Murder in the Darkness

8/14/2019 Murder in the Darkness

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/murder-in-the-darkness 1/56

Murder In The Darkness

by

Devin McConnell

Fish in the Percolator © 2009 A cyberpunk mystery



CHARACTER DESCRIPTIONS

JACK

A gruff and cynical detective with a

bit of a scathing attitude toward al-

most everything and everyone around

him. He doesn’t make any personal con-

nections to his cases, he just treats

each one as another job. Jack displays

a very trademark trench coat and fedora

at almost all times as well as keeping

his trusty sidearm handy at all times.

JILL SERPENTES

Cunning, merciless, and manipulative.

Jill has a very specific goal in mind

and never deviates from it no matter

how much she must go out of her way to

obtain it. She can appear quite inno-

cent in character but beneath the lay-

ered personality she invents there lies

the cold, hard, straightforward mind of

a killer.

GREG

Greg is Jack’s partner for this new

case. He is tech savvy and a forensics

expert with a wide knowledge of biol-

ogy, genetics, chemistry, and a wide

catalogue of medical procedures and ma-

terials

CHIEF

The man Jack has to report to. The

chief appears as a hard ass to keep

Jack in line. But beside that he is a

man with great conviction to serve as

chief of the police and takes greathonor in the idea of putting away

wrongdoers to preserve society.

JULIA

The recently widowed genetic and bio-

logical engineer. Her and her husband

were working on a very secret personal

project that the Jill is after. She is

2



a workaholic in her office but yearns

to be able to revert to her more laid

back personality whenever she has the

chance, however her extreme work pat-

tern makes that a near impossibility.

She is kind and understanding in char-acter and as a boss, so she is gener-

ally liked by everyone who works under

her and with her.

DAVE

An undercover agent for the Jill. He’s

been undercover in the Petronov’s re-

search facility in order to gain their

trust and get a better idea of what

they are producing for the Jill. He is

essentially a mercenary with only onepaying boss. He cares little for anyone

involved in his mission and feels no

connection to the people he hurts.

DRUG BOSS

A plain and simple CEO type (though not

that big of a tycoon) Doesn’t quite un-

derstand what he is getting into every

time and instead just follows where the

money is, which lands him in some trou-

ble and gets him killed.

ALEXANDER

A top theriogenolocial scientist that

works together with his wife Julia with

the hope of accomplishing a major

breakthrough in reproductive methods.

He needs little characterization be-

cause he dies very early on as a result

of Jill swapping his drug supply with a

fatal batch.

SARAH

An associate with Julia and Alexander,

she worked with them on the partheno-

genesis project to try and compensate

for her own infertility. Shy at most

times due to hiding her past so much as

well as being torn between the charac-

ter’s because of her betrayal of

Deckard and Greg to Jill.

3



SYBIL

Jill’s partner and right hand agent.

She has a relation with Jill similar to

that between Deckard and that Chief,

mutual cooperation mixed with bitter

hatred. She frequently comes to blows with Jill over decisions. She is

equally as sly, evil and cunning as

Jill which makes them the perfect team.

But their confrontations leads Jill to

have her disposed of by getting Deckard

to believe that Sybil is the mastermind

behind the entire thing

4



INT. SCENE - DESCRIPTION

The camera focuses in on a small puddle of melted ice on the

side of a cracked up street as a rushed business man steps di-

rectly into it and lightly soaks his foot before pulling it out

instinctively

ALEXANDER

Ahhh… dammit. (grunts) Well better see

if these pills work any better than the

last ones that crock sold me.

The man produces a small jar filled to the brim with pills and

continues to take a handful from it and throw them into his

mouth without a second thought.

ALEXANDER

Blech… do these things always need totaste like rubber?

Just as the man downs his pills and finishes his sentence he im-

mediately lets out a small yelp and grasps his left arm with ap-

parent pain as his arm starts to bleed a bit and the other one

begins dripping blood onto the snow which greatly contrasts the

two colors. In just moments he falls face first into the snow

with blood and the camera slowly moves up from his body to the

sky.

SHOT - DESCRIPTION

The camera pans down from the ceiling in a faintly lit room with

the protagonist sits back at his desk with his trusty sidearm

lying beside him as he sifts through a few papers on his desk on

various things he is taking little interest in when his phone

goes off.

JACK

Jack here… oh good… chief, ya know I

was just thinking to myself how much I

would love to talk to you again…

...What?!

What the hell do you mean, no murderer?

How is someone murdered without a… grr

Ok I’ll be right over

1



EXT. SCENE - DESCRIPTION

Jack gets up slowly and holsters his gun and heads out of the

room to his car grabbing his hat on the way out.Int. scene - de-

scription

The camera pans across a deserted parking lot covered with a

light layer of snow that keeps the ground white. A small walled

in dumpster with an open fence door reveals a body lying face-

down in the snow with the red blood piercing the white coat of

snow

JACK

Hmm… this is the place, where’s the

chief?

GREG

The cops left an hour ago, the chiefincluded. They left me here for you.

I’m Greg, I’ll be your technical and

forensic expert

With this new voice appearing out of nowhere Jack notices his

new friend leaned up with his back against a wall as he speaks

in a calm and confident manner.

JACK

Okay then… Greg, what are we dealing

with here? What’s this about there be-ing no murderer?

GREG

Well there’s no murderer at the scene.

Believe me, he was murdered. But all we

found was this vial full of pills,

they’re over the counter.

JACK

So then it’s simple, someone dropped

some poison in the jar.

GREG

Not that simple, I took a blood sample,

there wasn’t a trace of any poison I

can think of.

JACK

So then how did this guy die? Where’s

all the blood from?

2



GREG

Well he bled to death rather quickly,

my estimate is that he fell unconsciousabout ten minutes after the bleeding

started. He died within a half hour

from there.

JACK

Wait bleeding? How the hell did he

bleed that fast?

GREG

I’m not sure, but I have an idea. I’m

gunna need to take these pills back and

see what the hell they are.

JACK

All right, where are you set up?

GREG

Actually I don’t have a place to stay

at the moment. They ordered me out here

to trail along with you. So whenever

you’re ready to go, we should probably

get down to finding out what the hell

these things are

JACK

I suppose that’s the best course of ac-

tion, it’s the only piece of evidence

from the scene, right?

GREG

Have a look for yourself, there’s noth-

ing here but a bloodied up corpse.


Jack briefly walks over to the body and kneels down next to it

in order to examine a bit. He shakes his head and turns up noth-

ing. Then stands back up and motions to Greg to leave. They both

get in his car and drive off.

3




Jack and Greg both emerge back at Jack’s place and Greg immedi-

ately sets down his computer and begins to type furiously into

it with the pills in hand.

GREG

Hey, I need to crush this for analysis.

Have a knife or anything?

Jack

Ah, yeah. Here.

Jack tosses Greg a small Swiss army knife

GREG

Thanks, now to see what’s in this thing

Greg cuts the pill into small and smaller pieces until all that

remains is a pale powder.

GREG

Alright. It’ll take some time...

JACK

Really, how is there no murderer and no

poison? It impossible.

GREG

I’ve got hunches. Although they’re just

that.

JACK

We got time to kill. Share ‘em.

GREG

Coumadin, it’s a blood thinner

JACK

A blood thinner?! What the hell is that

for?

4



GREG

To kill him

JACK

Explain.

GREG

Well it’s rather simple. Like I said I

tested his blood before you arrived and

found something interesting…

JACK

Which is?

GREG

He was hemophilic. He has naturally

thin blood. It’s a genetic disorder.

Those damned miscoded protein sequences will get ya

JACK

Ok I think I’m starting to piece this

one together

GREG

Impressive, I only figured it out about

an hour ago myself.

JACKWell it’s obvious that the victim was

slipped the wrong drug for his hemo-

philia. Instead of thickening the blood

it did the exact opposite-

GREG

Precisely...

JACK

So with his blood thinned to an ex-

treme, this entire system is unable toclot to stop the flow of blood at all.

So the smallest prick will cause him to

bleed to death.

GREG

You got it

5



JACK

So then we need to solve the next ques-

tion. Where’d the drugs come from?

GREG

That’s a good question. I’ll just tryto look up this number on the inside of

the cap.

JACK

That’ll help

Greg makes quick work of the location and hacks away at his lap-

top pinpointing the location in a few minutes

GREG

Got it

JACK

Well then, please share

GREG

Hmmm… I don’t recall there being a fac-

tory here.

JACK

Where?

Greg points out the map on his laptop

JACK

Hmmm… alright then I’ll go see what’s

up here. You can stay here until I re-

turn

GREG

Hey, one more thing

JACK

Yea?

Greg tosses Jack a small earpiece microphone

GREG

Take this so I can keep in touch

JACK

Thanks, this’ll come in handy I’m sure

6




Jack takes up his hat and trench coat and heads out the door. He

climbs into his car and takes off for the coumadin “factory”


Jack pulls up to the outside of the factory and begins to ap-

proach the front of the building when he notices something in a

window right on the front of the building. He quickly evades be-

ing noticed and climbs up against the nearest wall

JACK

What the hell?

DRUG BOSS

-“used it to kill someone?!” How do you

do that with a blood thinner?

THUG #1

Listen, we don’t know what the boss is

doing, her mind works in crazy ways

JACK (TO HIMSELF)

Her? The person behind this is a woman?

DRUG BOSS

Well I’m afraid I can’t give it to you

if you’re going to use it as a weapon.Do you know what will happen to me if

someone gets ahold of this information?

THUG #2

Hey, wait, don’t do anything irrational

here. Do you know what will happen to

you if we don’t get more of that previ-

ous shipment

DRUG BOSS

I’m sorry gentlemen, but that is nowyour problem, you’ll need to find some-

one else who can supply you with your

deadly coumadin.

(THUG PULLS OUT GUN AND PUSHES IT INTO BOSS’

GUT)

7



THUG #2

Give us what we need and we’ll gladly

leave Mr. Dickson

(WITHOUT WARNING JACK POPS OUT FROM AROUND THE

CORNER THAT HE WAS HIDING BEHIND AND BURSTS INTO THE ROOM)

JACK

Freeze! Drop the guns both of you. I’m

no cop so I’ll gladly shoot.

Without even bothering to give a second thought the two thugs

release the boss and take off in the opposite direction. Jack

rushes in and drops on top of the boss and begins firing ran-

domly at the thugs to scare them off.

JACK

Heh, a couple of cowards. You ok?

DRUG BOSS

I’m fine. Hasn’t been the first time.

JACK

Well now it’s my turn. Who are those

clowns with that drug of yours?

DRUG BOSS

Honestly I couldn’t tell you. I still

can’t believe how they managed to kill

someone with a blood thinner, I mean at

best you could make them lightheaded

or…

JACK

-or they could be completely splattered

all over a parking lot because they

already had thin blood being hemo-philic…

DRUG BOSS

WHAT?! Dammit, I never even thought of

that. You think they really killed

someone?

8



JACK

Well those two pansies… I doubt it.

However this boss they were talking

about seems dangerous enough, espe-

cially if she managed to make someone

kill himself.

DRUG BOSS

Yea she sounds like one crazy bitch.

That’s rather ingenious, she had to

have been stalking that guy to know he

was hemophilic.

JACK

And what do you know about our mysteri-

ous killer?

DRUG BOSS

Not much, honestly, those guys you met

earlier placed an order for coumadin

specially though me. I didn’t give it

to them; this was our first meeting.

But they came back for more, so they

must be going after someone else who’s

hemophilic. Who was it that they

killed?

JACK

I don’t know, I wasn’t there when the

forensics team ID’d him, and he wasn’t

anyone I’d seen before. I guess I’ll

have to stop in later and see the chief

about who he was soon.

DRUG BOSS

Well, when you find out, notify me. If

the coumadin is traced back to me...

JACK

Hey buddy thats your problem. Besidesyou should be more worried about them

coming for your head. And probably

soon.

DRUG BOSS

I doubt it’s that bad. The drugs had to

be shipped to her somewhere. All I have

to do now is track down the shipment

9



and find out where it went. Then you

might be able to nip this whole problem

in th-

A gunshot rings out clear and true and Jack reacts instinctively

to jump behind some cover. However that shot is the only one. He immediately looks toward the drug boss and finds him lying dead

on the ground slouched over with a bullet in his chest. Jack

pans the area looking all around and sees no trace of the

shooter.

JACK

Dammit… (Takes out small earpiece and

shoves it in his ear) Greg, I found our

drug lord friend.

GREG

Well what does he know?

JACK

Not much now that he’s dead.

GREG

Damn… well anyway. The chief just

called. Sounded pissed as usual, but

urgent this time. I think they Identi-

fied the body of our hemophilic friend,

you better head over there quick.

JACK

Will do.


Jack carefully approaches his car, climbs in and takes off for

his next location and his next confrontation. His boss


Jill is strutting around her office with a pensive and anxious

air. In Jill’s office, we watch Sybil enter her office,


10



The chief inhabits a small and rather normal appearing office

room similar to Jack’s but with a little more showmanship. His

certificates of sorts hang on the walls and he appears overall

more organized and uptight in his office structure.

CHIEF

It’s about time you showed up. We got

all hell breaking loose and you’re the

only man I know I can count on.

JACK

Funny, that’s not what you said last

time you saw me

CHIEF

Jack… that’s in the past now, you know

as well as I we can’t let that kinda

shit cloud our minds when we’re

actually needed.

JACK

Oh so now that you’re desperate you

have no choice but to call in that

backstabbing son of a bitch, am I

right?

CHIEF

Dammit Jack… we got people dying left

and right, some crazy bitch is on theloose and you wanna just bitch about

getting a little slap on the wrist?

JACK

You call pulling me out of my apartment

and throwing me in a cell for two days

while some damned lunatic kills my wife

a slap on the wrist?! If I didn’t at

least owe you something for nabbing the

son of a bitch who killed her then I

would kill you right now.

CHIEF

Jack… calm down you nut. I did you a

favor, they were ready to take you in

and give you the god damn chair. I man-

aged to convince them to put you away

for a little while and catch the real

11



killer. We both knew it wasn’t you. I

knew it wasn’t you

JACK

You let her die…

CHIEF

If you don’t get doing your job then a

lot more people are going to die my

friend we got a serious situation here.

JACK

Go on…

(The Chief tosses a photograph of the

earlier crime scene)

CHIEF

We ID’ed our bloody little friend.

JACK

And?

CHIEF

He’s a top biochemical, genetic and

theriogenolocial scientist. His name is

Alexander Petronov

JACKTheriogenology?

CHIEF

The study of reproduction in the vet-

erinary field

JACK

So he was playing around with animal’s

genetics and offspring. What the hell

does this mystery killer want with

that?

CHIEF

We have no idea. The pieces in this

puzzle barely even resemble one an-

other.

JACK

So you’re saying we have nothing to act

on?

12



CHIEF

Oh no, not quite. We have someone very

important that you need to talk to.

JACK

Who’s that?

CHIEF

His wife. Julia Sisard Petronov. Known

to most of her co workers as “sis” for

her maiden name

JACK

What do I need to pay the widow a visit

for?

CHIEF

Both Alexander and his wife were topbiochemical geneticists. They were

working on something very secretive.

It’s quite possible that she knows eve-

rything we need, and that can’t be good

for her own safety. So I’m gunna need

you to protect her as well.

JACK

Great thats what I need, another tag

along. Where is she now?

CHIEF

She’s still working at the same re-

search facility that her late husband

did. They were a team in their little

science experiment. I’ll send the coor-

dinates to Greg

JACK

Great now I’ll go get him too.

CHIEF

Jack, be careful. We have no idea what

this woman is planning. But looking at

what she’s already done it can’t be

very good.

JACK

13



Right, I’ll get over there as soon as I

can. (Hit’s headset ON) Greg, I’m on my

way over to my office, we’re heading

over to a research facility. I’ll fill

you in on the way.


Jack walks out of the room with his hat in hand and putting on

his trench coat and holsters his gun.


The camera zooms back from an open window as it’s closed by a

woman in a white lab coat.

JULIA

*sigh* I know it’s beautiful outsidebut doesn’t anyone care about contami-

nation? I better go back and check the

embryos.

She continues across the room to her workplace and begins focus-

ing intensely on her pipette and microscope in particular. A man

stands directly outside the doorway with his hand to a small

earpiece as he nods in agreement with what he is being told.

JULIA

Ahh damn there does another one. Whycan’t you just stay still? (Looks up at

man in doorway) Hey Dave, can you bring

me another petri dish of egg cells an-

other one just kicked the bucket.

DAVE

(Lowering hand from ear) Yea sure I’ll

go get it. (He walks out of the door)

JULIA

(Talking to herself lightly) Where thehell is Alexander today? He said he’d

be in about an hour ago.

Julia puts her face back down into a microscope as the camera

zooms out a little bit to encompass her entire face as the blade

of a knife slips into the shot and positions itself directly

parallel to her neck. As soon as Julia realizes the knife blade

in front of her she immediately pulls back with a small scream.

But at the moment she does that she bumps into Dave, holding the

14



knife, as he covers her mouth from finishing her scream of dis-

tress and he positions the knife within striking distance to her

jugular.

DAVE

Surprise Julia. You’ve got a lot oftalking to do.


The screen blacks out over the frozen image of Dave holding the

knife to Julia’s neck


Jack’s car pulls up to the front door of the research facility

and both him and Greg step out calmly as Jack puts his hat back

on his head and feels his hip to make sure his sidearm is at the ready. They both calmly walk up to and enter the building en-

gaged in small chatter. They enter the lobby of the building and

find the entire area appearing to be deserted. Then appearing

out of nowhere, with an air of urgency, an employee of the

building (also in a white lab coat) comes up to Jack and Greg

and greets them.

SARAH

Hello gentleman, you must be Mr. Jack.

I’m Sarah.

JACK

How did you know we were coming?

SARAH

Umm… your boss called us while you were

on your way…

JACK

Right, the chief. Oh this is my partner

Greg.

SARAH

Ah very nice to meet both of you (They

exchange hand shakes between the three

of them)

JACK

15



Now, Sarah I need to find Mrs. Petronov

SARAH

Oh you mean Sis?

JACK

Right, Sis…

SARAH

Well she’s deep into her work in her

lab. I’ll take you over there in a few

minutes once they’re done with their

test in there. The room needs to be

kept sterile I’m afraid.

JACK

Well that’s ok, but I do need to speak

with her very soon. Greg is here with me to get a better understanding of

what exactly you do around here.

SARAH

Ahh of course. I’ll take you over to

Sis’ room and then I can give Greg a

tour of the area and we can discuss

what we’re working on.

The three of them walk out of the lobby together and subse-

quently arrive at their location. The door to the lab is stillclosed.

SARAH

Hmm it seems that Julia is still hard

at work with her experiment. Here, Jack

I’ll let you in and Greg and I will

continue onto my facility

(She opens the door and Jack goes in-

side and she shuts the door behind him)

SARAH

Well then, let’s move on shall we?

GREG

Fine enough.

(Sarah takes off at a brisk pace and

gets faster while Greg keeps pace. She

16





wall and punches him square in the face, then lands his knee

into the attacker’s gut. The two throw a few punches at one an-

other before Jack picks up his gun that he dropped when Dave

pinned him against the wall and takes a pot shot at Dave’s leg

and lands it directly. He kicks away Dave’s weapon and grabs him

by the shirt collar and lifts him straight off the ground and starts asking questions.

JACK

Alright you son of a bitch, my turn.

Who do you work for?

DAVE

Why the hell would I tell you?

Jack shoves the barrel of his pistol into Dave’s mouth and

starts rapidly getting more angry

JACK

Because if you don’t you’ll have a

mouth full of lead

DAVE

You won’t, you need me. I’m your only

lead.

JACK

You think I give a damn after you tried

to kill me?

As Jack and Dave bicker back and forth with the gun in Dave’s

mouth a second unidentified assassin approaches Jack from behind

with a gun pointed straight for the pack of Jack’s head just as

Jack turns around to notice his attacker a gunshot rings out and

the would be assassin falls on his knees, then face, dead. The

camera looks up to see Greg pointing a gun still frozen in air

from where he made the shot. With Sarah standing behind him.

JACK

Greg! Sarah! Well, I guess you guys

just saved my ass

GREG

Heh, now you owe me

SARAH

18



Jack, are you all right? Your bleeding

a bit

(Jack wipes the small bleeding cut with

him sleeve)

JACK

Yea, I’m fine. Now if you’ll excuse me

(Jack picks Dave back up off of the

floor and starts to yell in his face)

JACK

Who do you work for!?

(He punches Dave across the face)

DAVEUghh dammit. I’ll tell you where she’s

going to be

(Jack throws him back to the ground on

his knees and puts the gun to his head)

JACK

Start talking

DAVE

Alright, alright. She’s gunna be takingJulia to her new research facility…

(The scene switches between Dave and

Jack and Jill and her Rival speaking)

JILL

I need you to go somewhere for me. Be

there at twelve…

DAVE

...o’clock, on the dot. She’ll be...

JILL

...all alone on this one. You must

wait for an informant...

DAVE

19



...so that should give you time to get

to her. Heh, good luck taking her

down...

JILL

...take out anyone who gets in your way, and good luck.

JACK

Is that all?

DAVE

That’s all I know

JACK

Greg get the chief on the line, tell

him we got a thug for him to take away.

One more thing, what did you do withJulia?

DAVE

You’ll have to ask her.

(Jack throws him to the ground again)

JACK

Get him out of here… NOW!

The screen fades to black on Jack and comes back up with Jill in her office.

With very little light she can barely

be recognized as she speaks to Julia,

tied to a chair in the center of the

room in the spotlight right after her

rival leaves the room.

JILL

And now to figure out what to do with

you… Listen carefully to me. I know

what you and your husband are workingon, and I want it. You’re going to fin-

ish your little project under my watch

and I’m going to be the first one to

use it.

JULIA

Your insane, you have no idea what

you’re playing with the fabric of life

20



is delicate, you can’t just screw with

it as you please-

JILL

Silence!

Jill gets right in Julia’s face and

pushes her cheeks together so she stops

talking while she calms herself and de-

livers her next piece

You’re going to do what you’re told if

you value your own life…


The camera turns to face Jill as she assumes a sinister and de-

vious smile.


The shot starts off with Sybil strutting confidently in a small

circle around the area Jill told her to await her informant.

Just as she finishes a circle, Jack steps into the shot looking

rather serious.

SYBIL

Are you one I’m looking for?

JACK

You have Julia?

SYBIL

Of course we do, who do you think I am?

JACK

That’s all I need to know…

Without hesitation Jack reaches for his gun and pulls it out and

points it directly at Sybil. But before the shot manages to fire

she reacts instinctively by kicking it square out of his grasp

and onto the ground nearby. She follows up by delivering a swift

blow to the stomach and back of the knees bringing Jack down.

She quickly jumps behind Jack and pulls out a syringe and care-

fully lands it into Jack’s neck.

SYBIL

Good night Mr. Jack. Dream of me.

21




The camera assumes a first person perspective from Jack’s view

as he spins around a bit and catches a good glimpse of Sybil

snickering as his vision starts to blur and he passes out.


Jack finds himself awakening in a small room with his hands tied

to a ceiling fixture leaving him hanging but unable to free him-

self. He immediately begins to try and take in his surroundings

as Jill walks in with a thug

JILL

Well well who do we have here?

THUG

This is that detective that Sybilcaught.

JILL

Ahhh… I see. I’ll take it from here if

you will.

The Guard walks out leaving Jack and Jill all alone

JACK

Who are you?

JILL

I’m your personal savior. Just shut up

and I’ll get you out of here.

Jill produces a small hand knife and cuts the rope tying Jack to

the ceiling

JILL

Alright you hold up the guard and I’ll

get us out of here.

JACK

Got it

Jack and Jill break through the door and Jack immediately uses

the remaining piece of his rope to strangle the guard. While

Jill produces a small key ring and proceeds to open the door so

the two of them can escape.

22



JILL

Ok, lets get the hell out of here, fol-

low me

JACK

Be right there

(Jack picks up his confiscated pistol

off of the nearby table and slides it

into his holster)

Alright let’s go. I’ll drive

JILL

Good because they towed your car over

here.


Both Jack and Jill come running from the building and jump into

Jack’s car which was waiting for them and take off


Jack and Jill both arrive at Jack’s office in silence as Greg

turns around from his computer because of Sarah tapping him on

the shoulder and motioning for him to notice a new character along side Jack.

GREG

Ummm… Jack?

JACK

Calm down, she just freed me from cap-

ture I think I owe her at least a few

words.

GREG

Right…

JILL

If you don’t mind gentleman, I can

speak for myself.

23



Jill walks into the center of the room as Jack closes and locks

the door behind her and Greg turns from his computer entirely to

hear her out and Sarah takes a seat to hear this story seeming

fairly unfazed.

JACK

Alright go ahead

JILL

Thank you, Mr. Jack

JACK

How do you know my name?

JILL

That’s all part of my story. I’d love

to tell you if you’d let me start.

(Jack slouches down against the wall as

Jill starts her story)

Ok, my name is Jill Serpentes. I, like

you, am a private detective hired by

Mr. Alexander Petronov to protect his

assets in the event of his death and to

protect his wife, Julia, from the mob

that he was secretly cutting deals with

for his research.

GREG

What? What was Petronov getting himself

into?

JILL

That’s right, Petronov’s research had

burned through his entire life’s sav-

ings but he believed that he was so

close to completing some miraculous

breakthrough that he made a deal with

that little mafia gang you encounteredearlier. Their leader was interested in

what they were trying to make, so

Petronov got to continue his work on

their dime. Which worked fine enough

until the project was nearly done. The

group’s leader demanded that Petronov

turn over their research once it was

complete. Petronov flat out refused

24



this and hired me because he feared for

his life. However he never told me that

he was a hemophiliac, poor bastard,

that chick really messed him up.

JACK

So what were you doing at their hide-

out?

JILL

Well, after Petronov’s death I knew my

most immediate job was to protect

Julia, but I knew that you were also on

the case of the widow, or at least I

assumed you were.

(Jack makes a slightly annoyed face at

the mention of his earlier failure)

So my next priority was to infiltrate

the gang myself so that I could make

track down the killer while keeping an

eye on Julia. That’s when you showed up

Mr. Jack, right in my grasp. And I de-

cided it would be very beneficial to

have you on my side.

JACK

Hmmm… great so now we’re out on ourass, with no leads as to what comes

next.

(Jill produces a small disk from her

coat and tosses it on the table in from

of Greg’s computer)

JILL

Not quite, Alexander trusted me to

safeguard a copy of all his research in

the event of his death.

GREG

Smart guy…

25



(He inserts the disk in his computer

and begins taping away again)

JILL

I’m assuming of course that by now you

two know what they were working on?

(At the same time)

JACK

No

GREG

Of course

JILL

Well you seem to be the brains in this

operation, why don’t you bring Jack upto speed?

GREG

Certainly, Petronov and his wife were

busy tampering with the forces of re-

production in a form called “Partheno-

genesis”

JILL

(Nodding slowly)

Correct…

GREG

(Continuing)

Parthenogenesis is a form of asexual

reproduction in which offspring is pro-

duced in the absence of a male partner.

It occurs naturally in a number of in-

sects, plants, reptiles, and fish. But

humans are considerably more complexthan that. Usually in humans when two

of a woman’s eggs to manage to begin

the process of fertilization it ends

with one of them being rejected. But if

the egg cells are delivered an electric

charge at the proper time they can be

forced together for a time longer and

reach the embryonic stage. From there

the floodgates are open to begin creat-

26



ing identical organs that can’t be re-

jected by the body, and if it’s culti-

vated right you could be on the track

to creating a perfect genetic clone of

one’s self.

JILL

(Clapping her hands lightly)

Very good, you seem to be up to date on

this. Well Jack you got all that?

JACK

Well I had a little trouble just trying

to take out one Jill, there’s no way

I’m gunna let her get away with cloning

herself.

JILL

Well then we better get on the case of

finding Julia, no doubt she’s working

on this as we speak in captivity.

JACK

Your right, lets go. But where the hell

are we going?

JILL

Ahhh… you’re forgetting that I alreadyknow their plans. Just get in the car

and I’ll give you the directions to

where they’ve got Julia.

JACK

Alright, ladies first…


Jack opens the door up and lets Jill

walk out before himself as he puts hishat on. Once she makes it out the door

he turns to Greg and uses sign language

to tell him “Look her up” before clos-

ing the door and leaving

27




Jack and Jill emerge from Jack’s car and Jack holsters his gun.

Jill produces a small sidearm to match Jack in the weapons de-

partment. The two of them both proceed to slowly approach the

compound and sneak around to a back entrance and cautiously en-ter the back door. Just then the scene changes to Greg and Sarah

back at the office.

GREG

Alright let’s see where Jack’s at right

now

(Greg knocks away at his keyboard and

quickly pinpoints Jack)

Ahh… right on time.

(He taps on his headset)

Jack it’s Greg, you there?

JACK

Yup, we’re inside and heading for the

basement. According to Jill, Julia

aught to be there

GREG

Alright proceed with caution.

(He taps the headset to mute himself as

Sarah enters the room with a plate of

some assorted food)

SARAH

Does Jack eat? He doesn’t really have

any food in his place

GREG

Nahh… I think Jack practices photosyn-

thesis. I still haven’t seen him eat,

sleep or take a piss… Just kill

SARAH

What about you?

GREG

Yea I eat on occasion…

28



SARAH

No, I mean you seemed pretty calm with

a gun at the lab… that wasn’t the first

time you’ve pointed a gun at a person…

(Greg hits his computer once and turnsto face Sarah in a very stoic and seri-

ous manner)

GREG

Yea, I’ve gotten my fair share of blood

on my hands

SARAH

Really? I can’t picture you being much

of a killer…

GREG

Sit down…

(Sarah pulls up a chair and takes a

seat attentively)

I’ve seen plenty of things you can only

picture in your mind.

I really started on this path way back

when I enlisted in operation Desert

storm…

SARAH

You were in the army?

GREG

Not for long, I was captured by the re-

publican guard in Kuwait just at the

onset of ground operations

SARAH

But you got away?

GREG

Yea you could say that… I was… released

by US forces.

SARAH

What do you mean?

29



GREG

Well…

(Flashback images begin using footage

reels and photos of “The Highway of

Death”)

I was being transported out by the

Iraqis in their retreat from Kuwait.

However Uncle Sam didn’t think they

were moving fast enough, so he decided

to blow them to kingdom come, two days

after the american ceasefire officially

ended military action.

SARAH

Dear god…

GREG

Well it worked for me, I managed to get

away amid all the chaos. I made my way

out of Iraq and into the nearby Soviet

Union. Just in time for the fun to

start there too.

SARAH

The Soviet Union?!

GREGYes, the United Soviet Socialist Repub-

lic. What about it?

SARAH

That’s where I’m from

GREG

Ahh, yea I can see you definitely have

some Russian in you. What brought you

here?

SARAH

Well at that time the entire country

was collapsing…

GREG

30



Yea, between the war in Afghanistan and

Perestroika the USSR was on the verge

of collapse at that point…

SARAH

Yea… I was walking the streets as adestitute at the time, I was originally

a scientist for the government and

worked a bit in the field of biochemis-

try, but I lost my job due to govern-

ment restructuring in the 80s. So I

turned to prostitution to try and man-

age up enough money to leave the coun-

try.

GREG

I’m sure it wasn’t easy being a prosti-

tute in mother Russia

SARAH

Well it was a bit easier for me because

I’m infertile, I later found out that

years of working in the government’s

lab led up to a lot of exposure to tox-

ins and chemicals that made me unable

to fertilize or conceive a child with a

partner.

GREG

Wow, I’m sorry about that

SARAH

Well that’s why I came here, I managed

to pay my way in to come over to the

United States with Dr. Petronov and I

started my work with him and Julia on

the parthenogenesis project.

GREG

That’s quite a story, hopefully yourresearch can get back on track after

all of this.

SARAH

Yea, I sure hope so. Well anyway finish

up your story how’d you end up back in

the US?

31



GREG

Well I took part in a number of anti

communist revolutions across eastern

Europe in the wake of the falling iron

curtain, and that certainly left me

with quite a few enemies. So I took offto travel the continent through the

90s. Until 9/11 that is. It seems that

an anonymous tip came from some of my

enemies back in Russia and I was picked

up by the US labeled as a “terrorist”

and thrown in Guantanamo bay Cuba.

SARAH

Oh damn… The prison?

GREG

The same. And I sat there for quite a

few years, until the US had a little

change of heart…

(Que. Picture of Barack Obama)

... And they finally decided I wasn’t

an islamo-fascist and in fact decided I

would be a big help in the FBI. So they

started me out here, trying to protect

the governments possible interest in

Petronov’s little science experiment…

SARAH

Well thats quite a story…

GREG

Likewise…

(At that moment Jack can be heard turn-

ing his headset back on and yelling at

the two of them)

JACK

Greg! Are you there?

(Greg instantaneously throws the head-

set back on and starts back at Jack,

Sarah slowly exits the room trying not

to be noticed)

GREG

32



What’s up?

JACK

We’ve got a bomb here

GREG

Oh that’s delightful, is Julia tied to

it by any chance?

JACK

Nope, she’s gotta be somewhere else,

they must’ve been waiting for us to lay

this trap.

GREG

Wait, then where’s Jill?

JACK

We split up to search the place, she

could be anywhere in this place. Now if

you don’t mind a little bomb diffusing

needs to occur in the next 16 minutes.

GREG

Alright do you have the thing open yet?

JACK

Yea I popped this thing open like a can

of soup now I just need to know what tostart pulling

GREG

Heh, you should probably be a little

more cautious than that, alright do you

see a small brown box to the left,

thats the power supply, you can’t take

that out yet or you’ll be blown up, in-

stead take the green wire out of the…

(Greg and Jack go back and forth withdirections as the camera zooms back

from the room out the door to see Sarah

on a cell phone with an anonymous per-

son who is revealed as Jill)

SARAH

Yea they’re taking it apart as we

speak…

33



I know, I didn’t expect it to be that

easy either but this guy’s FBI, you

should probably watch out, I think he

may be onto you…

Right, I’ll keep an eye on him. Justlet me know when the time is right…

So what did you do with Julia? Right I

know, once she gets that stage com-

pleted I can take over from there…

No problem I don’t think either of them

have the slightest idea that I even

know you…

Well for one thing they didn’t bother

to ask…

Alright you better go find him I’m sure

they’ll have that bomb of yours hushed

up in a few minutes, no need to be sus-

picious about it…

Yea I’ll be fine over here, yes I’ll

talk to you later, goodbye…


She closes the phone and re-enters the

room with Greg


Jack and Jill return from their first mission together rather

bruised. Jill, Sarah, Greg and Jack are all in Jack’s office and

Jack is bandaging a part of his arm while Sarah wipes a bit of

blood off his cheek from a small cut he procured. Jill is suspi-

ciously unharmed and Greg is typing away and asking the occa-

sional question as Jack talks on

JACK

...They already moved her before we got

there

GREG

Jack, they were waiting for you…

34



JILL

That’s impossible, no one knew that we

were coming

SARAH

I dunno, those guys have ears all overthe place. Maybe they tapped the phone

or Greg’s computer

GREG

Nope, I got it all the loose ends tied.

I’m tighter than most government main-

frames.

JACK

Well they gotta have someone on our

tail… Jill what do you know about this?

JILL

Jack, you know as much as I do at this

point… But they’re running out of

places to take the girl.

GREG

Your suggesting we just hit ‘em again?

JILL

It’s our best chance

JACK

Makes sense, we need to find Julia be-

fore she completes the research for

that psychopath.

JILL

Agreed, we gotta move fast

GREG

Not just fast, decisively.

JACK

Greg’s right. We need to go right after

their leader

JILL

Makes sense

JACK

Where is she?

35



JILL

Well I can’t be sure but I have an idea

of where she might be for most of her

day

JACK

If that’s the best we got then we

should go with that

GREG

Ok you two better go rest up and head

out tomorrow, I’m sure it’ll help im-

mensely

JACK

That sounds nice I think I can afford

to rest a bit.

(Jack sits down on the nearest chair

and Jill walks over to start rubbing

his neck)

JILL

Greg, can you find us a simple sniper

rifle?

GREG

You need a scoped rifle?

JILL

Correct, I think it’ll help us im-

mensely to stir some shit up before we

go in for the kill

GREG

Yea I think that can be arranged

JILL

Good, thanks.

(Looks over at Jack starting to doze

off in his chair)

Come on Jack get up, you need to reach

the bed at least until you actually

start sleeping

(Jill helps Jack out of the chair he

was dozing off in while nursing his

36





SARAH

Ok well I’ll put on some coffee or

something.

GREG

Thanks, I could use that


Sarah walks out and the camera focuses

on Greg continuing to hack away on his

keyboard and the screen blacks out


An early morning sun is rising as Jack and Jill pull up and exitJack’s car looking quite ready and solemn of their plan. Jill

goes around to the back of the car and comes back next to Jack

with a sniper rifle with a fixed scope that can be seen. Jack

holster’s his sidearm and the two of them head for their vantage

point to await their prey. Jill is readied and in position with

her sniper rifle as Jack stands beside her and looks out at

their target.

JILL

Alright, you know the plan?

JACK

Yup, I got it. What are you waiting

for?

JILL

I’m making sure it’s her

(She fixes the scope a bit)

JACK

Hey, who’s that?

(Jack snatches the scope off the top of

the rifle and puts it to his eye as a

small telescope)

JILL

Who? Give me that

38



(She stands up and grabs the scope and

looks out on the distant figures)

Dammit, that’s Julia

JACK

Are you serious? We’ve got to get down

there and get her then

JILL

Oh come on, let me just take one head

off…

(Before she can lay her hand on the

trigger Jack grabs her arm and picks

her up and on her feet)

JACK

Oh no you don’t, we’ll split up. You go

get Julia and I’ll take out Jill down

there.

JILL

Heh, are you sure you can handle her

this time Jack?

JACK

No, I guess I’d better go see now

shouldn’t I?

JILL

Well all I can say is don’t get your-

self killed

JACK

No promises

JILL

Right… ok I’ll go in and rescue our

little friend and get her out if youcan take care of her

JACK

Right…


The two of them split up and sneakily approach their destina-

tions with their missions in mind

39




Jack slowly sneaks along the wall and looks around the corner to

see Sybil giving orders to the two thugs to take Julia away

SYBIL

Get her out of here, we’ll need her

later…

(She turns to who appears to be her

right hand man)

And you, make sure that you track down

that traitorous woman who freed that

detective

(Jack pops around the corner at the end

of her sentence and shoots the righthand man straight and true before he

can make another move then turns his

gun on Sybil)

JACK

How about I save you the trouble

SYBIL

Oh good your here, Now I can just kill

you this time

JACK

Heh, don’t think it’ll be that easy

SYBIL

Of course not…

(The screen fades to black and comes

back up on Jill sneaking around for

Julia. She turns a corner and sees the

two thugs taking her away and she

quickly leaps into action by sliding upbehind them and delivering a straight

blow to both of them in the neck ren-

dering them unconscious and dropping

Julia. Jill quickly cuts the bonds of

rope tying Julia’s hands together and

gives her a hand)

JILL

40



Alright get up, we don’t have much time

to get out of here

JULIA

Who are you?

JILL

I’m your personal savior, We’re here to

get you out of here

JULIA

What do you mean we?

JILL

Yea I’m here with my partner, we’ve

been trying to find you for some time

JULIA

They’re been forcing me to continue

work on the parthenogenesis project so

they can use it themselves, that

woman’s nuts!

JILL

Yea we know, speaking of I need to go

find Jack

JULIA

Jack?

JILL

Yea, my partner. Now come on let’s go…

(The camera fades out on the two of

them and comes back in on Jack is hold-

ing Sybil around the waist with a his

gun pointed to her head. Both of them

appear worn out and a bit beat up and

Jack has a small cut on his face and

hand)

JACK

Ok now you’ve got some talking to do

SYBIL

Oh believe me, there’s a lot you need

to know…

JACK

41



I’m listening.

SYBIL

Good.

(Just as she’s about to begin speaking

Jill and Julia break through the near-

est entrance and distract Jack for a

moment and leave Sybil with the open

spot to slip from Jack’s grasp and and

pull his gun from his hand with her and

shoot him straight into the stomach. He

falls back as Jill pulls her pistol

right out and takes out Sybil and both

her and Julia fall to Jack’s side)

JILL

Jack!

JULIA

Hang in there, we need to stop the

bleeding

JILL

Right, elevate his torso and apply

pressure to the wound. See if he’s got

a knife on him, I think I’m gunna need

to pull that bullet out. I think we’re

going to have to get him to a hospital…


The camera zooms out and upward from Julia and Jill hunched over

Jack’s wound and begin rushing to help him and fades out


The camera sets in on Greg as he is furiously typing into his

computer as he comes to a final realization.

GREG

No… no this can’t be possible. I’ve got

to go find Jack!

(Sarah enters the room rather noncha-

lantly and notices Greg’s sudden alarm)

SARAH

What’s going on? What’s wrong?

42



GREG

It’s Jill, she’s the one we’ve been

looking for this entire time, I need to

get ahold of Jack but he’s not answer-

ing his mic.

SARAH

Are you sure it’s Jill? Why would she

have been helping this whole time?

GREG

I don’t know what she’s doing, that’s

the bad part. Listen to me you need to

get out of here. Go find the chief, let

him know what’s going on…

(As Greg finishes that sentence Jill

struts into the room calmly holding her

pistol at the waist and aiming it at

Greg)

JILL

What’s going on? Do tell…

(Greg and Sarah both put their hands in

the air with a slight notion of surren-

der)

GREGYou…

JILL

Me…

GREG

What the hell did you do with Jack and

Julia?

JILL

Julia is in a safe location, andJack’s… in the hospital

GREG

What?!

JILL

He let his guard down

43



GREG

Bullshit, you shot him to get him out

of the way

JILL

Oh no, having him incapacitated was abit out of my plan. I still have much

use for him

GREG

What the hell are you talking about?

JILL

You really think I’m stupid enough to

tell you what I’m going to do? I’m dis-

appointed in you Greg

SARAH

Jill what’s the big idea? What are you

doing?

JILL

Stop playing stupid girl

(She points the gun at Sarah)

Your a poor actor Sarah

(Greg steps in front of the gun)

GREG

Stop, what the hell are you talking

about?

JILL

Oh you mean she hasn’t told you? Oh of

course not, Sarah’s been playing spy

for me for quite some time now.

GREG

No… that’s a lie

JILL

Oh, just look for yourself

(Greg turns to Sarah who appears visi-

bly guilty in admittance)

GREG

44



Oh dammit… and what do you get out of

this?

JILL

Oh she gets to take over the partheno-

genesis project once I’m in control

GREG

Oh how enticing…

JULIA

Yes and the sooner I can cut all the

strings holding the project together

it’ll fall right into my lap. Then I

can use it to my own desire

GREG

You’re one Jill…

JILL

Thank you, I suppose I’ll see you in

hell then

GREG

It’s a damn shame there’s no hell for

you to end up in

(Jill shoots Greg and he is instantly

killed, Sarah falls to his side andlooks at Jill with a mixture of anger

and fear)

SARAH

What the hell are you doing? Why did he

need to die?

JILL

You told me yourself, he had it all

figured out

SARAH

And what happens to Jack now? What hap-

pens when he sees this?!

JILL

I’ll bring him back later and use this

to my advantage

45



SARAH

And what will happen to the partheno-

genesis project? Can I still take over

once your in control?

JILL

I doubt that will be necessary, Julia

has almost finished all the necessary

work that it requires.

SARAH

What? Then what will I do?

JILL

Hmmm, I have an idea…

(She lifts her gun at Sarah)

SARAH

Noooo!!!

(Jill pulls the trigger, Sarah is dead)

JILL

Silly girl…

(She picks up the phone in a calm and

nonchalant manner, dials Jack’s number

and begins faking a frantic and scaredvoice)

Oh Jack you need to get over here

quick! Greg and Sarah… it’s the chief!

He’s… He’s killed them!

(She shoots off at the wall)

He’s run off, you need to get over here

quick!

(She clicks the phone off)


46



The scene blacks out on Jill’s evil and maniacal grin in satis-

faction with her latest scheme come true.


The scene starts back up in Jack’s office once again with Jack

practically breaking in his door and having Jill throw herself

on him in the same frantic mess she was earlier

JILL

Oh Jack! I came in and that madman was

standing over the two of them with the

pistol still smoking. I… I wrestled the

gun away from him and shot until he ran

off

JACK

It’s ok, hey, hey, HEY!

(He grabs her by both shoulders and

shakes her a bit)

Calm the hell down

(He takes one look at the two bodies

lying on his office floor and slams his

fist against the wall in pure fury)

I’ll kill that son of a bitch… hedoesn’t know what the hell he’s doing

JILL

Jack are you sure? Look what he did to

those two

JACK

He murdered them!! He probably thought

that they were spies or something… That

crazy bastard

JILL

Jack, what are you thinking your going

to do?

JACK

Oh I know what I’m going to do, and I’m

going to need your help to do it…

47





CHIEF

Jack! What the hell is going on?!

JILL

That’s him! He killed Greg and Sarah!

JACK

You son of a bitch…

CHIEF

Are you mad?! She’s the one that-

(Gunshot rings out, Jack is standing

with his pistol drawn straight toward

where the chief’s chest was just stand-

ing. The chief is now lying on the

floor behind his desk. Jack walks over

and crouches by his side)

JACK

You were saying something? Make it

quick, because it’ll be your last

CHIEF

Jack… she’s the one who murdered your

wife…

(The chief slumps over. Dead.)

JACK

What?!

(He grabs up the chief’s body trying to

squeeze out an answer, to no avail of

course)

JILL

Hahahahaha!

(Jill breaks out into maniacal laughter

before plunging into explaining her-

self)

Your quite a fool Jack

JACK

What are you talking about?

49



JILL

The chief told no lies. I am the one

you were looking for this entire time,

I’m afraid I played you like a little

wind up toy

JACK

You!

(He draws his gun at her again but she

reacts far quicker in anticipation of

this by knocking out his legs from un-

der him with a swift kick. She picks up

his gun and puts it at his face in or-

der to have his total attention)

JILL

Tsk, tsk, tsk. You poor little man, now

everyone is dead but you, but for mak-

ing it this far I might as well indulge

you as to what’s been going on.

JACK

Oh feel free to enlighten me

JILL

Heh, well for one thing that woman that

we killed earlier, the one who shot

you, she’s not who you were lookingfor. That was me

JACK

So who was she?

JILL

My rival, we we’re partners for most of

this, but she was starting to get to be

a bothersome fly. So I just had you go

and swat her

JACK

Great…

JILL

Oh, Sarah and Greg, I took them both

out last night.

JACK

What?!

50



(He lunges at her and she smoothly

dodges his bear like attack and strikes

the back of his head with the butt of

his pistol and goes back to talking)

JILL

Yea, Sarah was working for me. A nice

little double agent. Greg had me all

figured out, so I needed to take care

of him to continue on…

JACK

You crazy bitch…

JILL

I’m really starting to take that as a

compliment. Oh and Julia has finished

up the last of the parthenogenesis pro-

ject for me, so soon I’ll be able to

breed an perfect clone of myself. Can’t

you just see it now Jack?

JACK

You’re completely insane

JILL

Hahaha excellent! Well then I suppose I

should make my leave now before you be-

gin to put this all together and figurethings out.


She struts over to the door, opens it and blows Jack a kiss as

she exits the room. Jack slowly manages to get himself up and

struggles toward the door where she left. He opens the door to

find nothing but his pistol sitting on the other side next to a

headshot of Jill but no sign of her besides that.


The scene fades in with Jack sitting solemnly in his office. The

entire scene is timed with the accompanying music and plays out

accordingly. Jack is sitting and staring at the picture of Jill

as the lighting contrasts with his face and it can be seen that

he is slowly transforming on the inside from good to evil. He

slowly tears up the picture and throws the pieces into the air

and they land at his feet. He slowly arises from the chair and

51



heads over to put on his coat and hat and holster his gun. The

shot immediately changes to him getting into his car and then

again to him driving while visibly frustrated and thinking

deeply on the situation at hand. A dramatic drum beat strikes as

he steps slowly out of the car in front of Jill’s hideout. The

shot cuts away to him again waling slowly down the hallway while he parts his trench coat to the side and slowly draws his pistol

and holds it straight up in the air. Just as a dramatic beat is

struck he kicks in the door to the Bitch’s office and begins

beating up and shooting the henchmen in the first room. He con-

tinues onto the second door and kicks that in with a well timed

kick. Jill is startled by Jack’s unexpected entrance and tries

to reason with him a bit before he seizes her up by her shirt

and throws her to the ground in front of him on her knees. The

camera changes to a side angle of Jack and Jill’s silhouettes as

Jack brings his pistol slowly through the air and it ends point-

ing straight at Jill’s temple. He utters the words slowly and calmly

JACK

Jill fell down and broke her crown…

(He pulls the trigger on her and she

drops dead. Jack stands still with his

gun raised in the air for a little

while and suddenly he finds a large

knife landing in his back. He drops his

gun in agony and tries to turn around but doesn’t make it before he drops to

the ground. Dead. Julia is standing

over his body calmly wiping her hands

together.)

JULIA

And Jack came tumbling after…

52

Documents

Murder in the Darkness