"Y2K"

Episode 318
(aired the week of 4/19/1999)
Case # 00-9873

Log line: The O.S.I.R. becomes engaged in a deadly race against time after two computer programmers are killed while trying to develop an anti-Y2K program. They uncover a virus that programmers are contracting through the computer. It must be stopped or risk worldwide chaos because the virus is bent on destructing every anti-Y2K project on the web.

Synopsis: Two freelance computer programmers enter Veritec Industries, a computer software company where they are trying to develop a solution to the Y2K problem that will ensue on Jan. 1, 2000, when computers will confuse the new date for the year 1900. As a result, computer systems around the world may fail, affecting everything from ATM machines to air traffic control systems. After passing through security via a retinal scanner, the pair - Gerald Duvaney and Harvey Bishop - enter a sealed lab and begin work. A few minutes later, they go into convulsions and, with blood pouring from their eyes and ears, fall to the ground dead.

The OSIR team arrives at the Veritec lab to investigate. Hendricks determines that something has caused the two men's brains to simply collapse. Meanwhile, Axon tests the air in the lab for traces of any virus or contagion that may have caused the deaths. He finds none.

Conducting an autopsy of the programmers, Davison finds a tumor-like growth that has invaded the cerebral cortex of the two men. While she doesn't know what the growth is, she determines that it is neither a tumor nor a bacterial virus.

Although Praeger decides that Veritec must remain closed while the OSIR conducts its investigation, Veritec CEO Kristine Ambrose assures him of her company's full cooperation??uch to the chagrin of her cost-conscious second in command, Bob Yardley, who's concerned that it will affect Veritec's work on not just Y2K but also a number of government contracts. Bob leaves the building, using a wall-mounted retinal scanner to pass through security. Praeger and Kristine watch through the window as Bob drives away and then stops for no apparent reason in the middle of the parking lot. They rush out to his car, where they find him dead. Like the others, he is bleeding from the eyes and ears.

Praeger learns from Kristine that Bob came to Veritec after the departure of the company's co-founder, Sergei Kolek. After leaving Veritec, Sergei became a math professor and then, after learning he had AIDS, decided to live in seclusion in the country. Praeger and Donner decide to pay him a visit.

Axon performs a diagnostic check on the computer where the programmers had been working, hoping to find out how far along they had gotten in their Y2K project before they were killed. He is interrupted by Elsinger, who presents the seemingly outrageous theory that perhaps the men had contracted a virus through the computer. Axon is both startled and suspicious at Elsinger's suggestion that inanimate technology could somehow affect human physiology.

Praeger and Donner meet with Sergei at his backwoods cabin and are surprised at how familiar he is with the OSIR's work. Sergei explains to them that he had once been approached by Elsinger, who wanted him to join the OSIR, apparently impressed by his work at Veritec. Preferring seclusion over bureaucracy, Sergei turned Elsinger down. After being briefed on the deadly events at Veritec, Sergei admits that, given rapid technological advances, anything is possible, even a computer sending a virus into a biological environment.

Sergei leaves the room to take his medication. When he doesn't return, Praeger and Donner go to look for him. They find him in a back room, sitting in front of his computer, dead and, like the others, bleeding from the eyes and ears. Praeger and Donner notice a clock on the computer screen that is counting down. It's a bomb! They rush out the front door of the cabin, barely making it to safety as the building explodes behind them.

Still intrigued by Elsinger's suggestion that a biological virus could have been spread by a computer, Axon discusses the theory with Hendricks, who tells him that the first thing the virus would need is a point of entry. Axon suddenly realizes that the retinal ID scanners would provide one. With help from Hendricks and Davison, he learns that he's right. They tell him that scarring they found in the eyes of the four victims during autopsy indicates that a laser had indeed penetrated their retinas.

Praeger and Donner meet with Axon. Donner has learned that Sergei had co-authored a book on Y2K that contained a chapter on cybergerm warfare, which would explain Elsinger's interest in hiring him. Axon tells them that it must have been Sergei who downloaded the deadly virus into the company's security system, and that he had also managed to transmit a very large computer file to the Veritec mainframe before he died, although Axon doesn't yet know what that file contains. They are interrupted by a phone call from a frantic Elsinger, who orders them immediately to the Veritec lab. It seems the file Sergei sent to Veritec contains a computerized version of himself, bent on the destruction of every anti-Y2K project on the web. Axon and the rest of the OSIR team must scramble to purge "Sergei" from the system or risk worldwide chaos.

Starring:
Matt Frewer - Case Manager Matt Praeger
Barclay Hope - Peter Axon
Nancy Anne Sakovich - Lindsay Donner
Colin Fox - Dr. Anton Hendricks
Dan Aykroyd - Host

Guest Stars:
Dan Petronijevic - Gerald Duvaney
George Chiang - Harvey Bishop
Janet Kidder - Kristine Ambrose
Patrick Galligan - Bob Yardley
Stephen Russell - Sergei Kolek

Written by: C.D. Frewer and F.J. Kennedy
Directed by: Ron Oliver