ReGenesis (2004–2008): Season 1, Episode 9 - The Secret War - full transcript
Caroline, there's been another explosion.
Chicago.
- What you got there, Bob?
- Burnt wire, I guess.
So, underground wires
seemingly spontaneously combust.
CIA got intercepts
of a plan to create a blackout
and use the chaos to move terrorists
from Canada to the U.S.
Right, blame Canada!
You know who's really happy
about this blackout?
Who?
That guy on death row who was
supposed to get the chair this morning.
You don't understand, this is
a government operated lab I'm in now.
Just think of it.
Your own line of perfumes.
You have a new bacterium,
that became the amazing plastic-eating
red goo
that took out the entire northeast
of the continent.
Think of all the plastic in
all those garbage dumps.
Now, you tweak this thing
and learn how to control it,
it'll be worth a mint.
Developed in a government-sponsored lab?
I wouldn't buy the Rolls just yet, Dave.
Mick? Mick?
I saw him dying, mum.
I held him.
You have got to turn all of this
into a good memory,
but you're not going to be
able to do that here.
You need to be in the place
that you know.
And with a mom
that you know.
1x09- The Secret War
Carlos, I need your medical report
on Justin Ricci.
- In your "in" basket.
- Thank you.
David, that global issues report
for the National Academy of Sciences.
In my "in" basket.
I'm only bothering you
because they're bothering me.
- Monday.
- You're all witnesses.
Now what about this haemophilia issue
in Mexico?
In the Southern Mexican district
of Campeche,
a serious incidence pattern.
Incidence pattern
for haemophilia?
- It's not a contagious disease.
- It's unusual.
Could this be some kind of acquired
haemophilia? Isn't that possible?
It's very rare.
Usually it emerges in the elderly.
This is hitting all ages
and the disease is ranging
over a very large area.
Okay, well Mexico hasn't asked
for any help yet,
but let's keep it on our radar.
Okay, our lawyers in Washington tell us
Specific North Wire & Cable is
questioning our science
to the tune of a $125,000,000 suit.
When the lawsuit hits a billion,
I'm taking everybody to dinner.
To a soup kitchen.
At least Homeland Security
was happy with our work.
They wrote us, "Dear Ms. Morrison,
on behalf of all us... "
Can you just put it on a
bulletin board?
I hate bullshit letters.
I'm sorry.
We'll save Jill the stress.
That's it, unless someone
else has anything...
Oh, okay. This
is really interesting.
I read about it on sciencesucks. com.
What? They have some great
stuff on there.
They are lunatics, Mayko.
Just hear me out.
In the Iraq war this company,
Battle Support Services -
the Pentagon outsources a lot
of the grunt work
so it doesn't look like it has
too many soldiers overseas, right -
so Battle Support Services hired a group
of poor, mostly minority Americans
to do clean up work at the base
in Kirkuk.
One team, CC3 was sent to
do hazardous waste removal
at a bombed out site in the south.
I read about this somewhere.
Various members of the crew came down
with lots of different ailments.
Yup. Almost a third of them.
Everything from joint pain to
asthma to serious hair loss.
- All hair loss is serious.
- I've been briefed on this case, Mayko.
Two sets of doctors concluded that
their conditions were unrelated
to one another
and to their duties in Iraq.
Yeah, but they gave no explanation
as to what is making them sick.
Mayko, the complaints over Gulf War
Syndrome are still stalled in the courts.
- It's not our mandate.
- Yeah, well what is?
- These!
- Are we through?
Yes.
Excuse me, David.
What were their symptoms?
Mostly CNS, some autoimmune.
This is the background,
and this.
And this.
And you better read this too.
Who's this?
Louisa Raposa their spokesperson.
I talked to her. She's really cool.
I'd like to get her up here.
Two sets of doctors said our illness
had nothing to do with Iraq.
One hired by Battle Support and
one by the Pentagon.
Jill.
Hey, Jill!
You okay? You seem a little tense.
I'm fine. I'm fine.
What's up?
Well, uh... okay.
I spent 3 years
working on the mechanism of immediate
early transcription responses
to hep-C infection of macrophages.
Okay.
It doesn't matter.
I published my findings
and now some...
these lab techs they can't reproduce
my experiment
and they're claiming I was working
from the wrong cell line.
Now, they're full of shit.
They're just looking too far
after the infection.
Okay, what can you do about it?
I can prove them wrong
by repeating my experiment with
a different cell line.
Can we help you?
Yeah, I need 3 weeks off.
Please, I need it.
We are swamped.
I know.
I need it.
Okay, let me talk to David.
Maybe someone else can do the grunt work
on your experiment.
Okay, we'll work something out. Okay?
Okay, thank you.
Where'd you come from?
The door. It was open.
Right. What's up?
- Can I talk to you?
- You are.
I've been offered a senior position
in another lab.
Again?
This one's really serious, David.
Camico Cosmetics.
A senior position.
Actually, the senior position
in their perfume lab.
You're kidding?
Well, that's great, Bob.
Yeah. That's great, David.
Yeah.
So, I guess you've got some big
decisions to make, eh?
I think I should take it
because it's what I've always wanted,
- but I don't want to abandon you.
- Sure.
- You think so?
- What?
No. I mean, it's your decision, Bob.
I won't hold you back.
If you don't think it's a good idea...
I didn't say that.
Bob, what do you love more
than anything else in the whole world?
Working with you.
What else, Bob?
My dog.
What else?
Perfume.
Well, the science of it.
There you go.
So, you know,
you go think about it,
and let me know what you decide.
Of course.
Thank you for your time.
I have a hair appointment
on Saturday.
If my hair's going to fall out anyway...
Keep the appointment.
You'll want to look good for a night
of celebrating.
There's no cancer, Caroline.
Oh, that's good news.
What is it exactly that you found?
Oh, nothing. Nothing to worry about,
except that blood pressure.
Oh, take it again. I'm fine now.
Really.
I'm leaving, Jill.
Bye.
Good morning.
Good morning, Bob.
Hey.
Hey, where were you?
Dentist.
Do you know about this thing with Jill,
her experiment?
Yeah. It's glory theft.
Somebody jumps on top of a breakthrough
and they scream and shout that it's fake
and get all the publicity.
Eventually they're going to be proven wrong
and 5 years down the road
the only thing anyone's going to remember
are the names of the brave dissenters.
She wants 3 weeks off to disprove them.
It'll take a month, and then
they'll just bring up some other points.
These guys live by being assholes.
It'll never end.
So, what can we do?
There's nothing we do really.
She's got a reputation to defend.
She's not going to walk away from this.
Can we do without her for a month?
Nope.
Oh, let me get that, Mayko.
Okay, Louisa Raposa, say hello
to Dr. David Sandstrom.
I had enough sandstorms in Iraq,
so I'll call you David.
Yeah, absolutely.
Uh, right this way.
Oh, thanks for the help with the boxes, David.
When they bussed us down to Imam,
this 2-bit town near the salt
ponds in the south...
they gave us hazmat suits, we spent a week
loading out these bombed out buildings,
even the dirt under them,
into these big biohazard barrels.
What was in the buildings?
Iraqi military supplies.
They wouldn't tell us more.
And then we loaded the barrels
onto these C-135s
and I heard they were dropped
into the Persian Gulf.
Who told you that?
I got drunk with the navigator
a couple times.
Oh, yeah? Handsome?
Yeah, handsome.
Yeah, you would have liked her.
No one told you what
the danger was?
Well, we weren't military.
We were civs, so no one told us shit.
We were doing dangerous work with
no security and no pension, no future.
Now 10 of us are fucking dying.
One is dead.
My friend...
Antonio Santos.
The private firm that hired
you dismissed your claim as specious.
- If specious means bullshit.
- What's your ailment, Louisa?
Migraines, dizziness,
I have very little feeling in my legs.
I mean, I can walk
but it's a pain in the ass...
both cheeks.
Do you have an official diagnosis?
Just symptoms.
And I suppose without
independent medical substantiation
you can't get a lawyer to take your case.
None of our cases.
So, are you going to help
us out or what?
Well, let me get back to you on that.
Can you hang around Toronto for awhile?
Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah.
Put me up at the Ritz,
gimme a key to the mini-bar and
I can stay as long as you like.
Well, it may not be the Ritz,
but I've got a fold out sofa
and a fridge full of Molson Canadian.
You know what?
Why don't we go raid my fridge first?
Welcome to my other office.
So, where's the beer?
I'll get the beers, you read.
Thanks.
Jesus.
Pretty amazing symptomatology, huh?
It's going to be impossible to prove.
So, we better get started.
Get off me!
- Thank you.
- Sure.
You and Carlos
get the investigation started.
- What do we say to Caroline?
- You don't say anything.
Well, try not to swear at her.
I don't think she responds
to your swearing.
Thank you for the advice.
Hey, Jill. Have you seen Carlos?
Do you want me to bring you in
a change of clothes?
I just had sex with an albino midget.
- Pretty cool, huh?
- What?
I don't think she responds
to your swearing.
Thank you for the advice.
All right, where do we get
our funding from?
- Hello, David.
- Yeah, hi.
You say 3 governments: Mexico,
the USA and Canada, and then I say no,
we get our funding from the
people who pay taxes to
the governments of Mexico, the USA
and Canada.
It's a waste of time.
Ten sick, 1 dead.
Yeah, but not dead because
of a disease.
Antonio Santos jumped off the
George Washington Bridge.
- Because he was sick.
- In the head.
He had a history of depression.
The U.S. military cannot
assume any responsibility.
I must have heard that 50 times.
Who doesn't have depression
when you're dirt poor?
He came back from Iraq
with fibromyalgia.
He couldn't sleep. He couldn't work.
But he has insurance
and the day before it expired
he killed himself so his kids could eat.
His insurance policy was for $10,000.
How desperate is that?
We don't investigate
depression.
We investigate
questionable science.
He died in the Hudson
but something killed him in Iraq
and that's our mandate.
Why is this something that
only NorBAC can solve?
I'm not even sure
it's something we can solve.
These people have had their
case studied twice.
Both medical reports say all
the symptoms are grey.
Everything's grey.
We need some black and white.
Just give me 72 hours
to make our case.
24.
- 48.
-24.
- 72.
- 24!
Hmm, I'm beginning to detect
a pattern here.
Okay, 24 it is.
- Well, that's three 8-hour days, right?
- David!
Well, that makes sense. The pot
would have helped a lot with his pain.
Uh, do you have his address?
Is there a phone number there?
Yeah.
Right.
Okay. Thanks. Bye.
- Thomas found a home.
- Well, that's good.
San Quentin. Three strikes.
Pot possession.
What did Caroline say?
Is she protecting her Pentagon pals?
No. We've got 24 hours to give her
one good reason as to
why we should be allowed to pursue this.
- We'll give her 11.
- Atta girl.
Hi, is that Rita? This is Mayko Tran.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Louisa's friend.
North American Biotechnology
Advisory Commission.
I didn't make it up.
Okay, look I need to know if you got
the lab results.
Hey, how's it going?
Hey.
So, I looked at the haematology
reports from the 11 victims.
The blood is a bouillabaisse of antibodies
for dozens of ruses and bacteria.
Yeah, Louisa said they got all inoculated
before they left to Iraq, so...
Maybe that's it.
No, no, no. Everyone who went to Iraq
got those.
We need to find something
specic to the victims.
They're suffering, but from so
many syndromes and symptom clusters
it's impossible for me
to tease out a single cause.
I'm going to need...
urine samples, stool samples,
throat swabs.
- Talk to Mayko.
- Yeah, I did.
We're between a rock and
you-know-who's hard ass, so...
Work fast.
Hey, I saw that Bob was packed.
Uh, yeah. He got a new job offer.
He's leaving us?
No, no, no. He'll talk himself out of it
in a little while.
He's done this before.
David, did you try talking
him out of it?
No,
you can't put emotional pressure
on people like Bob.
You know, don't worry about it.
He'll start thinking about this
new lab and new people...
Bob isn't good with "new,"
he'll come around.
We mainly did janitorial
work at the base.
The cleanup at Hamar is
the only time we left.
But you and your crew were the
only ones who got sick?
Yeah. Only ones that left,
only ones that got sick.
What about the suits?
I mean... could the hazmat suits
have been faulty?
No, the gear was cool, you know.
It fit well, it didn't weigh much.
Maybe they were torn.
No, no, no, no,
the stuff didn't tear.
It was like
it was made of kryptonite or something.
- Really?
- Yeah.
Yeah? May, where the hell are you?
I've got an emu waiting for you.
It figures.
Yeah. No, no, no, take your time.
Bye.
Mayko has been held up at the lab.
She will be here in a little bit.
Uh, what is this exactly?
Uh, emu.
It's a big bird.
We're eating Big Bird, ooh.
Tummy English.
All right, it's August,
in Hamar, in southern Iraq.
What was the daily temperature?
It was over 115,
but the suits were air-conditioned.
Your suits were air-conditioned?
How?
Yeah. I don't know.
Ha! What about an air supply?
Did you have a filtration mask?
No, air tanks.
They gave us a new tank every hour
and there were no masks.
- It was like one piece.
- I gotta see one of these suits.
Well, I gotta say they don't...
they don't cook like this is
North Bergen, New Jersey.
Ah, well, I bet you say that
to all the boys.
So how did a resident from
the Garden State
end up cleaning up
after the parade in Iraq?
I don't know. Where I come from,
you don't get tons of choice.
Um, the money was good,
they paid room and board
and I thought I could help my country
and come home with a stash of cash.
Uh, you wanna know why else?
Why?
I had never been on a plane before.
Really?
- It's pitiful, huh?
- No, no.
I had never actually been
outside of America.
- Well, welcome to Canada.
- Thank you.
Are you a typical Canadian?
No, some of us are really
quite nice.
Mmm, you're a good cook, too.
And I give a great massage.
Here you go.
Did you spend the night
here again?
Do you have
the results
of the PCR?
- Oh.
- "Oh" what?
"Oh" I forgot all about it.
Oh. Do you need a coffee?
- Hey!
- Good morning.
Sorry I couldn't make it out last night.
- How did it go?
- Good.
Yeah?
Last night after she came home,
she asked me what your sign was,
and I thought:
"Ouh, caution, stop! Dead end."
Slippery when wet.
Louisa seemed to think you might be
on to something.
We talked a lot about hazmat suits
and air tanks.
Is that all?
No, actually, we came up with
a great idea for a new reality TV series:
Lab Romance. What do you think?
Riveting, huh?
I want one of those suits.
Can't. I already looked into it.
The U.S. military will not discuss it.
They won't even admit they exist.
I'll take care of that.
What have you got?
I got a tip off ScienceSucks
on how to tap the U.N.'s Iraqi monitoring
commission satellite photos
and inspection records
from 1994 to 2002. Look.
So these are the photos Bush
and the boys ignored, eh?
- Somebody's gotta use them.
- Exactly.
In the 1980's, the site of Hamar
was suspected of being
a biochemical warfare
manufacturing facility.
This is the site now and this is the site
before it was cleaned up.
Looks a lot like
a bunch of bombed-out buildings.
And before it was bombed.
Not much of a difference.
- It was falling apart.
- Why did the Americans bomb it?
Good question. Check this out.
It's when it was built, in 1983.
- Yeah, so?
- They're U.S. military prefab buildings.
- Okay.
- So Americans built them.
Weren't the Americans supporting Iraq
against Iran, back then?
Strangely, even though Iraq
initiated the war.
Look, what if they bombed it because
there were biological weapons of
mass destruction there?
If the Americans found even
one of Saddam's WMD's,
Bush would've been spitting it
until re-election.
Not Iraqi WMD's, American.
It's a known fact
that the U.S. supplied Saddam
with biological and chemical
weapons in the 80's.
All right. We'd better keep
Louisa around for a few more days,
then, answer a few more questions.
Business.
- Of course.
- Go away.
Carlos, you got anything
on Louisa's physio?
Uh... On my desk.
Anything jump out?
Yes. Triglycerides are too high,
because Louisa likes to drink.
How'd you find that out?
She told me.
Liver's a little swollen,
probably the reason for her joint pain.
Her Eustachian tubes
were clogged.
Probably the reason
for her dizziness.
You don't think any of this has to do
with what happened to her in Iraq?
I trust what the initial
doctors diagnosed.
Besides, I think we have more
serious priorities.
Like?
Like this haemophilia in Mexico.
David, 9 people are dead.
Haemophilia is not
a contagious disease.
I know, I know, but somehow,
this thing is spreading.
People are bleeding to death on
their way to the hospital.
- It doesn't make any sense.
- I agree.
All right, I'll get on it.
Ah, thank you. Let's not drop the ball
on Louisa, though.
Okay.
Jill, I'm gonna need you
to run some blood cultures for me.
I'm gonna have some samples sent up
from Mexico, haemophilia patients.
I want you to look for viral and bacterial
infection.
- Are you listening to me?
- David, I'm busy.
No, you're insane.
Knock it off.
I know you've got a lot riding
on this hep-C infection,
but there's other things going
on in this lab.
- I know, I just need a couple more weeks.
- I need you now.
- David, I can't.
- Yes, you can.
No: yes, you will.
Coffee.
Thank you.
I'm... sorry. No...
Lo siento, no habla espanol.
Look, I'm looking for...
Could it be possible to get the medical
histories of all your immediate family?
You're 114 people?
Ha! Ha! In Porto Rico, okay.
Apparently your doctor never got
the fax releasing a file to us.
Come on, we... we got the specimens
the lab sent, but we're missing...
Yeah... No, she sounds pretty hungry.
Um... look, why don't you give me a call
after you feed her, okay?
Yeah. Thanks.
Wow! Someone's been working.
- I've barely started.
- Run me through it.
- I'm not ready.
- I said 24 hours. It's been 36.
Okay.
Most of them are
working class, immigrant, non-White,
with poor access to
education and social services.
Stick to the medical.
Okay, look,
each one of these guys passed exhaustive
and exhausting physical and medical tests
before being shipped to the Gulf. It...
They were in perfect health, you know?
Now they have hardcore symptoms
that can't be traced
to any known disease, virus or bacteria.
And it's possible something in Iraq could
account for all these different symptoms?
Yes and no.
It's cause and effect:
do we have an effect?
Well, a third of the people are
getting sick,
and in each case, the symptoms present
themselves within 3 to 6 months of returning from Iraq.
Now, biological and lifestyle factors
can't account for those odds.
Take Rita and Benton:
they've lumps in their breasts.
I never smoked.
Me neither.
No history of the disease.
Me neither.
I'm gonna need a mastectomy.
Double for me.
No cause.
We have to find something that
can trigger different symptoms.
Are you okay?
Yeah.
I'm just tired.
Any idea?
None.
I'm giving you a few more days.
Oh.
Good.
Uh, 'cause I... I need your help.
Um, I just spoke to a buddy of mine
over at Scripts,
who works on soft material for
the space programme.
And CC3 was using high-tech hazmat suits
made by a company called
Shining Armor,
which is weird, because the military
isn't even using these things yet,
but Shining Armor refuses to admit
they built them
and Battle Support Services refuses
to admit they were using them, so...
Can... can you get us a suit?
Make some phone calls?
I'll make a House call.
Oh. Thank you.
If your dance card
opens up in September,
I'll be taking the S.S. McGuinn
for a spin around the Caribbean.
I could use a first mate
who knows her way around the rigging.
NorBAC's been keeping me busy,
but you never know.
Been doing some impressive work,
up there in Toronto.
I've been working with some
impressive people.
- Which brings you...
- Here, yes.
What's the ruckus?
CC3, the crew that was on cleanup detail
for Battle Support in southern Iraq.
We're trying to get
to the bottom of their health problems.
It's a compelling story.
That 2 extensive medical studies
have put to rest.
But no one denies
these people are sick.
- But not from Iraq.
- Then from what?
Fast food? The blight of the nation.
But you believed there was enough
of a chance
that something they were exposed
to in Iraq caused these illnesses.
That's why you authorized
the military's medical study.
They weren't exposed to anything.
They were using state-of-the-art hazmat gear.
- First time in the field.
- Field-tested at Samuel for 6 months.
Give me a suit.
Let my people pick it apart.
If there's a flaw, we'll find it.
You'll have full access to our results.
Maybe you'll learn something.
Thanks for the offer,
but we don't own the suit.
It's property of Shining Armor.
Why don't you give them a call?
I did.
They sent me to you,
they said you paid for it.
For them to develop it.
Shining Armor owns the suit,
it's not mine to give away.
Oh. So I guess the title,
"director of research and engineering"
doesn't count for much.
Just as small cog
in a big military machine.
But let me save you some time:
the suits are solid.
You can wear them on Mars.
Okay, you've convinced me, I'll take one.
The test data, Caroline.
Not the suit.
We wanna do our own research.
We might find something you missed.
What are you afraid of?
Besides you?
Come on, Connor!
The suit. Let me borrow it.
Hey!
Where were you all day?
Shopping. I got you a present,
something you can wear.
Open it!
Is this a joke present?
I thought you said I didn't have
a sense of humour?
- Did I say that to your face?
- I overheard you. Twice.
- You gotta learn to ignore me.
- Don't worry.
How did you get it?
I... just said, "please. "
Hardly weighs a thing.
Looks like something Elvis used to wear.
What's it made of?
Probably like 20 different materials.
There's no tank?
No.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Health officials in Mexico are now
asking us to look into the outbreak.
They need help rapidissimo.
I already asked them to send up
some blood samples.
Anything show up yet, Jill?
- Hmm? Uh, yes, we got them.
- Anything?
I don't know, I haven't had
a chance to look at them yet.
All right, I want you to drop whatever
you're doing and make this a priority.
Jill?
I... This isn't virology,
it's haematology.
How many viruses do you know
cause internal bleeding?
A few.
Yeah. Haemophilia affects 1 in 10,000 men.
It's pretty rare in women.
The father would have to have haemophilia
and the mother be a carrier
or have it too.
The bloodwork will let us know
if that's what we're dealing with.
There are rare genetic mutations
where haemophilia suddenly occurs
but unlikely in these numbers.
What are we up to now?
Fifteen dead.
Jill?
Yes. All right, I'm on it.
And where's Bob?
We're going to need his help
on the biochemistry.
The suit is a C60 carbon atom,
but it's spherically,
in a truncated icosahedron.
Your basic Bucky ball about
1 nm in diameter.
Bucky ball?
They're the roundest and most symmetrical
large molecule known to man.
They're beautiful.
And they're made into nanofibres,
which are like
a millionth of a centimetre wide
and a thousandth of a centimetre long,
and then they put those
together and...
You know, this is one of the first
applications of industrial nanotechnology.
You see, a Bucky ball is carbon,
like a diamond,
but it's hollow, so it's light.
And if you flatten it,
it bounces right back.
Tell her about the heat loss.
Oh, uh, you know how some
material leaks away moisture?
Well, they've figured out a way
to use the hollows to put in a vapour
that collects the heat
and transfers it out.
Built-in air-conditioning.
Is there anything it can't do?
I had a dermatologist check it out:
all the materials are hypoallergenic.
We've been checking the nanofibres
to see if they cause chromosomal
mutations, but nothing yet.
Bucky balls have been implicated
in the destruction of lipid cells in fish.
Brain tissue?
And they collect
in the liver and the kidneys.
So what do you think: the crew absorbed
some of these...
Bucky balls through their skin?
It's unlikely. I mean, these things are
totally stable and incredibly insoluble,
so you'd have to...
you'd have to eat them to get sick.
So we have no evidence yet that
the suits are a problem.
None at all. But they're so cool,
so the question is:
why would you give these to a bunch of
non-military glorified garbage collectors?
Well, we complain when people
aren't properly suited,
now we're suspicious
when they are?
You know what? Strike that.
I'm wrong.
You're right.
Connor? It's Caroline.
Hey, Morrison, how're you doing?
I'm good. I have some great news:
suits are safe.
Didn't I tell you?
You did, you're right. But I think
you forgot to pack the air tank.
Classified.
- Must be special.
- Very special.
When's that Caribbean
cruise again?
Are you offering me
a sexual favour?
I'm threatening to
sink your boat.
Morrison, you can say
or do whatever you want,
it's not gonna wreck our friendship.
But I can't let my baby
leave this building.
You know, I was wondering
why you gave up.
Now I'm wondering if you knew
the suits were safe,
it was the tank that was a problem.
Tell you what,
check your e-mail.
I'll send you a consolation prize
that might interest you.
Thanks, Connor.
So, how's it going?
I got nothing.
I've looked at every known virus
that causes internal bleeding
and there are no matches.
Okay, how about this:
Willebrand Disorder.
That's a bit of a stretch,
don't you think?
A mutation.
It's been known to fool virologists.
Yeah, but not physicians.
Right? I mean, do you really
think that this could...
No, no, no.
No, I... I'm starting to have a hard time
thinking this even is haemophilia.
- It's not the genetic kind.
- Well, it's not a virus.
- So where does that leave us?
- I dunno.
What is going on in there?
Drama?
- It's bullshit.
- Is it?
First of all, who sent it?
The point is, Louisa has
a habit of suing her employer.
Please. Once? Once is not a habit.
- Besides, she won.
- They settled out of court, Mayko!
- They paid her!
- We don't know the details!
She sued her employer over
working conditions. Sound familiar?
Uh, yeah, maybe NorBAC should stop
expecting people to work 18 hours a day.
I'll pass that on to David.
Thanks for you input.
Fuck!
You think I'm full of shit
because I stuck up for my rights?
Have you ever done piss
factory work, huh?
- Take it easy, Louisa.
- Fuck no!
It's an odd coincidence,
don't you think?
No! You know what's an odd coincidence?
Every time I talk to you,
- you check out my tits.
- Don't change the subject.
I was letting the other girls
know their rights,
so then they put me on the night shift.
Then they changed my job so
I got 2$ an hour less.
That's a constructive wrongful termination
action and I sued the bastards!
- Excuse me!
- Wait.
Wait, we had to ask you.
I thought you trusted me.
I do.
Come on, let's keep talking,
I wanna help.
Okay.
So what else?
The air tanks.
Did you notice anything unusual about them?
Were there any markings, anything?
Not that I noticed. They were white,
they connected to the suit.
Well, did the air taste any different?
- I mean, could there have been an additive?
- No.
Was there something extra on the tanks?
Were they heavy?
- Light.
- How light?
- Three, 4 pounds.
- And when they were empty?
Same.
No, they'd have to be lighter.
I mean, compressed air adds a few pounds.
No, they were the same.
Trust me, I could tell the difference.
What's wrong?
The tanks weren't just releasing oxygen,
they were collecting something else.
What?
Okay, the air tanks weighed
just as much empty as they do full, right?
That shouldn't be possible, because as
they use up the compressed air in the tanks
they should be getting lighter. However,
they're doing hard physical work,
they'd be giving off enough moisture
through their breath and their sweat
to make up the difference in
the weight, get it?
The air tanks are collecting the workers'
moisture. It's about the water.
It's not about the suit,
it's not about the site,
it's about the Pentagon thinking
they're going to be fighting the Arabs
for the next 50 years,
they don't wanna be lugging their own
ater halfway around the globe.
So it's water.
I want you to tap all your contacts,
any group who might have their eye
on the Pentagon right now,
including your wacko sites.
Find out anything you can about
water recycling programmes.
Okay.
Okay, what'cha got?
Uh, we're calling the syndrome
in Mexico "SACS".
Severe anticoagulation syndrome.
What causes it?
We don't know.
The problem is the syndrome seems
to be related to environmental factors,
but which ones...
- Food is our first guess.
- Like an allergy?
No, it's... it's more like a poison,
something that inhibits blood clotting.
Snake or spider bites
can't be ruled out either.
Or something in the air,
water, pollution.
We have ruled out viruses.
Something bacterial is still on the table.
So anything's possible.
Yes.
We just know what it is, but...
I think we're going to need to
do some on-site tests.
All right, why don't you
two pack a bag?
Yes, you can.
All right.
Ready?
Just about.
I contacted all the groups that
monitor the U.S. military: nothing.
So, I called the Pentagon.
Well, I got no particulars, but
I do know what was being developed.
WATR: water any time recycle,
which was a mechanism
to harvest water
from breath and sweat from
soldiers in the field.
Well, I think we can now surmise
that the air tanks were collecting water.
We drank our own sweat?
Ha! Presumably, they cleaned it first.
Did you see any filtration?
No.
Where'd you get your water?
From a big machine
on the back of a truck.
It was called something funny,
it was like...
- a Reimer.
- What's a Reimer?
No idea.
It might have to do with WAPR:
water any place recover.
What?
To recover potable water from mud,
puddles, polluted rivers, even latrines.
Is that what does
motherfuckers gave us?
That's what astronauts drink.
They don't get sick.
Unless the Reimer wasn't working properly.
We need to get our hands
on one of these things.
Right.
Thank you.
Well, racking up the frequent
flyer points, are we?
I thought maybe face-to-face,
I could convince you to change your mind.
About the tank?
No way.
Okay. How about a Reimer?
With that package, Caroline, you could
convince me to do just about anything.
Except betray my country.
I travel all this way
and all I get is some cornball line?
How's it different from what
they use for astronauts?
Smaller, faster, cheaper, better.
That's all I'm saying.
Save money on supply lines
and free up soldiers for combat.
Can't I have a peek?
Maybe I can ease your disappointment
by buying you dinner.
Sure.
If the topic of conversation is
how Battle Support and Shining Armor
are both owned by the same corporation.
On 2nd thought,
I think I'll head straight home,
see what the wife has cooking.
You know what, Connor? We went looking
for notices of tender for the suit
and funny thing is, we didn't find any.
Shining Armor invented the suit.
They came to us with it.
Our military couldn't ask for bids
on something they were given.
And the cleanup?
Fifteen thousand men and women?
Our deployment in Iraq was
part of a secret plan.
We put out bids for support services,
it's not much of a secret, now, is it?
Shining Armor and Battle Support
are both owned by Garfield Industries.
Never did research...
250 billion of Pentagon money
went to private contractors last year.
Now, they're exempt
from the Freedom of Information Act
and congressional oversight.
- They don't have to worry about salary caps.
- The same with every other corporation.
Wanna know how much public
money went to Garfield?
Buy their stock.
Sounds like a good bet.
Wasn't the previous CEO of Garfield
a certain advisor to the president?
A piece of advice for you, Caroline:
you should really save the ball-busting
routine till after your looks have faded.
You know what, Connor?
This might be just the time where you're
gonna have to forget about your career
and your ego and your sex life
and just do the right thing.
I have a dozen sick people
and a team of scientists who say
that the most probable cause is a Reimer.
Let me think on it.
I'll call you in the morning.
So after the 1st Gulf War,
the Americans encouraged the southern Shiites
to rebel against Saddam, right?
But the U.S. reneged on its
promise to help.
Saddam dammed the rivers
and dried out all the marshes that sustained
hundreds of thousands of Shiites
and drove them out,
slaughtered them,
and now that entire area is just
a salt-encrusted wasteland.
Yeah, I saw. It was unbelievable.
But what does this have to
do with our work?
They were testing Reimer's ability to
clean contaminated water.
Not to mention Hamar is near
the worst water in the world.
Perfect place to study it.
I think you finally believe me.
I always believed you.
You're a smart scientist
and a terrible liar.
Guilty as charged.
Okay... I'm beat,
gotta go home.
Yeah, okay.
Uh, look, if you... if you want me
to drive you to Mayko's later,
- you don't have to leave now.
- No! Well, I just...
Hey, hey, hey, I'm just tired,
don't let me spoil the party.
Never know when you'll be
back in Toronto.
Thank you for everything.
- Oh, yeah. Take care.
- You too.
Have fun, you guys.
Yeah?
Hey, David, I was helping Jill
with her experiments,
- looking through her lab notes.
- Yeah?
I'm no virologist, but I am a biochemist
with a lot of biophysics background.
Pff, get to the point, Bob.
I think I see where Jill went wrong.
Are you sure?
No.
Almost.
Actually, yes.
Well, listen, if she calls, don't tell her
anything. I'll look at it tomorrow.
But this is my last day.
Hello?
You might as well warn Louisa
that things are looking bad.
Me? You're the one who brought her here.
You're the one who's fucking her.
We got a Reimer.
It's amazing.
No bigger than a bar fridge,
turns salt water, human waste,
anything, into pure drinking water.
What we've done is we've
genetically modified this mustard
so that if it comes in
contact with a buried landmine,
it turns red, not green.
- So, can we get samples?
- Yeah, sure.
Hey, you don't think they're causing
the anticoagulation syndrome, do you?
- Bob's not here.
- His stuff's gone.
Let me get this straight:
I'm dealing with cutting-edge technology,
but you'd rather be out there making
women smell better with beaver balls.
You never listen.
Jesus Christ, Bob,
what are you, my fucking wife?
You're leaving, you're running off
to Mexico?
There's been an outbreak, okay?
People are dying.
Goddammit!
People are dying right here, David!
Subtitles: kubilai & Lama
Transcript: Raceman
Chicago.
- What you got there, Bob?
- Burnt wire, I guess.
So, underground wires
seemingly spontaneously combust.
CIA got intercepts
of a plan to create a blackout
and use the chaos to move terrorists
from Canada to the U.S.
Right, blame Canada!
You know who's really happy
about this blackout?
Who?
That guy on death row who was
supposed to get the chair this morning.
You don't understand, this is
a government operated lab I'm in now.
Just think of it.
Your own line of perfumes.
You have a new bacterium,
that became the amazing plastic-eating
red goo
that took out the entire northeast
of the continent.
Think of all the plastic in
all those garbage dumps.
Now, you tweak this thing
and learn how to control it,
it'll be worth a mint.
Developed in a government-sponsored lab?
I wouldn't buy the Rolls just yet, Dave.
Mick? Mick?
I saw him dying, mum.
I held him.
You have got to turn all of this
into a good memory,
but you're not going to be
able to do that here.
You need to be in the place
that you know.
And with a mom
that you know.
1x09- The Secret War
Carlos, I need your medical report
on Justin Ricci.
- In your "in" basket.
- Thank you.
David, that global issues report
for the National Academy of Sciences.
In my "in" basket.
I'm only bothering you
because they're bothering me.
- Monday.
- You're all witnesses.
Now what about this haemophilia issue
in Mexico?
In the Southern Mexican district
of Campeche,
a serious incidence pattern.
Incidence pattern
for haemophilia?
- It's not a contagious disease.
- It's unusual.
Could this be some kind of acquired
haemophilia? Isn't that possible?
It's very rare.
Usually it emerges in the elderly.
This is hitting all ages
and the disease is ranging
over a very large area.
Okay, well Mexico hasn't asked
for any help yet,
but let's keep it on our radar.
Okay, our lawyers in Washington tell us
Specific North Wire & Cable is
questioning our science
to the tune of a $125,000,000 suit.
When the lawsuit hits a billion,
I'm taking everybody to dinner.
To a soup kitchen.
At least Homeland Security
was happy with our work.
They wrote us, "Dear Ms. Morrison,
on behalf of all us... "
Can you just put it on a
bulletin board?
I hate bullshit letters.
I'm sorry.
We'll save Jill the stress.
That's it, unless someone
else has anything...
Oh, okay. This
is really interesting.
I read about it on sciencesucks. com.
What? They have some great
stuff on there.
They are lunatics, Mayko.
Just hear me out.
In the Iraq war this company,
Battle Support Services -
the Pentagon outsources a lot
of the grunt work
so it doesn't look like it has
too many soldiers overseas, right -
so Battle Support Services hired a group
of poor, mostly minority Americans
to do clean up work at the base
in Kirkuk.
One team, CC3 was sent to
do hazardous waste removal
at a bombed out site in the south.
I read about this somewhere.
Various members of the crew came down
with lots of different ailments.
Yup. Almost a third of them.
Everything from joint pain to
asthma to serious hair loss.
- All hair loss is serious.
- I've been briefed on this case, Mayko.
Two sets of doctors concluded that
their conditions were unrelated
to one another
and to their duties in Iraq.
Yeah, but they gave no explanation
as to what is making them sick.
Mayko, the complaints over Gulf War
Syndrome are still stalled in the courts.
- It's not our mandate.
- Yeah, well what is?
- These!
- Are we through?
Yes.
Excuse me, David.
What were their symptoms?
Mostly CNS, some autoimmune.
This is the background,
and this.
And this.
And you better read this too.
Who's this?
Louisa Raposa their spokesperson.
I talked to her. She's really cool.
I'd like to get her up here.
Two sets of doctors said our illness
had nothing to do with Iraq.
One hired by Battle Support and
one by the Pentagon.
Jill.
Hey, Jill!
You okay? You seem a little tense.
I'm fine. I'm fine.
What's up?
Well, uh... okay.
I spent 3 years
working on the mechanism of immediate
early transcription responses
to hep-C infection of macrophages.
Okay.
It doesn't matter.
I published my findings
and now some...
these lab techs they can't reproduce
my experiment
and they're claiming I was working
from the wrong cell line.
Now, they're full of shit.
They're just looking too far
after the infection.
Okay, what can you do about it?
I can prove them wrong
by repeating my experiment with
a different cell line.
Can we help you?
Yeah, I need 3 weeks off.
Please, I need it.
We are swamped.
I know.
I need it.
Okay, let me talk to David.
Maybe someone else can do the grunt work
on your experiment.
Okay, we'll work something out. Okay?
Okay, thank you.
Where'd you come from?
The door. It was open.
Right. What's up?
- Can I talk to you?
- You are.
I've been offered a senior position
in another lab.
Again?
This one's really serious, David.
Camico Cosmetics.
A senior position.
Actually, the senior position
in their perfume lab.
You're kidding?
Well, that's great, Bob.
Yeah. That's great, David.
Yeah.
So, I guess you've got some big
decisions to make, eh?
I think I should take it
because it's what I've always wanted,
- but I don't want to abandon you.
- Sure.
- You think so?
- What?
No. I mean, it's your decision, Bob.
I won't hold you back.
If you don't think it's a good idea...
I didn't say that.
Bob, what do you love more
than anything else in the whole world?
Working with you.
What else, Bob?
My dog.
What else?
Perfume.
Well, the science of it.
There you go.
So, you know,
you go think about it,
and let me know what you decide.
Of course.
Thank you for your time.
I have a hair appointment
on Saturday.
If my hair's going to fall out anyway...
Keep the appointment.
You'll want to look good for a night
of celebrating.
There's no cancer, Caroline.
Oh, that's good news.
What is it exactly that you found?
Oh, nothing. Nothing to worry about,
except that blood pressure.
Oh, take it again. I'm fine now.
Really.
I'm leaving, Jill.
Bye.
Good morning.
Good morning, Bob.
Hey.
Hey, where were you?
Dentist.
Do you know about this thing with Jill,
her experiment?
Yeah. It's glory theft.
Somebody jumps on top of a breakthrough
and they scream and shout that it's fake
and get all the publicity.
Eventually they're going to be proven wrong
and 5 years down the road
the only thing anyone's going to remember
are the names of the brave dissenters.
She wants 3 weeks off to disprove them.
It'll take a month, and then
they'll just bring up some other points.
These guys live by being assholes.
It'll never end.
So, what can we do?
There's nothing we do really.
She's got a reputation to defend.
She's not going to walk away from this.
Can we do without her for a month?
Nope.
Oh, let me get that, Mayko.
Okay, Louisa Raposa, say hello
to Dr. David Sandstrom.
I had enough sandstorms in Iraq,
so I'll call you David.
Yeah, absolutely.
Uh, right this way.
Oh, thanks for the help with the boxes, David.
When they bussed us down to Imam,
this 2-bit town near the salt
ponds in the south...
they gave us hazmat suits, we spent a week
loading out these bombed out buildings,
even the dirt under them,
into these big biohazard barrels.
What was in the buildings?
Iraqi military supplies.
They wouldn't tell us more.
And then we loaded the barrels
onto these C-135s
and I heard they were dropped
into the Persian Gulf.
Who told you that?
I got drunk with the navigator
a couple times.
Oh, yeah? Handsome?
Yeah, handsome.
Yeah, you would have liked her.
No one told you what
the danger was?
Well, we weren't military.
We were civs, so no one told us shit.
We were doing dangerous work with
no security and no pension, no future.
Now 10 of us are fucking dying.
One is dead.
My friend...
Antonio Santos.
The private firm that hired
you dismissed your claim as specious.
- If specious means bullshit.
- What's your ailment, Louisa?
Migraines, dizziness,
I have very little feeling in my legs.
I mean, I can walk
but it's a pain in the ass...
both cheeks.
Do you have an official diagnosis?
Just symptoms.
And I suppose without
independent medical substantiation
you can't get a lawyer to take your case.
None of our cases.
So, are you going to help
us out or what?
Well, let me get back to you on that.
Can you hang around Toronto for awhile?
Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah.
Put me up at the Ritz,
gimme a key to the mini-bar and
I can stay as long as you like.
Well, it may not be the Ritz,
but I've got a fold out sofa
and a fridge full of Molson Canadian.
You know what?
Why don't we go raid my fridge first?
Welcome to my other office.
So, where's the beer?
I'll get the beers, you read.
Thanks.
Jesus.
Pretty amazing symptomatology, huh?
It's going to be impossible to prove.
So, we better get started.
Get off me!
- Thank you.
- Sure.
You and Carlos
get the investigation started.
- What do we say to Caroline?
- You don't say anything.
Well, try not to swear at her.
I don't think she responds
to your swearing.
Thank you for the advice.
Hey, Jill. Have you seen Carlos?
Do you want me to bring you in
a change of clothes?
I just had sex with an albino midget.
- Pretty cool, huh?
- What?
I don't think she responds
to your swearing.
Thank you for the advice.
All right, where do we get
our funding from?
- Hello, David.
- Yeah, hi.
You say 3 governments: Mexico,
the USA and Canada, and then I say no,
we get our funding from the
people who pay taxes to
the governments of Mexico, the USA
and Canada.
It's a waste of time.
Ten sick, 1 dead.
Yeah, but not dead because
of a disease.
Antonio Santos jumped off the
George Washington Bridge.
- Because he was sick.
- In the head.
He had a history of depression.
The U.S. military cannot
assume any responsibility.
I must have heard that 50 times.
Who doesn't have depression
when you're dirt poor?
He came back from Iraq
with fibromyalgia.
He couldn't sleep. He couldn't work.
But he has insurance
and the day before it expired
he killed himself so his kids could eat.
His insurance policy was for $10,000.
How desperate is that?
We don't investigate
depression.
We investigate
questionable science.
He died in the Hudson
but something killed him in Iraq
and that's our mandate.
Why is this something that
only NorBAC can solve?
I'm not even sure
it's something we can solve.
These people have had their
case studied twice.
Both medical reports say all
the symptoms are grey.
Everything's grey.
We need some black and white.
Just give me 72 hours
to make our case.
24.
- 48.
-24.
- 72.
- 24!
Hmm, I'm beginning to detect
a pattern here.
Okay, 24 it is.
- Well, that's three 8-hour days, right?
- David!
Well, that makes sense. The pot
would have helped a lot with his pain.
Uh, do you have his address?
Is there a phone number there?
Yeah.
Right.
Okay. Thanks. Bye.
- Thomas found a home.
- Well, that's good.
San Quentin. Three strikes.
Pot possession.
What did Caroline say?
Is she protecting her Pentagon pals?
No. We've got 24 hours to give her
one good reason as to
why we should be allowed to pursue this.
- We'll give her 11.
- Atta girl.
Hi, is that Rita? This is Mayko Tran.
Yeah, yeah, that's right.
Louisa's friend.
North American Biotechnology
Advisory Commission.
I didn't make it up.
Okay, look I need to know if you got
the lab results.
Hey, how's it going?
Hey.
So, I looked at the haematology
reports from the 11 victims.
The blood is a bouillabaisse of antibodies
for dozens of ruses and bacteria.
Yeah, Louisa said they got all inoculated
before they left to Iraq, so...
Maybe that's it.
No, no, no. Everyone who went to Iraq
got those.
We need to find something
specic to the victims.
They're suffering, but from so
many syndromes and symptom clusters
it's impossible for me
to tease out a single cause.
I'm going to need...
urine samples, stool samples,
throat swabs.
- Talk to Mayko.
- Yeah, I did.
We're between a rock and
you-know-who's hard ass, so...
Work fast.
Hey, I saw that Bob was packed.
Uh, yeah. He got a new job offer.
He's leaving us?
No, no, no. He'll talk himself out of it
in a little while.
He's done this before.
David, did you try talking
him out of it?
No,
you can't put emotional pressure
on people like Bob.
You know, don't worry about it.
He'll start thinking about this
new lab and new people...
Bob isn't good with "new,"
he'll come around.
We mainly did janitorial
work at the base.
The cleanup at Hamar is
the only time we left.
But you and your crew were the
only ones who got sick?
Yeah. Only ones that left,
only ones that got sick.
What about the suits?
I mean... could the hazmat suits
have been faulty?
No, the gear was cool, you know.
It fit well, it didn't weigh much.
Maybe they were torn.
No, no, no, no,
the stuff didn't tear.
It was like
it was made of kryptonite or something.
- Really?
- Yeah.
Yeah? May, where the hell are you?
I've got an emu waiting for you.
It figures.
Yeah. No, no, no, take your time.
Bye.
Mayko has been held up at the lab.
She will be here in a little bit.
Uh, what is this exactly?
Uh, emu.
It's a big bird.
We're eating Big Bird, ooh.
Tummy English.
All right, it's August,
in Hamar, in southern Iraq.
What was the daily temperature?
It was over 115,
but the suits were air-conditioned.
Your suits were air-conditioned?
How?
Yeah. I don't know.
Ha! What about an air supply?
Did you have a filtration mask?
No, air tanks.
They gave us a new tank every hour
and there were no masks.
- It was like one piece.
- I gotta see one of these suits.
Well, I gotta say they don't...
they don't cook like this is
North Bergen, New Jersey.
Ah, well, I bet you say that
to all the boys.
So how did a resident from
the Garden State
end up cleaning up
after the parade in Iraq?
I don't know. Where I come from,
you don't get tons of choice.
Um, the money was good,
they paid room and board
and I thought I could help my country
and come home with a stash of cash.
Uh, you wanna know why else?
Why?
I had never been on a plane before.
Really?
- It's pitiful, huh?
- No, no.
I had never actually been
outside of America.
- Well, welcome to Canada.
- Thank you.
Are you a typical Canadian?
No, some of us are really
quite nice.
Mmm, you're a good cook, too.
And I give a great massage.
Here you go.
Did you spend the night
here again?
Do you have
the results
of the PCR?
- Oh.
- "Oh" what?
"Oh" I forgot all about it.
Oh. Do you need a coffee?
- Hey!
- Good morning.
Sorry I couldn't make it out last night.
- How did it go?
- Good.
Yeah?
Last night after she came home,
she asked me what your sign was,
and I thought:
"Ouh, caution, stop! Dead end."
Slippery when wet.
Louisa seemed to think you might be
on to something.
We talked a lot about hazmat suits
and air tanks.
Is that all?
No, actually, we came up with
a great idea for a new reality TV series:
Lab Romance. What do you think?
Riveting, huh?
I want one of those suits.
Can't. I already looked into it.
The U.S. military will not discuss it.
They won't even admit they exist.
I'll take care of that.
What have you got?
I got a tip off ScienceSucks
on how to tap the U.N.'s Iraqi monitoring
commission satellite photos
and inspection records
from 1994 to 2002. Look.
So these are the photos Bush
and the boys ignored, eh?
- Somebody's gotta use them.
- Exactly.
In the 1980's, the site of Hamar
was suspected of being
a biochemical warfare
manufacturing facility.
This is the site now and this is the site
before it was cleaned up.
Looks a lot like
a bunch of bombed-out buildings.
And before it was bombed.
Not much of a difference.
- It was falling apart.
- Why did the Americans bomb it?
Good question. Check this out.
It's when it was built, in 1983.
- Yeah, so?
- They're U.S. military prefab buildings.
- Okay.
- So Americans built them.
Weren't the Americans supporting Iraq
against Iran, back then?
Strangely, even though Iraq
initiated the war.
Look, what if they bombed it because
there were biological weapons of
mass destruction there?
If the Americans found even
one of Saddam's WMD's,
Bush would've been spitting it
until re-election.
Not Iraqi WMD's, American.
It's a known fact
that the U.S. supplied Saddam
with biological and chemical
weapons in the 80's.
All right. We'd better keep
Louisa around for a few more days,
then, answer a few more questions.
Business.
- Of course.
- Go away.
Carlos, you got anything
on Louisa's physio?
Uh... On my desk.
Anything jump out?
Yes. Triglycerides are too high,
because Louisa likes to drink.
How'd you find that out?
She told me.
Liver's a little swollen,
probably the reason for her joint pain.
Her Eustachian tubes
were clogged.
Probably the reason
for her dizziness.
You don't think any of this has to do
with what happened to her in Iraq?
I trust what the initial
doctors diagnosed.
Besides, I think we have more
serious priorities.
Like?
Like this haemophilia in Mexico.
David, 9 people are dead.
Haemophilia is not
a contagious disease.
I know, I know, but somehow,
this thing is spreading.
People are bleeding to death on
their way to the hospital.
- It doesn't make any sense.
- I agree.
All right, I'll get on it.
Ah, thank you. Let's not drop the ball
on Louisa, though.
Okay.
Jill, I'm gonna need you
to run some blood cultures for me.
I'm gonna have some samples sent up
from Mexico, haemophilia patients.
I want you to look for viral and bacterial
infection.
- Are you listening to me?
- David, I'm busy.
No, you're insane.
Knock it off.
I know you've got a lot riding
on this hep-C infection,
but there's other things going
on in this lab.
- I know, I just need a couple more weeks.
- I need you now.
- David, I can't.
- Yes, you can.
No: yes, you will.
Coffee.
Thank you.
I'm... sorry. No...
Lo siento, no habla espanol.
Look, I'm looking for...
Could it be possible to get the medical
histories of all your immediate family?
You're 114 people?
Ha! Ha! In Porto Rico, okay.
Apparently your doctor never got
the fax releasing a file to us.
Come on, we... we got the specimens
the lab sent, but we're missing...
Yeah... No, she sounds pretty hungry.
Um... look, why don't you give me a call
after you feed her, okay?
Yeah. Thanks.
Wow! Someone's been working.
- I've barely started.
- Run me through it.
- I'm not ready.
- I said 24 hours. It's been 36.
Okay.
Most of them are
working class, immigrant, non-White,
with poor access to
education and social services.
Stick to the medical.
Okay, look,
each one of these guys passed exhaustive
and exhausting physical and medical tests
before being shipped to the Gulf. It...
They were in perfect health, you know?
Now they have hardcore symptoms
that can't be traced
to any known disease, virus or bacteria.
And it's possible something in Iraq could
account for all these different symptoms?
Yes and no.
It's cause and effect:
do we have an effect?
Well, a third of the people are
getting sick,
and in each case, the symptoms present
themselves within 3 to 6 months of returning from Iraq.
Now, biological and lifestyle factors
can't account for those odds.
Take Rita and Benton:
they've lumps in their breasts.
I never smoked.
Me neither.
No history of the disease.
Me neither.
I'm gonna need a mastectomy.
Double for me.
No cause.
We have to find something that
can trigger different symptoms.
Are you okay?
Yeah.
I'm just tired.
Any idea?
None.
I'm giving you a few more days.
Oh.
Good.
Uh, 'cause I... I need your help.
Um, I just spoke to a buddy of mine
over at Scripts,
who works on soft material for
the space programme.
And CC3 was using high-tech hazmat suits
made by a company called
Shining Armor,
which is weird, because the military
isn't even using these things yet,
but Shining Armor refuses to admit
they built them
and Battle Support Services refuses
to admit they were using them, so...
Can... can you get us a suit?
Make some phone calls?
I'll make a House call.
Oh. Thank you.
If your dance card
opens up in September,
I'll be taking the S.S. McGuinn
for a spin around the Caribbean.
I could use a first mate
who knows her way around the rigging.
NorBAC's been keeping me busy,
but you never know.
Been doing some impressive work,
up there in Toronto.
I've been working with some
impressive people.
- Which brings you...
- Here, yes.
What's the ruckus?
CC3, the crew that was on cleanup detail
for Battle Support in southern Iraq.
We're trying to get
to the bottom of their health problems.
It's a compelling story.
That 2 extensive medical studies
have put to rest.
But no one denies
these people are sick.
- But not from Iraq.
- Then from what?
Fast food? The blight of the nation.
But you believed there was enough
of a chance
that something they were exposed
to in Iraq caused these illnesses.
That's why you authorized
the military's medical study.
They weren't exposed to anything.
They were using state-of-the-art hazmat gear.
- First time in the field.
- Field-tested at Samuel for 6 months.
Give me a suit.
Let my people pick it apart.
If there's a flaw, we'll find it.
You'll have full access to our results.
Maybe you'll learn something.
Thanks for the offer,
but we don't own the suit.
It's property of Shining Armor.
Why don't you give them a call?
I did.
They sent me to you,
they said you paid for it.
For them to develop it.
Shining Armor owns the suit,
it's not mine to give away.
Oh. So I guess the title,
"director of research and engineering"
doesn't count for much.
Just as small cog
in a big military machine.
But let me save you some time:
the suits are solid.
You can wear them on Mars.
Okay, you've convinced me, I'll take one.
The test data, Caroline.
Not the suit.
We wanna do our own research.
We might find something you missed.
What are you afraid of?
Besides you?
Come on, Connor!
The suit. Let me borrow it.
Hey!
Where were you all day?
Shopping. I got you a present,
something you can wear.
Open it!
Is this a joke present?
I thought you said I didn't have
a sense of humour?
- Did I say that to your face?
- I overheard you. Twice.
- You gotta learn to ignore me.
- Don't worry.
How did you get it?
I... just said, "please. "
Hardly weighs a thing.
Looks like something Elvis used to wear.
What's it made of?
Probably like 20 different materials.
There's no tank?
No.
Thank you.
You're welcome.
Health officials in Mexico are now
asking us to look into the outbreak.
They need help rapidissimo.
I already asked them to send up
some blood samples.
Anything show up yet, Jill?
- Hmm? Uh, yes, we got them.
- Anything?
I don't know, I haven't had
a chance to look at them yet.
All right, I want you to drop whatever
you're doing and make this a priority.
Jill?
I... This isn't virology,
it's haematology.
How many viruses do you know
cause internal bleeding?
A few.
Yeah. Haemophilia affects 1 in 10,000 men.
It's pretty rare in women.
The father would have to have haemophilia
and the mother be a carrier
or have it too.
The bloodwork will let us know
if that's what we're dealing with.
There are rare genetic mutations
where haemophilia suddenly occurs
but unlikely in these numbers.
What are we up to now?
Fifteen dead.
Jill?
Yes. All right, I'm on it.
And where's Bob?
We're going to need his help
on the biochemistry.
The suit is a C60 carbon atom,
but it's spherically,
in a truncated icosahedron.
Your basic Bucky ball about
1 nm in diameter.
Bucky ball?
They're the roundest and most symmetrical
large molecule known to man.
They're beautiful.
And they're made into nanofibres,
which are like
a millionth of a centimetre wide
and a thousandth of a centimetre long,
and then they put those
together and...
You know, this is one of the first
applications of industrial nanotechnology.
You see, a Bucky ball is carbon,
like a diamond,
but it's hollow, so it's light.
And if you flatten it,
it bounces right back.
Tell her about the heat loss.
Oh, uh, you know how some
material leaks away moisture?
Well, they've figured out a way
to use the hollows to put in a vapour
that collects the heat
and transfers it out.
Built-in air-conditioning.
Is there anything it can't do?
I had a dermatologist check it out:
all the materials are hypoallergenic.
We've been checking the nanofibres
to see if they cause chromosomal
mutations, but nothing yet.
Bucky balls have been implicated
in the destruction of lipid cells in fish.
Brain tissue?
And they collect
in the liver and the kidneys.
So what do you think: the crew absorbed
some of these...
Bucky balls through their skin?
It's unlikely. I mean, these things are
totally stable and incredibly insoluble,
so you'd have to...
you'd have to eat them to get sick.
So we have no evidence yet that
the suits are a problem.
None at all. But they're so cool,
so the question is:
why would you give these to a bunch of
non-military glorified garbage collectors?
Well, we complain when people
aren't properly suited,
now we're suspicious
when they are?
You know what? Strike that.
I'm wrong.
You're right.
Connor? It's Caroline.
Hey, Morrison, how're you doing?
I'm good. I have some great news:
suits are safe.
Didn't I tell you?
You did, you're right. But I think
you forgot to pack the air tank.
Classified.
- Must be special.
- Very special.
When's that Caribbean
cruise again?
Are you offering me
a sexual favour?
I'm threatening to
sink your boat.
Morrison, you can say
or do whatever you want,
it's not gonna wreck our friendship.
But I can't let my baby
leave this building.
You know, I was wondering
why you gave up.
Now I'm wondering if you knew
the suits were safe,
it was the tank that was a problem.
Tell you what,
check your e-mail.
I'll send you a consolation prize
that might interest you.
Thanks, Connor.
So, how's it going?
I got nothing.
I've looked at every known virus
that causes internal bleeding
and there are no matches.
Okay, how about this:
Willebrand Disorder.
That's a bit of a stretch,
don't you think?
A mutation.
It's been known to fool virologists.
Yeah, but not physicians.
Right? I mean, do you really
think that this could...
No, no, no.
No, I... I'm starting to have a hard time
thinking this even is haemophilia.
- It's not the genetic kind.
- Well, it's not a virus.
- So where does that leave us?
- I dunno.
What is going on in there?
Drama?
- It's bullshit.
- Is it?
First of all, who sent it?
The point is, Louisa has
a habit of suing her employer.
Please. Once? Once is not a habit.
- Besides, she won.
- They settled out of court, Mayko!
- They paid her!
- We don't know the details!
She sued her employer over
working conditions. Sound familiar?
Uh, yeah, maybe NorBAC should stop
expecting people to work 18 hours a day.
I'll pass that on to David.
Thanks for you input.
Fuck!
You think I'm full of shit
because I stuck up for my rights?
Have you ever done piss
factory work, huh?
- Take it easy, Louisa.
- Fuck no!
It's an odd coincidence,
don't you think?
No! You know what's an odd coincidence?
Every time I talk to you,
- you check out my tits.
- Don't change the subject.
I was letting the other girls
know their rights,
so then they put me on the night shift.
Then they changed my job so
I got 2$ an hour less.
That's a constructive wrongful termination
action and I sued the bastards!
- Excuse me!
- Wait.
Wait, we had to ask you.
I thought you trusted me.
I do.
Come on, let's keep talking,
I wanna help.
Okay.
So what else?
The air tanks.
Did you notice anything unusual about them?
Were there any markings, anything?
Not that I noticed. They were white,
they connected to the suit.
Well, did the air taste any different?
- I mean, could there have been an additive?
- No.
Was there something extra on the tanks?
Were they heavy?
- Light.
- How light?
- Three, 4 pounds.
- And when they were empty?
Same.
No, they'd have to be lighter.
I mean, compressed air adds a few pounds.
No, they were the same.
Trust me, I could tell the difference.
What's wrong?
The tanks weren't just releasing oxygen,
they were collecting something else.
What?
Okay, the air tanks weighed
just as much empty as they do full, right?
That shouldn't be possible, because as
they use up the compressed air in the tanks
they should be getting lighter. However,
they're doing hard physical work,
they'd be giving off enough moisture
through their breath and their sweat
to make up the difference in
the weight, get it?
The air tanks are collecting the workers'
moisture. It's about the water.
It's not about the suit,
it's not about the site,
it's about the Pentagon thinking
they're going to be fighting the Arabs
for the next 50 years,
they don't wanna be lugging their own
ater halfway around the globe.
So it's water.
I want you to tap all your contacts,
any group who might have their eye
on the Pentagon right now,
including your wacko sites.
Find out anything you can about
water recycling programmes.
Okay.
Okay, what'cha got?
Uh, we're calling the syndrome
in Mexico "SACS".
Severe anticoagulation syndrome.
What causes it?
We don't know.
The problem is the syndrome seems
to be related to environmental factors,
but which ones...
- Food is our first guess.
- Like an allergy?
No, it's... it's more like a poison,
something that inhibits blood clotting.
Snake or spider bites
can't be ruled out either.
Or something in the air,
water, pollution.
We have ruled out viruses.
Something bacterial is still on the table.
So anything's possible.
Yes.
We just know what it is, but...
I think we're going to need to
do some on-site tests.
All right, why don't you
two pack a bag?
Yes, you can.
All right.
Ready?
Just about.
I contacted all the groups that
monitor the U.S. military: nothing.
So, I called the Pentagon.
Well, I got no particulars, but
I do know what was being developed.
WATR: water any time recycle,
which was a mechanism
to harvest water
from breath and sweat from
soldiers in the field.
Well, I think we can now surmise
that the air tanks were collecting water.
We drank our own sweat?
Ha! Presumably, they cleaned it first.
Did you see any filtration?
No.
Where'd you get your water?
From a big machine
on the back of a truck.
It was called something funny,
it was like...
- a Reimer.
- What's a Reimer?
No idea.
It might have to do with WAPR:
water any place recover.
What?
To recover potable water from mud,
puddles, polluted rivers, even latrines.
Is that what does
motherfuckers gave us?
That's what astronauts drink.
They don't get sick.
Unless the Reimer wasn't working properly.
We need to get our hands
on one of these things.
Right.
Thank you.
Well, racking up the frequent
flyer points, are we?
I thought maybe face-to-face,
I could convince you to change your mind.
About the tank?
No way.
Okay. How about a Reimer?
With that package, Caroline, you could
convince me to do just about anything.
Except betray my country.
I travel all this way
and all I get is some cornball line?
How's it different from what
they use for astronauts?
Smaller, faster, cheaper, better.
That's all I'm saying.
Save money on supply lines
and free up soldiers for combat.
Can't I have a peek?
Maybe I can ease your disappointment
by buying you dinner.
Sure.
If the topic of conversation is
how Battle Support and Shining Armor
are both owned by the same corporation.
On 2nd thought,
I think I'll head straight home,
see what the wife has cooking.
You know what, Connor? We went looking
for notices of tender for the suit
and funny thing is, we didn't find any.
Shining Armor invented the suit.
They came to us with it.
Our military couldn't ask for bids
on something they were given.
And the cleanup?
Fifteen thousand men and women?
Our deployment in Iraq was
part of a secret plan.
We put out bids for support services,
it's not much of a secret, now, is it?
Shining Armor and Battle Support
are both owned by Garfield Industries.
Never did research...
250 billion of Pentagon money
went to private contractors last year.
Now, they're exempt
from the Freedom of Information Act
and congressional oversight.
- They don't have to worry about salary caps.
- The same with every other corporation.
Wanna know how much public
money went to Garfield?
Buy their stock.
Sounds like a good bet.
Wasn't the previous CEO of Garfield
a certain advisor to the president?
A piece of advice for you, Caroline:
you should really save the ball-busting
routine till after your looks have faded.
You know what, Connor?
This might be just the time where you're
gonna have to forget about your career
and your ego and your sex life
and just do the right thing.
I have a dozen sick people
and a team of scientists who say
that the most probable cause is a Reimer.
Let me think on it.
I'll call you in the morning.
So after the 1st Gulf War,
the Americans encouraged the southern Shiites
to rebel against Saddam, right?
But the U.S. reneged on its
promise to help.
Saddam dammed the rivers
and dried out all the marshes that sustained
hundreds of thousands of Shiites
and drove them out,
slaughtered them,
and now that entire area is just
a salt-encrusted wasteland.
Yeah, I saw. It was unbelievable.
But what does this have to
do with our work?
They were testing Reimer's ability to
clean contaminated water.
Not to mention Hamar is near
the worst water in the world.
Perfect place to study it.
I think you finally believe me.
I always believed you.
You're a smart scientist
and a terrible liar.
Guilty as charged.
Okay... I'm beat,
gotta go home.
Yeah, okay.
Uh, look, if you... if you want me
to drive you to Mayko's later,
- you don't have to leave now.
- No! Well, I just...
Hey, hey, hey, I'm just tired,
don't let me spoil the party.
Never know when you'll be
back in Toronto.
Thank you for everything.
- Oh, yeah. Take care.
- You too.
Have fun, you guys.
Yeah?
Hey, David, I was helping Jill
with her experiments,
- looking through her lab notes.
- Yeah?
I'm no virologist, but I am a biochemist
with a lot of biophysics background.
Pff, get to the point, Bob.
I think I see where Jill went wrong.
Are you sure?
No.
Almost.
Actually, yes.
Well, listen, if she calls, don't tell her
anything. I'll look at it tomorrow.
But this is my last day.
Hello?
You might as well warn Louisa
that things are looking bad.
Me? You're the one who brought her here.
You're the one who's fucking her.
We got a Reimer.
It's amazing.
No bigger than a bar fridge,
turns salt water, human waste,
anything, into pure drinking water.
What we've done is we've
genetically modified this mustard
so that if it comes in
contact with a buried landmine,
it turns red, not green.
- So, can we get samples?
- Yeah, sure.
Hey, you don't think they're causing
the anticoagulation syndrome, do you?
- Bob's not here.
- His stuff's gone.
Let me get this straight:
I'm dealing with cutting-edge technology,
but you'd rather be out there making
women smell better with beaver balls.
You never listen.
Jesus Christ, Bob,
what are you, my fucking wife?
You're leaving, you're running off
to Mexico?
There's been an outbreak, okay?
People are dying.
Goddammit!
People are dying right here, David!
Subtitles: kubilai & Lama
Transcript: Raceman