Original air date: December 12, 1998

Written by: Guy Zimmerman

Directed by: Michael Zinberg

Jarod travels to Venezuela disguised as an arms dealer in order to attempt the rescue of two children kidnapped by their father.

Jarod’s Discoveries:

Jarod’s Occupations: Arms Dealer

Jarod’s Aliases:

Behind the scenes insights and the Creator’s Take

Official Synopsis

Jarod impersonates an arms dealer in an effort to reunite a mother with her two children.

Jarod uses his computer to access the Centre’s bank files.  Miss Parker and Lyle eventually learn that Jarod made off with approximately sixty million dollars.  Broots uses his newest software to trace the missing funds.  During the conversation, Mr. Lyle complains that someone stole his luxury car.  Meanwhile, in a remote test site, Jarod meets with Desmond Blake.  Jarod, it turns out, is impersonating an arms dealer.  He encourages Blake, who is one of his clients, to test a missile launcher by destroying a car (which just happens to belong to Mr. Lyle).  Blake places the launcher onto his shoulder and takes aim.  Shortly thereafter, Mr. Lyle’s car explodes.  Impressed, Blake places an order for sixty SAM missiles, which are to be delivered to his compound in Venezuela.

Jarod transports the missiles to Blake’s compound as instructed.  Blake surprises Jarod when he informs him that he will be presented a check for the arms shipment (the agreement had been for cash upon delivery).  Their conversation is interrupted by Blake’s two children, Ryan and Rebecca.  Blake summons their British nanny, Emma.  Realizing that Blake is negotiating a business transaction, Emma corrals the children and leads them away.  When they leave, Jarod and Blake again discuss the missiles.  Blake tells Jarod he has seventy-two hours to activate and program the weapons.  He assigns two of his men, Dobbs and Logan, to assist in the operation.  Shortly thereafter, the programming gets underway.  Jarod sneaks off temporarily, and befriends Ryan and Rebecca.  The children tell him that their mother, Wendy, died three years earlier in a car crash.

In flashback, Jarod recalls how he first met Wendy Dawson, who worked as a waitress at a sidewalk café to make ends meet.  Jarod was familiar with Wendy’s story—of how her ex-husband stole away her children after a court awarded her custody.  Jarod sneaks away from the compound and travels to an airstrip.  There he meets up with Wendy.  Jarod outlines the plan for rescuing the children from the compound.  Jarod informs Wendy that both Ryan and Rebecca believe she was killed in a car wreck.

Broots traces the missing funds to Raul Zenega, a real estate developer in Mexico City.  Lyle recognizes the name, and informs his colleagues that Zenega is, in reality, an arms dealer.  The group flies to Mexico in an attempt to determine where the money ended up.  They walk in on Zenega as he bench presses weights.  Lyle adds weights to the load… and pressures Zenega for information.  Straining to keep the weight above his chest, Zenega explains that the sixty million dollars in his account came from a man who purchased laser-guided missile launchers.  He also tells them that the missiles were then resold to Desmond Blake.

Jarod returns to Wendy’s hotel room, but finds it empty.  He realizes she traveled to the riding school a short distance away so she could see her children.  At the riding school, Ryan plays with his toy airplane as his sister rides a horse.  The little plane catches a breeze and lands in the street.  Ryan runs out into the street to retrieve his plane…right into the path of an oncoming pickup truck.  Wendy jumps out of her hiding place, screaming her son’s name.  Jarod suddenly appears and grabs Ryan, removing him from harm’s way.  Blake looks towards the commotion, and sees his wife. He immediately orders his family inside the car.  Rebecca, Ryan and Jarod climb inside.  As the car pulls away, Wendy retrieves her son’s crushed airplane.

Blake tells his son that he did not see his mother because she is dead.  But Ryan is quite certain he did see his mother.  Unwilling to take any chances, Blake tells Emma that he and the children are leaving the compound the next morning.  Jarod finds Wendy at her hotel room.  He tells her that Blake and the children are flying out of the country the next morning, and that they must move fast if the children are to be rescued.  Wendy tells Jarod that Emma can be trusted.  Jarod approaches Emma inside the compound.  He eventually convinces her that Wendy is still very much alive.  Emma agrees to participate in the rescue mission.  A short time later, Emma stops her car near the compound’s back gate.  Jarod uses a burning automobile to create a diversion.  He sneaks inside the main house and locates Ryan and Rebecca’s bedrooms.  The children, however, are nowhere to be found.  He telephones Wendy and informs her that the rescue plan has been called off.

Jarod tells Wendy that Blake moved the children to another part of the compound to ensure their safety (as he saw Wendy at the riding stables and did not want to take any chances).  Jarod quickly devises a new plan, and tells Wendy to wait for him at the airport.

In the morning, the last of the (now programmed) missiles are loaded onto a truck.  Blake’s regular driver takes ill (courtesy of some drugs Jarod placed in his coffee), and Jarod volunteers to take his place.  But before Jarod can drive Blake’s Range Rover off the compound, Lyle and Miss Parker pull up outside the gate of the compound.  Thinking quickly, Jarod tricks Blake into believing that Lyle and Parker had earlier asked Emma questions about his children.  Fearing the strangers are part of some plot to abduct his children, Blake instructs his men to destroy their car.  Using baseball bats, the men do as they are told.

When Jarod arrives at the airport, Emma hustles the children away.  Jarod traps Blake inside the Range Rover, and then pulls a tarp off a nearby missile.  The laser lands on Blake’s forehead, and follows his every move.  But Jarod states that killing Blake would be too easy.  He allows Blake to watch as Wendy is reunited with her children.  He then informs Blake that Venezuelan authorities have been notified of his activities as an arms dealer…and that all sixty missiles were disarmed.  Later, Wendy thanks Jarod for reuniting her with the children.