Script non tourné 101

                                            DARK ANGEL

                                            SECOND DRAFT

                                            October 18, 1999

 

FADE IN :

 

EXT.  MOUNTAINS - NIGHT

 

A full moon rises over a white blanketed expanse of meadow

freshly dusted with powder.  In the distance, a dark wall of

pine rises into the crisp, blue-black night.  The landscape

is serene, tranquil, needing only airborne reindeer to

elevate it to Christmas card status.  Suddenly a young girl,

eight or nine years old, races into frame, LONG LENS STACK,

running for all she's worth.  Her hair is close-cropped, a

military buzz.  She wears only a nightgown, no shoes.  Her

bare feet blast through the snow as YOUNG MAX powers across

the open meadow.

 

A SUNGUN xenon spotlight moves across the ground like a death

ray, searching left and right among the trees.

 

ANGLE ON A SNOW COVERED MEADOW as the xenon beam sweeps the

trees nearby.  It passes on and the sound of the chopper

fades.  Out of the treeline bursts the running figure.

 

LONG LENS, WHIP PANNING with Max as she runs.  HEAR the sound

of her breathing, deep and regular, like a horse.  She runs

like a machine, no stumbling, no wasted motion.  Her breath

trails behind her in the frigid mountain air.  Closer now, we

see her nightgown is actually a hospital gown.

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          The escape was not my idea.  I mean,

          escape to what?  We didn't know there was

          anything else.

 

Max reaches the treeline just as the xenon spot sweeps over

again.  It slashes bright light through the branches, then

moves away.  She looks up, taking deep, controlled breaths,

then runs.

 

EXT.  MOUNTAINS, NEARBY - NIGHT

 

A pack of snowmobiles are slashing through the trees, their

engines whining, ridden by black-clad SOLDIERS wearing

nightvision goggles and carrying rifles.

 

EXT.  SNOWSCAPE - NIGHT

 

Max runs through a thicket of trees into a clearing.  Behind

logs and tree trunks, several other children are concealed.

She joins them wordlessly, exchanging hand signals with the

oldest boy, ZACK.  There are eight of them, all about Max's

age, except for two older boys.  They have the same severe

haircuts.  Like Max, they are not dressed for the cold but

they don't seem affected by it.  We may notice that they all

have a curious looking mark on the back of their necks...a

bar-code.

 

Another child makes it to the rally point...a girl, JONDY.

She joins Max and they clasp hands.  The children look across

the meadow, hoping to see more coming, but Jondy is the last.

They hear distant POPS of gunfire.

 

The sound of the snowmobiles grows steadily louder.  Zack

points at his wrist, an imaginary watch, and makes a slashing

sigh with his hand.  Out of time.  With vigorous hand signals

he separates the children into escape-and-evade teams, two to

a team.  Max and Jondy are paired.  The children's manner is

clipped, military and much older than their years.

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          It was Zack who said we had to leave.  So

          I guessed he saved my life... And I never

          even got the chance to thank him.

 

The kids nod perfunctorily to Zack and head off, running

through the trees in their teams of two.  Max indicates she

doesn't want to leave Zack alone but he reiterates the order

with sharp hand signals.  Finally, Jondy pulls Max by the

arm, leaving Zack, who scans the forest with bright, feral

eyes.

 

EXT.  BUILDING - NIGHT

 

Black-clad guards drag a struggling child who's been

recaptured toward an imposing building, some sort of research

facility.  Somewhere an alarm wails.

 

A figure, silhouetted by the lights of an approaching Humvee.

The man raises a walkie with one hand, keeping the other

buried in his pocket.  Security chief DONALD LYDECKER, 30s,

scans the dark forest as he speaks into the walkie.

 

                     LYDECKER

          This is Lydecker.  I want you to capture

          if you can.  But if any of them make it

          to the perimeter, you are to terminate.

          Is that understood?

 

                     VOICE

               (on radio)

          Confirming, Sir, you're giving an order

          ten-oh-six.

 

Though it is more question than confirmation.

 

                     LYDECKER

          I'll take responsibility.  If they reach

          the outer fence...shoot to kill.

 

Lydecker jumps into the Humvee as it pulls up next to him.

They roar off into the woods.

 

EXT.  WOODS - NIGHT

 

Max and Jondy sprint through the trees.  They reach a

chainlink fence topped with barber wire.  Jondy climbs a

nearby tree, runs out along a limb.  She leaps out into

space, plants her hands on the top row of the wire and does a

gymnast's vault over it, into a perfect dismount in the snow.

Max follows.

 

ANGLE THROUGH NIGHTVISION SCOPE...the thermal signatures of

the two girls at the fence look like luminous ghosts in a

green landscape.

 

TIGHT ON a trooper, scope to his eye, moving his finger to

the trigger of his rifle.

 

WHAM!  He is tackled from the side by a blurring shape.  He

hits the ground and struggles to raise the weapon...seeming

to go into slow motion as--

 

WHAP!  Zack knocks the weapon cartwheeling out of his hands

with a sweeping roundhouse kick, then swings a hunk of broken

branch like a Louisville Slugger.  The trooper drops and

stays down.

 

AT THE FENCE Max lands in a snowdrift on the far side, then

spins around in a crouch as headlights hit her.  For a split

second her pupils flash with a green glow like a cat's eyes.

Through the chainlink fence she sees black figures surround

Zack, silhouetted by the headlights of arriving snowmobiles.

 

IN SLOW MOTION one of the troopers fires a tazer at Zack.

Moving in real time (and thus much faster than the scene

around him, which remains in slo-mo) Zack ducks the flying

tazer dart.  It embeds in a soldier behind him who is jump-

started by the 150,000 volts.  Zack smashes the tazer-firing

guy with the log and leaps toward another when--

 

Five troopers fire tazers simultaneously and--

 

Zack ducks and spins, dodging, but--

 

One of the darts connects and he lights up, convulsing as--

 

Two more troopers run up and fire at close range and--

 

Zack goes down, making spasmodic snow angels.

 

Max stares in horror as Zack is set upon by the human wolves.

Jondy grabs her and yanks her away.  They sprint across a

clearing and over a frozen pond toward the sheltering woods

beyond.  The xenon searchlight rakes the trees near them.  We

HEAR snowmobiles converging.

 

Max, trailing Jondy by a few feet, drops suddenly as the ice

beneath her gives way.  Jondy goes back to pull her out,

lying on the ice and reaching out.  Max grabs Jondy's hand,

but as she pulls herself up out of the hole, the edge breaks

away and Max falls back.  Jondy looks up at the sound of

snowmobiles, and the xenon spotlight raking through the woods

toward them.

 

                     MAX

          Go on... GO!

 

                     JONDY

          No.  We stick together.

 

                     MAX

          Go, Jondy.  I'll find you.

 

With that, Max takes a big gulp of air and disappears under

the water.

 

                     JONDY

          Max...

 

But she's gone.  Jondy looks up to see soldiers running

toward the fence.  Some of them kneel, raising their rifles.

 

Jondy sprints for the woods.  The xenon spotlight finds her.

KAPOW!  POW!  POW!  Snow explodes around her as the bullets

whiz by.  She makes the treeline as bark is blasted off the

trees next to her.  Jondy runs on, into the black woods.

 

Humvees smash through the fence, followed by snowmobiles and

running men.  One of the Humvees stops next to the pond,

Lydecker jumps out.  He is met by a LIEUTENANT.

 

                     LIEUTENANT

          We've got seven so far...three wounded,

          two killed.  And my men are taking a

          helluva beating.

 

                     LYDECKER

          Just get them, Lieutenant.  It's your ass

          if one of them makes it to the outside.

 

                     LIEUTENANT

          Realistically, Sir, it's ten degrees out

          here.  How far can these kids get?

 

                     LYDECKER

          Find them.

 

Lydecker lights a cigarette, holding it in one bare hand.

The hand which flicks the lighter is sheathed in a tight

black leather glove.  He gets into the Humvee and goes.  PUSH

IN ON the ice where Lydecker had been standing.  Back-lit by

the eerie, blue-green glow of the sungun refracted through

the water we see--

 

MAX

 

underwater, her face pressed against the ice looking upward,

very much alive, eyes wide with fear--

 

                                                 DISSOLVE TO :

 

THE SAME PAIR OF EYES

 

PULL BACK to find Max, now a girl of eighteen.  Her brown

eyes are piercing, her dark hair alive in the wind framing

her beautiful face.

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          Sometimes it seems like it happened to

          someone else.  Like maybe it was a story

          I heard... The hardest part is not

          knowing...if any of them made it.  If I

          knew for sure I was the only one left, it

          would be worse.  At least now I can make

          up lives for them... Like maybe Jondy's

          a fashion photographer...or an architect.

          The truth is they'd just be like me...

          living on the run, always looking over

          your shoulder.

 

As we continue PULLING BACK we see that she is seated atop

one tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, the city of San

Francisco glimmering in the background.  How she got up

there, we have no clue.

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          Hope is for losers.  It's a con job

          people trip behind until they finally get

          a grip on the cold hard truth... But

          still I...hope they're out there,

          somewhere...some of them.  And that

          they're okay.

 

OFF MAX

 

staring into the night.

 

                                                SMASH CUT TO :

 

MAIN TITLES

 

INT.  MAX'S CRIB - DAY (DAY ONE)

 

EXTREME CLOSE UP ON MAX, present day, her eyes shut tight,

flinching from the inner concussion of--

 

FLASH CUTS

 

Grainy, black and white images seen in EXTREME CLOSE UP, with

an almost abstract expressionist quality :

 

A line of children, heads shaven, saluting.  Small feet in

boots marching in unison.  There is only a roaring, rushing

sound, and a kind of word-babble of distorted, amplified

commands... PA speakers, megaphones.

 

MAX

 

in the present, hugs herself and trembles as the images play

through her head.

 

FLASH CUTS...

 

Young Max on a treadmill, wired and taped up with every kind

of sensing device and electrode, a tube taped in her mouth,

running with intense concentration.

 

TIGHT ON a pupil scanned by a laser.  Electrodes being

attached to a scalp.  A needle rising against a surgical

light.  TIGHT CUTS of abstract figures in medical smocks...no

faces.

 

An instructor standing against a large screen, gesturing with

a pointer to a tactical diagram made up of organized boxes

and acronyms.  TRACKING along bright young faces, taking it

in.  TIGHT ON graphics:  DUTY, DISCIPLINE, TEAMWORK.

 

LONG LENS STACK of kids marching in rows in a tiled hallway,

wearing grey pajama-like fatigues, the bar-code tattoos on

the backs of their necks visible as they strut past.  Stack

of kids doing push-ups.  Kids punching in unison in a martial

drill.  Young Max and another girl in fierce hand-to-hand

combat training.  Max's face is a mask of ferocity as she

attacks.  She punches hard and--

 

BANG!  A bathroom mirror slams shut.

 

INT.  BATHROOM - DAY

 

Max, in color and present day, looking at herself, then

glances down at her hand, which is shaking with a tremor.

She clenches it into a fist and then bends to splash cold

water on her face.  She uncaps some pills, pops two in her

mouth.

 

                     GIRL'S VOICE (O.C.)

          It sucks.

 

                     MAX

          What sucks?

 

As she starts brushing her teeth.

 

WIDE, showing Max's apartment and her roommate, KENDRA, who

is wearing a long T-shirt and a hungover look, sipping

coffee.  We see that the apartment is an unfinished building,

a luxury high-rise in the making until the day construction

simply stopped.  The walls are taped drywall, spray-painted

with colorful undulating graffiti by somebody's old

boyfriend.  This is where Max and Kendra have been crashing

for the last several months.  Dominating the room are Max's

babies...her bikes:  an ugly but fast messenger bicycle...and

a much faster rice-burner motorcycle with a race faring.

 

                     KENDRA

          I come home, it's three a.m., you're

          still out.  I feel like I got hit by a

          cement truck and you been up for an hour

          bouncing around.  That by definition

          sucks.

 

Max swishes some bottled water and spits, wiping her mouth

with the back of her hand.

 

                     MAX

          I made you coffee.  That oughta help you

          cope with the injustice of the world a

          little.

 

                     KENDRA

          Thanks, it's starting to kick in.

               (another sip)

          I feel almost human.

 

                     MAX

          Yeah, me too.

 

She studies herself in the mirror, her expression enigmatic.

 

                     MAX

          Almost.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

INT.  CORRIDOR - DAY

 

Max wheels her bike out of the apartment which has no door,

only a piece of plywood which she slides across the opening.

Max has a big glazed jelly donut in her mouth, which she will

eat throughout the following scene.  The corridor is lit by

sunlight leaking in from outside.  No utilities.  No rent.

No problem.  As she makes her way along the corridor we HEAR

music and somewhere a TV blares the news.  She passes a young

Chinese woman doing Tai Chi in a splash of sunlight from a

window.  Max stops at a doorway.

 

                     MAX

          Knock, knock.

 

Inside is THEO, 30, his wife JACINDA, and their little boy,

OMAR.  Jacinda is putting first grade reading books into a

knapsack for Omar, who is dawdling with his breakfast.  Theo

sits on the edge of the bed, hunched and pale.

 

                     MAX

          Hi guys.

               (to Theo)

          Let's roll, hotshot.

 

Theo looks longingly at his bicycle, leaning against the

wall.  He coughs.  Jacinda flashes a worried look at Max.

 

                     THEO

          Gotta take a personal day.  Whatever it

          is I got, I'm bitin' it bad.

 

He hugs himself, shivering visibly.

 

                     MAX

          It's payday, need me to pick up your

          check?

 

                     THEO

          You're the best, Maxie.

 

                     JACINDA

          Come on, little bit, you're gonna be late

          for school.  Three more bites.

 

                     OMAR

          Two more.

 

                     JACINDA

          But big ones.

               (to Max)

          Everything's a negotiation.

 

Max winks at Omar, who winks back.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

EXT.  MAX'S BUILDING - DAY

 

Max squeezes out through a chain-link gate which is loosely

chained shut.  Behind her looms the unfinished building.  The

ground floor is boarded up with plywood commandeered during

the night by some street artist for a mural of an anime-style

boy wearing shades, collar up, blowing a puff of smoke into

the open mouth of a beautiful, full-lipped, wickedly made-up

anime-style girl.  Max hops on her bike and takes off with

powerful strokes down the street.

 

EXT.  STREET - DAY

 

TIGHT ON MAX'S LEGS

 

as she pumps the pedals of her bike, muscles flexing under

cafe au lait skin.

 

CLOSE ON MAX

 

breathing in a regular, easy rhythm as she power up a long

hill.  We get the sense that she is not working even close to

capacity.  Nevertheless, she is flying, gracefully weaving

among the cars and foot-traffic.

 

WIDE

 

as Max pumps her bike through the streets bustling with

activity.  A normal day in the city two decades from now.

 

Things have changed by the year 2020, but in subtle ways.

The skyline is the same, not transformed by gleaming

megastructures.  There are no Jetson flying vehicles

glittering among the high-rises.  It is a city frozen in

time, stopped dead in the tracks of progress.  But it is far

from a deserted place.  On the contrary, the streets are more

alive than ever.

 

Max bunny-hops a curb, side-skids around a tight corner and

barrels down a split-lane between a bunch of sluggishly

moving cars, mostly older models from around the turn of the

century, the last time people could afford to buy anything.

They are primered and held together with tape and wire.  Many

of them have been retrofitted with alcohol fuel tanks.  Among

these beaters run the micromini commuter cars which came

later-- little plastic pieces of crap which look almost like

kids' toys, powered by motorcycle engines.  There are

delivery boys on scooters, and big, new, hybrid-powered SUV's

with class-2 armor and tinted windows driven by gangsters and

their street muscle.  As always, gangsters are the only ones

prospering in hard times.

 

A lot of people use bicycles as their primary form of

transportation-- housewives, secretaries, businessmen.  The

bike messengers, like Max, hate them more than the cars,

because they clog the sidewalks and lanes between traffic

with their slow wobbling.

 

At major intersections, National Guard armored personnel

carriers and Humvees squat ominously.  There are checkpoints

throughout the city, with sand-bagged guard stations.  The

bored-looking soldiers stand around smoking, their assault

rifles slung casually.  They flirt with secretaries on their

way to work, and talk to passing school kids.  Occasionally,

they pull a car out of the line and shake the driver down,

going through the trunk and pulling his possessions out onto

the sidewalk.  It's bullshit, third-world martial law gone

stale.  A way of life.  Just part of the landscape.

 

Max brakes to a stop at a sand-bagged checkpoint.  She

flashes the plastic ID clipped to her vest to a YOUNG

SOLDIER, along with a too-big smile.

 

                     MAX

          Jam Pony Messenger.

 

He smiles back and waves her through, checking her out as she

goes.

 

                     YOUNG SOLDIER

          Have a good one.

 

Women and men stand listlessly in endless lines outside

stores, waiting their turn to buy from the paltry selection

on the half-empty shelves.

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          They used to say one nuclear bomb can

          ruin your whole day.  It was sort of a

          joke until the June morning those

          terrorist bozos whacked us with an

          electromagnetic pulse from eighty miles

          up... You always hear people yappin' on

          how it was all different before the

          pulse...land of milk and honey, blah blah

          blah, with plenty of food and jobs and

          things actually worked.  I was too young

          to remember so...whatever.

 

Cops in heavy riot armor walk through the crowds and cruise

the traffic in patrol cars which have been retrofitted with

polycarbonate shields over the windows and kevlar armor

panels over the doors.  Among those walking with purpose are

tides of homeless.  The high unemployment caused by the

economic collapse has led to a homeless population not seen

since the Great Depression almost a century before.  They

live in makeshift colonies under freeway overpasses, in

abandoned cars and parking structures.  They've been living

there for years, some with a lot of creature comforts-- putt-

putt generators running TV sets, that sort of thing.

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          Thing I don't get is why they call it a

          depression.  I mean, everyone's broke but

          they aren't really all that depressed...

          Life goes on.

 

RACK FOCUS

 

from Max as she passes to a young mother, who lives in a

gutted car, sending the kids off to catch the school bus.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

INT.  JAM PONY X-PRESS - DAY

 

An overhead fluorescent flickers.  This is the nerve center

of JAM PONY X-PRESS, San Francisco's oldest messenger

service, founded sometime in the early years of the 21st

Century.  The crew of messengers, mostly in their 20's, of

various ethnicities, includes SKETCHY, DRUID, A.K.A., et al.

They drink coffee and half-watch an ancient TV hung from the

ceiling while they wait for assignments.  HERBAL THOUGHT,

30's, full-dressed Rastaman, stoned (it being 9:15 already),

bums tobacco and rolling papers from Sketchy as he makes his

case to a very pissed boss, NORMAL, 40's, beefy, so-named

because he's always pissed off.

 

                     HERBAL

          Nobody there to sign for it, mon.  What's

          a bruddah s'posed to do, ride around all

          day with the damn package?

 

                     NORMAL

          So you just decided to return it to the

          sender.  Or, in this case, the sender's

          wife.

 

                     HERBAL

          Like de prophets say, "Only the

          unrighteous husband sends expensive gift-

          wrapped underpants to another woman."

 

Normal heads behind the shipping counter which is cluttered

with packing slips, mailing tubes, etc.

 

                     NORMAL

          Which is none of your business...or mine.

 

                     HERBAL

               (nods assent)

          It concerns only Jah.  But, in this case,

          I was the instrument of the Most High.

 

                     NORMAL

          Yeah, well around here, I'm the Most

          High... From now on, before you do

          anything, call in for instructions.

 

In b.g. PICK UP and STAY WITH Max, who enters on her bike,

ignoring the sign which reads :  YOUR BIKE IS TO RIDE NOT TO

BRING INSIDE.  Normal's reaction suggests this is a habit

he's given up trying to break her of.  He shoves a package at

Herbal just to get rid of him.

 

                     NORMAL

          This is a hot run.  Beat it.

               (to Max)

          You're late.

 

                     MAX

          I was on call.

               (indicates her pager)

 

                     NORMAL

          I want you on call here.

 

                     MAX

          What's the difference if I'm on call here

          or deployed in the field.

 

                     NORMAL

          More like deployed in bed asleep.

 

                     MAX

          I don't sleep... Theo asked me to pick

          up his check.

 

                     NORMAL

          And Theo can't pick up his own check

          because?...

 

                     MAX

          He's sick.

 

                     NORMAL

          For a change.

 

                     MAX

          How 'bout you don't break my sneakers on

          this.  The guy is seriously not well.

 

Max just looks at him.  Finally, Normal relents, reaches into

a drawer, hands her a pay envelope.

 

                     NORMAL

          You tell Theo he's not in tomorrow he can

          start looking for another job.

 

                     MAX

          I don't know how to break this to you,

          Normal, we're all looking for another

          job.

 

Max crosses to a row of lockers where her home girl, ORIGINAL

CINDY, Black, 22, dressed in leather, stiletto nails, ghetto

fabulous, slams her locker shut, pissed off.  Max regards her

a beat then--

 

                     MAX

          Morning, Sunshine...

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Caught some son-of-a-bitch stealing my

          bike.  Used a car jack to blow out my U

          lock and bent a bunch of spokes.  So now

          I gotta get my wheels fixed.

 

                     MAX

          At least he didn't swing with your ride.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          No, but I broke a nail giving him a

          cranium crack and that just sort of

          wrecks your day, know what I'm saying?

 

She looks over as NATALIE, clean cut, 20, arrives, crosses to

her boyfriend Sketchy and presents him with a box of cookies

and a kiss.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Now, why can't I find a girlfriend like

          that?  Brings him lunch everyday,

          thoughtful, sweet, legs from here to

          there--

 

                     MAX

          Straight.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Shame, wastin' a girl like that on a guy,

          but what're you gonna do?

 

Sketchy approaches, proffering the box of cookies.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Homemade.  Natalie baked them for our

          anniversary.  The big one-oh.

 

As Max dives in.

 

                     MAX

          The big one-oh?

 

                     NATALIE

          We went on our first date ten months ago

          tonight.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Congratulations.

 

Original Cindy and Max exchange a look, then Original Cindy

heads off, passing a--

 

TV SCREEN

 

as the regular programming turns to snow, replaced after a

moment by the pixelated image of the pirate cyber-journalist

known to the masses as "EYES ONLY."  As someone cranks up the

volume, PAN around the faces in the room who listen in rapt

attention.

 

                     EYES ONLY

               (on screen)

          Do not attempt to adjust your set.  This

          is a Video Free America bulletin.  The

          cable hack will last exactly sixty

          seconds.  It cannot be traced, it cannot

          be stopped, and it is the only free voice

          left in this city...

 

        SKETCHY                       EYES ONLY)

Is this guy for real?            (on screen)

                             There are certain men who

                             move through the world with

        MAX                  impunity.  Their actions, no

   (bored skepticism)        matter how vile, are immune

Who knows...                 from consequence.  Edgar

                             Sonrisa is such a man.  You've

                             seen him smiling at political

        DRUID                fund-raisers, sitting at the

He ever been wrong           Mayor's table drinking

about anything?              champagne.  He owns shopping

                             centers, a trucking company

                             and the largest medical

        MAX                  supply company in San

You ask me, he's on the      Francisco.  He also runs drugs

hustle same as everyone      and guns up and down the west

else.                        coast.  He's very publicly,

                             very obviously dirty.  But he

                             has never been arrested...

Someone shushes her.         never indicted.  Journalists

                             who have attempted to expose

                             him have been gunned down in

        DRUID                the street.  Their blood is

Doesn't mean he's not        the ink of our modern news.

telling the truth.           Those who've opposed him have

                             vanished... All of that is

                             about to change...

 

                     MAX

          Doesn't mean he is.

 

Max turns and heads off.

 

                     HERBAL

          Just hope Jah's looking out for his ass

          'cause he's messing with the brimstone,

          bruddah.

 

Off which--

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

EXT.  INTERSECTION - DAY

 

Max and Sketchy are stopped at a light together.  Max

practices balancing her bike at a dead stop, seeming to defy

gravity, staying upright without a foot on the ground.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Major negativity heading this-a-way.

 

Off Sketchy's nod Max glances up at--

 

MAX'S POV

 

Six clean-cut, young kids walking abreast on the sidewalk-- a

little too clean-cut... They're STRAIGHT EDGE KIDS, the

American equivalent to Islamic fundamentalists, only with

buzz cuts, wife-beater T's, tats, chuks, etc.  They shove

aggressively through the crowd.  Ahead of them, two teenagers

are making out on a bus bench, lip-locked and oblivious.  The

Straight Edgers grab them and start beating the shit out of

them.  Nobody intervenes.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Someone oughta drop a little science on

          these straight edge idiots.

 

Max's expression is stony, her eyes cold.

 

                     MAX

          Not my problem...or yours.

 

The light changes and Max is gone.  Sketchy hesitates, then

goes after her.  Max strokes along in high gear, rocketing

between the cars.  Sketchy can barely keep up.

 

About three stories up, a police HOVERDRONE scans the street

below as it glides between the buildings with an annoying

whine.  It looks like a flattened flying donut, two feet

across, painted PD blue-and-white, with a ducted rotor in the

middle.  It is bristling with antennae and cameras-- visible

range and infrared.  As it sails across some of the lower

rooftops, we see a lot of jerry-rigged solar panels where

people are trying to cope with the constant brown-outs and

blackouts.

 

Hearing the drone overhead, Max pulls her ball-cap down a

little lower.  She doesn't want to wind up on the

surveillance monitors at headquarters.

 

                     MAX

          Catch you back at the wall.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Later.

 

Sketchy waves, peeling off at an intersection to go south.

Max powers on.

 

She passes through the stalls of a street market where all

manner of junk and homegrown produce is hawked.  The economy

is half barter these days.  Stall owners loudly hawk expired

canned goods, military MREs, backyard carrots, surplus

parachute silk, ammo, or flour bulked out with spirulina from

the government tank farms.

 

Max smokes down the hill between the stalls.  She puts two

fingers to her lips and whistles shrilly.  Ahead, a stall

owner, BEN, looks up to see her coming and fires a tomato

toward her as she passes.

 

Across forty feet of crowded street, at a full clip, Max

catches the tomato with one hand, calls--

 

                     MAX

          Hit you back later.

 

The stall owner turns to his wife and chuckles.

 

                     BEN

          Never seen her miss.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

EXT.  HIGH-RISE DISTRICT - DAY

 

Max pulls up in front of a building in the old financial

district.  She hops off and pulls a pin in the frame of her

bike, folding it double.  Then she hefts it onto her shoulder

and walks into--

 

INT.  LOBBY - DAY

 

Max walks up to the GUARD at the desk behind a mesh-steel

cage.

 

                     MAX

          Delivery...1906.

 

                     GUARD

          No bikes in the elevator.

 

Wordlessly, Max jams it at him, all attitude, then locks it

to the cage and walks toward the elevator.

 

INT.  ELEVATOR - DAY

 

Max rides up in a glass elevator with a good view of the

high-rise district in b.g.  The inside of the elevator glass

is scarred with graffiti.

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          This was s'posed to be the financial

          district, back before the banks closed.

          America really thought they had it dialed

          in-- money hangin' out the ass.  But it

          was all just a bunch of ones and zeros in

          a computer someplace.  So when that bomb

          went KA-BLOOEY and the electromagnetic

          pulse turned all the ones and zeros into

          plain ol' zeros, everyone's like "no

          way."  Now America's just another broke

          ex-super power looking for a handout and

          wondering why.

 

INT.  19TH FLOOR LOBBY - DAY

 

Max hands the envelope to a secretary who signs the receipt.

Max's eyes rove the room, alert.  Scanning.

 

INT.  19TH FLOOR CORRIDOR - DAY

 

Max exits the suite and pauses by the window at the end of

the corridor.  Something catches her eye.

 

CLOSE-UP OF MAX

 

her eyes scanning.

 

MAX'S POV

 

The building next door, another high-rise a few floors

shorter.  It appears to be abandoned but Max's attention

focuses on the tenth floor balcony where several security

camera track slowly back and forth.  She sees movement...a

human figure...behind the dark glass of one of the windows.

 

Max walks back along the corridor.  She looks around and,

with no-one in sight, ducks through the emergency stairwell

door.

 

INT.  STAIRWELL - DAY

 

Max moves fluidly down the stairs, her body-English

transformed into something feral...catlike.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

EXT.  BUILDING - STREET LEVEL - DAY

 

The steel fire door opens and Max emerges.  She looks alertly

up and down the loading dock at the back of the building,

then opens her fanny pack and takes out a small roll of

packing tape, which she uses to compress the latch.  She goes

back inside, closing the door, which now is not locked.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

INT.  LOBBY - DAY

 

Max emerges from the elevator and claims her bike from the

guard station.

 

                     MAX

          Later.

 

The guard buzzes her out and she crosses the lobby, keeping

her head tilted slightly down so her hat bill blocks her face

from the surveillance cameras.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

EXT.  THE WALL - DAY

 

The gathering place for bike messengers from all over the

city.  This is where they hang out, play hacky-sack, smoke

cigarettes, score dope, etc.  Max glides up to Sketchy who is

sitting cross-legged atop the wall.

 

                     MAX

          's up.

 

Sketchy nods across the street where an SUV, a gangster ride

with tinted windows, is parked outside a Chinese restaurant.

A mob enforcer stands guard outside the door.  Inside, we see

another gangster holding the owner's hand over a fry-o-lator

full of boiling canola oil.  The enforcer barks his demands.

We can't quite make out the words but it's clear what's going

down.  The restaurant owner, an Asian man in his 50's, pleads

for mercy while his terrified wife, unable to take it

anymore, rushes to retrieve a wad of cash from a cabinet.

Outside on the sidewalk, a uniformed cop walks past.  The

commotion inside draws his attention, but seeing the enforcer

guarding the door, who nods, the cop hurries on.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Fog City's finest.

 

Max looks at her watch, then--

 

                     MAX

          Quitting time.  Grab a cold one?

 

                     SKETCHY

          I gotta meet Natalie for dinner.

 

                     MAX

          Right, the big one-oh.

 

                     SKETCHY

          But I'll take a rain check...

 

He smiles and pedals off.  STAY WITH him.  But as soon as he

rounds the corner, he stops at a pay phone, looks to make

sure the coast is clear, then dials.  After a beat, into the

phone--

 

                     SKETCHY

          Can I talk to Natalie?

               (then)

          You're not going to believe this.  I'm

          walkin' out the door and my idiot boss

          sticks me with a delivery way the hell

          out in the East Bay somewhere.  So I'm

          not gonna be able to make dinner... I

          know it's not fair... I begged, I

          pleaded, I pissed, I moaned, but I gotta

          do what I gotta do... We'll do something

          special, I promise... I love you too.

          Mousetrap.  Kisses.

 

He hangs up, locks his bike to a pole, bolts up the steps of

a townhouse across the street and rings the doorbell.  After

a moment LYDIA MEYERSON, late 40's, appears at the door.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Sorry I'm late but--

 

She silences him, planting a big wet one on his mouth.  Off

Sketchy in the arms of another women, as the door closes--

 

                                                    FADE OUT.

 

                        END OF ACT I

 

 

 

                           ACT II

 

FADE IN :

 

INT.  ZEITGEIST BAR - NIGHT (DAY ONE)

 

The city's bike messenger hang.  LAMAR, long, stringy hair,

big gut, bigger mouth, works the bar.  A big-screen TV

dominates the room, playing a continuous loop of car,

motorcycle, and truck crashes.  Seated at the bar along with

several of their pals, including Druid, Max munches nachos

while Original Cindy collects bets from assorted on-lookers,

then to Druid--

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          You in?

 

Druid coughs up some bills.  Original Cindy looks around.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Who else?

 

As Lamar approaches with drinks.

 

                     LAMAR

          What's the action?

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Max can repeat a fourteen-digit phone

          number by listening to the beep tones.

 

                     LAMAR

               (not impressed)

          Yeah...

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          On speed dial.

               (seeing he's intrigued)

          Buy-in's ten.

 

Lamar pulls out a bill and pushes it at Original Cindy, who

looks around.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Last chance...

               (no takers)

          Okay.  Let's do it.

 

The bar falls quiet.  All eyes are on Max as Lamar puts the

telephone on the bar, hits the speaker button.  The sound of

the dial tone seems to fill the room.  Max, all

concentration, closes her eyes.  A beat, then Lamar hits the

speed dial button and we HEAR a rapid-fire series of beep

tones.  Max opens her eyes as the CAMERA pushes in on her,

then equally rapid-fire--

 

                     MAX

          Seven-Nine-Six-Five-Seven-Three-Eight-One-

          Four-Two-Four-Six-Nine-Five.

 

Druid looks at the phone's display, sees she's correct, then

frustrated and amazed--

 

                     DRUID

          How'd you do that?

 

Max coolly extends an open palm and collects her winnings.

 

                     MAN'S VOICE (O.C.)

          I'll have a beer...since you're buying.

 

Max turns, sees DARREN McKENNEN, early 20's, too good

looking, her ex, judging from the lukewarm response.

 

                     MAX

          I wasn't.

 

She pockets the cash.

 

                     DARREN

          How're ya doin', Max.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          You mean until you showed up?

 

                     DARREN

               (ignores her)

          You're not still pissed?

 

                     MAX

          Why would I be pissed?

 

                     DARREN

          It was a complicated situation which

          could have been misconstrued, causing you

          to maybe take offense.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          'Cause you went out the back door and

          nailed her girlfriend?  Who would take

          offense to that?

 

                     DARREN

          Justine was not an unwilling participant.

 

An observation that buys him zero rhythm with the women.

 

                     DARREN

          Do you know why I went after Justine?

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          She was there...

 

                     DARREN

          Trying to have a relationship with you,

          Max, is like standing in a fog bank.  You

          know you're in the middle of something

          only you have absolutely no idea where

          you are.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          And when the fog lifted, there's Darren

          with his head under Justine's skirt.

 

                     DARREN

               (annoyed)

          Could you give us a moment.

 

Original Cindy moves off, then to Max--

 

                     DARREN

          I was crazy about you...am crazy about

          you.  But you keep everyone at arm's

          length like there's some great big dark

          something going on that-- I don't

          know... It's just that the more I tried

          to get close to you, the more you pulled

          away.

 

                     MAX

          I'm really glad we're having this

          conversation.  You're right.  I was angry

          at you.  But talking about it-- The

          scales have fallen from my eyes and I see

          now that it was all my fault.  Can you

          ever forgive me?

 

                     DARREN

          I see the perimeter defense system is

          still fully intact... At least I tried.

 

He goes.  Original Cindy drifts back.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Craps all over everything and everyone

          and then wants mommy to forgive him.

 

                     MAX

               (shrugs)

          What guys do.

               (to Lamar re : nachos)

          'Nother order.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          You're way more philosophical than I

          could ever be.

 

                     MAX

          I just don't go in with any expectations.

 

Just then Natalie approaches looking around the room for her

boyfriend.

 

                     NATALIE

          You guys seen Sketchy?

 

                     MAX

          Thought he was having dinner with you.

 

                     NATALIE

          He had to bail at the last minute on

          accounta some emergency run.  Thought

          maybe he stopped by here on the way home.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Haven't seen him.  But if we do--

 

                     NATALIE

          Hope he's okay.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          He probably just got stuck in traffic or

          something.

 

Natalie nods, moves off continuing her search.  Max considers

this a moment.

 

                     MAX

          That's odd...

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          What?

 

But Max shrugs it off, diverted by the arrival of the nachos

and is onto her next thought as she dives in.

 

                     MAX

          Tell me the truth.  Am I a female fog

          bank?

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          You're not seriously buying into Darren's

          nonsense.

 

                     MAX

               (without conviction)

          No.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          He was just trying to blame you 'cause

          he's a slut.

 

                     MAX

               (wanting to believe this)

          Yeah.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Hell yeah.  There's not the slightest

          grain of truth in anything that idiot was

          saying.  You are a totally down-ass

          female and a straight-up friend who

          happens to be a little...

 

                     MAX

          A little what?

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          You know what I'm saying.

 

                     MAX

          If I knew what you were saying, I

          wouldn't be asking.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          How long you and me known each other?

 

                     MAX

          A long time.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Long enough for you to pretty much read

          me like a book, right?

 

                     MAX

          Because you're probably my closest friend

          in the whole world.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          And back at ya.  Only there's a part of

          you that's... I don't know--

 

                     MAX

          A fog bank.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          More like a mystery... Which isn't bad.

          It's just kinduv...mysterious...

 

Max's pager goes off, she checks the number.

 

                     MAX

          Gotta go.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Where?

 

                     MAX

          It's a secret.

 

Max heads off, Original Cindy watching her go.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

EXT.  STREET - NIGHT

 

Max hauls ass through the sparse traffic on her rice-burner

motorcycle.  She slows in the neon glare of a row of ratty

storefronts.  She turns in at a laundromat, hopping the curb

and driving her motorcycle right through the open door.

 

INT.  LAUNDROMAT - NIGHT

 

Max purrs the bike to the back of the place, bathed in a

fluorescent glare which makes her skin cyan and pallid.  A

heavyset woman of indeterminate age watches her warily, but

doesn't break rhythm as she folds clothes.  Max jumps off and

kickstands the bike.  She walks through a door in the back

into--

 

INT.  CORRIDOR/OFFICE - NIGHT

 

A short, dingy corridor leads to the lit-up office of a

laundromat manager, DAN VOGELSANG, who also runs a private

detective business out of the place.  Max pushes the door

open and walks in, catching Vogelsang mid-bite in a meatball

sandwich.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          I asked you to keep that thing outside.

 

                     MAX

          You did.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          You drive away business roarin' in like

          that.

 

                     MAX

          Yeah, does kinda break the elegant

          atmosphere you got goin' on here.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          You got a punk-ass mouth on you, kid.

 

                     MAX

          My name's not kid.  It's client.  As in

          the person who pays for your opulent

          lifestyle.  Now, you got something for me

          or not?

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Right here someplace.

 

He goes through some piles of printouts, then pulls one out.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          I got a hit on the car.  An oh-five

          Tahoe, blue, with Wyoming tags...

          AGT349... It wasn't easy 'cause you were

          off in one of the numbers.

 

                     MAX

          Sorry, I was seven at the time.

 

FLASH CUT

 

as headlights flash into the lens, silhouetting Young Max

running across the road, barefoot on an icy highway.  She

freezes in the lights as the car skids up to her.

 

REVERSE CLOSE-UP

 

as she stands panting, wreathed in her own breath, her hair

matted with ice.  She looks terrified...

 

BACK TO PRESENT

 

Max coolly scans the printout.

 

                     MAX

          Who's this guy?  This isn't who we're

          looking for...her name was Hannah.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          He got the car in a trade for his old

          pick-up and some food...no bill of sale

          or nothing.  It was right after the pulse

          so all the DMV records were wiped.  So we

          don't get anything on the seller.  Except

          I actually managed to find this guy, six

          hours on the phone... Say thank you.

 

                     MAX

          Thank you.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          He says he got it from a woman.  Doesn't

          remember her name but she fits the

          description you gave like a glove.

 

FLASH CUT - TIGHT ON MIDDLE-AGED WOMAN

 

throwing open the door to a blue SUV.  The woman, HANNAH, is

dressed in a medical uniform, like a nurse or lab technician.

She looks anxiously back down the road as if she is being

followed, then yells--

 

                     HANNAH

          Get in!  Hurry, come on!

 

Young Max hesitates, clearly not knowing if she can trust the

woman's intention.  Finally, her bare feet slap the frozen

asphalt as she runs toward the car.

 

BACK TO PRESENT

 

Max is leafing through Vogelsang's notes.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Guy says he made the trade in Gillette,

          Wyoming sometime in the fall of oh-nine.

 

                     MAX

          Then what?

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Then what?  That's it.  That's all I got.

 

                     MAX

          Nothing on Hannah?

 

                     VOGELSANG

          A nuclear airburst wipes out every record

          of every kind in every computer east of

          the Rockies, and you want me to find some

          woman you met when you were seven, whose

          last name you don't even know... Maybe

          if you could give me something more on

          her...anything you can remember, some

          detail...

 

FLASH CUT - YOUNG MAX

 

crouched under the dash of the Tahoe.  Light and shadow play

across her eyes as she looks up at the driver.

 

YOUNG MAX'S POV

 

Hannah, seen from below.  Her face is hit by flashing red and

blue lights.  A siren wails past, going the opposite

direction.  Hannah anxiously watches it recede in the

rearview.  She look down at the child curled up on the floor,

manages a smile, then reaches down and puts a comforting hand

on her head.

 

                     MAX

          She was a nurse.  She must've lived near

          there, somewhere, near the...

               (she pauses)

          ...the clinic.  There must be some

          registry of nurses or medical technicians

          or whatever for Wyoming.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Only a last name would be nice.  Or the

          nearest town to this...clinic.

 

Max glances away.  The hopelessness of her quest hangs in the

air.

 

                     MAX

          What about the other kids?  You get

          anything on them?

 

                     VOGELSANG

          They don't exactly have a search engine

          for finding a bunch of kids with bar-

          codes on their necks, which is something

          I'm not even going to ask about--

 

                     MAX

          You were gonna run through the law

          enforcement databases for a match on

          identifying marks.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Nothing so far from arrests, hospital

          admissions or coroners.  This kind of

          search...it's heavy spadework.  I'm gonna

          need--

 

                     MAX

          More money... Like I'm shocked to hear

          you say that.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

EXT.  ALLEY - NIGHT - SEQUENCE OF TIGHT CUTS

 

MAX'S BIKE TIRE

 

slides to a stop.

 

THE WHEEL LOCKS

 

CLACK as they close.

 

EXTREME CLOSE-UP OF MAX

 

taking off her black glasses.  A distant car headlight sweeps

her and Max's pupils glow for a split second with a green

retinal reflection, like that of a cat.

 

WIDER

 

as Max looks up into the night shadows of an alley between

high-rises.  She steps off the bike in one lithe, perfectly-

balanced move.  She is wearing skin-tight black pants, black

rubber-soled high-tops, a black leather jacket and black

gloves.  She is a silhouette in the darkness.  She hefts a

black nylon gear bag over one shoulder.

 

TIGHT ON DOOR LATCH

 

The one Max taped over earlier in the day, as she pulls the

door open.

 

INT.  STAIRWELL - NIGHT

 

Max enters the dark emergency stairs like an inky shadow.

She bounds up the stairs with the fluidity of a cat.

 

EXT.  ROOF - NIGHT - MACRO ON DOOR LATCH

 

as it is quickly taped over.

 

WIDER

 

as Max emerges through the roof door and disables the roof

security camera with a piece of black tape over the lens.

She crosses to the edge overlooking the alley.  The street is

twenty-two stories down.  Nearby is the high-rise she studied

earlier in the day.  Her target is a narrow roof formed by a

setback in the facade of the next building...one hundred feet

below her and eight feet away horizontally.

 

TIGHT ON THE GEAR BAG

 

as it is unzipped.  Max's gloved hands yank out a large

bundle of black nylon rope.

 

CLICK! as a carabiner is snapped around a steel pipe.

 

TIGHT ON MAX'S FEET as she steps up onto the parapet.

 

DOWN ANGLE

 

as Max stands at the edge of a 250 foot drop then dives

headfirst out into the emptiness.

 

SEVERAL ANGLES ON MAX

 

as she plummets down the face of the building.  She adds arm

pressure to the belay around her waist, then inverts with a

snap, dropping feet-first now, the rope making a SSSSHHHH!

sound across her leather jacket.  Max now builds lateral

speed across the face of the glass high-rise.  She reaches

the bottom of the arc, the rope stretching, taking the shock,

and her lateral speed wipes the world into a blur.

 

Max arcs upward, starting to slow.  As she flashes above the

parapet of the target rooftop, she releases the belay and

lets the rope slide through her arm, dropping onto the

rooftop with a soft thump.

 

TIGHT ON SKYLIGHT

 

as Max jimmies the latch and lifts the cover.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

INT.  LUXURY APARTMENT FOYER - NIGHT

 

The apartment is spacious, with uptown architectural touches.

A cattail of black rope drops down, tickling the travertine

floor.  Max slides quietly to the floor and freezes in a

crouch.  Listening.  Nothing.

 

She goes to work, padding silently through the apartment.

She opens drawers, looks inside cabinets, picking up objects

and examining them.

 

INT.  ANOTHER ROOM - NIGHT

 

Max enters silently, hefts a small porcelain figurine, 17th

Century Venetian.  She slips it into her bag.  A pair of

small, gold dolphins follow.  Max hears something, goes to

investigate--

 

INT.  STUDY - NIGHT

 

A man talking.  Strokes on a computer keyboard.  The walls

are bathed in a blur CRT glow as Max slips the door open a

few inches and looks into the room.

 

MAX'S POV

 

A man sitting at a bank of computer monitors, half a dozen

screens, racks of computer gear and peripherals of all

descriptions.  The room is dark, excepts for the glow of the

screens and power lights winking on the equipment.  Haphazard

heaps of papers, photos, files, and printouts are piled

everywhere on expensive antique tables and couches.  The man,

LOGAN CALE, is speaking directly into a video camera.

 

                     LOGAN

          Eyes Only cannot be bought or threatened.

          And through the Eyes Only informant net,

          a truth-speaker has come forward.

 

Max can't see Logan's face directly because his back is

turned, but she can see him in one of the monitors--

 

TIGHT CLOSE-UP OF LOGAN

 

Late 20's with intense, almost haggard, yet strikingly

handsome features.  His eyes blaze with intelligence and he

projects a fierce energy as he speaks.

 

                     LOGAN

          The testimony of one fearless witness

          will soon lead to an indictment of Edgar

          Sonrisa for multiple counts of murder.

 

Max registers surprise as she realizes who this guy is-- the

pirate cyber-journalist "Eyes Only," in the flesh.

 

                     LOGAN

               (on video)

          The drug cortodiazapine is expensive, in

          short supply and much sought after as a

          cancer treatment.  It is shipped to

          veterans' clinics to treat the Balkan War

          Syndrome, a disease which is otherwise

          fatal.

 

Logan scrolls back through the video he has just digitized

and hits a key command which processes the image through a

masking filter.  Pixelation blurs the contours of his face,

leaving only the intense eyes clear.  He watches it to check

that the effect is complete.

 

                     LOGAN

               (on video)

          Sonrisa has been replacing the federal

          drug shipments with sugar pills, selling

          the real cortodiazapine on the Canadian

          black market for two thousand dollars a

          bottle.  What fuels the demand?  The

          belief that cortodiazapine could slow the

          effects of aging when taken in large

          doses.

 

Max backs out the door and stops as she sees something.  On a

table just inside the room, is a statue, an Egypto-deco

affair of gold and onyx depicting a creature half-female,

half-cat.  It's illuminated from above by a single pin-point

of light.  Max just looks at it, utterly transfixed.

 

                     LOGAN

               (on video)

          There is no hard scientific evidence to

          support these claims.  But that doesn't

          stop Edgar Sonrisa from peddling this

          drug to the few wealthy, privileged

          foreigners who can afford to pay any

          price for vanity's sake.

 

Seeing Logan's engrossed in his work, Max moves toward the

statue, snags it and backs out of the room.

 

                     LOGAN

               (on video)

          Edgar Sonrisa gets richer while combat

          vets exposed to the genetically-

          engineered bio-war agents go untreated.

          All over this city, they are repaid for

          defending this country by being allowed

          to waste away and die...a slow, agonizing

          death...

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

INT.  APARTMENT HALLWAY - NIGHT

 

Max stuffs the statue in her bag and heads back out.

 

INT.  FOYER - NIGHT

 

A security guard, PETER, has found the rope.  He flicks his

Maglite up to the open skylight and his eyes go wide.  He

unholsters his 9mm, scanning and listening around him.  He

crosses to the alarm panel near the door and punches in the

silent alarm code.

 

ANGLE ON FOYER AND CORRIDOR

 

as Max approaches.  The guard is scanning in the shadows, his

gun sweeping the room as he moves forward...and Max is moving

down the hall toward him on a collision course.  She can't

see him approaching the corner from the other side, but we

can.

 

TIGHT ON MAX

 

as she senses something on a level you and I never could...a

sound, a vibration...the guard's body heat perhaps.

 

OVER THE GUARD

 

as he approaches the corner.  He pops around the wall and

aims his gun down the hall.

 

REVERSE ANGLE

 

The corridor is empty.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

INT.  BEDROOM - NIGHT

 

Max backs away from the closed door and quickly crosses the

room as quietly as she can.  She reaches the door to an

adjoining room.

 

INT.  ADJOINING ROOM - NIGHT

 

Max slips through the door quietly, but suddenly stops.  Lit

only by a nightlight, a woman is lying on a bed with a young

girl of about 10, having just tucked her into bed.  This is

LAUREN BRAGANZA and her daughter SOPHY.  Lauren looks up,

locking eyes with Max.

 

                     LAUREN

          Oh my God!  In here!  IN HERE!

 

                     MAX

          SHHH!  Don't do that!

 

INT.  STUDY - NIGHT

 

Logan hears the cries, shoves aside a pile of papers and

grabs a pump shotgun.  He chambers a round.

 

INT.  HALLWAY - NIGHT

 

The security guard breaks into a run, heading for the

bedroom.

 

INT.  BEDROOM - NIGHT

 

Lauren grabs a lamp and hurls it with all her strength at

Max.

 

In SLOW MOTION the lamp tumbles end over end.  The guard

flings open the door, sweeping his gun toward Max, all in

SLOW MOTION...except Max, who is moving much faster, though

normal to our eye, whereas everyone and everything else

appears as if underwater.

 

Max easily ducks the lamp, which is just shattering against

the wall as the guard takes aim with a two-handed grip.  The

room goes dark as the lightbulb explodes.

 

Max moves sideways before the guard can pull the trigger.

BLAM!  The room strobes with the shot but the bullet goes

where Max was, not where she is now...halfway to the guard,

moving like a freight train.

 

BLAM!  A second shot...but Max has seen the intention and

jinked again.  The bullet carves the air next to her.  She

reaches the guy and gets a hand on the gun, yanking it down

and around in a sweeping roundhouse which twists it out of

his hand.

 

This guy is big, 6'3" and 250 lbs., mostly muscle, except for

that paunch.  Max follows through with a footsweep takedown

and drops onto the guy hard with his arm twisted behind his

back.

 

Max unloads the pistol, sliding out the magazine and jacking

out the chambered round.  She throws the gun one way and the

mag the other.

 

BACK TO NORMAL SPEED, the guard struggles to move but Max

drops onto him knee first again, knocking the wind out of him

for awhile.  Max looks up at the terrified mother and the

crying little girl.

 

                     MAX

          Sorry.

 

She bolts out the door into--

 

INT.  HALL - NIGHT

 

Max sprints down the hall.  Suddenly, Logan appears in front

of her with the shotgun leveled at her.  It has a built-in,

mini-xenon light and it is blinding her nightvision, making

it hard to see exactly where he is aiming.  She is at a

momentary disadvantage.

 

                     LOGAN

          Put it down.

 

Max sets her bag gently on the floor.  Logan calls to

Lauren--

 

                     LOGAN

               (eyes riveted on Max)

          Lauren...are you okay?

 

                     LAUREN

          We're alright.

 

                     LOGAN

               (to the guard)

          Peter...

 

                     MAX

          If he's the side of beef with the walkie-

          talkie, he's okay but he'll be awhile.

 

Logan sees the statue peeking out of the open bag.

 

                     LOGAN

          You're a thief?

 

                     MAX

          Girl's gotta make a living.

 

                     LOGAN

               (relieved, even amused)

          Thank God.

 

                     MAX

          First time I ever heard that.

 

                     LOGAN

          I was expecting someone else.

 

                     MAX

               (off the shotgun)

          Guess it wasn't the pizza delivery guy.

 

                     LOGAN

          You're lucky.  I almost pulled the

          trigger.

 

Lauren is hanging back in the bedroom doorway with her crying

daughter.

 

                     MAX

          I'm sorry if I caught you at a bad time.

 

                     LOGAN

          We're just a little tense right now...

               (to Lauren)

          It's okay.

 

They withdraw, then to Max re: the statue--

 

                     LOGAN

          You have good taste.  French, 1920's,

          attributed to Chitarus.

 

                     MAX

          Whoever that is.

 

                     LOGAN

          So, what, you liked it because it was

          shiny?

 

                     MAX

          No, because it's the Egyptian goddess

          Bast.

 

                     LOGAN

          Who is...

 

                     MAX

          The goddess who comprehends all

          goddesses, eye of Ra, protector, avenger,

          and destroyer, giver of life, who lives

          forever... I could keep going.

 

Logan just looks at her, fascinated.  Then, Peter emerges

from the bedroom, holding his ribs.  He fumbles out his

handcuffs and heads for Max.

 

                     LOGAN

          Stay back, Peter.

 

Too late.  Max moves like lightning, grabbing Peter's wrist

as he reaches for her, yanking him off balance and getting

him in a sharply painful come-along hold with one hand bent

up behind his back.  Max has maneuvered him between her and

the shotgun, trumping Logan's hold over her.

 

                     MAX

          Look, I'd love to hang and discuss art

          but I gotta get going.

 

She marches Peter backwards into the living room, controlling

the big bodyguard with the thumb-hold and keeping him between

her and Logan.

 

                     PETER

          Aaaah!  Aaaah!  Easy, my wrist is gonna

          snap!

 

                     MAX

          That could happen.

               (to Logan)

          By the way, I love your show.

 

At that moment there is a thundering crash at the front door.

Max's head snaps around as a squad of private security cops

wearing ballistic armor haul back and pound the door again

with a steel battering ram.

 

INT.  FOYER - NIGHT

 

K-WHAM!  The doors are blasted open and a phalanx of heavily

armed rent-a-cops spill inside, their flashlights sweeping

the apartment.

 

SLOW MOTION as they raise their weapons toward Max.

 

But Max is moving like grease lightning, as she bolts away

from Peter, who finds himself suddenly handcuffed to a heavy,

wrought-iron table.

 

SLO-MO as the security squad, moving like they are submerged,

try to track her.  She runs like a black blur.  Logan yells

for them to stop, his words distended--

 

                     LOGAN

          Nooo!  Waaaiiit!

 

Max crosses her arms over her face and hits the window at a

full run.  The glass explodes outwards in a diamond shower.

Max disappears into the night, like she was never there.  The

cops don't even get a shot off.

 

REAL TIME as Logan runs to the window and looks down--

 

EXT.  BUILDING - NIGHT - LOGAN'S POV

 

He catches a glimpse of Max leaping from balcony to balcony,

down the face of the building, ninety feet below.  She

vanishes into the shadows at street level.

 

ON LOGAN

 

watching in fascinated awe as the curtains blow out around

him in the night wind.

 

                                                    FADE OUT.

 

                        END OF ACT II

 

 

 

                           ACT III

 

FADE IN:

 

INT.  GENEDYNE LAB

 

FLASHBACK

 

Dreamlike, stroboscopic images of military regimentation.  As

before, drained of color.  Kids at attention in LONG LENS

STACK.  One of the children, a boy with blonde hair, pitches

forward onto the floor, wracked by a seizure.

 

SUPERFAST INTERCUTS

 

INT.  MAX'S CRIB - DAY (DAY TWO)

 

TIGHT ON Max's hands yanking off a bottle cap, slapping pills

into her mouth.  WIDE as she slams her back into the bathroom

corner, hugging herself as she slides to the floor.

 

FLASHBACK

 

TIGHT ON the other kids, reacting only with their eyes, not

breaking ranks as the convulsing blonde boy is dragged away

by uniformed orderlies.  Some of the kids turn to watch and

the drill instructor charges forward, yelling.

 

ON MAX in the present, wracked by spasms.  Her body shakes

with muscle tremors as she clenches into a ball, eyes shut,

in her own world of pain and memory.

 

MONOCHROME FLASHBACK

 

A HIGH, WIDE shot of the barracks...kids in rows of steel

bunks.  All the beds are filled except one.  Young Max, lying

in the night shadows, stares at the empty bed.  She looks

down at her own hand with a look of fear, watching it shake.

She stuffs it under the sheet.

 

ON YOUNG MAX as she walks down the hall in grey boxers and T-

shirt.  The corridor is dark but light spills through a door

ahead.  She approaches slowly, hearing tech sounds and a low,

murmured dialogue.  The high-pitched sound of a medical saw.

 

MAX'S POV inside the room.  In a pool of halogen light, the

blonde boy lies naked on a stainless steel table surrounded

by doctors and med-techs.  We don't see exactly what they are

doing, but we HEAR the bone saw and we know it's an autopsy.

By Young Max's expression of horror, it is clear she thinks

they have killed him and are dissecting him like a frog.

Standing silhouetted between Max and the pool of light is a

man in a suit, not in medical greens.  He turns and picks up

a cup of coffee off a steel cart with one black gloved

hand... Lydecker.

 

Max backs away, then turns and runs along the corridor...

trips and sprawls...gets up and runs on.

 

CLOSE ON MAX, in the present...opening her eyes.  The morning

light is painful to her as she gets unsteadily to her feet.

She leans over the sink and pours water over her head from a

plastic jug.  Max heads out into--

 

INT.  LIVING ROOM - DAY

 

Max emerges and is stopped in her tracks by the sight of--

 

HER MOTORCYCLE

 

the handlebars of which are draped with Kendra's collection

of thong panties hung there to dry.  After a beat, Max

crosses to her bike, and removes the confections as she

speaks--

 

                     MAX

          Kendra...this is a motorcycle.  It's sole

          reason for being is to go fast.  Very

          fast.  It was not put on this earth for

          you to use as a clothesline.  I love you

          as a roommate and a friend, but, make no

          mistake, I love my motorcycle more.

          DON'T-TOUCH-THE-BIKE, OKAY?

 

As she tosses the handful of panties at the sleeping form

huddled under a blanket across the room, the form shifts,

then sits up revealing--

 

Darren, one arm wrapped around Kendra, who's snuggled next to

him, still asleep.

 

                     WARREN

          What time is it?

 

He blinks the sleep from his eyes, then, after a beat,

recognizing Max--

 

                     DARREN

          What are you doing here?

 

                     MAX

          I live here... Guess I don't have to ask

          what you're doing here.

 

                     DARREN

          You're roommates?

 

                     KENDRA

               (stirs awake)

          Some of us are trying to sleep.

 

                     DARREN

          You didn't tell me you lived with her.

 

                     KENDRA

          You know each other?

 

                     MAX

          He's a mistake I made about six months

          before you did.  But don't feel bad.

          Justine made the same mistake, along with

          Renee, Jada, Tia, Brooke--

 

                     KENDRA

               (recoils from Darren)

          Yech...

 

                     DARREN

          Nothing happened between me and Tia.

 

                     KENDRA

          Leave.  Now.

 

                     DARREN

          Can I say something in my defense?

 

                     KENDRA

          No.

 

                     MAX

          Everybody down.

 

As an aerial police drone hovers just outside the window, Max

dives for the floor.

 

                     DARREN

          What is it?

 

                     MAX

          Police drone.

 

Max watches as the drone floats past the window, its TV

camera sweeping the interior.  Finally, it sails off but

before anyone can register relief, HEAR the squawk of a

police loudspeaker outside the hallway.

 

                     MAX

          It's a sweep.

               (getting up)

          C'mon.

 

                     DARREN

          What?  Where're we going?

 

As Max and Kendra haul Darren to his feet, he grabs a hat or

a magazine or something, to cover his nakedness as they

propel him toward the window.

 

                     DARREN

          Lemme put some clothes on.

 

                     MAX

          No time.

 

As Max opens the window.

 

                     KENDRA

          Move it.

 

                     DARREN

          Where?

 

                     MAX

          Out there.

 

                     DARREN

          No way.

 

                     MAX

          Unless you wanna end up in jail, let me

          and Kendra handle the cops.

 

As they bundle him out onto the ledge--

 

                     DARREN

          But I'm afraid of--

 

                     MAX

          Don't look down.

 

Max slams the window shut, closes the blinds, and the two

girls crack up.

 

                     KENDRA

          What a creep.

 

                     MAX

          And for all his cattin' around, not much

          of a stick man either.

 

But the hilarity is short-lived when they hear the footfall

out in the hallway of a police platoon sweeping the building.

 

                     COP (O.C.)

          All unauthorized individuals vacate the

          premises or face immediate arrest.

 

Suddenly, the makeshift door is kicked in and a cop in full

riot gear enters.  He lifts the visor of his helmet,

revealing the square-jawed game face of LIEUTENANT WALTER

CLARKE.

 

                     CLARKE

          Ladies...

 

Max suddenly relaxes.

 

                     MAX

          Morning, Walter.  What's the good word?

 

                     CLARKE

          Just doing my part to keep the homeless

          problem from getting out of hand.

 

                     MAX

          Coffee?

 

                     CLARKE

          Read my mind...

               (as she pours him a cup)

          You haven't seen anyone trespassing

          around here?

 

                     MAX

          Gosh, no.

 

Max throws a look at Kendra, who retrieves an envelope and

hands it over to the cop with obvious irritation.  The cop

takes out the cash, counts it, then reaches for his walkie-

talkie.

 

                     CLARKE

          Seventh floor is vacant and secure.

               (pockets the money)

          Have a nice day.

 

He goes.  Kendra turns to Max.

 

                     KENDRA

          What's with you?  Every week this scumbag

          puts the squeeze on us and every week you

          roll out the welcome wagon like he's

          family.

 

                     MAX

               (shrugs)

          Just thought maybe he'd like a little

          coffee with his saliva.

 

                     KENDRA

          You didn't...

 

                     MAX

          Every week.

 

She makes a hawking sound and the two girls crack up.  Off

which--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

EXT.  BUILDING - DAY

 

Darren cools his heels, along with everything else, out on

the ledge.

 

                     DARREN

          Max?  Kendra?

 

Darren looks up as a police hoverdrone floats toward him.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

DARREN

 

full screen on a TV MONITOR.

 

                     DARREN

          C'mon guys...

 

PULL BACK TO REVEAL

 

another monitor, and another, and finally, an entire wall of

surveillance screens, half-watched by a couple of bored techs

in an underground police bunker somewhere.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  HALLWAY - DAY

 

Max wheels her bike down the corridor headed for work.

Jacinda cracks the door and peers out.

 

                     MAX

          It's cool.

 

Jacinda opens the door.  Max fishes in her jacket.

 

                     MAX

          Before I forget, Theo's check.  I got in

          late last night and didn't want to bother

          you.

 

She hands the check to Jacinda, who manages a smile which

only momentarily conceals the concern evident in her face.

 

                     JACINDA

          Thanks.

 

                     MAX

          How's he feeling?

 

                     JACINDA

          Took him to the hospital again.  They

          gave him some medicine but he says it's

          not helping.

 

                     MAX

          You know how it is.  You or me get sick,

          life goes on.  A guy get the sniffles

          and the world's coming to an end.

 

Jacinda nods, wanting to believe it's nothing serious, then--

 

                     THEO (O.C.)

          That you, Max?

 

Max enters--

 

INT.  THEO'S APARTMENT - DAY

 

Theo lies on a mat on the floor, too weak to prop himself up.

His breathing is labored.

 

                     MAX

          Playing hooky again?

 

                     THEO

          Feel like the dog's dinner.

 

                     MAX

          Probably a touch of what's going around.

 

                     THEO

          I know what I got, Max.  They put me back

          on that drug they're giving the other

          vets.  Only the guy does those cable

          hacks says the stuff's no good.

 

Max sees that the fear in his eyes is real, then covering--

 

                     MAX

          Don't believe everything you hear on TV.

 

                     THEO

          What if he's on the level?

 

                     MAX

          Here's the dealio on Eyes Only.  He's

          probably some wack rich dude sitting

          around in a trick-ass apartment, bored

          stupid.  So he gets off on scarin' the

          poop outta folks like you-- I gotta go.

 

                     THEO

          Tell everybody hey.

 

                     MAX

          You can tell 'em yourself tomorrow.

 

Max turns to go.  As she passes Jacinda--

 

INT.  HALLWAY - DAY

 

Jacinda is zipping up Omar's jacket.

 

                     MAX

          Like I said, guys are the weaker sex.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  LOGAN'S APARTMENT - STUDY - DAY

 

At his computer console, Logan fast-forwards through a video

surveillance tape from the previous day, freezing on Max as

she approaches the adjacent building with a delivery.  He

blows up the image until Max's face fills the screen, her

eyes looking right into the surveillance camera, right at

him.  He studies the picture for a long contemplative moment.

Peter enters in b.g., looks over at his boss.

 

                     PETER

          Glad you're getting your money's worth

          outta that tape.  Had to grease the guard

          a hundred for it.

 

But Logan doesn't even hear him.  He's utterly lost in the

image of Max onscreen.  Then--

 

                     PETER

          You tryin' to I.D. the perp, or a new

          girlfriend?

 

Logan snaps out of it, then--

 

                     LOGAN

          If I'd just gotten my ass kicked by a

          size five, I might be inclined to mind my

          own business.

 

Off which--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

EXT.  THE WALL - DAY

 

Max passes the time between runs playing hacky-sack with

another MESSENGER, who's showing off.  As she makes a tough

return--

 

                     MAX

          Like that?

 

                     MESSENGER

          Not bad for a beginner.

 

The other messengers are watching the volley as Sketchy rides

up, out of breath, a worried look on his face, hops the curb

and skids to a stop next to Max.

 

                     MAX

          Hey, Sketchy--

 

                     SKETCHY

          We gotta talk.

 

                     MAX

          What's up?

 

She spins and does a no-look return with her heel.  The other

messenger makes the save, registering surprise at Max's

dexterity.  Sketchy snags the bag in mid-air with one hand.

 

                     SKETCHY

          It's kinda important.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

EXT.  ALLEY - DAY

 

Walk and talk as Sketchy lays it out for Max.

 

                     MAX

          You blew off your girlfriend last night,

          even though it was the big one-oh.  I'd

          be pissed off too if I was her.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Not half as pissed as she's gonna be when

          she finds out why I blew her off... I

          need your help, Max.

 

Max just looks at him.  Sketchy can't meet her gaze, then--

 

                     SKETCHY

          See, I've more or less been seeing this

          other person.

 

A beat, then coolly--

 

                     MAX

          I don't see how you cheating on Natalie

          involves me.

 

                     SKETCHY

          I know what you're thinking.  But the

          truth is, this other person is not

          someone I'm in love with.  As a matter of

          fact, after what she just did, she's not

          even someone I like much.  So in a

          technical sense, I'm not sure you could

          call me and her cheating...officially.

 

                     MAX

          Do guys actually believe their lame, self-

          serving excuses?

 

                     SKETCHY

          Max--

 

                     MAX

          Or do you think we're just so grateful to

          have one of you idiots we'll look the

          other way, which is arrogant and

          condescending.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Lame, self-serving, arrogant...guilty as

          charged.

 

                     MAX

          You left out condescending.

 

                     SKETCHY

          But there's another side--

 

                     MAX

          Here it comes.  The part where the guy

          turns everything around.

 

                     SKETCHY

          I'm the victim here.

 

                     MAX

               (sarcastic)

          Really?

 

                     SKETCHY

          Hear me out.  This person I've been

          seeing is a Jam Pony client who happens

          to be married--

 

                     MAX

          And you were a sympathetic ear.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Exactly.

 

                     MAX

          Then a sympathetic mouth, then a

          sympathetic--

 

                     SKETCHY

          She had me followed the other day and

          found out about Natalie.  Now, this

          person's demanding I blow her off or

          she'll do it for me by telling Nat about

          us.

 

                     MAX

          Does this person have a name?

 

                     SKETCHY

          Lydia.

 

                     MAX

          And Lydia telling Natalie the truth makes

          you a victim in what way?

 

                     SKETCHY

          I'm a toy to her.

 

                     MAX

          A toy?

 

                     SKETCHY

          She's as much as said so.  But she

          doesn't want to share her toy with anyone

          else... It's just an ego thing with her.

 

                     MAX

          Fight fire with fire.  Threaten to go to

          her husband.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Who either doesn't care, or could have me

          killed.  Either way, Natalie's still

          gonna find out.

 

                     MAX

          What happens if you level with her?

 

                     SKETCHY

          Even if she doesn't dump me, which is

          unlikely, she'd never be able to trust me

          again.

 

                     MAX

          And why should she?

 

                     SKETCHY

          Look Max, I made a terrible mistake.  One

          I'll never, ever make again.  Natalie and

          I are soulmates.  I know that now.  She's

          the woman I want to spend the rest of my

          life with.  I guess it took the thought

          of losing her for me to understand that.

 

After a beat, Max heaves a sigh, then--

 

                     MAX

          What is it you want me to do?

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  JAM PONY X-PRESS - DAY

 

Logan enters, looks around at the motley assortment of

messengers, then crosses to the dispatch counter where Normal

barks out an order.

 

                     NORMAL

          Pick-up at four-eleven Montgomery going

          to Pacific Heights.

 

He tosses a package to Herbal Thought.

 

                     LOGAN

               (to Normal)

          I'm looking for a lady who works here.

 

                     NORMAL

          Ladies would be elsewhere.

 

He flashes the picture of Max lifted from the surveillance

video.

 

                     LOGAN

          Know where I can find her?

 

                     NORMAL

          You don't want to.

 

                     LOGAN

          But she does work here?

 

                     NORMAL

          She may be easy on the eyes but she's

          trouble, trust me.

               (calls out)

          Hot run to two-oh-two Sansomme.

 

                     LOGAN

          I need to talk to her.

 

                     NORMAL

          Can't help you.

 

Logan pulls out a bill, extends it to him.

 

                     LOGAN

          How 'bout her name and address?

 

Normal eyes the money, then pockets it.

 

                     NORMAL

          Max something.  I got no clue where she

          stays.

 

                     LOGAN

          Any idea when she'll be back?

 

                     NORMAL

          None.

 

                     LOGAN

          I'll wait.

 

Logan plunks himself down in a chair to wait.  Normal sees

he's determined, then--

 

                     NORMAL

          She hangs out after work at a place

          called Zeitgeist.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  ZEITGEIST - NIGHT

 

As Max and Original Cindy play a game of eightball--

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          You're actually gonna bail Sketchy out.

 

                     MAX

          Yeah, 'cause maybe he's learned his

          lesson.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Unlikely.

 

                     MAX

          And because he's my friend.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Friends don't help other friends cheat.

 

                     MAX

          And because I actually kinda feel sorry

          for guys sometimes.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Please...

 

                     MAX

          They're prisoners to their genes.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          So are dogs.

 

                     MAX

          They don't have a lot of moving parts.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Only one I can think of.

 

                     MAX

          Besides, think of the drama I'm sparing

          Natalie.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          I say hang the bastard out to dry, let

          her see him for the heel he is, then

          maybe she'll step to the all-girl team

          and let mama-licious ease her pain.

 

                     MAX

          But, of course, there's nothing self-

          serving in that scenario.

 

Max looks up, sees Logan at the bar talking to Lamar, who

points in her direction.  As Logan crosses to her--

 

                     MAX

               (to Logan)

          So this guy walks into a bar and says...

 

                     LOGAN

          We didn't get a chance to finish our

          conversation the other night.

 

By way of introduction, without taking her eyes off Logan--

 

                     MAX

          Original Cindy, say hi to my good friend--

 

                     LOGAN

          Logan Cale.

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Hey.

 

But Max and Logan just stand there looking at each other.

 

                     MAX

          Sorry about your window.

 

                     LOGAN

          Can we go somewhere and talk?

 

Sensing that it's time to make herself scarce, Original Cindy

looks at her watch--

 

                     ORIGINAL CINDY

          Woop, Xena's on.

 

She splits.  Max and Logan look into one another's eyes,

transfixed.

 

                     MAX

          Lemme get my coat.

 

                     LOGAN

          The one you're wearing?

 

Finally, Max breaks their gaze, looks down, sees she's in

fact wearing it.

 

                     MAX

          Right.

 

They head out.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

EXT.  STREET - NIGHT

 

Max and Logan walk in silence for a moment, an easy affinity

between them.  After a moment--

 

                     MAX

          How'd you find me?

 

                     LOGAN

          Wasn't that hard.

 

                     MAX

          Am I s'posed to be flattered by all the

          attention?

 

                     LOGAN

          Now you know who I am, where I live.  I

          figured I better find out who I'm dealing

          with in case you were looking to hurt me.

 

                     MAX

          So now you tracked me down.  What d'ya

          think?

 

                     LOGAN

          Too early to tell.

 

                     MAX

          How does Mrs. Eyes Only like being

          married to a guy on everybody's hit list?

 

                     LOGAN

          Lauren's not my wife.

 

                     MAX

          Girlfriend?

 

                     LOGAN

          One of my sources.  Her husband was

          murdered by Edgar Sonrisa.

 

                     MAX

          What's your shot in all this?  Being a

          famous, anonymous, underground, pirate,

          cyber-journalist can't be much of a

          payday.

 

                     LOGAN

          Fortunately, my needs are met in that

          department.

 

                     MAX

          So, what, you just like the sound of your

          own voice?

 

                     LOGAN

          Look around at all this...

               (gesturing at the city around

                them)

          Built by people who got up every morning

          and worked hard trying to make a better

          life.  Then the bomb happened and

          everyone got scared.  They blinked and

          before they knew it they'd given away the

          store to a bunch of thugs who were happy

          to take it off their hands.  Overnight

          the government, the police, everything

          intended to protect the people had been

          turned against them.

 

                     MAX

          You miss the good ol' days.  Even though

          there were still poor people who died

          from diseases when they didn't have to.

          And rich people spent obscene amounts of

          money redecorating their houses to match

          the cat.  Those good ol' days?

 

                     LOGAN

          People had a choice, even if they took it

          for granted.  And now they don't.

 

                     MAX

          So what are you gonna do about it?

 

                     LOGAN

          Something.

 

                     MAX

          Personally, I'm more interested in going

          fast on my motorcycle or climbing the

          Trans American building with my pals.

          Instead of giving myself a headache over

          stuff I can't do anything about.

 

                     LOGAN

          You accept the way things are, you're an

          active participant in making it worse.

 

                     MAX

          Is the social studies class over for

          today?

 

                     LOGAN

          Yeah...

 

They walk in silence for a beat, then--

 

                     LOGAN

          That was a pretty extraordinary display

          of athleticism the other night.  In fact,

          a little too extraordinary.  You wanna

          tell me how--

 

But he looks up at her and she's gone.  As the CAMERA pulls

back, Logan is all alone on an empty street, looking for Max,

who seems to have vanished into thin air.

 

                                                    FADE OUT.

 

                       END OF ACT III

 

 

 

                           ACT IV

 

FADE IN:

 

INT.  JAM PONY X-PRESS - DAY (DAY 3)

 

Morning.  Messengers drink coffee and eat donuts as they wait

for their assignments.  Max, at her locker, confers with

Sketchy--

 

                     SKETCHY

          So you're straight on how this is gonna

          go down.

 

                     MAX

          You set up on Lydia.  When she's on her

          way over to the apartment you give me the

          heads up.  I answer the door and pretend

          to be Natalie.

 

                     SKETCHY

          She tells you how I've been--

 

                     MAX

          --a philandering pig.

 

                     SKETCHY

          But you explain that you're a

          compassionate and understanding person

          who can find it in your heart to forgive

          me.

 

                     MAX

          Or, I dissolve into an angry, hysterical

          wreck who never wants to see your lying

          ass again, which is probably what would

          really happen.

 

                     SKETCHY

          I just don't want Natalie to ever find

          out.  She deserves better.

 

                     MAX

          How'd you get her out of town?

 

                     SKETCHY

          Convinced her she needed to visit her mom

          in San Mateo.

 

                     MAX

          And we're sure Lydia's gonna make her

          move?

 

                     SKETCHY

          She came by the apartment once already.

          Fortunately, I'd disconnected the

          doorbell as a precaution... Lydia's not

          gonna back off until she gets her pound

          of flesh.

 

                     MAX

          I'll give it my best shot.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Max, what did I do to deserve a friend

          like you?

 

                     MAX

          You don't.

 

She gets up and heads out, passing Normal, who shoves a

package at her.

 

                     NORMAL

          Fourteen-thirteen Market.  Get a

          signature, then take it to this

          address... By the way, that guy who was

          in here sniffing after you yesterday

          called twice already.

 

                     MAX

          Tell him I took the day off 'cause I

          wasn't feeling so hot.

 

She walks away.

 

                     NORMAL

               (re: the package)

          What about this?

 

                     MAX

          I'm taking the rest of the day off 'cause

          I'm not feeling so hot.

 

Off Normal's exasperation--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

EXT.  STREET - DAY

 

Lydia mounts the steps, rings the doorbell.

 

                     MAX (O.C.)

          Who is it?

 

                     LYDIA

          A friend of your fiance's.

 

                     MAX (O.C.)

          What do you want?

 

                     LYDIA

          To set the record straight about where he

          was the other night when he said he was

          working late.

 

After a long silence she's buzzed in.  As Lydia enters--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  APARTMENT - DAY

 

As Max opens the door, we see that her hair is pulled back in

a bow.  Her leather jacket, jeans and boots have given way to

one of Natalie's floral print dresses.  Lydia enters, looks

around at the modest surroundings, smirks--

 

                     MAX

          Who are you?

 

                     LYDIA

          My name's Lydia.  And it seems you and I

          have a lot in common.

 

                     MAX

          You said you knew where my fiance was the

          other night.

 

                     LYDIA

          With me, where he's been after work,

          three, sometimes four nights a week for

          the last two months... We have what you

          might call an intimate relationship.

 

                     MAX

          How do I know you're telling the truth?

 

                     LYDIA

          He been sleeping in a T-shirt lately?

               (off Max's reaction which

                confirms this)

          That's so you won't see the fingernail

          marks on his back.

               (flashes a set of long, red

                nails)

          Bet you didn't know your boyfriend finds

          a little pain exciting.  He didn't

          either...at first.

 

                     MAX

          Look, I don't know what you want--

 

                     LYDIA

          I thought it was important for you to

          know the facts.

 

                     MAX

          And so should you.  Sketchy told me I

          could expect a visit from you.  I know

          all about how you threatened him.  That

          if he didn't break it off with me, you'd

          save him the trouble.

 

                     LYDIA

          Oh?

 

                     MAX

          Well, it's over between you and him.

          We're getting married next month.

 

                     LYDIA

          How sweet.  Standing by your man, even

          after what he did.  You're a very

          understanding person.

 

                     MAX

          Big part of loving someone's being able

          to forgive them.

 

                     LYDIA

          You're also a fool.

 

                     MAX

          I think you should go now.

 

                     LYDIA

          Not before we get something straight you

          prissy little bitch.  I decide when I'm

          done with your boyfriend.  Not him, and

          certainly not you.  Unless maybe you want

          to find out just how sharp these nails

          really are.

 

She goes for Max's face with a handful of flaming red

fingernails.  But Max catches her hand.

 

                     MAX

          This is not a place you wanna go.

 

                     LYDIA

          Let go of my hand.

 

Max does.  Lydia composes herself a beat, then takes a swing

at Max, who easily steps aside, then catches Lydia by the arm

and flips her onto her back on the floor.

 

                     MAX

          I'm working very hard to respect my

          elders here but don't push your luck.

 

Lydia gets up, grabs a floor lamp and, in SLO-MO, swings it

like a truncheon at Max, who easily ducks it at normal speed.

Max, fed up now, is on her in an instant.

 

Still in SLO-MO, Lydia's expression registers horror as Max

collars her, then back to normal speed, drags her to the

window and hangs her upside down by the ankles three stories

above the pavement below.

 

                     LYDIA

          Help... Lemme go... No, don't let me

          go... Help...

 

                     MAX

          Now, here's how it's gonna be, Lydia.

          You're gonna take your threats and your

          acrylic nails, and you're gonna go home

          and figure out your marriage, instead of

          trying to make other people feel as

          miserable as you do, understand?

 

                     LYDIA

          Okay, okay.

 

Max lets go with one hand, holding the woman's full weight

with the other.  Lydia screams.

 

                     MAX

          Say the words, "I understand."

 

                     LYDIA

          I understand.

 

                     MAX

          And if I ever catch you coming near my

          man again...

 

Off Lydia, upside down, her skirt around her shoulders--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  SKETCHY'S APARTMENT - DAY

 

Twenty minutes later.  Present are Max and a triumphant

Sketchy.

 

                     SKETCHY

          You rock, Max.

               (jabbing a finger at her)

          You... Rock...

 

                     MAX

          Easy Sketchy.

 

                     SKETCHY

          No, I'm serious.  That psycho got exactly

          what she deserved... Yes.

 

                     MAX

          Lydia may not have been one of humanity's

          finer specimens but--

 

                     SKETCHY

          She's toxic...monster in bed, but toxic.

 

                     MAX

               (continuing her thought)

          You would be making a mistake to come

          away from this thinking she's the villain

          in the piece... You are.

 

                     SKETCHY

          She was the one--

 

                     MAX

          None of this would've happened if you had

          exercised even a smidgen of good

          judgement or self-restraint, which you

          didn't.

 

                     SKETCHY

          True, but--

 

                     MAX

               (cuts him off)

          You were trying to have it both ways and

          you were being completely selfish.  And

          if I ever find out you're going out the

          back door on Natalie again, you're the

          one who's gonna be hanging by your ankles

          three stories up.  Understand?

 

                     SKETCHY

          Okay, okay, okay--

 

                     MAX

          Say the words, "I understand."

 

A beat, then--

 

                     SKETCHY

          I understand.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  VOGELSANG'S OFFICE - NIGHT

 

Vogelsang sits at his computer, a half-empty glass of booze

next to the keyboard.  The phone rings, he answers.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Yeah... Who's this? ...Oh, hey Phyllis,

          didn't recognize your voice... What's

          up? ...The usual, doing some work for a

          client.  Thinks one of his bartender's

          got his hand in the till.  Kid works

          three days a week for tips, just dropped

          forty large on a new ride... Tonight?

          ...I really can't... Of course I want to

          see you but--

 

From the sudden change in his demeanor we can only imagine

the word picture Phyllis is painting.  Then, serious now--

 

                     VOGELSANG

          What are you wearing? ...The red one?

          ...See you in a few.

 

Vogelsang hangs up, finishes off the glass, clicks off his

computer, grabs his briefcase and heads into--

 

INT.  LAUNDROMAT - NIGHT

 

Deserted.  Vogelsang heads for the front door.  He taps the

washing machine lids shut, one by one as he goes.  He hits

the lights and heads out the door, locking it as he addresses

a kid just arriving with a basket of laundry.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          We're closed.  Sorry.

 

Vogelsang locks the door and goes.

 

ANGLE ON a row of oversized industrial dryers.  After a beat,

the door of one of them is kicked open.  Then, in the

darkness we watch as a human form, clad all in black, climbs

out of his hiding place, then goes to another dryer, opens it

and takes out a black bag of gear and heads for Vogelsang's

office.

 

EXT.  STREET - NIGHT

 

Vogelsang arrives at his car, a 20-year-old beater with an

alcohol tank retrofitted on the hood.  He pats himself down

looking for the car keys, mutters a curse, then heads back

toward the laundromat.

 

INT.  VOGELSANG'S OFFICE - NIGHT

 

As the intruder rifles drawers, etc.  He hears something,

freezes.

 

INT.  LAUNDROMAT - NIGHT

 

Vogelsang unlocks the door, enters and pads toward his

office, banging into the now open door of the industrial

dryer.

 

                     VOGELSANG

               (under his breath)

          Damnit...

 

He continues into--

 

INT.  VOGELSANG'S OFFICE - NIGHT

 

He reaches for the light switch but is jumped from behind by

the intruder, who takes him out with a couple of quick chops.

Vogelsang hits the ground hard.  The intruder rifles his

pockets, empties his wallet, then grabs his bag of gear and

splits.  Off Vogelsang, out cold as the sound of footsteps

recedes in the b.g.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  MAX'S CRIB - NIGHT

 

Max enters, calls--

 

                     MAX

          Kendra... Anybody home?

 

But no one is.  Max peels off her leather jacket, drops it on

the floor.  She kicks off one boot, then the other, then

peels off her black turtleneck revealing a tank top

underneath, dives onto her futon and sighs.  Not out of

fatigue, more like the weight of the world weighing on her

tonight.  She lies there a beat, then senses something.  Call

it a vibration, intuition.  She sits up suddenly and is very

still, like a deer in the forest listening for a predator's

approach, then she turns and looks behind her and sees--

 

THE GOLD STATUE

 

on the milk crate bookshelf against the wall.

 

Max gets up, crosses to the statue, picks it up and look at

it a long moment trying to run the math.  then, impetuously

she heads out of the room collecting her just doffed clothes

as she goes.

 

                                                    FADE OUT.

 

                        END OF ACT IV

 

 

 

                            ACT V

 

FADE IN:

 

INT.  LOGAN'S APARTMENT - FOYER - NIGHT (DAY THREE)

 

The luxurious apartment, subdued lighting.  A beat, then--

THWUMP!

 

MAX DROPS INTO FRAME

 

landing in a crouch.  She sees--

 

INT.  DINING ROOM - NIGHT

 

Logan, standing in the dining room, just lighting a candle at

the long table.  There are two place settings.  He looks at

her, then blows out the match.

 

                     LOGAN

          Ever notice how cats always seem to turn

          up around dinner time?

 

                     MAX

               (icy)

          I won't be staying.

 

                     LOGAN

          I'm not a half bad cook.

 

The tastefully arrayed table suggests this is an

understatement.

 

                     MAX

          Like following me around and pestering

          the people I work with wasn't bad enough,

          but breaking into my apartment--

 

                     LOGAN

          It was open.

 

                     MAX

          You got a lotta nerve.

 

                     LOGAN

          Me?  You're the one who tried to rip off

          this piece.

 

                     MAX

          Completely different situation.  I steal

          things in order to sell them.  For money.

          It's called commerce.  But some stranger

          sneaking into a girl's bedroom is...bent.

 

                     LOGAN

          Bent?

 

                     MAX

          Bent.

 

                     LOGAN

          You make it sound I pawed through your

          priceless collection of underwear.

 

                     MAX

          How do I know you didn't?

 

                     LOGAN

          So saw my hands off, I left you a

          present.

 

                     MAX

          Am I s'posed to be grateful?

 

                     LOGAN

          That would be appropriate, yes.

 

                     MAX

          How'm I s'posed to ever sleep there again

          knowing some pervo's probably touched

          everything I own?

 

                     LOGAN

          You're that nervous, you're welcome

          to stay here.

 

Max feigns complete revulsion at the thought as Peter the

security guard enters in a rush, drawing his gun menacingly,

some ace wrapping on his wrist and a bandage on the bridge of

his nose.

 

                     MAX

          Whoa there, Tex!  We've been through

          all this.

 

                     LOGAN

          It's alright, Peter, we're fine.

 

                     MAX

          We are not fine.

 

Peter lowers the gun but continues to watch Max suspiciously.

 

                     PETER

          This is a tactical exposure which I go on

          record as not liking.

 

                     LOGAN

          Noted... Peter, do me a favor and look

          in on Lauren and Sophy.

 

Peter grudgingly exits and Max causally circles the table.

She idly kicks the plywood which has been fastened over the

window she broke last time she was here.

 

                     LOGAN

          Look, if I made you nervous or

          uncomfortable or creeped you out--

 

                     MAX

          Yes on all counts.

 

                     LOGAN

          I'm sorry.  It wasn't my intention.  But

          I had to see you.

 

                     MAX

          You'd think a guy who's taken on the job

          of saving the world would have a few more

          important things to do than traipse

          around after some girl.

 

                     LOGAN

          I haven't been able to get you off my

          mind.

 

                     MAX

          You need to get out more.

 

                     LOGAN

          C'mere, I want to show you something.

 

Putting a hand on each shoulder, he steers her over to an

ornate mirror hanging above the sideboard.

 

                     MAX

          Gold leaf, art nouveau, French, early

          nineteen hundreds... I could probably

          fence this for three or four grand.

 

                     LOGAN

          No, I meant this.

 

He points to her reflection in the mirror.

 

                     LOGAN

          Probably the most singularly beautiful

          face I've ever seen.

 

Max is caught off guard, even a little embarrassed.

 

                     MAX

          Expensive gifts, surprise late-night

          visits, over-the-top flattery... You

          always come on this strong?

 

                     LOGAN

          Only when I meet someone I have to know

          everything about.

 

He brushes the air off the nape of her neck and leans in.

Max doesn't resist.

 

                     MAX

          What are you doing?

 

Logan sees the bar code on her neck.

 

                     LOGAN

          And now I think I know pretty much

          everything.

 

He abruptly pulls away, leaving Max standing there confused

by the interruption.

 

                     LOGAN

          Suppose I could help you locate the other

          ones.

 

                     MAX

          The other ones?

 

                     LOGAN

          The other one like you...

 

                     MAX

               (blankly)

          You lost me.

 

                     LOGAN

          C'mon, Max.  First I watch you dive

          headfirst out the window fifteen stories

          up like you're Rocky the flying squirrel.

          Then, I found this in your apartment.

 

He pulls a vial of pills out of his pocket.  Max registers

outrage.

 

                     LOGAN

          L-Triptophane...a neurotransmitter

          sometimes used in homeopathy to control

          seizures.  Then the lightbulb went off.

 

                     MAX

          You did go through my stuff.

 

As Logan turns and heads into--

 

INT.  STUDY - NIGHT

 

Max follows as Logan begins typing information on the

computer keyboard.

 

                     LOGAN

          I got an anonymous report a couple years

          ago from a guy who says he was a lab tech

          at a covert genetics lab in the Wyoming

          mountains...

 

A file labeled MANTICORE fills the computer screen.

 

                     MAX

          I don't know what kind of game you're

          playing here but I'm out because you are

          a whack-job.

 

                     LOGAN

          He was working on something called

          Project Manticore, which was using

          recombinant DNA to produce a superior

          human...a warrior...an advanced infantry

          soldier.

 

                     MAX

          Not that I don't enjoy a good urban

          legend now and then but what does any of

          this have to do with me?

 

                     LOGAN

          The bar code on your neck, Max.  I know

          who you are and I know who you're running

          from.

 

The revelation freezes Max in her tracks.  After a beat, she

suddenly bolts but Logan catches her, looks into her face.

 

                     LOGAN

          There were a couple of dozen of these

          transgenic kids.  And in oh-nine, a few

          months before the pulse, six of them

          escaped.

 

The struggle goes out of her when she hears this.

 

                     MAX

          Six?

 

The emotion is plainly evident in her eyes.

 

                     LOGAN

          You're one of those kids, Max.

 

Off which--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  BEDROOM - NIGHT

 

Lauren sits on the bed reading "Goodnight Moon" to Sophy.

 

                     LAUREN

          Goodnight Bears.  Goodnight chairs.

          Goodnight kittens.  Goodnight mittens.

          Goodnight clocks.  And goodnight socks.

          Goodnight little house.  And goodnight--

 

                     SOPHY

          I don't want to move away.

 

                     LAUREN

          I know, Honey, but just think how

          exiting it will be-- new house, new

          school, new friends--

 

                     SOPHY

          But why can't we stay here?

 

                     LAUREN

          Because we can't.  There's nothing here

          for us anymore.

 

                     SOPHY

          Are we in some kind of trouble?

 

                     LAUREN

          No...

 

                     SOPHY

          Then how come last night I heard you

          talking to Logan and you were crying?

 

A beat, then--

 

                     LAUREN

          What makes you cry?

 

                     SOPHY

          If I'm sad, or tired, or sometimes when

          I'm angry or when somebody's being mean

          to me.

 

                     LAUREN

          Pretty much the same reasons I was

          crying.  But things will be better when

          we move to a new place.

 

                     SOPHY

          Then I'm gonna do what you do to make me

          feel better when I'm sad.

 

Sophy takes the book.

 

                     SOPHY

          I'm going to read you a story...

          And goodnight mouse.  Goodnight camel.

          And goodnight brush.  Goodnight nobody.

          And goodnight mush--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  LIVING ROOM - NIGHT

 

Logan listens as Max relates the specifics of her history.

 

                     MAX

          We got separated right away.  I never

          knew how many made it.

 

                     LOGAN

          How well do you remember the lab?

 

                     MAX

          I remember fine.  I just didn't

          understand what was going on.  They never

          told us anything except what to do.  It

          took me a long time afterwards to figure

          things out.

 

                     LOGAN

          How much do you know?

 

                     MAX

          I know they made me.  Even got the label

          on my neck to prove it.

 

                     LOGAN

          The technical term for you is

          "chimera"...

 

                     MAX

          Yeah...a made-up creature.  Like in

          mythology...with the head of a lion, the

          body of a goat and the tail of...

 

                     LOGAN

          A girl.

 

                     MAX

          Your basic hodge-podge.

 

                     LOGAN

          Hardly...

 

Max acknowledges the compliment with a brief glance, then

looks out the window at the city lights.

 

                     MAX

          Christmas is a snap when you got no

          parents or relatives, just a bunch of

          gene sequences from probably twenty

          different people.

 

                     LOGAN

          Like extra virgin olive oil, the best of

          the best.

 

                     MAX

               (then, turning from the window)

          You said you could help.

 

                     LOGAN

          I need to find this technician, or anyone

          else who knows about Project Manticore.

          They would've used surrogate mothers to

          carry you after the in-vitro work... If

          I can track down one of them.

 

                     MAX

          What's in it for you?

 

                     LOGAN

          Your help.

 

                     MAX

          I already don't like the sound of this.

 

                     LOGAN

          The woman you met, Lauren.  She

          supervised workers removing

          cortodiazapine from gel caps by hand and

          replacing it with powdered sugar.  The

          real drug was shipped out of the country.

          The placebos were distributed to County

          VA Hospital and six veterans' clinics in

          the area.

 

                     MAX

          That's low, but this effects me how

          exactly?

 

                     LOGAN

          She's prepared to testify that she was

          instructed to do this by one of Edgar

          Sonrisa's managers.  You know who Sonrisa

          is?

 

                     MAX

          Yeah, I catch your hacks.  He's Satan's

          lap dog, or something.

 

                     LOGAN

          So, you know the lengths he'll go to keep

          her from going public... I'm turning

          Lauren over to Canadian law enforcement

          tomorrow.  They'll put her in witness

          protection, but if you're with her the

          risk of her safety goes way down.

 

                     MAX

          I didn't make it this far by attracting a

          lot of attention.

 

                     LOGAN

          She's put her life on the line, and her

          faith in me.

 

                     MAX

          They want me...bad.  Or at least they

          don't want me grabbed up by the Chinese

          or whoever.  Best case, I wind up back in

          that facility.  More likely, it's a long

          drive out in the country, if you know

          what I mean.

 

Logan sees the fear in her eyes.  A flash of the scared six-

year-old through the stony poise of the woman.

 

                     MAX

          They've lost track of me and I plan to

          keep it that way.

 

                     LOGAN

          You're a soldier, Max.  That's what you

          were put here for.  But soldiers need a

          mission otherwise they tear themselves

          up.

 

                     MAX

          That's deep.  But before you lecture me

          about the meaning of life maybe you

          oughta get one...ta ta.

 

Then, she leaps up and grabs the combing of the skylight.

She pikes sharply, like a gymnast, and pulls herself up

through the opening.  And, just like that, she's gone.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

EXT.  SIDEWALK NEWSSTAND - NIGHT

 

Max picks up a newspaper, looks around, tucks the gold statue

in it, hand it to the proprietor, INGA MARCHAND, 28, tough,

cool, sexy, despite her prosthetic leg.  Inga takes the

newspaper, checks out the statue, her eyes widen.

 

                     INGA

          Where'd you clip this?

 

                     MAX

          I didn't.  It was a present from a guy.

 

                     INGA

          Must think you're pretty special laying

          this on you.

 

                     MAX

          Thought so.  Turned out he wanted me for

          something else though.

 

                     INGA

          Same old story.

               (then hands back the statue)

          Not interested.

 

                     MAX

               (shrugs)

          Thought I'd let you have first crack...

          Later.

 

She stands to go but Inga stops her.  We get the sense this

is all part of the dance, then--

 

                     INGA

          What're you looking for?

 

                     MAX

          A grand.

 

                     INGA

          Which means I gotta fence it for two.

          Who's got that kinda scrilla lying

          around, these being the worst of the

          times.

 

                     MAX

               (shrugs)

          I ain't mad at you...

 

                     INGA

          I'll give you seventy-five bucks for it.

 

                     MAX

               (nods, then)

          Later.

 

As she heads off, Inga relents, pulls out a wad.  This is as

practiced as a Japanese tea ceremony.

 

                     INGA

          I shouldn't do this.

               (as she counts out the money)

          But I got a client lookin' to score some

          fire power.  Maybe you'll keep your eyes

          open for me.

 

                     MAX

          I don't get involved with guns.

 

                     INGA

          I'll make it worth your while.

 

                     MAX

               (firm)

          It's a rule.

 

Inga hands the money to Max, reaches for the statue.  But

without counting the cash, Max yanks back the merchandise.

 

                     MAX

          You're light a deuce.

 

                     INGA

               (smiles)

          Am I?

 

Then she counts out two more bills.

 

                     INGA

          So Max, what do you do with all your

          money?

 

                     MAX

          I got overhead...

 

She goes.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

EXT.  LAUNDROMAT - NIGHT

 

Max pulls up on her motorcycle.  A sign says CLOSED.  Max

dismounts, knocks on the door but it's open.  She ventures

in.

 

INT.  LAUNDROMAT - NIGHT

 

She transits the corridor into--

 

INT.  VOGELSANG'S OFFICE - NIGHT

 

The place is trashed.  Vogelsang sports a mouse under one

eye.

 

                     MAX

          What happened?

 

He looks up at Max, puts a finger to his swollen lip to

silence her, then by way of explanation scrawls on a pad as

he speaks--

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Walked in on some hump ransacking the

          place.  Disgruntled former client, or

          someone I'm looking into trying to see

          what I got.  Or it coulda been your

          garden variety junkie boost.  Who knows?

 

As he holds up the pad--

 

INSERT

 

ROOM BUGGED.

 

Max nods understanding.

 

                     MAX

          As long as you're okay.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          I'll live... Regarding your case...I'm

          afraid I've come up with some bad news on

          your fiance.  Lemme get the file.

 

He motions Max toward the back door--

 

                     VOGELSANG

          If you need to freshen up, bathroom's

          over there.

 

Max picks up the cue.

 

                     MAX

          Please.

 

As Vogelsang steers her outside into--

 

EXT.  ALLEY - NIGHT

 

Vogelsang's demeanor instantly changes.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          I don't know what your story is and I

          don't want to.

 

                     MAX

          Here's your money.

 

She hands it to him but he doesn't take it.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Whoever tossed this place wants you.  And

          I'm looking to stay outta the line of

          fire.

 

                     MAX

          How's this about me?

 

                     VOGELSANG

          They lifted my wallet to make it look

          like a robbery.  But there's a bug in my

          computer keyboard, a tap on the phone and

          a mike in the light fixture.

 

                     MAX

          Like you said, maybe somebody's tracking

          one of your investigations.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Hardware's too sophisticated.  It's gotta

          be the government.  And why do I think

          they're looking for you?

 

                     MAX

          You're crazy.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          I'm you, I take that money and get outta

          town while you can.

 

He heads back into--

 

INT.  LAUNDROMAT - NIGHT

 

Resuming his cover story.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Your fiance has four previous wives.  His

          M.O. is to clean 'em out and take off.

               (sotto)

          Which is what you oughta do.

 

                     MAX

          Bastard...

 

It's unclear whether she's speaking in character or venting

on Vogelsang for bailing.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          I'm sorry I couldn't come up with

          something more positive.

 

                     MAX

          You and me both.

 

She goes.

 

EXT.  LAUNDROMAT - NIGHT

 

As Max gets on her motorcycle and heads off, she puts her

collar up, pulls her hat down, glancing at the two men in a

parked car who watch her closely as she passes.  As one of

the men raises a camera and clicks off several frames, Max

looks away and we--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  MAX'S BUILDING - NIGHT

 

Max emerges from the stairwell into the darkened corridor.

Omar runs toward her waving a flashlight, making the sounds

of gunfire and explosions as he wages a five-year-old's war--

 

                     OMAR

          Blam-Blam-Blam, you're dead.

 

As Max tries to wrest the flashlight out of his hands,

annoyed--

 

                     MAX

          Turn that off, Omar, before you get the

          cops on us.

 

Jacinda emerges from her apartment, calls in monotone--

 

                     JACINDA

          Come on, Omar, it's time to go to sleep.

 

She scoops up the child, turning off the flashlight but not

before the beam illuminates her face.  Her eyes are red, her

cheeks tear-streaked.

 

                     MAX

          Are you okay?

 

Jacinda just nods.  Omar wriggles out of her arms, runs into

the apartment shooting at an imagined adversary.

 

                     MAX

          What's wrong?

 

A beat, then--

 

                     JACINDA

          I took Theo to the hospital tonight...

          He couldn't walk so I borrowed some money

          and we took a cab but...

 

Her chest begins to heave and she breaks down in sobs.

 

                     JACINDA

          ...he didn't make it... He's dead.  Oh

          my God... Oh my God...

 

Max goes to her and takes her in her arms.  Off Max,

comforting the stricken women.

 

                                                    FADE OUT.

 

                        END OF ACT V

 

 

 

                           ACT VI

 

FADE IN:

 

INT.  MAX'S CRIB - DAY (DAY FOUR)

 

CLOSE ON MAX

 

grimacing, tortured by another seizure.

 

MONOCHROME FLASHBACK (GENEDYNE)

 

In the barracks, the kids surround Young Max, who is sprawled

on the floor convulsing.  They look up in fear as the door

bangs open and a group of guards and orderlies come in.  The

kids are ordered out of the way, but they don't want to give

Max up, not after what happened to the blonde-haired boy.

 

ON MAX

 

In the present, fumbling to open her pills.  She dumps out a

handful, scattering some.  She pounds them into her mouth.

 

FLASHBACK CONTINUES

 

as the kids are pulled out of the way, protesting.  The

orderlies, yelling, grab Max, but--

 

Zack pushes one of the orderlies and the guy flies back and

guards rush in with stun batons raised.

 

A girl springs on one from behind and, quick as a flash, she

yanks his gun out of it's holster and--

 

BLAM!  She puts a round into the ceiling, then pulls down on

the guards.  Screaming at them she waves the gun in an arc

and--

 

They fall back, leaving Eva crouched over Max with the gun.

The kids join ranks without hesitation...their eyes fierce.

The guards and orderlies fall back through the door and the

kids start to barricade it with steel bunk frames.

 

MAX, IN THE PRESENT

 

Convulses on the bathroom floor.  Her muscles are locked in a

tetanic rigor.  One fist shoots out and shatters the tank of

the toilet.  Ceramic shards and water pour over her.  She

pulls into a fetal position, shaking violently, as she rides

it out.  Her head raps against the flooded tile floor.

 

FLASHBACK

 

The kids, led by Zack are running through a service hall in

the lab complex.  Jondy and Eva are pulling a stumbling Max

along.

 

They round a corner and lights blast suddenly into their

eyes.  Eva releases Max, who falls to her knees.  Eva fires

rapidly at the lights.  BAM!  BAM!  BAM!  A figure steps into

the lights and fires back with one swift move.  Eva is

slammed backward and slides in a crumpled heap across the

floor.  The pistol skitters and comes to rest right in front

of Max.

 

The silhouette materializes out of the lights... Lydecker.

 

OUTSIDE THE LAB the windows explode outward as the kids crash

through the glass in a suicide charge, dropping twenty feet

to the know below.  They hit and roll, and come up sprinting.

Jondy pulls Max with her as they pelt for the treeline.

 

ON YOUNG MAX running.  She pounds through the snow, toward

CAMERA, until she is just a rhythmic blur and--

 

MAX, IN THE PRESENT hunches against the bathroom wall, her

tremors subsiding.  The shudders have been replaced by sobs.

Tears stream down her face as her chest pitches, and she

shudders with a pain of the soul the pills can't touch.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  JAM PONY - DAY

 

Max arrives for the day, crosses to dispatch, a sober

expression on her face, passing Sketchy who offers--

 

                     SKETCHY

          F.Y.I... Normal's a grumpy muffin this

          morning.

 

                     NORMAL

               (snarls to Max)

          Nice of you to join us.

 

Max doesn't respond.  He shoves a package at her.

 

                     NORMAL

          Hot run to 842 Beulah, corner of

          Haight... And you can tell your pal

          Theo he just got his worthless ass fired.

          Not that he cares but the wife and kid

          might.

 

                     MAX

               (simply)

          Theo's dead.

 

A revelation which freezes the room.  Normal just hangs

there, not knowing what to say.  Max takes the package out of

his hands, goes.  But her attention is diverted by a news

bulletin on TV.

 

ANGLE ON TV

 

                     NEWS ANCHOR

               (on monitor)

          Two men are dead, and another critically

          wounded after a shoot-out near the

          Superior Court Building today.  A police

          air-remote unit captured this dramatic

          footage at 9:47 this morning, after

          automatically homing on the sound of

          gunfire.

 

A monochromatic AERIAL SHOT of the downtown area.  It is a

feed from the police hoverdrone, and the image is overlaid

with some alphanumeric data like the targeting video from a

jet fighter weapons system.  The image slews suddenly in a

WHIP PAN as the robot reacts to the first shots fired.  It

stabilizes and zooms in on a dark Suburban which is ramming a

car and trying to force it to the curb.  A second Suburban

pulls out of an alley and blocks the car's path.  The car

skids to a stop.  It is all seen from almost directly

overhead, like a football play.

 

The doors of the Suburbans fly open and four gunmen pile out,

wearing ski-masks and carrying machine pistols.  They

converge on the car, firing.  The car's windows erupt with

white starbursts, the weapons smoke and flash, but no sound

accompanies the image.

 

Two bodyguards leap from the car, firing at the gunmen.  They

are wearing heavy kevlar vests, as are the attackers.  A back

door of the car opens and a man emerges, yanking a child out

onto the street.  He shields her with his body as he starts

to run.  The image jerks and slews as the aerial robot

circles the scene.

 

TIGHT ON MAX...as it dawns on her what she is seeing.

 

A woman has emerged from the back of the car, obviously

screaming and trying to reach the child.  One of the body

guards shoves her and appears to be yelling at her to run.

He is shot by one of the attackers and drops like a puppet

with the strings cut.  The woman turns and sprints for her

life.

 

The man trying to shield the little girl doesn't get far

before one of the gunmen runs up behind him and hoses him

with a machine pistol.  The man drops, covering the girl.

 

TIGHT CLOSE-UP OF MAX

 

reacting to this, and to the certain dread that she knows who

the victims of the attack are.

 

The remaining bodyguard is laying down a withering field of

fire, and one of the attackers falls.  Another is pinned down

behind the hood of the nearest Suburban.

 

The bodyguard is hit repeatedly and goes down shooting,

crumpling against the side of the car.

 

The SHOT WHIPS dizzily and steadies...showing one of the

masked killers, who seems to be in charge, calmly pointing

and yelling.  One of the others grabs the little girl and

they walk back to the Suburbans.  The one in charge helps

with wounded gunman into their vehicle.

 

WHIP PAN, a long blur, then the running woman again.  Dodging

between cars, almost getting hit by one.  She makes it to an

intersection and sprints to a bus stop where she leaps onto a

bus just as the doors are closing.  As the bus pulls away

from the curb, the gunman runs INTO FRAME and stops,

obviously out of breath.  He turns and waits calmly as one of

the Suburbans pulls up.  Before he gets in, he looks up,

directly at the CAMERA.  He points to the others to indicate

the surveillance robot, then raises his gun and aims

carefully.

 

A flash at the muzzle--

 

The image tilts crazily and starts to spin.

 

                     SKETCHY

          That was extreme!  Did you see that one

          guy--

 

                     MAX

          Shut-up...

 

Sketchy and Herbal look at Max, puzzled by her intensity.

 

The drivers license pictures of the two men appear on the

screen.  The one on the left is Peter, the bodyguard Max

tussled with at Logan's place.  The other man is Logan Cale.

 

INT.  AN OFFICE - DAY

 

Present are the two field operatives seen earlier posted

outside the laundromat, SANDOVAL and DOCHNOVICH, being

debriefed by a man seated behind a desk.  He's silhouetted

against white-hot slats of California sun fighting through

partially closed Venetian blinds.  From the black gloved hand

sorting through a stack of grainy 8 X 10 surveillance photos,

we know this is Lydecker.

 

                     SANDOVAL

          We been set up on Vogelsang thirty-six

          hours and so far, nothing.

 

                     DOCHNOVICH

          A few customer complaints-- the dryer ate

          my money, rinse cycle's not long enough,

          that kind of thing.

 

                     SANDOVAL

          And three or four P.I. clients.  Strictly

          run of the mill.  I don't think this guy

          can help us.

 

The black glove sifts through a pile of photographs taken at

Vogelsang's, holding the one of Max a moment before casting

it aside.  Then, Lydecker stands, paces--

 

                     LYDECKER

               (musing aloud)

          Twenty-three computer hits from one

          detective.  He browses Wyoming DMV

          records from ten years ago, employment

          files on health care personnel working in

          the Gillette area around the same time.

          Then he searches prison records for

          unidentified males and females

          approximately eighteen to twenty years

          old.  And you want me to believe it's

          happenstance?

 

                     DOCHNOVICH

          Since the pulse there've been how many

          thousand missing person searches.  This

          is probably one of them.

 

                     SANDOVAL

          And nothing in those searches or our

          surveillance connects him with Manticore.

 

Lydecker crosses to a wall displaying a row of I.D.

photographs of young kids with military haircuts.  We

recognize Zack, Jondy...and Young Max.  Lydecker studies the

photos a long moment, shakes his head.

 

                     LYDECKER

          No.  He's trying to track down these

          kids... And we're not going to do

          anything to get in his way.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  HOSPITAL SUPPLY ROOM - NIGHT

 

CLOSE ON

 

A window, being jimmied from the outside.  It slowly slides

open, revealing Max hanging upsidedown.  She reaches in,

grasping the window casement with each hand to steady

herself, then gracefully somersaults into the room, landing

on both feet.  She goes to the door, opens it a crack, peers

out, then heads into--

 

INT.  HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHT

 

Dimly lit, dingy, Moscow General, circa 1999.  Max makes her

way down the corridor, passing a couple of corpse-laden

gurneys waiting to be taken to the morgue whenever somebody

gets around to it.  She peers into a couple of hospital rooms

at patients being warehoused more than healed.  Finally, she

sees what she's looking for and heads into--

 

INT.  HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT

 

She approached a bed where Logan lies unconscious, hooked up

to monitors, bandaged, I.V.'s running, etc.  Max just looks

at him a beat, a dispassionate expression on her face, then

without emotion--

 

                     MAX

          Sure looks like you pissed off the wrong

          folks.

 

She pulls open the drawer to the bedside table, takes out his

wallet, goes through it, but it's empty.

 

                     MAX

               (shrugs)

          Nurses beat me to it.

 

She flops into a chair, puts her feet up on the hospital bed,

then opines wisely--

 

                     MAX

          Coulda told ya.  You take a header into

          the deep end when the pool's empty,

          you're gonna go splat.  Law of gravity.

          And even Jesus Christ himself had to obey

          the law of gravity.  For awhile anyway.

          Well, better you than me.

 

She hears something out in the hall, gets to her feet, then

presses herself flat against the wall.  Through the doorway

we see an ORDERLY approach carrying a tray of meds.  He slows

as he passes Logan's room, casting a long look at Logan's

comatose form, then continues on.  After a moment, Max

continues--

 

                     MAX

          The one I feel sorry for is that poor

          woman with the kid.  She shoulda told ya

          to stick it like I did.  But she bought

          your crap about "doin' what's right"...

          dumb bitch.

 

As Max crosses to the window, lifts a slat of the Venetian

blinds and peers out into the night--

 

                     MAX

          And just so you know, I don't feel the

          slightest guilt about not watchin' her

          back.  That's on you, hotshot.  One

          hundred percent.

 

MAX'S POV

 

In her NIGHT VISION she sees a figure moving furtively on the

roof across the street.  She watches as the figure removes a

rifle from its case, then screws on a scope.  She can make

out the features of a not unattractive man in his late 20's.

 

Max turns away, then nonchalantly walks over to Logan's bed

and begins to maneuver it toward the door.

 

                     MAX

          I probably oughta let 'em just finish the

          job.  Least then you won't get more

          innocent people whacked on accounta your

          ambition... On the other hand--

 

As she wheels him out into--

 

INT.  HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHT

 

                     MAX

          You did lay that statue on me.

 

She yanks the toe-tag off one of the corpses and maneuvers

its gurney into Logan's room.

 

                     MAX

          Which I was able to fence for a coupla

          bucks--

 

INT.  HOSPITAL ROOM - NIGHT

 

Max wheels in the gurney, positions it where Logan's bed had

been, then quickly scoots back out into--

 

INT.  HOSPITAL CORRIDOR - NIGHT

 

                     MAX

          Been wantin' to buy myself a new

          motorcycle.

 

And ducks into a room across the hall just as a gunman steps

out of the stairwell, sprays Logan's room with machine gun

fire, then vanishes back into the stairwell.  After a beat,

Max re-emerges into the hall.  Then, addressing Logan--

 

                     MAX

          Thinking about stepping up to a Harley...

          You take care.

 

As Max heads for the exit past our orderly, who comes running

at the sound of all the commotion--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  LOGAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

 

Dark.  Empty.  Then a SOUND as Max navigates through the

darkness to Logan's computer console-- command central for

his information network.

 

Max takes a seat, logs on, accessing Logan's myriad data

files.

 

S-O-N-R-I-S-A, E-D-G-A-R

 

A file comes up on screen.  Max clicks on--

 

EMPLOYEES/ASSOCIATES

 

and begins scrolling through the file of mug shots of

Sonrisa's enforcers, lieutenants, etc.-- a generally

loathsome crew--

 

                     MAX

          Makes me wanna take a shower.

 

Then--

 

                     MAX

          Bingo...

 

ON SCREEN

 

is the face of the shooter, cold, merciless.

 

Max looks up at a sound coming from down the hall.  She

listens a moment, then after a beat she pushes away from the

console and goes to investigate.  Hearing the creak of a

floorboard, she snags a vase off the mantle, raises it like a

truncheon and continues into--

 

INT.  HALLWAY - NIGHT

 

Max negotiates the darkness, her back against the wall.

Suddenly, a figure lunges at her.  Max ducks, catches the

assailant by the throat, pinning him to the wall, about to

deliver a cranium crack with the vase when she recognizes

Lauren.

 

                     MAX

          Damn... Are you alright?

 

                     LAUREN

          They took my daughter.

 

                     MAX

          I know.

 

                     LAUREN

          I couldn't get to her.  It all happened

          so fast.  Logan had her, and I saw him

          fall...then Peter told me to run.  And

          then he...and I remember so clearly,

          thinking it's me they want.  If I run,

          maybe they'll come after me.  Maybe they

          won't think about her... So I ran...

 

Lauren dissolves in tears.  After a beat--

 

                     MAX

          They won't hurt her.

 

Lauren wants desperately to believe her but can't.  Max

presses reassurance.

 

                     MAX

          Your daughter's the only leverage they

          have to keep you quiet.

 

                     LAUREN

          Can you help me get her back?

 

                     MAX

          Look, I'd really like to...

 

Max can't muster the courage to venture a "but" as she looks

into the woman's imploring eyes.

 

                     MAX

          ...So I will.

 

Off which--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  STUDY - NIGHT

 

Back at the computer console.  Max indicates to Lauren the

mug shot on the screen.

 

                     MAX

          The shooter who tried to finish off

          Logan... Works for Sonrisa, surprise,

          surprise.

               (reads)

          Bruno Anselmo.  Born 1990, served in

          Iraq, dishonorable discharge, armed

          robbery, assault, assault with a deadly

          weapon, arson, attempted rape-- your

          basic renaissance dirt bag.

 

But Lauren is too absorbed by worry to pay attention.

 

                     LAUREN

          If I give myself up in exchange for

          Sophy, would you make sure she's okay?

 

                     MAX

          We're not going that route.  Sonrisa's

          not someone you make deals with.

 

                     LAUREN

          What else can we do?

 

                     MAX

          Like I said-- This isn't my regular line

          of work so I'm making it up as I go.

 

Off Max--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

EXT.  SONRISA'S ESTATE - PACIFIC HEIGHTS - NIGHT

 

A limo pulls up to the gate of an extravagant, faded

Victorian manor.  The window goes down and the STEROID CASE

standing guard addresses the DRIVER.

 

                     DRIVER

          Mayor Steckler to see Mister Sonrisa.

 

The guard shines a flashlight into the limousine, looks

inside warily at MAYOR LEOPOLD STECKLER, who squints into the

blinding beam of light.  After a beat--

 

                     STEROID CASE

          I'll need to search the trunk.

 

The driver pops the latch and the Steroid Case moves to the

rear of the car.

 

In b.g. a bus rumbles past.  PICK UP and STAY WITH the bus

as Max, atop the vehicle, comes into view as she gets to her

feet.  The bus continues down the block and Max somersaults

from the roof of the bus over the ten foot wall surrounding

Sonrisa's estate onto--

 

INT.  GROUNDS - NIGHT

 

Where Max lands and rolls onto her feet in a low crouch.

 

Security is tight as assorted armed personnel patrol the

perimeter of the faded Victorian palazzo, where a party is

underway.  Max makes her way across the grounds but freezes

as a mobile robotic security drone rolls across the grass

towards her, sweeping the area with laser beams to detect

intruders, much as a lighthouse scours the seascape with its

beacon.  Max dives to the ground just as the laser rakes

where she had been standing.  She rolls out of the way as

another beam sweeps the ground.

 

She bolts toward the house, leaps and grabs a tree limb,

swinging herself upward like an acrobat, barely clearing

another beam.  Max scales the tree, then jumps onto a balcony

and disappears into an open window.

 

INT.  MANSION HALLWAY - NIGHT

 

As Max climbs into an upstairs hallway, makes her way to a

bedroom, pokes her head in, sees it's empty, then continues

down the hall.  In b.g. HEAR the sounds of the party

downstairs.  Max stops at the sound of voices and approaching

footsteps, then dives into--

 

INT.  BATHROOM - NIGHT

 

Where a bleached-BLONDE, late 20's, in a little red dress and

fuck-me pumps (a look which, like cockroaches and Cher has

survived the apocalypse) stands at the sink readying a

syringe.  Without looking up--

 

                     BLONDE

          It's not what it looks like.  I'm

          diabetic.

 

The blonde looks up, sees Max, who looks out of place in

boots, jeans, and black leather jacket.

 

                     BLONDE

          Who are you?

 

                     MAX

          Bruno's girlfriend.

 

                     BLONDE

          Oh, yeah?

 

                     MAX

          Yeah.

 

                     BLONDE

          But see tonight wives and girlfriends

          aren't invited.

 

                     MAX

          No?

 

                     BLONDE

          No... Cause tonight the girls are here

          in a more or less professional capacity.

          All of them work for me, and you don't...

          Let's go.

 

The blonde starts to move Max toward the door.

 

                     MAX

          Okay, okay.  I can explain... You ever

          have to do something you really don't

          want to?

 

                     BLONDE

          How I make my living, what's your point?

 

                     MAX

          This.

 

Max hauls off and catches the blonde across the jaw with a

roundhouse that lays her out cold.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  MANSION HALLWAY - NIGHT

 

Max emerges wearing the red dress, shoes, and the little

working girl purse slung over one shoulder.  Going room to

room, Max resumes her search for the missing girl.

 

INT.  SONRISA'S MANSION - NIGHT

 

Max heads down the staircase to the main floor where the

party is in full swing.  Young women mingle with Sonrisa's

cronies, yes-men, puppets, etc.  Max tries to look nonchalant

as she navigates the room.  She notices surveillance cameras

placed discreetly around the room.  As Max leans against the

bar for a moment, one of the other girls, a slightly drunk

REDHEAD, eyes her appraisingly, nodding approval.

 

                     REDHEAD

          Girl, you work that dress.

 

Max smiles and then edges toward the other wing of the house

in order to resume her search.  As she approaches the

corridor, a hand catches her by the arm.

 

                     VOICE (O.C.)

          Don't rush off.

 

The hand belongs to the hitman, BRUNO ANSELMO.

 

                     BRUNO

          Mr. Sonrisa saw you on the cameras.  He

          wants you to come see him.

 

                     MAX

          I'm on a break.

 

                     BRUNO

          Guess again.

 

As Bruno catches her by the elbow and steers her upstairs.

 

                                                    FADE OUT.

 

                        END OF ACT VI

 

 

 

                           ACT VII

 

FADE IN:

 

INT.  MANSION STUDY - NIGHT (DAY FOUR)

 

Max is ushered in as a poker game between EDGAR SONRISA and

two other men is ending.  A couple of escorts sit with

Sonrisa's buddies, one of whom is the mayor, but he is alone.

Behind him is an array of surveillance monitors, with views

of the house and grounds.  Sonrisa fans his hand on the

table.

 

                     SONRISA

          The only thing better than four queens

          is...

               (off Max's entrance)

          ...five.  Over here next to me...for luck.

 

Max saunters over, and all eyes are on her.

 

                     MAX

          Yeah, I can see to it your winning streak

          continues.

 

                     SONRISA

          I'll bet you can.

               (indicates chair next to him)

          Sit.

 

She doesn't.

 

                     MAX

          Not right now.

 

                     SONRISA

               (amused, intrigued)

          Not right now?  Okay, when?

 

                     MAX

          Right after you change your wardrobe,

          your personality and drop about thirty

          pounds.

 

                     SONRISA

          Quite a mouth on a girl so young...

               (grabs her wrist)

          ...but my guess is talking is not what it

          does best.

 

                     MAX

          Only way you're ever gonna find out is

          reincarnation... Fact is, you are gonna

          pay me, and I am gonna provide you with a

          service.

 

                     SONRISA

          I actually know how this works.

 

                     MAX

          You're gonna pay me fifty thousand

          dollars...

 

Sonrisa laughs hugely at the joke.

 

                     MAX

          And I'm gonna give you Lauren Braganza.

 

Sonrisa stops in mid-laugh.  His eyes go flinty.

 

                     SONRISA

               (to others)

          Give us a minute.

               (escorts and poker players

                hesitate)

          OUT!

 

They leave, except Bruno.  When the door closes, he pulls his

pistol and trains it on her.

 

                     SONRISA

          Check her.

 

Bruno slams her in the middle of the back and Max's hands

slap, palms-down on the table.  He holds the gun on her, then

slides his free hand down her body, his fingers kneading the

sheer dress, searching.

 

CLOSE-UP OF MAX as Bruno searches her out of frame.  Max

seems utterly unperturbed by what is obviously an intimate

search.

 

                     SONRISA

          Who are you?

 

                     MAX

          What, you gonna put me on your Christmas

          card list?

 

Bruno searches her purse, pulls out the syringe, holds it up

for his boss to see.

 

                     SONRISA

               (shrugs)

          Why I always use condoms.

 

Bruno puts the works back in her purse.

 

                     BRUNO

          No wire.

 

                     MAX

          Now that that's out of the way... You

          want the woman, here's how it works.  You

          pull fifty large out of your mattress or

          wherever, and I make a call to bring her

          in.

 

Bruno grabs her brutally by the hair, yanking her head back.

 

                     BRUNO

          Or we can work on your face with a pair

          of pliers for a couple of hours and you

          tell us where she is.

 

                     MAX

          Or we could go another way 'cause your

          boss seems to like my face just the way

          it is.

 

Sonrisa is fascinated now by this impudent creature.  He nods

to Bruno who releases her.

 

                     MAX

          The plan is I call her cell number to

          okay a meet at a certain location.

 

Sonrisa considers this a moment.

 

                     MAX

          Look, you're a player... I'm bringing you

          this on a plate, and my fee is just the

          normal cost of doing business.

 

                     SONRISA

               (to Bruno)

          Pull the cash.

 

                     BRUNO

          I don't like this--

 

                     SONRISA

          Get it.

 

Bruno crosses the room to a floor safe behind the bar.

 

                     SONRISA

          So, how do you get the woman to come

          to me?

 

                     MAX

          I told her it's just business to you,

          that all you want is a reasonable

          solution to this.  You give her daughter

          back, she agrees to leave the country.  I

          play the guarantor, drive her down to

          Mexico tonight, and put her on a train to

          Brazil or wherever.

 

                     SONRISA

          And she bought that?

 

                     MAX

          I have sincere eyes.

 

Bruno comes back with a handful of ten thousand dollar

packets of hundreds.

 

                     SONRISA

          Make the call.

 

                     MAX

          She's gonna need to know that her little

          girl's alright.

 

                     SONRISA

          She's got my word.

 

                     MAX

          She's gonna want to hear for herself.

 

Max hits the button on the speaker phone on Sonrisa's desk

and we HEAR a dial tone.

 

                     MAX

               (dials)

          Look, we gotta keep the momentum up here,

          not give her a chance to think.  If she

          hears her kid's voice...

 

                     LAUREN (V.O.)

          Hello...

 

                     MAX

          Hang on, Lauren.  We're conferencing in

          Sophy.

 

Max gestures toward the box that it's his move.  Sonrisa

considers for a second, then goes to the phone, presses the

conference button.  We HEAR another dial tone as Sonrisa hits

a speed dial button.

 

CLOSE ON MAX

 

her back to the phone, concentrating as she memorizes the

rapid-fire series of beep tones.  5-7-5-0-8-1-8-3-2-0-3-4-6-

1, then--

 

                     MAN'S VOICE (V.O.)

          Yeah?

 

                     SONRISA

          Put the kid on.

 

As Sonrisa hits the conference button, connecting calls--

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

INT.  WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

 

It's one of Sonrisa's men, his arm bandaged after sustaining

a gunshot wound during the attack.  Also present are five

more of Sonrisa's men who've gone to the mattresses in the

wake of the gun battle.  The man proffers the phone to Sophy,

who hesitantly takes it, then--

 

                     SOPHY

          Hello...

 

INTERCUT

 

INT.  LOGAN'S APARTMENT - NIGHT

 

Lauren paces, overwrought, talking on a cell phone.

 

                     LAUREN

          Sophy?  Are you okay?

 

                     SOPHY

          Mommy, where are you?

 

                     LAUREN

          Don't worry, I'm coming to get you.

 

                     SOPHY

          When?

 

                     LAUREN

          Soon, baby.

 

                     SOPHY

          Mommy, I'm scared.

 

                     LAUREN

          There's nothing to be afraid of.

          Everything's going to be alright.

 

INT.  SONRISA'S OFFICE - NIGHT

 

As Sonrisa reaches over and taps the disconnect button--

 

                     LAUREN (V.O.)

          I love y--

 

DIAL TONE.  Sonrisa takes the money from Bruno and puts it in

front of Max, but he rests his hands on top of it.

 

                     MAX

               (indicating the money)

          Can you put that in a bag or something?

 

                     SONRISA

          You get it when I get her.

 

                     MAX

          Okay...idea.  Compromise, right?  Bruno

          here comes with me.  He holds the money

          until mommy shows up, then we close

          escrow.  What you do with her after I'm

          gone doesn't keep me awake nights.

 

Sonrisa considers this a moment, then puts the money in a

manila envelope, tosses it to Bruno.

 

                     SONRISA

               (to Max)

          You better hope you're as smart as you

          think you are.

 

Max just smiles and steers her pumps toward the door, Bruno

in tow.  Only as she is walking out do we see what they

don't... Max breathes a huge sigh of relief that the play

worked and she's made it this far.

 

                                                      CUT TO:

 

EXT.  MOTEL PARKING LOT - NIGHT

 

A car pulls in, Bruno at the wheel.  He surveys what clearly

is a hot bunk house.

 

                     BRUNO

          Look, that thing about the pliers, I was

          just doing what the man pays me to do.

          Ya know?  Comin' off hard.

 

                     MAX

          Yeah, sure, I understand.

 

Max bangs out of the car and heads toward the motel room,

fishing for the key.  Bruno draws the Sig from his waistband

as he follows her into the room.

 

INT.  MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

 

Max turns on the light and Bruno scans the dingy room.

Pistol at low-ready, Bruno quickly crosses to the bathroom

and checks it, behind the door and shower curtain, and then

looks in the tiny closet.

 

                     BRUNO

          I never woulda done it.  Probably not,

          anyway.  I mean, I actually think you're

          pretty cool.

 

                     MAX

          Yeah?

 

Bruno sits on the bed.  He smiles.  Smooths the crummy

comforter with one hand.

 

                     BRUNO

          You're attractive, you're smart.  Stand

          on your own two feet, know what I mean?

          And you got a wicked sense of humor.

          Man, you really zinged the boss a couple

          times, it was all I could do--

 

                     MAX

               (brightly)

          Sooo...whattya think?  Maybe after I

          betray the woman who trusts me and you

          take her and her daughter out and execute

          them...we could go on a date.  Play a

          little miniature golf or somethin'.

 

Bruno's eyes narrow.  He gets it.

 

                     BRUNO

          Man, you got a bad attitude.

 

                     MAX

          I like to keep it professional, that's

          all.

 

Bruno starts screwing a big sound suppressor onto the barrel

of his Sig.

 

                     BRUNO

          Fine.  So call her.  Get her over here.

 

                     MAX

          Actually, that's not gonna be necessary.

 

                     BRUNO

          What?

 

                     MAX

          That's not why we're here.

 

                     BRUNO

          What the hell are you talkin' about?

          Call her.

 

He throws the room phone toward her forcefully.  Max catches

it, and rests it in her lap.

 

                     MAX

          Geez, you are so stupid the word special

          comes to mind.  They recruit you off the

          short bus?

 

Bruno raises the pistol, his body rigid with anger.

 

                     BRUNO

          Call the skank now or I start

          redecorating.

 

                     MAX

          You haven't figured this out yet, have

          you?  You walk in here thinking you're

          gonna cap her then cap me and take the

          money back to your boss with your tail

          wagging... But see it's really the other

          way around.  You think I'm the whack,

          when actually you're the whack.

 

Bruno glances around, feeling danger all around him.  This is

getting weird.

 

                     MAX

          See what you don't know is you're already

          in the last two minutes of your life.

 

                     BRUNO

          You're in the last two seconds, you don't

          cut the crap.

 

Keeping the gun trained on her, he crosses to the front

window and looks out between drape and window frame.  No

movement in the parking lot.  He flips off the light.

 

                     MAX

          Sonrisa had no choice but to call me in,

          'cause you lack the professional edge,

          Bruno.  Any real pro would've popped me

          already, the second he saw this thing

          going sideways, and you're still standing

          there figuring out what to do.  It's

          pathetic.

 

Bruno, enraged, straightens his arm to fire at her, but--

 

He goes into SLOW MOTION and--

 

Max is blurring sideways as the bullet rips a hole in the air

where she just was and--

 

Bruno, as if underwater, tries to re-aim, but--

 

Max is on him, twisting his arm until the gun is wrenched

free.

 

                     MAX

          See.  Pathetic.

 

She bitch-slaps him backhand, then hands the gun back to him.

 

                     MAX

          Come on, you're not even trying.

 

Bruno looks at her stunned for a second.  Then he whips the

gun up--

 

But he decelerates in SLOW MOTION as--

 

Max leaps past him and--

 

The silenced gun coughs PFFT!  PFFT!  PFFT! trying to track

her, but--

 

She lands behind Bruno and catches his gun arm as he spins

toward her, wrenching his arm behind his back and painfully

extracting the gun a second time.  She tosses it on the

floor.

 

Then she spins him away from her, stopping him at arm's

length...an unwilling dance partner.

 

                     MAX

          Bruno, Bruno, Bruno.  Is that all you've

          got?

 

She yanks hard, flinging him across the bed into the

nightstand.  He comes up like a gutshot bear, eyes full of

fury, and lunges at her--

 

Max drops him with one sweeping kick.

 

                     MAX

          The man was right, you are a liability.

 

Max pulls a lamp off the dresser and starts hog-tying him

with the cord.

 

                     MAX

          You can hardly blame him, the way you've

          been taking care of business...or should

          I say, not taking care of it.

 

                     BRUNO

               (face down in the carpet)

          What're you talkin' about?

 

                     MAX

          I'm hired to do a piece of work, my mark

          goes down and stays down.  Your's makes

          it to the hospital where you then gotta

          go finish the job.  Only the cops got the

          whole thing on video tape.

 

                     BRUNO

          That's a lotta crap.

 

                     MAX

          Security camera got you coming outta the

          stairwell, weapon in your hand, going to

          room one-oh-four and greasing the

          patient.  It's embarrassing to the

          professional community, is what it is.

 

                     BRUNO

          How come I never hearda you before?

 

                     MAX

          I'm outta Portland.  Sonrisa didn't want

          local talent.

 

She picks up the money off the bed and holds it in front of

his nose.

 

                     MAX

          This is what your life's worth, Bruno.

 

                     BRUNO

          But the boss knows I always been loyal.

 

                     MAX

          He's got exposure.  He sees you starin'

          at fifteen to life, there's a chance you

          could roll over, cop a plea, who knows?

          Man's figured the odds...and he can't

          take a chance.

 

Max reaches down, unbuckles his pants and pulls them down.

 

                     MAX

          Ass like your, I can see why he's

          worried you'll punk.

 

                     BRUNO

          What the hell are you doing?

 

                     MAX

               (re : tattoo on his ass)

          Who's Camille?

 

                     BRUNO

          None of your business.

 

                     MAX

          This won't hurt.  Triple dose of insulin,

          you'll go into a coma, couple minutes

          you'll stop breathing and on a busy

          night, the coroner will probably mistake

          it for an O.D.  Plus, it's way classier

          than blowin' your brains out.

 

Max turns away, retrieves the insulin and works from the

hooker's purse, then doses up the syringe.  She keeps one eye

in the mirror to watch Bruno, who is eyeing the gun lying

near him on the floor.

 

He wriggles free and makes his move as Max turns toward him.

Bruno comes up with the gun and Max feigns surprise, leaping

for the door.  Bruno staggers, falls, his pants around his

knees, hands tied.  He struggle back up, cranking off a round

as Max bolts out into--

 

EXT.  MOTEL PARKING LOT - NIGHT

 

Max sprints across the parking lot, Bruno in pursuit, still

struggling with his trousers.  He squeezes off another round

which Max ducks as she heads for the motel swimming pool.

Max looks back as Bruno fires again.  Max spins, howls in

pain as if hit, and falls backward into the pool, her inert

form sinking in the black water.

 

Bruno walks up to confirm the kill.  Cinching up his pants,

he sits on the diving board, pistol loose in one hand as he

eyes Max's body at the bottom of the deep end.  He lights up

a cigarette, his hands shaking.  He takes a drag and sits.

 

                                                    FADE OUT.

 

                       END OF ACT VII

 

 

 

                          ACT VIII

 

FADE IN:

 

EXT.  MOTEL - NIGHT (DAY FOUR)

 

Bruno finishes his smoke, looking at Max's inert form at the

bottom of the pool as he works himself up, sputtering under

his breath.

 

                     BRUNO

          Double-crossing sonuvabitch thinks I'd

          roll on him... I'm gonna do a helluva

          lot more than that.

 

He angrily throws the cigarette into the water, then crosses

the parking lot to his car, gets in and drives off.

 

After a beat, Max surfaces.  Seeing the coast is clear, she

glides to the edge of the pool, pulls herself out and runs

back into--

 

INT.  MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

 

Max races in, frantically dials the phone.  After a beat--

 

                     MAX

          This is your punk-ass client...

 

                                                    INTERCUT :

 

INT.  VOGELSANG'S OFFICE - NIGHT

 

Vogelsang, his ear to the phone--

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          I need a favor... I need you to trace a

          number for me.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Sure you wanna be havin' this

          conversation over the phone?

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          Just do it... Five-seven-five-oh-

          eight...

 

FLASHCUT

 

Max memorizing the beep tones in Sonrisa's office.

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          ...one-eight-three-two-zero.

 

As Vogelsang taps the number into his computer.

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Whoa...whoa...slow down...three-two-what

          was it?

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

INT.  SURVEILLANCE VAN - NIGHT

 

Lydecker hovers over a technician monitoring the phone call.

He listens intently, his eyes flashing with excitement.

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          Zero... C'mon, Dan I don't have all day.

 

                     VOGELSANG (V.O.)

          Got a pencil?

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          Just give it to me.  I'll remember.

 

                     VOGELSANG (V.O.)

          One-seven-four-nine-five Natoma.

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          I'm on my way.

 

As Lydecker flies into action.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

INT.  VOGELSANG'S OFFICE - NIGHT

 

                     VOGELSANG

          Your best bet's probably to take Fremont

          to the second light--

 

But the phone clicks in the P.I.'s ear as Max hangs up.

 

INT.  MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT

 

As Max races out the door.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

EXT.  ALLEY - NIGHT

 

Max, changed now into her signature midnight-creep outfit,

cruises her motorcycle quietly to a stop in the shadows.  She

dismounts, her manner alert and wary.

 

EXT.  WAREHOUSE BUILDING - NIGHT

 

BOOM DOWN

 

off a sign reading "Natoma Street."  A dark figure emerges

from an alley and moves quickly across the street.

 

MOVING WITH MAX as she crosses to a deeply shadowed door of

the warehouse.  She scans the empty street, looking up at the

buildings around her.  There is nobody in sight.

 

Max pulls out her picking tools and goes to work on the lock,

all the while listening and scanning around her.  Car

headlights from two blocks away sweep across her.  She turns

toward it and--

 

CLOSE UP ON MAX

 

We briefly see her eyes light up with the green cat retina

reflection.  The sound of the car fades, and she turns back

to her work.

 

NIGHTVISION

 

The street is bright as day and lurid green.  It is from high

up, and definitely NOT Max's POV, because Max is a small

figure completely visible hunched in the doorway, working on

the lock.  She gets the door open and slips stealthily

inside.

 

TIGHT ON SCOPE as it is lowered, revealing Lydecker.

 

                     LYDECKER

          I want a full perimeter seal.  And nobody

          goes in until I say.

 

WIDER, showing that Lydecker is addressing the leader of a

contingent of black-clad FEDERAL TACTICAL OPS OFFICERS who

are crouched along the roof parapet wall of a building across

the street from the warehouse.

 

                     TAC LEADER

          It's one girl.  Why don't we just take

          her when she walks out the door?

 

                     LYDECKER

          Listen to me carefully.  When you have

          the streets locked off in front and back,

          plus the alleys on both sides, and when

          you have a man on every door, window,

          airvent, mail slot and rathole around

          this building, you come back and tell me

          you're ready.  Okey-dokey?

 

                     TAC LEADER

          Yes sir.

 

He turns away, speaking rapidly into his walkie and--

 

IN THE STREET BELOW, three unmarked black vans pull up

quickly.

 

TIGHT ON BOOTED FEET hitting the pavement.

 

WIDER as squads of Tac-Ops team members pour out and run on

silent soft-soled shoes to positions around the building.

 

VARIOUS ANGLES as the Tac-Ops squads deploy with hand

signals, moving like well coordinated ninjas.  They are

anonymous in their black fatigues, ballistic vests and

gasmasks.  They carry submachine guns, and their utility

harnesses are dressed with flash-bang and gas grenades.

 

INT.  WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

 

Max moves silently through the aisles of stacked packing

cases.  She peers around the corner at the office block of

the warehouse, which is an island of fluorescent light in the

dark gallery.  Inside, Sonrisa's men are lounging around.

 

As if sensing something, she peers into the darkness behind

her, then turns and studies Sonrisa's men.

 

INT.  OFFICE - NIGHT

 

The muscles squad are watching two fighters beating the crap

out of each other on HBO.  None of them are more than a few

feet from a machine gun or a shotgun.

 

                     LEAD THUG

          Get in there you mutt!  Hit 'em again.

          You pussy!

 

In a darkened officer next door, Sophy lies awake on a bed,

her tiny wrists handcuffed to the frame.  She has been

crying, but she is out of tears.

 

EXT.  WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

 

Dark figures move in the shadows.  Climbing quietly up fire

escapes.  Moving rapidly to take up positions at windows and

loading doors.  On the roofs above, Tac-Ops guys hustle into

position and scan the area with nightvision scopes.  It's

like a high tech version of the end of Butch Cassidy.

 

WE FOLLOW a lone Tac trooper as he cat-steps along a second

floor landing.  He moves up on a filthy window and peers into

the black opening where the glass has been smashed out.  He

flips down his nightvision, attached to a band above his

gasmask, and scans the interior.

 

NIGHTVISION POV of the warehouse interior.  We see the office

area, and Sonrisa's men inside.  The green nightvision pans,

sweeping the aisles of the warehouse for a glimpse of Max.

Suddenly the image goes dark.

 

ANGLE ON the Tac trooper from inside the window.  A hand is

blocking his goggles.  Max's hand.  She is just inside the

window, pressed up against the wall, black on black in the

shadows.  The trooper whips his goggles up to look and--

 

WHAM!  She raps the guys head sideways into the brick

windowframe, then grabs him fast and yanks him inside.  Max

eases him to the balcony floor, looking around.  She waits in

the darkness to see if anyone has heard, then turns her

attention to the fallen Tac-Ops trooper.

 

INT.  WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

 

The kidnap team are into the fight.

 

                     LEAD THUG

          Go!  Go!  Aw jeeeez, did you see that?

          You're a waste'a clothes, you punk.  I

          give up.

 

EXT.  WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

 

CLOSE-UP LYDECKER

 

as he speaks into the microphone--

 

                     LYDECKER

          Standby.  Full breach on my count.

          Three, two--

 

INT.  WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

 

KA-BLAM!  The doors are blasted inward by squads with steel

battering rams.

 

BLAM!  BLAM!  BLAM!  Three flash-bangs go off, blinding

Sonrisa's men in the office.  Tac guys pour into the building

from all directions.  Tac-Ops Leader yells at the top of his

lungs--

 

                     TAC LEADER

          Federal Officers!  On the floor!  Now!

 

But Sonrisa's men are serious hardasses.  Shotguns, pistols

and machine guns come up and--

 

All of a sudden the Tac guys are facing a phalanx of heavy

iron.  Way more than they bargained for.

 

                     TAC LEADER

          Drop your weapons!  NOW!

 

                     LEAD THUG

          No!  You drop yours!

 

                     TAC LEADER

          DROP THE WEAPONS!!!

 

                     LEAD THUG

          Whyn't you come and get 'em!!

 

INT.  OFFICER ADJACENT - NIGHT

 

A Tac-Ops officer crosses rapidly in a crouch-run to Sophy

and unlatches the handcuffs.  Sophy is scooped up off the

bed, just as--

 

BADDABAM!!  All hell breaks loose in the next room.  Flying

glass, hunks of exploding plaster and flashes of gunfire

pursue the dark figure running out of the office with the

little girl tightly cradled.

 

TIGHT CUTS

 

of gangsters firing.  The Tac guys blasting back.  One fires

rounds from a rotary gas grenade launcher KACHUNK!  KACHUNK!

 

Shouting and pandemonium in the swirling tear gas, lit by

flashes of gunfire and flash-bang grenades.  We hear the Tac-

Ops guys yelling at the gangsters, the gangsters yelling at

the Tac guys.  Running figures in the smoke.

 

TRACKING BACK

 

with a single Tac team member who emerges from the roiling

gas carrying Sophy.  We MOVE IN, and see Max's eyes behind

the gas-mask.  Sophy is coughing from the gas.  The CAMERA

WHIPS AND FOLLOWS as Max strides toward the open door.

 

EXT.  WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

 

More Tac-Ops men are running toward the fight, heading in the

door as Max emerges.  They don't look twice at her.

 

TRACKING WITH MAX

 

as she walks away from the door.

 

REVERSE, HER POV IN SLOW MOTION

 

as a figure standing right in front of her turns.  It is the

man who killed her sister Eva, who shot her right in front of

Max at the Genedyne lab all those years ago... Lydecker.

 

CLOSE-UP OF MAX

 

her eyes full of a sudden, unreasoned fear.  She is about to

pass this man who has haunted her seizure-dreams for eleven

years, and time seems to dilate infinitely.

 

Lydecker looks right at her, seems to look right into her

eyes, into her soul.  Then he glances down at the coughing

little girl, and turns his attention toward the building.  He

doesn't even see her.

 

Max walks on, unchallenged, OUT OF FRAME.

 

INT.  WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

 

The Tac-Ops team closes in on the remaining gangsters.  The

lead thug, kneeling behind a desk amongst shattered glass and

plaster, throws out his empty Mac Ten, still yelling

belligerently.

 

                     LEAD THUG

          Alright!  Alright!  Alright!  Jeeezz!!

 

A crowd of black figures swarm over him, slamming him into

the ground.

 

EXT.  WAREHOUSE - NIGHT

 

CLOSE-UP OF LYDECKER

 

now in REAL TIME.  Seen from behind, his black gloved hand

holding up his walkie-talkie.

 

                     LYDECKER

          Tac-One, what's your status?  Do you have

          her or not?

 

                     TAC LEADER (V.O.)

          Negative.  We do not have the subject.

          Repeat, we do not have the subject.

 

Lydecker turns slowly, toward CAMERA...looking in the

direction Max went.  His eyes narrow with a dawning

realization.  WE HEAR Max's motorcycle revving quickly

through the gears as it screams off into the night.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

EXT.  SONRISA'S MANSION - NIGHT

 

Bruno's car pulls up to the main gate.  He addresses the

GUARD--

 

                     BRUNO

          Need to see the boss.

 

                     GUARD

          He doesn't wanna be disturbed.

 

                     BRUNO

          It's kinda important.

 

                     GUARD

               (shrugs)

          Sorry.

 

Bruno nods, resigned, puts the car in reverse, turns around

as if backing up, then suddenly grabs the guard by the shirt

collar, pulls him into the car and closes the electric window

on his neck.

 

The car screeches backward, dragging the guard into the

middle of the street.  Bruno punches him in the face, then

opens the window and the guard collapses in a heap,

unconscious.  Then Bruno blithely shifts gears and drives

onto the grounds of the estate.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

INT.  MANSION STUDY - NIGHT

 

Throughout the following, on the bank of monitors in b.g.

see Bruno, moving monitor to monitor as he makes his way from

the front door, through the house toward Sonrisa's study.

Meanwhile, the redhead, her hair pulled back in a long braid,

sits in a chair, rolling her head languidly as Sonrisa stands

behind her rubbing her neck with one hand, a snifter of

brandy in the other.

 

CLOSE ON REDHEAD

 

as Sonrisa sets down his drink.

 

                     REDHEAD

          Right there... Oooh, that feels good.

 

And then there's a sound-- a distinct SNIP.  The girl sits up

with a start, looking at horror at Sonrisa, a pair of

scissors in one hand, her braid in the other.

 

                     SONRISA

          I like you better this way.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

INT.  HALLWAY OUTSIDE STUDY - NIGHT

 

Bruno stops at the door, grabs his weapon, then reaches for

the door knob.

 

                                                      CUT TO :

 

EXT.  MANSION - NIGHT

 

Max is on her motorcycle, Sophy on the back.  As the

motorcycle glides past the mansion, see two FLASHES of blue

light in an upstairs window accompanied by the sharp REPORT

of gunfire.  As Max and Sophy head off into the night--

 

                                                DISSOLVE TO :

 

EXT.  STREET - NIGHT

 

CLOSE ON A TRAFFIC LIGHT

 

as it turns red.  PAN DOWN to Max and Sophy as their

motorcycle rolls to a stop at an intersection adjacent to

Logan's building.

 

Sophy sees something, clambers off the bike and runs toward

her mother, who's exiting Logan's building down the block.

 

                     SOPHY

          Mommie...

 

Lauren looks up, sees her little girl and races toward her

with outstretched arms.

 

                     LAUREN

          Sophy...

 

From a remove that is both emotional and physical, Max

watches as the mother scoops her child up into her arms and

just holds her, tears streaming down her face.  After a long

moment, Lauren looks over to Max, offering a simple--

 

                     LAUREN

          Thank you...

 

But Max has taken off down the street, popping a wheelie for

a block or so before she disappears into the night.  Off

Lauren and Sophy as we--

 

                                                DISSOLVE TO :

 

INT.  JAM PONY X-PRESS - DAY (DAY FIVE)

 

CLOSE ON TV

 

Footage of Sonrisa's mansion taped off as a crime scene.

 

                     REPORTER (V.O.)

          Businessman Edgar Sonrisa was cut down in

          a hail of gunfire at his Pacific Heights

          mansion late last night.

 

PICK UP and STAY WITH a MESSENGER who enters with a box

tucked under one arm.  He crosses through the throng of

employees getting their morning assignments from Normal at

dispatch.

 

                     REPORTER (V.O.)

          Eyewitnesses identified the assailant as

          thirty-two year old Bruno Anselmo who

          died at the scene when bodyguards for the

          reputed crime boss returned fire.  Police

          are investigating.

 

                     MESSENGER

          Delivery for Jam Pony.  Need a signature.

 

Normal signs the form.

 

                     MESSENGER

          That'll be a hundred twenty seven

          dollars.

 

                     NORMAL

          For what?

 

                     MESSENGER

          C-O-D.

               (off the form)

          From Ratterman's Mortuary.

 

                     NORMAL

          You're mistaken--

 

                     MESSENGER

          No...

               (checks the form)

          Thelonius Argentary at this address.

 

                     A.K.A.

          That's Theo in there?

 

A.K.A. reaches for the box.

 

                     MESSENGER

          Not until I get my money.

 

All eyes fall on Normal who grows uncomfortable under the

gaze.

 

                     NORMAL

          What're you lookin' at me for?  I'm not

          his next of kin.  Anyway, I don't got

          that kind of cash lyin' around.

 

                     HERBAL

          Theo rode for this place a long time,

          man.

 

With that Herbal Thought picks up a waste basket, dumps it's

contents on the floor, tosses a wad of bills into it and

passes it along.  FOLLOW the waste basket as it goes hand to

hand.  PAN across the somber faces of Sketchy, Druid, A.K.A.,

Three-sixty and finally Max, each one contributing whatever's

in their pockets.  Normal finally relents, fishes for some

cash and reaches toward the basket.  But Herbal Thought

catches his arm.

 

                     HERBAL

          Keep your money, mon.  We can take care

          of our own.

 

Max hands the basket to the messenger, takes the box of

ashes.

 

                     MAX

          I'll make sure this gets to his family.

 

She goes.

 

                     SKETCHY

          Gonna miss Theo.

 

                     DRUID

               (nods)

          A righteous dude.

 

After a beat--

 

                     SKETCHY

          So, who gets his bike?

 

Off which--

 

                                                DISSOLVE TO :

 

                     TWO MONTHS LATER

 

INT.  LOGAN'S APARTMENT - DAY

 

Logan in a wheelchair at his computer console, as he finishes

pixelating his next computer hack to obscure his identity.

 

                     LOGAN (V.O.)

          This has been a Video Free America

          bulletin via the Eyes Only Informant

          Net... Peace.

 

He senses something and turns his wheelchair to see Max.

 

                     MAX

          See you're back and still rocking the boat.

 

                     LOGAN

          Somebody's got to.

 

He just looks at her, then after a beat--

 

                     MAX

          I would've come sooner, but...I didn't...

          How're you doin'?

 

                     LOGAN

          Not in any pain...the good and bad news

          of a blown out spinal cord.

 

                     MAX

          I'm sorry.

 

                     LOGAN

          My mother used to say the universe is

          right on schedule.  Everything happens

          like it's supposed to.

 

                     MAX

          You believe that?

 

                     LOGAN

          I've never been much for trying to

          understand why bad things happen, I just

          know they do.  So the job's to figure out

          how to deal with the consequences.  Which

          you did... You took that sonuvabitch out.

 

                     MAX

               (modest)

          Well, not me personally.

 

                     LOGAN

          On accounta you, Sonrisa didn't get to

          buy off the jury, or kill the judge.

          He's gone.  Once and for all.  It was

          war, Max, and you won.

 

                     MAX

          That's what soldiers do, right?

 

Logan hands Max a box.

 

                     MAX

          What's this?

 

                     LOGAN

          Open it.

 

She opens the box, pulls out the Egyptian statue.

 

                     LOGAN

          It turned up on the black market.  One of

          my sources thought I might be interested.

 

                     MAX

               (clearly moved)

          I don't know what to say.

 

                     LOGAN

          Deeds, not words.  I need your help.

 

As he wheels himself over to his computer--

 

                     LOGAN

          Forty-seven people drowned last night off

          the coast of Vancouver after paying

          smugglers twenty thousand apiece to get

          into Canada so they could get work in

          order to eat.  Only they got marched

          overboard at gunpoint instead.

 

                     MAX

          Look, thank you for this but--

 

He hits a button on his computer keyboard, scrolling through

photographs of young girls.

 

                     LOGAN

          These girls, kidnapped during the last

          month and sold overseas to the highest

          bidder.  The oldest is twelve.  The

          youngest about the same age you were when

          you escaped.

 

                     MAX

          And I feel real bad about all that but it

          doesn't mean I need to get involved.

 

                     LOGAN

          You are involved.  By being alive you're

          involved.

 

                     MAX

          We're quoting Mom again.

 

                     LOGAN

          Maybe we got screwed outta living in a

          time when we could sit in a cafe, sipping

          our lattes wearing two thousand dollar

          wrist watches while we plan our next

          vacation.  But the world got a whole lot

          meaner all of a sudden.  Wasn't s'posed

          to, but it did.  And it's back to the law

          of the jungle.  You got your predators

          and you got your victims.

 

                     MAX

          And you still think you can do something

          to change that.

 

                     LOGAN

          With your help.

 

                     MAX

          Civilization as we know it is unraveling

          before our eyes.  But Logan and Max, with

          a song in their hearts are gonna march

          into battle to keep that from happening.

 

                     LOGAN

          And whether you want to believe it or

          not, you already fired the first shot.

               (then)

          On another matter, Federal Corrections

          used to keep records on distinguishing

          marks-- scars, tattoos.  I did a search

          and came up with this.

 

He hands her a picture of a bar-code on a man's neck.  Then a

mug shot--

 

INSERT ON THE PHOTO

 

a handsome kid, late teens.

 

Max studies it, her eyes well up with tears.

 

                     LOGAN

          That was taken nine years ago... I.D.'d

          as Michael Hanover.  Sentenced to 18

          months in the state penn at Rawlins,

          Wyoming for armed robbery.  He escaped

          from custody after 4 days.  Hasn't been

          seen or heard from since.

 

                     MAX

          Zack... He made it... He's alive...

 

Off Max--

 

                                                DISSOLVE TO :

 

EXT.  GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE - NIGHT

 

Once again seated atop one of the towers of the Golden Gate

Bridge, the city of San Francisco glimmering in the

background.  Max is lost in thought, then after a beat--

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          I knew it... I always knew he was out

          there somewhere...

 

After a long beat, she sighs, then--

 

                     MAX (V.O.)

          Meanwhile, I got Logan on my ass about

          these people and all their problems and

          how screwed up the world is and how we

          gotta go out there and turn the mother

          around... Like I even care.

 

Then Max turns, looking off into the night sky, her dark eyes

flashing, her hair alive in the wind as we--

 

                                               FADE TO BLACK.

 

                          THE END.

 

Source : twistv.