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209. Open Heart
Written by: Elliot Stern
Directed by: Rene Bonniere
Guest Cast: Gina Torres, Jill Dyck, David Collins
Transcribed by Jean
[Note: Transcript dialogue only until updated.]
WHITE ROOM
MICHAEL: Dr. Kerlock. You performed an operation six weeks ago.
KERLOCK: I perform many operations.
MICHAEL: This one was on behalf of Red Cell.
KERLOCK: I can't tell you anything! Please, they'll kill me.
MICHAEL: So will we.
KERLOCK: They held a gun to my head!
MICHAEL: You were paid $50,000.
KERLOCK: If I hadn't done it, someone else would have.
MICHAEL: Who was the patient?
KERLOCK: A man, late 30's or 40's.
MICHAEL: Features?
KERLOCK: I didn't see them. He was sheeted. I saw very little.
MICHAEL: Skin?
KERLOCK: Fair.
MICHAEL: Build?
KERLOCK: Medium, little body fat. That's all I know, I swear! I didn't want to die, so I agreed.
MICHAEL: To what?
OPERATIONS’ OFFICE
MICHAEL: He was paid by Red Cell to place explosives and a detonator inside someone's abdomen.
OPERATIONS: They created a human time bomb.
MICHAEL: Yes.
OPERATIONS: A suicide mission?
MICHAEL: No. The man doesn't know it’s inside him.
OPERATIONS: Identity of the carrier?
MICHAEL: Unknown.
OPERATIONS: Target?
MICHAEL: Unknown.
OPERATIONS: Time of detonation?
MICHAEL: Unknown.
BRIEFING TABLE
OPERATIONS: What do we know about the explosive?
MICHAEL: It's a plastique.
OPERATIONS: How powerful?
MICHAEL: Kerlock said there's enough to level a city block.
OPERATIONS: How long do we have?
WALTER: They're using host enzymes to break down the bio-trigger, half life of eight weeks. The implant was six weeks ago.
OPERATIONS: So we have two weeks, at most to locate the carrier and identify the target.
WALTER: Mm-hm.
OPERATIONS: Birkoff?
BIRKOFF: I'm analyzing Kerlock's patient files, and using every available intel source to locate the target.
OPERATIONS: In the meantime we have one lead. Jenna Vogler. One of Red Cell's top foot soldiers. According to our intel, she was in the room during the surgical procedure. We need to bring her in.
MICHAEL: Do we have a location?
OPERATIONS: Yes; she's in prison. Red Cell sometimes funds itself by dealing drugs. She was arrested at a border crossing a month ago.
BIRKOFF: Will the local authorities cooperate?
OPERATIONS: No, it’s a hostile country and a direct assault is out of the question for political reasons. Which leaves us with only one option.
CROWDED BUS
Nikita is stopped by police who find drugs on her person.
WOMEN'S PRISON
PRISONER: Hey, you!
NIKITA: I've got her, Birkoff.
ADRIAN: What do you think you're doing? You want to be out here, you gotta pay rent.
NIKITA: And if I don't?
ADRIAN: You'll pay alright.
NIKITA: All I got is this.
ADRIAN: That'll do…for a start.
COMM
BIRKOFF: I went through Kerlock's patient files. Everyone is accounted for. The carrier's records must have been deleted.
OPERATIONS: Have we at least identified the target?
BIRKOFF: We have a source inside a Red Cell splinter group. He says its the United Nations General Assembly next Tuesday.
OPERATIONS: Should help us limit the carrier pool.
BIRKOFF: I'm compiling a preliminary database now. Delegates, translators, messengers, pages, waiters...
OPERATIONS: Numbers, Birkoff.
BIRKOFF: Twelve thousand and counting.
MUNITIONS
WALTER: I designed it for a mission in the Ural mountains. It weighs 100 grams. Has a receiver that can pick up FM stations as far away as Germany.
BELINDA: FM is line-of-sight only.
WALTER: I piggybacked off a D.O.D. channel.
BELINDA: Doesn't that breach Section policy?
WALTER: I'm a rebel.
BIRKOFF: Hey, Walter. Operations wants your report on the detonator.
WALTER: Huh?
BELINDA: That's okay, I've got to go anyway.
WALTER: I'll catch you later, Belinda.
Belinda leaves.
WALTER: Wow! I haven't felt like this in a long time. I - I think she might feel the same way.
BIRKOFF: Walter, the report.
WALTER: I -- I need your help. Find out anything you can about her, something I wouldn't likely know.
BIRKOFF: Look, I'm really busy.
WALTER: Her birthday's coming up. I want to get her something really special. Please?
BIRKOFF: Fine. Input your report. Operations is waiting.
PRISON'S OUTER PERIMETER
MICHAEL: Birkoff?
BIRKOFF: Chopper's standing by. You're clear to go.
MICHAEL: Nikita, go.
JENNA: I've been expecting you.
MICHAEL: Stand by, Nikita. We have an anomaly. Twenty hostiles, two vehicles. Nikita, hold your position.
JENNA: You got lucky today. Don't let it go to your head. This is my prison.
NIKITA: It's a pit. You can keep it.
COMM
OPERATIONS: What's the problem?
BIRKOFF: Military inspection.
OPERATIONS: Can we rearrange the Tactical?
BIRKOFF: No. Insufficient personnel. How do we proceed?
PRISON
JENNA: What do you want?
NIKITA: I want to be left alone.
JENNA: Oh. It doesn't work that way. You obey the rules or you don't survive.
NIKITA: Your rules?
JENNA: That's right.
MICHAEL: Nikita, abort.
NIKITA: I make my own rules.
JENNA: Then, we have a problem.
NIKITA: No. You have a problem.
PRISON: INNER YARD
Jenna nods to a guard who follows Nikita to the privy. The sound of grunts and flesh impacting flesh is heard.
COMM
BIRKOFF: Military inspection lasts a week.
OPERATIONS: We don't have a week. Can we breach during the inspection?
BIRKOFF: No. They have twenty-five troops dispersed around the prison.
OPERATIONS: Review the prison schematic. Find another scenario.
PRISON
NIKITA: I guess if you want me dead, you'll just have to do it yourself.
COMM
BIRKOFF: I did a infrared scan of the prison off satellite feeds. It’s built on top of an ancient structure. Over the centuries, a system of underground tunnels have been built. One or two paths lead outside the prison walls.
OPERATIONS: How do we know the passageways aren't collapsed?
BIRKOFF: Color saturation indicates structural density. A blue line traces a pathway through the maze that leads under the wall.
OPERATIONS: How stable are the configurations?
BIRKOFF: There is no way to be certain but our options are limited.
OPERATIONS: Proceed.
PRISON
BIRKOFF: (via comm) The primary tunnel runs directly under your feet. It breaches the wall eleven meters north of the southeast corner, at the first drainage grate.
NIKITA: Tunnel access?
BIRKOFF: Through the grate. From there it’s two hundred meters to the exit point.
NIKITA: When's Recon?
BIRKOFF: Tonight. Confirm the pathway.
NIKITA: What about Jenna? I won't be able to carry her all that way.
BIRKOFF: Scenario's changed: you have to get her to come willingly.
NIKITA: How am I going to do that?
BIRKOFF: Sorry, not my department. One more thing. Your comm won't transmit that far below ground. We'll get you a replacement.
ENTRENCE TO PRISON
STANKO: Identification.
MICHAEL: Where's my client?
STANKO: Through there. Far side. Visitors Area.
MICHAEL: The Consulate sent me to handle your case. Please sign these. We're trying to arrange bail.
NIKITA: How soon?
MICHAEL: Tomorrow. If all goes well tonight. Are there any other potential clients?
NIKITA: One. But we're not on particularly friendly terms.
MICHAEL: Maybe that can change.
NIKITA: That could be difficult.
MICHAEL: I'm sure you can manage. Until tomorrow.
COMM
BIRKOFF: I familiarized Nikita with the tunnels, but she needs to confirm accessibility.
OPERATIONS: When?
BIRKOFF: Tonight. If it checks out we go live tomorrow.
OPERATIONS: Good.
WALTER: Did you get my stuff yet?
BIRKOFF: What stuff?
WALTER: Belinda! Belinda!
BIRKOFF: I've been a little busy, Walter.
WALTER: Hey, it’s her birthday tomorrow. I need to get her something that she really likes.
BIRKOFF: Why don't you ask her?
WALTER: You, ah, don't know women very well, do you?
BIRKOFF: Right now?
WALTER: Yeah. Right now.
BIRKOFF: Let's see what we've got. She plays the piano...
WALTER: Nice.
BIRKOFF: ...is fluent in Czech and Russian.
WALTER: Mm.
BIRKOFF: ...broke her leg when she was twelve -- got thrown from a horse.
WALTER: Really, huh? It’s great stuff. What else?
Birkoff pauses.
WALTER: What is it?
BIRKOFF: Nothing. That was it.
WALTER: Well, that's enough. Horses, right? Horses!
Walter leaves. Birkoff reads Belinda’s file once more:
STATUS:
EVALUATION UNSATISFACTORY
TRANSFER TO ABEYANCE
TERMINATION RANKING: 2
WALTER: (to Belinda) I guess you know I've missed you.
PRISON
NIKITA: These belong to you. Must be nice having a business relationship with the guards.... real nice. How much do you pay them to kill someone?
JENNA: Depends. In your case…
NIKITA: Oh.
JENNA: ...Two packs of cigarettes.
NIKITA: How much would you pay to be free? I want to make you an offer. I can get us out of here.
JENNA: How?
NIKITA: Underground tunnels, dozens of them. One goes right under that wall.
JENNA: There are no tunnels, it's a rumor.
NIKITA: No. I can prove it.
JENNA: Then you don't need me.
NIKITA: Ah, but you know the guards; their schedules, habits... You can get us past the guards; I can get us through the tunnels.
JENNA: Why trust me? I tried to have you killed this afternoon.
NIKITA: Only a lunatic would pass on the chance to get out of here. You're a bitch…but you're not crazy.
JENNA: Who are you?
NIKITA: I run drugs -- I got caught. It happens. I won't stay caught. I knew that if I busted I'd end up here, so I did my homework. Those tunnels are real.
JENNA: Huh.
Later…
JENNA: Bed check at dawn. We have about an hour's leave.
NIKITA: That's not enough time. Let's find the way out tonight and go tomorrow.
BIRKOFF: Twelve meters to your right.
JENNA: Which way?
BIRKOFF: Take the far left tunnel and keep moving straight.
NIKITA: There's no tunnels. There's just walls.
BIRKOFF: It has to be there.
NIKITA: Well, its not.
JENNA: Not what?
NIKITA: Not what I expected.
BIRKOFF: Nikita, kick the wall.
NIKITA: Hold that. Stand back. (kicks wall) Oh, yeah! Got it. That's it. Okay. I'd say this is it.
JENNA: You were right.
NIKITA: Let's get back.
STANKO: Who's there?
NIKITA: Stay there. Keep quiet.
STANKO: What are you doing here?
NIKITA: Nothing.
STANKO: Who was with you?
NIKITA: Nobody.
STANKO: I heard voices. Move!
STANKO: Who was with you?
NIKITA: I told you: no one.
Stanko whips Nikita. Later, she is returned to the prison population, where Jenna and another woman drag her to Jenna’s bed.
JENNA: Get the water. Leave.
JENNA: Shh…okay. Shh. Thank you.
COMM
WALTER: Open it.
BIRKOFF: No!
WALTER: Yes.
BIRKOFF: Oh, this is awesome! An I-440!
WALTER: First off the line and you can retrain the array as much as you want.
BIRKOFF: Oh, wow! Thanks.
WALTER: N ...no, thank you.
BIRKOFF: For what?
WALTER: For Belinda! Things went great last night. I gave her this little rocking horse jewelry box -- and she loved it! I couldn't have done it without you. Speak of the devil's mistress.
BELINDA: There you are.
WALTER: Hi.
BELINDA: Hi, Birkoff.
WALTER: What's up?
BELINDA: Nothing. I just stopped by to say "hello."
WALTER: Okay. I'll see you in a minute.
BIRKOFF: I'm running a list of possible carriers now. I have it narrowed down to 125.
OPERATIONS: I want to upgrade another Mission, the one we're running in Kasakhstan.
BIRKOFF: I'll pull the file.
OPERATIONS: The Profile calls for an Abeyance Team of five. They'll draw fire while the primary Team carries out the Mission. Send the Abeyance Ops to Walter to get their inventory.
BIRKOFF: What's the survival likelihood of the Abeyance Team?
OPERATIONS: Zero.
PRISON
JENNA: Soup?
NIKITA: Umm.
JENNA: You talk in your sleep. .Who's Michael?
NIKITA: My brother.
JENNA: I thought he might be your boyfriend.
NIKITA: Not...ah, not likely.
JENNA: Umm. These might scar. Too early to tell. I want to go with you tonight. But, I need to be sure. People who endure pain do it for a reason. What's yours?
NIKITA: I want to get out of here!
JENNA: What happens when we get out?
NIKITA: We cross the border as soon as we can.
JENNA: That's not what I meant.
NIKITA: Anything's possible.
PRISON
BIRKOFF: I'm sending the Tactical now.
MICHAEL: I have it.
BIRKOFF: Michael, they've almost reached Egress.
MICHAEL: Location?
BIRKOFF: Fifty meters north.
MICHAEL: We're on our way.
JENNA: We made it! What is this?
MALE OPERATIVE: Come with me.
WHITE ROOM
MICHAEL: Eight weeks ago you were present at a surgical procedure. A human being was turned into a walking time bomb. The target is the United Nations within the next four hours. Who's the carrier?
Jenna says nothing.
MICHAEL: We will break you.
SECTION
BIRKOFF: Initiating sequence. There are twenty-one potential carriers we haven't eliminated. We'll show her visuals of each candidate. If there's recognition, we'll see it.
Photographs flash in front of Jenna.
BIRKOFF: Blood pressure steady. EKG steady. Cortex fluctuation steady. She might as well be looking at a blank wall. That's it. She gave us nothing.
MICHAEL: Play it again.
BIRKOFF: It's pointless she's too controlled.
NIKITA: Maybe I can change that.
Nikita enters the room with Jenna.
NIKITA: Get her out of that. Thank you. I can help you.
NIKITA: Jenna, look at me. You're going to die, we both know that. I can make sure it’s over quickly. I don't really want to see you suffer.
JENNA: Tell me the truth. Did you feel anything at all?
NIKITA: Yes.
JENNA: Pity. Contempt.
NIKITA: Not contempt.
JENNA: Desire?
NIKITA: Yes.
JENNA: Love?
NIKITA: I don't know.
JENNA: Say it. Say you love me.
NIKITA: I loved you.
JENNA: You're a whore!
Nikita leaves to rejoin the others.
OPERATIONS: Have her taken to the White Room, use neuro-shock, then re-run the sequence.
BIRKOFF: I checked it ten times. She really is a machine.
FEMALE OPERATIVE: Come with us.
MICHAEL: What's this blip?
BIRKOFF: Nothing. It's post-sequence.
MICHAEL: What was she looking at?
BIRKOFF: A blank screen.
MICHAEL: Run the last part of the sequence again. Go. She was looking at herself. The blimp came because she was looking at her own reflection. Birkoff, the carrier would have a scar from the operation. What would it look like?
BIRKOFF: Five centimeters long, left side below the rib cage.
Nikita stops the operatives escorting Jenna and pulls up Jenna’s shirt, revealing a scar.
NIKITA: Get her to Containment ... now!
COMM
WALTER: Oh-oh. Let's get out of here -- quick.
Walter leaves with Belinda. Operations approaches Birkoff.
OPERATIONS: You can't protect her forever -- or him.
BIRKOFF: What do you mean?
OPERATIONS: You know what I mean. We know you tampered with her Abeyance records. Don't start thinking with your heart.
BIRKOFF: Sorry.
OPERATIONS: You're too valuable to us.
OUTSIDE CONTAINMENT
NIKITA: How much time does she have?
MICHAEL: Not long.
NIKITA: I thought I was manipulating her. She obviously wanted to be brought back here the whole time.
MICHAEL: Our Intel was faulty from the start, planted by Red Cell to divert our attention from the real target: us. The doctor lied when he said the carrier was a man.
OPERATIONS: The assignment you were given you carried out well. The blame lies elsewhere. Good work.
There is a muffled explosion.
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