01x04 - Chasing Ghosts

[bunniefuu]

Katya: Previously on Allegiance...

You turn your son into a spy.

An SVR officer said he was close to launching an operation that would bring America to its knees.

They're calling it Black Dagger.

D.C. is setting up a joint task force to stop it.

The best plan we have to stop it is to find the SVR files Miguel stole.

His, uh, Easter Egg, as it's been called.

Tell me the truth or tell the FBI.

I was having an affair.

Yeah, I made up the affair story, Mark.

Okay?

Where are the files now?

They're on an encrypted hard drive, secure inside a laptop.

Only I know how to stop the deletion timer.

The laptop with the SVR files, Miguel hid it in Philadelphia City Hall.

If Alex beats you to that laptop, you'll all be dead.

We need your help to make a copy of the disk drive, remotely, from here.

And then we're gonna trade it for immunity.

We got it.

There's nothing here.

The SVR got here first.

Come on. We're pulling out.

No, look, there's a crawl space.

Alex, there's no evidence of a break-in.

Oh, we have to see what's up there.

Prado, O'Connor. Let's go!

Mick: Get off the ladder, O'Connor.

We're not gonna compound your screwup by getting caught.

No, I just, I...

Get the hell off the ladder now! Move!

Uh... okay.

Oh, no...

Man: What are you doing here?

Didn't you hear?

There's a gas leak downstairs.

Gas leak?

What's going on?

We're stuck in the rafters.

The Rezident just told me.

Well, how does he know that?

I don't know.

He clearly has an asset inside, maybe even on the FBI team.

How soon can you get out of there?

I don't know. It looks like there's a way out through the Mayor's Press Room, but... he's in the middle of a speech right now.

Man: Proudly continue to strive to be the great city that we want to be.

To have the future we deserve.

For generations of tomorrow, all across Philadelphia.

And so, as we celebrate the founding of our great city, the birthplace of democracy...

He'll be done in 15 minutes.

Leave with the crowd, then rendezvous in the alley behind the Masonic Temple.

Yeah, okay.

And, Mark...

The Rezident has a dozen men out there at City Hall as an insurance policy.

If you and Katya aren't here within ten minutes of that speech ending, he's going to come after you... or Sarah.

Yeah, we'll be there.

If we can't get back to the tunnel, there's no way to copy the drive?

No.

Without a copy, we're right back where we started.

We are still caught in the vise.

Unless...

Natalie grabs Sarah... meets us at the FBI field office, which is six blocks from here.

We have the laptop. We have the leverage.

We can make a deal!

Six blocks!

How are we gonna go six blocks without the Rezident's people spotting us?

We leave now.

There are two subways under City Hall.

There's a concourse that connects them.

It's Sunday. It's closed.

The Rezident would never have anybody down there now.

If we can get into it, we can travel all the way to the Federal Building without ever going above ground.

Well, what if he has somebody down there?

Then he sh**t us on the spot.

What do you want to do?

Man: These are the tenants of a great nation and are in the beliefs, souls...

I want out... for all of us, for good.

We go now.

[cell phone ringing]

Katya: Get Sarah.

Now? We... we haven't even copied the...

We can't get to the tunnel, so we can't make a copy.

So what are we...

We're taking the laptop to the FBI.

What? The Rezident has people all over.

Natalie, it's the only way.

Get Sarah and get to the Federal Building in five minutes.

Come on. We have to go.

[cell phone beeps]

What the...

[cell phone ringing]

[on recording] Hey, it's Sarah.

Why didn't you text? Leave me a message.

I'm going to k*ll you.

[cell phone ringing]

[on recording] Hey, it's Sarah.

Why didn't you text? Leave me a message.

You little bitch.

Man: We saw last year some of the fewest number of homicides in nearly 50 years.

The lowest number of civilian fire deaths.

Today Philadelphia's, in fact, reclaimed its rightful place as a global city and a world leader, a city with a thriving economy that attracts major development and is growing.

Hey. Don't tell the mayor we had to leave early.

You got it, pal.

Natalie, where the hell are your parents?

I don't know. I can't see them from here.

If they're not here within the next ten minutes, the Rezident is going to take this out of my hands.

They need enough time to get out of City Hall without getting caught.

Is that what the delay is?

They're gonna show up, Victor.

They're not stupid.

We need to check it.

What?

We need to check the laptop.

Where are the girls?

If we don't have something valuable, we're walking into a long prison sentence.

Okay.

Come on.

Where are Natalie and Sarah?

You said five minutes. Didn't you say five minutes?

Okay.

Nitrogen levels, pH balances.

That's nothing.

What is that? Is that something?

No. Soil samples.

Uh, GDP. Average income.

Economic projections. That's...

That's a circuit diagram.

We can't bring this to the FBI.

That one. What about that?

Chrenyy Kinzhal.

What does that mean?

Black Dagger.

That's got to be real.

It better be... if we're gonna walk in there and admit to treason.

What's that?

What does that mean?

It needs a separate password.

Ah. It's gonna format.

Uh... what's happening?

What's happening with the file?

It's deleting.

What's happening?

What is it doing?

The hard drive.

The whole hard drive is...

Oh, the entire hard drive is gone.

[tense music]

♪ ♪

Natalie: What were you thinking?

We had to make sure there was something valuable enough to get us immunity, to get protection.

Well, there was, but now there isn't.

You just k*lled us.

It's 10 minutes past the Rezident's deadline.

You're gonna bring him this?

Well, maybe we found the laptop like this.

He'll never believe that.

Where's Sarah?

She snuck out to Macy's.

I ran after her, but then you guy's called.

Where is she now?

I left her at Macy's.

The SVR won't try anything there.

It's full of cameras and customers.

She's right. She's safer there than anywhere else.

Maybe we should all go to Macy's and exchange the laptop.

That way we won't be k*lled.

What?

I just got an idea.

To do what?

Save us.

But you said the hard drive was destroyed. What can you do?

It is, but the solid-state layer is still intact.

If I can encrypt it, the Rezident won't see this.

He'll never know what you did.

But you're gonna need to really sell it.

Cops were everywhere. We didn't have any press credentials.

Last thing we wanted was to get caught with this.

Hey!

We did everything you asked.

I think you did more than that, Katya.

That's why you took so long.

We did nothing. We came as soon as it was safe.

I think you're a liar.

I think you looked at the files and the self-destruct protocol took over, just like I think you sh*t my sn*per in the back of the head.

Police thought he was k*lled with his own p*stol.

Then they realized that was just a diversion to keep them from looking for the real m*rder w*apon.

If you k*ll me now, the FBI is going to assign a dozen counterintelligence agents to investigate Alex to see if there's a connection.

You lose him as a source forever.

And you're gonna give the FBI an awful lot of strings to pull which you are at the end of.

The laptop will go to Moscow.

They'll get through the encryption eventually.

And then we will know if you're telling the truth.

Until then, we will be watching you.

Every minute of the day and night.

You and your whole family.

[breathing heavily]

He's going to k*ll us eventually.

That's his plan.

The SVR needs Alex. You said it.

No, I mean him personally.

He's a psychopath.

He enjoys feeding people into furnaces.

You know what? We have this.

The movie I took of the file deleting.

We break the encryption, it might be enough to take to the FBI.

Still, when the time is right, I'm going to k*ll him.

What?

Witness protection or no witness protection, that man has to die for our family to be safe.

Any idea where the hell we are?

Camden, New Jersey.

How could you possibly know that?

We had bags over our heads.

The SVR didn't send you to recruit an idiot, honey.

That way.

Man: Happy Easter, O'Connor.

[Mark sighs] Well, this is a disgrace.

The bus is 45 minutes late according to this.

No wonder no one takes public transportation anymore.

You saw a landmark or something, right?

A billboard that said "Camden" on it? I...

It's just travel time, number of turns.

It's just deduction.

Well, at least we know where Alex gets his brain from.

He's got plenty of your brain too.

Yeah. The part where he can't filter anything he says before he says it.

That part's definitely from me.

Can we talk?

We need to talk about us.

It's time.

[clears throat]

You were in Riyadh... for a project.

You were gone six months that time.

I was alone with the children.

Alex was really struggling.

And I felt like I was... drowning.

Who?

[scoffs]

Are you sure you really want to know that?

No.

How about why?

[sighs]

To escape.

To feel something besides... fear.

We were going through a very dark time in our relationship.

Do you remember how angry you were with me when you found out how much... how much more than support I was doing for the SVR?

Katya, please.

You almost left me, Mark.

You did leave me... just three, four, six months at a time.

I mean, you said they were work trips, but we both know that you could've gotten out of them.

No, stop it. Stop it.

I wasn't perfect back then either.

I know.

You know? [chuckles]

All these years you never said anything?

I was trying to do one thing right for our children, just one thing.

We got through that.

We can get through this, can't we?

[sighs] We have to.

I can't make it without you.

woman: Oh, my God. Is that the Director?

The Director? Alex, jacket.

Where is he?

I, um, think he stepped across the street for coffee, a cup of coffee, sir.

We had no idea you were coming.

A cup of coffee.

Easter eggs. Hilarious.

Who thought of this?

O'Neill, sir.

Well, I'm glad someone can still find the funny in all of this, because I can tell you, the Attorney General is not frickin' laughing.

And the President... he's not laughing either.

And why the hell are you playing with that squash ball?

It helps me think, sir.

It was a rhetorical question.

Sorry.

Sorry because you answered the question or because you made us all look like a bunch of jackasses?

Sir, if I may...

No, you may not, because I'm not finished yet.

The FISA judge reviewing the AG's emergency search order has decided that he wants to fly up here day after tomorrow because he wants to hear directly from you idiots how you could be so confident as to what you would find and still be so flatly wrong.

But... we weren't wrong.

Alex, don't.

I'm sorry?

What'd you say?

Mikhail's laptop was in City Hall.

The SVR just b*at us to it.

Really?

Okay, well, just dump that bucket of proof right over my head.

Then shut the hell up and let me tell you what's gonna happen next.

You and you and whoever else in this room who was behind you in this, are gonna go before that judge, and you're gonna own this screwup.

And you better do a good job of it, because if you don't, you're gonna spend the rest of your career analyzing historical trends of Soviet grain reports.

And, you, you'll get permanently promoted to the make-work and meaningless cases desk in our Peoria satellite office.

As for the judge, well, he may take a look at all this and just decide that this task force and the leeway that you've been given is nothing more than a recipe for constitutional infringement and shut you all down!

Man: Nice job, O'Connor.

You come up here to think or to jump?

Does it have to be one or the other?

What about the view?

No, that's banal.

You're not a banal guy.

Listen, don't worry about what the FBI Director said down there.

Why?

Well, first off, because he's the FBI Director.

Second, I'm not so sure you were wrong.

What makes you say that?

25 years in the field.

So what do I do?

Without the laptop, how do we stop the SVR's plan?

Find out what happened in Philly, and we'll be back on track.

Oh, and, uh... if gathering that evidence requires anything other than your computer, bring Michelle along, okay?

She'll keep you out of trouble.

Scratch that.

She probably won't keep you out of trouble, but just bring her anyways.

Mark: Natalie.

I was so worried.

We're okay. We're okay. We're okay. We're okay.

We're only safe until the SVR breaks the encryption on that laptop, so how long do we have, bottom line?

It's a hundred-plus-character password I entered randomly.

I mean, it should take them years.

But, of course, if they threw enough processing power at it...

So it could be a month?

A month would be almost impossible.

Then assume we have a month.

Yeah.

What?

I'm just racking my brain trying to remember if I made any mistake, left any back door.

Yes, well?

I, uh... a month. We're safe for a month.

Well, we need to break the code on this video before then.

Any fragment of the Intel Mikhail stole could be valuable to us.

I know how to encrypt something. I don't know how to decrypt it...

I mean, especially not something like that.

But you know somebody, right?

I know one person, but I can't go to him.

Why not?

I-I just...

What? Is he a security concern?

He's not connected to the Russians, is he?

No, nothing like that.

Then what?

Okay, you know what? I...

I'm not sure what's going on between you two, but I do know this, if we lose focus on how precarious our situation is, just for a moment, we lose everything, and I mean everything!

So I'm gonna go get the car.

And when I come back, I want you two to have worked out whatever the hell's going on between you.

Please.

Listen, I know Philadelphia didn't go exactly as planned but you have to remember the decision that you made there.

What... to condemn my boyfriend to burn in a furnace like Mikhail did?

Boyfriend?

That's a nice, clean word for it.

You're so cruel sometimes.

Natasha...

I am trying to protect you.

And not that it's my greatest concern, but you being with Victor, you put him at huge risk.

What would the Rezident do if he found out about you two?

You have to break up with him.

I know.

[sighs]

[elevator bell dings, doors open]

This better be good.

Why didn't that alarm sound when we opened the door?

Man over PA: Now arriving track four, Amtrak train 2164.

Alex: We need to hurry.

Building's only open to the public until 11:00 a.m. every day.

And here I thought our romance d*ed.

This is about business.

Maybe we can mix the two again.

Not anymore. I need this decrypted.

What is it?

I need it fast. I'll pay double your going rate.

How about you come back to me and I do it for free?

I'm seeing somebody.

Yeah? And I'm booked up.

Could be a month before I get through this.

Get... Wait, wait, wait. I'm just kidding, Natalie.

You used to like the verbal sparring.

Remember?

I'll get started on it right away.

Thank you.

I can't believe she wore that.

I can't believe she put it on Instagram.

What a whore.

Uh, no, I'm okay.

Man: Hey, girls.

We're too young for you, cowboy.

Yeah, how old is that?

I think what she meant to say was, buzz off, you perv.

NYPD, jackoff. Get up against the wall.

All of you, up against the wall now.

[handcuffs clicking]

Excuse me, ma'am.

It's huge up here.

There was somebody here.

You don't know that for sure.

Team of two, man and a woman, judging by the shoe size.

Look how the dust has been displaced.

Mostly near the balls of the feet.

Some don't even have heel prints.

They were running.

They heard us come in.

Ah!

Why didn't the op team leader at least let us search it?

I should...

I should have covered for you, okay?

I'm your partner.

I should have run interference with the boss or told him I heard something.

I'm sorry.

It's okay.

We should... we should keep looking.

Watch the footprints.

The blueprints show only one other way down, into the Mayor's wing.

There's a police post at both ends.

If they went out that way, they were forced to.

It certainly doesn't make sense for them to come in that way.

If I were them, I would've come in the same way we did.

Let's say you're right, that the Russians did come in this way.

How did they get in the basement?

Security's posted at the service entrance.

They must've found another way in.

How you doing?

We're with Allied Exterminators.

Trying to find the source of this rat infestation before our whole team comes Monday.

Really? Good luck with that.

Is there any other way into the basement besides the service entrance?

For a rat, sure.

For us. For our team.

Not really. Loading dock is it.

Well, except for an old tunnel but that's been closed off since the '70s.

This way?

What were you thinking?

I wasn't even smoking it.

You lied to us. You skipped school.

It's gym. In what world do I ever need to climb a rope?

You were dishonest with us, Sarah. That is why we're upset.

Seriously? The double standard around here is, like, pathetic.

We don't tell you everything, because there's some things kids don't need to know.

I may be young, but I'm not Alex.

I love him to death.

I mean, he's the only one of you who's not crazy, but I see things.

I can read between the lines.

This kind of BS doesn't work on me the way it works on him.

Okay?

[door slams]

Do you think she knows something?

I think, no matter how careful you are, you can never hide who you are from your family.

She may not know the details, but she knows we're keeping something very big from her.

There's a gate down there.

Straight out of National Treasure in here.

I never read it.

It's a movie... starred Nicolas Cage.

Never mind.

What is it?

Residue.

What kind of residue?

I'm not sure.

But this is where a padlock would've gone.

Wow.

Whoever planned this operation was very good, but they were working on short notice.

How can you know that?

Because they were probably filmed with that camera.

The problem with asking for their footage is they will ask why we need it.

So we tell them.

It's all classified.

So we go for a FISA warrant and ask for the judge to keep our reasoning under seal.

Do you really think Justice will support us on another warrant after the reaming we got yesterday?

It's the only way to prove what happened.

Look, I believe you.

You were right.

But they don't.

You've got to let those cameras go right now, okay?

Trust me. We'll come back to them, but only after we build the case out with something else.

[sighs]

You seriously have to relay every one of her texts?

Yep. Even the ones that say "Moms suck."

I don't think you should be doing that.

That's like reading her diary.

She keeps a diary?

She's a good kid, Katya.

Yeah, she's a good kid who's hanging out with bad kids.

And she puts herself in danger every time she does something stupid and rebellious.

The Rezident...

The Rezident is our fault... our responsibility.

What are you thinking?

I'm thinking SEPTA won't ask the same kind of questions a private organization will.

I'm thinking if you flash your badge and ask nicely, they'll give you all their footage.

What footage? And what's SEPTA?

SEPTA. They run the city buses here.

Philly's MTA.

Most buses these days have cameras facing the doors.

We don't need to see the Russians inside the Masonic Temple if we can see them going in and out.

Let's go check it out.

Uh, excuse me, do you know how much longer it will be?

A couple of more hours, at least.

A couple... a couple more hours?

We have really old computers.

So, when they recruit you Agency guys, do they entice you with true stories of derring-do, like, say... this?

No.

Why'd you join the FBI?

They sent a really cute recruiter to my school.

That's it?

I get to carry a g*n and arrest bad people.

What's not to love?

Man over PA: Next stop, Penn Station, New York City.

I know.

Well, I've paid the check. I'm late for a meeting.

And we haven't talked.

I'm happy to talk about us if you want to talk.

I wish we could spend more time together.

I always want spend more time with you... even when I shouldn't.

You're like...

You're my Kryptonite, Natalia.

I'll come by tonight when I'm done.

[speaking Russian]

[speaking Russian]

[sighs]

I see you still like our place.

Is that the new guy?

Rebound?

You were the new guy, Stephen.

He's just the guy.

Did you decrypt the file?

Only a foreign intelligence agency could pull off that kind of encryption.

You're playing at a higher-stakes table than I thought.

What do you mean?

"Five PSI overpressure at one kilometer."

Know what that means?

No.

It means we're talking about a blast radius, a half-a-mile blast radius.

Half a mile?

Don't want to guess how many people that would k*ll in Manhattan.

These other numbers are bank accounts.

So you got money whipping all around the world and a plan to make a very big expl*si*n.

I'm gonna be getting out of Manhattan for a while.

You might want to do the same.

Are you sure we're okay here?

I re-swept everything and ungrounded Sarah so she wouldn't be here.

Okay, tell us.

It's bad.

What are you two doing?

Looking at footage from video cameras on the buses that pass outside the Masonic Temple.

The death toll from an expl*si*n this size...

It could start a w*r.

Which Russia doesn't want to do.

This doesn't make sense.

Either way, we take this to the authorities, they have to grant us immunity, right?

Because we bring them a blast radius? No.

It could just be an impact assessment of a w*apon.

Was there anything in what Gallagher decrypted that indicated an actual plan?

Account numbers, nothing else.

So we need to find out who controls those accounts.

Yeah.

I think I found something.

See? There he is.

Sam: How do you know it's them?

Well, this footage is from Sunday.

The Masonic Temple is closed on Sundays.

We can't see his face.

Sam: Yeah, but if he goes in...

He has to come out.

Hey, what are you doing here?

That's your stuff.

What?

I had my locks changed. I need to get away from you.

What are you talking about?

This afternoon you were saying the complete opposite thing.

I'm sorry.

Natalia.

Natalia!

[breathes shakily]

Go. Just go.

So many people, and none of them coming out of the damn temple.

What have you got, Alex?

Is it them? Can you see their faces?

What? Um, no.

It's not even the right street corner, Alex.

Right.

Sorry.

[keys clacking]

Sarah.

It was you, wasn't it?

In Philadelphia.

Yes.

And now it's time to tell you everything so you understand why.