All language subtitles for Numb3rs.S02E15.1080p.AMZN.WEBRip.DD2.0.x264-CasStudio-HI

( man panting )

♪♪

A most impressive showing, Ron.

That was awfully, awfully fast.

Thank you. Thank you, thank you.

Any thoughts on
my pace calculations?

There may be something in
the physics of "swing time."

Airborne duration
during a running stride.

- Yeah...
- There are new studies --

into the time it takes
the nervous system

to transmit contraction
instructions

to the muscles: "twitch time."

"Twitch time."

The whole concept has me

examining some interesting
algorithmic concepts.

Undoubtedly, more interesting
when discussed over dinner.

Do you care to join us
for an Okie Dog?

As much as I hate to run...

and run, but I... I've barely
got time to shower.

I'm doing calibrations over at
the DNA lab most of the night.

LARRY:
Uncharitable as it may sound,

it pains me to share
your aptitude with genomes.

See you tomorrow afternoon
at the LIGO lab, professor.

- All right. See you.
- Professor.

So you're having a sophomore
work at your precious

Laser Interferometry lab, hmm?

Some sophomore!

His technical acumen with
complicated machinery --

unprecedented
at the undergrad level.

If he had a similar gift
at mathematics,

I think we'd be looking
at the next Charles Eppes.

( clanking, rattling )

( grinding )

( beep )

( computer beeps )

Go.

We all use math every day,

to predict weather,

to tell time,

to handle money.

Math is more than formulas
and equations.

It's logic...

it's rationality.

It's using your mind to solve the
biggest mysteries that we know.

I come in to calibrate
the synthesizer

for the morning tests...
I walk in,

I see two guys
pushing it down the hall,

and I turn around and there's
another guy there with a gun,

and he cold-cocks me.

DAVID:
Was the weapon a shotgun,

a handgun;
maybe it was a rifle?

No, it was a nickel-plated
Beretta.

It was a nine-millimeter.

You know a lot about guns.

You grow up in South Philly,
you see your share.

Could you recognize the burglars
if you saw them again?

The guy with the gun.

The other two guys were
pretty far away.

I'd definitely try.

I'll be right back.

Okay.

So how is Ron?

He won't be wearing a tight hat
anytime soon, but he's fine.

He was walking in,
the burglars were coming out

and kind of walked
right over him.

You guys know him?

Yeah.
Ron works with us.

He's one of Larry's assistants
at the LIGO project.

LARRY: Laser Interferometer
Gravitational wave Observatory.

We measure ripples
in space-time,

trying to prove the existence
of black holes...

It's been said that he's the,
uh, the "next Charlie Eppes."

AMITA:
What was stolen?

It was a Mark Five
DNA Synthesizer.

Is that serious?

A DNA synthesizer
has many functions,

most of them positive:

genetic analysis,
anthropological study...

But it's also used to sequence
microorganisms --

invertebrate vectors of
infectious diseases --

bacterial pathogens...

Wait a minute, Charlie,

you're saying this thing
could make a disease?

No, it can't really make them.

But with the DNA and protein
sequence data it contains,

it could... customize them.

And by "customize," you mean...

Weaponize.

MEGAN: These burglars
cut through the roof.

They came in through
the air ducts.

What about these sensors?
Why didn't they trip?

They're passive infrared
motion sensors.

They're body temperature
sensitive.

They used these to jam them with
high and low temperature signals

at the same time --
it gave it a false read.

So they had the place cased
pretty well ahead of time, right?

Really well cased.
These floor bolts --

they're only unlockable
by a biometric iris scanner.

And there's no sign
of forced entry.

Yeah, inside job.

Looks like it.

What exactly did they take?

Mark Five DNA Synthesizer

can be used to produce a billion
DNA copies in under three hours.

We could have a serious national
security problem on our hands.

Using this synthesizer to determine
the sequences of pathogens,

those pathogens can then be
redesigned for greater infectiousness.

So conceivably, this thing could
be used to create a pandemic.

Using a less sophisticated
synthesizer,

a professor in New York stitched
together a polio virus genome,

which then spontaneously started
making infectious polio viruses.

The thing can design bioweapons.

There are a lot of rogue nations
out there

that would like to get
their hands on that ability.

COLBY: So we're not just
talking about high-end theft here,

this could potentially
be espionage.

Either way, we gotta find the
thing before it hits the black market.

DON: What'd you say
about the biometric sensor?

Only five iris scans can open
the security bolts.

And all five professors
are ablibied.

CHARLIE: Actually, the biometric
sesnsor doesn't read the iris.

No, it reduces it to
a series of values,

turning the iris
into a constellation of sorts --

a diagram of simple lines,
connected by unique points.

And each point has a specific
value, based on its position --

sort of like how stars
are measured

by their relationship to one
another in the night sky.

The values are represented by a
combination unique to the thumbprint,

and it is that number
that the biometric sensor

compares to its database
of allowed values.

So then they just hack
the combination.

But first they have to decode
the scanner's algorithm.

Which they had to have
prior access to.

And someone would have to have
the mathematical

and the technical aptitude
to run the algorithm.

Someone like
Professor Charles Eppes.

( wry laugh )

Or maybe
"the next Charlie Eppes."

That was a joke, David.

I was making a joke
for Larry's benefit.

Wh-what? What?

The kid that walked in
on the burglars --

he's supposed to be some kind
of technical whiz, right?

And he has access
to that DNA lab.

But the security cameras
give him an alibi.

Only for the actual heist --

he could've had
something to do with it:

the planning of it,
the setting up of it...

"An Attempt to Find a 70-Digit
Narcissistic Number in Base 12,

by Charles Eppes."

( laughing ):
Hey! Grade Two.

Mm... I was quite...
quite, uh, quixotic...

in elementary school.

You know, my mother used to pack
all my old schoolwork in boxes,

so I'm just, uh... taking a trip
down memory lane.

Is it even remotely possible

that our recent discussion
of the future

has you retreating
into the past?

I'm not retreating...
I'm simply reminiscing.

Reliving old glories -- that can
be a dangerous narcotic.

So I understand
the campus is abuzz

about the, uh...
DNA lab burglary.

You know, just color me
idealistic,

but I find it inconceivable
that any student of science

could sabotage the efforts of so
many for short-term monetary gain.

Are there any suspects?

They're talking
to a lot of people.

Yeah?
Anybody in particular?

You know that joke
I made to David --

it might have, um...

purely inadvertently...

put some extra attention on,
uh... on Ron Allen.

Oh, Charlie...

Ron Allen has surmounted
incredible obstacles

- just to get into CalSci...
- I know.

Well, that you could erect
one more barrier,

just out of some...
some careless remark?

Larry.

They're not singling him out.

They're talking to everyone who
had access to that lab, okay?

Okay.

You know that if you were
to fall under similar scrutiny,

I would go beyond the boundaries

of the observable universe
to defend you,

and you know that.

Huh.

I always thought
your interests in... music

were computational,
not compositional.

What have you got here?

I've never seen this.

Don and I took piano lessons
when we were children, but...

LARRY:
Hm, "Etude in G Minor"

by -- who is that? --
Margaret Mann.

Margaret Mann?
That's my mother's maiden name.

She was a lawyer.

LARRY: Who apparently also
composed an etude in G minor.

Yeah, I figured you guys
would come back around to me.

Why'd you think that?

Poor kid from
the bad neighborhood.

I been the usual suspect
since I was ten.

Ron, we're not talking to you because
you had a rough childhood, okay?

You're one of several people
with the technical expertise

and unrestricted access
necessary to pull off this burglary.

I'm not blaming you.

( chuckles )
I'd suspect me, too --

a guy who has to work
four different jobs

just to stay ahead
of his student housing bills?

Fencing his synthesizer
for maybe $50,000, that'd...

smooth off a lot of corners.

You seem to have worked out
the math pretty thoroughly.

Well, when you spend
your life with nothing,

you know what everything costs.

Look, I grew up in foster
homes and homeless shelters.

I stole textbooks, and I taught
myself enough to get a GED.

I'm too proud
of what I've accomplished

to risk it all
for something so stupid.

MEGAN: It's sort of
a persuasive argument.

Didn't persuade me so much.

- MEGAN: Why?
- I don't know.

The way he brags
about growing up hard.

Throws us some street slang
to try to sell it.

You think someone
with that kind of history

wouldn't talk about it so much?

You work that hard
to polish yourself...

...you want to put some distance
on it, too.

Doug Windham?

When are you guys
gonna stop hassling me?

No hassle.
We just want to talk.

His shoots a lot further
than yours.

Sorry.

Every time I see a badge,
I just want to hurt someone.

Someplace private we could talk?

It's not gonna be that long
a conversation.

LAPD Burglary Detail
gave us a list

of go-to guys
for high-end break-in tools.

It just so happens your name
had a big fat star next to it.

That's 'cause they're lazy.

This shop has been straight
for five years,

yet you guys are here hassling
me every time a safe goes down.

And notice,
I'm still not in jail.

So theoretically,
if we wanted to get by

a passive infrared motion sensor
and a biometric iris scanner...

I.R. motion sensor can get
jammed with an oscillating heat pulse.

Biometrics, I don't know,
they're after my time.

Well, who picked up the torch?

I don't know.
But when you guys find out,

why don't you have the LAPD put
a big fat gold star next to his name.

COLBY: Clearly this guy knows
more than he's saying.

Why don't you do a phone dump on
his cell and the machine shop.

You know, go back,
like, two or three months.

Job like this got to take
a while to set up, right?

Yeah, think so.

Megan, how we doing
on the interviews?

Uh, I'm more than halfway
through CalSci's list.

What do you make
of this Ron Allen kid?

MEGAN: Well, his life story
would make a hell of a movie.

Uh, remake of "The Wrong Man,"
perhaps?

The administration is asking me
and other project managers

to suspend Ron from all lab work
till your investigation is completed.

Well, that might be
a good idea, Larry.

The theft of a DNA synthesizer
is not a simple one.

In the hands of a
hostile government,

it could be used to create
an avian flu virus --

this could be one of the worst
WMD threats our country has faced.

Listen, I appreciate
the seriousness of this theft,

but now to my knowledge,
you have no evidence

that links Ron to this crime.

Hey, Larry, this is an ongoing
investigation here.

You are casting a black cloud
over a young man

who's faced stupendous odds,

a young man whose promise at
such a young age, it's incalculable.

A young man who isn't real.

I did a deeper background check
into Ron Allen.

Born in Philadelphia,
August 24, 1987.

Died... November 21, '87.

The kid you think Ron Allen is --

Larry, he doesn't exist.

There's no sign of him.

Well, he had to know
it was just a matter of time

till we figured out who he was.

Yeah, well, which
we still don't know.

What's the matter
with this room?

Could use a vacuum cleaner.

Other than that, it's your
typical college kid stuff.

Yeah. Perfectly typical.

But all over the map.

There's hip-hop and heavy metal,

and kung fu movies
and horror films.

What were you into
sophomore year of college?

Cheerleaders.

And I was Kurosawa and Coltrane.

But if you look around
this room,

there isn't one thing
that wasn't recorded,

written or filmed
in the last two years.

It's like he went out
and bought a bunch of magazines

of what college
students were into

and then bought everything
to make himself look typical.

So he wasn't hiding just his
identity but also his personality.

( phone ringing )

Reeves.

That's great. Thank you.

All right, whoever Ron Allen is,

he paid his cell
phone bill on time --

the GPS just tracked him
to a bookstore on campus.

None of the clerks
recognized his photo.

I didn't see him hiding
in the stacks, either.

Why don't we call him
and ask where he is?

Yeah, why don't we?

( dialing )

( phone ringing )

( ringing continues )

Hello?

Excuse me, Miss?

Do you know this man?

Oh, um...

that's... Phil.

Phil?

Phil Stark, my boyfriend.

Would that happen
to be his phone?

Uh... he said I could use it.

- Who are you guys?
- FBI.

Oh, my God, he's not in trouble?

We just want to talk to him.

Well... I don't see
how you're gonna do that.

Why not?

He's in the desert.

He left to go camping yesterday.

Great.

So we'll go search
the Mojave Desert.

CHARLIE: So is he Phil Stark or is he,
you know, Ron Allen?

Well, that's the thing --
he's Phil to his girlfriend,

he's Ron Allen
to the people at Calsci,

there's no fingerprints
on the guy anywhere.

Well, at least you know
one place not to look for him.

Yeah, well, we got a lot of real
estate to cover and not a lot of time.

It's bad enough that
synthesizer's out there.

We don't know what the guy knows
or whose hands he's gonna put it in.

You know, Larry's...

devastated.

Larry.

ALAN: Isn't it funny the
people who are closest to us,

they always find it easy
to keep secrets.

CHARLIE: You know, it's interesting
you say that, because I don't recall

you ever telling me that Mom was
a published composer.

What-what... what is this?

Where did you find this?

I found it in the garage.

- What, Mom?
- Yeah, see?

Margaret Mann.

Oh.

ALAN:
Yeah.

Your mother was
a very talented musician.

She even had an offer
to study in Vienna.

What are you talking about?
No way.

Mm.

Oh, that's why all those piano
lessons with the-the nightmare woman...

- Petri dish with the lozenge breath.
- Mrs. Petrie.

You know, one time
she filed my fingernails for me.

Wait, hold on.
Why didn't she ever play?

Did you ever see Mom
play that piano?

ALAN: Well, she had to make a
choice between the law and music.

And when she made the choice,
then...

music was a closed issue.

Except that it wasn't.

These-these compositions
are dated

through the '80s,
through the '90s --

I mean, I think she was
writing music up until...

You know?

No, I didn't know.

Hey, hey!

Doug, careful with the TV!

Your grandkids are gonna be
working for me for free!

Come on!

Gino McGinty.

This guy's rap sheet's
just about as old as he is.

Mostly receiving and possession
of stolen property,

major ties to about a dozen
foreign black markets.

Doug Windham's phone dump
had a bunch of calls

back and forth with McGinty
before the burglary.

There were about a half
a dozen after, too,

including one 15 minutes
after we talked to him.

For a guy not in
the burglary business anymore,

he sure does keep
some shady company.

I want to put together
a raid team,

but Don doesn't want to risk
spooking anybody yet.

Last thing we need
is that synthesizer

leaving the country
before we can locate it.

LARRY:
I went to bat for him.

I stormed into
your brother's office,

I put my own name
on the line for...

I don't even know his name.

I made a complete
fool of myself.

Larry,

your heart was
in the right place.

Well-intentioned ignorance
is a slender defense at best.

He was a complete
and utter fraud.

Not a complete fraud.

I mean, he certainly
knew how to run this equipment.

And here I am,

scrutinizing infinitesimal
ripples in the space-time

of Einstein's
relativistic universe,

when all the while,
I can't see this,

this immense lie
played out right before me.

You are exactly right.

Why is this not comforting me?

LIGO doesn't see
cosmic events, does it?

No, the events emit
gravitational waves

which we measure
with lasers and mirrors.

Which is how I'm checking my own
predictions on quantum corrections.

Well, then.

You didn't see Ron either.

You saw the waves he created.

You were unable to trace
Ron Allen's history

because he was careful
to conceal his past.

What he couldn't conceal,
however,

was the impact of his past.

I'm so hoping you have one of
those cute little analogies for this.

As a matter of fact, I do.

A person's journey through life

is like a stone
skipping across water.

No matter how briefly
it lands in one place,

it leaves ripples behind,

evidence that it has been there.

Now by studying those ripples,

we can determine
the path of the stone.

And with a little math
and a lot of luck,

we can determine where
the stone began its journey.

Ron Allen's ripples were his
facility at operating

technically sophisticated
apparatus.

Couldn't he have learned
to use these machines at CalSci?

Any one of them, perhaps,
but to be able to operate

these three different machines
with his skill level,

well, that's like
teaching yourself

how to fly a helicopter,
sail a yacht

and race a Formula One car.

So he had to know how to use

the same kind of equipment
before CalSci then.

And I'm assuming the
scientific community

at this level is pretty small, right?

Somewhere in
the tens of thousands.

But I refined my search
with a new set of ripples.

Remember, track and field.

Right, because
he ran long distance.

Right, so I went through
research projects,

filtered the names
of research assistants

against college
track meet times,

and I found these three.

Although, I got to tell you,
there's probably more.

University of Hawaii's

2.2 Meter Telescope, 1996.

Duke's Bioanalysis Group, 1999.

And MIT's
Genome Research Team, 2001.

He's like a chameleon.

More like a snake,
shedding successive skins.

Probably has
a new identity by now.

And a new target.

MEGAN: University of
Hawaii accepts Paul Combs,

who says he grew up
on a Wyoming ranch.

He's an unspectacular,
but a solid B-student

with an interest in astronomy,

microbiology and
competitive running,

who disappeared in 1998

with seven grand worth
of computer equipment.

He surfaces again
as Henry Viera,

a freshman at Duke in 1999.

This time, he say he grew up
on an Alaskan fishing boat.

Now he's a better student
and a faster runner.

That makes sense.

He knows the classes and
runners improve in their mid-20s.

Yeah, only this time his
disappearance coincides

with the theft of
a $15,000 electron microscope.

Hmm.

Then Allen Donaldson
gets into MIT in 2001.

Introduces the "kid from
the street" story.

He's got to be on his way to 30,
trying to pass for 18 at this point.

Star student, star runner,
and gone the next year

along with something called
the Mass Spectrometer,

worth upwards of $40,000.

All right, so, what?

He builds the identities of
a dead guy from another state?

So he gets
the birth certificate,

which gets him
a driver's license,

Social Security card, all that.

It fits our spy theory.

MEGAN:
Actually, it doesn't.

Because the stuff
he's stealing has value,

but it's not sensitive enough
for an agent to break cover.

Okay, so he's just a thief.

That doesn't really work either,

because although he's
stealing bigger every time,

there's just not
enough money there

to justify the time
he spends as a student.

DON:
Wait a minute.

What if the thefts
weren't an end, but a means?

A means to what?

You know,
like "Groundhog Day," right?

He gets to live the same life
over and over again,

but each time better.

Like a junkie stealing just
enough to get to his next fix.

Only his high
is from the false celebrity

he gets with every new persona.

Yeah, but this thing, the synthesizer's
a much bigger deal than that.

Because he needs a bigger
fix to get the same high.

Right.

We just got lucky
on the Gino McGinty wire tape.

We got him on tape

planning to move a major piece
of merchandise this afternoon.

Good.

( playing melody )

You know, I don't believe
I've ever appreciated

the resemblance to Pan before.

( chuckles )

The Pentatonic Scale.

It's fascinating how a simple
set of fractions can come alive.

What do we have here?

Norwegian Willow Flute.

The attendant one-dimensional
wave equation

has mesmerizing
harmonic properties.

( plays flute )

It also makes a very nice noise.

Okay, uh, not to look a gift
horse in the mouth, Larry,

but the, uh,
the emotional rebound

is, uh, is bordering
on manic depressive.

Look, I'm taking solace
in the fact that this man

fooled everybody.

So misery loves company.

Well, it also loves bright,
new research assistants,

and I actually interviewed a very
promising applicant just today.

There's always another
young, brilliant student

coming down the road,
isn't there?

Yeah, sure.

I mean, one would
hope so, right?

Let me ask you something.

Did you actually think that I

was jealous of Ron Allen?

( chuckles )
Well, I mean...

Yeah, maybe a scooch.

I'll be honest with you.
You weren't exactly wrong.

Not jealous of Ron --

not specifically...

But?

Well, you know, when I was
a 13-year-old freshman,

it wasn't much fun,
but it was cool.

Everything I did

was that much more impressive,
because of how young I was.

And, you know, it was always,

"If he's able
to accomplish that now,

"can you imagine what amazing
things he'll accomplish

when he's 25?"

Now I'm 30 years old.

Listen, listen.

Paul Erdich published
more than 1500 papers.

He died, literally,
at the chalkboard at age 83.

Come on.

You haven't seen your
best years yet, Charles.

No, but...

They'll never come
ahead of schedule again.

Anyone interested in lunch?

Hey, you know...

we never seem to throw away
much from this house, do we?

You know, that was
the deal I made with Mom.

She let me quit piano as long
as I never quit music entirely.

So you started making
your own instruments.

( chuckles )

It was a very early sign that
parenting Charlie Eppes

would present
some very unique challenges.

You know, she must
have been so disappointed

that Don and I didn't
like the piano.

And I'm thinking
that's the reason

that she kept her passion
for the piano hidden from us.

No, Charlie, she didn't
keep it hidden from you guys.

She kept it hidden from me.

Why do you say that?

You know how
your mother and I met?

Sure, you were working
for a housing developer

and she was an intern for a
tenants rights organization, right?

Ooh, a latter day
Romeo and Juliet story.

You see, um, we decided
that I would support her

in her last year of law school

and she would support me
through graduate school.

Then she told me...

that music wasn't really
a serious option for her.

She was too much
in love with the law.

Somehow I think I was a little
too eager to believe her.

She just didn't want me to know
what a hard decision it was.

That she gave up something
that she really loved.

LARRY: For something
she loved more, Alan.

You can't lose sight of that.

Well... maybe.

About time you guys got here.

This thing's been burning
a hole in my warehouse.

Get this thing on the truck.

Come on!

( sirens wailing )

You got to be kidding me.

- FBI.
- FBI.

Don't move.

Against the truck.
Hands on your head.

Let's go.

Let me ask you something.

Since when is selling quality
electronics at low prices a federal crime?

Since you started selling
Mark V DNA synthesizers.

So your buyer was Cuban.

A Cuban national.

- Is that right?
- That's right.

To tell you the truth,
I'm as shocked as you are.

I got you selling a bioterror
weapon to an enemy state.

- Bioterror?
- Yeah.

Wow. And I thought
it was a photocopier.

We got you.

We got you on tape.

Windham calling you and telling
you we were getting close.

Never seen this kid
before in my life.

You gonna waste
my time here, Gino?

He tipped you off,

only he'd never done
a job this big before

so he needed your expertise.

No, no -- I sell
electronics, okay?

Yeah, sometimes I don't know
where they're coming from

or where they're going,
but I don't steal.

Fact -- you set him up
with a crew.

Fact -- you sent him to Windham
to get the tools.

So what are you talking to me?
Go talk to Windham.

Well, selling tools isn't a crime,
but using them is,

and in this case
it's a Federal rap -- treason.

That's life in SuperMax.

So you know that little mistake,

that, that thing you've
been worried about doing

for the last 15 years?

Well, you made it.
You sure made it now, buddy.

I paid Doug Windham,
50 Gs for the damn thing.

I took it out
of his shop myself.

So what, you're
telling me he stole it?

All I know is Windham's
too greedy to help some kid

set up a score
and settle for short money.

Now, I can guarantee you,

he was his partner
whether he liked that or not.

- FBI!
- FBI!

FBI! Let's go!

Take the office.

David. Come take a look at this.

( indistinct
radio transmission )

David...

Bullet to the chest,
no sign of a fight.

Well, the techs just gave us
a fast fingerprint match

to the ones we lifted
from Ron Allen's dorm room.

I'm thinking maybe Allen shows
up looking for for his payoff,

has some kind of beef
with Windham and wins.

Now he's got maybe
50 grand disappearing money.

Or maybe not.

Foreman says they're missing
a portable plasma cutter.

Burns through metal like butter.

They use it to cut though vault
doors in case of emergencies.

Sounds like our boy's
planning a bigger heist.

So, there are four states of
matter -- solid liquid, gas,

and, when you superheat gas...
plasma.

Actually, you know what?
There's five,

if you consider
Bose-Einstein condensates...

Which we really don't need
to consider, right?

( chuckling )
No, I guess not.

A plasma cutter uses
an electrode circuit

to spark a stream
of directed plasma --

30,000 degrees Fahrenheit
at 20,000 feet per second.

Now, this particular model can
cut ten inches...

All right, all right.

...of one-inch steel plate
in under a minute.

Which means Ron Allen --
whoever he is --

can walk through just about any
door he feels like.

So, the question is,
what is the guy after?

I think he's looking to do
something spectacular.

Something to save
his jilted ego.

I mean, he's being competing
against kids

with less experience
for nine years.

He knows that's all gonna come out
and he's gonna be held up to ridicule.

So, he's got to prove to us

that he's not some loser,
that he's a genius.

Oh, he's no genius.

He's Wesley Shryer from the
suburb of Wheaton, Illinois.

A cop from Wheaton
PD recognized him

from one of the older
photos we sent out.

They went to high school
together.

Cop says, and I quote,

"He was average to the
point of forgettable."

( chuckles )

Went to community
college for two years.

Then he dropped off the face
of the Earth after '95.

Whoever he is, we better find him,
before he steps up his game.

LARRY:
Fraud or not,

Ron worked on an impressive
breadth of research.

Biochemistry, astrophysics,
genetics...

Yeah, but doing the same thing
over and over again.

Never challenging himself,
never reaching...

I'm wondering if I see a little
of myself in Ron.

You?!

Well... listen, I can vouch for
your academic credentials,

and to the best of my knowledge,
you're not homicidal.

I'm talking about living
in a bubble.

The safe, comfortable world
of academia.

Charlie, I don't know anyone
who challenges himself

as relentlessly as you do.

Yeah, and as far as living in
some academic bubble,

I mean, look at us.

We're out in this garage.

We're trying to predict
a thief's next target

by connecting experience
with-with potential targets.

And we're not there yet.

We need to find a new approach,

a, uh, a shortcut of some sort.

Something like...
like Benford's Law.

Benford's Law?

That's a simple probability
observation.

No, that's not all it is.

If you take any table of
wide-ranging values --

census data, test results,
land mass sizes --

1 appears as the first digit in
more than 30% of the values.

2 appears 17.6%.

3 appears 12.5%.

And so on...

LARRY: You know, the old story
goes that Simon Newcomb

discovered it by flipping
through books of logarithm tables.

He discovered
that the earlier pages

are more worn
than the later ones.

Benford's Law is not about
conscious decision making.

It is a statistical phenomenon.

Precisely.

Which is why
it's highly unlikely

that Ron Allen spent...

nine years working
at a specific theft?!

I mean, after all,

the most valuable machines today
didn't even exist nine years ago.

That's right.

Ron's knowledge
base would pull him

more toward one target
than another.

So, he opens his book of
knowledge to a well-worn page

where the spine
is already cracked.

University of Hawaii's
telescope.

He worked with cosmic
gravitation signatures.

Which explains his familiarity
with LIGO's raison d'etre.

At Duke, he worked with Beowulf
computer clusters...

LIGO has a Beowulf Cluster.

And with MIT's genome project,

he must have come
in contact with lasers...

Lasers...

- ...photodetectors.
- Photodetectors...

LIGO is the well-worn page.

He's gonna rob the LIGO lab.

My LIGO lab?!

All right, come on.

You know, why don't you
let me go first, just in case?

No, no, if he has already
been in here,

I don't even know
if I want to live.

Okay, the computers...

they all seem to be here...

and accounted for.

Of course, the big-ticket
items... they're in here.

All right, well,
why don't you open that up?

( beep )

Laser diodes alone are
worth $150,000 apiece.

The sapphires, upwards
of half a million.

That's a sapphire?

Invaluable in optics.

You know, bathysphere windows?
Those are sapphires.

Now, those are fabricated,
but still intensely expensive.

And where's the other one?

Oh, it's down in the LIGO
tunnel with the laser.

Okay, uh, so nothing's missing.

No, it would appear
we got here first.

That is, if he's coming.

MEGAN:
Do you see that?

Don, we've got
a suspicious vehicle

parked in the middle
of the running track.

Right, well, check it out,
and let me know what you see.

What's that running track?
Like, a mile from here?

Four kilometers, I would think.

All right,
so they're not our guys.

Wait, wait, wait, wait.
The LIGO tunnel.

What about it?

Measurements are taken by
shooting lasers through

an L-shaped vacuum pipe
with four-kilometer arms.

Now, that thing runs directly
beneath the running track,

and it bypasses
all of our alarm systems.

You just said there's a sapphire
in the tunnel.

All right, Megan,
that's our guys. Go, go, go!

MEGAN: Okay, Don.

( distant clatter )

- FBI!
- MEGAN: FBI!

- Let me see your hands.
- Get down on the ground.

Get down!

Get down.

- FBI!
- FBI!

Get down on your knees.

FBI! Get your hands up!

Come on, I got him!

Down! Get down!

Put your hands behind your head.

( grunts )

Get your hands on your head.
Get your hands on your head!

Face down, right now.

I knew I couldn't keep
it going anymore.

It got harder and harder
to pass for 18.

The more places I worked,

the more I worried I'd
run into someone I knew.

The scientific community
just isn't that big.

The LIGO job was supposed to be
my retirement.

So, why steal the synthesizer?

You had to know that was going
to bring some attention to you.

I needed the cash
to put the heist together.

And I was still on schedule

until you guys
tipped to Windham.

And then Windham wanted a piece
of the LIGO job,

so you shot him?

Things got crazy,
but... it wasn't me.

It was Jackson.

Oh, yes, Ron.

Blame the dead guy.

It's the truth.

You have to know how funny
that word sounds

as it comes out of your mouth.

You know, every one of those
schools turned down Wes Shryer --

the B student from
the good high school.

They weren't judging me
for my merit,

for my ability,
for my potential.

They penalized me for not having
some hard luck story.

So, you penalized people
with real hard luck.

All I did was level
the playing field.

Get my fair shot.

Fair?

( chuckles )

Spend 18 years dodging gangs...

working to help support
your family...

beating every odd out there just
to get your high school diploma.

You do that

and you can sit here and talk to
me about what's fair.

Hello?

Dad?

( sounding out notes )

Dad...

I'm thinking...

That seems to be your
perpetual state, Charlie.

...about Mom.

Her music...

Yeah...

I've been thinking about
that a lot, too, Charlie.

I went through guilt...
and anger...

an irrational sense
of betrayal...

that she hid this from me.

Dad, I don't think she was
hiding it.

Well, not in the way you mean.

You know, I have places
that I'd like to go to be alone.

I go hiking.

You go fishing.

Do you think your mother needed
to be alone with her music?

It's just part of being human,
isn't it?

To want to find...

someplace solely for yourself.

Whether it be outside
in the world

or...

deep inside your head.

( piano melody plays
in distance )

( strikes off-key chords )

( playing poignant melody )

♪♪