Morning Star Page #15

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As he comes closer, Bewley agonizingly works his lips, tryingto say something...

GAST:

I want this recorded.

71.

Marling takes out his mobile device, sets it down. Recording.

Webber looks at the device like it was death itself, then at

Bewley... who is starting to make audible sounds.

Webber leans in, ear against the clear plastic. Now he hears:

BEWLEY:

I have no words.

Webber can’t help but react. Like someone punched him in thegut. He sees Bewley’s swollen, gauze-wrapped hand reachingfor him, through the plastic veil. He wants to run away buthe takes Bewley’s hand. Hesitantly, gingerly. He can onlyhold on for a moment, though, before he pulls free andpractically runs out of the room.

Both Gast and Marling are startled by this uncharacteristicshow of emotion. They then turn back to Bewley as themonitoring equipment’s TONE signals the patient has died.

INT. TENEMENT APARTMENT “NEST” -- DAY

Webber wears protective gear as he pokes through the debrisof the “nest.” Marling trails him, similarly suited-up. BODYBAGS line one wall. Webber tries not to look.

He moves to the window. CITIZENS are gawking behind a policebarricade. He looks at their faces. Every kind of human,

young, old, male, female.

WEBBER:

A million? A billion? Ten billion?

What does it mean?

MARLING:

Sir?

Webber shakes his head. Forget it. Then he notices something-

a WHITE SUBSTANCE on the window sill.

MARLING (CONT’D)

We noticed that. It’s being

analyzed.

WEBBER:

It’s milk.

Webber looks around and finds a piece of BROKEN GLASS on thefloor nearby. It too is covered with dried milk on one side.

He carefully picks up the glass shard with a pair of tongs.

Scans it with ULTRA-VIOLET light.

A LONE FINGERPRINT shows up, plain as day.

72.

MARLING (O.S.)

Stephen Allen Kemp.

INT. HQ - WEBBER’S OFFICE -- DAY

Marling at his side, Webber scans a screen: Stephen AllenKemp’s personnel file scrolls. Not much there.

MARLING (O.S.)

His entire record’s been scrubbed.

No photo, nothing. But from what

we’ve been able to forensically

reconstruct, your hunch was right-

Kemp has a wife, married last May.

A French national, Adele Marie

Vigne. They have one child, Ann-

Louise. It seems they lived for a

time in DuLac but shortly after the

birth of the child, he took off.

WEBBER:

“Took off?”

MARLING:

Left the service. Disappeared.

Adele and little Anne-Louise, as

well. After Dulac, they evidently

lived for a time in that Marseilles

apartment but there’s nothing more

on any of them.

WEBBER:

(to himself, in wonder)

He left. He just walked away.

(to Marling)

The woman’s the key. Find her.

MARLING:

(slightly abashed)

Gast already put a unit on it.

WEBBER:

Gast is issuing directives now?

MARLING:

(more hesitant)

I assumed you’d talked.

Webber knows this is bad.

73.

GAST’S OFFICE -- MOMENTS LATER

Webber lets himself in. He immediately sees a DOSSIER open onGast’s desk. He looks in it, feels a chill down his spine ashe discovers it contains print-outs of frames fromsurveillance footage. His “date” with Mia. There they are,

having coffee together, walking in the street.

Webber keeps flipping through the photos. One is a close-upof his razor in Mia’s open medicine cabinet.

Gast enters with coffee. Discovering Webber, he smiles.

GAST:

Eberlin’s decided to shake thingsup a bit- he’s elevated me to CO incharge of this operation.

WEBBER:

(gestures with dossier)

And you thought this would be anamusing way for me to find out?

GAST:

I wanted to complete my vetting ofyoung Mia before I spoke to you. Iinterviewed her myself thisafternoon, discreetly, at the cafewhere she works.

Webber plays off alarm as indignation-

WEBBER:

What earth-shaking revelations didyou wheedle out of her?

GAST:

My intention is to take a veryclose second look at everyone inthe division. Dr. Schoenweiss has

informed me there was a mysteriousfire at the facility doing theblood testing.

WEBBER:

(genuinely surprised)

Sabotage?

GAST:

Someone is trying to helpMorningstar elude detection. It’spossible there’s more than one molein the division.

74.

WEBBER:

All the blood samples were

destroyed?

GAST:

Not all. Twenty-some possiblematches were put aside for furthertesting before the fire.

WEBBER:

(”relieved”)

That’s a bit of luck.

Gast takes the dossier from him, smiles at Mia’s photos.

GAST:

One detail from my interview withMiss Vandergroot does trouble me-

She told me you capped off yourlovely evening, the other night,

with fried chicken and waffles. In

what forsaken corner of Paris did

you find such an abomination?

Webber almost says “what?” Gast smirks and goes back to hispaper. Webber turns and walks out, quietly.

INT. A SMALL THEATER -- DAY

A comical monster stares at us - a crude and cartoonish mask

that Mia is holding in front of her face.

MIA:

(growly male voice)

I am the most fearsome monster in

the forest and I’m HUNGRY!

Her “fearsome” roar is greeted by gales of CHILDREN’SLAUGHTER. Mia stalks around the stage, growling and stompingher feet. Webber watches from the back along with a couple ofwounded veterans in wheelchairs who seem hardly conscious ofbeing there. Mia lowers her mask.

MIA (CONT’D)

Oh, I couldn’t fool you. You knowthere’s no such thing as monsters!

But even as she says this a “monster” (troupe members under amangy rug of a costume) rises up behind her. The kids try towarn her then eat it up as Mia shrieks and descends into theaudience. Webber watches, wonders who this person is.

75.

BACKSTAGE - LATER

Mia and her theater friends are gathered around a GIRL withdreadlocks who holds what looks like a CRYSTAL HEXAGON. She

lets it go. The crystal hovers, slowly spinning in the air,

casting a trippy light as it rotates. Mia’s pleasantly

surprised to see Webber coming toward her.

MIA:

It’s Xenian. She says it’s some

kind of portal they use to accesstheir collective consciousness.

WEBBER:

(unamused)

You’re a better actress than youlet on.

MIA:

Out there? That wasn’t a

performance. When I act like I’mhappy, it makes me happy. It justworks like that.

WEBBER:

Why did you lie for me?

(cutting off protest)

U.N.I. interviewed you today. Youlied in an official interview. You

made up a story about chicken andwaffles. Why?

MIA:

I thought I was helping you.

WEBBER:

Why?!

MIA:

(confused, frightened)

What kind of trouble am I in?

Webber roughly pulls Mia close and lifts her left eyelid toexamine her eye. Satisfied, he lets her go.

MIA (CONT’D)

What the f***?!! ...You thought Iwas an alien?

Mia smiles for the benefit of her friends who look over.

WEBBER:

How did you know to give me analibi for that particular night?

76.

MIA:

It was the only night he asked

about... I told him we slept

together.

WEBBER:

(almost titillated)

Why would you do that?

MIA:

I just didn’t think they had theright... Somebody has to stand upto these fascists.

WEBBER:

So you did it just on some halfassed,

left wing principle?

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