DARK ANGEL Pilot by James Cameron and Charles H. Eglee 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 9:4