| "Lockdown" | |
|---|---|
| Season {{#pad:1|2|0|left}}, Number 06 | |
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| Air date | February 15, 2010 (A) February 17, 2010 (Fox) |
| Written by | Jon Cassar |
| Directed by | Josh Schaer |
| Production code | 2J5156 |
| U.S. viewers | 7.14 million |
| U.S. ratings | 2.1/6 A18-49 |
| Case Folder | |
|---|---|
| Location: San Francisco, California | |
| Protectee | Martin Gleason |
| Lead Engineer, Weapons Development, Centronics | |
| Cover | Unknown |
| Janitor | |
| Episode Guide | |
| Previous "Run" |
Next "Salvage & Reclamation" |
Lockdown is the sixth episode of Human Target.
Synopsis[]
Chance, backed up (at a distance) by the team, infiltrates a defense contractor's HQ to break out a specialist held against his will. It seems, however, the company is determined to kill both of them rather than let either leave.
Case file[]
Winston approaches Christopher Chance with a new assignment involving a highly-technical extraction, but Chance is initially resistant because he has a date with a girl he met at a bookstore. He feels there is a delicate balance between his life and their work, which Winston is violating. However, Winston mentions that the operation involves breaking into Centronics Headquarters, and Chance becomes intrigued.
The subject of the mission is Martin Gleason, a brilliant engineer employed by Centronics, who is currently being held captive in their building until he completes his latest project. We see later that Martin is literally under constant surveillance by Centronics security, and it is clearly getting to him. Because Centronics is involved in top-secret government projects, the police are unable to help Martin. After hearing the details, Chance empathizes with Martin, seemingly seeing the similarities between Martin’s predicament and his own background. Chance decides to take the assignment.
In order to perform recon for the mission, Winston enters Centronics disguised as a water delivery man. He finds strong security measures everywhere, including highly-trained guards with automatic weapons. Chance plans to infiltrate Centronics by parachuting onto the roof, while Winston waits on the ground outside the building in a surveillance van. Just before Chance is about to land, Guerrero arrives with up-to-date aerial photographs of the building’s roof, showing Winston a newly-installed security camera. To avoid being seen by the camera, Chance must land on a narrow ledge. He does so without being seen, but a gust of wind catches his parachute and he must grab the camera to avoid being blown off of the building. The camera is damaged, the video feed is lost in the Centronics security control room and they send a guard up to investigate. Chance knocks him out and gets inside the building.
Meanwhile, Martin is working on his latest project when he receives a message from Layla, the security technician who watches him everyday via the surveillance cameras. She is concerned that he’s starting to crack when she hears him talking to his fish Meredith.
Chance breaks into Martin’s office disguised as a janitor, carefully hiding his face from the cameras, and prepares to parachute out of a window. While preparing to escape, Chance asks Martin how he got into this situation. Martin reveals that his prototype weapon, a plasma cannon, was used by the Burmese government to violently put down a rebellion under the guise of an earthquake. He and his partner Kazinski recognized the weapon’s devastation, and prepared to blow the whistle on Centronics when Kazinski mysterious died of a heart attack. Martin believes Kazinski was murdered, and thus keeps his mouth shut, fearing for his life.
As Chance blows out a window in Martin’s office, an alarm activates and Security Chief Leonard Kreese sends guards to Martin’s office immediately. Chance kills them, but his parachute is damaged in the crossfire. He needs to come up with a new escape plan, and he can’t contact Winston because his communicator signal is being jammed. As Kreese locks down the whole building, Chance tosses his parachute out the window with a message to Winston and Guerrero, explaining the severity of the situation. Meanwhile, Layla examines the video feed from Martin’s office and although Chance was careful to hide his face from the camera, she finds a frame where Chance’s face is reflected in the window. She begins enhancing the image to identify the intruder.
Chance begins leading Martin through the building, but every floor is equipped with thermal sensors capable of detecting their body heat. Kreese activates a fire alarm to evacuate the building, so Chance and Martin will be easy to detect. Martin reveals that he can deactivate the building’s security using one of his prototype weapons, but it is located in The Black Room. To hide from the thermal sensors, Chance leads Martin into the building’s insulated ventilation shafts. Meanwhile, Layla is done cleaning up Chance’s image and she cross-references it against FBI and INTERPOL databases.
Outside, Winston and Guerrero try to come up with a new plan to help Chance escape with Martin. Winston poses as a detective and brings Guerrero to the FBI in handcuffs, so that Guerrero can tip the FBI about the Burma situation and the FBI can raid Centronics. Guerrero is very nervous that the plan will result in him going to jail, but Winston assures him that they will be able to walk out the front door when it is over.
Meanwhile, Kreese figures out that Chance and Martin are in the ventilation shafts and orders Layla to open the access grates. Chance happens to be crawling right over one of them and jumps to safety just before it opens. Martin is stuck on the other side, and the drop down from the access grate is hundreds of feet. Chance convinces him to jump across and Martin almost doesn’t make it, but Chance helps him and they continue on to The Black Room.
In an FBI interrogation room, Guerrero tells Agent Fouts about Centronics selling weapons to Burma, but Fouts casually remarks that they already know about it. Winston is stunned, but Fouts explains that they’ve never gotten enough tangible evidence to actually bring Centronics to justice. Guerrero’s testimony isn’t even close. Guerrero tells Winston to pull the plug on their plan, otherwise he will.
Chance and Martin reach The Black Room, and Martin begins reconfiguring his weapon to short out the building’s security. In the security room, Centronics CEO Vivian Cox has arrived, and the thermal scanners detect Chance and Martin. As they send guards to The Black Room, Kreese tells Cox that he knew that Martin knew too much and would be dangerous, but Cox sees Martin’s value to the company and doesn’t want him hurt. However, she reluctantly grants Kreese and his men authority to stop Chance and Martin using whatever means necessary.
Back at the FBI, Fouts returns and tells Winston that he has received orders to transfer Guerrero for additional interrogation. To push the FBI into action, Guerrero makes up a story about Chance being a mercenary hired to kidnap Martin and bring him to Burma. He tells Fouts that it is happening as they speak, and Fouts goes to investigate.
As Martin is reconfiguring the weapon, he tells Chance that even after he was held captive by Vivian Cox, he still thoroughly enjoyed his job. He would daydream about fixing her design problems and working harder for her. Chance tells him that bosses like her take someone who is exceptional at something, give them a purpose and then manipulate them. He says that he had a similar boss at one time. Martin asks what he did and Chance says that he ran, which Martin finds hard to believe.
The guards arrive at The Black Room, but Chance destroys the door’s security system, locking them inside. Kreese tells Layla to activate fire suppression in The Black Room, but Layla resists because it will kill Martin. So Kreese activates it himself. At the same time, Fouts calls Centronics and speaks to Kreese, trying to verify Guerrero’s story. As the fire suppression chemicals fill The Black Room to near toxic levels, Martin finishes working on the weapon and Chance activates it.
As a result, almost all of the building’s electronics are fried. As Kreese leaves the control room, Layla sees that one of the few functional computers registers a match for Chance’s identity. Meanwhile at the FBI, Fouts tells Winston and Guerrero that while he was calling Centronics the phone went dead and a Homeland Security alert was issued because Centronics lost power. He prepares to take a team down to Centronics, allowing Guerrero to leave in Winston’s custody.
At Centronics, Kreese pulls an assault rifle from a weapons lockup and goes after Chance himself. Upstairs in The Black Room, the guards begin cutting through the door to the lab. Chance and martin fire a plasma cannon in the lab, which opens a large hole in the floor for them to escape through. They come to an elevator shaft, where Chance plans to repel down to the ground floor. Martin is nervous, but slowly proceeds down the shaft until Kreese begins shooting at them from an elevator car. Chance drops down to the car to fight Kreese. They fight back and forth for a few minutes before Chance is able to get Kreese’s gun and kill him.
Chance and Martin are now on the ground floor, but a large group of guards are waiting for them in the lobby. Just as Chance and Martin seem to be trapped, Chance triggers a detonator. It turns out that a water jug that Winston had left in the lobby during his recon mission is actually full of an explosive substance. It detonates, taking out all of the guards.
Chance and Martin exit the building, where they are confronted by the FBI. Vivian Cox is there, and she decides to run with Guerrero’s made up kidnapping story to protect herself. However, Martin stands up to her and tells the FBI that she had been holding him captive in his office, and that she was behind Kazinski’s death. Fouts is confused and orders both Vivian and Chance to be taken into custody. But Winston is able to distract the agent guarding Chance and the two of them escape. As Chance and Winston escape, Martin finally gets to meet Layla, who he had been speaking to for months but who he only knew as Niteowl, her screen-name. She apologizes for not helping him sooner.
Sometime after the Centronics incident, Winston informs Chance that Layla had scanned Chance’s ID and a mysterious email was sent out. Winston tried to track it, but it bounced off of several different servers across three continents before he lost it completely. It was exactly the same way that Chance had taught him how to hide a signal. Chance tries to play it off like nothing, but not before exchanging a concerned look with Guerrero. Winston asks Guerrero what’s going on, and Guerrero says that someone who has been looking for Chance has just gotten one step closer. Winston asks who, and Guerrero says that it is Chance’s old boss.
Guest stars[]
- Kevin Weisman as Martin Gleason
- Autumn Reeser as Layla
- Garcelle Beauvais-Nilon as Vivian Cox
- Zak Santiago as Fouts
- Mitch Pileggi as Leonard Kreese
- Fraser Aitcheson as Guard #1 (Level II)
- Raymond Chan as Kozinski
- Dean McKenzie as Bob Hass
- Sylvesta Stuart as Timmons
- Lee Tichon as Patrol Guard
Statements and hearsay[]
Memorable quotes from the case.
**Awaiting after-action report**
