Morning Star Page #5

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DORNA’S STUDY

Webber rifles through Dorna’s desk. He’s just about to searchthe files on his computer when he notices he’s not alone:

Dorna’s 4-year-old son, JOSHUA, is standing in the doorway.

JOSHUA:

This is my daddy’s room.

WEBBER:

I know.

20.

JOSHUA:

He’s not coming back.

WEBBER:

I know.

JOSHUA:

I remember you. We went to the

ocean. You gave me a kite.

WEBBER:

I remember that.

(kneels in front of boy)

Your father loved you very much. Hetalked about you all the time. Howbrave you are. But the thing aboutbeing brave is you don’t have to showit all the time. Sometimes you feellike crying. Sometimes you feel likelocking yourself in a closet and cryfor days. Brave people do that too.

JOSHUA:

Now?

WEBBER:

(smiles warmly)

Whenever you want.

HALLWAY:

Webber stops in front of a framed photo. Dorna and his wife.

Caught in candid moments or smiling for the camera, they areobviously in love. Webber focuses on Dorna’s smile in onephoto where the dead man is spoon feeding his wife ice cream.

His eyes betray a painful longing. Maybe envy.

EXT. 37 RUE D’AMBOISELLE -- NIGHT

Ghetto-looking, no surveillance in evidence. Webber accessesa decrepit building via some stairs leading down.

INT. 37 RUE D’AMBOISELLE --- NIGHT

A DOG FIGHT in progress. A rough-looking crowd, mostly NorthAfrican immigrants gathered around the pit, laying money.

Webber enters a dark, junk-strewn gallery above. He's greetedby an INHUMAN VOICE speaking in the Alien language.

21.

OSCARSSON (O.S.)

(subtitled)

Welcome brethren, Morningstar.

Webber answers with an alien phrase of his own, startlinglyproducing inhuman sounds-

WEBBER:

(subtitled)

I come unhindered to this place.

Webber sits down next to the speaker of the alien words:

OSCARSSON, a professorial-looking white man, very out-ofplace

in these surroundings. He switches to English...

OSCARSSON:

Your inflection's getting better.

If you were human, it would beextraordinary.

Webber seems unamused by the compliment. Oscarsson halfwatches the dog fight and flips through a magazine.

OSCARSSON (CONT’D)

You can learn a lot here. About

humanity. The winners get rib-eye,

the losers are skinned and sold in

Little Tangier, labeled as goatshank. The lucky gamblers hit thetown with their winnings and getlaid. The totality of humanexperience can be understood aseconomies of meat.

WEBBER:

You’re here for research purposes?

Webber sees what Oscarsson’s reading. A gentleman’s magazine.

OSCARSSON:

Humans put themselves through themost remarkable contortions,

seeking some sort of connection.

(flips to a graphic page)

Flesh and spirit are differentthings for them - that’s the key tounderstanding the species.

Webber takes the porn away from Oscarsson.

WEBBER:

Who’s responsible for Salzburg?

22.

OSCARSSON:

I can’t imagine it happening

without Abraxas’ permission.

WEBBER:

Four hundred and thirty people!

OSCARSSON:

You should mingle a littlegratitude with your shock. Dornawas filing confidential reportsbehind your back. It's believed hewas onto you. Or getting close.

WEBBER:

If he was, I could have handled

him... and that fiasco in Salzburgcan’t possibly have been only abouteliminating Dorna.

OSCARSSON:

I don’t imagine so. It’s becominghard for me to tell, though,

exactly how in the dark I am. Thereare factions now. Factions, feuds.

We just have to trust Abraxas knowswhat she’s doing and we wind up onthe winning side.

WEBBER:

There won’t be a winning side. It’sjust going to go on and on.

A HOWL goes up. Winners cheering, losers cursing.

OSCARSSON:

Dorna was your friend, I know.

WEBBER:

(as if accused)

Bill Dorna was a productive source,

that’s all. Years of work down the

drain.

Webber watches the losing dog's corpse dragged from the ring.

WEBBER (CONT’D)

I’ve done enough. I’m finished...

We aren’t made to be here.

OSCARSSON:

And yet you’ll carry on. Becausethe Vale is your home, on thisworld or any other.

23.

WEBBER:

“Home.” We call it that but youhaven’t seen it, either - except inThe Dream.

OSCARSSON:

(produces a flask)

They’ll never forgive you for beingmade with human DNA. Even I -

genetically pure as I am - willalways be suspect, just for havingspent so much time on this planet.

Neither one of us will ever be

considered “of the body.” That’sthe truth of it.

WEBBER:

But we soldier on?

Webber takes the flask. Sips, winces. Hands it back.

EXT. WEBBER'S APARTMENT BUILDING -- NIGHT

A slight drizzle as Webber walks the dark lane to his gate.

His antennae go up- a car is coming up behind him at anunusually slow speed. Webber scans for routes of escape...

The car pulls alongside him. Its driver is Gast.

GAST:

If you don’t mind, shake off yourcoat before you get in- theupholstery.

Webber looks up and down the street as if he really has achoice about getting in the car. He decides he doesn’t.

INT. GAST’S CAR -- NIGHT

Webber watches Gast sidelong. Gast focuses on the road.

Webber keeps one hand near the handle of his door.

Webber faces forward as they pass a deserted sentry post andenter an ABANDONED AIRFIELD. Webber looks very nervous now.

Gast stops the car.

GAST:

This is you.

24.

EXT. ABANDONED AIRFIELD -- NIGHT

Webber exits the car. A vast field of asphalt with weedssprouting through cracks, an abandoned-looking barracks. Heexpects a shot to ring out any second... instead, thebarracks’ door opens. A mildly DISFIGURED MAN waves him in.

INT. BARRACKS -- NIGHT

Webber enters hesitantly to the sound of light classicalmusic. A John Housemanesque figure, a shawl over hisshoulders, thumbs a book, cozied up near a space heater.

EBERLIN:

Not very homey, I know - my rewardfor being such a high value target.

(motions for him to sit)

I’m sorry about Dorna. You werefriends, I know. What angers me isthe stupidity of this new violence.

The old status quo served bothsides nicely.

Webber throws a still wary look at the Disfigured Man - whonow starts serving tea.

WEBBER:

Do we know what Dorna was lookinginto in Salzburg?

EBERLIN:

His report detailed this.

WEBBER:

He didn’t share it with me.

EBERLIN:

Yes.

(a loaded beat as Webber

receives his cup of tea)

Dorna discovered there’s a mole in

the division. An infiltrator.

WEBBER:

(appropriately surprised)

A Xeno infiltrator imbedded in the

agency? Is that possible?

EBERLIN:

We never believed it was. We now

speculate they’ve developed amethod of creating nothing lessthan an imitation human being.

(MORE)

25.

EBERLIN (CONT'D)

A flawless copy, down to thegenetic level... milk? Wehypothesize this infiltrator wascreated from cells harvested from a

human child sometime in the

twenties.

Eberlin lays a a PHOTO in front of Webber. A captured videoframe: A SHADOWY FIGURE in a bleak industrial space.

EBERLIN (CONT’D)

The only known image of the mole,

according to Dorna. Taken from

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