MEDUSA

In Boston, an undercover cop waits for the subway, alone. Suddenly, a suspicious man appears, jumping the fare barrier. Eventually, they both get onto a train and the police officer draws his gun as the man starts to walk towards him from behind. Suddenly, the subway comes to a screeching halt, flashes of light are seen, and the train loses power. Later, when the train is back up and running, a batch of commuters enter the subway car and find the undercover cop with the flesh on half his face and his left arm stripped down to the bone.

Agents Scully and Doggett arrive at the operations center to investigate. However, they are rudely greeted by Deputy Chief Karras and Lieutenant Bianco of the transit police; the two eagerly want the FBI to get the job done fast so that the subways can be reopened in five hours, and Karras is also irritated that Scully performed an autopsy on the body. Even after an autopsy, Scully has no idea what killed the man, and the CDC is unable to find any biological or chemical agents in the subway.

Doggett and Scully are soon introduced to a strike-force that will be going into the subway to investigate. The group includes Steven Melnick, a structural engineer, and Dr. Hellura Lyle, CDC employee specializing in pathogens. Scully, however, decides the plan will work better if Doggett acts as her eyes and ears while she analyzes the situation from up in the Transit Control Center. Using cameras and microphones, she will watch and hear what is happening. After the plans are made, Doggett leads the team into the dark tunnel.

While in the tunnels, Melnick gets a burn on the back of his neck suggesting a chemical leak. However, the test of the nearby puddle shows nothing dangerous: it is just salt water. Melnick mentions that the tunnels run along the harbor in some places and that they get sea water leakages from time to time. Moving ahead, the team finds an abandoned section of the subway tunnels. Out of the tunnel bursts a man with his rib cage and teeth exposed who knocks Doggett down: he is the suspected robber, eaten away like the other man. His condition proves that he did not kill the man and that there may, in fact, be a contagion. While looking around, the teams discover three bodies with the same gruesome injuries, wrapped in plastic. It soon becomes clear that someone is covering up the problem in the subway.

Lyle spots an unknown person running away from them in the subway and the team follows. When the group approaches the spot where the train lost power, Melnick starts crying out in pain. Visible electrical flashes start destroying the skin on his left arm. Scully tells Doggett to pour water on it, which stops the flashes. Lyle takes the badly injured Melnick to the surface and Doggett continues onward with Bianco. When Melnick returns to the surface, he seems to be getting worse, but Lyle appears healthy. Scully then sees the three bodies being taken away by non-CDC hazmat people. When Scully confronts Karras about this, he says that he is organizing it. Scully tells Karras that she has already organized the CDC to collect the bodies and accuses Karras of attempting a cover-up. Although Karras tries to deny his involvement, he eventually allows her to send the bodies to the actual CDC.

Back in the tunnels, Doggett notices a green glow on Bianco in a dimly lit former subway station. As such, he refuses to allow the lieutenant to leave. Bianco runs away, forcing Doggett to give chase. He learns from Scully that Karras has gone ahead of plan and allowed the passengers onto the platforms and the subway will start back up, despite the danger. After analyzing various water samples found at the scene, Scully meets with Dr. Kai Bowe, a marine biologist, who explains that the sample contains a unique microscopic sea creature called a medusa which are made out of calcium and are bioluminescent. However, Bowe does not know why the electrical reaction happens. When Doggett finds the wounded Bianco, he finds that his condition has gotten worse. Doggett then carries Bianco on his back and helps him continue through the tunnels. They soon encounter a boy with no signs of the luminous green substance on him. Scully realizes that sweat is causing the chemical electrical reaction since it is conductive to calcium ions. The boy does not have well developed sweat glands yet so the medusas are not affecting him. Doggett follows the boy to a major leak from the bay with the green glow on all the walls. Suddenly, an oncoming subway approaches the group—Karras has allowed the subway to resume schedule. Doggett uses Bianco’s gun as a electrical conductor between the third rail and the water, hence the electric current generated from friction between the subway wheels and the rail passes through Bianco’s gun into the water, killing the medusas and preventing further exposure.

Later, Scully comes to see Doggett in the hospital. Scully informs him that Bianco and Melnick are with plastic surgeons, the boy has been given to social services, and no criminal charges will be pressed against Karras since the electrical charge of the third rail destroyed the proof of the medusas in the tunnel

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