Eleventh Hour

Hey, Ned, we're gonna hit the pierogi stand.

You coming?

I got to call home first.

Uh...

Order me a potato and cheese,

and no skimping on the sour cream.

Got it.

Hello?

Cath, it's me.

Tell me you got it.

Last dancing robot in Pittsburgh.

I had to wrestle it away from a hockey mom.

Those chicks are tough.

We are going to have one very happy birthday boy.

Just don't be late for his party.

I'll be there, I swear.

Put him on, okay, I want to say hi.

Johnny, Daddy's on the phone.

Hey, Dad. - Happy birthday, champ.

You excited?

Uh-huh.

This is gonna be the best birthday ever.

Lot of pressure on Mom and Dad

to keep topping ourselves, but we'll give it a shot.

What do you say?

Yeah...

Buddy, you there?

Johnny.

Help me.

Help me.

Ow.

Damn it.

Rachel Young?

Walsh.

What's it been... three years? - A-At least.

I haven't seen you since Quantico.

Well, what are you doing here?

You're looking at the new Special Agent in Charge

of the WMD directorate.

I am now one of the movers

and shakers in the world of nuclear non-proliferation.

Sounds exciting.

So... where'd you end up?

Finally land that spot you wanted at Counter Terrorism?

Not exactly.

I landed at the Office of the Director.

Top of the food chain.

Impressive. - Actually, I'm, I'm more of a handler

for someone at the top of the food chain,

but our, our cases are unique.

Well, like what?

Give me a taste.

Uh...

Are, are you familiar with the parameters of electroporation?

Neural implants?

How about porphyria enzyme de... - Hey, I got to run.

...ficiency syndrome?

Gentlemen.

It was great seeing you, Rachel.

Yeah. - We should grab a drink

sometime, do some more catching up.

Yeah.

What?

...oversight at bio-waste facilities.

Now, I admit it's not very sexy...

Sorry to interrupt.

Dr. Hood, you have an urgent call

from the Pennsylvanian State Health Department.

Some guy named Rigdon.

Pittsburgh EMTs responded to a demolition worker

found in advanced respiratory distress

with multiple organ failure

and other anomalous complications.

Anomalous complications?

Ones that suggest he may well have been exposed

to a highly toxic substance, one not commonly seen.

Right now, authorities have it categorized

as a possible public health concern.

How serious a concern?

It's hard to say till we get the specifics,

but it's definitely something he ate or drank,

something absorbed through the skin,

something airborne.

Best-case scenario, it's an isolated incident...

one victim, one quickly identifiable cause.

And the worst-case scenario?

Suffice to say, really, really bad.

So tell me about your old buddy Calvert Rigdon.

Cal spent the last eight years

heading up the Pennsylvania Health Department.

Before that, he ran the National Center

for Preparedness, Detection and Control

of Infectious Diseases at the CDC,

and before that, he was fighting typhus and yellow fever

in Angola and Sierra Leone.

Pretty impressive.

Actually, his most impressive contribution

was when he introduced me to my wife.

Whoa, whoa,

This is a restricted area. - Don't shoot.

We're the good guys.

I'm Dr. Hood, Special Science Advisor to the FBI.

Jacob.

Hey.

Cal.

Afraid you're going to need these.

Victim's name

is Christopher Fisher.

A member of the demolition clean-up crew

found him this morning at around 10:00.

He was dead by 11:00.

What is this place?

Native Americans

used to bury their dead here for centuries.

Early settlers at Fort Pitt did the same.

When the city expanded in the 19th century,

it was buried under new construction.

The demo team rediscovered it

while clearing debris from the old foundation.

Personnel log says

Fisher was a licensed mortician? - Yeah, brought in

to oversee the proper handling of all human remains.

How long has he been here?

48 hours tops.

So...

whatever we're dealing with is aggressive and fast.

Initial contact to full-blown disease

followed by death in a matter of days.

That's the good news.

Take a closer look.

Oh, that's incredible.

It's behaving like a hemorrhagic fever.

Exactly.

That sounds

really bad.

Well, only if you categorize extensive bleeding

into the skin, mucous membranes,

and gastrointestinal tract,

followed by heart failure, pulmonary edema,

and an agonizingly painful death

as bad...

Definitely bad.

What are you thinking?

Well, if we're knee deep in the Congo rain forest,

I'd posit Shigellosis, Marburg virus, even Ebola,

but Pittsburgh doesn't have the same exotic palette.

It has to be something else.

Like maybe a cave full

of ancient, disease-riddled corpses?

Rachel, you may just have something.

I was sort of kidding.

No, I didn't mean about the corpses.

No biological contagium could survive 200 years

without subzero suspension,

but the cave itself,

now, that's a different story. - You're saying

the cave is sick?

Radiation poisoning.

Here? How is that possible?

In 1984, a worker at the Limerick nuclear power plant

right here in Pennsylvania tested positive

for nuclear exposure,

but the source wasn't the power plant.

It was his own basement,

where he'd been exposed to very high levels

of radon gas seeping from the natural rock foundation.

The real hazard comes when radon breaks down.

When inhaled,

the particles get trapped in the lungs

and flood the body with toxic alpha radiations.

Well, any one of Fisher's coworkers

could become symptomatic.

We need to initiate HazMat protocol,

start looking for air and rock core samples now.

What's going on?

Somebody tell us what's going on.

I'm going to go introduce myself

to the officer in charge,

get a list of all the quarantined workers.

Top priority.

What's going on?

My people are calibrating the radon sensors right now.

If that cave is contaminated,

we should have confirmation within the hour.

Let's hope it is radiation.

At least we'll know what we're dealing with.

Media.

Just what we need.

Oh, great.

The only thing that spreads faster

than a legitimate health crisis

is the panic about one.

What is the plan for dealing with the media?

Well, lie, of course.

I'm going to let them know

about the emergency preparedness drill

we've been running.

Dr. Hood, radiation levels look normal.

Do you believe this?

Can they even do this?