Viper Club

Sam: All right. We're ready when you are.

Helen: Should I cover my hair?

Sam: What do you think?

Sheila: Ah, it's not gonna make a difference to them,

and it'll probably just alienate people over here.

Now? You ready?

My name is Helen Sterling

and my son Andrew Sterling is a journalist.

I am not supposed to be saying this to you

but I have money for you.

I'm in the process of transferring to you

everything I have in the world.

I'm begging you.

Sheila: I'm sorry.

-Oh, no. -Sheila: No, no, no, you're fine.

Just, just be yourself.

Myself doesn't make videos.

Sam: You know what, the eye line is off anyway.

-Let's pretend these are right underneath you. -( camera beeps )

( indistinct announcement over PA )

Helen: All right, you'll feel some tickles now.

A little cold.

Hi, you've reached the assistant special agent in-charge Eric Walsh.

Please leave a message. If it's an emergency, please dial 0 for assistance.

Helen: Agent Walsh, this is Helen Sterling.

I wanted to follow up because I haven't heard from you in,

I don't know, I guess, it's been a week now.

Sorry, I missed your call. My phone was charging.

I have it with me now.

Could you call me back, whenever? It doesn't matter what time.

It's Helen Sterling.

Um, it keeps going to voicemail,

so I guess you're out of the office today.

If you check this, will you please let me know?

I tried dialing 0, by the way, but the operator

didn't know who to transfer me to, so...

Okay, just, will you call me back?

Helen: Good evening, Millie!

I've got your antibiotic for you.

Here you go.

That's good.

Hey.

Can you finish up in here and meet me outside, please?

Mmm-hmm.

What's up?

-You have a visitor. - Me?

Yeah, a young woman, Sheila, I think.

Sheila.

You know it's not a good time to have personal visits, Helen.

She's in 438.

I'll see what she wants.

Make it quick. You know we're in the middle of an audit.

Helen: Right, boss.

Merry Christmas!

You sounded terrible in there!

Do not eat sushi in Lebanon, trust me.

How long has it been this way?

It started, like, that last week I was there,

so like, I don't know, two weeks.

And of course you don't have any kind of insurance?

Welcome to the freelance economy.

Yeah. Lie down.

Okay.

Andy and I could both win Pulitzers

and still not make enough money to even have to file taxes.

Well, I offered to pay Andy's insurance.

But oh, no. He's too stubborn.

Too short-sighted.

Well, I finally heard back from my friend at the Red Cross.

No luck there.

But there is someone else.

Yeah, well, let's not talk about this now, okay?

Helen, I'm worried.

I feel like you keeping this all quiet

is just making it harder on you.

It's kinda making it harder on all of us.

Sorry, I'll be right back.

Oh, shit!

- Hey. - Hey.

Here, this is for you.

Take these now, and then two a day for ten days.

And next time,

if there is a next time, don't just show up.

Call me first.

I'm not getting you in trouble, am I?

I can handle it.

So who was the person that you were saying,

-not the Red Cross, but somebody? - Yeah.

I was finally able to get the number of Leo Spencer's mother.

She's not the easiest person to talk to, but...

Please call her.

I know they told you that you can't tell anyone.

But Charlotte can help.

I'll think about it.

Leo is part of that same club that Andy and I are in.

So we helped Charlotte when Leo was in trouble.

Andy never mentioned a club.

It's a really amazing group of people.

So everyone pools their resources together online.

So you know where's safe to go, where to eat,

contacts, translators, stuff like that.

It's called the Viper Club.

"The Viper Club"?

Yeah, well...

I didn't come up with the name.

Can I just stay here for like...

- Ten minutes. - Okay.

Yeah!

What's up?

Helen: Can you cover for me?

I thought I could power through,

but I'm burnt out. This is my third double this week.

Helen... ( sighs )

I know, I know, I know.

But I took Carmelyn's because it was her birthday...

Hmm.

-I'll cover for you. - ( whispers ) Thank you.

- Can you please get some rest? - Yes.

Wait!

Step on the yellow line.

Agent Walsh: What brings you all the way down to the city, Miss Sterling?

They sent me an e-mail.

Fantastic, they finally wrote to you directly.

We have to pass this along to our Intelligence Analysts...

But we'll respond to it today.

I understand your sense of urgency,

but this is not going to happen today.

No, it's going to happen today.

I mean, my...

They reached out,

that means my son's still alive.

It's not up to me. There's a protocol we have to follow.

An internal report has to be generated.

What does that mean?

Helen,

there are a lot of people involved.

And of course, we need access

-to your e-mail accounts... - Oh, sure.

So we can see where the e-mail might have been sent from.

Okay. And, um, I took off from work today

so I can help you with this.

I'm sorry.

Nobody asked you to do that.

Nobody "asked" me?

Nobody asked me...

-This is my child. - I know this is upsetting,

but we don't know who we're dealing with yet.

Even the State Department

is struggling to get information,

and they already have people over there.

This is a delicate process.

We don't have time for delicate.

We're going to get Andy home, Helen.

You just have to trust the process.

I'm not leaving here until we respond.

Let me see what's possible.

Agent Walsh: Can I have a water, please?

I'm fine. What did he say?

I'm going to forward you a recommended response

which you will put into your own words.

Send it to me. We'll approve it

and then you send it to them.

When?

Soon.

How soon?

We need to control the pace of communication.

Now, this might sound counter-intuitive,

but in our experience with terrorist organizations,

we've found that it's best to take things slowly.

You haven't told anybody, right?

No.

Agent Walsh: Good. Keep it that way.

One more thing.

Money cannot exchange hands.

That's illegal.

Helen: What?

Well, how do we get him back then? What's the plan?

Agent Walsh: I know this is hard,

but we're going to take it one step at a time.

Helen: You didn't answer me.

Agent Walsh: I promise you, this is our top priority.