WANNAROO JACK AND THE MAGOG FILES
Ben Meyers
With
J. J. Jeshurun
WANNAROO JACK AND THE MAGOG FILES
FADE IN:
INT. ANY AMERICAN UNIVERSITY TOWN/UNIVERSITY/CLASSROOM HALLWAY - NIGHT
Professor Wannaroo Jack, dressed in patched blue jeans, tweed blazer with patches on the elbow, and khaki shirt, stands outside a university classroom door fumbling for the room key in his pocket. He locks the door and reaches for a badly-used leather briefcase sitting on the floor, swings its leather strap over his shoulder, and turns to walk down an empty and dimly lit corridor. He uses a short cane and favors his right leg. He walks toward an exquisite, classic, wall-high, well-lighted oil painting of St. George Slaying the Dragon that dominates the end of the hallway. As he reaches to open a side door into a rain-soaked, campus parking area, Sean McGrath, a fresh, energetic, well-dressed, young man, steps from the shadows.
SEAN MCGRATH
Dad....
WANNAROO JACK
Son.
SEAN MCGRATH
Granddad didn’t come back from that Miami cruise you sent him on.
WANNAROO JACK
So?
SEAN MCGRATH
So, Grandmother didn’t come back either.
Wannaroo Jack’s mouth twists slightly.
WANNAROO JACK
She wasn’t invited in the first place.
SEAN MCGRATH
You’ve got to look for them.
WANNAROO JACK
He knows what he’s doing.
Sean McGrath reaches into a natty, shiny, leather briefcase and pulls a stainless steel circular tube from its interior.
SEAN MCGRATH
You’re going to need this.
The camera angles on the circular tube’s return address: St. Catherine Monastery, Sinai Peninsula. The tube has been addressed to Professor Wannaroo, Jack, USA, URGENT.
WANNAROO JACK
You’re watching my mail?
Sean McGrath shrugs. Wannaroo Jack pops open the top, carefully removes an ancient parchment, unrolls it, scrutinizes it for a moment, replaces the manuscript into its container, tucks the tube into his leather briefcase, and opens the side door into the campus parking lot. He surveys a heavily-clouded, lightning-filled sky, frowns at the sudden burst of pouring rain, rolls his shirt collar up, and pulls a rolled, badly-used Australian bogey hat from his blazer’s side pocket. He places the hat on his head and leaves the building.
EXT. ANY AMERICAN UNIVERSITY TOWN/UNIVERSITY/PARKING LOT - NIGHT
Wannaroo Jack runs, despite the limp and cane, with surprising agility to the only vehicle left in the parking lot, a beat-up 1978 Ford truck. He throws the leather briefcase through the open window onto the truck’s badly-torn seat, opens the door, and begins to climb into the cab. He notices the heavily-soaked driver’s seat, sits frowningly onto the seat, starts the truck, and pulls from the parking lot in a heavy cloud of blue exhaust smoke. A shiny, government limousine pulls into the parking lot as the truck exits the parking lot. The limousine makes a quick U-turn to ‘tail’ the truck.
EXT. ANY AMERICAN UNIVERSITY TOWN/SIDE STREET/BAR PARKING LOT - NIGHT
Wannaroo Jack paces the truck through rapidly deepening pools of water onto a side street heavily lined with trees. He scrunches forward to look through the windshield at an increasingly threatening sky, fiddles with the heat control and non-working windshield wiper, and heads for a cheap, neon-lit bar at the edge of campus. As Wannaroo Jack exits his vehicle and runs for the cover of the bar entrance, five presidential security officers exit the limousine and rapidly surround him to prevent his entrance into the bar.
SECURITY OFFICER 1
Professor Wannaroo?
Wannaroo Jack surveys the security officers and uneasily acknowledges his identity.
SECURITY OFFICER 1
The President of the United States requires your presence.
WANNAROO JACK
Now?
Security Officer 1 nods and speaks into a headset. The sound of an incoming helicopter fills the air.
SECURITY OFFICER 1
Now.
Wannaroo Jack looks at the inviting bar entrance, frowns, and looks at the five security officers standing around him. The helicopter hovers overhead. Security Officer 1 observes Wannaroo Jack’s hesitation.
SECURITY OFFICER 1
Immediately, Professor Wannaroo. Please step this way.
The hovering helicopter drops a ladder toward the ground; the ladder swings violently in the storm. Wannaroo Jack motions to the ladder.
(Shouts over helicopter noise)
I’m not climbing that thing.
SECURITY OFFICER 1
We’ll help you.
Security officers move forward to move Wannaroo Jack up the ladder. His cane drops to the ground. A security officer reaches into the truck to retrieve the badly-used briefcase.
INT. WASHINGTON D.C./WHITE HOUSE/OVAL OFFICE - NIGHT
The United States President sits in the Oval Office skimming a large file folder marked ‘Wannaroo, Jack’. Heavy rain pelts the windows behind him. Gigantic lightning strokes intersperse the rain. Security Officer 1 ushers a cranky and exceptionally uncomfortable, dripping-wet Wannaroo Jack into the private office. The President looks up from the briefing papers, removes his reading glasses, closes the file folder, and addresses Wannaroo Jack.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Please. Sit down.
Wannaroo Jack, his Australian bogey hat dripping water all over the Presidential carpet, looks at the spotless silken chair cover, checks the ‘Donated by Thomas Jefferson’ brass plate on the back, and continues standing.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Do you stay abreast of current events, Mr. Wannaroo?
WANNAROO JACK
I’m an archaeologist, Sir.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Ah. Of course.
Wannaroo Jack looks crankier and waits. The President’s fingers drum on a thick file folder labeled ‘Current Events’. He pushes the file folder toward Wannaroo Jack.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
It’s our latest data tracking the past six month’s increase in negative weather patterns, seismic movement, drought action, volcanic activity.
The President opens the folder to a graph and points to severe spikes in geological activity and highly-elevated foul weather patterns.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
As you can see, there is a significant...if not paranormal...increase in devastating natural disasters within the past one-hundred-eighty days.
Wannaroo Jack does not volunteer to step forward to view the graph. The President sets his mouth commandingly, then relaxes, sighs, stands, and moves to a plain, wooden stand that supports a huge, leather-bound Bible. He places his hand on its cover.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Do you believe, Mr. Wannaroo?
Wannaroo Jack looks cantankerous and waits. The President observes the posture, looks down, and heads straight into the business which has landed Wannaroo Jack in the Oval Office.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
We have reason to believe that a modern-day prophet...an Elijah, if you will...is alive and walking. We need to find him and stop him.
Wannaroo Jack startles at this request.
WANNAROO JACK
You think a man is causing this?
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Elijah wasn’t just any man. He was a man whose words had effect in the earth.
WANNAROO JACK
I’m an archaeologist not a damn private detective.
The President nods his head graciously.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
But, you, unlike a private detective, have an appreciation for things that are just a bit ‘over the edge’ so to speak. Your search for the Tree of Good and Evil, the Grave of Eve, the Ever-burning Bush of Moses, Hagar’s Angel, the Flaming Cherubs, Jacob’s Pillow....
Wannaroo Jack frowns testily.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Not exactly routine work, Dr. Wannaroo.
Wannaroo Jack maintains silence. The President notes the lack of compliance, sets his mouth firmly, returns to the desk, and quickly opens a file labeled ‘Wannaroo Jack’.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
I always hate to do things this way, but...
The President runs his fingers down a heavily-filled data chart.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
I’m sure your college president would take much interest in Internal Revenue’s interpretation of your itemized expenditures for your last three ‘archaeological’ expeditions. The 7-star resort in Taipei and three call-girls listed as ‘gathering Eve data’?
Wannaroo Jack looks cranky, but unperturbed. The President looks evenly across his glasses.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
It’s truly your choice, Dr. Wannaroo.
Wannaroo Jack looks crankier still.
WANNAROO JACK
Unlimited expense account. Tax-free salary and commensurate bonus. A tax-free house in Chess-bury-in-the-Valley when I’m done.
The President levels steely eyes at Wannaroo Jack.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
You’ve got thirty days. Your team is waiting outside the door.
On cue, Ms. Abrams, an attractive, no-nonsense woman dressed in a business suit that is just a bit too-tight and reveals just a bit too much bosom, opens the door, and extends hand inviting Wannaroo Jack into the hallway.
INT. WASHINGTON D.C./WHITE HOUSE/HALLWAY - NIGHT
The hallway is crowded with thirty CIA agents.
MS. ABRAMS
Come this way, Professor. I’ll introduce you to your team.
(With a hint of a growl)
I work alone.
(Strongly correcting with air of command)
You worked alone. Meet Sean McGrath.
Sean McGrath, young, energetic, fresh, smilingly steps forward and extends a greeting hand.
WANNAROO JACK
We’ve met before.
Wannaroo Jack ignores the openly extended hand. Sean quickly covers the slight, produces a two-foot-thick research folder, and presents it to Wannaroo Jack.
SEAN MCGRATH
I’ve researched the best places to find the person in question, Sir.
Wannaroo Jack ignores the folder and brushes past the eager Sean. Ms. Abrams sets her lips firmly and walks rapidly after Wannaroo Jack. Sean gathers his natty, highly-polished executive briefcase from the floor and runs to catch Wannaroo Jack.
SEAN MCGRATH
Sir, we have thirty days. You’re going to need the best people possible to accomplish this mission.
WANNAROO JACK
And just what did your research conclude?
(With much enthusiasm)
The person in question will be found in the Bermuda Triangle.
Wannaroo Jack looks disgustedly at Ms. Abrams.
WANNAROO JACK
He’s is the best you’ve got?
Ms. Abrams raises her chin defiantly.
MS. ABRAMS
Don’t underestimate him. He’s very bright.
Wannaroo Jack continues to walk rapidly toward the hall’s exit door and turns slightly to Sean.
WANNAROO JACK
Check into a hotel, go through that folder, get me your top ten best guesses, sans the first one, and give me a call.
(Under his breath)
You’d better be heading for Miami for Granddad and Grandmother.
Wannaroo Jack smirks and keeps walking.
(Calls after Wannaroo)
Where are you going?
WANNAROO JACK
To find the prophet.
SEAN MCGRATH
You know where to look?
WANNAROO JACK
We’re not looking for a where. We’re looking for a who.
SEAN MCGRATH
Who?
WANNAROO JACK
A tzaddik.
SEAN MCGRATH
A what?
WANNAROO JACK
A righteous man.
(Under breath)
I wouldn’t call Granddad exactly righteous. Grandmother? Maybe, if fantastic legs count.
Sean McGrath runs a bit to catch up with Wannaroo Jack.
(Aloud)
Righteous! There’s a million definitions of righteous! What are your criteria?
WANNAROO JACK
Not my criteria. “The prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” I’m looking for someone heaven listens to.
SEAN MCGRATH
Heaven!
EXT. WASHINGTON D.C./WHITE HOUSE/TAXI LOAD AREA/TAXI - NIGHT
Wannaroo Jack pushes through the glass exit doors and hails a taxi. Sean rapidly follows and runs to the side of the taxi. Wannaroo Jack enters the taxi, shuts the door in Sean’s face, rolls down the window, and tauntingly whispers.
WANNAROO JACK
Do you believe, son?
SEAN MCGRATH
Believe in what?
Wannaroo Jack rolls up the taxi window and addresses a rotund, slightly unkempt, Arab taxi driver.
WANNAROO JACK
Reagan National Airport.
The taxi pulls from the curb. Sean McGrath looks dismally at his folder of research and throws it into the air. The clasp comes undone and releases the thousands of pages to the night’s storm. A wind catches the pages and carries them into the sky. Sean hails a taxi and urges it to follow Wannaroo Jack’s taxi. Ms. Abrams hails a taxi and urges it to follow Sean’s taxi. Thirty CIA men hail taxis and urge them to follow Ms. Abrams’ taxi.
INT. WASHINGTON D.C./TAXI - NIGHT
Wannaroo Jack notices the Arab name tag sitting on the taxi’s dash.
WANNAROO JACK
Abdul? That’s original. I thought they wouldn’t let Abdul’s anywhere near the White House these days.
Black eyes flash in the rear view mirror. Abdul places a well-rounded right arm leisurely across the top edge of the front seat. The taxi slows to a crawl pace. He slowly cruises to a green light which turns a long yellow and stops rather than pushing through. Wannaroo Jack slides down in his seat and tips his Australian bogey hat over his eyes.
WANNAROO JACK
Good thing I don’t have a flight to miss. Let me know when we get there.
The taxi leaps out of the red light and deliberately hits a huge pothole which upends Wannaroo Jack’s comfortable position. He grunts, turns to look through the rain-spotted window, and makes a short observation about the passing scenery.
I/E. WASHINGTON D.C./TAXI/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS - NIGHT
WANNAROO JACK
Library of Congress.
Abdul immediately pulls to the sidewalk in front of the Library of Congress.
(Heavy, thick Arabic accent)
Extra charge per stop and waiting requires a deposit.
Wannaroo Jack opens his mouth to begin a correction and stops speech as he catches sight of a tall, thin, darkly-dressed woman carrying a red Prada purse and sporting red, five-inch-spike high heels. Thick, long black hair is swept up under an outrageously large, red, velvet hat. The woman turns toward the Library of Congress’ front steps and begins a rapid ascension to the library’s front door. She is accompanied by three, heavily-muscled Russian-type security men. Wannaroo Jack leans forward and squints through the rain-spattered taxi window.
WANNAROO JACK
Pikria?
Wannaroo Jack quickly rolls the window down and leans forward to positively identify the woman. At the top of the library steps, the woman takes the red hat off and shakes thick, black hair loose across her shoulders and stoops to adjust her red heels.
WANNAROO JACK
Pikria!
Wannaroo Jack quickly directs Abdul.
WANNAROO JACK
Pull over. Wait.
Abdul looks expressively around at their stopped position. Wannaroo Jack hastily tries to exit the taxi door. The door is locked. Abdul does not unlock the door and points to the ‘waiting price’ displayed on the dash.
(Reacts to displayed price)
That’s highway robbery.
Abdul shrugs his shoulders.
(Heavy Arabic accent)
Do you want out or not?
Wannaroo Jack hastily pulls bills out of his wallet and pushes them through the fist-sized round hole in the glass window that separates passengers from the driver.
(Growls)
There was a time when taxi drivers didn’t need protective glass.
ABDUL
My wife and fourteen children thank you.
Abdul counts the cash, holds a hand, palm up to the window.
ABDUL
You’re short.
Wannaroo Jack distractedly looks through the open taxi window. Pikria’s last bodyguard has just disappeared through the library door. He quickly pulls an additional bill from his wallet and drops it through the taxi’s protective window. Abdul reaches for it and holds it up to the taxi’s overhead light. It is a one-hundred-dollar bill. Wannaroo Jack reaches through the glass for it. Abdul releases the door locks and nods to the library’s closing doors.
ABDUL
You don’t have much time. She will disappear into a thousand rooms.
A drenching rain begins as Wannaroo Jack throws open the taxi door and makes a surprisingly agile, limping sprint toward the closing library doors. A mousy-haired librarian sits at the darkened desk. A Kindle lights her face emphasizing her age and lack of detailed grooming. Wannaroo Jack stands in front of the desk while dripping rain all over the highly waxed floor.
LIBRARIAN
Sir, the library is not open to regular customers.
Wannaroo Jack fumbles through his pockets for his university research card.
WANNAROO JACK
I’m in special research. Wannaroo Jack. I wrote Archaeological Specimens of a Previous Age.
The librarian looks blankly at him. Wannaroo Jack begins searching quickly again through his pockets for his university research card.
WANNAROO JACK
I have a research card.
Wannaroo Jack cannot find the card. He looks helplessly at the librarian.
WANNAROO JACK
I’m with the team that just went in.
The librarian immediately brightens up.
LIBRARIAN
Pikria Zviadi’s team? Oh, isn’t she wonderful? I read every page of her Ancient Legends, Extant. It was so exciting!
The librarian pulls a newspaper from under the desk and points to front page article.
LIBRARIAN
She’s just won the Archaeologist Book of the Year Award for excellence in research. Isn’t that wonderful?
(Sourly)
Just wonderful.
(Gushes)
You’re so lucky to be working with her. She’s in the African/Middle-eastern room, Professor...?
WANNAROO JACK
Wannaroo. Jack Wannaroo.
The librarian hands him a pass card.
LIBRARIAN
You’d better hurry, though. She said she wouldn’t be long.
He accepts the pass.
(Under breath)
I’ll bet she won’t.
(Startled)
Pardon me?
WANNAROO JACK
I said, ‘she’s known for fast research’.
LIBRARIAN
Ah. Yes.
The librarian returns to reading her Kindle. Wannaroo Jack hurries through the archway leading to the entrance of the main reading room. He starts toward the African/Middle-east room just as Pikria Zviadi re-enters the main reading room from the British section. She has placed a pair of reading glasses on her nose and is carefully scanning an opened book that she carries. She stops and stands poised in front of a huge tapestry of St. George Slaying the Dragon. A strong breeze ruffles the heavy tapestry. Pikria looks up, notices Wannaroo Jack, and freezes when she sees him. Electricity fills the air between the two archaeologists. The tapestry, behind her, ruffles again across its width. Pikria’s bodyguards position themselves ahead and slightly to the side of her.
(Evenly)
Pikria.
(Carefully with thick eastern European Georgian accent)
Wannaroo.
WANNAROO JACK
I see you’re still keeping odd hours.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
While others sleep....
WANNAROO JACK
Others weep?
Pikria Zviadi feigns a bored yawn and closes the book over a finger marking her place on the page.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
Is anything that important, Wannaroo?
WANNAROO JACK
I used to think so.
Pikria narrows her eyes and walks to a reading table. She nonchalantly opens the book on its surface, reaches into the red Prada bag, removes a digital camera, takes several pictures, closes the book, deliberately slips the camera into the red bag, pulls out a pair of red gloves, and turns to her security personnel.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
Some crab risotto and a little vacherin cheese would finish the evening nicely, don’t you think?
(Unsteadily as if remembering an important past event)
And, a little Chteau Haut Brion Pessac-Lognan.
Pikria Zviadi deliberately pulls on her red gloves and purses her red lips.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
A little. Too much is debilitating.
WANNAROO JACK
That depends on one’s point of view. Relaxation is good for some people.
Pikria Zviadi delivers a cool look, walks around the reading table, deliberately develops a cat walk, and walks straight toward Wannaroo Jack. As she passes, she reaches out to trail lingering gloved fingers across the side of his face. Wannaroo Jack steels himself against the inevitable attraction. Pikria Zviadi notices his tension, laughs deeply, and continues toward the exit preceded by, flanked by, and followed by her security guards. After she passes, Wannaroo Jack appears to pocket a red object into his blazer jacket coat pocket.
The camera fades to huge flashes of lightning showing through the Library of Congress windows.
The camera opens on the interior of Abdul’s taxi. Abdul looks through his rear view mirror and quietly notes twelve taxis barreling down the highway at top rate speed toward his parked taxi. The taxis pull in front of him, to the side of him, and to the back of him to effectively block his ability to pull away from the curb. Abdul holds the one-hundred-dollar bill in front of him as if gauging the worth of the bill for the trouble coming his way. He shrugs, removes his taqiyah, pockets the bill into the top of his cap, rolls his driver window down, and points over the top of the cab’s roof toward the library entrance, and yells to the CIA agents pouring from inside the taxis.
(Heavy Arabian accent)
Inside! Inside! Yes. That’s right. He’s inside.
Abdul watches as Sean McGrath, Ms. Abrams, and the CIA agents head toward the library just as Pikria Zviadi and her security guards exit the library. Pikria’s guards quickly front her and draw guns. CIA personnel pull their guns and spread across the front of the library. Ms. Abrams and Sean McGrath are left facing Pikria’s armed guards about halfway up the center of the library steps. Sean looks past the guards and recognizes Pikria Zviadi.
SEAN MCGRATH
Professor Zviadi?
He realizes he has correctly identified the person coming down the steps and motions for the CIA to pocket their weapons. He continues slowly up the steps with an extended hand of welcome.
SEAN MCGRATH
...Professor Zviadi!
Her security guards have not secured their guns and form a tighter barrier to prevent Sean’s approach.
SEAN MCGRATH
I’ve read all your books! What an honor it is to meet you in person.
Pikria gives the signal for her guards to stand down and does not reach to take Sean’s extended hand. He ignores the slight and continues with unabated adulation.
SEAN MCGRATH
Listen, I hate to ask, but could I please have your autograph?
He reaches into his pocket for a pad and pencil. Pikria’s security guards immediately raise their lowered guns, cocked, and ready to fire at Sean’s head. Sean ignores the guards and produces his pad and pencil. Pikria ignores the pad and pencil, reaches into her Prada bag for a richly ornamented pen, and, with a flourish, signs Sean’s forehead. She moves around Sean and proceeds down the steps. Sean quickly rolls his white shirt sleeve up and imprints the signature’s wet ink onto his arm. He turns to yell at Pikria’s receding back.
SEAN MCGRATH
Thank you! I’ll transfer it when I get home.
Ms. Abrams frowns at this unprofessional behavior and takes the driver’s seat.
MS. ABRAMS
You’ve missed our purpose, Sean.
Ms. Abrams moves through the library doors and approaches the librarian. She is followed en masse by Sean McGrath and the CIA agents.
MS. ABRAMS
We’re looking for Professor Wannaroo Jack.
The librarian looks up ‘owl-eyed’ as if sinister characters have finally materialized from some book kept deep within the library’s vaults.
LIBRARIAN
The Australian-type fellow? He’s in the African/Middle-eastern reading room. But, his group just left.
Ms. Abrams looks through the glass exit doors at Pikria Zviadi’s receding back and motions half the CIA agents to exit, surround, and detain Ms. Zviadi. Ms. Abrams leads the rest of the CIA agents into the main reading room where Wannaroo Jack stands, mumbling to himself, while intently thumbing through the book Pikria Zviadi left behind. When Ms. Abrams sees Wannaroo Jack, she curtly addresses him.
MS. ABRAMS
Mr. Jack.
He looks over reading glasses at Ms. Abrams.
(Corrects)
Mr. Wannaroo. Jack is my first name.
Ms. Abrams looks at his file that she carries in her hand.
MS. ABRAMS
Your file says, ‘Wannaroo Jack’.
WANNAROO JACK
It’s an old joke. You can call me Jack.
MS. ABRAMS
Mr. Wannaroo, your behavior is entirely unacceptable. You are now in the employ of the United States Government using United States Government funds. Do you have any idea how expensive it is to have thirty CIA agents, myself, and Mr. McGrath tailing you in such a disarrayed fashion?
(Coolly)
You don’t look ‘disarrayed’ to me.
Ms. Abrams seems a bit ‘taken aback’, reaches to the top of her blouse as if to adjust it a little higher, but quickly gains composure.
MS. ABRAMS
From this point forward, you will constantly stay in the company of your team members, myself and Sean McGrath, and at least two government agents. You are not to get out of their line-of-sight.
Wannaroo Jack sarcastically smirks.
WANNAROO JACK
I have to tinkle. Think you can handle that?
Ms. Abrams levels a direct gaze at him.
MS. ABRAMS
I can handle anything you care to dispense, Mr. Wannaroo.
Wannaroo Jack smiles mirthlessly, folds the book shut, and puts it into his leather bag. He walks toward her and puts his arm through hers.
WANNAROO JACK
Let’s go then. I’ve got something to show you.
At this moment, Sean McGrath enters the main reading room and extends his signatured arm to anyone who will look.
SEAN MCGRATH
Do you know whose signature this is?
Wannaroo Jack barely looks at the autographed arm.
WANNAROO JACK
The consort of Satan.
SEAN MCGRATH
The most famous archaeologist in the world, that’s who! Ancient Legends, Extant, have you read it?
WANNAROO JACK
Read it? She stole it from me while I was sleeping.
Sean McGrath looks at Wannaroo Jack in surprise and then speaks forthrightly.
SEAN MCGRATH
I’ve read some of your books, Da...err...Professor. Pardon me for saying so, but you’ve never written anything that good.
Wannaroo Jack ignores the slight and moves Ms. Abrams around Sean. He escorts Ms. Abrams to the men’s rest room door. Ms. Abrams coolly detaches her arm and motions three CIA agents to go forward. When Wannaroo Jack sees Ms. Abrams is not going to accompany him, he grins mockingly in her direction and changes direction toward the main reading room’s exit doors. As he walks past her, he whispers.
WANNAROO JACK
Coward.
Sean McGrath calls after him.
SEAN MCGRATH
Where are you going?
WANNAROO JACK
Dinner.
SEAN MCGRATH
Dinner!
WANNAROO JACK
Yes. Dinner.
As Wannaroo Jack exits the Library of Congress, followed quickly by Ms. Abrams and Sean McGrath, the bells begin ringing to signal that a book is leaving the building that shouldn’t be leaving. The Library of Congress security guards appear. Wannaroo Jack points to the group of CIA agents following him.
WANNAROO JACK
Search them. I think I saw one of them pocket something while in the reading room.
The CIA agents are detained. Wannaroo Jack looks down the steps, sees Pikria Zviadi detained, and smiles smugly. Wannaroo Jack approaches the rest of the CIA agents and Pikria Zviadi. He suddenly smiles widely and turns solicitously to Ms. Abrams.
WANNAROO JACK
Ms. Abrams, how would you like some crab risotto, a little vacherin cheese, and a glass of very fine wine?
I/E. WASHINGTON D.C./TAXI/LIBRARY OF CONGRESS - NIGHT
Without waiting for an answer, he opens the taxi cab door widely and ushers Ms. Abrams inside. Sean McGrath enters the front seat. Wannaroo Jack motions two CIA agents to enter the other side of the back seat and attempts to wedge himself into the seat where Ms. Abrams is sitting.
(Slightly apologetic)
Sorry Ms. Abrams. I guess you’ll have to sit on my lap.
Wannaroo Jack lifts Ms. Abrams up and quickly slides his lap underneath her and simultaneously addresses Abdul.
WANNAROO JACK
Valerian’s on Fifth.
Abdul pulls a small flag from his glove box that says ‘Islam Rules’, places it on the top of the taxi, drives up onto the sidewalk of the Library of Congress and around all the taxis blocking him in, and moves rapidly through traffic toward Valerian’s.
INT. WASHINGTON D.C./VALERIAN’S RESTAURANT - NIGHT
The Valerian’s atmosphere is upscale, traditional. Wannaroo Jack sits at a table with Ms. Abrams, Sean McGrath, and Abdul. He positions himself so that he has open eye-contact with Pikria Zviadi at the table behind them. Waiters have already served the food and drink. Abdul, with great gusto, relishes the dish placed before him and directs a question around a full mouthful to Wannaroo Jack.
ABDUL
What is this delicious food?
WANNAROO JACK
Well, it sure ain’t pork.
Abdul pauses with his spoon halfway to his mouth as he realizes the implication of the comment, then appears to reconcile the comment, and hurriedly takes another bite of the delicious food. All the tables surrounding Wannaroo Jack’s table are filled with CIA agents and their taxi drivers. As the rest of the CIA agents, ruffled and angry over their detention at the Library of Congress, walk through the restaurant doors, waiters graciously begin moving plates at tables to make room for them. Everyone eats the same dish, crab risotto with tiny servings of vacherin cheese placed decoratively around the edge of the plates. Waiters busily serve an unending supply of the house’s finest chilled red wine in extra-large wine glasses. Wannaroo Jack catches Pikria’s eye. Pikria tantalizingly smells, swirls, and sips her wine. She purses a generous mouth and gently sucks the rich crab dish through her lips from a small silver spoon. Completely aware of Wannaroo Jack’s attention, she keeps cool, taunting eye contact with him. Wannaroo Jack smiles maliciously, turns to his battered leather briefcase, and removes the Library of Congress’ Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (1136). He carefully ensures that Pikria Zviadi sees that he has the book. She is unable to contain a slight movement in her chair. Wannaroo Jack notices, smiles, and deliberately hands the book to Sean McGrath.
WANNAROO JACK
Look at this and tell me what it has to do with the present mission.
Sean McGrath reaches for the volume as Abdul waves to the waiter for another main course serving. Ms. Abrams does not hold her hand over her wine glass as another waiter serves an additional round of wine. Sean McGrath fingers the gold embossed emblems of Gog and Magog on the front cover of the volume.
SEAN MCGRATH
Well, it’s unusual because of the Gog and Magog on the front cover.
(Corrects)
Gog of Magog. It’s Prince Gog of the Land of Magog. There were never two separate entities.
(Persists)
Nevertheless, this book is a history of Britain. England, to this day, maintains an annual festival in honor of two giants, Gog and Magog.
(Corrects)
Goemagot and Corineus. The second one was named Corineus, a Roman soldier who threw Goemagot, Gogmagog, into the ocean, thus eliminating the last giant from English shores. The lesser overpowered the greater.
Sean McGrath ignores him and thumbs quickly through the book’s pages.
SEAN MCGRATH
This is odd.
Sean McGrath pauses on a picture of St. George Slaying the Dragon.
SEAN MCGRATH
The picture of St. George Slaying the Dragon is not typically representative of those found when this book was first consolidated.
Sean McGrath turns the book sideways.
SEAN MCGRATH
Ah, I see, this page was added later...see? It’s been sewn into the book.
Abdul looks at the picture of St. George and speaks around a mouthful of food.
ABDUL
We call that one, El Khudder. Ten kilometers south of Jerusalem in Beit Jala lies his birthplace and the place where the Prophet Ilyas died. Ms. Abrams would call Ilyas, Elijah. Christians and Muslims go to Beit Jala for St. George. Jews go to Beit Jala for Elijah. Have it as you will, there are some who say St. George is Elijah. There are even those who confuse St. George with Christ.
SEAN MCGRATH
Interesting. A place where Muslims, Christians, and Jews stand shoulder to shoulder.
(Shrugs)
It is said to be a place where the mad can become sane.
Sean McGrath turns to another page.
SEAN MCGRATH
I also wonder about this picture.
Sean McGrath turns a picture of a red dragon rising from the earth and sea for everyone to view. He points to several details about the picture.
SEAN MCGRATH
This also is not representative of the art from that period. It is far too sophisticated and detailed.
Sean McGrath turns the book to its side and examines the page’s insertion point.
SEAN MCGRATH
Yes. See the stitching? This page has also been added at a later date.
Sean McGrath looks again at the picture of the red dragon.
SEAN MCGRATH
In a book about England, I wonder that the dragon is shown rising from the Caspian Sea rather than from English waters.
Wannaroo Jack smiles thinly at Pikria. Abdul waves for a third helping of the main course. Ms. Abrams does not hold her hand over her wine glass to prevent another waiter from refilling it to the top.
WANNAROO JACK
So, you’re saying the pictures are not original with the book.
SEAN MCGRATH
It looks that way.
Wannaroo Jack narrows his eyes at Pikria Zviadi and mutters under his breath.
WANNAROO JACK
I wonder which she prefers, St. George or the dragon?
Pikria dips a long fingernail into her wine, reaches her tongue out, slowly sucks the wine drip from the end of her nail, and smiles coolly. Ms. Abrams, a bit rummy from wine, reaches up to her hair to pat it into place and accidentally pulls a pin from her hair. It releases across the shoulder of her suit slightly shielding her revealing shirt top which has slipped a bit lower down her bosom as the evening progresses. Ms. Abrams rises unsteadily to her feet as if determined to respond to Wannaroo Jack’s question. With one hand, she raises a toast to everyone in the room while holding tightly to the table with the other hand.
MS. ABRAMS
Here’s to St. George and his slaying of all dragons.
Wannaroo Jack levels a steely gaze at Pikria Zviadi.
WANNAROO JACK
To St. George!
Cheers are heard all around the room as St. George is feted. Pikria Zviadi does not raise her glass in toast. Wannaroo Jack notices and smiles slightly. He announces just loudly enough for Pikria Zviadi to hear.
WANNAROO JACK
I think we’ll travel to a land sired by demons and Diocletian’s murderous daughters.
Ms. Abrams looks as startled as a drunk person can look and turns to Sean McGrath.
MS. ABRAMS
Where are we going?
(Speaks readily)
England. He’s talking about England. The mythology says that Roman Emperor Diocletian had thirty-three daughters who hated their husbands. The girls murdered their husbands and as punishment Diocletian set them adrift on a raft which floated to the Island of Albion. We call that island England today. They mated with demons and mothered a race of giants that are, supposedly, the original forebears of the English people.
Wannaroo Jack looks at Sean McGrath with new respect. Sean McGrath notices the look and responds.
SEAN MCGRATH
I do read, Da...errr...Professor Wannaroo.
Sean McGrath raises his wine glass.
SEAN MCGRATH
To England and her great mysteries, Professor!
An all-around cheer escapes the crowd as everyone toasts to England. Pikria narrows her eyes, smiles calculatingly, and with complete composure, slowly rises to complete her own toast.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
To London Town, Wannaroo.
Wannaroo Jack moves a bit uneasily in his chair and raises his wine glass in toast. Ms. Abrams turns around and looks unsteadily at Pikria Zviadi.
MS. ABRAMS
That’s Mr. Wannaroo to you, Ms. Zviadi.
Wannaroo Jack waves for the check. Abdul waves for a final main course platter. Ms. Abrams attempts to place her hand over her glass before the waiter can pour more wine. She misses. The wine is poured and she obligingly drinks her portion. Wannaroo Jack bends his head toward Sean McGrath.
WANNAROO JACK
Roll up your sleeve.
SEAN MCGRATH
Wha...?
WANNAROO JACK
Just do what I told you.
Sean McGrath rolls up his sleeve revealing Pikria Zviadi’s signature. Wannaroo Jack moistens the signature and places the check over the signature. The signature transfers nicely to the check. Wannaroo Jack waves the check so that the signature dries while looking at Pikria.
SEAN MCGRATH
What are you doing?
WANNAROO JACK
Believe me. They can afford it better than we can...
Wannaroo Jack pulls a pen from his pocket and writes in a $2,000 tip on the bottom of the check, changes his mind and writes the number one in front of the two to make it a $12,000 tip, adds the total, pulls a red Prada wallet (with the huge initials PZ on the gold clasp) from his pocket, removes a Georgian government credit card from the wallet, shows it to Pikria, and slips it into the payment pocket along with the signed check. He mouths the words ‘thank you’, places the Prada wallet on the table, stands, helps a completely inebriated Ms. Abrams into her business jacket, decides she cannot walk out, and directs a CIA agent to carry her out.
EXT. WASHINGTON D.C./REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT/PRIVATE AIRPLANE RENTAL AGENCY - NIGHT
Heavy clouds still cover the night sky as Wannaroo Jack stands outside the rental area for private planes at Reagan National Airport. He’s surrounded by the same team originally assigned to him by the President of the United States. The team now includes Abdul. There is a single, rusty, disreputable-looking Piper PA-28 sitting under a yellow parking lot light in the rental holding pen. Duct tape flaps from the rear side window. Wannaroo Jack frowns.
WANNAROO JACK
It’s too small.
The rental agent shrugs her shoulders.
RENTAL AGENT
Take it or leave it and its not cash and carry.
Wannaroo Jack reaches into his wallet and produces a credit card. The rental agent swipes it. It is declined. Abdul slips unnoticed from the back of the crowd. Sean McGrath comes up to the window just as the rental agent hands the card back to Wannaroo Jack with a negative shake of her head. Sean McGrath reaches into his wallet and delivers a shiny, new United States government credit card. The rental agent swipes it, shakes her head ‘no’, and hands the card back to him. Sean McGrath grimaces and hands the United States credit card back to the agent.
(Levelly)
Try it again.
The card is approved and the agent calls to a mechanic sitting in the back room.
RENTAL AGENT
Fill ‘er up, Harry. Trip to London.
The CIA agents hit Bluetooth devices and begin talking rapidly. Wannaroo Jack, Sean McGrath, Ms. Abrams, and two of the CIA agents head toward the plane.
INT. WASHINGTON D.C./REAGAN NATIONAL AIRPORT/PRIVATE RENTAL AGENCY/PIPER PA-28 - NIGHT
Ms. Abrams seats herself in the back, waves a negative head toward the two CIA agents, and places her personal belongings on the remaining back seat. Sean McGrath and Wannaroo Jack seat themselves in the plane’s front seats. Wannaroo Jack places tattered headphones on his head, fires the engine, and begins a taxi to the tarmac. The CIA agents, left on the ground, disperse rapidly toward the main airport. As the plane revs and begins to taxi down the runway, Ms. Abrams looks out the side window.
MS. ABRAMS
Is that Ms. Zviadi?
Wannaroo Jack and Sean McGrath turn to see a huge, shiny Georgian government helicopter waiting with its rotors running. Pikria Zviadi and her three bodyguards bend into its wind stream and step up carefully placed steps to enter its posh interior. A groomed porter pulls the steps away, closes the door securely, and motions for the pilot to take off. Wannaroo Jack watches the helicopter rise straight up, circle widely, and head toward the Atlantic Ocean. A noise from the back of the plane, causes Wannaroo Jack to look around. He sees Abdul squeezing his ample bulk through the two rear seats of the plane. Abdul moves Ms. Abrams personal things to the floor, sits heavily in the far right seat, and buckles up. Wannaroo Jack half-smiles. The small plane leaves the ground just as the CIA men reach the runway and enter a United States military transport helicopter waiting at the side of the tarmac. The blue flare of several blue tooth devices flashes from the ground as CIA men activate their cellular phones. Ms. Abrams’ iPhone beeps. Sean McGrath’s iPhone beeps repeatedly. Wannaroo Jack leans back and speaks to Abdul while Sean begins rapid text messaging.
WANNAROO JACK
I know why I’m going to London. Why are you going?
Abdul shrugs.
ABDUL
Have you tried to fly out of America these days with the name Abdul?
Ms. Abrams finishes text messaging and then dials out.
WANNAROO JACK
What about the wife and fourteen kids?
ABDUL
She is a very self-sufficient woman.
Wannaroo Jack considers this information.
WANNAROO JACK
What neighborhood does your brother live in?
ABDUL
Did I say I was going to visit my brother?
WANNAROO JACK
I’m assuming you aren’t going to visit a second wife.
(Grins)
Waltham Forest. He lives in Waltham Forest.
Wannaroo Jack raises eyebrows.
WANNAROO JACK
I take it he’s not driving taxi.
ABDUL
No. No. We come from a good family. In America we drive taxi. In England, we practice our occupations. He is an archaeologist, like yourself.
Wannaroo Jack exchanges ‘look’ with Abdul.
ABDUL
His name is Shakiir. Perhaps he can help you with your great problem.
Abdul reaches into Wannaroo Jack’s leather bag and pulls out the Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (1136). The book falls open to the picture of the two-horned red dragon rising from the earth.
(Shudders)
This book is a dangerous book, Professor.
Abdul quickly shuts the book and nervously fingers the embossed title on the book’s spine. Sean McGrath turns and, for the first time, notices the Library of Congress cataloging numbers on the book. He looks at Wannaroo Jack.
SEAN MCGRATH
That book is from the research section. You can’t remove it from the library’s premises.
(Smugly)
You can if you know how.
Sean McGrath stiffens.
SEAN MCGRATH
Stealing a national treasury is a federal offense, Da...Sir.
WANNAROO JACK
So, you’re not only going to read my private mail, but you’re going to arrest me, too?
INT./EXT. PIPER PA-28/ATLANTIC OCEAN/HEBRIDES - NIGHT
Abdul slips a small knife from his pocket. Wannaroo Jack looks down at the gray Atlantic Ocean below them.
WANNAROO JACK
I think we’re officially out of ‘federal offense’ territory.
Abdul slides his knife blade underneath the embossed title on the book’s spine and raises it slightly. He pulls a small St. George cross from underneath the spine. Ms. Abrams looks.
MS. ABRAMS
What is it?
Sean McGrath and Wannaroo Jack look back. Abdul shrugs.
ABDUL
Who knows?
He turns the cross this way and that way.
ABDUL
It is very old. Maybe a type of key.
Wannaroo Jack reaches for the cross. Abdul hands it to him. Wannaroo holds it to the light and examines it. A light pattering of rain begins around the plane. Thunderous clouds begin rolling toward the plane enshrouding it in blackness. Lightning strikes all around the plane. Wannaroo Jack slips the cross into his pocket. Everyone becomes intensely alert as the weather increases its intensity. Ms. Abrams’ mobile phone rings. She cups her hand over the phone and her ear to shut out some of the noise.
MS. ABRAMS
Yes?...Yes...London. We’ll meet you there.
The weather becomes ferocious. Soon even the Atlantic Ocean disappears from view. There is no sign of the storm abating. A wild wind whips at the side of the plane. The duct tape begins to loosen around the rear side window. Soon, the window tears away leaving the interior of the plane open to the elements. Cloud cover temporarily parts to allow a view of the roiling ocean mass below. The plane flies precariously close to the surging waves. A large wave splashes through the window of the plane.
(Screams toward the front seat)
Pull up or you’ll swamp us.
Wannaroo Jack adjusts the plane’s elevators upward and pushes the throttle. The plane begins to climb. Suddenly, the plane rolls. Ms. Abrams screams as her iPhone flips through the window into the roiling, gray ocean below. The plane rights itself and begins to buck and jump. The wind whips through the plane’s open back window tearing at the pages of Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (1136) book. The book’s pages flip back and forth rapidly between a picture of St. George Slaying the Dragon and a picture of a horned, red dragon rising from the earth. Abdul notices the unearthly effect and involuntarily blurts out.
ABDUL
Gog of Magog.
As soon as the name is uttered, Abdul slaps his hand over his mouth.
ABDUL
Allah! Forgive me!
Abdul hastily shoves the Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (1136) back into Wannaroo Jack’s leather bag and attempts to fasten it.
(Shouting)
What’s that you say?
(Shouts back)
Some names should never be uttered. It is the will of Allah.
The plane begins bucking up and down as if the storm desires to tear the plane into pieces. The engine begins to gasp and cough. Wannaroo Jack looks at the fuel gauge and curses. Abdul looks fearfully at the roiling ocean, screams as a darkened cloud rises in front of the plane almost in the shape of a dragon, and places his hands in front of his face as if to avoid a crash with such a creature.
ABDUL
Allah! Be merciful on your servant.
Wannaroo Jack looks at the fuel gauge.
WANNAROO JACK
Damn the mechanic. He shorted us gas. Better look for land or we’re going to be wetter than a duck on a rainy day.
SEAN MCGRATH
There! Up ahead. It looks like the Hebrides.
MS. ABRAMS
Hebrides! How could we possibly have gotten that far off course?
SEAN MCGRATH
Pull up! Pull up! It’s a high cliff!
Wannaroo Jack attempts to pull the plane up. It just misses the natural sea wall. The engine sputters and dies. The nose of the plane tips toward a grassy slope beyond the cliff. The tail appears to tip backward toward the sea, then a gust of wind pushes the nose sideways and down. The plane begins to slide sideways down a grassy slope.
(Grimly)
Hang on. It’s going to be a rough landing.
The plane skids sharply with the wing digging into a soft, hilly bump. The wings break off as the plane rolls over and over to the bottom of the valley leaving wings, rudder, and propeller parts strung across the landscape. Moans come from the interior of the plane.
(Relieved)
You can return it and not damaged too much.
WANNAROO JACK (V.O.)
The plane?
ABDUL (V.O.)
The book.
MS. ABRAMS (V.O.)
The book! God, I just want my cell phone.
ABDUL (V.O.)
Where’s Mr. McGrath?
WANNAROO JACK (V.O.)
Probably fell through the door when it ripped off.
Wannaroo Jack steps through the door and looks around. Sean McGrath is lying facedown in several fresh cow piles. Wannaroo Jack walks over, squats down, feels his neck, gently turns him over, grimaces at the green mash on his face.
WANNAROO JACK
Well, kid, you kind of look like the day you were born.
EXT. HEBRIDES/DUNVEGAN CASTLE - DAY
Wannaroo Jack nods toward a castle just showing its roof over the hill.
WANNAROO JACK
Welcome to Dunvegan Castle.
SEAN MCGRATH
We made it?
(Nods)
Not to London; but, yep, we made it.
The sound of a helicopter fills the air. A huge Georgian government helicopter lands beyond their hillock in front of the castle. Pikria Zviadi and her three body guards dismount. Pikria mounts the castle steps with strong purpose. The body guards force the door and enter. Within minutes, the second floor of the castle goes up in flames. Pikria Zviadi walks with the same purpose down the front steps of the castle. Two of her body guards are carrying a long box-like object covered in a heavily-woven velvet tapestry. It has the appearance of a synagogue altar cloth with rich Hebrew writing embroidered in golden thread covering the entire tapestry. The wind from the rotating helicopter’s wings blows the tapestry away from a black basalt stone heavily engraved with carving. There are two golden handles mounted at each end of the stone.
(Amazed)
She found it. That black cat found it.
Ms. Abrams joins them and kneels down beside Sean McGrath. She immediately shows recognition of the archaeological artifact.
(In awe)
“And Jacob exclaimed, ‘How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!’” I didn’t know it still existed!
Sean McGrath raises himself on an elbow and looks over the hillock. He, too, instantly recognizes the artifact.
SEAN MCGRATH
The Stone of Destiny? I thought....
Wannaroo Jack shakes his head ‘no’.
WANNAROO JACK
More accurately called Jacob’s pillow. It was never under England’s throne chair. The Scots had it all along. They hid it here where it would be safe. After all, the MacLeod family was the only one in possession of the Fairy Flag.
SEAN MCGRATH
Fairy Flag?!
Wannaroo Jack nods his head, smugness settles around his mouth as Pikria Zviadi directs her men to load the stone into the helicopter. The helicopter revs for take-off. Wannaroo Jack points to the top of the castle where a man is raising a tattered and torn brownish, yellow flag over the burning castle.
WANNAROO JACK
Watch.
As the flag unfurls, the weather which had calmed and cleared suddenly unleashes a new fury. Lightning strikes around the helicopter. An oak tree is felled by an upheaval of the ground and tumbled end over end toward the helicopter. It splits as it reaches the helicopter. Half of the oak tree strikes the front glass pane of the helicopter just as the helicopter rises from the ground. The helicopter begins twirling around. The tail hits the other half of the jagged oak spike that seems to have rested vertically above the ground.
(Whispers)
You are witnessing history. The last Crusading MacLeod won this flag with a promise that the family could unfurl it three times when under duress and that each time it would protect them. It has been unfurled twice. They made a vow to save the last unfurling to save the stone.
The helicopter tips sharply to its side and spills the stone to the ground. Pikria Zviadi screams and pushes her body guards out the helicopter to retrieve it. When they attempt to catch hold of the golden handles, they are thrown backward as if electrocuted. Pikria looks up and sees the Fairy Flag flying above the castle, points, and screams for it to come down immediately. One body guard breaks from the other three, races to heavy vines that cover part of the castle and begins climbing them hand over fist. When he reaches the top of the castle, he stabs the flag raiser and lowers the flag. Pikria Zviadi smiles maliciously as the bodyguard throws the flag into the burning flames that leap from the second story window. Her eyes narrow as a blue mist rises from the cloth, turns into a blue bolt of electricity, and shoots into the sky while lighting the whole earth with an eerie blue glow that disappears as suddenly as it flamed. She smiles with evil satisfaction as the glow disappears and turns to check the helicopter which is hopelessly damaged. Wannaroo Jack walks to the top of the hillock and stands, cool and un-bothered, to observe the scene below. Pikria sees him standing at the top of the small hillock, urges the remaining two bodyguards to carry the stone toward the hillock, and pulls a gun from her pocket while advancing on Wannaroo Jack.
(Calling)
We’ll need your car, Wannaroo.
WANNAROO JACK
Be my guest.
The bodyguards labor to pull the stone to the top of the hillock. Drenched and bedraggled, Pikria reaches down to aid in pulling the stone the last small distance toward Wannaroo Jack while carefully holding the gun pointed toward his heart. As the stone reaches Wannaroo Jack’s side, the weather magically clears into a beautiful, sunshiny day. A rainbow arches over Wannaroo Jack’s head.
WANNAROO JACK
Perhaps you should leave it with me.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
An oaf like you couldn’t possibly appreciate its true value.
As Pikria Zviadi reaches the top of the hillock, she sees the plane wreckage on the other side.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
You fool! How dare you delay my mission?
Pikria Zviadi points the gun to Wannaroo Jack’s head.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
I noticed you were still limping from the last time I shot you, Wannaroo. Let’s see how well you do after a better-placed shot.
Pikria Zviadi pulls the trigger. The gun clicks.
(Coolly)
Pretty wet day, Pikria...all the way around, I’d say.
Pikria Zviadi screams and throws the gun at Wannaroo Jack. As she loosens her grip on the stone, it slides over her bodyguard who screams and lies writhing in pain. Pikria Zviadi points to the disabled bodyguard and directs the other bodyguard.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
Shoot him! Then, get me a car.
A shot fills the air. The bodyguard lies silent. The remaining bodyguard runs to the bottom of the hill, makes a rendezvous with the third bodyguard who is just leaping free from the side of the castle. Within seconds an ancient Rolls Royce drives from around the side of the castle. The bodyguards load the basalt stone onto the bumper. Pikria runs a short way down the hill. The car pulls up, Pikria jumps into the back seat, and the car roars down the castle’s main road. Wannaroo Jack turns to see Abdul standing beside the plane’s cabin with several bags salvaged from the wreckage. Abdul points to one of the airplane’s wings lying, split in half, on the slope above them.
ABDUL
A long walk to London Town. We can shorten it some.
Wannaroo Jack nods. Abdul picks up the bags and labors toward the split wing. He is met there by the others. Sean McGrath and Wannaroo Jack push the half-wing into place at the top of a particularly steep, long slope, load their gear, sit inside the struts, and give the wing a strong push off the side of the hill. The wing hits a large rock and sails through the air, skims the top of a flock of sheep, misses two narrowly placed trees, skip-jumps across a smallish pond, and lands at the side of a road that is filled with sheep, dogs, and several shepherds. Pikria Zviadi’s car sits stalled in the middle of the flock. Wannaroo Jack’s team steps out of the plane’s split wing, gathers their bags, and heads for the main road. Wannaroo Jack tips his Australian bogey hat to Pikria as they walk past the car.
I/E. ENGLAND/LONDON/WALTHAM FOREST/SHAKIIR’S HOUSE - NIGHT
A disheveled Ms. Abrams, Wannaroo Jack, Abdul, and Sean McGrath jump from the back of a potato truck in London. They stand at a richly appointed private residence gate. Abdul rings a bell and the gate opens.
ONE HOUR LATER
Shakiir, a small, thin Arabian man with bright inquisitive eyes, rings a small bell to order tea for his brother and his guests. Mara, a tall, thin, dark, veiled woman with a sophisticated presence, immediately appears with a large tea tray laden with a variety of short cakes. The guests liberally serve themselves. Shakiir turns attention to Wannaroo Jack.
SHAKIIR
Perhaps you would honor me with a visit tomorrow to see my work.
WANNAROO JACK
You are digging?
SHAKIIR
Yes. We are through the fifth burn layer at St. Paul’s Cathedral.
WANNAROO JACK
You’re looking for the Temple of Artemis.
(Smiles)
Very good, my friend. My hypothesis is that the Romans would not have occupied Britain for so long without honoring their gods.
Wannaroo Jack reaches for a particularly large sweet cake.
WANNAROO JACK
It’s a persistent rumor. I’ve personally found rumors to be quite rewarding when pursued properly.
Abdul moves uncomfortably.
ABDUL
It’s a cursed work to uncover idols in the face of Allah. Better to leave them out of His sight.
Shakiir addresses Wannaroo Jack.
SHAKIIR
My brother, Professor Wannaroo, is a very superstitious man. But, we know that most harm comes from that which humans do to humans, do we not?
Wannaroo Jack neither agrees nor disagrees. Ms. Abrams reaches for a plate filled with figs and halvah.
MS. ABRAMS
The figs are delicious. Where did you find them at this time of the year?
Shakiir smiles briefly.
SHAKIIR
We import them from Lod. My father used to grow them there. One maintains a taste for that which one has labored on, don’t you think?
Sean McGrath watches the interplay with interest. Ms. Abrams flushes slightly.
MS. ABRAMS
I was born and raised in America. I had little to do with the evacuation of Lod.
Shakiir smiles slightly.
SHAKIIR
Ah, but of course the financing so often comes from America, does it not?
Ms. Abrams places the fig, half-eaten, back on the plate.
(Oblivious to the interplay)
I would like to go. What time do you expect to leave tomorrow?
SHAKIIR
Sometime after the morning meal. Would any of the rest of your team care to accompany you?
Wannaroo Jack looks around the table.
WANNAROO JACK
Does any one of the rest of my ‘team’ wish to go?
Ms. Abrams waves tiredly ‘no’. Sean McGrath nods his head affirmatively.
SEAN MCGRATH
I would like to go...that is if Shakiir permits me.
Shakiir waves grandly.
SHAKIIR
We work around the clock in three shifts, but tomorrow all workers are gone except Aksum. Good day to visit.
Shakiir claps his hands sharply.
SHAKIIR
Mara! Come. Show the guests to their chambers.
Mara appears instantly and motions for the Wannaroo team to follow her. She leads them through a series of Arabic arches into a broad hallway lined with many doors. Wannaroo Jack is assigned to the first door. Abdul slips the leather bag from his shoulder and hands it to him, then proceeds after Mara to his assigned room. Wannaroo Jack enters his sleeping chambers. He examines the latches on the window, warms his hands briefly at the fireplace, pulls off his boots, and sinks into the top of the down-filled comforter. At midnight, he suddenly awakes. The room is cold. The fire is out. A full moon shows through flitting clouds. The room’s door softly closes. Wannaroo Jack tiptoes to the door, opens it slightly, and peers down the hallway to see a woman dressed in a black hijab moving quietly through the hall. He runs quickly after her, reaches for her arm, and turns her around. White towels spill from her arms all over the floor. The veil pulls away from her face. She has the sophisticated look of Haile Selassie.
MARA
Oh!
WANNAROO JACK
You entered my room.
MARA
I brought you towels for washing.
Wannaroo Jack bends to pick the towels from the floor and notices an aquamarine St. George’s cross imprinted into her toe ring. He stands and places the towels on a hallway table.
WANNAROO JACK
Ethiopian...Christian...in a Muslim household.
MARA
Yes.
Mara fastens her veil over her face and fastens jet-black eyes on him.
MARA
The prophet said to tell you to watch out for Christopher Wren.
(Dumbly repeats)
Christopher Wren.
MARA
You will meet him tomorrow, but you are destined to escape, for your destiny is to prevent great evil by releasing great good.
Wannaroo Jack stands, dumbfounded, then realizes the full import of her words.
WANNAROO JACK
The prophet! Wait!
Mara has disappeared from the hallway.
I/E. ENGLAND/LONDON/ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL/CHRISTOPHER WREN’S TOMB - NIGHT/DAY
Shakiir leads Wannaroo Jack, Abdul, and Sean McGrath across the main foyer of St. Paul’s Cathedral toward a small cordoned off area.
SHAKIIR
Christopher Wren’s tomb. The architect of this memorial.
Wannaroo Jack squints and reads the Latin inscription on the tomb.
WANNAROO JACK
Lector, si monumentum requiris, circumspice. Reader, if you seek his monument, look around you.
Wannaroo Jack looks around.
WANNAROO JACK
The room has been altered.
SHAKIIR
Yes, many times. It is nothing like the old photographs or engravings. Come, I will show you the diggings.
Shakiir leads Wannaroo Jack, Sean McGrath, and Abdul to a part of the cathedral where access has been restricted. Within the restricted area the floor has been chiseled away. A cement cover lies to the side of the opening. A ladder leads down into darkness. Shakiir steps into the restricted area and begins climbing down the ladder. He adjusts a head lamp on his helmet and points to a switch on the wall.
SHAKIIR
Flip the switch there, Abdul.
Abdul flips the switch and looks fearfully beyond his brother into the partially lit darkness below. Shakiir turns a laughing face toward Abdul.
SHAKIIR
Join us, Abdul. Your prayers can protect us.
Abdul shakes his head negatively.
ABDUL
In a place so dark, I could not find the direction to pray.
Shakiir frowns slightly.
SHAKIIR
Then stay topside. Your direction is that way.
Shakiir points toward a stained glass window. Abdul nods and places his prayer mat on the cathedral floor in the direction his brother points. As Wannaroo Jack, Sean McGrath, and Shakiir descend below, Abdul kneels on his prayer rug, bows his head to begin prayers, and raises his eyes. He is looking directly into the face of a life-size Jesus hanging on a cross. Abdul’s eyes are horrified as it appears he is bowing to an idol and worshipping Jesus.
ABDUL
Allah, forgive me in all your mercy.
He hastily rolls his prayer rug and quickly leaves the cathedral.
INT. ENGLAND/LONDON/UNDERNEATH ST. PAUL’S CATHEDRAL FLOOR - DAY
Below the cathedral’s floor, Shakiir points to burn marks along a crumbled section of wall.
SHAKIIR
The first burn layer.
He points to the ceiling.
SHAKIIR
There is the placing of Christopher Wren’s tomb.
Wannaroo Jack and Sean McGrath squint upward at the ceiling.
WANNAROO JACK
What’s the writing underneath the tomb?
Shakiir frowns a bit.
SHAKIIR
I don’t know. I never noticed it before. Are you sure it is writing?
WANNAROO JACK
I’ll find out.
Wannaroo Jack stands back, takes a run toward the wall below the tomb, runs up the wall, pushes off, and leaps to catch an iron ring embedded in the ceiling. He swings and attempts to catch a second iron ring with his other hand, but fails and falls to the floor. At that moment, Aksum, who has watched the maneuver from the ladder that leads down into the second burn layer, laughs out loud.
AKSUM
Professor Wannaroo, your value as an archaeologist is far greater than your value as a gymnast.
Aksum, short and physically fit, climbs the rest of the way up the ladder and reaches to shake Wannaroo Jack’s hand.
AKSUM
It is a pleasure to meet you, Sir. I read your hypothesis about Jacob’s Pillow.
Wannaroo Jack begins to smile broadly.
AKSUM
I do think, however, that Pikria Zviadi’s analysis showed a bit more depth.
The smile immediately leaves Wannaroo Jack’s face.
(With a touch of sarcasm)
She studied under me.
AKSUM
She progressed far beyond your knowledge. You must be very proud of her.
WANNAROO JACK
I wouldn’t exactly say ‘proud’.
AKSUM
I am a student, too. But, I have ideas that I hope to prove soon. I am investigating ley lines. Have you heard of ley lines, Professor?
Wannaroo Jack frowns.
WANNAROO JACK
Magnetic or electromagnetic grids that cover the earth’s surface in a series of straight lines. The places where they intersect are called node points.
AKSUM
Yes! And, at those node points there is invariably a healing well, a monument, or edifice that serves the people. Sometimes, it seems that certain edifices meant to serve the people lie wrongly on ley lines and suffer the consequences for doing so.
WANNAROO JACK
So, Shakiir encourages students to invest in pseudo-science.
Aksum shakes his head ‘no’.
AKSUM
That which we do not understand is often labeled ‘pseudo-science’, but it does not make it so.
Aksum points to the cathedral’s burn line.
AKSUM
Doesn’t it seem odd that this particular church has burned down five times? What are the chances of that? It’s almost as if it has been placed in the way of something diametrically opposed to its basic premise of existence.
WANNAROO JACK
Contrary to a ley line?
Aksum shrugs.
AKSUM
Who knows? However, I do know this church stands in the way of the annual parade of Gog and Magog.
Sean McGrath looks at Wannaroo Jack questioningly.
SEAN MCGRATH
What’s he talking about?
(Explains)
In 1870 William Henry Black postulated that monuments exist marking ‘grand’ geometrical lines which cover the whole of Western Europe and that these lines were routinely traveled by people and spirits.
SEAN MCGRATH
As in, bad spirits?
WANNAROO JACK
As in, good and bad spirits. Kind of a heaven’s highway on earth.
Wannaroo Jack turns to Aksum.
WANNAROO JACK
If a student decides to theorize, he’d better have the very best facts to back his claims.
AKSUM
I have gathered enough ‘heavy’ facts to back a doctoral thesis, Professor. I would have thought that you, of all archaeologists, should have already remarked on the singular coincidence that at highly electromagnetic points on earth’s surface, marvelous architectural structures are repeatedly erected, destroyed, and erected again and again throughout the centuries with the only difference being the style of architecture that reflects the age in which they’re built.
WANNAROO JACK
That the same battles are fought in the same plains with the only difference being the civilization and the actors? Now, you will earnestly ask ‘why, Professor Wannaroo? Why is this so?’
Wannaroo Jack shrugs nonchalantly.
WANNAROO JACK
Because those building sites are often on hills, providing safety and a good view, while a wide plain is always a good place for a battle.
Aksum laughs lightly.
AKSUM
Even the Hebrew spoke of rebuilding on ‘foundations long past’ almost as if expecting that occurrence as a rule for each new age.
Aksum carefully looks at Wannaroo Jack’s face, lightly laughs, and then points to the wall.
AKSUM
Watch. I’ll show you how students do it.
Aksum runs toward the wall, runs up the wall, pushes out, catches one iron ring, swings, catches the other iron ring, hangs suspended, and then swings both feet forward so that they are placed squarely on each side of the engraving.
SHAKIIR
What is it?
AKSUM
I do not know. Throw me a camera.
Wannaroo Jack throws him a mobile phone; Aksum catches it and while holding one ring, begins taking pictures of the engraving. Aksum grins over his head and drops the phone to Wannaroo Jack.
AKSUM
Got it!
Aksum grabs the second iron ring, pulls his feet in sharply, and positions them on the engraving to catapult to the floor. The pressure from his feet releases a catch in the bottom of Christopher Wren’s tomb. The floor of the tomb slides back and releases millions of black spiders that immediately cover Aksum and begin eating his hands, his wrists, and his arms. Aksum cannot release the iron rings because the flesh is completely gone from his hands and the bones are locked around the two iron rings. He twists, turns, and screams as the spiders consume the rest of his body. Wannaroo Jack turns his eyes away in sickness at the young man’s plight. Suddenly, Shakiir points to thousands of spiders that are rapidly dropping to the floor by means of silken threads.
SHAKIIR
Run, Professor!
Shakiir agilely runs for the ladder, leaps for the fourth rung of the ladder, climbs out, and quickly turns to literally pull Wannaroo Jack up the last top rungs of the ladder into the safety of the cathedral. Sean McGrath barely makes it through as Shakiir and Wannaroo Jack strain to pull the concrete door into place over the excavation hole. As the concrete slips into place, three spiders slip through the crevice and head toward Wannaroo Jack. He begins wildly stomping to kill them and with the help of Sean McGrath successfully creates three black stains on the floor. Shakiir flips the wall switch to cut light to the excavation. Wannaroo Jack leans, shaking, against the cathedral wall.
(Breathing heavily)
Good God! What was that?
SHAKIIR
To be truthful, I do not know. But, we’ve had many nasty surprises here. Fire. Flood. Poison gas. Snakes. I’ve lost fifteen men within three months.
Shakiir takes a silk handkerchief from his pocket and nervously wipes the perspiration from his forehead and face.
SHAKIIR
Sometimes, I wonder if my brother is right, heaven has cursed some ventures and blessed others.
Shakiir flips open his cell phone and places an emergency call to the London police department. He speaks quietly into the phone.
SHAKIIR
Yes, please. Send the police and a detective.
Shakiir turns to Wannaroo Jack and Sean McGrath.
SHAKIIR
They are used to me calling. But, it can be a nasty business. Please, go to my home and recuperate. You did not visit here today. Perhaps another time we will look together for the toes of the goddess.
Wannaroo Jack nods and both men pass through the cathedral doors as police mount the cathedral’s steps. They step aside and watch a young lieutenant approach Shakiir with a note pad in hand. Wannaroo Jack pauses on the cathedral steps, flips his mobile phone open, and looks at the pictures of the engravings. Sean McGrath observes Wannaroo Jack’s nervousness about the images he has just viewed.
SEAN MCGRATH
May I?
Sean McGrath rapidly scrolls through the images.
SEAN MCGRATH
Lalibela. What does Lalibela have to do with the architect of St. Paul’s Cathedral?
Wannaroo Jack nervously reaches into his pocket and pulls the two pictures torn from Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (1136). He carefully lays the two pictures side by side on the church railing, one of St. George Slaying the Dragon and the other of Gog pictured as a two-horned red dragon rising from the earth. He involuntarily shivers, carefully folds the pages into a neat square, pockets them, and looks up to see Pikria Zviadi leaving a small antique shop and quickly entering a limousine parked across the street.
WANNAROO JACK
Pikria.
Wannaroo Jack hails a single taxi on the empty street, but it quickly bypasses him. His eyes thoughtfully follow the limousine to the end of the street where it turns and disappears from view.
INT. ENGLAND/LONDON/WALTHAM FOREST/SHAKIIR’S HOUSE/LIBRARY - DAY
Wannaroo Jack stands near the library shelf closely examining several volumes from Shakiir’s library shelves. Ms. Abrams passes by the open door, spies him, and enters.
MS. ABRAMS
Professor Wannaroo, do you understand that you are in United States’ Government employ and that this is not a tourist vacation in England?
(Absentmindedly)
I won’t be here long.
Ms. Abrams walks toward the book shelves and deliberately positions herself between him and the books.
MS. ABRAMS
Oh? Usually it is good protocol to keep your team members informed about their ‘leader’s’ next move.
Wannaroo Jack gets a ‘devil in his eye’ look, sets the book down on a table, and moves to close her in at the book shelves.
WANNAROO JACK
It might be more interesting if I showed my ‘team members’ my next move.
Ms. Abrams flushes and moves backward to the book shelf. Wannaroo Jack deliberately leans forward and places his hand against the book shelf against which she is leaning. He leans toward her. Her bosom rises sharply inside her shirt. He notices and smiles.
WANNAROO JACK
We’re going to Lalibela, Ms. Abrams. Have you ever been to Lalibela?
Ms. Abrams shakes her head ‘no’.
WANNAROO JACK
It’s hot and uncomfortable. Sweaty, yet invigorating.
Ms. Abrams bosom rises sharply again. Wannaroo Jack smiles again. The library door opens. Abdul enters. He quickly takes in the scene.
ABDUL
Ms. Abrams. I told you. The hijab keeps modesty and invites no trouble. Professor Wannaroo, I’ve come just in time to keep you from sinning against yourself and Allah.
Wannaroo Jack frowns and moves back from Ms. Abrams. Ms. Abrams blushes furiously, pats her hair, and moves away from the book shelf.
MS. ABRAMS
We were just discussing our next destination, Abdul. Lalibela. Are you familiar with it?
Abdul shrugs.
ABDUL
Who is not? It is claimed by some to be a holy city.
Wannaroo Jack returns to examining Lethbridge’s volume on the Magog Hills. He carefully removes a pull-out and examines a chalk picture of a goddess, a god, a giant, and a Roman chariot. Abdul watches Wannaroo Jack’s face.
ABDUL
If you are truly going to Lalibela, now is the time to purify your heart and your body, Professor Wannaroo. There are secrets there which only the pure in heart will discover.
(Absentmindedly)
We are going to Lalibela, but not yet.
Sean McGrath appears in the library door with a pad of paper in his hands and a pen stuck behind his ear. Wannaroo Jack turns to Ms. Abrams.
WANNAROO JACK
And, to keep my ‘team members’ informed, I’m making a quick trip to the Magog Hills this evening.
Sean McGrath continues into the room and joins the conversation.
SEAN MCGRATH
The Wandlebury Ring site? Do you think the prophet has taken up residence in the middle of crop circles? Come on, Professor!
Wannaroo Jack ignores Sean McGrath and turns to Ms. Abrams.
WANNAROO JACK
Would you care to follow a late night hunch with me?
(Stiffly)
Not without my hajib.
ABDUL
Never to worry Ms. Abrams. I will go with you.
Sean McGrath pulls a sweater from a hook near the library door and follows the exiting group.
INT. ENGLAND/LONDON/CAMBRIDGE ROAD/MAGOG HILLS ROAD/CAR - NIGHT
As Wannaroo Jack, Abdul, Sean McGrath, and Ms. Abrams turn from the main road leading to Cambridge into the side road leading to Magog Hills, Pikria Zviadi’s long, dark limousine exits the road leading to Magog Hills and turns onto the main road. Ms. Abrams notes Wannaroo Jack’s interest in the limousine.
MS. ABRAMS
I take it Ms. Zviadi has beaten you to your hunch.
Wannaroo Jack scowls.
WANNAROO JACK
Abdul, pull over to that ring of trees ahead, would you?
Abdul pulls their car to the edge of a ring of trees lining a low hillside.
EXT. ENGLAND/CAMBRIDGE/MAGOG HILLS/WANDLEBURY RING - NIGHT
The group exits the car, proceeds to the hill, and finds themselves almost immediately accosted by a security guard. He shines a bright light in their faces.
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
What are you doing wandering here at night?
Wannaroo Jack begins searching through his pockets for his university identification card.
WANNAROO JACK
I’m Professor Wannaroo. We’re re-verifying some information we read in Lethbridge’s journals about this site.
The security guard steps forward and shines the light in Wannaroo Jack’s face.
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
Isn’t it a bit late to be doing research, Professor?
WANNAROO JACK
Some things just can’t wait.
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
No one will be investigating this hill tonight. The whole hill’s just been shut down for investigation. I would suggest you leave or you’ll be involved in a nasty situation.
SEAN MCGRATH
There’s an odd smell in the air, almost like sulfur springs.
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
She did it. I don’t know how. But, she did it.
MS. ABRAMS
Professor Zviadi?
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
You know her?
MS. ABRAMS
She’s quite famous, actually. The United States government considered her to head a special research position, but chose Professor Wannaroo, here, instead.
WANNAROO JACK
I was second choice?
(Evenly)
Fourth choice, actually.
SEAN MCGRATH
We thought we saw her limousine exiting this road.
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
I would wonder if she was in it.
SEAN MCGRATH
How so?
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
We have odd occurrences here, as you well know. No one comes here without knowing about the occurrences.
The Wandlebury Ring security officer points to fields beyond the ring of trees.
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
Just over there is where the last crop circle was laid. But, tonight, I think the Black Knight himself was raised. I was making my rounds and saw this woman standing in the middle of the Lethbridge site. Then she and her entire party disappeared. She absolutely disappeared.
WANNAROO JACK
What exactly was she doing?
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
To be truthful, she seemed to be calling up the devil himself.
WANNAROO JACK
Did she have a thick Georgian accent?
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
She didn’t do much talking...a sophisticated lady, though...just the opposite of yourself. To be truthful I would have called her a professor and mistaken you for anything but a professor.
The Wandlebury Ring Security Officer looks carefully around.
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
She called up something though. I saw it. A terrible stench came up from the ground and a horde of flies like you’ve never seen before. The flies took a path straight through those woods there. It was after that the woman disappeared, just vanished.
Wannaroo Jack points.
WANNAROO JACK
Between those two tree tops?
The Wandlebury Ring security officer nods his head.
WANDLEBURY RING SECURITY OFFICER
Exactly there.
Wannaroo Jack takes a GPS coordinator out of his pocket and lays a line through the tree tops. He looks startled and turns to Sean McGrath.
WANNAROO JACK
I want to know about every possible site of historical significance that lies along this line.
Sean McGrath looks at the plotted line.
SEAN MCGRATH
It goes to the Caspian Sea. Alexander’s Gates.
Several other Wandlebury Ring security officers come toward Wannaroo Jack’s party. The original officer waves his hand back.
(Reassures other officers)
They’re just leaving.
WANNAROO JACK
Thanks. Don’t worry about Pikria Zviadi. You couldn’t down her if you leveled a 81-mm mortar weapon at her.
Wannaroo Jack and his team return to their vehicle.
INT. ENGLAND/LONDON/CAMBRIDGE ROAD/MAGOG HILLS ROAD/CAR - NIGHT
Wannaroo Jack and his team begin the return drive to London.
SEAN MCGRATH
We saw her limousine leave. Was she in it?
WANNAROO JACK
I don’t know.
Wannaroo Jack smiles mirthlessly.
WANNAROO JACK (CONT’D)
She has an affinity for hellish things. For all I know, the witch flew away with the insects she released.
Lightning zags from the sky and cracks overhead causing everyone to jump and look fearfully out windows which are suddenly covered in a drenching downpour of rain.
INT. ENGLAND/LONDON/SHAKIIR’S HOUSE/LIBRARY - NIGHT
Outside the library window, a fierce storm rages unabated. Wannaroo Jack, Ms. Abrams, and Abdul stand around a table looking at a flat map of the earth that is covered with lines. A projector screen has been lowered from a hidden recess. The layout of Lalibela displays on the screen. Wannaroo Jack shakes his head negatively.
WANNAROO JACK
Something just doesn’t fit. St. George’s Cross, Jacob’s Pillow, Lalibela, MaGog Hills, Alexander’s Gates....
ABDUL
There are many legends from the Muslim, Jewish, and Christian faiths, perhaps too many to read, about all of those things and places. It is only the MaGog Hills that does not share a common story.
Sean McGrath appears at the library door with a sheath of papers in his hand.
SEAN MCGRATH
Ms. Abrams, these just came through the fax machine. Our agents’ plane was diverted to Royal Air Force Base Northolt. They were detained over a question of security clearances.
(Exclaims)
When will the military learn to de-involve itself in agency business!
Sean McGrath lays the papers on the library table.
SEAN MCGRATH
They said your signature will clear them for release by mid-morning.
Ms. Abrams begins signing papers.
(Quietly)
And, Ms. Zviadi’s helicopter landed in the Netherlands.
MS. ABRAMS
With Ms. Zviadi?
SEAN MCGRATH
Yes.
MS. ABRAMS
Doing?
SEAN MCGRATH
Taken residence at a private castle known to have extensive research materials gathered from the St. Catherine Monastery fire on the Sinai Peninsula.
(Without looking up)
Then split our agents. I want Ms. Zviadi watched twenty-four/seven with my instant access to all moves she makes. The rest can meet us in Belgium.
SEAN MCGRATH
Why Belgium?
MS. ABRAMS
Because, if my guess is correct, Mr. Wannaroo will stop there next.
(Without looking up)
Because in 1643 the Bolandists made a hagiography, the Acta Sanctorum 1643, of all the saints. All their reference materials will still be within the Royal Library in Brussels...as well as information about every appearance St. George made up until the seventeenth century.
Sean McGrath frowns.
SEAN MCGRATH
St. George?
WANNAROO JACK
St. George.
SEAN MCGRATH
I don’t see what this has to do with finding the prophet.
WANNAROO JACK
The question is: are we looking for a prophet or a messenger?
SEAN MCGRATH
What’s the difference?
WANNAROO JACK
Messengers can take many forms and not always from an earthly source.
SEAN MCGRATH
What are you saying? We’re chasing some kind of ‘spirit’?
WANNAROO JACK
The Apostle Paul said, “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.”
(Patiently explains)
Traditionally, a prophet is a man, Sean. A messenger can be a man or a spirit.
SEAN MCGRATH
Are you mad?
WANNAROO JACK
‘Much madness is divinest sense. To a discerning eye, much sense, the starkest madness.’
Sean McGrath falters.
SEAN MCGRATH
You’re serious. The three of you are serious.
Sean McGrath makes a helpless gesture.
SEAN MCGRATH
If I go down this road with you, then we need backup.
Wannaroo smirks sarcastically.
WANNAROO JACK
Backup? You think the CIA is going to fire some military rocket against some funky Hollywood aliens and then we can all go home well and happy?
Sean McGrath looks evenly at Wannaroo Jack.
SEAN MCGRATH
No matter what I think, we need the best team possible to help us succeed in any way we can.
Sean McGrath turns to Ms. Abrams.
SEAN MCGRATH
I would like to suggest that we increase our agent force here and decrease the force assigned to Ms. Zviadi.
Ms. Abrams frowns.
WANNAROO JACK
I suggest you send them all to cover that wench. Believe me, she’ll ensure they fully earn their wage.
Wannaroo Jack smiles mockingly at Ms. Abrams. Ms. Abrams stiffens.
MS. ABRAMS
I think you are entirely too free with government resources, Mr. Wannaroo.
Wannaroo Jack helps himself to a brandy.
WANNAROO JACK
Not as free as I would like to be.
Ms. Abrams involuntarily flushes and leaves the room.
INT. BELGIUM/BRUSSELS/ROYAL LIBRARY - DAY
Wannaroo Jack, Ms. Abrams, Sean McGrath, and Abdul sit at a table stacked with research volumes, ancient manuscripts, maps. Sean McGrath carefully opens a leather book, the Acta Sanctorum 1643. He begins browsing the pages.
SEAN MCGRATH
How many times can a man die?
Ms. Abrams looks up from her text.
MS. ABRAMS
If he’s a saint, it looks like more than once. I’ve counted three deaths and resurrections so far before St. George was finally put to rest.
Wannaroo Jack looks up with an odd look on his face.
WANNAROO JACK
What if he was never truly put to rest?
Sean McGrath scoffs.
SEAN MCGRATH
What are you talking about? Abdul himself said his tomb is in Lod.
WANNAROO JACK
The books say that he was officially laid to rest in 303 C.E. after numerous attempts by Diocletian to dismember him, poison him, and dissolve him in a lime solution. A vision told him he would die three times and then inherit eternal life.
Ms. Abrams nods.
MS. ABRAMS
I have the same story from this reference book except I’m showing two attempts to poison him with the Emperor enlisting the help of a court magician to increase the poison’s effect.
Wannaroo Jack picks up another book and opens it to a marked place.
WANNAROO JACK
Even though St. George officially died in 303 C.E., he was seen by thousands of military men coming from the skies on a white horse to lead them to victory as late as the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.
MS. ABRAMS
Thirteen hundred years after he had supposedly died.
Ms. Abrams thinks for a moment.
MS. ABRAMS
My mother used to read me a story about a man named Joshua who was about to embark on a particularly difficult military campaign. He looked up and saw a man standing in front of him holding a drawn sword. Joshua asked if the man had come as a friend or a foe. The man answered, I am the Commander of the Lord’s Army.
SEAN MCGRATH
Joshua died, but did the Commander of the Lord’s Army live to help another day?
Wannaroo Jack looks piercingly at everyone at the table.
WANNAROO JACK
If St. George was awarded eternal life, then he lived to help another day.
Ms. Abrams looks confounded.
MS. ABRAMS
Everyone dies, Jack. Abdul himself said St. George’s tomb is in Lod.
Wannaroo Jack shakes his head.
WANNAROO JACK
Fecundity.
Wannaroo Jack pushes the piece of paper forward on which he had formed thousands of little dots.
WANNAROO JACK
In biology, fecundity is equated with fertility or the actual reproductive rate of an organism. It is a major factor in fitness, only limited by lack of environmental factors that support it. Think about the potential reproductive rate of an organism, if no limit were placed on it. What if a state of superfecundity could be reached where an organism mutated by storing something ‘otherworldly’, something from another type of organism so that it could reproduce itself at will by itself?
Wannaroo Jack looks down at the thousands of dots he has placed on the paper.
WANNAROO JACK
Even fragmentary remains of saints were so richly imbued with life that they were known to restore life.
(Nods his head)
Yes, we have a story about Al-Yasa’s burial place...another dead person was placed on top of Al-Yasa’s bones and that person leapt from the grave alive and fully healthy.
MS. ABRAMS
You are talking about the Prophet Elisha.
ABDUL
Yes. To the Jew and Christian, Elisha. To the Muslim, Al-Yasa.
SEAN MCGRATH
There is a story that says when Jesus died, dead persons came out of their tombs and walked on the streets of Jerusalem.
Sean looks thoughtful.
SEAN MCGRATH
So, you are saying that when these type of people ‘die’, a super-seeding of some type of particle seems to occur so that life still exists and can be regathered, regrouped into a living entity again and again and again.
Wannaroo Jack nods and dots the paper repeatedly with his pencil.
WANNAROO JACK
Where each particle of a saint’s body lies, in some sense, the whole saint exists.
SEAN MCGRATH
If fecundity increases or decreases according to necessary environmental factors, St. George would continue to re-appear whenever his services were needed.
WANNAROO JACK
He was known for slaying dragons....
MS. ABRAMS
So...whenever a dragon needs slaying....
SEAN MCGRATH
St. George should appear.
Wannaroo Jack moves his reading glasses toward the top of his head.
WANNAROO JACK
Now, I think we’re finally ready for Lalibela.
EXT. AFRICA/ETHIOPIA/BUGNA/MOUNTAINS/LALIBELA - DAY
Wannaroo Jack, Ms. Abrams, Sean McGrath, Abdul, and a large group of tourists ride mules toward Lalibela. The tour guide sits backwards on his mule to face the tour group and relates Lalibela’s history.
TOUR GUIDE
You are riding onto a 2,600 meter rock formation from which the New Jerusalem was carved. We will stop at three churches. One of the eternal light that never fails. One where Christ kissed a pillar and wrote man’s past and future into the stone.
(Mutters under his breath)
I’d like to take a look at that.
The Tour Guide looks sharply at Sean McGrath.
TOUR GUIDE
The sacred pillar is covered at all times.
(Whispers)
It’s covered because no mortal can stand the truth of God.
The Tour Guide swings his legs around on the mule to sit forward and wheels the mule around to face the tourists.
TOUR GUIDE
It is said these structures were worked on by 40,000 workers during the day and carved by angels at night. Indeed, King Gebre Meqel Lalibela himself was given a vision from God and St. George to construct the last and final church, the church we will visit first, The Church of St. George. You are about to see, ladies and gentlemen, the Eighth Wonder of the World which some believe contains the secrets of the end of the world.
The tour guide slides from his mule and leads the tour group to the steps leading down into the Church of St. George. The group walks to the bottom of the steps. The tour guide points.
TOUR GUIDE
Here, you see the baptismal pool. Come inside. Come inside. It is thought to be the most finely executed of all the churches.
Wannaroo Jack walks around the outside of the church carefully observing the architecture. He fingers the St. George’s Cross that he now wears around his neck. Sean McGrath catches up to his side.
SEAN MCGRATH
Precisely what are we looking for? Lalibela was not on any list I made for completion of this project.
WANNAROO JACK
It wasn’t on mine, either.
Ms. Abrams follows wiping perspiration from her brow.
MS. ABRAMS
Does that mean you’ve extended your English holiday into Ethiopia, Dr. Wannaroo?
Abdul, who has stayed atop with the mules, looks over the edge and calls down to Wannaroo Jack.
ABDUL
Sometimes, what one looks for is not down in a hole.
Wannaroo nods and climbs to the top of the steps to see what Abdul has found. Abdul points to the top of the church.
ABDUL
The cross on the top...it does not do what crosses do.
Wannaroo Jack looks closely and nods. Abdul hands him a small archaeologist’s brush.
ABDUL
A loan from my brother to you.
As the tourists leave, Wannaroo Jack and Abdul hang back and return to the church. Abdul hands Wannaroo Jack a grapple attached to a long parachute rope. Wannaroo Jack begins swinging the grapple. It hits the top of the church and slides off. The second try hits square on. Abdul ties the rope to his ample waist. Wannaroo Jack looks askance at Abdul thinking it is not a very secure tie-down.
ABDUL
I am as strong as a camel.
Wannaroo Jack checks the tightness of the rope.
WANNAROO JACK
Just don’t spit in my eye.
Wannaroo Jack begins a hand-over-hand maneuver to the near side of the church. Abdul holds the weight until about the middle of the maneuver and then begins sliding toward the edge of the excavation. Just as Abdul is about to slide over, Wannaroo Jack swings his legs up over the roof’s edge, walks to the center of the cross, and squats low to begin a close examination of the roof design. After several minutes, he repositions himself and feels the center. The stone is soft and crumbly. He takes the small brush from his belt and carefully begins sweeping away the debris to reveal a round, copper colored circle in the middle. He calls over his shoulder to Abdul.
WANNAROO JACK
It’s some type of receptacle. It needs a key or insignia to finish the design.
Abdul sets Wannaroo Jack’s leather bag on the ground and pulls the Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae (1136) into the sunlight. He turns to a page in the book and calls to Wannaroo Jack.
ABDUL
There is another page sewn into this most dangerous book. It shows a picture of a small cross within a larger cross. You have the small cross, Professor Wannaroo.
Wannaroo Jack reaches to his neck and removes the small Georgian Cross. He places it into the round receptacle. Nothing happens.
ABDUL
Turn it over. The colored side down.
Wannaroo Jack flips it over and moves it a bit to line it up with the larger cross.
WANNAROO JACK
It fits. But, of what....
The small cross begins vibrating in the disc shape and then begins spinning rapidly counter-clockwise. It begins spinning so rapidly that it begins a strange humming sound that increases in intensity.
(Shouts)
This is not good! Run, my friend.
As Wannaroo Jack turns to run, a bright, blue, laser light shoots straight to the darkening sky. Wannaroo Jack falls backward, begins kicking himself away from the blue light, gets to his feet, runs for the edge of the building, and leaps for the middle of the rope. Abdul, terrified at the blue light issuing from the top of the roof, desperately begins untying the rope.
(Hanging from the rope)
Don’t untie the rope! Don’t untie....
It is too late. Abdul escapes and Wannaroo Jack slams down and against the side of the church. The rope hangs about ten feet from the bottom of the church pavement. Wannaroo Jack slides down the rope, free-falls to the pavement, and runs for the stairs. A violent rainstorm interspersed with wildly fearsome lightning that strikes everywhere followed immediately with ear-crushing thunder begins. He reaches the top of the stairs and nearly falls back down them from the violent flow of water that pours over the edge to flood St. George’s Church. A far-off rumble comes from the northeast followed by a series of earth storms that severely shake the ground one after another. Abdul has managed to mount his wild-eyed mule and is whipping it into a dead run down the canyon. The blue light continues to penetrate the sky behind Wannaroo Jack as he attempts to catch and mount his terrified mule. He finally catches the long rope dragging behind it as it runs in crazed circles. He slips and falls. The mule heads straight down the canyon with Wannaroo Jack holding tightly to the rope while slipping and sliding on his backside down the canyon path.
EXT. AFRICA/ETHIOPIA/BAHIR DAR/MERKATO - DAY
Wannaroo Jack, Sean McGrath, and Ms. Abrams navigate through hundreds of children selling their wares in the merkato at Bahir Dar. A group of Rastafarians pass nearby. Several monks walk quickly and quietly through the noisy crowd. A child approaches Wannaroo Jack.
MARKET CHILD
Buy a Lalibela cross, mister.
Wannaroo Jack shakes his head ‘no’. The child becomes insistent.
MARKET CHILD
Buy a Lalibela cross, mister.
Wannaroo Jack shakes his head ‘no’. The child steps in front of him.
MARKET CHILD
It is an exact representation. You need to buy it.
Wannaroo Jack shakes his head ‘no’. Ms. Abrams steps forward and reaches into her purse.
MS. ABRAMS
Oh, for heaven’s sake. He probably has a family to feed.
WANNAROO JACK
Don’t they all.
The child hands the cross to Ms. Abrams and pulls a picture of Moses and St. George from his pocket.
MARKET CHILD
Moses and St. George.
Ms. Abrams shakes her head ‘no’ and points to the cross.
MS. ABRAMS
This is enough. Enough.
The child pockets the small painting of Moses and St. George and moves to look for another tourist. Ms. Abrams turns the Lalibela cross around and around to examine its carvings.
MS. ABRAMS
It’s an odd thing, isn’t it? I wonder what these are?
She fingers the rounded support at the bottom of the cross.
WANNAROO JACK
Adam’s arms. It is said from his arms sprang the Christ.
Ms. Abrams places the ornament in her purse. They proceed through the market and come abreast of a radio blaring the news into the crowd.
RADIO ANNOUNCER
Following the volcanic eruption, a swarm of earthquakes hit the Ethiopian border yesterday. Registering at 7.0 on the Mercalli scale, there is unparalleled concern among scientists over the significance of the eruption and the quakes. We move to Dr. Frangipani in Addis Ababa. Dr. Frangipani, what is the concern scientists have about this particular set of earthquakes?
Wannaroo Jack, Sean McGrath, and Ms. Abrams stop to barter for fruit and nuts while the radio announcer continues his dialogue. They purchase three bottled drinks and move toward a large tree near a fountain at the end of the street.
(Fading away as main actors move down the street)
Due to the remote position of the quakes, there appears to be no loss of life. But, we are concerned about significant movement between the Arabian and the two African tectonic plates. This sudden activity indicates that Africa may actually split off and form a new continent and that we may see a new ocean develop. The magnitude of this new formation is unknown at present and will be a subject of study over the next year.
Wannaroo Jack sits under the fountain’s tree and bites into a piece of fruit. He tips his hat forward and lies back to sleep. Behind the tree is a reed basket. A hand stealthily removes the lid and a poisonous snake slithers out toward Wannaroo Jack. It rears its head to strike. Ms. Abrams screams. Sean McGrath grabs a stick to beat it away, but it is too late. The snake has struck Wannaroo Jack’s arm. People from the merkato come running. Someone lifts the snake up into the air on a stick. Faces panic as they realize the severity of the bite. A Rastafarian steps forward.
RASTAFARIAN
I know a monk who can help with this. Help me. Carry him to the lake.
Men from the crowd step forward and lift the now delirious Wannaroo Jack into a blanket sling. Ms. Abrams quickly steps forward and places the Lalibela Cross on his chest.
I/E. AFRICA/ETHIOPIA/BAHIR DAR/LAKE TANA - DAY
The men carry him to the edge of a lake where he is placed in a motorcraft of dubious float-worthiness. Ms. Abrams and Sean McGrath are left on shore. The Rastafarian starts the motor and cruises across Lake Tana.
I/E. AFRICA/ETHIOPIA/BAHIR DAR/LAKE TANA/DEBRE MARYAM MONASTERY - NIGHT
LATE NIGHT
Wannaroo Jack lies on a reed pallet on the stone floor of Debre Maryam Monastery. Through blurred eyes he seems to see St. Patrick illuminated before him as if in a vision.
MONK PATRICK
Ye mus’ ‘ave the correct werds, Jack. The correct werds ‘r what’s makin’ all the diffrence in the werld. Ye’re needin’ to raise St. George.
Wannaroo Jack mumbles through his delirium.
WANNAROO JACK
I’m a man, not a god. What authority do I have?
MONK PATRICK
What authority ‘ave ye been given? Were ye not chosen out of all men to perform this task? Perform it ye shall and perform it ye will. Go forth. Courage. Do not fear...what is allowed in ‘eaven is yours alone, lad. Ye’ve got the sign, now, ‘aven’t ye?
Monk Patrick reaches forward and takes the Lalibela Cross and places it on Wannaroo Jack’s face. Then Monk Patrick moves aside and through blurred eyes Wannaroo Jack sees St. George slaying the dragon. His head reels and then he seems to see a devil tied up in a cage. Monk Patrick moves back into his view.
MONK PATRICK
The ten tribes dispersed are to be brought together again from all the nations. Don'cha thin' now that the dragon is knowin' it? E's not that far outside the King's circle. The King’s circle, Jack.
Wannaroo Jack’s head is reeling.
WANNAROO JACK
The word...you said there is a word....
Wannaroo Jack lapses into the darkness of a coma.
INT. AFRICA/ETHIOPIA/ADDIS ABABA/HILTON HOTEL - DAY
NEXT MORNING
The next morning finds Wannaroo Jack sitting against pink silk pillows in the Addis Ababa Hilton Hotel. The double doors swing open and Ms. Abrams directs a maid to deliver a silver tray covered with a full breakfast. Ms. Abrams briskly looks at her watch and then directs full attention to Wannaroo Jack.
MS. ABRAMS
The embassy was kind enough to send a helicopter to rescue you from that witch doctor at Maryam. You are under excellent care in Addis Ababa. You can rest here as long as you need. Sean McGrath has replaced you as head of the project.
WANNAROO JACK
I’m fired?
MS. ABRAMS
We don’t use the word ‘fired’, Professor. You have been relieved of your position.
WANNAROO JACK
I’ve been fired.
Ms. Abrams tightens her mouth and pulls a stainless steel tube with a return address of St. Catherine Monastery, Sinai Peninsula from her coat pocket.
MS. ABRAMS
You have been relieved of your position for multiple reasons, which have been accurately documented should you decide to litigate. But, the main reason you are relieved is this tube. How dare you withhold such a vital piece of information from your team? An original script from the St. Catherine’s monastery fire, retrieved, and sent to you from the Ubis in Georgia?
Ms. Abrams turns to leave the room.
WANNAROO JACK
That doesn’t belong to me.
MS. ABRAMS
No, it doesn’t, Mr. Wannaroo. It now belongs to the United States Government.
WANNAROO JACK
Where are you going?
MS. ABRAMS
Where you should have gone as soon as you read this manuscript.
Ms. Abrams exits. Wannaroo Jack falls back into his pillow and looks up at the ceiling. He reaches for the phone.
WANNAROO JACK
The Fairmount, Bermuda, please. Yes. I’ll wait...Fairmount? Mr. and Mrs. Wannaroo, Sr., please...No? I made reservations for them for a month’s stay. They should have booked by now...No? Are you sure? Cancelled?...Tel Aviv?...For how long? Six months?!!! On whose credit card? Mine! She didn’t like the amenities? Where did she book?
Wannaroo Jack pushes the blankets aside, struggles to get out of bed, and begins pulling on his pants.
WANNAROO JACK
He booked where? Damn him. He’s too old to ‘book’ anywhere.
Wannaroo Jack slams down the telephone receiver.
WANNAROO JACK
Isn’t there a shred of morality anywhere anymore? I’ve got a son manipulating government funds for his own benefit and a Dad using mine for ‘amenities.’ Damn Sean, damn Dad, and damn the United States government.
Wannaroo Jack starts to stand, grabs his head, and eases back to the side of the bed. He looks at his watch, looks at the juicy steak lying on his platter, struggles to stand, finishes pulling on his pants, puts on his Australian bogie hat, and leaves the hotel room.
EXT. AFRICA/ETHIOPIA/ADDIS ABABA/AIRPORT - DAY
He heads for the airport to barter for a flight. Abdul is walking out the front door of the airport as he starts in. Abdul’s eyes widen in surprise and he walks toward Wannaroo Jack with great joy.
ABDUL
My friend! I did not think you made it.
Abdul points to the inside of the airport.
ABDUL
Do not go in there. They are a very unreasonable people. For a country that knows there is one God, they still cling to much foolishness. Come with me. My brother sent money. I have a jeep waiting. We will go to Djibouti and be gone from this place.
Abdul points to a mud-spattered and dented jeep standing at the curb.
ABDUL
We cut cross the Yangudi Rassa and arrive in Djibouti in hours.
Wannaroo Jack narrows his eyes at Abdul.
WANNAROO JACK
What do you know that you’re not telling me, Abdul?
(Innocently)
I am going to Tel Aviv. Who has not wanted to see that great city?
Wannaroo Jack waits.
(Lowered voice)
There is a gate that goes into Lod called the Gate of the Dragon. My people say that the Dajjal will come through that gate and that the Christian St. George will rise again and pierce him through.
WANNAROO JACK
The Dajjal is the Arabic name for the Anti-Christ.
ABDUL
Yes, my friend. So, you see your work is most important and now you must finish it.
EXT. AFRICA/ETHIOPIA/YANGUDI RASSA - DAY
TWO DAYS LATER
Wannaroo Jack pushes the jeep through a mud hole with Abdul behind the wheel shouting words of encouragement while spinning the tires and covering Wannaroo Jack with thick mud and water.
ABDUL
Just a little further, Jack, and we’re there.
Wannaroo Jack lets go of the jeep so that it rolls back into the hole, walks to the edge of the hole, and sits down exhausted. At that moment a fierce, formidably frightening Afar complete with a jile (curved knife) strapped to his body appears at the front of the jeep. Wannaroo Jack guardedly stands.
(Warily)
It’s okay, Jack. I know these people. They are warriors, but they are also Muslim.
Abdul reaches under his seat and brings forth his prayer rug. He points to the east and then to the sky. The Afar throws his head back and utters a battle cry. Four Afars appear, surround the jeep, and pull it out of the mud. Everyone climbs aboard and the jeep moves into their nearby camp which is filled with a village of people on the move. A young man is brought forward. Abdul speaks in Arabic to the young man. He answers readily.
ABDUL
He says the day of the prophet has arrived and that they are fleeing the gates of hell.
WANNAROO JACK
The volcano.
The young man begins speaking again. Abdul looks a bit perturbed and replies in Arabic. Abdul shakes his head negatively toward Wannaroo Jack and explains.
ABDUL
The Arab says: “When the most wicked member of a tribe becomes its ruler, and the most worthless member of a community becomes its leader, and a man is respected through fear of the evil he may do, and leadership is given to people who are unworthy of it, expect the Day of Judgment.”
The Afar invites Abdul and Wannaroo Jack to the edge of a campfire and offers food. Wannaroo Jack looks up and sees a man at the edge of the village yelling as two men attempt to put a red-hot spoon in his mouth. Wannaroo Jack raises questioning eyes to Abdul. Abdul shrugs.
ABDUL
A Bisha’a. He’s been accused of sleeping with his uncle’s wife. If he licks the spoon three times without burning his tongue, he is innocent of the accusation.
WANNAROO JACK
I thought that was illegal.
ABDUL
Here, who will know? A man is against his brother, brothers against their cousins, brothers and cousins against the stranger. They are clearing deodand from their camp so they have God’s blessing for their journey.
The Afar turns to Wannaroo Jack. He speaks to them in perfect English.
AFAR
You are not to travel North.
WANNAROO JACK
I must travel North.
AFAR
Every cast for you says no.
Wannaroo Jack asks Abdul with his eyes. Abdul explains.
ABDUL
He has cast the sixteen figures for you. It is common in Africa. He is telling you the judges have not predicted stability for you.
AFAR
On the contrary, nine have predicted stability.
Abdul starts.
ABDUL
Nine?
The Afar nods. Abdul turns to Wannaroo Jack.
ABDUL
It means there is a lasting change coming on a macro level, but that does not necessarily bode good for you on the micro or personal level. When it occurs this way, it is determined by Allah to be so.
The Afar hands Wannaroo Jack an I-phone.
AFAR
Anything Allah does not tell you in the casting can be found on the Internet.
Wannaroo Jack nods and begins surfing while Abdul rises, returns to the jeep, and begins pulling items for barter out of bags strapped to the sides. The earth tremors. Wannaroo Jack quickly returns the I-phone and runs to the jeep. The villagers rapidly gather their belongings and begin moving southwest. Wannaroo Jack and Abdul start the jeep and drive North.
EXT. AFRICA/THE REPUBLIC OF DJIBOUTI - DAY
A huge mountain spews molten lava and ash over the landscape. The camera pans out to show myriads of peoples and animal populations, entire villages and herds, families walking along the rivers, paths, canals, and across open countryside away from the path that Wannaroo Jack and Abdul are taking. As the ash begins to fall, Wannaroo Jack and Abdul take shirts, wet them down with their canteens, and cover their faces to avoid breathing the gray ash. The jeep’s radiator becomes increasingly covered with gray ash. It begins sputtering, lurches forward, and finally stops. They get out and open the side hoods. The motor steams and smokes heavily.
WANNAROO JACK
Great. A couple of hours journey?
Abdul is already slinging bags across his back and throws several toward Wannaroo Jack.
ABDUL
There are four volcanoes around Djibouti. If the lava comes rapidly, we cannot outrun it. We’ll head for the river.
The air becomes increasingly hot. The camera pans out to show a loud, rushing roar of steaming, red, molten rock crashing through the landscape. Wannaroo Jack and Abdul run for the river bank and leap over the edge with both arms out as if expecting to land in water. They belly flop into arid dust. Wannaroo Jack groans and rolls over on his back with his eyes shut. Abdul looks fearfully backwards.
ABDUL
Run! My friend! Get up and run!
Wannaroo Jack opens his eyes and sees a flow of lava racing toward the dry river bed’s edge. He scrambles to his feet, runs with surprisingly agility toward the opposite bank of the sandy arroyo, jumps to catch its edge, falls back into the sand, desperately looks for a lower bank to scramble up, sees a small tree root dangling from the bank, runs, grabs it, and swings himself up and over the bank. Abdul jumps and swings precariously from the root looking backward as the roar of the hot molten lava pours over the far bank and rushes toward him. Wannaroo Jack reaches down and pulls Abdul to the top of the bank just as the lava hits the bank and splashes up and over the side then turns and follows the arroyo bed. Abdul looks askance as the sizzling lava that splashed not three feet away from him, moves back, takes a handkerchief from his pocket and wipes perspiration from his brow.
ABDUL
We must get to Lake Assal. There is water there...a civilized place...and a road, a paved road, that leads to Djibouti.
Wannaroo Jack and Abdul strike out across the country at a rapid pace and finally crest the ridge leading down into Lake Assal. A caravan trekking trail runs on the upper side of the lake. In the distance a single camel caravan works its way alongside the lake. Abdul runs down the side of the ridge hollering at the camel drivers. When he catches them, he begins waving his arms vigorously and points backward at Wannaroo Jack. Wannaroo Jack watches as the drivers nod heads and gesture just as excitedly. Abdul reaches into his coat, withdraws money, and gives it to the men. The camera fades into the next scene with Wannaroo Jack sitting uncomfortably behind Abdul on top of one of the camels. He painfully adjusts himself between baggage.
(Grumbles)
Civilized place, a paved road.
ABDUL
Very civilized. Very much religion here. Very gracious people. They accepted some of our money instead of cutting off our heads and taking all of it.
Wannaroo Jack looks ahead to a sign ‘Djibouti 120 kilometers’ and grimaces.
(Happily)
Look, my friend. The end of the road is already in sight...seventy-two miles. It is nothing. We’ll be in Djibouti and before you know it on our way to Suez. It’s just minutes away.
The camera expands its view from the back of the camel to a blackening sky and a rift opening in the Rift Valley.
EXT. AFRICA/THE REPUBLIC OF DJIBOUTI/DJIBOUTI/DOCK - DAY
TEN DAYS LATER
Wannaroo Jack and Abdul, filthy, dressed in tatters, bloodshot eyes, beards unshaven, terribly sunburned, shod with newspapers wrapped around their feet, wet rags tied around their mouths, backpacks tied with rope to hold the remaining bag’s contents, hobble toward the gangplank of a heavily overloaded freighter bound for Suez.
WANNAROO JACK
I thought you said they were civilized.
ABDUL
Very civilized. They took all of our money, left us some clothing, and did not cut off our heads.
The sky is still yellow overcast from volcanic ash. A heavy rain starts to fall which streaks everything with a heavy gray ash. Wannaroo Jack and Abdul are stopped at the bottom of the gangplank.
FREIGHTER ATTENDANT
No more passengers.
ABDUL
No, no. You misunderstand. We are just asking for the next freighter to Suez.
FREIGHTER ATTENDANT
This is the last boat. The ash is no good for the engines.
Abdul removes his taqiyah and pulls out a one-hundred-dollar bill.
WANNAROO JACK
Where’d you get that?
ABDUL
Big tipper from America.
Abdul stands back and waves the bill to the passengers overlooking the railing.
(Hollers)
American money to trade for a ride.
Several persons jab each other in the ribs, point at Abdul and laugh. No one comes down the plank.
ABDUL
Damn Internet. Everyone knows the worth of a dollar nowadays.
A man herds ten goats toward the gangplank. The freighter attendant waves him back.
FREIGHTER ATTENDANT
There! You fool! Not here!
Wannaroo Jack and Abdul watch the man go to a second gangplank and begin herding his goats up the plank. Wannaroo Jack and Abdul turn and head toward a small corral at the end of the dock where three small pigs sit in wooden cases. Wannaroo Jack bends to pick up a wooden case and indicates that Abdul do the same.
ABDUL
They’re unclean. I will not do it.
WANNAROO JACK
You want to go to Suez or not?
ABDUL
Allah would sink my boat.
WANNAROO JACK
From the look of that freighter, it wouldn’t be hard to do.
Wannaroo Jack struggles to pick up two wooden cases. The freighter toots a horn. The gangplank starts rising. The pigs begin squealing. Wannaroo Jack and Abdul begin running for the gangplank. The pigs squeal louder. A man begins shouting. Several men draw knives and begin throwing them at Wannaroo Jack and Abdul. As knives whiz past their ears and stick quivering into the wood of the rising gangplank, Wannaroo Jack drops the pig crates, runs for the gangplank, makes a leap, catches the edge, swings up over the end, and reaches down and pulls Abdul up and over the edge.
INT. CARGO SHIP HOLD - DAY
They slide down the rising plank into the bottom of the ship, tumble forward, and fall into the open hold of the ship into a pig’s pen.
(Sniffs)
God, I know why Allah didn’t like them.
Abdul frantically climbs out of the pen. Wannaroo Jack calmly steps over the side of the pen and sits on a chicken crate. He watches Abdul brushing himself off and stomping his feet to clear deodand.
WANNAROO JACK
Did you ever think how much easier life would be if you just converted? No worrying about keeping track of a prayer rug, wondering where the sun rises and sets on a cloudy day, accidentally falling into a pig pen....
(Frowns)
It is bad luck to make fun of some things, my friend.
Wannaroo Jack turns and climbs up to the top of a camel’s crate. Abdul settles among the chickens and sheep. A loud blast from the freighter’s horn signals the boat has entered the main thoroughfare. Wannaroo Jack pulls a map from his pocket.
WANNAROO JACK
We drive from Suez to Port Said, take a boat to Tel Aviv-Yafo, and drive to Lod...twenty-four hours at the most.
Abdul looks sagely at Wannaroo Jack.
ABDUL
Perhaps my friend. Perhaps.
EXT./INT. ISRAEL/TEL AVIV-YAFO/HOTEL - DAY
Wannaroo Jack and Abdul disembark from a small speedboat onto the private shore of a high-end Tel Aviv-Yafo hotel.
ABDUL
And, why are we stopping here, my friend?
WANNAROO JACK
A little family business.
(Smiles broadly)
You have family here?
WANNAROO JACK
This family should be back in America now on their own expense account.
Wannaroo Jack leads Abdul into a side door of the hotel and pushes an elevator button to the roof-top. They leave the elevator and enter a lush paradise of plants. Wannaroo Jack follows a pathway through the verdant plants and walks toward a private, high-end lounge where two people sit sunning.
WANNAROO JACK
Dad?
An older man looks up through expensive sun-glasses.
WANNAROO JACK’S DAD
Son?
WANNAROO JACK
I thought you were going to Bermuda.
WANNAROO JACK’S DAD
Oh, you know. It’s so ‘old hat’ these days. Besides your mother wanted to see Israel again.
A young, beautiful model, sunning in the adjacent lounge, looks up at Wannaroo Jack.
BEAUTIFUL MODEL
Hi, Jack. I hope you don’t mind, but the amenities are so much better here, don’t you think?
Wannaroo Jack reaches down, picks up his dad’s and mother’s drinks. Wannaroo Jack drinks his dad’s drink and hands his mother’s drink to Abdul to drink. He wipes his mouth with the back of his hand.
WANNAROO JACK
I wouldn’t know. That amenity seemed a bit watered down, I think.
WANNAROO JACK’S DAD
Oh, Son, I’m sorry I didn’t get a very good trade on that vacation you booked for me; but, not to worry, the resort exchange group said they still had your credit card number and that they would charge the difference.
(Tightly)
You should call your grandson sometimes.
(Thoughtfully)
I think it would be a waste of time. He reads my mail you know. He probably knows where I am better than I do.
Wannaroo Jack turns as the sound of a large cart covered with silver domed dishes wheels through the elevator. He walks toward the cart, folds the white linen cart cloth around the domed dishes, makes a sling, and swings it over his shoulder.
WANNAROO JACK
Come, Abdul. Lunch’s on me.
Wannaroo Jack looks back over his shoulder.
WANNAROO JACK
You might want to check that credit card, Dad. I heard they canceled it.
Wannaroo Jack’s dad raises a refilled glass in salute over the top of his sun hat.
INT. ISRAEL/LOD/ST. GEORGE’S TOMB - DAY
Wannaroo Jack and Abdul stand in the middle of St. George’s tomb. Wannaroo Jack looks puzzled. The last tourist leaves the room.
WANNAROO JACK
Something’s wrong here. The room’s plain as a New Mexico squatter’s hut; but the tomb looks like it belongs in St. Paul’s Cathedral.
Wannaroo Jack runs his hand over the adobe block that forms the room’s curved walls. He looks carefully around the room and notes a rounded niche, a duplicate of the one behind the tomb, except that it stands empty. He walks toward it, runs his hand over the crumbling backside of the niche, and pushes a bit. Nothing moves. He fingers the wall again and takes hold of a brick that is a bit displaced. He pulls it. It scrapes and moves forward a bit. Abdul looks surprised, immediately reaches up, and helps Wannaroo Jack lift the brick out of place. Wannaroo Jack reaches into the open hole, feels around, and pulls a small, leather-wrapped object from the opening. He unties the leather binding that secures the soft parchment, unfolds it, and carefully removes a small object and turns it in his fingers. The light catches golden gleams. He holds it to the light. A huge Star of David shadows on the floor of the room from the ring.
ABDUL
What is it?
Wannaroo Jack smiles mercenarily.
WANNAROO JACK
The ring of a king.
Abdul looks down at the Star of David shadow on the ground, takes a sharp intake of breath, and fearfully steps backward.
ABDUL
Not just a king, my friend. The most powerful king of all times.
Wannaroo Jack nods.
ABDUL
It is said King Solomon controlled all the Jinn, both good and evil, with that ring.
Wannaroo Jack begins re-wrapping the ring carefully in the soft parchment.
WANNAROO JACK
I wasn’t planning to put it to the test.
Wannaroo Jack ties the last leather cord in place, carefully places the packet in his pocket, and moves to replace the stone in its crevice. His cell phone rings. He answers it.
WANNAROO JACK
Jack.
Wannaroo Jack covers the mouthpiece and whispers to Abdul.
WANNAROO JACK
United States government wants a conference call.
Sean McGrath’s voice comes across the speaker phone and echoes in the room.
SEAN MCGRATH
Professor Wannaroo. Sean McGrath and Ms. Abrams present. The subject is Pikria Zviadi. The need is information, which we think you have, that will allow us to predict her intention and circumvent her purpose.
WANNAROO JACK
Good luck with that.
MS. ABRAMS
Jack, the CIA tracked Pikria Zviadi back to Georgia. She hit every node on that ley line that you plotted from the Magog Hills to the Caspian Sea. The question we have is, why?
WANNAROO JACK
I thought you were ‘tracking’ in the Bermuda Triangle. How did that go?
(Impatiently)
That was a wild goose chase. We’re on our way back to the Pass now. We need your help.
WANNAROO JACK
I’ve been relieved of duty. Ask Sean McGrath.
(Impatiently)
This is a security issue, Jack. The entire African continent is breaking up. Don’t make it personal.
WANNAROO JACK
Personal? I don’t work without pay, Ms. Abrams, and I certainly don’t work without an expense account.
MS. ABRAMS
Then, what are you doing in Lod?
WANNAROO JACK
That’s no one’s damn business.
MS. ABRAMS
You’re in Lod because it has become personal. You’re a good man, Jack, and we need your help.
WANNAROO JACK
For your country and mine?
MS. ABRAMS
There’s a transport plane waiting for you in Tel Aviv. We need you to look at the data and tell us what you think.
Wannaroo Jack clicks the recording button on his cell phone.
WANNAROO JACK
Let’s set terms. Back wages from Addis Ababa plus a bonus, a very generous bonus, let’s make everything tax free, and wages for Abdul from Washington, D.C. forward plus fourteen Harvard scholarships for Abdul’s fourteen children and...let’s throw in a fourteen bedroom home with twenty bathrooms for him...near Harvard so his kids can go to school while studying at home.
Abdul’s face lights up. Wannaroo Jack covers the speaker of the phone and whispers to Abdul.
WANNAROO JACK
It’s amazing what a second generation Muslim can accomplish in America with a university education.
Wannaroo Jack removes his hand from the phone’s speaker.
WANNAROO JACK
Oh, a Presidential citation....
(Impatiently)
For God’s Sake! I suppose you’re not willing to settle for less than the world. Do you have any morality at all?
(Surprised)
I have a tremendous amount of morality. I’m a university professor.
MS. ABRAMS
Is that your only recommendation?
WANNAROO JACK
Well, I have you. After all, after numerous encounters with me, your virtue is intact.
Sean McGrath interrupts.
SEAN MCGRATH
This is a conference call, Dad.
MS. ABRAMS
Dad!
SEAN MCGRATH
I mean, Professor Wannaroo.
WANNAROO JACK
Tell the CIA hello.
SEAN MCGRATH
Let’s get back to business. What is Pikria Zviadi’s interest?
WANNAROO JACK
She learned, from me, that ancient legends have value. She was an astute student. Where is she focusing?
SEAN MCGRATH
She made two trips to the Gates of Alexander. She appears to be on her way here again. Why the Caspian Pass? What is she interested in here?
WANNAROO JACK
But, none to the Bermuda Triangle? Fancy that!
SEAN MCGRATH
I think everyone got that point.
WANNAROO JACK
She’s an archaeologist, Mr. McGrath. She looks for lost things, buried things, relics. Has she made a trip to the Circle of the Kings?
SEAN MCGRATH
In Greece?
WANNAROO JACK
Serbia. Think Galerius. Gamzigrad Romuliana.
Ms. Abrams speaks in the background.
MS. ABRAMS (V.O.)
Here it is, Sean. A site just identified as recently as 1984 as Roman Emperor Galerius’ retirement complex located in Serbia.
SEAN MCGRATH
The Zviadi team by-passed that site.
Wannaroo Jack smiles smugly.
WANNAROO JACK
Don’t tell me students know everything.
SEAN MCGRATH
What’s that you say?
WANNAROO JACK
The secret lies in the Circle of the Kings.
EXT. SERBIA/GAMZIGRAD ROMULIANA/CIRCLE OF THE KINGS - DAY
Wannaroo Jack and Abdul kneel on the walkway within the Gamzigrad Romuliana memorial area and study the designs painted on the walk. Sean McGrath, Ms. Abrams, and several CIA agents stand aside. Wannaroo Jack fingers a painting of Solomon’s knot.
WANNAROO JACK
This whole walkway is about Solomon’s knot.
Wannaroo Jack looks over the compound.
WANNAROO JACK
What do we know about Solomon’s knot?
SEAN MCGRATH
Physically? Copper and zinc freely organized in a one to one ratio, under the tunneling microscope, form a perfect Solomon’s knot.
WANNAROO JACK
Copper and zinc make...
SEAN MCGRATH
Brass.
WANNAROO JACK
What else do we know about brass?
SEAN MCGRATH
Copper has tremendous antifungal, antimicrobial, and antibacterial properties...it damages those organisms on the structural level and renders them impotent. It’s why hospitals are copperizing intensive care units...it will kill the most virulent forms of MRSA...because the brass represented here contains fifty-percent copper, it contains many of those same properties.
MS. ABRAMS
So, it cleanses things.
SEAN MCGRATH
Essentially, yes.
Wannaroo Jack nods to the tetrapylons.
WANNAROO JACK
Galerius called that road the road that runs from earth to heaven. We know about brasses’ earthly significance. What do we know about brasses’ heavenly significance?
MS. ABRAMS
The prophet Daniel saw, in a vision, an image made of several metal substances. Part of that image was made of brass.
SEAN MCGRATH
I remember. The metals represented world powers that were to stand on the earth and reign.
WANNAROO JACK
And, brass was what world power?
MS. ABRAMS
Greece under Alexander the Great.
ABDUL
But, this is a Roman edifice.
WANNAROO JACK
Built by Galerius, an adopted son of Diocletian, but of Grecian/Persian extraction. What else do we know about brass?
SEAN MCGRATH
Alchemists believed copper, brass, bronze were typically connected with conjunction...or bringing together opposites.
Wannaroo Jack stands up and looks over the entire complex.
WANNAROO JACK
The tetrapylon links worldly to otherworldly. Opposing forces unified.
Wannaroo Jack begins running for the helicopters.
WANNAROO JACK
The she-devil!
Everyone runs to catch up.
SEAN MCGRATH
Why?
WANNAROO JACK
She’s bright, Sean. You have no idea how bright. The only student I ever had who arrived at conclusions almost as fast as I did. If I know, she probably already knows and is in a position to act.
EXT. CASPIAN SEA/RUSSIA/DERBENT/GATES OF ALEXANDER (CASPIAN GATES)
Ms. Abrams, Sean McGrath, Abdul, and Wannaroo Jack stand beside the Caspian Gates overlooking the Caspian Sea. Ms. Abrams is scrolling on a new iPhone.
MS. ABRAMS
This is what I found: Alexander the Great was said to have imprisoned a dragon here. Legend says he poured molten lead through the stones so that the gates could never be torn down and the dragon could never be released.
WANNAROO JACK
That’s too early. The legend you want occurred around 300 A.D...one that is well-known to the Georgian people and thus well-known to Pikria Zviadi is the legend that St. George never really killed his dragon, but merely imprisoned it, confined it with adamantine so that it could never be released.
SEAN MCGRATH
I thought that happened in Africa or somewhere near Israel.
WANNAROO JACK
Legend says it happened here...in the Caspian Pass.
(Confused)
It sounds like the same legend to me.
WANNAROO JACK
It is. It happened twice. Remember the ley lines and the nodes? History repeats itself in the same place time after time...just different actors playing the same show. Dragons are imprisoned. Dragons are released. But, my legend revolves around the last imprisonment of a dragon...during Diocletian’s rule when a hero saved the day despite thirty-three very wicked girls.
SEAN MCGRATH
You said adamantine...imprisoned in adamantine. I thought adamantine was from comic books. Is there such a thing?
WANNAROO JACK
In the Aeneid, Virgil describes Tartarus as having a screeching gate protected by columns of solid adamantine. Depends on how you look at it, I suppose. Corundum is sometimes called adamantine. Diamonds were once called by the same name.
Wannaroo Jack runs his hands over the rock constructed gates.
(Guesses)
She’s looking for something that has the power to break something that is extremely hard. A relic...a saint’s relic...something that is still embued with fecundity...something that can reinstate or re-strengthen life.
SEAN MCGRATH
A dragon’s life?
(Grimaces)
She’s going to attempt a conjunction between worlds by opening the Gates of Hell.
MS. ABRAMS
What do you mean?
SEAN MCGRATH
Let’s keep it real, shall we? The Georgian government is looking for something and Pikria Zviadi is their best agent for uncovering it. Whatever she wants to uncover is not good for the rest of the world. Look at that docked Ekranoplane. It’s got a full Russian regiment attached. It’s been stationed there since Ms. Zviadi first showed up.
WANNAROO JACK
It’s an administrative unit, not a combat unit.
Wannaroo Jack continues with his line of thought.
(Sudden inspiration)
She has the relic! Sean, the relic is Jacob’s Pillow, the Stone of Destiny. Remember that on it Jacob saw a ladder, a portal from earth to heaven.
SEAN MCGRATH
But, she needs something else...she keeps leaving here and returning. What else does she need?
(Helpfully)
There is a story about the man who purchased the robe of Christ. He handed it to his sister and she immediately died from the emotion she felt emanating from it. He buried her with the robe and a great cedar grew out of her grave. From that cedar, the monks made seven pillars for a church. It is said the last pillar had tremendous properties of healing as if the blood of Christ himself is somehow buried into the wood.
WANNAROO JACK
What would the blood of Christ do to the bars of hell?
Sean McGrath begins surfing the Internet.
SEAN MCGRATH
That church is still standing.
WANNAROO JACK
Then you’d better guard that pillar.
Sean McGrath immediately begins talking on his bluetooth while running toward a waiting helicopter with Ms. Abrams. Wannaroo turns to Abdul.
WANNAROO JACK
It could be a long wait, Abdul.
Abdul sinks down and leans against the wall. He pulls his taqiyah forward over his eyes.
ABDUL
You don’t have to tell me twice, my friend...but, I wish I understood what all of this has to do with finding the prophet.
Wannaroo Jack squats down on his haunches and looks at the Russian military marching along the Caspian seashore. Then, he leans back and joins Abdul in an afternoon nap. The camera focuses on an incoming helicopter and then fades to the sleeping Abdul and Wannaroo Jack. Wannaroo Jack brushes away a small swarm of flies and frowns as he fingers the edge of his Australian bogey hat. The swarm of flies returns and he swipes at them in annoyance. He stands and stretches. The flies take another turn around his head. He claps his hands and captures several of them in his palms, listens to them, and crushes them. He opens his hands, looks at their remains, brushes them off, and then realizes the significance.
(Sudden dawning realization)
The horde of flies headed straight from Magog Hills to the Caspian Gates. The gates were built to hold back the forces of Gog of Magog. St. George imprisoned the dragon. The dragon is Gog. She’s going to release Gog!
Wannaroo Jack reaches for his cellular phone.
WANNAROO JACK
Sean, pick up! She’s going to release Gog. Pick up!
A gun pokes into Wannaroo Jack’s ribs.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
Aren’t you the clever one, Wannaroo? And, how did you figure that out so well?
WANNAROO JACK
Because I do my own work and I don’t steal it from others while they sleep.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
It’s not healthy to hold grudges.
WANNAROO JACK
It’s not healthy to release long-held dragons into fresh, oxygen-laden air.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
My, my. I think the Prince of Magog has slept for long enough. It is time to awaken him and give him something he dearly loves.
Pikria Zviadi’s two bodyguards bring a tied and gagged Ms. Abrams to the front of Wannaroo Jack.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
A maiden of such interesting extraction...one of Jacob’s own descendants. Quite delicious, don’t you think?
WANNAROO JACK
I’d hardly call her a maiden.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
Didn’t you know? She is truly a maiden.
Wannaroo Jack looks as Ms. Abrams.
WANNAROO JACK
Ms.?
Ms. Abrams flushes and raises her head high.
(Smiles)
Ms. Abrams, even without the hadij you have done well! Where virtue rests, good will be done.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
I doubt that. Tie them up.
A helicopter rises over the side of the mountain and lowers a crane hoist toward Ms. Abrams. The bodyguards place the hoist’s body harness on Ms. Abrams. Pikria Zviadi motions the crane to lift Ms. Abrams up over Alexander’s Gates.
WANNAROO JACK
Don’t do it, Pikria. It’s not going to work like you think.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
It’s going to work exactly like I think.
Sean McGrath appears to the side of Alexander’s Gates with thirty CIA agents. They scatter quietly into the shadows of the wall. Pikria Zviadi motions for a second hoist that holds Jacob’s Pillow to lower and position next to Ms. Abrams’ head.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
Tell your CIA agents to stand down. I have them completely covered.
A CIA agent raises his gun. He is shot from behind.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
Tsk. Such a waste.
Pikria Zviadi tosses her head.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
I am the daughter of Diocletian sitting among Georgians, Wannaroo. Do you think I could let the father of my sons sleep? Awake they shall and awake they will! It is my privilege to undo the Gates of Alexander and free that which is to be free.
WANNAROO JACK
Why Ms. Abrams?
PIKRIA ZVIADI
The blood of Seth! She has the blood of Seth and the blood of Jacob! Didn’t you know? She was right under your nose and you didn’t see. It was so easy after I understood. I took her while you were sleeping. You are always sleeping, Wannaroo!
Pikria Zviadi turns and points a small pistol toward Ms. Abrams’ head.
PIKRIA ZVIADI
Sleep soundly, Ms. Abrams. All your blood needed was a little cleansing which Persian brass will do nicely.
Pikria Zviadi aims and shoots a small pistol at Ms. Abrams that grazes the side of her forehead. Ms. Abrams passes out and the second crane gently lowers a brass ladle to catch the blood. The blood pours from the brass ladle onto Jacob’s Pillow under her head. Several drops of blood roll off the stone pillow and spatter on the wall below. As the blood continues to spill from the stone, a rumbling occurs across the sky. Lightning flashes. Thunderous clouds roll from the Caspian Sea as if announcing a huge military force. A bolt of lightning strikes Jacob’s Pillow and zig zags back and forth from earth to heaven until a huge ladder is formed. The energy beams race up and down from above the black clouds to the middle of the wall. The wall crumbles away and leaves a hard, glassy surface exposed to the energy beams which continue to race up and down and increase in intensity. The glassy surface begins to crack and groan. Suddenly, from within the glass, a red hand pushes through and then another and another and another. A wicked, two-horned head pushes through as the hands push the glassy surface back and away until another wicked, two-horned head appears and another and another and another. Red hordes of something like red dust with cruel faces pour out of the pass. Pikria screams in delight as the hordes gather momentum, rise from the earth in twister-like fashion, and form into a primary figure with a horned head that begins thrusting to the south, east, and west as if searching for something. Suddenly, a man-type figure, dressed in a long black overcoat, appears beside the dragon, the dragon energizes and begins twisting around toward the north. Then it stops, as if confused, switches about and comes roaring down through the pass toward the south tearing everything in its path. It sees the ladder to heaven and bypasses it in one swift rush.
WANNAROO JACK
Get Ms. Abrams out of its path! Get her out of its path!
The dragon grows up to the sky with millions and millions of long red necks topped by the most wicked of faces. It’s millions of wild eyes look all around. They see Pikria Zviadi. She shows a proud face to them as if a consort and helper of them. The dragon begins whirling and whirling until all the heads are whirled into one awful demon with the man in black floating nearby. Wannaroo Jack stands from his hiding place in awe at what he is seeing.
(With awe)
‘And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth.’
The demon reaches down and scoops Pikria Zviadi from the earth and holds her up, looking at her as if trying to recognize her, then it becomes fiercely ugly, opens its mouth, throws back an incredibly long neck, and engorges her in one bite. Wannaroo Jack and Abdul scatter into the shadowy remains of Alexander’s Gate. The dragon looks east, west, and south again and suddenly heads toward the sea, leaving tremendous destruction behind every wide swish of its tail. Wannaroo Jack climbs up onto the crane, lowers Jacob’s Pillow and Ms. Abrams to the ground. He jumps from the crane, runs to Ms. Abrams, ties a torn shirt sleeve to her head, and tosses Sean McGrath a cell phone to arrange emergency help for her. Wannaroo Jack turns to see the dragon enter the water and begin propelling itself rapidly over the surface of the water toward Israel. He feels for Ms. Abrams pulse and nods with assurance. Sean McGrath kneels at her side.
(Urges)
Find the prophet, Jack!
(Humbly admits)
I don’t know where he is.
ABDUL
Follow the dragon and you’ll find the prophet.
Wannaroo looks confusedly at Abdul.
ABDUL
The prophet stands in the gap between forces of evil and the people. Follow the demon and you’ll find the prophet standing for the people.
Wannaroo Jack nods and jumps into Pikria Zviadi’s helicopter. He passes over the Russian Ekranoplane and sees Russian soldiers kneeling on one knee while watching the receding tail of Gog of Magog. Wannaroo Jack smirks.
WANNAROO JACK
There’s only one God and that ain’t it.
Abdul misses the helicopter ride and races to a nearby jeep. He races it down the dragon’s path toward the edge of the Caspian sea and manages to leap on board the Russian Ekranoplane just as its Captain full powers the throttle to 250 knots and turns full speed to chase the dragon down. The Ekranoplane easily passes the helicopter and quickly pulls alongside the dragon. The dragon turns wrathfully and bites the ship into two pieces throwing men and guns into the air. Abdul hangs from the top edge of the ship. Wannaroo Jack sees him, swings the helicopter around, throws a ladder to Abdul, and before Abdul can properly climb the ladder, makes a wide turn and heads after the dragon with Abdul hanging from the ladder, his white cotton shirt flapping in the breeze and revealing much of his hairy stomach. As the dragon reaches the border of Israel it seems to hesitate as if thinking about something and then makes a detour toward Tel Aviv. Abdul takes this time to climb the ladder, get into his seat, and secure his seat belt.
ABDUL
What is he doing?
WANNAROO JACK
He’s got an old score to settle.
EXT. ISRAEL/TEL AVIV-YAFO/LOD/ST. GEORGE’S TOMB - DAY
Over Tel Aviv-Yafo, the dragon rears its head and turns toward Lod. He twists through the Gate of the Dragon and descends on the tomb of St. George literally ripping the dome roof apart. Simultaneously, the sky rents open, lightning flashes from the heavens onto the top lid of the tomb. It splits and thousands of lights burst forth from the tomb arranging themselves into a fully armed and mounted St. George. His horse paws and strains as if climbing a very steep mountain and then stands at the head of the dragon to face it down. Wannaroo Jack swings the helicopter to the side of St. George, reaches into his pocket, yells at St. George while throwing Solomon’s ring toward him. The glistening golden ring tumbles over and over and over throwing a greatly magnified shadow of the Star of David with the Hebrew name for God, Yod Heh Vav Heh, in the middle of the star onto the ground as it tumbles over and over and over through the air to land securely in the knight’s gloved hand. The knight turns his horse in the air and the battle ensues with the dragon twisting this way and that way until finally St. George sticks his sword through the dragon’s neck pinning it into the top cover of St. George’s tombstone. St. George takes Solomon’s ring and brands the dragon in the head and it falls to the earth. Wannaroo Jack speaks softly.
WANNAROO JACK
‘Advance our standards, set upon our foes; Our ancient world of courage fair; St. George Inspire us with the spleen of fiery dragons.’
Wannaroo Jack looks at Abdul.
(WANNAROO JACK CON'T)
WANNAROO JACK
I know where the prophet is.
The man in the black overcoat hovers for an instant over the dragon and then whirls to travel North. Wannaroo Jack turns the helicopter to follow the man in black.
ABDUL
Where?
WANNAROO JACK
Mount Carmel.
Abdul shakes his head ‘no’.
ABDUL
No, Jack. It’s not Mount Carmel. You must go to Mount Sinai.
WANNAROO JACK
Are you sure? Mount Carmel was Elijah’s mountain.
ABDUL
And it was Bahá'u'lláh's mountain. But, it is not the mountain you want. There is a legend that says the mountains danced vying for Allah’s placement of His throne. Sinai was chosen because only Sinai did not profane itself in idolatry.
Wannaroo Jack turns the helicopter south.
EXT. ISRAEL/SINAI WILDERNESS/MOUNT SINAI - DAY
Wannaroo Jack and Abdul race toward the Sinai Wilderness. As they travel, they see massive volcanic eruptions coming from Africa. Below they see a huge rift opening up across the Gulf of Aden.
WANNAROO JACK
The triple junction is breaking up...the Arabian Plate and the two African techtonic plates are separating.
A huge earthquake occurs. Land seems to disappear. Mount Sinai appears in the far distance, tremoring and smoking. Abdul sits forward in extreme excitement and agitation.
ABDUL
Can you land on it?
Wannaroo Jack looks grimly at the shaking and smoking mountain. He nods ‘yes’. The helicopter flies into the smoke and disappears. The mountain begins glowing with radiant light.
I/E. ISRAEL/MOUNT SINAI/SMALL CAVE - DAY
Wannaroo Jack and Abdul scramble out of the helicopter onto the shaking ground and scramble up to a small cave hidden behind a rock crevice. The mountain continues to shake and smoke and appears to loosen itself from its earthly moorings. It begins dancing and moving off the ground. Wannaroo Jack shields his eyes and sees two other mountains approaching.
WANNAROO JACK
Mount Carmel and Mount Tabor.
Wannaroo Jack continues to shade his eyes. It appears that two angels stand atop the two approaching mountains conversing. Abdul prostrates himself.
ABDUL
Ilyas and Isa Al Masih!
The three mountains dance into place and form a foundation of a triangle. Wannaroo Jack suddenly pulls Abdul into the back of the cave and covers both of their heads in a leather jacket. The radiant light continues to increase in blinding white radiance outside the cave. The air is filled with a huge deep, pulsing roar.
ABDUL
What is it?
Wannaroo Jack’s eyes begin to gleam.
WANNAROO JACK
It’s a landing pad. They’re going to rebuild the temple.
Suddenly out of the center of the triangular arrangement of mountains rises the figure dressed in a black overcoat. Elijah rises from the top of his mountain and hovers in front of the figure dressed in black. Wannaroo Jack becomes exceptionally excited.
WANNAROO JACK
Wait for it. Wait for it. First the earthquake.
The cave begins shaking back and forth as an earthquake shakes the whole mountain.
WANNAROO JACK
Then, the fire.
Wannaroo Jack and Abdul recoil as a searing fire passes before them.
WANNAROO JACK
Then, the still, small voice.
A soft, rushing sound fills the interior of the cave.
VOICE
Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him.
Elijah’s mouth opens and a booming voice comes forth.
ELIJAH
And say, Thus saith the Lord G-D, Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.
Suddenly the Angel Gabriel stands in front of Elijah with a drawn sword that has hooks in the end of it. Gabriel swings the sword above his head and the hooks settle in each corner of the figure in black’s jaws. The single figure in black suddenly seems to dissolve into myriads and myriads of heavily armed military men. Gabriel swings onto the back of the horde and rides it fiercely to and fro and then heads it straight over the Caspian Sea through the Gates of Alexander into the narrowest part of the pass so that the thing he rides appears stuck. Gabriel suddenly rises above the black horde, blasts a glass-like adamantine over the entire pass, and carefully seals the pass at both ends with adamantine gates elaborately decorated with persimmons, a tree of life, and two hoopoe birds sitting in the tree. Wannaroo Jack and Abdul appear to see this through a long tunnel in the shape of a Hamsa hand made entirely of a brilliantly blue sapphire stone. Then, the three mountains suddenly settle down and everything is exceptionally quiet. A pleasant humming sound fills the air. Wannaroo Jack and Abdul walk outside and see a lacy, white crystalline structure descending on the three mountains as if to use them for a triangular landing pod. After the huge structure settles firmly into place, a series of gridlines go out from it in every direction to form lines parallel and perpendicular all over the earth with node points at regular locations.
WANNAROO JACK
Ley lines. They’re making new ley lines. A new foundation for future generations to build on.
The lines shimmer and shine.
ABDUL
Take a picture.
Wannaroo Jack snaps a picture with his mobile phone. Then, Elijah, Jesus, and John the Baptist enter the crystalline structure and it slowly fades from view as do the ley lines.
I/E. WASHINGTON D.C./TAXI - DAY
Sean McGrath enters the backseat of a Washington, D. C. taxi. The weather is perfectly clear, bright and sunny.
SEAN MCGRATH
White House, please.
The taxi’s radio blares through the cab.
NEWS ANNOUNCER
With surprising little loss of life, the three tectonic plates have completely rearranged themselves and formed a new ocean and a new continent. In an unprecedented geological phenomena, it appears that three mountains have literally shifted moorings and created a new range geologists are calling ‘the perfect triangle’.
The cab pulls up in front of the White House and Sean McGrath gets out.
INT. WASHINGTON D.C./CONGRESSIONAL SESSION/BOSTON/MEXICO CITY/PARIS/NEW YORK/BEIJING/BIRMINGHAM/BERLIN/RIO DE JANEIRO/MOSCOW/CAPETOWN/MELBOURNE/AUCKLAND/NAVAJO NATION - DAY
Camera focuses on a congressional session, filled with persons of all nations each dressed in their native costume, standing room only. Outside, a stream of persons from all over the world gather quietly in front of huge television screens in City Hall Plaza, Boston, Massachusetts; Mexico City, Mexico; Trocadero, Paris, France; Times Square, New York; Tian'anmen Square, Beijing, China; Birmingham, England; Prater Garden, Berlin, Germany; Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Moscow, Russia; Capetown Convention Center, South Africa; Melbourne, Australia; Auckland, New Zealand; and the Navajo Nation, United States. In the background is Wannaroo Jack’s mobile phone picture of the three mountains with a shimmering essence with an appearance of a city placed on their tops.
SENATE SPEAKER
We’ve entered the beginning of a new reality, the time when all people can pursue a common end, peaceful, united, harmonious. A healing time when no one sheds a tear, feels pain, or ever dies again. The lamb can truly lie down with the lion....
EXT. ISRAEL/TEL AVIV-YAFO/OUTDOOR CAFE GARDEN - NIGHT
Wannaroo Jack stands in a crowded garden in Tel Aviv-Yafo drinking Tel Aviv Summers with Ms. Abrams. He reaches over and pulls her blouse down just a little to reveal a little more bosom and smiles.
WANNAROO JACK
A time when the worlds of the gods becomes one world under one God.
Wannaroo Jack's lopsided grin accompanies his statement. Ms. Abrams, just a bit rummy from the Tel Aviv Summers, nods and smiles dreamily. She leans back and reaches up over the edge of the garden cafe’s wall to lazily pull two ripe, brown-spotted persimmons from the six persimmons arranged on the tree’s branch in the same manner as the persimmon picture painted by Mu Qi. Ms. Abrams waves the fragrant fruit under Wannaroo Jack’s nose and takes a large bite out of one of the pieces of fruit. A large stream of juice drips down her chin. Wannaroo Jack reaches over and wipes the juice from her chin and licks it from his fingers and grins expectantly.
MS. ABRAMS
What’s the word, Jack.
WANNAROO JACK
Love.
MS. ABRAMS
Adam, have a persimmon.
WANNAROO JACK
Are you tempting me, Eve?
MS. ABRAMS
Am I ever.
The scene closes and fades on a hoopoe bird sitting on the wall behind the branch making particularly tranquil and happy noises.
INT. RUSSIA/MOSCOW/HIGH END HOTEL - DAY
Wannaroo Jack’s dad and young model ‘mother’ check in at a Russian Hotel’s gold-plated lobby.
CLERK
Do you wish to leave a card for incidentals, Sir?
WANNAROO JACK’S DAD
The resort exchange has the credit card. They said they would pick up the difference. Tel Aviv is just too warm for us these days.
The clerk smiles, nods, and hands Wannaroo Jack’s dad a receipt.
CLERK
Very well. We have you booked for the summer. Please visit our concierge for anything at all that you may need. We can even fly cases of Pepsi from America if you desire it.
INT. WASHINGTON D.C./WHITE HOUSE/OVAL OFFICE - DAY
Sean McGrath stands in the Oval Office in front of the President of the United States.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
What do you mean we purchased a fourteen-bedroom home in Massachusetts? Who authorized that? Do you know you’ve managed to spend more United States funds than any other project on record?
Sean McGrath walks to the window behind the President.
SEAN MCGRATH
But aren’t we having fine weather today, Sir.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
Fine weather! At what cost! This country is broke, I tell you! It’s broke! What good is fine weather when you’ve no money to enjoy it?! And, what’s this? A receipt in August for forty-five dinners at Valerian’s? The project was fini by the first of July! Fini, I say. How can you possibly attach a receipt for funds expended two months later?
Sean McGrath looks casually over the shoulder of the president at the receipt from Valerian’s.
SEAN MCGRATH
That’s nothing, Sir. A bargain, in fact. You should have seen what the Georgians paid for forty-five dinners at Valerian’s.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
I don’t care what the Georgians paid. They can afford it! By the way, where is your grandfather?
SEAN MCGRATH
Having a very good time in Russia, I believe.
The President of the United States stamps the Magog file ‘closed’.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
I had better not receive one Russian invoice that has been billed to this project.
Sean McGrath smiles, moves back to the window, and basks in the warm sunshine while the President of the United State’s voice gradually fades into the sound of birds chirping and people quietly laughing.
PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES
It is officially closed. And, furthermore....
FADE OUT.
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