Deep Legend, DeYtH Banger [ebook reader computer .TXT] 📗

Bishop is sitting very close to Evey on his plush
water bed.

LILLIMAN
Of course, "hate the sin, love the
sinner." I always say. Take your
dress off, please.

Evey stammers, backing up along the bedside.

EVEY
Listen -- I was kind of hoping --

He paws at her, groping hands pushing the front of her dress
down as she backs up against the nightstand.

EVEY
No --

EXT. MAIN GATE - NIGHT

The guards look out into the night, fear suddenly gripping
their faces.

V emerges demonically through the parting veils of fog, the
white smiling mask bobbing eerily up and down as he rushes
them.

A cigarette drops from the first guard's mouth, red embers
exploding when it hits the wet cement.

Close as the two guards claw for their arms and the white hot
flash of V's knives --

That slice like talons.

The two men crumple to the ground, clutching their gaping,
gurgling wounds. A whisper. V sprints into the courtyard.

INT. BISHOP'S BEDROOM

Evey grabs a metal table lamp and swings it down on the
Bishop's head. There is a shuddering clank and he collapses
to the floor.

LILLIMAN
You -- You filthy whore!

His blood speckles the white bearskin throw rug as the Bishop
slowly rises after the retreating Evey.

LILLIMAN
I'll kill you, you fucking sow.

He charges after her but freezes dead in his tracks as V
swings around the corner in front of him.

LILLIMAN
What's this? Who --

V
Please allow me to introduce
myself...

V bows.

V
I'm a man of wealth and taste.

LILLIMAN
Dennis?

Instantly, the point of one of V's knives is against the
Bishop's throat. V presses a finger to his frozen smile.

V
Shh. It isn't polite to disturb
the dead on their journey.

Evey watches from around the corner.

V
A courtesy I'll most respectfully
extend to his grace.

EVEY
V?

Lilliman swallows audibly.

EVEY
V, what are you doing?

V
Vi veri veniversum vivus vici,
Evey.

Evey looks down at the knives on his belt, dripping blood.

EVEY
Oh no.

She begins backing to the door.

EVEY
You can't kill him!

V
Death has followed his grace the
whole of his career. Is it any
coincidence it has finally followed
him here?

EVEY
Oh god, V. I can't -- I can't --

V turns back to Lilliman as Evey runs.

V
Let us pray.

EXT. WESTMINSTER ABBEY - NIGHT

Evey sprints past the dead guards at the man gate and into
the fog.

INT. THE EAR

A cramped control room that looks like something between a
radio and television switching room, though it does not
broadcast. It receives.

Two operators sit at the main substation as the sounds of
lovemaking come over the speakers. The moans are stifled and
low, however, as if they were afraid someone was listening.

OPERATOR 1
Bloody hell. Doesn't anybody fuck
with feeling anymore?

Operator 2 does not look at him, scrolling through an
intricate city map on his computer.

OPERATOR 2
Hey, it's Sunday. Children's hour
over at the Abbey.

OPERATOR 1
Let's see what that filthy old
pervert is up to.

Operator 1 punches in some coordinates and the sound over the
speakers changes to a garbled fart of noise. Two voices
drown beneath a cacophony of classical music.

OPERATOR 1
What the --

He tries to dial out the background and suddenly the voices
rise clearly above the din.

VOICE 1
... And I saw a black shape against
the flames. Oh god. It's you.
The man from room five. You've
come --

VOICE 2
To collect what's mine.

VOICE 1
I beg you! I don't want to die!
Please have mercy!

The two men look at each other, Operator 1 lunging for a red
phone.

OPERATOR 1
Get me the Finger. This is an
emergency!

EXT. BISHOP'S QUARTERS - NIGHT

Close on a stain of white vomit and blood on the thick pile
of a Persian rug. It is encircled in police chalk.

Pull back to reveal the chalk outline where the body of
Bishop Lilliman was found. The circled bloodstain floats
above the head like the last word balloon of a crude comic
strip character.

The Bishop's quarters is slowly being picked over by a
forensic team from the Nose. A photographer's flash bursts
against a painted "V" on the wall near the body outline.

At the window, Finch chews on his pipe, staring at a plastic
evidence bag that contains a single violet carson rose.

DOMINIC
No prints yet, sir. Just like
Prothero.

FINCH
I want those tapes from the Ear in
my office tonight, Dominic.

DOMINIC
Yes, sir. They're on top of it.

Finch turns to a muscular man named Creedy, second in command
at the Finger.

FINCH
Any word from your superior, Mr.
Creedy?

CREEDY
Mr. Almond doesn't seem to be
answering his page, sir. I'm sure
he's in the field.

FINCH
Quite.

INT. CONRAD HEYER'S BEDROOM

Grunting like an animal, Derek's face is frozen, locked in
the rigor of a violent orgasm. After a moment, he collapses
beside Helen onto the sweat soaked sheets.

HELEN
There you go, baby. Now my baby
boy can think so much clearer.
Can't he?

She grabs her cigarette case and her lighter.

HELEN
You have been thinking, haven't
you?

She straddles his chest then lights two cigarettes.

HELEN
I know you have. Ever since this
terrorist appeared.

He smiles as she puts one of the cigarettes in his mouth.

HELEN
Oh jesus, that smile. That smile
turns me on like nothing else.

She whispers in his ear.

HELEN
Tell me. Tell me what's going on
in that ruthless sadistic brain of
yours.

DEREK
Everyone is so worried about the
terrorist. Especially Susan. You
know why? Because nobody knows
what he's going to do.

He exhales through his grinding teeth.

DEREK
If I were him, I know what I'd do.

He whispers.

DEREK
I'd blow that fat bastard to
kingdom come.

Helen bolts up.

HELEN
No. You're kidding.

DEREK
Am I?

He smiles, blowing more smoke.

DEREK
There's an old train line under the
New Government Building. It
collapsed when they poured the
foundation. You could haul in
enough TNT to launch our Leader's
ass all the way to the moon.

Helen's eyes gleam as he laughs.

HELEN
You're serious, aren't you?

He eyes her sucking on the cigarette.

DEREK
You need to be careful, Helen.
Your mouth is going to get you into
trouble one day.

HELEN
Is that the same trouble you love
putting in my mouth?

DEREK
You never know who might be
listening.

HELEN
I know, Derek. You love your
country and you love your party,
just like you love your wife.

He glares at her.

HELEN
Derek. I'm sorry. I know I can be
a bitch. But that's why you're
here, isn't it?

He smiles again and she presses her body to his.

HELEN
This is it, isn't it, Derek? What
we've been waiting for. At last,
you'll be rid of Susan. I'll be
rid of Conrad. And we'll be free.
Free, won't we?

His eyes close as he grinds his hips into hers and we rise,
drifting up to the ceiling light fixture --

Where we see a tiny hidden microphone.

INT. FINCH'S OFFICE - THE NOSE

Finch sits at his desk, staring into the silence of his
notepad. He has doodled a little "V" with a circle around
it.

He looks up as Dominic enters, holding up a portable cassette
player.

DOMINIC
Sorry it took so long. The boys
had a devil of a time trying to
filter out the background noise.

FINCH
Background noise?

DOMINIC
The perpetrator apparently turned
on the Bishop's stereo.
Subsequently, a great deal of the
tape is useless.

He hands the player to Finch.

FINCH
What music did he play?

DOMINIC
Beethoven. The fifth, I believe.

Finch smiles.

FINCH
Da, da, da, dum. That's code.
Morse code.

DOMINIC
Sir?

FINCH
For the letter "V".

Finch punches "play".

Over the small speaker, we sear Evey protesting to V, then
run. He stops it.

FINCH
Anything on the girl yet?

DOMINIC
No. The agency said somebody
claiming to be Lilliman's valet
canceled his Sunday appointment.

Finch starts it again and this time the tape is very fuzzy.

FINCH
What is it?

DOMINIC
23rd Psalm.

We recognize some of the words though muted and crackly.

TAPE (V.O.)
Though I walk through the valley of
the shadow of death...

DOMINIC
It goes on like that for a while.
Fairly incoherent except we could
make out a few words in this part.
Transubstantiation.

Finch nods, understanding.

DOMINIC
That miracle business when the
wafer transform into the body of
Christ.

FINCH
He made him eat a host.

DOMINIC
Yes, listen to this part.

The tape becomes somewhat clearer as the music rests.

TAPE (V.O.)
... And at the moment this enters
your mouth it becomes the flesh of
the savior? Yes... please... And
whatever it is made of now it will
become the body of Christ? Yes...
yes...

They eye each other.

TAPE (V.O.)
I want you to swallow it.

DOMINIC
There's a couple of funny human
noises...

FINCH
And then just Beethoven's fifth.

He shuts off the tape.

FINCH
We have got the initial path report
back. The host was full of
cyanide.

Finch picks up the bag with the violet carson.

FINCH
And do you know what?

He rises, sliding into his jacket.

FINCH
When it reached his abdomen, it was
still cyanide.

INT. MORGUE

Close on the heavy stitching of a "Y" incision sewn into the
chest of a corpse. It is one of the Bishop's guards.

DELIA
Do you have a motive?

Finch is standing next to the cadaver gurney with the
coroner, Delia Surridge. She is a serious woman, hair wound
tight behind her head in a severe bun.

DELIA
I mean, was anything taken?

She fills the dead man's head with cotton and replaces the
top of his skull.

FINCH
Just lives.

Pulling at the man's scalp, she stretches it over the
replaced skull piece.

FINCH
I know it's too early for your
profile but do you have any initial
impressions?

DELIA
Well...

She points at a jagged puncture wound at the base of the
man's sternum with a ball point pen.

DELIA
He's incredibly powerful. This
man's sternum was split like dry
wood from the base all the way up
to the manubrium.

Finch peers into the hole.

DELIA
And he's resourceful. On that
table behind you is a breakdown of
all the chemicals found in
Prothero's blood stream.

Finch hefts the pile of computer paper.

FINCH
Bloody hell.

DELIA
There were hundreds of different
chemicals in him. From
trinitrotoluene to estrogen to
motor oil.

He flips through the document, biting into the wooden end of
his pipe.

FINCH
Perhaps Fate will make something
more of all this. I certainly
can't.

DELIA
The Leader finally authorized an
uplink for you? He must be getting
nervous.

FINCH
Quite. Government directed
terrorism never sews healthy ideas
into the public. Oh, that reminds
me.

Finch pulls the evidence bag from his pocket.

FINCH
Can you tell us anything about
this?

Delia's eyes lock onto the violet carson.

FINCH
We found one in the carriage with
Prothero and this one in the
Bishop's quarters. A violet
carson.

He hands it to her.

FINCH
I heard that strain had died off.
Thought a botanist might shed some
light on it. Delia?

Delia, riveted to the rose, suddenly looks up to him.

DELIA
Yes -- Yes, of course.

FINCH
Magic. I'll drop by tomorrow then.

He turns, leaving her with the rose.

INT. SHADOW GALLERY

V relaxes with a book in an overstuffed reading chair, a
violet carson rose resting on a table next to him. He begins
to read a passage aloud.

V
"There is more behind and inside of
V than any of us had suspected.
Not who, but what: what is she?"

He places the book down. Thomas Pynchon's "V".

V rises, lifting the rose and moving into the darkness of the
Shadow Gallery.

EXT. EMPTY STREET

A small figure moves down the dark wet street, the
cobblestones glistening like black scales.

The huddled figure arcs across the street in the shadows,
avoiding the pools of streetlight. It is Evey, a frightened
look on her face.

INT. KITTY KAT KELLER

A woman in combat boots, fishnets, and a tight fitting
soldier's uniform is in the middle of a cheeky number on
stage in this smoky burlesque bar. It is a popular place
with locals and Fingermen.

Peter Creedy squeezes through the crowd, angling for the back
of the bar where a number of loud Fingermen are drinking.

CREEDY
What's all this, then, Harper? I
get a radio that a man's down and
in need of assistance?

HARPER
I ain't gone down yet but I sure do
need some assistance.

Creedy leans in.

CREEDY
Are you flat broke already?

They break up in laughter, led by Creedy who sits next to
Harper, pouring himself a drink.

LOUT
How'd you sneak away, Creedy?
Almond off buggering that blonde
chippy?

HARPER
The one with the tits?

They all begin to hoot and whistle.

CREEDY
What I wouldn't give for a piece of
that.

LOUT
She could serve a tray of drinks on
those thingies.

HARPER
I bet you get your chance with her
sooner