Original subtitles

CNN breaking news. He's not breathing. Get the doc up here, stat. I got the

breathing down my neck, and you two are out there blowing up half the city.

Doc, that scientist is the key to stopping that flesh -eating virus.

Dying is not an option. I promise you we're not zipping up any body bags

sir. Or my name isn't.

Dr. Pimmy Jalmer.

As Dr. Jommer worked to revive his patient using a locally harvested bee

remedy, the KC -3000 enters with terrifying news.

I have terrifying news.

Special Agent Rick Soros has contracted the flesh -eating virus.

I am sorry.

God help us.

Thanks so much.

I just knew Agent Soros wasn't really dead.

But I did not see the kidney transplant from that Icelandic archer.

Well, that's why they call it a twist.

That's why they call me your number one fan.

Thank you very much. I appreciate that. No, really. I'm your number one fan.

Hi. I'm going to make this guy out.

Right there, that's creepy.

And you have no idea how this got in your book? No clue.

We should dust it for prints.

I already tried that. Only prints on it are mine. I'm hoping I can make a

handwriting match from some of this old fan mail here.

I know what you did.

What exactly did you do? I have no idea, but the IP address here redirects to

the promotional website for my first book.

Ah, well. There you go. Mm -hmm.

They're what goes?

Well, they're accusing you of copying your older books.

Okay, explain.

Well, you know how in your first book you had L .J.

Pibbs.

Pibbs. Gibbs.

Do you see where I'm going with this?

Yeah, that was a coincidence.

Okay, is Agent Rick Soares a coincidence?

Soares. Torres.

You pitch me Soares.

I pitch you a badass Miami detective.

This guy's wearing a cardigan.

And who pitched Agent Nightshade? And why is she always sharpening a knife?

What's up with this little jam?

Whoa, looking good, McGee. You should wear one of those to your meeting today.

What meeting? Your publicist called, accidentally got routed to my voicemail.

guess you've got an interview with some big muckety -muck book critic today?

Today?

After the beating I just got from these two, paperwork actually sounds like a

lot of fun, so... Paperwork can wait. We've got a case.

And we are going to get a special guest today at the crime scene.

There's our special guest.

Make an agent out of you yet.

Pass. I just want to see how the other half is.

Well, the other half is really smelly right now.

No,

this is nothing.

You guys want to smell something really, really bad?

Not particularly, no.

Yeah, I guess that makes sense.

P -A -P, I'm guessing that stands for captain?

Yeah, that's all we got until you get in there.

Chop, chop.

So, apparently the dumpster hadn't been emptied in over three weeks.

Oh, it's been cold. Buddy could have been in there for a while.

Torres is out talking to the neighbors now. So far, no one's seen anything.

Well, they're seeing it all now.

Taking a lot of pictures.

I know her.

You've got to be kidding me.

Do you follow me?

No. Are you sure? Because it seems like you're following me. I only listen to

the police band for my podcast.

I have a podcast.

And when I heard Navy Captain, I thought there was a chance you might show up.

Is this you?

Did you write this?

I know what you did?

No.

You're sure?

Your eyes are your best feature. I would never scratch them out.

Also, you're scary when you get mad.

You're also kind of hot, Gary.

Forget about it. I'm sorry.

I've forgotten.

I'm your number one fan, remember?

And if you really are sorry, I have an idea how you can make it up to me.

Is that something we do?

Because that's a new one.

We got a new one back here, too. Okay, good.

Whoever this guy is, he's down to here.

Down? Yeah.

They're missing.

And it's a new one.

Hey,

Jimmy. I heard through the grapevine you got something even better than missing

ears. Does the grapevine have an ID yet? I'd like to know the person's first

name before I remove their liver.

Meet Captain Seth Myers.

No relation.

He was assigned to NAS, Pax River.

This file is very brief.

You mean blank? We noticed. It's not even like it's classified. It's just

which is weird.

Do you want more weird?

I live for weird.

In addition to Captain Myers' ears being removed, he was also apparently jack

-o'

-lanterned. Am I supposed to know what that... Right.

Jack -o' -lantern.

Also, he's missing several fingers and has burn marks over most of his body

here. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he was tortured.

Tortured for what?

Maybe it has something to do with his job at Pax River, whatever that is.

Well, he had to report to someone.

Just have to find out who.

There's actually something else I'd like to talk to you about, Special Agent

Parker. But since I chickened out, I'm just going to stand here for a few

seconds like a complete idiot.

Yeah, Captain Myers is assigned to my team.

It's not much to tell you.

Smells like soup.

Laughs too loud.

Seen some kind of trouble?

What exactly does your team do?

Don't you have Myers' file?

Yeah, you were just holding him. All that has is his surface photo.

Yeah, we were hoping that you could maybe tell us why.

I'm sorry, could you please remove the... Sorry, I've got a VR meeting soon

can't miss. It's been one fighter after another since Myers took emergency

leave. When did he leave?

Hold that thought, duty calls.

Hey, everyone.

Sorry I'm late.

Actually, I'm on time, so whoever isn't here is late.

Hello?

Hello?

I think there's something wrong with your Wi -Fi.

Captain Myers is dead.

Okay.

What happened?

You tell me. Starting with what Myers did for you and why he took that

leave. I feel bad about the suit comment.

I'm the liaison between the Navy and a group of MIT nerds.

Okay, what do you liaise?

We're trying to cheaply retrofit old aircraft to be flown remotely.

Okay, it's 2025. You can just say drones, so... Cheap drones.

We're hoping to give a second life to decommissioned aircraft with off -the

-shelf parts.

Myers was our lead engineer.

Until he took leave.

Yeah, he said he had a family emergency.

I approved it myself.

I put it in his file, which was normal two weeks ago, by the way.

Well, somebody must have changed it.

I don't see how.

Our security is pretty tight. The Russians, the Chinese, we killed to get

tech back.

Maybe they did.

We think that Captain Myers was tortured before he was killed.

Of course he was.

What is that supposed to mean?

It means there's no way in hell Seth would have given up any classified

information. The guy was a total Boy Scout.

But if the Russians did manage to get anything useful out of him...

then every old plane they have is going to find its way to the Ukraine front.

Then they have a lot of old planes.

Yeah, I had to take photos at the crime scene and everything.

No, I can't send them to you.

I didn't tell Agent Torres you got a crush on him.

Okay, got to go.

Duty calls. Love you, Mama.

Thanksgiving must be interesting at your house. You have no idea.

Is that more of our victim's blood?

Oh, no, it's just my cover for coming down here. We need to talk.

Look, dude, I know you think I ate your buddy's donut, but I would never...

Remember the original note from the autopsy of Parker's mom?

I finally tracked him down.

What'd they say?

Well, I won't get him until tomorrow, but I really think we should tell Parker

what we're doing.

Why? If the discrepancy on the report is just a clerical error, no point

upsetting him.

Upsetting who?

Upsetting lots of people who are going to be very upset. We think you'll be

upset by what Casey found.

What did Casey find?

Hmm.

Should show him.

I will pull it up.

Your computer's not on. Well, no, because I'm just warming up my fingers.

they're warm. That was fast.

So what I found was on our victim's laptop service log show, he downloaded

massive amounts of classified documents from work right before he went missing.

That's no bueno.

More like grande uh -oh. He then transferred the files to a portable

drive like this one.

He wasn't tortured for classified info.

He's the one that stole it. We need to find that drive.

Thank you again for meeting with me, Mr. Gemsteady.

Or should I say, Agent McGee?

Whichever you want.

It's just a pseudonym, not a secret identity.

Second.

Um, is there anything else? Actually, I'm getting back to the office.

I only have one more question.

Yes, I talk to my characters when I write.

That's true. It's true. Sometimes I can't get them to leave me alone.

What do you say to the charges that your readership is shrinking, people fold

laundry to your audiobooks, and while Deep Six works for diehard fans, it's

winning any awards?

Well, more like three questions.

Well, you know, I think it's just about creating rich characters that represent

a universal part of the human psyche.

You know, you've got Professor Parkman. He's the brains.

Agent Soares.

The heart.

Nightshade, of course. The brawn.

Exactly. So you basically ripped off Wizard of Oz.

Can I quote you?

I didn't say that. You didn't.

So I did.

Well, thanks again.

I know your time is valuable.

To some.

That was rough.

Want me to flash with tired?

Just kidding.

What are you doing here?

But you are following me. Okay, this time I was, but it's because I have a

request. What?

What? No, what are you doing? Why are you sitting? I'm about to do my podcast

about moonlighting authors and hanging out the crime scene.

You'd be perfect. Okay, I appreciate your enthusiasm, but I'm busy with work.

Work, work, work.

I really wish you could just write full time.

Well, I can't.

But do you wish you could?

You need to leave me alone and stop following me, okay?

For real.

Thanks, Tamara.

Shake it off, rookie!

Professor Parkman gazed into Agent Nightshade's eyes, which glittered like

obsidian stars.

My dear Nightshade, he purred as he straightened his elbow patches.

You're far too dangerous for my syllabus.

Hey, I'm sorry I said no to your podcast, but... My what?

Are you talking about that crazy fan who was bothering you at the diner?

You're not a crazy fan?

No.

Well, I'm... I'm chained to a bed.

Clearly I've been drugged.

You're reading my book.

I've got to admit, it's a screaming crazy fan to me.

Sorry.

I'm not a fan at all, actually.

I think your characters are forced and your plotting is unrealistic.

Phil, you don't want me to write something for you?

No.

Oh, God, you want me to read something you wrote?

Getting colder.

Okay, then what is it? Why am I here?

Let's just say I'm after something else.

Someone is definitely after those classified documents besides us.

This is our victim's house.

Entire place was trashed. Our captain's killers must be looking for that hard

drive, too. And his car was missing.

Well, they probably didn't want to toss it out in the street.

I doubt Myers kept that drive in the trunk, which means his killers haven't

found it yet.

So all we have to do is find it first. And just wait for the bad guys to show

up. Keep me posted.

Oh, and please tell Agent McGee that I hope the kids feel better.

Kids? What, something wrong with Morgan and Johnny?

Did McGee text you, too?

No. Hey, I got this yesterday.

Kid sick.

Working from home tomorrow.

Is that verbatim?

Is there a problem?

The kids are with Delilah visiting Grandma.

A thousand miles away.

That's water in case you're thirsty.

And this is in case you need to. What I need is to know why I'm here.

And water.

Careful. The drug I slipped into your coffee has a really long half -life.

Who the hell are you?

You might be feeling a little... I'm gonna be sick.

Nauseated.

You might also have a slight concussion.

I had to winch you up the stairs by your feet.

I'll get you some Tums.

That's okay, buddy. Let it out.

Thanks, but I got this, okay?

Hey, I know it's a lot, but you can always count on your best bud, Agent

to have your back.

Look, just would you go away, okay?

I'm not workshopping a scene here.

I was kidnapped.

I know, and you did not deserve that.

Between that and the concussion, you know, it's not surprising why you're

a moment.

Poor guy, right?

Okay?

You want to talk it out?

I don't need to talk. I need to find a way out of this attic.

You think you can fake that lock?

Yes, you know what?

See if you can find, like, a safety pin, okay? Or, like, a... You know what? No,

no, no.

We also need to figure out what this woman wants from you.

But I already have an idea.

Oh, yeah?

LJ Tibbs, Rule 39.

Coincidences do not exist.

Sure is. It's not helping.

Well, you were working a stolen documents case when you were grabbed.

She has to be after the hard drive.

That's a good guess.

She must think you know where it is.

Well, I don't.

I would keep that to yourself.

Because even if you're kidnapped, it's not crazy, Ben.

Well, she's crazy enough to drug and kidnap a federal agent.

So what do you think she'll do if she finds out that you don't know who the

driver is?

Yeah, director, it's McGee's car.

We traced his last text right to it.

Uh, keep the post.

It doesn't look like it broke down.

Yeah, McGee doesn't miss an oil change.

Or leave his car overnight.

Well, unless he's going to a midnight Star Wars premiere.

Uh -oh.

McGee's cell phone.

Where the hell is he?

He left with a woman.

The waitress was looking out the window, and she saw McGee just sitting in the

car. And then a woman drove up, helped McGee out of the car, and then they left

together. Helped him out? What does that mean?

She said that McGee looked drunk.

Right through the afternoon.

Maybe the book interview didn't go so well, and he wanted to throw a couple

back? Then got in his car and the way.

What's the alternative?

Somebody drugged him?

Well, that would explain why McGee would let some strange woman drive off with

him. She could have sent that text to Vance.

Bought ourselves some time to get away?

The clock's ticking. We gotta move.

I'll call the lineman.

I'll put out a bolo.

I gotta make it a partial print from the waitress.

Wait, this is the car that McGee left in?

I put out a bolo on this yesterday.

That's Captain Meyer's car.

His killer has it.

Well, the killer just used it to grab McGee.

Hey, hey, hey.

Nobody gets it the first time.

I know how to pick a lock, okay? Thank you.

I was picked a lock after being blinded by its cunt.

Yeah, that was a pretty badly written chapter.

You know there's a faster way to escape.

Get the key.

Okay, and how do I do that? F -nicely?

Break your captain's neck and take them.

That's your solution?

Murder?

Self -defense.

The woman is dangerous.

If she's after those classified dogs, then she's probably the one who killed

that captain.

Yeah, I know.

We've all seen how this movie ends.

Oh, boy.

It's only a matter of time before she hobbles you.

Why would you say that? You don't use the word hobble with a writer.

Ignore her.

She stabs first and asks questions never. And what you need to do is...

You have to gain your kidnapper's trust.

No. You need to take her out.

You have the element of surprise.

Except I'm chained to the floor.

So, unless you're hiding a hacksaw somewhere in that very tight bodysuit of

yours, just please be quiet while I figure this out.

Figure what out?

What's going on?

Who are you talking to?

Myself.

I think I know why you brought me here.

Good.

Saves us some time.

You're after those classified documents.

Go on.

Torturing the captain didn't get you anywhere.

So you brought me here and you think I can get up for you?

Interesting theory.

But it suffers from one fatal plot hole.

Yeah, what's that?

I have no idea what you're talking about.

Oops. Should have killed her.

You don't like my writing. You don't know anything about stolen documents.

So what do you want from me?

I want you to find my son.

Let me find your son.

He's missing.

Okay, so call the police.

I did.

And the FBI.

Nobody would listen. They said I was crazy.

Gee, I can't understand why.

Look, I know how crazy this looks.

I wanted to ask for your help, but I couldn't risk you saying no.

I came to you because my son said you can solve anything.

He loves your books.

The one he pre -ordered showed up just last week. That doesn't seem like a sign

to you.

Okay, it's just a book.

But everyone knows you're also a real agent and a father.

Please, my son joined the Navy because of you. You are his last hope. I'm

running out of time.

All right, look.

I promised to hear you out.

Will you let me go?

If you find my son, I'll let you go.

Okay, what if I don't?

Please, just try.

That's all I'm asking.

Okay, deal.

I'm in.

That'll tell me everything.

Six weeks ago, Matthew left for work, and he never came home.

This is everything I've collected.

That's Matthew, on the right.

Look at the other guy.

That's Captain Myers.

Her son knew our victim.

Who's this man sitting next to your son?

That's Matthew's best friend.

They're besties, huh?

I wonder if they stole their classified data together.

Hey, you need to tell her the truth.

Because honesty, right, builds trust.

No way.

Lie to her or you're a dead man.

Did I mention I was running out of time?

Those classified documents that I told you about.

Your son's best friend is the one who stole them.

And I think your son may be involved, too.

No.

Matthew is a good boy.

He would never do anything like that.

She's holding something back.

You sure?

Absolutely.

Look, if you really want my help, you've got to be honest with me.

Honesty builds trust.

I found a hard drive in my son's room after he went missing.

It's the same drive you used to download those classified files.

We don't know what's on it.

Maybe you can figure it out.

My laptop is in read -only mode, so you won't be able to contact anyone.

I already tried brute force, hash collision, nothing worked.

You know your way around computers.

Question is, do you?

Okay, I'm in.

But I don't have full access here. I can only see the name of the root folder.

Ruby. Mean anything to you?

I think it's a code name.

For a woman, maybe.

I heard my son mention her.

Whatever's going on, I think that woman is at the center of it.

Meet Frances Bates.

Tom E. Gem City's number one fan.

And a number one suspect.

She was at the crime scene, right? She was also at the diner. The book critic

ID'd her from a photo.

So Superfan was just a cover.

Probably trying to stay close to the case.

Hoping we'd lead her to the missing drive?

You don't think she got impatient and grabbed McGee just to speed things up?

It wasn't her.

Bet she's involved somehow.

Let's get Miss Number One Fan on the hot seat and find out.

It's like medieval torture.

How am I supposed to get into an encrypted directory without a cracking

It's impossible.

In a world of infinite probabilities, nothing is impossible.

Don't have time for this, Parkman. That's Professor Parkman to you.

And time is an artificial construct, courtesy of the ancient Sumerians.

Well, can the Sumerians help me hack into this Ruby directory?

What you need is to shut down that techno gadget and use some good old

-fashioned human deduction.

Well, you are one note sometimes.

Maybe that critic was right.

What do we know?

You are good at moving the story forward.

Yeah.

Yeah, let's do this.

Okay.

Missing son.

Lieutenant Matthew Sheldon, Navy pilot, besties with the man who stole the

classified data.

A .K .A.

Captain Myers.

Now, they ought to be in it together, right?

No, proximity breeds conspiracy.

Leonard and Trotsky, Bonnie and Clyde, and now Myers and Sheldon. But how does

this Ruby fit in?

Well, Mom thinks it's the code name for the woman that took her son. And the

only lead we have is an encrypted hard drive.

The way forward is clear.

You must break into this Ruby 4.

What do you think I've been trying to do?

Maybe I can help.

Down here.

Encryption is my specialty.

Oh, okay.

You too, huh?

Check the cipher for weak spots.

Yeah, I already did that.

It's locked up tighter than Fort Knox.

Napoleon walked into Vienna without firing a shot. Locks are only as strong

the people guarding them.

Except those locks weren't 256 -bit. Dump the memory. If the private key was

loaded before shutdown... It may still be there.

Yes. All right.

Dumping memory.

Scanning now.

Yes.

Encryption key right there in plain text. KC -3000, you are a genius.

So much for a human deduction.

Okay,

I'm in.

The crown jewels.

Stolen inside.

Crown jewels, all right, but I don't think Captain Myers was stealing them.

I'm Agent Knight. This is Agent Soros.

Oh, my God, huge fan.

Special Agent Torres, and most people are not this excited to be in this room.

Sorry, I'm just geeking out. I can't believe I'm in the real MCIS.

MCIS? The Major Case Intelligence Service. This is NCIS, as in Naval

Emphasis on crime.

Well, Mr. Jemsity, I mean, Agent McGee may be joining us.

This is not a meet and greet.

Special Agent McGee has been kidnapped.

Terrible.

But you came to the right person for help.

Nobody knows him like I do.

So who do we think did it?

What? Wait, me?

But I'm his biggest fan.

Or maybe you're pretending to be his fan to stay close to the case.

Who's stolen documents?

How much do you think they're worth?

About 10 mil with the right contacts.

And you have the right contacts.

Your last job was with a defense contractor.

Fighting virus was your specialty.

Hold on.

Wait, this is like a terrible plot in a spy book.

Yeah, not so fun when it's real, huh?

Yeah, it's going to be even less fun when we try to do the kidnapping and

murder. Murder?

Oh, my God.

What happened to his ears?

You tell us.

What? No, I...

I'm not a killer. I'm just a deep 60, a Jim City fan.

Cut the act. Where's Agent McGee? It's not an act. I would never hurt Mr. Jim

City. I love him.

In, like, a totally platonic I love his brain kind of way.

Why else would I run the biggest deep 60 fan site in the world?

And after how steamy his last book was...

I even wrote a 20 -chapter fanfic where Rick Soares and Agent Nightshade fall

madly in love.

What?

People like that?

Everyone ships them.

I even coined their nickname, Soarshade.

Ew. And for the record, I quit my job so I could run my site and do my podcast,

not commit treason. In fact, I was hosting live in that diner when Mr. Gem

was taken.

And I have 22 listeners who can back that up.

I believe that's called a dead end.

We're not killing anyone, are we? Oh, you ignore her.

Flow and steady, right? Am I right?

Wind the rain?

Technically, that's a misnomer.

Flow and steady almost never wins.

You know, for my muses, you guys sure are not doing a lot of musing.

Do you still need a muse?

I thought you figured out what that document thief was up to.

I did.

I also figured out where the missing son is. Take a look at this.

So, what conclusions can we draw?

We need to kill the mother.

What's with you and always the killing?

You know, the use.

Family was slaughtered, raised by sassans, blah, blah, blah.

Don't blah, blah, blah your backstory.

God, it's heartfelt.

She's not wrong, though. Her mother's not going to like this.

Not going to like what?

I've got my BLT.

Thanks.

You found something, didn't you?

Um, how often does the power go out around here?

Never.

That's got to be them.

Who? The bad guys. Good guys don't cut the power.

They must have figured out you have the hard drive. You need to hide it. Hide

it.

Come here. Unlock me.

Your son's best friend was murdered by whoever's in this house. If you don't

want to be next, I suggest you unlock me. Come on.

Come on.

Okay.

We listened to her podcast and that was an interesting alibi.

Well, at least we got rid of her. Barely. I had to bribe her with enough

swag to open a gift shop.

Yeah, we also just got rid of our best lead.

Good thing I've got another.

I was thinking McGee's kidnapping has to be pre -planned, right? Not really a

thing you do spur of the moment. And how did the kidnapper know McGee would be

at the diner? Is that a rhetorical question?

I just found a bug on McGee's phone.

Remember that creepy card from McGee's book signing?

The one with the scratched out eyes?

I think when he accessed this IP address, it installed the bug.

It wasn't a threat.

It was a trick. A trick that gave the bad guy access to McGee's entire

Can you trace it? Not to the bad guy, but I was able to trace to one other

the bad guy visited.

The biggest deep six fan page in the world. Whoever took McGee accessed this

site first. He's probably doing a little research.

I can dig deeper, but I need to know who runs the site in order to... Oh, we

know who runs it.

McGee's number one fan.

I will go pick her up.

Again. I'll go and get more swag.

Wake up!

Wake up!

Where's the drive?

I didn't find it at Captain Meyer's house because it's here.

What's wrong with him? It was just a flash grenade.

He had a concussion before.

And I drugged him, too.

Look, I don't care what you two are doing up here. I just want that drive.

We don't have it.

The homing ping I got when you plugged it in says otherwise.

Did you take my son?

Where is he? One more word and it will be your last.

Or what, you kill her like you killed Captain Myers?

Saw the documents.

Myers wasn't selling them. He was trying to blow the whistle.

Enough. Your retrofitted planes had a fatal flaw.

You killed Myers to keep him quiet.

Where is my son? I said enough!

Give me the drive!

Now!

Quit stalling and rush him, kid.

Why is there a good shot?

You won't get shot if you give me what I want. Take the bullet.

You've taken them before.

You've taken the pretend bullets when Gregor had taken the real ones.

Who are you talking to?

Come on, shorty. Shut up!

Hey, what are you doing, man? Come on! Last time. Come on, Timmy. Make your

move.

The drive or I shoot.

Fight. Pretend it's that critic.

McGregor, enough. I got this.

Got him? Yep.

You okay?

Yeah, as long as you don't start sharpening a brisket knife.

How'd you guys find me?

They didn't. I did.

When the woman who kidnapped you visited my site, she splurged on a platinum

membership. Oh, I have a platinum membership.

Includes a limited edition Gem City coffee mug and signed photograph.

$39 .99.

Oh. So you traced her credit card back to my location.

Oh, today was the best day ever.

I helped rescue Tom Eat Jem City and met all of his characters IRL.

Although, Agent Torres is nothing like Soros. Talk about grumpy.

You know what? Torres is a lot like Soros.

Deep down.

Guess you see the real him.

All right, I'm going to hand you off here. I've got to get going to

interrogations. Oh, I know. You still have a killer to put the screws to and

then figure out what to do with that horrible kidnapper whose son is missing.

You know what happened to him, don't you?

I'm his number one fan.

So the retrofitting system that Daniels was in charge of didn't work?

Their prototype crashed last month.

The pilot on board was killed. After the plane went down, our captain found a

fatal flaw in the design.

And he was going to blow the whistle.

Yep. But Daniels killed him.

Torture didn't kill, I thought. No torture.

Daniels was just trying to hide the body's identity.

And what about the missing son? We got any idea where he is?

Unfortunately, we do.

He was the pilot killed in the crash.

That woman didn't know that her son had died?

Actually, she did.

It's called grief psychosis.

It can develop when someone experiences something so terrible, their mind

refuses to accept it. Nothing worse than losing a child.

It's hard for me to even hear those words.

When her son died, she spiraled.

They put her on meds, which stabilized her. Captain Myers would come visit her

daily, bring her groceries, let her borrow his car.

Until he was killed.

She spiraled again.

Reality and delusion blurred together.

But her mind managed to reconstruct a reality where her son was still alive.

I remember now.

Ruby was the name of his plane.

I thought it was a woman.

Someone who'd taken him away from me.

I feel like I'm losing him all over again.

Our remembering hurts.

But you know what? That's better than the alternative.

Now there's more I'd like to forget.

Like what I did to you.

You know, you were just trying to save your son.

Most people would have shut down.

But I read your file. You were a decorated Navy intelligence officer.

When your world collapsed and you thought your son was in danger, you

like hell to protect him.

In my book, you're a hero.

A tragic hero.

Because my son didn't need protecting.

He was already gone.

Pilot error, they told me.

Plane crash was not your son's fault.

It was Daniel's, covering it up.

Doesn't make it hurt any less.

Well, maybe this will.

Matthew had a chance to eject.

Or his plane went down.

What?

Why didn't he?

Because the plane was headed for a school.

Your son stayed with Ruby.

Brought her down.

Where he knew he wouldn't hurt anyone.

Your son saved those children.

Of course he did.

Always putting others first.

And you learn that from those books of yours.

Matthew was a good boy.

He was a hero, too.

Gem City has veered too far from his crime roots, focusing instead on a new

and tone.

It is a shadow of its former self.

Whatever happened to journalistic integrity?

Yeah, this guy wouldn't know a good book if it hit him in the stupid face.

Hope I'm not the stupid face.

Edison Eckhart. His review of your book just dropped.

Yeah, it is not the worst thing ever.

But also not, not the worst.

Well, he smelled like soup.

Wait, what?

That's it?

You're not upset?

I don't really care what this guy thinks.

Seriously, I write for my fans, people like Kathy's son. If I can inspire a guy

like that, well, other people may fold laundry to my audiobooks, but I'm going

to consider that a win, too. All hail Deep Sixies.

They look bad eyes elsewhere.

I'm enjoying the win.

I don't have sad eyes.

No, actually, you look more terrified.

Is something wrong?

Yeah, I finally got the original notes from the autopsy on Parker's mom.

And? And it wasn't a clerical error case.

His mother's injuries were not consistent with a car crash.

I don't want to jump to conclusions, but... No.

I think it's time we jump.

Something's not right.

We can't keep this from Parker any longer.