Crash and Burn

“Crash and Burn” is a screenplay written by Gorg Huff and Paula Goodlett. All rights reserved. The series title and concept “Agent of the Illuminati” are also our creation, though of course, based on a fictionalized version of the historical Illuminati.  We also have a rough series bible for the first few episodes.

TEASER

FADE IN:

INT: BASEMENT

A woman is strapped to a chair. She is in her forties, and bruised and battered. Across from her, strapped into another chair, is a girl, perhaps ten. There are electrodes attached to her hands and feet. There are two men in the room. One is standing by a control box and the other is leaning against the door.

MAN AT CONTROL BOX

I ask you again. Where is DINU?

WOMAN

I don’t know. I swear, I don’t know.

The MAN at the control box pushes the button. The girl writhes and screams, then collapses. The man looks surprised, then turns off the juice, walks over to the chair, and checks the little girl’s neck for a pulse.

MAN AT CONTROL BOX

That’s inconvenient. The girl must have had something wrong with her. That shouldn’t have been enough to kill her. (He turns back to the woman) Well, there’s still you. Where is your son?

The woman tries to spit, but can’t even manage that.

FADE TO BLACK

EXT: STREET BUCHAREST DAY

DINU (14) A teenaged boy with a backpack walks along the street, turns a corner, and stops. On the street he has just entered is a tenement building with two big black cars in front of it and men in suits questioning people. He steps back around the corner. He peeks around again, then turns and moves quickly away.

EXT: FIRE ESCAPE NIGHT

DINU peeks into the window, then pulls back and listens to discussion.

FIRST VOICE male

It was the secret police. What did that crazy boy get into?

SECOND VOICE

I don’t know. But Magda said he bought her a new vacuum cleaner last week.

FIRST VOICE

I knew that kid was a criminal. He didn’t want to play soccer with the neighborhood kids, just played on that computer of his. And where did he get a computer anyway?

SECOND VOICE

Magda said he built it.

DINU leans against the brick wall and it starts to rain.

INT: HENRI COANDA AIRPORT, ROMANIA – DAY

SUSAN RAND (20s) moves through the airport, pulling a travel case behind her. Appearing unobservant and self-involved, she still manages to avoid other travelers in the crowded airport. She reaches customs and has to stop and dig around in her bag for passport and Romanian phrasebook.

CUSTOMS OFFICER

Passport.

SUSAN

(Digging through bag.) It’s in here somewhere. Found it (passes over the phrasebook.)

CUSTOMS OFFICER

(Holding up the phrasebook) This is a phrasebook.

SUSAN

(looks up blinking) Oh, sorry.

CUSTOMS OFFICER

(holding out hand) Passport, please.

SUSAN

(passing over the passport) Here it is.

CUSTOMS OFFICER

Reason for visit?

SUSAN

Oh, I had some extra time and I decided I wanted to see Romania and I wasn’t due in Paris for three more days. But I already said that didn’t I? Oricum am studiat română.

CUSTOMS OFFICER

(Wincing)

Pleasure.

(Stamps the passport and hands it back.)

SUSAN

(Turns away and proceeds to the baggage claim.)

CUSTOMS OFFICER

(Turning to fellow officer.)

Worst accent I’ve ever heard.

FADE TO INTRO CREDITS

ACT 1

EXT. GARDEN PATH – DAY

MR ALLEN (40s) business suit, is walking along a garden path in Washington DC. watching the passersby, apparently casually. He steps off the path, takes a phone from his pocket and makes a call.

MR ALLEN

We were fed poor information GRAND MARSHAL. Susan Rand is heading into a trap.

GRAND MARSHAL unseen voice on phone.

What sort of trap?

MR ALLEN

I’m not entirely sure, sir. The pick up isn’t a flash drive, it’s something else, but I haven’t been able to find out what. I think that at least one of the people in my office has been co-opted by the Optomari.

GRAND MARSHAL

Can we abort?

MR ALLEN

If we do, we lose the data. And people are going to ask why.

GRAND MARSHAL

We need that information, Bob. And too many questions might lead them to the Illuminati. Your kid will just have to take her chances.

EXT STREET – DAY

SUSAN

Susan climbs out of the cab arguing with the driver about the fare in flawless Romanian. She grabs her case and gives the driver the horns while heading into the hotel.

INT HOTEL LOBBY DINGY

Entering the hotel SUSAN sees a man with a red carnation in his collar. This is YURI

(30s) her contact. YURI is wearing blue jeans and a denim shirt along with the carnation.

SUSAN (mutters.)

You’ve got to be kidding.

(loudly) YURI, you creep, what are you doing here and why are you wearing that silly flower? You waiting for Goldfinger?

(Everyone looks and several people laugh.)

YURI

(scowling, rips the carnation from his collar and throws it on the ground.)

What are you doing here, Daciana? I had a date.

SUSAN

(Susan reaches YURI and takes his arm.)

She’s too good for you.

YURI

(turning with SUSAN.)

You don’t even know who she is.

SUSAN

(moving toward the elevator.)

Doesn’t matter. She’s too good for you, whoever she is.

(once in the elevator with the door closing SUSAN pulls YURI’s head down and whispers.)

Whose idea was that stupid flower?

YURI

Mine, and it wasn’t stupid, you moron. If you hadn’t made a scene, it would’ve worked fine. Now everyone will remember us.

SUSAN

Everyone had noticed you before I got there. And everyone that ever saw an old movie was put in mind of spies.

YURI

(Yuri jerks his arm free of hers and stares at the elevator lights.)

SUSAN

What do you have for me?

YURI

The kid wants a meet.

SUSAN

Who?

YURI

(Looks at SUSAN in surprise)

DINU. The kid who broke into the SRI database.

SUSAN

The SRI must have really lost it since they were split off from the KGB, if they let a kid break into their system.

YURI

You don’t have clever hackers in America?

SUSAN

Sure. And the very cleverest of them work for the NSA, making sure our files don’t get hacked by teenagers.

YURI

(shrugs )

Accidents happen. I don’t know how the kid did it, but he accessed their money and pulled a hundred thousand euros out of their accounts.

SUSAN

(Turning to face Yuri)

Oh, crap. What happened?

YURI

His family’s dead and Dinu is in the wind. I don’t know the details. But he got enough information from the files he stole to contact us. He didn’t go to the embassy. He emailed Cosmin.

SUSAN

Cosmin?

YURI

One of my people. The email Cosmin got included what he’d been giving me and what I had paid. Cosmin is in hiding and half my network is blown to hell. But before he went into hiding, Cosmin contacted me and let me know what was going on. And he sent Dinu a message telling him how to contact me.

SUSAN

So where is Dinu? And how do you know this isn’t some sort of sting?

(They reach the floor and the elevator doors open to a dingy hallway They don’t speak again till they are in the room.)

INT HOTEL ROOM

(click of door latching.)

YURI

I don’t. But if the SRI had what Dinu got, I figure that my whole network is blown anyway.

SUSAN

A mole?

YURI

Not here. It’s too compartmentalized. Langley, maybe. It’s happened before, but even Langley doesn’t know everything they have. I think it’s probably just good work on their part, but over years.

SUSAN

That doesn’t make sense either. In the US or China, sure. Even England or Iran. But Romania?

YURI

Romania is a good transhipment hub for a lot of stuff. Drugs, data, mercenaries, even terrorist cells. There’s a whole industry in phony passports and I.D.s

SUSAN

Is that what this kid Dinu found?

YURI

I don’t know what he found. All I know is that whatever it is, it’s totally freaked out the SRI. They’ve been taking out their own people for the last three days.

FADE TO

INT BASEMENT ROOM

Poorly lit, old computer in one corner, motherboard and other components exposed. Extension cords, cables and bits of electronic apparatus everywhere.

DINU (14) wearing expensive clothing in poor taste works furiously at a keyboard, cursing constantly. The camera moves around to where it’s facing him and we see he’s crying. He lifts an arm and wipes his eyes then continues to type. On the screen, datafiles are being shifted to new locations. He pulls a flash drive from the computer, brings up an email program and starts writing an email

Arní máti @ . B

He looks at the clock on the computer screen and adds

15:50

He clicks send.

Starts a new email.

Peter Bogdanovich has siphoned off 50,000 €. from the contingency account to account # 342854284

He’s also banging your daughter.

He writes two more emails, then stops. He pulls another flash drive out of the bottom drawer and pulls up its contents. Its porn. He opens a document and starts adding files and links, then embeds a bunch of pictures, more porn but other stuff too. He saves the file, then renames it.

Blowjob.mpg.

Having done that he pulls the second flash drive and gets up. Grabbing his backpack, he moves to an old wall panel, the fuse box for the building. He pulls stuff out of cabinets and his backpack and starts wiring stuff together, attaching it to the fuse box with alligator clips, including a block of C4. Last of all, a spring powered timer. He sets the timer and leaves.

CUT TO

INT HOTEL ROOM

YURI sitting on the bed calling up emails. SUSAN looking over his shoulder.

SUSAN

So where’s point B?

YURI

What?

SUSAN

Arní, Lamb, meat, but meet as in meet me, rather than meat and potatoes. Then máti, eye, but I as in me, not eye as in orb of sight. The @ sign is obvious, so is the point.

Meet me at point B. Where is point B?

YURI

How the hell am I-

YURI

(Starts pulling up emails. cursing all the while. )

Smart ass little mother . . .”

SUSAN

So where is point B?

YURI

It’s not point B. It’s the point where we switched to plan B. About six months ago, we were running an op in support of a faction of . . . Well, never mind. But the transfer of goods was going to take place at the railway yard. We got there and someone else was using it. We switched to plan B, an electronic funds transfer. Our contacts weren’t happy. They wanted hard currency. Untraceable bills. But we were all at the same place. We sat there and watched a drug deal go down while we had our contacts on the phone setting up the transfer through a secure account.

SUSAN

Okay, it’s the railyard. But what are you looking up?

YURI

The electronic drop box we used was an old SRI account. In fact, it was set up under the KGB back in the seventies.

SUSAN

You’re kidding. Why was it still in use?

YURI

It was convenient for both sides and it’s a pain to set up that sort of account. There was an agreement that no one take out more than they put in.

SUSAN

And that’s the account this Dinu took the money from?

YURI

No, but now I think that it’s the way he got in. Though I don’t have a clue how he could have traced it back to the sending account.

EXT STREET DAY

The sound of an explosion. A building smokes then breaks into flame. People stop and stare. Two cars screech up to the building and six men get out. One of them opens his phone and starts talking. It’s AGENT 1 (20s) dressed in a dark suit, good quality.

AGENT 1

The building’s on fire. The boy is gone.

(holds the phone away from his ear)

SHEREMETEV

(Voice over)

Well, find him, you fucking moron.

(short pause) We have an intercept. Lamb I at dot B. You know what that means?

AGENT 1

(Grimaces) No, sir.

The phone goes dead and after a moment the agent goes over to talk to his fellows. They get back in their cars and leave.

EXT STREET DAY

DINU, walking quickly along the street, stops and listens for a moment as sirens blare in the background. Sharp nod and continues on his way.

INT HOTEL ROOM DAY

SUSAN and YURI, packing up and leaving.

SUSAN

Who’s running this mess for the SRI?

YURI

Vladimir Sheremetev. A Russian from a family that goes all the way back to the Mongols. They were encouraged to immigrate to Romania under Stalin.

SUSAN

He’s deputy chief of the SRI?

(She grabs YURI’s arm.)

YURI

Yes. Do you understand now? It’s not just us that got blown. The kid blew every player in Romania. You get that flash drive and who knows what information it has.

They leave the hotel room.

EXT RAILROAD YARD AFTERNOON

SUSAN and YURI walk through railroad yard, keeping to the shadows.

SUSAN

You sure you lost them?

YURI

No.

SUSAN

Lie to me next time.

YURI

(snorts)

INT CAR AFTERNOON

AGENT 1

You lost them.

DRIVER

They were heading northwest. I could tell, in spite of their twists and turns.

AGENT 1

(Frustrated) That could be anywhere.

DRIVER

No, not anywhere. It’s got to be someplace where the kid wanted to meet. (Slams on the brakes. Horns blare.) That’s what lamb is. Meet. In English, the word for carne, meat, sounds like întâlni, the word for meet.

AGENT 1

But Dinu isn’t English. He doesn’t even speak English.

DRIVER

No, but he reads it and speaks a little. And he’s smart. He had to be looking for something that the Americans could figure out but we couldn’t.

AGENT 1

(Speaking slowly) Good. So Meet I, means meet me at dot.

DRIVER

A dot is a point.

AGENT 1

(Nods) Point B. So where is-- Oh, hell. (Agent 1 pulls out his phone and calls the boss.)

We think we know where they are going. Point B is the railroad yard.

BOSS

We’ll meet you there.

EXT RAILROAD YARD DAY

DINU, face smeared with dirt and tears, steps out from behind a building and says:

DINU

You’re late. (In badly accented English. In Romanian, he continues.) Who’s the whore?

SUSAN

(In English) We had to lose the SRI you set on us. (In Romanian) And you can’t afford me, you little creep.

DINU

(Almost a smile breaks through the bitter expression on his face) I have lots of money. It used to be the SRI’s. The bastards killed my family. I figure they owe it to me for that.

SUSAN

I figure they owe you a lot more than money for that.

DINU

(Bitterly) They’ll pay.

YURI

Someone’s coming.

DINU

I thought you said you lost them.

YURI

We did. Otherwise they would have been here before we ever contacted you. The question is, do you have anything worth our risking our lives for? Money won’t do it.

DINU

(Looking scared, but defiant.) Yes, I have a lot. Enough to get your family killed. You want it?

YURI

(Gives DINU a hard look, then a sharp nod. Turns to SUSAN.) Okay. Get him out of here.

SUSAN

You sure?

YURI

(Drawing his pistol.) Get him out. (YURI turns and walks back the way they came.)

DINU

Hey, where’s he going?”

SUSAN

(Grabbing DINU’s arm.) Come on.

DINU

(Holding back) He’s running out on us.

SUSAN

Don’t be an idiot. He’s going to hold them off while I get you out.

EXT RAILROAD YARD DAY

YURI moves through the railroad yard, pistol out, sticking close to the rail cars, stopping to listen every few steps. Footfalls on gravel in the distance. YURI crouches down to look under the railroad car. We see legs. YURI aims and fires. Feet running, guns firing.

EXT RAILROAD YARD DAY

SUSAN and DINU creep along beside a railroad line. Shots in the distance. SUSAN grabs DINU’s arm again and starts running.

EXT RAILROAD YARD DAY

YURI running along beside a railroad car, stops at the end, peeks around, then starts to cross to the next. A shot rings out and YURI jerks but keeps going. Makes the next car, leans against it. Blood is clearly visible on his side. YURI keeps going, around the next car, step, two more agents. Everyone shoots.

EXT RAILROAD YARD DAY

DINU, wheezing and panting, stops and leans against a building. SUSAN peeks around the corner of the building.

SUSAN

Crap. They’ve left people watching the cars.

DINU

How do we get out?

(Sounding scared.)

SUSAN

(Looks around, then up. There is a rail car with a ladder on the side. She follows the route with her eyes. Up the ladder, onto the roof of the rail car, then a jump across to the roof of the building.)

Might work.

(Looks back at DINU.)

Come on, DINU. We’ll hide on the roof until it gets dark.

DINU

They’ll find us.

SUSAN

You have a better idea? I’m open to suggestions.

(They climb onto the rail road car and jump across to the small one-story building.

EXT RAILROAD YARD/TOP OF BUILDING NIGHT

SUSAN looks around over the edge of the building. There are still guards, but not as many. She crawls back to DINU

SUSAN

They’ve left a few guards in case, but they probably think we got away while YURI was distracting them. You wait here.

SUSAN takes makeup case from her purse. She takes the top of the case off and pulls a blade out of it. A small white blade. It’s three inches long, ceramic and oddly shaped. While it was in the makeup case, it looked like part of the fancy pattern of the makeup case. She uses the back of the case to make a short handle. DINU looks on, wide-eyed.

SUSAN

Looks like the rest of the case under x-rays and doesn’t set off a metal detector.

SUSAN slips off the roof, hangs from the edge, and drops to the ground quietly.

SUSAN moves through the rail yard till she finds a SRI guard. She slips up behind him, grabs his chin and cuts his throat, holding his mouth closed till he stops struggling. She lowers the body, takes his gun and phone. She moves to a porta potty or outhouse and drops the phone down the toilet.

She moves out again, looking for another guard. We see that there is blood on her clothing. She finds another guard, but he reacts quicker. He fires his pistol into the ground while she is cutting his throat.

SUSAN runs to the parking lot, a gun in each hand. Her ceramic knife is left on the gravel between the tracks. Gunshots ring out and SUSAN shoots back at the muzzle flash, then ducks quickly. Two more dead SRI and SUSAN gets a flesh wound in her thigh.

All quiet. SUSAN looks around, then waves for DINU to come down. She starts going through the pockets of the SRI muscle and collecting pistols, phones and keys.

SUSAN moves to the portapotty to dump the phones but DINU interrupts.

DINU

Don’t do that. Give them to me.

SUSAN

They have trackers.

DINU

(Opening his backpack) I know that. Give them to me for a minute.

(Susan shrugs and hands them over while she goes to the cars to test the keys. DINU pulls a laptop from his back pack and plugs the phones into it one at a time.

SUSAN

(Standing by an opened car door.) DINU, come on.

DINU

(Half-finished with the phones. Looks at Susan, looks at the bodies, tosses the phones down the toilet and goes to the car.

INT CAR NIGHT

SUSAN

What was that all about?

DINU

I copied their memory cards to my laptop. Now we have their call histories, IMs, the works. (Dinu doesn’t look up from his laptop while she speaks.

SUSAN

What are you doing?

DINU

I have a program. It correlates numbers and and other parts of their phones’ memories and compares it to the data I already collected. And these phones just changed the account they get their bills paid through. It’s a new account, one that the SRI didn’t have two days ago, and I bet it’s got a lot of money in it because over a million euros just disappeared from a locked account this morning.

SUSAN

What are you doing?

DINU

(Grinning) I’m moving fifty thousand euros to the personal account of Vladimir Sheremetev. The rest, you don’t need to know where that’s going.

SUSAN

You just love making friends, don’t you?

DINU

They killed my mom and Alina. My little sister. She was ten.

INT CIA LANGLEY OFFICE

Mr Allen looks up as his secretary comes in.

SECRETARY

We just got word YURI Bogdanovich is dead. And the ambassador to Romania wants to know what is going on with his third assistant security officer and the SRI.

ALLEN

Any word on Rand?

SECRETARY

She wasn’t among the bodies, sir. And apparently the pick up is the kid who hacked the SRI. He wasn’t among the bodies either.

ALLEN

Right. See when Undersecretary Jarvis has a minute. We’d better start damage control now.

INT SVR HEADQUARTERS, MOSCOW

A dingy office with less than up-to-date equipment. three people doing office work. A door opens into a better appointed office and a man sticks his head out the door. It is PAVEL GRIBOV (50) and not good looking.

GRIBOV

What is going on in Romania? I just got a notice that Vladimir Sheremetev has deposited fifty thousand euros in his private account.

The three clerks look at each other.

CLERK 1

There was a security breach and the Romanians insisted it was an internal matter.

GRIBOV

Internal matter, my ass. Sheremetev is ours he has been since ’98. I want a full report and if Sheremetev has gone rogue, we are going to have to take steps.

(The door closes, leaving the clerks looking at each other.)

INT SVR HEADQUARTERS, MOSCOW

GRIBOV walks across his office to a sideboard where there are several bottles. He pours himself a glass and sips, then moves to his desk and punches a series of codes into his phone.

GRIBOV

Sir, I can’t be sure but it’s possible that the Illuminati have gotten to Sheremetev.

INT CAR ROMANIA BACKROAD NIGHT

SUSAN looks over to see DINU asleep in the other seat. They have gotten close to the border with Serbia but neither of them have the papers to cross the border. She turns the car onto a dirt road, then into a driveway and finds a stand of trees. Then she climbs into the back seat and goes to sleep.

INT CAR ROMANIA BACKROAD DAY

DINU

(Shouts) Mama! (Sits up from the slouched position he was sleeping in, looks around and sees SUSAN.) Where are we? (He reaches back over the seat and starts to shake her. His hand is held and a gun is pointing at him.)

SUSAN

Go back to sleep. There’s nothing to do till night fall. We are going to have to slip across the border to Serbia.

DINU

Why Serbia?

SUSAN

We’re too hot to get out by air or ship. We will have to get to an American embassy or, failing that, all the way back to Western Europe. Greece or Italy.

DINU

How do we do that?

SUSAN

Like I said, we slip across the border on foot, then catch a ride or steal a car.

DINU

I’m hungry. And I have to go. You know.

SUSAN

(pointing at the trees) Out there. The food will have to wait till we are ready to leave.

EXT OPEN FIELDS NIGHT

SUSAN and DINU walk across the border by stepping over a fence from one pasture to another. They keep going and a few minutes later SUSAN checks her GPS.

SUSAN

Well, we’re now in Serbia.

DINU

You shouldn’t use your phone.

SUSAN

It’s a special model. It won’t look for a cell tower or respond to one till I tell it to. Looks just like an Iphone (Or whoever pays for product placement) but it can’t be tracked till I tell it to and it can appear to be different phones on command.

DINU

(Excitedly) Let me see it.

SUSAN

Not a chance. Five minutes and you’d be reading the President’s emails and using it to rob the Bank of England.

DINU

I already robbed the Bank of England, and who cares what the president thinks. Any president.

INT OFFICE BUCHAREST NIGHT

Vladimir Sheremetev looks at the glowing computer screen. The camera shifts to the computer screen.

SHEREMETEV

(muttering) How did the little bastard manage? The Council of Boyars will never believe that I wasn’t a part of this. They will kill me just to be sure.

(Camera shifts to a picture on the desk A woman middle-aged and three children in front of a Russian style country house.)

SHEREMETEV

Magda, they are going to kill you, my love, and the children. I am sorry, but we had a good life for a while, didn’t we?

(SHEREMETEV stands up and goes to a closet, opens a safe and starts pulling money from it and putting it in a bag.)

INT CAR SOMEWHERE IN ROMANIA

AGENT 1

AGENT 1 is now in shirt sleeves with one sleeve missing and a bloody bandage on that arm.

(Holding phone, but looking at driver.) I can’t get the boss. He’s out of the office and his phone is off.

DRIVER

What do we do?

AGENT 1

(Shrugs) Keep looking.

DRIVER

Romania is a big place to look for a woman and a boy. By now they have dumped the car. And if the woman really is an American agent, she has money. Lots of money. They will be able to bribe the police.

AGENT 1

I know, but we obey orders. We found them and we were at the hospital when they got away. (Points at his arm) Whatever is going on, it’s not our fault.

DRIVER

You know they might not be in Romania any more?

AGENT 1

I know. Where would you run?

DRIVER

I’d head for the Black Sea.

AGENT 1

No. We have the ports covered. Or at least they probably think we do. The same with the airports and train stations. What about Bulgaria? /fountain]

AGENT 1 starts to make the call.

EXT SERBIA ROAD

SUSAN

We have a couple choices, DINU. We can go northwest toward Belgrade where we might get transport out.

DINU

(Interrupting) What about your embassy? You have an embassy in Belgrade.

SUSAN

Yes, but putting you up in the embassy is going to be public and the government of Romania is going to start screaming about extradition treaties for criminal acts. You know, acts like stealing money from the Romanian government.

DINU

It wasn’t government money. Not really. It was Optomari money.

SUSAN

(Laughing) What? You stole money from an ancient Roman political party?

DINU

It’s what they call themselves. I found their code book.

SUSAN

(Stops and faces DINU) No one uses code books anymore. It’s all complex algorithms.

DINU

You don’t know anything. A code book is still the best encryption method available. A cypher, no matter how complicated, is breakable and once you break it you have everything. But with a code even if you figure out that 354 means handgrenades, that’s all you’ve got unless you find the code book. And with flash drives, code books are easy to hide.

SUSAN

So how did you find their code book?

DINU

Why should I tell you?

SUSAN

Because you have about one chance in a thousand of surviving without me and I’m starting to get irritated.

DINU

And once you have the code book or know where to find it, you don’t need me anymore. I’m not an idiot. As long as you need what I know, you’ve got to keep me safe and happy. If I want you to, you have to give me a blowjob. So I’m not telling.

SUSAN

I don’t have to keep you happy. Just alive. You can forget the blowjob, kid. (She shrugs) I have a backup contact in Belgrade. We’ll go that way.

A tractor is moving along the narrow road and SUSAN puts out a thumb.

Fade to black

EXT STREET BELGRADE DAY

A small storefront, tourist trap souvenirs. SUSAN, followed by DINU, both looking a bit ragged, enter the door to a ringing door bell.

INT SHOP DAY

The shopkeeper looks up, then looks again.

SHOPKEEPER

What are you doing here? And who is that?

SUSAN

(Rolls her eyes.) Does no one in Central Europe have any trade craft?

SHOPKEEPER

Why bother? (Shrugs) If anyone is looking, we’re already dead. We keep our tricks for where we need them. That’s why you Americans make such lousy spies. You don’t understand what’s important and what’s not.

SUSAN

We need passports and papers for me and the boy. (Points at DINU) And a place to stay while you get them. Also train tickets or a car.

SHOPKEEPER

That’s going to be expensive.

SUSAN

Drawing account number 36245743. And there will be an audit, so don’t get greedy.

SHOPKEEPER

(Gesturing to a door into the back of the building.) Let me get a pen for that number.

INT SHOP BELGRADE DAY

The shopkeeper looks at the door he had led them through, then picks up an old style phone and dials a number.

SHOPKEEPER

Yes, it’s me. The girl just showed up and she has the boy with her. Yes, sir. But it might interfere with our arrangement if your government comes to suspect-- (Stiffening as he hears something over the phone) Yes, sir. I will keep them here. But you will be sure they are silenced without any chance to tell anyone they were ever here. (Short pause.) Yes. I will leave now.

INT SHOP/BACKROOM BELGRADE DAY

DINU is sitting on the cot with his laptop opened.

DINU

What’s the shopkeeper’s name?

SUSAN

Andraj Nagy. Why?

DINU

I want to see if they know about him.

SUSAN

You can find that out? I thought it was the Romanians you hacked.

DINU

(DINU gives Susan a disgusted look.) I told you before. It’s the Optomari. They have hooks in everywhere. Even in your CIA.

As DINU speaks, Susan’s face changes.

SUSAN

(uncertain insistent voice) You’re nuts, kid. This ain’t Three Days of the Condor. Even in the movie the agency in the agency still worked for the US.

DINU

They have people everywhere.

SUSAN

Then why call us if they have people in the CIA?

DINU

I had to call someone. And they don’t control the CIA, MI6 or even the French intelligence service. They do control the Romanian secret police. And the Russian SVR.

SUSAN

Look, DINU, it can’t be done. The bigger a conspiracy is, the harder it is to keep it secret. The old saw about three people being able to keep a secret if two of them are dead may be an overstatement, but the concept behind it is true. The way to keep a secret is not to tell anyone. To control something like the SVR, you would need to tell people . . .

DINU watches as SUSAN works through some thought.

SUSAN

No congressional oversight while they were the old Soviet Union. Plenty of time to get their hooks in. Then, when the USSR collapsed, they were running around. They would have . . . No, not if they were compartmentalized. Some of the cells would have been burned, but if they kept their mouths shut . . . Maybe. No. I just can’t see it.

DINU

You don’t want to see it. Andraj Nagy is in the book. He works for the Optomari.

SUSAN

(Looks at DINU, then gets up and goes to the door.) Stay here. I’m going to look around.

INT SHOP BELGRADE DAY

SUSAN moves around the shop looking. Moves to the window and peeks out. Through the window are men getting out of cars. SUSAN turns and runs. She opens the door to the back room.

SUSAN

(quietly but intensely) Come on, DINU. It’s time to go.

DINU

(Grabbing up his computer and stuffing it in has backpack) Told you!

SUSAN

Don’t sound so happy about it.

INT SHOP DIFFERENT BACK ROOM BELGRADE DAY

There is a door to a narrow alley and a peep hole in the door. SUSAN looks out the peephole. Then cracks the door. She looks around again and slips out, motioning for DINU to follow her. They are several feet down the alley when a dark-suited man comes around the corner and starts to raise something in his hand. SUSAN is faster and shoots him. They start running, then several more shots are exchanged. Then they go around a corner and keep running. A few minutes later, she notices that DINU isn’t keeping up. She checks him and he has been wounded. She pulls him over to a corner of an alley, lays him down behind trash cans and examines him. She checks the wound, listens to his chest.

SUSAN

DINU, we need to get you to a hospital. I think the bullet nicked the bottom of your left lung and I’d bet it hit at least one of your internal organs. You are going to need surgery.

DINU

No. If we go to a hospital, they will find me.

SUSAN

If we don’t, you’re probably going to die in either a few minutes or a few hours. Even if we do, you might.

DINU

You don’t know what they did to my momma and Alina. If they get me, I will tell them everything and tell them about you. Not because I want to. I won’t be able to help it. I don’t want to die that way. Please!

SUSAN

(Looks at DINU for a few moments) Well, since you said please. I think that’s the first polite word you’ve said to me since we met.

DINU

(Makes a rude gesture) I don’t do polite. Get me my computer.

SUSAN reaches for the backpack and there is a bullet hole in it. Also in the computer. There is maybe ten thousand euros in the backpack and a pair of very expensive sneakers, half a dozen flash drives, and some wires of the sort used to hook computers to flash drives or phones.

DINU

Crap. (Coughs and spits up blood.) Give me your phone.

SUSAN passes over the phone.

DINU

Show me how this works. I need to use the computer, but keep the phone off.

SUSAN shows him the commands.

SUSAN

What are you going to do?

DINU

Just rearrange some files. (He looks at SUSAN) I’m fourteen and I’m going to die. I’ve never gotten laid, never gotten a blowjob, never even gotten a kiss. Not a real kiss.

SUSAN leans over and kisses him gently on the lips.

DINU

That’s all? What about a blowjob?

SUSAN

Why, you little creep.

DINU laughs, coughing up more blood, then goes back to working with the phone and the flash drives.

DINU

This one is for your bosses.

(He hands her a flash drive) It will look like all I got was into the bank accounts. (He holds up another one.) This is for you. It’s got porn on it. You need lessons. (He coughs badly and when the fit passes he is dead.)

SUSAN hugs the body and for a while just sits and rocks back and forth.

EXT STREET BELGRADE EVENING

Two agents come down the alley, checking. They find DINU’S body. The female agent kicks it. SUSAN steps out from a door down the alley.

SUSAN

That’s not polite.

(The two agents turn and SUSAN shoots several times.)

Camera pans to the door SUSAN has exited and we see a shopkeeper tied up and gagged.

SPOOKY BACKGROUND MUSIC

SUSAN goes quickly to the bodies. and starts rifling through their pockets. Finding a set of keys on the male agent, she clicks the key and listens for the beep of the car responding. Then she grabs the man up in a fireman’s carry and takes him to the edge of the alley. She goes and fetches the car, brings it to the alley and sticks the male body in the back seat, then does the same with the woman. She gets DINU with more care and sets him in the passenger seat. She belts him in, then gets in the driver’s seat and drives away.

Closeup of SUSAN’s face she has been crying.

EXT BACKROAD FARM DRIVEWAY NIGHT

The car goes quietly down the gravel drive to a barn and the male agent is dumped. SUSAN strips the woman’s body and trades clothing with her. She opens the back of her phone and breaks the sim card and the memory card, then puts the phone in the dead female agent’s pocket. She puts the female agents body in the passenger seat, head in DINU’s lap.

SUSAN

(Pats DINU’s cheek) Sorry, DINU. Best I could manage.

SUSAN goes around and gets in the driver’s seat. Then drives quietly away.

EXT SMALL TOWN MAIN STREET NEAR BELGRADE

The car goes down the street, and a policeman sees it. Lights and siren.

CAR CHASE through the countryside. Down back roads. SUSAN’s car fishtails at a dirt road, delaying pursuit as they overshoot the turn off. Twists and turns.

INT CAR DAY

SUSAN lights molotov cocktail sitting in the cup holder, picks it up and throws it into the back window where it shatters, spreading flames over the back of the car. She brakes, then turns the car off the road so that it will go into a gully. Opens the door and leaps out.

EXT ROADSIDE TREES DAY

SUSAN

(Standing in the trees, watching the car burn) Bye, kid. I hope you get laid in Hacker Heaven. (Turns and slips farther into the woods.

INT HOTEL ROOM DAY

The hotel room is not good quality. There is a sink and a toilet, but not in a separate room, and the whole room is ragged, rusty, and in poor repair.

SUSAN is dyeing her hair. There are jeans and a teeshirt on the table and SUSAN is clearly scratched and abraded.

EXT STREET EVENING

SUSAN, wearing heavy pancake makeup and looking at least ten years older than she had before. She walks along the road and makes her way to a train station.

EXT PARK NEAR LANGLEY DAY

Mr. ALLEN is speaking to the GRAND MARSHAL on the phone again.

MR ALLEN

No, GRAND MARSHAL. She’s been gone for two weeks and the body in the wrecked car is at least tentatively identified as hers. Aside from the fire damage, the body was thrown around pretty good in the crash, making identification less certain. But it was probably her.

GRAND MARSHAL

What about the missing Serbian agents?

MR ALLEN

They found the male in a compost heap three days ago, and the best guess is that the woman is in another somewhere. SUSAN’s field craft was quite good. It’s policy not to leave all the bodies in the same place. It makes it harder for the enemy to get complete information.

GRAND MARSHAL

Each to his own craft, Eric. So the information is lost?

MR ALLEN

Yes, sir. (Bitterly) And a damn fine agent.

GRAND MARSHAL

Sorry, Eric. I know SUSAN RAND was one of your protegees and I am truly sorry for her loss. But just from what we can see from the outside, the Whole Eastern European Optomari is in an uproar. That information could have made a real difference.

MR ALLEN

(Hesitates) GRAND MARSHAL, just how bad is it?

GRAND MARSHAL

We’re holding for now, but you know how big a hit the Illuminati took on 9/11. We haven’t recovered from that. And the Optomari have been making serious gains ever since.

I’m sorry about your girl, Eric.

EXT CANADIAN US BORDER DAY

There is a greyhound or like bus stopped as the passengers get off to go through customs. A redheaded woman with puffy cheeks and heavy makeup, dressed in worn clothing, with an overdeveloped chest, gets off the bus and goes through customs displaying a Canadian driver’s license. She speaks with a French-Canadian accent.

SUSAN

No, is just a day trip. Some shopping and maybe a little clubbing. I will return tonight or, if I get lucky, tomorrow.

BORDER PATROL AGENT

Enjoy your stay, ma’am.

INT GAS STATION RESTROOM DAY

SUSAN RAND takes off the red wig and puts it in the trash can. Reaches into her mouth and pulls out the wet paper towel that had puffed out her cheeks at the border crossing. She washes her face, reaches into her padded bra and removes the flash drives, places them in the pockets of her blue jeans, then the bra follows the wig into the trash.

She leaves the restroom a much younger-looking, fresh-faced country girl and starts hitchhiking.

EXT PARK DAY

MR ALLEN sits at a picnic table and takes a brown bag from his briefcase. He takes out a sandwich and a thermos and sets the table for lunch. He notices the woman walking toward him and his hand slips back into the briefcase, where we see a pistol.

He starts, just a slight lifting of his head, and the hand comes out of the briefcase without the gun. He doesn’t rise as the young woman sits beside him.

MR ALLEN

Hello, SUSAN. It’s good to see you.

SUSAN

Is it?

MR ALLEN

Yes, it is. I would imagine you have some questions and probably that you’re not feeling all that trusting at the moment. But please try to believe me. I had no idea what I was sending you into when I gave you your mission.

Susan looks at ALLEN, then looks around.

MR ALLEN

It’s known that I come here for lunch, SUSAN, but I’m not under constant observation. I’m not that important and the enemy has limited resources.

SUSAN

Who is the enemy?

MR ALLEN

(Gives SUSAN a careful look, then nods.) Best guess, the ones you ran into in Romania were calling themselves the Optomari. That’s not the only name they go by, and there is more than one group.

SUSAN, for now at least, if you want to stay alive, it would be best if you stay dead.

SUSAN

What do they want?

MR ALLEN

(Taps his fingers on the concrete table top) Power. They would say something else, but that’s what it comes down to.

SUSAN

Why should I believe you? After what I’ve seen, why should I trust you?

MR ALLEN

That’s something you’re going to have to decide for yourself. I can tell you that I’m one of the good guys. And, SUSAN, I am one of the good guys. But even if I weren’t an excellent liar, the fact is that most of the people on the other side believe they are the good guys. That they are endowed by God or by their ancestry or their natural abilities to lead, and that the world would be a much better place if we were to just sit back and let them run our lives.

SUSAN

So, if they are the Optomari, who are you?

MR ALLEN

SUSAN, even . . . Let me make a phone call. I trust you but it’s not my secret.

SUSAN

Even the name. What difference could that make?

MR ALLEN

Especially the name. (MR ALLEN laughs out loud.) Especially the name. (He reaches into his briefcase, pulls out a notepad, and writes a number on it. He hands the top sheet to SUSAN, and takes the sheet under it off the pad and burns it.) Give me a day to see what I can work out and call that number.

SUSAN, did you get the data?

SUSAN

(Looks at MR ALLEN then takes a flash drive from her pocket.) DINU gave me this before he died. (She passes it to him, her motion hidden by the briefcase and lunch on the table. Then she gets up and leaves.

MR ALLEN

ERIC ALLEN sits and chews his sandwich, has some coffee, then stretches and looks around. Not seeing SUSAN anywhere near, he pulls out a burn phone and makes a call.

GRAND MARSHAL, SUSAN RAND is alive and she just handed me a flash drive. She wants to know who we are.

GRAND MARSHAL

(After a pause.) What do you think, ERIC?

MR ALLEN

I think she could make a good agent. And, GRAND MARSHAL, I don’t like leaving her out in the cold. We can’t let the Optomari realize that SUSAN RAND didn’t die in Serbia. Not if there is anything at all on this flash drive.

GRAND MARSHAL

All right, ERIC, let her in. But just the outer layer for now. Lets see how she reacts to learning that there really are Illuminati out there. And that she is being given the chance to work for them.

EXT PARK DAY

A day later, MR ALLEN is having lunch at his usual picnic table when his phone rings.

MR ALLEN

Welcome to the Illuminati, Susan.

SUSAN

Oh, come on. You have got to be kidding. I mean, even if you were the Illuminati, you should have changed your name.

MR ALLEN

We did, SUSAN. We changed it in 1783, after the last of the German branch were murdered by the Optomari. But we changed back in the nineteenth century. There is tradition involved and what happened to the German group when they went public acts as a warning.

This has been going on for a while now.

SUSAN

I’m going to have to do some research.

MR ALLEN

Go ahead. In the meantime, I’m putting together a new identity for you. It’s going to take a few days to get ready.

INT LIBRARY DAY

SUSAN RAND sits at a library computer console, looking up the Illuminati, and getting more and more confused.

SUSAN

(Muttering) Where did the whole bit about the Illuminati being a secret organization that wanted to rule the world come from?

LIBRARIAN

(Coughs quietly and holds a finger to her lips. SUSAN nods, gets up and leaves, pulling out her phone.)

SUSAN

I’m in. MR ALLEN, how did the Illuminati come to be known as a secret organization bent on world domination?

MR ALLEN

What do they teach kids these days? Check your sources. Who said they were out for world domination? The lords and the church, that is the people who already had world domination and didn’t want to give it up. Look at the timing. 1776, the Illuminati goes public in Germany and another group of wild-eyed radicals publishes a declaration of independence halfway around the world. You win some, you lose some.

I have your new ID. You’re Jennifer Grant, with a bachelor of arts in photography, and you have a brand new job with Virtual Imagery. It’s a new special effects company.

SUSAN

Where do we meet?

EXT PARK DAY

MR ALLEN hands SUSAN/JENNIFER a package and they part.

INT HOTEL ROOM

JENNIFER reads through the history of her new life, then looks at the key to the locker in Ronald Reagan Airport.

JENNIFER

I’m JENNIFER GRANT. I graduated from the University of Texas at San Antonio, not UT Austin. I have a fine arts degree with a major in photography and a minor in theater arts. I enjoy rock climbing and hang gliding. Well, I guess I’m an active girl. I had a short marriage to Robby Davis, and am reentering the job market as a staff photographer at Virtual Imagery in Austin, Texas. I have a special camera that has multiple lenses and a laser range finder to scan 3D objects for use in developing realistic 3D environments. (JENNIFER picks up the key to the locker.) Probably in my bags. But why bother?

JENNIFER packs her bag and leaves.

INT TAXI AUSTIN STREET DAY

The taxi pulls into a parking lot. There are a variety of stores and restaurants listed and the South Austin Craft Center. The parking lot is less than a quarter full. The large store is the South Austin Craft Center. JENNIFER gets out of the cab and gets her two suitcases, Then goes into the building.

INT SOUTH AUSTIN CRAFT CENTER DAY

The large store is separated into row on row of small booth-style store fronts, each with its own cash register, selling everything from paintings to computers, from Mexican pastry to hand-knitted blankets.

(None of the shops seem to be doing very well. Not many customers.)

JENNIFER

(Walks to the uniformed security at the front desk.) Can you tell me where I can find Virtual Imagery?

RENT A COP

(Sniffs) All the way in the back, over on the left side.

JENNIFER walks through the stalls, humming the theme from Get Smart, and finally gets to a glass door that has been painted black. Next to the door is the company name. JENNIFER opens the door and finds herself in a shabby waiting room with a desk and a couch that looks like it was acquired by dumpster diving and not cleaned. There are posters on the walls of 3D movies, but none she has ever heard of. This is not where they made Shreck. No one is at the desk. There is a nameplate for SHIRLEY CHISHOLM on the desk.

JENNIFER

Hello. Anyone here?

SHIRLEY

(Voice over) Don’t get your panties in a twist. Have a seat. I’ll be out in a bit.

JENNIFER

(Looks at couch. Remains standing.)

SHIRLEY

(A middle-aged artificially endowed woman with bleached blond hair backs into the room carrying an over-full cup of coffee. Facing JENNIFER.)

What can I do you for, hon?

JENNIFER

I’m JENNIFER GRANT.

SHIRLEY

(Slurps coffee.) ID? (Looks at JENNIFER and holds out her hand.) Come on, honey. You don’t get in till I see your ID and scan your print. (She indicates an unobtrusive fingerprint scanner on the desk.) Proprietary information, you know.

JENNIFER

(Passes over her new ID and puts her finger on the scanner. There is a beep and SHIRLEY looks at the computer screen, then pushes a button.)Through there, Hon. (She points.)

Stepping through the door JENNIFER finds herself in a similar office, but this time the walls are covered in posters for x-rated movies.

JENNIFER

I shoulda just quit.

MARK OWENS

(Voice over.) It’s not that bad. Welcome to the forces of corruption. Come on back into my office. You can always turn yourself into the proper authorities tomorrow if you decide to. It’s the door on your left.

There is an open door on the left and a closed one on the right. JENNIFER goes through the open door. It’s another office, also dingy, with more pornographic posters, but also cartoon posters.

MARK

(Waves her to a chair.) It’s not fancy, but it is clean. (JENNIFER sits.) I’m MARK OWENS, your boss. I take it you’re not happy about your discover cover.

JENNIFER

Discover cover?

MARK

Agents have to do agent-type stuff and the other side can pick up on that. Fortunately, agents aren’t the only people to do that sort of thing. Criminals and people in lines of work that they don’t want their neighbors to know about employ the same sort of measures.

So if you don’t want to get tagged as an agent, you need a cover that is easy to discover that will explain why you’re being all secretive and spyish. With your background, I would have expected you to know that.

JENNIFER

We just called them secondary covers. What exactly is my discover cover?

MARK

Let’s start with your basic cover. We send you out to take pictures of stuff so that we won’t be sued for using other people’s imagery in producing our 3D worlds. That gives you a good reason to be anywhere, taking pictures of anything.

The top layer of your discover cover is simply who owns the company. A consortium of production companies that specialize in making pornographic videos. Not the sort of job that most young girls want to call up their dads and brag about. Below that, if people should look a little deeper, they will find out that you not only photograph locations, you scout locations so that we can get in touch with the local communities. And if they look even deeper, they will find out that you recruit talent to star in our videos. And while that’s not illegal here, it is illegal in other parts of the world.

JENNIFER

(Nods.) It’s a good cover, the sort that will withstand fairly severe scrutiny. Because it explains at every level why I would want to keep the next level quiet. What am I actually going to be doing?

MARK

You’re going to be doing your job. All your jobs. Including what some unkind observers would call procurer. But for the rest, that’s more complicated. And frankly, you don’t need to know the overall strategy. You’re going to be helping us infiltrate and disrupt the bad guys. That is, you’re going to be doing that once I decide I can trust you. You come highly recommended, but I would be dead these last twenty years if I were the trusting sort. For now, you’re on probation and you’ll do what you’re told.

One more thing. Not everyone here is a member. We have a real virtual studio and we have actors and actresses in and out of the place all the time. So once you go out that door, you’re on.

MARK gets up and waves JENNIFER out the door before him. They go through the closed door and find a woman in a tight fabric suit with reflectors all over it, wearing a vr helmet. She is sword fighting the air and a director-type yells “Cut.” The woman takes off her helmet, and she is an x-rated actress (whichever one has paid for product placement).

DIRECTOR

This the new background photographer, Mark?

MARK

Right. DAVID MATTHEWS, ZERA JONES, meet JENNIFER GRANT.

JENNIFER

Hello. Interesting outfit?

ZERA

Also sweaty and sticky, but it lets me act in cartoons. The cameras catch the reflective dots and I can be a Rigelian slave girl or an anime character. I can be sixteen or sixty and transform from one to the other on screen.

MARK

Come into the control room and see what she’s doing.

They go through another door and are in a room filled with computer screens and at the same time rather like a tv studio control room, with a technician named TONI HOWARD at the console. On one set of screens, they are watching ZERA, in her spotted leotard and VR goggles, moving through her motions. on another, they can see a green girl in very scanty outfit fighting a monster with a sword. Sometimes the green girl’s sword goes a little far Before bouncing off the monster’s sword. At the moment, they are fighting on a flat plane with geometric shapes, cylinders and cubes, on the screen. ZERA slides a foot forward in a slow slip, and a moment later the green girl slips and falls.

MARK

Your job will be to provide us with the grease spot that ZERA just slipped on. TONI, pull up a file of grease spots.

TONI(20), female, wearing a cowboy hat and a corset above blue jeans and alligator skin boots. There is a pistol on her corset, set up for cross draw. At first glance it’s obviously fake, but on closer inspection, the pistol is quite probably functional.

TONI

Sure, Boss.

(TONI starts typing at her console and shortly there are a variety of mud and grease spots on the screen.)

MARK

Okay. Put up CYG327.

TONI selects a file and it goes up on another screen, where it combines with the green girl and the monster. Now the green girl is slipping three feet to the left of the grease spot. TONI makes an adjustment and the grease spot moves. Green girl slips but it has no effect on grease spot.

JENNIFER

It seems like you’re well supplied with grease spots. What do you need me for?

MARK

We don’t own those grease spots. And while the grease spot only takes up a fraction of the screen, it’s enough to give the owner standing to sue. They would lose the suit. We know it and they know it. But fighting it will cost a lot of money and if the owner is a big corporation, we could go broke and lose just because we ran out of money.

Also, because of some of our films, some of the more religiously focused corporations are willing to spend millions to shut us down, just because they don’t like us.

JENNIFER

I guess I can understand that.

MARK

Can you? (Turns to face JENNIFER, and several of the other people in the control room turn to look at her like she had just taken a dump in church) This is supposed to be America, a nation of free people. But a whole bunch of people out there want to shut us down because they don’t like what we’re saying. They claim to believe in freedom of speech, but theirs is the only speech they care about protecting.

JENNIFER

That’s not the way they see it, sir. They are just trying to protect their families--

MARK

I know that’s not how they see it. And mass murder wasn’t how the guys flying the planes into the two towers saw it either. But that’s how it is. I insist on my right to say unpopular things, MS GRANT. And not just mine, JENNIFER. I believe that the Seven Hundred Club has a right to put their garbage out there, even though I personally find it a whole lot more damaging to the moral fiber if this country than [insert name of PORN movie that PAYS for PRODUCT PLACEMENT here]. Sorry, JENNIFER. I think you pushed one of my buttons. A lot of people in our industry go to considerable trouble to keep their heads down in this environment, but it just makes me mad.

JENNIFER

I’m not political, MR OWENS. I’m probably too young to be as cynical as I am, but I am confident that both political parties will disappoint, and the Libertarians are impractical. I’ll take pictures of grease spots and trash cans. And they will be good pictures.

MARK

Then welcome aboard, MS GRANT.