Morning Star Page #14

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The Infiltrator disguised as a Little Girl bolts as Webberarrives, slipping past him, making for the door.

Webber tears the insect off Bewley, breaking off the stingerthat remains lodged in Bewley’s throat. He lowers the dyingyoung man to the floor filled with very genuine horror.

HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS

The “Little Girl” runs for the stairs, only to freeze,

HEARING the French cops on their way up. She turns to run theother way... but Webber’s right there. He clamps his handover her mouth and pulls her back into the apartment she justfled.

TENEMENT APARTMENT (”NEST”) - CONTINUOUS

Webber shoves the Little Girl into the wall, motions for her

to be quiet. She’s wary but she nods...

HALLWAY - CONTINUOUS

...Webber closes the apartment door behind him and meets Gastand the surviving French cops at the stairs as they arrive.

WEBBER:

The short one slipped past us. He’sheaded toward the roof. I’m callingin back-up.

67.

Gast takes one moment to grimly regard the devastation in thehall then charges on, continuing up the stairs toward theroof, followed by the French cops. Soon as they’re gone,

Webber heads back down the hall, back to the “nest”

apartment.

TENEMENT APARTMENT “NEST” - CONTINUOUS

The Little Girl steps back from Webber as he returns. Hegrabs her by the scruff of the neck and pulls his gun.

WEBBER:

You know who I am?

She nods fearfully, starts to answer in the alien language...

WEBBER (CONT’D)

(in alien language)

In English!

LITTLE GIRL:

Yes! I know. Morningstar... Hedidn’t tell us who the target was.

He said we were eliminating atraitor.

WEBBER:

This was all a setup?

The Little Girl balks at answering. Webber presses his guninto her eye. The “child” looks terrified.

WEBBER (CONT’D)

He set you up too. There was no wayany of you were getting out alive.

(FIRES into wall next to

her ear)

Give me something and I’ll get youout of here.

LITTLE GIRL:

He knew you’d found out about thisbuilding- he lived here for awhile, last year. He said it wasperfect, you coming here, becausehe could watch it all from the

window of his old apartment.

WEBBER:

His old apartment? Point.

68.

Webber shoves her to the window. The Little Girl pointstoward an apartment on the other side of the courtyard. It’sshaded, impossible to tell if there’s anyone there or not.

WEBBER (CONT’D)

Take the back stairs. There’s no

one watching the alley now.

Webber lets the girl go. She nods and runs off. Webber hearsa GASPING sound. He turns. He’s startled to sees Bewley’sstill alive, trying to get up.

He rushes to Bewley but by the time he gets there, the youngman’s lost consciousness again. Webber’s left with a pair oftroubling thoughts: did Bewley witness his exchange with theInfiltrator and might he wake up?

Webber looks to his left. A tattered, bordello-looking redpillow lies on the floor, close at hand. He picks it up. Helooks down at Bewley, poised to place the pillow overBewley’s face and end all questions.

It takes three long seconds before he decides against it andangrily tosses the pillow away.

EXT. TENEMENT BUILDING -- DAY

The Little Girl comes bursting out the rear door, asdirected... and runs smack into a phalanx of FRENCH POLICE.

LITTLE GIRL:

Cochon!

They hit her with ten thousand rounds.

Webber watches this from the fire escape. Satisfied, he keepsclimbing. All the way up to the roof.

He makes his way across the steeply slanted, slate rooftopthat separates the two buildings and carefully lowers himselfonto the balcony of the apartment “Little Girl” pointed to.

He draws his weapon and lets himself in.

INT. DOPPLEGANGER’S APARTMENT -- CONTINUOUS

Keeping his gun at the ready, Webber enters cautiously,

scanning the dark interior. There’s no sign of hiscounterpart. It’s apparent the place hasn’t been actuallylived in for a while. Thick dust over everything. Webber’seye picks out a few oddly homey details. A tea cozy.

69.

He feels something underfoot. He bends down and picks it up-

a LITTLE GIRL'S TOY. A Cinderella tiara. Its presence seemsto bewilder him.

In the bedroom, a bare mattress. He searches the mostly emptydrawers of a dusty bureau. Stuck in the corner of one, hefinds a SELFIE, a half-nude woman curled up on the very bedin this room. There’s an arm around her but a jagged tear hasremoved the man from the picture.

Webber places the photo on the mattress. Looks at it, as ifhe were trying to picture the couple laying there.

He hears something. A very low CREAK. Turning, he sees thedoor of an old dresser behind him is just slightly ajar.

He aims his gun at the dresser and carefully pulls the dooropen... to discover that the dresser has no back and the wallbehind it has a huge hole in it.

DESERTED APARTMENT - CONTINUOUS

Bent low, Webber enters what looks like a stripped-to-thewalls

loft space, lit only by dusty light descending fromfilthy transoms. Strips of plastic wafting from exposedbeams. A SHADOW draws his attention. It takes Webber a moment

to realize it’s a man standing there.

The shadow FIRES. Webber ducks behind a beam and SHOOTS BACK.

Silence. Then-

WEBBER:

You have to know what you’re doingis insane. What do you think you’llaccomplish besides killing a bunchof people?

FIGURE (O.S.)

Just killing a bunch of people? Yousay that like it’s nothing.

Webber wants to ask a thousand questions. He picks one-

WEBBER:

But why...? You’d made a life foryourself. You had a woman... achild?

The shadows do not answer. Webber peers around the beam. Hemoves out, silently, gun raised, approaching where the shadowwas a moment ago... but when he gets there, he sees daylight,

a doorway hanging open. Webber rushes to the door.

70.

It opens onto a veranda above a busy street, giving him aview of the wide world and nothing.

INT. A HOSPITAL LAB -- DAY

Under a magnifying glass: A GHASTLY CREATURE, a thing fromnightmares.

FRENCH SCIENTIST (O.S.)

It appears to be a genetically-

modified variation of a known alien

species, Idora Cubensis.

Webber stands with Gast as a SCIENTIST examines the insect-

like specimen. More swarm in a nearby jar.

FRENCH SCIENTIST (CONT’D)

The pedical features an armed

propodeum which secretes a caustic,

alkaloid venom. In the larval

stage, they’re less toxic but athousand times more ravenous. A

release of even a few hundred

larvae could kill thousands.

GAST:

The war such an attack would

trigger would kill billions.

Webber feels a tug of some unfamiliar feeling. He looks up asMarling bursts into the room breathlessly.

MARLING:

Bewley’s conscious.

And now Webber feels an icy hand close around his heart.

ICU:

Bewley lies under a plastic canopy. Hideously conscious.

Webber, Marling and Gast enter. Webber tries to hang back butthe one functioning eye in Bewley’s swollen, distorted facelands on him. Webber’s compelled to go forward.

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