XIII: The Series s02e04 Episode Script

2x04 - "Tempest" Not a good time.
Oh, little did the Wolf-Child care, when first he planned his home, what city should arise and bear, the weight and state of Rome.
So now we're Romulus and Remus? Vinculum unitatis.
I really don't have time for this.
Rome misses you, brother.
Where are you anyway? - This is a terrible connection.
- I am far away from you.
You're never far from me.
I was a secret agent, betrayed by my own people.
Robbed of my face, my memories, my history.
Hidden in my past is a secret that threatens all humanity.
I search for answers with nothing to hold onto but the tattoo that has become my name.
I am Thirteen.
Adapted from "XIII" by William Vance & Jean Van Hamme Published by Dargaud ARIELLA ISLAND Do it! Fucking do it Do it.
Do it! Most excitement I've had all day.
You know what I got a bad feeling.
- What've you got to lose? - I'm out.
Good call.
Camera 3's out again.
We can't do anything about it till the tech guys get here.
Well, it could be a tech problem or it could be showtime.
Look, wait up! They got Alfred freaking Einstein up there and you and me are going to fix the security cam.
Yeah, this place is getting to me, Buck.
I mean it's really getting to me.
I think I'm gonna head back to my place.
Why? Hot date? Yeah.
With this slutty little bottle of Bourbon.
We gotta kill ourselves one way or another.
- You know it.
- Yeah.
Have a good one.
You too.
The Carrington Accord.
I mean, I can't quite comprehend what these these tree huggers are whining about! I mean, if climate change causes the caribou to leave their habitat, that means they'll be easier to bag with a thirty-aught-six.
It is win-win! Madame President-elect, I must say it's refreshing to know we'll finally have elected a President who represents all Americans, from the gun owners to the oil execs.
- What about those tree huggers? - Oh Sammy, you're such a kidder! You have a good night, Mac.
Thank you.
Thank you, Ma'am.
- Good night, Harriet.
- Where do you think you're going? - Aren't we done here? - I've got a detainee to interrogate.
Pardon me? Madame President's not giving out any pardons today.
Your room or mine? THE WHITE HOUSE No.
Turn it off.
Call off the search, Ron.
You gave the secret service quite a scare.
We thought you went to bed.
Can't sleep.
Poll poll numbers keep swirling around in my head.
- The election is over, sir.
- Hmm.
With all due respect, why torture yourself? I'm sorry.
I'll just - No.
Stay.
- Sir? Sit.
Down.
You know when I first joined up, I was so happy I felt like a five year-old boy waving the flag and it has taken me decades of war mongering and a term in the oval office to lift the scales from my eyes.
So, I guess I shouldn't be too surprised at them for their blindness.
"Them", sir? Well, those who favor perpetual war for perpetual profit and environmental devastation over peace.
But sir your military career inspired scores of young recruits to enlist.
Some of our finest men and women.
Yeah.
Thanks to my shining example some of our finest young men and women are gonna come home crippled, dickless, crazed or dead.
Ahh You're not helping, Reynolds.
Yeah I'm trying, sir.
Now, Traymore's gonna embrace global warming and that goddamn HEARPE Project.
And that, incredibly, is what the American people want.
The American people are hardly infallible.
And the assassination attempt on the Secretary of State killed our poll numbers.
Are you trying to tell me that I lost the Presidency because of some rogue agent's vendetta against his ex-girlfriend? There's nothing like a scapegoat to blunt the sting of our own failures, ain't it Reynolds? Find XIII.
Do that for me, will you? ARIELLA ISLAND Wait, there! Get down there and check it out.
- Major he's not down there - Get down there! - You, too.
- Buck, you're down there? Who are you? What do you want? Sorry to trouble you, sir, I need some help.
Name's Nathan Stone.
I got caught up in the heavy weather.
The storm took my boat.
- You're lucky to be alive.
- Yeah.
- What are you doing way out here? - Shrimping.
This island is patrolled by armed guards, how did you get past them? I don't know.
I guess just lucky, you know.
If you wanna call the guards, I'll explain my situation to them, I'm sure they'll treat me fairly, right? I highly doubt that.
Probably throw you in a hole until they get a transport to take you back and that wouldn't be for a couple weeks.
Hey! - Are you bleeding? - Yeah.
Sweet Christ on a popsicle stick.
Yeah, the rocks offshore sliced me pretty good.
Oh, come on in here.
Let's get you fixed up.
- Thanks.
- I'm Doctor Westlund.
Well I think that should be fine I don't think there's any danger of infection there.
Thanks.
I brought you these I don't know if they'll fit, - but at least they're dry.
- Thank you.
- How about a cup of tea? - Yeah.
Yes.
That will be good.
Perhaps a little dash of Brandy? Twist my arm.
- For my glaucoma.
- Ah, no thanks.
If you don't mind me asking what's with the armed guards? Oh, them.
They're here to keep an eye on me.
It has to do with my research.
Top secret government hoop de doo.
If I told you I'd have to kill you! And then they'd kill me so Fair enough.
You know, son, there's a real beauty in scientific theory, the ends to which it is used sometimes is quite monstrous.
It's like serving a master who ultimately betrays you.
Maybe we're able to reassess our ways and change before we do too much damage.
- I wish I still had such optimism.
- Oh, I'm no Pollyanna, doc.
I have my own crosses to bear.
As do we all.
Is that a relative of yours? Mmm Oh A brother of sorts.
Nikola Tesla.
A real genius, not a hack like me.
His work forged a path for much of my own research.
But Tesla possessed the moral fortitude that I lack.
- Now Gale, don't be upset with me.
- Why would I be upset with you? Who are you?! Now, don't be alarmed, dear.
This is Nathan.
- Nathan, my daughter, Gale.
- Hi.
Father, you know all visitors to the island have to be vetted by Major Starck.
And you know that Major Starck never vets jack diddly squat.
So Nathan is welcome in our house.
Splendid.
Why don't you sit with us, Gale? I'll go and get you a cup.
What the hell is that? Are you wearing a wire? Oh, no.
Rocks chewed me up after my boat crashed.
Your dad helped patch me up.
Oh, well my father's become way too trusting in his old age.
So, how long have you guys have been out here? What is this a conversation or an interrogation? Maybe I'll just shut up.
Fine, I'll play along.
I've been here for three years now.
He gets lonely so thanks for cheering him up.
- There you are my dear.
- Thank you.
Westlund, open up! Wait in the basement.
If they find you, we'll all be thrown in a cell.
Kinda late for a visit, isn't it Major? I'm not here for tea and cookies Westlund! Did you by chance run into Corporal Winger this evening? - Winger? - We haven't seen him.
Why? Corporals Harlow and Winger managed to jack up the whole security system, though Harlow's denying it and Winger's MIA.
Probably hiding from me somewhere.
Probably out drunk somewhere is more like it.
I'm sure he'll turn up in the morning.
What about you, old man? Think he'll turn up? Turnip? My turnip harvest was tragic this year.
- Infested with the black rot.
- A word in private? What are you doing tonight? You're looking at it, Major.
This and sleep.
- It's been awhile.
- Not long enough, Carl.
- Aw c'mon, baby girl.
- All right.
I just wanna be left alone.
You and I were a passing thing, Carl.
You don't get that.
Lucky for you you're the only coochie on the whole island.
Otherwise I wouldn't piss on you if you were on fire.
Westlund, crank up the productivity a notch, else your employers are gonna start looking elsewhere and our little holiday will be over.
That Major Starck certainly carries a torch for you.
I'd love to show him where to shove that torch.
Nathan, I'm sorry about that.
- What did you think of the root cellar? - The oh, yeah it's nice.
Good.
You won't mind spending the night there.
I'll get your sleeping bag.
You're still here? Et tu, Reynolds? No, it's just, it's late and I was wondering It's noon in China.
You know I love my midnight calls to Beijing.
You spoke to Mr.
Pong? Yeah, poured out my Presidential heart and soul.
I'm sorry Frank.
You okay? Pong's response? Deafening silence.
XU Corp won't budge on the Accord.
That Pong he's as tenacious as an ass wart.
Sir, you've achieved so much during your tenure.
- Surely you'll be remembered.
- Ha ha I won't be remembered.
You're looking at the next Martin Van Buren right here, pal.
I've achieved exactly nothing in four years.
Nothing.
Now it's too late.
It's not too late.
I suggest you call a meeting with Traymore.
Speak to her as your equal, as your successor.
All right I suppose.
Set that up now.
Umm, might be, yeah.
Exactly.
You've got nothing to lose.
Get some sleep Mr.
President.
Nothing.
Nathan! In here! Uh, these don't look like turnips to me, Doc.
The turnip line was for Major Starck's benefit.
Things go better for me if they think I'm a little batty.
As the poet said, one must "prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet.
" - That storm's really dug its heels in.
- The storm's perpetual.
It protects the island with a ring of impenetrable turbulence.
Most boats avoid it.
Synequanon commissioned special ships to withstand the storm.
The storm never leaves? That's not natural.
Not much is natural these days.
Science took a chance and nature protested.
- An experiment gone awry.
- What kind of an experiment? Damn aphids.
I guess if you told me you'd have to kill me, right? Let's go for a walk.
You didn't take me seriously.
Now you think you're so damn smart.
"He's probably off drunk somewhere?" All due respect Major, drunk men do fall to their death sometimes.
Old Buck must've been one hell of a rush to get this drunk off.
Even I used to drink on duty.
Sometimes it's painful, trying to reconcile my love of science with my revulsion - towards the ends to which it is used.
- It's quite the occupational hazard.
I guess I can relate.
I've worked for men whose motives I questioned.
- What would Tesla say about that? - Tesla had his own demons, but he dealt with them more responsibly than I have.
WARDENCLYFFE TOWER (TESLA TOWER) 1904 Are you ready to witness history in the making, Mr.
Morgan? If money talks, I've answered that question a thousand times already.
Proceed.
Wardenclyffe calling London.
Are you there, London? I hope you remember the importance of our project.
There's a war on the horizon.
Overseas radio will enable us to have instantaneous communication with our European allies.
It will be a great advantage! London? Are you there, London? After all the money I've poured into your pipe dream.
Yes! Yes! We hear you Wardenclyffe.
Oooohhhh! You are gonna be a very wealthy man, Mr.
Tesla! But Tesla had a side project he didn't tell Morgan about.
Gentlemen, thank you for coming.
I stand before you today to present a concept that will revolutionize human civilization.
This technique, which I am on the verge of perfecting, will bring power to the world without the restraints of wires and cables.
Now Mr.
Tesla, how do you propose to meter usage without the benefit of wire? I say, no man needs smother 'neath night's black cloak.
By transmitting electrical energy intercontinentally, science shall light nature's bleakest outposts.
Well, don't you see? The Tesla Wardenclyffe tower will help hasten the birth of a new Eden.
A world where science kneels in service to the betterment of humankind.
Free power for everyone.
What?! Have you lost your head, man?! - What do you mean free power?! - I mean an end to greed.
You big butthead, you fucking shithole.
It's been said it's better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
I still don't understand how that storm just never stops.
Microscopic charge, partical - courtesy of DHARPA.
- DHARPA? I though those guys invented the internet.
Probably.
Microscopic charged partical beams they intend to scatter little baggers don't aims, you know to understand the interaction behavior.
The silence to cure the microclimate supercharging of its abundant iron content.
- By you? - Yes.
By me.
Regardless, my employers still hold out hope that I will solve the equations that were missing from Tesla's elusive microwave interactive algorithm, and so they allow me to work undisturbed in this secluded island paradise.
Paradise or prison? Yes, well when I consider the ramifications of what I've created, prison seems apropos.
If I understand this right, you're saying that you developed a weapon that can't be aimed? By me, no.
Tesla could aim it.
While my research into overseas radio continues, I will not abandon my dream of wireless energy transmission.
A dream that you cooked up in the lab that I bought and paid for! Now, you will stop this foolhardiness, Tesla, or I will stop your funding! With all due respect Mr.
Morgan, you hold no claim over the contents of my mind.
Oh, really? Well we'll see how the contents of your mind do, when you're hungry and out on the street.
I'm pulling your funding.
Then I shall continue funding myself! Oh, allright! The way you spend you won't last a year without my deep pockets.
A year is all than any man can hope! The profits from the Morgan contract would have made Tesla the world's first billionaire.
- He had the world to gain.
- And his soul to lose, I suspect.
Is something troubling you, Doc? I I should hurry along to my lab.
I'll meet you back at the cottage a bit later.
Stay hidden, Nathan, until we can figure out a way to get you home.
What a shame, I was actually starting to like you.
Why are you doing this?! Don't play me.
Buck didn't just "fall" to his death.
That moron was built like a goddamn mountain goat.
Who are you? - I'm not here to hurt you.
- How do I know? - I wanna help you and your father.
- Why? It's kind of a long story.
You're not here to hurt me? Just to exploit a lonely old man by milking him for information? Now let me ask who you are? 'Cause you sure aren't Westlund's daughter.
- Get off me! - Who's in that grave?! - Get off me! - Who!? His daughter.
He's not my father.
Why the games? The only reason Westlund doesn't get beat up daily is because I watch his back! The men I work with are animals.
He's all I got.
I'm not trying to harm either of you.
I do need information from Westlund, but my intentions are not malicious.
Okay, I'd honestly like to help you.
Both of you.
Although, judging by that left jab, you're not exactly helpless.
I haven't seen moves like that since training camp.
Who are you, anyway? Hmm? - Navy seal? Special ops? - I am fisherman.
Who are you? I am a woman who s been stuck on this island for a long time.
The President-elect is here.
All right, send her in.
- Governor Traymore.
- Benji! Oh, goodness, I've made you look like a clown! Well I'm so glad you could come.
Please, sit sit down.
Yuck.
I'm gonna have to get all this redone.
Duncan, swatches.
Um, I was really hoping we could perhaps discuss the HEARPE project and of course the Carrington Accord.
Poor Benji.
How does it feel to want? Hmm? Here's the deal.
The American people are sick and tired of airy-fairy environmentalists slowing down industrial growth and suppressing job creation.
They're tired of being bullied around by radical factions who have a hate-on for our American way of life.
In other words I'm in, you're out.
The people have spoken.
Oh I brought you a parting gift! Yeah.
Thank you.
Beautiful bird? I bagged it myself.
You have a good day.
All right, that's it.
She is not gonna push me out of this office - I say bring it! - Bring it, sir? I am gonna stay until I have that goddamn HEARPE Project dismantled and the Carrington Accord is adopted globally.
Now, in order to do that get the Chinese to play ball, now that is gonna take some time.
I am gonna need more than 12 weeks.
So, in short Reynolds, I'm staying.
You can't, sir.
The Constitution Goddamnit! This is bigger than the Constitution! Listen to me.
To hell with the Constitution.
To hell with politics! To hell with your career, to hell with mine! This is the future of humanity, this is the future of life on this planet! By any means necessary, I am gonna put an end to this madness.
- But it can't be done - I got two words for you, Reynolds.
Hanging chads.
Goddamnit, man, think outside the box.
Make it happen.
I've been here for three years, now I'm here for Synequanon.
And they told us we're here to protect the old man.
- From what? Seagulls? - Exactly.
Didn't take a genius to figure out we weren't here to protect Dr.
Westlund, but to keep him trapped.
You know, keep him working.
Tell you the truth, I don't even understand what his work is.
Well, Dr.
Westlund conducts classified research on the High Energy Auroral Refraction Protonospheric Emitters.
HEARPE.
I've heard it mentioned.
You wanna know what's HEARPE's about? - Yeah.
- Look around you.
What do you think caused that perpetual storm? Nature as a weapon.
Oh, my god.
No, humans playing god.
- So, who are you working for? - These days, my own conscience.
But for years I worked as a deep cover government operative.
You just walked away? If it means anything I don't think Dr.
Westlund's research is gonna help Synequanon finish the project.
I mean I have heard complaints that the data he produces these days is like gibberish.
I mean, they think he has dementia.
Is that why he thinks you're his daughter? His daughter died shortly after I arrived.
Dr.
Westlund was completely devastated.
I mean he blamed himself for her death.
He just spent days staring out at sea, watching the storm.
And after a while he started to call me Gale.
And then he started working again.
Synequanon encouraged me to play along, you know, to keep him working.
I don't mind.
His delusions make him happy.
Hello? Dad! Um I thought you'd be at your lab.
I got a bit peckish so I thought I'd come home for an early lunch.
Gale was just showing me around the island - Yeah.
- Really? Did you enjoy the "scenery"? Dad, um, Nathan was just telling me how much he enjoys hearing about your research.
Why don't you show him your lab? What? Major Starck would be furious if he knew Starck doesn't need to know, all right.
Speak your mind.
Starck won't hear a word about it from me.
And afterwards we can find a way to get Nathan home.
Thanks.
So Morgan pulled Tesla's funding? Yes, but that's not the end of the story.
Tesla wanted one last chance to prove himself.
It is my profoundness hope that when you see the tower in action, you will be sufficiently inspired to allow my work to continue.
And now, let me present to you Wireless Energy Transmission! Bring Roderick and the boys around tomorrow.
Pack up all this crap, and sell it for junk.
You will vacate Wardenclyffe immediately, Mr.
Tesla.
"Mysterious Blast Levels Siberian Forest" Eight hundred square miles of trees in the Tunguska area of Siberia.
That was no meteor.
Pack it all up boys! Every last electrode, all going downtown.
Mr.
Morgan, wait! I just need five minutes of your time.
These I wanna in sawdust.
- It's going to R&D.
- I caused the Tunguska explosion! - What? - The energy we transmitted last night it reshaped the Earth's troposphere.
It caused the blast in Siberia! Do you know what this means? We can repurpose this device as a weather stabilization machine.
We can bring rain to Subsaharan Africa! We can balance global weather patterns and create an Eden on Earth! Or build a weapon.
The ultimate weapon.
Stop! Put everything back.
Mr.
Tesla, I'm increasing your funding, with one small contingency, your progress will be monitored by one of my boys, all your research.
I wanna hear about your progress.
Siberia! - So Tesla made a deal with the devil.
- He pretended to.
He was determined not to let his work fall into the hands of warmongers.
He falsified the documents he sent to Morgan.
Deliberately altered data and fudged diagrams and passed them along as authentic research.
Then he divided his data into three documents, and mailed them each to a separate confidante in various far-flung regions of the world.
Finally, he walked away from everything he'd worked for in the name of what was right.
If only I'd had the courage to follow his example! - I don't understand.
- I could have walked away.
But I took their money.
I did the work.
I built this replica of Wardenclyffe so that the HEARPE program could be reinvented as a weapon of mass destruction.
But a weapon that has no aimed is useless.
And the Tesla letters are key to understanding how to do that.
Look, would one of those papers have been mailed to a Dr.
Henderson in Falmouth? You're not a fisherman, are you? How did you know that? I've seen it.
I didn't know what it was at the time.
And the guy who had it didn't live long enough to explain.
They murdered him? And many more will die if those letters aren't destroyed.
Look, I want the same thing as you Dr.
Westlund, you can trust me.
I've only seen copies of the papers at different times, they function as a Rosetta stone.
You must have all three in order to decipher Tesla's code.
- Who has the letters now? - Now, why do you want to know that? You're not the only man who's been haunted by regret.
I'm also trying to right a great wrong.
That's the same spirit that keeps me alive, son.
They know I've seen the Tesla papers.
They think I can solve But that death I´ve seen was pure I don't know where the Tesla papers are, even if I did, I'd take that secret with me to my grave.
Dad! Dad! Nathan! They found your boat.
You have to get off the island, now! It's one hell of a swim.
You've got any suggestions? There's a transfer tug on the south side of the island they have a Zodiac on the beach to get to it.
The island's swarming with guards.
I'll distract them.
Here, this might come in handy.
- Gale - Go on.
Just get out of here.
Go!! This flotsam's hardly a week old now.
From what I can tell, it's a shrimper.
Generally carries a crew of five or six, - but no way to tell if anyone survived.
- Somebody did.
- What the hell was that? - Move! This is unacceptable, Westlund.
- You're deranged.
- Am I? No! Don't you hurt him! You! Remember what happens when you cross me?! You think this is some sort of game, Westlund? You think this is some kind of game, Westlund? Think you can hand me garbage research and get away with it? - Leave my dad alone, bastard!! - Gale, don't! Get a shovel.
Make this go away.
My baby, my Gale.
My daughter.
You killed my Gale.
Yeah, you're next unless you start talking.
- Who is he?! - Leave her alone, you pig! - Okay, then.
It's your turn.
- Payback time.
Who is he working for? Sorry, Jen.
Company policy.
It's over Stark! Let her go! - Drop it! - It ain't gonna happen! You killed my Gale!!! Thank you, Jennifer.
You have always been so very kind to me.
You've got to get off the island now.
Let's go.
- Come with me.
- Thank you, but my place is here.
Look, Synequanon mercenaries will come looking for you.
Yes, I am sure they will.
But there are worse fates than to live and die in one's own private purgatory.
Oh, Nathan, before you go? There's something I didn't tell you.
There's a Russian national, located in D.
C.
, Andrej Kalishkanov.
He's a collector.
A vulgar, acquisitive man.
I believe that one of the three letters is in Kalishkanov's possession.
He has no idea of its true value.
- Thank you, Doc.
- Good luck, son.
Goodbye Jennifer? Remember me however you like.
Can I give you a ride XIII? We have a lot of catching up to do! Wouldn't recommend sailing tonight.
Weather's very unpredictable these days.