[Int. Open. – A studio set. Stacy Goodyear is interviewing Bones on a morning program.]
Stacy: I’m Stacy Goodyear and joining me on Wakeup DC is Dr. Temperance Brennan. She’s the author of the best selling mystery novel, Bred in the Bone and she’s also…now tell me if I get this wrong…an anthropologist who works with the FBI to solve crimes?
Bones: Yes that’s correct. I use the bones of people who have been murdered or burned or blown up or eaten by animals or insects or just decomposed.
Stacy: Well that’s exciting. Um, Dr. Brennan, your book has sold over three hundred thousand copies. How do you juggle twin careers as a best selling author and crime fighting scientist?
Bones: Well I do one then the other.
(Stacy pauses for a moment looking at her not knowing what to say.)
Stacy: And is the work enjoyable I mean the part involving rotten bodies?
Bones: Enjoyable? Satisfying yes, like cracking a code but in general when you’re looking at someone who been brutally murdered…it’s complicated.
Stacy: (laughs) Cause I just thought, ya know, yuck. (Stacy laughs and Bones just stares at her.) Oh. Doesn’t leave you much time for a personal life does it?
(Booth enters the studio off camera and sits in eyesight of Bones)
Bones: It’s true I’m more focused on my career right now.
(Booth mouths and gestures to her to smile.)
Stacy: Most of our viewers are parents…
(Bones sees Booth and he is smiling at her giving her thumbs up.)
Stacy: home with their preschool aged children. What will you tell your kids about the horrors that you see every day?
Bones: I’m not going to have any children.
Stacy: Really?
Bones: Yes really.
(She looks at Booth and he gives her a solemn face. He shakes his head a little bit and whispers no to indicate she shouldn’t have said that.)
Stacy: Do you have any advice for budding authors out there?
Bones: Well the first thing they should have is an idea and then…well first you need something to write with. (to herself) They know that. Well obviously you need a writing instrument and you need an idea. I’m just not sure which should come first.
(Booth hangs his head down and rubs his forehead with his right hand.)
Stacy: The book is Bred in the Bone by Dr. Temperance Brennan. Next up after the break…wicker the new leather but is it safe for your children.
(The cameras go off and the lights follow. Stacy gets up out of her chair annoyed and leaves. Bones goes to stand up but is caught by her microphone.)
Bones: (to Booth) How was I?
Booth: We’ll talk about it on the way.
Bones: On the way where?
[CUT TO: A crime scene. It’s dusky out and Firemen are walking around a burnt out car. Booth pulls up to the scene with Bones in his SUV while they are roping it off with crime scene tape. They walk towards the car.]
Booth: State troopers called in the fire department to put out a burning car. They found a body in the driver’s seat. The license plate and the VIN are missing.
Bones: Why is the FBI involved?
(Bones starts looking inside the car at the body.)
Booth: Well one burned backpack, child sized sneaker plus the right side rear seatbelt went missing, sliced away.
Bones: You think it was a kidnapping?
Booth: Well I have to act that way the first 48 hrs after child abduction are crucial. That’s why you’re here. You ID that victim and that tells me what kid I’m looking for.
[Intro. Rolls]
[Open Int. Lab. Zack is looking at a burnt backpack and sneakers on a table. There is another table next to that one with the burnt body on it. Bones is with him.]
Zack: (picks up burnt sneaker) Shoe size four. It’s a school bag but the contents were burned beyond recognition.
Bones: What about the human remains?
(They both walk over to the body.)
Zack: The victim was female. Her skull shows combined cocazoid and mongoloid features. Also preauricular sulcus to the pelvis shows the victim gave birth five to eight years ago.
Bones: The kidnapping victim could be a child.
Zack: Maxillary molars have been pulled and replaced with removable dentures, lots of gold.
Bones: In parts of the Caucuses when girls from wealthy families turn sixteen they’re given gold teeth as a display of affluence.
Zack: I’ll dissolve a bicuspid in nitric acid and do a chemical work up.
(Bones shines a flashlight into the mouth while holding the jaw open.)
Bones: There is something lodged in the larynx.
Zack: Part of her tongue?
(Zack pulls out the piece with long tweezers.)
Bones: Not fleshy enough for tongue this is cartilage.
(Dr. Goodman over to the bottom of the platform with a blonde woman.)
Dr. Goodman: Dr. Brennan, Dr. Addy this is Miss. Pickering. She’s performing a security review for the state department.
(Hodgins walks up to Dr. Goodman and Pickering.)
Hodgins: Well one mans security review is another mans witch hunt.
Pickering: That would be Dr. Jack Hodgins.
Dr. Goodman: It would be, yes.
Hodgins: You know us all don’t you Miss Pickering or is it Agent Pickering from the National Security Agency?
Pickering: I don’t yet know you as well as I will, Dr. Hodgins. Is something burning?
Zack: Not anymore. She’s pretty much extinguished by now.
Dr. Goodman: Uh, Miss. Pickering will require a few minutes of everyone’s time to perform a routine security review. I expect everyone to be cooperative.
Hodgins: I’m not swearing any damn loyalty oath.
Dr. Goodman: And civil.
Bones: (to Zack) Send this to Dr. Chen in pathology (she hands him the piece of cartilage in a metal bowl) , ask him to identify it as soon as possible.
Dr. Goodman: Dr. Brennan.
Bones: (to Hodgins) Yes, security check, civil. Zack will grind a segment of the femur so you can perform trace element analysis.
Pickering: Didn’t I see you on television this morning, Dr. Brennan?
Bones: How could I possibly know what you watched on television? (she sees Booth and starts to walk over to him.) Booth, I have to talk to you.
Pickering: Yeah it was definitely her.
Dr. Goodman: Maybe work your way up to Dr. Brennan.
Booth: How close are you to IDing the burn victim?
Bones: I may be jumping the gun but…
Booth: That’s music to my ears.
Bones: Well considering this 48hr thing we should be looking at eastern European immigrants going back say ten years.
Booth: I can get that information for you, Angela doing the facial reconstruction?
Bones: Yes.
Booth: You know if this works, I’m going to buy you a puppy.
(He turns and starts to walk away and Bones starts to follow.)
Bones: That would be inadvisable. You never told me how I was this morning. (Booth stops and faces her.) I asked you ‘how did I do?’ and you said ‘we would talk about it in the car’ but we didn’t.
Booth: It was your first TV interview?
Bones: Yes.
Booth: It was fine, you know, for your first interview.
(They start walking again.)
Bones: Well that was a qualified response.
Booth: What? No it was lively.
Bones: Lively? What kind of word is that?
Booth: It’s and adjective although ironically most words that end in ly are adverbs like ironically.
Bones: Okay, what did I do wrong?
Booth: Maybe next time tell a funny story. Oh, never say you don’t like children.
Bones: I didn’t say I don’t like children. I just said I don’t want any.
Booth: On TV that’s the same thing.
[CUT TO: Holograph lab. Angela is entering the data. The holograph displays a skull. Booth and Bones are there looking at the holograph.]
Angela: Okay, the victims’ skull was in good shape, no real shrinkage from the fire.(taps her pad) Okay, I’m running a comparison between the facial reconstruction and the photos in the immigration database. I hear we are all gonna get grilled by some mysterious government chick.
Bones: I’ve been through this before. It’s so we can work on classified cases, CIA…military.
Booth: Why you have something to hide?
Angela: Better believe it Bucko.
Booth: What kind of something?
Angela: The best kind.
(Bones walks over to the computer where there a faces flashing across the screen. The computer is trying to make a match to the skull.)
Bones: There. (points at a picture of a woman.) That one.
Angela: Okay.
Bones: It’s a good match.
Angela: Polina Rosalina Semov, born 1970, kurgen perm district of the Urals. She immigrated to the US in 94 with her sister Maria, married Carl Decker. They live in Cleveland Park.
Booth: Children?
Angela: Donovan Demetri Decker, born 1997. He’s eight years old.
[CUT TO: Booth and Bones in his SUV. Daytime. Bones is looking at some papers in a file.}
Bones: Polina and Carl separated three months ago. Separate addresses for mom and dad.
Booth: Well we know that mom was (int) in your lab. Let’s go find dad.
Bones: You wrestle someone really small lately? (he looks at her) Car seat in the back.
Booth: Oh I had Parker for the weekend.
Bones: I don’t know how you do that.
Booth: Install a car seat in an FBI vehicle?
Bones: Bring a kid into this world knowing what you know. I’ll bet Parker was an accident, right? Because his mother wouldn’t marry you? (Booth laughs and shakes his head.) What?
Booth: It never occurred to you that that might be a sensitive topic.
Bones: Well you could have gone with the very small felon story.
Booth: I’m better for Parker being in the world. Someday you will see that.
Bones: No I won’t.
Booth: You’ll change your mind.
Bones: Ah, I don’t do that.
Booth: You will.
Bones: Yeah, maybe after I see how Carl Decker reacts when you tell him his wife is dead and his child has been kidnapped.
Booth: Yeah well statistically speaking we are going to find Donovan with his dad.
Bones: What? Why?
Booth: Why, because most kidnappings happen by estranged spouses.
Bones: You’re certainly making the whole domestic scene more and more attractive.
[CUT TO: Daytime. Booth and Bones are walking up a sidewalk to a brick house.]
Bones: This is it?
Booth: Yeah, this is the correct address. You just hang back and let me do all the talking. Okay?
(Booth knocks on the front door a few times. Bones goes and looks in the front bay window.)
Booth: (calls out) Mr. Decker. (sees Bones looking in the window.) Bones! What are you doing?
Bones: What? It’s tidy, Spartan even. Is that odd for a recently separated man?
Booth: The guys supposed to be some super rational tight ass geek, no offense.
(Booth spots a blue and white pick up truck with some guys inside watching them from the street.)
Bones: There’s no TV, no magazines, no art, no stereo. There’s dust on everything. I don’t think he’s been here in awhile.
(Booth starts to walk towards the truck quickly.)
Bones: Where are you going? Booth, where are you going?
(Bones follows him and the guy in the truck tries to start it up to take off but it isn’t starting. Booth runs up with his gun out and smashes out the drivers’ side window. A guy tries to jump out of the back cab and Bones grabs him and throws him to the cement. Booth punches the driver in the side of the head, opens the door, and throws him out on the ground. He pulls his gun out.)
Booth: FBI.
Guy #1: (jumps up with gun in his hand) U.S. Marshals!
Booth: US Marshals?
Bones: Forensic Anthropologist! That’s why no gun.
[CUT TO: Cullen’s office. Daytime. Bones is seated. Booth and Cullen are standing.]
Cullen: Well at least nobody got shot. Probably cause she didn’t have a gun.
Booth: Sir, why is Carl Decker’s home being watched by US Marshals?
Cullen: Carl Decker is a Federal witness under witness protection. He’s scheduled to appear before a grand jury in two days.
Booth: Is this a mob thing?
Cullen: Decker designs uh, body armor for KBC Systems. He says they knowingly sent defective armor to Iraq. The justice department believes him so they moved him to a safe house.
Bones: Does the justice department think that Decker is in danger from the company?
Cullen: He thinks he is. They want him to testify, they play along.
Booth: Well does Decker know that his wife has been killed and his child has been kidnapped?
Cullen: No and they don’t want him to know.
Bones: Why?
Booth: Because it might prevent him from testifying.
Cullen: Their point of view is there is nothing to be gained from him knowing.
Bones: Except maybe Decker chooses not to testify and they don’t kill his son. Shouldn’t that be his decision?
Cullen: Justice estimates that KBC System is directly responsible for thirty deaths and hundreds of injuries. They’re taking a larger view. It’s complicated.
Booth: His wife is dead and his child is missing. That’s not so complicated.
Cullen: No one is stopping you from investigating those crimes.
Booth: He’s a material witness. I need access to him.
Cullen: Well we know Decker didn’t kill his wife. He was in custody of US Marshals so start looking someplace else. Harsh reality Booth, deal with it.
(Cullen leaves.)
Bones: What does he not like me?
Booth: I don’t know.
[CUT TO: Booths SUV. Daytime. Booth’s driving. Bones is in the passenger seat.]
Bones: I’ll have Zack clean Decker’s remains, see if that leads anywhere.
Booth: Yeah, I’ll talk to the victims’ families at least the ones that aren’t under Federal protection.
Bones: You think a corporation would actually kill a woman and kidnap her child?
Booth: Billions of dollars plus civil suits if they’re found guilty? I’ve seen people kill for fifty bucks.
Bones: You believe the boy is already dead?
Booth: I have to assume that he isn’t.
Bones: Why make that assumption?
Booth: Because it gives me something to look forward to instead of dread. Given a choice I avoid dread.
Bones: Okay it’s logical.
Booth: Is it?
Bones: Why dread something that hasn’t happened yet?
Booth: Yeah.
[CUT TO: Lab Hallway. Bones is walking with Zack who hands her a piece of paper.]
Zack: That piece of cartilage we found in Polina’s mouth, amphipoea lyctus media remnants.
Bones: It’s an ear.
Zack: Chen says it was bitten off.
Bones: The victim bit off one of her attackers ears.
Zack: I heard someone found a fingertip in their chili once. Dr. Chen also found vestiges of ear wax.
Bones: Okay get that wax to Hodgins. See what he can find.
[CUT TO: Booth and Bones are sitting in an office at the lab watching a video tape of Decker teaching his son to ride his bike. Polina is on the tape also.]
Donovan: How come I have to learn how to ride a bike?
Decker: (putting Donovan’s bike helmet on) Are you really asking or just stalling?
Donovan: Hmm. Stalling.
Decker: Yeah I thought so.
(Bones pauses the tape.)
Booth: Why’d you stop?
Bones: What are we hoping to learn from this tape? We know Carl Decker didn’t kidnap his own child. The mother is dead and the boy…
Booth: And the boy might be dead too.
Bones: Well, I’m just wondering, What is the benefit of watching this tape?
Booth: You put faces to names; you get a sense of human beings. Aw, C’mon Bones. You’re the anthropologist. What does this tape tell you?
Bones: Learning to ride a bicycle is a kind of right of passage. It has anthropological significance.
Booth: Really?
Bones: It carries meaning beyond the simple mechanics of learning to ride a bike.
Booth: Are you being psychological?
Bones: Definitely not. Psychology is about the individual. I’m speaking to a set of cultural proxies and mores.
Booth: What the hell are you talking about?
Bones: (she points to the paused picture on TV) The father is tight. He’s holding his arms, touching his mouth.
Booth: So he’s nervous. So what?
Bones: Look at the boy, he’s relaxed. He’s…he’s not afraid.
Booth: Oh so why was the boy stalling then huh?
Bones: He’s not. The father is. The son understands that on some level and he’s enabling his father to reach some level of comfort. It’s a symbiotic relationship.
Booth: Relationship. Ha. That’s Psychology.
Bones: The boy trusts his father, absolutely. He’s confident. The father wishes he didn’t have to do this but he’s accepted that he must in his role as a father.
(Booth huffs)
Bones: What?
Booth: Probably the same way Decker felt about being a whistle blower.
Bones: That’s psychology and it’s of no use to us in this current investigation.
Booth: Just push play. Okay?
(Bones starts the tape. Donovan has his helmet on and Decker goes to hold the back of his bicycle.)
Decker: Alright, you ready?
Donovan: Oh okay.
Polina: (off camera) Be careful Donny.
Decker: Don’t make him nervous Polina.
Donovan: Push me dad.
(Decker is running along side the bicycle holding it.)
Donovan: Let go. Let go.
Decker: Not yet.
Donovan: Let me go dad. Let me go.
(Booth is staring at the screen and Bones is watching him.)
Polina: Not yet run along with him.
Donovan: I can do it.
(Decker lets go and Donovan rides off.)
Decker: He’s doing it. He’s doing it.
(Decker grabs the camera from Polina and films her reaction.)
Polina: (yelling after Donovan) Be careful. Be careful. How will we get him back Carl?
(Booth pauses the tape.)
Booth: That’s the real question now. Isn’t it Bones, huh? How do we get the boy back?
[CUT TO: FBI headquarters. Day. Booth and Bones are talking to Polina’s sister Maria.]
Maria: They left this morning very early about five am. Donovan is on the swim team. Oh my God.
Booth: You and your sister were close?
Maria: Yes when Polina and Carl separated, she and Donovan came to stay with me. This is terrible.
Booth: Can you think of anyone who would want to hurt your sister?
Maria: It must be Carl. Maybe he was afraid she would take Donovan away from him.
Booth: She would have done that?
Maria: No, never.
Booth: You don’t like your brother in law, huh?
Maria: He’s supposed to be brilliant. I know but he’s also cold and angry. Everything has to be just so.
Booth: Why did Carl and your sister separate?
Maria: Polina said he was having an affair. I thought who would want him but she found credit card receipts from a motel he went to once sometimes twice a week. When she confronted Carl he was furious, wouldn’t talk about it so she left him. Please find Donovan. (she grabs Booths hands on his lap.) Find my sisters boy.
[CUT TO: Lab. Zack is showing an x-ray of the teeth on a computer screen as well as other findings on other bones.]
Zack: I found cracks in the victim’s upper incisors. There are also bilateral fractures in the femoral necks.
Bones: There are similar fractures in the proximal humeral heads.
Zack: The result of the body going into spasms as it burned?
Bones: Well if she was burned alive. I’ll have Angela run some scenarios.
Zack: Angela is in a security review.
[CUT TO: Angela’s work area. Pickering is sitting across from her asking questions.]
Pickering: Twenty-five addresses in six countries in eight years.
Angela: That’s weird, right?
Pickering: What were you doing in all those places?
Angela: Different things… mostly looking. I’m an artist.
Pickering: When was the last time you saw your husband?
Angela: My husband?
Pickering: Yes.
Angela: Oh (laughs) Oh (chuckles) Wow, you mean that actually took? Really, it didn’t seem legal. We were in Fiji. You know there was a fire dance. You know how those things can be, right?
Pickering: I really don’t, Miss. Montenegro.
Angela: Right.
Pickering: And do you like working here?
Angela: Sometimes, yeah. Not always but there is also a sense of accomplishment and Brennan needs me here so I feel a personal connection there but you know the worlds a big place. Frankly I’m emotionally ambivalent on the subject.(Pickering is writing really fast.) Was that the wrong answer? I should be more oh this is the best job in the world that I’m proud to serve my country. Right? Right, am I going to fast here? I mean am I treating you too much like a therapist? Do you want to stop (Pickering shakes her head no.) actually cause we could pick this up later if you’re…? Yeah
[CUT TO: Trent Seward’s office. Day. He is the head of KBC Systems. Him, his lawyer, and Booth are sitting at a big table. Booth is questioning him.]
Seward: Carl Decker is not only a disgruntled employee, uh,what… what’s the term?
Lawyer: As a lawyer the legal term is nuts and a pain in the ass.
Seward: Oppositional defiance disorder and paranoia is what I read.
Lawyer: Like I said nuts and a pain in the ass.
Booth: Read where? Paranoia, you read that where? (the lawyer slides folder over to him) You had Carl Decker investigated?
Lawyer: He’s making extremely damaging allegations against the company.
Seward: False allegations.
Booth: Can you think of anyone who would want to kill his wife and kidnap his son?
Lawyer: It wasn’t us.
Booth: I didn’t say it was.
Lawyer: Oh please, we have to top your list of suspects.
Seward: Look we have an in house system for dealing with whistle blowers. We encourage it. I served in Nam agent Booth. I saw what soldiers see. If I read you correctly, you know what I mean.
Booth: Army, 75th regimen.
Seward: Rangers lead the way. I would never risk the lives of soldiers by knowingly providing them with defective armor and I welcome Carl Decker’s appearance at the grand jury because he is wrong.
Lawyer: Carl Decker did brilliant work for us but he alienated everyone he worked with. You should look for your murderer and kidnapper elsewhere.
[CUT TO: Lab. Booth walks in and Bones walks up to him.]
Bones: Where have you been?
Booth: I’m a field agent and I was out in the field. What did you find out?
Bones: There was a piece of ear in the victims’ mouth. It looks like she bit it off. The ear could tell us something. Did you find anything?
Booth: A lot, no reason for the attitude.
(They begin to walk together.)
Bones: Wa…I beg your pardon?
Booth: It’s not like you’ve been doing all the work and I’ve been kicking back.
Bones: Okay, What have you found out?
Booth: The victim and her husband were having marital problems. She found motel receipts. I got the security tapes from the motel parking lot. I thought Angela could use her fat recognition program on it.
Bones: Mass recognition program.
Booth: Whatever. Maybe we will be able to find out who Decker was seeing behind his wife’s back. Is Angela in her office?
[CUT TO: Lab. Zack is looking at the bones of the body found in the car on a table. The skeleton has been cleaned. Bones is there also.]
Zack: According to the FBI pathologist, there was no smoke in the victim’s lungs.
Bones: Meaning?
Zack: The victim was already dead when she was burned. There was clotting in the lungs as well.
Bones: That’s troublesome.
Zack: If the fire was hot enough?
Bones: No, for clotting to occur superheated air would have had to be drawn into the lungs.
Zack: Which wouldn’t have happened if she was already dead.
Bones: Something else caused the clotting.
(Booth walks up and Hodgins stands next to him.)
Booth: Angela is ready with the tapes.
Zack: The broken teeth could have resulted from particularly violent seizures.
Booth: Epilepsy?
Zack: There are several alternate causes of cutonic muscular contractions…poisoning uh, precipitous drop in blood sugar…
(Pickering walks up.)
Pickering: Would this be a good time to speak with Mr. Addy?
Bones: Considering you had to interrupt him to ask, probably not. Take Hodgins.
Hodgins: I demand a lawyer.
Pickering: I don’t need Dr. Hodgins, I need Mr. Addy.
Zack: If I demand a lawyer, will I get out of it too?
Bones: In that case we all demand lawyers.
Pickering: I’ll wait for Mr. Addy.
Hodgins: Why aren’t you interviewing me?
Pickering: It won’t be necessary.
(She walks away.)
Hodgins: Oh I knew it. They think my dossier is complete. They think they know everything about me. Well they’re wrong!
Zack: Be happy they’re leaving you alone.
Hodgins: Yeah, I’m happy. Don’t worry I’m happy.
Booth: You know the ear you found there’s no way it’s her own ear? Right?
Bones: How could it be her own ear?
Booth: That’s what I’m saying.
Bones: What?
Booth: It’s definitely not her ear.
Bones: How could she bite off her own ear?
Hodgins: Chromosome tests make it a male ear.
Bones: Seizures.
Zack: Seizures could be due to low blood sugar, electrocution, infection…head injury, uh brain tumor, a sudden lack of oxygen in the brain.
Bones: Electrocution.
Booth: What?
Bones: Broken teeth…the fractures, the clots in her lungs. She was electrocuted.
Zack: That much damage to the teeth could only result from multiple violent spasms.
Bones: Dozens, she was tortured.(to Booth) For what?
Booth: To find out where her husband was.
[CUT TO: Lab hallway. Hodgins is walking with Pickering.]
Hodgins: You should at least pretend to interview me.
Pickering: Dr. Hodgins, your file is complete.
Hodgins: How is that possible? No one from the state department has interviewed me in two years.
Pickering: No one from the state department has ever interviewed you.
Hodgins: Right, yeah let’s play it your way.
Pickering: Six months ago your cousin was appointed to a very high posting in the Government.
Hodgins: My cousin with a bad rug?
Pickering: And it doesn’t affect his security clearance.
Hodgins: It should. It demonstrates a complete denial of reality. Appointed to what very high posting?
Pickering: That’s classified.
Hodgins: What part of the government or is that classified as well?
Pickering: As a potential embarrassment, you were thoroughly checked out.
Hodgins: What kind of embarrassment?
Pickering: You’re a conspiracy buff, Dr. Hodgins. You’re paranoid.
Hodgins: Okay, okay so you’re telling me that my toe chewing moron cousin was appointed to a secret post in a secret part of the government you can’t tell me about so you compiled a secret dossier on me but I’m the one who’s paranoid.
Pickering: We don’t use the word dossier.
Hodgins: What was the finding? I…I still work here so…
Pickering: Harmless.
Hodgins: Harmless? I’m harmless?
Pickering: Yes, you do not pose a viable threat.
Hodgins: Well that’s just insulting.
Pickering: If you want me to interview you, I will but I will only discover what we already know. You are benign.
Hodgins: I am not benign lady. I’m not harmless. I’m malignant. I’m a loaded cannon…
Pickering: Thank you Dr. Hodgins. (she walks away.)
Hodgins: I know things that would curdle your blood including a formula that literally curdles blood.
Lab person 1: Excuse me.
Hodgins: She’s wrong. I’m dangerous.
[CUT TO: Angela’s office. She is running her mass recognition program against the tapes from the motel security camera. Bones and Booth are looking at the tape with her.]
Angela: Carl Decker is one point seven meters tall and weighs fifty eight point two kilograms.
Booth: Boston marathoner.
Angela: Be glad he’s so lean it should make him easier to find.
(They see the outside of the motel including the parking lot. There’s a guy leaning up against the way the computer zooms in on.)
Booth: Not him.
Angela: I talked to Pickering.
Bones: Was it awful?
Angela: Actually I found it cathartic.
Booth: (Sees a guy leaving the motel with a briefcase.) Whoa, his heads down. What do you think?
Bones: No he doesn’t move like a runner.
Angela: She knows a lot about us. It’s creepy.
Booth: Well, it’s confidential.
Angela: Couldn’t you get the file?
Booth: Probably.
Bones: Then it’s not confidential.
Booth: (sees Decker on the tape.) That’s him. That’s Carl Decker. Fast forward see if he shows up with anyone else. Back up. Freeze on that guy. Can you zoom in?
(Angela zooms in on the paused picture from the security camera. Decker is standing in the doorway of the motel and reaching back to grab the arm of the guy behind him like he’s escorting him into the room.)
Angela: Hmm, a secret life can cause marital strife.
Bones: He was having an affair with a man?
Booth: Alright simmer down. For all we know he’s meeting a hit man.
Angela: Doesn’t look like a hit man.
Booth: Just print the picture up. I’ll put the word out; see if he’s in any of the bureaus data bases.
Bones: And when we find him?
Booth: Haul him in, check to see if he’s got both ears. Let you know what happens.
[CUT TO: Lab area with all the boxes in the wall. Zack is looking at readouts and x-rays on the lighted table. Pickering is standing by the table talking to him.]
Pickering: Could we start please?
Zack: Any time I can do two things at once.
Pickering: (upset) Mr. Addy, I require your full attention.
Zack: No you don’t but I’ll give it to you.
Pickering: What I need to do here is to establish that you are not a threat to the security of this country.
Zack: I’m getting a degree in Forensic Anthropology. I’m half way through another in Engineering. What are you afraid I will do? Build a race of criminal robots that will destroy the earth?
Pickering: Do you have that kind of fantasy often?
Zack: Very often.
Pickering: Does it concern you that such adolescent thoughts are a sign of emotional retardation?
Zack: I’ve been told. I’m working on it.
Pickering: Can you understand why that concerns us?
Zack: Not really.
Pickering: Hypothetically, you have a piece of information…
Zack: Secret and meaningful information?
Pickering: Yes and the security of the countries at stake, Can I bribe you to give it to me?
Zack: No.
Pickering: Threaten you?
Zack: No.
Pickering: What if I made a reasonable rational argument, very persuasive?
Zack: Merely persuasive?
Pickering: Irrefutable. I make an irrefutable argument as to why you should give me this piece of information. Would you do so?
Zack: Not without checking with Dr. Brennan or Angela first, see what they said, maybe Agent Booth if he would talk to me. He probably wouldn’t. I check with Dr. Hodgins but he’d say it was all part of some conspiracy so I must only take his advice on woman. Four hundred and eighty volts…three hundred and fifty amps.
Pickering: I beg your pardon?
Zack: It’s sorta secret information. I probably shouldn’t tell you. Any other questions?
(Pickering shakes her head no.)
Zack: Good. (he runs off.)
[CUT TO: Cullen’s office. The man from the tape is sitting in a chair across from Cullen. Booth opens the door and walks in. Booth leans over and looks at his face.]
Booth: Good work sir. I only posted his face on the hot sheet twenty minutes ago.
Weeks: My boss is the United States attorney general. You’re not doing my career any good putting me on the hot list.
Cullen: Special Agent Seeley Booth, meet assistant US attorney Ken Weeks.
Booth: I was hoping you would turn out to be gay or have only one ear.
Weeks: Yeah I only get the gay thing because I’m so cute but the one ear thing that’s unique to you.
Booth: You’re Carl Decker’s justice department handler?
Weeks: Carl Decker was my prime witness against KBC Systems.
Booth: Was, what did you get fired because we caught you on some motel’s surveillance cam?
Cullen: No they lost him.
Booth: The material witness for a specially convened grand jury and you lost him?
Weeks: The guys pretty smart, genius level. Do you have any idea what it is like to interact with those types of people?
Booth: Yeah a little.
Cullen: So what made him run?
Weeks: Decker insisted upon talking to his son every day. This morning we couldn’t put him in touch with Donovan. He panicked and ran. The Marshals will find him.
Booth: Doesn’t matter. He won’t testify not after he finds out about his wife and his child.
Cullen: Might as well pack up that grand jury and send everybody home.
Weeks: Look I get the chance; I’ll give him the ‘don’t let your wife die in vain speech’. Who knows, it might work.
Booth: Weeks, do you think this company is capable of putting a hit out on Decker?
Culler: Kill his wife, kidnap his kid?
Weeks: KBC Systems sent our boys into battle with faulty body armor. In my book if you can do that, you can do anything.
[CUT TO: Lab platform, bottom area. Bones is walking and Booth is following her.]
Bones: If Decker is as smart as they say, how will they catch him?
Booth: No, forget Decker. Our job is to find his son.
Bones: If Decker doesn’t show up to testify…
Booth: You know we can’t assume that they are going to let the boy live.
Bones: Surely KBC isn’t going to…
Booth: Bones, we don’t know who hired these guy. KBC, military, disgruntled share holders or it could be someone we haven’t even thought of yet. (She turns and stares at him.) What?
Bones: You just told me not to jump to a conclusion.
Booth: No offense intended.
Bones: No, you were right! It’s just I usually get to tell you.
Booth: Well our relationship has taken a whole new turn.
(They reach the office and Zack walks in behind them.)
Zack: Four hundred and eighty volts, three hundred and fifty amps.
Bones: Polina Decker?
Zack: That’s the voltage it would take to cause muscle spasms so strong they would fracture bone.
Bones: That’s not household current.
Booth: They used a generator.
Bones: Zack, you are smart.
(Zack goes to leave.)
Booth: Alright Zack! Zack! (Zack turns around) This guy Decker he’s like you. He’s in the whole stratosphere IQ wise.
Zack: What’s his IQ?
Booth: It’s 163.
Bones: Oh, he’s not where Zack is.
Zack: If he’s in the stratosphere, I’m in the ionosphere.
Booth: Alright look, the point is that Decker escapes the US Marshals, tries to contact his wife and he finds out she’s been killed. What does he do next?
Zack: His IQ is not a variable.
Bones: Intelligence doesn’t determine what you do so much as how effectively you’ll do it.
Zack: And what he’ll do depends on what kind of person he is.
Booth: Well you know, he’s a loving father. Okay, estranged from the mother of his child.
Zack: (steps close to him) Sound like anyone you know?
Booth: (puts his hand up) Back out of my personal space there buddy.
Bones: Zacks right. If you were in Decker’s position, what would you do?
[CUT TO: Booth and Bones speeding down a road with sirens blaring. Night.]
Booth: (into mic) Blue car four with accessory proceeding to 44 and third fourteen L street, KBC Systems requesting local cowboys for backup, possible 1031. (puts mic down.)
Guy on CB: Rodger that Blue car four.
Bones: Did you just refer to me as an accessory?
Booth: You asked me what I would do if I were Decker. They kill my wife, they take my little boy…I’d go to the source of the problem I’d take them out.
Bones: Take them out like?
(He gives her a cold glare.)
Bones: Oh.
[CUT TO: Lobby of KBC Systems. Night. There is a security guard seated at a desk Booth walks up to him and pulls out his badge to show him.]
Booth: FBI, Seward in his office?
Security guard: Yes sir.
Booth: Secure the building. Nobody in or out.
Security guard: Okay.
(Bones and Booth walk away from the security guards desk and down a hallway.)
Booth: Usually I enjoy your company Bones but you know, it’s times like this that you give me just a little something extra to worry about.
Bones: You enjoy my company?
(Bones notices the lawyer that Booth talked to earlier in Seward’s office on the floor with blood coming out of her nose. She runs over and feels for a pulse. The lawyer moans. Bones looks back at Booth who has pulled his gun and nods yes that she is alive. He walks off towards Seward’s office and Bones gets up and follows him. He peeks in and sees Decker with a gun to Seward’s head.)
Decker: (to Seward) Make the call.
Booth: (enters office) FBI, Mr. Decker. Drop your weapon. Now!
Decker: (to Seward) Nothings changed. Make the call or I’ll blow your head off.
Seward: (to Booth) He wants me to call his sons kidnappers.
Decker: Tell them to release my boy or you die. It’s that simple. (to Booth) You can shoot me after that. I don’t care.
Seward: I don’t know…
Bones: Mr. Decker, Agent Booth is an excellent shot.
Decker: I’m not afraid to die.
Seward: (to Booth) Shoot him. For God’s sake shoot him.
Booth: Mr. Seward, please shut up.
Bones: What you’re trying to do…save your son. That’s not going to happen if you die here tonight. Be rational Mr. Decker. What you’re planning has failed. You have to adapt.
Decker: Adapt hell. All I want is for my son to live. You people just took away his best chance. (he lays the gun on the table.)
[CUT TO: Dr. Goodman’s office. Night. Pickering sitting across from Dr. Goodman’s desk questioning him.]
Pickering: Do you know a woman named Lily Marsden?
Dr. Goodman: Yes I do.
Pickering: You have had sexual relations with her?
Dr. Goodman: This fall under your privy?
Pickering: Lily Marsden is an environmental extremist.
Dr. Goodman: She’s in Earth Now.
Pickering: You give money to Earth Now, don’t you?
Dr. Goodman: And the Sierra Club and Habitat for Humanity, the opera, and public radio.
Pickering: Lily Marsden has been arrested for breaking into animal labs, torching SUV’s, trespassing on military reserves, dousing citizens wearing fur with red paint…
(Dr. Goodman laughs)
Pickering: Dr. Goodman, if you have had or are having sexual relations with Lily Marsden, we have a problem.
Dr. Goodman: Why?
Pickering: Because an illicit sexual relationship gives her leverage over you. This makes you a security risk.
Dr. Goodman: I’m a married man, Miss. Pickering. I’m faithful to my wife.
Pickering: Could you please define your relationship with Lily Marsden?
Dr. Goodman: I enjoy talking to her. We argue. She’s a nut but she’s smart nut. She’s always interesting. She’s never dull.
Pickering: Wait…so you…
Dr. Goodman: Talk to her. (huffs) I think it’s a very bad sign when discourse becomes suspect.
Pickering: You talk to her?
Dr. Goodman: Sometimes we yell.
(Pickering snorts)
[CUT TO: FBI Headquarters. Night. A conference room. Cullen, Decker, Booth and Weeks are sitting around a long table.]
Cullen: You want to give me one good reason why I shouldn’t charge you with attempted murder, Mr. Decker?
Decker: You think I went after Seward out of vengeance?
Cullen: Looks like vengeance.
Decker: KBC Systems hired people to kill my wife and kidnap my child. Think rationally for a moment.
Bones: That makes sense. If KBC Systems is behind the kidnapping then Seward would be the one to call it off.
Decker: A rational human being. How did you find yourself amongst these people?
Booth: Sir, we are trying to help.
Decker: Excellent. Hold your gun to Trent Seward’s head and force him to let my son go.
Cullen: There’s no compelling evidence that Trent Stewart was the man who ordered the kidnapping of your son.
Decker: I personally calculated the penetration tolerances for the combat flack jackets. The company found my calculations excessively conservative. Thirty soldiers died. Trent Seward will do anything to prevent me from testifying. He or someone working for him kidnapped my child and killed my wife.
Weeks: If you want to get Trent Seward go into that grand jury and tell them what you know.
Decker: And the kidnappers will kill my boy.
Cullen: With all due respect for what you’re going through emotionally sir, um, Mr. Weeks is not wrong.
Decker: This is my son. I love him and if there’s even a slight chance that I can save his life by shutting up. Then that’s what I’ll do…Shut the hell up!
Weeks: And what about the soldiers?
Decker: Look analytically I understand that many lives outweigh the one but I cannot trade my sons’ life.
Weeks: Have you considered that by not testifying your wife will have died in vain.
Cullen: Shut it up Weeks. If you people had protected Mr. Decker and his family properly, we wouldn’t even be here.
Weeks: Let’s go.
(Decker gets up to follow Weeks out of the office. He abruptly stops and turns to face Booth.)
Decker: (to Booth) The only way that I will testify is if I see you with my son.
Booth: Mr. Decker, you and Donovan, you have a code word? Something to let him know that you sent me?
Decker: Paladin. Tell Donovan Paladin.
(Weeks and Decker leave the room.)
Cullen: (stands) Paladin. Defender of the faith, protector. Suits you Booth.
(Cullen walks out.)
Bones: You know what? You tough guys are all very sentimental.
[CUT TO: Lab. Hodgins is sitting at a computer with the results of what he found in the ear wax on the screen. Bones is standing looking over his shoulder.]
Hodgins: I got the results on the ear wax. I ran the particulates through the gas camatagraph and found the pollen of eragrotis curvula, more commonly know as weeping love grass.
Bones: And where does one find weeping love?
Hodgins: Weeping love is found world wide but weeping love grass that’s in South Africa.
Bones: Anything else?
Hodgins: Ah, traces of automotive grade asbestos. The guy didn’t have very good oral hygiene.
(Pickering walks up looking annoyed.)
Pickering: Dr. Brennan.
Bones: What now? You’ve got to be kidding.
Hodgins: Take me. I’ll waive the lawyer. I have a few surprises in me. Tell that to your superiors at the NSNA.
(Pickering walks off and Bones pulls out her cell phone and dials)
Bones: (in cell) Booth, we’re looking for a one eared South African.
(Booth is at his desk talking on the phone when a worker comes in and hands him a manila envelope.)
Booth: South African?
Bones: Does that mean something?
Booth: Well yeah. I mean there’s a number of South African security consultants that company’s use to do their dirty work in the third world. They’re really mercenaries.
(He starts to open the envelope while he is talking to Bones.)
Bones: Well he might be a mechanic of some kind.
Booth: You can tell that?
Bones: He had traces of wood and probably brake pad asbestos in his ear?
Booth: How’d that get in there?
(Booth has got the package ripped open and dumps out its contents. There is what appears to be a brown necklace box lying on his desk.)
Bones: Well any number of ways. Most likely his hand comes in contact with asbestos and then he scratches his ear.
(Booth sees a little note on cardboard that says back off. He opens the box slowly and sees a little finger inside.)
Bones: Hello? Are you still there?
Booth: Yeah, I’m on my way over.
Bones: What’s a matter?
Booth: Somebody sent me Donovan Decker’s finger.
[CUT TO: Lab. Night. Bones is sitting at a computer analyzing the finger. Booth is standing behind her.]
Bones: An eight year old boy? Yes, that’s consistent with what I’m looking at. You should really send this to an FBI pathologist.
Booth: They would give me fingerprints and DNA. We already know who the finger belongs to. Alright, I need more.
Bones: Like what?
Booth: (impatiently) You gave me a South African mechanic from a chunk of burned ear. Do it again. Do it better. Do it fast.
(Bones turns around and looks at him.)
Booth: What? Start, C’mon do what you do.
Bones: You’re kind of worked up.
Booth: What you see is a bunch of facts but what I see is a terrified little boy with his finger cut off. Now is he even still alive?
Bones: (turns back around to analyze the finger again) Blood saturation levels in the surrounding tissues are high. His heart was still beating when they removed his finger.
Booth: Okay. He’s alive that’s something.
Bones: Who does this, cuts a finger off an eight year old boy?
Booth: Mercenaries, professionals. They don’t feel a thing.
Bones: You know I feel things, Booth.
Booth: Never said you didn’t Bones.
Bones: I’m a professional too. I do better work if I only see the finger and not the child. That doesn’t mean I’m like them.
Booth: Look I know that, Bones but what I also know is that they made a big mistake sending us that finger.
Bones: Why because it made you mad?
Booth: No, because you are going to use it to catch them so you gather up your squint squad. Let’s get to work.
[CUT TO: Lab. Booth is walking through the lab on his cell phone.]
Booth: (in cell) Did you kick the ball? How far did it go? Backwards? (laughs) Yeah I can kick a ball. I…Daddy’s going to show you on Saturday. Yeah I’m going to see you on Saturday. Okay, Parker? (Zack walks up and signals that he has something.) Okay, I gotta go bub. I love you. I’ll see you Saturday. (hangs up) What do you got?
(Booth follows Zack over to an area where Hodgins is.)
Zack: The finger was severed using a hatchet on a wooden surface.
Booth: Cutting board?
Zack: No older unsealed pine.
Hodgins: I’m thinking like a work bench in a mechanics shop.
Booth: Why?
Hodgins: Well there are traces of lead and methyl butyl ether on the bone. The nail was bitten to the quick by the way.
Booth: The kid was nervous, you would be too.
Zack: MTBE’s haven’t been added to the gas since the seventies.
Hodgins: But there’s lead here as well.
Zack: Leaded gasoline was phased out between 1975 and 1986.
Booth: Asbestos from break pads, leaded gasoline, a mechanic bench, you know, plus the mother was electrocuted by current from a generator. We’re looking for an abandoned gas station or a mechanic shop off the grid. You know, you guys are geniuses. (grunts)
Zack: How do we find that?
Booth: I work with the FBI you idiot.
(Booth flips open his phone and walks away.)
Hodgins: Way to go Zack. We went from geniuses to idiots in three seconds.
[CUT TO: Bones’s office. Bones is sitting at her desk and Pickering is seated across from her.]
Pickering: Can you tell me what you were doing in Cuba?
Bones: Only if you tell me first.
Pickering: I beg your pardon?
Bones: I don’t know your security clearance.
Pickering: Well what is your security clearance?
Bones: You should check with the state department.
Pickering: I’m from the state department.
Bones: Then that should make it easy for you.
Pickering: When you were in Cuba did you meet with a man named Juan Guzman?
(Bones holds a finger up, leans forward, picks up her phone, and dials a number.)
Bones: (in phone) Hello. It’s Dr. Brennan from the Jeffersonian. You told me to call you if anyone asked about you know… him. Someone from the state department named Samantha Pickering.
(Bones hands Pickering the phone. Pickering looks annoyed.)
Pickering: Pickering. (a look of shock comes over her face.) Yes sir. Yes, I’ll wait…I’ll wait here.
(She hands the phone back to Bones who hangs it up.)
Bones: Anymore questions?
Pickering: No, uh, no. In fact the entire review is suspended. I’m to wait here until someone comes to destroy my notes.
(Booth enters)
Booth: We might have the kid.
[CUT TO: Booth’s SUV. Night. Booth and Bones are driving down a highway.]
Booth: Polina didn’t make any phone calls after she was kidnapped but nobody turned it off, when she left her coverage area the cell phone was automatically assigned a routing tower.
Bones: You could triangulate her position.
Booth: To within seventy-five square miles. There were six abandoned gas stations in that area. There were five urban, one rural. Swat’s going to check them all out but I think it’s the rural one we want.
Bones: Why?
Booth: Cause I used to do this kind of work.
Bones: Rescuing people?
Booth: Or being the person they needed to be rescued from.
Bones: Oh.
Booth: If I had a choice, I’d pick an isolated rural area. This place is perfect. It’s an abandoned truck repair depot. Swat team will meet us there.
Bones: Why don’t we ever take my car?
Booth: Do you have bullet proof vests in the trunk?
Bones: No.
Booth: That’s why.
[CUT TO: Outside of the depot. Night. Booth walks up to the Swat team with a vest on.]
Agent: The fluor imagery gives us three adults within the structure.
Booth: Boy?
Agent: No radon.
Booth: Probably because he’s small, hypothermic.
Agents: It’s highly possible sir. What’s the play?
Booth: I go in first straight for the kid. You guys do what you do.
Agent: Alright.
(The Agent walks away and Bones walks up to Booth.)
Bones: What about me?
Booth: Wait outside.
Bones: But I don’t want to miss anything.
Booth: Bones, these guys aren’t like anyone else you’ve come up against. Please, just be someone you aren’t for the next ten minutes and hang back. Please.
(Booth runs up to the swat team and makes some hand signals. They all take off running towards the building. Two Swat guy go up to a door with Booth and kick it in. There is a bald guy inside at a bench and he picks up a gun to shoot Booth. Booth shoots him with his mp5. Another guy runs up some stairs above Booth and he shoots him. The Swat guys take out another guy who tries to shoot at them from the right. Booth notices Donovan under the bench crying. He goes over to get him.)
Booth: (squats down.) Donovan don’t look at him anymore. Okay. It’s okay. Don’t look at him anymore. Don’t look at him anymore. It’s alright. You’re going to be alright.
Donovan: No. No. get away.
Booth: Don’t look at him anymore. It’s going to be okay. He’s not going to hurt you anymore.
Donovan: Go away.
Booth: Donovan…paladin okay? Paladin. Paladin…okay? Paladin. C’mon C’mon.
