phone operator

You have 1 new message.

He taps another button.

Thelman Drake appears on the video screen.

thelman

Hey tough guy. Gimme a call at home.

Dreadlock gets up and walks to the entertainment system.

He turns it on and selects button.

A video comes on with four young men singing an a-cappella love song.

Dreadlock makes a disgusted face.

Dreadlock

Jesus. What is it with today’s music?

He presses another button and a four-piece rock band appears playing a more up-tempo number.

Dreadlock

Better.

He walks back to the video-phone and taps a couple of numbers.

PHONE OPERATOR

I’m just ringing that number, Sir.

Dreadlock

(Sarcastically)

Good for you.

Thelman Drake appears on the phone.

Thelman

What did you do to Benson? She rang me at work about six o’clock. You didn’t piss in her shoes when your were there.

DREADLOCK

You know me better than that. I was the gentleman you could expect me to be. I showed up her Security Guard, and reminded her of our relationship.

THELMAN

So she hates your guts even more.

DREADLOCK

Yea, but remember she walked out on me. Left me for that rich arsehole.

THELMAN

Okay, I don’t need to go into your past romances.

DREADLOCK

Benson is hiding something. I don’t know what it is and have even less idea of how I’m going to find out.

THELMAN

If she’s hiding something I can go above her head and get clearance to search the place. I just need something a little more concrete. Is there someone there that can help you out.

DREADLOCK

The head security guy may be of use. Name’s Lambert. He seems to have a hero complex over me. Only natural I guess.

THELMAN

Yea, great. Some dweeb who’s in love with you. No wonder his boss hates you.

DREADLOCK

Nah, she just hates me anyway.

Phone operator’s voice

You have an incoming call sir.

DREADLOCK

Hang on, I’ve got another call.

He pushes a button, and Lambert’s face comes on the screen, he looks distressed.

DREADLOCK

(under breath)

Well, well Speak of the Devil.

DREADLOCK

What can I do for you Lambert?

Lambert looks nervously from side to side. He’s in a Phone Booth.

LAMBERT

The Red Stripe bar on Williams, 9 o’clock.

The screen goes blank, and Thelman’s face comes back.

THELMAN

That was quick. One of your female friends ringing to say how much they love you.

DREADLOCK

Yea, I wish. It was my lead from Science. We have a meeting, which could prove interesting. Go to go.

THELMAN

Okay, fine. Report to me tomorrow.

 

EXT: RED STRIPE BAR - NIGHT

A typical pub A tacky neon sign blinks intermittently, telling the world that this is the "Red Stripe Bar". Large windows allow a view into the bar, but only show the dimly lit interior.

The bar is situated on a dark and dreary street. A few streetlights try, but fail, to provide a decent amount of light.

A couple of hover cars are parked outside. A few people walk past in the drizzling rain.

 

INT: RED STRIPE BAR

A bit more modern than something you’d see today, but still in the same drab earthy colours.

Dreadlock is sitting at the bar, nursing a beer and using a screwdriver on his left hand. A television is on, above the bar.

A newsreader is reading the evening news.

NEWSREADER

Today in the lower south district, a gang of youths attacked and raided the Fourth District Bank of Sydney & Melbourne.

The screen changes to show footage of the youths. They are wearing masks, vests with a gang design on the back and wielding long multi-barrelled guns.

NEWSREADER’S voice

The Bank’s camera caught the youths in the act. The youths were identified as belonging to the infamous Berserker gang. Four of them burst in at approximately 11 o’clock eastern time, shooting the two security guards. They held up the bank, shooting two customers who apparently talked back to them and escaped with about ten million dollars in small bills.

The screen changes to a distraught looking man.

DISTRAUGHT MAN

They fuckin’ burst in here blazing away man. My mate Frank tells them to fuck off and they shoot him. They had these fuckin’ big guns with four barrels. They didn’t fire bullets or nothing, just a flash of light, and Frank’s got this big hole in him. Fuck me.

NEWSREADER

The IIC Police Squad arrived on the scene within minutes, but were unable to stop any of the youths. Police Inspector Sergeant Grant Constantine had this to say.

The screen changes to an important looking Police Officer in uniform. Reporters are crowded around him in a similar frenzy as seen today.

CONSTANTINE

The youths have been positively identified as members of the Berserker gang. They are also wanted for several other robberies in Sydney. We have put together a special task force to track them down.

A reporter butts in and says.

REPORTER

Inspector is there any truth to the rumour that this gang has possession of Plasma weapons.

CONSTANTINE

That appears to be the case at this stage, but we are unsure. Until the autopsies of the victims from this robbery come back we can not be certain.

REPORTER

If the gangs have Plasma weaponry, will that mean that the Police Department is outgunned by youth gangs.

Constantine looks a little perplexed by the question, and fumbles for an answer.

CONSTANTINE

Certainly not. We have the matter in hand and expect results within days. Now if you’ll excuse me I have work to do.

The reporters throw questions, but Constantine walks away through the throng to a waiting car.

The screen cuts back to the newsreader.

NEWSREADER

Today in old China.......

Dreadlock is muttering to himself.

DREADLOCK

Yea sure I know what you’ve got in hand Constantine. You dimwit.

He flexes his left hand, still muttering.

DREADLOCK

Plasma weapons. What’s happening in this town?

Dreadlock moves to grab his beer with his left hand. The hand closes too quickly and shatters the glass.

DREADLOCK

(surprised)

Fuck!

The bartender tears himself from the TV and looks across at Dreadlock. He is slightly pissed, but a little reserved about abusing Dreadlock.

bartender

Hey buddy give it a rest, that’s the third glass tonight.

Dreadlock looks over at him. He pulls out some money, throws it on the bar.

DREADLOCK

Yea, yea. Here’s something for the glasses and gimme another beer.

He adjusts his hand again and puts the screwdriver into a pocket.

Lambert in an overcoat enters through the door. He moves up to Dreadlock.

LAMBERT

(too loudly)

DREADL....

Dreadlock turns and grabs Lambert by the collar, sitting him in the adjacent chair. He puts a finger over Lambert’s lips to silence him.

DREADLOCK

Call me Dared for fuck’s sake. Its not a good idea to inform the whole bar who I am, some people don’t like me.

LAMBERT

Sorry, Dread.. aaahhh Dared.

He looks at Dreadlock for a second.

Lambert

Well, its not as if they couldn’t figure out who you are just by looking at you.

 

Dreadlock lets him go and leans back.

Dreadlock

That may be, but its still no reason to give them ideas. So, what was so important that you had to drag me half way across town in the middle of the night.

Lambert reaches into his coat and extracts a yellow envelope. He hands it to Dreadlock.

LAMBERT

This!

DREADLOCK

What is it?

LAMBERT

Take it and check it out. I think you’ll find what was missing in there. Benson doesn’t want any of this getting out for some reason.

Dreadlock looks at the package and puts it into a pocket of his own coat. He turns back to.

DREADLOCK

Okay, do you want a beer or something. I hate drinking alone.

Lambert looks around furtively.

LAMBERT

No, I’m gonna go. I don’t want to be seen. I got a strange feeling that I was followed, but couldn’t see anybody.

DREADLOCK

Okay. If you want I can take you back. You should feel a little safer with me.

LAMBERT

It’s you who makes me nervous.

DREADLOCK

Fine, I’ll stay here then, I wanted to finish my beer anyway.

Lambert gets up and looks around. He hurries towards the door and leaves.

Dreadlock watches him go and mutters under his breath.

DREADLOCK

Weirdo. Now what do we have here.

He extracts the package and examines it. He opens it and pulls out a small metal cylinder. His eye lights up.

DREADLOCK

Very interesting.

He puts the cylinder back in the envelope and puts the envelope back in his coat. He grabs his beer and takes another pull.

 

EXT: ROADWAY OUTSIDE OF RED STRIPE BAR

Lambert is walking down the footpath

Lambert walks past an alleyway and hears a garbage can falling over.

He stops and looks nervously into the alley.

LAMBERT

Who’s there? What’s going on?

Suddenly, a pale arm extends impossibly out of the alley and grabs Lambert by the face.

He is wrenched off his feet and into the alley.

In the darkness there is a brief shadowy struggle, followed by a small scream and a crunching sound.

Then silence.

 

INT: RED STRIPE BAR

Dreadlock pulls on his beer again.

The news broadcast changes, attracting his attention.

newsreader

And today in Perth, Westco Managing Director Aaron Black was delivering an address to members of the West Asian Business Alliance.

A photograph of a middle aged man appears.

SUBTITLE:

AARON BLACK

NEWSREADER

When a group of protestors stormed into the conference. Luckily, News 4’s cameraman Pervis Jones was on the scene with a direct feed to Sydney.

The screen changes showing images from a hand held video camera.

Aaron Black is standing on a podium delivering a speech.

Suddenly, the camera pans around to show the room’s doors crash open. A group of twenty protesters burst into the room. They are shouting loudly at Aaron Black and holding up placards.

The camera pans around to Black. Security Guards have stationed themselves around Black. Black points. The Guards raise their guns and open fire.

The camera pans back to the group. They are mown down in a spray of automatic fire.

A voice is heard off camera, and the camera pans around to the source of the voice.

A Security Guard stands in front of the camera. He is pointing his gun straight at the lens.

Guard

Hey, you’re not a fucking Westco cameraman.

The gun fires and the screen goes blank.

The Newsreader appears again.

Newsreader

And News 4’s sympathies go out to Pervis’ family and friends.

Dreadlock

Christ. What are they trying to hide over there?

He takes a final pull on his beer and gets up to leave.

 

EXT: ROADWAY OUTSIDE OF RED STRIPE BAR

Dreadlock looks around and walks on, following the same path as Lambert. As he passes the Alley he hears a noise.

He stops and looks into the alleyway.

DREADLOCK

Infra-red.

Immediately, the alley is highlighted in green. A couple of small brighter objects can be seen, but nothing that looks human.

DREADLOCK’s voice

Normal.

Dreadlock peers back into the alley and shrugs.

dreadlock

Rats.

He turns and walks away.

In the alleyway Lambert’s body lies in pieces. His head and arm has been torn off. His torso lays next to a wall hidden behind a trash can.

 

INT: DREADLOCK’S APARTMENT

Dreadlock is sitting in front of his video-phone. Thelman Drake is on the phone’s screen.

Dreadlock

My contact at Science gave me a copy of the Security videos from the night of the fire. I’ve downloaded them to Van Thu. He’s working on them now.

Thelman

You got Van to go into work at this time of night?

Dreadlock

He owed me one, and he was bored anyway.

Thelman

Only a computer geek could be bored at twelve midnight.

dreadlock

He said something about acing everybody else on the netweb deathmatch, and not being able to find decent opponents.

Thelman shrugs.

Thelman

Like I said.

Dreadlock

Anyway, I’m going in there now. Hopefully he’s already come up with something.

Thelman

Good luck to you. I’m going back to bed.

Dreadlock

What kind of attitude is that from the CO? You should be getting ready to meet us down there.

Thelman

Up Yours, I’ll see you in the morning.

Dreadlock

It’s already morning.

Thelman smiles and the screen blinks out.

 

INT: VAN THU’S AREA

A computer nerd’s paradise. There are pieces of hardware strewn all through the place. VAN THU, a mid-twenties man of Asian descent, is sitting in front of a screen. Dreadlock is standing behind him.

VAN THU

This is what I’ve got for you.

The screen lights up showing the office area that Justin McKie worked in.

SUBTITLE: "LEVEL 21 - IT AREA - 10:41am".

The scene pans from left to right then back. Justin McKie’s desk is right in front of the camera. The camera pans across his desk a couple of times.

dreadlock’s voice

Yea, that’s McKie the guy who flipped out. So what?

Van’s voice

Watch this.

The scene rewinds. Stops, then plays forward a little. McKie comes back in to view.

The video stops. McKie can be seen looking into his computer screen.

A rectangle appears around McKie’s computer terminal. It is magnified.

On the screen is the purple vortex.

dreadlock’s voice

What the hell is that?

Van turns around and looks up at Dreadlock.

van

That, my friend, is very clever. I heard about a company out west who have been working on a little bit of magic. By tapping in to a network, they can send subliminal signals to a terminal. That way a person can be hypnotised and coerced to do any action. It hasn’t been proven as far as I know, but looking at this video and what you’ve told me it looks as though it’s happening.

dreadlock

Jesus.

van

(pointing at the console)

If he had this sort of technology, then he’d still be alive today.

dreadlock

So, that explains why McKie lost it, but why would someone do that?

van

That’s the other thing I found.

Van turns back to the console.

The video fast forwards for a little while. It stops and a new scene comes up.

It is an plain concrete corridor. The camera is fixed in position.

SUBTITLE: SUB-BASEMENT LEVEL III - 10:43am.

Suddenly, several holes in the wall to the left of screen open up. The barrels of several guns appear out of each hole.

VOICE ON VIDEO

Stop, you are breaching EastCorp security. Stay still or you will be fired upon.

Suddenly, all the guns open fire at once. A lot of bullets, smoke and cement chips spray into the air.

Dreadlock’s voice

What is that?

VAN’s voice

Well the time is the same as the earlier shot. I’d say this was happening a little after the electrical outage.

Dreadlock’s voice

What the power surge caused a malfunction?

Van’s voice

No, if you look the lights are still on. This area has its own power.

As the smoke clears, several small robots come into view, they sweep the area clean and move off screen.

Van turns to Dreadlock.

DREADLOCK

This shit just gets weirder.

van

What do you make of it?

dreadlock

I have no idea.

He paces back a couple of steps, thinking.

He turns back to Van.

Dreadlock

Hang on. Its obvious that the whole thing with McKie was a setup. I wonder if the security locks were on the same circuit as the electrical mains.

Van

But, wouldn’t the Cameras be on the same circuit.

Dreadlock

Well, not if we are seeing this.

He walks back to the console.

Dreadlock

Re-play the moment that the guns started firing.

Van turns back to the console.

The screen rewinds and starts again. The guns start firing.

Dreadlock’s voice

Stop it there and play it quarter speed.

He points at the screen.

Dreadlock

Magnify this bit by three.

The video starts playing. Bullets come into frame, some hit the wall, others just disappear.

Dreadlock steps back.

Dreadlock

Did you see that?

Van

The bullets disappearing.

Dreadlock

Yea. There’s something there, but we can’t see it.

Van

That’s impossible.

Dreadlock

So is hypnotising someone through a computer network, but we’ve seen that.

Van looks at Dreadlock in disbelief.

He snaps his fingers as an idea comes to mind.

Van

Hey, have you got the original?

Dreadlock opens a small pouch pocket and extracts the cylinder that Lambert gave him and hands it to Van.

Van studies it intently.

Van

Cool. They are using the same system as us. Watch this.

He turns back to the console and inserts the cylinder into a small opening on the front.

The screen goes blank and then the McKie Office video comes on. The scene fast-forwards to the shoot out in the corridor. It rewinds slightly and then turns green.

Dreadlock’s voice

They’ve got infra-red cameras.

Van’s voice

Yea, it’s all built into the signal. Infra-red, Ultra-violet, even x-ray.

Dreadlock’s voice

Well that’ll explain the cancer when it develops.

On the screen, three ghostly images come into view.

The voice warning plays.

The three images stop and their heads seem to look upwards.

They continue.

The guns fire.

The three ghosts fall down in a hail of bullets.

After a couple of seconds, they seem to disappear from view.

The robots come in and clean up.

Van’s voice

Fuck me!

Dreadlock’s voice

My thoughts exactly. Show me those things up close.

The video rewinds and zooms on the image.

A head shot of one of the creatures comes up. It has a large bulbous head, with small discernible eyes, and a cruel looking mouth. Sort of like a malformed Alien.

Van turns and looks at Dreadlock.

Van

Have you seen anything like that before?

DREADLOCK

Once, just once.

He looks down at his left hand, flexing it slowly.

 

FLASHBACK:

EXT: FOREST, NEW ZEALAND

All seems calm. A gentle breeze is wafting through the forest, moving the branches and shrubs slightly.

SUBTITLE: NEW ZEALAND

Suddenly, a lone figure stands up as if from nowhere. He wears camouflage gear, which is working overtime.

The figure raises a long rifle and slings it over his shoulder.

He lifts a pair of binoculars to his face and peers through them.

Through the binoculars there is no movement other than the gentle waving of trees.

The figure lowers the binoculars and holds up his left arm. His left hand is balled into a fist. He quickly opens his hand, spreading all five fingers.

Immediately, but noiselessly, a company of fifteen soldiers, dressed the same, materialises from the surrounding forest.

The leader, releases the binoculars, and lowers his left hand, pointing towards the denser forest. All the soldiers slowly edge their way forward.

The leader turns around, looking at his squad. It is Dreadlock, without the Eyepiece and cybernetics.

He un-slings his gun and walks forward.

Dreadlock pans around all the men as he walks.

Suddenly, a high pitched whine breaks the silence and the soldier directly next to Dreadlock is thrown backwards.

All the men quickly duck down. Dreadlock, crawls to the man who has been shot.

There is a neat hole through the man’s.

Dreadlock looks around again. Peering through the brush and examining the forest ahead. Slight movements can be seen in front of trees ahead, but nothing that makes sense.

Another whine. Dreadlock looks across to his left.

A silver dart shaped projectile, buries itself into a tree. A soldier is crouching below the tree.

Dreadlock erupts from the brush, running towards the soldier. He jumps and tackles the man out of the way.

They tumble out of the way as the tree behind explodes.

Dreadlock is on top of the man looking around. He looks down at the man and puts a finger to the others lips.

The man is Thelman Drake. Drake mouths the words Thank You.

Dreadlock rolls off of him, and comes up with his binoculars.

He scans the forest again.

Dreadlock adjust a control on the binoculars.

The image becomes bright green. Then adjusts, showing different intensities.

A couple of figures move out from behind the trees, they walk into openings, raise guns to their shoulders and fire.

Burst of explosions can be heard from behind.

A lone figure moves out, fires then ducks behind a tree.

Dreadlock drops the binoculars and raises his gun.

Dreadlock fingers the second of its two triggers.

The gun fires.

A projectile shoots out and races through space. It immediately impacts on the tree, behind which the lone figure is hiding.

The tree explodes.

Dreadlock brings up the binoculars again.

The tree is in ruins, behind it a prone figure lays on the ground. Other figures are running away into the forest.

Dreadlock drops the binoculars, and slowly rises.

He holds up his left fist. The other soldiers stay put.

Dreadlock picks his way towards the exploded tree.

A white figure is lying face down on the ground.

He kneels down by the figure. It is humanoid, but not completely human.

Dreadlock grabs it with his left hand, rolling the body over. A glimpse of the face and chest reveals the outwardly alien appearance of the creature.

Suddenly, the creature smiles and lets go of a silver object

The object rolls and hits the ground.

Dreadlock’s face drops in astonishment. He quickly lets go of the creature and pulls away, but all too late.

The grenade explodes, throwing Dreadlock away from the creature.

He lands in a heap, covered in blood and missing his left arm just below the elbow.

END FLASHBACK

Dreadlock looks down and flexes his left hand again.

 

INT: THELMAN DRAKE’S OFFICE

Thelman is sitting behind desk. He looks up as his office door opens quite forcefully. Dreadlock comes into the room and strides over to his desk.

He stops in front of Drake and holds up the video cylinder.

Dreadlock

You’ve got to look at this.

Drake leans back and waves his hands before him and at the computer.

THELMAN

It’s all yours.

Dreadlock moves around the desk and inserts the cylinder.

He hits a few buttons and the video comes up.

DREADLOCK

Security video of the Science Building, some sub-level basement, at the time of the fire.

We watch the non-enhanced video of machine-gun fire.

THELMAN

Yea, some security guns went crazy due to the electricity shorting out.

DREADLOCK

Yea! But watch this.

He hits another button. We see the same sequence again in infra-red. Drake’s face drops and he says.

THELMAN

What the hell are those things?

DREADLOCK

Remember New Zealand.

THELMAN

You’re telling me that those things are the same as the one that nearly fritzed you in NZ.

DREADLOCK

Yea. They seem to be a bit more advanced, and are almost undetectable. And get this, they dissolve once they are dead.

THELman

Who’s responsible.

dreadlock

I’m not sure at this stage, but I’ve got a feeling we are up against someone big. If it’s the same people who were supplying those bugs to the New Zealanders, then they know what they are doing and are getting better at it.

THELMAN

Shit, anything else.

DREadlock

Yea. Van found a strange image that appeared on Justin Mckie’s monitor. He said its a prototype of some mind control software. Van is tracking down the signal. So far we know it was in Sydney somewhere.

THELMAN

That narrows it down to a eighty citizens.

The computer screen flashes to indicate an incoming message. Laura’s image appears.

THELMAN

Yes, Laura.

LAURA

Michelle Zucco here to see you, Sir.

THELMAN

Tell her to wait.

laura

She says it’s important and she has to see you now.

thelman

(mumbling to himself)

She says it’s always important.

laura

What was that sir?

Thelman looks at Dreadlock. Dreadlock shrugs and grins slightly.

thelman

Nothing Laura. Alright send her in.

laura

Yes sir.

Laura’s image disappears.

Thelman looks at Dreadlock. He leans back.

Thelman

You are gonna love this.

The door opens.

A tall athletic woman enters. She is in her early thirties and extremely attractive, with long raven hair flowing down her back. With angular features, which give her a harsh, but alluring quality. She carries herself with an air of confidence that few men could hope to achieve. She is power dressed in a suit, with a skirt and matching accessories.

Dreadlock’s eyes fix on her, and he has to stop his mouth from hanging open.

She walks towards the pair. This is MICHELLE ZUCCO, head of IIC’s Information Technology group.

She strides up to Thelman’s desk, an angry look on her face.

She completely ignores Dreadlock and addresses Thelman directly.

zucco

Why is one of my best men wasting valuable time working on some break-in at the Science Building? We’ve got enough to do without people from other areas coming down and commandeering my men for their own purposes.

Dreadlock

(interrupting)

Ah, that would have been me.

Zucco turns and glares at Dreadlock with a look of intense annoyance, he turns back to Thelman.

Thelman

Michelle Zucco I don’t think you’ve met Dared Locke.

Zucco turns to face Dreadlock.

Zucco

Aaahh. The infamous Dreadlock.

Thelman

(a little louder)

He’s my second in command.

Zucco’s face changes to a look of stunned surprise. She turns back to Thelman.

Zucco

Su - su - second in command. I didn’t think there was such a thing here.

Thelman

There’s a lot that you still have to learn about IIC.

Zucco’s face intensifies again.

Thelman

Anyway. Dared needed assistance from the IT section and I gave him the authority to use Van Thu to help out.

Zucco leans across at Dreadlock and addresses Thelman.

Zucco

Alright then, if that’s the case.

Dreadlock

Has Van come up with anything then. He was getting close when I talked to him an hour ago.

Zucco

He’s managed to trace the signal to some warehouse in Wollongong. I ordered a couple of local police to run by the place and have a look.

Dreadlock

Can we find out what’s happened.

Zucco glares at Dreadlock, obviously hating his involvement.

Zucco

I suppose so.

She turns to Thelman and motions for the screen.

Thelman moves it towards her.

She taps the screen a couple of times and brings up a phone keypad.

She taps in a phone number and the screen changes showing a middle aged man dressed in a policeman’s uniform.

POLICEMAN

Wollongong District Police Station, can I help you.

ZUCCO

This is Michelle Zucco, put me through to Captain Bornas please.

POLICEMAN

(taken aback)

Yes sir, er Ma’am.

The screen changes and another middle-aged man of Indian extraction appears. This is CAPTAIN RAJAN BORNAS. Captain Bornas has an Indian hospitality streak in him.

BORNAS

Ms. Zucco, how are you? You are still looking wonderful. It seems like that we were speaking only moments ago.

Zucco

That’s cause we were. I want to know what your men found at that warehouse I sent them too.

BORNAS

Oh, hang on a second, will you.

Bornas turns and shouts to someone. He has a conversation with that person and turns back to the screen. He has a slightly confused look on his face.

Bornas

It seems that they haven’t reported back in for about fifteen minutes now.

Zucco

Don’t you think that’s a little strange?

Bornas

No, not really. They are probably on a coffee break.

Zucco

Christ. I’m coming down there, I want to get to the bottom of this.

Bornas

If you insist. I’ll order some donuts then.

Zucco stabs at the screen. It goes blank.

Zucco

Idiot.

She turns to Thelman.

Zucco

I want a Special Weapons team and a transport to go down to Wollongong and sort this out.

Thelman

Don’t you think that’s going a little far. Sending an entire team down just because a couple of Police Officers are on a coffee break seems a tad expensive. Besides this is Dared’s case.

Zucco

You can take it out of my budget, and anyway it was my man who found the warehouse.

Thelman looks up at Dreadlock, who shrugs.

Dreadlock

You know I hate being in charge of people.

Thelman turns back to Zucco.

Thelman

Alright then. You can have the team on one condition. Dared goes along as an observer.

Zucco looks at Dreadlock, then back to Thelman

Zucco

Alright then.

She turns to Dreadlock.

zucco

Be upstairs in half an hour.

Zucco turns and storms out of the room. Her trim behind swaying seductively under her skirt.

Dreadlock’s eye doesn’t leave it until she exits.

DREADLOCK

Jesus, I don’t know whether I want to punch her or screw her!

THELMAN

Tell me about it.

Dreadlock

You know I’ve always had this thing for powerful women.

THELMAN

Really!! Well you can forget about her. Trust me, the looks wear off after a short while, and then you see the true asshole that she is.

Dreadlock

I don’t think I’d be that bothered if I could see that much of her.

Thelman

You’re a sick son of a bitch, you know that?

Dreadlock

Well, if you’ve got over her obvious attributes, why the hell do you put up with her?

Thelman

She was recommended by someone at Eastcorp central, from the budgeting area. They put a little pressure on me to take her. Something about withholding funds from IIC.

Dreadlock

Jesus, she must be in pretty well with someone to draw that sort of influence. Any idea who she’s sleeping with?

Thelman

I don’t think its that. She’s good, she knows that. She acts on her own, but stays within the bounds. But, sometimes she has that look of the predator. I know she’s after my job, and sometimes she can have it. But, I’d hate to think what would happen to this place if she took over. The other problem is I hate arrogant pricks, and most times she just pisses me off.

Dreadlock

You didn’t really have to give in to this lunacy. Sending a Special Weapons team to check out a warehouse.

Thelman

If she screws up on this I can hold it over her head later on. And you heard the man its coming out of her budget.

They both smile.

Thelman