Pi Page #8

DISSOLVE TO:

PAN ACROSS NEW EUCLID

We start on the stock ticker and pull out to reveal a leaner,

meaner and more exciting machine.

MAX (V.O.)

Friday, September

fifth. Seven twelve. It's

fair to say, I'm stepping out onto a

limb. But I'm on the edge and

that's where it happens.

He holds two wires apart from each other as he contemplates

what will connect them.

EXT. ELECTRONIC MEGADUMP - DAY

Max wanders helplessly through the dump. There's nothing but

junk and more junk.

EXT. PUBLIC PAY PHONE - DAY

Max eyes Marcy Dawson's business card, suspiciously He dials

the number. A man answers on the other line.

MAN'S VOICE (OS.)

Three, eight, two.

MAX:

Marcy Dawson.

MAN'S VOICE (O.S.)

Who's calling?

MAX:

Max Cohen.

MAN'S VOICE (O.S.)

Hold on.

Max is put on hold. He notices a man in a business suit

watching him. Max turns away.

MARCY DAWSON:

Mr. Cohen? I'm so

Happy...

MAX:

Look what do you want for the chip?

MARCY DAWSON:

You tech guys. I think you

know what we want.

MAX:

No, I don't.

MARCY DAWSON:

C'mon, Mr. Cohen. We can work

together We can both profit

from this information. We both

need each other to get it, so why

not work with us?

MAX:

I don't know if I'll find

anything useful.

MARCY DAWSON:

We're willing to take the risk.

MAX:

Okay. First, I want you

to call off the surveillance.

MARCY DAWSON:

(Beat)

Done. Anything else?

MAX:

Yeah, I'm a very private

person. Knock on my door and

leave the suitcase outside.

I don't want to talk to Anyone.

MARCY DAWSON:

How do I know you're home?

MAX:

I'll knock back.

MARCY DAWSON:

Fair enough.

INT. COFFEE SHOP - DAY

Max sits at the counter. The POST headline in front of him

reads MARKET DOOMED. PRESIDENT IN PANIC, WORLD LEADERS MEET.

Max flips to the stock quotes. He can't believe how far things

have dovetailed. He shakes his head in disbelief when an

envelope appears in front of him. It belongs to Lenny Meyer.

LENNY MEYER:

The Torah.

MAX:

What is it?

LENNY MEYER:

In Hebrew characters and numbers.

MAX:

No, what is it? The two

hundred and sixteen digits.

LENNY MEYER:

I don't know.

(Beat)

If you get it, maybe

we can figure it out.

(Changing subject)

Can you really find it?

MAX:

If the number's in there,

I'll find it.

EXT. MAX'S APARTMENT - DUSK

Max marches into his foyer when he's suddenly ambushed by

Devi's boyfriend, Farrouhk. Farrouhk is a little guy with a

big sadistic smile.

He grabs Max by the collar and slams him against the wall. His

fist butts up against Max's chin.

FARROUHK:

There you go, dork.

Been thinking about my

girlfriend. Haven't you?

MAX:

Wha...

FARROUHK:

You want to f*** her, don't you?

MAX:

No, no..

FARROUHK:

You calling my girlfriend

ugly!? Why don't you want

to f*** her? You think she's

ugly?

MAX:

No, no, I just. It's that

she's your girl...

FARROUHK:

So you do want to

f*** her. You think about

f***ing her in the mouth,

don't you?

MAX:

No, no, sir, please. I've

never touched Devi...I

never will.

FARROUHK:

Give the f***ing

genius a Mars bar. Stay away,

or I'll slice off your balls.

Farrouhk tosses Max against the wall. Max whimpers off to his

apartment. Farrouhk has enjoyed this and to end his game be

gives Max a small slap on the butt.

INSIDE HIS APARTMENT Max bolts the front door.

At his desk he rips open the envelope Lenny Meyer gave him. He

pulls out a BLACK DISK and eyes it expectantly.

Next door, he hears Farrouhk and Devi talking.

FARROUHK (O.S.)

Damn dork.

DEVI (O.S.)

He's just a bit unique.

FARROUHK(0.S.)

Unique?! Unique?! He's a dork!

Then, Max carefully slips the DISK into Euclid's drive. Hebrew

characters pop onto Euclid's screen. Max pounds in several

strings of code lightning fast.

The Hebrew letters suddenly switch to their numerical

counterparts. Max toggles between Hebrew and numbers a few

times—impressed.

Max nods. Then there's a knock at the door.

MAX:

(To himself)

Okay.

Max peeks through the peephole. Two well-dressed large men,

BRAD and ABE THE BABE, wait for the signal. MAX knocks and the

suits leave.

Then Max shyly opens up his front door and quickly grabs the

black attaché case in front of his door

Donning a surgical mask and latex gloves, Max opens the black

attaché case. Sitting in foam is a tiny but beautiful chip.

Max studies it with awe.

MAX (V.O.)

Friday, September

fifth? Lots of work to be

done. But I'm close, so

close. Today is the day Might

have cost me my soul, but

down the line I'll work it

out. Just keep them in the

dark, let them beg. A damn

Ming Mecca chip. It's like

giving a desperate junkie a

syringe filled with junk.

Defense uses them to nun

nuclear sub reactors. Me? I'm

going to dissect the market.

Max carefully carries the chip over to the new leaner Euclid.

He welds it into Euclid's waiting wires.

MAX:

Happy birthday, Euclid.

Then he lifts his hand to slap the RETURN button, but a sudden

wave of fear stops him.

He gets up and grabs a Ginseng soda from the fridge He drops

eight pills in the can. He calmly takes a sip from the soda

and places it on the counter.

Max can hear Devi and Farrouhk starting to make love. Their

gentle sounds

drift through the wall.

MAX (V.O.)

Eighteen thirty. Press return...

Max darts over and smacks

the RETURN. Moments later we

see what Max sees

ON THE SCREEN is a long string of zeros.

At the bottom of the screen Euclid's cursor blinks, waiting

for instructions.

He smacks RETURN again Max gets the same empty result.

Euclid's cursor blinks, waiting. Max starts to laugh. He

laughs and laughs and laughs.

MAX:

Oh God. Damn religious

freaks.

(Sarcastic)

The holy Torah...

But then he notices his thumb twitching. He rubs his scar.

MAX:

Ah God...

His neighbor's love sounds start to get rough. They're having

fun.

Max almost throws up.

THE BATHROOM:

Max dry heaves in the sink. Then he forces himself to stand in

front of the mirror.

MAX:

Too much...too soon.

He grabs the gun and tries to roll up his sleeve. He can't get

it to roll up. Suddenly he's overwhelmed by pain. He quickly

rips his shirt and fires the gun into his arm.

Nothing happens. He checks the barrel—its empty

MAX:

Ohh...

He grabs a bottle of medicine but knocks them an into the

sink.

He cuts his finger as be grabs one of the broken bottles. He

loads the gun and fires the medicine into his arm. A wave of

pain and nausea floods in. He grabs another bottle and fires

it into his arm. Then he fires another and another.

Frustrated he collapses into the mirror.

MAX:

Stop, please, stop.

Slightly sobbing he examines his scalp pulling his hair apart.

He sees something.

MAX:

What the?

So he takes out a scissors and starts removing some hair.

Meanwhile his neighbors' lovemaking gets more intense. Their

screams carry into Max's head.

Max finishes removing a patch of hair from the right side

of his head. He has uncovered a light scar on his head. He

examines it in the mirror.

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