Previously on The Beast.
If Barker's clean You got nothing to worry about.
If he's not, you're either going down with him
or you're gonna end up dead. I don't care that he bends the rules.
It's the big picture I'm chasing.
Don't ever forget again who you work for, either.
The word is, he saved your life this morning.
- We got each other's backs. - I couldn't trust the communicators
anywhere between here and washington.
- And neither can you. - In the bureau?
Rogues. You could even be working for one and not even know it.
Barker's a part of something.
- You don't trust me, do you? - Earn it!
- Can i buy you a drink? - Yeah. You can buy me several.
I met a girl.
It's killing you to lie to her? Get rid of her.
No excess baggage. Nothing you can't leave behind.
- Who is it? - It's your neighbor.
Easy.
- You okay? - Yeah, I'm fine.
Okay, time out.
Where are you?
I'm standing right here. What?
All right.
I don't need you to look me in the eye and
tell me how much i mean to you,
but, when you're with me...
you need to be with me.
You know what?
Forget it. I'm... I'm gonna go.
This is special agent Michaels from New York.
He's come to help us with a chinese spy
who has walked in with leads on intelligence bills
- in half a dozen cities. - His name's Tre Lee Kuo.
He travels the country
as a cultural attaché for the chinese.
First spy from there we've turned in six years.
Why?
Because the chinese don't turn.
I'm asking why this one turned.
He's 66 with kidney failure.
We've got the best treatment in the world.
'course, he doesn't say that...
Throws in the usual stuff about human-rights abuse.
But i figure it's because he wants his plumbing fixed.
How do we know this guy's not a plant?
Already given us a few gems that have played out real nice.
This guy's pure gold.
He's got a lead for us right here in Chicago.
Even if Kuo doesn't know who,
somebody in your university is selling missile secrets.
They tell me nobody knows this city better than you.
Correct me if i am wrong, But you don't speak chinese.
We've been over this. No.
Then we must wait for our next encounter.
Please forgive our manners, sir.
I had hoped for someone who spoke my language,
Someone familiar with the chee-main negotiations,
tensions in Taiwan.
I may be dying, but there are many good reasons
why i must be careful to whom i give my information.
I know i'm not what you expected.
But, sir...
I have a feeling you are doing what you're doing
because you love your country.
Not its government, but its people.
Yes.
Perhaps i do love them,
as much as you love your people.
If you please, could you grant me one question?
Yes.
How do we find the person selling the secrets?
It is my impression
that he is a professor of mathematics.
You gave us that before. It's his name we need.
In all secret documents,
he is known by the chinese symbol "peace."
Xie xie.
Listen, don't let,
Michaels rub you the wrong way.
He does not exist.
We ran with what Kuo said
about the mathematics professor...
Narrowed it down to one guy.
Okay.
Let's see who you are.
Hello. Yes, Bob, I'm very happy to be here today.
And, naturally, it's an honor to receive...
That's our man Shelby, huh?
Reporter's asking him about the abel prize in mathematical physics,
- an award he just got. - I'm donating the prize money...
He gets a lot of awards.
- And you think he's our spy? - He'd make a good one.
... deserves to be shared with my...
He has the highest security clearance of any academic
that consults for NSA and the department of defense.
For good money, says here.
Maybe not good enough for Shelby.
Degrees from Yale, Stanford.
I can't even read half of these articles.
Oh, really? Not even the one on quantum loop theory?
I think I'll wait till that one comes out on the sports page.
I'm just grateful to give back to this great country.
Look at this... Six trips to Asia in the last eight years.
And five of them to China.
Nothing makes me more proud
than what i can contribute to our nation's defense.
The award citation
says I'm a hero.
But the real heroes are the men and the women in uniform.
What is that line about patriotism...
it's "the last refuge of a scoundrel"?
There he goes. Just got out of class.
Now, what makes you think a guy like that would turn?
Money, pride...
feeling like the world doesn't know how special you are.
Who gives a damn why?
You want to be talking to students, colleagues,
- The guy that washes his car. - Got it. Got it.
And with an ego like he's probably got,
the list of people who hate him has got to be as big as Montana.
So, what's your first move?
Recon found where his math study group meets.
Math grad students.
Good luck.
Tell me about it.
- So, where will you be? - Somewhere else.
So, don't ever miss a meeting again.
And I hope you had a lousy time.
Tell us, Adam.
I have class, and I don't want to spend all day on this.
Okay, there's got to be a line that completes a circle in a mile.
Not the south pole, but near.
So rules that out.
I hate this.
North pole, maybe.
You guys mind?
Yeah, please.
Mind if I ask what's the problem?
- You a math student here? - Thinking about it.
Adam is torturing us.
Okay, how many points are there where you can walk one mile south,
one mile east, and one mile north
and still end up in the exact same spot?
This ought to be good.
This...
this is just a guess, but...
that'd be an infinite number... squared... plus one.
The "plus one" is the north pole.
Look.
Well, Jake, I really think you should consider Chicago.
Well, the reason I'd come is to work with Warren Shelby.
Let me guess.
You saw his "world of numbers" series on PBS,
- and it changed your life. - Like Jennifer.
Well, actually, I'm more into his defense work.
Probably never let his T.A.S
get anywhere near that stuff, though.
Not a chance.
Truth is, he won't even notice you.
- Why? - You don't have boobs.
Anyway, it's what everybody says.
What does everyone say?
- You heard about Jodi Williams? - Adam!
What? Tell me.
Girl two years ago
got a little obsessed with professor Selby.
She committed suicide.
If Selby didn't walk on water around here,
the police would be all over him.
He's not only potentially a seller of government secrets
and not only is he screwing his students,
but he might also have been involved in one of them dying.
He broke it off with her just before it happened.
I don't know.
Maybe she threatened to go to his wife.
Have you found anyone that likes this Shelby?
His chairman.
Says Shelby's gonna win a nobel.
Well, he'll be the first one to receive it from behind bars.
Yes?
- M. Sampson. - Yes. Professor. Shelby.
You don't know how pleased I am. This is a true honor.
Please.
- Thank you. - You have some credentials?
- Absolutely. - An old cold war axiom.
"Trust, but verify."
Thank you.
So, you come highly recommended by Kiteling.
Kiteling.
And he is working on the same that I've brought you.
Midcourse missile interception. You made progress?
Now our problem is targeting that can sort through these decoys.
Well, yes, that's the hard part.
Yes.
But the actual warhead has greater mass,
and even in space, residual
effects of gravity can be calculated.
- So you'll give it a try? - I'll do my best.
Wonderful.
Now, it's pro-forma,
but I need to remind you of the protocol.
- Of course. - The data is on this thumb drive.
Do not copy it. Do not remove it from this office.
The codes will only activate on this computer.
I understand. I'll get right on it.
Have a good day.
How's it going? He fall for it?
Hook, line, and sinker.
- I got eyes on him right now. - Good.
Kuo will tell us when something appears on the chinese side.
- Is the tap live? - Yeah.
Computer, phone, gps on the thumb drive, ut he knows it.
So whatever he's doing, it's gonna be low-tech.
So do not let the man out of your sight, all right?
Barker!
Did you log your interactions with Thomason here?
Guess who. No!
Okay.
Later.
Wish I had more manpower here.
Operation like this in New York, we'd have 100 men.
So, these are Kuo's contacts.
The chinese have penetrated missile defense,
the department of energy.
Who knows where Shelby's information will surface.
Is your tail on him?
24/7.
Hey.
There's my girl.
- You hungry? - We've already eaten!
You know I hate it when you shout from the other room!
Sorry.
Just had to finish a few things first.
I got another assignment from the defense department today.
- That's good. - Yeah.
Daddy, Do you want to play mozart?
Yes, I would love to play Mozart.
How many men you got on him?
- Agent Ellis Dove. - One guy.
For the Al Hamid case, I ran nine agents.
Yeah, in New York, maybe,
but a cavalry regiment in highland park
just might draw a little attention.
Wait, hich is also what i heard
tipped off Al Hamid's backup, right?
He is still M.I.A is he not?
97% I.O Rate.
Best in the bureau.
Yeah?
It's Kuo.
That's it.
- That's the formula I gave him. - Thank you.
It showed up in the chinese database.
Okay. We got the son of a bitch.
- What's up? - Where's shelby right now?
I'm looking at him.
He's playing piano with his daughter.
- So, are you... - Agent Ellis, this is Michaels.
Where was your mark an hour ago?
Teaching his class, and then he came straight home.
Well, nobody's been in his office.
The thumb drive hasn't been accessed since he left.
You had to have missed it.
- No. - Ellis didn't miss anything.
Bullshit! Shelby made a drop.
Your guy screwed up, Barker.
It's not possible. I've been sitting on him the whole time.
You said these guys were good. This is sloppy work.
Your partner may have blown the case.
We don't have anything unless we catch Shelby in the act!
- Easy, Michaels. - This whole thing's amateur hour.
Are you crazy?!
You owe
- my partner an apology. - Apology?!
- This isn't gonna be forgotten. - I should hope not.
Ellis, you still there?
That sounded like Barker just clocked somebody.
Yeah, you'd better come in.
You're cleaning this up.
Man, I wish i'd seen it.
Colossal mistake.
- Necessary, maybe. - And fun, I bet.
Yeah. But still a mistake.
Is Michaels gonna file a complaint?
To hell with him.
So, is there any way you missed that drop?
No.
The office, campus...
- had to be electronic. - No, he was bugged.
Did the thumb drive leave the office?
It is still in the same place,
So he cracked it, he copied it, he dropped it.
- Well, I don't know how. - Which means right under our nose,
Shelby sent military secrets to the damn chinese.
Why don't we bring him in, then, if we know he did it?
We can't, because Michaels is right about one thing...
we can't use the transmission alone to arrest Shelby.
If we did, we'd be compromising Kuo.
We've got to find separate confirmation.
All right. I'll go back over the ground.
No, sir. I have a new job for you. Come here.
Right there...
are 13,000 pages
delivered to us by Kuo. So, you are looking for anything
that even smells like it came from Shelby.
You got to be kidding.
Well... get to it.
They're not gonna read themselves.
So, you got anything?
Just stuff that says he's a pretty good capitalist...
for a communist spy.
Tax shelters, houses... we knew all that.
So we trace the money.
Follow up on the wire transfers.
They should head right back to his defense work.
Not good enough.
No?
So, I just saw Michaels.
His men found something in those garbage bags from behind Shelby's house.
- What'd they find? - A cellphone...
the throwaway kind from a convenience store.
- You trace the luds on it? - At 7:00 p.m. On the 17th,
- Shelby called a safe house. - No, no, no, no. 7:00?
I would have seen him on the phone. I didn't see him.
- Obviously, you didn't. - And what?
He tosses it behind his house? That doesn't make any...
The cellphone gives us all we need.
That was Conrad.
Shelby just confessed.
He also says Michaels is thrilled, we're a great team,
and all is forgiven... even the pop in the mouth.
I just don't see how he made the call.
Maybe it was prerecorded or a time-set data dump.
Bad guy's in jail. Michaels gets his victory lap.
Everybody wins.
You met the guy. What do you think?
Robert Hanssen walked the halls of the FBI for years,
and nobody knew he was selling secrets.
So the best can fool anyone.
Still...
as we say in the corps, "jdfr."
"Just doesn't feel right."
So, you got anything else but a feeling?
Nope.
Well, you can always do more digging.
You got an itch, scratch it.
Maybe drop in on Michaels' chinese source.
- Kuo? - Yeah.
You gonna help me on this?
You're the one with the doubts.
As far as I'm concerned, god's in his heaven,
and one more bad guy's on the inside.
Kuo's dead.
- Where are you? - Chinatown.
Passed some guy in a hell of a hurry in the hallway.
- Can you I.D. him? - Happened too quick.
Kuo was trying to write something in chinese.
Maybe the contact.
Looks like he got halfway through writing it when he was interrupted.
- Can you fire it over to me? - Yeah. Should i call this in?
No, no, no, no. You go to cover, and you wait for my call.
All right.
You sure you want to do this without letting Michaels know?
You and he are just beginning to get right, you know.
I never figured we had much of a future, anyway.
Can I do this?
What was the name you used... Sampson?
Yeah.
Actually the name of my high-school math teacher.
Never broke a "C."
I can't imagine what this is about.
I remember actually signing a confession.
Right. And I remember celebrating...
for a couple of hours.
- And then what? - Well, you got students.
I have one, too.
And he just started asking questions.
That's what a good student does asks questions, brings up problems.
So, here's one for you.
Tell me what that is.
I can tell you it's chinese. That's all.
Really?
I would think a spy for the chinese should know
that is the character for a woman.
That'd be reasonable speculation on your part. Nothing more.
"Speculation."
I got a confession.
Everything we found out about you,
It just pissed me off. The way you stuffed your pockets...
you took what you wanted from everybody and everything.
Nothing life had to offer was good enough for you.
I already told you I was guilty.
You got me painting a picture of a guy
who would do anything... anything
for a little secret glory.
But now...
you know the bottom line?
You're just not a good liar.
And whatever else you are, you're not a traitor, either.
- You don't know anything about me. - You're right.
I sure as hell don't know why you're about to spend
the rest of your life in prison for something you did not do.
I did this.
Whatever happens to me, I deserve it.
Okay.
But what exactly did you do?
A lot on your mind. I can imagine.
You married?
Divorced. Two kids.
Love them to death. Wish I could see them more.
Why don't you?
Why do you think?
Came down to job or family. Tried to do both.
One was never satisfied.
Well, I think you made the wrong choice.
I don't.
What were you thinking dropping in on Kuo?
Double agent, foreign flag, ends up dead.
You know how bad this looks?
The most important chinese asset in a decade dead,
And you were the last man to see him.
We got a dozen open cases that now we can't pursue.
- You know I didn't kill him. - I'm on your side, but the bureau,
if they find out you were there, I can't protect you.
Did Barker send you?
I went on my own.
You're so twisted around, you don't know which way is up anymore, do you?
Barker went to Shelby, showed him a chinese symbol.
Yeah?
- What did Shelby say? - That's not my case.
Barker's my case.
All I want to know is where Barker got the symbol.
- I don't know. - Well, the assumption is,
Barker's connected to Shelby.
He just wanted to know...
the trail ends at Shelby's door.
That's all.
We're closing in on Barker, Ellis.
You don't want to get caught on the wrong side of this.
Get anything else out of Shelby?
Washington's all jazzed... way we bagged him.
And I made it a big "we"... you and me.
Well...
I think we bagged the wrong guy.
- And you're basing this on...? - Watching him.
Michaels, the guy is covering up for something
or covering for someone.
Look at that. That's what Kuo was writing when he...
Oh, Jesus.
Don't tell me you were involved in his death his murder.
Kuo was dead when found.
"Found"? By whom?
That is the symbol for a woman.
- I believe the contact is a woman. - But the confession, the cellphone.
I have reason to think
that there may be a problem with the evidence.
Wait. Wait.
If there was any tampering, I don't want to hear it.
We're all cops here. We know about keeping a plant in your shoe
in case a guilty man needs convicting a gun, some dope.
If you went the extra yard here, I don't need to know it.
And I'll deny this conversation ever took place.
Michaels, if Shelby is guilty, that's one thing,
- But if we got him wrong... - I'm not even considering that.
... then we got two problems... an innocent guy is behind bars
and a traitor is still out there...
a traitor who can compromise our missile-defense system.
We have to reopen this case.
They warned me about you.
We won.
Thank you for your service. Go home.
We're better than this.
Kuo's death... the way he died at his desk...
looks a hell of a lot like the way Shelby's girl did when she died.
Same hitter.
One of theirs, so, obviously, Shelby did not kill Jodu Williams.
Actually...
I don't think he had a clue about any of this
until Michaels showed up with the cuffs.
What about the phone?
Okay.
Why did he confess?
You think Michaels' cub scouts forced it out of him?
There's only one reason I can think of.
Check this out.
Peace sign. The contact. We've been over this.
No.
If you draw a roof over it, it's a peace sign.
That symbol alone is the sign of a woman.
So Kuo must have figured out Shelby was not the contact.
We should have been looking for a woman all this time.
The wife?
She has the means, she has the motive,
And god knows the man could not keep it in his pants.
- You want me to visit the wife? - Might be a good idea.
Will I be going with FBI consent?
- Is there a problem with that? - Nope.
Good.
Hi. Ellis dove. I just called.
Oh, about the house. Yeah, of course.
I'm sorry that, the place is such a mess.
I was hoping to get it cleaned up
before i put it on the market.
The FBI do this?
Just the inside.
The windows are courtesy of angry patriots.
But they have assured us that they will notify
on the internet protest sites that we moved out,
in case that worries you.
Actually, i'm not here about the house.
Look, what else do you want from me?
My husband's in prison. My daughter can't even go to school.
I... we have to leave our home.
I have told you people everything that i know.
I don't think your husband did this.
But someone close to him did.
A woman.
You know about Jodu Williams.
He broke it off with her a couple months before she died.
Turns out that he fell for another student.
She became unstable.
She came to me and said that she was gonna blog
about professor Shelby's new girlfriend.
And then she died.
Did Jodi give her name?
No.
But i met her.
You just know when you meet one.
He has a type.
This one was asian.
If you knew about the women...
... why'd you stay with him?
You should see him with my daughter.
So, there are two asian grad students
in Shelby's department.
One is Elsa Tan.
Not Shelby's type.
And vice versa.
Married with two kids.
And the other chick is this one...
Jennifer Ling.
I met her in one of the study groups.
That's our spy.
Yeah, but the thing is, she's taiwanese.
They're fighting for independence from China.
Why would she sell secrets to the enemy?
Well, like any other country, there are traitors
and there are those fooled by them.
Go get her.
Jake?
None of us can believe what's going on.
- With Shelby? - Yeah.
I-i'm sure they'll straighten it out,
but i hope you still want to come to school here.
Walk with me.
I know about the affair.
What?
This must be some kind of mistake.
Nope.
I traced the records.
Three weekend trips to his wisconsin house.
I could care less about what you and Shelby were up to.
But the treason... see, that's a problem.
Wh...
Try and run.
I'll shoot you in the head.
I...
What i did, i did for my country.
And what, betray this country at the same time?
I have family in Taiwan.
I was just trying to help protect them.
You think you understand the chinese threat?
They've got 300 ICBMS pointed at Taiwan,
less than 200 miles away. They will use them.
Taiwan?
Taiwan is where you think you're sending your information?
Only missile-defense technology,
which America sells to them, anyway. We're on the same side.
It's been going to the chinese.
You're lying.
A man is about to spend his life in prison.
Our chinese asset is dead.
The only lie being told here
is the one you are telling yourself!
Now, what i need to know
is how you got the data off that thumb drive.
Talk!
When warren first got his computer, i replaced his motherboard with one
that gave me backdoor access.
- What did he tell you? - What are you talking about?
Because i never involved him. He never knew.
What about the call to the chinese safe house?
What safe house?
The call he made from the disposable cellphone.
Warren doesn't have a cellphone.
He thinks they cause brain cancer.
He's like a nut about it. He doesn't... he doesn't own one.
Get in the car.
Get in.
If she's telling the truth,
please tell me it was Michaels who planted the phone.
- Are you kidding me? - You planted evidence?
No choice.
I've trusted you every step of the way.
And, believe me, it hasn't been easy.
I was protecting your screw-up.
You just heard.
- You know that i didn't screw up. - When national security is at stake,
often, there is collateral damage.
So, what are you gonna do now?
Leave her with me.
You're going down the wrong road, Ellis.
You know what i'm starting to think?
You did that a long time ago.
So, is this wheret's around you make all your drops?
This month, yeah.
I have to ask you something.
He figured it out, didn't he? That it was me, that i betrayed him.
Shelby never said a word about you.
But he confessed.
So he must have been protecting someone, and it must have been me.
Even if he knew you weren't spying for the chinese,
- he's throwing away his life. - I'm aware of that.
So? Do you know why?
Because we were in love.
Or he was, and he thought you were.
What?
- Nothing you'd understand. - Try me.
I did what i did for my family and my country.
But i couldn't have let myself if i didn't feel love, too.
Go make the drop. I'll be right behind you.
Help me! Let me go!
- Let me go! - Shut up!
Hey. Let her go, man. Let her go.
Oh, my god!
It's okay.
I-i really can't... i can't take this.
This is...
- this is too much for me to... - hey, hey.
Stay with me, all right?
- Trust me. Okay? - Okay.
Listen up. You want to help me?
Here's your chance.
Find anything on him?
Clean.
You did the right thing calling me.
You need to dispose of him...
and take care of her.
Is she the spy?
She wasn't working for the chinese.
She didn't know she was, anyway.
- What difference does that make? - A lot.
She thought she was helping Taiwan, our ally.
I don't care who she's selling secrets to. A traitor's a traitor.
I'm not giving her to michaels.
We going through this again?
I assume by now,
you know that michaels planted evidence on Shelby.
Why didn't you call Barker?
You gonna help me or not?
Yeah. Don't worry.
I'll dispose of the body.
In the next day or two, you're gonna hear a rumor about a chinese defector.
Why?
It'll explain his disappearance.
So they don't come looking for you.
Am i going into a witness-protection program?
No.
We're gonna turn you.
- You're working for us now. - What do i have to do?
Your friend here thinks you can be useful
since he killed the only one on their side
who was onto you.
We're gonna keep you in place. You keep doing what you're doing.
I... don't understand.
You want me to keep giving information to the chinese government?
Yeah. But it'll be stuff we want to give them...
rock-solid disinformation.
Raymond here will hook you up with a defense lab in town.
- I just, i don't know if i can do this. - What's your name?
Jennifer Ling.
Jennifer, we really don't want to have to say
that you don't have a choice.
So make it your choice.
Congratulations.
You may have just landed the FBI its new Kuo.
- So, you turned the girl. - Yep.
- Michaels help you set that up? - Nope.
Then who?
Sometimes you disappear...
make a call.
You got some interesting friends. So do i.
It all worked out.
Here he comes.
- They told me i was free to go. - You are.
I have one question.
Did you know that jennifer was selling your work to the chinese?
I didn't... not until you arrested me.
Why'd you cover for her?
Doesn't make sense.
Since when does love make sense?
I was trying to protect her.
And it was worth destroying your family,
letting the world think you're a traitor?
Those were foregone conclusions. The only question for me
was whether i was gonna let this destroy her, too.
You want a lift?
Where?
Wherever.
There's nowhere to take me.
I have nowhere to go.
Nothing.
Whatever you're gonna say, don't.
- Hey. - Hey.
You up for a race? 5 miles.
Rose...
What's... what's going on?
Look...
i don't want you to think this is something that it's not.
I don't.
I don't need it to be anything else. Didn't that occur to you?
How could i?
You'll disappear for days, and when you come back,
half the time, you look like you've been run over by a truck
or you're evasive or you're an emotional wreck.
You could do so much better than me.
And you get to decide that?
Yeah. I'll see you around.
Tell me you're gonna put your target to bed real soon.
I will. But not on this case.
I played ball... let Kuo go to Barker
so you'd have a shot at exposing him.
Barker covers his tracks well.
Another mess. It's a mess every time i come down here.
Maybe it's you. How's the jaw?
You get anything from Ellis?
I will. I've earned his trust.
More important than trust, he owes you.
And Jennifer.
I want to keep her clean. She's a big yield.
You losing steam?
Nope.
Barker made a mistake... a monster.
But when he realized it, he reversed field.
He wasn't about to let the wrong guy go down.
You were.
Sometimes i feel they got me watching the wrong people.
You ought to keep that kind of thought to yourself.
It'd be safer.
To hell with safer.