Suspect Zero
     
                         
                              Written by

                               Zak Penn



                         Revisions - Billy Ray                     

                       Director's Shooting Script




                                                   November 30, 2001



    FADE IN:

    ...on a BLACK WAVE - vast, oceanic, and coming right at us.
    BEGIN TITLES.

    The wave is relentless, huge, menacing. We can't tell if this
    is daytime or night because it simply obscures everything -
    noisily. It sucks, it yawns, it roars.

    Then we realize... this massive wave of darkness is actually
    just a RUN-OFF of dirty black WATER alongside the edge of an
    Interstate. We PULL OUT OF IT now...

    ...to find concrete, and garbage, and weeds. END TITLES.

1   EXT. DITCH - OFF THE INTERSTATE - 4:30 A.M.                      1

    Amongst the refuse is a discarded MILK CARTON, resting on its
    back. The carton asks "Have You Seen Me?" above a photographed
    face that's been obscured by grime.

    Yellowing newspaper, old Coke cans, Twinkie wrappers... in
    that bed of untended weeds. A hollow Texas wind blows through
    it all. We stay with the carton...

    Then that hollow wind gains speed... and a deep RUMBLE grows
    in the distance, becoming a ROAR. The yellowed newspaper lifts
    off and whips past us.

    ...as an 18-WHEEL MACK TRUCK blows by, just a blur in the
    corner of our frame, doing 75 in the pre-dawn darkness.

    Then, the truck is gone, and the rush of air dissipates. The
    milk carton, the coke cans... they lie undisturbed.

    A LIGHT RAIN begins to fall... and some of the grime washes
    away from that milk carton, revealing a face. A child. "Have
    You Seen Me?" It's heartbreaking.
    TILT UP... to take in the vast flatness of Texas' I-35:
    concrete forever. In the distance, gray highway yields to
    black STORMCLOUDS gathering silently over endless prairie.

    A vertical vein of LIGHTNING streaks through one of them.

                                                     CUT TO:

    ...a spoon, stirring a cup of coffee.

                                                                 2.


2   INT. "THE ALL-AMERICAN DINER" - GAINESVILLE TEXAS - CONTINUING 2
    (4:30 A.M.)

    HAROLD SPECK sits: mid 40's, pleasant face. A family man.
    Reads "Rod and Reel" magazine. Has a SALESMAN'S CASE by his
    side. Around him is a TRUCK-STOP in twilight:

    Truckers at the counter, Elvis on the wall, a "Drink Bud!"
    mirror. The WORLD SERIES can be heard on a RADIO...

                         DOLLY (O.S.)
               Top that off for ya, Hon?

    That's DOLLY, a waitress, (50, been here too long.) Speck
    looks up, smiles thinly, "No." Dolly heads off. Speck returns
    to his article, underlining a particular passage.

    ...until a MAN seats himself, suddenly, in the seat opposite
    Speck's. Speck reacts, startled.

                          SPECK
               Jesus...

    The MAN's name is O'RYAN. We only see PIECES of him: his eyes,
    his hands, a stain on his parka...

                         O'RYAN
               What's in the case?

                          SPECK
               I'm sorry?

                         O'RYAN
               You're always lugging that case around.
               I'm curious.

    Speck looks around: there are plenty of empty tables in here.
    So why is this guy bothering me???

                         O'RYAN (CONT'D)
               What do you sell?

                         SPECK
               I'm... in restaurant supplies. I didn't
               get your name?

                         O'RYAN
               Must travel a lot, huh?

    Speck is looking for Dolly, a Manager, anyone...

                         O'RYAN (CONT'D)
               Whole country, or just hereabouts?

                                                           3.


                     SPECK
           I don't mean to be rude but--

                     O'RYAN
           How's your wife feel about it?

That spun things a bit. Speck pauses.

                     SPECK
           What?

                     O'RYAN
           She must get lonely, with you gone all
           the time. Does she?

                     SPECK
           Look, I...

                     O'RYAN
           Do you get lonely?

Speck's so thrown now he can't answer.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Ya miss fucking her, Harold?

                     SPECK
           Listen, I don't know who you are but you
           can't--

O'Ryan silences him... by holding up a piece of paper. On it
is a DRAWING. The image faces away from us. But Speck can see
it in rich detail. And his eyes go wide.

We catch GLIMPSES: The color of flesh. A body-part. Looks like
a rendering of a young, naked WOMAN.

And, just like that, Speck finds himself STARING. Glued.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Did it myself. It's sort of a hobby.
               (no reply)
           I've got more. Would you like to see
           them?

O'Ryan lowers it and slides a SECOND DRAWING over... Speck is
speechless, transfixed. Can't look away.

                      O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Tell me: those jokes about the traveling
           salesman and the farmer's daughter - are
           they true?
                      (MORE)

                                                            4.


                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
               (Speck remains silent)
           Here. This one's my favorite.

O'Ryan slides over DRAWING #3. Again, we don't get to see it.
And we still haven't seen all of O'Ryan's face.

But we can see Speck, and his reaction. Utter horror. In fact
he recoils so violently that his coffee spills.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Really says it all, wouldn't you agree?

                     SPECK
           You're a... You're sick.

                     O'RYAN
           That's a matter of opinion.

                     SPECK
           You're sick!

He rises, leaving the drawings behind. We STAY WITH HIM as he
crosses the diner - deeply unsettled. He reaches the Manager,
(MEL, balding, 50, in no mood) at the register.

                      MEL
           Mmm-hmm?

                     SPECK
           I'm having a problem - with another
           customer. I'd like you to ask him to
           leave, please.

                     MEL
           What kind of problem?

                      SPECK
           He's--

He turns, to point out O'Ryan.

...but the booth, suddenly, is empty. The guy has simply
disappeared, taking those drawings with him.

Speck tightens. Mel eyes him, annoyed.

                                                  CUT TO:

                                                                 5.


3   EXT. ALL-AMERICAN DINER - PARKING LOT - MOMENTS LATER             3

    Speck hurries out to his Buick, checking over his shoulder
    repeatedly. Gets to the car, fumbles with his keys. They fall
    to the asphalt. He grabs them, opens the door.

                                                       CUT TO:

4   INT. SPECK'S CAR - DRIVING - MOMENTS LATER                        4

    Speck guns the Buick. Interstate 35 flies by. The farther he
    gets away from that Diner, the happier he'll be.

    ...until a strange SOUND gets his attention: it's WIND, as if
    whistling through a ghost town. Hollow, varied - building then
    falling off again. Wind.

    Trouble is, the windows in this Buick are up.

    Yet there it is again: a thin, hollow GHOST-TOWN WIND,
    whistling over his shoulder. He's heard it before - in every
    Western he ever watched as a kid.

    But this wind is coming from his back-seat.

    The blood drains right out of Speck's face. Doesn't know if he
    should jam on the brakes or drive faster.

    He looks in his rear-view, catches a glimpse of a LATEX GLOVE
    snapping onto a hand. Dear God: O'Ryan is back there, making
    that odd Ghost-Town wind sound. Whistling.

                          SPECK
                    (sheer terror)
               What-do-you-want?! What-do-you-want-with-
               me?!

    No reply. Instead, another gift appears from the back: a
    FOURTH DRAWING, tossed from the darkness into Speck's lap.

    He looks down, registers the image... and SHRIEKS.

                         O'RYAN (O.S.)
               There's a rest stop, next off-ramp. Pull
               into it.

                         SPECK
               I have some money. It's not a lot but--

                         O'RYAN
               Nobody wants your money, Harold. Just
               pull in.

                                                                 6.


                         SPECK
               Why?!

    O'Ryan rises into frame now, like Nosferatu...

                         O'RYAN
               Because I don't wanna do this at 70 miles
               an hour. It could be dangerous.

    Speck finds the off-ramp. His breaths are shallow now.

                         SPECK
               Please, Mister - what do you want from
               me?

    O'Ryan's face: a knowing grin fans across it...

                                                      CUT TO:

    ...the face of VIRGIL RAY STARKEY, on a bulletin board.

5   INT. F.B.I. RESIDENT AGENCY - WICHITA FALLS - MORNING (SAME       5
    DAY)

    We're looking at the F.B.I.'s "Ten Most-Wanted List." Starkey
    is #7 on it. He's 40, white. His crime are listed as rape,
    murder, kidnapping.

    THOMAS MACKELWAY stares at Starkey's image. At the eyes...

    Mackelway is 34, bred for success - bred for stardom in fact,
    a whiz at everything he's ever attempted.

    So what the hell is he doing in Wichita Falls, Texas...?

    EIGHT AGENTS, in cubicles, with a ring of outer offices. Quiet
    phones, lousy take-out options, hardly a dream gig.

                         CHARLTON (O.S.)
               Got a spot set up for you, Tom.

    That's RICK CHARLTON: late 40's, thinning hair, friendly.
    Charlton heads around a corner. Mackelway follows.

                         CHARLTON (CONT'D)
               Ms. Potter's the nice girl you met at the
               desk. She puts a package together for all
               the new agents, things to know about the
               area, help with finding apartments and
               such. This one's yours:

    Charlton stops at a CUBICLE: Carpeted walls, formica desk. A
    corner of dull Hell. Mackelway eyes it, fighting dread.

                                                                 7.



                         CHARLTON (CONT'D)
               Not so different from Dallas, is it?

                         MACKELWAY
                   (fuck yes)
               No, Sir.

                         CHARLTON
               Good.

    An abandoned SPORTS PAGE tells us about that World Series, so
    we must be mid-October. Charlton heads out. Mackelway throws a
    briefcase on to the desk, setting up his world:

    A framed picture of himself and his BROTHER, ages 10 and 15,
    on a childhood camping trip. Address book, coffee-warmer,
    calendar, a baseball covered with autographs.

    He opens up a drawer, and casually tosses two bottles of
    BUFFERIN into the back of it.

    ...but first grabs four tablets from one of the bottles,
    and throws them down his throat, as:

                         GRIEVES (O.S.)
               Ya like Frito Pies?

    Mackelway turns. BILL GRIEVES stands here, holding a white
    grease-stained paper-bag. Grieves is Mackelway's age, not
    quite as ambitious. But solid, decent.

                         MACKELWAY
               I dunno. What are they?

    Grieves pulls out a greasy concoction that's wrapped up like a
    semi-burrito. Pure Texas. Tosses it to Mackelway:

                         GRIEVES
               Welcome to the minors.

    Grieves passes by with a faint smile, handing out lunch to a
    few other agents. Mackelway eyes the still-wrapped Frito Pie.
    God, get me outta here...

                                                      CUT TO:

6   INT. WICHITA FALLS F.B.I. OFFICE - LATER                          6

    A BRIEF MONTAGE: Mackelway, in his cubicle, watching as THOSE
    OTHER AGENTS take calls, strap on guns, head out on
    assignment. Men in motion.

                                                                 8.


    But Mackelway's land-locked, writing up an Auto-Theft report.
    It's drudgery, but he's meticulous about it, deleting the word
    "beige" and replacing it with "tan."

    His head is throbbing - not an unusual circumstance for him.
    But after lingering for a half-second on that "Most-Wanted
    List" again? Starkey? It's a wound...

7   INT. F.B.I. OFFICE - KITCHENETTE - MOMENTS LATER                  7

    Mackelway struggles with a COFFEE MACHINE that's unfamiliar to
    him. Filter, water, grounds, etc.

                         KATIE (O.S.)
               Here. Lemme do that.

    He turns. This is KATIE POTTER. She's 25, friendly, under-
    challenged by her job. Been here two years. In two seconds
    she's got the thing percolating. Of course.

                         KATIE (CONT'D)
               It takes some experience.

    He shrugs, not feeling too smooth.

                         KATIE (CONT'D)
               You're Mackelway, right?

                          MACKELWAY
               Mmm-hmm.

                         KATIE
               Fax came in for you. It's the room next
               door.

                         MACKELWAY
               Oh. Thanks.

    He rises, heads for the "fax room"...

8   INT. "FAX ROOM" - CONTINUING                                      8

    A former closet, converted into useful space. FIVE FAX
    MACHINES sit on stands, sharing a surge protector. One fax
    machine is printing. Mackelway approaches it.

    Six pieces of paper await him. The first is a TOP-SHEET,
    written by hand: "Attention: Agent Thomas Mackelway, FBI
    Resident Agency - Wichita Falls." No sender named.

    He looks beneath the top sheet - at Page One of the fax.

                                                                 9.


    A young BOY stares back at him, his face photostatically
    copied. Across the top, also-handwritten: "HAVE YOU SEEN ME?"
    At the bottom of the sheet, typed, we read:

    "Jason Corey, Age 14. Ht. 5'1", Wt. 130, Eyes Brn, Hair Brn.
    Last Seen: Riverside, Ca. Date of Disappearance: 10-16-99."

    Mackelway eyes the face, then the vitals. No idea why this was
    sent to him. Then he looks at Page Two.

    A young WOMAN stares back at him this time. Another faxed
    photo. Another "HAVE YOU SEEN ME?" scrawled across the top of
    it. And, at the bottom of the sheet:

    "Anna Casitas, Age 22. Ht. 5'6", Wt. 125, Eyes Brn, Hair Blk.
    Last Seen: Macon, Ga. Date of Disappearance: 5-6-00."

    The other three faxes are more of the same: Pictures and
    vitals. Faces. Facts. "HAVE YOU SEEN ME?"

    He looks at the bottom of the transmissions, finds the fax
    number of the sender. Dials it. All he hears back is the loud
    grainy shriek of a dedicated fax line.

    He eyes the faxes again. It's not alarming, but it's odd. Then
    Charlton emerges from his office, shouting:

                         CHARLTON
               Mackelway! You gonna sit on your ass all
               day, or do you wanna do something?

    Mackelway's out of this room in an instant.

                                                       CUT TO:

9   EXT. REST STOP - OFF THE INTERSTATE - DAY                         9

    Your standard roadside rest-stop: a parking lot with weeds
    poking through it and bathrooms you wouldn't go near. Those
    STORMCLOUDS we saw earlier are CLOSER now...

    POLICE CARS and HIGHWAY PATROL MOTORCYCLES fill this site.
    Charlton's FBI SEDAN pulls up. He and Mackelway get out.

    Two men approach: SHERIFF HARRY DYLAN, 50; and his deputy, BUD
    GRANGER, a gangly, baby-faced pup.

                         DYLAN
               Afternoon, Rick.
                   (Charlton nods)
               Looks like a robbery/homicide. Body's
               over that way.

                                                                 10.


     He gestures toward a ravine, where a TOW TRUCK is currently
     lowering a winch toward an abandoned vehicle.

     It is Harold Speck's Buick, nose-down in the ravine, teetering
     on a rock, like the balanced scales of justice.

                          MACKELWAY
                Ya run the plates?

     Charlton eyes Mackelway: "Easy, Hot-shot." Mackelway nods,
     reminding himself to remember his new rank. Dylan hands a
     preliminary report to Charlton.

                          DYLAN
                Fella's name is Harold Speck. Traveling
                salesman, from Abilene.

     Charlton eyes the report, then hands it to Mackelway. The
     hierarchy is being made clear. Very.

     Mackelway turns: this ravine runs right up against a SIGN that
     reads "Welcome to Texas" on one side and "You are now leaving
     Oklahoma" on the other.

     A vehicle, left right on the state-line. Odd...

     Then, a NOISE: that Tow-Truck WINCH, grinding badly. It's just
     about to yank the Buick out of this ditch.

                          MACKELWAY
                    (it blurts out)
                Hey!

     Before Charlton can react, Mackelway is running across this
     weed-choked lot, zeroing in on the TOW-TRUCK DRIVER.

10   EXT. ATOP THE RAVINE - CONTINUING                                 10

     The Driver, JUMBO, is operating the winch from a hydraulic
     handle on the back of the truck. Mackelway barrels in:

                          MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                What the fuck're you doing?!

                          JUMBO
                What's it look like, Bud?

     Mackelway reaches past Jumbo and hits the "Stop" button
     himself. The winch shuts down. Mackelway turns. A handful of
     LOCAL COPS stand atop this ravine, watching.

                                                                 11.


                           MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                You guys ever heard of evidentiary
                procedure?

     No one replies. Charlton approaches. Mackelway tightens,
     expecting a reprimand for overstepping his bounds.

                          MACKWELWAY (CONT'D)
                Sorry, Sir. There wasn't time.

     Charlton eyes the car. Then Mackelway.

                          CHARLTON
                Did the right thing, Agent Mackelway.
                Let's have a look.

     Charlton starts down the embankment. Mackelway doesn't,
     hanging back as he eyes the TRACKS this Buick made before
     tumbling. Something about them...

     He pulls a small CAMERA from his pocket, a Minox. Snaps off a
     few photos of the scene - the Buick, the ravine, those tracks,
     some FOOTPRINTS alongside them.

     Then he heads down the 15-foot embankment.

11   EXT. RAVINE - CONTINUING                                          11

     It's an ugly sight. Speck is inches from us, but his head is
     facing in the other direction, twisted unnaturally.

     Mackelway kneels beside the open window, pulls out some
     gloves, puts them on. He will not lean on the car, or even
     breathe on it, his caution around evidence obvious.

                          CHARLTON (O.S.)
                What's that?

     Charlton is opposite him, outside the passenger-side window,
     pointing at the DRAWING that O'Ryan had tossed onto Speck's
     lap. It lies face down on the seat.

     But something's been FINGER-PAINTED on the back of it: A
     RED CIRCLE, with a SLASH through it.

     Charlton begins to reach for it, when:

                          MACKELWAY
                    (to stop him)
                Sir?

     Charlton stops. Mackelway indicates: "Gloves."

                                                            12.


Charlton eyes him. It's irritating being corrected by a guy
you outrank, especially when he's right.

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Sort of a... stickler for procedure.

                     CHARLTON
           I imagine you would be.

That was a jab, but we don't know it yet. Charlton puts on his
gloves. Mackelway snaps off a few more shots with that Minox,
looking over the rest of this car, as:

                     GRANGER
               (aloud)
           Hey Jumbo. Toss me down a crowbar.

Granger's by the trunk. Before Mackelway can comment, Jumbo
has tossed a CROWBAR down from the top of the embankment: a
ten-pound hunk of iron, flying right at us.

Everybody ducks... as it CLANGS on the roof of the Buick.
Jumbo shrugs.

                     JUMBO
           You said toss it.

Mackelway shakes his head. "Shitkicker." Granger grabs the
crowbar. He's just about to open the trunk as:

                     MACKELWAY
           Hold it a second.

Granger pauses. Mackelway crosses to the trunk, and snaps off
a few shots with the Minox.

Something catches his eye, along the line of the TRUNK. He
kneels closer... An odd RESIDUE, crusty and hard, has formed a
thin line on top of the paint in a single post.

He takes out a VIAL, and scrapes some of the residue into it.
Then he sniffs it. Pauses...

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Smells like... clove.

He looks to Granger: now you can open the trunk.

                     DYLAN
               (re: Mackelway)
           Where the hell'd you find this guy?

                                                                 13.


                          CHARLTON
                Field Office. Dallas.

                          DYLAN
                    (impressed)
                Well now...
                    (Charlton shrugs)
                So what the hell's he doin' here?

     That one is left unanswered. Granger opens the trunk.
     Mackelway and the others look inside...

     There, they find restaurant supplies: napkin dispensers, salt-
     shakers, ketchup dispensers, a short-order wheel... And a
     fishing reel, tackle-box, a kid's bicycle helmet.

     Mackelway eyes it all, but his instincts tell him there's
     nothing significant here. So he returns to Speck's body.

     He leans in, lifts Speck's head a few inches away from the
     steering wheel. Gently.

     ...which is when we learn that Speck's EYELIDS have been torn
     off. It's gruesome, but Mackelway notes it calmly. Charlton
     leans in, gets a look.

                            CHARLTON
                Christ...

     Mackelway is expressionless. But something about these LIDLESS
     EYES draws him closer. He leans in, then BAM! We are rocketed
     into a series of dark, disjointed images:

12   EXT. A WHEAT FIELD - NIGHT                                        12

     Seems like we're standing in a field of TALL WHEAT; we can't
     say for sure. Everything's wet, wind-whipped.

     A MUZZLE FLASH... Someone just fired a gun. We slump hard to
     the ground. Then we look up.

     Mackelway stands over us, his face wet with rain. Then, just
     as quickly, those IMAGES VANISH and we are:

13   INT. UNIDENTIFIED MOTEL ROOM - GRAHAM TEXAS - DAY                 13

     We start on the EYES OF O'RYAN. Cross-Dissolve to a pad of
     paper, on a DESK. Scrawled on the pad is a WAVY LINE. He holds
     the tip of that pen upon it, for a few seconds, as if
     expecting to get some kind of pulse from it.

     Here come those IMAGES again: wet wheat, a muzzle flash,
     Mackelway. Choppy, disjointed, dark. Then they cease...

                                                                 14.


     ...and O'Ryan begins to DRAW, hurriedly. Only half of his face
     is visible to us, but we can tell that his concentration is
     total.

     His pen continues its furious work, a spasm of activity, as
     the SOUNDS of that vision bleed in: the gun-shot, the rain,
     the wind. They're all alive in O'Ryan's mind...

     And that DRAWING takes shape quickly: The wheat field, the
     gun, Mackelway.

     Then, the pen is set down. The drawing is complete.

     O'Ryan eyes it calmly, then checks his watch, jotting down the
     exact time and date on to the drawing. Then he slips it into a
     folder marked, "MACKELWAY."

                                                       CUT TO:

14   EXT. SPECK'S HOME - ABILENE, TEXAS - ESTAB. DAY                   14

     Picket fence, a swing on the porch, a lawn that needs mowing.
     A LINE OF PEOPLE file in, each bringing food... and tissues to
     cry into.

15   INT. SPECK'S HOME - LIVING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER (DAY)             15

     Shocked faces. Food on unmatching trays. Speck's wife - JAN,
     40 and frayed - sits in a chair, immobile. FRIENDS and FAMILY
     mill about, tending to her.

     KIDS hover. Two of them, a 4-YEAR-OLD BOY and an 8-YEAR-OLD
     GIRL, sniff back tears as people offer condolences.

     But the focus here is Jan - her grief. She's shaking...

                          O'RYAN (O.S.)
                Mrs. Speck?

     She looks up. O'Ryan crouches down, to eye-level, one of fifty
     faces in here. Jan half-nods.

                          O'RYAN (CONT'D)
                Just wanted to offer my condolences.
                    (takes her hand)
                I didn't know him well but... I think
                Harold was a much more complex man than
                people realized.

     Jan is so raw that anything about Speck touches her now.

                                                                  15.


                          JAN
                    (through tears)
                He was, wasn't he?

                          O'RYAN
                I'm very sorry for your loss, ma'am.

     She sniffs back a tear, thanks him with a smile. O'Ryan
     extends his hand to her. She takes it. He moves off.

     Beside her is a FRAMED PORTRAIT of Speck. We blow past it, and
     into the BLACK CREPE that is adorning the corner of the
     portrait's FRAME, and:

     BAM! We're rocketed back into a set of odd IMAGES again:

16   EXT. DARKNESS - UNIDENTIFIED TIME                                  16

     This time, everything before us is a blur of gray. We hear
     that wet wind. We hear our own heavy BREATHING, as if we were
     running somewhere... a VOICE, rising above the wind, seems to
     be saying:

                            (O.S.)
                Please...

     The sound echoes oddly, as if bouncing off a satellite
     somewhere, or a distance of time and space.

     Then the sound and the soupy grayness VANISH. This vision just
     ended. When we pop back out of it, we're TIGHT on Mackelway...

                                                        CUT TO:

17   INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - PARKING LOT - GAINESVILLE 10:30 P.M. 17

     Mackelway sits behind the wheel of his Chevy Yukon, parked
     between two big-rigs in the lot of the "All-American Diner."
     Sky looks black tonight. It rumbles...

     And that soupy gray vision we just heard and saw... It was all
     his.

     He pulls four more Bufferins out of a bottle in his pocket.
     Slugs them down. This headache is a constant. Then he gets out
     of the Yukon...

18   INT. ALL-AMERICAN DINER GAINESVILLE - CONTINUING                   18

     Mackelway enters, spots Charlton at a booth - sitting opposite
     a WOMAN, her back to us.

                                                               16.


19   INT. BOOTH - CONTINUING                                         19

     Mackelway approaches. The Woman doesn't turn.

                           CHARLTON
                Agent Mackelway. I was 'bout to introduce
                you, but I understand that won't be
                necessary.

     Mackelway doesn't get it... until the WOMAN turns. She is
     AGENT FRAN KULOK. 35, sharp, pretty when she allows herself to
     be. But with a guard that never comes down.

     Mackelway has some history with her, so he tries not to react.
     It takes some effort.

                          CHARLTON (CONT'D)
                Seems your former office has decided we
                might need some help on this one. So they
                sent out Agent Kulok.

                          FRAN
                Tom.

                          MACKELWAY
                Fran.

     That was terse, from both of them. Charlton takes note.

                          CHARLTON
                I guess we're skipping the tearful
                reunion. Have a seat, Tom.

     Mackelway sits opposite Fran. She folds her hands.

                          MACKELWAY
                How's things back at the ranch?

                          FRAN
                Movin' right along.

     That might've been a dig; Charlton can't tell.

                          CHARLTON
                Okay. Whadda we know?

                          FRAN
                Picked up a foot-print in the back seat
                of Speck's car, size-and-a-half bigger
                than Speck's.

     Just like that, Fran is piping up. Mackelway's unoffended.

                                                         17.


                       CHARLTON
           'Kay.

                     FRAN
           Wounds on Speck's throat indicate that he
           was strangled from behind... I think our
           guy waited for him in the backseat,
           sprung this on him once the car was
           moving.

She slides that FOURTH DRAWING to Charlton - giving us our
first look at it.

INSERT - THE DRAWING:

...a STEAMER-TRUNK, lined with plastic. Inside it are large
ZIPLOC BAGS. Inside the bags are BODY PARTS.

It's realized so accurately that it looks more like a
photograph. No wonder it horrified Speck so deeply.

THE BOOTH - RESUMING

Charlton eyes it without reaction.

                     FRAN (CONT'D)
           Lab picked up talcum traces on the edges
           of the paper, consistent with powdered
           gloves.
               (Charlton nods)
           So he gets the dropped in his lap, it
           spooks him, and the car winds up in the
           ravine.

Plausible enough, until:

                     MACKELWAY
           I don't think so, no. I think it was
           pushed.

                     FRAN
           How ya figure?

                     MACKELWAY
           The look of the tracks. Foot-prints near
           the embankment.

Without embellishing any further, he slides over the
PHOTOGRAPHS that he took this morning with the Minox: tire-
tracks, foot-prints. She eyes them.

Then she eyes Mackelway. Charlton notes the tension.

                                                           18.


                     CHARLTON
           Okay. So our guy likes to draw pictures
           of body parts and then spring 'em on
           people. What's that get us?
               (they're silent)
           That's what I thought.

There is plenty going unsaid here between Mackelway and Fran.
Charlton has no time for it.

                     CHARLTON
           Oh. 'Fore I forget. This came in for you:

He tosses a 9-by-12 ENVELOPE at Mackelway, who opens it. Six
sheets of paper slide out.

First one we see is the TOP SHEET of a FAX: same hand-written
inscription as the last one: "Attention, Agent Thomas
Mackelway, FBI Resident Agency, Wichita Falls."

Okay. This is twice now. He knows what will be under this top
sheet without even looking. But here's Page One:

A photo of a middle-aged African-American WOMAN. Across the
top of the photo, in hand-writing: "HAVE YOU SEEN ME?"

And typed on the bottom: "Tanya Green. Age 42. Ht. 5'9", Wt.
165, Eyes Blk, Hair Blk. Last Seen: Ames, Iowa. Date of
Disappearance: 3-22-97."

The following four sheets bring four more faces: men, women,
young, old. Four more HAVE YOU SEEN ME's.

But before he can think it through, he hears:

                     MANAGER (O.S.)
           It's about time.

They turn. That came from the NIGHT MANAGER: a humorless guy
named LES. He's looking at the front door, through which Dolly
has just entered. Pink cowboy boots tonight.

                     DOLLY
           Don't start in on me, Les. I couldn't get
           the pickup started and Harlan took the
           Dodge.

The Manager now throws a glance at the three feds in the
booth. Dolly stops short, taken aback.

                                                                 19.


                           DOLLY (CONT'D)
                 Holy Hell. My one shot at winding up on
                 "Cops" and I'm in my weekday boots!

                                                       CUT TO:

20    INT. DINER - BOOTH - LATER                                       20

      Dolly and Mel sit opposite Mackelway and Fran.

                           DOLLY
                 He was a quiet guy. Normal. Liked to read
                 fishing magazines. Not much of a tipper.
                 Is that a lousy thing to say?

                            FRAN
                 It's fine.

      Mel rolls his eyes.

                           MACKELWAY
                 What can you tell us about the other man?

                           MEL
                 Like I said, I never really saw him.
                 Harold came up, complainin' about the guy
                 - but time I turned, he was gone.

                    FRAN                      MACK
              (at Dolly:)               (at Dolly:)
          Could you de--            Did you get a--

     They each stop short, waiting for the other to yield. Finally
     Mackelway nods, "Go ahead."

                           FRAN
                 Can you describe him, Ma'am?

                           DOLLY
                 Sure. He was...

      Dolly pauses, her face scrunching a bit. Troubled...

                           DOLLY (CONT'D)
                 That's weird. Guy was in here better part
                 of an hour. We had a real pleasant
                 chat... But I can't remember a thing
                 about him. For the life of me. Couldn't
                 even tell you what color his eyes were.

      She shrugs apologetically.

                                                                 20.


                          FRAN
                Happen to see what he was driving?

                           DOLLY
                That one's easy. It's still in the lot.
                    (they perk up)
                The Bonneville out there with the awful
                paint job.

     She gestures to the lot, where an old PONTIAC BONNEVILLE sits,
     its paint stripped down to the primer. Bingo.

     Fran and Mackelway eye it, then one another.

                                                       CUT TO:

21   EXT. DINER - PARKING LOT - MOMENTS LATER                          21

     Fran and Mackelway emerge, heading for the Bonneville.

                          MACKELWAY
                We ought to work out some kind of
                protocol.

                            FRAN
                For what?

                          MACKELWAY
                Interviews. Witnesses. Looks pretty
                silly, our talking over one another.

                          FRAN
                Fine. I'll handle them from now on.

     He doesn't argue. They come to a stop at that Bonneville,
     stripped down to its primer. Time to work...

     Two agents, all instinct. We see them study things, details,
     their minds always churning... Mackelway pulls out his Minox,
     snaps off a few more shots. Then:

                          MACKELWAY
                Trunk's ajar.

     She turns. Sure enough, the Bonneville's trunk is ajar.
     Mackelway approaches, cautiously.

     He doesn't have gloves on him, so he uses his jacket pocket to
     protect against prints. He opens the trunk.

     First thing he sees is that SYMBOL again: a circle-with-a-
     slash-through-it... staring right at him.

                                                                 21.


     But this time, it's been carved into somebody's back.

     Mackelway stares. So does Fran. Before them lies a body,
     stripped to the waist: a chunky middle-aged MAN. Dead.

     Mackelway sighs. Things just got tougher...

                                                      CUT TO:

22   INT. ARCHER COUNTY MORGUE - DAY                                   22

     Harold Speck lies on a table. A BESPECTACLED CORONER examines
     him. Victim #2, BARNEY FULCHER, lies on another, his ample
     frame yet to be examined.

     The lights are out, but that Coroner wears a FLUORESCENT HALO,
     with a MICROPHONE pinned to his gown. He speaks into it with a
     quiet monotone: anatomical terms, etc.

     Mackelway and Fran are here... watching. Mackelway is
     particularly focused on Fulcher's face. His EYELIDS, we now
     see, have also been torn off. Hmmmm...

                          FRAN
                Why eyelids?

                          MACKELWAY
                Huh?

                          FRAN
                No other signs of torture here. Why take
                somebody's eyelids off?

                          MACKELWAY
                So they can't blink.

     She sighs, aloud: "I know that already, Asshole." Coroner
     keeps his head down, speaking into that microphone.

                          MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                It's a metaphor - to make certain the
                victim sees... or to make certain that we
                see something.
                    (she's silent)
                Or maybe it's just a fuck-you.

     Coroner continues his monotone narration... then crosses to
     the sink.

     That puts him out of earshot. So:

                                                                  22.


                          MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                    (to Fran, quietly)
                I'm sorry about Don.

                          FRAN
                    (thrown)
                Huh?

                          MACKELWAY
                You're not wearing your ring anymore.

     That was an attempt at kindness. She knows that. Still, she
     eyes her left hand, self-consciously, while Mackelway loses
     himself in those lidless eyes of Fulcher's...

     Then there's a KNOCK AT THE GLASS WINDOW BEHIND THEM.

     They turn. Charlton stands on the other side of a GLASS
     WINDOW, in a VIEWING ROOM adjacent to this Morgue. He presses
     a piece of paper up against the glass.

     On it, in typed bold letters at the top, we read: "MATCHES
     ONE OF ONE." Below that we see that Circle-with-the-slash-
     through-it.

     This is a FAX, which Charlton's just received. He points
     further down on the fax at what look like little squiggles at
     first, until we move in to discover it is a hand drawn street
     map.

     The ink bleeds a bit due to a poor fax transmission. Those
     scrawled lines take us to "The Hope House," in Oklahoma City.
     At the bottom a scribbled name, "David Dyson," and a contact
     number.

     Moving closer to the glass, Mackelway nods. He just got a
     break...

                                                        CUT TO:

23   INT. GRAMMAR-SCHOOL AUDITORIUM - BOULDER, CO. - DAY                23

     A CHOIR of FIRST AND SECOND GRADERS stands before a school
     assembly. The rest of Boulder Elementary's student body fills
     the seats in here, along with FACULTY MEMBERS.

     Everybody's weeping. A framed picture of Barney Fulcher sits
     on a stand, with candles around it:

                          SINGING FIRST AND SECOND GRADERS
                A-may-zing Grace, How sweet the sound--

                                                                 23.


     In the back, some of the TOWNSFOLK have gathered for this
     assembly, touched. O'Ryan stands among them. No expression on
     his face at all...

                                                     CUT TO:

24   EXT. "HOPE HOUSE" - OKLAHOMA CITY - NIGHT                         24

     A three-story Victorian residence in decay, next door to a
     CHURCH/SOUP KITCHEN in the middle of Oklahoma City's Skid Row.
     Rain falls. The street is still.

     Mackelway approaches this halfway-house. A few lights shine
     within, and the blue glow of a tv. Upstairs can be heard the
     strident, off-key voice of somebody singing.

25   EXT./INT. HOPE HOUSE - DOORWAY - CONTINUING                       25

     The front door is open. Through a SCREEN DOOR, Mackelway can
     see an old-fashioned "foyer." He knocks. Waits.

     Two sounds dominate: the buzz from that tv, and the strident
     singing, which we realize is an a capela version of "La Vida
     Loca" audible through an open bedroom window.

     But no one's coming to answer the door, and it's wide open
     anyway... So Mackelway enters.

                          MACKELWAY
                Hello?

26   INT. HOPE HOUSE - ENTRY - CONTINUING                              26

     TV room is to his left. There, a single 35 year-old DRUNK/
     TRANSIENT (we'll call him "PIPER") sits, watching "Behind the
     Music" on VH1. Tonight's subject? Leif Garret...

     Piper doesn't look up, or acknowledge Mackelway at all. Rather
     he INCREASES THE TV VOLUME to drown out the singing upstairs,
     which seems to be intentionally off-key.

     Torn couches, stained carpet, cracked window. Posters and
     fliers on the walls. 10 BEDROOMS upstairs.

                          DYSON (O.S.)
                Agent Mackelway?

     Mackelway turns. Descending a creaking stairway is DAVID
     DYSON: 50, lean, with a friendly smile.

                                                      CUT TO:

                                                               24.


27   INT. HOPE HOUSE - BASEMENT - MOMENTS LATER                      27

     We are staring at a BASEMENT WALL that has been covered, floor
     to ceiling, with 1,000 identical renderings of that same
     symbol: the CIRCLE-WITH-A-SLASH-THROUGH-IT.

     1,000 of them, in bright red paint, against pitch black
     enamel. Only a machine could have achieved this kind of
     repetition. Or a maniac.

     This basement is leaky, drafty, poorly lit. But it's also
     quiet: the sound of that awful singing upstairs has been MUTED
     by the basement door and the rain itself.

                          DYSON
                Benjamin spent hours down here.

     Mackelway takes it all in, every corner of this basement. He
     notes a row of standing GYM LOCKERS.

                          MACKELWAY
                    (re: lockers)
                Did he have access to those?

                          DYSON
                No. They're staff-only.

                          MACKELWAY
                Would you mind opening them for me?

     Dyson shrugs; he thinks it's a waste of time - but he'll do
     it. Mackelway follows him across the dank room.

                          MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                He was here... seven years you said?

                          DYSON
                Off and on. It's not uncommon for our
                guests to vanish for months at a time.

     Dyson works a combination lock on the first locker.

                          MACKELWAY
                I ran the name through our database, just
                to be sure. There's never been an Agent
                Benjamin O'Ryan in the Bureau.

                          DYSON
                No... but as elaborate fantasies go, it
                was one of my favorites.
                    (fondly)
                And he always seemed so sincere about it.

                                                          25.


Dyson half-chuckles; he always liked the guy... He throws open
the locker. Inside, nothing. Mackelway indicates the next
locker. Dyson works the combination.

                     MACKELWAY
           Is that what you called him? Benjamin?

                     DYSON
           It's what he wished to be called.

Locker #2 is opened - also empty. Only one locker left.

                     DYSON (CONT'D)
               (re: locker #3)
           That one's mine.

Mackelway shrugs: "Sorry, it has to be opened." Dyson sighs,
then works the combination. Mackelway waits.

Locker #3 is opened. Inside, nothing incriminating: a sweater,
some old junk, two trophies. Dyson eyes him: "See?" Mackelway
nods. Dyson shuts the locker.

Mackelway looks to that wall: 1,000 copies of the circle-with-
a-slash-through-it. No idea what they signify...

                     DYSON (CONT'D)
           He painted one of the walls in his room,
           too.

                     MACKELWAY
           Can I see it?

                     DYSON
           We've painted it over.

                     MACKELWAY
           Still, might be helpful.

Dyson heads for the stairs. They're wooden slats with more
basement-junk stored below: old sporting equipment, an old
vaccuum cleaner, broken chairs, rusted patio furniture.

Mackelway follows. They climb...

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Wait.

They stop. Something just caught Mackelway's eye, visible
beneath these stairs: a BOX, with a bucket of PAINT sticking
out of it...

                                                                26.


28   INT. BASEMENT - BENEATH THE STAIRS - CONTINUING                  28

     Mackelway climbs under the stairs, crouching down, pushing
     aside all of the aforementioned junk. He grabs the box.

     Sure enough, that bucket once held red paint - same color
     O'Ryan used to cover that wall. There's also a bucket of BLACK
     PAINT here. And some used brushes.

     Mackelway brings the box into the meager light. We get a look
     INSIDE IT now. So does Dyson.

     Inside, beneath the paint-buckets, we see a few TV GUIDES, a
     yo-yo, a football. Then a BOOK on TRIBAL RITUAL AND TRANCE.
     Mackelway grabs it, eyes it.

     He flips through a few pages - odd images: a TRIBESMAN with
     eyes rolling back in his head, strange rites, etc.

     Mackelway sets the book down. Then, amidst the other materials
     in this box, he spots a large folded MAP.

     He grabs it, begins to unfold it. We see that this map's been
     written on, in pen. Cities on it have been CIRCLED.

     But before we can get a good look at it, Mackelway spots
     something else, at the bottom of this box, a shocker:

     A photograph of himself.

     It takes him a second to realize what he's looking at. But
     there it is, a NEWSPAPER PHOTO, of Agent Thomas Mackelway.

     It is part of a FRONT-PAGE STORY, dated July of this year,
     concerning the trial and release...of Virgil Ray Starkey. #7
     on the F.B.I.'s Most-Wanted List...

     Dyson can't help but notice the picture of Mackelway.

     Mackelway stares. Suddenly we JUMP BACK IN TIME, NINE MONTHS,
     for a brief, choppy FLASHBACK.
                                                                      29
29   EXT. STREET - MATAMOROS - NIGHT - MACKELWAY'S FLASHBACK
     We're RUNNING, dashing between two buildings of chipped-adobe,
     hearing nothing but the sound of our own breathing and the
     thuds of our own heavy feet.

     This is Matamoros, Mexico, a shit-hole of a border town.
     Squalor and sin. We find a DRUNK MEXICAN TEEN. He nods: "This
     is the place," and sticks out his palm.

                                                              27.


30   INT. HOPE HOUSE - BASEMENT - RESUMING                          30

     Mackelway stares at that newspaper: Starkey - rapist,
     murderer, whose case was just thrown out of court - a stunning
     failure for all involved.

     ...as we RESUME MACKELWAY'S FLASHBACK - Matamoros again...

31   INT. "CLUB" - BACKSTAGE - RESUMING FLASHBACK                   31

     Bad-lighting, drunk patrons in a CIRCLE, and a DONKEY-SHOW
     taking place on a bare stage. Feels like we've stepped into
     some kind of evil carnival. It's dizzying.

     Among the crowd: Virgil Starkey, in an ugly drunken binge, the
     only guy in here who isn't cheering or laughing.

     Suddenly our GUN is pointed right at his head.

     Starkey freezes, caught. Some of the PATRONS around him find
     somewhere else to stand... But the show goes on.

32   INT. HOPE HOUSE - BASEMENT - RESUMING                          32

     That ARTICLE gives us more detail now, the reason Starkey's
     case was thrown out of court. It is this:

     The F.B.I. Agent on the case had made a mistake in
     "evidentiary procedure." Hence, Mackelway's picture.

     On his face, we GO BACK TO ANOTHER MEMORY: six months ago.

33   INT. COURTHOUSE - ANTEROOM - DAY - ANOTHER FLASHBACK           33

     Three months have passed since the arrest in Matamoros. Now
     Mackelway sits in this courthouse ANTEROOM, adjacent to a
     courtroom. Four sour PROSECUTORS surround him.

                          PROSECUTOR #1
                D'you understand how fucked we are?

                            MACKELWAY
                Yes, Sir.

                          PROSECUTOR #1
                Leaving a tissue sample in the care of a
                Mexican lab? Are you fucking kidding me?

                          MACKELWAY
                They assured me that they understood
                protocol.

                                                                 28.


                          PROSECUTOR #1
                Well guess what? They didn't. And this
                prick's gonna walk, ten murders or not.

     That registered.

34   INT. HOPE HOUSE - BASEMENT - RESUMING                             34

     Beneath this newspaper article are OTHER ARTICLES, all
     concerning Starkey: his crimes, his capture, all of it.

     Mackelway's memory just got stoked again:

35   INT. COURTHOUSE - HALLWAY - RESUMING FLASHBACK                    35

     Mackelway emerges from that courthouse anteroom, whipped.

     The hall's busy with MEDIA and other traffic. First face he
     sees is Fran, who sits on a bench, (wedding ring ON). Her eyes
     say how lousy she feels for him. It almost helps.

36   INT. COURTHOUSE BATHROOM - CONTINUING FLASHBACK                   36

     The door bursts open and Mackelway storms in. No need to look
     composed now; he's alone in here. He crosses to a paper-towel
     dispenser, SLUGS IT. Stares in the mirror.

     He's livid, embarrassed, frustrated - can barely look at his
     own reflection.

     Then he hears LAUGHTER, behind him. He turns.

     Out of the darkness of a badly-lit STALL, Virgil Starkey
     emerges, coming into view under a single light.

     Beside him is a GRIM COP, his chaperone. Starkey passes by
     Mackelway, almost snickering. Then he's gone. Mackelway shuts
     his eyes tight. His head is pounding. END FLASHBACK.

37   INT. HOPE HOUSE - BASEMENT - RESUMING                             37

     Mackelway stares... at a record of his deepest wound. But what
     the hell is it doing in the locker of a transient?

                                                       CUT TO:

38   INT. HOPE HOUSE - "O'RYAN'S ROOM" - MOMENTS LATER                 38

     Mackelway leans in, looking around. A bed. A small end-table.
     Bathroom. A window without bars.

                                                               29.


     From down the hall we hear the sound of a PHONE RINGING, then
     a FAX transmission. An old fax machine begins to whine
     noisily, creaking. It's a distraction.

     But Mackelway's focus is in this room. The walls have been newly
     painted. But there's a hint of barely-perceptible color
     beneath one of them. Rain from a LEAKY ROOF is causing some of
     the new paint to peel a bit.

     A BUCKET collects drops in the center of the room. The feeling
     in here is damp, mildewy, creepy. Mackelway remains in the
     doorway... then backs out.

                          DYSON (O.S.)
                I guess you fellas're never unaccounted
                for, huh?

39   INT. HALLWAY - CONTINUING                                       39

     Mackelway turns, a bit startled. Dyson is approaching, FAX in
     hand.

                            MACKELWAY
                Huh?

     Dyson extends six pages. On the TOP-SHEET, written by hand,
     are the words: "Agent Thomas Mackelway, C/O Mr. David Dyson,
     Hope House" with a street address.

     And under that top sheet? Five more pages.

     Mackelway sighs, takes them from Dyson. Sure enough, he's
     staring at five more faces, five more fact sheets. Five more
     HAVE YOU SEEN ME's.

     But how would anyone know to send them here?

                          DYSON
                Anything urgent?

                            MACKELWAY
                      (doesn't look up)
                No.

     Dyson is glad to hear it.

                                                     CUT TO:

40   INT. HOPE HOUSE - FOYER - MOMENTS LATER                         40

     Mackelway descends, having had quite enough of this place.
     Piper is where we left him, watching VH1 in the TV Room.

                                                         30.


Mackelway passes, eyeing those newly-faxed pages: five more
HAVE YOU SEEN ME'S... He reaches the door.

                        PIPER
              Ever seen a fifty-foot shark?

Mackelway stops, turns.

                        MACKELWAY
              I'm sorry?

                        PIPER
              Fifty-foot shark. Ever seen one?

                        MACKELWAY
              No.

                        PIPER
              Doesn't mean there aren't any.

Great. Mackelway reaches for the front door again. Then he
halts. Maybe this guy can be helpful. Mackelway turns:

                     MACKELWAY
           Did you know him?
               (Piper's silent)
           The guy who used to stay upstairs.
           "O'Ryan." Did you know him?

                     PIPER
           Why? Is he dead?

                       MACKELWAY
           I don't...

                     PIPER
           You said "Did." Is he dead?

                     MACKELWAY
           Oh. I mis-spoke. No, he's not dead...
               (a beat)
           You know him?

Piper nods.

Mackelway eyes him, then approaches, holding up a copy of that
image: the circle-with-slash-through-it.

                        MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
              He ever talk about this? A circle with a
              slash through it?

                                                                 31.


     Piper rises, crosses to us... leaning in unnecessarily close.
     It's unsettling.

                          PIPER
                That's not a circle. It's a zero.

                          MACKELWAY
                Oh. How do you know?

     Piper doesn't answer. Instead he simply starts whistling.

     But it's not a tune coming out of his mouth. It's that same
     sound that O'Ryan made: A WHISTLING WIND, blowing through a
     ghost town... Building, then falling again.

     Piper smiles, backing away, enjoying the theatricality of it,
     stifling a giggle...

     Then, suddenly, everything turns GRAINY, CHOPPY...

     We've jumped into a distorted, REMOTE POV of this same scene -
     as if watching it through a crystal ball, or a broken lens, or
     a distance of time and space...

     We see images, fragments: Piper, the tv, the sofa, Mackelway's
     face. Then all sound breaks up, and we are...

41   INT. MOTEL ROOM - SLEEPER, MISSOURI - CONTINUING                  41

     Start on O'Ryan's EYES. Then a pad of paper. The spasm of a
     pen, scrawling a LIST on to it: "Piper. TV. Whistling." We're
     in another non-descript MOTEL ROOM. $29 a night.

     He holds down the point of his pen on a wavy line beside that
     list of words, keeping it there for a few seconds, as if
     expecting to receive some kind of pulse from it.

     No more pulse. He has lost the "connection" that had somehow
     transported him. He notes his watch. Jots down the exact time.
     Slips the pad into that FOLDER: "Mackelway."

     Then he starts to DRAW - a hurried but accurate sketch of
     Mackelway and Piper, just as they stood during that
     conversation. The geography is fairly accurate.

     O'Ryan continues to draw. We CRANE OUT of this motel room, to
     find, on the street below:

42   EXT. A BAR - SLEEPER, MISSOURI - CONTINUING                       42

     A typical honky-tonk in a town called Sleeper, Missouri. Just
     across the street from O'Ryan's cheap motel...

                                                                32.


43   INT. BAR - SLEEPER, MISSOURI - CONTINUING                        43

     Low-lights, dust on the floor. Pool tables.

     LORETTA is a pretty 19-year-old who stands at the jukebox,
     weighing her choices. She's got a thick curtain of hair, which
     she wrangles with a CHIP-CLIP. It's a habit.

     She chooses a country-rock tune, then heads for the bar,
     walking to the beat. It's fun being 19 and beautiful.

44   AT THE BAR - CONTINUING                                          44

     The BARTENDER'S a stocky guy with a broad smile.

                          LORETTA
                    (re: song)
                How's that?

                          BARTENDER
                Little cute for my taste, but I can stand
                three minutes of it.

                          LORETTA
                I'll have a seven and seven, please.

                          BARTENDER
                Seven and seven. Got some i.d.?

     She half-laughs, as if she hasn't been carded in a decade, and
     throws that curtain of hair from one side to the other, re-
     fastening that chip-clip. It's her best move.

                          LORETTA
                It's in the car. No one's asked me for it
                for a couple years now.

                          BARTENDER
                If ya hurry, you'll still catch the end
                of the song.

     She eyes him: are you really carding me? He smiles: nothing
     personal, Sugar. So she heads for the door.

     ...on her way, she passes a booth. In it we find a familiar
     face - Virgil Ray Starkey...

     He remains still, as if he hadn't noticed her. But behind
     his eyes, something primal just took place. He rises, heads
     for the door.

                                                                 33.


45   EXT. BAR - MOMENTS LATER                                          45

     Loretta walks to her VW Bug. Starkey exits the bar. She
     doesn't notice. We TILT UP: the lights are off in O'Ryan's
     motel room...

46   EXT. AT LORETTA'S CAR - MOMENTS LATER                             46

     It all happens pretty fast: That chip-clip hits the ground
     beside the open VW door. A battered PICK-UP speeds away,
     kicking up gravel.

                                                      CUT TO:

     ...Loretta's eyes, wide with terror and dread.

47   INT. STARKEY'S PICK-UP - MINUTES LATER                            47

     We're off-road. Missouri's woods can be seen through the
     windshield. And Starkey is staring at us. Pawing at us...

                          LORETTA
                Please, Mister...

     Starkey's hand shoots out, banging Loretta's head against the
     window, hard. That makes things start to swim. Starkey tears
     at her clothes, lowers himself on to her.

     She whimpers. WE CARRY THE SOUND OF IT INTO:

48   INT. MACKELWAY'S APARTMENT - SAME                                 48

     This is where you go when you've just moved to Wichita Falls
     and money's tight: spotty shag carpet, chipped Formica kitchen
     table, scuffed blinds.

     ...and one sleepless agent, having one lousy night.

     Mackelway sits on the edge of his bed, almost able to hear
     Loretta's helpless cries. Some nights are like this. His head
     is POUNDING again. Down go four more Bufferin.

     Above him, covering the bedroom mirror, is the MAP he took
     from that Hope House basement. O'Ryan's map, UNFOLDED.

     It's HUGE: 6-feet-wide, 4-feet-tall, obscuring the mirror.

     As we glimpsed while still in that basement, this map his been
     written on, in pen. O'Ryan's notations cover it:
     Over a THUSAND CITIES on it have been CIRCLED, by hand, in
     RED. Each of those circled cities has a DATE written beside
     it, also in red: ("4/6," "5/19," "10-26," etc.)

                                                                 34.


     Mackelway studies it, his face working. Another of those
     WHIMPERS from Loretta seems to hang, suspended. Mackelway
     shakes it off, certain that he's imagining it.

     He won't sleep a wink tonight. We LEAVE HIM, returning to:

49   INT. STARKEY'S PICK-UP - RESUMING                                 49

     The attack continues, its terror unimaginable. Loretta sobs.
     It hurts. Starkey's too powerful to fight off. We stay on her
     face: dazed, her mind simply checking out.

     ...until a look of cognizance comes over her, brought on by a
     SHADOW that just passed by.

     Then the window behind Starkey simply EXPLODES.

     Glass flies everywhere, and TWO ARMS reach into the pick-up.
     They grab Starkey by the neck and yank him out of the pick-up,
     his back sliced open by shards. He screams.

     She can't resist coming to the window, where she sees:

50   EXT. WOODS - STARKEY'S PICK-UP - CONTINUING                       50

     Starkey lies, face up. Shocked. Squirming. Bleeding. Standing
     over him, looming large as a Grizzly... is O'Ryan. A long
     HUNTING KNIFE extends from his hand.

     But his tone, to our great surprise, is conversational:

                          O'RYAN
                Hey, listen, I'm sorta new in town. Ya
                know where I can find a good donkey show?

     Starkey has no idea how to respond to this maniac:

                          STARKEY
                Huh?

                          O'RYAN
                Oh. Forgot. Wrong country... In America
                animals have rights.
                    (pointedly)
                Don't they, Virgil?

                          STARKEY
                How the fuck should I know?

     O'Ryan half-smiles, then kicks Starkey right in the head.
     Loretta's eyes go wide. Another kick follows, to the ribs.
     Then one to the groin. Then:

                                                                 35.


                          O'RYAN
                    (at Loretta)
                Turn around.

     He said that without looking at her. But he can tell that she
     hasn't moved - too frightened. So he eyes her.

                          O'RYAN (CONT'D)
                    (again)
                Turn around!

     She turns away, lying face down on the seat, covering her
     head. No idea what kind of terror is to come next. We STAY
     WITH HER... able only to hear what follows:

     The sound is animal, awful - like a pig being gutted - a
     horrible SQUEAL, covering the GRUNTS coming from O'Ryan.

     In goes the knife again, prompting another agonized cry from
     Starkey. Loretta's crying too: from fear, shock... She keeps
     her face buried, shutting her eyes tight. The sounds of
     savagery fill the night.

     Then, one last gasp from Starkey... followed by an awful
     silence... and the assault is over.

     Loretta's too afraid to look up - certain that the maniac with
     the knife will be coming after her next.

     But then she hears FOOTSTEPS, trailing away. So she rises,
     peeking over the edge of the window. WE STAY ON HER FACE, as
     she sees what's become of her attacker.

     Her horrified SCREAM fills the woods...

51   INT. MACKELWAY'S APARTMENT - BEDROOM - RESUMING                   51

     Mackelway STARES out the window; seems like he just HEARD that
     scream. Of course, that'd be impossible. He looks to that map.
     His PHONE RINGS. He eyes it, unsurprised...

                                                       CUT TO:

52   EXT. WOODS OUTSIDE SLEEPER, MO. - LATER                           52

     Law enforcement VEHICLES surround the site. COPS, Grieves,
     CORONER'S GUYS taking pictures. Loretta is sitting on the back
     of an ambulance, being tended to.

     A COMPOSITE ARTIST sits beside her, trying.

                          LORETTA
                I don't think the eyes are right.

                                                          36.


                       COMPOSITE ARTIST
           Narrower?

                     LORETTA
           No, they were... I don't really know.

Composite Artist keeps trying, but his attempt doesn't look
anything like the face of O'Ryan.

Charlton, meanwhile, stands over the body, mind racing.

A Missouri Highway Patrol car pulls up. Mackelway steps out of
it. We follow him as he takes in the scene.

A FLASHBULB illuminates Starkey's CHEST; is got a zero-with-
a-slash-through-it. But Mackelway hasn't seen the guy's face
yet.

                       MACKELWAY
           Sir?
               (Charlton turns)
           We got an i.d. yet?

                     CHARLTON
           Mmm-hmm.
               (Mackelway waits)
           Might wanna find yourself a fender.
           You're gonna need to sit down.
               (Mackelway's still waiting)
           It's Virgil Ray Starkey.

Mackelway pales.

We stay on him for a moment as it registers. The man he
caught, and then lost, has killed again. No. God, no.

                     MACKELWAY
               (struggling for composure:)
           Starkey did this?
                     CHARLTON
           No. Starkey's the one on the ground.

Mackelway pauses, thinks he must've heard wrong. But he turns
toward the face, as ANOTHER FLASHBULB illuminates it, searing
the image into the darkness. Starkey. Dead. His eyelids ripped
away.

Mackelway stares, stunned. Can't fucking believe it.

                     MACKELWAY
               (breathless)
           My God...

                                                                  37.


     It's like looking at a ghost - a spectre that's been haunting
     him, dead now... Mackelway pulls out his Minox, starts
     photographing, moving in on those LIDLESS EYES...

                          GRIEVES
                Gonna make a wallet-size of that one?

                          CHARLTON
                Give him a break, Grieves.

     Mackelway doesn't comment. Just keeps snapping shots...

                                                        CUT TO:

53   INT. FBI OFFICE - MACKELWAY'S CUBICLE - MORNING                    53

     The number of HAVE YOU SEEN ME's has now grown, quite a bit.
     45 PAGES sit stacked on Mackelway's desk. 45 victims. He grabs
     the stack, rises.

     Heading for the Conference Room, he nearly bumps into Katie,
     the Receptionist, rounding a corner.

                          MACKELWAY
                'Scuse me.

     She smiles. He carries the HAVE YOU SEEN ME's into:

54   INT. FBI OFFICE - CONFERENCE ROOM - CONTINUING                     54

     A room has been dedicated solely to those three murders. On an
     erasure board are the words: The "O'Ryan" Room.

     On one wall is the MAP Mackelway took from Hope House: over a
     thousand CITIES circled by O'Ryan himself.

     Mackelway puts down the stack of HAVE YOU SEEN ME's. Picks up
     a box of YELLOW STICK-PINS, affixing them to the map - one for
     every faxed face.

     Here's "Jason Corey, Age 14." Last seen in "Riverside, Ca." on
     "10-16-99."

     Sure enough, O'Ryan had circled "Riverside, Ca." on this map.
     Next to it he'd written "10-16."

     Mackelway sticks a yellow pin in Riverside.

     Next, the fax concerning "Anna Casitas, Age 22." Last Seen?
     "Macon, Ga." on "5-6-00."

     Of course, O'Ryan had circled "Macon" too. Beside it he'd
     written "5-6." So Macon gets a yellow pin.

                                                         38.


Mackelway continues, as:

                     FRAN (O.S.)
           Got nothing on the last fax.

Mackelway turns. In comes Fran.

                     FRAN (CONT'D)
           Came from a business center at a Mariott
           in Dallas. Nobody saw who sent it.

Mackelway nods. Then they both turn... Charlton enters the
room.

                     CHARLTON
           Whadda we know about the map?

                      MACKELWAY
           It matches the faxes, Sir. Almost
           perfectly.

Charlton approaches the map: 1,242 cities, circled in red.
Mackelway continues with the yellow pins: one for every HAVE
YOU SEEN ME? (45 of them so far.)

Charlton eyes the stack. 45 HAVE YOU SEEN ME's... Then the
map: 1,242 cities. Each with a DATE beside it.

                     CHARLTON
           Why's Greenville in blue?

(Mackelway has put a yellow pin beside a dozen cities... but
tiny Greenville, Texas has a BLUE PIN beside it.)

                     MACKELWAY
           Only city where the date on the fax and
           the date on the map didn't correspond.

He pulls out a fax from the stack: a Korean boy named "Steven
Kim. Age 16. Last Seen: Greenville, Tx. Date of Disappearance:
8-7-98."

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Fax lists the date of disappearance as
           August 7. On the map he's written "10-
           26."

The DATE on O'Ryan's map reads "10-26" beside Greenville, Tx.
So Greenville gets the only blue pin on this map.

Charlton notes today's date: October 17...

                                                                39.


                          CHARLTON
                Any of these bodies been recovered?

                          MACKELWAY
                Two so far. Female, disappeared from
                Dayton, Ohio on April 12. And a male,
                Trenton, New Jersey, January 5th.

     On the MAP, Dayton's got "4/12" written beside it. Trenton has
     "1/5." Both have yellow pins in them.

                          MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                But both bodies were found over a
                thousand miles from where they'd last
                been seen. One in Montana, the other in
                Oregon. Got autopsy reports on both.

     Charlton looks to the table, where AUTOPSY REPORTS and AUTOPSY
     PHOTOS sit - two victims we've never seen before.

     We see the VICTIMS photographed face up, face down, waist and
     above, waist and below. Charlton gives the photos a cursory
     glance, nothing more.

     But we notice something, on one of the bodies: the male from
     Trenton - an odd BURN MARK on his lower left calf.

     Looks almost symmetrical, horizontal across the calf...

                          CHARLTON
                Either of the bodies have the zero on
                them?

                           MACKELWAY
                No, Sir.

     Charlton, frustrated, SHOVES THOSE AUTOPSY PHOTOS ASIDE. We
     look to that MAP, a handful of yellow pins in it...

                                                 DISSOLVE TO:

     ...that same map, over a HUNDRED YELLOW PINS in it now.

55   INT. FBI OFFICE - "O'RYAN ROOM" - NIGHT                          55

     It's 8:30 at night. Mackelway is alone in here - staring at
     the map. He's been doing a lot of that lately.

     The stack of HAVE YOU SEEN ME's has grown as well. Every one
     of them corresponds to a yellow pin on the map.

                                                           40.


(Some of the HAVE YOU SEEN ME's have arrived via U.S. MAIL. We
see a stack of ENVELOPES in a box, each sealed in PLASTIC,
each stamped and addressed to Mackelway.)

Mackelway eyes the map, puzzling. Fran's right beside him.
Assorted papers and leads fill this room, including photos he
took himself with that Minox.

                      FRAN
           Why you?

                      MACKELWAY
           Huh?

                     FRAN
           He could be sending these to any agent in
           any office in the country... But he's
           sending them to you. Why?

Mackelway's been asking himself that same question lately.

                     MACKELWAY
           I don't know.

PHONE RINGS. She grabs it.

                     FRAN (INTO PHONE)
           This is Agent Kulok.
               (a beat)
           Who's calling?

She hears the answer, then covers the phone.

                     FRAN (CONT'D)
               (to Mackelway:)
           Do you know a professor named Daitz? Says
           he's from Tulane.

                     MACKELWAY
               (eagerly)
           Yeah. Criminal Psych. I've been trading e-
           mails with him.

                     FRAN (INTO PHONE)
           One moment, please...

She hands him the phone...

                                                 CUT TO:

                                                                 41.


56   EXT. TULANE UNIVERSITY - ESTABLISHING - NIGHT                     56

     A beautiful campus, quiet tonight. In its center lies a vast,
     expensive structure - the Behavioral Sciences Building. The
     place goes on forever.

57   INT. TULANE - BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES BUILDING - SAME                 57

     Mackelway exits an elevator on the "B-1 Level." Corridors
     octopus their way from these elevators, confusing us...

58   INT. BUILDING CORRIDOR - MOMENTS LATER                            58

     Every door looks the same. Mackelway follows the numbers -
     can't believe how long these hallways are. Turns a corner.

     Air can be heard, moving through the corridor. But he has
     found the right number, at last.

     A tiny CARD fastened to a wall reads, "Dr. Emile Daitz,
     Professor Emeritus, Criminal Psychology." It also lists his
     office hours. Mackelway knocks at a door.

                          MACKELWAY
                Professor Daitz?

                          O'RYAN (O.S.)
                Yes?

     Mackelway opens the door. Looks inside.

     Here sits O'Ryan, looking as much like a tweedy professor as
     he can look. He rises, smiles warmly.

                          O'RYAN (CONT'D)
                Agent Mackelway. Come in...

                                                      CUT TO:

59   INT. DAITZ' OFFICE - LATER NIGHT                                  59

     A tiny, cramped hovel. Books, papers, and all of it jammed to
     overflowing. Mackelway sits across from O'Ryan...

                          O'RYAN
                    (as "Daitz:")
                ...The name of this theory was "Suspect
                Zero."
                    (Mackelway nods)
                The idea of Suspect Zero posits that if a
                serial killer were diabolical enough, he
                could traverse the country without ever
                being caught, killing randomly.

                                                         42.


There's a COLLECTION here in a glass case: ANCIENT WEAPONS -
crude knives, swords, blow-darts. Mackelway notes them.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Tell me, what makes a killer catchable?

                     MACKELWAY
           Patterns, repetition of behavior.

                     O'RYAN
           Now imagine a killer with no patterns, no
           tell-tale fetishes, no rituals, no hidden
           desire to be caught. A perfect vessel of
           evil, killing without ever leaving a
           single meaningful clue in his wake...
           He'd be immune to capture, wouldn't he?
           Your task forces, your forensics teams -
           they'd be helpless.

Mackelway looks over Daitz' bookshelf: volume after volume
about evil, the devil, the minds of sociopaths, the history of
serial-killers, ritual killers, tribal rites...

                     MACKELWAY
           Is that something you believe in,
           Professor? Evil?

                    O'RYAN
          As a citizen of the world, it's hard not
          to. Wouldn't you say?
              (Mackelway can't argue)
          Evil is all around us, I think - a part
          of the natural order of things. Like
          gravity. Like wind. A vast black wave,
          corrupting everything it touches. A virus
          invades a cell, causing it to
          dysfunction. Perfectly logical. But did
          it ever occur to you that something may
          have invaded that virus, something
          capable of using it to mutate so
          powerfully?

Mackelway pauses, considering that.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Just because something's invisible to us
           doesn't mean it doesn't exist.

Mackelway is silent: Something's off here. But he can't say
for sure just yet what it is...

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Have you ever seen a fifty-foot shark?

                                                         43.


That wasn't just the echo of a question he's heard before; it
was a red flag. A big one. Mackelway tightens.

                        MACKELWAY
           I'm sorry?

                     O'RYAN
           A shark, as we know, will only attack
           humans if he runs out of food. But
           biologists have theorized that for a
           shark of fifty feet the ocean would be an
           endless buffet. He'd never run out of
           food, so he'd have no need to come to the
           surface. Consequently, we would never see
           him. Do you follow?
               (Mackelway doesn't)
           We'll never see one. But that doesn't
           mean they don't exist. Hence Suspect
           Zero.

Mackelway eyes those books on evil, then those ancient
weapons... Casually, almost imperceptibly, he reaches for his
sidearm, as O'Ryan continues:

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Some of my colleagues think I'm
           fascinated with evil. I think the truth
           is just the opposite: evil is fascinated
           with us. What better vehicle could there
           be for creating havoc in the world - what
           better instrument - than Man? We're vain,
           we're stubborn, we're deceitful, we have
           an imagination that is limitless in its
           perversions. Of course Evil keeps trying
           to harness us. Wouldn't you?

The more he talks, the closer Mackelway comes to extracting
that gun...

Then, disturbing the silence, a KNOCK at the door.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Excuse me.

O'Ryan rises, goes to the door... as Mackelway unholsters his
gun. O'Ryan opens the door. Standing here is a COED, with a
backpack. She looks confused.

                     COED
           Oh. I'm sorry. I was looking for
           Professor--

                                                                44.


     Just like that, O'Ryan has bolted past the Coed, literally
     tossing her onto Mackelway, exploding into the hall.

     She screams. Mackelway grabs her, moves her aside as gently as
     time allows, then blows out of the room...

60   INT. BUILDING - BASEMENT CORRIDOR - CONTINUING                   60

     O'Ryan turns a corner, vanishing. Mackelway follows.

61   INT. BUILDING - CORRIDOR CORNER - CONTINUING                     61

     Mackelway finds himself facing another endless corridor: One
     door after another, for what seems like a mile. But no O'Ryan.
     Then Mackelway spots an EXIT SIGN. A stairwell...

62   INT. STAIRWELL - CONTINUING                                      62

     Mackelway enters. The stairs go six stories UP from here...
     and one story DOWN. A sub-basement.

     It's a guess. He descends, gun drawn.

63   INT. SUB-BASEMENT - CONTINUING                                   63

     Mackelway emerges. "B-2" looks a lot like B-1: long and
     endless. We hear air moving around us, pipes carrying water,
     the wheezing of an old generator...

     And, on all sides of us, DOOES, a mile of them: maintenance
     offices, supply rooms, labs. He opens one - a janitor's
     supply. No one in here.

     Tries another door. Locked. A second. Locked. A third. Locked.
     Air sucks through a corridor around us. He thinks he hears
     footsteps around a corner. Runs at them.

64   INT. SUB-BASEMENT - CORNER - CONTINUING                          64

     Nothing. No one. Just another vast corridor. More doors.

     Then, a sound. GLASS, shattering on the floor. He runs down
     the corridor, passing a long metal CAGE that houses this
     building's FIVE FURNACES. They're old and wheezy.

     It's dark behind them, shadowy. Not a bad place to hide.

     Farther down the corridor is another door - made of frosted
     glass. A sign on it reads "Neuropsychiatric Lab." That's where
     the sound came from... he thinks.

                                                                 45.


65   INT. SUB-BASEMENT - LAB - CONTINUING                              65

     Mackelway enters. The lab is dark. He throws on every light
     switch within reach... and finds himself standing over the
     shards of what used to be a GLASS BEAKER.

     So he's in the right place. He scans it: five rows of work-
     stations, ten microscopes per row, each with a sink beside it.
     Lining the walls are wide CABINETS.

     But there's also a MINI-LIBRARY down here: Four rows of
     BOOKSHELVES, housing medical journals. These are the "stacks" -
     perfect for hiding behind.

     He plunges in. Row #1. Doesn't see anyone. Then Row #2, Row
     #3, Row #4. Okay, the stacks check out...

     He walks along the rows of work-stations, scanning, crouching,
     nudging open cabinets. One has been opened:

     Bottles of SOLUTIONS sit inside it. And a JAR that's been
     unsealed: It's got GAUZE PADS in it...

     In the back of the room, an INSTRUCTOR'S DESK awaits. It's
     tall enough to hide beneath. Mackelway slinks around it.
     Kneels down, looking into darkness...

     Then, a NOISE. The FRONT DOOR of this lab just swung open...
     And O'Ryan just bolted out. Fuck.

66   INT. SUB-BASEMENT - CORRIDOR - CONTINUING                         66

     Mackelway emerges from the lab. Those furnaces whine beside
     him on the other side of that cage. But a GATE on that cage
     has been left ajar...

67   INT. "FURNACE ROOM" - CONTINUING                                  67

     Five furnaces, separated from the sub-basement corridor by
     steel mesh. Mackelway enters. A few meager BULBS burn.

     He moves amidst shadow and noise: the chugging of engines, the
     humming, the wheezing, a slight vibration to the floor beneath
     us. He walks along the edge of Furnace #1...

     ...and is assaulted, from above.

     O'Ryan falls on him, knocking Mackelway hard into the sharp
     CORNER of that furnace, then down to the ground. Mackelway's
     gun skids across the floor.

     And his mouth, suddenly, has been covered with gauze.

                                                                46.


     He wants to fight back... but suddenly he finds that his head
     is swimming. Something's on that gauze. The room is getting
     fuzzy.

     We see the belly of a furnace - flames, heat. Then our own
     BLOOD... (Mackelway's CHEST was torn open by the corner of
     that furnace.) Wait. Did we just see the glint of a KNIFE?

     O'Ryan is leaning over us, in utter control.

     Then O'Ryan's head turns, abruptly - at the sound of
     FOOTSTEPS. And we hear:

                          MALE VOICE (O.S.)
                Hey! You! What're you doing down here!

     We turn, groggily. TWO JANITORS rush toward us, keys jangling.
     It's all foggy, wavy, distorted.

     We see O'Ryan RISE. Then everything goes black...

                                                      CUT TO:

68   INT. A HOSPITAL ROOM - MORNING                                   68

     Mackelway's head is ringing. Feels like he can hear
     electricity in the walls around him. Slowly, he awakens. Above
     him are fluorescent lights. Monitors blink...

     Fran is here. So's Charlton. Mackelway tries to sit up. The
     shock of pain from his chest stops him.

                          FRAN
                How ya doin'?

     Mackelway half-nods. His chest is bandaged.

                          CHARLTON
                We're gonna need everything you can
                remember about this guy, Tom. Physical
                description, any kind of distinguishing
                characteristics.

     That was terse. Charlton looks pretty pissed-off.

                          MACKELWAY
                    (scratchy)
                Where is he?

                          CHARLTON
                The suspect fled. Couple janitors walked
                in on it.
                    (before Mack can ask:)
                          (MORE)

                                                         47.


                     CHARLTON (CONT'D)
           They're fine. But the description they
           gave of him wasn't worth a damn.

Mackelway nods.

                     CHARLTON (CONT'D)
           Case you're curious the real Professor
           Daitz is on sabbatical, out of the
           country. We can't find him.
               (Mackelway nods)
           Whose idea was it to meet there?

                       MACKELWAY
           His, Sir.

                     CHARLTON
           Uh-huh. Did he ask you to come alone?

                       MACKELWAY
           No, Sir.

                     CHARLTON
           But you figured you'd get a bigger pat on
           the head if you wrapped this whole thing
           up without any help - is that it?

The truth? Charlton has him pegged. But:

                     FRAN
           Sir, I'm the one who took the call. Agent
           Mackelway was acting under the assumption
           that I'd already checked the guy out.
           We're both to blame.

Hold it. That was a major exaggeration, if not an outright
lie. Mackelway eyes her, thrown. She's poker-faced.

Charlton, however, seems unmoved...

                     CHARLTON
           Did Agent Mackelway attend the interview
           unaccompanied?

                     FRAN
               (reluctantly)
           Yes, Sir.

                     CHARLTON
           Then whose fuck-up is it?

Mackelway eyes her: "Thanks for trying." She nods.

                                                                 48.


                          MACKELWAY
                    (at Charlton)
                It was... poor judgment, Sir.

                          CHARLTON
                You wanna work alone, start your own
                agency.

     Mackelway can do nothing but nod. Then, bailing him out,
     another COMPOSITE ARTIST enters, tools in hand. Charlton
     sighs, frustrated.

                          CHARLTON (CONT'D)
                    (re: Composite Artist)
                Let's get you two started.

     Composite Artist is ready to begin...

                                                       CUT TO:

69   INT. BAPTIST CHURCH - DAY                                         69

     A lively Sunday Service. Lots of Baptists, singing a rousing
     spiritual. Music and praise filling the room.

     We move along the pews, until we came to the very back row...
     There, one man sits. Alone. Quiet. O'Ryan.

     Odd expression on his face - it's as if he can't hear this
     rousing music, or feel the power of this place. People in the
     next row are stomping their feet. Music soars.

     But O'Ryan just drops his head, slowly... and begins to WEEP
     in the middle of this boisterous congregation.

     Outside, an 18-WHEEL TRUCK can be heard, rumbling by with
     great force. No one else in here seems to hear it.

     But O'Ryan shuts his eyes tight, grieving, sobbing...

70   EXT. STREET - OUTSIDE THE CHURCH - CONTINUING                     70

     That TRUCK has just thundered by, leaving a swirl of debris in
     its wake. We TILT UP from it... to find that those STORMCLOUDS
     once in the distance are upon us now.

     And they are pulsing with menace. Rain, wind, lightning,
     thunder. Like a black wave, about to descend...

71   INTERCUT WITH/INT. FBI OFFICE - "FAX ROOM" - SAME                 71

     One of those five FAX MACHINES begins to ring. Then it begins
     to PRINT.

                                                               49.


     It's a Sunday. No one's here... but we get a look at what's
     coming in. Same TOP-SHEET again: "Attention Agent Thomas
     Mackelway" etc.

     CONTINUE INTERCUT: this incoming fax, set against a few
     tableaus of Americana. Innocence...

72   EXT. HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL STADIUM - SAME                        72

     A high school MARCHING BAND is out here, practicing.
     Cheerleaders work on their routines nearby.

     Then a LOUD WHISTLE SOUNDS. It's the BAND-LEADER, who is
     taking note of the weather gathering overhead. The music from
     the band ceases.

                          BAND-LEADER
                Everybody into the gym!

     The band-members start to move. LIGHTNING erupts overhead.

73   EXT. UNIDENTIFIED HOME - BACKYARD - SAME                        73

     An unnamed MOTHER emerges onto her back-porch, where her FIVE-
     YEAR OLD DAUGHTER is having a playdate with a FRIEND.

     This house borders a wooded area. That wind is starting to
     make the trees swirl.

                          MOTHER
                Girls, I want you to come in now.
                Startin' to rain.

     The girls sigh, disappointed, deciding instead to hide
     themselves inside the TENT they've erected out here.

     They giggle. The mother doesn't. CONTINUE INTERCUT:

74   INT. FBI OFFICE - "FAX ROOM" - RESUMING                         74

     That fax is now printing page after page. Photos with HAVE YOU
     SEEN ME? across the top and vitals across the bottom.

     But this time the transmission isn't stopping at five. There
     are at least TEN sitting in the tray. Maybe twenty. Faces.
     Eyes. Stats. Locations. Innocence violated...

75   EXT. PARK - SAME                                                75

     A SOCCER GAME's been called in the middle of the Second Half.
     PARENTS and their uniformed 12 YEAR-OLDS scatter.

     RAIN is pouring down now, blown sideways by that wind.

                                                                 50.


76   INT. THE 18-WHEELER - SAME                                        76

     That massive, gleaming beast that rumbled past the church now
     rolls right by this park - as all of those kids and their
     parents scramble for the shelter of their cars.

     The windshield wipers on this truck push water away, giving us
     a clear look at the wet suburban chaos.

77   INT. BAPTIST CHURCH - RESUMING                                    77

     The faithful in here keep singing, their voices full with
     praise - despite the heavy weather outside. They feel safe in
     here. We move along the PEWS...

     ...until we find O'Ryan's. He's not here anymore.

78   EXT. BAPTIST CHURCH - SAME                                        78

     O'Ryan leans against the door of the church, pelted by that
     heavy rain.

     BAM! Here comes those IMAGES AGAIN:

79   EXT. WHEAT FIELD - NIGHT - RESUMING                               79

     Tall wheat, whipped by wind and rain. A muzzle-flash. The
     sound of a body slumping hard to the ground.

     ...and Mackelway, looking over us. Then:

80   EXT. BAPTIST CHURCH - RESUMING                                    80

     We're back with O'Ryan. He leans against the door, his
     torment constant.

     He walks away from the church, into that heavy rain.

81   INT. FBI OFFICE - "FAX ROOM" - RESUMING                           81

     The fax tray has overflown onto the floor - 200 more photos,
     200 more HAVE YOU SEEN ME's. Forgotten victims. We hear a last
     rumble from that 18-WHEELER. END INTERCUT...

                                                      CUT TO:

82   INT. FBI OFFICE - "O'RYAN ROOM" - LATE NIGHT                      82

     Now there are 800 YELLOW PINS stuck in this map - one for
     every single FAX or LETTER that's been received in the past
     weeks.

                                                                 51.


     800 faces. 800 HAVE YOU SEEN ME's, represented by 800 pins in
     800 cities. It's like a national plague.

     Mackelway sits, examining it soberly. His chest-wound is
     killing him. (We see a thick bandage beneath his shirt.)

     In his pocket now is a bottle of PRESCRIPTION PILLS. Percodan.
     He slugs one down without water, his eyes never straying from
     that map.

     Beside it is a COMPOSITE DRAWING from O'Ryan, taken from
     Mackelway's description. It's dead-on...

                                                      CUT TO:

83   EXT. LONGHORN DINER WICHITA FALLS - NIGHT - ESTABLISHING          83

     This is the lone source of light on an otherwise dark stretch
     of road. Mackelway's Yukon pulls up.

84   INT. LONGHORN DINER WICHITA FALLS - MOMENTS LATER                 84

     Hardly a sound in here. Mackelway stands at the register,
     paying for his TAKE-OUT. Another night with nothing but his
     thoughts for company. Great. Then:

                          A YOUNG WOMAN'S VOICE (O.S.)
                Agent Mackelway?

     It's Katie, the receptionist from his office - sitting by
     herself in a nearby booth. Mackelway smiles.

                          KATIE (CONT'D)
                Hi.

                                                      CUT TO:

85   INT. KATIE'S APARTMENT - BEDROOM - LATER NIGHT                    85

     Inexpensive, but furnished with all the touches that
     Mackelway's apartment lacks: flea-market stuff, lace, antique
     books, photos from other eras. Character.

     And candles. Lots of candles. They throw SHADOWS of Mackelway
     and Katie all over the walls.

     An odd MUSIC fills the room, coming from a BOOM-BOX on the
     floor. It's a rhythmic Navajo CHANT, with Native-American
     drums providing the pulse.

     It's eery, tuneless, but awfully authentic... and it fits the
     intensity of the moment: Mackelway and Katie, coupling madly,
     their eyes locked. She's breathless.

                                                                52.


     First time we've seen him shirtless since his injury in that
     furnace room. A FAT BANDAGE covers a quarter of his chest.
     Dried blood can be seen beneath it.

     There's an intensity in his eyes. The chanting, the candles,
     Katie's body, his wound... they've conspired to bring an
     intensity into his eyes. It's dark, primal.

     And he's been expressing it for an hour without relent...
     which is why Katie gasps one last gasp, then rolls to the edge
     of the bed, exhausted.

     She reaches for that boom-box, lowers the volume. The chanting
     dies down into silence. She catches her breath.

                          KATIE
                    (softly)
                I can't anymore.

     Mackelway eyes her, then reaches past her, and turns the
     VOLUME on that boom-box back UP. The chanting fills the room
     again.

     And just like that, he has pulled her back onto him, urgently.
     That primal side hasn't been sated yet...

                                                      CUT TO:

86   INT. KATIE'S APT. - BATHROOM - LATER NIGHT                       86

     Mackelway stands at the mirror, changing the dressing on that
     wound across his chest. He unwraps the gauze over that fat
     bandage soaked through with blood.

     He pulls the bandage off, giving us a better look at the deep
     gash. Dried blood, torn skin, bruising. Looks like hell. But
     Mackelway eyes it calmly.

     He slugs down some beer from a nearby bottle, then cleans the
     wound with some Hydrogen Peroxide... as Katie appears in the
     doorway. She eyes him.

                          KATIE
                Can't sleep?

     He shrugs, turns.

                          MACKELWAY
                What was that music?

                          KATIE
                It's Navajo. A song for dead warriors. I
                never played it for anybody before.
                          (MORE)

                                                                 53.


                          KATIE (CONT'D)
                    (a beat)
                Just had a feeling you'd like it.

                          MACKELWAY
                How?

                          KATIE
                I dunno. The way you stare when you think
                nobody's looking.

     She shrugs. Silence hovers...

                                                      CUT TO:

87   INT. KATIE'S APT. - BEDROOM - PRE-DAWN                            87

     4:30 a.m. Rain pounds the window and roof, a real storm out
     there. The boom box is still. The candles are down to their
     nubs. Katie continues to sleep. Mackelway too.

     Then his eyes SNAP OPEN.

     Something just hit him, something huge. One of those 4:30-in-
     the-morning ideas that has to be expressed. Now.

                                                      CUT TO:

88   INT. HOTEL HALLWAY - 5 A.M.                                       88

     Mackelway stands outside Room 217 at a Mariott. He's just
     knocked on the door.

     Fran opens it, in a robe. Very confused. He looks manic.

                          FRAN
                What're you--

                          MACKELWAY
                I can't get a read on this guy.

     Two minutes ago, she was sound asleep.

                          FRAN
                Huh?

                          MACKELWAY
                Why is he sending us all this shit? I've
                got 800 pins in that map, 800 missing
                people. What's he telling us?

     She gets it now: he's on a combination of painkillers and lack
     of sleep. Or maybe she can sense where he's been...

                                                       54.


                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
               (rapid-fire)
           He kills a travelling salesman, then a
           school-teacher. Then Starkey? It doesn't
           connect.

                     FRAN
           You're a mess...

                     MACKELWAY
           I'm fine. I'm clear. I just didn't think
           this could wait. Fran, this guy is trying
           to point us at something. Starkey's part
           of it. But the other two don't connect.

                     FRAN
           Did you drive here?

                     MACKELWAY
           I'm fine! I just need somebody to think
           this through with me! He wanted to meet
           me. It's like he was interviewing me
           somehow. What is that? Then he kills
           Starkey. So what was he doing with Speck
           and Fulcher?

                     FRAN
           You wanna come in?

                     MACKELWAY
           No. No. You come out. Get dressed.

                     FRAN
           Out where?

                     MACKELWAY
           I dunno. Somewhere. We're right on the
           edge of this thing.

She studies him. A long beat.

                     FRAN
           I'm going back to bed. You're welcome to
           the couch if you want. I think you could
           do with some sleep.

He sags a bit. She reaches for his hand.

                     FRAN (CONT'D)
               (gently)
           Mack...

                                                                  55.


     Just like that, there is contact. Their hands. It surprises
     them both.

     He appreciates it, but now's not the time. So he smiles
     thinly, turns, and goes.

     She watches him vanish around a corner.

                                                        CUT TO:

89   EXT. HAROLD SPECK'S HOUSE - 6:00 A.M.                              89

     We've been to this house before. Suburbia.

     Mackelway sits in his car, at the curb, studying the place.
     Rain falls in sheets, wind blows. And there he is, all alone,
     six in the morning, staring at a house.

     That idea - the thought that snapped his eyes open - it's
     still working on him. Beside him is the DRAWING that was found
     in Speck's car:

     The rendering of a steamer-trunk, lined with plastic,
     containing body parts in plastic bags... Mackelway seems to be
     fixated on it now.

                                                        CUT TO:

90   EXT. SPECK'S HOUSE - 9:15 A.M.                                     90

     A hand knocks on the front door. Jan Speck opens up.

                          JAN
                    (hoping for good news:)
                Agent Mackelway?

     Mackelway stands in the doorway, rain falling behind him.

                           MACKELWAY
                    (all business)
                Mrs. Speck. Just had a few more
                questions.

                                                        CUT TO:

91   INT. SPECK'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - MOMENTS LATER                   91

     Mackelway sits at the WINDOW, looking over the backyard.
     Nothing special out here: some trees, a swing, a storm-cellar
     door.

     But he's staring at it, intently. We're not sure why.

                                                         56.


Behind him, Jan re-enters, purse over her shoulder, umbrella
in hand. She grabs his cup of coffee and saucer from the
coffee table.

                     JAN
           I'm sorry I don't have more time, Agent
           Mackelway. It's my PTA Day.

                     MACKELWAY
           It's fine. I should've called.

She smiles tightly: "I have to go now" and heads for the
kitchen. Once she's there, Mackelway turns to the BACK DOOR
and UNLOCKS IT, eyeing that storm-cellar outside...

She leaves the cup in the sink. He enters the kitchen.

                     JAN
           I hope I was of some help.

                     MACKELWAY
           You were. Thanks.

                     JAN
           A friend of mine said I'll feel like this
           one month for every year we were
           together. Sort of a grieving rule-of-
           thumb. Have you ever heard that?

                      MACKELWAY
               (gently)
           No. Sorry.

She half-smiles. He turns to the door. Turns back.

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Oh. There was one other thing: Did he
           keep any kind of chemicals around the
           house? Acids, that sort of thing?

                      JAN
           No. Why?

He shrugs, dismissing it:

                     MACKELWAY
           It's nothing. Trace elements we found on
           his trunk. Any interest in chemistry?
           Maybe as a hobby?

Jan pauses for a moment, as if recovering a faint memory...
Then she shakes it off. He lets it go.

                                                                  57.


                          MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                Anyway, thank you. And thanks for the
                coffee. Next time I'll call first, I
                promise.

                          JAN
                No trouble at all.

                                                        CUT TO:

92   EXT. SPECK'S HOUSE - MOMENTS LATER                                 92

     Mackelway sits in his car. Through his windshield we see Jan
     as she backs out of the driveway.

     She pulls past us, giving Mackelway as friendly a wave as a
     grieving widow can give. He waves back.

     Then she's gone, disappearing around a corner.

     Mackelway pauses a beat, checking his rear-view mirror to be
     sure. Then he gets out of his car...

                                                        CUT TO:

93   EXT. SPECK'S HOUSE - SIDE GATE - MOMENTS LATER                     93

     Mackelway sneaks around the side of the house, pulling on a
     lever to unlatch the side-gate.

94   EXT. SPECK'S HOUSE - BACKYARD - CONTINUING                         94

     He emerges into the tiny backyard, making a bee-line for that
     storm cellar door.

     He knows he shouldn't be doing this. It's beyond risky. But
     here he is, without a warrant.

     There's no lock on the cellar door. He reaches for it. Then he
     stops himself. Just noticed something:
     A NEIGHBOR-LADY, visible just over Speck's backyard fence, is
     looking right at him through her bedroom window.

     Fuck it. He enters the storm cellar.

95   INT. SPECK'S STORM CELLAR - CONTINUING                             95

     Seven steps, leading to a dusty cement floor. Mackelway looks
     around.

                                                                58.


     Facing him are the things a meticulous man would store in case
     of disaster: Cans of food, sternos, sleeping mats, drums of
     potable water.

     And long FOOT-LOCKERS. Two of them. That's where Mackelway's
     eyes go, instantly. He hurries to them.

     Throws one open. Nothing but sheets and blankets inside. He
     paws through it... finding nothing else.

     He throws the other trunk open. Inside? Pillows. Fuck.

     He slams it shut, looks to those cans of food, stacked on
     shelves. He approaches the shelves, jostling cans from their
     rows, making more noise than he ought to.

     But he finds nothing behind them... except more cans. He
     approaches those two huge drums of water, lugs them aside.
     Behind them is a tall CUPBOARD, locked.

     He pulls at the cupboard door, hard. It splinters.

     Inside, a rifle and some boxes of ammo... same as you'd find
     in every other storm-cellar in Texas.

     He pauses: Am I crazy...?

                                                      CUT TO:

96   EXT. SPECK'S BACKYARD - MOMENTS LATER                            96

     He emerges from the storm-cellar, confused. Shuts the storm-
     cellar door.

     Then he turns. Something else just caught his eye:

     Above Speck's bedroom window is another window, a tiny one. An
     attic...

     He heads for that UNLOCKED BACK DOOR, and enters...

97   INT. SPECK'S HOUSE - LIVING ROOM - CONTINUING                    97

     He hurries toward the stairs, reaches them... then spots
     something through the Entry Hall window:

     On the street outside, pulling up to the curb... is a POLICE
     CAR. Sirens off. That Neighbor-Lady must've placed the call.
     And here's Mackelway, without a warrant. Shit.

     Two ABILENE COPS get out, approaching the house. Mackelway
     climbs the stairs.

                                                               59.


98    INT. SPECK'S HOUSE - STAIRS - CONTINUING                        98

      If he stays quiet, he might just pull this off.

99    INT. SPECK'S HOUSE - SECOND STORY - CONTINUING                  99

      A tiny hallway, with four doors. Up ahead, dangling from the
      ceiling, is a tiny rope which promises a set of hidden fold-
      out stairs... and an attic.

      Mackelway tugs on the rope. The fold-out stairs drop down out
      of the ceiling. Then he hears:

                           NEIGHBOR LADY (O.S.)
                 He's inside! He's inside! Went in through
                 the back!

      ...which means he has mere seconds before this all blows to
      hell. So he climbs up those fold-out stairs.

      The two ABILENE COPS now circle the house, entering through
      the back-porch door, just as Mackelway did.

      He pulls up the folding stairs. Maybe the guys'll do a half-
      assed search and then leave...

100   INT. SPECK'S HOUSE - ATTIC_- CONTINUING                        100

      Mackelway looks around: lots of dusty junk around here - old
      clothes, mementoes.

      ...and one more trunk. A steamer-trunk. Huge. And locked.
      Looks just like the one in that DRAWING rendered by O'Ryan...

      Mackelway races for it. Takes out his gun, uses the butt-end
      to bust the lock off. Throws it open.

      ...as we hear the sound of those fold-out steps, being tugged
      down from the second-floor hallway. And:
                           ABILENE COP #1 (O.S.)
                 Freeze, Asshole!

      The COP is just ten feet away, most of him still concealed by
      those steps - gun trained right on us.

      But Mackelway seems utterly untroubled.

                           MACKELWAY
                     (calmly)
                 It's okay, Fellas. FBI.

                                                                 60.


                             ABILENE COP #1
                 I'll bet.

      Mackelway drops his gun, kicks it toward the cop, who doesn't
      quite know what to make of that.

      Also confusing him is the odd smile playing its way across
      Mackelway's face. But we understand it now:

      The inside of that steamer-trunk is filled with BODY PARTS:
      bagged, stacked, and sealed in Ziplocs...

      Powdered LIME is sprinkled on them.

      Mackelway stares, at once satisfied and sickened. COP #1 can
      be heard, approaching across the attic floor. His gun is
      drawn...

      ...until he too sees what's in there.

                           ABILENE COP #1 (CONT'D)
                 Oh Jesus Christ...

                                                       CUT TO:

      ...a Grammar-School CLASS PICTURE: of Barney Fulcher and his
      2nd Graders, sitting on a mantle. We are...

101   INT. FULCHER'S HOME - LIVING ROOM - BOULDER - DAY                101

      That picture sits beside other photos, awards, plaques - all
      celebrating Fulcher's career in Colorado education.

      We turn away from that mantle, blowing through this modest
      Living Room, finding an open door - leading down to:

102   INT. FULCHER'S HOME - BASEMENT - CONTINUING                      102

      Down the steps we go, until we hear the HUM of an old FREEZER.
      We turn toward the sound.

      The freezer is open. A team of FORENSICS GUYS study it.

      Inside this freezer, frozen into a block of ice... are six
      female HANDS. No arms, no heads. Just six slender hands, each
      with a wedding band on the ring finger.

      Mackelway stands in the back of this basement, taking it all
      in. He looks to Charlton, who is expressionless.

                                                       CUT TO:

                                                              61.


102a EXT. FULCHER'S HOUSE - DUSK                                102a

     Close on Mackelway as he returns to his Yukon satisfied. He is
     pleased with himself. Out of nowhere, a firm hand grasps his
     right shoulder stopping him.

     Mackelway turns abruptly, finding himself sandwiched between
     his Yukon and Charlton, who is now in his face.

                          CHARLTON
                Listen to me Cowboy. You have any idea
                the kind of favors I had to pull with the
                Abilene cops to cover your ass?!

                          MACKELWAY
                Sir...

                          CHARLTON
                    (not allowing him to talk)
                Breaking and ENTERING the Speck house
                without a shred of evidence and NO
                WARRANT?!

                          MACKELWAY
                    (not going down without a
                     fight)
                The sample I took from Speck's bumper...
                It's crystallized sulfuric acid mixed with
                oil of Clove, the clove neutralizes the
                odor of the acid.

     Charlton shakes his head, he is not getting through.

                          MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                It was SPECK not his killer who was
                hiding something.

                          CHARLTON
                Ever ask yourself why a big shot agent
                from Dallas gets sent down to the
                Wichita Falls Field Office? I'll give
                you TWO WORDS... Hell I'll even write it
                down for ya.

     Charlton leans in to emphasize his point. He pulls out a pad
     and pencil from his breast pocket and writes what he says using
     Mackelway's chest as support. It's humiliating.

                          CHARLTON (CONT'D)
                "EVIDENTIARY PROCEDURE." Don't talk about
                it. Learn it.

                                                                 62.


      Those words just hang there, haunting Mackelway. Charlton
      tears off the sheet with those two words and stuffs them into
      Mackelway's hand.

                           CHARLTON (CONT'D)
                 Turns out you were right about this guy.
                 You were right about both of them. But
                 that doesn't change the fact that you
                 went about your business like a rookie.
                 Got it?

      Charlton turns, the buzz of a street lamp breaks the silence
      throwing a circle of light around the Yukon. Mackelway watches
      as Charlton puts on his headlights and drives away.

      A sudden gust of wind tears that piece of paper out of
      Mackelway's hand, he stares at it, as it disappears into
      darkness.

103   INT. FBI OFFICE - THE O'RYAN ROOM - EVENING                      103

      Everything yet known about the murders of Speck, Fulcher, and
      Starkey fills the wall space in here:

      We see O'Ryan's MAP: All those yellow pins... and the one blue
      one, (Greenville, Tx.) Also, that DRAWING: of the ghastly
      Ziploc bags inside a steamer trunk. Damn thing seems prescient
      now.

      Agents mill about, awaiting a conference.

                           GRIEVES
                     (passing by)
                 Nice job, Mack.

                           MACKELWAY
                 Thanks.

      A few OTHER AGENTS also pat him on the back. Fran's proud of
      him too - we can see it. In fact everyone in here seems to be
      giving Mackelway his due. It all feels good.

      Charlton enters.

                           CHARLTON
                 Seated please.

      The agents find seats around the table. Charlton takes his
      place at the head of it.

                                                                 63.


                           CHARLTON (CONT'D)
                     (to the assembled:)
                 Okay. We've got a serial killer of serial
                 killers.

      Fran scribbles something on a piece of paper: "What a genius!"
      Slides it over. Mackelway conceals the note, as:

                           CHARLTON (CONT'D)
                     (still grand-standing)
                 He's a transient with a history of mental
                 illness. He also happens to think he's a
                 former agent of this Bureau. And he is
                 pursuing something that he calls "Suspect
                 Zero." Anybody got anything intelligent
                 to say?

      Nobody's volunteering.   There's just silence.

                           CHARLTON (CONT'D)
                     (familiar refrain)
                 That's what I thought...

                                                       CUT TO:

104   OMIT                                                             104

105   EXT. WICHITA FALLS FBI OFFICE - PARKING LOT - NIGHT              105

      Mackelway exits the office, heading for his Yukon.

      Then he stops... because Katie is waiting out here, leaning
      against her Toyota Camry.

                           MACKELWAY
                     (fondly)
                 Hey.

                           KATIE
                 Somethin', huh? Guy with a wife and kids
                 keepin' bodies in his attic?

      He nods... but what is she doing out here?

                           MACKELWAY
                 Yeah.
                     (a beat)
                 You okay?

                           KATIE
                 Yeah. Just... Wondered if you could do me
                 a favor.

                                                                  64.


      Mackelway waits... as Katie hands over a manila envelope.
      Mackelway opens it.

      Inside, a photo of a heartbreakingly-sweet 22 year-old girl
      named KAREN SUMPTER, with an attached sheet listing her
      vitals: height, weight, age, etc.

      Another face. Another disappearance...

                            KATIE (CONT'D)
                 Her name's Karen Sumpter. We were
                 friends.
                     (almost reluctantly)
                 She disappeared last year. Nobody knows
                 where. She was a little wild, but not
                 like that.

      Her sadness is obvious. Mackelway nods.

                           KATIE (CONT'D)
                 Anyway, I know you're gonna be in on the
                 autopsies - of the girls they found over
                 at Speck's. Figured you might see if one
                 of 'em was...

      Her voice trails off. This is hard.

                           KATIE (CONT'D)
                 If it is, I'd like to be the one to
                 notify her folks. Out families've been
                 friends for years.

                           MACKELWAY
                     (gently)
                 Sure. Of course.

                           KATIE
                 Thanks... 'Night.

      Mackelway puts the envelope under his arm. She starts up the
      Camry. The sky rumbles. He eyes her.

      For some reason, she hasn't pulled away yet...

                                                 SMASH CUT TO:

106   INT. KATIE'S BEDROOM - NIGHT                                      106

      Candles. Shadows on the wall...and Mackelway and Katie, at it
      again, with the sounds of that eery Navajo CHANTING coming
      from the boom-box.

                                                                 65.


      Mackelway is studying her, staring into her eyes, her
      breathing. She's beginning to climax now... and those eyes go
      wider. We MOVE INTO THEM, and:

      We are abruptly SLAMMED, again, INTO ANOTHER SET OF THOSE ODD,
      DISJOINTED IMAGES from that unidentified place:

107   EXT. DARKNESS - UNIDENTIFIED TIME - NIGHT                        107

      Wet wind in a blur of gray. The sound of our own heavy
      breathing. A voice rising above the wind, pleading:

                             (O.S.)
                 Please...

108   INT. KATIE'S BEDROOM - RESUMING                                  108

      She is utterly lost now. And that CHANTING seems to have
      gotten louder somehow.

      IMAGES FLICK at us now: culled from that BOOK on TRIBAL RITUAL
      AND TRANCE, found at the halfway house: a TRIBESMAN with eyes
      rolling back in his head, foaming at the mouth.

      Mackelway tries to shake it off, tries to keep his focus on
      Katie. He buries his head into her neck, as:

109   EXT. WHEAT FIELD - NIGHT                                         109

      Tall wheat, wet wind. Then a MUZZLE FLASH, and a body slumping
      to the ground. And suddenly we are in:

110   INT. ANOTHER UNIDENTIFIED MOTEL ROOM - DENTON, TEXAS - NIGHT 110

      O'Ryan, at a desk. He has just "remote viewed" these images
      somehow. And they've left him rattled.

      It's time to get out of this room. Quickly.

                                                       CUT TO:

111   EXT. ROAD - DENTON, TEXAS - SAME (NIGHT)                         111

      A stolen, non-descript CHEVY pulls out of a motel room parking
      lot, on to the street.

112   INT. STOLEN CAR - DRIVING - CONTINUING                           112

      O'Ryan is behind the wheel, driving.

                                                                  66.


113   INT. STOLEN CAR - DRIVING - MOMENTS LATER (DUSK)                  113

      The radio is BLASTING - anything to shake those images out of
      his head. Driving, unsettled... which may be why he doesn't
      notice that there's a SIREN wailing behind him.

      He looks in the rear-view. A TEXAS STATE TROOPER is on his
      tail. Shit. O'Ryan tightens, pulling over...

114   INT./EXT. STOLEN CAR - ROADSIDE - CONTINUING                      114

      The TROOPER approaches, noting the condition of the vehicle.
      He stands before O'Ryan's window. O'Ryan's face reveals no
      evidence at all of anxiety.

                            TROOPER
                 Evening.

                           O'RYAN
                 Evening, Officer.

                           TROOPER
                 See your license, Sir?

                           O'RYAN
                 'Course. Is there a problem?

      O'Ryan reaches into his back pocket, produces an I.D. Hands it
      over.

      Trooper eyes it. According to this i.d., we are now staring at
      "James Garvey" from Littleton, Colorado. But the Trooper
      doesn't seem too convinced.

                           TROOPER
                 See your registration, please?

                            O'RYAN
                 Sure.

      O'Ryan opens up the glove compartment, starts searching
      through it. But it's a stall, that's obvious.

                           TROOPER
                 Mind stepping out of the car, please?

      O'Ryan pauses. There is no way in hell he's going to let
      himself get deterred by a State Trooper. But he gets out.

115   EXT. ROADSIDE - CONTINUING                                        115

      Trooper eyes him with caution. O'Ryan holds his hands in front
      of his chest, keeping them visible to the guy.

                                                         67.


                     O'RYAN
           Officer, I am carrying something that
           could be construed as a weapon. I'd like
           to hand it over, voluntarily, so you
           won't think I'm trying to conceal
           anything. Would that be all right?

                     TROOPER
           What kind of weapon, Sir?

                     O'RYAN
           It's a hunting knife, right here on my
           hip.

Trooper notes the shape of that large, sheathed KNIFE - the
one O'Ryan butchered Starkey with - visible beneath O'Ryan's
shirt.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           I was on my way to the woods. My gear's
           in the trunk.
               (Trooper doubts it)
           Would you like me to hand it to you? I
           don't know what the procedure is for
           something like this.

                     TROOPER
           Take the weapon off your hip, place it on
           the ground, and kick it toward me.

                       O'RYAN
           Happy to.

O'Ryan takes the knife off his hip. The size of it gets some
attention from the Trooper.

                     TROOPER
           What exactly were you planning on
           hunting, Sir?

                     O'RYAN
           A fifty-foot shark.

No reply. O'Ryan drops the menacing knife to the ground and
kicks it toward the Trooper.

Trooper, slowly, kneels down to get it - never taking his eyes
off O'Ryan.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Ya know, I used to be in law enforcement
           too.

                                                                  68.


                           TROOPER
                     (kneeling)
                 That right?

                            O'RYAN
                 Mmm-hmmm. FBI. 'Course this was some
                 years ago.

      Trooper grabs the knife, straightens. Examines it.

                           O'RYAN (CONT'D)
                 Psy Ops. Classified.

                           TROOPER
                 Had anything to drink tonight, Sir? Under
                 medication of any kind?

      An 18-WHEEL TRUCK rumbles by, distracting O'Ryan... rendering
      him immobile for a moment.

                           TROOPER (CONT'D)
                 Sir?

                           O'RYAN
                 Oh. Sorry. Just found myself wondering
                 what was inside that truck.

                           TROOPER
                 Sir, I'm going to ask you to hand me the
                 keys to your vehicle, please.

                           O'RYAN
                 Of course.

      O'Ryan opens the car door. We steal a look INSIDE.

      ...he's got a GUN under the front seat.

      In a flash, that gun is in his hands and pointing right at the
      forehead of that Trooper.

      Trooper knows he's been had. And he knows that he's about to
      die...

                                                        CUT TO:

116   OMIT                                                              116

117   EXT. MACKELWAY'S APARTMENT - DOORWAY - EVENING                    117

      Mackelway approaches, carrying a greasy bag: another Frito Pie
      and a soda. Fumbles with his keys... Then he notices
      something, waiting on his doorstep.

                                                               69.


      It's a thick FILE, roughly 150 pages, in a FOLDER. The word
      "MACKELWAY" is written across the front.

      He leans down, opens the folder. The light is spotty out
      here... but it's just strong enough to show us the expression
      on his face: a look of pure awe.

118   INT. MACKELWAY'S APARTMENT - ENTRY - CONTINUING                118

      The door bursts open. The greasy bag and the soda fall to the
      floor. Mackelway hurries to a phone, clutching that file. He
      dials hurriedly.

119   INTERCUT WITH/INT. FRAN'S CAR - SAME                           119

      We're in a PARKING LOT outside a WAL-MART. Fran's just thrown
      a bag into her Ford Taurus. Her CEL-PHONE RINGS. She grabs it.

                           FRAN (INTO CEL)
                 Kulok.

                           MACKELWAY (INTO PHONE)
                 He really was FBI.

                           FRAN
                 Huh?

                           MACKELWAY
                 O'Ryan. He left his file on my doorstep.
                 Fran, he was FBI.

      He can barely believe it himself, but we get a look at what
      was in that file now; PAGES are splayed across Mackelway's
      coffee table:

      A copy of an FBI I.D. BADGE, xeroxed memoes, test scores,
      citations, evaluations, reports. The entire career of Special
      Agent Benjamin O'Ryan... in black and white.

                          FRAN
                That's impossible.

                          MACKELWAY
                I'm look at his whole history!
                Citations, letters of commendation, even
                his fucking test scores from Quantico.
                The guy was an agent.

                          FRAN
                I don't believe it.

                          MACKELWAY
                Listen to me--

                                                         70.


Then we hear a BEEP. Call-Waiting. Great.

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Shit! Hold on.

That irritated her. Mackelway clicks over.

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Yes?

                     O'RYAN (THRU PHONE)
           Read anything interesting lately?

Mackelway's eyes go wide.

                     MACKELWAY
           Where are you?

CLICK. O'Ryan's just hung up.

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Shit!

He stares at the phone, then clicks over again, re-connecting
to Fran.

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           That was him.

                     FRAN
           He called you at home?

                     MACKELWAY
           Yes.

BEEP. Call-Waiting again.

                     FRAN
           Jesus. Call me back.

Mackelway clicks over again without saying goodbye.

                     MACKELWAY (INTO PHONE)
           O'Ryan?

                     O'RYAN (THRU PHONE)
           I've found him, you know.

                     MACKELWAY
           Who?

                     O'RYAN
           Zero.

                                                          71.


                     MACKELWAY
           Zero's a myth. You made him up.

                     O'RYAN
           Myths don't kidnap little boys. Do they?

                     MACKELWAY
           Do you?

Sounds like O'Ryan just laughed... Then, another curve:

                     O'RYAN
           Was she pretty?

                     MACKELWAY
           Huh?

                     O'RYAN
           I could hear her moaning, right under the
           Navajo chanting. Whole thing was
           downright tribal. What's she look like?

That was unsettling. Very. Mackelway looks around feeling
violated, feeling "watched." He draws the blinds. Double bolts
the front door. Runs his hand under the window frame for any
kind of wire tapping.

But Mackelway won't allow himself to over-react. Not now, with
O'Ryan on the phone.

                     MACKELWAY
               (calmly)
           You tell me.

O'Ryan laughs. He liked that.

                     O'RYAN
           Fair enough. We'll stick to business:
           How'd ya like my old room?

                     MACKELWAY
           Huh?

                     O'RYAN
           "Hope House." You were there.

How the hell did he know that? It's unsettling.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Dyson re-paint it?
               (no reply)
           My room. Did he re-paint it?

                                                                  72.

                           MACKELWAY
                 Yeah. White.

                           O'RYAN
                 ...But you saw what was underneath, of
                 course.

                           MACKELWAY
                 No. Tell me about it.

                           O'RYAN
                 No. You tell me.

      CLICK. O'Ryan just hung up. Mackelway stares at the phone.

                                                        CUT TO:

120   INT. HOPE HOUSE - FOYER - NIGHT (9 P.M.)                          120

      More rain falls outside. Lightning too. Mackelway waits here.
      Piper's in his usual spot in front of the TV. Dyson descends
      the stairs, a bit testy tonight.

                           DYSON
                 Welcome back.

      That had some edge. Mackelway doesn't reply.

                                                        CUT TO:

121   INT. HOPE HOUSE - O'RYAN'S FORMER ROOM/HALLWAY - NIGHT            121

      Mackelway stands in the center of this room, Dyson in the
      doorway. That SINGER down the hall is at it again, off-key as
      ever. Tonight it's the "Gilligan's Island" theme-song.

                           DYSON
                 I'll be in my office.

      Dyson backs away, leaving the door ajar.

      Now Mackelway is alone - eyeing the tiny bed, sink, window,
      the leaky ceiling, the bucket, the peeling paint. This room is
      heaving with energy...

      He sits on the bed, checks his watch. 9:05 p.m.

      Opposite this bed is that WALL, re-painted in industrial
      white, with the hint of a shape underneath. It's what
      Mackelway's come here to investigate. INTERCUT WITH...

                                                                 73.


122   INT. MOTEL ROOM - DENTON, TEXAS - SAME                           122

      O'Ryan sits at a desk: eyes closed, writing pad at his wrist.
      On it, more of those unidentifiable lines become visible to
      us. They're called IDEOGRAMS.

      He holds the point of his pen down upon one of them, as if
      receiving information from it, and we jump back into:

123   INT. HOPE HOUSE - O'RYAN'S FORMER ROOM - RESUMING                123

      Mackelway. Sitting. Staring. Outside this room we hear that
      awful, toneless singing as it fills the hallway.

      Mackelway rises, approaching that re-painted wall. He pulls
      out his keys. Checks to see that no one's watching.

124   INT. MOTEL ROOM - DENTON, TEXAS - RESUMING                       124

      O'Ryan, his pen on that pad, his concentration total.

125   INT. HOPE HOUSE - O'RYAN'S FORMER ROOM - RESUMING                125

      We hear the singing, the TV, the rain, that bucket collecting
      drips. Semi-darkness... until MORE LIGHTNING throws a burst of
      white light against that wall.

      A faint shape becomes visible, just beneath the white paint.
      Then it vanishes again.

      Using his keys, he begins to scratch away at the white paint.
      It's an irrational thing to do - but in the context of the
      last few days it makes an odd kind of sense.

      Instantly, a hint of BLACK can be seen underneath...

126   INT. MOTEL ROOM - DENTON, TEXAS - RESUMING                       126

      O'Ryan, at that desk. Outside, he can hear an 18-WHEEL TRUCK
      rumble by. He doesn't allow it to distract him.

127   INT. HOPE HOUSE - O'RYAN'S FORMER ROOM - RESUMING                127

      Mackelway scratches more of the white paint off of that wall.
      More BLACKNESS appears beneath it. Then, a SOUND behind him.
      He turns.

      The door to this room just SHUT; someone outside must've
      pushed it. He keeps scratching at the paint.

      LIGHTNING rages outside. We PULL BACK, away from that wall,
      which gives us the opportunity to see something that Mackelway
      is too close to the wall to see for himself:

                                                                  74.


      There is indeed an image beneath that thin coat of white
      paint. It is the shape of a vast, black WAVE. A hand-painted
      image as large as this wall itself.

      Mackelway seems tiny by comparison, and the mere inch of black
      that he has uncovered so far seems infinitesimal.

      In fact, it almost look as if the wave is poised to swallow
      him whole... and he can't even see it.

      But we can. Must've taken O'Ryan days to paint something this
      large. A vast, black wave. Evil itself...

      And Mackelway, without meaning to, is about to unleash it.

128   INT. MOTEL ROOM - DENTON, TEXAS - RESUMING                        128

      O'Ryan, somehow, seems to be sensing what is going on in that
      room. Or maybe he's just feeling the power of that wave, from
      memory. Or maybe he's just plain crazy.

      But he and Mackelway, on some unspoken psychic level, are
      feeding one another...

129   INT. HOPE HOUSE - O'RYAN'S FORMER ROOM - RESUMING                 129

      Mackelway chips away at that white paint, moving rapidly,
      revealing more of the blackness underneath. We PUSH IN on it,
      moving past Mackelway and his frantic scraping.

      Then we're beneath that thin coat of white, and:

130   INT. INSIDE THE BLACK WAVE - UNDETERMINED TIME                    130

      Somehow, we've submerged into the wave itself. A black, tidal
      force of nature.

      And it is MOVING. Alive. We hear the SOUNDS of it: a sucking,
      a yawning, as if a tide were drawing back just before
      exploding forward.

      The sounds blend in with the wind, the rain, the drops in that
      bucket... Evil itself, on the move, gathering might. And we're
      along for the ride...

      The wave begins to roll forward now as if shot from a cannon.
      It is massive, powerful, dark. And we're right on its forward
      edge, as if surfing it somehow.

131   INT. MOTEL ROOM - DENTON, TEXAS - RESUMING                        131

      O'Ryan reacts. Something just changed:

                                                                  75.


132   INT. INSIDE THE BLACK WAVE - RESUMING                             132

      The wave is rushing us forward with this speed and power of a
      tsunami.

      ...which is when we hear the laughter of a LITTLE BOY.

133   INT. MOTEL ROOM - DENTON, TEXAS - RESUMING                        133

      O'Ryan just heard it too. Then new images come at him - but
      they are, at first, GRAINY, CHOPPY...

134   EXT. UNIDENTIFIED PLAY AREA - SAME                                134

      The sounds of that wave become fainter, receding to the
      background, giving way to that sound of laughter, and the
      squeaking of a PLAY-SET SWING.

      Like an old tv slowly gaining reception, the image takes a
      moment to crystallize before us. But then it sharpens:

      We're in the PLAY AREA of a TRUCK-STOP DINER, but it feels
      like we're looking at it through a broken lens. The images
      appear SPHERICAL to us, surrounded by darkness.

      Before us a 5-year old plays on a swing. Call him CHARLIE.

135   INT. HOPE HOUSE - O'RYAN'S FORMER ROOM - RESUMING                 135

      Mackelway has scraped away more of the white paint now -
      enough to see the outline of the front edge of the black wave,
      its lip. He continues.

136   INT. MOTEL ROOM - DENTON, TEXAS - RESUMING                        136

      O'Ryan tightens. We can't tell if he experiencing something
      from the past, the present, the future...

137   EXT. PLAY-AREA - RESUMING                                         137

      We WHIP AROUND quickly, getting a look into the diner itself.
      There, through a window, we see a WOMAN, presumably Charlie's
      mother. Her name's KATHLEEN, 40.

      Kathleen has her back turned to us, because she's busy
      diapering her nine month-old BABY at a table.

138   INT. MOTEL ROOM - DENTON, TEXAS - RESUMING                        138

      O'Ryan, at his desk, seems to be getting all of this. And it
      is agitating him. There's perspiration on his forehead.

                                                               76.


139   EXT. PLAY AREA - RESUMING                                      139

      The sound of that wave is still a presence. Charlie looks up
      at us as he swings. His smile is pure, genuine.

      We whip around for another look at Kathleen. She's still busy
      with that diaper. Then we look back to Charlie.

140   INT. MOTEL ROOM - RESUMING                                     140

      O'Ryan keeps his eyes shut, his focus total... but every part
      of him is becoming tense.

141   INT. HOPE HOUSE - O'RYAN'S FORMER ROOM - RESUMING              141

      Mackelway is beginning to perspire from the effort. More of
      that wave is visible to him. But he doesn't step back to take
      that in.

142   EXT. PLAY AREA - RESUMING                                      142

      That swing is now EMPTY, dangling gently. And we're running
      we know not where.

143   INT. MOTEL ROOM - RESUMING                                     143

      O'Ryan's foot starts to tap: anxiousness, discomfort.

144   EXT. PLAY AREA - RESUMING                                      144

      We run... toward a PARKING LOT. But we do so smoothly, without
      effort, as if being carried by that relentless black wave.

      Then, ANOTHER SOUND bleeds in. The BANGING of the Diner's back
      door, which leads on to that Play Area.

      And we hear a horrified yell:

                           KATHLEEN (O.S.)
                 Charlie?! Charlie, where are you, Honey?!
                     (fainter)
                 Charlie?! Honey, are you out here?!

      The sound begins to break up as if on a bad radio, being taken
      over by the sounds of that awful WAVE...

145   INT. HOPE HOUSE - O'RYAN'S FORMER ROOM - RESUMING              145

      Mackelway suddenly stops... as if some electric charge had
      just shot through him, short-circuiting him into stillness. He
      begins to step away from the wall.

                                                                  77.


146   INT. MOTEL ROOM - RESUMING                                        146

      O'Ryan has lost the "pulse" - the connection that had allowed
      him inside what we just witnessed.

      He rises, hurrying into a tiny bathroom. We STAY ON THAT
      WRITING PAD, trying to decipher these lines and squiggles -
      the ideograms - as we hear the sounds of O'Ryan, retching.

147   INT. HOPE HOUSE - O'RYAN'S FORMER ROOM - RESUMING                 147

      Mackelway sits on the bed, looking at what he's just
      uncovered. An awesome sight. His head is pounding worse than
      ever... so he reaches for the Vicoden.

148   EXT. PLAY-AREA - RESUMING                                         148

      We've stepped out of that SUBJECTIVE POV now. Kathleen grabs
      her infant, distraught, as another massive 18-WHEEL TRUCK
      blows by us in the distance...

149   INT. MOTEL ROOM - DENTON, TEXAS - RESUMING                        149

      O'Ryan washes his face, eyes his reflection in the mirror,
      scrutinizing himself.

150   INT. HOPE HOUSE - O'RYAN'S FORMER ROOM - RESUMING                 150

      On the wall opposite Mackelway, that huge black wave is now
      entirely visible to him. Bits of chipped white paint litter
      the floor.

      A vast black wave. It fills the whole wall...

      Mackelway eyes his watch. It's one o'clock in the morning.
      He's been in here for four hours. That seems impossible.

                                                        CUT TO:

      ...a box, slamming down hard on a desk. We are:

151   INT. FBI OFFICE - O'RYAN ROOM - LATE NIGHT                        151

      2:30 a.m. Mackelway is in here by himself, angry. He reaches
      into that box. Inside? More pins. BLACK ONES. He crosses to
      the map.

152   CLOSE-UP: MACKELWAY                                               152

      He starts pulling out the YELLOW PINS we've grown accustomed
      to seeing on this map, replacing them with the BLACK ONES,
      tossing the discards onto the floor.

                                                                  78.


153   A SERIES OF DISSOLVES                                             153

      ...as Mackelway replaces pin after pin.

      ...Mackelway's face, as he backs away from that huge map.

154   INT. FBI OFFICE - O'RYAN ROOM - LATER NIGHT                       154

      Ten minutes have passed, but Mackelway has seen a revelation.
      We can read it on his face.

      He eyes the map... which has now been stuck with over 1,000
      BLACK PINS, one for each city with a HAVE YOU SEEN ME to its
      credit.

      And those black pins, seen from a distance, form a pattern we
      weren't expecting - something that never quite took shape when
      the pins were yellow.

      Looks like a big black WAVE. And that's just what it is.

      1,000 black dots conspiring to form the same exact shape that
      O'Ryan had painted onto the wall of his room - a massive wave
      of darkness, gathering strength.

      But this black wave is consuming America...

      Mackelway stares at it: awed, even a bit frightened. The thing
      seems vast, unstoppable... A black wave - pure malevolence,
      covering the states like a fog.

      One blue dot lies in its center: that blue pin, in the heart
      of Greenville, Texas. Then, piercing the silence:

                           CHARLTON (O.S.)
                 Got one of those pins in Denton yet?

      Mackelway turns. Charlton leans in the doorway.
                           CHARLTON (CONT'D)
                 O'Ryan was spotted there tonight. Took a
                 squad-car and a side-arm from a State
                 Trooper. 'Bout an hour later a five-year
                 old boy was abducted, roughly a mile up
                 the Interstate.

      It's 3 a.m. What's this guy doing here?

                           CHARLTON (CONT'D)
                 The vehicle was found in an abandoned
                 lot. We're establishing a perimeter
                 around the city now.

                                                         79.

                     MACKELWAY
               (knows already)
           But the Trooper wasn't hurt...

                     CHARLTON
           What makes you so sure?

                     MACKELWAY
           Professional courtesy.

Charlton's at a loss... until Mackelway gestures to the table,
where he has laid out O'Ryan's entire FBI File. Every memo,
citation, letter, i.d. picture. 150 pages.

Charlton eyes it, calmly. He's not going to let his jaw drop,
not with Mackelway watching. So he just nods.

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Is that... possible, Sir? An agent can
           just be deleted?

                     CHARLTON
           Looks like it.

 Mackelway pauses. It's a depressing reality...

                     MACKELWAY
           I couldn't understand it before - pushing
           Speck's car onto the state line. Makes
           sense now. He wanted to make the case
           Federal. He's drawing us in.

                     CHARLTON
           Why would he do that?

                     MACKELWAY
           So we'd be paying attention when he found
           Suspect Zero.

                     CHARLTON
           Ya know what? I'm getting extremely tired
           of hearing that word. In fact, that's
           gonna be policy from now on. No Zero.
                     MACKELWAY
           Sir, profile the guy. He's straight outta
           Quantico. All he's doing is working a
           case, like we would. He's not kidnapping
           little kids - he's chasing the guy who's
           doing the kidnapping! Look at the map!

                                                       80.


                     CHARLTON
           What're you saying - that all these
           abductions are the work of one guy? Do
           you know how fucking insane that is?!
               (over Mackelway)
           Not let's try something that actually
           makes sense: He sends in these faxes,
           picks off three scumbags. For what?! So
           we'll think exactly what you're thinking
           right now - that we've got a friend out
           there, somebody willing to take out the
           garbage for the rest of us. And it's all
           horse-shit!

                     MACKELWAY
           What if it isn't? What if there really is
           a Zero out there and O'Ryan's the one guy
           who's got a shot at him?

                     CHARLTON
               (just blew his top)
           Fuck's sake, Mackelway - when did you
           start buying into this guy?!

A beat. Mackelway lets the silence hover.

                     MACKELWAY
               (quietly)
           He's smarter than we are.

                     CHARLTON
           Speak for yourself.

Charlton heads for the door.

                      MACKELWAY
           Sir? What if I told you I knew how to
           catch him?

Charlton stops. Turns.

                     CHARLTON
           Do you?

                     MACKELWAY
           And what if I told you that the way I'd
           catch him involved sitting in a dark
           room, with nothing in front of me but a
           pad of paper... until I'd tapped into
           some kind of... energy out there. The
           collective unconscious. Something. If I
           told you I thought I could target and
                     (MORE)

                                                            81.


                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           locate him, without ever leaving this
           building, what would you say?

                     CHARLTON
           I'd say you'd watched too many "X-Files."

                     MACKELWAY
           Y'ever heard of a project called
           "Icarus," Sir?

                     CHARLTON
           No.

Mackelway tosses over a few pages from O'Ryan's file.

                     MACKELWAY
           Agents, trained to "see" distant
           locations using nothing but the mind.
           They called it Remote Viewing.

Charlton eyes the pages without comment.

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Army stole it from the Soviets. The
           Bureau stole it from the Army - used it
           to track serial killers.
               (a beat)
           Experimental program. O'Ryan was the
           first agent they recruited.

                     CHARLTON
           Good for him.

                     MACKELWAY
           Voodoo, right? Pure Bullshit.
               (Charlton's waiting)
           ...except, it worked. It's how he drew
           this:
Mackelway's referring to that DRAWING: a steamer-trunk, filled
with ghastly Ziploc bags:

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           He'd never been in that house before. He
           just saw what was in there - the Bureau
           taught him how... same one that deleted
           him. Same one that's trying to catch him
           now... Does anything about all this
           strike you as odd?

Charlton studies him, a long beat, measuring him... Then:

                                                                  82.


                           CHARLTON
                 I'm going to Denton at Oh-Six-Hundred.
                 You can take the day off.

      With that, he's gone - leaving Mackelway alone in here.
      Nothing to look at but that black wave... He hears Charlton,
      leaving the building.

      He slams another Vicoden, then hears a PHONE RING. Fuck it.
      He's not moving. Let Voice Mail get it.

      ...until he hears the sound of a FAX coming in.

      He rises. Follow him:

155   INT. FBI OFFICE - CUBICLES - CONTINUING                           155

      Mackelway hurries through the office, as the sound of that fax
      grows louder.

156   INT. "FAX ROOM" - CONTINUING                                      156

      He enters. The fax has spun out a single sheet. No top-sheet.
      That's odd...

      But here's another face, another victim, with the customary
      HAVE YOU SEEN ME? across the top.

      A young African-American boy: "Lloyd Simms, Age 9. Ht. 4'10",
      Wt. 67 lbs. Last Seen: Greenville, Texas. Date of
      Disappearance: 10-26-99."

      That's it. One face. The transmission ends. Mackelway eyes
      those vitals. They mean something. Greenville...

157   INT. FBI OFFICE - O'RYAN'S ROOM - RESUMING                        157

      He re-enters, and approaches that huge MAP. There's that wave
      of black pins, with the one BLUE PIN in its center;
      Greenville, with a "10-26" written beside it.

      Mackelway pulls out the lone blue pin, replaces it with a
      black one. Now the wave is complete. All black...

                                                        CUT TO:

158   INT. 18-WHEELER - CAB - MOVING - NIGHT                            158

      We've seen this truck before - several times in fact. It
      rumbles along the highway. We don't see who's driving, but we
      do see who's in the passenger seat:

                                                                 83.


      It's Charlie, five years-old, whose abduction we just
      witnessed. He sleeps fitfully.

      A MAN'S HAND can be seen, edging into frame - the DRIVER. He
      picks up a CASSETE, shoves it into the tape deck.

      And out comes the sound of "Barney the Dinosaur."

                           BARNEY (THRU DASHBOARD STEREO)
                 Oh silly songs get sillier/When you hear
                 them once again/And maybe you're hearing
                 an echo/Or maybe it's only a friend!

      The truck continues to rumble along.

                                                       CUT TO:

159   INT. FBI OFFICE - OUTSIDE THE O'RYAN ROOM - MORNING        159

      6 a.m. Fran pauses outside the O'Ryan Room... where Mackelway
      sleeps on a chair. Poor guy was here all night.

      She regards him... then her eyes find that MAP, and the gaping
      black wave across it. A horrible image...

      She studies Mackelway again, almost tenderly, until:

                           CHARLTON (O.S.)
                 Does he listen to you?

      She turns, startled. Here's Charlton, right behind her. And
      she's been caught... watching Mackelway sleep.

                           FRAN
                 I'm sorry?

                           CHARLTON
                 It's not a strength of his. I'm noticing
                 that lately.

      Truth is, she doesn't like Charlton. Or trust him...

                           FRAN
                 He's fine.

                           CHARLTON
                 I'm not so sure.
                     (a beat)
                 You oughtta sit him down, remind him how
                 a chain-of-command works.

                           FRAN
                 He's fine, Sir.

                                                               84.


                           CHARLTON
                 Talk to him.

      With that, he's gone. Fran watches as he heads for the Front
      Door... and exits.

      She looks back to Mackelway. He awakens with a start. Thinking
      no one's watching, he pops another Vicoden.

160   INT. O'RYAN ROOM - CONTINUING                                  160

      Fran enters, feeling slightly dirty from that exchange.
      Mackelway checks his watch as a few AGENTS exit the suite.

                           MACKELWAY
                 They going to Denton?

                             FRAN
                 Mmm-hmm.

                           MACKELWAY
                 But not you?

                           FRAN
                 Sitting in on two autopsies.

                             MACKELWAY
                 Oh.

      He rises. Heads for the door, stiff. She looks at those O'Ryan
      FBI DOCUMENTS NOW - her first time seeing them...

                             FRAN
                 You okay?

                             MACKELWAY
                 Yeah. Why?

                             FRAN
                 Nothing.

      She leaves it at that. He's about to exit, when:

                           MACKELWAY
                 Are they male or female?

                             FRAN
                 Huh?

                           MACKELWAY
                 The autopsies.

                                                           85.


                     FRAN
           Females - Logan, Utah; and Decatur,
           Alabama.

(Neither city is represented with black pins on that map.)

She slides over a packet of PHOTOS: two FEMALE VICTIMS,
photographed in separate morgues - face up, face down, waist
and above, waist and below, etc.

Mackelway eyes them, then leaves the room. We STAY WITH
FRAN... taking in that O'Ryan FBI file. It troubles her.

Mackelway returns, carrying the 9-by-12 envelope that Katie
gave to him.

                     FRAN (CONT'D)
               (re: O'Ryan's file)
           So is this what happens when an agent
           spins out? He gets deleted?

                     MACKELWAY
           Sometimes. The lucky ones get sent to
           Wichita Falls.

She breathes out an ironic laugh. He hands over the envelope,
opens it. Inside: that photo of Karen Sumpter. Mackelway
didn't pay much attention to it before.

Fran eyes the photo, then the vitals.

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Friend of the Receptionist, missing for
           about a year now. I told her I'd let her
           know if the body ever turned up.

Fran doesn't look up from the photo.

                     FRAN
           The Receptionist.

                     MACKELWAY
           Her name's Katie.

She half-smiles: "You mean the one you've been fucking?" He
shrugs, confirming nothing - wishing Fran weren't quite so
smart. She puts the photo back into the envelope.

                     FRAN
           I see you got the blue pin out of
           Greenville.

                                                          86.


                     MACKELWAY
           Yeah. Last night. Kid named Simms.

That confused her.

                     FRAN
               (re: Sumpter)
           No. I meant her. The girl.

That confused him.

                     MACKELWAY
           What're you talking about?

                     FRAN
           Did ya look at her vitals?

She hands him the material on Karen Sumpter.

                     FRAN (CONT'D)
           Greenville, Texas. October 26.

He grabs the material, looks at it for the first time:

"Karen Sumpter, Age 25. Ht. 5'6", Wt. 110. Eyes Blu, Hair
Blnd. Last Seen: Greenville, Tx. Date of Disappearance: 10-26-
00."

Mackelway looks to the Conference Table - that huge stack of
faxes, all those helpless faces.

The one on top is the one that came in last night: Lloyd
Simms, Age 9. Ht. 4'10", Wt. 67 lbs. Last Seen: Greenville,
Texas. Date of Disappearance: 10-26-99.

At last, a pattern. A break.

Mackelway grabs the Simms fax, hurries out of the room.
Nearest Agent is Grieves. Mackelway hands him the fax.

                     MACKELWAY
           Need an address on this fax line.

Grieves has done this on fifty different faxes now; it never
yields their suspect, but:

                     GRIEVES
           'Kay.

Mackelway leans back in to the O'Ryan Room.

                     MACKELWAY
           O'Ryan's in Greenville.

                                                            87.


                     FRAN
           What makes you think so?

                     MACKELWAY
           That's where Zero is.
               (Fran's a blank)
           Lloyd Simms - October 26, '99. Karen
           Sumpter - October 26, 2000. Both
           disappeared from Greenville.
               (still no reply)
           Zero comes back to the same spot, once a
           year. Today's the 25th.

                     FRAN
           Wait. When did we establish that Zero was
           real?

                     MACKELWAY
           O'Ryan thinks so.

                     FRAN
           Do you?

That's the million-dollar question, and it hangs there.

Mackelway's about to answer... when he stops himself. Just
noticing something. That MORGUE PHOTO from Logan, Utah:

There's a BURN MARK on the lower left calf of the victim.
We've seen such a mark before, on another autopsy photo.

                     MACKELWAY
           I've seen this before.

                     FRAN
           Huh?

He doesn't answer, just hurries to a thick BOX OF OTHER
AUTOPSY FILES AND PHOTOS. Starts rifling through them...

...until he finds the one we've seen before. The body from
Trenton. He extracts it. Eyes it. A confirmation...

He lays the two PHOTOS side by side. Looks to Fran.

                     MACKELWAY
           Same burn-mark.
               (she leans in)
           I saw it before but it didn't register.

Fran eyes the photos. No doubt about it - they both have the
same burn mark on the lower left calf: a symmetrical, almost
horizontal stripe across the flesh.

                                                                   88.


                           FRAN
                 He burns them?

                            MACKELWAY
                 I dunno. Almost looks too symmetrical to
                 be a burn.
                     (re: Logan victim)
                 They're autopsying her this morning?

                           FRAN
                 Yeah.

      She gets the idea: "Find out where the hell this mark on the
      leg came from." Grieves enters.

                           GRIEVES
                 Fax number traces back to a Copy Center
                 on I-30. Greenville.
                     (Mackelway eyes his watch)
                 I called. They don't open for another
                 hour.

      Mackelway looks to Fran. She's not entirely sold yet... but
      she's getting there.

                                                         CUT TO:

161   INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - DRIVING - EARLY MORNING                   161

      Mackelway plows along I-30.

      Ahead of him, one hell of an ugly STORM-FRONT seems to be
      waiting. Thick, black clouds. Mackelway's driving right into
      the teeth of them...

                                                         CUT TO:

162   EXT. "FAST-COPY" - ESTABLISHING - DAY                              162

      A copy-place, right off I-30. Mackelway's Yukon is parked in
      front.

163   INT. "FAST-COPY" - COUNTER - DAY                                   163

      Mackelway stands opposite a DAY-MANAGER: 30, harried, eyeing a
      copy of the composite drawing of O'Ryan.

                           DAY-MANAGER
                     (re: O'Ryan)
                 Naah. I never saw that guy in here.

                                                                89.


                           MACKELWAY
                 He sent a fax from this location 'bout
                 seven o'clock this morning.

                           DAY-MANAGER
                 We're closed at seven.

                           MACKELWAY
                 Are your faxes programmable? Could he
                 have paid last night to have it sent this
                 morning?

                           DAY-MANAGER
                 Sure. But that costs extra.

                           MACKELWAY
                 Were you here last night?

                           DAY-MANAGER
                 Nope. Haven't done nights since I got
                 promoted.

      Mackelway eyes the guy... then hears a CEL-PHONE ring.

                           MACKELWAY
                 'Scuse me.

      Mackelway grabs his cel, backing away from the counter.

                            MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                     (into cel)
                 Mackelway.

164   INTERCUT WITH/INT. MORGUE - SAME                                164

      Fran is at a phone, in the Morgue. The Logan Utah BODY lies on
      the table.

                           FRAN
                 It's not a burn. It's a freezer-burn.
                           MACKELWAY
                 You're sure.

                           FRAN
                 There's crystallization in the blood
                 stream. The blood never clotted in the
                 wound. It's a freezer burn... I'm having
                 the other body shipped out - the guy from
                 Trenton. We'll see if he's got the same
                 thing.

      Mackelway pauses, thinking...

                                                                   90.


                           MACKELWAY
                 So... he keeps the bodies in a freezer,
                 then buries them...?

      That was a question. He can't do any better.

                           FRAN
                 I dunno. If he kept them in a freezer
                 they'd have marks like this all over.
                 Wouldn't they?

      Mackelway nods - that made sense. Shit.

      The noise of the Interstate doesn't make things any easier. A
      huge TRUCK rumbles by. 18 wheels.

      Mackelway eyes it, absently. Then a bolt hits him:

      On the side of the truck is a trademark: "EVER-FROST." This
      truck is hauling ice cream.

      Things just began to click.

                           MACKELWAY
                 Thanks, Fran.

      He has hit "End" before she can reply. Heads to his Yukon.

      Fran eyes the phone: that was odd...

                                                         CUT TO:

165   EXT. TRUCK STOP - GREENVILLE, TX. - ESTABLISHING - NOON            165

      A huge lay-out, with a diner, rest-stop, and gas station.

166   INT. DINER - GREENVILLE - SAME                                     166

      Mackelway sits at a table by a window. Watching. FIFTY MASSIVE
      TRUCKS in this lot - some refrigerated, most not.

      This Diner is big enough to seat 200: truckers, a few
      families, and folks who just like the buffet, (gravy covers
      just about every entree.)

      Mackelway's been here for hours. A WAITRESS comes by.

                           WAITRESS
                 You want some more breakfast, Honey, or
                 are we just rollin' right on into lunch?

                                                                 91.


                           MACKELWAY
                 Just some coffee, thanks. Might hit the
                 buffet in a bit.

                           WAITRESS
                 Meatloaf's lookin' good today.

      He smiles, thanks. She turns away. That leaves him alone
      again, scanning - not even sure he's in the right place.

      CEL-PHONE RINGS. He grabs it.

                           MACKELWAY (INTO PHONE)
                 Mackelway.

167   INTERCUT WITH/INT. FRAN'S CAR - DRIVING - SAME                   167

      She's driving, talking into the cel...

                           FRAN (INTO PHONE)
                 What're you doing?

                           MACKELWAY
                 Surveilling. What're you doing?

                           FRAN
                 Driving to Greenville.

                           MACKELWAY
                     (knows already)
                 Why would you be doing that?

                           FRAN
                 I think agents are safer when they have
                 some company. I can send along Katie if
                 you'd rather.

      Mackelway laughs. He appreciates a good jab.

                           MACKELWAY
                 I'm at the truck-stop we traced. Off the
                 I-30.

                           FRAN
                 I'm 'bout a half hour out.

                           MACKELWAY
                 I'll order some lunch for you. Hear the
                 meatloaf's good today.

      She half-smiles. She likes him, despite herself.

                                                                 92.


168   DINER - MACKELWAY - RESUMING                                     168

      He half-smiles, puts the cel-phone away. He likes her, despite
      himself.

      Then a MAN passes by him, a trucker. Let's call him VIC.

      All we see as he passes is the TATTOO on his forearm: a cobra.
      Keys jingle on his belt-hook. He wears a sleeveless down vest
      and a "God Bless America" cap.

      Mackelway turns, but Vic's already past us.

      Something about him attracts Mackelway's attention. The walk,
      the attitude. Something.

      So Mackelway is watching - without really knowing why - as Vic
      crosses the parking lot, heading for his rig. It's a beast.
      Vic climbs in, unaware that he's being watched.

      Mackelway looks away, chiding himself for allowing the guy to
      distract him. That WAITRESS comes by with more coffee.
      Mackelway smiles, looking absently out the window again.

      And sees a LITTLE BOY of 5, in the cab of Vic's rig...

      But this little boy is SCREAMING, struggling to get out of his
      car-seat, until Vic grabs the kid by the shoulders, roughly...
      all of this visible through the windshield.

      Mackelway locks in on the kid. Holy shit...

      Vic's rig pulls out. The kid pounds on his window. Looks like
      he's saying "Lemme out of here! I want my Mommy!" He might be
      little Charlie - we can't tell from here.

      But we can see that Vic is yelling at him: "Shut up!"

      And we can see that Vic's truck is refrigerated. He's hauling
      dairy products.

      On a normal day, Mackelway might shrug this off as
      coincidence. He might not be so vigilant.

      This isn't a normal day. He races for the door.

169   EXT. TRUCK-STOP - PARKING LOT - MOMENTS LATER                    169

      Mackelway backs out in the Yukon, trying to keep a visual on
      Vic's truck.

      ANOTHER 18-WHEELER pulls in front of him, blocking his view
      entirely.

                                                                  93.


                           MACKELWAY
                 Dammit!

      He honks - loud - pulls around that other 18-wheeler, heading
      for the exit of the lot.

      Just spotted Vic's rig again.

170   EXT. ROAD/INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - CONTINUING                     170

      He follows Vic's rig out of the lot and onto a road
      approaching I-30. But there are three cars between them -
      Mackelway can't get a clean look at Vic's license plate.

      Vic approaches the Interstate. So do the three cars between
      them.

      Vic passes the Interstate on-ramp. The three cars turn on to
      it... putting Mackelway right on Vic's tail.

      He grabs his cel, dials. This truck has license plates from
      ten states.

                           MACKELWAY (INTO CEL)
                 This is Mackelway. I need a run down on a
                 plate. Texas: Delta-142-Romeo-Victor-
                 Alpha. Got that?

      He puts the cel down, but doesn't hang up. Vic just made a
      turn onto a VAST DIRT LOT.

      A huge BANNER overhead reads, "FOUNDERS DAY CARNIVAL!!!"

171   EXT. CARNIVAL - PARKING LOT - CONTINUING                          171

      There are several BIG-RIGS parked here, but the vast majority
      of the vehicles we see are garden-variety cars and SUV's. A
      few pick-ups.

      There are RIDES at this carnival: Pony rides, a ferris wheel,
      and a huge ring of Barbeques, each fired up and cooking. Must
      be a thousand people in attendance today.

      Vic parks his rig. Mackelway hangs back, watching:

      Vic gets out of the rig. From here we can see that that 5-year-
      old BOY is still stick in his car seat, and he is still
      screaming and flailing.

      Vic points a stern finger at the kid as if to say, "Behave or
      else." Then Vic disappears into the crowded carnival.

                                                                  94.


172   EXT. MACKELWAY - AT HIS CAR - RESUMING                            172

      He gets out of the Yukon, approaching Vic's truck. We CROSS
      THE LOT WITH HIM.

      He reaches Vic's truck, looks in the passenger window. There's
      the five year-old kid, tears streaming down his face. (We
      still can't tell if it's Charlie.)

      Mackelway reaches for the passenger-side door. It's locked. Of
      course. And he can't shoot his way in.

      He looks to the kid inside:

                           MACKELWAY
                 You okay?
                     (Kid's a blank)
                 Kid? You okay in there?

      The Kid doesn't respond - just seems spooked. Shit...
      Mackelway looks into the heart of that crowd. Vic's still
      visible to us, but he won't be for long.

                           MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                     (at the Kid)
                 I'll be back. Don't worry.

      Mackelway heads into the carnival.

173   EXT. CARNIVAL - CONTINUING                                        173

      He begins running now, past the table where ladies are selling
      TICKETS for the rides and games, past the Cotton-Candy Guy.

      Running... because we just lost sight of Vic.

      Mackelway hurries through that ring of barbeques, upsetting a
      tray or two. Then he stops. There's the ferris wheel. Was that
      Vic on the other side of it?

      Mackelway takes off.

174   EXT. FERRIS WHEEL - CONTINUING                                    174

      No Vic. But Mackelway thinks he sees the guy... heading back
      in the direction of the parking lot.

      He runs past the Pony rides, past a funhouse, past a popcorn
      machine, past those ladies selling tickets.

                                                                 95.


175   EXT. PARKING LOT - RESUMING                                      175

      He hits a bottleneck of people at the entrance. But he bursts
      through, runs into the dirt parking lot, around cars and big-
      rigs, then turns a corner and:

      ...runs smack into Benjamin O'Ryan.

      The shock is so total it takes each of them a moment to
      recover from it. But here he is. O'Ryan, five feet away.

      Mackelway's speechless, still trying to recalibrate himself. A
      second ago he was chasing a possible Zero. Now he's face to
      face with O'Ryan.

      And O'Ryan isn't running. In fact, he almost seems amused.

                           O'RYAN
                 Well, well... Must be quite a moment for
                 you. Congratulations.

      Mackelway still hasn't spoken, until:

                           MACKELWAY
                 What're you doing here?

                           O'RYAN
                 Waiting for you.

      ...which is when Mackelway realizes that he is standing right
      in front of Vic's rig.

      But he wasn't expecting what comes next:

      Vic has returned to the rig, with a WOMAN beside him. Turns
      out, she's his WIFE. Vic opens the passenger-side door,
      unclasps that five year-old kid from his seat.

                           FIVE YEAR-OLD
                 Mommy!

      The kid dives into the Woman's arms.

                           WOMAN
                 Morning, Baby!

                           VIC
                 I told you she'd be here.
                     (to Woman)
                 He's been a brat all morning.

                                                                  96.


      Mother hugs son... which means that Mackelway has misread
      things, badly.

      And O'Ryan is a witness to it - hence the grin.

                           MACKELWAY
                     (at O'Ryan)
                 Hands up.

      O'Ryan raises his hands. Mackelway reaches for his cuffs.

                                                        CUT TO:

176   EXT. CARNIVAL - PARKING LOT - MOMENTS LATER                       176

      O'Ryan's hands are cuffed in front of him. Mackelway leads him
      to the Yukon, opens a door for him, and puts him into the
      backseat. A few LOOKIE-LOU'S strain for a peek.

177   INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - CONTINUING                               177

      Mackelway gets in, hits the ignition. Reaches for his cel-
      phone. Starts to dial.

                           O'RYAN
                     (disappointed)
                 Awfully conventional - don't ya think?

      Mackelway pauses.

                           MACKELWAY
                 Huh?

                           O'RYAN
                 Apprehend the fugitive, then call it in
                 for your pat on the head.

                           MACKELWAY
                 Sorry to disappoint you.

      Mackelway continues to dial.

                            O'RYAN
                 I'll get over it.
                     (flat)
                 But I'm not too sure that little boy
                 will.

      Bang. That just stopped Mackelway, mid-dial.

                                                               97.


                           MACKELWAY
                     (minor test)
                 What little boy?

                           O'RYAN
                 The one from the Diner, in Denton.

                           MACKELWAY
                 You know where he is?

                           O'RYAN
                 I can find him.

                           MACKELWAY
                 How?

                           O'RYAN
                 Same way I found Starkey, and Speck, and
                 Fulcher... and you.

      That rang a bell.

                           O'RYAN (CONT'D)
                 I need someplace quiet - someplace I can
                 concentrate... And your assurance that
                 once he's located, we go get him
                 together.

                           MACKELWAY
                 I can't do that.

                           O'RYAN
                 Then I can't help you.

      Mackelway, disgusted, pulls out of the lot.

178   INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - DRIVING - MOMENTS LATER               178

      Through sparse traffic, heading for an Interstate on-ramp.
                          O'RYAN (CONT'D)
                I'm talking about uncompromised justice.
                No trials. No lawyers. No hiccups in a
                chain of evidence that can set a monster
                free. You of all people should be able to
                appreciate the value of that.

                          MACKELWAY
                Where's the boy?

                          O'RYAN
                I won't be doing this much longer.
                Actually, this is the end of it. I've
                          (MORE)

                                                         98.


                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           come to accept that. But there is one
           last thing to--

                     MACKELWAY
               (anger rising)
           Where's the boy, O'Ryan?

                     O'RYAN
           Do we have an understanding?

Mackelway pulls the car over, under an I-30 overpass... and
out comes his gun, pointed right at O'Ryan's forehead.

                     MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Enough of this shit. Where's the boy?

O'Ryan can't help it. He's pleased.

                     O'RYAN
           Good. This is good. Sort of thing you'd
           never find in a procedural manual. It
           tells me I was right about you.

                     MACKELWAY
               (cocking the hammer)
           I will kill you, O'Ryan.

                     O'RYAN
           I know. But we have work to do first.

                     MACKELWAY
           Where's the Goddamn kid?!?!

Silence... Then that CEL-PHONE rings. Must be Fran.

                     O'RYAN
           Don't pick that up.

Mackelway eyes him: are you kidding? It rings again.

                    O'RYAN (CONT'D)
              (a panicked offer)
          This is the guy who put all those pins in
          that map of yours! And I can take you to
          him!

Ring #3. Mackelway grabs the phone.

                     MACKELWAY
           Fine. Where is he?
               (silence)
           Where is he?!?!

                                                                  99.


      Silence, punctuated by Ring #4. Then O'Ryan smiles... and
      points to his own forehead.

                           O'RYAN
                 Right here...

      Mackelway lets out a disgusted sigh.

                             MACKELWAY
                 Fuck you.

      He punches the "Talk" button, taking his eyes off O'Ryan for a
      split second.

      ...What follows is a blur:

      O'Ryan lunges forward like an animal, throwing his cuffed
      wrists over Mackelway's head, yanking Mackelway out of his
      seat with a violent tug. The gun falls.

      We POP OUTSIDE THE YUKON, pulling back... obscuring our view
      of what's going on inside that truck.

      That cel-phone continues to ring... We keep pulling back,
      under this sparsely-trafficked overpass, rain falling.

      The cel-phone stops ringing. CONTINUE PULLING BACK, taking in
      the expanse of highway - cars rolling by without a hint of the
      peril beneath them...

                                                       CUT TO:

179   INT. TRUCK-STOP - DINER - GREENVILLE - SAME (DAY)                 179

      Fran has just arrived. She scans the place. Doesn't see
      Mackelway. Great. She reaches for that cel-phone again...

                                                       CUT TO:

180   INT. A THIRD UNIDENTIFIED MOTEL ROOM - NIGHT                      180

      Mackelway awakens. The room feels like it's swimming. His arms
      and legs are bound. His mouth has been GAGGED.

      And he is staring into his own REFLECTION.

      He lies on his side. A MIRROR has been propped on the floor,
      just inches from his face - leaving him with nothing to look
      at but himself.

      He strains against the ropes, but there's no give to them.
      He's helpless, powerless. And that mirror is forcing him to
      watch it all with perfect clarity.

                                                        100.


A few feet away, O'Ryan sits in a chair, calmly peeling the
skin off of an apple with that huge HUNTING KNIFE of his. A
CANDLE flickers on the floor by his feet.

                     O'RYAN
           Are you afraid?

There was a delight to that question - we can see it on
O'Ryan's face. Mackelway, of course, can't reply due to the
gag. But the answer's obvious.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
               (quoting himself, as Daitz:)
           "Imagine a killer with no patterns, no
           tell-tale fetishes, no rituals of any
           kind. No hidden desire to be caught. A
           perfect vessel of evil."

All Mackelway can see is his own reflection - the fear in his
eyes - bouncing off a mirror that's only inches away.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           And the name we give that killer... is
           Zero.
               (again:)
           Are you afraid?

Slowly, he lowers the knife into the flame of that candle on
the floor. It GLOWS. Good God...

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           It'd be customary at this point to start
           praying. I hear a lot of that. Haven't
           seen too many answers though. I wouldn't
           hold my breath waiting for another
           janitor to break in here and save you,
           either. You're alone.

Mackelway tries to speak. It's impossible.

O'Ryan pulls the GAG from his mouth, just long enough for
Mackelway to say:

                     MACKELWAY
           Where's the boy?

O'Ryan jams the gag back into his mouth, angrily.

                     O'RYAN
               (re: the mirror)
           My, my. Must be extremely satisfying to
           watch yourself say something so heroic.
           I'm almost envious.
                     (MORE)

                                                           101.


                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
               (casually)
           The boy's under the bed. In pieces. Are
           you afraid?

Mackelway absorbs that - watches himself absorb it - then
looks to that bed. Can't quite see what's under it...

O'Ryan eyes the flames as they dance over the blade.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           I know what you're thinking: "There is
           pain coming. Am I going to take it like a
           man?" Let me put you at ease: You won't.
           None of them do. Men, women, children.
           They all weep, they all beg. They pass
           out, they piss themselves. They attempt
           negotiation: You wouldn't believe how
           many men have lain right where you're
           lying right now - grown men, with wives
           and children back home - offering all
           kinds of sexual gratification in exchange
           for a five minute reprieve. It's
           pathetic. Are you afraid?
               (of course, no reply)
           Then there's that moment when they
           realize there's nothing left to be
           negotiated. They're just mine. And
           they're helpless. And the look in their
           eyes, the level of surrender... well,
           it's almost pornographic. I put this
           mirror here because I don't want you to
           miss it. Are you afraid?

With that, he lifts that hunting knife out of the flame. It is
RED-HOT. Even looking at it is painful.

But Mackelway can't look at anything else.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           How about now?

Just like that, that red-hot knife is an inch from Mackelway's
face. The heat alone makes his head jerk back. Wisps of smoke
rise from its edge.

And Mackelway is forced to watch his own reaction to it.

He struggles against these ropes, to no use. A guttural sound
comes out of him.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Are you afraid?

                                                           102.


O'Ryan's hand lashes out a bit, leaving the sizzling knife
just under Mackelway's chin. The anticipation of pain is
unbearable. And Mackelway is reading it in his own eyes...

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Hmmm? Agent Mackelway? Are you?

Two things hit at once: 1) This monster is about to torture me
to death. 2) Please, God, don't let me give him the
satisfaction of seeing me cry...

O'Ryan moves the blade again, this time an eighth of an inch
above Mackelway's right arm. The heat from it is so incendiary
that Mackelway's shirt begins to smoke.

                      O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Are you?

Mackelway's shirt is officially on fire now. The pain is
awful. He stares at his own reflection.

...as tears begin to flow from his eyes. He can't stop them.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
               (top of his lungs)
           Are you afraid?!

That bounces off the walls. Mackelway shuts his eyes tight -
can't watch this anymore.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
               (infuriated)
           Open your eyes! Open your eyes Goddammit
           or I'll cut the fucking lids off!!

Mackelway opens his eyes, forced to watch himself break. Deep
sobs shudder through him, as...

O'Ryan digs that red-hot blade into Mackelway's arm:
                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           ARE YOU AFRAID?!?!

Mackelway sees the answer in his own reflection: Yes, I am
terrified. He SHRIEKS, the sound muffled by that gag.

With his body able to do no more than spasm, he jerks his head
forward, smashing it into that mirror. THE MIRROR SHATTERS,
obliterating the image.

...and everything goes black.

                                                                 103.


      Then, MORE IMAGES SWARM AT US. We're helpless to beat them
      back:

180a EXT. DARKNESS - UNIDENTIFIED TIME                              180a

      Out of a soupy darkness, a dreamlike spin on a location we've
      visited before: It is the wheat field that O'Ryan has Remote
      Viewed countless times. Only this time we see it through
      Mackelway's fever, or nightmare... We see the tall wheat, the
      wet wind - familiar images to us. All to the pounding Chant of
      the Navaho.

      But then OTHER IMAGES enter this world. They're jarring:

      -That TRIBESMAN, eyes rolling back, foaming the mouth,
      dancing around a fire in a frenzy. Then a curtain of wheat
      obscures him, revealing:
      -Fran, and Katie, giggling, crooking fingers as if inviting
      us. Looks like they're naked. But as we approach them, they
      seem to get farther away. Then that curtain of wheat that
      separates us from them reveals:
      -Charlton, extending a hand to us, warmly, congratulating us
      for something, a job well done, when:

      Mackelway himself is hunting through the wet wheat, gun drawn.
      He FIRES... Then looks to see who he's just shot.

      A body. He turns it over.

      ...and is staring at himself, lying dead on the ground in the
      mud and pouring rain. It is a moment of shock and horror,
      giving way as we...

181   FADE UP AGAIN...                                                  181

      ...on O'Ryan - at a desk, sitting upright, making notes on a
      pad. Calm. Businesslike. His back turned to us.

182   INT. THAT UNIDENTIFIED MOTEL ROOM - LATER NIGHT                   182

      Time has passed. We don't know how much. Or maybe we're dead,
      or dreaming. It's hard to say...

      But there's O'Ryan, at a desk. Writing...

      Mackelway's eyes are open. His FOREHEAD has a bright red
      raspberry on it from smashing into that mirror.

      But the brain is functioning. It starts running through a
      check-list:

                                                           104.


I'm in the same motel room. I'm on a bed. I'm alive. There's
O'Ryan. Everything hurts. No, it's just my right arm. But it
is searing.

The check-list continues: my mouth is sore, but that GAG has
been removed.

And MY ARMS ARE UNBOUND. Legs too. Maybe I am dead.

Mackelway tries to move his hand. It takes some effort.
Everything's foggy. But he puts it before his face. Turns it.
Flexes it. Squeezes it. His hand... He stares at it.

Then he notices his SHOULDER. A fat BANDAGE has been wrapped
around it - covering up the source of that searing pain. Looks
as though a nurse had tended to it.

But this sure as hell isn't a hospital...

Then, O'Ryan turns, facing us. Mackelway recoils without
meaning to.

But O'Ryan's demeanor has changed. That look of possessed
malevolence - it's gone now. We can't imagine why.

                     O'RYAN
               (softly)
           Stand up.

Mackelway pauses, rewinding that one.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           It's over now. Can you stand?

Mackelway is still bracing for torture, or at least combat. So
he's a step behind.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           We really do have to go.

O'Ryan rises, crossing toward us. Even unbound, Mackelway is
expecting another onslaught... But all O'Ryan does is drop a
piece of paper onto Mackelway's lap.

It's another DRAWING: of a RANCH-HOUSE, with a windmill in the
background. Crude, but just specific enough. Mackelway's still
too unwound to speak...

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           This is where he'll be. With the boy.
               (a beat)
           Zero. He's coming home today. We're going
           to be there.

                                                        105.


Mackelway's starting to understand now. This was an act. An
initiation. That stuns him...

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           You're ready to come with me now. You've
           been in the pit. Stand up.

Mackelway eyes him - utter disbelief.

O'Ryan smiles warmly - like a Drill Sergeant at the end of
Basic: Sorry I was so hard on you but it had to be done... Can
we shake on it?

Instead, Mackelway simply EXPLODES:

It is a blur, faster than a blur, but Mackelway rises with an
animal roar, knocking O'Ryan flat on his back.

Then Mackelway is upon him.

All the helplessness, all the horror, the images of watching
himself in that mirror, the sounds of his own uncontrollable
sobbing... they ERUPT now into violence.

It is an overwhelming force. O'Ryan can't begin to fight it
off. Mackelway has one hand on O'Ryan's throat. The other hand
comes down like a sledgehammer.

One blow. Then another. The sounds coming out of Mackelway are
savage, barely human. He's out of control.

O'Ryan's eyes roll back. Mackelway now puts both hands around
this fucker's throat. He's going to kill him - right here.
He's going to squeeze the life from him.

This is a Mackelway we've never met before. His eyes are wild,
hateful - even as the last gasps of breath rasp their way out
of O'Ryan's throat.

Then Mackelway is distracted, for just a second. No. Less than
a second... by a glimpse of that SHATTERED MIRROR - his own
twisted image.

He looks away from it, refusing to be distracted, determined
to kill this guy.

...then those eyes drift back to the mirror again.

...and he sees his reflection: a hardened, crazed stranger. An
animal.

His hands, without warning, release their grip.

                                                                 106.


      O'Ryan gasps for air. His face has been bloodied. Mackelway
      rises, disgusted, removing a great weight from O'Ryan's chest.
      That makes breathing a little easier.

      Mackelway crosses to a tiny, cheap BATHROOM.

183   INT. MOTEL ROOM - BATHROOM - CONTINUING                           183

      Mackelway enters. There's a mirror in here too. That fat
      BANDAGE on his shoulder stares back at him.

      He tugs at it - doesn't unravel it, just yanks it off his arm -
      revealing a hideous wound.

      It's a ZERO, WITH A SLASH THROUGH IT.

      Now everything clicks: O'Ryan was branding him. Initiating him
      with that red-hot knife.

      Mackelway stares at the wound, his eyes lifeless. He splashes
      some water on his face, his mind still reeling.

      Then O'Ryan appears in the doorway. He too looks like hell -
      face bloodied, throat red, eyes watering. A long beat...

      Mackelway eyes him, incredulous. O'Ryan nods, then places that
      DRAWING of the Ranch-House on the sink. Mackelway eyes it.

      Then O'Ryan stuns him... by laying Mackelway's GUN atop the
      drawing, without a word.

      Mackelway eyes the gun, then grabs it and points it right at
      O'Ryan's face, just inches away.

      We're TIGHT on Mackelway's hand. It trembles with rage.

      But O'Ryan, looking right down the barrel, seems unafraid. In
      fact he smiles, utterly confident. Then:

                           O'RYAN
                     (re: gun)
                 Soon. I promise... But not yet.

      He eases Mackelway's hand down, thus lowering the gun. Then
      O'Ryan turns, grabs Mackelway's car keys, and heads for the
      front door.

      Mackelway stands, rigid. He raises the gun. Maybe I'll just
      shoot this fucker in the back.

      Then those IMAGES come at us again, out of nowhere:

                                                                 107.


184   EXT. WHEAT FIELD - NIGHT                                          184

      Out of a gray, soupy swirl - coming slightly into focus: Wet
      wind, tall wheat, our own heavy BREATHING as we run... And
      that non-descript voice we heard echoing earlier becomes the
      sound of O'Ryan's voice, static-filled, wobbling:

                           O'RYAN (O.S.)
                 Please... I'm begging you.

      That was clear enough. A gun rises. We seem to be holding
      it...

      Then those images vanish, and we are jolted back to:

185   INT. MOTEL ROOM - BATHROOM - RESUMING                             185

      Mackelway tightens. O'Ryan's out the door. This VISION that
      keeps getting clearer and clearer... What the hell does this
      it mean?

      Down go two more Vicodens...

                                                       CUT TO:

186   INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - DRIVING - NIGHT                          186

      A huge STORM devours scenery on both sides of us. O'Ryan
      drives. Mackelway sits, no expression at all on his face,
      still recovering from what happened in that room...

      Silence... Then:

                           MACKELWAY
                 Tell me about Icarus.

                           O'RYAN
                 Why?

                           MACKELWAY
                 Just... wanna know.

      O'Ryan eyes him. The sky is black.

                           O'RYAN
                 There were five of us. In the program.

      Mackelway's all ears...

                           O'RYAN (CONT'D)
                 We'd come in in the morning, have a cup
                 of coffee, talk about the Yankees. Then
                 you'd go to your room, with your pen and
                           (MORE)

                                                         108.


                       O'RYAN (CONT'D)
             your pad of paper, always alone, and
             you'd try to lock in. Son of Sam. John
             Wayne Gacy. Ted Bundy. He might be
             driving his car, or having a beer or
             brushing his teeth... or cutting
             someone's eyes out.

That was said flatly, matter-of-factly. It's chilling.

                        O'RYAN (CONT'D)
             If you did it right, you got all of it:
             The way it sounded. The way it smelled...
             Those people were looking up at you,
             begging you for mercy. It was like being
             God.
                  (a beat)
             ...except you're not. Because you can't
             do a thing for them. Can't make it stop.
             You're just watching, helpless.

He pauses.

                       O'RYAN (CONT'D)
             They wired us into this current, the five
             of us: darkness, the pit itself. We were
             plugged right into it. But nobody taught
             us how to shut it off...
                 (thinking back...)
             We were just men. And we saw things men
             shouldn't see. Agony, torture, evil - and
             it never shut off. Even now, it's still
             there.

                       MACKELWAY
             They all wind up like you? The other
             agents?

                       O'RYAN
             No. They're dead now.

Oh. Mackelway doesn't reply...

                       O'RYAN (CONT'D)
             They broke down. Then they opted out.
                 (Mackelway's a blank)
             Killed themselves... After a while, those
             conversations about the Yankees became
             impossible. Ya see?

Mackelway lets that sink in, as he stares at passing head-
lights. Then:

                       MACKELWAY
             I'm sorry.

                                                                   109.


      O'Ryan shrugs. He appreciates it. The windshield wipers beat
      back rain...

                                                         CUT TO:

187   INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - DRIVING - LATER NIGHT                      187

      O'Ryan continues to drive. Silence hangs. Then:

                           O'RYAN
                 We're here.

      Mackelway sits up. O'Ryan pulls over at:

188   EXT. RANCH-HOUSE - GREENVILLE, TEXAS - CONTINUING                   188

      We've seen this place before. That is, we've seen it in
      O'Ryan's DRAWING, which lies on the dashboard before us: A
      ranch-style house with a WINDMILL in the backyard.

      O'Ryan pulls over. Rain pounds on the roof and hood. Wind
      blows. Mackelway studies the house. Then his eyes shift
      briefly to the drawing.

                           MACKELWAY
                 Can't bring you in with me. You know
                 that.

      O'Ryan shrugs, then raises his hands: "Cuff me."

      The CUFFS are lying on the floor in the back seat. Mackelway
      reaches back, to grab them... a golden opportunity for O'Ryan
      to club the guy.

      But O'Ryan remains still. Mackelway grabs them. Then he stops.
      Simply has to ask:

                           MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                 Those faxes, the Have-You-Seen-Me's...
                 How many of 'em is he actually
                 responsible for?

      O'Ryan lays it right out:

                           O'RYAN
                 All of 'em.

      Mackelway nods, sobered. Cuffs O'Ryan to the steering wheel
      and approaches the house.

                                                                 110.


189   EXT. RANCH HOUSE - WALKWAY - CONTINUING                           189

      The place is in some disrepair: untended lawn, chipping paint,
      etc. Mackelway looks through the kitchen window.

      No one's visible. He walks around the side of the house.

190   INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - RESUMING                                 190

      O'Ryan watches as Mackelway vanishes. This is a moment of
      opportunity. With his free hand, he reaches into his pocket,
      grabbing a lighter.

191   EXT. RANCH HOUSE - SIDE - CONTINUING                              191

      Mackelway moves cautiously, being pelted by rain. But now he
      can see inside the Living Room of this home:

      It's a bit of a time warp: plastic on the furniture, an old
      radiator, pictures on the mantle in antique frames.

      And an OLD LADY, leaning over a record player.

      Tough to hear what's playing - we're outside, and that storm
      is pounding - but it sounds like Glenn Miller. There's also an
      old tv in here: "Wizard of Oz" is on it.

      The lady is 70, frail, thin. She also happens to be BLIND.
      Cataracts on her eyes. Her name's DELIA. Mackelway watches
      her... as she exits the room, heading for the kitchen.

      He moves to another window.

192   INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - RESUMING                                 192

      O'Ryan, keeping his eyes on that house, now lights the
      lighter... and holds the flame up to the CHAIN connecting his
      hand-cuff to the one on the steering wheel.

      The chain begins to heat up...

193   EXT. SIDE OF THE HOUSE - RESUMING                                 193

      Mackelway watches as Delia makes her way into the kitchen.

      It, too, is from another era: the dishwasher stands in the
      center of the floor, connected to the sink with a long hose.
      The refrigerator, the table, the toaster - all old.

      The oven is an antique too. Delia crosses to it, grabs a
      towel, opens it... and pulls a CAKE from it.

                                                              111.


      She brings the cake to the kitchen table, moving well for a
      lady who can't see. On the table is an old-fashioned baker's
      frosting tube.

      She grabs it, using her hands to orient herself... and begins
      to write on the cake, in frosting. Slowly.

      Mackelway can't see the top of that cake, but we can. The
      first letters, in beautiful cursive, read: "Happy Bir..." It's
      a work in progress.

194   INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - RESUMING                              194

      O'Ryan has that handcuff chain GLOWING now. We don't know if
      he'll have time to break the thing... until:

      The passenger-side door is opened, abruptly.

                           MACKELWAY
                 It's his birthday, isn't it?

      O'Ryan turns. Here's Mackelway, who now gets an eyeful of what
      O'Ryan's doing with that lighter.

      O'Ryan pockets it, a bit sheepishly. Mackelway decides to
      ignore the whole thing...

                           MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                 He comes home on his birthday.

      O'Ryan nods. Then Delia's front door swings open.

                           DELIA (O.S.)
                     (aloud, delighted)
                 Darling?! That you?!

195   EXT. RANCH HOUSE - ENTRY - CONTINUING                          195

      Delia stands in the open doorway: an old blind lady, talking
      to the dark rainy street. That confuses them.

      ...until we hear the rumble of an 18-WHEEL TRUCK.

      It turns a corner onto this street. Mackelway turns now...

      We've seen this truck before. A monstrous, rolling beast. And
      Mackelway straightens, reaching for his sidearm. Behind him,
      Delia smiles excitedly, almost dancing.

      But that smile soon leaps from her face... as she hears the
      sound of that 18-wheeler, BRAKING ABRUPTLY, its tires locking-
      up on the wet road.

                                                                 112.


      Mackelway gets a look at the DRIVER now - a wiry, sinewy man
      of 35... Let's call him ZERO.

      Their eyes lock - until Zero throws his rig into gear again
      and begins to rumble down the street.

                           DELIA (CONT'D)
                     (confused)
                 Daryl? Honey?

      No answer. That truck is rumbling away. Mackelway turns,
      racing for the Yukon, leaving Delia at the door.

196   INT. MACKELWAY'S YUKON - CONTINUING                               196

      Mackelway jumps in to the Yukon, unlocking those cuffs.

                           MACKELWAY
                 Drive.

      He accidentally burns himself on the super-heated chain.

                           MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                     (re: burn)
                 Fuck!

      Cuffs are unlocked now. O'Ryan starts up the Yukon.

197   EXT. GREENVILLE STREETS - DRIVING - CONTINUING                    197

      O'Ryan drives, pursuing the big-rig. Mackelway gets on his cel-
      phone, dials. Rain falls in SHEETS all around them.

                           MACKELWAY (INTO CEL-PHONE)
                     (urgently)
                 This is Mackelway! I'm travelling north
                 on... Grove Road, approaching I-30 in
                 Greenville. Request immediate back-up.
                 Pursuing a suspect in a refrigerated
                 truck, Texas license plate Alpha--

      The Yukon swerves hard to the right, narrowly avoiding the
      tail end of Zero's rig as he swings it into our path.
      Mackelway drops the phone. Grabs it again.

                           MACKELWAY (PHONE, CONT'D)
                 Alpha-4-5-2-Tango-Foxtrot-Alpha.

      Zero does it again - swinging the rear of his rig across the
      road, forcing O'Ryan to swerve hard. The Yukon gets shoved on
      to a curb, then clunks down to the street again.

                                                                 113.


      Then Zero jams on the brakes. Mackelway's eyes go wide.

                           MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                     (at O'Ryan)
                 Brakes!

      O'Ryan jumps on the brakes. The Yukon screeches to a stop,
      throwing itself into a sideways slide. It bangs, passenger
      side first, into the rear of the truck, breaking a window.

      Mackelway ducks out of the way of breaking glass. Then the rig
      pulls away again. O'Ryan follows.

198   THE CHASE - CONTINUING                                            198

      Zero's rig turns hard onto a SERVICE ROAD, running parallel to
      the Interstate. Mackelway is locked in on that truck.

                           MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                     (into cel-phone again)
                 Travelling due west now. Don't see a
                 name. It's a service road, running
                 parallel to the--

      Then Mackelway freezes, mid-word. He just saw something that
      made his jaw drop:

      On the other side of this road is a field of TALL WHEAT.

      Time seems to stop. His blood feels like it just congealed.
      Tall wheat in a wet wind. He has been here before. He has seen
      it before.

      And so has O'Ryan...

      Mackelway just stares, slack-jawed, as that wheat whips past
      them. The feeling is so unsettling that for a moment he
      forgets about Zero, and the rig, and the kid...

      Everything has just crystallized in a horrible way. He knows
      that he is going to wind up in that wheat field, somehow, with
      O'Ryan.

      And O'Ryan will be begging him for mercy. "Please..."

      O'Ryan guns the Yukon, attempting to cut in front of the rig.
      Zero swings wide, sending the Yukon into a curb this time.
      That shreds their front tire.

      ...which means that in one minute this car is going to be
      undriveable. So if they don't stop Zero from hitting that
      Interstate - now - Zero will be gone.

                                                              114.


                           MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                     (absently)
                 What're you...

                           O'RYAN
                 Can't let him hit the Interstate.

      Mackelway braces himself, as O'Ryan guns his car up the left
      side of the rig, shredded tire and all. Then:

      He pulls right in front of the rig. At about 60 m.p.h. And he
      jams on the brakes.

      Zero swerves, out of instinct. It throws the rig into a
      vicious JACK-KNIFE. The van whips around in front of the cab,
      swatting the Yukon away like a fly.

      We're inside the Yukon as it rolls, Mackelway and O'Ryan look
      like tinker toys.

      The torque pulls Zero's rig onto its side, sliding hard. Metal
      hits concrete, sending up a shower of SPARKS.

      The Yukon winds up in a ditch alongside the service road,
      upside down. Mackelway, alive and awake, strains to look out
      the busted windshield.

      What he sees is hard to discern - but it looks like Zero's rig
      is lying flat on its side.

      And, of course, he is mere yards from that wheat field...

199   EXT. SERVICE ROAD - CONTINUING                                 199

      The rig's cab lies driver's-side down. But the passenger-side
      door pops open. And Zero pokes through it, his eyes
      immediately scanning that TALL WHEAT. Rain pours.

      Mackelway's watching. O'Ryan, who blacked out for a second now
      opens his eyes, getting the picture in a hurry.

      Zero leaps to the ground, rolls, and rises. Only thing in his
      hand is a TIRE IRON. Carrying it, he sprints into the wheat
      field - vanishing.

      Mackelway bursts out of the Yukon, in pursuit. O'Ryan's door
      is stuck. Mackelway doesn't stop to help him - just barrels
      across the street.

      Just then - a STATE RANGER CAR arrives.

                                                                 115.


                            MACKELWAY
                      (over his shoulder, running)
                 Get the van open! He's got a kid in the
                 van!

      STATE RANGER hurries out of his squad car. Mackelway sprints
      into the tall wheat.

      O'Ryan, with a grunt, gets his door open. Now he too
      disappears into that Wheat Field.

200   EXT. WHEAT FIELD - CONTINUING                                     200

      Tall wheat in a stiff wet wind, and not a drop of moonlight to
      guide us. Mackelway plunges in, gun drawn. No idea where he's
      going.

      ...except he's been here before. He's seen it. And there is a
      feeling of inevitability to all this; it's haunting.

      He's practically blind in here. Can't see five feet in front
      of him. Nothing but the sound of his own breathing.

      That, too, was presaged. Those visions...

201   EXT. ZERO'S TOPPLED RIG - CONTINUING                              201

      It's locked. Ranger pulls out his handgun and blows the lock
      away.

202   EXT. WHEAT FIELD - RESUMING                                       202

      Mackelway keeps running, deaf and blind.

      O'Ryan is running nearby, but they can't see or hear one
      another.

203   INT. THE TOPPLED RIG - REFRIGERATED VAN - RESUMING                203

      200 sides of beef lie on their sides. Ranger plunges in.

      Then the Ranger spots, in the back of the van, a FALSE-WALL
      that used to hide a secret compartment.

      The crash has collapsed part of the false-wall. Frozen air
      blows out in wisps. He climbs over those carcasses, fast as he
      can...

204   EXT. WHEAT FIELD - RESUMING                                       204

      Mackelway keeps going, running blind.

                                                                116.


      Then, another sound, up ahead. Sounds like the noise of
      someone stumbling. Mackelway stops. Listens.

      Silence. The sound does not repeat itself.

      He continues along, step by cautious step now.

205   INT. TOPPLED RIG - REFRIGERATED VAN - RESUMING                   205

      Ranger gets over the last of the carcasses, pulling himself up
      to the now-open compartment.

      First thing we see is a REFRIGERATION ROD, the one that was
      responsible for those freezer burns.

      Then we see Charlie, bound. He's trembling with cold, but he's
      alive. His leg presses up against the rod.

206   EXT. WHEAT FIELD - RESUMING                                      206

      Mackelway, inching along, heart pounding. He hears a noise to
      his left. Whips around, gun poised.

      But it's nothing. He sighs. The wheat almost sounds like it's
      laughing at him.

      Then that TIRE IRON lashes out, from the right.

      It catches Mackelway with horrific force, shattering his wrist
      and sending that gun flying into the wheat.

      Before Mackelway can react, Zero is upon him...

207   EXT. THE TOPPLED RIG - RESUMING                                  207

      Fran's Ford skids to a stop outside the van.

      ...just as the Ranger brings Charlie out of the rig. The kid
      is shaking, traumatized. He begins to cry...

      Fran gets the idea. She hurries over.

208   EXT. WHEAT FIELD - RESUMING                                      208

      Mackelway and Zero wrestle, surrounded and obscured by all of
      that wheat... Zero is a monster, and he's got that tire iron.
      Mackelway has a busted wrist. Hardly a fair fight.

      But Mackelway is battling: kicking, clawing, getting in as
      many shots as he can. His shirt rips away from his body,
      exposing that brand-mark. They roll back and forth. Until:

                                                        117.


                       O'RYAN (O.S.)
                 (calmly, firmly)
           Up.

Zero freezes. Mackelway too. They turn to find:

O'Ryan... who stands here, Mackelway's gun in hand.

                       O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Up.

Mackelway's relief is total. He pushes Zero away, rising. Zero
pulls himself off the ground, chagrinned.

                     ZERO
               (re: Mackelway)
           Glad you're here, Man. Guy was about to
           kill me.

O'Ryan, without ceremony, puts a bullet through Zero's left
palm. That got Mackelway's attention.

Zero howls with pain, his palm gushing. The TIRE-IRON falls to
the ground. Mackelway approaches O'Ryan.

                     MACKELWAY
           I'll take it from here.

He extends his good hand to O'Ryan: "The gun." O'Ryan pauses.
Then...

                     O'RYAN
           Are you going to shoot him?

                     MACKELWAY
           Give me the gun, O'Ryan.

                     ZERO
           Hey, I just surrendered.

                      O'RYAN
           Shut up.

                     ZERO
           I surrendered! That's it!

                       O'RYAN
           SHUT UP!!!

O'Ryan wheels around, aiming the gun right at Zero's face.
That shuts the guy up in a hurry.

                                                        118.


From that service road now, we hear a line of SIRENS,
approaching from a distance. Unit after unit.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
               (quietly now)
           Look at him, Mack. He's not human
           anymore. Go dig up that old lady's
           backyard - you'll find bodies there...
           Maybe hundreds of them. Of course, ya
           gotta get a warrant first, chain of
           custody's gotta be followed. One breach,
           and he walks.
               (no reply)
           My way, he's eliminated; the world is rid
           of him. It's a lot closer to justice than
           having some Prosecutor tell you you've
           left a tissue sample in the wrong lab.
           Isn't it?

                     MACKELWAY
               (that stung)
           Give me the fucking gun!

O'Ryan turns, studies him.

...and hands him the gun. Just like that.

Mackelway eyes it. O'Ryan doesn't say a word, just crosses
back to Zero, and grabs that TIRE-IRON off the ground.

O'Ryan's now standing right behind Zero, as:

                     O'RYAN
               (at Mackelway)
           You have to understand: none of this was
           arbitrary. We were chosen, you and I.
WHAP! O'Ryan just swung that tire-iron into Zero's rib cage.
We hear bones crack, and air rushing from the guy's lungs. He
drops to his knees, gasping.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           I saw us here. You did too.
THUMP! Another violent swing of that tire-iron, busting up the
other side of Zero's torso. Now both sides of his rib-cage
have shattered. Breathing is almost impossible.

Mackelway tightens. His head just began to throb...

                     MACKELWAY
           Okay. You made your point.

                                                        119.


                     O'RYAN
           Bullshit! If I'd made my fucking point
           you would've shot him yourself by now!

Another swing of that tire-iron, across the back of Zero's
neck. He crumbles, face down.

Fuck it. Mackelway crosses to O'Ryan and puts that gun right
up against the back of O'Ryan's head.

                      MACKELWAY
           Enough!

Then, an odd thing... O'Ryan simply smiles.

Something about having that gun pointed right at him - it's a
relief.

                      MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
           Drop it.

                      O'RYAN
           Or what?

                     MACKELWAY
           Just drop it.

                     O'RYAN
           Would you shoot me?

That's something Mackelway doesn't want to consider.

                     MACKELWAY
           Put it down.

                     O'RYAN
               (calmly)
           I want you to think for a second. About
           your destiny. Who you are. You're cursed,
           like I am - except you keep running from
           it.
               (Mackelway's silent)
           You hear things. You see things. That's
           why you can't sleep, why your head always
           aches.

He turns. They are face to face. Nothing but that gun between
them.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           ...and it's why you are going to let me
           kill this animal. And then you're going
           to kill me.

                                                         120.


That threw Mackelway badly. O'Ryan seizes the moment -
wheeling around...

He takes one last swing at Zero, like a lumberjack. The tire-
iron impacts Zero's skull with a dull THUD, cracking it. He is
dead.

Mackelway's eyes go wide. Whole thing has been a blur.

O'Ryan releases the tire-iron... and drops to his knees like a
man awaiting execution, his back to Mackelway.

Mackelway is silent. Stunned. The blood from Zero's caved-in
skull finds its way to O'Ryan's knees.

But O'Ryan remains peaceful. Calm. Ready.

                     MACKELWAY
           Get up.

                     O'RYAN
           I can't do that, Mack. I've seen all this
           already. For months now.

                     MACKELWAY
           Get up.

                     O'RYAN
           Every time, we're in this field: same
           wind, same rain. And you...

He puts a finger to his head, pretending it's a gun. Then he
pretends to pull the trigger. Mackelway gets the idea.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           It's okay. I want you to. I'm begging you
           to.

Mackelway doesn't know what to do. Then, making matters worse:

                     FRAN (O.S.)
               (aloud)
           Mack?

She's about a hundred yards away... but she'll be here soon
enough. That puts some heat under O'Ryan:

                     O'RYAN
           I'm tired, Mack.

                     FRAN (O.S.)
           Can you hear me?

                                                        121.


She's 90 yards out now...

                     O'RYAN
           Pull the trigger...
               (no reply)
           I'm not going to jail. Now pull the
           fucking trigger!

Mackelway's frozen. O'Ryan knows it.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Fucking coward.

O'Ryan rises now, facing Mackelway.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           Some things are not up to us to decide.
           They just exist. They're inevitable. This
           field. This rain. This moment. It has all
           already happened. You know that. You've
           seen it too.

He shoves Mackelway in the chest.

                     FRAN (O.S.)
           Mack?

She's 70 yards out now...

                     O'RYAN
           Shut it off for me.

                     MACKELWAY
           I'm not going to kill you, O'Ryan.

                     O'RYAN
           Of course you will. I've seen it.

                     MACKELWAY
           You saw wrong!

                     O'RYAN
               (incredulous)
           That's impossible.

                     FRAN (O.S.)
           Mack? Can you hear me?

50 yards out now. Maybe close enough to hear O'Ryan's voice...

                     O'RYAN
               (rambling, unraveling)
           You don't understand. Those fucking faces
                     (MORE)

                                                        122.


                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           on that map. They call to me. I see their
           eyes in the dark - they're staring at me:
           "How did you let this happen to me?" But
           that's the thing about them - they're
           like pictures. They never blink. They
           just...stare, and always at me. That's my
           destiny, do you see? I didn't help them
           when they needed me and this is my
           penance. Fine. I ACCEPT IT. But I'm
           opting out now, ya get it? I can't stand
           this anymore! I wanna close my eyes for
           once and see something other than
           torture.
               (Mackelway's expressionless)
           It's not a bad start, Mack. We've made
           the world a little safer now. Speck,
           Fulcher, Starkey, now Zero. We've made
           justice. But I get some too. You have to
           end all this for me. That's why you're
           here. It's your destiny.

                     MACKELWAY
           Stop telling me about my fucking destiny!

                     O'RYAN
               (again)
           But I've seen it!

                    MACKELWAY
          Open your eyes, O'Ryan! Here I am,
          standing here. I'm not shooting you.
          Doesn't that fucking tell you something?
          You're a guy with a skill. Period. They
          taught you more than they should've. I'm
          sorry about that... But you're not God.
          You can't see everything.
                      O'RYAN
           Yes I can! And you can too! That's why I
           chose you!

                     FRAN (O.S.)
           Mack?

Mackelway's not budging. O'Ryan can see that.

                     O'RYAN
               (re: tire-iron)
           Fine. I'll make it easy for you:

O'Ryan picks up that tire-iron. Mackelway sees what's coming.
O'Ryan swings the tire-iron as Mackelway backs out of its
range.

                                                           123.


                     MACKELWAY
           Put the fucking thing down, O'Ryan.

O'Ryan keeps pursuing. Another swing. Mackelway keeps backing
up. The swing misses.

                     O'RYAN
           Look. It's perfect. Won't even need a
           hearing this way. You apprehended the
           suspect in the commission of a murder.
           Then he turned on you and you fired in
           self-defense.

O'Ryan isn't letting up. And Mackelway can't quite fire.

                     O'RYAN (CONT'D)
           These things are bigger than you -
           haven't you seen that yet? Destiny.
           Justice. Mercy. They're vast. We're just
           puppets!

                     MACKELWAY
           I'm not going to kill you!

                     O'RYAN
           You don't get to decide that!

                       MACKELWAY
           Yes I do!

O'Ryan takes one more swing, as:

                       FRAN (O.S.)
           FREEZE!!!

Silence. Mackelway turns. So does O'Ryan.

There's Fran, emerging from the tall wheat, gun trained right
on O'Ryan. His shock is total.

                       FRAN (CONT'D)
           Drop it.

O'Ryan doesn't move at first. Then, slowly, an ironic smile
snakes its way across his lips.

                     O'RYAN
               (at Mackelway, surprised)
           It's funny. I never saw anyone else out
           here. Did you?
Mackelway doesn't answer. He can't. O'Ryan eyes him.

                                                               124.


                          O'RYAN (CONT'D)
                Do it, Mack. Please.
                    (Mackelway's silent)
                Please. I'm begging you.

     There it was: the very thing Mackelway's been hearing all this
     time, the exact words. Unsettling as hell.

     ...and we begin to INTERCUT: images of this moment with images
     from those "VISIONS" that have been hinting at this very
     wheatfield since Page One...

208a INTERCUT WITH/EXT. WHEATFIELD "FANTASY" - SAME               208a

     Tall wheat, wet wind, O'Ryan's voice: "I'm begging you..."

     ...Mackelway snaps himself out of the vision.

                           MACKELWAY
                I can't.

     That was almost an attempt to make those images stop, to deny
     its awful, inevitable conclusion.

                          MACKELWAY (CONT'D)
                I'm not you.

                           O'RYAN
                Yet.

     Two men, neither of them flinching... until O'Ryan nods - as
     if to say "Good-bye."

     ...more of that vision interrupts now: a gun, rising...

     O'Ryan rears back and swings that tire-iron right at
     Mackelway's head.

     Fran has no choice. She fires.

     O'Ryan is hit right between the shoulder blades. The tire-iron
     hits Mackelway in the shoulder. O'Ryan crumbles to the ground,
     landing face up.

     ...a body slumping to the ground. O'Ryan... Mackelway stands
     over him...

     Now, real-life again, Mackelway stands over O'Ryan, just as
     O'Ryan had always envisioned it. That makes him smile, even as
     he's dying.

                                                                  125.


                           O'RYAN (CONT'D)
                     (weak)
                 Thank you.

      Then he dies, eyes open. Mackelway looks to Fran...

                                                   DISSOLVE TO:

209   EXT. SERVICE ROAD - DAWN                                           209

      Hours have passed. Dozens of LAW ENFORCEMENT VEHICLES have
      arrived. Sherrifs, Feds. Zero's rig remains on its side.

      Mackelway sits nearby on a CURB, his shattered wrist is in a
      SLING. Up above, the CLOUDS have parted. Morning sun streaks
      through. No more rain. Fran sits beside him.

      At their feet, in the gutter of this service road, lies a
      discarded MILK CARTON, covered with dust. The face under the
      "Have You Seen Me?" is unknown to us.

      Kathleen is nearby, holding Charlie tight. Cops surround them.

      An UNMARKED SEDAN arrives. Charlton hurries out of it, making
      a bee-line for Mackelway.

                            CHARLTON
                 Nice work.
                     (Mackelway half-nods)
                 Where is he?

                           MACKELWAY
                 Sir?

                           CHARLTON
                 O'Ryan. Where is he?
      Mackelway rises, studies Charlton. There's nothing to say.

      So he extends a hand to Fran. She takes it, rising to her
      feet. They leave Charlton behind...

      We PULL AWAY from them, craning up, taking in this expanse of
      tall wheat, TILTING UP to that morning sun.

                                             MATCH DISSOLVE TO:

      ...an AFTERNOON SUN now - blazing white hot. TILT DOWN...

                                                                126.


210   EXT. DELIA'S RANCH-HOUSE - DAY                                   210

      We're some distance away. HEAT RISES off parched Earth,
      lending a vaporous screen to everything. But we can make out
      the shapes of men in HAZ-MAT SUITS.

      Delia's backyard is being torn up by a BACK-HOE. Looks like a
      war-zone: BODIES, wrapped in cloth, being exhumed from the
      ground. Dozens of them...

      But there's plenty of soil yet to be turned... Might be
      HUNDREDS unearthed by the time these guys are through. We...

                                                  FADE OUT...