CAST LIST

SYNOPSIS

Rows of wheat are being grown in a specially created environment: inside, two scientists are tracking down an "intruder", a butterfly, which has entered through what they believe is a breach in the filtering system. Going to investigate a second intruder, the scientist is grabbed by an unknown assailant. Before his colleague can investigate, he too is attacked, and the intruders gain entry to the Main Environmental Control area. With a minute before security arrives, they place a bottle of yellow liquid into the environment’s sprinkler system, immediately spraying the contents onto the wheat outside. Escaping moments before security arrive to apprehend them, the assailants make sure they leave the guards with an explosive gift…

When the Bugs team arrives, the room of wheat has been completely decimated. They are shown around by Greenville, who explains that the wheat has been developed specifically for the European Agronomy Council to be resistant to all forms of disease…except this one. Beckett suggests the killer may be a viroid, a specialised micro-virus that attacks plants: in this case specifically wheat. Ros fears that the destruction of the wheat is a field test for a larger attack…all the team have to go on is a grainy video image of the assailants. Beckett examines the viroid with Greenville, and asks him who might have a reason to stop the wheat being developed. Ros is checking the video imagery, and is able to isolate the head assailant’s face. Connecting a wire to allow Ros to operate her modem, Ed gets a spider on his hand and panics: he hates creepy-crawlies! Beckett can’t believe Ed’s fear either, telling the pair Greenville suspects a number of pesticide companies…as Ros gets a confirmation on the assailant. James Hawk is a weatherman by trade: what is a weatherman’s concern with wheat? Beckett has arrived at Pesticorp, top of Greenville’s list of suspects. Posing as a representative of Eastern Alliance Farmers with a pest problem, Beckett talks to Dr Croll, the head of the Facility. Croll claims that their pesticides can wipe out 96% of all known pests, but when shown a picture of the viroid he becomes suitably nervous and takes the picture away for analysis. Before leaving him, Beckett presents Croll with a present: a brooch shaped like an ear of corn, which has the obligatory micro-camera inside it. Slipping inside Pesticorp’s Decontamination Showers, he uses the camera to watch Croll as he enters his research facility and examines a batch of chemical identified as ZH-282: which Ros (who has been listening in with Ed) suspects is the viroid. Condensation causes the micro-camera to fail, alerting Croll to Beckett’s duplicity: he sends out security to find him. Trapped in the showers, Beckett is forced to improvise: he fills the room with water and gets the guard to fire his taser weapon at a mirror reflection, thus electrocuting himself. Ros and Ed enter the Institute of Climatology as Beckett makes his escape. Inside the Institute, Ros goes to talk to the mainframe, while Ed goes to find Hawk.

Access to the Mainframe is easy: Ed gets to Hawk’s office, and sees him enter an area code named K19 with another man. Ros identifies the other man as Nathan Pym, the Head of Forecasting. Unable to get a signal from inside the room, Ed tries to get closer. With Ros’ help he finds a ventilation shaft and as he crawls along he hears Hawk demanding payment from Pym. When what he gets is not enough and Hawk protests, Pym kills him: not with a gun, but with a genetically altered hornet! Ed drops his transmitter, alerting Pym to his presence. Making a hasty escape as Pym resorts to more conventional methods, by shooting the ventilation shaft, Ed tells Ros it’s time to leave. Ros is downloading the Institute’s database to disk, and only manages to get half the data before she has to leave…The ventilation shaft suddenly collapses, and Ed falls into the source of what he thought was interference: it is a giant net filled with thousands of bugs! Finally finding a way to escape the net Ed gets out of the building seconds behind Ros: however he has bought an unwanted guest with him. Ros removes a stray bug from Ed’s neck…and keeps it for analysis. Inside, Pym surveys the damage to his net…with Croll. He decides it’s time to eliminate the "pests" that are bugging both his and Pym’s plan…Back at Gizmos Greenville identifies Ed’s bug as a Monarch beetle: a perfect "carrier" for a viroid infection in the Real World environment. Ed is still uncertain as to Pym’s part in the plan: Beckett however works out that if Croll’s viroid is sprayed onto beetles, and those beetles are then released into a correct prevailing wind they will act as carriers, spreading the viroid across a large area. With less than 6 hours before winds reach optimum strength, Ed and Beckett set off to destroy the viroid itself, whilst Ros decides to investigate the company responsible, whom she identifies by a microscopic stamp on the Monarch beetle: InsecTec.

Pym watches Ros arrive and enter InsecTec, and opens her car. Inside Ros talks to Dr Lemon, who explains he breeds the insects for both experimental purposes and for pesticide companies: outside Pym places a container of hornets in Ros’ engine cavity, whilst cutting the brake wire. Lemon identifies the Monarch beetles as belonging to one of two batches prepared for Pesticorp: the second batch is being loaded and driven away with Pym aboard as Ros leaves. Following the van in her car, Ros has to speed up to keep up. Once she hits 60mph the bee-filled trap inside her engine is activated, sending the insects out through the ventilation system. Unable to brake or open the doors, Ros desperately tries to find a way to escape from the bee-filled prison…and a parked truck provides her with the answer. Ducking, she shears the roof off her car, The explosion from the drums of chemicals on the truck makes Pym believe he has killed her…whilst back at Pesticorp, Croll waits for Beckett and Ed. They are already in the building: Ed makes his way past Security with a waste container: inside which is Beckett! Handing Ed eye protection, the pair makes it into R&D, but when they reach the ZH-282 it has gone, and Croll is waiting. He can’t resist telling them that ZH-282 isn’t in fact the viroid, but the pesticide he has produced to kill the viroid-infected beetles, thus making him a fortune. Ed then activates the flash grenade Beckett handed him earlier, blinding Croll and the guards and allowing the pair to escape…but the access codes have been changed, making Beckett use vital seconds to redetermine it…and to reset it. Croll has the complex sealed, and the pair split up…Beckett having to jump onto a tanker to escape, Ed hiding in the lift shaft….

Ros rejoins Beckett, and outside Pesticorp they use a thermal imaging camera to locate movement on the roof: it is Pym, launching a weather balloon to ensure the winds are correct. Ed is getting tired and desperate inside the lift shaft: help is on the way, as Ros and Beckett attempt to disable the alarm system. Climbing down the outside of the shaft, Ed is almost crushed by the lift but manages to gain entry to a ventilation shaft…and to an alarm access panel, allowing his colleagues safe passage inside the building. Once inside Beckett assigns tasks: Ed is to find the viroid and destroy it, Ros to find the pesticide and keep it safe, whilst Beckett himself will go to the roof to stop the insect release. Although unhappy with heights, he tells Ed, at least he’s not frightened of insects. Going to an energy source Ros picked up on the 10^th floor, Ed finds an area of high ultra-violet radiation where the viroid is kept…the same area can be used to destroy it with a high enough burst of ultra-violet radiation. Unfortunately for him Croll is on his way down to collect the viroid for spraying on the beetles…Ed stacks the bottles under the UV light, but a bottle rolls away…to arrive at Croll’s feet. However he’s able to destroy the rest with one high intensity burst. There is a price for this destruction: Croll destroys the UV generator control panel, trapping Ed with a deadly UV curtain between him and the exit.

Ros unwittingly trips an alarm as she reaches the ZH-282 container: Pym leaves the roof to deal with it, as Beckett arrives. Unable to release the insects, he tries to tamper with the timers but only manages to bring the release time down to 5 minutes. Ros leaves with the pesticide, but is stopped by a guard, with Pym close behind. Unaware of the volatile nature of the pesticide, the guard fires his taser at Ros, who dodges, thereby hitting the container. Pym desperately tries to free the ZH-282 as the container explodes: an explosion is so violent that Beckett goes to investigate. Using a shelf as a shield, Ed gets out of his Ultra-violet trap, while Beckett finds Ros and discovers that without any pesticide, the remaining bottle of viroid could still be deadly. Croll is indeed spraying he insects on the roof, but Ed is not far away, and struggles with him, pushing him off the roof. Croll desperately hangs onto a beam: Ed is more concerned with one of the balloons, which has released itself, and before he can get to Croll to help him he has lost his grip and falls to his death. With time running out it is Ros who picks up Croll’s gun and shoots the weather balloon down, and Ed who forces his hand into the insect release chamber to prevent any thing escaping.

In cell 1187-463, the Governor of the prison congratulates Jean-Daniel on his tip on investing in wheat futures. Jean-Daniel admits he only bets on winners, and that the money the investment has made should improve the quality of life for both the Governor AND his inmates. As he leaves his cell, the Governor grants Jean-Daniel yet more special privileges…