Untraceable Page #17

Suddenly, they ignite with an idea.

INT. TASK FORCE COMMAND CENTER -- MOMENTS LATER.

Marsh explodes into the room-

MARSH:

Morse Code! Who knows Morse Code?!

Everyone is momentarily frozen. She screams, red-faced, like

a madwoman-

MARSH (cont’d)

Who the f*** knows Morse Code!

INT. CYBER DIVISION HEADQUARTERS -- MINUTE LATER -- DAY.

Ray, the elderly security guard, is hurried down the corridor

by Wilks.

.

INT. TASK FORCE COMMAND CENTER -- LATER -- DAY.

Ray comes in, winded. Marsh rushes over to him-

MARSH:

Ray, you can do it?

GUARD:

U.S. Coast Guard retired, Miss

Marsh.

She leads quickly him to a chair.

MARSH:

Griffin is telling us something.

With his eyes. What’s he saying?!

Ray is absolutely horrified by the sight of Griffin. He

stares, slack-jawed. Marsh practically jams him into his

chair, then slams a legal pad and pen down in front of him.

MARSH (cont’d)

Hurry!

87.

The Viewer counter spins past 7,750,000. The ants reach

Griffin’s mouth. He presses his lips shut, marshaling his

will to continue his blinking.

Ray trembles, can’t focus or speak. Realizing it’s too much

for him, Marsh screen-captures Griffin’s eyes and magnifies

them hugely. They take up the whole screen now.

.

MARSH (cont’d)

Do it!

Everyone waits as Ray squints--

GUARD:

The right eye is dots...the left is

dashes.

He slowly writes out the dashes and dots across the piece of

paper.

Marsh hits a keyboard at her side and on a smaller side

monitor brings up the full image of Griffin. The Viewer

counter has gone berserk, flying past 9,000,000.

Suddenly, on the huge plasma screen, an ant appears, crawling

into one of Griffin’s eyes. At this level of magnification,

it is colossal.

Griffin tries to keep blinking, but soon another ant appears,

then another, digging in their pincers. The lid closes, but

they continue biting, chewing.

On the smaller monitor, Griffin, covered from head to toe,

flails in his chair, in his last, frantic death throes. The

counter flies toward 10,000,000.

The emoticon begins to strut across the bottom of the screen.

MARSH:

Turn it off!

(screaming)

TURN IT OFF!

The agents obey. One by one the monitors go black. No one

knows what to say or do. The silence is broken by the

vibration of Marsh’s Treo.

Marsh grabs it and is about to shut if off, when she notices

something chilling. She hits some buttons.

The screen reads: AWGTHTDTAOA...AWGTHTDTAOA...AWGTHTDTAOA

...AWGTHTDTAOA.... And, beneath it, the killer’s emoticon

moving back and forth.

88.

MARSH (cont’d)

It’s from...from him.

Everyone reacts with fear and bewilderment.

MARSH:

Are We Going To Have To Do This All

Over Again?

Silence.

Marsh walks to the door. She turns back to Ray.

MARSH (cont’d)

What was he trying to tell us?

The Guard turns his legal pad around and shows it to Marsh.

He has written:
I-C-I-D-E-S-U A pause, as people try to

understand.

MARSH (cont’d)

“Suicide.”

GUARD:

He was saying it again when....

Marsh nods, then exits. Box looks over at Brooks. Everyone

is speechless.

EXT. MOTEL -- NIGHT.

A dreary little motel by the highway. Not many cars in the

parking lot. In the distance, cars fly past on the highway.

INT. MOTEL ROOM -- SAME -- NIGHT.

Marsh sits on the bed, absolutely motionless. Outside we

hear the white noise of distant traffic. On the other bed,

her cat sits on the pillow, staring at her.

A KNOCK on the door. Marsh’s head turns slowly toward it.

She rises slowly. Walks to her dresser, where her weapon

sits. She picks it up.

MARSH:

Who is it?

BOX (O.C.)

Me.

Marsh’s eyes fall to her reflection in the dresser mirror.

She’s a mess. She sets down her weapon and walks to the

door. Opens it.

.

MARSH:

What do you-

89.

Marsh stares numbly as he eases her aside and walks right

past her. He carries a bag of take-out food.

BOX:

Get in the shower.

For a moment, her eyes flicker with defiance, then they go

dull again and she obediently drifts into the bathroom.

INT. MOTEL ROOM -- LATER -- NIGHT.

Dinner has been laid out on a blanket on the bed. Box sits

in a chair, watching bad television.

INT. BATHROOM -- MOMENTS LATER -- NIGHT.

The room is full of steam. A gentle knock. The door opens.

BOX (O.C.)

You okay?

(beat)

Jennifer?

Box enters, grabs a clean towel, and pulls aside the shower

curtain. Obscured by steam, Marsh sits huddled, holding

herself on the shower floor.

Box shuts off the water, pulls her to her feet, wraps her in

the towel, then pulls her into his arms. The dam breaks.

She weeps in his arms, her body convulsing. He leans back

against the door, holding her, letting her cry and cry.

INT. MOTEL ROOM -- LATER -- NIGHT.

Marsh, wearing boxers and a T-shirt, sits up, cross-legged,

with her back against the headboard, eating dinner. She is a

bit restored, but only a shadow of her former self.

Box stands at the open door, smoking a cigarette, blowing the

smoke outside.

.

BOX:

We found Griffin’s car parked on

the I-50 overpass. His skeleton

was in the trunk.

(beat)

The ants we traced to a research

lab at Marshall Junior College.

The thief knew his way around and

didn’t leave a print.

(beat)

Looks like Griffin was baited with

a phone call.

(MORE)

90.

BOX(cont'd)

But we can’t trace it because it

was made with a...a spoof card, I

guess it’s called?

MARSH:

Private investigators use them for

pretext calls. It’s really just a

phone card, costs about twenty

bucks an hour. It lets you program

any caller ID you want.

BOX:

It still doesn’t explain how he got

him to-

MARSH:

Spoof cards also let you change the

gender of your voice. It comes

with the service. He knew where

Griffin was vulnerable. He baited

him as an internet date.

BOX:

How’d he know anything about him?

How did he even get his phone

number?

.

MARSH:

The same way he got mine. And my

home address. The night Miller

died, we were trying to trace him,

and he routed us back to our own

network. He followed us in. A few

seconds later, I got a text

message.

She picks up her Treo and scrolls back.

MARSH (cont’d)

A bunch of random numbers.

She hands it to him. He looks at the field of random

numbers.

MARSH (cont’d)

Or so I thought.

(beat)

Turn it over.

Box does. In the middle of the field, the upsidedown numbers

spell out:
“Hello Hello Hello.”

BOX:

How’d he do it?

91.

MARSH:

Before Internal Ops purged him, he

had a few seconds to access my

personal devices. Griffin’s, too.

For weeks, he’s had access to every

one of our keystrokes.

A somber silence.

BOX:

Has he contacted you again?

MARSH:

He has no reason to. He wants me

off the case. I’m off the case.

Box flicks his cigarette and closes the door.

.

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