We're thinking he's American.
Call sign Ghost. The guy was hunting me.
It's a kill list.
I need a name.
I hope you know what you're doing.
Let me guess - Maui?
It's Malibu, isn't it?
God, you Yanks are so predictable.
I'm not thinking of Malibu, okay?
Okay, Dr. Grumpy, you don't want to play Polar Night Fantasy.
I get it. Forget I asked.
I'm sorry, Jenn. I just...
I don't feel great.
Think that vitamin D shot's repeating on me.
Right, and I'm sure it's got nothing to do with the prospect
of six months of unending darkness?
As a polar night virgin,
can we stop with the whole "unending darkness" thing?
Oh, you'll be fine, Pavel.
You just need a good sense of humor
and something to transport you out of this frozen hellhole.
You can borrow them when I'm done.
The Sonneville Chronicles.
Love that series. How's the twist?
You think he's the hero,
turns out he's the killer all along.
He's cloned himself,
but you don't work it out till the final book.
Are you serious?
These were supposed to last six whole months!
Oh, bugger!
My bad.
Such a dick.
I guess you can only fly down there
for a limited window each year.
How often do you resupply the base?
Uh, three, maybe four times over summer.
Food and meds mainly.
There's always something broke.
Especially mining equipment.
Really?
I thought there was a moratorium on mining in Antarctica.
Commercial mining, yeah.
These guys are international climate scientists.
Same tools, different rules.
Gotta say, I'm surprised we're heading down
so late in the season.
Don't usually risk it this close to polar night,
not unless someone's dead or dying.
A US Navy climatologist
attacked and killed one of her colleagues.
They subdued her, sent out a mayday.
There's no one closer to respond?
No one whose job it is
to prosecute US Navy crimes.
Dr. Cohen's one of us, I'm afraid.
Fair enough.
Wouldn't leave 'em in there too long, pal.
The antibacterial bath will strip paint, believe me.
Oh, yeah, I'm just waiting for an important message.
Uh, no, he'll probably sleep the whole time.
Sure thing, Rosie.
Some breeds are trickier
than others, but...
Well, he's pretty low maintenance
as far as Jack Russells are concerned.
Uh-huh.
Uh... uh, listen, he takes his
breakfast at 8:00 during the week,
a little bit later on the weekends.
- Uh-huh, sure, sure. - And, uh...
He loves to have a tummy rub, obviously.
Obviously.
No, no!
Yeah, but not too long because, uh,
he gets a bit gassy.
And, uh, he's house-trained, so...
...he'll hold on for as long as he needs to.
Little help?
More of a cat person, to be honest.
Say again, Polepoint.
This is Whiskey-November-Niner.
Radio check, Polepoint. Do you copy?
Still nothing?
Par for the course down here
if the satellite isn't directly overhead.
That ain't helping.
Girl, seriously?
I didn't pick you as a horror movie buff.
I'm not. Hate them.
Right.
Everything okay?
Oh, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, it's nothing.
Did I mention I'd... [Clears throat] ..met someone online?
No, you did not, as it turns out.
Yeah, um, it's not a big deal.
It's, you know, super caszh,
on again and off again, you know how it is.
Yeah.
Anyway, it's our, uh, anniversary.
One month since I poked her.
On the dating app.
Oh! Right.
Yeah, I wasn't... aware that was still a thing.
Mm.
So I booked a table at Mimi's tonight
for our anniversary,
but obviously had to cancel last minute.
Oh, I'm sure she'll understand.
No, it's not that. It's just...
I texted from the airport
to see how I could make it up to her and...
...this is what she wrote back.
What do you make of that?
If you need me to explain that,
you probably shouldn't be dating.
That's what I thought.
This is your captain speaking.
We're about to make our descent into Polepoint Base.
Return your seat to the upright position
and stow anything you don't want hitting you in the kisser
at speed.
On the clock, okay?
Collect the body, take Dr. Cohen into custody, in and out.
No arguments from me.
- Take the two-way. - You're not coming in?
Oh, no, I'm gonna get some shut-eye.
Besides, who's gonna stay here
and keep the engines running otherwise?
- You don't power down? - It's already 20 below.
I power down, by the time you get back,
all my fluid lines will be frozen solid,
which means y'all ain't back here in 40,
y'all ain't going back.
Whew.
Oh!
- Oh! - Oh!
Oh, that is colder than a witch's proverbial out there.
Did I mention I hate the cold?
Take this over Darwin any day.
NCIS. Anyone here?
Didn't expect ticker tape,
but is a simple g'day too much to ask?
Hello? Anyone here?
Hello? NCIS.
D.
What the hell?
She ain't Mr. Spiegelman.
No, nor is she.
Base manifest puts the total number of residents at 10.
Yeah, I've got seven of them here
and none appear to be our Navy doctor.
They can't have gone far.
Split up. Let's go find them.
Me and JD will stay here, help Rosie log the scene.
D, Evie, get a play-by-play of what went down.
Copy that.
And see if you can find Dr. Cohen.
So let's step this through.
Doc Cohen kicks things off
when she caves Spiegelman's skull in from behind.
The rest of the team overpower her,
take her somewhere, lock her up.
Threat's nullified.
So how do you explain all this?
Go for Scooter.
What's maximum take-off weight?
Uh, I have to do the math based on the fuel load. How come?
'Cause we're bringing back more bodies than we planned for.
- As in, all of them. - Damn.
Not sure we got enough seats.
I don't need seats, just floor space.
I'm also gonna need more time.
Okay, how much you talking?
I got a mass-casualty crime scene to process,
so two, maybe three hours, if we hurry.
Oh, in which case, take your time.
By then all the plane's lubricants will be frozen solid.
We'll be stuck down here for the next six months.
I am not staying here for six months, amigo. Think again.
I guess we could drain the oils, move inside the base.
Stop it from freezing.
But it'll mean shutting down the engine.
Is that a problem?
Just can't guarantee it'll start up again is all.
What are you waiting for?
You're the boss, boss.
Old school.
Someone wanted to lock someone else inside.
Or something.
Okay, seven bodies. Let's go.
Hello, play-by-play.
Guess this is the live feed.
Little help, Rosie?
Oh, I'm sure you can handle it, Jim.
Just remember, mate - lift with your legs.
Oh-ho! Gun safe. Yes, please.
Evie, you already got a gun.
You can never have too many guns.
Why do they need a gun safe on a research base, anyway?
Oh, I don't know.
In case the crew go bananas
and it turns into Alien in the Antarctic.
Missing shotgun.
That's not good.
Same. CCTV password's protected.
I can't access the archive.
Okay, so if you're gonna come up with a password...
D!
Guess we found our Navy climatologist.
No signs of trauma.
Wrists are bruised and abraded.
Seems like she struggled against the restraints.
Which means she was still conscious when she was cuffed.
Yeah, they've got blunt force trauma to the skull.
Multiple stab wounds.
Ligature marks consistent with strangulation.
There's too many competing MOs.
You thinking multiple aggressors?
That's what it looks like.
A wild psychotic orgy.
I'm not sure what the emoji is for that, Jim.
Told Doc about my cryptic text?
Firstly, it's not that cryptic. And secondly, I only told D.
Who told Evie. Who told Doc.
Who told Scooter. I didn't want him feeling left out.
Oh, you're all heart. Cheers, Doc.
So, uh...
Doc figures multiple aggressors.
What, like an all-in brawl that turned deadly?
I mean, I've heard of polar madness,
but are we really buying that?
Nope, which is why I'm getting Blue to run blood panels.
Assuming we can get the satellite to play ball.
Why blood panels?
Because I need a logical explanation.
Like what?
Okay, what if all the victims have been exposed
to some kind of pathogen?
Seriously? What kind of pathogen turns people homicidal?
Toxoplasma, maybe.
Meth can bring on uncontrollable anger,
coupled with exaggerated strength.
So the entire base was on ice?
Well, it is Antarctica, I'm just saying.
Our missing doctor, as requested.
One down, two to go.
We're still missing Jenn Flannery
and base geologist, Pavel Dubovskiy.
How'd you go with the CCTV?
Password-protected. No dice.
Maybe they just both up and left.
Yeah, we should check the snowmobiles.
Yeah.
Arggh!
Come on, mate, let's start over.
Tell us what happened
and we can talk about removing those cuffs.
The mood on base was pretty bleak.
Polar night. It puts everyone on edge.
Spiegelman, he was being annoying,
and Dr. Cohen...
It all happened so fast.
Did she have anything against Spiegelman?
No, no more than the rest of us.
We've all been working together for months.
Some of them even longer.
We all get on each other's nerves at some point.
What happened after Dr. Cohen attacked Spiegelman?
We restrained her.
It was hard.
She was frothing at the mouth.
I called my girlfriend back in Minsk
and while I was on the phone...
...Peter went berserk.
Then the rest of them started tearing each other apart.
What did you do?
I should have tried to help them.
I mean, they were my friends.
But I was just so terrified.
So you hid?
I didn't know what else to do.
It's like they were possessed.
Like it was... contagious.
So what do we think?
I think he's scared out of his wits.
Maybe.
But with any mass-homicide event,
last man standing with an ice pick
generally has some explaining to do.
But he's not the last man standing, remember?
We're still one short.
Yeah.
Head back out. See if you can smoke out our final girl.
What are you gonna do?
Me and Pavel are gonna find out what really happened.
Déjà vu all over again.
Yeah, it feels like we're in the sequel.
Door.
Hello?
Federal agents. Anyone here?
Looks like water. Where from?
Core samples, maybe?
You leave them unrefrigerated, the ice melts.
Think all this happened
before or after things went postal?
No idea.
I guess this must be where they store the frozen core samples.
Oh!
Did I mention I hate the cold?
Can these come off now?
Not if you're the killer.
Passcode?
4-8-9-2.
Height of the Vinson Massif, highest peak in Antarctica.
Bring me any more lamps you can find.
You really think this will speed up the thawing process?
Well, I'm open to suggestions.
How about we leave her on ice until we get back to Sydney?
Oh, I wish, but I have to take her bloods
before she's allowed back on that plane.
Huddle up.
I just got this off the CCTV.
Damn! Every man for himself.
What the hell happened to these people?
Whatever it is, Pavel's story checks out.
There he is on the phone.
Just like he said.
Makes him our only eyewitness.
Sorry about that.
You mind explaining
what exactly you guys are working on down here?
It's an international long-term climate study
funded by the US Navy.
We've been measuring nitrogen levels
beneath the ice.
And you're a geologist?
It's my job to locate the rock deposits
that are close enough to the ice cap and extract them.
Core samples. Very valuable.
I'm afraid some of them were trashed in the frenzy.
We found a bunch of them melted on the floor.
Actually, that happened before the incident.
Diane was running carbon dating tests
when one of them slipped its rig and shattered.
Why wasn't it cleaned up?
You need to be straight up with us, Pavel, or we can't help you.
Core samples have to be handled with extreme care.
Why's that?
I would have thought the rock
would have been pretty robust, no?
It's not the rock that's the issue.
It's any biological matter that's preserved within it.
And was there anything like that
within the core sample that broke?
There were several significant veins of biomass.
It was... concerning.
Why'd you not flag it?
It was Diane's project. She wasn't worried.
What might have been trapped in the ice? Worst-case scenario?
Bacteria. Some long-dormant virus.
Something that kills.
Or makes us kill.
Just breathe. Ugh! Almost got it!
Easy. No sudden movements.
Oh! Ooh!
Oh! What have you been feeding him?
Bleugh! Just everything on Doc's list.
What? All of it?
Yes, of course all of it. Why?
I've been feeding him from Doc's list too.
What?! Why have you been feeding him?
I thought you were a cat person.
No, I was just winding you up.
I love dogs, especially Buster.
Couldn't stand seeing him go hungry.
Oh, no chance of that.
Oh.
Ooh.
- Greetings and salutations. - On the clock, guys.
We've got a sketchy sat feed that won't last.
You get everything we sent through?
Copy that.
And I've analyzed the blood panels.
- And? - And it's weird.
They all have traces of an unknown viral infection.
Each victim had the same infection?
Affirmative.
What do you mean, unknown?
I mean that it's not on any database
that I have access to.
Which means what?
Which means it's likely synthetic.
The closest that I can liken it to
is the sort of encephalitis that comes from rabies.
But this is way more potent from what I can tell.
What do you know about zombie viruses?
Uh, just the basics.
Uh, ancient viruses trapped in ice
or permafrost that remain infectious,
even after being frozen for thousands of years.
So it's a real thing?
Uh, if you consider catastrophic future pandemics
a real thing.
Probs why Antarctica has such strict...
Okay.
So let's say these core samples
contain a virus trapped in the ice.
When that ice melts...
It is released into the air.
In which case, we've been breathing it in this whole time.
Hands up who thinks now's a good time to get out of here.
Not until we're certain we're not infected.
We can't risk taking it back with us.
What if the sun sets before that?
Or we're stuck here for six months?
If we don't kill each other first.
I'll send this to Sydney
and see what's going on.
Alright, pop that on, big fella.
Thank you, Doctor.
Come on, JD. Come on, assume the position.
Here.
Sit still, will you?
How long till we get the results back?
It'll take a lot longer if you won't stop bloody moving.
- I'm just asking. - Both of you!
We have a half hour max before the sun sets.
Are we getting results before then or not, Doc?
I'll do my best.
Are you sure we shouldn't be wearing PPE,
just in case?
Well, you do you.
But we've been huffing it in since we've been here.
If it is airborne, we've already got it.
And I don't intend to spend my remaining hours
on the wrong side of an N95 mask.
It fogs up my specs.
Just on that,
the whole super-rabies thing Blue mentioned,
it's a crazy guess, right?
That's right, D.
Cool.
What are the symptoms of rabies again?
Starts with a temperature.
Then a tickle in the back of your throat.
Oh, don't even start.
Then heightened irritability, paranoia,
then a murderous aggression that ultimately kills the host.
There's no cure.
You...
Whoa, whoa, whoa. What's that?
Relax. I've got a cold, okay?
Aw, hell no!
Is this how it starts?
I haven't got rabies!
What are the, um... what are the actual symptoms of rabies, Doc?
Well, you're pretty bang on, actually.
What? OK, mask.
And you think you can cough in my face?
- No more coughing. - Grow up!
- Zero coughing. - If I get rabies, it's on you!
- I had a tickle in my throat! - Locate a mask.
Enough!
Paranoia plus deadly weapons equals body bags.
Everyone, guns. Now.
It's for our own safety, okay?
Everyone presses one digit.
That way, no one gets the full code.
Stare off, D.
Good.
Safe and sound.
- Knock it off, Evie. - Uh, it's not me.
Do we get our guns back yet?
This is literally the plot from The Thing from Another World.
Thawed alien wakes up super pissed.
How's it end?
How do you think?
Everyone dies.
What the hell are you idiots doing?
You hear that, Doc?
It's only trapped gas trying to escape the corpse.
It is completely normal.
What about that?
I could...
I could hear them coming after me.
They... they were like animals.
I had nowhere to hide, so I got into the cryo fridge.
And then your body temperature dropped rapidly
and you became chronically hypothermic.
Is that a nice way of saying I froze to death?
No. No, you just got very, very cold.
And now you're not.
Doc, don't tell me the zombie virus
is actually a zombie virus.
Unlikely, but being almost frozen looks to have saved her.
And we're sure she's not gonna, you know, rip our throats out?
No, of course not.
Great.
I...I wouldn't have thought so.
It is totally possible.
First Pavel, now Jenn.
Two out of 10 scientists
unaffected by an airborne virus inside a closed base.
What's that tell you?
That maybe it isn't airborne.
Maybe.
And in which case, how did the virus
jump from a smashed ice core
to the blood of eight scientists?
Maybe it had help.
Outside help.
There's no guarantee that I can get...
It's, like, problematic, not just for me,
but the whole damn team, you know, that's why...
- What are you doing inside? - I had to bring in the oil.
Thought I'd make myself a brew while I'm here.
I was just filling him in on everything that's happened.
Yeah, it's horrible. Can't hardly believe it.
You really shouldn't be in here. It's not safe.
Well, it's 50 below out there. I'll take my chances.
You'll take your coffee and get your butt back on the plane.
You're our ticket out of here.
Sure. No problemo.
Take Pavel. Find the delivery manifests.
I want to know everything that's come onto this base
in the last month.
Here it is. Last delivery manifest.
I'm sure there are more here somewhere.
Long-life milk. Reconstituted mashed potato.
Condoms, vitamin D.
Helps survive months without sunlight.
I thought that's what the condoms are for.
I can check the supply cupboards if you like.
See if I can find records that go further back.
Good idea.
Talk us through what happened on the lead-up to all this.
Lead-up to polar night's pretty busy.
Last-minute weatherproofing, vehicles check,
vitamin D injections, that sort of thing.
Vitamin D?
We give everyone a boost before the sixth months of dark.
And am I right in saying
you were the one who raised the mayday?
Yeah, I sent the emergency email minutes after it happened.
Why not call it in?
If the satellite's not directly overhead,
phones just don't work.
It was email or nothing.
Solar flares regularly shut down our comms for hours.
We're finding that out.
So you had no phone coverage at all?
None at all. Total blackout.
Can you give us a moment?
Total blackout.
So how was Pavel on the phone to his girlfriend?
- Blood results are in. - We good?
We are. She's not.
Jenn tested positive for the virus?
Mm.
Why isn't she presenting symptoms?
Well, freezing may have
temporarily slowed the infection.
For how long?
Well, given she was frozen
right when the others began to exhibit symptoms,
I'd say...
...not long at all.
Think we got something.
Look, this is the most recent delivery manifest.
Check out the vitamin D order.
And this was what was delivered.
Found the empty packets inside the bin.
Not what was ordered. Different brand, different supplier.
Jenn said the boosters
were part of their prep for polar night.
Perfect time to slip a rogue virus
past biosecurity protocols
and infect the entire base.
My guess is the person who smuggled them in
didn't get a shot.
Oh, you son of a...
Oh!
What the hell?
Her heart rate is spiking.
Her temperature's skyrocketing.
She's turning.
Pavel imports contaminated vials of vitamin D
to infect the entire crew.
Why?
What on this base
is worth killing nine people for?
Get us out of this room
and I'll be happy to workshop that with you.
So, Doc, is now a good time to ask about our test results?
They're all clear.
Ah, it's the small victories.
- Lifeline? - Phone a friend.
Buster? Talk to me.
Okay, Code Red, Code Red! Buster's exploding.
It's just a hairball, Blue.
This is Trigger.
It's JD.
We're in an air-sealed lab, security level 4.
We need a fast exit.
Level 4?
Mate, those doors have hermetic bio-seals.
They're, like, triple redundant mag-locked,
built to contain everything.
They only open from the outside.
Well, we're inside, mate.
Now would be a good time for some out-of-the-box thinking.
Purge protocol.
Come again?
In order for a level 4 bio lab to unlock,
the system needs to think that it's safe from any airborne
- foreign agents. - How's it do that?
By initiating incineration purge protocols.
In order to activate that,
the lab needs to detect a bio-threat.
Basically trick the sensors
into believing the virus is airborne.
And then flame jets will ignite
every molecule in the room...
...including oxygen, and then the doors will unlock.
So burn ourselves alive. That's your solution?
Well, we didn't say it was a perfect one.
I mean, we're dead anyway.
Over here.
- Right, ready when you are. - Yeah.
Oh. That's a bit underwhelming.
Ten seconds to incineration purge.
Ten, 9, 8...
Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!
- ...6, 5... - JD, what are you doing?
...4, 3, 2, 1.
Incineration purge complete.
I'll sedate Jenn and get her to the plane.
- What about Pavel? - I vote we leave him.
- Come back in the summer. - I'm with Evie with that one.
Nah, we need answers.
We need guns.
You kidding?
Evie, it's one number!
Okay, well, this isn't helping.
Evie, code now.
Here.
Ugh!
How do you like them rocks?
I don't know about you,
but I'd take a week in Darwin right about now.
Hm!
Mango madness beats polar madness
any day of the week.
Mm-hm.
Worth risking your life for?
Worth taking lives for, anyway. That much I know.
What is it, DY66?
It's dysprosium, a rare earth element.
Atomic number 66 on the periodic table.
Used in high-grade magnets, motors, guidance systems,
anything military-grade, and it is worth a fortune.
You think this whole thing is about mining?
- Mm-hm. - How's that possible?
Mining is illegal in Antarctica.
Which is why Pavel had to clear out the entire base
with a deadly virus first.
He takes control of the site,
then waits for reinforcements to strip-mine the place?
Yep. All under the cover of six months of darkness.
It's kind of genius, really.
So who are the reinforcements?
Pavel is from Belarus. I could take an educated guess.
We'll get him to talk.
And whoever they are,
they're not getting their hands on any of this anytime soon.
Mm-hm.
Whoa.
Scooter?
I don't feel so good.
The coffee.
Pavel must have spiked it.
Arggh!
Evie!
Okay.
Been a while.
It's just like a chopper, but, you know, a plane.
Arggh!
Ah! Oh.
Yeah.
I still got it.
- Is that eggplant emoji girl? - Can we not call her that?
She is gonna be pissed you didn't follow through.
Ooh.
Wait. You didn't follow through, did you?
In the cold?
"Just realized what this looks like.
"I was trying to ask if you like moussaka, my specialty."
See, she was actually talking about eggplant.
Sure she was.
Wait, what?
Special Agent Mackey.
You're a hard woman to catch.
That's by design. What do you got?
Well, I chased up the kill list you found
on The Ghost's phone...
...and you're not gonna like what I found.
Why is that?
'Cause I worked out who put you on it.
We did.