Faith Inc. ep 4 – Confessions of faith
Episode 4
”Confessions of faith”
Galway – London – the Mediterreanean – Spain
Crowley and Linda are on their knees. Tears stream down Linda’s cheeks while Crowley is shouting in despair. The camera pans out and we see AN ARMED MAN standing before them. He nods to a SECOND MAN behind the kneeling couple. He shoots Linda with a double-tap in the head. Crowley screams. The shooter puts a bullet into Crowley, then jerks his head, listening. The two men start running away from the murder scene. The camera focuses on Crowley’s eyes, staring vacantly, and dives into the iris.
In a fast flashback exposé we see Crowley exiting the Dublin airport, approaching a rental car. He gets in and drives off. He speeds through the rolling hills of the Irish countryside, past a sign giving the distance to Galway. Crowley gets a room at a small inn and retires to the rowdy pub. He looks tense and worried as he drinks a shot of Bushmill’s, but a COUPLE OF FRIENDLY LOCALS try to cheer him up. Two men enter the pub and receive dark glances from the locals. They approach Crowley and tell him to follow. Crowley protests, they were to make an exchange. ”No exchange,” says the leader, and his comrade hits Crowley in the head, hard.
Blackness.
Crowley wakes up in a cramped space and hears Linda crying and calling his name. They have time to exchange a few words before the car stops and the trunk is jerked open. The two men lift them out and force them to walk out on the heath. Away from the dirt road, the men force Crowley and Linda to their knees.
The shooter kills Linda with a banging noise. End flashback.
A DECKHAND hammers on a screw as Alain jogs past him on the huge deck of the container ship. The camera pans upward toward a window.
The CAPTAIN and the First Mate have a discussion in the captain’s cabin. As they leave, a fax with Jean’s face slides out of the fax machine.
The captain proceeds to have a look at the new passengers. Madeleine is getting off heroin “cold turkey” and Jean desperately tries to help. The captain only sneers, staring hungrily at her lithe body.
A monk, BROTHER PATRICK, with unkept hair and beard, walks across the windy heath, whistling an Irish jig. In a distance he watches two men running away from him. He searches the heath, tracking their starting point. He sees some-thing on the ground and quickens his step.
He reaches the spot where Crowley and his niece are laying. Swearing softly under his breath in a clear American accent, he checks their pulse. After closing the eyes of Linda, he discovers Crowley to be alive, despite the shot in the head. Carefully he lifts the injured man in his arms as though he hardly weigh a thing.
Brother Patrick carefully places Crowley on a bed in a sparse cell. An elderly monk, THE ABBOT, professionally examines the injured man, but there isn’t much to do. Together they perform the Last Rites. Brother Patrick sits down in a chair keeping vigil, occasionally dabbing Crowley’s face with a cloth.
The small graveyard on the heath overlooks the grey ocean. Here the MONKS bury Linda. Snatches of prayer chants can be heard in the brisk wind.
Madeleine lays on her bed, seemingly in a coma. The captain is standing over her, masturbating and muttering obscene words. He closes in, starting to fondle her roughly.
The door is opened and Jean stops, staring almost uncomprehendingly at the scene. Alain passes him and slams the captain to the wall, shouting a quite amazing array of profanities.
The captain retrieves the fax from his pocket and dangles it in front of their eyes. He demands that either they let him have his way with Madeleine or the agents of Carriera will wait for them when they arrive in Spain. Jean rudely refuses the offer, saying they take their chances with Carriera.
Brother Patrick has nodded off when he is awoken by incoherent ramblings from the dying man. He leans closer and listens, then grabs a small tape recorder from his meager personal belongings. He records Crowley’s mumbled bits and pieces of vital information about Carriera and the Plantagenet connection. Brother Patrick starts looking more and more concerned.
He walks to the small chapel and prays. He is in great moral distress. We understand that Patrick hasn’t been a monk all his life, quite the opposite.
Crowley finally dies and the monks move in procession to the graveyard. They discover an empty grave where they buried Linda’s body.
Brother Patrick has a serious talk with the abbot. He tells him that he has two choices; either turning his cheek and possibly let innocent people die, or leave the monastery, his identity as a monk and go back to his old profession, the very thing he has sworn he never would do. Together they reach the decision that turning his cheek would be as great a sin as committing the imminent murders. He has to try to stop them.
Henri de Lorraine watches TV in his London home. Linda’s exposé of Miles Militis Deus has hit the news shows. Interviewed POLITICIANS want to investigate the matter while MI5 REPRESENTATIVES claim they have been warning about this. De Lorraine just smiles.
In the Vatican, a GROUP OF CLERGY shuts off the TV. Among them we see the Vatican’s ”Prime Minister”, Cardinal Soforza and Pope candidate Cardinal D’Annunzio. In the following conversation we understand that they belong to a strong opposition within the Vatican, working against the Miles Militis Deus influence. The group is seriously worried about the possibility of getting an Miles Militis Deus pope, as John Paul II’s health is steady declining. The scandalous stories from BBC might help tipping the power balance.
Alain chats up the COOK on the ship, finding out how far they are from Spain. He heads back to their cabin and tells Jean and Madeleine that they will make their escape during the night.
Brother Patrick walks into a hamlet and enters the small post office. His large, built body hardly fits into the phone booth. He places an overseas call.
A man picks up the phone. Behind him we see the seal of the CIA. The monk presents himself as GHOST, wanting to call in an old favour. The CIA OFFICER is surprised that he is still alive. As the two men chats, we understand that the monk used to be a CIA-operative. Ghost wants the CIA officer to pull two files, on Carriera and Plantagenet. The CIA officer reluctantly agrees to send them with over-night delivery to a drop box in Spain.
Catherine Sinclair gives an interview about the trial to a BBC REPORTER. The answers are very politically correct. When the camera is turned off and the CAMERA MAN starts putting away his equipment, Sinclair chats with the reporter, hinting – off the record – at the Carriera / Miles Militis Deus / Pinochet-connection.
Carriera watches the BBC World report and works himself into a rage. Bucci takes cover and leaves, lamenting to the bodyguard that Carriera used to be calmer and more stable with Isabella around. The bodyguard makes the sign of the cross at the mention of her name.
Carriera calls Cipriani and together they decide to expel Linda’s father, the MP, from Miles Militis Deus. Cipriani jokes that Russian spies have been running loose in the British administration before, and it would be a fitting end for the venerable MP. By the gleam in Carriera’s eyes, we understand it’s not a joke, but indeed a very good idea.
Jean and Alain fight with the fastenings of the lifeboat as Madeleine huddles in a blanket on deck. A SAILOR discovers them and orders them to stop. He has to report them to the captain. Jean sets off into an inspired sermon, amazing both Alain and Madeleine, and manages to win over the sailor. He helps them launch the barge and then asks them to strike him down, to cover his betrayal. Alain happily obliges.
The lifeboat crashes into the swell and the hulk of the container ship slowly disappears into the distance as Alain starts the motor and heads for shore.
Catherine Sinclair arrives at Henri de Lorraine’s London mansion for a last pep talk before her journey. Lorraine tells her about Jean’s heritage.
His mother, MARIE DE PLANTAGENET, got pregnant out of wedlock and before Henri could convince her to tell him who the father was, she had an almost fatal car crash. Nobody knows if it was an accident or if it was an attempt on her life. Marie fell into a coma but the baby could be saved. The doctors never believed she would live, but she recovered somewhat. Mute with serious brain damage, she lived with her old nurse and her family in Spain. Due to the old age of her nurse, Marie was recently moved to a nearby nursing home. Henri is her closest living relative, save for Jean, even though Marie like Henri is related to most of the royal houses of Europe.
De Lorraine believes that Jean is heading to his mother, but urges Sinclair to first find the copy of the black book, then attempt to locate Jean.
Alain keeps vigil over the sleeping Jean and Madeleine in the ratty bus filled with Spanish farmers. Jean mumbles incoherently. Alain takes off his jacket and spreads it over Jean in a tender gesture.
Jean and Madeleine dream. Jean dreams of meeting his mother. She says she always loved him, urging him to come to a house, which she shows him in Zuera, close to Zaragozza. He sees threatening men (whom we recognise as the bombers). Madeleine dreams about the Virgin Mary who tells her to come to Zuera, as time is short. Knights (whom we recognise from the hospital in Marseille) stand protectively around the Virgin.
Jean and Madeleine wake up as the bus makes a stop. Both start talking about their strange dreams and soon realise they have dreamt almost the same thing. They now know for certain where they are going, not just the general region, something that makes Alain content.
The following morning, de Lorraine enters the breakfast room. Sitting down at the table, he scans the newspapers. Black headlines scream out the Carriera / Miles Militis Deus / Pinochet-connection. Lorraine reads on with a troubled expression.
Lorraine enters his in-house office, requesting that his SECRETARY arrange an emergency meeting with the inner-circle of the Bergerbilders.
Lorraine sits in front a large state-of-the-art screen, divided into sixteen smaller images showing important POLITICIANS and BUSINESSMEN. He says that he is worried about the consequences of the current media debate concerning Carriera. If the Carriera-related stocks start to drop, the world might experience an economic depression of record proportions due to Carriera’s immense holdings. He requests that the members start taking measures to reduce the impact if that should happen. They agree.
We hardly recognise Brother Patrick as he disembarks at the Spanish airport. Ghost, the CIA wet job specialist, has taken over. He is well groomed, dressed in a casual jacket and nice pants.
As he stands in line for passport control, Catherine Sinclair, standing before him in the queue, drops her newspaper and he picks it up, handing it back to her. They smile politely at each other.
Jean, Alain and Madeleine leave the bus in a small farming village. CHILDREN watch curiously as they search for the house they’ve seen in their dreams. Finally, Jean asks a kid and promptly gets directions. Followed by the children, they approach the nursing home.
A NUN guides them to JEAN’S MOTHER. Although older, we still recognise her as the beautiful girl from the picture Jean brought with him from his room. She sits in a wheel- chair in a cosy, sun-drenched room. Jean falls on his knees in front of her, squeezing her hand with tears running down his cheeks. The nun tells him in halting French that he shouldn’t hope for much. Marie hasn’t spoken for thirty years. As the nun leaves them alone, Jean continues talking to his mother. Slowly a light is lit in her vacant eyes and she gazes at him. Her throat starts working.
”Mon fils, mon fils” [my son, my son] she manages to say. Jean responds and then she opens her mouth again.
”Ton destiné est dans la grimoire” [your destiny is in the grimoire]. She gives them a name and a place, then tenses.
”Je l’aim toujours” [I love you forever].
She falls forward and a loud bang is heard. Jean catches her and stares in horror at the growing bloody rose on her chest as Alain whirls into action.
He screams to Madeleine to get Jean out as he attacks the two bombers entering the room. Madeleine jerks Jean up and takes a slug in the arm. They rush to a door in the other end of the room, as the knights enter behind the bombers.
In the chaos, the unarmed Alain manages to wrestle a gun from one of the bombers and shoots him. Leaving the rest for his fellow knights to deal with, he quickly follows Jean and Madeleine. Harrowing moments go by as our heroes fight against the remaining bomber and get out of the hospital.
During credits:
Virgil’s and Lombard’s website has new damaging headlines about Carriera.
Interested in producing? Contact Annika Lidne
© Annika Lidne & Henrik Jansson 2002 – WGA reg no 857741
