Episode guide > Habeas Corpus

Pollard on the phone

A man called Pollard stands on a bridge at dusk. He tries to phone someone on his mobile, but their phone isn't turned on. He tries another number but alas it's also engaged. The sun sinks deeper in the night sky. A car pulls up nearby, it has blackened windows. Pollard walks away looking worried. The sun continues to sink deeper, eventually it goes completely. A man dressed in black emerges from the car once the sun has gone and slowly walks after Pollard.

Michael (Mike to his friends) is at a pub near the Thames river bank. He is waiting to take his friend Jack home after his stag do. Jack is getting married tomorrow, and Mike wants to make sure he gets home in one piece, as part of his best man duties. They have known each other for ten years, and both work in the police force. Before he can get Jack into his car, Mike hears someone from the pub call for Jack. He goes to see what they want, and gives Jack the keys to the car.

Inside the pub, the landlord gives the phone to Mike. It's Pollard and he urgently wants to speak to Jack. Mike recognises Pollard's voice and asks how he got the number. He refuses to let him speak to Jack, saying he's on his stag night and in no condition to talk to him. Mike clearly isn't in the mood for any rubbish. Pollard starts to tell him that the man in the pictures he gave to Jack - but he's cut off by Mike. Mike says they got the pictures, but they are all of empty streets, there aren't any people in them at all. Pollard asks for Jack again, but when Mike refuses, Pollard starts to cry. Mike caves and asks where Pollard is.

Pollard makes his way to an arcade with lots of people in. Mike drops Jack at his place and tells him to crash out and make himself at home. Mike then drives away to meet Pollard. As he does so, Jack walks away and doesn't go into Mike's house.

At the arcade the man from the car with darkened windows finds Pollard playing on an arcade game. Pollard seems to freeze in his seat as the man approaches, he's clearly afraid. The man proceeds to shot him with a silenced gun and walks away. Mike arrives just as the man leaves pushing his way passed some people on the pavement outside. A scream is then heard from inside and Mike runs to see what is going on. He finds Pollard's body and runs after the man he saw outside.

He spots him going into the London Underground and follows him. Sadly he looses him down a tunnel. He looks into a mirror that shows the tunnels continuing around the corner and sees nothing. He runs back to the main office upstairs to see if the man was captured on an of the CCT cameras. As he runs away the man steps out from around the corner and walks down the stairs to the platform.

Back upstairs, Mike is looking at the CCT footage, but he can't find the man in any of them. A look at the platform shows the man clearly waiting for the train, but the CCT doesn't register his presence.

Mike phones home, but gets no answer from Jack, so he pops round to see Jack's fiancé, Kirsty, to see if he's there. He isn't and Mike covers slightly by giving her his wedding present to them. It's 1.30am.

Jack is walking around London when he spots the man from the car with darkened windows. He clearly knows the man and asks what he's doing here. The man simply replies, "Times up".

The following morning Mike arrives at the church, where all the guests are waiting. Jack clearly isn't going to show, and Kirsty is obviously upset. Mike offers to tell the guests, but she says she'll take care of it, "Just find him will you" she says. Mike is clearly upset for her, and looks like he'll beat Jack up if he finds him.

Angie and Vaughan at the briefing

At the police station Mike and co are getting a briefing. Their last known sighting of Jack is at Mike's place at around midnight. There was no sign of violence at Mike's place, in fact no signs that he even went in. They are to concentrate their search on the route between Mike's and Kirsty's house. As for Pollard they have a number of sightings of the man who shot him, and now have a photo fit picture of him. The man giving the briefing then introduces Detective Inspector Angela (Angie) March and Detective Sergeant Vaughan Rice from CIB.

Angie asks Mike about the pictures Pollard took. Mike explains Pollard said he knew something about a counterfeit ring, and claimed someone was following him. He took pictures of the man, but none of them had anyone in them. Angie asks some more questions which make Mike feel like he's a prime suspect. Angie then leaves having got all the information she will get from Mike.

Later Mike looks over the CCT videos from the arcade, to see for himself if the killer is on them. He was told there was no footage, but he doesn't believe it. As he watches he phones an old friend, Frances, and asks her to find out what she can about Rice and March. He cuts the call short because he sees Pollard get shot on screen, but there was no-one near by.

Down at the morgue, he asks the pathologist about Pollard. He's told he was definitely shot at close range due to the burn marks left by the wound. As Mike tells him there was no-one near him when he was shot, he suggests he was shot outside. That would mean he had a delayed reaction to the wound, but somehow that seems remote.

Mike then pops in to see Kirsty. She tells him Jack had an offshore bank account he never told her about. CIB told her, but Mike tells her not to believe everything they say. She saw Jack's signature on some documents, so she's inclined to believe them. Jack had £58,000 stashed away in the account, making her wonder if he was on that take. Mike denies it, saying he would know if Jack was on the take. She ends up crying, and Mike does his best to comfort her. He's clearly not happy that Jack has treated her so badly.

On the way back to his place, Mike notices he's being followed. He reaches his house and finds Jack standing there. Jack says that the men following Mike are actually after him. If Mike can lose them, they can meet up and talk. Mike gets back into his car and proceeds to loose the people following him.

Jack lands on the ground after Mike's punch.

He meets up with Jack and before he can get a word out Mike punches him in the face and floors him. Jack says they are trying to kill him, "they" being the CIB officers brought in on the investigation. Mike points out that their source was murdered and then Jack does a runner, it would look suspicious to anyone. Jake tries to explain his side of things and Mike seems to be convinced by Jack's story as he isn't totally sure of the CIB officers himself. Before anymore can be learned, a helicopter is heard and Jack runs. Before he goes he tells Mike to meet him at the same place tomorrow night. When Mike says he'll tell Kirsty Jack's okay, Jack tells him he's not okay and not to tell Kirsty anything.

Later that night Mike is seen showing some people outside of the arcade the photo fit picture. One man says it looks nothing like the bloke who shot Pollard, and for £50 he'll tell him what he really looked like! (he a street artist). Mike then takes the picture back to the police station and runs it passed their photo fit id guy who says it's only one witness, the other photo was made from several witness accounts. Mike asks who brought them in, and he replies Vaughan the man from CIB.

Mike then sees his boss and asks who Angie and Vaughan are as he knows they aren't CIB. Mike has asked friends he has there and they have never heard of them. His boss is none he wiser, but whoever they are they have clout. Vaughan then comes in and asks to speak to Mike.

Vaughan does his best to hide a scar on his neck.

Vaughan shows Mike some records of Jack's finances, but Mike says he's not interested. Vaughan then asks him to take a look at a transcript of a phone conversation between Pollard and Jack five days before Pollard was murdered. They talked about a payment of two thousand pounds, and the next day Jack paid for his honeymoon in cash. Mike asks how long they had Jack under surveillance. Vaughan replies they were following Pollard not Jack, and he gave them the slip on the night Pollard was killed.

Vaughan then tells Mike that he knows he's seen Jack. But Mike isn't saying anything. Vaughan tells him that Jack isn't being straight with him. They go back a long way, but Jack stopped being Mike's friend two days ago, and now he just wants to use him. Mike pushes him as he walks out of the door, but Vaughan pushes back. A small pushing fight ensues, and Mikes sees a scar on Vaughan's neck which he is quick to cover up again. He leaves saying he shouldn't take anything Jack says a gospel.

Mike then meets up with Frances to check out Angie and Vaughan. They are in a pub and Mike is bringing some drinks over from the bar. They clearly have a history together, and Mike isn't happy about having to call on her help. But you sense they have an understanding. Mike is after some histories on Angie and Vaughan, but Frances tells him he's asking for a lot, it will be difficult and it isn't exactly going through the proper channels, it could cost her her job.

Mike leaves and goes to Kirsty's house. He arrives and sees Angie leaving Kirsty's house. Inside, Kirsty says Angie told her that Mike knows where Jack is, that he's even met up with him. She can't believe he hasn't told her before. Mike then tells her a little of what he knows. Jack is terrified and doesn't want to get her involved in whatever it is he's involved in. But she is involved, and she wants answers. Kirsty finally issues an ultimatum saying if Mike doesn't tell her what's going on he can leave and not to bother coming back. This cuts Mike, and so he tell her that Jack thinks they are trying to kill him. We still don't know who "they" are, and he doesn't know why. Mike's trying to find that out. He asks her to leave, use the honeymoon plane tickets to get away to relative safety. Kirsty refuses to budge until she's seen Jack. Mike promises to pass the message on to Jack the next time he sees him.

Mike goes to the station to try and identify the man who killed Pollard. He uses a computer to find a mug shot of the man his witnessed described. He finds it, and the man's current address.

Later that night Mike breaks into the house and finds a lot of counterfeit money. Upstairs he finds a bed with blood stains on the pillow. He goes to leave when the man who killed Pollard returns. Things don't look good, but Mike is saved by a group of men who smash the front door in, and throw in what looks like tear gas. They go after the man and eventually kill him. We hear Vaughan's voice speaks into a radio saying, "Code 5 neutralised, send in the cleaners."

The pile of dust that was once Carter.

Mike manages to get hold of one of their guns which has a strange attachment on it and jump out of a window to escape. He lands in the river, and manages to elude the gang of men. Back in the house all that's left of the man who killed Pollard is a patch of dust on the floor.

That night Mike fails to meet Jack as planned.

The following morning Frances opens her car door to find Mike has spent the night on the back seat. She lets him into the house so he can clean up and looks at the gun while he takes a shower. The strange attachment is a small video screen, the holder sees an image of what's in front of them. She also tells him more about Vaughan and Angie. Vaughan was once in the army. He was discharged after the Gulf War due to Post Traumatic Stress. Most of his troop were wiped out in a friendly fire incident. Angie was a haematologist who retired at around the same time. Her husband and daughter were drowned in a car accident.

She gives Michael some new clothes to wear and then has a look at the bullets that go with the gun. She smells the coat, it doesn't smell of tear gas. Mike says he noticed that, and that it must have been passed its sell by date as all it did was stink, worse than garlic! She notices the bullets are like charcoal. Mike tells her they are designed to fragment on impact and lodge in the body, they act like a stun grenade and are totally illegal.

Angie is seen leaving the police station, and Mike follows her. She stops and walks into a church, again Mike follows on foot and walks around to find her. He notices an open door but before he can walk through Vaughan walks in another door.

Mike meets Pearce for the first time.

Mike is now handcuffed to a chair and the head of the organisation that Angie and Vaughan work for comes to question him. He's a priest called Pearce. Mike refuses to give them any information on Jack. They ask him if he knows what he's dealing with, Mike replies, he knows what they think they're dealing with. They can't make Mike believe, only Jack can do that.

Angie checks Mike's neck with an ultraviolet lamp, but finds nothing. He's sent back to the room where Vaughan keeps an eye on him. Mike then tries to provoke Vaughan, but Angie comes back before Vaughan can swing a punch and tells Vaughan to get rid of Mike.

Mike holds a gun to Jack - what has his friend become?

Mike then waits for the sun to go down and then waits for Jack at their meeting spot. He brings the gun along to see if what Angie and co believe is actually true. He sits on a wooden merry-go-round waiting for Jack in a children's playground. Jack finally arrives and Mike finally sees the truth. He points the gun directly at Jack, but the video image doesn't show Jack there at all.

Mike is clearly unsure of what his friend has become and continues to hold a gun to his head. Jack asks what he's been told that's so bad it could wipe out ten years of friendship. Mike takes the hint and drops the gun to his side. He asks Jack if he had a choice, Jack replies,"Absolutely. I could stick around and do 10 to 15 for corruption, I could go on the run, or I could go all the way."

Mike asks why they want money, after all it's not as if they need any. That's right, says Jack, and they don't have to kill to get what they need either. So why the money? Others are trying to kill them, and so they need to get organised, that takes money.

Jack wants his help. They have their own spy network, but there are places they can't get to. Mike has been to those places and Jack wants to know how much he saw. Mike raises his gun again as Jack approaches. Jack says they are part of nature, to which Mike replies, "So is smallpox". Charming, is that what they are now, a virus? Perhaps they should ask Kirsty? At the mention of her name, Mike pulls the trigger and shots Jack in the chest. Jack falls back on the merry-go-round and Mike rushes over to see if he's all right. He's fine because he was wearing a police bullet proof vest.

Realising he's touched a nerve, Jack taunts Mike about Kirsty. He grabs Mike and tells him he will leave Kirsty and him alone if he helps them. Mike then produces a grenade and takes out the pin. Jack tells him suicide is not an option and tries to take it away from him. The grenade gets dropped, Mike kicks it behind Jack and runs.

The pile of smoudlering ash - all that remains of Jack.

The grenade explodes and breaks apart the wooden round-a-bout that was behind Jack. Mike looks up and sees some of the wood has pierced Jack's chest through the heart. He gets up and rams the wood further into Jack's chest. As he does so, Jack bites Mike on his neck, but then the wood does it's job and Jack disappears in a puff of light.

Mike goes to a hospital to get his neck seen to. As the nurse cleans it up she asks if he's sure that it's his blood on his neck. There's no bite mark.

Mike then makes his way to the church where he saw Angie go in. Jack and co know that whoever she works for has church money and somewhere there is a priest involved, but they don't know everything. As Mike walks up to the steps he feels sick, and soon throws up. He doesn't go into the church. Instead he goes back to the playground and sees Jack, who is now only a pile of ash on the floor.

A mark is seen on Mike's neck underthe ultraviolet light.

Come the morning Mike goes back to the police station. All his friends look at him and the room goes silent. Angie and Vaughan are also there, and Mike simply says, "You can pick him up now." Angie nods and they leave. Mike then goes to the lab where Angie works and again she looks at his neck. Under the ultraviolet light it's clear there is a mark on his neck, that looks like an infection. It's treatable, and she burns it away with the help of a laser.

Angie does know how he feels, and shows Mike her neck where she too was once infected. If it's not treated it heals over in minutes. Most people don't even know they've been infected as it makes you very susceptible to suggestion. Mike asks where the crosses are and Angie smiles. Holy Water and crosses? The jury is still out on that one. It's a question of faith, on both sides. Mike then asks why its kept so quiet, especially if bodies are turning up drained of blood and so on. It doesn't happen, Angie tells him. Successful parasites don't kill their pray, they're very careful about who they recruit, as are the people she works for.

Mike is then brought to a room and offered a job with them. He replies, "Sorry father, I've got a job." He clearly isn't interested in joining them, and nothing that the head of the organisation says can change his mind. Why not find more army men like Vaughan Mike says. There aren't any, besides they need investigators not more soldiers. Mike still isn't interested, and he only has one question. What did they do with Jack's body?

Angie stands in front of the "cells".

Mike is taken to a room which is lined with lots of little chambers. Within each chamber is a collection of ashes of all the Code 5 people they have neutralised. Jack is now in a small tube and placed in one of the chambers. Mike's told they aren't dead as they can regenerate, they just don't know how yet. The place is more like a prison than a grave yard. The collection they have represents about seven years work so far. Surprisingly the church isn't paying for it, the government are, the church don't like to talk about evil these days.

They don't want to kill us because they need us, so what's changed? asks Mike. Our capacity for self destruction grows at an exponential rate. They need to be able to control us. Future generations could be in battery farms, our free range days would be over. So we need to make a stand now to stop them.

Mike pops back to see Kirsty, and he tells her that Jack was on the take. She doesn't believe him at first, but then accepts it. She would have forgiven him, he did tell him didn't he? Yes, Mike lies, he told him, and Jack said he was sorry, Mike lies again. That seems to offer Kirsty some comfort. She asks what he did with the ring, and Mike says he must have taken it with him.

Later we see Mike back at the prison that Jack is in. He takes out the tube containing Jack's ashes and places Jack's ring in it before locking it and putting it back in it's "cell".

Guest cast

Jack

Kirsty

Frances

Pollard

Carter

D S Ferman

Sue

Nurse

Street artist

Computer operator

Pathologist