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Tentacle 8 (2014)
Hey, man,
how about some money, man? Come on. Brother, you got something for me? Help a brother out. On my way out. Come on, man, give me some. I'm dying in this heat. You might want to take off that coat. Where's Ahmad today? What do you need? I can get it for you. This. This? Where's the headache medicine? Where's the rest? Excuse me? The total is 16- I gave you 100 dollar bill. No. You gave me a 20. Right here. This one. Where's your uncle? What is the trouble, my friend? Your cashier is either very bad at math or a second-rate thief. He is mistaken, I promise you! What is the problem, my friend? What do you need? I gave him a 100 dollar bill for a pack of gum and what I got back is 3 bucks and some change. Why would you pay for a pack of gum with such a large bill? Are you sure you didn't make a mistake? Not about this. We're honest merchants here. Why you make problems for us? What did we do to you? Our security cameras are not running. What do you want me to do? Tell him to empty his pockets. Fuck you, man. , do it now. Ahled, what is this? It's mine. AK50403409AK11 series, 1996. How the fuck did you do that? Pay attention. Give him back his money now! I'm so sorry, sir. If there's anything you need, you come see me, Rodger. Please accept my sincerest apologies for my nephew. Sir, sir, your change. Sir! I've got 20 minutes. Yes, sir. Make this current. Different players, different complications, same objective. Figure out how we get there. What else? NSA systems went down 6 minutes after CIA and FBI. 9 servers crashed within 12 minutes. Between 4 to 500 personal records, mostly CIA and FBI. NSA computers are still down. IP address is from an internet cafe in Homburg, a computer lab in Singapore, or a hotel lobby in Islamabad, all public computers, all within 2 blocks of radical Islamic. Password authentication came from a CIA issued laptop currently in Kandahar. But, the IP addresses, they could have been bounced via encryption software. What do you have on the laptop? Top secret security prints, case officer, South Asia station. Sniffer program lifted his login, his password,. Get everything you know on this case officer; what he's been working on, agents he's been working with. Get to the bottom of thing in 72 hours, or bury it and come up with a plausible story; an international CS students based in Europe, radical Islamic leanings from a country on our shit list, you fill in the rest. Draft a memo with Harrison's signature on it. Send it classified to all the agency heads and make it clear that we've retrieved all the files and there are safeguards in place to ensure that nothing like this will happen again. But if this turns out to be an attack, we must be very clear, no one fucks with the United States of America! I'll pull some people from today. Wait 10 minutes after I leave and then exit through the south building. , mother fucker. Rise and shine. To another day in paradise. Wake up, you stupid mother fucker. Who told you you could shit yourself? You have to ask permission to shit yourself, you dumb fuck. You stupid mother fucker! Water. Please, water. You want water? You don't get no water. You a terrorist, mother fucker? No, I'm an American! Help me! Help you? Help you? Sorry, sir. I'm gonna fuck you up! Hey man, you ever kill anybody? I've done a few at Black Hawk once, but not like this. You think he can hear us? If he can, he ain't gonna remember it tomorrow. Did you upload those East Asia maps yet? DOD needs them on their servers by this afternoon. Just about. Is this one ready? Thank you. Name. Boyd, Tabitha. Give me just a moment. Thank you. Ray. I'll be out in just a minute. Need any help finding anything? Hi, nice to see you again. How are you? How have you been? I'm fine. Thank you. I was hoping I'd see you again. I found that first edition Madame Bovary you were looking for. Over here. It's unedited. I pulled it for you. I have a strange affection for tragedy, I guess. When all the kids in my neighborhood were playing outside, I was inside hoping for rain. You never played in the rain? No, not really. In the library or book stores mostly. Nothing like this. These here are beautiful. I could spend a whole week in here. You're in good company. This is where we keep the first editions. It's okay. Really, don't worry about it. I hid it over here in the Russian section. Someone must have re-shelved it. Have you always loved books so much? I think so. Is it family, something back home? Maybe. My father wasn't around much, but he'd always bring me a book from his travels. They kept me company. What kind of books? Classics, Russian usually. He'd set them beside my bed. This is how we'd communicate, I'd read a book at night and wait for the next one. Tolstoy, Dostoevsky,. Then one day my Dad stopped coming home and all I had were these books. I read and I re-read them. I committed them to memory. Just trying to find some message, something in order to explain why it was so important to read them. You know? Why my father gave them to me, why he never came home again. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to pry. It's okay. I spent my whole life cracking codes, but I never cracked those. Can you excuse me for a second? I'll be right back. Sure. It'll be just a moment. Is this everything? Yes. Hi, Roland. Jeff's conferencing in a live feed with Asia. Can he call you back? Hand him the phone. He's conferencing with Asia. Put him on now! These guys just don't quit. Why are they sending me this shit? Roland, can I call you back? Now is not a good time. What's with Cienna Capital? These guys are showing up at my office, sending FedEx's to my house. What's going on? I'm gonna be back in LA Wednesday. Let's have lunch. I'll give you all the details. No, now, Jeffery. What is going on? What are you not telling me? We're selling everything, you, me, everybody, movie, TV, cable, satellite, wireless, all the telecom. What does that mean? Everything. As in me, you're getting rid of me? All of it. AE129 patents are in my name, remember? Legal can better explain it to you than I can, frankly. Now is not a good time. I gotta keep moving on. Don't do that! This is a joke, right? Tell me some fat fuck in a sumo suit is going to jump out of my trunk and say something funny, because I am very close to going nuclear! Calm down, Roland. I'm gonna hang up if you don't - Nobody is going to buy those boxes with your chips in them, without me. They're not done and the only blueprint is in my head, so good luck trying to unload your pile of sand to the Chinese without me! Ford's already approved. Goldman's on board, everybody makes out. It's when. Take a few years off, go back and count your money. Count. This can't be just about money, can it? What did I do to you, Jeffery? Tell me, what did I do to you? Do you want to fuck my wife? Do you want my hair? Do you want my fucking floor seats? What? Just tell me! What the fuck did I ever do to you, but be your friend? Listen to me! I've never lied to you. I've stuck my neck out for you more times than I can remember. This isn't about you or me. This is out of my hands. Do you understand?! Don't do this to me, Jeff. Have Laura schedule lunch next week. I've gotta go. No. I'll talk to you when I get back. No. Jeffery. Jeffery! Damn it. What are you looking at? Watch the road! Sorry I'm late. It's been a shit day. I'm gonna need a little time to wind down some, if that's okay. Whatever you need. Thank you. You wanna talk about it? No! No. It'll just get me more worked up. Bad day at the office? I have something that'll take you down nice and easy. I don't get why you can't fucking smoke in the lobby, but you can in your room. No one cares if you die of cancer. You just can't give it to anybody else. I fired my investment guy. Nothing good lasts forever. You want another? No. I'm ready. I'm gonna go put something on, freshen up a little. Let's get high first. Pour me a drink. I'll be back in just a bit. Don't close the door. I want to watch you get undressed. I said, don't close the door. I want - Who the fuck are you? My wife put you up to this? Get the fuck out of here! You're going to approve a 25 billion dollar acquisition. You will receive a generous severance package safely hidden from disclosure, of course, and then you're going to walk away. Just lie back and enjoy it, right? Are we going to cuddle afterwards? Fuck you! You try to buy me off with a couple 100 million dollars. Add a zero to that and maybe it's a start. I'll burn everything down to the fucking ground before I let that happen. You've got nothing left to burn, Mr. Towne. I've got enough. Money, homes, friends, family, the company? It isn't real. It's an illusion. Just like your security, it's a concept, a false one that you can never fully realize. We're sorry. The number you have reached is not in service. Please check the number or try your call again. This is a recording. Nazi uniform would have a classier touch. Nobody's gonna buy this, whatever you want to call it. The truth is going to come out. Truth is irrelevant, Mr. Towne. Getting to the truth strains the muscles and fatigues the brain. No one likes that. By the time the truth comes out, no one will remember and no one will care. Think about your future, your children's future, their children's future. You can't win, but you can be rich. He's just leaving the hotel now. Yes, everything went as planned. Hey, you got something for me? Come on, man, give me some money. Get the fuck out of here! Cock sucker Cock sucker! Get out of here. Fucker! Go find a hole! How long have you been back? Just over a week. I was at my sisters for a few days. I brought a turkey and a pie and apologized months in advance for missing Thanksgiving. I do it every year. Maybe next year you won't have to. Is that an invitation? That depends, did you actually cook the turkey and pie? No. Believe me, you wouldn't want that. You've got a year to learn how to use your oven. How close are you with your sister? She's my sister, let's just put it that way. But my niece is worth it all. She's just amazing, an amazing little girl. She had her first piano recital at school this week. I miss her already. You never wanted kids? Out of the country 300 days a years and on call 24/7, I wouldn't do that to somebody. I've been on my own too long. You never know what you're capable of, considering given the right circumstances. I'm not pining away for a life I could have had. This is it for me. I got you something. Now what? Just open it. It's not work. I found it in a little shop outside of Hamburg. Some of the pages are loose from the binding, but it's an original first edition. Wow! This is, this is really hard to find. I don't know what to say. It's one of the few books my father never - I never found. Well just try to throw in a little Danielle Steel or J.K. Rowling next time, okay? Make my life a little easier. Thank you. Come on. Let's get out of here. We can get a hotel next to the airport. I thought we were going to my place. I can't stay. I've got a flight in to Islamabad. Tomorrow? Tonight. I don't know why you keep doing it. You know you don't make a difference. I've got an informant. A 19-year-old kid with a 12-week-old baby and a wife who's been raped twice by military guards looking for dissidence. Brother beaten senseless and tortured for months before they found his body in the road covered in a pile of trash. I matter to him. The GPS coordinates on the digital scans I gave you, I manipulated it. The real coordinates have been uploaded to a data mining computer in Baltimore. They get patched into F-18's, Black Hawks, aircraft carriers without ever knowing the real coordinates. Why would you do that? I hide places we don't want anyone to know exists. The right hand doesn't know what the left hand is doing. That's how they want it. I know you care. Maybe a little too much. Thank you for telling me, but I'm still going. Ray, I don't know what you're feeling right now, but obviously you're upset. Before this, I was stationed in South Asia, intercepting Russian military communications, trip movements in the region. There was a local agent we gave intel to. I met him weekly in a small tea shop just outside of Cabo. He must have been 15, 16 years old. His English was pretty good, considering he had a 3rd-grade education. He carried an AK-47 over his shoulder, held a satellite phone the size of my shoe in his hand. My, I was never sure, but he understood what it was I was saying. He always nodded his head and shook my hand when we were done. I prayed that the intel I gave him was correct, I'd get to see him again the next week. He's a grown man by now. Probably has a family of his own. I wonder if he still remembers that tea shop, Morista's in the afternoons. That small town used to be where the crater is now. I wonder if he's hiding out in the same caves, attending the same council meetings you're gonna put those 3 time war heads in to. I thought I was important to him too. But I wasn't. Gators bittin' yet? is on board. We promised her additional security if they wanted it. Memory cards being programmed now will be shipped to DBS next month. All right. Where are they with the missing files? NSA is still working on it. 451 personell files unrecovered. Covert and top security clearances are in containment until we determine that they're secure. The case officer is Mitchell T. K. He's been missing for 2 years. The station chief from South Central Asia said that he had covert status, he came and went without making a lot of noise. We don't have a lot of other correspondence to go on. A rise in communications in Cienna Capital FCC. Approvals from fast track should be finalized during the next week. Who's working on the 8129 LED demo? NSA is still working on it. My granddaughter just moved in with a new roommate. I want to make sure that my little girl isn't shaking up with the wrong kind. Yes, sir. Excuse me. Neil, I'm trying to help you out here, but if he asks one more time you're going to be in a metal igloo counting blips on the North Pole. Forensic guys are on it. Probably not a security breach, but they're having a hard time recovering the data. Backup servers got hit too. We're gonna have to put the files back together by hand. How long is that gonna take? A couple 100 man hours, at least. One last thing, put together a demo for the AE-129 LED. He doesn't need to understand it, he just needs to see how it works. I can't promise you that. This is the NSA, we got more important things to do than make flat-screen TV's and computer monitors. Well, not for long. Come in. General, this is Brian Mosely from Washington. Thank you, Lieutenant. Thanks for coming. How was your flight? Is was fine, General, thank you. No problems finding it? None. I have to say, this is a bit nicer than I expected. Ah, well, we're working on it. wasn't built in a day. Secretary has given me SCI security clearance to assist you with whatever you might need. So, what is it exactly I can help you with? The secretary has recently learned the possibility of a rogue unit inside the IC. This group is simply known as Tentacle 8. They may or may not be responsible for the network breaches. I've been asked to make a risk assessment and to come up with any evidence that could prove or dis-prove this groups existence. So, General, I am here to investigate the anomalies that you may have come across. Well, these here are a handful that are outliers. Failed psych and/or polygraphs more than once. Yes. Most of these men have been trained to beat polygraphs and give a false psych test to invalidate the results. Tell me about this gentlemen. Hey, wake up! Stop mumbling. What's wrong with you? Please, let me go. You sit in here until somebody says it's time to take you out. Hey, stop it! Let him up. Don't take your shit out on me. Get him some water. Now! Fucking crazy ass bitch. Thank you. I'm hungry. Sorry. Please, anything. Water will be here any minute. Please. Peppermint. It always reminds me of Christmas. I can't believe I missed Christmas. Don't talk. Just sit there. Where are you from? What kind of name is Balenoff? Please, mister, just don't talk. Riggs, get your ass in here! Where's the water? When I was your age, I remember I couldn't wait to get the hell out. Living at home, I was trying to prove I was good enough. One night I drove off down the highway, made a wrong turn, just kept on driving. Never would have thought the next time I'd be home would be for my old man's funeral. I never told him how much he meant to me. I never said goodbye. I heard one of the other guards got a ticket home for making a detainee talk, sign some papers. Is that true? Please, I don't want to have to gag you, but I will. I can help you, but you have to help me. I'd worry about your own business. I don't need any help from you. This is no place for a lady like you. The only difference between you and me, is my hands are tied. We're both here, the same shit hole. For what? I don't know. Do you? What the hell are you doing in here? Stop it! Stop talking! What the hell took you so long? Where's the water? We've got an interrogator here from Washington. We've got to get him cleaned up and moved over to the other block. Right now? Where are his labs and polygraph results from last night? I don't know. One fucking time I don't log those stupid things and General comes down to the block. I gotta go find them. Hurry and clean his ass up. You want out? Right here, right now. Take this down. Is this some kind of a trick? No trick. What am I supposed to do with this? Give it to someone with a rank no higher than lieutenant. They'll know what to do with it. I don't have the authority to - Just deliver the note. Just a little farther, gentlemen. Private Belanoff is cleaning up the detainee. Where's the detainee, Private? Where's Private Belanoff? She was just here, just maybe 10 or 15 minutes ago. I was getting his last - Just find the detainee. Check the infirmary. Yes, sir. Sorry about that, Brian. We'll get is sorted out. You want to wait for him here or detainee? You must be hungry. Let's get you something to eat. I just want to get back home. We'll call it a day. You don't even have to talk. I can't do that. Sure you can, just sit there and be quiet. Better yet, why don't you just get out. DOD sent a memo to Langley late last year, detailing the possible existance of a covert unit known only as Tentacle 8. Stop! The group inside the IC, but outside it's jurisdiction, reporting directly to the president. Look, I don't care. I'm gonna jump out if you don't stop the car. Sit down! Mitchell asked me to come. I'm here for him, not for you. A memo was drafted in secret and sent to each agency warning them of the potential of Tentacle 8. To subvert the sabotage. Any covert programs not subject to. And? What's that got to do with me? I don't know anything about any of that. Mitchell asked you to crash the servers, but what he didn't tell you was that the files of that got erased contained the identities of the Tentacle personell. They're in great danger if they're identities become known. Not just to them, but to national security. I don't know anything about Tentacle 8 or any other covert program that Mitchell is a part of. You know, Mitchell is paranoid over everything. I don't know what he told you. I'm pretty sure a lot of it isn't true. Mitchell and I were stationed together in South America. Then, when he got transferred to East Asia Station I went with him. They tried to force him to take the station chief job, but he refused it at least 3 times. Because he said he never had any desire to every put on a pair of decent shoes. He was early to every meeting, precise with every detail and a man of the highest integrity. Maybe you didn't know him very well, but I did, and that meant something. I don't know anything about Tentacle 8 or anything Mitchell was a part of. He asked me to upload a virus, erase his case files and anything else he might be in. He said he was in trouble and needed my help. Can you get the files back? No, they're gone. No one can get those back. It's a virus that eats what he wants to eat. It freezes an endless loop of encryption. Those files, they can't ever be retrieved. I hope you're right, for everybody's sake. I have an ID, some cash and some passports and a safe house for you. I wouldn't stay there very long. You keep moving until you put a plan together. This car will take you to the apartment. What you do now is up to you. But if you get in trouble, no one's coming to save you, not Mitchell, not the NSA, no one. Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me? Mitchell asked me to. That's it? That's enough. Phone. Hi. I'm not home. Leave me a message and I'll get back to you when I can. Thanks. Hi. I can't talk long. I just want to let you know I'm okay. Fuck. Federal Bureau of Investigation. Neil Frost. I'll transfer you now. This is Agent Frost. Is this line secure? No. Call me back at 818-555-4040. Yeah. Who is this? It's Ray. I'm on a pay phone. Ray? Yeah. I haven't heard from you in a while. How is everything? Are you in town? I need your help. I can't explain right now. Can you meet? What? What do you mean? I'm a couple hours away. I can meet you somewhere. What kind of trouble are you in, Ray? Can I call you here? Call the tip line. They'll have me paged. I'll call you in a few hours. It's a hot day today. Here. That's all right. Thanks. I don't need anything. It's okay. You don't even need to even pay. I give to you. But, you cannot stay out here. If you want more, come back and ask for Ahmad. That's very generous. It's okay. There is a shelter not too far from here. I have a place to stay, but could you help me? I'm gonna call the cops! Get out of here! , go back inside. It's okay. It's okay. You give to me, I can help you sell, get you fair price. I don't need any money. What do you need? I need a phone. Where are you from, originally? A place in the mountains where lakes are like mirrors. Very far, far away place. I see it still every time I close my eyes. It is no longer the place in my memories. Much has changed. You must miss it. Yes, very much. But, this is our home now. Maybe one day it will be the way it once was and you can go back. Do you really think so? Do you know the place I'm talking about? I've never been there, but I have imagined it many times in my mind. I read your paper out front sometimes. You read our paper? See anything you want? Does this work? This is a very good one. A little more expensive, but you can talk anywhere. You got an extra battery, a charger? Yes. Thank you. Get rid of this for me? I don't want to be found. Okay. It's okay. I can sell it for you. You come see me next week. Don't say anything to my brother,. Just come and find me, okay? Take the money, please. It's okay. I'm not a greedy man. What happened to you? I got a little beat up. You look like shit. You're a good man, Frost. What's going on? I got an unmarked anonymous note from Langley when I was still in Maryland. Turns out it was from Mitchell. I hadn't seen him in years, not since his kid died. He looked tired, worn out. He gave me a book, pages and pages of codes scribbled in pencil. What kind of codes? Encryption codes, the we used to have to break by hand. He didn't tell you what they were for? He didn't give me any specifics. He just kept saying, "It's in the book. It's in the book." "Keep it safe for me." Some people just don't know when to get out before it gets to be too much. I helped him with a virus, imbedded it in the NSA remote server, mutating sniffer programs and password hunters to make it look legit. His email was intercepted and bounced until it hit NSA, which triggered the breach. The bureau, the DEA, the CIA? Everybody. Stop. I don't want to hear anymore. Don't ask me to, because I don't want to get involved. Something inside the shop is rotten and he wanted it to be erased. I told him I'd do it, if I could be erased too. People quit, people retire, people get up and leave everyday. Not without somebody knowing everything we do, listening to every conversation we have. People on this side of the curtain never get out. We just wait around for the sand to run out. It is a capital crime, Ray. You could go to the chair for that kind of thing. Tentacle 8, did you find anything? I don't want to get involved, Ray. I got a kid that's about to go to college. How do I know that you and TK aren't gonna to every want to be with a bucket full of cash? I don't think that you've thought this whole thing through yet. I'm not gonna commit treason for you. How long have we known each other? When have I ever asked you to do anything even close to crossing the line? Tentacle 8, no existing files or operations. It's mentioned 4,032 times in classified intel memos from 1933 until now. I asked around, I couldn't get anything. So, either it's legit or it's a hoax, but that's all I know. Case officer? Tabitha Lloyd, CIA, officer of Inspector General. Wait. What? That can't be right. She's SAD. What about Kendahar, Leod, Islamabad? She told me she has agents in the field. There's no record of her being in special activities. If she did, it was off the books and her case history parallels every intel leak that we've had in the past 12 years. That's all I got for you now. I'm sorry. Thanks, Neil. Oh man. What is this place? This is just temporary. Long enough to gather intel and help everyone plan exits. Everyone? Yeah. I put a series of messages out on the crossword. We don't have a lot of time. When's the last time you talked with TK? Not recently, but he's been right so far about everything. Yeah. So far. Did he give you a list? What? A list of others. It would help if we had a list. Right now we don't even know who needs help. No, he didn't give me a list. Why would you ask me that? Right now we should just worry about ourselves. I understand. Let me show you something. You see this? Take a look. It's not postmarked. It was never mailed. No. I found it under our door 2 nights ago. I'm sure it's her. Send her a note in the crosswords. Tell her I'm alive. It's already done. This is the paper you put your - Back page. Welcome home. Come on inside. He appreciates your support. Of course. I give you my word. We'll set something up early next year. Right, looking forward to it. What happened? Trucks delivered the wrong machines in some counties. A news crew showed up at one of the checkpoints and half of FHP never got the memo. I got a call about network security issues, that has everything been cleaned up. Did they figure out their issues? As far as I know. Is Mosley still in the building? I need to see him right now. Okay. Have you met Brian Mosley? Not yet. You need to start making yourself known. Come on now. Yes, sir, I'll do that right away. Mosley's gonna be involved, so get to know him well. He's got the secretary's ear, so he's somebody we need on our side. Yeah. Navy Seal commander, CIA interrogation advisor - Yeah, memorizing ain't the same as knowing. I want you to know these people. Tex. How was your visit with NSA? They are a real mystery to me, so I don't know. I mean, they're real tight with intel, kind of like they invented it. Everything they've told me so far makes me think security's not going to be an issue. Well, Murdoch's been briefing me on some outstanding issues, intel breaches, leaks. I've asked him to be available for you if you need anything. There is one thing that's been bothering me. Maybe you can help me out with it. Last March the secretary asked me to go down to visit at one of our black sites. He wanted me to sit in on an interrogation regarding one of the network breaches. There was this guy there, long time NSA, failed his polygraph test, stress test nearly killed him and nothing that came out of his mouth matched up with his paperwork. By the time I got down there, he was gone. He was already shipped off to some other hole, God knows where, and I doubt if anyone has followed up on it. Our guys? Third party contractors. I promise you, this will come back to haunt us. You need to talk to the General see if he has any more information on these other outliers. Murdoch can get you everything you need and I will catch up with you Deanna more at the Gayla tomorrow night. Looking forward to it. Murdoch, I'm looking forward to working with you. Not taking my calls anymore? What's a guy got to do to get a call back? Win an election? I'm okay. What happened? What do you mean? Well, not just that, what happened after you left? I never heard from you. I'm sorry, Ray. I was in a war zone. Why are you being defensive? When I was laid up at with a broken back and perforated spleen, out of all the times I played this out in my head, this wasn't one of them. Oh, and did I mention I couldn't take any meds any stronger than a fucking Tylenol? Maybe that has something to do with it. I don't understand. It means I'm in a lot of pain, Ray. Everything okay with the baby? The doctor said the baby saved my life. How's that possible? I don't know, Ray. It's a miracle. I'm not making this stuff up. I'm just trying to understand. I'm not trying to come across the wrong way, I just don't know exactly what it is you want from me. I don't know what I should say or do right now. It's real life, Ray. It's messy and inconvenient. It's not a little blip on your map you can just erase or a line in your book you can black out with your marker. I owe you an explanation, but what you do with that is up to you. Just like the first edition you brought back from, what was it, Homburg, a few loose pages? How 'bout a few missing pages; pages 1, 50 and 400. Those pages mean anything to you? I didn't flip through the pages. Pages 1, 50 and 400. All NSA depot documents are stamped on pages 1, 50 and 400. That's a hell of a coincidence, wouldn't you say? What are we doing here, Ray? What do you want me to say? If we don't have a future after today, then nothing we've done or said in the past matters much anyway. There's no need to waste another second. But, if you want any part of this, we start right now. I don't care where you've been or what you've done. What we had was real. At least it was to me. I have never lied to you. So what I want to know is if you want part of this. If you do, I'm here. But if you don't, then I'm on a plane and I'm out of here first thing tomorrow morning. I have to go. I'll go with you. Just wait a few more days. I don't want to wait. Let's take care of our exits. I think that's it. I'm ready. Cell phones? Take this. That should get you by until I get there. Once I'm done here, I'll come to you. We'll leave for Madison. How will I reach you? I'll contact you at your apartment. Keep the landlines connected until I get there. Unplug the TVs and put them facedown. Remember! I'll see you in a few days. I promise. I'll wait for you. Hey, brother, you got something for me? Help a brother out. On my way out. Come on man, give me something. I'm dying in this heat. You may want to take off that coat. Where's Ahmad today? What do you need? I can get it for you. Go around again. He's inside. Give him back his money now! I'm so sorry, sir. Anytime you need anything, you come see me, Roger. Anytime. Please except my sincerest apologies for my nephew. Sir, your change, sir! Hey! Hey you! Hey, hold up! Hurry up! Hurry up! I'm here. Go ahead. Mitchell. I'm here. Go ahead. Once I upload the virus, you've got maybe 5 hours to get why you need before everything crashes. You won't be able to get back in. We're good on this end. The men are in place. You've got to follow up on Towne while you're out there and you've got to make sure Barry gets out. He's got the codes if they recover the files. I'll keep him safe. Thanks for everything. Just get out in one piece. I guess I'll see you when I see you. Yeah. They're gone. The merger's been approved. Global is doing the deal next week. I heard NSA's already working on a LAD prototype. AE129 will be in the DNA of every computer and television cycle now within the next 5 years. I can't imagine what kind of deals are being made right not. It's not about the money. Surveillance? Influence. AE129 runs purely on ambient energy. It doesn't need electricity. Cell phones and remote controls are going to be powered up by body heat sensors. You pair that with a remote transmitter via satellite, you can turn on any laptop, TV or cellphone anywhere in the world, no matter if it's on or off. Add a multi billion dollar telecom to the mix and there's no corner left in the world to hide in. What if you're wrong and the chips don't degrade? Mitchell found a way to smuggle in NSA confiscated silicon. They can't handle currents any higher than room temperature. Can they cool it? There's no real world application for the chip outside the lab. Exploding TVs and laptop fires are not good for business. What's the fallback. Somebody's sure to find a way around the defect. They'll have to design a new chip, buy another company, start from scratch. Probably set them back maybe 20 years. But, I'm sure they'll be back. What next? Wait. Disappear for a while. Somewhere out there, I hope Mitchell's laughing his ass off. Yeah. I hope so too. You're the one in my cell. I'm glad you're okay. What were the numbers? protocol when a detainee talks Just input whatever he says into a data base to see if the story's been told before. So, what was the story? Social security numbers for the president's grandchildren. It's a distress code that helped our guy get you out, no questions asked. What's this all about? What's Mitchell gotten me into? Follow the street lights down to the lifeguard station. It's gonna lead you to a man in a fisherman's hat. Turn down that brick corridor. Good luck. TK Mitchell's body was found in a London hotel room, this morning. Sorry. He's gone. Why? I don't know for sure. I really don't have time to find out. You sure have gone to a lot of trouble for something. Next week the secretary of defense is gonna order me to disclose all that I know about a covert operation called Tentacle 8. I will quietly step down. They'll replace me with somebody new, maybe somebody old. Either way, my work will be dismantled piece by piece until there's nothing left. What the hell has Mitchell gotten me involved with? Your first week at NSA you were given a code breaking test. A test. It was a morality test. It was a measure of what lines you would and would not cross. Scores in the top half of 1% were identified as potential Tentacle 8s. You scored in the top half of 1 half of 1 %. Is that good or bad? Well, it means that there are things that you find morally and ethically wrong, which can be a bit of a problem if you're up to no good. I used to think that there was a reason for everything, no matter how it looked to the outside. I don't think that anymore. The IC is gonna be reorganized in such a way that it'll have even less oversight that it does now. Which is precisely the thing that Tentacle 8 was set up to prevent. See, I was an ambitious young analyst. I wanted to prove myself when the president asked me to create it. He didn't trust the secretary. He didn't have the support of the JCS. He believed that we could only be as great as our inherent leaders and the greatness couldn't be bullied, it couldn't be trained. So, I came up with a test that would measure moral and ethical boundaries and identify individuals that we could strategically place to prevent abuses, trusting that their own moral compases would lead them in the right direction. Everything changed in Dallas. Everything. I spent the last 38 years making good on my promise to the president, preserving his vision for the other Tentacles. Tentacles? Military supremacy, financial markets, global natural resources, elections, emerging technology, media, and the 8th Tentacle, self preservation. This was created to prevent abuses that would effect the whole. We have confirmed intel that a global destabilization is going to occur in the next 10 to 12 days. So, don't fly on commercial aircraft or rail, stay off all the major highways for the next 2 or 3 weeks. And an exit through Canada is probably your best bet, but you need to do it in the next couple of days. What am I supposed to do with this? Read it. It's an idea of what's to come and we're pretty sure it's accurate within 2 or 3 days. Why are you giving it to me? There's only one Tentacle 8 class. Half of them are dead or missing and once you're gone, there's no one to replace you. Mitchell gave you the code. Decode the encryption. Keep the other Tentacles safe. Help us protect them. You got yourself into this mess, you can get yourself out. I just want what everyone else wants. I just want a taste of normalcy. I just want to know what it's like to be an average Joe. You're not going to get that. The homeless man in the van, the suit in the town car, Tentacle 8? Yes. You created a list, you get them out. I didn't create the list. I created the test. Mitchell was my case officer. He was the person who was in charge. It was not me. Mitchell was the only Tentacle 8 that I knew by name. All the rest of them were just numbers. Then why not just destroy the codes? I'll just burn the book. Because they're gonna come after everybody that Mitchell came into contact with. A lot of innocent people are gonna be hurt. What if I fail? Mitchell gave you the codes. There must be some reason that he did that. You can only do what your instincts let you do. The IC has thousands of people in it. What the hell are a few hundred people gonna do? We're trying to restore conscious. Because without conscious there's nothing left to protect. Hello. It's me. Sorry to call so late. Where are you? Is everything okay? Everything's fine. Just a few minor things. You're still coming, right? I have to go to New York, take care of some business. I'll still meet you in Montreal, liked we planned, but we're gonna have to go separately. Why? What's wrong? Nothing. Don't worry. A car will pick you up tomorrow. If it doesn't look right, don't get in the car. Take the money I gave you and rent a car. Don't get on a plane or or a train. Promise me. Tell me what's going on. Everything's gonna be okay. Check into the cabin and wait for me. Don't watch television or listen to radio. I'll be there in a few days. Have you decided on a name yet? Ethan. Ethan. Tell Ethan I'll be there soon. I should of waited. Just a few more days. Everything will be just as we planned. I should go now. I'll see you in Montreal. I'll be there. I love you. I love you too. Mosley. I just off the phone with Berry. I can't confirm he knows Mitchell. He never brought him up, but he's going to New York in the next 24 hours. So, if you're looking for him, he'll be in New York. Are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. Mosley. You looking for me? Who is this? I know what you want. How'd you get this number? Skip the 4 play. The files you're looking for are gone. You and everyone else looking for them are never gonna find them, so I wouldn't bother trying. I'm the only one that can give you what you want. Why don't you come in? Let's work something out. I want clean passports and your word you never cross my path again. Anyone else but you shows up, I disappear. Then we can race to see who ends up like Mitchell first. Make the right decision. It's your choice. Just tell me where to meet you, when and where. Ray, I think you have the wrong idea here. Okay what's today, the 10th? I cannot make it tomorrow. I need more time. Why don't you come to DC? Tomorrow morning, Tuesday, 8:00 am. Don't be late. I'll give you what you want. After that, this hunt for Tentacle 8 ends. Do you know how to get to Widows on the World? It's easy to find. Ask for help, someone will point you in the right direction. 8:00 am. Operator. I need a charter tonight, to New York City. Let me check. There's a travel hold, sir. It's a no ship, no fly order. No travel in or out of New York City by any means for the entire month. Sir, are you still there? Hi. I can't talk long. I want you to know I'm okay. Name. Barry. Tabitha Berry. New York Times please. Roland Towne's office please. Thanks. Hi. It's me. I've got something for you. Ahh. Yeah. Are you ready for another letter? Yes. Dear Ethan, Today I want to tell you about a special place called Cashmere. One day your mother will bring you here, where the mountains touch the clouds and the rivers mirror the heavens. I will be here waiting for you. |
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