A long line
of people file into the illuminated offices of
E-Com-Con Computer Corporation for an evening
reception. On the roof of the building, Byers and
Frohike, dressed in black, are gaining secret entrance
into the building through a ventilation duct. A public
relations woman begins to describe their "Octium"
processor chip in glowing detail, but Langly, who is
attending the reception, starts making cat calls. He
accuses the company of embedding modem technology on
the chip and invading the privacy of users. On a cue
from Byers, received on Langly's tiny earpiece, Langly
begins to fake convulsions.
Byers and
Frohike use Langly's distraction to gain access to the
secure room containing an Octium chip. Byers lowers
Frohike from the ceiling using a powered winch, in
order to not trigger the pressure sensitive floor of
the room. Security guards, paying attention to Langly,
do not see the incursion on their video monitors. As
Frohike hangs from the ceiling, a slender bearded man,
wearing a black trench coat, uses a computer system to
take control of Frohike's winch, throwing him out of
control. The man enters the chamber, setting off the
security alarms. As Frohike hangs upside down, the man
firmly kisses Frohike on the mouth, then grabs the
Octium chip and leaves the room. Security guards do
not see the man, but catch Frohike. They find Byers,
and have also discovered Langly's earpiece. The guards
demand the chip back, and when the Gunmen do not
respond, a "full body cavity search" is ordered.
Meanwhile, a strikingly beautiful woman emerges from a
restroom, drops a wig and beard hairpiece in a trash
canister, and walks off, miniskirted hips
undulating.
The Lone
Gunmen return to their Takoma Park, MD, warehouse
office, having finally been released by E-Com-Con.
They still want to prove the company's planned
invasion of privacy, but don't have the chip they need
for proof. Byers wonders if they are really making a
difference with their work -- their latest issue had a
circulation of just over 2,800, and they are
"preaching to the converted." Frokihe is convinced
that the bearded man was really a woman, because of
the way she kissed. She is Yves Adele Harlow (Yves is
pronounced "Eva") and has probably already sold the
chip to the highest bidder. Wondering how she knew of
their plans, Frohike finds a listening device in the
office -- she has been listening to them. The phone
rings and Byers answers. He is informed that his
father has been killed in a one-car
accident.
At a
cemetery, Bertram Roosevelt Byers is eulogized as a
good civil servant who had a strong belief in the
power of the government to do good, having been a
civilian employee of the Air Force. His ashes are shot
into the sky with a small model rocket. The two
Byers have been estranged since John began working on
The Lone Gunman newspaper eleven years earlier,
walking away from an eventual government pension.
Ray Helms introduces himself -- he was a friend of
Bertram. He is not convinced that Bert's death was an
accident. They visit the spot, underneath an overpass,
where Bert's car ran off the road. Helms thinks Bert
was shot and the car accident faked, because of
something Bert knew. The Gunmen go to Bert's home. His
PC has been wiped clean. Frohike slips and falls on
wet carpet, then uses ultraviolet light to find the
remains of a large blood stain. Hacking the raw data
on the computer hard drive, Langly finds file
directories of what appear to be government files,
including one named scenario_12_d.txt.
Byers
concludes that his father was murdered at his home and
the car accident faked. The Gunmen go to an auto
salvage yard. After a brief misunderstanding that
Bert's car is about to be crushed, they are shown the
actual car, already crushed. Byers is convinced that
somewhere inside the tangle of metal is an answer.
Meanwhile, Langly is at a firing range, apparently
near the Gunmen's offices, shooting at virtual
targets. He asks another shooter for help getting into
the Department of Defense computer systems, then
notices a woman in another stall of the firing range.
He is told that she is Yves Adele Harlow, and he has a
brief conversation with her. She speaks with a
continental accent and is condescending about The Lone
Gunmen publication.
Byers and
Frohike have Bert's car back at their shop, taking it
apart to look for evidence. Frohike feels that Byers
is hoping to discover that his father was someone who
he can respect. Byers says his father's stories of
President Kennedy's vision of "Camelot" made John who
he is. Frohike finds a small circuit board in the
engine compartment that was apparently used to control
the speed of the car when the accident was faked.
Langly's friend helps the Gunmen hack into the DOD
computer and find the 12D scenario file. As they begin
to download, a DOD worker detects the download and
begins blocking it, accessing the Gunmen's computers.
It becomes a race to see if the Gunmen can download
their file before having their identify revealed.
Finally, Frohike pulls the plug. They don't have the
file, but from the file header they know that it deals
with terrorism against civilian aircraft. The DOD
worker apologizes to his superior, who we see is Ray
Helms. Helms says it's OK, because he knows who it
was.
The Gunmen
have pulled an all-nighter. They are trying to figure
out why someone would go to the trouble of faking the
accident when the body already had a bullet hole in
it. Frohike speculates that maybe the blood stain
wasn't Bert's blood. They return to the overpass and
Helms drives up. They tell Helms that the blood has
been tested and was not Bert's -- it was the
assassin's. As improbable as it seems, Bert had just
had the carpet cleaned and the assassin apparently
slipped and shot himself. Realizing he was in danger,
Bert hurries out of his house and discovers a remote
control device on the seat of his car. He puts the
assassin's body in his car and fakes his own death.
The Gunmen ask Helms for his password so they can
locate the information on the 12D scenario. He tells
them that it is "Overlord."
Byers goes
back to his father's home and finds Bert there. Bert
slaps him and says he should not have gotten involved.
The 12D plan is for a small group of government
operatives to crash a jetliner into New York City in
order to keep tensions high and increase arms sales.
Bert is doing what he can and thinks he knows which
flight they have targeted. Back at the Gunmen's
office, Frohike is working on anagrams when Byers
returns. Helms is also there, and Byers tells him he
has talked with his father. It was the plan of the
government to flush Bert out of hiding using John. Ray
hurries off to find Bert. After he leaves, Bert comes
to the door of the Gunmen's office. The two Byers head
for the airport to try to find the explosives in the
aircraft. Both board the plane, but cannot find
explosives, using hydrocarbon "sniffer"
devices.
They
realize that the airplane will be remote controlled,
just like Bert's car was. Talking by phone to the
Gunmen's office, Byers asks Langly and Frohike to hack
into the aircraft controls. They do and discover that
the plane is programmed to crash into the World Trade
Center. Bert enters the cockpit and tries to warn the
aircrew, but they don't believe him. Making a lunge,
he deactivates the autopilot and the crew realizes
that they are not in control. They have 22 minutes
before they hit the building. Langly can't break the
encryption on the aircraft control system --- his
computer doesn't have the processing power and the
computer keeps freezing. Frohike slips next door to
the firing range and finds Yves there. He needs the
Octium but she is not impressed by the need to save
people's lives. Frohike points out that her name is an
anagram for "Lee Harvey Oswald" and says he knows who
she is. She uses the Octium in her laptop to somehow
assist Langly break the encryption and give the pilots
control of the aircraft again. The plane barely misses
the skyscraper.
As they
leave the airplane, Bert tells his son that they are
much alike, except that John has something Bert
doesn't -- bravery. Bert will not testify because if
he did, his life would be in danger again. His silence
will keep them both alive. Back at the Gunmen's
office, the three partners discuss their next
newspaper issue. They don't have proof of the 12D
scenario. Frohike says they can write about the Octium
invasion of privacy. He holds up the chip. How did he
get it? After first claiming that Yves couldn't
control herself because of their kiss, he admits that
he grabbed it and ran.
