it's not just the network that I want.
I want whatever it is that you invent next.
Done.
Sergeant.
(KEYPAD BEEPING)
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