Dreamsongs. Volume II Read online

  Shrugs. No one knows, no one cares. Except one OLD WOMAN struggling down the hall, leaning on a walker.

  OLD WOMAN

  They took her. Men in suits. It was three in the morning. She woke me up, the way she was screaming and kicking.

  TOM

  God damn it!

  He goes striding off angrily.

  CUT TO

  INT.—ER NURSE’S STATION—MOMENTS LATER

  TIGHT ON TOM

  He is on the phone, still furious. INTERCUT with shots of Laura, behind her desk in a legal office.

  TOM

  What do you mean she wasn’t arrested?

  LAURA

  I mean there’s no arrest report. No paper of any kind. Your little feline friend was never arraigned. The incident was never logged. Officers Sanchez and Chambers are mysteriously unavailable.

  TOM

  They can’t just pretend it never happened. There must have been a hundred witnesses.

  LAURA

  You didn’t happen to get the names of any, did you?

  CLOSE ON A HAND

  Before Tom can answer, a hand ENTERS FRAME and depresses the button on the receiver.

  ANGLE PAST TOM

  Still holding the dead phone, he turns to face an imposing man in a dark gray suit: TRAGER. About fifty, his suit impeccable, his hair carefully combed, Trager is a man of ice and iron.

  TRAGER

  Dr. Thomas John Lake?

  Tom just glares at him. Trager flashes a badge.

  TRAGER

  Special agent Trager, federal intelligence unit. Would you come with me, please?

  Tom makes the connection. He’s suspicious and angry.

  TOM

  Why?

  (beat)

  You removed a patient of mine from this hospital last night. Illegally. Who the hell do you think you are? What have you done with Cat?

  TRAGER

  Is that her name? She’s in good care, Doctor. She’d like to see you.

  TOM

  I’m not going anywhere with you until I’ve talked to my lawyer.

  Trager has had enough; his patience runs out.

  TRAGER

  Fine. You get one phone call. Tell her you’re under arrest.

  TOM

  You can’t do that!

  TRAGER

  You’d be astonished at what we can do, Doctor.

  (beat)

  On the other hand, if you’ll give us your cooperation…

  TOM

  (reconsidering)

  I’ll call someone to fill in for me.

  CUT TO

  EXT.—HOSPITAL—NIGHT

  Trager escorts Tom out of the hospital. A long black limo with tinted windows waits by the curb. They get in.

  INT.—LIMOUSINE—CONTINUOUS

  Trager climbs in after Tom and closes the door. The car moves off without a word. A second man sits across from them: thirtyish, sandy-haired, muscular.

  TRAGER

  This is agent Cameron.

  Agent Cameron wears a blue suit and a large white BANDAGE over his nose that covers the center of his face. He looks unhappy.

  TOM

  I see you’ve met Cat.

  Cameron gives him a foul-tempered stare. Tom turns his head away and fakes a COUGH, covering his mouth to hide the smile he cannot quite suppress.

  DISSOLVE TO

  EXT.—DESERT BASE—NIGHT

  The high desert of California. A uniformed GUARD waves the limo through a gate in a high chain-link fence. On one side of the gate a sign says AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY; on the other DANGER HIGH VOLTAGE. Beyond the fence are the quonset huts and ugly cinder-block buildings of an abandoned army base.

  INT.—DESERT BASE—NIGHT—TRACKING

  Trager and Cameron escort Tom down a long windowless corridor. They pass one section where the wall has been BLOWN OUT; through a jagged blackened hole we glimpse a long interior room GUTTED by fire, its ceiling collapsed.

  TOM

  You have a fire?

  TRAGER

  Our shooting range. One of our bright boys decided to test fire your girlfriend’s gun.

  TOM

  She’s not my girlfriend.

  TRAGER

  Whatever. In here, please. There are some things I want you to see.

  He opens a door. Tom steps through.

  INT.—TRAGER’S OFFICE—NIGHT—TIGHT ON A WALL SAFE

  A high-tech, electronic safe with a card slot and numerical keyboard. Trager’s HAND inserts a plastic security card into a slot. The keypad LIGHTS. Trager punches in a sequence of numbers. The safe swings open; Trager begins to remove the contents.

  ANGLE DOWN ON DESK

  as Trager spreads out Cat’s weapon, her bracelet, three BLACK CYLINDERS. A hundred-odd BLACK PLASTIC NEEDLES are scattered across the desktop.

  ANGLE UP

  Trager and Tom have been joined by MATSUMOTO, a government scientist, Asian, forty, wearing a lab coat.

  TOM

  She blew up a semi with that?

  TRAGER

  Correct. Go on, pick it up.

  Tom lifts the weapon, sights down the barrel.

  TOM

  I used to have a water pistol that looked like this.

  TRAGER

  Close. Try a beebee gun.

  MATSUMOTO

  An air gun, more precisely. Quite sophisticated. I doubt we could duplicate it. It uses a high-velocity jet of pressurized air to spit out…

  Matsumoto lifts a thin black needle with tweezers.

  MATSUMOTO

  …these.

  TOM

  Needles?

  MATSUMOTO

  Needles with the explosive power of a bazooka round.

  TRAGER

  This beebee gun has teeth.

  Matsumoto picks up a cylinder: black, long as a finger.

  MATSUMOTO

  The police found three of these magazines in her pockets. Each one holds one hundred forty-four needles, and…

  He pulls a cap off the back. Inside, built-in, is a POWER CELL; it pulses with RED LIGHT.

  MATSUMOTO

  (continuous)

  …its own power cell. So you recharge every time you reload. If Detroit had battery technology this good, we’d all be driving electric cars.

  Tom is still hefting the weapon.

  TOM

  Awkward grip. I can barely reach the trigger.

  TRAGER

  The girl had to use both hands to fire it.

  TOM

  Bad design…

  MATSUMOTO

  Unless the gun was designed for someone with bigger hands.

  TOM

  You’d need fingers like a squid.

  Tom puts down the weapon, picks up the bracelet.

  TOM

  She was wearing this when the paramedics brought her in.

  TRAGER

  It seems to be very important to her.

  TOM

  What is it?

  MATSUMOTO

  The metal is a superconductive alloy. I’ve never seen anything like it. Inside it’s solid microcircuitry. Very odd microcircuitry. Parts of it seem almost organic.

  TOM

  But what does it do?

  MATSUMOTO

  At a guess…it detects certain unusual subatomic particles.

  Tom looks blankly over at Trager. He’s lost.

  TOM

  I don’t understand any of this.

  TRAGER

  Neither do we. That’s why you’re here. We need answers, Doctor. And the girl won’t talk to anyone but you.

  OFF Tom’s silent, reluctant agreement, we

  CUT TO

  INT.—CORRIDOR—NIGHT

  A uniformed MATRON is seated outside a locked door, beside a window of one-way glass. Cat is visible inside, curled up on a bed, listless, in prison grays. The matron fans herself with a small HAND FAN, its accordion folds alternately red and black.

  TRAGER

  How’s our guest?
/>   MATRON

  Quiet. She just lays there, staring off. I don’t blame her, in this heat.

  TRAGER

  Let him in.

  He gives the bracelet over to Tom.

  TRAGER

  Your conversation will be monitored and recorded.

  The matron unlocks the door. Tom enters.

  INT.—CAT’S CELL—CONTINUOUS

  Cat looks up slowly.

  CAT

  Toe Mas.

  Cat gets up. She sees the bracelet. Her eyes WIDEN. She moves across the room, reaching for it.

  CAT

  Mine! Give it, Toe Mas.

  TOM

  First we need to talk.

  Cat doesn’t take no for an answer. She reaches for the bracelet. Tom holds it out of her reach.

  CAT

  Give it now. Needing it now. Coming soon. Coming after.

  TOM

  Who is coming after?

  CAT

  Darklords! Manhounds! Give!

  TOM

  Tell me what it is and you can have it back.

  Cat almost spits the word at him.

  CAT

  Geon. Give it now!

  Tom TOSSES it to her. Cat snatches it out of the air, slides it back onto her arm. It seems to calm her.

  TOM

  What does it do, Cat? What’s it for?

  CAT

  Finding doors. Doors between. Doors away.

  Backing away from Tom, Cat extends her arm, hand tight in a fist. She turns in a slow circle, sweeping the room.

  TOM

  What kind of doors? Cat, what are you doing?

  She ignores him, concentrating. The device can’t find a reading in this enclosed place. It stays dark.

  CAT

  No good, no good, no good.

  TOM

  Cat, where did you get that? And the gun, the air gun…

  (off her blank look)

  The weapon, the…

  Frustrated, Tom does a pantomime of lifting the gun with both hands, firing, with appropriate sound effects.

  TOM

  You know…phut…BOOM!

  He shapes an EXPLOSION with his hands. Cat giggles.

  CAT

  Phut BOOM?

  TOM

  Right. The phut boom. Where did you get the phut boom?

  She looks at him as though he were a moron.

  CAT

  Hand cannon, Toe Mas. Stealing it. Not-for-men, hand cannon.

  (beat)

  Needing it, taking it.

  TOM

  What did you need the hand cannon for?

  CAT

  Shooting. Killing.

  (off his reaction)

  Getting away, Toe Mas.

  Cat is getting more and more agitated. She looks around the sealed room desperately, searching for a way out.

  CAT

  Lights out! Darklords coming soon.

  TOM

  The…darklords. Is that a gang?

  CAT

  Darklords masters. Darklords owners.

  TOM

  And the…manhounds?

  CAT

  (whisper)

  Thane…

  Tom can see the fear on her face now. This conversation is getting to her. She tries the door to the room. It’s locked, of course. Cat spins away in frustration.

  TOM

  Hey, take it easy. I don’t know who these people are, but they can’t get to you here. You’re safe.

  Instead of calming her, that just drives her WILD. Grabbing up a CHAIR, she swings at the mirrored window with all her strength. It bounces off the glass. Cat swings it again and again. The mirror begins to BREAK. A spiderweb of CRACKS fissures out.

  CAT

  (screaming)

  Not safe! Not safe! Not safe!

  The mirror SHATTERS, showering the hall outside with pieces of one-way glass. Cat is about to leap through the broken window when Tom grabs her, restrains her.

  TOM

  Cat, stop. Don’t…

  He holds her tight, trying to comfort her, as the door opens and Cameron and the Matron come running in.

  DISSOLVE TO

  EXT.—CANYONS—NIGHT

  A densely wooded canyon outside Los Angeles. Thane stands on a precipice, looking down at the city lights. His face is a mask. A woman comes up beside him: DYANA. He senses her presence.

  THANE

  So many men, Dyana. Their lights go on forever.

  DYANA

  This is but a shadow of the trueworld, the master says.

  THANE

  Perhaps the masters of this world say the same thing of our own.

  Thane turns his head very slowly toward the east, as if he is listening to something no one else can hear.

  DYANA

  What is it? Do you have a reading? Is she using the geosyn cronator?

  When Thane speaks, it is not to Dyana.

  THANE

  I hear you, Cat. Even now, you call to me.

  He turns sharply back to Dyana, all business.

  THANE

  East, northeast, three hundred hexes.

  CUT TO

  INT. TRAGER’S OFFICE—NIGHT

  Trager behind a desk. Tom is pacing. Cameron sits in the visitor’s chair, snapping a rubber band.

  CAMERON

  Pentathol.

  TOM

  No. She’s my patient. I won’t allow you to drug her.

  TRAGER

  We gave you a chance to do it your way, Doctor.

  Tom leans over Trager’s desk.

  TOM

  Give me one more shot at it. Let me hypnotize her.

  Trager steeples his fingers, thinks, NODS.

  CUT TO

  INT.—TRAGER’S OFFICE—LATER

  The lights have been turned down low. Cat sits in the visitor’s chair, Tom close to her side. Trager is behind his desk, watching, Cameron stands.

  TOM

  …deeper. You hear nothing but my voice now. There are no other sounds, no other voices. Only me. You are relaxed. So relaxed. Floating. All the fear has gone away.

  Cat is deep in a trance.

  TOM

  Tell us your name. Your whole name.

  CAT

  Cat.

  Tom frowns. Trager and Cameron exchange glances.

  TOM

  All right. Cat, tell us about the place you come from.

  CAT

  All dark. Lights out.

  TOM

  Does it have a name?

  CAT

  Angels.

  TOM

  Where is it?

  CAT

  Behind. Other side.

  TOM

  The other side of…the door?

  Cat NODS agreement. Tom continues, his voice gentle.

  TOM

  I am going to ask you something else now. You will not be afraid. All the fear is gone.

  (beat)

  Cat, who are the darklords?

  CAT

  Owners. Masters.

  TOM

  What do they own?

  CAT

  Earths.

  Behind him, Cameron ROLLS HIS EYES in scorn. Trager’s face is impassive, a mask. Only Tom picks up on the plural.

  TOM

  Earths…more than one Earth?

  CAT

  Not all. Some. Many.

  TOM

  And your world, from…

  CAT

  Darklords came. Long ago. Lights out. Mommy saying. No cars, no guns, no air-o-planes. Ashes, ashes. All fall down.

  TOM

  All fall down…

  CAT

  Cities. Soldier men. All fall down. Lights out. Long ago.

  TOM

  How long ago? How many years?

  CAT

  Before Cat.

  TOM

  Cat, where did the darklords come from?

  (nothing)

  From another country?

  (no reply)

  Another planet? Did the
y come in ships? Where?

  CAT

  The doors.

  Silence. Trager leans forward.

  TRAGER

  Ask her about the weapon.

  TOM

  Cat, the hand cannon…you took that from your owner.

  CAT

  (vehement)

  His owner. Owning Thane.

  TOM

  Thane. Thane was a…a manhound?

  CAT

  (echoing)

  Let her live, saying. Give to me, saying. Served you well, saying. Little animal, wanting her, saying.

  TOM

  You were given to Thane…

  CAT

  (vehement denial)