02x04 - Serpent

[bunniefuu]

Damian Cray is hosting a dinner.
The president's guest of honor.

Mr. Cray's a big admirer
of the president, isn't he?

He seems to think the w*r on dr*gs
can be won,

and he's the man to win it.

It's good to have you back in London,
Mr. Cray.

In seven days' time,
I wanna be right here,

when Feathered Serpent 2 launches
and we change the world.

The East London
Drug Rehabilitation Center.

Last year, they approached
the Damian Cray Foundation for funding.

I want you to work on this together.

This K7 guy,
totally slaughtered me.

- Who's K7?
- Top of the leaderboard.

Yassen Gregorovitch isn't in Myanmar.

I saw him in Cornwall.

You are not an agent.

I need to know owns this bike?

It's registered to a man called
Simon Marriat.

Run!

I've been looking for you.

You seem to be making a habit
out of this, arriving too late.

It won't happen again.

You can present it as a win.

How exactly do you suggest I do that?

Smoking Mirror is no longer
a thr*at to Pentagon security.

The great British sense of humor.

A single hacker
could be a lone wolf vigilante.

A single hacker taken out
by a professional hit

becomes a cog in a conspiracy.

This didn't get solved, Alan.

It got bigger.

Alex, what are you doing out here?
And what's happened to you?

Uh, it's all right, sir.
I fell off my bike.

You need to see the nurse.

No, I'm okay.

I'm not asking you, Alex. I'm telling you.

Let's go. Now.

You ready for this?

- I was up all night reading.
- Me, too.

How do I look?

You clean up okay.

Welcome to CrayStar International.

Hello?

Home of the world's biggest computer game.

When did this happen?

How bad is it?

What, now?

I'll get right back to you.

- What?
- Alex. He's been hurt.

Go. I can handle CrayStar.

I really have to stop
getting you to cover for me.

That's okay.

Go.

Which terminal
was Smoking Mirror's?

This one,
the one with the b*ll*ts through it.

They traced him here,
from here to the hangar site,

ex*cuted him there.

Four other bodies.
That's a lot of collateral damage.

What do you see?

Urban camo.

It's good.

The door looks shoddy,
but the, uh, frame and core are steel.

What about that?

I doubt it's even connected.

So the door looks shoddy, but it's not.

You think the surveillance is the same?

To secure this place,
you'd need two cameras outside,

different angles.

And one in here.

Yes, with a clear view
of anyone coming in.

Exactly.

We're looking for a fish-eye lens
behind this desk.

It would have to be small and concealed.

Here.

Clever.

Look, this is your third absence,

your coursework's late,

and you are slipping behind
with your grades.

Especially maths and drama.

Where have you been?

Well?

- This is my fault.
- Sorry?

Alex has been seeing a therapist
at my suggestion.

He was having issues
dealing with his uncle's death,

and I thought it was best
if he talked it through

with a professional.

If you had made the school
aware of this situation,

Miss Starbright, we would of course--

I know. It's my fault entirely.

And I'll make sure the sessions
are outside of school hours

from now on

so that Alex doesn't get further behind
with his schoolwork.

- Are you gonna tell me what's going on?
- Can we talk about it later?

Alex, do you know
what I had to miss to be here?

I'm sorry.

Okay.

Later.

You all right, mate?

Smoking Mirror's dead.

Jeez. Um...

Okay. Did he say anything?

Damian Cray.

What do you mean?

Smoking Mirror,

Simon Marriat,

told me Damian Cray is dangerous.

That he's capable of anything.

You don't believe me.

I do believe you.

But do we believe him?

Interview requests.
The Times, The Guardian,

The Today Programme.

- BBC?
- Yeah. You should do it.

I don't know. I'm getting bored
of the sound of my own voice.

- Hey, it's Lindy, isn't it?
- Yes, Mr. Cray.

I'm hearing great things about your work.

Great things.

Thank you.

- Tomorrow?
- Yup. Everyone's coming.

- What about K7?
- Him we're still working on.

- I thought you said everyone.
- He's hard to track down.

Well, try harder.
He's top of the leaderboard, number one.

- We have to have him.

I'll have to take this.

Damian Cray.

Yeah, sure. Put her on.

Madam President.

Alex? What are you doing here?

I came to see you.

What happened?

We need to talk.

What I said about your dad
and the book he was writing...

I told you it was dangerous.

Yeah, Alex, look,
I've been thinking about that, and--

And I was right.

This is all about Damian Cray.

He wanted your dad dead
for something in that book.

Alex, listen, my dad wanted
to finish the story in Cornwall.

That's why we rented the house.
So maybe I got it wrong.

Maybe he took all his papers with him

and that's why his house
was all messed up.

You know, he was looking for things.

What about the cloud files?

I don't know, but mistakes happen.

Right? On computers? Glitches happen.

No, Sabina.

This wasn't a mistake.

This wasn't a glitch.

- Cray did this.
- You can't know that for sure.

- I do.
- No, not really.

I saw someone get sh*t.

What?

Smoking Mirror.

The sketchy guy that was here,
remember?

He was a hacker.

Your dad was using him as a source.

Damian Cray had him k*lled
right in front of me.

Right in front of you?

Yeah.

The guy who k*lled him
was the same guy I saw in Cornwall.

I've met him before.

He works for an organization
that hires out to the highest bidder,

and Damian Cray's a billionaire.

He can afford the best.

Yeah, I know.

- It sounds a lot.
- What?

Why would it sound a lot?

Damian Cray hired a hitman
to k*ll my dad.

Now he's out there k*lling other people,
and you're there watching.

That's fine. That makes sense.

Because you've met him before.

And how do you do that?

How do you get away from a hitman
with a g*n

who works for an organization?

- Sabina--
- No, how do you get away?

You're a schoolboy. How does that work?

I'm not a schoolboy.

You're not?

I am.

But I also do stuff for these people.

Security Service people.

Helping them.

Like a spy.

Kind of.

"Like a spy. Kind of."

My dad could die.

- Or he could never wake up.
- I know--

And you chose that
for your catfish moment?

When you reveal
you're some secret agent,

and you can uncover this,

and you can save my dad for me.

That's it, right? I got it right.

And you hurt yourself.

You hurt yourself to look good.

You can't be here anymore.

You need to see a psychiatrist.
You need help.

But not here.

- Sabina--
- Please stay away from me!

And stay away from my dad
and my family, okay?

Please, stay away from us.

Do you understand me?

Say you understand me.

Yeah, I understand.

- You okay?
- Not really.

I screwed things up.

With Sabina.

Oh, Alex.

I can't talk to people.

You talk to people just fine.

I mean, about this.

I can't talk about this
because no one will believe me.

Even Tom's asking questions,
and he's my best friend, you know?

Do you believe me?

If I got this right,

you're saying Damian Cray
isn't what he seems.

And you're asking me if I can ignore
a whole world of evidence

that says he is,

and trust you instead.

People can be not what they seem.

For good or bad.

That's what I believe.

But that's not what the problem is here.

So, what is?

The problem here
is that you're failing school.

You're in harm's way.

And the people that are supposed
to have your back aren't here anymore.

This is your life coming apart.

Trying to help someone else.

Does she even still want your help?

Do you think if Ian was here,

he would just walk away
from someone in trouble?

It was his job.

Well, maybe it's mine right now.

Sweetheart...

it got him k*lled.

From the hidden camera
in the hackerspace.

Well, that changes things.

Yes. If Gregorovitch is here in London,

isn't it possible
he might have been in Cornwall?

Maybe.

Smoking Mirror, the Pentagon,
these are targets

that make sense for SCORPIA.

Some journalist in the West Country,
less so.

The Pentagon att*ck
was six months ago.

I find it hard to believe
it took SCORPIA six months

to acquire Smoking Mirror,

- no matter how clever he was.
- Yeah.

And the hackerspace.

That was a rush job,
by Gregorovitch's standards.

Perhaps Mirror wasn't a thr*at until now.

Something shifted.

Anything else?

There was a third party at the hangar.

Forensics indicate
a chase up the stairwell.

sh*ts fired but no k*ll.

Looks like whoever was there
managed to escape

by jumping from the mezzanine.

K7.

- You found him?
- No.

In fact, I'm wondering
if we should even keep trying.

Why? We have to have K7.

- We know nothing about him.
- We know he's head of the leaderboard.

And that's the problem.

You want the eyes of the world
on tomorrow's event.

You want it livestreamed to all the fans.
What if he's too good?

- What if he makes it look easy?
- He won't.

You don't know that.

He's an unknown variable, just when we
need complete control over our situation.

Remember my computations.

If just 11.35% of all potential players

choose not to go online
at the time of launch, it won't work.

All of this will have been for nothing.

If this kid walks in and wins,

he could undermine the whole project.

Well, we'll just have to make sure
he doesn't win.

I want him there, Evelyn.

The best player in the world
playing the best game.

Imagine how many views that will get.

Help Charlie find him.

I know you can do it.

Thank you.

I'm not buying you another coffee, Alex.

I'm not supposed to talk to you.

Okay, well, I'll keep it short.

Damian Cray.

Billionaire, charity work,
Feathered Serpent, Damian Cray--

I'm aware.

- What do you know about him?
- Everything.

No, seriously, everything.

He's pals with the US president,

he's been in the room
with the prime minister.

The background checks
have been beyond extensive.

And you think he's okay?

We do.

What about in his organization?

The people close to him?
What about them?

All right. I'll play.

Now there's CrayStar International,
which is the software and tech business,

and The Damian Cray Foundation,
which is the charity work,

and the two operate independently,
with different staff.

For the business, Cray tends to attract

a number of top people
from different fields.

Wait. Stop.

Go back.

Stop.

Who's that?

Charlie Roper.

Head of public relations and media.

Why?

No reason.

My mistake.

Okay. Thanks.

- Alex.
- Yeah?

- Why the interest?
- Just a fan of his games, that's all.

- Any luck?
- "Luck"?

As a mathematical concept,
it doesn't exist.

It's a simple matter of working out
the binomial distribution of X, N, and P,

where X equals the probability
of success, N is the number of attempts,

and P is the number of times you win.

I was just asking if you'd managed
to track down our top-spot gamer.

I'm not using luck.

- Cray wants him.
- I know that.

By the way,
any news about that friend of yours?

- Sorry?
- The journalist who was injured.

He wasn't my friend.

And there's no news.

- So Charlie Roper.
- Yeah.

Head of public relations and media.

And his photo was in Ed's office.

- Why don't you just call him?
- You think he'd answer?

- I wouldn't.
- Exactly.

- You'd recognize him if he came out?
- Yeah.

So you're just gonna wait here all day,

and hope that he doesn't use
a back door,

or leave through the basement car park,

or just stay in there until midnight?

Hm...

- Wait here.
- What are you doing?

I'm bringing him out to you.

Legend.

Charlie Roper, right?

- Sorry, this is not a good time.
- I'm a friend of Ed Pleasance.

Regarding SCORPIA...

We're wondering about targets, right?

- I think we need to look at Damian Cray.
- Cray?

Why?

- I think he's on SCORPIA's radar.
- Where are you getting that?

- Marriat's computer?
- Yeah.

I recovered some data
from the edge sectors of the drive.

Cray's name is in there.

Damian Cray.

That's a hell of a high-profile target.

- But why him? The anti-dr*gs work?
- Yeah.

Perhaps it's even simpler.

He has the president
of the United States

coming to his charity dinner this week.

Get to Cray...

you get to the president.

How do you know Ed?

I was with him in Cornwall
when they tried to k*ll him.

"They"?

- Damian Cray.

Come on. That's not true.

I mean, Cray, he can be
tough sometimes, kind of driven,

maybe even a fanatic,
but he's not a k*ller.

And I was there yesterday
when a hacker called Smoking Mirror

got sh*t dead right in front of me.

You're a school kid.
Why am I even talking to you?

Because you know I'm right.

Something's going on at Cray's company,
and that's why you went to Ed.

You were the one
who told him about Smoking Mirror.

Both of them were targeted.
One of them is dead.

You could be next.

Look.

I was at university with Ed.
He was my friend.

We lost touch, and then, out of the blue,
he came to me with his story.

And, yeah, I told him.

There are things happening
I don't understand.

They hired a criminal, for God's sake.
A dark web hacker.

- Do you know what for?
- No. I don't want to.

Anyway...

that's not what Ed was writing about.
He wanted to know about the game.

Feathered Serpent?

Damian's obsessed with it.

He's been hounding the programmers
for months and months.

It has to be on time.

The servers have to handle, like,
a billion downloads simultaneously.

There isn't anything else.

That's all he cares about.
It's all about the game.

So it's all about the game.

What does it do?

It's like a battleground
set in an Aztec universe...

No, I mean,
does it harvest your personal data?

Does it send subliminal messages
into your brain?

Does it alter the way you think?

What does it do that's worth k*lling for?

I need to see a copy of the new version
before anyone else dies.

You can't. It's locked on the servers.
Nobody sees it.

There's only one copy
outside of Amsterdam.

What one copy?

It's a prize.

Damian's giving away
one advance copy tonight.

He's planning some sort of competition.

We invited gamers.
We're livestreaming the whole thing.

So invite me. I'll win it.

I can't.

- You're head of PR.
- No, I mean, I can't.

Damian drew up the list.
If you're not on it...

There's nothing I can do. I'm sorry.

Can you play?

- You still looking for K7?
- Yes.

Well, you can stop. I've got him.

How?

Asked around.

People skills.

You should try that sometime.

So Cray's name just happened
to be on the edge sector of the drive?

- Yeah. Lucky break.
- Very lucky.

The drive was solid state.
There were no edge sectors.

So where did you get Cray's name?

The same place
you got Marriat's license plate?

What the hell is going on?

Alex found him.

Please tell me you're joking.

So you've met with him?

Twice.

How is he?

Bruised. Scraped.

Like he fell off his bike.

Or off a mezzanine.

Can't believe you get to be K7,
head of the leaderboard.

That's my dream.
You stole my dream, man.

Look, if you're gonna do this,
you need to act the part.

And you actually have to win
this copy of the game, right?

So how are you gonna do that?

I mean, it's not like snowboarding
or kicking people.

We'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

You've got until 7:00 tonight.

I mean, you've basically got

three and a half hours
to be the best in the world.

Okay, so teach me.

Can't be done, dude. It's taken me ages
to get this good, and I'm still crap.

So teach me the basics,
just so I can bluff it.

That way when I get inside,
I can figure something out.

What would you say
if someone asked you about the game?

I'd say the Quetzal's OP and the Temple
of the Dead Gods needs a nerf.

So the beginning,
it's basically a team effort, right?

You got your tanks,
a couple of DPS's, your healers.

But by endgame, you'll gonna be
one-on-one with one of these guys.

So the main tactic is learning
when to start k*lling off your friends.

Why don't you start at the beginning?

Yeah. All right, fine. Give me that.

- What are you doing?
- Starting from the beginning.

Validating your pass.

You're now K7.

Let's get back to basics.

Can you believe that guy?

I'm subscribed to that guy.
His name's Jonas.

You sure you're ready for this?

How hard can it be?

Welcome to our private pre-launch

of Feathered Serpent 2.

You are our nine elite selected gamers.

Hey.

You're Jonas, right?

Hey. Fan of the channel?

Yeah. Subscribed and everything.

- And you are?
- K7.

Mr. Cray.

Damian, please.
So you're the best in the world.

I guess I don't need to ask
whether you like the game or not, right?

Yeah. I think it's great.

Well, we all think it's great. Come on, K.

I'm talking gameplay mechanics.

You've put the hours in.
As a player, what do you wanna see?

Where can we push this
to the next level?

What are you looking for from Version 2?

Well, personally, I think...

Quetzal's OP,

and the Temple of the Dead Gods
badly needs a nerf.

Exactly what I've been saying
for months now.

Temple needs nerfing for sure.

That's all gonna change, right?

We're not gonna worry about any of this.

You couldn't be more correct.

- What's with the countdowns?
- I'm sorry?

You've got countdowns
ticking all over London.

You're making us wait
for the big moment?

There's always a release date, K.

The Marketing Department
decides that on me.

Really?

I didn't think you'd let
someone else decide when it drops.

You seem to know me very well
for somebody I've never met before.

I'm a big fan.

So do we get to see the game?

Now, that's a real question.

Come on.

Allow me to introduce you
to Evelyn Anders.

Our chief programmer, resident genius,

and architect of Feathered Serpent 2.

But I think this is what
you've all been waiting for.

A playable demo of the game itself.

So who wants to give it a go?

K. You're the one who can't wait.

Why don't you grab a seat,
show us how it's done?

Is this for the prize?

No. It's just for fun. And the honor.

You're the best player in the world.

Don't you wanna prove it
to the millions of people watching?

No, I'm good.
You can let someone else have a go.

I insist. It's my party, after all.

You're a player.
That's the only reason you're here.

I think we'd all like
to see your best game.

I'm not here to play.

I'm here to win.

Show me the prize,
I'll show you my best game.

Okay.

Let's skip the warm up.

Go straight to the main event.

You want the prize?

It's right there.

The only advanced copy
of Version 2 in the world.

Yours for the taking.

But if you want it,
you're gonna have to play.

And not like you've ever played before.

This time, it's real.

We're in the heart
of our development suite.

Enough teraflops of processing power
to run a m*llitary-grade AI system.

A positional tracking array accurate
to within a hundredth of a millimeter.

And a haptic feedback rig
that will literally knock your socks off.

This is the best augmented reality
interface on the planet.

If you get hit, you're gonna feel it.

So, K, you ready to show us
your best game?

Or would you rather go home
while you still can?

The choice is yours.

I don't need my best game.

I could walk this in my sleep.

But let's just be clear.

I win, I get the game.

That's all there is to it?

That's all there is to it.

Welcome to Feathered Serpent.

Our player takes his position.

Are you sure?

Yes.

Archers.

- Whoa, man.
- Whoa!

Packs a punch, doesn't it, huh?

Yes, man!

The game can see you, K.

Step outside the ring, you're dead.

Good.

- Charlie, isn't he good?
- Yeah.

Let's take it up a notch.

A hundred and forty
on the haptic feedback.

Lightning.

Ceiling matrix on.
Let's give him a real show.

Oh. That's gotta hurt!

More archers.

Who is this kid?

Seriously, how did he get this good?

I told you this was a mistake.

Blindside him, 160 on the feedback.

That's a lot.

Damian.

It's too much.

You could stop his heart.

Just give up.

Out of the way.

He's getting hurt.

You can't win this.

On your knees!

Come on, man. That's not fair.

It's game over, K.

The Serpent of the Sun Gods...

Get someone in there.
Get the power back on.

All security, code nine. Code nine.

We have a power outage,
switch to backup immediately.

Where is he?

Find him.

Oh, this is awesome.

He's taken the game!

Security,
seal all exits, code nine.

Code nine.

Hey! Stop! Hey, you!

Code nine.

The building is in lockdown.

Lockdown. Check all floors.

All exits sealed. He's in the building.

Stop! Don't make me use this on you!

Sorry!

Check him!

K7?

Hello, Spyboy.

Kyra.

You looked like you could use some help.

- We need to get out of here.
- This way.

You didn't tell Blunt about Alex.

No. You heard what he said.

Alex is not an agent. He's out.

As far as I'm concerned,

Cray's name came from the edge
sectors of a hard drive.

As far as you're concerned.

We're supposed to look after our own.

Yes, and if we start
turning against each other,

going behind each other's backs...

where does that end?

We can't just leave him
twisting in the wind.

"We" can't?

Plausible deniability.

You're on your own.

Working late, huh?

You know, you really should do that
more often.

It's super cool and not at all irritating.

So...

the journalist is neutralized.

His research has all been destroyed,
and the hacker's dead.

Damian, you should be happy.

I want to be happy,

but some kid just trashed
my pre-launch event.

The kid?

Okay. What kid?

I really wish I knew.

This is my game.

Nobody beats me.

It should never have happened.

Some, um, kid is nothing to worry about.

Are you sure about that?

Trust me.