Undertow - 3.0 - Destiny Manifesting
THE MOST UNEASY OF ALLIANCES
EPISODE CREDITS:
Luke Alphonso as Waylon Grant
Abigail Turner as Jonny
Bianca Skinner as Derby Bell
Alexander Doddy as Nick Ballard
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Dan Boud as the Narrator
Written by Damian Szydlo
Direction by Amanda Hufford
Sound Design by Chris Henry
Script Editing by Jupiter Sanders
Show theme by Doug Maxwell
TRANSCRIPT
[FADE IN]
[Outside the Albatross, Nick is standing with Jonny. It’s a quiet night and the bar has been cleared out for a meeting]
NARRATOR
The night hung quietly, stuck perhaps in between breaths for what was to come… as if waiting for unseen elements to shift into place, one after another, so it might breathe again. Evening might as well have been morning for all it mattered in the City on the Sea. The ground slick under Jonny’s boots with a sheet of fresh rainwater; a mirror for the city to see itself in. To regard the glow of holo-signs and jury rigged lighting. Of a night market that had yet to find it’s pulse in the early twilight. It was a wonder, if the city were to see it’s reflection… would it be proud of itself? Of the world it had built, of the events it had orchestrated.
Of the lives it had turned towards this occasion… and of the price it demanded from them? Did the eyes of Neo-Atlantis even open for the likes of those who had borrowed power from it or was the hand simply ever extended, awaiting what was due as the body slept on?
NICK BALLARD
“About time you reeled your sorry carcass in. Keeping rockstar hours now? The spirit of Vendetta Violent, you are.”
JONNY
[amused]
“Some patter on you today! You the doorman now?”
NICK BALLARD
“‘Fraid not. Could be nice though, earning an honest living for a change.”
JONNY
“Oh really now? Feeling the weight of responsibility on your shoulders tonight, then?
[Take a moment as Jonny leans up against the wall beside Nick, casually]
Alright, I’ll bite. If you’re not the doorman then why is it you’re standing out here like one? Shouldn’t you be in there? Entertaining Waylon?”
NICK BALLARD
“What and have to put up with hearin’ him go on about the cheap cologne someone who’d sat in his chair three years ago was wearing? To be honest, he’s a bit much sometimes, even for me and I’m accustomed to him.
Don’t think I ever did tell you how Detective Grant and I had our little falling out, did I?”
JONNY
“You didn’t. Isn’t my way to pry. You know that, Nick.”
NICK BALLARD
“Always appreciated that about you. Professional right down to the core, ahead of your years. The truth of it is that we pave a road under our own feet to get to the spot we’re standing at now. Can’t build a road like that in this city without someone or anothers bones getting buried underneath. That’s just how it is. I’ll admit, a year ago I couldn’t see that for nothing. Now that damned road is all I see. Before you ask, still don’t believe in all this fate nonsense you lot are fond of. No, it’s all cause and effect, the sins of the past returned. So yeah, I think it’s time you know what my stake is.
I was fresh to the biz of Fixing… of running my hub; when I met Waylon. He wasn’t like he is now. He was young. Passionate. He’d found some work before in some circles, using his gifts for a chip or two. He wasn’t IN in, though. Just an asset.
Should have seen it all comin’ but I didn’t. One day it was him who needed information, a lead on some disappearance or other. I accepted it without looking too deeply. I had mercs that needed work, you see. It wasn’t at all an easy job; it’s roots sunk deep into Yakuza secrets but it was fresh enough that there was a trail. Kids go missing all the time and anyone the Yak wanted gone… well, it wasn’t my place to get involved in Underworld affairs. But a bit of information? That was a deal that could get done. Especially if it gave him closure. Kid seemed heartbroken.
Didn’t take into account just how desperate he was; that was my first mistake. Turns out he was broke, no chips to his name, favors all tapped out. Heartless bastard I was that day, embarrassed at my lack of diligence to boot. Told him to fuck off, to come back when he could pay my price. That the only favor I’d be doing for him was covering up the fact that he’d tried to fuck over a hub.
By the time he could… pay that is… the names on my list; the leads I’d drummed up were all dead and buried. The whole thing was smoke! Best damn cover up job I’d ever seen.
Never got it out of my head, that. Stuck with me. Changed me. It was that look he gave me when I sent him off, I think. Like I’d killed the girl myself. [chuckles a bit] Maybe I’ve gone and convinced myself that I did.
JONNY
“You're thinking of coming out of retirement, aren’t you? Don’t think I can handle it alone?”
NICK
“It’s not that and you damn well know it. I need to do this one for me. I’ve got to put this skeleton to bed, Jonny. I need to see this girl get found. Or that it ends… that there’s closure… or it’ll follow me. Put me out of business like whatever it was that caught up with Lucy.
[tries to put his uncomfortable feelings away]
The sentiment will surely get me killed in the process but I mean… none of us get out of this life alive, am I right?
JONNY
“I suppose not. Besides, it’ll be a trip workin’ beside you. See how they did work in the black and white days, yeah? When we were all still standing on dirt? [laughs]
Shall we go inside, then?”
NICK
[nervous]
“Black and white days is it, smart ass? Maybe we ought to stall a minute or two more before going in. It’s only fair that I give you some warning as to what you’re about to walk into.
Waylon’s assembled a team. They’re inside already. You’re… the last to arrive.
JONNY
“Not used to working with a crew that isn’t mine. That’s fine, I’ll adapt to it. Thanks for -
NICK
[deadly serious now]
“That’s not it. Shit. I don’t really know how else to put it… it’s like she rose up from the dead…”
NARRATOR
If Nick had said anything more, his words slipped past her ears as Jonny pushed on by him. Her gut churned as instinct urged her through the door and past the projected beams of a holo-scanner. A sure sign that the Albatross was standing at its highest level of security. That Nick was expecting trouble. Automated defenses of all kinds, from turrets to pulse charges would be active so as to dissuade and pacify any sort of aggressive activity within.
She didn’t know how she’d known but it had stuck with her; the sense that things remained unresolved with the assassin that had haunted both her heart and mind only a year ago. That Derby Bell against all odds might have somehow survived a fall into a hostile ocean such as she had. As if a story which had begun with death couldn’t be undone by it, even if it was the only resolution Jonny could imagine. That it wasn’t the price the city was demanding of either of them.
With all that said, it should stand at little surprise that the killer herself was present for the meeting. Draped over a barstool as if it were a throne, her feet stretched out onto a second seat as if this were her home. As if she’d made it her den. Waylon was already walking towards her as if anything the man might say could diffuse the bomb that had been lit.
JONNY
“No. No fuckin’ way.”
[Jonny angrily paces, barely able to control herself. She feels BETRAYED by everyone in the room and is gauging if she should dare the Albatross’s security and draw on Derby]
“What is this? Some sort of a sick fucking joke…”
NICK
“Jonny…”
JONNY
“No, you get your fuckin’ hands off me. You know what she did. What she did to Revik, how she nearly killed Evan. Now you’ve put her in front of me under a Hub’s roof, as if that’ll do a damn thing to stop me.”
WAYLON
“There have been some strange developments… Allow me to…”
<gets cut off by Jonny>
JONNY
“Really? Developments? I’ve been between her sword and your god damned throat and now what? The two of you are old pals, is that it? Did I miss something? No, you know what, just fuckin’ save it… And to think that I felt sorry for you, Waylon. That I agreed to help you find that girl. I’m out, deal’s off. To hell with the lot of you.
[sound of the doors locking down]
Oh, you’d best unlock that fucking door, Nick. I’m warning you.”
DERBY BELL
[toying with the situation as she sits at the bar]
“How very dramatic… can’t we just put the past behind us? Doesn’t have to be this way…”
JONNY
“Antagonize me again. Just you fucking try me one more time, I dare you. I’ve already killed you once, I can damn well do it again.”
WAYLON
“Jonny… It’s… more complicated than it seems. Just… please allow me to explain…”
JONNY
“Oh!? Is it complicated? I bet it is! Let’s hear it then! Let’s hear how you bunch dreamt this’d work out. How this ends any other way than…”
WAYLON
“She’s Alex’s mother.”
NARRATOR
The words landed with a weight that Jonny hadn’t anticipated, forcing her mind back to the first job she’d done with the detective. To the night they’d met Derby Bell and specifically to his words. Words she’d disregarded moments before gunfire had torn through the abandoned offices they’d been investigating.
He knew her. That hadn’t been someone else's memory, he’d recognized her… he’d even stopped Jonny from pursuing the assassin in the canal. Nausea was a herald to thoughts that began to unravel… to spiral out of control as her knees felt like they might give out. Waylon had protected her… he’d known… It was all connected, like Revik had said it was. Pieces sliding into place.
JONNY
“Oh that’s… that’s just… fuck. How is that…?”
NICK BALLARD
“I wouldn’t have believed it myself if Waylon hadn’t vouched for it.”
WAYLON
“Do not mistake her for being sentimental. She never gave a damn about Alex. Not then, not now. She is being… pulled towards this. Like the rest of us. Caught in it’s tide.
DERBY BELL
[calm but still coy, a professional but still a predator]
“Imagine thinking that you know anything about me. Of what my sentiments are or what is and isn’t business. I’m here to tell you that things have officially changed, boys and girls.
[pauses a moment as she considers what to say next]
The two of you set something into motion. When you clumsily started poking at old secrets that even ‘I’ knew to leave buried.
Truth is, I’ve been keeping a low profile since I surfaced; you know… after you and your friends tried to kill me. I assure you that despite my love for being in the spotlight I know how to stay gone if need be. That was precisely what I was doing, biding my time and trying to figure out which way was forward. How I was going to take advantage of what might have been a new life. A rebirth. Nobody should have known I’d made it back into the city, that I was still breathing. But ‘they’ did. Whoever they are.
Long story short, they found me and I barely made it out of my safehouse alive. Not many killers out there that could have hoped to pull off a job like that… I should know, I’ve met them all.”
WAYLON
“I’ve synced the time of the assassination attempt to be shortly after we met with Lin Feng Mien. It would seem to confirm Lin’s rather… morbid paranoia…”
NICK
“Still doesn’t explain how the two of you washed up in my bar flying a white flag together. Look, I’ve had about enough of the drama and I think I’ve been more than fair to have given you this opportunity; against my better judgement I should add. I’ll have the full story right now else I’ll lift the house's grace and let Jonny have her way. God knows I’d like to see it; nearly forgot how fucking insidious you are, Bell.”
DERBY BELL
“Almost want to take you up on that, Mr. Ballard. But fine, we can do this your way. Under the water… something happened. I thought it was a dream, for a moment. A voice came into my mind. Something I’d heard before, as if it were a replay of some old trid… followed by… singing. You’ve heard of the Siren, right?”
WAYLON
“A Mer ghost story or urban legend that’s gained some traction in recent years. They say you can hear her voice, if you swim far enough under the city. Guiding you back to the surface, away from the darkness below… I’ve never experienced it myself. Then again, I’ve never… The Mer don’t swim that deep without reason. There is… an unrest in the dark below.”
DERBY BELL
“Well I heard this Siren of yours. Haven’t been able to get it out of my head, actually. Something just… clawing at me. Took awhile to figure it out… Could call it mother’s intuition if you will but the singing I heard… it wasn’t some ghost story. It was Alex.
I’ve been in the business long enough to know that real coincidences in this city don’t work like that. I hear my missing daughter singing down there in the deep… voices playing back in my head with fortune cookie prophecies falling into place around me. All confirming that I was EXACTLY where I was meant to be in that moment.
I mean, I’m a narcissist and even I don’t think that the world revolves around me that much. Nooo, kids. My baby girl’s pushing on the hands of fate and we’d better listen to her.
NICK BALLARD
“And how do you figure all that? What do you mean you heard voices before the singing? Was that you’re Alex, too?”
DERBY BELL
“No… no, that was Revik. Some real cinematic beyond the grave shit, too.”
JONNY
[Officially done listening to this now]
“I can’t listen to this anymore. This fucking bullshit. I won’t entertain my father’s killer sitting here telling me she’s hearin’ his ghost. I fucking hope it’s true. I hope he fucking haunts you at night just like he haunts me!
[trying HARD to regain control of herself, pro Jonny coming out again]
Nick. Time to open that door. I’ll honour the Accord and not put bullets in her under your roof but you’ve got to open that door… we’re not done, me and you. You hear that, Bell? We’re not done by a long shot.”
NICK BALLARD
[irritated at the whole situation]
“Come here, you. Now!
[catches his tone and sounds a bit more pleading/understanding that this is maybe all too much]
Please.”
NARRATOR
He took her by the arm, guiding her towards the other side of the bar. It was an act he knew he wouldn’t have gotten away with if the merc wasn’t willing to entertain his words. If anything, he felt her resolve crumble at the gesture. The bartender didn’t need psychic gifts to tap into the weight the woman was carrying and how heavy it must have become under the current situation. Pulling a plastic stool from under the bartop, he sat Jonny down before sitting down across from her.
JONNY
“Nick, I can’t. I can’t do this even for you. Please. Don’t ask me to. Find someone else.”
NICK BALLARD
“I wish I could… I really do… but I need you, Jonny. It has to be you if I’ve got any hope at all of making it out of this thing alive.
[sighs]
This… this is mad, isn’t it? The whole thing. I can’t blame you for wanting out but I’m afraid we both missed last call on that… and it’s time to pay up.”
JONNY
“Don’t you dare, Nick. Don’t even start trying to justify it. Convincing the both of us… Stay retired. Stay out of the mix. No matter what it is you think you’ve done, you don’t deserve whatever THIS is. The situation is beyond mad and the two of them aren’t far behind it. Worse still, you’re obsessed and they’re using that. Using you. Preying on it… Fuck me, even I can see that and I promise you I’m only seein’ red fucking vengence right now.
Look. If there’s any truth at all to any of this, if Alex Webb is alive… and the Yakuza think this has attention from the Core… well let’s be honest, Waylon would sacrifice the both of us to Kraken for even a chance to rescue this girl and Derby… fuck. She doesn’t care about a damn thing other than her own skin. She’s a murderer, Nick. One that I have too much unfinished business with for this to work out.
NICK BALLARD
“You’re right… everything you said. You’re absolutely right. But you know me and you know that I HAVE to do this… and we can both see why it can only be you behind me on it. Since we’re being honest: is there anyone in the business that’d blink twice on a used up old bartender getting lost while out on one last job. It’s even damn right poetic. Now I’m in a spot and I’m being forced to admit that I fucked up; between you and I. Mixed feelings in with biz and now you’re family to me, Jonny. You’re the only one I can trust.
Besides, like I said it’s too late now to get out. Waylon’s seen to it, purposefully or not. If there are knives in the dark that scare demons like Ms. Bell over there and the eyes of Kraken are on us… Then the only way is through, and the only way we get to the other side is if you and I stick together. I’ll make you a promise, though.
JONNY
“Don’t, Nick. No promises. Promises follow you. It’s got to be biz, this time.”
NICK BALLARD
“Fine. Terms. Of a new deal, between you and I. Fuck the chips. We do this thing, we get to the bottom of this Alex Webb business and we close the cover on it. Grit through it anyway we can, clenched teeth all the way if need be. After the job closes, if she’s still alive, you and I deal with Derby Bell. Together. Once and for all. I’ll throw the entire might of the Hub at it if I need to.”
JONNY
“You’d do that?”
NICK BALLARD
“It’s only right. What she did to Revik, and all. What she’s put you through. If there’s a back in this city that deserves to be stabbed, it’s hers. But we need to find a way to play along for now, you understand? You need to bury your heat with her, or find a way to cool it off… at least until we can put this thing to bed. Do you think you can do that?”
JONNY
“I don’t know, Nick. I can’t believe I’m saying this but… I’ll try. Just for now. For you. You prick.
[pauses a moment before extending her hand]
The deal is done, then?”
NICK BALLARD
“God save us both, The Deal is Done.”
[FADE OUT]