PREY

Infiltration

"Infiltration." PREY, sixth episode, first season. The hour-long weekly drama follows a bioanthropologist and her aides investigating a newly evolved species of man. These ruthless new beings appear to be the result of global warming and are multiplying rapidly. James Morrison plays Lewis, a "Mentor" who trains members of his race in terrorist tactics.

In a darkened lab, Dr. Ed Tate studies findings from an artifact relating to the new species. Markings on the stone pillar have been determined to be a star chart for southern Mexico in mid-October, 1998. Ed wonders to his boss, Dr. Walter Attwood, what will happen then. Attwood counters with his concerns as to what the new species will do in the meantime. Little does he know, he is about to find out.

Roger Young works his way through a crowded bar. He runs into an attractive blonde who says she's waiting for friends. He offers Lisa a chance to wait for them with him, so she follows him to a table. As soon as he sits down, she leaves her handbag under the table and tells him to stay put, she will return. Once she disappears into the crowd, Roger's cell phone rings. When he approaches a window for better reception, he sees Lisa hurrying to a waiting black car parked across the street. A man is waiting behind the wheel for her. Roger calls out to Lisa, but she coldly ignores him and gets into the car. The bar behind him explodes. The black car speeds away.

The next morning, bioanthropologist Dr. Sloan Parker is running late. Tom Daniels, a member of the new species who has agreed to help the human scientists, shows up at her apartment. While waiting for her to finish dressing, Tom watches a news report about an explosion at a bar. Fifteen people had been killed, the TV reporter says, and dozens had been wounded. Sloan, now dressed, comes out to watch the report. The reporter says investigators detected a residue of "an unknown compound" with a trace of benzene. Tom tells Sloan the new species did it. Sloan says wonders if one of the bar patrons may have been a target.

Tom's fake FBI credentials get them into the bombed out bar. After a quick scan of the charred interior, Tom proceeds to the charred remains of a handbag. He examines the bag and sniffs for residue on his fingers. Definitely explosives designed by the new species, he says. Sloan asks a cop for a list of victims. While waiting, she notices a homeless man outside the bar. She follows him, calling that she is not a cop and follows him into an alley. He admits he did see the explosion and saw a man run to a red car afterward. Conveniently for Sloan, he has jotted down the plate number on a piece of cardboard.

Sloan and Tom go meet their police department contact Detective Ray Peterson. Already, Ray is in trouble with the department for all the time he has spent helping the scientists. A couple of detectives are regarding the three suspiciously. Ray tells Sloan he has traced the partial plate to a Roger Young, who apparently is not at home. Ray also tells them he will send officers out to interview the homeless guy who offered the information.

Out on the street, a mysterious man watches in the rearview mirror of the black car. Lisa walks up behind the car and gets inside. She tells the driver she got what she wanted. In the direction from which she came, the homeless guy who had talked to Sloan lies bloodied in a pile of trash.

Back at the lab, Ed hacks into Roger Young's phone company records. Calls from Roger's home stopped the day of the bombing, but his home number had received some calls from a motel.

Sloan and Tom go to the motel and walk up the stairs to Roger's room. Tom, who can sense emotions, says the room is empty. He opens the locked door with minimal effort thanks to his evolved enhanced strength. Inside the shadowy room, they find a bed strewn with photographs and clippings, all indicating Roger has been tracking the new species, too. While they shuffle through some of the papers, Tom senses Roger's return and knows Roger has spotted the open door. Tom draws his pistol and chases Roger almost in the waiting gun sights of Lisa, who is leaving her room a few doors down on the same floor. Lisa and Tom exchange gunfire. Sloan leads Roger downstairs to her parked car. Tom follows them with a hail of Lisa's bullets behind him. They speed away. Lisa coolly places her pistol back into her tote bag.

At the lab, Sloan has determined Roger is human by a DNA test. Roger tells them he is a reporter for the Tribune and was at their press conference announcing the discovery of a new species of man. He was working on a story about how the missing persons rate had climbed 300 per cent in the last six months and had been able to draw a connection with all of them to the serial killer and new species member Randall Lynch. Tom asks Roger about the woman who picked him up at the bar and is particularly interested to learn if she had been alone. Roger had seen the man who waiting in the car for her. Tom seems to know who it is, but is hesitant to tell the others.

A phone call wakes Ed from a sound sleep. He leaves home to go to a building where a young girl perched on the edge of the roof is threatening to jump. A rescue worker tells him her name is Kelly and she keeps mentioning a cave. Now Ed remembers her -- a surviving victim of serial killer Randall Lynch who had imprisoned her, like his other captives, to a cave. Ed steps out to where Kelly sits, and she runs sobbing into his arms.

At Sloan's apartment, Tom is even more quiet that usual. He is worried about Lisa's companion whom he believes to be a Mentor who trained her and others like her. "He's a dangerous man, Sloan," he says. "He and the people he's trained are responsible for crimes you couldn't imagine. He's the best at what he does." And Tom knows from first-hand experience because he is one of Lewis's trainees. Tom points out that if they could find Lisa, they could get to Lewis. He suggests they use Roger as bait to draw out Lisa to eventually get to Lewis. Sloan recoils at the idea, but Tom insists they have to risk one life to save many.

At the police department, Kelly sits slumped in a chair while Ed and Ray discuss her fate for the night. Ray refers to procedure in telling Ed she should spend the night in a hospital under psychiatric evaluation. Ed disagrees. Ray, once again overlooking police procedure, signs her out to Ed. At a coffee shop, Kelly apologizes to Ed and mentions they are kindred spirits who share a secret they can not discuss with others. Nothing has been the same for her since she left the cave. Ed tells her Lynch was a member of the new species of man.

Roger balks at the prospect of being used as bait. Ray tells him he will be protected. Sloan tells Roger the decision is his. Tom points out they have all risked their lives to learn more about the new species, and they have no choice.

In the drizzle, Roger shows up with Attwood for a press conference at the charred bar. They are met by one of Ray's plainclothes officers. Sloan and Tom wait in a doorway. She has a walkie-talkie and his radio is hooked up to an earpiece and a sleeve microphone so he can work the crowd undercover. Tom reassures Sloan that he will be able to sense Lisa's presence. He steps off toward the crowd of reporters already listening to Roger's talk about the new species.

A brunette reporter with an umbrella and a microphone gets her credentials OK'd by one of the guards. Late to the press conference, she steps forward to the crowd and crosses Tom's path to get there. A headache and a flash of the press conference from another point-of-view interrupts Tom's concentration. He knows something is happening but not what. She raises her mike as if to pick up Roger's words, but an indentation marks the middle of her mike's windscreen. By the time Tom realizes the danger, draws his gun and tells everyone to get down, Roger is shot. While Attwood and the reporters gather around the fallen journalist, the brunette reporter walks away from the breaking news story of the shooting to get into a waiting black car.

At the lab, Ed, who has questioned Tom's motives ever since learning Tom's true identity, confronts Tom about his inability to spot Lisa, despite his track record for spotting the new species. Bitterly disappointed in himself, Tom says he could sense something but nothing clear. Sloan wonders if Lisa could have learned biofeedback or some other technique from Lewis to mask herself. Ray says the police have closed the case of Roger's shooting because the shooter had been found, an apparent suicide whose note claimed she had been stalking Roger.

Ed and Sloan return to her apartment. He tells her he has Kelly at his place and then openly questions Tom's loyalties. Sloan has had her fill of Ed's doubts about Tom, but Ed makes her wonder about how close Tom had been to his former mentor, let alone Lisa.

Ray is at home, lighting candles and setting a romantic table for his wife. He wants to let her know he's in trouble with the department for his work tracking the new species. A 19-year veteran of the force, Ray tells her he must follow his convictions concerning the danger from the new species. His wife comforts him.

The next morning, Sloan and Tom seek leads to Lisa and Lewis. They brainstorm until Tom mentions Lewis would not stay in one place more than 6 months at a time. He describes where Lewis would probably be, in a rented house large enough for training purposes and paid for with cash. Sloan grabs a phone book so they can canvass realtors for a cash deal on such a house.

At the lab, Kelly sits stewing in a chair. Ed carries takeout food to his desk. He tells her she can crash with him until she gets herself together. He offers her the food, but she declines, citing a queasy stomach.

Sloan and Tom drive off a side road onto a dirt path. A man matching Lewis's description had rented the place two months ago, Sloan says. They sneak through the weeds and climb a small rise until they can peek at a large house. Tom checks it out through field glasses and pronounces it "the place."

At the police department, Lt. Quinn, Ray's boss and old friend, goes to Ray's desk. He asks Ray for his badge and gun. After Ray removes and places his gold detective's shield and sidearm on the desk, he tells his friend and now former boss that he's making a mistake. And that he does not know what he's doing. As Ray strides out of the police station, Lt. Quinn contradicts him out of earshot that he does know what he's doing.

After dark, Sloan and Tom are still watching the house from behind the tall grass. A car pulls up. Tom watches through the scope. The male driver gets out and scans the grounds away from the house as he walks behind the car and toward the house entrance. Lisa gets out, too, but heads straight for the house. Tom identifies the man as Lewis.

They watch Lisa leave the house and drive away in the car. Tom orders Sloan to stay there but she stops him and asks what he's going to do. Tom says he's going to do what he has to do because the police won't do anything. Sloan pleads with him to put his past with Lewis behind him, to forget about revenge. Tom points out they're there for survival. He tells her he will try to mask himself like Lisa did, then he heads off to the house with his gun drawn.

Tom sneaks around the house and then opens the door. Operatic singing and symphonic orchestration fills the sparsely furnished appointed mansion. With his gun drawn and ready, Tom creeps through the kitchen, then the marble foyer. Lewis is working on his laptop computer upstairs. Tom climbs the staircase. Outside, with the field glasses, Sloan watches Tom through the house's huge windows.

Upstairs, Tom sees a door ajar. With his gun ready, he shoulders his way into the room. Lewis is working at a desk with his back to the door. Without turning around, Lewis asks, "What took you so long?"

As Tom circles him, Lewis chides him for thinking he could mask himself so easily. Lisa had taken months to learn the technique, Lewis adds, and that was with his help. To his former mentor and now prey, Tom says, "I don't need you." Lewis coolly disagrees. He points out that he knew Tom had been outside for an hour.

Calmly, while facing the business end of Tom's pistol, Lewis asks, "How does it feel to betray me, Tom?"

But Tom disagrees, saying it doesn't feel like betrayal anymore. So, Lewis zooms in on Tom's weakness: "Because of her? Is Dr. Parker really worth it?" Firmly, Tom states, "Yes." Still the Mentor and teacher, Lewis comments, "Interesting."

Outside, a horrified Sloan sees Lisa return. Sloan runs down the hillside to help Tom.

Upstairs inside the house, Lewis plays mind games with Tom. "You realize, of course, it's only a matter of time before you come back to us." Tom orders Lewis to stand up and move away from the table. Still unfazed and unconvinced of Tom's seriousness, Lewis smiles and asks if Tom plans to arrest him. No, Tom says, he's going to stop him.

With that, Lewis tackles Tom and slams him against the wall. Tom beats on Lewis's back. Lewis loses his footing, so Tom kicks him in the stomach. Lewis rolls over, and Tom has the drop on him again. But Tom's back is to the door and his new species radar is not working, so he does not notice Lisa's approach. With Lisa's arrival distracting him, Lewis hooks Tom's leg with his foot and drops Tom to the floor.

Lisa, upon entering the room, senses Sloan approaching the house. She tells Lewis to leave, that there might be others coming with her. While Tom struggles to get off the floor, Lewis grabs his laptop, runs and vaults over the balcony.

With Lewis gone, Lisa pulls Tom off the floor by the collar and sneers how Lewis had told her so much about him. However, she has forgotten Tom's gun, which is in the floor between them and the door. Now upstairs, Sloan gets to the gun first and covers Lisa with it. Tom wrestles Lisa to the floor and wraps his hands around her throat. Sloan has trouble stopping him from strangling Lisa to death. With his hands still around Lisa's neck, Tom gets in her face and says, "I'm no longer like you." He releases his grip.

Attwood visits Ray. He knows about Ray's dismissal from the department and has come to offer him a job, "serving his country." Ray is flattered and jokes about being too old to join the military service. Attwood only says, "I'm sure you've had your suspicions and I'm sure they're accurate." Still with a half-joking smile, Ray asks him what the job is.

Lewis sits in the parked car with his laptop open beside the steering wheel. A photo of Tom is downloading and Lewis is talking on a cell phone. "You don't have to worry about Tom." He pauses while the person on the other end apparently disagrees. "Because everything is under control. You just tell them to stay off my back. I'll file a report when I see fit." He pauses again to listen, then placates, "Patience. Without it, we shall never succeed." He hangs up without waiting for a response.

At the lab, while Ed is working Kelly is sobbing in the office. He hears her, especially when she bangs her head back against the wall, and runs to comfort her.