Synopsis
Tania Slovic, on loan to CI5 from the Bosnian
Police, contacts CI5 HQ using the callsign '96'. She's been
observing a factory and there are signs of movement. A truck
is leaving.
She speaks to Malone on a secure line and
informs him of this, and is asked to get a picture to HQ
via her headset. However, just as she starts to do this
she is dragged out of the car. The camera falls off her
head and onto her car seat.
As the staff at HQ watch helpless, Slovic
is dragged from her car. They can hear yelling, and then
they see a face on Slovic's headset. Malone identifies him
as one Radovan Pradic, a wanted Bosnian war criminal.
Malone, Curtis and Keel travel to the factory
in Bosnia, where they meet the UN Colonel responsible for
security - Colonel Van Meer. They are informed by the Colonel
that the furnace in the factory has been used recently -
for what he cannot say.
Curtis and Keel begin to search the premises,
using geiger counters, despite the Colonel's protestations
that the UN had carried out a full search including a search
for radiation.
While they carry out the search, Malone deals
with the UN Colonel, informing him that Slovic was not part
of CI5 but was working for them as part of a special arrangement
with the local police, and brushing aside his protestations
that as head of security in the area he does not want any
such special arrangements to take place.
Meanwhile, Curtis and Keel find several sawn
off pieces of wood and a hoist, also recently used. It appears
that something was loaded into the truck before it left
the premises, but they are no wiser to what it may have
been.
An Inspector from the Grozny police arrives
- Inspector Dimitri Stanoslavic. Moving outside, Malone
discusses the case with him while Curtis and Keel wait nearby.
Malone reveals that CI5 have been monitoring Pradic's Swiss
bank accounts and that Pradic has been receiving regular
payments of around £1/4m each time.
Stanoslavic claims he has no idea where Pradic
and his men could be keeping Slovic. When Malone returns
to his agents, Keel asks how his chat went. Malone states
that Stanoslavic knows where Slovic is. Curtis observes
that he probably put her there.
True to Curtis' belief, Stanoslavic heads
straight for the location of Pradic's men where Tania Slovic
is being tortured to determine how much she knows about
their operation. Pradic arrives, wanting to know how much
the Agent knows.
Curtis and Keel arrive (1)
and launch a raid on the building. They are about to rush
into the room where Slovic is being held, when Curtis gives
their location away by cocking his gun. The noise is heard
by Pradic, who warns his men. Curtis and Keel are about
to abort when Pradic's men open fire on their position.
They are left with no alternative but to return fire, killing
several of Pradic's men, including Stanoslavic.
Malone arrives just in time to take in the
scene of carnage. Curtis informs him that there is no sign
of Pradic. Just as he reports that, they hear the sound
of a car pulling away - Pradic has escaped.
When Keel reacts to this development with
anger, Malone reprimands him, and Keel, in response, reiterates
the first rule - never get emotionally involved. Sadly observing
Slovic's corpse, Malone observes that this is the most difficult
rule of all.
Back at CI5 HQ, Backup now has satellite surveillance
over the area in question. Spencer helps her to enhance
it.
Moving back to Bosnia, Malone tells Curtis
and Keel that several years ago he lost an agent in Berlin,
back in the days when the wall was still up. They were constructing
a tunnel underneath the wall to assist East Berliners in
escaping from East Germany. One day this tunnel was deliberately
flooded, and twelve people died. They found his agent a
week later, dumped on waste ground. He had been tortured.
Malone states that he learnt a lot that day. Everyone has
a breaking point and sooner or later they will break. That's
why he ensures that his agents never know any more than
they need too. He observes that at least Slovic didn't endanger
them.
Meanwhile, Backup has a satellite image showing
a transfer of something between the truck they believe was
at the factory and another truck at the Hungarian border.
Curtis spots a logo on the side of the new truck, and when
it is enhanced it reads 'BR' - Bluckner Racing.
Malone meets with Jerry Bluckner, the current
owner of Bluckner racing. Several years before, Bluckner's
father saved Malone's life in Algeria (2).
Using that lever he is able to find out that Bluckner use
two transport trucks and that they do all of their development
work in Hungary, away from the prying eyes of their competitors.
In fact, one of their transport trucks is currently half
way through the Channel Tunnel on its way back from Hungary
as they speak.
Malone arranges for an HMCE (Her Majesty's
Customs and Excise) spot check on the vehicle in question.
While the customs men are unable to find anything, they
can at least say that the truck is not carrying drugs, currency
or radioactive material.
Curtis and Keel wait in the car while Malone
conducts his investigation, and discuss their love lives,
or lack thereof. (This includes the 'blind date' conversation
cut from the UK transmission by Sky One - there is however
a copy of this scene within the CI5 Operational Control
database, located here.)
CI5 have managed to match up the deposits
made to Pradic's Swiss accounts with a trip to Hungary by
Bluckner's transport. Malone wants to place Curtis and Keel
undercover within Bluckner Racing, but Jerry Bluckner refuses,
pointing out that their team is compact and like a family,
so that any new faces will stick out like a sore thumb.
The only staff which changes regularly is within PR.
Malone is forced to give up his plan, although
he asks Bluckner to contact him if he uncovers any more
information.
Meanwhile Paul, a junior engineer with the
Bluckner team, approaches the new transport manager, Elkie.
He is concerned about developments within the team. He's
disturbed by the fact that they were subjected to such a
thorough search, including a full body search, when they
arrived in Britain. He wants to know why he never sees any
paperwork, why his co-driver, Vance, takes two days off
every time they go to Hungary and no-one appears concerned
by this and why they carry extra spares but no-one knows
why. He claims that these discrepancies have only arisen
since Elkie was appointed transport manager.
Elkie rather curtly informs him that if he
doesn't like the way things are run, he can leave.
Not satisfied with the explanation that he
receives, Paul searches the storage area that night and
examines the extra spares they brought back from Hungary.
While he is doing so, someone drops the engine on him and
crushes him to death.
Jerry Bluckner is convinced that this is no
accident. Paul has been with the team for a long time and
there is no way, Bluckner believes, that he would have treated
the equipment with anything less than respect, and would
not have made a mistake resulting in the engine falling
on him. He phones Malone, and asks him how long it would
be before his people could get there.
The next day a new driver arrives at Bluckner,
giving his name as Chris Keel, and introducing his mechanic,
Sam Curtis. He certainly treats his mechanic as an employee,
ordering him around. Elkie rather acidly observes to Vance
that Keel's father apparently paid a great deal of money
so that his son could play at being a 'racing driver'. While
Curtis parks the car, Jerry Bluckner introduces Keel to
one of the new members of staff in the PR department - Tina
Backus.
Bluckner takes the two agents up to his office,
voicing his concern that Keel will be driving his cars.
He asks Keel if he knows how much they cost, to which Keel
replies with a smile that they cost about a hundredth of
the cost of a jetfighter and that the Navy used to trust
him with quite a few of those.
Back at CI5 HQ, Spencer reports to Malone
that there was nothing suspicious in Paul's autopsy but
that the man was found with a screw in his hand. Malone
gives the screw a rather cursory examination, and throws
it on his desk.
Back at Bluckner, Curtis and Keel decide to
search the storage area, although they don't know what they
are looking for since HMCE would have found currency, the
sniffer dogs would have found drugs and it's obviously not
uranium or plutonium.
As they search the place, looking for any
clues, Curtis rather despondently comments that this is
not his idea of poking around in the dark (3).
Back at HQ, Malone receives a phonecall from
Colonel Van Meer in Bosnia. They have been approached by
someone who has survived Pradic's death camps and who has
put together a dossier with evidence from other survivors.
The UN now have enough evidence to approach the Hague War
Crimes Tribunal and arrest Pradic. All they have to do now
is find him.
Meanwhile Curtis and Keel have given up their
search in disgust, having found nothing for their efforts.
As they pull their masks off and discuss the futility of
their search, they are observed by an unknown party, who
then loosens the brake valve on Keel's car and releases
the fluid.
The next morning at the track, Backup reports
their lack of success to Malone, who urges them not to give
up.
Keel test drives the tampered car, and Bluckner
is favourably impressed with his ability. Just then, the
brake line finally works free and Keel is forced to put
the car into a spin in order to stop it.
Elkie realises what has happened and confronts
Vance with it, claiming that his impulsive action has put
their entire agenda at risk. Vance is unrepentant. Any driver
worth their salt would have recovered from that problem,
and it may have scared their investigators and given them
something else to think about other than looking into their
actions. Elkie is not impressed by this reasoning, accusing
Vance of being a mercenary rather than a true patriot.
Curtis and Keel realise that the car has been
sabotaged, despite the fact that Bluckner says that such
things do happen. Curtis states that the car was checked
out before the race and they spotted no such problem (4).
Both agents realise that their cover has been blown, and
that if someone is risking direct action like this, it means
that if anything is going to happen, it's going to happen
soon.
Back at HQ, Malone is frustrated by the lack
of progress with their investigation, and juggles the screw
found in Paul's grip in his hand for a moment before tossing
it at his executive toy - a pile of magnetic spheres. It
doesn't stick, so he tries it again. When it fails to stick
again, he realises that something is wrong.
Back at Bluckner, Curtis and Keel spot a figure
entering the storage area with Elkie and Vance - it's Pradic.
They follow.
Malone explains to Spencer that he realises
what has been happening. Pradic has been stealing Bosnia's
gold reserves and smuggling them out of the country. When
the screw proved to be non-magnetic, he realised that there
are only a few metals which aren't - titanium, magnesium,
and... He scrapes the paint off the screw to dramatically
reveal... gold! Spencer calls Backup to inform her of developments
but she's down in the pit and the car engines drown out
the call. She tells him she can't hear and he'll have to
call her back.
Curtis and Keel have been spotted and Vance
opens fire on them, allowing Elkie and Pradic to escape.
Ducking behind cover, Curtis notices that one of the bullets
has struck the spare engine hanging from a pulley, chipping
away the paint, and asks Keel how fast a car can go if its
engine is made of gold.
Keel takes off after Pradic while Curtis goes
after Vance.
Keel narrowly misses catching Pradic and Elkie
as they drive off as he arrives. However, he leaps into
the Lotus that he and Curtis arrived in and takes off in
pursuit.
Meanwhile Curtis is stalking Vance through
the multi-storey carpark. Backup arrives just as Vance barrels
through a door and aims at them. The two agents open fire,
and kill him.
Keel follows Pradic to Brannon Airfield where
a plane is just taking off. As he follows in the Lotus,
he gestures to the pilot to stop, but is fired upon. He
overtakes the plane and pulls the Lotus into the path of
the plane, forcing the pilot to stop, just as Curtis, Backup
and Malone arrive to assist him. He orders the pilot out
- it's Elkie. Curtis searches the plane, but there is no
sign of Pradic.
In Switzerland, Pradic is checking on his
Swiss bank accounts, having a pleasant conversation with
his bank manager on the joys of Swiss coffee. However, when
he receives his statements, they show that all of his accounts
are closed. He demands to know what is going on, and his
bank manager, one Harry Malone, is more than happy to explain.
It's not a mistake. Commissioner Hoffman of the Zurich Police
also has a warrant for his arrest. The Swiss government
has received a copy of the dossier on his war crimes, courtesy
of Colonel Van Meer, and arranged for his arrest. He'll
face the War Tribunal at the Hague.
Pradic tries to leave, but is prevented from
doing so by Curtis and Keel.
With things back to normal at Bluckner, Curtis,
Keel and Backup are arguing amicably over who gets to return
the Lotus back to the hire car company, Backup pointing
out that both of the guys have had a turn at driving it
so it's now her turn. As Curtis agrees with her, Malone
turns up and settles the argument, appropriating the car
for himself, and rather abruptly informing his agents that
they need to be back at the office at 3.15pm for a debriefing.
He drives off, leaving his agents looking
after him rather ruefully.
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