Some operation you're running. It wasn't an op. This was an investigation. Well, whatever we call it, I think we can agree-- you made a mess. [sighs] All due respect... The real mess wasn't made here in New York. That was you guys over there. You're not qualified to make that assertion. I spent enough time running and gunning with CIA types like you in the Valley, sir.
When did your investigation turn to events in Tehran 2005?
And let me remind you, this is all getting entered into the record. Oh, your classified report, yeah. Can't wait to read that. Oh, wait, uh, no one ever will.
The real mess wasn't made today. It was made a long time ago. You failed these people. What do you know about what I do?
I know enough. I'd be happy to stick to the facts if I was asked a direct question. Fair enough. How's this for direct?
Who gave you the order?
[engine revving] [panting]
Yo!
[car horn blares] [engine revving]
[metal clanging] [tires screeching]
Arturo Diaz, 16th precinct. Special Agent Maggie Bell. This is my partner. Omar Zidan. We understand a bomb went off at speed?
Truck exploded at 8:00 this morning. Couple of bikers went down. Looks like cars wrecked when they tried to dodge debris. Any witnesses?
None that aren't being rushed to a hospital. Terrorist activity, we're thinking. These cameras catch anything?
Nah, every camera in the zone stopped working simultaneous. How about that?
That's sophisticated. Looks like our bomb tech's got his work cut out for him. Hey. Just because it's your last day of school does not mean that you get to be late. Sorry. I was finishing up packing. And a coffee run, apparently. It's for you, actually. Tiff. So what we got?
The pickup was the target. Looks like they placed the device next to the fuel tank-- good place for it. Strange thing--it was rigged with an EMP emitter that disabled all nearby electronics. How do you know that? I'm a bomb tech. Yes, you are. Any ID on the driver?
Not possible. He was a crispy critter. We did pull the VIN off the frame, though. Great, thanks.
Hey, Scola.
Can you pull that camera?
Get it to the JOC?
Maybe Ian can tell us what the hell happened here.
I'm not gonna miss this.
All right, folks, if I were you, I'd cancel my fancy dinner plans 'cause this is the only place we'll be digging in. We got a car bomb on the Henry Hudson Parkway. 2 in critical condition, 11 dead now, including the driver of a Dodge Ram, who we think was the target. Our goal, figure out who planted the bomb. Simple enough, right?
Ian, talk to me. According to our bomb tech, it was a limpet bomb, attached magnetically to the back of the truck. I would like to know when. As would I. But where are we with the GoPro found at the scene?
Well, the memory card was charred in the blast. I'm working with CART to retrieve it, but I wouldn't hold my breath. Right. Okay, so then we work backwards, focus on the target. What do we know about the driver of our pickup truck? Right, the VIN we recovered is registered to a plumber in Kew Gardens named Tariq Amini-- 53 years old, born and raised in Queens. No priors, pays his taxes on time, five-star reviews on Yelp. Well, you may be impressed that Tariq Amini has zero online footprint-- I mean nothing. No Facebook, no Twitter, no website for his business... until two weeks ago, when his daughter posted this photo on her Instagram. Yeah, yeah, yeah. What's my next question?
Who's the friend? Yeah. We don't know. Not in our system. But this is literally the only image of Tariq Amini on the Web. So he's paranoid. Strange detail is in the timing. He slips up, a single photo gets posted. Two weeks later, he's dead. So who would want to assassinate such an excellent plumber?
Assassinate? We sure we want to go there?
Well, limpet bomb rigged with an electromagnetic pulse. Well, it's an ambitious device. Definitely not homemade. It's strange is what it is. That's a lot of firepower to take out an average Joe. All right, Maggie and OA are gonna notify Tariq's wife. If there's more to this guy, maybe she can clue us in.
I-I-I don't remember this, uh, photo being taken. Uh, he didn't like his pictures taken. He--he didn't like his smile.
I loved it. It's the only photo that we could find online. How did that happen?
Uh, I posted it. It was from my graduation party. Did he say anything to you about that?
Ask you to take it down? No. No, he did not.
This man in the photo... Oh, that's Uncle Cyrus, my dad's best friend. Where was Tariq headed this morning?
Work. Always. Always work, even on weekends. He said that this summer, we'd go to the mountains, but, uh-- He give you that? It's beautiful. Yeah, uh, it's a family heirloom. I hate to ask you this, but did your husband owe anyone money?
Have any enemies, any recent altercations?
No, I-I did the books for his business. He did not owe money to anyone. Mrs. Amini, someone wanted your husband dead. And they went to great lengths to make sure they got the job done. Tariq was a good man. He brought a smile to the face of everyone he ever met. That's not what I asked you. There were no altercations. And the suggestion that this was anything other than a senseless murder--I do not abide it. So why don't you do your job, you find the culprit, and you bring us peace?
Grieving widow on the worst day of her life-- could have gone a little easier on her. I just felt like she was holding back. She's spinning, and so is her daughter. Honestly, we should have notified her separately. Excuse me?
[panting] M-my mom, she lied to you. I don't know why, but there was a fight between my dad and Uncle Cyrus, like, two weeks ago. I don't know what it was about, but I've never seen them fight like that. Okay, where can we find your Uncle Cyrus?
His Laundromat. B-but he didn't do this. I just--I just wanted you to know. Thank you. You did the right thing telling us.
Told you something was off.
Hey! Cyrus Kayed.
Hey.
Sorry, we're closed. Good. That means you have time to chat.
Fine, Tariq and I argued, but it was nothing. His daughter posted some photos of us on Instagram. Doesn't seem worth arguing over. Kids want to post their whole lives online. I like my private life private. Well, you're gonna hate my next question. Where were you at 8:00 this morning?
You really think I had something to do with Tariq's death?
We were brothers. You were like brothers. Sarah Amini calls you Uncle Cyrus, but there's no record that you and Tariq were related. Lifelong friends. It doesn't make his death less painful. Your whereabouts this morning?
I was here. I had a repairman in. Look, you want to tell us what's going on here?
The sign says you're open. You got the door locked and all the lights off, and you seem pretty nervous talking to us. So, if you've got nothing to do with your buddy's murder... why are you so jumped up?
Why?
Because... you abandoned us. [gunshot] [glass shatters]
Tiff!
Two shooters on a motorcycle. [motorcycle engine revs]
This is Special Agent Scola requesting backup.
We got two males dressed in all black moving westbound on a black Ducati Monster... armed and dangerous.
Two-man job-- gunner takes two shots, drops the window pane, makes the kill. Driver speeds them off, right? So we were inches off of their target line, Tiff. They either needed us out of their way to visually confirm their kill, or we just got lucky. [scoffs] This feels lucky to you?
Look, I get it. It makes sense to need some time off. This does not have to be permanent. Scola. What?
Have you ever talked me out of anything?
Ever? Once?
Ever?
You were sitting on that one.
Sorry.
But there's nothing more dangerous than having a partner who didn't want to be in the field anymore but stuck around anyway.
Scola? Hmm?
It's a go bag.
He knew he was in danger before we got here. That's why the lights were off. That's why he was so squirrelly. He was running. Mm-hmm. Well, he didn't get very far.
All right, so our two shooters last seen fleeing Sunnyside, Queens, on a Ducati Monster. You're working traffic cams, right, anyone got them?
Yeah, most recent camera footage has them ducking into a parking garage seven blocks south. We swept every floor--no sign of them at the location. They planned to avoid cameras by using the garage as a pivot point-- that's fine with me. Narrows their options, slows them down. Hey, I got something, and it is wild. I managed to recover footage from the GoPro we found at the scene. All right, look alive, people. Impress me, Ian.
Okay, so there's our victim in the Dodge Ram. And here come the shooters on the Ducati. And this has to be where they attached the limpet bomb to the side of the victim's pickup.
How fast are they going? 50 miles an hour, maybe 60. So, at high speed, the shooter places the bomb on a moving target and then snipes his best friend two hours later with precision. With this kind of skill and resources, these are definitely professional hits. No doubt, but on a plumber and his best friend?
They must have been important to someone powerful. The question is who. Whoever did this, that second victim-- he knew that he was in hot water. Right before he was shot, he said, "You abandoned us." He said that to you guys?
So who are you? Law enforcement?
Feds? U.S. government?
We abandoned them. I wonder how we did that. Hey, I think we might know where the shooters are headed. Yeah, we scrubbed traffic-cam footage backwards from the bombing-- some gaps where they disappear.
Right, but there's one location they visit multiple times before and after the bombing... a rare-book shop on the Upper East Side.
I read this book in college. Had a crush on my professor. Oh, yeah, what was his name? Rachel. Oh, I wanted to say, Nadia Amini--you were right. She was evasive, and I missed it. You got a lot on your plate. Yeah, well, Ella's not sleeping, which means I'm not sleeping because she's so stressed. Yes, all to say, I do have a lot on my plate. Okay, if our guys are so calculated, why would they stop into this bookstore in the middle of an op?
Maybe it's not just a bookstore. I'm not seeing it. Maybe you're not looking hard enough.
Oh, he's gonna rabbit.
Hey, FBI! Stop! No.
[grunting] [pounding] I'm opening it. Go. Hey! FBI! Drop the hammer. Now.
Turn around. Slowly.
OA, that's the license plate from the motorcycle.
Automatic weapons.
They have the same bombs from the attack.
Shooters.
Who are they?
So his name is Bijan Tadjvar-- Iranian born, arrived in the U.S. just over three years ago. You want to get the Iranian consulate on this?
I'm having an agent do that. It's just gonna take a beat before somebody gets here. Based on the contraband we collected, he's looking more like a facilitator. It's a local contact who provides weapons and intel on people for foreign actors. I don't know--you really think Iran is bold enough to target American citizens on U.S. soil?
They got to people in the Netherlands in 2015. Iran went after their own people there. Dissidents that fled Iran-- yeah, same situation. They were hiding out for decades, kept their heads down, made one mistake, IRGC took them out. We found the backups of the explosive devices that they used in the basement of your shop. So we know you supplied them. I can already charge you as an accessory to murder, but by the time I'm finished with you, you'll be locked away for the rest of your life. I did speak to a U.S. attorney who is willing to make you a deal, but, of course, you have to give us something in return. Names. Where are they hiding?
Are there more targets?
If you help us, we can help you. I don't care about me. Someone else, then. They're holding someone you love back in Tehran. Who?
Your wife?
Mother?
Your lover?
They'll kill him. What's his name? As if you could save him. FBI counterintelligence has far reach. I am trying to prevent more deaths. If there's more violence coming, we can stop this together.
It cannot be stopped. This will happen.
Bijan Tadjvar refused a deal. He's too leveraged, and he implied that that hit list is longer. Right, so h-how do we figure out who else is on it?
Bijan did a number on his laptop. The shop turned up cash and unregistered weapons, but no intel on any future targets or on our plumber or Laundromat owner. Well, they ended up on that list somehow. And all signals point to our victims being New Yorkers, born and bred, right?
There's nothing that ties them to Iran, even tangentially. Well, if they aren't from here, someone did a bang-up job helping them fake it. Hey, I was able to recover partial data from Bijan Tadjvar's laptop. You're a magician. Show me. Okay, buried in his bookkeeping files, a hidden folder. The docs are written in Farsi, so I sent them out for translation, but they're not relevant. One file might be. Opened yesterday at the same time that the shooters were there--look. All right, so they were all in this back office looking at this file. It's a surveillance photo from 2005. So who are they?
Run their faces against our database. Already ahead of you. That's Tariq and Cyrus, 20 years younger. Where is this photo? Is there any metadata?
It's Central Tehran. That's Azadi Tower in the background. So maybe this photo is the hit list. The killers went after these two men, which means our next target could be anyone in this photo. Run every face. Their backstories were phony. Who the hell were these people, really? And how the hell did they end up on an Iranian hit list?
Hey, Ian, can you zoom in on this woman?
H-her wrist? Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I've seen that bracelet before-- on Nadia Amini, Tariq's wife. Are you sure? 100%. When we were questioning her, she was nervous. She was--she was playing with it. Uh, Nadia Amini just drained her personal bank accounts. She played us. She knows exactly why her husband was targeted. And she knows who's coming for her. Yeah, ping her phone. Got her. She's at Penn Station. All right, get her off the street now. Go. I want eyes in every corner of Penn Station, yeah?
We are looking for Nadia Amini and her daughter. They are in danger. We believe these guys right here, last seen on a black Ducati, could be on the ground looking for them.
Nadia and her daughter won't be here long. They could already be on a train. We'll start on the mezzanine level and work our way down. Scola, we got two helmets. All right, everybody, be advised, shooters parked their Ducati in front of the east entrance. Get some agents' eyes on it in case they come back for it. We need to find Nadia and Sarah before they do. Anyone in here could be the killers.
All right, eyes up, people. Our two unidentified shooters are in the station. Needle in a haystack. And what's the needle look like, Elise?
I--we don't know. And that is why we run every face. Stay alert. These are trained assassins. They will blend in. Anyone is a potential threat, so call them out. Who's got a rap sheet? Who didn't pay their taxes?
Who got a parking ticket yesterday morning?
Copy that. Let's split up. Yeah.
[computer buzzes] Got a bogey. Unidentifiable male not in our system. Yeah, yeah, yeah. HSI, ICE, how about you guys?
Who's closest? Maggie. Okay. Maggie, we got a guy wearing a black leather jacket. He's behind you.
Sarah. Uh--hi. I have Sarah Amini. - Maggie found the daughter. OA, I need you to pick up the guy in the black leather jacket. Hey, Maggie, an exfil team is waiting for you at the east entrance. Where's your mom? Uh, we got in a fight. Where is she right now? Uh, downstairs. She said we had to leave. We had to run. What is happening?
Nadia Amini was last seen on the ground level. We need to leave right now. I'm gonna get you out of here. OA, cover me.
Leather jacket heading towards Maggie. I'm on him.
Where'd he go?
Anybody got another angle on this guy?
Uh, working on it. Maggie, you need to move.
Jubal, leather jacket is not a suspect. Copy. Hey. Right there. Camera shy with the black cap. Can you--can you get him? Can't get his face. All right, s-send them what you got anyway. Agents, we got a guy wearing all black in a black cap. He's on the lower level, heading to the mezzanine. Who can get to him first? - Got him. Facial rec just picked up Nadia-- other end of the mezzanine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. OA, you hear that? Change course, head to Nadia, opposite end of the mezzanine. Tiffany, you pick up the guy in the black cap.
Please, you have to help me find my daughter, please. We have her. We have her. She's safe. I'm gonna take you to her. Come with me. OA, you still got that black-cap bogey on you. You need to get to the east exit now. Go, go, go. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait.
Uh, this way, this way, this way, this way.
All right, gang, I'm still waiting on facial rec. I know. Camera coverage is not helping us. Yeah, well, write a letter to the city. Give me a shot of his face. Wait, I got him. Yeah, there. That's enough, yeah?
He's a ghost. Okay, Tiffany, you need to stay on him.
So, if that's our guy, then where's his buddy?
Jubal...got a knife wound in the leg. Get an ambulance there right now. Stay trained on the assailant. We lost sight of him, Jubal. What?
Tiff! Scola! [groans] No, no, no, you got to get after him. He's down there. We did what we came here to do. We kept the target safe. I'm not chasing after another bad guy. Lift up. Oh. [groans] You're gonna be okay, all right?
Okay. Just breathe. Agent down, mezzanine level. Keep the pressure on.
[groans] Okay, okay. [groans] To think I was gonna call in sick today. So glad you didn't.
Nothing more to do for Scola. Ambulance is on their way. Yeah. Well, Nadia Amini is safe and in our care, but we are not clocking out until we find our two shooters. How are we doing? Nothing on station cam. Yeah, station entrance is clear, too--they're gone. All right, well, keep scouring. Back-time your videos. Where did we lose them? Which direction did they go?
Agent Castille, a word. Uh, now is not a good time. We need to talk. Peter Bradford, CIA. Eight months. Eight months we were sitting on that bookstore. We just lost the thread on six high-value Iranian targets operating here. Officer Bradford, you were up on surveillance outside of your jurisdiction. You watched Bijan Tadjvar arm two men to do violence in New York. A dozen people were killed in a truck bomb, and now one of my own is in the hospital. My op is sanctioned under the Resources Division. Nobody told us. You're supposed to call it in. You knew Americans were being targeted. Nadia's husband, their friend Cyrus-- you let them die. What I can't figure out-- was it dereliction of duty, or were they just inconvenient to you in some way?
Who are they, really, Tariq Amini and Nadia Amini, if those are even their real names?
Who they are and what they did lies outside your jurisdiction. I oversaw activities that they were party to way back when. Now, where is she?
Nadia?
What do you want with her?
I want to make sure she is safe. Well, I assure you... she is safe.
Mom, what is going on?
This is literally insane. There's something I haven't told you. Stay away from the windows.
Let's get you vested up.
Here. Thank you.
Hey, anything? No sign of the shooters. Hey, what are these decorations here?
What time of year is this?
It's Nowruz, Iranian New Year. It would have been March 20, 2005. Right, okay, w-we need to figure out why these three are being targeted, right? So let's--let's zoom out, get some paint on the canvas, some context. What else was going on at the time?
What are we missing?
Okay, yeah, two days later in Tehran, there was a general from the secret police that was killed-- a General Moridi. What, what, like, assassinated?
Looks that way. Pipe bomb. You think Tariq, Cyrus, and Nadia took out a general in the secret police? Well, I-I think if the CIA is interested in Nadia Amini, this could be the reason why, right?
Iran had just elected new leaders, hard-liners, so progressive students like Nadia Amini, they'd be put under a microscope, they're angry. Making them ideal recruits for CIA operations. Like a bombing the CIA's trying to distance themselves from. So the CIA puts them up to it. And then smuggles them out, sets them up here, fake names, backstopped identities, the works. Wouldn't be the first time we used people like that. Used them and then forgot them. The CIA, they-- they came to us in May 2005. They wanted General Moridi eliminated. They supplied us with a bomb and blueprints to a bathhouse that Moridi visited. It was a mission in exchange for our new identities and passage to the States. So they got you out of Iran? Yeah. Yeah, only to be dropped by the agents we helped... left to figure out our lives on our own. So Dad killed someone?
We had to stop Moridi from erasing us. Wait, wait, wait, wait, but--but--but--so now what?
We're supposed to--to--to hide, to run because of something that Dad did before I was born?
We thought we would be free here. Okay, why do you think your father had such strict rules?
Rules--rules that you broke.
Wait.
The picture that I posted of Dad, do you think--
Sarah, this is not on you. This has nothing to do with you. Yes--yes, it is. My dad, he-- No, you didn't know. How could you?
You can judge me all you like, Agent Bell, but I did what I believed was right!
Perimeter check.
What happened to "go easy on the wife"?
How selfish do you have to be to bring a child into that life?
Nadia was young, Maggie. What, you expect her just to give up on her dreams?
I don't know. No, but-- You want to be mad at somebody, how about the case officers that left her out in the cold after the sacrifices they made for our country?
Her daughter's entire life is a lie. Yeah, to keep her safe. Nadia lied to us. And she could have saved lives today if she told us the truth up front. CIA, FBI-- we're all the same to them, and we've already let her down once.
Hey, Scola's still in surgery. I'll update you when I find out more. Okay, yeah, please do. Our two IRGC assassins are still in the wind, but Manhattan is an island. Their options are limited, right?
How we doing? Yeah. Uh, I scrubbed CCTV footage around the station--no hits. Looks like they ditched their motorcycle. Meaning they're on foot. That's great. Maybe not. NYPD just got a report of a stolen van two blocks away. That could be our guys. Details?
Ford 350 cargo van-- silver, plate number 04J5R2. GPS active? Already on it.
Address is 58th and 9th.
Been a minute since I've done this. It's like riding a bike. Squad in position. Green light.
It's a diversion. To throw us off their trail. No, no, no, no. [phone ringing] Jubal, what's up? OA, listen to me. The stolen car was a diversion. [garbled speech over phone] - What'd he say?
I don't know. I could barely hear him. Jubal?
You need to assume the IRGC assassins are inbound to your location. How much time do we have?
[garbled speech over phone] OA, can you hear me? What's he saying?
[garbled speech over phone] - OA?
OA, they cut the cameras. [garbled] Jubal. - OA, can you hear me?
[garbled] Jubal.
Cell jammer-- they're scrambling the comms. We're too late. You two, with me. Maggie, we're about to get hit. Go, go, go.
Stay behind me!
Get to the back room, hide! Go, go!
Maggie, I'm out!
OA, my guy's down.
It's over. [breathing heavily]
They're safe. Yes, ma'am. Understood. That was Isobel. She wants us to transport the victim in custody back to 26 Fed, along with Nadia and Sarah. The CIA is involved now, and they want to debrief Nadia and all of us.
That doesn't feel right. I know. But it is what it is. No, something is strange. How fast they found us.
You think the CIA wanted them gone that bad?
Maybe. What if they send them back to Iran and wipe their hands of them for good?
We have orders, Maggie. Well, we got to call Isobel back and get her head around this because they will be killed. And you know it.
Okay. U.S. Marshalls are gonna give you new identities, housing. You're finally gonna get the protection that you were promised. They're never gonna find you again. I've been told that before. Well, not from me, you haven't. From now one, wherever you go, know you have to be very careful. Now you know why. Okay. Is there really no other way? I'm not ready for this. Honey, that's what I said when I left Iran, okay?
But then I made a promise to myself that my best days were never going to be behind me. You've gotta look forward, okay?
Take a look at this.
This photo is of your parents in Iran. They're not much older than you are now. They were incredibly brave to do what they did.
And you can be too. Okay. I think you'll be surprised what you're capable of.
Nadia.
I'm sorry I judged you. That's all right.
Hey. Hey. He's asleep. Nina's on her way. Man, that is one tough chick. Yeah. Not how you thought you were gonna spend your last day, huh?
Honestly, what else was it gonna be?
See ya. Hey, did you want to get a drink next week?
I'll be gone by then. Maybe tomorrow. Okay, yeah, sure, tomorrow. Georgia, huh?
Yeah. Um, it's quiet. My sister has a little café down there, so I think it'll be good for me.
Can I ask you what it was that made you hit eject?
It wasn't any one thing. I... I just wanted closure. I thought I'd get that after Hakim was gone, but... I didn't.
And if I can't take care of myself, then how can I... you know?
Yeah.
Don't be a stranger. No. [chuckles] I know where you live.
Where is she? Where is Nadia Amini?
She is in DOJ care now. But you don't seem thrilled by that. It wasn't your call, was it?
Then who made the call?
How did those gunmen find our safe house? Just one of those things. But we will look into it. That location was well off the grid. Those gunmen were there within two hours of my team arriving. Well, what are you accusing me of? You think I tried to have your agents taken out?
That's hardly a denial. The CIA doesn't want the world to know that they killed a high-ranking FARAJA officer. There could be fallout. So you try to cover it up. Give me the name of the agent who made the call to hide Nadia in Witness Protection.
True blue all the way, huh?
I just want you to say it-- that it was your idea to disobey a direct order and place Nadia Amini in Witness Protection. Why don't we skip all that? It matters. The only reason I'm sitting here is because you didn't complete your mission. I don't know what that means. Nadia Amini was a loose end. You wanted her gone. That's immaterial. You were told to bring her in. I don't report to you. You used them, and you tossed them aside. Hmm. Nadia deserves better.
[wolf howls] ic]