All Prologue

OMAR: Ain't workin' out for y'all, huh?

COUNTY COP: Mars is the god of war, right?

OMAR: Planet, too.

COUNTY COP: I know it's a planet. But the clue is "Greek god of war."

OMAR: Ares. Greeks called him Ares. Same dude, different name is all.

COUNTY COP: Ares fits. Thanks.

OMAR: It's all good. See, back in middle school and all, I used to love them myths. That stuff was deep. Truly.

BAILIFF: You're up.

NATHAN: State calls Omar Little, your honor.

STRINGER: Faggot.

BAILIFF: Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so help you God?

OMAR: I surely do.

NATHAN: State your name for the record.

OMAR: Omar Devon Little.

NATHAN: Mr. Little, how old are you?

OMAR: About 29, thereabout.

NATHAN: And where you live?

OMAR: No place in particular, ma'am.

NATHAN: You're homeless?

OMAR: In the wind, so to speak.

NATHAN: And what is your occupation?

OMAR: Occupation?

NATHAN: What exactly do you do for a living, Mr. Little?

OMAR: I rip and run.

NATHAN: You...

OMAR: I robs drug dealers.

[Murmuring]

NATHAN: And exactly how long has this been your occupation, Mr. Little?

OMAR: I don't know, exactly. I venture to say maybe about eight or nine years.

NATHAN: Mr. Little, how does a man rob drug dealers for eight or nine years and live to tell about it?

OMAR: Day at a time, I suppose.

DANIELS: What do we know?

FREAMON: On Sobotka, very little. He seems to live within his means.

PREZ: House in Glen Burnie, paid-off truck, modest savings, credit history is okay.

FREAMON: There's no flash to him, nothing dramatic.

GREGGS: Doesn't sound much like a money man to me.

CARVER: Or maybe he's hiding it.

FREAMON: The union is also a little threadbare. They paid the taxes on union hall almost a year late and that was only after they got hit with liens. Looking at their books...

DANIELS: You subpoenaed their books?

PREZ: You don't need to.

FREAMON: I.B.S. books are open to the Justice Department under the terms of a federal racketeering case that came out of New York five years ago.

PREZ: We just called Washington, they sent us a copy of everything the Baltimore locals have filed.

FREAMON: The books show that there's less than 100 checkers still paying dues to 15-14.

RUSSELL: And that's down from about 300 in the '70s. They're hurting.

HERC: So where's all this money that Valchek is talkin' about?

PREZ: The I.B.S. hired Bruce Dibiago to lobby Annapolis this session. And through individual officers and union members, they've paid about 70,000 to various pacs and democratic organizations in the last eight months.

DANIELS: They show any of that on their books?

FREAMON: No, we pieced that together from the campaign finance reports. And that's just what was in the names of the union officers that we cross-referenced.

GREGGS: So, where's the cash coming from?

DANIELS: Drugs?

FREAMON: So far, D.N.R.s on the union hall phones don't show much. Union business and personal calls, but no beepers and not much in the way of cell numbers or payphones either. What's with those hand-to-hands, anything connect?

CARVER: We're buyin' from a lotta white boys. O'Donnell Heights, Geektown, Highlandtown above the park. But any port connections feel random.

DANIELS: Well, the money comes from somewhere.

RUSSELL: Maybe it's what the checkers do. I mean, they monitor what comes in and out of the port. That's what they do, that's their value.

HERC: They're bringing the shit in?

FREAMON: Or they're letting it happen.

RUSSELL: Like that can full of dead girls. They kept that outta the computer.

DANIELS: Which is why we're gonna quietly do some work on that side of things. Kima, Prez, I want you to start lookin' at girls.

GREGGS: No problem.

DANIELS: If they're coming into Baltimore, who's workin' them? Are they club dancing, whoring? We need to plug into that circuit. As for the rest of you, Lester is gonna stay with the paper trail and with the D.N.R.s, looking for connections to the union money. Herc and Carver, you guys keep workin' the drug corners near the port. Now also Officer Russell here and Bunk Moreland are assigned to Homicide, but for the time being they'll be with us, running the port database through a computer, looking for any pattern involving contraband. Questions?

HERC: Excuse me. I'm Thomas.

RUSSELL: Beadie.

HERC: Would you like to go to Royal Farms, maybe get a cup of coffee? Right.

CARVER: Yo. I'm Thomas. You want a coffee?

HERC: Hey listen, I was gonna ask her for her panties to make some soup with, but I was afraid she'd take it the wrong way.

NATHAN: So you're saying you were at the opposite end of the parking lot when the assailant drew his gun.

OMAR: Thereabout.

NATHAN: And do you see the gunman who killed Mr. Gant anywhere in the courtroom today?

OMAR: Hey, yo, what up, Bird?

NATHAN: For the record, you are identifying the defendant, Marquis Hillton.

OMAR: It's just Bird to me.

NATHAN: And Mr. Little you had seen him many times before, had you not?

OMAR: Yeah, we jailed together down the cut--

LEVY: Objection, your honor. May we approach?

McNULTY: Quite a witness, ain't he?

STRINGER: Word on the street is Omar ain't no where near them rises when the shit pop. Street said the little cocksucker was over on the eastside, stickin' up some Ashland Avenue niggers.

McNULTY: That's the word on the street, huh? Trouble is, String, we're not on the street. We in a court of law.

LEVY: Your honor...

PHELAN: Objection is noted and preserved for the record, Mr. Levy. Move on.

LEVY: Thank you, your honor.

PHELAN: Jurors will disregard that last comment from the witness, in which he explained where he had last encountered the defendant.

NATHAN: Yes or no, Mr. Little. Prior to the shooting, did you know the defendant?

OMAR: I mean, I knew the man, but wasn't like he was no friend or nothin'.

NATHAN: So you would have recognizing him from a moderate distance, say 20, 25 yards, in daylight?

OMAR: Aw naw, no problem.

NATHAN: Mr. Little, do you recognize this particular weapon?

OMAR: Yeah, that's bird's gun, the 380.

NATHAN: You've seen it before?

OMAR: Bird always flashin' that thing.

NATHAN: So you'd actually seen it before the day in question. And on the day in question.

OMAR: It was in Bird's hand.

NATHAN: When he shot at Mr. Gant?

OMAR: Yes, ma'am. Bird covet them shiny little pistols.

LEVY: Objection, your honor.

OMAR: And the boy too triflin' to throw it off even after a daytime murder.

BIRD: You're a lyin' cocksucker, man! I'll rip your heart out your goddamn chest.

PHELAN: The defendant will regain control or he will be forcibly restrained and I will clear the court. The witness's last answer is to be stricken and disregarded by the jury.

SPIROS: Niko. Eton is my friend. It's good to have friends meet, no?

NICK: Eton, huh? That's from the Greek, meanin' what?

SPIROS: No Greek. Israeli.

NICK: Oh yeah? 'Cause you look Greek, I mean no offense. Either way, I mean.

ETON: You have the chemicals?

NICK: I can get 'em, as much as you want.

ETON: When?

NICK: I was gonna do something this week, but there's been a problem though.

SPIROS: What problem?

NICK: My cousin, Zig. He got into a beef with these East Baltimore guys. Drug dealer by the name a Cheese took his car, burned it, now he's sayin' he's gonna dust Zig if he doesn't pay.

[Speaking Greek]

NICK: Yeah, malaka, right. Zig fucked up the package.

SPIROS: So, you bring us the chemicals, we pay. Then you pay your debt.

NICK: It was $2,700, right? Now, this asshole is sayin' it's double. 54, you believe that? First he takes the car, and now he's jackin' us around on the money.

SPIROS: You want, we kill him.

NICK: No. That ain't it neither, no.

SPIROS: Why not?

NICK: 'Cause first of all, Zig fucked it up. He owes 27. And second, you kill Cheese and we're gonna have a fight with his people, right? A year down the road, some nigger sees my cousin comin' out the burger shop, puttin' gas in his car on Central Avenue, no questions, puts a cap in his ass.

SPIROS: He's smart, eh? Niko, smart.

NICK: Look, we don't have the muscle to go talk to this guy, make things right. I was hoping maybe you do.

LEVY: Mr. Little... Can I ask why you came forward in this case?

OMAR: I told the police what I know.

LEVY: Were you offered anything in exchange?

OMAR: Like what?

LEVY: Were you arrested? Were you going to be charged me and by testifying, did the police agree to drop those charges?

OMAR: Naw, man, it ain't even about that.

LEVY: How many times have you been arrested as an adult, Mr. Little?

OMAR: Shoot, I done lost count. Enough though not to take it personal.

LEVY: Possession of a handgun, possessing a concealed weapon, assault by pointing, robbery, deadly weapon, possession of a handgun again, followed by violation of parole on weapon charges, followed by one count of attempted murder and use of a handgun in commission of a felony.

OMAR: That wasn't no attempt murder.

LEVY: What was it, Mr. Little?

OMAR: I shot the boy Mike-Mike in his hindparts, that all. Fixed it so he couldn't sit right.

LEVY: Why'd you shoot mike-mike in his... His hindparts, Mr. Little?

OMAR: Let's say we had a disagreement.

LEVY: A disagreement over?

OMAR: Well, you see Mike-Mike thought he should keep that cocaine he was slinging, and the money he was makin' from slingin' it. I thought otherwise.

LEVY: So you rob drug dealers. This is what you do?

OMAR: Yes, sir.

LEVY: You walk the streets of Baltimore, with a gun, taking what you want, when you want it, willing to use violence when your demands aren't met. This is who you are. Why should we believe your testimony then? Why believe anything you say?

OMAR: That's up to y'all, really.

LEVY: You say you aren't here testifying against the defendant because of any deal you made with police.

OMAR: True that.

LEVY: That you are here because you want to tell the truth about what happened to Mr. Gant in that housing project parking lot.

OMAR: Yup.

LEVY: When in fact you are exactly the kind of person who would, if you felt you needed to, shoot a man down on a housing project parking lot, and then lie to the police about it, would you not?

OMAR: Look, I ain't never put my gun to no citizen.

LEVY: You are amoral, are you not? You are feeding off the violence and the despair of the drug trade. You are stealing from those who themselves are stealing the lifeblood from our city. You are a parasite who leeches off--

OMAR: Just like you, man.

LEVY: The culture of drugs-- Excuse me, what...?

OMAR: I got the shotgun. You got the briefcase. It's all in the game, though, right?

ELENA: And with the economy what it is, you can really consider coming in 10 or 20% below asking and still feel competitive.

FEMALE PROSPECTIVE BUYER: Even on the Hamburg Street address?

ELENA: Absolutely.

FEMALE PROSPECTIVE BUYER: I have to admit, I like the house at 1501. Although, I didn't like the color of the world pool tub in the master suite bathroom. Magenta?

ELENA: Oh, that's cosmetic.

FEMALE PROSPECTIVE BUYER: If they want to make the sale, they should at least have some amount of couthe to change the color. I know it's such a tiny point to harp on.

ELENA: Well...

FEMALE PROSPECTIVE BUYER: Maybe you're right. Maybe we should just keep looking. We shouldn't settle for just anything. And you think that there will be some new open houses this Sunday?

ELENA: I'm sorry, what were you saying?

FEMALE PROSPECTIVE BUYER: We think we're gonna keep looking. You'll take us around again on Sunday?

ELENA: Oh definitely.

FEMALE PROSPECTIVE BUYER: Okay then, see you Sunday, early.

ELENA: Great. Thank you. I'll see you then. You are a child, you know that? What do you want?

McNULTY: Dinner and a movie.

ELENA: C'mon, stop it.

McNULTY: Why not?

ELENA: This isn't going anywhere, Jimmy.

McNULTY: Dinner and a movie. Then I'll walk you to the door, you shake my hand and tell me to go fuck myself, like you should've done way back when.

ELENA: How 'bout I tell you to fuck yourself here and now and then you can save that money for someone else.

McNULTY: C'mon, Elena. Come on, I signed all your damn papers. Gimme another shot.

ELENA: Friday. You pay for the sitter.

STRINGER: So how that D.C. game, man?

D.C. CONTACT: Same as it ever was.

STRINGER: Chocolate City, I ain't been there in a while.

D.C. CONTACT: Call it Drama City nowadays. Otherwise, same ole' go-go. Same ole' bamas. Same soup, just reheated, know what I'm sayin'?

STRINGER: If you need anything to make this happen, you gotta get it yourself. I can't go through my people.

D.C. CONTACT: If Stringer Bell reachin' all the way past Baltimore with this kinda work, then we gotta real mystery going on, don't we? Don't worry, no mistakes. Nothin' that might come back on ya.

STRINGER: You sure of your people?

D.C. CONTACT: My cousin up in there, he on it.

STRINGER: Alright. I can't stand that go-go shit, anyhow.

D.C. CONTACT: Ain't heard it live, then. I know a club in Oxen Hill that would wreck y'all.

STRINGER: A-ight. If I'm 'round the way.

GREGGS: So, how you doin'?

SHARDENE: Nursing school, right now.

GREGGS: Good, that's good.

SHARDENE: Lester's been pushing me, you know. He does it kinda without you knowin' that he's doin' it.

GREGGS: Yeah, I know what you mean.

SHARDENE: So anyway, he said that you would be by today to talk about the clubs.

GREGGS: About some girls, Russians. Or from that part of the world.

SHARDENE: The ones on the circuit, yeah. You should try this place called nightshift down off of Holabird. I have a friend who works there and she worked with a bunch of Russian girls last year for about three months.

GREGGS: Think she'll talk to me?

SHARDENE: Only if I ask her.

NATHAN: Thank you, Detective, nothing further.

PHELAN: Anything more on redirect, Ms. Nathan?

NATHAN: No, your honor. Let's take 10 minutes and then run the closing arguments. I have every intention of beginning tomorrow with jury instructions.

McNULTY: How'd Omar do?

NATHAN: You didn't see it?

McNULTY: Not the cross.

McNULTY: That bad?

[Rap music]

SERGE: You have no problem.

NICK: No?

SERGE: To start, he wants you to pay 54. Then we talk. He says no, you pay just the 27.

NICK: Yeah, I saw how you talked.

SERGE: But you will not pay the 27, instead you will get the money for the car that burned.

NICK: Yeah?

SERGE: Yeah. Him we don't know. But the one he calls boss... Him we know.

GREGGS: You gonna sit there and pout? I know you don't think I'm going down to that club just to look at pussy. I know you know me better than that. I ain't even lookin'.

CHERYL: Everybody's lookin'. Most of them women are dykes.

GREGGS: Cheryl, it's police work.

CHERYL: What, so that's supposed to make me feel better. Kima's out on the street, doin' her detective thing. All that hospital shit, all that rehab, all them promises--

GREGGS: We talked about this.

CHERYL: No, you talked. I didn't get a word in edge-wise once you made up your mind.

GREGGS: Where you goin'?

CHERYL: With you.

GREGGS: Excuse me?

CHERYL: Who knows? I might see a little something I happen to like.

SOBOTKA: So all of that's on the table? Right now, there's money in the transpo budget for the grain pier. Also, a bond issue that pays for maintenance dredging on the main shipping channel.

OTT: But not the canal?

SOBOTKA: Nope, not the canal. For that we're gonna have to fight a little longer and dig a little deeper.

NAT: So says Frank. I gotta say for my money, we lucky if we pull out the grain pier.

SOBOTKA: Be that as it may, we spent the money and took our best shot. Hired a couple lobbyists, made some smart contributions, paid for a consultant's report to argue against some of the environmental stuff. It cost, but we're startin' to see it.

CHESSY: So where y'all find the cash?

SOBOTKA: I been robbin' liquor stores, two a week. [Laughing]

CHESSY: Seriously.

SOBOTKA: Seriously, we got some help from the national office on this. And there been some timely donations from a few friends here and there. The point is, at the very least, we're likely to see the grain pier back up by next year, which means maybe a couple hundred more ships a year, at least.

NAT: If...

SOBOTKA: And it's a big fuckin' if....

NAT: If that Polack motherfucker--

HORSEFACE: Hey!

NAT: Hey, hey, hey, no offense. If Krawczyk don't fuck us by throwin' up waterfront condominiums first, right?

SOBOTKA: Nat's right. The back door threat is that Andy Kraw or some other developer gets enough last-minute votes to sink the rehab money for the grain pier. 'Cause those guys are lookin' at that location, too.

NAT: So we need everybody makin' phone calls, let your legislators know that we watching on this. The money only goes so far. Now, we gotta make some noise, right?! Make some noise!

SOBOTKA: Okay, enough talk. Some of you's got ships to work in the morning. The rest of you's need to be drunk.

HORSEFACE: I'll drink to that.

NET: Help from the national timely donations from friends? Watch your ass, Frank.

DANIELS: This is it?

BUNK: Uh, yeah. Just picked it up from the port administrator.

DANIELS: So what am I looking at?

RUSSELL: The Atlantic Light on the day the can with the women was off-loaded. The boxes are containers. This one's being off loaded and set on a chassis. Here's the time: Ten thirty-one hours. See? It was moved to lane "L", stack six, row three, by an R.T.G. at 10:37 hours.

DANIELS: R.T.G.?

RUSSELL: Rubber tire gantry. So from ship to stack took six minutes. That's the way it's supposed to work, but...

FREAMON: A-Q-Q-Z, as in zebra, three, nine, six, five, nine, four. Check digit, seven.

BUNK: That's the container number of the can with the women in it.

RUSSELL: See that? It was never entered by the checker. So as far as the computer is concerned, it no longer exists.

BUNK: Sobotka says that that can happen when the radio waves get knocked down or when a checker inputs a bad serial number.

RUSSELL: It came off the Atlantic Light at 11:26 hours. And it doesn't show up in the computer again until 15:12 hours. I find it two hours after that.

FREAMON: So for nearly four hours it's out on the docks, unaccounted for.

BUNK: Sobotka says cans get lost all the time. When they get found, they get put back into the computer.

DANIELS: You believe him?

RUSSELL: No, not this can.

DANIELS: So what's the plan?

RUSSELL: The database on this computer has records for every ship that berthed at Patapsco over the last two years. We gotta go back through and find what other cans might've disappeared like that.

FREAMON: See if there's a pattern.

DANIELS: How many ships we talking about?

FREAMON: Hundreds.

BUNK: It ain't like I got a prayer of bringin' this case in otherwise.

GREGGS: That's what I'm talkin' 'bout.

CHERYL: Alright. What the hell is your problem?

PREZ: Nothin'.

CHERYL: Yeah, you look like you about to be sick or somethin'.

PREZ: I just can't look at 'em.

GREGGS: Prez, you ain't never been in no titty bar?

PREZ: Yeah, sure. But not with women.

GREGGS: You're sure you're not gonna have a problem for talkin' to us here?

STRIPPER: I don't give a shit. You friends with Shardene, all that matters. 'Sides, I'm from Westport, and I told them club owners straight-up, I was here before them ho's got here, and they better make sure I'm here after they leave.

PREZ: So how long ago did they came through?

STRIPPER: Six months back was the last batch. Russians, I think. But shit all sound the same when you can't understand a damn word, right?

GREGGS: Who brought 'em?

STRIPPER: Club owner pays extra for 'em. There was a woman, she was like the madam, who handled the cash. But I ain't get a name.

GREGGS: She Russian, too?

STRIPPER: She was somethin'. She had an accent.

GREGGS: So it's like, one day, all Baltimore girls are at the bar, and the next, what? All foreign girls?

STRIPPER: That 'bout right. They was makin' so much money with them new girls, they start lettin' some of their regular dancers go. Not me, 'cause I mean, I got clientele here. But some of the others.

PREZ: Where'd the girls stay?

STRIPPER: Where they told, shit, they ain't here legally. They don't know shit. They ain't got no family. The men they got handlin' them ways with 'em. Right there to take them from whatever motel they using to the club and back. Right there when they need to go get food, or go to the Rite Aid. Right outside the fuckin' motel door, when they up in them motel rooms with the johns.

PREZ: Anyone try to get away?

STRIPPER: Shit, I seen one of 'em get lit up with one of them stun guns just for going down the block to get some dinner. I mean, they barely let them girls go to the bathroom by themselves. And if they see one gettin' too close to the johns, that's when they move the whole crew to another town, you know? Keep it so they don't get no help.

STRIPPER#2: You up after the next song.

STRIPPER: Push my numbers then. I gotta go get paid, honey. You need anything else, you can call me. Help if I can.

GREGGS: I'll tell Shardene you said hi.

STRIPPER: She must be doin' good, out for so long. She must've landed a rich one, right? You her girl?

CHERYL: Yeah.

STRIPPER: I wouldn't let mine come in here either without me. These bitches in here are no joke.

GREGGS: 13 of 'em. They had about a third of that space, hidden behind the fake wall. A few flashlights, some junk food, some water. A portable toilet they had to share. And not enough air.

PHELAN: To schedule sentencing for the third week of next month. Anything else today?

LEVY: Your honor, my client, having preserved the necessary grounds for appeal in the record, wishes me to state unequivocally that regardless of this jury's verdict, he is the victim of wholesale perjury on the part of the state's key witness. And we ask that an appeal bond be set so that he can participate fully in this investigation.

PHELAN: An appeal bond on a conviction of first-degree murder? Mr. Levy, get a grip on yourself.

LEVY: Your honor--

PHELAN: Not only will there be no bond pending sentencing, but as far as I'm concerned, the pre-sentencing report is a mere formality. Mr. Hilton has been found guilty of killing a state's witness who testified in this very courtroom. He did so in cold blood and for pay. Unless the pre-sentence report indicates that he is, in fact, the Messiah come again, he will very likely be sentenced to life, no parole, by a Baltimore judge who for once in his life gets to leave his office feeling that his job actually matters. Mr. Hilton, are you the second coming of our savior?

BIRD: Excuse me?

PHELAN: Are you Jesus Christ come back to earth?

BIRD: Um...

PHELAN: See you at sentencing.

NATHAN: Was it good for you, too? Mr. Little, this is good to get-out-of-jail-free, one time only, on anything up to aggravated assault.

OMAR: Why thank you, ma'am.

NATHAN: No, thank you. A rare pleasure.

McNULTY: Time for the ceremonial eyefuck.

BIRD: Come see me down the cut, you punk-ass snitch. I'll shove a shiv down your cocksuckin' throat.

OMAR: You think on it, Bird. You think on Brandon while you doin' that time, you heard?

BIRD: I'm gonna see you, man, I swear to God! Fuck that, I'll do you like a dog!

McNULTY: You really see him shoot the man?

OMAR: You really asking?

PRISONER#1: But it's fucked because the man got to where he needed to be and she wasn't even worth it. Daisy wasn't nothin' past any other bitch, anywhere, you know? And he did all that the end, it ain't amount to shit.

TEACHER: Fitzgerald said that there were no second acts in American lives. Do you believe that?

PRISONER#2: Man, shit, we locked up. We best not believe that, right?

DEE: He's sayin' that the past is always with us. And where we come from, what we go through, how we go through it, all that shit matters. I mean, that's what I thought he meant.

TEACHER: Go ahead.

DEE: Like at the end of the book, you know? Boats and tides and all. It's like you can change up, right? You can say you somebody new, you can give yourself a new story, but what came first is who you really are, and what happened before is what really happened. And it don't matter that some fool say he different 'cause the only thing that can make you different is what you really do or what you really go through. Like, you know, like all them books in his library. Now, he frontin' books, but if we pull one down off the shelf, and none of the pages ever been opened. He got all them books and he ain't read near one of 'em. Gatsby, he was who he was and he did what he did and 'cause he wasn't ready to get real with the story, that shit caught up to him. I think, anyway.

[Phone ringing]

BUNK: Sorry, homey.

CLAUDE: You done with your trial? Alright then, let's take 'er on out.

McNUTLY: Tomorrow. I'm back with you tomorrow, Diggsy.

CLAUDE: You got something else to do today?

McNULTY: Yeah, last bit of business.

CLAUDE: This is your business.

McNULTY: Nah, this is retirement. And after today, I'm retired.

SERGE: Talk when I say, not before. Tovarich.

JOE: Serge, my nigga.

SERGE: You're losing weight. Shit. You are down to nothing, and in this country, supermarkets are cathedrals. I worry for you, buddy.

JOE: How your peoples, dog?

SERGE: Same, good.

JOE: You talk to the man about that other thing, right? Because I can get behind that business in a big way.

SERGE: We will talk, later. Now, another business.

JOE: Right, right. This the man with the raggedy-ass Camaro.

NICK: Wasn't mine, it was my cousin's. It wasn't all that raggedy.

SERGE: Sorry. Nicky is with us, his cousin... But family cannot be helped.

JOE: Who you tellin'? I got motherfuckin' nephews and in-laws fuckin' all my shit up, all the time. And it ain't like I can pop a cap in their ass and not hear about it Thanksgiving time. For real, I'm livin' life with some burdensome niggers. So what the fuck? If you ain't pay my boy Cheese and Cheese ain't payin' me, right? I ain't talkin' about all the money in the world, but it ain't like Cheese be in a position out on that corner to let your cuz exemplify shit, you feel? The man cut you some slack and soon every fuckin-up white boy be on his titty.

NICK: We wanna pay what we owe. The 27, anyway. And we're gonna have it, soon enough.

SERGE: Your man doubled it, though.

NICK: He also burned the car. Now the Blue Book on that Camaro was 51.

JOE: Now let me understand. You gonna come up in here, havin' fucked up a package, askin' me to tell Cheese, who you fucked it up on, to pay you out 2,400.

NICK: He gets to keep the Camaro. Just how good a friend is this motherfucker to y'all? The Cheese ain't gonna be happy havin' to pay me back, so I would advise y'all to give him some distance.

NICK: Just so he don't come back on my cousin. Anyway, thanks for bein' straight on this.

JOE: Fool, if it wasn't for Serge here, you and your cuz both would be cadaverous motherfuckers.

McNULTY: I went through I.N.S., customs, even the State Department. There was nothing.

FRAZIER: It's time, Jimmy. You did what you could, right?

McNULTY: Yeah, fuck it, let her go.

FRAZIER: This one to the anatomy board in the morning. Jane Doe on the paperwork.

McNULTY: Ain't right, doc.

FRAZIER: What the fuck ever is?

BRIANNA: You leave it to Avon, he's gonna get some years off your sentence.

DEE: No doubt, knowin' Avon.

BRIANNA: It's all good, Dee. Just show up and say what levy tells you to. What the hell is wrong with you? I'm asking you.

DEE: Those hot shots. That was Avon.

BRIANNA: I want you home, Dee.

DEE: You asked me to carry this. I'm carryin' it. This is mine, right here, right now.

BRIANNA: Boy, you ain't listenin' to me. I am tellin' you--

DEE: Ma! Ma, you remember we used to lived on Linden Avenue? Remember that house? I was about six, seven years old. I was playin' on the porch, them twins came by, started pickin' on me, messin' with me. Remember that? I'm bangin' on the door, tryin' to get inside and you standin' right there to open the door. 'Cept you ain't lettin' me inside. You told me to go back out there and fight 'em, whether I lose or not. Remember?

BRIANNA: They beat the shit out of you.

DEE: Yeah, then you say to me, "Boy, I might've brung you into this world. But you the one who gonna have to live in it." Well, ma, I'm still here. Me. You gotta let me live like I need to live. You tell Avon, Stringer and Donette, all of 'em, to leave me be.

BUNK: Alright look, fuck y'all. I need a drink.

RUSSELL: C'mon, we're almost through 2002.

BUNK: Naw. Tomorrow is another goddamn day, right?

SOBOTKA: They look thirsty, a round on me.

DOCKER#1: Young Mr. Sobotka, master of the game. How many votes we get down is tonight, Frankie?

SOBOTKA: Been here long?

DOCKER#1: Since my hair was brown.

HORSEFACE: I was tellin' Chess about Benny.

OTT: Benny with the harelip.

SOBOTKA: That's a good one.

HORSEFACEL See, Benny was working the hole and he got hit with a shackle.

OTT: Chunk of steel clocked him good, but he didn't tell nobody.

DOCKER#1: Not 'til he came in here. That's when little nose told Benny to call the union lawyer.

OTT: Paul Sevel, yeah. God rest his soul.

HORSEFACE: So Benny calls Paul. "Me been 'it wit a 'ackerel," Benny says. A mackerel, Benny, "you working frozen foods again?," Paul asks. "No, 'ot'amit, a 'ackerel, a 'uckin' 'ackerel," then he slams the phone down. "'Udder'ucker on' a way over 'ere, says he can't udder'tan' me." Little Nose says, "why he wanna do that, benny don't talk no fuckin' better in person."

[Laughing]

ZIGGY: So that's it, me and Cheese are straight?

NICK: Yeah, you're straight. And that there's $2,400 for princess.

ZIGGY: She was worth more than that. Hey, Dolo. One for the bar, hon.

DOLORES: You win the lotto?

ZIGGY: Hey, if my old man can do it, who the hell says I can't?

NICK: What the fuck is wrong with you?

ZIGGY: Nick, when I'm flush, I'm flush. We ain't gonna live forever, right?

OTT: Next round's on me.

SOBOTKA: Not for me, I'm gonna head out.

OTT: C'mon, Frank, belly up.

SOBOTKA: Take a rain check.

FREAMON: And that one as well, huh?

RUSSELL: Makes 22. All on the Talco line. All with Horseface Pakusa working the ship. We're on it then. You gonna call Bunk?

FREAMON: Detective Moreland is indisposed.

McNULTY: You with Daniels and them?

BUNK: Naw. We just parked the computer down there. We're orphaned, man.

McNULTY: Orphaned?

BUNK: Yeah. Rawls is talkin' like if I don't come home with 14 clearances, I can't come home at all. Lester too. Where's the love, Jimmy? Where is the motherfuckin' love?

McNULTY: Hey, hey, hey!

BUNK: Whoa, man. Pow. [Laughing] Yeah. Yeah. So what's up with you, man?

McNULTY: Nothin'!

BUNK: Nothin', huh?

McNULTY: I'm done, Bunk. Bird was my last piece of old business. I got nothing new. I was tryin' for an I.D. On this one, but I can't even just a way to pretend I was still a murder police, I guess. Who gives a fuck, right?

BUNK: Oh!

McNULTY: Elena and I are gonna try again.

BUNK: Oh, oh shit.

McNULTY: Yeah, I'm done fuckin' myself up, Bunk. I am done. Come on, man, let's go home.

BUNK: Alright, man.

SOBOTKA: Over here, shitbird. What the hell happened to you?

ZIGGY: I fell down.

SOBOTKA: How many times? Let's walk.

ZIGGY: Pop, I'm--

SOBOTKA: Walk with me, Zig. Votes break for us, that pier comes back online by next spring. More ships, more work.

ZIGGY: Yeah, great.

SOBOTKA: The fuck are you about? What? Is that my son lightin' hundred dollar bills like an asshole? In a bar full of workin' stiffs? The fuck is that?

ZIGGY: Just a smile.

SOBOTKA: A smile?

ZIGGY: Yep, a smile. You wanna hit me again, pop, go ahead. Take a shot.

SOBOTKA: Where you come by cash? You know you ain't had the days.

ZIGGY: Oh, definitely not. It's 'cause my father's in the union. Fuck that.

SOBOTKA: Seniority prevails, Zig. It's the only way to keep it halfway honest.

ZIGGY: I know, I ain't complainin'.

SOBOTKA: I wish I could give you more. You don't think I want to throw you more?

ZIGGY: Oh, you throw plenty.

SOBOTKA: It's just, Christ, Zig. Maybe if I'd a listened to your mother 'cause she's the one about--

ZIGGY: Pop, it's cool.

SOBOTKA: You should do the community college like your brother.

ZIGGY: Pop, pop, don't. You wanna know what I remember? Do you? I remember you, and Uncle Jerry, and Uncle Walt, pe-pop... All sittin' around the kitchen table talkin' shit about this gang and that gang. Who's better with the break bulk. Who could turn it around faster, who's lazy. Always a fucking argument, right?

SOBOTKA: Four Polacks, six opinions.

ZIGGY: I remember when you's all went down to picket them scabs at the Covington piers, how Jackie Taylor got run over by a police car in the middle of that whole goddamn mess. I remember when the Paceco fell durin' that windstorm, you remember, right? Killed Fat Rick dead.

SOBOTKA: Yeah, what else you remember?

ZIGGY: Everything, everything.

SOBOTKA: So tell me, Mr. Back-in-the-day, what the fuck are we doing down here with the wharf rats in the middle of goddamn night?

ZIGGY: Beats the fuck outta me.

RUSSELL: Every one of those Post-Its is a can that disappears when it's being offloaded. The yellow slips, they show up again with legitimate cargo intact and are re-entered, so you figure those are honest mistakes.

FREAMON: But the pink and the green, those cans never come back. They stay out of the computer for good.

RUSSELL: And the pink one, like the can full of dead girls, they're all from the same shipping line, Talco, and on all of them, the same checker, this guy Thomas Pakusa, he goes by Horseface, he's the one working.

DANIELS: You went at him already, right?

BUNK: We grand juried his ass, but that motherfucker didn't blink.

[Heaving]

DANIELS: You wanna hit the head? Get yourself right, Detective?

BUNK: Naw, I'm good.

FREAMON: The point is, we have a pattern here. What they're doing eliminates almost all of the paper trail. As long as they can get a truck past the out-bound lanes and there's a dozen ways to do that, the only thing they leave behind is a little tell-tale in the computer. A box comes off the ship, flashes for a few moments, and blip, then it's gone. [Heaving] Our target is supposed to be Sobotka, right? I mean, on paper anyway.

DANIELS: And what you're tellin' me is that it's better than a fair bet that he actually is a target in Bunk's murders.

BUNK(heaving): Maybe we can fold our investigation in yours, Lieutenant.

DANIELS: And put my ass in the air with 14 open homicides that might never clear?

FREAMON: The bosses wouldn't blame you for that.

DANIELS: I wouldn't shine either. I'm trying to use what we do with this detail to get a major case squad going. I come up outta here with all those open files, it doesn't smell as sweet. So what's the next move on this?

FREAMON: We clone the computer and start watching what's happening on the docks in real time.

BUNK: Oh. (Vomiting) Oh shit.

AVON: Dee. Yo, Dee.

ELENA: Just wine, huh?

McNULTY: I'm not drinking much anymore.

ELENA: No Jamesons? Maybe a quick fuck of the waitress, then.

McNULTY: Okay, I deserve that one, too, even though I'm don't do much of that anymore either. Anything else?

ELENA: I'm sorry. I don't know where it still comes from. I mean, it's been a year, right?

McNULTY: You deserve to be angry.

ELENA: What's the point, though? How's work?

McNULTY: What, just so we talk about everything in my life that pisses you off? Drinking, women, the work.

ELENA: Just trying to make conversation.

McNULTY: Well, I retired.

ELENA: Excuse me?

McNULTY: Yeah. It's boats, not bodies. On a good day, I catch crabs and count seagulls.

ELENA: That's not you.

McNULTY: It wasn't me. It wasn't me not to drink, or dog around either. A lot of things weren't me. I want another chance.

ELENA: How about a fuck for the road instead?

[Moaning]

NICK: How are you doing?

SPIROS: Okay.

NICK: You unload this shit, you gotta ditch the trucks and the trailers both. Make it look like it was a hijack, alright?

SPIROS: Niko. If you want, I will pay you straight, or Eton can pay in heroin. Wholesale. Turn it around, you can make 60, 70,000.

ZIGGY: Nicky, he's offering like three, four times the value.

SPAMANATO: I'm out on this.

ZIGGY: Nick, even if we walk it up to White Mike, we can make 30, 35,000. Nicky, come on, man.

NICK: Half in cash, half in dope.

ZIGGY: Nicky, I can turn that package around no problem.

NICK: No, Zig, I got it.

ZIGGY: Nicky, you don't know--

NICK: You hear me? I said I fuckin' got this one. Why don't you stay at home and watch cartoons, let me handle this shit for the both of us, alright? You fuckin' walkin' home or what?

McNULTY: Hey, girl. What do we do with the day?

ELENA: Me? Oh, I gotta pick up the boys from the sitter.

McNULTY: Okay, great.

ELENA: They're gonna be coming back here, Michael has piano this afternoon.

McNULTY: No problem, we'll do somethin' after that. Maybe go by my place, pick up some things.

ELENA: I don't want the boys to know that you were here. It's gonna get them hoping, so... You need to leave.

PRISONER#1: Look at this sorry shit. Motherfuckers not appreciate nothin' that comes to 'em free.

DEE: I'll take it in the back. Maybe they got some duct tape to fix it.

PRISONER#2: Dee, right?

DEE: Yeah. Yeah, you can't be in here now, man.

PRISONER#2: Yo, man, y'all get any final calls this week, yo?

DEE: Yeah, we got some.

PRISONER#2: I didn't see any out there.

DEE: Alright, man, give me a minute. Let me finish up here real quick and I'll go and get one for you.