Teaser: Not Precisely

{The Setting: a high-tech underground facility. Lots of people in lab coats with hard-edged features set off in the blue glare of lighting inset into the walls. POV is focused on two men, both conspicuously dressed in conservative suits of the latest fashion., walking down the hall toward the camera. Silver lapel pins catch the light as they walk down the long corridor. As they move forward, the POV abruptly shifts behind them, catching their faces at oblique angles. In the forward field of view, fewer and fewer lab technicians are seen as the two men advance until finally they are left as the only two people in view. The POV remains behind them as they go, their conversation fading in as the walk.}

Man #1: “How exactly did we end up with an undead vampire working for us?”

Man #2: “Undead vampire is redundant. Nor is there any indication that he actually requires blood to sustain him. We think he just developed a taste for it.

Man #2, continued: “He’s not precisely undead either, not by his account. More like… refused.”

Man #1: “Talk sense or I’ll pull the funding and leave you here to rot with him.”

Man #2: “There’s no reason to believe that he would rot.”

[Man #1 glares hard at Man #2 who sighs, somewhat theatrically, before continuing.]

Man #2: “Very well. He never gave us a name. His story is that he was visited by Death but she, yes she, refused to take him and made him an offer he couldn’t refuse. He ’s been working on earning his place by her side ever since. How long? He didn’t say precisely, but he gives us information like this hidden wing within the underground temple we discovered recently. Rooms that none of our instruments detected, or can detect still for that matter.”

[The two men arrive at an airlock, more like a clean room airlock than one for use underwater or in vacuum. The door is translucent and with no apparent seams. Wavy outlines of four people on the other side can be seen through the material. The conversation is interrupted briefly as the outside door flicks opens abruptly, like a camera shutter. Man #1 jumps slightly at the surprise. Four men wait in the space between the airlock doors, wearing uniforms that include a deep purple beret worn in military style, high-tech, bull-pup design assault weapons, the requisite mirrored sunglasses, and leather vests with spare clips in tight fitting pockets. Three of them spread out slightly for overlapping fields of fire without endangering each other. The two men enter the airlock, the iris snapping shut with a metallic sound behind them, and are searched by the fourth mercenary/security guard. When he finishes without finding anything of interest, the inner door whips open just as abruptly, with no sign to show how it was opened, and the two pass over the threshold. into a rough-hewn tunnel of stone, shored up with worked metal beams at regular intervals. POV shifts around in front of the men, looking back at them, irregularly shifting to a close-up of a speaker's face. The door closes behind them and they resume walking and their conversation. As they walk, their footsteps echo back from the metal panels placed in a grid on the stone floor.]

 

 

 

Man #2: “There was no way he could have known what was there without having been there when it was built. The original owners of these temples killed the architects and builders and anyone associated with its construction in order to preserve their secrets.”

Man #1 scoffs: “Didn’t work out too well for the Egyptians either, did it.”

Man #2 looks impassively at Man #1: “That all depends. Despite all our technology and experience we lost twelve expert men getting this far and there is no reason to believe we would have discovered the hidden chambers. All our research suggests that the people who built this temple predate the Egyptians by quite some time. In fact, the Egyptians likely either learned or copied from whomever put this place together. They weren’t, however, able to duplicate the building material, nor achieve anywhere near the technological sophistication exhibited here.”

[The two men reach an obviously massive metal door. The door is circular, made of a dark metal with jagged veins of bright green. Beside the door are ancient-looking, but recognizable, handprint and retinal scanners. Man #2 steps up to the readers and presents his right hand and right eye, continuing to talk as the door slowly rolls to one side, sliding into the rock wall, but not quite completely disappearing.]

Man #2: “So far, everything he has told us has turned out to be true. He has wandered from continent to continent through the ages, always searching, never finding whatever it is he needs.”

Man #1, sarcastically: “You wanted to be a poet in school, didn’t you.”

Man #2: “You have a small mind.”

[Man #2 motions Man #1 through the portal, following behind him. The door slides slowly and soundlessly shut behind the two as Man #1 shakes his head exasperatedly. The two men continue down another tunnel, but the walls and roof are now supported by struts of the same dark metal as the door. The floor appears to be stone, but it does not echo their footsteps like the previous metallic flooring.]

Man #2: “He found us, which should give you a good indication of his talents, and offered himself up for our research, provided that we supply him with whatever technology we have that he wants. We took him up on it.”

Man #1, his agitation beginning to show more openly: “Are you mad? He’s only using us!”

Man #2: “Of course he is. Neither of us is under any delusions here. In addition to submitting to medical and physical tests, he gives us tidbits like the location of this hidden wing. We keep him loaded up with tech, provide the opportunity to use his skills for us, and occasionally provide backup support. He has apparently always worked something like this, joining groups like the Illuminati, the New World Order, and similar organizations that are in advance of the general level of technology present in the dominant culture of the region.”

Man #1, very agitated now: “Who the hell approved this? You damn scientists need to see the bigger picture! It’s a good thing the front office sent me down here!”

[Man #2 calmly pushes against a rectangle in the wall outlined in faint blue light. He again motions Man #1 forward through the doorway, which is only large enough for one at a time to enter. Man #1 charges angrily through, throwing his words back over his shoulder. Inside, the room is dim, only faintly lit in the pervasive blue glow emanating from where the walls meet the ceiling. There is no sign of what is producing the light however. The outline of a man in the same uniform as the airlock guards is standing in front of another door on the far side of the room. Man #1's footsteps ring back from the smooth metal floor as he stamps farther into the room. POV stays with Man #2 in the hallway, looking through the doorway.]

Man #1: “For God’s sake, how many of these little tin soldiers do you have?”

[Man #2, ignoring the comment, continues his words from where he stands in the hallway.]

Man #2: “It’s a very reasonable arrangement. He has already returned the investment of his equipment tenfold.”

[Man #1, whirls around toward Man #2 still standing in the hall. POV shifts irregularly to closeups of the two men as they talk.]

Man #1: “Really! And what else is he going to want from us in the future? You people have to learn to plan ahead. Always lost in your computers and charts. What controls do we have in place? What hold do we have over him?”

Man #2: “He has existed for centuries. There is little likelihood that we could hold him against his will. However, he is still getting used to the current level of technology and we offer him safety and provide for his needs. It works out quite well actually.”

Man #1 replies sarcastically: “Needs? If he’s that powerful, what does he need? Money? Women? The secret recipe for Coca Cola?”

Man #2: “Not precisely. We bring him people with small minds. Lots of them.”

[Man #2 manipulates a control out of sight and the door whips closed with a solid sound. Hurried footsteps from within can be heard as Man #2 turns away and begins walking back down the corridor in a relaxed manner. As Man #2 moves down the hall., POV slides around until it is behind him, but does not follow him down the hall, so that Man #2 gets smaller as he moves down the hall. Man #1's voice rises to a muffled screaming of words that fades slowly in the growing distance. Muffled banging noises come from the door as Man #1 beats his fists against it. POV stays focused on Man #2's back as he walks away.]

Man #1, muffled but clear: “But… but… No! No! I’m in charge here!”

Man #2, stopping briefly: “Not precisely.”

[Man #2, shakes his head as a scream rises in volume and is cut short]

Man #2, quietly: “Idiot.”

[Fade to black as Man #2 walks down the hall.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This story began life as an exercise in dialog that eventually may develop further, but for now it is just a scene. Hopefully a vivid one for all its lack of detailed description. The ending probably isn’t much of a surprise, it was the juxtaposition of words that I enjoyed writing.

Copyright © 2007; all rights reserved.

Author: D. D. Wolf | Category: D. D. Wolf, Freeform Writing, Uncategorized | Comments(0) July 2007