Morning Star Page #2

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Webber is greeted by the dapper, middle-aged RICHARD DORNA.

WEBBER:

They couldn’t invest in a couple of

I.L. scanners to move the line faster?

DORNA:

Indoor plumbing still hasn’t caughton everywhere here.

Smiling, Dorna puts a hand on Webber’s shoulder, leads himon. They are met by an apple-cheeked young man. BEWLEY.

INT. FIAT -- DAY

The driver is the schlubby, slightly dishevelled FELTON.

Bewley sits beside him, looking a little nervous. Webberrides in back with Dorna. Out the window, medieval walls rise

above steep tenement streets.

DORNA:

I tell you Lizzie got into Vassar?

WEBBER:

How are you going to pay for that?

Rob a bank?

The Fiat slows. Traffic. Webber sees what’s going on: In thepiazza ahead, TOWNSPEOPLE are burning in effigy what lookslike some kind of praying mantis-like creature. They carrycandles. Women in black are wailing, hacking off their hair.

6.

WEBBER (CONT’D)

All this started again?

DORNA:

Two days now. Since the Xenos stuck

a toe over the line in Italy.

WEBBER:

Any time we exchange an angry lookacross the DMZ, everybody thinksit’s the end of the world.

DORNA:

Because it could be the end of the

world.

WEBBER:

Think they’d be used to it by now.

Dorna gives Webber a sardonic smile.

INT. A CAFE -- DAY

A news report on Secretary Voss’ speech plays on the TV overthe bar: the Eiffel Tower rises from what is now an alien

zone; all around it, strange, alien structures sprout from ablasted wasteland patrolled by SPIDER-LEGGED DRONES.

GENERAL SECRETARY VOSS (ON TV, O.S.)

...though a shroud fell over a stretchof our earth from the great city ofParis to the southern tip of what westill know as Germany, the human racestood united and strong...

The OWNER of the cafe makes the universal jack-off gesture atthe TV. He then notices the Fiat carrying Webber and theother men drive past. He gets on his phone...

GENERAL SECRETARY VOSS (CONT’D)

Now we must be strong in order toseek a true and lasting peace...

EXT. PALAZZO -- DAY

Dirty, half-clothed children play soccer. The Fiat parks infront of a flaking Palazzo undergoing restoration.

7.

INT. PALAZZO -- DAY

Stripped to the walls, holes in the roof. Webber walks aroundthe vast room, surveying. Bewley offers a thermos. Webbershakes his head. Bewley pours coffee for himself and Felton.

FELTON:

I didn’t dress for this. Supposedto be the f***ing Mediterranean.

They HEAR a car pull up outside. Dorna drags a chair to themiddle of the floor, then places another opposite.

FOOTSTEPS on the landing, then TWO UNDERCOVER ITALIAN POLICEenter with a third man between them who wears a BLACK HOOD.

They seat the prisoner in the chair, remove his hood,

revealing a young man, sweaty, pasty. Beyond fear,

despairing. Webber looks out the window. Another CAR pulls upoutside. Now they can get started.

WEBBER:

This isn’t about hope orbargaining. We’re past that. Thisis about redemption.

PRISONER:

I’ll let God judge me, not you.

WEBBER:

A Believer?

PRISONER:

It was a figure of speech.

Webber sits in the chair across from the man.

WEBBER:

How many dispatches did you get offbefore we caught you?

(gives prisoner time to

look at his shoes)

Three agents were killed because ofthose dispatches. It doesn’t matterthat you did it for love.

More FOOTSTEPS. A FEMALE ITALIAN AGENT comes in with a PRETTY

YOUNG WOMAN beside her, hands bound. The Prisoner looks at

the handcuffed young woman. Pain and guilt.

WEBBER (CONT’D)

This is who you did it for? This isthe great love of your life? ...

Have you ever seen her naked? Youhaven’t, have you?

8.

Felton produces a KNIFE. Bewley looks away.

PRISONER:

Please...

Webber nods. Felton begins to draw the blade across thegirl’s face. The prisoner shuts his eyes tightly.

WEBBER:

Open your eyes.

The Prisoner opens his eyes. Felton pushes the girl to herknees in front of him. A sliver of her face has been cut away

-revealing an alien face peering out from underneath.

Shimmering white skin. A black orb of an eye.

WEBBER (CONT’D)

She’s more advanced than the first

wave of infiltrators. We’ve come a

long way from the days when the bugscrawled inside corpses and used themlike puppets. Still, she’s just acrude imitation of a woman. Look at

her. Cloned female skin stretched over

an Insect from Outer Space. That’swhat you were f***ing.

PRISONER:

(to her, in tears)

I’m sorry.

WEBBER:

Maybe you can get past her looksbut do you know what she sees whenshe looks at you? Vermin. Somethingthat carries disease.

Webber nods. Felton starts cutting the female prisoner again.

As Felton’s knife parts the flesh of the woman’s arm, awhite, spidery TENDRIL erupts there, wriggling...

PRISONER:

Five! I sent off five dispatches.

Only the first one had real intel.

Webber nods. Felton stops. Webber and Dorna exchange looks.

The female agent leads the female prisoner away. Bewleylingers a moment, looking anxious, then he follows too. Dornaapproaches the prisoner in the chair. Webber looks out thewindow as a SILENCED SHOT is followed by a THUD.

WEBBER:

Give her a minute to restore before

we take her back out there.

9.

Webber looks over at the “female” alien being helped onto alove seat with tattered upholstery. Her skin is alreadyvisibly growing back. Emotionally, she gives nothing away.

FEMALE ALIEN:

Can I have a cigarette?

Bewley looks to Webber for guidance.

WEBBER:

It’s up to you.

Bewley gives her one. The alien looks at the flesh of her armvisibly sealing itself.

FEMALE ALIEN:

No matter what we do, humanityalways grows back. Like a fungus.

EXT. STREET -- DAY

The Italian Agents escort the female alien to their car...

PULLING BACK we see this from the POV of someone watchingthrough a car window.

INT. PALAZZO -- DAY

Felton sneaks a shot from a flask. Dorna grimly watchesWebber drape the dead prisoner in plastic.

EXT. STREET IN FRONT OF PALAZZO -- DAY

Nearing a waiting VAN, one of the Italians notes one of thesoccer-playing boys in the street ahead looking her way, thenquickly averting his eyes. Warning bells go off.

She puts her hand on her weapon as a BLUE CAR comes at themfrom the other end of the street.

GUNFIRE erupts from windows down the street. The officersshove their prisoner behind the cover of their vehicle...

INT. PALAZZO -- DAY

Webber and Dorna hit the window. Webber draws his weapon,

scanning. Sees street kids running from the gunfire... exceptfor that one Street Urchin who lingers.

Webber takes aim at him. But does not pull the trigger.

10.

EXT. PALAZZO -- DAY

One of the Italians looks dead. Two others wounded. The van

is backing up for them to hop in... but before that canhappen, the Street Urchin tosses a spherical metal OBJECT.

The object rolls under the agents’ van. DETONATES. There isno explosion, though, no smoke, no flame. The van justcrumples as if being crushed by an invisible fist.

The wounded female agent gropes for her gun as the femalealien rises, still bound, and starts running toward thatidling blue car, filled with wild hope... until a STRANGEWEAPON shoved out the passenger side of the car CUTS HER INHALF with a burst of plasma fire.

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