Cosmopolis Page #6

Okay.

Why not, you paid for it, right?

Manufactured in Austria.

Nice.

Smart tool.

Scary smart.

Voice recognition.

That's right.

You, what, you speak and

it knows your voice?

That's right.

The mechanism doesn't activate unless

the voice print matches the stored data.

Only my voice matches.

You have to speak German

before it fires?

No, but the voice is

only half the operation.

You're saying there's a code as well.

Preprogrammed spoken code.

What is it?

Nancy Babich.

We are here.

But how come you're such

a stranger lately?

Hello, Anthony.

Long time.

Long time.

I need a haircut.

You look like what?

Get in here

so I can look at you

Never seen such ratty hair on a human.

I woke up this morning

and knew it was time.

You knew where to come.

Said to myself:

"I want a haircut".

Maybe you wanna eat something first.

I could eat something.

I have takeout in the fridge that

I nibble at it when I get the urge.

So, you married that woman?

That's right.

That her family has got like money

unbeknownst.

Never thought you'd get married so young, but...

what do I know?

I have chickpeas all mashed up and

eggplants with rice and nuts.

- Give me the eggplants.

- Yeah. Good.

You father did not tell

your mother until he had to.

He went fast once they found it.

He was diagnosed and then he went.

You were four years old.

Five.

Exactly.

And you?

You're keeping well?

You know me kid.

I could tell you I can't complain.

But I could definitely complain.

The thing is, I don't want to.

Let me thing what I have

that we could drink.

Water from the tap, I drink water now.

I have a bottle of liqueur that's been there don't ask how long.

I could drink some of that.

Because if your father himself walked in here

and I offered him tap water

oh God forbid, he would rip out my last hair.

Maybe we could ask my driver to come in

my driver is outside in the car.

Oh, we could give him the other eggplants.

I drove a checkered

cab. Big. Bouncy.

I drove nights. I was young.

What could they do to me?

Night is not so good if you have

a wife and child.

Besides, I can tell you, it was crazy enough

in the daytime.

I loved my cab.

I drove twelve hours non-stop.

I stopped only to pee.

A man is hit one day by another taxi.

Comes flying into my taxi.

I mean, he was flying in the air,

crashed against the windscreen.

Right there in my face.

Blood is everywhere.

I never left my garage without my Windex.

I am Acting Secretary of

External Affairs in a previous life.

I said to him. Get off from there.

I cannot drive with your body on my windscreen.

I ate at the wheel.

I kept my sandwiches in tinfoil.

I ate at the wheel also.

I could not afford to stop driving.

Where did you pee, Ibrahim?

I peed under the Manhattan Bridge.

This is where I peed exactly.

I peed in parks and alleys.

I peed in the pet cemetery once.

Night is better in some ways,

I am certain of it.

I was here, what?

Probably four hours a day.

Helping my father cut hair. Nights,

I drove my cab. I loved my cab.

I had a little fan that worked on battery,

because air conditioning

forget about it in that day and age.

And then, I had a drinking cup

with a magnet that I stuck on the dashboard.

I had my steering wheel upholstered, very nice, in zebra.

And my daughter, with her photograph on the visor.

I give this guy his first haircut.

He didn't want to sit in the car seat.

His father tried to jam him in there.

He was going "no, no, no, no!"

So I put him right where you're sitting now.

His father pinned him down.

I cut his father hair when he was a kid.

Yeah, I cut his hair.

Where is the chief of security in this situation?

I realized he's not with us.

We are alone.

I gave him the rest of the night off.

You have protection, right, in the car?

Protection?

Protection.

You know what that means?

I had a gun, but

I threw it away.

But why?

I didn't want to make plans.

I wasn't thinking ahead.

Didn't want to take precautions.

You know how that sounds?

How does it sound?

I thought you were some kind of big shot

that destroyed people in a blink of an eye.

But you sound pretty iffy to me.

This is Mike Packer's kid that had

a gun and threw it away?

What is that?

Yes, what is that?

Yeah. In this part of town

and you had a gun

There are steps you must

to take to save-guard yourself.

In this part of town

you cannot walk five meters after dark,

you'd be careless. They'd kill you straight away.

You'd be reasonable with them?

They'll take a little longer, tear out your entrails first.

What happened to your eye that got all twisted that way?

I can see. I can drive.

I passed their tests.

You were beaten and tortured.

An army coup.

By the secret police.

Or they thought they executed you.

Fired a shot to your face.

Left you for dead.

I loved my cab.

I gulped my food.

I drove twelve hours straight night after night.

Vacations? Forget about.

But what did I do for protection?

I need to leave.

How come?

I don't know how come.

That's how come.

But let me do the left side, at least.

So both sides are equal.

I'll come back.

Take my work for it.

I'll sit and you'll finish.

Ibrahim.

Tell me this.

Yes.

These stretched limousines that fill the streets.

I've been wondering.

Yes?

Where are they parked at night?

They need large tracts of space.

Out near the airports or somewhere in the Meadowlands.

Long Island.

New Jersey.

I will go to New Jersey.

The limo stays here.

Next block there would be an

underground garage. Limos only.

I would drop off your car, pick up my car

then drive home, through the stinking tunnel.

Early in the morning, you could see, right here

teams of men in white coveralls

they are washing limousines.

A marketplace of limos, rags flying.

Eric Michael Packer!

Nancy Babich.

What are you doing here?

That's not the question.

The question is yours to answer.

Why do you wanna kill me?

Now, that's not the question.

That's too easy to be the question.

I want to kill you because I want

to count for something in my whole life.

See how easy?

You're not a reflective man.

I live consciously in my head.

Give me a cigarette.

Give me a drink.

Do you recognize me?

I can't see you clearly.

Sit.

We'll talk.

Yes.

I'd like that.

Sit and talk.

I've had a long day.

Things.

People.

Time for a philosophical pause.

Some reflection.

Yes.

You're not familiar with that weapon.

I fired that weapon.

That's a serious weapon.

Whereas this...

I'm thinking of installing a shooting range

in my apartment.

Why not your office?

Line them up and shoot them.

You know the office, is that right?

You've been in the office.

Tell me who you think I am.

I don't know who are you.

Maybe if you'd tell me your name.

You wouldn't know my name.

I know names more than faces.

Tell me.

Benno Levin.

That's a phony name.

It's phony. It's fake.

It's fake, it isn't real.

But I think I recognize you now, you were

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