CHARLIE: So, yeah, uh, remember that
the fluid dynamics class has been moved this week
to Friday at 10:00.
So, it's not at its normal time.
Okay, see you then. Bye-bye.
Charlie.
Oh, I'm sorry.
I didn't mean to startle you.
- Rachel? - Yeah. Hi, Charlie.
What-What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be
doing that Geospatial project
- over at Stanford? - No, I...
This is a list of names
of people I know,
that I've worked with recently.
Three of them are now dead.
- Did you say dead? - Yeah.
I think they found out something
they weren't supposed to know.
They were killed,
even though it doesn't look like it.
And I think they're going to kill me as well.
How did they die, Rachel?
It's complicated. Look, I can't...
I can't explain it right here. Not... not now.
Have you gone to the police?
No, no, no, I can't trust them.
But you can trust me?
I know you.
I know
you're who you say you are.
If you take me to your brother,
I'll believe he's your brother.
All right.
I'll take you to see my brother Don,
tomorrow, at the FBI.
Thank you.
I'll meet you here in the morning.
And I'll bring documentation, just, please,
look at those names.
They shouldn't be dead,
but they are.
Rachel...
A conspiracy, huh?
I guess so, I mean,
with this woman Rachel Lawton, it's always something,
- you know? - Wacky, is she?
Uh, maybe a little yeah.
She was into these odd ideas in grad school.
Like for instance, uh,
she once posed that certain top scientists
were actually aliens sent here to help mankind.
She probably knew Larry.
That's the thing about Rachel,
she was always quite a brilliant thinker
and she was usually a lot of fun to hang out with.
So, uh, what's her field?
She's a statistician-- specializing
- in demography. - Oh.
There are some crazy conspiracies, you know.
Sometimes it takes a brilliant,
nutty thinker to spot one.
The only trouble is,
usually the kind of people nobody believes.
MAN: Subject suffered a cardiac arrest.
A result of a massive absorption of acetaminophen,
hydrocodone and alcohol.
My preliminary finding is Rachel Lawton died
of a non-accidental overdose of prescription medication.
Hey, thanks very much.
All right?
She was scared, upset, and maybe a little erratic,
but, uh, she didn't seem suicidal.
Look, I got a quick background here.
I mean, you know, she was going
to a therapist for two years.
For what?
For depression.
The employment records show she,
she had emotional outbursts,
questionable stability, you know...
So, that's, that's the end of it then?
No, I mean, we'll do a basic follow-up,
but, I mean, I don't think it's going anywhere.
Come on, let's get out of here.
OSWALD: Hey, Charlie.
Oswald.
Thanks for stopping by.
I mean, don't thank me yet.
I figured you wanted to talk to me more
about enrolling or whatever.
Yeah.
Specialized program.
For people like you.
High school dropouts that are obsessed with fantasy baseball?
Gifted people
who lack traditional educations.
Ah. That's a nice way of putting it.
But, Charlie,
I'm just not a Cal Sci guy.
I'm horrible at tests.
Like, the worst.
I can't talk to professors.
- You talk to me. - Yeah,
but we met over baseball stats.
That's the one thing I know.
Oswald,
with some training, man, you,
you really could work in any field you wanted to.
What is this? Ten million to one?
It's the odds of a woman
and three people she worked with
dying in a two week period.
I knew her.
I identified her body this morning at the morgue.
Oh, Charlie,
that's awful.
- I'm sorry. - Yeah.
She claimed that these people were killed
because of something they knew.
What about this guy that's not checked off?
Still alive, I guess.
RECEPTIONIST: Berkeley Political Science Department.
Hello. Uh...
I'm trying to reach Dr. Robert Reynolds.
- I, um... - I'm sorry.
Dr. Reynolds is no longer with us.
Are you a friend or a family member?
That's okay. Thank you.
Charlie, what are the odds that these five people would die
in a two week period?
About 700 million to one.
Which means Rachel was telling me the truth.
DON: So five people
all mid-20s to 40s,
all in good health,
and all dead within two weeks.
David.
Teresa King,
computer scientist.
Rebecca Ortega, Sam Chambers statisticians.
And Robert Reynolds,
political scientist.
No known connections.
Heart attack, asthma--
conditions that can be mimicked by drugs.
DAVID: Yeah, we also have the classics here.
Slipped in the bathtub,
car accident, self- administered drug overdose.
What about doing a second autopsy on Rachel Lawton?
Yeah, we already requested it.
COLBY: And if Charlie's wrong,
and these are five random deaths?
Well, that's why we got to find something solid.
Otherwise, I mean, you know, I don't want
to waste our time here.
Hey...
am I losing you?
Pardon?
Some memo from DC about a special detachment
to the D.O.J.?
No, uh...
they called and I said it probably isn't for me.
Probably...
Isn't.
Okay.
Hey, I found some more journals with articles
- by Rachel Lawton. - Oh, thank you.
Yeah.
Any idea what she's currently working on?
No, not yet.
She published a lot, on a variety of topics.
You know, she, she came to a seminar
that I taught in San Diego.
- Really? - Yeah.
She was a bright girl, you know, creative thinker.
It's just a shame. You know, it's just a shame.
Who kills a statistician?
You know, one of our stats guys got a death threat once.
Yeah.
For doing expert testimony
in a water rights case.
Isn't that what got your
special admissions candidate guy into trouble--
baseball stats, huh?
Yeah.
Actually he may not be applying.
Hmm?
He's scared that he may not be able to handle it.
Well, we've all been there, huh?
Except for maybe you.
You know, when we have students who lack confidence,
sometimes we get them interested
in a really good problem.
You know, just get them obsessed,
and then they forget
- that they're afraid. - Hmm.
- Like what's this guy into? - Girls.
Skateboarding.
Baseball.
Statistics.
(fast, hip-hop music plays)
CHARLIE: You know,
you just broke the law with that little trick.
The law of conservation of angular momentum.
Ah. Wait, is that
Sir Isaac Newton going to come and bust me?
Charlie, you're not gonna
hard sell me on this college thing, are you?
No. Actually, I, uh...
I kind of need your help.
We searched the hotel room where Rachel Lawton died,
but we didn't find any
of the documentation she told Charlie about.
Now we have to go through what she had on her when she died.
Well, that's everything, so...
COLBY: This is it, huh?
Hey, man, check the bag for pens.
Pens? What for?
You didn't get that memo on corporate espionage?
Yeah, they make pens where they can put
the flash drive on the inside.
Well, what else can they put flash drives in?
Key chains, rubber duckies.
Rubber ducky flash drive?
I want one of those.
Yeah.
How 'bout a watch?
OSWALD: This is about those five people
that died, isn't it?
Well, Oswald, they must have known something
and were killed to keep it a secret.
This problem's becoming a bit dangerous.
That being said, I have already been shot at once.
Oh, hey.
Hey, Professor.
- COLBY: Perfect timing. - DAVID: Oswald.
- Good to see you. - Fellas.
Um...
maybe I should step out.
Uh, you know what? If it's all right
with the FBI, I would love
to utilize Mr. Kittner's
statistical analysis skills on this case.
Mr. Kittner?
So what do you guys got?
You've got a watch.
It's Rachel Lawton's.
Ah, yeah, it's a flash drive.
Here.
Yeah, you just open this
and all you need is a USB cable.
- USB. - Perfect.
Plug that in there.
That plugs directly into your computer.
That I do know about.
This is some sort of statistical raw data,
pertaining to what I'm not exactly sure.
Oswald.
I have no idea what those headings mean.
This is going to be tough.
The best problems always are.
DAVID: One connection
between Rachel Lawton and the other dead people--
they all worked in statistical analysis.
And statisticians usually
work freelance-- they go from project to project.
Hired by corporations, governments,
political campaigns.
I found a more specific connection
to three out of five of them.
DAVID: J. Everett Tuttle.
The billionaire?
Yeah, he's a hedge fund manager,
he's into philanthropy and politics.
Three of the people
on Rachel's list worked for one of his companies.
That's not much.
I mean, a financial wiz hiring statisticians.
"Not much" is all we have.
I finished the forensic autopsy on Rachel Lawton.
It was smart to request a second one.
Why? What do you got?
Apparently, her killer didn't have a lot of patience.
Although she had a potentially lethal dose of alcohol
and painkillers in her, Rachel Lawton died of asphyxiation.
How?
She had traces of cotton fiber
in her lungs, likely suffocated from a pillow
or towel after she was unconscious.
Sort of thing that,
in the absence of suspicious circumstances,
might be missed.
So we're not talking about five random deaths.
We've definitely have one murder on our hands.
We're gonna need forensic autopsies on the other victims.
I'll get it started.
We might be looking at five murders.
Yeah.
But we have no idea what they're about.
Five deaths, but so far you can only prove one was murder.
It's mathematically improbable
that these deaths are coincidence.
Well, to make a case, we need a motive.
And live witnesses.
You say three of the dead
did consulting work for J. Everett Tuttle?
Right, and what do you know about him?
Got a rep for playing dirty on Wall Street.
SEC made a run at him, got nowhere.
The New York AG indicted him on fraud,
but two of the witnesses disappeared,
- and couldn't make a case. - Witnesses disappeared?
One was later found in Greece.
The other never turned up.
You think he's capable of murder?
They think so in New York, but they had no evidence.
The guys are off to see Tuttle, let's see what
they come up with, all right?
It's a great cardio workout.
Great way to get some firewood, too.
Yeah.
Well, you end up with something useful.
Sit on those exercise machines,
you got nothing when you're done.
So, how can I help the FBI?
We're here to talk to you about
three people who used to work for you.
Let's see.
Well, Sam Chambers did research for me.
And, uh...
I don't know the other two.
They were researchers as well.
I hire a lot of consultants.
I don't meet them all in person.
Well, these three all died within the last few weeks.
I'm sorry to hear that.
What were they hired to do for you?
I'm not sure.
Would you check on that?
I'll get back to you.
Mr. Tuttle, do you know a Rachel Lawton?
Doesn't sound familiar.
What business do you actually do?
I retired a year ago.
Well...
I manage a hedge fund.
I serve on corporate boards.
Try to put more time into public service, that sort of thing.
And why do you employ
statisticians and computer scientists?
To test stock market systems.
See, I'm still dreaming about finding
that magic formula for striking it rich.
Some people would say you've already found it.
Take it from a guy with more than enough,
it ain't never enough.
So, it looks like this Oswald kid
bit pretty hard on the FBI hook, huh?
Yeah, yeah, no, he's really into it,
but he still won't apply to Cal Sci.
What?
He doesn't quite grasp all the things he could accomplish here.
And I just don't know how to get that across to him.
Well, that's because your whole life is math and science,
same with your students.
I mean, what, you were raised in the church here
and you preach to the converted.
Just have to figure out a way
to convert the heathen.
Yeah, well, here he comes.
Oswald.
Hey, Charlie.
Speak of the devil.
There's something off
about Rachel's numbers.
- Hi there. - Hi, hi.
Go ahead.
I did what you said.
I printed them out without headings to search for patterns.
Didn't find any patterns,
but there's definitely something off about her numbers.
I just can't put my finger on it, you know?
Let us take a look at it.
Here you go.
Thanks.
You know what? That's a very good observation, Oswald.
Because there are too many sevens.
And threes. Too many for what?
Too many for this list to be random.
MILLIE: Yeah.
For some reason, when people make up
reports with numbers in them,
they always put in way too many threes and sevens
and not enough ones and twos.
Me, I think I'd use too many fours.
I mean, this way, you can not know what the numbers describe,
but you can tell if someone's lying.
Mm.
And on that note, I have to go to work.
- Bye-bye, Millie. - Nice to meet you.
- You, too. - Thank you.
She was pleasant. Who's that?
That's Dr. Mildred Finch.
She's the chair of our math, physics and astronomy division.
Really?
She's easy to talk to.
Yeah, she is, a little bit.
So, anyway, how do we figure out what this is?
Well, we have applications that can help analyze
unlabeled sets of numbers.
It's called meta-data.
It's information about data.
For instance, the numbers
one, two, three, four and five are data.
They may refer to anything.
But let's say you found out that they refer to a zip code.
Well, then they mean something specific--
in this case, Schenectady, New York.
So we use that to figure out
what Rachel's numbers are talking about.
Yeah, and then we may be able to figure out why she died.
If you want a spooky guy to mastermind a conspiracy,
J. Everett Tuttle is your pick.
Why do you say that?
We told him that three of his former employees died
in the last couple of weeks,
didn't seem to care, didn't even ask how.
No concern for them, nothing for the families?
Not at all. No, in fact, the only time
he expressed any interest at all...
Don't tell me.
Was when you asked him about himself.
- Yeah. You got it right. - All right,
he could have a self-absorbed,
Type-A personality, or he could be a sociopath.
You got something new?
I do.
But I don't know what it means yet.
Four of the five dead people have consulted
on political campaigns.
(typing)
Mostly high-end polling analysis.
But...
I'm still working my magic on that.
OSWALD: Hey, Charlie,
what about the lottery?
Could we just be looking at Lotto numbers?
- I mean... - Watch your head.
- New category. - Oh, great.
Megan says that four of the researchers
consulted for political campaigns.
Oh, so you think we're looking at, like,
like, polling data
or, uh, campaign contributions?
Maybe votes.
Lets see what happens
when we compare Rachel's numbers to election returns.
ALAN: Hey, Donnie.
Do you ever think of moving back home?
Yeah, no thanks.
Well, I mean, you're here all the time lately.
You know, there's plenty of room.
Yeah, look, I like having somewhere else to go.
You know, my own little piece of privacy.
I yearned for that once, too, if you remember.
I remember.
Guess I thought I'd miss you guys too much.
(door opens) Hey.
So, Rachel's data might be election results.
We're gonna compare it
to local and state returns.
ALAN: It wasn't suicide,
- it was a murder. - Yeah, looks that way.
This Rachel girl you met at grad school,
were you guys close?
Yeah, a bunch of us used to hang out-- she had a van.
So we'd all pile in, we'd go to movies, go to concerts or...
It's funny-- she'd always say
we could spend our whole lives studying,
but we'd only be young for a short while.
What are you... You're not worried about
how I'm handling this, are you?
Uh... yeah.
To be honest, I'm kind of concerned
that it's not bothering me more.
It's all this FBI stuff, you know?
After a couple dozen
murder cases,
just isn't hitting me the same as it used to,
even when I know the victim.
And that's, um...
that's an unsettling realization.
Yeah, tell me about it.
Oh, so now I got
two jaded, world-weary sons.
Yeah. This one's got a shrink to prove it.
CHARLIE: Hey.
So I ran Rachel's data against election returns,
and this brute force data search found a match.
To an election here in L.A.?
Yeah, to the most recent
county supervisor's election.
I think it's the sixth district.
Jason Brasher won, beat a three-term incumbent.
- Big upset. - What, he stole it?
CHARLIE: Well, I'll tell you this:
those vote totals should be random,
- and they aren't. - All right,
this is starting to make sense.
J. Everett Tuttle was Brasher's largest contributor.
He was the driving force behind the campaign.
Rachel Lawton, she worked on Brasher's campaign.
Says that she did
demographic analysis, Charlie.
MEEKS: Teresa King did freelance work
for a computer company.
That same company had a contract
with the Brasher campaign.
That's all five victims.
Oh, man, do we have to ask, you know?
The odds that this would be random, it's like the four of us
getting hit by lightning on the way home tonight.
And it's not even raining.
So, Tuttle...
Yeah, I'm with you.
Now, California Elections Code
requires an audit of five percent
of touch-screen voting machines.
And here it is.
A preliminary audit indicated discrepancies,
but the final report said the race was clean.
The auditor changed his mind?
We should talk to him,
find out why.
- That the house? - That's the one.
Hey, hold on.
FBI. What happened here?
Guy who lives here, looks like
he slipped by the pool and hit his head,
fell in and drowned.
Get everybody out. It's a crime scene.
Get everybody out right now.
Hey, everybody, we got to clear out.
Arman Cuthbert,
auditor with the County Registrar.
There's no evidence of foul play,
but, I mean, what do you think
Charlie would say about those odds?
Why kill somebody over a county supervisor's seat?
L.A. County Supervisors are powerful.
Each reps over two million people--
more than many U.S. Senators.
They control a budget worth billions.
You think Tuttle
rigged the election for Brasher?
It's looking like it.
The county's using these new electronic voting machines.
We'd better find out
how secure they are.
A political conspiracy,
complete with dead witnesses.
We need a live witness.
If there's any left.
Doubt you're here for my darts.
Nope.
But I am winning.
Yeah, Charlie, we need your help finding witnesses
these guys haven't gotten to yet.
I'll certainly try-- using organizational theory.
Because every organization
can be analyzed mathematically.
And in this case, there's the extra added parameter
of secrecy.
So you could mathematically analyze
the JFK assassination?
CHARLIE: Oh, sure.
Look, JFK conspiracy theories require the cooperation
of the CIA, the FBI.
That number of
people involved, mathematically,
makes keeping the secret impractical.
OSWALD: Yeah, which is
why we all know about it.
But can your analysis help us find
the role of any remaining witnesses?
Here's what I'm gonna do for you.
I'm gonna look at the employees at Brasher's campaign,
as well as at Tuttle's firm,
and match them against who you'd need to pull off
an election fraud.
I guess the FBI could do that.
I can do it faster.
Election irregularities? I thought that got looked into.
The county conducted an audit of the election, am I right?
Well, there you go.
MEEKS: Superintendent Brasher,
what was your connection
to J. Everett Tuttle?
Everett is my good friend.
We go way back.
He is the one that talked me
into running for public office.
Everybody else said no way, impossible, can't win.
They sure look like idiots now.
Sir, do you know this woman?
Nope. No, never seen her.
Cute girl.
She worked for your campaign.
She was murdered.
Uh...
I... I don't even know what her job was; never met the woman.
What's this about?
Are you saying that there's some connection
between this woman's death
- and my campaign? - Was there?
What the hell...?
No... This can't be happening to me.
I will talk to you after I've gotten a lawyer.
But before I do,
I'm gonna make some phone calls
and find out what the hell
you people think you're doing.
Wonder how much Tuttle's told this guy.
My guess... nothing.
I know Tuttle's our guy,
but I still don't know how he did it.
And we don't have any evidence I can put in front of a judge.
It's like prosecuting the Mafia--
everybody knows something's going on,
but nobody will talk about it.
We just need some time, you know?
I mean, how about you pressuring him on Brasher?
They might lay low, give us time to find some witnesses.
Worth a try.
My company has met or surpassed
every security requirement.
Our machines create a paper trail
that can be audited.
They're actually more secure and easier to use
than any paper ballot system.
How's the software actually protected?
All machines
are kept in a guarded facility until an election.
Access to the unit's hard drive is locked.
But poll workers can open it.
Even if one machine was hacked,
they don't link up.
And there's no way to dial into them.
Mr. Dockins, you're confident
that these machines performed as intended
during the recent election cycle?
What if I told you the results were fraudulent?
Whatever the problem was,
it wasn't in these machines.
CHARLIE: So I've identified two job profiles necessary
to the conspiracy that don't match the dead people.
Uh, what are we looking for?
Okay, one would be a demographer specializing
in statistical analysis of L.A. elections.
Someone well experienced with precinct data.
- And the other one? - A computer programmer
someone exceptionally innovative and smart.
Probably makes a lot of money and consults extensively.
You have no evidence of any wrongdoing on my client's part.
MEEKS: Mr. Tuttle is at the center
of an intensive federal investigation.
I've been investigated dozens of times.
Resulting in no convictions.
We ain't talking about stock fraud here, guys.
We'll look at your businesses, your contacts,
your political involvement,
particularly the Brasher campaign.
And we're going to get into everything, you understand
- what I'm saying? - Hmm.
I own two dozen companies,
with numerous subsidiaries,
I serve on 15 boards of directors
and I employ
four major law firms.
Even a cursory
investigation of my holdings
is going to put quite a strain on the FBI's limited resources.
But...good luck, fellas.
Oh, yeah, he's scared.
So, you found some people
that fit the profiles we came up with?
DAVID: Actually, Megan found two.
Austin Parker and Jane Aliano.
He was the head researcher on Brasher's campaign.
And she did software security work
on one of Tuttle's stock management firms.
Yeah, the kicker is they're both missing.
Why am I not surprised?
Rachel Lawton's phone records show
that she called both of them
day before she was murdered.
She must have tried to warn them.
Yeah, now Parker's still alive.
We got four hits on his credit card in the last two days.
So, assuming he's moving around,
- hiding out. - OSWALD: When I tried that...
you guys found me.
DAVID: Yeah, he left his car at home.
Could have borrowed one, might be living in it.
If he'd rented, we'd have found
a record of that by now.
Yeah. All right, we'll try to figure out
what he's using for a car.
I'll chart some rough ideas on where they might be,
based on those four credit card hits.
Using the theory that he's, uh, avoiding his usual hangouts.
So...
I'm assuming that she's our computer scientist.
That's right. She told her sister
she was heading out of town, expected back on Monday,
but we haven't heard anything, there's been no calls,
no activity on the credit cards, so, she might be dead.
OSWALD: Now, forgive me
for stating the obvious, but, uh...
it seems Austin Parker
is your last hope.
Whoa! Whoa! What are you doing? What are you doing?
What's going on? What's going on?
It's all right.
We're FBI.
We're here to protect you, okay?
Hold on! Hold on!
We know that Rachel Lawton called you.
She told you what's going on.
We also know that this is about the Brasher election.
Whatever life I have left
has become about the Brasher election.
What was your involvement?
I was asked to make up a list of precincts
where the vote would be closest.
- And that's what I did. - Is that unusual?
Winning precincts doesn't count.
All that matters is the overall vote total.
But guess what?
Brasher won all the precincts on your list.
Somebody used my list to decide where to hack the vote.
They figured it'd look less suspicious if they did it
in precincts where the votes were closer. Yep.
There was a mandatory audit,
due to the use of electronic voting machines.
Now the auditor's dead.
Mr. Parker, we'd like you to come with us, okay?
We need you to make a statement.
Wait, wait. You can't make a case yet.
Until you can, I'm not cooperating.
We have witness protection.
These people rigged an election, I think they can
hack witness protection.
Get some indictments, then maybe I'll testify.
All right. Who do you think is behind this?
Brasher's an idiot.
But his old friend Tuttle-- he had a hand in everything.
Okay, gentlemen,
that's what I know. Now get out of my car.
Now, Mr. Parker,
you're gonna be safer if you come with us.
None of us is safe. Get out.
We'll find you again.
- If I'm around to find. - Get out.
We need unmarked units for surveillance
on a vehicle license 4-D-Q-S...
- You okay? - Yeah.
I didn't think I'd be this close to a car bomb again
after Afghanistan, but ,yeah, I'm fine.
Could have been detonated remotely.
Might have been a timer.
Could have been any one
of about half a dozen different fusing techniques.
MEGAN: Well that's a change in tactics.
I mean, this is an obvious murder.
It's not a staged
accident anymore. We confronted Tuttle
and he put it right back in our faces.
So it's gonna come down to Jane Aliano.
Agent Reeves, the Director's Office is on line two.
I'll call him back.
Okay.
What, you're ducking calls from the Director?
Only when I have to tell him something
he doesn't want to hear.
I'll take the Aliano interview.
All right.
I take care of Pico, Jane's dog,
when she's out of town.
Do you know what's happened to my sister?
No. But we're trying to locate her.
She does a lot of consulting-- travels all the time--
but she's never just not shown up like this.
Is there any possibility she might have spoken
to another family member or a friend?
No. No, not that I've heard.
And that's what's really scaring me.
She's never gone this long without
calling Mom and Dad.
And how was she the last time that you spoke to her?
Distracted.
But, but that's Jane-- one of those brilliant people
always processing four things at once.
(laughs): I know the type.
She wanted to be sure I'd have time for Pico.
feed him, take him for a walk
in his favorite park.
I told her of course. I know how much he means to her.
She even made him a Christmas stocking.
This dog is like a child to her.
(whines)
FBI. Jane, it's okay.
- We're the good guys. - We have her.
DISPATCH: Roger that, Agent Sinclair.
I got a call from Rachel Lawton,
and what she said scared me.
But even before that, I knew
something was hinky about the whole thing.
What you know could really help us, Jane.
Yeah, but then what happens to me?
Look, if we were able to find you,
it would've only been a matter of time
until they did, too.
But we will
protect you every step of the way.
And we need a witness
who's willing to take them down.
I'm... I'm just so damn scared.
I know you are.
But you're angry, too.
They picked the wrong computer geek to mess with.
DON: Come on, there just,
there can't be that many possibilities.
In general, no, it's power/control, power/wealth.
Well, it all comes back to money, doesn't it?
People get money to get power,
or power to get money.
There are fanatical idealists, you know.
He shoots, he scores!
Oh, Oswald Kittner.
Mercy rule?
It's got to be a Canadian hockey table.
If they can rig a local election,
why not a larger one?
Uh, because the bigger election,
the bigger the conspiracy.
If it's too big, it can't sustain secrecy, you know?
It's like Watergate.
It's like Iran-Contra or something.
Unless there's a self- perpetuating element involved
like, uh... nano technology.
Okay, you know when you stack up champagne glasses
and fill them with champagne?
You only pour the champagne into the top glass
and then it overflows to the others.
Requires resources applied in one location, then it spreads.
Oh, good God, another one?
(chuckles)
What he means is, is that the conspiracy starts
at a single source but can then spread.
ALAN: That's right,
because the supervisors oversee the county budget.
I mean, they oversee everything the county buys,
which includes...
voting equipment.
Brasher could definitely make sure
the county only buys their machines.
Yeah, and with L.A. County's huge population,
rigged voting machines here could make the difference
in a statewide election.
You know what they say--
as California goes, so goes the country.
This Tuttle...
wants to be a kingmaker.
Hey.
Megan just got a report from Tru-Poll Systems.
That's the company that makes
the electronic voting machines.
Uh-huh, and?
Tru-Poll just updated all the motherboards
on their machines in California.
Now, the motherboards are made in Taiwan
by a company based here in the States: SDKG Electronics.
And the really interesting part
about SDKG-- it was founded by this entrepreneur
named Paul Prescott two years ago.
Tuttle approached him about buying out his company
and Prescott says no.
Prescott died in a rock-climbing accident.
Really?
It happens to a lot of people that get in Tuttle's way.
- Who owns that firm? - A holding company
that Tuttle sold one year ago.
COLBY: Well, Aliano
was hired to design a stock analysis program,
but she was told that it should also be able to alter prices.
Right. Now, she didn't really see the point,
but Tuttle was paying her well, so...
So, what, it changes votes?
Apparently, to a computer,
votes and stocks are the same thing.
They're just a bunch of number...
If he's going after Jane Aliano,
that's a problem.
Yeah, for us and for him.
Aliano studied at UCSD.
They say she's brilliant.
Supposedly, she told the FBI
that "they picked the wrong computer geek to mess with."
Not the most threatening statement I've ever heard.
Her code must be hidden
in the machine's legitimate coding,
probably in the operating system.
Oh, well, here.
That's easy. Tell you what you do.
You need to look for the computer code
that looks like Jane's.
This all looks exactly the same.
Well, all I have to do then is write an algorithm
to isolate her code from the rest.
Hey, do me a favor.
Go find Dr. Finch.
Tell her we need a priority run on the supercomputer,
and, you know, be convincing.
I'll tell her the fate of democracy is at stake.
I like that.
Jane's code is embedded
in the operating system on the motherboard
of the Tru-Poll machines.
And you can prove that?
Mathematically incontrovertible.
Well, how do the rigged machines pass all the testing
- they go through? - Ah.
Why don't you think of, of voting
on a voting machine as a man
reading instructions
to assemble a model car,
but you want the man to build something different
than this car.
The easiest way is to rewrite these directions.
These re-written instructions then become
evidence of tampering.
However, if you can alter the operating system,
the way the man interprets the correct instructions,
step one becomes step five,
four wheels become two, and red becomes green.
See, the voting machine makes illegal alterations, but only
within the operating system,
so there's no evidence.
Mess with the operating system,
you can make that machine do anything.
Right, well, Jane Aliano can testify to this
unless Tuttle gets to her first.
Yeah, we'd better get her
someplace safe, okay, guys?
FBI! Get down!
Get down!
Down on the ground! Put the gun on the ground!
Drop the gun! Drop the gun!
(engine roaring)
(tires screeching)
Drop the gun.
Hands behind your back.
Mr. Dawkins, we just arrested three men trying
to assassinate Jane Aliano.
They're Tru-Poll Security on your company payroll.
Yeah, we also cracked your coding.
You conspired with J. Everett Tuttle
to tamper with the voting machines
and fix the election.
As well as killing six people.
You will cooperate with the investigation
or you're going to face the death penalty.
Maybe you don't quite understand
what you're up against here.
No...
I do know.
I know exactly what I'm up against.
I intend to fully cooperate.
You'll give us Tuttle?
No.
Tuttle wasn't part of this.
This was my plan.
My people. My machines.
Tuttle had absolutely nothing to do with any of it.
He won't change his story.
Yeah, his goons all back him.
They took orders directly from him,
never even heard of Tuttle.
Yeah, but I say Tuttle's got something on him.
Whatever it is,
it's scarier than multiple murder charges.
He's smart.
Played it perfect.
If Tuttle kills Jane Aliano,
we got no case... or this guy
takes the fall.
Agent Eppes.
You know, I may be retired,
but I still have appointments to keep.
Election fraud, conspiracy and murder.
(laughs)
You're constrained by limited funds and inadequate manpower,
and you've got a suspect who's made a full confession.
He's lying and I'm gonna prove it.
You're going to spend bureau resources pursuing a case
that's already been solved?
And your superiors are going to call that
selective prosecution.
You know that.
And especially when the congressmen start calling
and complaining about you,
which they will.
You're just one man.
Just like you, pal.
Don.
Hey. The Times has the story.
The Brasher campaign, Tru-Poll, Tuttle, all of it.
The governor wants an investigation; there's demand
for a special grand jury. How'd they even get it?
That's what I'm wondering.
Well, it wasn't me.
DON: I can't talk to the press
about an open investigation,
and I wouldn't, I mean, not without proof.
Well, who... who do you think gave the story to the press?
Uh... they might have seen
an advance copy of an article
set to run in the Journal of Political Science.
Really, Charlie, you did this?
What I did was
I submitted an article detailing my recent research.
Charlie, you can get into a lot of trouble.
Yeah, it's possible,
but it's unlikely because, look, I-I used information
that's in the public record.
And the organizational theory
I performed linking Tuttle's firm
to Brasher's campaign to Tru-Poll,
th-that's all mathematically solid.
- The Journal leaked it? - Yeah.
They sent out a summary
to the general press.
It's extremely difficult to prevent a scientist
from publishing his research.
Academic freedom is big in this country.
Yeah, apparently so.
Yeah, so Tuttle wasted his time.
He wasted all that money trying to devise his little scheme.
It was all useless...
...because now the voting officials
will know what to look for. (doorbell rings)
You did good, Chuck.
But Tuttle's still not in jail.
Hey, I'm not done
with him yet, don't you worry.
(door opens)
What's up?
Hello, Don, Mr. Eppes.
- Hi. - Oswald.
Hey, did you see the news?
Yeah, it's pretty wild.
It's on CNN and stuff.
I got to tell you, man,
this is like nothing I've ever felt before.
I, it's really big, you know?
Yeah, it was, it was, it was important work.
Was, was that your plan, to show me the powers of math
in fighting evil?
Because it, it worked. You got me.
I'm applying to Cal Sci.
Dude, that's, that's awesome.
You're right, another one.
Well, we can always use one more.
Are you kidding?
They're taking over here.
You're right.
(phone ringing)
Reeves.
Yes, sir.
I... I have given it a lot of thought actually,
and I don't think I can do it.
I understand, but...
So I don't actually have a choice in the matter?
Yes, sir.
* I don't remember much, if anything *
* Of those years, kinda strange *
* Kinda sad, considering
* All the laughs and all
* The tears.