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Frank crawls through
the air conditioning ducts at the resort. He enters a room where Stephen is working: The first place I looked - a pool of standing water under an evaporator.   Stephen:
Which tells you what?Frank: If the water's infected with Legionnaire's, the fan could easily aerosolize it into a mist. Stephen: And from there, spread the disease. Frank: I only checked a portion of the ducts, but I think we're on the right track. Stephen: Shut down central air.  Anne Harring is
outside the quarantined area, talking to her daughter through the glass doors,
when Miles exits the building.Anne: Dr. McCabe...Please let me go in and see her.  Miles: I can't. I'm sorry. Anne: At least, let me give her this blanket. It's the only thing that keeps her calm....Please? Have a heart, please? Miles takes the blanket. Anne: Thank you. The helicopter arrives on the island and Stephen and Frank begin unloading the medicine.  Jenny Small hurries
over
to them: Dr. Connor, we need you now.They hurry into the clinic where the island doctor is working on a patient  .Doctor: Dammit! Stephen: What's happened? Doctor: Dan Harring started hyperventilating. I tried to intubate, but... Stephen takes over and intubates Harring: Okay, it's in. BP? Doctor: 60/20. Stephen to Miles: Miles, dopamine. Five to ten milligrams now. Stephen to the doctor: Switch. Let's go. Let's go. Switch. Bag him fast.  Stephen begins
CPR
as the doctor takes over bagging Mr. Harring.Stephen: Miles, where's the dopamine? Miles: I got it. (He administers the drug.) Dopamine's in. Stephen: What's his pulse? Miles, what's his pulse? Miles: Not much there.  Stephen: Pulse is fading. We're losing him. He continues to perform CPR as the camera revolves around the three of them, trying to save Dan Harring's life. Finally, Stephen stops, places his hand over the Doctor's and shakes his head. Anne Harring comes running into the clinic and sees her dead husband. Frank holds her, as she collapses, screaming and crying.   Stephen, on his cell phone: The disease must have progressed
too far.Natalie: Legionnaire's didn't kill him, Stephen. The bacterial culture was negative. Stephen: Then, we're back to square one. We know almost nothing.
Natalie: Not really. Now, we
know it kills.
 |
| Natalie, on her cell phone: I ran into some red tape with
Dan Harring's body. The coroner's just starting the
autopsy. I did notice small burns on his fingertips. Stephen: That could be something. What about the samples from the property? Natalie: Besides the bacteria and staph I mentioned earlier, there's a pretty high concentration of mold spores. Stephen: Inside or out? Natalie: Both. But, that's not unusual, given the kind of plant life there. I'll know what kind of fungus it is in a few hours. Stephen: Make sure the M.E. matches anything he finds with your list. Whatever killed Dan Harring isn't something that we see every day. Stephen and Frank are questioning Anne Harring in her hotel room.  Anne: I never thought that Dan
would settle down. He wasn't really the marrying type when we
met. But, when Gracie was born, he really grew up. He loved
being a Dad.Stephen: What was his daily routine? What did he do the moment that he woke up? Or right before bed? Anne: Why are you asking me all these questions? Stephen: Because of the progression of your husband's illness, we think that he was the first one to become infected. It helps us if we can put together a picture of his activities, prior. Frank: Was he sick, at all, before you came to the resort? Anne: No. He was actually in the best mood I'd seem him in, in months. He was working really hard on this IPO. They all were...He bought me this bracelet in St. Thomas. It was kind of his way of saying sorry. Stephen: Sorry? Sorry for what? Anne: For being distant. You know, not available. That kind of thing.   Frank notices the smoke
alarm: Your husband's a smoker,
Mrs. Harring?Anne: No. Frank: Other than the bracelet, did he purchase anything else in St. Thomas? Anne: No, I don't think so. Stephen: How about yourself? Did you bring anything over on the boat? Anne: Me? No.  Outside her
room, Frank: Smoke alarm was taped over.Stephen: Yeah, I saw that, too. Why would she lie? Frank: Maybe she didn't. Maybe she thinks he quit. Stephen: Makes you wonder what else she doesn't know about him. At the Kazerian Gallery.  The gallery owner, Mr. Kazerian: How much longer will
you be, Ma'am?Eva: First off, she's a doctor. Second of all, there's a lot of sick people depending on her for recovery, so she'll take as long as she needs. Kazerian hands her a piece of paper: So, um..., here's the name of the caterer we used, plus a list of the food and drinks we ordered for the opening. Natalie: We'll, also, need to know who else was here for the week leading up to the event? Did you have a service clean the place? Kazerian: Well, I didn't want people sweating all night, so I had someone fine-tune the central air. Eva: We'll need to take a look at that. Kazerian: I'm sorry. I'm not trying to be uncooperative, it's just that this has been a very trying two weeks for me. First, Elli passes away and now, the NIH thinks I have something in my gallery that's killing people.  Natalie:
Wait. Who passed away?Eva: Elli's the guy I was telling you about.  Kazerian, indicating a nearby painting: He spent so many years trying to be shown in a mainstream gallery like this and he dies two days after his opening. Natalie: How did he die? Was he sick? Kazerian: Elli had been battling HIV for a number of years, but I didn't know he was that sick. Back at the island.  Miles: I
put some more pain killer and a muscle
relaxant in your IV. It should help your throat, Kim.Kim: Dr. McCabe? Miles: See? Sounds better already.  Kim: Can you take a message to my friends? Miles: Yeah, of course. Kim: Can you tell them that if I die, I want Jules to take my cat? She's the responsible one. Miles: Hey, Kim, you are not going to die. Dr. Connor is the best. I know you don't know him, but he's a brilliant man. A nurse hurries up: Dr. McCabe? We need you. One of the children in the quarantined area has come down with the illness.  Stephen: Either
she was already sick or someone
compromised the area.Miles: I never let anyone in. Nurse: What about the lady who gave you the blanket? Stephen: Something you want to say, McCabe? Miles: The mom was beside herself. She (he indicates the little girl) couldn't stop crying. It was the only thing that would help. I took the   blanket
from the mom and I gave it to
her. I never let the mom in.Stephen: Take the child to the nightclub with the others. Let the parents know. Miles: You know who the little girl is, don't you? That's Anne Harring's daughter. Stephen: Where's the blanket? Stephen: This leads us right back to Dan Harring's room.   Miles:
So, it actually helped.Stephen: Don't act like your mistake was part of some master plan, McCabe. You let emotion cloud your better judgment and you compromised that environment. The safer bet was to leave you in Miami. Miles: While you've been looking at the big picture, I've been treating 25 patients and triaging over a hundred others. I'm sorry if I messed up one time. Stephen: Hey, we can't afford to mess up, ever. Miles looks past Stephen and says: What the hell?  They see the resort's guests hurrying across the grounds with their luggage. Stephen hands Miles the blanket as he walks away: Test it. Miles: For what?  Stephen hurries
to catch up with Jenny Small.Stephen: Ms. Small, where are they going? Jenny: Home. Arrangements have already been made. Stephen: I told you we haven't contained the situation, yet. We don't know what's making them sick or where it's coming from. Jenny: You're preaching to the wrong person, Dr. Connor. I didn't arrange anything. Gary Riesen did. Natalie and Eva check out Elli's apartment.  Natalie:
Elli's cause of death was officially listed
as AIDS-related pneumonia.Eva: Well, that's what you expected, isn't it? Natalie: Well, that's what everyone around him expected, since he'd had a number of bouts with pneumonia. Eva: I'm not following. Natalie: Because Elli had HIV, no one questioned how he died, but maybe he didn't have AIDS-related pneumonia. Eva: You think, maybe, he had whatever's making Diaz and the others sick? Natalie: I think he had it first. Eva: Oh, by the way, if anyone comes in, we're from Century 21. They discover a wall covered with Elli's artwork. Eva: This guy is definitely in your face. Natalie makes a dismissive sound. Eva: Doesn't do it for you? Natalie: I'd rather sit through a hockey game. My ex was into art. Eva: Excuse me? Ex as in ex-husband? That kind of ex? Natalie nods, with a slight smile. Eva scoffs.  Natalie
accidentally knocks the lid off a large container and they both react
to the smell. Natalie: Oh... Eva: Ugh, what is that? They look inside the container - it's full of maggots. Eva: Since when do maggots like paint? Natalie: That's not just paint in there. That's feces. Eva: Aagh! Stephen confronts Gary Riesen, head of the company who's vacationing at the resort. Gary: I gave you time, Dr. Connor. But, now one of my employees is dead. What do you expect me to do, sit around and watch half of my company die? I did not get to where I am by passively taking orders. Stephen: Neither did I. Gary: The healthy people are going home. The sick people are going to the hospital. As you said, it's my call. Stephen: Your arrogrance is impressive. Gary, as he hurries off: Right back at ya, Doctor.  Frank
hurries up to Stephen: The M.E. in Miami has been trying to reach
you. Autopsy's in on Dan Harring.Stephen: And? Frank: Acute histoplasmosis. Stephen: Acute disseminated histoplasmosis.  Frank: I already told Miles. He said it's a fungus, right? Stephen: Yeah, from contaminated soil. Frank: All right, so what are we looking for, muddy shoes? Stephen: No, stomping through the dirt won't do it. You need proximity to the spores in order for it to get into your lungs. Has there been any disturbance to the grounds? Heavy winds? Construction? Anything? Frank: No, nothing.  Stephen sighs: What time's that boat get
here?Frank: Assuming it's going six knots, 40 minutes, max. If everyone leaves the island before we find the source, we'll lose containment. Stephen: Yeah, and more people will get sick. |
 Frank enters the room where Stephen is looking at the
security monitors: I checked with the Bimini Ministry of
Health. There's no documented cases of histoplasmosis on the
island. How rare is this
thing? We have it in the States?Stephen: Yeah, we call it Ohio Valley or Mississippi Valley Disease. The fungus itself is pretty common in the soil. Frank: Where's it come from? Stephen: Birds contaminate the soil with their droppings. We get sick from inhaling the spores. Frank: Wait a minute. (He pulls out his notepad.) The first day here, a few of the patients went on a bird-watching tour. Stephen: Yeah, but not all of them. Any other exposure to soil? Frank: Well, some of the patients went hiking north of the resort, but a bunch more went to the same place and didn't get sick. Dan Harring never left the grounds.  Stephen: So, we still have absolutely no explanation of how the soil became aerosolized, no common activity among the guests, no history of histo on the island, the source had to have been brought in. Frank: So, you're still thinking Dan Harring was patient zero? Stephen: Yeah, but the question is how does a soil-based fungus kill a 37-year-old vice president on vacation? Frank: You know, it's ironic that people from the city come here to get close to nature and nature bites them in the ass. Stephen: Yeah, nature's funny that way. Take the biggest animal in the world, the blue whale, pit it against the tiniest microscopic bacterium, the bacterium kills the whale every time. Miles runs a variety of tests on the little girl's blanket. 
 Stephen: Contact the Coast Guard off Miami. Tell them we haven't identified the mode of transmission yet. See if they can arrange an escort into a quarantine station. Frank: I'm on it.  Miles runs
up to them: Connor. Dr. Connor!Stephen: What, McCabe? Miles: Something curious about the blanket. Because the source is 
from spores, I
had a crazy idea and put it under a black light.Stephen: Chlorophyll? Miles: All over it. Frank: First, it was soil. Now, it's plants? Miles: Are there any plants in Dan Harring's room? Natalie and Eva are back at the Kazerian Gallery.  Natalie: We're going to have to take down Elli's paintings.Kazerian: Q Fever? Are you people making this up? Natalie: The scientific name is Coxiella burnetti. It's a bacteria found mostly in farm animals. We found an abundance of it in Elli's paint. Kazerian: I don't understand. What's it doing there? Eva: Well, you mentioned Elli was out of the mainstream, but you didn't say that he added cow patties and placenta to his work. I believe it's called shock art, radical art, outer art. Google "art feces" sometime. You'll be amazed how many hits you get.  Kazerian: It started as a movement to ridicule the idea that everything is art. Eva: "Movement" being the key word. Natalie: So, you knew his work was smeared with excrement? Kazerian: No, but I'm not surprised. Elli was always taking risks. Eva sighs as she pulls on gloves: Mr. Kazerian, about the little matter of removing the work...(She indicates that he should leave and he does.) In Dan Harring's room. Frank: It's not the plants. They're all silk. Stephen: Dan Harring died of histoplasmosis spores originating from contaminated soil. HIs illness was systemic which means he received a massive spore load. Stephen visualizes Dan, lying back on the bed, smoking a cigarette when his wife and daughter enter the   room. Anne: I told you I didn't want you smoking around her. Dan: I'm sorry. I'm sorry. (He puts out the cigarette.) Frank finds a can of air freshener: Jasmine and rosemary. I knew I smelled something earlier. It's plant-based. Any chance it could contain live spores? Stephen: Doubtful. Unusual place for a freshener, though.  Frank: You
mean, why isn't it in the bathroom?Stephen: Hmm. Frank: Well, maybe, he's trying to cover up the cigarette smoke. Stephen: Or a certain aroma. He pulls out his cell phone and calls Natalie. Natalie answers: Durant.   Stephen: Did you get a preliminary tox screen on Dan Harring? Natalie: I'll have to check the M.E.'s report. What are you looking for? Stephen: Harring had reddening of the eyes and burns on his fingertips. Check for THC. Natalie: Marijuana? I'll see what I can find. Stephen hangs up the phone and visualizes Dan smoking a joint when his wife and daugher enter the room and he hides it under the bed. Anne: Dan, you told me you didn't smoke that any more. Dan: I've been putting together that whole public offering. I've been under a lot of stress.  Stephen: When she said he didn't smoke, she was half-right.
He didn't smoke cigarettes, but he did smoke marijuana, especially when
he was under the stress of taking a company public.Frank: Well, answer me this: why the whole code of silence thing? If everyone who's sick lit up, someone would have mentioned it. Stephen: Well, pot's illegal and I don't think everyone who was sick, did. I think Harring partied with some of his colleagues, those on his team maybe, but that was about it. His phone rings. Stephen: Yeah. Natalie: Harring's blood tested positive for THC.  Stephen hangs up and tells Frank: He tested positive. Frank: All right, look at this. (He shows Stephen a diagram on his notepad.) The people in the next four rooms along this corridor all got sick. Stephen: The smoke...no, that cant' be it. The spores are too small. The heat in the joint would have burned them up. So, how did the spores travel? How did they contaminate the others?  Stephen visualizes Dan rolling the joint on the bed when
his wife and daughter enter the room. He quickly hides the
paraphernalia under the bed, but spills some of the marijuana on his
daughter's blanket.Stephen: The child's blanket could have been contaminated here in the room, which explains how the little girl got sick, but what about the others? If he stashed the marijuana in the luggage or under the bed, it still doesn't explain how those in the other rooms got infected. Frank: Smitty. Stephen: What? Frank: James Peter Smith. My third year bunkmate in the Navy. Nice guy, an okay sailor, but a major pothead. Anyway...every time the NCO came around, ol' Smitty would hide his stash up in the vent. Stephen: The vent. The camera zooms in on the vent, goes through it, past the bag of marijuana and continues down the  corridor to the vent in another room
where Kim is sleeping. She breathes in the spores.Stephen: If he stashed the marijuana in the vent, the flow of the air could have blown the spores along the corridor, at least far enough to reach the other victims, especially if the bag wasn't sealed. Stephen walks over to the vent, opens it and removes Dan's stash. He and Frank nod at each other. After testing the marijuana, Stephen points to a screen showing the results: Look at this, histoplasmic  capsulatum.Miles: The stuff's loaded with it. Stephen: It's a nasty little fungus. Miles: I can't believe that histoplasmic capsulatum can get from the soil into the leaves like this. Stephen: There have been cases of pot contaminated with salmonella, hep A.  Miles: Yeah,
but that's through ingestion. This had to
be inhaled.Stephen: Shows you that almost anything's possible when you're dealing with organisms this small. Miles: Marijuana. Stephen: Don't get too freaked, McCabe. It's rare. Miles: Are you going to tell the guests? Stephen: They're your patients. In Miami, Natalie and Eva are in Raymond Diaz's hospital room with his family.  Eva: You're
a lucky man, Mr. Diaz.Diaz: I could have died. Natalie: The tricky thing about Q Fever is it often cultures negative. Diaz: But it is a bacteria. Natalie: A Rickettsial bacteria, which requires a specific test, which we only ran after we found the animal parts in Elli's studio and only then could we give you the right antibiotics for that particular infection.  Eva: Like we said, lucky. Diaz: And all from standing close to a painting. Natalie: You're going to be okay, Mr. Diaz. The doctors here will monitor your heart and keep you on a steady dose of IV tetracycline. Diaz: Thank goodness I work for the government. Eva: Eh, we would've gotten around to you at some point. Natalie and Eva say their good-byes and leave.  At the docks,
Stephen, Frank and Miles watch as the guests, sick and
healthy, disembark from the boat.As Kim is wheeled by, she says: Thank you, Dr. McCabe. Frank: These people have a long road ahead. Stephen: The sick ones, yeah. Antifungals, chemo, it'll be months before they're back to normal. As Anne Harring walks by with her daughter, Miles says: If ever. Natalie and Eva join them.  Frank: Cow
feces in art. Who would've thought.Miles: My dad always said modern art was crap. Eva: And hello to you, too. Stephen: How are we doing on the histo problem? Natalie: The Bimini Ministry of Health is putting out a warning, plus they're re-examining all TB cases, looking for anything that might actually be histoplasmosis. Stephen: The marijuana still circulating? Eva: With the information Mrs. Harring gave us, the local police were able to find a few dealers and the contaminated field in St. Thomas. It's being destroyed as we speak. The others walk ahead, leaving Natalie and Stephen alone.  Natalie: Nice
work.Stephen: We live to fight another day. Natalie: You're not going to give me one of your "we may have won the battle, but not the war" speeches, are you? Stephen: I'm too tired. Natalie: Good, because I think we did a damn good job and I don't want to hear it. She walks away as Stephen watches the remaining patients being unloaded from the boat.  |
| Screen
captures
courtesy of Bev at: Bev's Web RDAOnline |