Mimic

An eight-year-old boy from Manhattan was delivered dead on arrival today...

The Centers for Disease Control.

Are we dealing with an epidemic?

Whatever the carrier, we know that it's not the water.

We don't believe that it's airborne.

One, two, three, four...

Strickler's Disease was first diagnosed two years ago.

We're no better off now.

I needed you to see this for yourself, Dr. Tyler.

It's the same at every hospital in the city.

For the lucky ones, it's a lifetime in leg braces.

Most of these kids won't make it.

We need your help.

Strickler's Disease came to New York...

like a thief in the night, threatening to steal...

an entire generation of our children from before our eyes.

Dr. Peter Mann, Deputy Director of the Centers for Disease Control...

The killer was cunning. It was deadly.

Neither a cure nor a vaccine could be found.

We at the CDC had to contain it...

before it could spread beyond Manhattan Island.

So we went after its carrier, the common cockroach.

Or rather she did.

Dr. Susan Tyler is the reason that there hasn't been...

a new case of Strickler's in this city for six months.

Dr. Susan Tyler.

Dr. Susan Tyler, Professor of Entomology...

at the New York State University.

Thank you, Peter.

I don't think I need to tell you New Yorkers just how resilient...

the common cockroach is.

Since it has proven to be virtually immune to chemical control...

we had to find a new avenue of attack.

So, with the aid of genetics labs across the country...

we recombined termite and mantid DNA to create a biological counter agent...

a new species to be our six-legged ally...

in wiping out the roach population.

We call it the "Judas" breed.

Once in contact with the Judas' secretions...

the common roaches were infected with an enzyme...

which caused their metabolism to go into overdrive.

Come on, Susan!

You're missing it.

No matter how much the common roaches ate...

every last member of the nest...

starved to death within a matter of hours.

I hope someone's taping this.

This announcement's been a long time coming...

- ladies and gentlemen. - Coming home.

The Strickler's outbreak has officially been contained.

- The epidemic is over. - Hey, Susan. Honey.

Any other questions?

Dr. Mann, what did this victory mean to you personally?

It means that I can move on to other projects with the...

Our 15 minutes are gone.

And personally it's where I met my wife.

What is this? Is this some kind of Catholic guilt thing?

We don't even know what the impact is of what we did.

The impact is that...

a lot of kids will be running around next year because of you.

A lot of kids.

Maybe we get lucky.

Maybe a couple of them'll be ours someday.

Oh, a couple?

Oh, okay. We're not rushing things.

I didn't want to overtax you. It's been a hard year.

It's been a great year.

Oxfords. Seven and a half.

Black. Leather soles.

Funny, funny shoes.

Funny...

Can you raise it a little bit on the left? It's sort of drooping. Don't you think?

Husband, incoming, 6:00.

- I'm sorry I was late. - Everything crazy out there today?

I got T.B. breaking out all over the city...

and the mayor's in my face about scaring off another convention.

It's Bruce.

I'll call him later.

So, nice lunch?

- Very nice lunch. - Choose.

- What's this? - Come on, choose.

Oh, honey, why'd you get this?

Baby in a bottle.

It's ours.

Dr. Chadwick said if you take that twice a we...

- Do you know where this comes from? - Sure.

It comes from the urine of Italian menopausal nuns.

So? Monks bottle their own wine, so...

Not natural, Peter.

Would you at least think about this?

For the last six months...

I've been the one running around with ice in my underwear.

And that's not natural.

I really got to go.

See you.

Hold it right there, sir.

CDC.

Hey, Boss, welcome to disease land.

- Tuck it in. - All right. All right.

We sure this is yellow fever?

- What, are you ignoring your pages now? - Listen, I...

Okay, these two cops saw the broken scaffold, and then the paint mess here.

And then they looked through that cellar window.

Go ahead. Take a look.

Pleasant, isn't it?

Couldn't let 'em out until you gave me the okay, so...

This piece of shit chapel here is a front for the Triads.

Chinese mob.

The snake had people in from UNAD. Slave labor.

How long have they been operating?

I don't know. Five, six years. Too long.

Oh, have you had lunch?

Try to keep it down when you see this, okay?

Roughly three dozen people were trapped in here.

One toilet, no paper.

We got bacterial samples reading off the scale, though nothing's airborne.

- We got a Reverend Harry Ping. - Preacher?

Yeah. Preacher, if you can imagine that. He ran this place.

But there's no sign of him.

So what do you say, boss?

Quarantine 'em. Quarantine the cops that found it.

Quarantine anybody who touched anything.

Immigration's gonna love you.

Tell 'em to send the flowers to the usual address.

You got it.

Piece of shit on the ceiling.

- Figure that one out. - Here you go, Josh.

The subway?

You know what? This is what I love about my job.

I get to travel, see the world...

and meet new exotic cultures.

It's... it's all bacterial, but hey, what the fuck, right?

You're gonna be okay. We'll take care of you.

She doesn't speak English.

You tell her, please.

Man, she's delirious.

- What's she saying? - I don't know.

She keeps saying something like the dark angels.

She says they're coming to get her.

Chinese people, man. They come up with some pretty wild stuff.

- Thanks a lot, Miguel. - Board up every exit.

If this leads to the subways, I don't want anything to spread.

Quarantine everybody.

But in the middle of the third date, he tells me that he wears women's underwear.

What a pervert.

This city is full of perverts.

Some of your fans.

- You're the bug lady, right? - That's me.

We're here to deal.

When you pick them up, you should pick 'em up by this front vein on the wing...

'cause it's the strongest part of the wing.

See, that way you don't break it.

Now, let's see what else you have in here. Oh, look.

- What do we have here? - Swallowtail?

- Excellent. - How come you like bugs so much?

Just imagine that you're one of them.

What, eating furniture and stuff? That's gotta suck.

No, no, no. Now, don't judge them too quickly.

These guys were building castles while dinosaurs were still wimpy little lizards.

Now, say you're him. He's what we call a soldier.

Now, there is no way that you would ever quit fighting...

no matter how badly injured you were.

It would be a battle to the death.

But most insects don't kill...

unless their territory is invaded.

You'd just stun your prey up here.

And then you drag it all the way down through here to there...

into what is kind of like a pantry.

We eat it alive?

Yeah. You're not really squeamish about those kind of things.

This is the nest. It's the heart of the colony.

The big enchilada.

- Why? - Well, if anything were to happen to the nest...

the entire colony would die out.

I'd just bail and start my own.

Well, you couldn't do that.

See... that big guy there? Next to the queen?

Wait. Look over there.

He's the king. And out of all the nest, he's the only fertile male.

He got a good deal.

Yeah.

It's a simple structure designed for their survival.

It's perfectly balanced, and it's very beautiful.

Whatever peels your banana, lady.

So, you wanna buy the butterflies, or what?

You know what?

You guys have done a really good job. So, how about five bucks?

That's your best?

- I'm gonna show her the weird bug. - Costs a dollar just to look.

It's a really great bug. Got it on the subway.

- We kind of broke it a little. - Okay. My best offer.

Ten bucks for everything, plus a specimen jar, some tweezers and some mounts.

Deal.

Are you crazy? This is the best. This is our meal ticket.

Come on. Bug's almost dead anyway.

It's yours.

- You gave 'em ten bucks. - They're from Alphabet City.

There's much worse things they could be selling.

Oh, no. Your papers. Help me get the window.

Susan. Push.