Faith Inc. ep 7 – The viper’s nest

Episode 7

”The viper’s nest”

Rome

Dubois of the French Military Intelligence follows a PATHOLOGIST into the morgue. The pathologist rolls out a body from the fridge and opens the bodybag. Dubois looks with a frown at the still face of Catherine Sinclair. He nods and the pathologist rolls the body back into the fridge.

Our heroes arrive in the eternal city of Rome. They take in at a hotel and Jean fulfills his promise to Catherine Sinclair. He calls Henri de Lorraine and lets him know where they are.

Riddled by doubts and overwhelmed by his recent findings, Jean breaks down. Madeleine comforts him in the best way she knows, they make slow and languorous love.     Outside, Alain stands guard, pretending to read a newspaper as he keeps watch over the corridor and listens to the sounds from the room.

The counter-revolutionaries in the Vatican decide to step up the heat against their new pope and start leaking disturbing facts to the press about Serbian ratlines and a possible repeat of the Propaganda Due / Banco Ambrosiano-scandal.

Ghost calls Cardinal Soforza. He is willing to meet but terrified of detection. He has not yet gotten hold of the important documents but will contact Ghost as soon as he has them.

Henri de Lorraine boards his plane at a small private airport outside London. As soon as Lorraine’s plane takes off, the FLIGHT CONTROLLER calls Bucci with information of de Lorraine’s flight plan.

As Bucci enters Carriera’s office to give him the news, Carriera is on the phone with Dubois. The intelligence man is upset that they have killed the wrong woman and Carriera keeps his poker face in place.

He lets Bucci know that it is a scandal that only Sinclair is dead. When Bucci gives him the news about Lorraine’s flight, the pieces falls into place and Carriera immediately orders his plane prepared for a flight to Rome.

At their new makeshift office, journalists Virgil and Lombard put the final touches to their new exposé of Carriera and upload it on the web. THREE MEN suddenly break into the room and kidnap them.

Ghost enters the hotel and walks up to his room. A noise from inside alarms him and he creeps into the room. A MAN is hastily searching through the room. The man has hardly time to notice Ghost before his neck is snapped in a very professional manner.

Ghost quickly packs his few belongings and walks over to the others, urging them to get ready fast because they have to move.

Ghost brings them to a safehouse of his own in the villa of an old ITALIAN LADY.

Carriera arrives at a fancy Roman hotel. An EDITOR at an Miles Militis Deus magazine calls him on his cell phone and reports that someone has started leaking unfavourable stories to the press. By the stories, Carriera understand that the source is someone within the inner circle of the Vatican.

Carriera leaves his hotel for a meeting with the inner circle of the Vatican. He congratulates Miguel to his new position as pope, then drops the bomb; there is a traitor within the inner circle.

Cardinal Soforza sees his old friend the LIBRARIAN in the secret archives. The librarian guides him to the documents and he quickly scans them to confirm they are the right ones.

On his way out, Soforza is stopped by Monsignor Terranova, the head of Vatican security, who demands that he shows what he is carrying in his briefcase.

Upset by the rude request, Soforza never the less opens his briefcase. It is just filled with a few magazines, some reports, a sandwich and a GameBoy. Disappointed, Terranova gives the briefcase back and apologizes for his intrusion.

After work, the librarian walks home to his modest apartment within the Vatican. His NEPHEW is waiting on him on the stairs with a cake from his mother. They enter the apartment and the librarian gives his nephew the hot documents and directions of what to do and whom to give them to. The boy leaves to head back into town. The librarian calls Soforza and gives an all clear.

Soforza calls Ghost and says the documents are on their way and that he can meet. He is now even more terrified of detection. In the scene we see him shaking off the tail agent-style, accompanied by the instructions of Ghost’s voice-over.

Soforza picks up the documents from the librarian’s nephew and on the last leg of the journey he is shadowed by Ghost looking for a possible remaining tail. The Cardinal and Ghost meet, and the former CIA agent brings the Cardinal to the safe house where Jean, Alain, Madeleine and a newly arrived de Lorraine are waiting.

Together they examine the documents and Ghost tells de Lorraine and Soforza the conclusions he has drawn from Crowley’s ramblings, the secret documents and his previous CIA-experience.

De Lorraine brings our heroes to an old Jewish CABALIST who examines the grimoire and the secret documents. Making complicated calculations, he tells them that time is short. The Ark can only be accessed during half an hour when the planets are in the right positions, and that time is only days from now.

As they exit the house of the old cabalist, Ghost steps out first, scanning the area. Suddenly he falls screaming to the ground and simultaneously the impregnable smoke from a smoke grenade envelops him as well as Jean and Alain behind him and the entrance of the house. A shock grenade adds to the confusion.

Inside the house, Lorraine stops Madeleine from running out into the chaos. As the smoke starts to disperse, Lorraine and Madeleine see Ghost lying on the ground groaning, but there is no sign of Jean or Alain.

They rush forward to Ghost and after a quick examination, he tells them himself that he was hit by an electric gun and is more dizzy than hurt. Grimly he states that the opposition has kidnapped Jean and Alain.

During credits:

The website of Virgil and Lombard publish more damaging information on Carriera.

Interested in producing? Contact Annika Lidne

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