Face\Off Page #5

Color-coded elevators denote security status. ARCHER uses a

mag-card to enter the restricted "RED LEVEL" elevator.

INT. BULLPEN -- DAY

Efficient as a beehive, agents, cryptologists, support staff

buzz through their routines. ARCHER strides past -- drawing

assorted congratulatory nods and "thumbs up" signs -- but

no one breaks work-stride. He enters his ...

RECEPTION AREA:

Archer's team is there. Applauding. Proud. But Archer's

uneasy with plaudits.

ARCHER:

Much appreciated. Now let's

get back to work, okay?

He herds the disappointed agents out.

WANDA:

(to Buzz)

Is that stick ever gonna

fall out of his ass?

Archer shuts the door, then turns to his attractively-built

secretary -- KIM BREWSTER (25).

KIMBERLY:

(holds up champagne)

The CIA sent this over.

What should I do with it?

ARCHER:

Send it back and tell

them to stop wasting

the taxpayers' money.

(a beat)

And Miss Brewster --

KIMBERLY:

Yes, Commander?

ARCHER:

It's against the law to

smoke in a federal building.

He OPENS THE DRAWER, stomps out her cigarette, then exits

to his inner office. Kimberly sighs and turns to a CLERK.

KIMBERLY:

Three years -- and he still

calls me "Miss Brewster."

INT. ARCHER'S OFFICE -- DAY

MOVING past photos, newsclips, clues and totems of CASTOR --

a monument to his obsession -- we FIND ...

ARCHER on the computer. Like a guy who can't help but stare

at a train wreck, he scrolls through ...

CASTOR'S HOMICIDE VICTIMS FILE

Face after face -- some innocent, some not -- flash past.

Finally he stops at the image of a LITTLE BOY.

All smiles and ruddy cheeks. MATTHEW ARCHER'S a child with

all the time in the world.

Light floods in as TITO enters.

ARCHER:

How's Loomis?

TITO:

Apparently, fine. He's

coming into work. That's

the good news ...

ARCHER:

Go on.

TITO:

Castor's still alive --

(off Archer's reaction)

Technically. He's a turnip,

on total life-support ...

Tito pops a micro-disc into the desk-top.

TITO (cont'd)

... And I found this --

at his brother's flat ...

A HOLO-IMAGE appears -- a 3-D image of the DEVICE. Archer

sags -- he knows it's a bomb ... and a complex one.

Using a remote, Archer ENLARGES THE 3-D IMAGE. The "bomb" is

now 5'x5'x5' -- virtual reality without the helmet. We step

with Archer RIGHT INTO THE BOMB as he studies it.

TITO (cont'd)

Porcelain casing ... thermal

neutron cloak ... I didn't

recognize the payload.

ARCHER:

Some kind of designer toxin.

(moving into the core

then inspecting it)

Probably biological.

Definitely airborne.

Archer's eyes sharpen -- it sinks in.

ARCHER (cont'd)

"Worse than anything God

ever dumped on the Pharaohs."

Enlarging the IMAGE, Archer examines it even more closely.

ARCHER (cont'd)

Castor's sociopathic, but not

suicidal. He wouldn't handle

anything this unstable without ...

He traces a finger along the bomb's guts to a small

appendage on the globe. It's got a button.

ARCHER (cont'd)

-- Here. A fail-safe -- in

case the bomb goes critical

while being installed.

(a beat)

Find out how it works.

And call Lazarro -- tell

her I'm on my way up.

DISSOLVE TO:
INTERROGATION FOOTAGE

Pollux under the 3rd degree. Wired to a complex machine --

the interrogating Agents seem to have him on the run ...

INT. BRIEFING ROOM -- DAY

ARCHER, LAZARRO and various NSA OFFICIALS watch the monitor.

POLLUX:

(on screen)

-- That bomb was just a

crossword puzzle to me ...

a mental exercise. I

never built it ...

Weary, LAZARRO shuts down the monitor ... turns to Archer.

ARCHER:

He's lying.

LAZARRO:

Jon, he's hooked up to

a full-spectrum polygraph.

No one has ever beaten --

ARCHER:

I don't care -- he's

manipulating it. That

bomb has been built and

it's out there, somewhere.

LAZARRO:

What do you expect us to

do -- shut down the city,

evacuate two million people

on a hunch?

Archer looks from Lazarro to the other officials. He knows

it's hopeless -- and gets up to leave.

ARCHER:

It isn't a hunch and

Castor doesn't bluff.

It's going to happen ...

INT. CORRIDOR -- DAY

ARCHER stomps along, Tito at his heels.

TITO:

We can send in a plant

-- try to get Pollux to

spill the location.

ARCHER:

He'd see that a mile away.

(a beat)

The only person he'd talk

to about that bomb is his

brother. Unfortunately,

turnips can't talk.

Archer's mind races, there's got to be a way.

TITO:

I'll be damned. Loomis ...

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