Chapter Five

♪ If your service lads on, trust the text with the train ♪

“♪ That's us, 270 hours with zero complaining ♪”

♪ They train under the hood, they train down in the pit ♪ ♪ 270 hours means they're training's legit ♪ ♪ It's the smart choice for smart folk and care for their steed ♪ ♪ Some trust the instant oil change ♪ ♪ That starts with vowel ♪

♪ Now the lane instant oil change ♪ ♪ Change wisely ♪ This series is based on the real events of 9/11. However, names, incidents, locations, and dialogue have been fictionalized for dramatic purposes.

This series contains strong language and profanity and seems that some listeners could find a serving. ♪ Ladies and gentlemen, members of the press ♪ Most importantly to those of you with friends and relatives on accountant for, I'm Lieutenant Commander Frank Sturiano

with the Trade Waste Commission of the NYPD. It's been a week since the attack that devastated our nation. Given conditions at the pile, subterranean fires that are still burning, toxic air, tons of debris that make it impossible to deliver food, water,

and medical supplies to the injured. The hope of finding more survivors is no longer realistic. Further efforts would only risk the safety of uniform responders. I've decided, therefore, that our operation should be reclassified from search and rescue to search and recover.

“- No! - Stop! - You can't give up! My son could still be alive! I understand! You want to stand? I don't understand how all you must feel. I don't want you to live.”

- Don't we can? - Oh, you're always your son in there! You're daughter! Why?

- Okay, that's enough. - No? Let her say what she wants to say. My son is trying to say, "Oh, God, Frankie." We had dance gone through. You talked him around two this morning. I wrote him a note, but there's no mail. We'll take it to him. - Frank, make... I did what I thought you would have... - It was your call, kid. And you know what? You did the job right.

Listen to me. If more responders died for no reason, you never would have forgiven yourself. - Sir, we've got to search, you're going to run an electricity to another vault and building four. - If the golden silver's there, we've got to get those doors open. - Yeah. I'll go down there with him, Sergeant. - Okay, good. - I'm going to. - No, Mick, I need you to stay here just in case. - What if you need Frank?

- He's on that light over this way. - Yeah, I've got to be that. Underbuilding four, the fires were still spewin' out poisonous fumes, and melting the pulverized concrete till it was like lava. - Watch it. - Attention, young. Step carefully, sir. - I'm okay. - I can't decide. I'll walk across that corridor and give you a solid footing. - Your letter isn't even up, though. - Yes, sir.

- You test the circuits. - Oh, no. - I don't know how long I was unconscious when I came to,

for a second, I thought it was blind.

“- They were covered with a paste of crushed concrete, sweat, blood. - Mick, everyone are alright?”

- Yeah, yeah, I think so. Yeah. - We're bringing it still cut us in impact ramps to get you guys out of here. - Curtis, he had Joe Bianchi and the Genovies family. - Yeah, I guess they just really can't be chooses to get in here.

- I'm Frank Staryana, formerly of the New York City Police Department.

“- Think you know the whole story in 9/11? You don't?”

- This is underground zero. This is my story of how we took on the mob. - At the infirmary, Metex put eight stitches in my head, at least I wasn't better shaped than any burned steam who was in the morgue. After I put on some fresh clothes, Mick and I were alone. - We could bring Joe in for questioning.

- We could. - But to what purpose? - As of now, it is just another victim of building form. - Frank? Frank, are you okay? - It is not just another victim, Mick.

We both know Joe had him killed because they caught him with the wire we had him wear. - You're saying we ignore it? - For now, yeah. It's about priorities. We got fires still burning. God knows how many victims to recover, so the families could get some closure. You wanted to have our time and manpower to a corrupt union rep

who got taken out by gangsters who were pulling his strings. But you're the boss, Frank. I've played any way you want. You want to bring Joe in. You've been to tell me to bust his balls. We'll bring him in.

- Frank didn't bring me in.

“That's how much he relied on Mickie's opinion.”

And why to us, Mickie was worth his weight in goals. What the Genevieve's family pulled in from the break collection, Fony Time Cots, bogus and inflated equipment rentals, already exceeded expectations. I took my boss dip DPR truck for a ride to Long Island City.

And we did a quicker county. - Okay. - In just three days, we were up over two million. - Are we going to be able to sustain that? - If anything, you'd you go higher?

- Even without any burns, then. - Look, he said the wheels and motion dip will be okay. - Taking any out of it. We don't want to come back to bite us. - Look, Mickie hit him in the head and wedged him on this from beams,

“so it looked like, you know, he got caught when the building collapsed.”

- Pony is that never thought of you turning on us?

What are you going to do? I know, I know. You know, maybe we should get any out of the board. - No, we'll leave a connection. - We're going to take care of that tonight.

- What about the goal in the silver? - Yeah, here was it where we thought it was. - I'm worried. We're still digging. - President George W. Bush stood at top the pile of debris that used to be the World Trade Center

and threw a bullmoorn spoke to first responders, civilian volunteers, survivors, and those who were still waiting to learn the fate of loved ones. - I want you all to know. - Get a man, get a man.

- Get a man. - A man, get a day. - He has all offended me. Get a man for the people who's left, who lost here. For the water country who walked here.

For the family. - I'm going to hear you. [crowd cheering] - I can hear you. The rest of the world hear you.

And the people. [crowd cheering] And the people who are not these families down. Well, hear all of this soon. [crowd cheering]

- It was what we wanted here. But from what I could see,

25 years later, whoever was responsible never paid the price

for murdering 3,000 Americans. [dramatic music] - And they trouble getting Eddie's body out of the muck. - Trust me, Joe, with all those unexpected bodies and body parts. Eddie won't be missed.

- Okay. - Who's got the saw? - Right here.

- So, Mickey, you're going to take care of this? - No, I'm good, Joe. I'll leave it to the professionals. - All right, I didn't throw it out.

“Put that head in the hands and separate bags, all right?”

[dramatic music] - We had barges tied up with the East River and Harlem River's meat. Loading him with steel girders, we were going to sell to China. The idea was, once we got pasted to three mile limit,

Eddie would be chum in international waters. [dramatic music] - That night, we opened another vault on the building four. There were gold bars and silver ingots,

not the half billion we heard rumors about,

but at least we had the satisfaction of getting some of it before Joe and the Genevici's did. [dramatic music] It was almost midnight by the time I got back to my office. Just sleep, I needed, but didn't expect to get.

- Marie? - I also didn't expect a visitor. - What happened to your head? - It's just a bump. - Oh, what are you doing here?

“- I thought you could use a hug and some lasagna.”

Mon's recipe. - This is a restricted area. - Yeah, no. Told him I'm your sister. I act like I was in charge and they believe me.

[laughs] I saw you on TV.

- Almost people yelling at you. I can't have been easy.

- That was just about the hardest. [sighs] - Oh. - What can you go home? - Not for a while.

- What? - Joe said he took you for a drink the other night. - Your husband and I went Dutch. - And? - Hmm. - Maybe, you know, when this is all over,

we can have dinner. - I'll have dinner with you anytime. - I mean you and Connie, me and Joe, you know? Like the old days. - Come in.

- Sir.

- Sergeant Mark O'Connor, my sister Marie.

- We met. - Yeah, let me in. - Sir, something you need to know. - All right, yeah. Well, I'll leave you two with Frank.

- Thanks for coming down. - Come here. - Hmm. - Love you. - Love you honey.

- What is it, Mark? - Eddie Bernstein's sir. - He's in the morgue. Not anymore. - Valveline, instant oil change presents wisdom from the road.

- Summer means wide open spaces in a whole lot of extra miles. - Last place you want your engine to give out is halfway to nowhere. - Out here, low oil or a weak battery is just an ambush. - Wait, what happened?

“- That's why every oil change at Valveline is the oil change”

of glutes at 18 point maintenance check. These texture trained to help spot issues early and give you a run easy. - Valveline, instant oil change wisely. - Frank, I told you to shut shut down the car in his office.

- The overload is crazy. - I know, they've been storing bodies and refrigerated trucks from meatpacking plants with a tumor ice cream, but when they want to get them for the autopsy, he wasn't there.

The gen evasies must have someone on the inside. - You still want to bring Joe in? - Before you said no. - Before we had a body now where there's no corpse, no case. - No murder case.

But Joe's a sitting duck for conspiracy and fraud. - Frank, he's your sister's husband. - That was hard choice. - If I brought Joe in, his lawyer would have amounted five minutes. So I decided to build our case in the court of public opinion.

- How are you doing? - Tell me about this attempt of a church in a cleaner world. - What does that mean? - Frank's story on him. - Huh?

- Genene Harris was a reporter for the post and vicious but honest, which he don't know we see. - We're in court for some. Frank, you don't buy him for any about. - Hm.

- The late Eddie Bernstein's car.

- Do the authorized? - Mickey showed you need the warrant. - Well, there it is. - Okay. - When did Eddie become late?

“- Yeah, within the last 40 years I was we think it's approximate.”

His body disappeared before the autopsy. - That's too bad. Murder sells papers. - And he has just couldn't work. Yeah, yeah, it's working already. Size of sheets. Sign in. Sign out.

The crews sign in. Each guy with multiple names. Today they sign for 10 hours but they work eight. By Friday the crews exist the only on pay but but the city's still paying full salary is plus French's and as far as the union is concerned, it's all kosher.

- Okay, I'm not a lawyer but it sounds to me like fraud and conspiracy.

- All we'll need to convict is a jury that speaks English and hasn't been bought off. It's a front-page story, Janine. - Well, I could use the buy line. My contract's up soon. - The post will give you an extension. - The post? No.

- I'm back and for the times. - Page fucking one in the post by Janine what the fuck is a name. - Really, really Joe. - When the twint hours once stood is now a scene of devastation but to the mob it may be a well-all cash register.

- The fuck are we paying you for Mickey? He's supposed to keep shit like this out of the papers. It's a pure speculation. - Now listen to this. - Mob connected truckers steal and tons of scrap metal for sale

instead of transporting them to city on landfills where they might yield evidence including human remains. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. - Look, Frank Sturiano saying that he burns these bodies gone missing from the morgue.

“- Mickey, Mickey, that's what we fucking need sweetheart.”

That's all we fucking need. - Only one of the time I heard dip raises voice like that. - Yeah? - About what? - Doesn't matter.

What matters is guys wound up in the weeds. - The problem is Frank. - Don't go there, Joe. - Once the son of a bitch gets his teeth into something. - I took Eddie out, so Frank would be kept safe.

- No one expected us to be reading about ourselves in the goddamn post. - What's Frank care about more than anything else? - The job? - More than his wife and kid?

- I'd say it's neck and neck. - Yeah, we'll make it closer than that, Mickey. (dramatic music)

“- That's all hot, hot, hot, hot, hot, hot.”

- That night our house caught on fire. - No, no, no. - 'Cause the FDNY was stretched so thin. Our neighbors used their own garden walls. - When I got there, smoke was pouring from the upstairs windows.

And for a second I felt like everyone who watched the tower's burn and fall.

Not knowing whether their people were dead or alive. - Frank, over here! - There was my system, Marie. - Where's Connie and Frankie? - She took care of my wife and son.

They were okay. I took them to a motel a few bucks away. I went to say tonight to Frankie. - You okay, kiddo? - Yeah.

- What's this? - I am... I wrote you a letter. Here. I started reading, but I didn't get far.

There's something you finish it. - I'm proud of you, Dad. You're my hero. And you always will be. I love Frankie.

- Get some sleep, buddy. - Goodnight, Dad. - Goodnight. - I think we need these. - You all right?

- Mm. - My house just got torched by my brother-in-law. Other than that. - I'm sorry, Connie. - Take your drink.

- I can't. I gotta get back. - You can't be serious. - I'm sorry, Connie. - Take your drink.

I gotta get back. - You can't be serious. - They need me. - We need you, Frankie.

“- There are officers outside to protect you.”

- This wasn't a fire. It was a message. - Who is it? - Mickey, you guys okay? - One second.

- Connie, I have to do this.

- Then go. - When it's over, we can start again. - When it's over, don't expect us to be here. - Frankie said he was proud of me.

- Well, that's everything. - Connie said she'd take Frankie and leave. - What would you do, Mick? - I had the choice once. - And there were so many people who relied on me.

And a few who loved me. I chose the few. - You glad you did. - Elaine and the kids. - We're all still together.

- Frank, maybe you should get out.

- And let Joe win.

“- And you've given the job everything you got.”

No one would blame you if you quit Frank. - I can think of someone. - The ball was pretty empty. - Mickey was in a booth by himself. - So, I thought it would work.

I thought of Connie threatened to leave. - You know what has to happen now. - Did someone else Joe? - Anyone else he'll see you coming? - I can't.

- Frank's a cop for Christ's sake. That's what he's been trained for. - He trusts you. - Today's your opening. - Joe, we haven't understanding that Frank stays alive.

- Yeah, well, it's above me now. - If you win yours or him and his, you're both lucky to take him this long. - Hello. - Hey Frank.

“- When Mickey called, he said he was in the tunnel outside the vault.”

That they found a big stash of gold, and he wanted me to be there with him, and the press showed up. But no one was there. Until he stepped out of the shadow, I saw the glint in his hand.

If he saw my gun, he didn't let on. - Remember when I was the rookie? What you told me that first week? - No. - Don't ever meet a C.I. alone.

You don't control the variables, you don't walk in. I'm not a C.I. Frank. - No, you're not. - So what am I then? - You're dirty.

You're with Joe and the Genoviesies. You killed Eddie. - Hello, if you know him. - Since you said he was just another victim in building four. - Isn't this how it's supposed to end?

- For guys like us. - I once talked about that with Joe.

I never thought it had the same talk with you.

- You and here we are. - Do the job right. That's what you always said. Was any of it real? - More than you know.

I think you might even believe that. How they put it? - When they told you to take me out. - In very few words. - And you said yes.

- And even fewer. Franky. Franky, I have no choice. - There's always a choice. - Don't understand.

- Make me understand. - If I don't do this, I'm dead. - Franky, you're dead. - So that's it. You just get ahead of it.

- I contained it, Frank. - By killing me. - By ending it here.

But don't dress it up like it's anything else.

You're choosing them. - I'm choosing to stay alive. - Same thing. - Was I ever just a job to you? - No.

- Then don't do it.

“- Don't make this harder than it has to be.”

- I'm not the one doing that. - If you're going to do it, do it as you. - Franky. - Franky. - I love you.

- And I love you. - No. - No. - No. - God.

- He was... - Make you wish to hear. - He wasn't. - Honey, he's dead. Look at me.

He was only here in the dream.

- Okay? - County. - Hold me. - Hold me. - I got you.

- Please. - It's okay, honey. - Hold me. - You're all right. - When I spoke at Mickey's memorial,

“I wanted people to remember him the way I wanted to,”

but no longer could. I wanted his wife and kids to get his pension, so I lied when I said he gave his life as part of the rescue operation. - Do the job right. - Maybe it was true, then I thought.

- If there's one thing I learned from Mickey, that's it. If there's one thing my son learns from me, I hope that's it, too. - After 25 years, and two separations, break and I are still together.

Surviving may not be the same as healing, but at least he's home every night. - Frank Junior has a family of his own now. His letter is still framed on the wall, a Frank sold office at the NYPD.

- Because of our case against the genesis, legislation was passed to stop organized crime from the frorting the city. It didn't, but it slowed him down. Joe Bianchi served six years.

“It would have been more, but he got 9/11”

related lung cancer and died in prison. My sister and I haven't talked since. I've got cancer too, but I'm hanging in. There are 2983 names in scribe around the reflecting pools where the twin tower stood.

I go there every now and then.

Almost 3,000 people are never me,

but who would be part of my life forever. Underground Zero, 9/11 in the mom, is a production of thoroughbred studios, Gold Hawk productions, and I/HAR podcasts. Starring Michelin Perioli, Steve Shrippa,

Ray Abruzo, and Arthur Jane Askarella. It is created and written by Stephen Cronish, and directed by John Scott Driedin. Original music is by Sasha Putnam, editing and sound design by Adam Woodham's,

and and Thrina Gomez Kasanova. The series producer is Emma Hurn. The executive producers are Michelin Perioli, Jeremy Fox, John Scott Driedin, Howard Stringer, and Jason English.

In Underground Zero, Frank Sturiano is played by Michelin Perioli, Joe Bianchi by Steve Shrippa, Mickey Cronin, Ray Abruzo, Dip Deep Pietro, Arthur Jane Askarella,

Connie Sturiano, Tonya Cornelisi, Marie Bianchi, Julie Serta, Eddie Bernstein, Roberto Divid,

TV Anchorman, Donald Sage Mackay, Frank Jr., Lucas Silva, Mayor Rudy Giuliani,

Eric Myers, North Tower caller and Catholic priest, Wallace Hammond, Janine Harris, Jennifer Omar,

TV Anchorman,

Sarchanone Connor, Alexander Pazos, Carol Nettie Chicoing, South Tower caller, Lily Lefko,

First response Tommy, and FDNY Chaplin, Nicholas DiPero, Mob Soldier, Alessandra Corona,

“All other parts were played by the cast,”

Script Supervision by Flynn Holman,

The studio engineers are Paul Clark, Diana David, Mack Conclin, Adam Primeck, and Mia Preferetti.

The trailers producer is Jack Sober,

“Underground Zero is available on the iHeart Radio app,”

Apple podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts.