|
|
|
15. INT: MORNING — 109/5
PULL BACK — CALLOW MALE REPORTER actually appears on a MONITOR. COMPUTER BEEPS punctuate his words. CALLOW MALE REPORTER ...Well, they love her. The unprecedented turn-out for this parade epitomizes spirit of boundless national pride and faith in America that was born in Reagan Era, and then confirmed on battlefields around the world. The spirit endures through War and Peace, good and bad, right and wrong, rain, sleet and dark of night, and — uh... And it shall continue to, uh — continue... MONITOR is but one of large, high-tech BANK of MONITORS. Several feature network TV COVERAGE. Others show diverse POV's of "NBI" security CAMERAS: Planted along Motorcade route, hand-held, heliborne aerial, and in SEWERS. Other equipment includes RADAR, FREQUENCY DETECTORS, TRIANGULATION GAUGES, etc. Lighting in TRACTOR-TRAILER is dim, increasing legibility of electronics. UNCLE TATE'S cultivated VOICE (OFF) is not on VIDEO, but present aboard TRACTOR-TRAILER. UNCLE TATE (VO) What a bore! That foreign pinko was much more amusing. No doubt we need these jingoistic fools, but we're not obliged to listen to them! AGENT SITNEY (OFF), UNCLE'S assistant, hurriedly responds. SITNEY (VO) Uh — Yes, Sir. Sorry, Commander Tate, Sir.
AGENT SITNEY'S nervous HAND works ROUTING SWITCHER on MONITOR CONSOLE,
accessing a different "NBI" SECURITY CAMERA.
FOREIGN REPORTER ...After the so-called "democratic" elections consolidated the power of Hannibal and Bianca Peralta... FRAMED EMBROIDERY SAMPLER hangs on wall, just above BANK of MONITORS. Embroidered on SAMPLER: "NBI - WE REACH EVERY HOME." Above words, "trademark" of phony "NBI -TV Network": All-seeing EYE-OF-PROVIDENCE. FOREIGN REPORTER (OFF) keeps speaking OVER — CUT TO: 16. EXT: MORNING — 109/5
A painted EYE-OF-PROVIDENCE is above words: "NATIONAL BROADCASTING INCORPORATED - WE REACH EVERY HOME." FOREIGN REPORTER (VO) ...The US apparently withdrew the bulk of its invasion forces from San Federal, but confirms that it left behind several thousand "Advisors," including the hapless Major Ron Stepp. Hannibal, as we know, has come to be called "The Invisible Man," a reference to his wife's apparent iron rule in their home as in nation at large — something that has been mistaken by many North American women for enlightened feminist leadership... "NBI" LOGO is painted upon TRACTOR-TRAILER. It rides at end of Motorcade. Windowless, lumbering vehicle is impressively long. Thicket of RODS and ANTENNAE sprouts from roof. VIDEO CAMERAS are mounted on jointed steel necks. Telescoping LENSES rotate and zoom, controlled from inside TRAILER. FOREIGN REPORTER (OFF) fades out as "NBI" TRACTOR-TRAILER heads OFF, down Avenue. CUT TO: 17. INT/EXT: MORNING — 109/5
ON A MONITOR — BIANCA in BUBBLE-TOP LIMOUSINE. AUDIO is TURNED OFF.
WATER DRIPS (OFF), and echoes.
JENNY (VO; over radio) ...Count 109...Report when you've berthed in...Ten Four...
JENNY'S VOICE (OFF) comes from HEADPHONES. Now, ALDOUS opens KNAPSACK, takes
out HEAVY, OBLONG PACKAGE. He holds PACKAGE in both hands, looks up, and — carefully lays
PACKAGE back down on KNAPSACK. Looks over his shoulder. ALDOUS is at hub of several DARK TUNNELS.
Each offers its great black mouth. TWO RATS converse; ECHOES are RAT CHORUS.
ALDOUS
...Count 108... Tugboat "Epitheus" has moored in... Ten Four... JENNY (VO; over radio) ...Count 108 and descending... (HASH)... Radio Silence from now on... Radio Silence from now on... Please confirm... Over and Out... CONTINUE SLOW PULLBACK — ALDOUS' hunched silhouette looks awfully small now. ALDOUS
...Count 108 and descending...
LONG SHOT — ALDOUS' distant, tiny figure. STRANGE NOISES ECHO in
labyrinth.
DISSOLVE TO: 18. INT: MORNING — 108/5
CU UNCLE TATE — Ruddy and confident in "NBI"
TRACTOR-TRAILER. A wise and wily sixty years of age, UNCLE wears tailored TWEED SUIT and fancy,
HAND-PAINTED TIE. His features are delicate and brutal at once; his manner both macho and mannered.
UNCLE is unchallenged Supreme Commander. He surveys diverse MONITOR POV's of Avenue and environs.
Punches in commands on ROUTING SWITCHER.
SITNEY (VO) Security loose on Monitor Seven, Sir! Tiny, nervous SITNEY turns in SWIVEL CHAIR to face UNCLE. UNCLE adjusts TIE, affects local dialect. UNCLE
Or as some would put it in the vernacular: You can't trust those Brooklyn Bikers. Fun City Chief did it again!
ON "MONITOR SEVEN" — BIKER-COPS careen sloppily onward.
Burdened by heavy equipment, OBESE PHOTOGRAPHER falls behind. Desperate to keep apace, he angrily
smashes his CAMERAS onto pavement. Disarmed now, he still runs after photo-opportunity!
AGENT OXMAN Just picked up an odd-bird transmission, Sir. Marine Code. Tugboat talk. Alerted if not alarmed, UNCLE raises a grey brow. AGENT TWEED stands up. Professorial, at home in a Think-Tank, he's eager to prove himself here, in "action." AGENT TWEED No threat will come from our indigenous radicals. Madame Peralta will not perish from surfeit of leaflets. But we may face an attack from one of her own: A jealous co-conspirator. Perhaps an ally of her "invisible" husband. Or if the perpetrator is not invidious, he may be vindictive, a desperate victim of Peralta's... shocking interrogations. Let's be frank. She may be an essential ally in the modern world, but Madame is a witch! She and her death squads have left many a mutilated body on many a family doorstep. For every number in her grisly body-count, there are innumerable vengeful relatives. You know how — fertile those people are. Every night they spawn more little terrorists! They've got plenty of rhythm when they come to New York and end up on MTV, but they ain't got no rhythm in the bedroom! No self-control! No — UNCLE shoots AGENT TWEED a withering look. AGENT TWEED Uh, we're online with SouthCom intelligence. Let's not overlook that connection. In their files may be found the very name and face of our culprit-to-be. It will be revenge or regicide! Street security is essential. We must quickly — UNCLE cuts him off. UNCLE
Raise profile. CREW-CUT But — protocol, Sir! This was to have been a low-profile event. UNCLE
Peril before protocol.
SITNEY turns to radio AGENTS in the field. CUT TO: 19. EXT: MORNING — 107/5
Suddenly, many "PHOTOGRAPHERS" lower their HEAVY EQUIPMENT to the ground, leave it behind. (Authentic) BEGGARS break through POLICE LINES, leap upon "PHOTOGRAPHERS'" abandoned CAMERAS, then disappear back into CROWD. "PHOTOGRAPHERS"-turned-AGENTS [including OBESE "PHOTOGRAPHER" from Scene 18] cut through disoriented NYPD MOTORCYCLE ESCORT. AGENTS circle BIANCA'S LIMOUSINE with tight human hedge. TWO AGENTS ride on rear bumper. FADE TO BLACK: 20. INT: MORNING — 106/5
Total DARKNESS. Then, in mid-air, a sudden CANDLE-FLAME. JENNY (VO) Outsiders in target area! A CAIRN of FIFTEEN MONITORS: Most are utilitarian, a few are high-tech, two are BLACK AND WHITE period-pieces. AUDIO is TURNED OFF. Several MONITORS cover each TV network; all networks feature Motorcade; coverage differs on each network. REPORTERS are recognizable (cf. Scenes 10, 14, 15, 16.). COMMERCIALS interrupt reportage. Each MONITOR is connected to own BATTERY: A fail-safe system. ON MONITORS — BIANCA'S LIMOUSINE is surrounded by lax, outer ring of BIKER-COPS and new, inner ring of AGENTS. HERALDO (VO)
Outsiders — to whose target? ELEVEN wraith-like FACES are illumined by flickering bluish light from MONITORS. Dark SAFEHOUSE basement seems boundless. Light sources include MONITORS, CANDLES, and in a few important areas, dim, precision electric lighting. Light could facilitate UNIT'S detection; it's kept to absolute minimum. HERALDO is lean, ardent, sixty-five year-old Puerto Rican. CLAIRE, Operations Woman, is Chinese-American, and at eighteen, youngest member of UNIT. Slight, gentle, inexperienced, she stands in for her dead brother. On her DESK: CHARTS, GRAPHS, "CLASSIFIED" DOCUMENTS, and a .22 HAND-GUN. CLAIRE They must have changed the low-profile security protocol. They were supposed to stay away! Right? Gianni? Heads turn toward GIANNI, the dynamitero. An intense, experienced Italian. GIANNI
Yes, it was supposed to be safe. The cement-walled manhole will act like a sort of cannon-barrel. It'll go up like a geyser and the crater won't be that large, but — THOMAS, once a Weatherman, wearily carries burden of his forty-odd years. Sees Motorcade as last, desperate chance to redeem a life gone meaningless — and boring. He bursts out, alarmed. THOMAS
— But large enough, right? And with the concussion and flying
debris...
THE PEREGRINE'S political acuity grew from criminal audacity. He answers succinctly. THE PEREGRINE Tough luck. JOHN BURNING-RIVER, at twenty-eight, has already been tested by prison. He is capable of an ultimate fidelity that few can match. JOHN Theirs... or ours? BOB, a computer expert with government security clearance, has lived double life for most of his middle-aged own. He could pass as perfectly groomed "NBI" man. BOB'S domain is near MONITOR CAIRN. Three-meter long MAP of NYC is tacked on wall. Larger DIAGRAM of MANHATTAN, drawn on transparent Plexiglas, hangs suspended from ceiling. Glowing DIAGRAM is backlit, and sports multi-coloured markers. On DIAGRAM'S Fifth Avenue, slowly moving luminous BEADS show inexorable progress of Motorcade. BOB Either way...ours. THOMAS We can't do it. JASON is a Black man, his face strong but subtle. Laughter is lambent in his sad eyes. His hands are marked by PRISON TATTOOS. Fortyish, he has the stamina of a boxer. JASON Sudden pity? CLAIRE No. Armed Propaganda Impact. The American people will think the Agents are innocent! We press that button and we're just a band of bloody terrorists. "That Button": RADIO TRANSMITTER will be used for remote-control detonation. DOUBLE-SECURITY RELEASE replaces microphone. TV will show COMBAT UNIT precise moment (slight broadcast delay already calculated) when MERCEDES LIMOUSINE passes over MANHOLE. JENNY, thirty-five, her face marked and haunted, sits next to deadly TRANSMITTER. She bears responsibility of detonation. BOB Claire might be right. We must compute the outcome — HERALDO No time for that! If we talk, we don't do anything! COMMANDER AMILCAR from San Federal, hitherto unseen, emerges from darkness. AMILCAR We won't do anything if we don't talk. The Motorcade is still 44 blocks away from the Manhole at 59th Street and Fifth Avenue: What we call "Point Hope." ANGLE — On COMBAT UNIT and AMILCAR through BOB'S luminous Plexiglas DIAGRAM. Glowing BEADS move down Avenue, over faces and bodies of COMBATANTS. AMILCAR (VO) The point is not just to do, but to do the right thing. I could give you orders and I know you'd obey. But Enemy's change from low to high-profile calls for tactical re-advisement. We don't have time to bullshit, but talk we must. We'll record our world-release Communiqué now.
AMILCAR presses RECORD BUTTON on simple TAPE-RECORDER. GIANNI looks at
TAPE-RECORDER. Shudders visibly.
DISSOLVE TO: |
||
|