Faith Inc. ep 3 – Visions of destiny

Episode 3

”Visions of destiny”

Brussels – London – Marseille

News-footage shows violent demonstrations. A rough cut to still-photos of people with injuries from torture. A team digging up a mass grave. The exposé is cut short.

Prosecutor Catherine Sinclair is standing in front of the bar in the court room describing the crimes of PINOCHET, former dictator of Chile, awaiting extradition to Spain. After her statement, defence attorney NIGEL CROWLEY takes the floor, demeaning and ridiculing her conclusions.

The court is adjourned and the audience is exiting when Sinclair starts a hot argument about ethics with the sneering Crowley. She smartly indicates she knows of his affiliation with Carriera and Miles Militis Deus, and their support of the now dethroned dictator.

Sinclair heads home and starts reading the Flanagan folder. Shocked, she calls Henri de Lorraine and they set up an immediate meeting. In the palatial London home of de Lorraine, they talk about her case and de Lorraine provides invaluable information. She tells him about the Flanagan folder and he becomes very interested at her mentioning of a black book.

The book has been missing since the Albigensian crusade in the 13th century. De Lorraine asks her to head for Spain, where a copy of the book are according to the folder, and get her hands on it. The information in it will let Jean fulfil his destiny.

The following morning, Nigel Crowley oversleeps. Scattered around the house are several pictures of a thin, pretty girl.

Stressed, he gets ready for court when a MESSENGER arrives with a sealed envelope. Crowley puts it, unopened, in his briefcase and heads out.

In his chauffeur-driven Bentley, Crowley gets a call from his concerned BROTHER, a Member of Parliament and head of Miles Militis Deus in Britain. He wonders if he has seen Linda, Crowley’s niece. At Crowley’s negative answer, his brother tells him she has disappeared. Crowley simply says God looks after his own.

A BLACK MADONNA, alluring yet pious, indicates us to follow her into a shadowy space where something, maybe a golden ornamented box, stands in a blinding bright light. Strange double helixes writhe in limbo. The black madonna cradles our face with her hands.

”You are your destiny”, is whispered though the ethereal music. She smiles and nods.

Jean wakes with a start. He stares around him. OTHER PASSENGERS on the train sleep, talk or read. Outside olive grooves and small villages whiz past the window. He looks at Alain’s concerned face and tells him they have to get off the train, but refuses to tell him why.

Just as Jean and Alain leave the train close to Marseille, three of bombers responsible for the bombing of the German’s apartment board it.

In Brussels, Virgil and Lombard celebrate their finished exposé of Carriera with a glass of wine. They feel it’s a prize winner and can already see themselves on a brightly-lit stage, accepting the honours.

Jean and Alain trudge along a small dusty road. In front of them a church tower reach for the sky behind a groove. Alain complains but Jean seems more focused than we ever seen him before.

Jean and Alain stand in a small chapel, the sculpture of a black madonna looming before them. Her gaze seems to look right through us. There is a short inscription in Hebrew at the base of the sculpture. Jean trails the lettering with his fingers. Alain reads it out in its original language and Jean translates for us. Alain looks at him. ”It’s about you, you know”.

In a quick sequence we see Virgil and Lombard trying to sell their piece but are refused everywhere. SEVERAL EDITORS tell them they love it, but that the editors in chief are too afraid to publish since they know all too well what then will happen to them.

Snap-shots from the trial. Crowley continues to terrorize Sinclair, portraying her as a cruel and cold-hearted woman who wants to let an old, sick man be extradited to stand trial in a foreign country. Sinclair manages to turn the tide with de Lorraine’s information. During a speech by Crowley, an aide arrives and hands Sinclair a newspaper. Glancing at it on and off, she smiles and seems to gain new strength.

Closing the negotiations for the day, Crowley’s cell phone rings. Carriera wants to know how he is doing. Crowley talks about the case and feels certain they are going to win. Slowly we realise that they are talking past each other. Carriera is asking about the file Crowley got, still laying unopened in his briefcase.

Sinclair and Crowley meet outside the courtroom. He is his usual nasty self, but pales as Sinclair holds up the newspaper in front of him: ”MP-daughter defects from abusive religious sect.” A picture of a thin, pretty girl, the same girl we saw photos of in Crowley’s apartment, is blown up on the front page. Sinclair makes sure he knows that she knows it is his niece.

In the car, Crowley tears open the envelope. A photo of his niece is the first he sees. He reads a letter instructing him to kill her. Suddenly, with a strangled voice, he asks the DRIVER to stop. He opens the door and throws up.

A short, fast, documentary exposé of Miles Militis Deus with the classic antics of an organisation with something to hide; doors slammed in the face of reporters, emotional denials in front of the camera, covert footage of silent corridors and bare cells with pale, thin people moving like robots, close-ups of devotees flogging themselves, pus running out of thighs enclosed by spiked chains. The exposé ends with a cut to a studio where LINDA CROWLEY is being interviewed by a reporter, spilling it all.

Carriera stares at the TV and hurls a heavy paperweight, breaking the screen. Alarmed by the noise, Bucci enters and receives a hot-tempered lament questioning where all loyalty and devotion have gone. Crowley should have killed the girl by now and thus prevented the live interview.

Jean and Alain decide to use their new-won freedom and hit the bars in Marseille. After drinking wine with the locals in rowdy, smoky bistros in the rough harbour district, our heroes stagger out on the street, looking for a hotel.

A BLIND BEGGAR asks for a coin. Jean generously gives him several bank notes. The beggar grabs his hand, concentrates and tells him he has a remarkable destiny in front of him. He asks for Alain’s hand and says that Alain will soon reach a crossroad affecting the rest of his life.     Baffled, they stagger on, only to get mugged in a dark lane after a severe beating by a LOCAL GANG. Taken by surprise and muddled by too many drinks, Alain is struck down before he even can reach for his gun.

A banging on a door breaks the silence. Crowley wakes up and pads to the door. A desperate and dripping wet Linda stands outside, begging to come in. Crowley fidgets as she admits she didn’t really understand what she did when she exposed the organisation. It is clear he is ridden by doubts whether he should kill her or save her.

Being a practical man, he takes one step at a time and fetch her a towel and a shirt to replace her own wet clothes. She turns her back modestly as she changes. Her bare back reveals red old crusts of dried blood after a vicious flogging. That decides it for Crowley. He lends her a coat and they leave.

Crowley has a hard time to convince Sinclair’s stern BODYGUARDS to let him see her so late at night. Surprised, she receives him clad in a dressing gown. Her surprise gives way to amazement as Crowley explains that he has had it with Carriera and Miles Militis Deus. He begs her to protect the girl. He gives Sinclair a large amount of money and asks her to arrange for the girl to be sent abroad.     Sinclair wants more and they begin a hard bargaining. Sinclair agrees to let Pinochet go back to Chile if she gets all the inside information on the operations of Carriera and Miles Militis Deus.

Jean and Alain float in white light. The black madonna looks at them concerned then take them by the hand, saying they must return as time is short and they have much to do.

Jean and Alain wake up in the hospital, beaten and bruised. The NURSE says they must have had a guardian angel to escape the notorious gang without serious injury. Maybe the angel was their girlfriend who brought them to the emergency ward, she jokes. Jean and Alain look at each other uncomprehendingly.

TWO KNIGHTS, casually dressed, enter the ward. Alain, on an unspecified errand in the corridor, spots them. Quickly he dives into the room he shares with Jean and gathers their belongings. The RECEPTIONIST is sorry to inform the knights that they do not have a patient named Jean de Plantagenet, nor anyone fitting his description. Disappointed, the knights head for the elevator.

Just as the door closes, a chime announces the arrival of another lift. Out step the three bombers. They head straight for the reception.

”Pax”, the leader says. The receptionist straightens her back and gives the rest of the secret code word, ”in aeternum.” She immediately gives directions to where Jean can be found.

The bombers enter the ward and shoot straight through the white curtains surrounding one of the four beds.

An ELDERLY MAN, lying in another bed, watches terrified. The leader tears away the curtain, and finds an empty bed. With an angry scowl he tears away the curtain around the second bed. That, too, is empty. He swings around and looks at the elderly man. Briefly questioning him, he promptly kills him with a lethal injection.

Jean and Alain get suspicious stares on the local bus. They do look like ruffians, faces bruised and clothes torn. People move back as if they are contagious.

Back in court, the JUDGE rules the verdict. Pinochet will not be extradited to Spain but are free to fly home to Chile. Sinclair and Crowley look at each other, communicating without a word. As the crowd exits, Crowley discreetly slips Sinclair three unmarked CDs.

At Sinclair’s apartment, Linda sneaks out, past the guards. She walks to the corner videostore and enters. As she is standing looking at video playing on a TV, a man comes up behind her. He orders her to come quietly and jabs the muzzle of a gun into her side.

The ocean glitters. Our bruised heroes sit watching it surrounded by a lush park. Around them is the hustling and bustling city of Marseille. Depressed, they discuss what they are going to do. Their money is gone, Alain’s gun is gone and the knights are on their trail. A scream ends the discussion.

They rush up, trying to locate the source. The scream is heard again and they start running, soon encountering a parked car.

A BLACK WOMAN, a hooker judging by her dress and heavy make-up, is being raped and battered by a JOHN. Jean and Alain spin into action. Alain tears the john out of the car, as Jean tends to the woman. She does a double take as she sees his face and then glances at Alain. It is obvious that she recognises them.

The john draws a knife and manages to surprise Alain, sinking the knife into him. Alain starts fighting back in cold rage. Jean and the woman looks on horrified as Alain very professionally snaps the john’s neck. Blood is smeared on Alain’s white shirt, and as he pulls it off to let Jean take care of the wound, the woman stares at the Knights Templar cross tattooed on his muscular back.

In a squalid room, the woman – MADELEINE – is packing her meager belongings in panic. The john was a quite well known politician in the city, so she must leave. Jean and Alain suggest she come with them. She tells them they don’t want anything to do with a black Jewish heroin-addicted hooker with bouts of hallucinations. Jean reacts, more or less forcing her to come with them. Warming to them, Madeleine announces she might be able to get them passage on a container ship to Spain.

Madeleine blackmails the FIRST MATE on the ship to let them board. Jean and Alain realise she is not a very nice girl to have as an enemy. As they board the ship, we see its name: “Isabella. Toledo Shipping Ltd.”

Carriera looks at the framed photo of Duchess Isabella d’Anghiera y Aragon as he waits for someone to pick up the phone in the other end. Crowley answers. Carriera tells him he got the girl and if he wants to save her, he better get to Galway in Ireland. Quick.

As credits roll:

Virgil and Lombard set up a website, publicizing their exposé.

The headline:

Trust no one. The dark empire of Hernando Carriera.

Interested in producing? Contact Annika Lidne

© Annika Lidne & Henrik Jansson 2002 – WGA reg no 857741