COBRA

Water may douse the flames,

but who controls the water?

Think before you drink.

Francine Bridge made a categoric statement that she...

Well, to be fair,

it's probably cleaner

than the water where she comes from.

There's a Firestorm meme doing the rounds.

Our candidate in Kent has retweeted it.

That tiger ride's going smoothly then.

You didn't put me in this seat to fight clean

and you know it, so stop being hypocrites.

I've been speaking to my equivalent at the American Embassy.

The imagination boggles.

- What's he like? - She!

Does anybody see what's happening here?

- We do see but... - It's one thing after another!

Death by a thousand cuts.

Justice.

I mean, they're not even asking for anything!

You asked me to come and work for you once.

Come and work with me.

I've lost her loyalty.

She's a fucking mole.

- You're fired. - No, I resign!

Cerberus. The multi-headed dog

that stands at the gates of Hell.

Get me the Prime Minister.

He's about to do the news conference.

Stop him.

Dostoevsky was held captive

in a rat-infested fortress...

...subjected to a mock execution...

...shipped off to a...

...brutal prison camp in Siberia,

with a sadistic maniac in charge

who lashed men...

...for sleeping on their wrong side...

...in bed.

There's a correct side?

Apparently Jesus...

...slept on his left.

Is it helping?

Not being Dostoevsky...

Yes.

Cool.

Are you going to bed now? It's only...

It doesn't make much difference, to be honest.

OK. See you later.

Mmm.

As Government sources

dismiss press reports

of Robert Sutherland

being "burnt out",

the Prime Minister abandoned a press conference

at Number 10 Downing Street.

They say he has been suffering from dizziness

after a minor illness.

We believe that the Cerberus code

is part of a massive

critical infrastructure hit

of which the water supply in Kent

was just a starter.

They might come all at once

or in waves.

But we do know it's massive.

So we don't know...

if Cerberus is the Chinese...

...or the Russians?

Well, like our own attacks

on the Iranians,

it could easily be a joint enterprise.

There are no identifiable

command call-backs

that we can find in the code.

Now, normally,

a virus would need to refer back to a controller

who might tell it to start, stop,

destroy yourself.

But here there's nothing.

There may be no way of stopping it now.

- Fraser? - So...

...we've ranked the targets

of a general critical infrastructure attack

into a top five

but it's not exhaustive.

One...

...a few, or...

...all of these.

We can't sit around and do nothing.

They could bring down planes,

black out the entire country,

cripple the water supply.

They've already had a good go at that.

How do we end this?

In a face-saving way.

Increase our retaliations.

See, that is not going to work...

Division 45 was created for precisely that reason, wasn't it?

We've boasted about our offensive capacities.

The Americans have made it very clear

that they are not going to help us.

So we do it without them...

Well, I have to admit when I was Home Secretary

I'd always have a bit of a snooze

when people banged on about

the danger of cyber-attacks.

- Sorry... - (CLEARS THROAT)

Is it a time... for joking?

Um... (CLEARS THROAT)

- In all fairness, Prime Minister... - I do not need...

...a translation service, thank you.

I've already sacked one traitor.

Anyone else considering

- acts of disloyalty... - Piffle!

Anna Marshall wasn't disloyal.

That's a category error, Robert,

which is frankly rather disappointing,

from a man who never tires of reminding us

that he studied Philosophy at Balliol.

And don't give me the Scottish stare either.

You're from Stirling!

Not Drumchapel.

I think it's a matter of record,

I never saw eye to eye

with Anna Marshall.

She's the kind of...

ghastly liberal snob who thinks

her cleaning lady's a loyal friend,

rather than a reluctant wage slave.

Misplaced loyalty, yes,

unbearably sanctimonious,

Christ, yes!

But she was never disloyal.

I'm... afraid, Prime Minister,

I'd have to agree with the Foreign Secretary on that one.

The loyalty bit, anyway.

Not the cleaning ladies...

For what it's worth.

Well, let me enlighten you on that, Fraser.

It's worth nothing.

It looks as if all that's left

is to banish Kent to France.

Get a grip, man...

He's losing it.

You went in too hard.

Bugger that! He's the bloody Prime Minister!

If he can't cut it,

he should make way for somebody who can.

Well...

as Home Secretary

I shall continue to...

...chair the meeting.

Protocol suggests you are correct.

Right. My top priority

- is to secure and protect... - (FADES OUT)

Come to tell me you agree with them all?

No.

Good.

I need time to find a replacement for Fraser.

You're not going to fire Fraser.

High Chaparall?

You remember it?

Linda Cristal played Victoria Cannon.

You're my new Chief-of-Staff.

No thanks.

Maybe I should reappoint Peter Mott...

...just to play...

...pointless games of one-upmanship with Archie.

A tale told by an idiot all right.

You're angry because Archie kicked your arse for a change

and I understand how that must hurt.

But I'm not here for chit-chat

or quotations.

My job is strictly National Security.

Would you like me to update you on our strategy?

Oh we have a strategy? Oh good.

You have instructed me to be proactive.

I'm sorry, I...

Yeah.

I'm just not used to people

carrying out my instructions anymore.

Heracles.

Killed Cerberus.

Now we can run around trying to protect everything

from power stations

to air traffic control centres

but in the end it's like chasing a hundred cats at once.

If you do want to up the ante...

...don't bother with any more symbolic targets.

You have to play very dirty.

With what?

With Heracles.

You know...

...characters from Greek mythology are all very well and good

when it comes to scary operational names but...

It's a bit more than that.

It's malware designed to confuse and disable

missile defence systems around the world.

Cyber-war works like any other war: