The Pretender 2001

Then I guess that leaves us down the same dead end. All secrets. No answers.

Jarod

The Pretender 2001

Then I guess that leaves us down the same dead end. All secrets. No answers.

Jarod

Original air date: January 22, 2001

Written by: Steven Long Mitchell & Craig W. Van Sickle

Directed by: Frederick King Keller

Jarod pretends to be an NSA agent to become part of a task force hunting down ‘The Chameleon’ a killer who displays all the abilities of a Pretender. Abilities that make Jarod aware of his true identity, another Pretender who Jarod had known at the Centre before Jarod’s ultimate escape. A Pretender who holds a grudge against Jarod and is luring him for the kill.

Behind the scenes insights and the Creator’s Take

Official Synopsis

Picking up where the television series left off, The Pretender 2001 features even deeper explorations in the show’s mythology, including a revealing look back at how Jarod originally escaped from the Centre. But now he must infiltrate the NSA to capture a ruthless assassin who might be a fellow Pretender from his past!

After the surprise of being cancelled by NBC the fans create quite an uproar in the hallways of the Burbank based network. The uproar was in the massive amount of Pez candy dispensers that were sent to NBC from around the world with a request to keep their favorite how on the air.

NBC called us and asked if we’d be interested in doing a movie to wrap everything up. They said if they liked our script they may make and air it.

Meanwhile, TNT who was getting ready to air the syndicated episodes offered to green light two movies is we instead went with them.

In the end it was an easy decision.

The first of two movies to be made after NBC cancelled the series The Pretender 2001 picked up where the series left off.

On the Centre side of the story having survived the bombing on the train at the end of season four, Miss Parker find herself in a world of family revelations as she must try and save her father who has been abducted.

The movie ends with both Jarod and Miss Parker receiving identical photographs of their mother’s together and this image launches them into a very personal journey in the final movie.

The production of TP 2001 brought the Pretender full circle. The Pilot had been produced in Toronto and this as well as the final Pretender MFT was produced in Toronto as well.

Fun fact. This movie was the first time Michael T Weiss was ever filmed at the building known to all as the Centre.

Movies

The Pretender 2001 Transcript

Tower / Triumvirate Members Converse		His name is Jarod.
		Just exactly what the hell is he?
		Jarod is a Pretender, a genius who can literally become anyone he wants to be. And the Centre wants him back.
		The should have stuck with the computers to do the simulations. Computers don’t run away.
		A computer can not also read a book on heart surgery in the morning then perform a flawless bypass in the afternoon. Jarod can. He can do anything.
		The Centre team chasing him, are they up to par?
		The team has three members. First is Miss Parker, who grew up in the Centre where her father is in charge. She has been tied to Jarod since they were children. Besides Jarod, her only pursuit is the truth about her mother’s death.
		Does she knew she was murdered? I mean, if she was to find out the real truth about Catherine Parker then-
		It would be tragic. Next is Sydney, part psychiatrist, part father figure, part teacher. He raised Jarod from a child, molded his gifts. Emotionally, Jarod is tied to him in a primal way. If Sydney disappeared, so would Jarod. Next is Broots. He’s a technical genius who has kept us only one step behind Jarod. No small task.
		What about our people?
		Mr. Parker is still in control of the Centre.
		What about Mr. Raines?
		Our latest report on Mr. Raines is he is dead.
		And Lyle?
		The thumbless Mr. Lyle remains loyal.
		So where does all this leave us?
		Our observation team tracked Miss Parker and Jarod to the underground in DC where their half brother Ethan planted a bomb on a subway train. What happened post blast is anyone’s guess but make no mistake, if Jarod is still alive, we will get him back. Are there anymore questions?
		Just one. Is it true that Jarod was stolen as a child?

Young Jarod		Hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, hmm, geese walk barefoot, cree craw toad’s foot. I finished my building. I’m finished!
Sydney		This one’s been with us for only thirty six hours and he’s already demonstrating more talent than any of our others.
Young Jarod		Hey, I’m finished.
Sydney		Hi Jarod. I’m Sydney and I’ll be taking care of you for a while.
Young Jarod		Why? Where’s my mum and dad?

		There are Pretenders among us. Geniuses with the ability to become anything they want to be. In the 1960s, a corporation known as the Centre isolated a young Pretender named Jarod and exploited his genius for their research. Then one day, their Pretender ran away…


Previously
Jarod		There’s a bomb on board Miss Parker, we’ve got fifteen seconds to get off this train!
Miss Parker		Come on Ethan!
Jarod		We jump now!
Explosion

Miss Parker (covered in rubble. A burning support beam looms overhead)		Oh. Oh. Perfect. Here! I’m over here! Mom.
Catherine Parker		Give me your hand.
Miss Parker		I don’t understand.
Catherine Parker		Ask your father. He knows all the secrets.
Crash. Flash to present day.
Broots		Miss Parker, are you okay?
Miss Parker		Broots, I’m fine. Are we done here?
Sydney		No neurological damage, the psychological trauma of the explosion certainly can account for the erratic behavior.
Miss Parker		Who says I’ve been acting erratic?
Broots		Come on, let’s face it, you were found outside a manhole cover on street level. You’re lucky to be alive.
Miss Parker		It wasn’t luck. I was saved.
Sydney		Saved?
Broots		Um, you didn’t tell him about the dream?
Miss Parker		It’s not a dream. It’s like I’m reliving a moment in time separate from anything I’ve ever done or said but I can see it, taste it, feel it. It’s after the explosion. I’m trapped and this support beam is about to a guillotine number on me when she comes out of the smoke and saves me.
Sydney		Who saves you?
Miss Parker		My mother. Hit me with your best shot Freud.
Sydney		Dreams, like any psychological phenomena, are really a reflection of your soul.
Miss Parker		It’s not a dream. The person who saved me was my mother and she told me my father knew all the secrets.
Broots		What secrets?
Miss Parker		Don’t know. But I plan to find out.
Broots		It doesn’t make sense. Her mother’s been dead since she was a little girl. How could she save her?
Sydney		She couldn’t but whoever did, I hope, saved Jarod as well.

DSA
Jarod		No!
Raines		Clear!

Jarod		One hundred and twenty eight channels, there’s nothing on tv.
Ethan		Welcome back to the land of the living brother. How do I feel?
Jarod		Like I jumped from a train. What are you doing?
Ethan		Oh, I was just uh, looking at the dsa.
Jarod		Quite I life I had.
Ethan		Yeah, the Centre pretty much recorded it all of it. Why did they do those experiments on you?
Jarod		Not experiments. Simulations.
Ethan		Because you’re a Pretender, you can become anyone you want to be. A doctor, lawyer, even an astronaut if you want.
Jarod		Yes. But I don’t know who I am.
Ethan		There’s your mother.
Jarod		Since I escaped the Centre, I’ve been searching for her and for any information about the life I never had.
Ethan		It seems like Miss Parker’s always watching you and following you.
Jarod		Your half sister. She’s quite a consistent piece of work, I’ll give her that.
Ethan		She wants you back, you know?
Jarod		Some things never change.

Televison News Report		It’s been four days since the explosion in the DC underground and amazingly, there have been no reports of fatalities. The damage has been in the millions-
Jarod		I hope she made it.
Ethan		She did.
Jarod		Was there something on the news?
Ethan		No, the voices.
Jarod		Your inner sense. The voices that speak to you.
Ethan		They told me that she was safe.
Jarod		Then we won’t be. The Centre will come for us. They always do.

Television Report		This is breaking news now from NSA Headquarters. A masked terrorist posing as a Russian pilot has killed a Diplomat on the tarmac of National Airport then shot a second victim, who we’ve been told is an NSA Agent identified as Edward Ballinger. Ballinger who remains comatose at County Hospital was attempting to stop the assasination of the Diplomat when he himself was wounded.
Jarod		Eddie.
Ethan		You know him?
Jarod		Yes. Uh, I did.
Inner Sense Voices
Ethan		He was a Pretender too.
Jarod		Towards the end of my captivity, I found out that there were others in the Pretender program. They kept us separated for the most part but then I, I found Eddie. We did something. Something special.

Flashback
Jarod		We escape tonight.

Mr. Parker’s residence
Miss Parker		Daddy! Daddy are you here?
Broots		Hello? I don’t think anyone’s here. Hello.
Miss Parker		Unless he’s eating beef and merlot for breakfast, he was here last night.
Broots		Something tells he wasn’t watching an old western movie.
DSA
Raines		What do you want?
Broots		Your father was watching a dsa of you and Mr. Raines?
Miss Parker		It’s the last time I saw Mr. Raines alive.
DSA
Miss Parker		Before my mother died, she said something about her unfinished work, about her plan. What did she mean by that?
Raines		It’s about what everything’s about Miss Parker, it’s about the Centre, all the lies. Just remember, what ever answers your mother may have left behind, there’s still one person alive who does know the whole truth.
Miss Parker		Who?
Gunshot
Miss Parker		Daddy!
Mr. Parker		Not right for my little girl to have blood like that on her hands.


Broots		Miss Parker, I’m getting a uh, pretty weird feeling about this.
Miss Parker		Everything about my family is weird, including the last time I saw my father. Just after he murdered Raines.
Broots		Last time I saw my father, he had just sculptured the shrubs in Snow White and the Seven Drawfs.
Miss Parker		I guess everyone’s family is weird in their own way. Daddy’s bed hasn’t been slept in and I think I know why. Something must have spooked him and while he was on the phone, he was attacked.
Broots		Yeah, but who was he calling?
Miss Parker		Let’s find out.
Phone dials
Lyle		This is Lyle. Hello. Hello. Hello.

The Centre
Lyle		Dim sum and then some. You two look good enough to eat.
Asian Girls		Giggle
Miss Parker		Hate to mess with your lunch plans but we need to talk.
Lyle		Is this one of those talks I get to participate in or just listen to.
Miss Parker		Where’s our father?
Lyle		I haven’t seen or heard from him in a couple of days.
Miss Parker		Not even a phone call.
Lyle		Nor message from carrier pigeon, is there a problem?
Miss Parker		Yeah, he’s not at home and it appears he may left under duress.
Lyle		I’m not calling up the calvary on possibilities, like the possibility that in your present state you misinterpreted what you saw.
Miss Parker		And what state would that be?
Lyle		We’ve all heard about your imagination running wild since the big bang.
Broots		I didn’t say anything.
Lyle		Speaking of which, word from the sweeper team is that Jarod and Ethan both survived the explosion so I want the pursuit of Jarod back in full motion. Have you heard anything?
Miss Parker		No.
Lyle		Not even any voices from within?
Miss Parker		Why don’t you shove your nine fingers where the sun don’t shine?
Lyle		Uh, love to, but that would still leave me one to get tanned.
Broots		Oh you, you got a new thumb?
Lyle		Actually, it’s a preowned model but I got a great deal on it considering Mr. Raines wasn’t using it anymore.
Broots		You harvested Mr. Raines’ thumb?
Lyle		Waste not, want not. Don’t worry about dad, he’ll show up. He always does. Ladies.
Miss Parker		Just can’t trust a man with a stolen thumb. Check Frankenstein’s phone records, find out if he’s had anymore contact with my father.

National Security Agency

Agent Andrea Zane		What the hell does it mean?
Agent Tracer		It’s Agent Ballinger’s notes. It looks like it’s written backwards but I can’t make heads or tails out of it.
Jarod		It says he feared the Russian terrorist would kill the Diplomat. Looks like he was right. It’s written in Apache.
Agent Tracer		You can reach Apache?
Jarod		Can’t you? (In Apache) Come on, Apache. It was a code that the Americans used in World War II. This is the NSA isn’t it?
Agent Zane		Do you have business with Agent Ballinger?
Jarod		You know him?
Agent Zane		He’s my partner.
Jarod		Uh, Agent Zane. Thank you. Agent Jarod Morse. Your new partner. I was sent by the agency to uncover and stop the terrorist who attempted to kill Agent Ballinger.
Agent Zane		Top of your class at the Academy, Doctorate in anti-terrorist tactics from Harvard no less. And I’ve never heard of you.
Jarod		Oh, I’ve heard of you. Agent Andrea Zane, middle of her class at the Academy and a five and half year criminology graduate at Crawford College. I do my homework.
Agent Zane		That was my problem. I rarely did.
Jarod		So, what do we know about the assassin?
Agent Zane		Not enough, that’s for sure. Info sect has code named him the chameleon.
Jarod		Why chameleon?
Agent Zane		Because our bad boy’s a genius who can become anybody he wants to be.

The Centre
Miss Parker		So what do you hear when you see all of the things Jarod worked on before he escaped? The red notebooks detailing the victims our twisted Robinhood has helped, the items of self discovery that he’s left behind since we’ve chasing him. What do you hear?
Sydney		I hear a child desperately searching for his mother, the man in a child’s body making these incredible discoveries and sometimes I just hear a simple soul wondering who he really is and I hear my own voice, echoing with guilt because I contributed to theft of Jarod’s life.
Miss Parker		I guess we can all hear that.
Sydney		But not everyone can hear like you. Mine are mostly memories, things everyone experiences but yours, like your mother’s before you are the planes of sensory perception, the gift of the inner sense. When your mother rescues you in your vision, that is what she’s trying to tell you, to focus on your inner sense.
Miss Parker		You sound unnaturally sure of yourself.
Sydney		And that’s what scares me so. Tell Miss Parker, in your vision when your mother reaches out, the glint of light from her tear shaped diamond ring flashes in front of your eyes, does it not?
Miss Parker		I didn’t tell you about the ring.
Sydney		Your mother did. When she was your age, she had that exact same vision and she came to see me to ask for my help in developing her inner sense, to find out what it meant.
Miss Parker		Will you do the same for me?
Sydney		That’s what I was afraid you would ask.
Miss Parker		Why?
Sydney		Shortly after I helped Catherine Parker, she was gone.

National Security Agency

Agent Zane		We don’t know how or why he’s doing what he’s doing but the chameleon’s an assassin who’s been unmasking then killing the NSA’s deepest undercover spies.
Jarod		Is there any clue who he is?
Agent Zane		Not a one. The guy slides into a different skin everywhere he goes. His last known personas were an Arab Sheik, a Bosnian General, an IRA Militia fighter and the latest of course, the Russian pilot but he never so much as leaves a fingerprint behind. This guy likes to play and right now we’re in a major game of tag.
Jarod		Tag?
Agent Zane		You’re it. Catch me if you can, you know, the kid school yard game?
Jarod		Uh, they didn’t play that where I went to school.
Agent Zane		Those are the four victims so far. Agent Ballinger was convinced the chameleon was planning two major assassinations on our soil that would, in chameleon’s words, affect someone important to your world. The first was the Russian Diplomat, the second is anybody’s guess.
Jarod		Is this Eddie’s family?
Agent Zane		Yeah, Eddie has everything a person can want.
Flashback

Eddie		One day, I’m gonna find my parents, one day I’m gonna have a family of my own, so will you.

Agent Zane		You got a family Jarod?
Jarod		Hmm?
Agent Zane		A family. You got one?
Jarod		Trying to put one back together.
Agent Tracer		We’ve got a location on the chameleon.

Footfalls

Agent Tracer		Third floor, center apartment.
Agent Zane		Assume he’s armed and dangerous.
Jarod		Full frontal assault.
Door kicked in
Circus music plays
Gun fire erupts
Jarod		Hold your fire! He’s deflated.
Agent Tracer		We’ve been had.
Agent Zane		Eddie certainly was right about this guy being a wing nut.
Jarod		Clever and dangerous.
Agent Tracer		This guys crazier than we thought. It’s really creepy.
Agent Zane		Have CSI scour this laugh factory. Find something?
Jarod		Uh, nothing.
Agent Zane		Well keep looking, there’s gotta be something here that’ll give us a clue as to the chameleon’s real identity.

The Centre
Sydney		You have to relax Parker. Just close your eyes and breathe slowly. In. Out. Let the breath of life nurture your soul. No else matters. Let yourself open up completely. Just listen. Can you hear the voices?
Voices
Miss Parker		It’s more like static. All I hear is t, t t, t t-
Jarod’s lair
Ethan		What does this mean?
Jarod		My face has been digitally attached to the bodies in these various photographs.
Ethan		Why?
Jarod		Someone’s playing with my head and when someone plays with my head it usually comes from one place.
The Centre
Computer’s voice		You have a video phone call.
Sydney		Jarod! You’re alive.
Jarod		And because of that wonderful fact, I get to enjoy another day being chased by the Centre. I’ve gotta hand it to you though, pin up posters as bait this time was truly inspired.
Sydney		Inspired? We weren’t even sure you had survived until this very moment.
Jarod		Well someone in Centre wonderland has manipulated an ID photo I made for an arson investigator pretend that I did several years ago.
Sydney		Well let me check the archive. I assure you none of us have misused your image.
Jarod		Somebody did and I need to find out who.
Sydney		I’ll see what I can do Jarod.
Ethan		Double T.
Jarod		What did you say?
Ethan		Double T. The voices, her voice keeps saying double t.
Miss Parker		T. t. I heard it too.
Ethan		Miss Parker.
Miss Parker		Ethan.
Ethan		I’m glad you’re alive.
Miss Parker		I’m glad you’re alive too.
Jarod		Don’t you know that nobody dies at the Centre.
Ethan		My mother, our mother Catherine did. And somehow the answers are tied to double t.
Jarod		Is double t a project, a case file, or does it have something to do with me?
Sydney		Not to my knowledge.
Jarod		Well find out and I want the truth.
Video call ends
Miss Parker		So do I.
Broots		I’m on it.

Jarod’s lair
Ethan		Why didn’t you tell them about the chameleon?
Jarod		It was need to know. They don’t.

National Security Agency

Flashback
Jarod		Here’s my final recommendation on the airline simulation.
Eddie		You seem angry.
Jarod		I stole dsas of all my simulations. The Centre takes my findings and twists them, sells them to the highest bidder. Instead of using to prevent tragedies, they teach people to cause them.
Eddie		Oh, they couldn’t.
Jarod		They do. They’re never going to make me do another one. I’m going to escape Eddie and when I do, I’ll come back to get you.

Agent Zane		CSI went through everything, from the oxygen in the inflatable clown to the water in the super soaker and couldn’t find so much as a suspicious fiber that will give us a clue as to who the chameleon is.
Telephone rings
Jarod		Agent Morse.
The Chameleon		Did you get the photos I left for you?
Jarod		Who are you?
The Chameleon		I am you and you are me and we are one and the same. Lighten up man, it’s a joke, you know, the nonsensical words of a disturbed man. Any real NSA agent would expect to hear from me. It’s not what you’d expect, is it Jarod?
Jarod		How do you know my name?
Bird Squawks
The Chameleon		I guess that would be strange hmm. You must be so accustomed to being the only one in the room who knows you really are. It’s quite a rush isn’t it? Sitting in their midst and they have no idea how superior we are to them. It’s so easy to look down upon, so easy to manipulate. They so want to believe in who we pretend to be. Well this time, you’ve been unmasked and I’m the unknown man.
Jarod		I’ll find out who you are. As a matter of fact, I’m looking at your file right now.
The Chameleon		What a coincidence, I just happen to be reading one of yours and it tells me Jarod that you have a flaw in your character that makes you want to help people. I do hope this won’t make you an unworthy adversary.
Jarod		Eddie was right. This is a game for you.
The Chameleon		A game that poor Eddie lost.
Jarod		Well, I hate to break it to you but Agent Ballinger is still alive.
The Chameleon		Game’s not over. And I never make the same mistake twice. He’s awake now, you know?
Call ends.
Agent		Agent Ballinger just woke up.
Tires squeal
Hospital
Elevators open
Jarod		Ballinger.
Eddie		Whoa! I give up, don’t shoot.
Agent Zane		We thought you were in trouble.
Eddie		Jarod?
Jarod		Uh, Agent Morse.
Eddie		Oh my God.
Agent Zane		I must have missed the briefing.
Eddie		Uh, Agent Morse and I are old friends.
Agent Zane		From the Academy Training Center?
Jarod		Uh, yes, from the Centre.
Agent Zane		You never mentioned that to me.
Jarod		No, I, I didn’t.
Agent Zane		Well, I’ll give you boys a chance to catch up.

Jarod		It’s so good to see you. What are you doing out of bed? Go back to bed!
Eddie		I just got a mild cranial abrasion, I’ll be fine.
Jarod		Man, you’re as stubborn now as you were at the Centre. Sit down.
Eddie (pulls gun)		Yeah you have no idea. Oh, it’s yours. I’m a much better pick pocket now than I ever was a doctor.
Jarod		What are you doing?
Eddie		A lot of strange things have been happening to me lately. I’m not quite sure who to trust.
Jarod		Eddie, it’s me. It’s Jarod.
Flash black
Sirens Wail
Jarod		Splitting up is our only chance. Let’s go find those families. Good luck.
Present Time
Eddie		I’m sorry. I just, never knew if I’d ever see you again. I guess in my heart, I always knew I would.
Jarod		Hey, sit down. I’ve been one step ahead of the Centre since we escaped.
Eddie		I guess I’m lucky. Either they haven’t found me or they haven’t bothered looking. You find your family?
Jarod		Some. I’m still searching for my mother.
Eddie		Find her Jarod. Find them all cause family is the only thing that matters.
Jarod		I can see that. I thought maybe you’d like to have them close.
Eddie		Thanks. Well, if you’ve seem my desk, you’re wearing that badge, I assume you’re chasing after the chameleon now too.
Jarod		Yes. Do you know who he is?
Eddie		I don’t know. Jarod, before we escaped from the Centre that night, I’d been running a simulation that you didn’t know anything about called Starpoints. It was designed to create covert identities for the NSA’s top five undercover agents. A few months ago, those very agents started being killed. Now, the chameleon beat me to number four but he won’t beat me to number five. The chameleon obviously knows about my sim and for some reason at the very moment that he shot me, I got a strange feeling that he knew me as well.
Jarod		I feel like he knows me too. Eddie, do the initials T. T. mean anything to you?
Eddie		Double t. Oh, it couldn’t be him could it?
Jarod		Him?
		Chopper approaches hospital window. Window shatters as gun fire erupts.

Jarod		Eddie!
Eddie		Jarod.
Jarod		Did you see him? Did you see the chameleon?
Eddie		He was a dead man.
Jarod		Dead man? Eddie. Eddie?
		Law enforcement radio as Ballinger’s body is wheeled away.

Jarod (on the telephone)		You said the voices you heard kept saying double t? I believe T. T. is a man with ties the Centre. I need to know who that man is.
Ethan		I’ll do my best.
Inner sense voices
Ethan		T.T. Tommy.
Vision
Miss Parker		Mom.
Catherine Parker		Give me your hand.
Miss Parker		I don’t understand.
Catherine Parker		Ask your father, he knows all the secrets.
Crash as support beam falls
Vision ends
Tires squeal
Broots		Miss Parker!
Car stops
Miss Parker		You okay Broots?
Broots		I have a little more empathy for road kill than I did a second ago but yeah, I’m fine.
Miss Parker		Double t?
Broots		I started wit Centre personnel files and found a dozen names with the initials T. T. Out of those, I found one with a familiar Centre history.
Miss Parker		Dr. Tommy Thompson. He was a Centre research psychiatrist just like Sydney.
Broots		He was transferred to Cairo less than a week after Jarod escaped. You don’t think that’s a coincidence do you?
Miss Parker		Coincidence ain’t in the Centre dictionary. Get in.

Flashback
Eddie		They’re going to kill me Jarod. The Centre is going to kill me.
Jarod		What are you talking about?
Eddie		The Centre is terminating my program. They’re going to kill me.
Jarod		You have a family out there Eddie. So do I. You’re coming with me.
Eddie		Jarod, you designed your escape plan for one person only.
Jarod		Well, I’ll make it work for two. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.

Present Day
Agent Zane		Eddie was a lucky guy.
Jarod		He seemed to have had it all. Did you know him well?
Agent Zane		He was caring and he had a good heart.
Jarod		But?
Agent Zane		I always had the feeling he was hiding something, like he was looking over his shoulder. He seemed to feel so alone somehow.
Jarod		Well, even people who seem to have it all have their demons.
Agent Zane		That feeling I got from Eddie, I get the same from you.
Agent Tracer		I may not know Apache but I know electronics. It’s a wireless tap, a cord is linked to my wireless laptop. If the chameleon calls again, we’ve got him.
Jarod		Good thinking.
Agent Zane		By the way, any idea why the chameleon got in touch with you?
Telephone rings
Agent Tracer		Any luck, this is the next time.
Agent Zane		Are you going to answer that?
Jarod		Agent Morse.
The Chameleon		Congratulations on your inheritance.
Jarod		Inheritance?
The Chameleon		The case, the case. Eddie’s little investigation of yours truly, by the way, the chopper pilot, you’ll find in a field near Meadow Springs uh, send a coroner.
Jarod		What do you want?
The Chameleon		I want to see what happens when I kill someone important to your world.
Jarod		If this is a game, at least fill me in on your rules.
The Chameleon		Ah, if I told my all my secrets to the other agents listening in, it wouldn’t be much of a game now would it Jarod? Have a nice day.
Agent Tracer		We’ve got the trace. It’s a marine line from a boat in Delaware. Some place called Blue Cove.

The Centre
Sydney		Sorry Parker, what I remember of Dr. Tommy Thompson is that he was recruited to the Centre by Mr. Raines
Miss Parker		Come on Syd, there must be something else.
Sydney		It’s been a long time but I seem to remember your father actively disliked him.
Miss Parker		Disliked him why?
Sydney		I never knew.
Miss Parker		Maybe my inner sense it telling me that Dr. Thompson wants to hurt daddy, the question is where is he?
Broots		I can’t tell you where Thompson is but I can tell you where he is not. Cairo. The factility has no record of him ever working there.
Miss Parker		You sure Broots?
Broots		One hundred percent. But there is someone trying to find him here. Before I could get them, the Thompson files were already accessed by-
Miss Parker		Mr. Lyle.

		The waters outside the Centre
Agent Tracer		True to form, the chameleon left it clean. No prints, hairs, nothing.
Agent Zane		Great. Jarod? Jarod, you okay? You don’t look so well.
Jarod (staring at the Centre)		Never been very comfortable in this part of the world.
Agent Tracer		You’re gonna want to take a look at this. It’s just through here.
On boat outside the Centre
Agent Zane		Toys, twinkies, cookies, pez. You ask me, the chameleon is searching for a lost childhood. Jarod?
Jarod		Lost childhood or no, the chameleon is not without culture.
Agent Zane eyes opera glasses and sign language book		Wait a minute. The guy watches opera but doesn’t listen to it.
Voices outside of boat
Lyle		Excuse me, what’s going on here?
Agent Tracer		NSA, this is an investigation. You are?
Lyle		Mr. Lyle.
Agent Tracer		What’s your business here?
Lyle		I’m with the company, happy to help any way I can.
Agent Tracer		Did you or anyone else happen to see where this boat came from?
Lyle		Not to my knowledge. Fellows? No what ever got this boat here is damn smart. These waters are restricted, our security people enforce that.
Agent Tracer		What is it you guys do up here?
Lyle		Research. We’re like a think tank. Guinea pigs. So, you’ll be wrapping up soon?
Agent Tracer		Won’t be much longer now. Mr. Lyle, your thumb is bleeding.
Lyle		Oh um, guess uh, robbing body parts isn’t what it used to be.
Agent Tracer		Right.
Lyle		Laughs.

The Centre
Sydney		You were correct Jarod. Your photo was cut from an old id.
Jarod		There’s something else I need to know. A simulation the Centre ran called Starpoints. It’s about the identities of undercover NSA agents.
Sydney		Wasn’t that Dr. Thompson’s project?
Jarod		Dr. Tommy Thompson.
Sydney		You’re the second person to bring up that name to me today.
Jarod		Let me guess. Miss Parker.
Sydney		Yes.
Jarod		I need names Sydney, answers about that simulation. Lives depend on it.

Centre parking garage
Miss Parker		Mind if I thumb a ride?
Lyle		Not now sis.
Miss Parker		Did you know that when you call me sis, someone either dies or disappears.
Lyle		It’s late and so am I.
Miss Parker		Big rendezvous with T.T. You probably know him as Tommy Thompson.
Lyle (opens door)		Stay out of it.
Miss Parker (closes car door with hip)		Loved to. Can’t. So, what in the hell are you hiding?
Lyle		What in the hell are you smoking? Why is it that every time your planets don’t quite line up, you go right to the conspiracy card and come after me?
Miss Parker		You want donkey spit, you find an ass.
Lyle		Oh, sell me a vowel here Parker.
Miss Parker		No, I’ll give the whole puzzle. Your buddy, Dr. Thompson, is somehow tied to our mother.
Lyle		Your inner sense voice tell you that? Be careful sis, don’t go believing everything you hear.
Miss Parker		It’s daddy isn’t it? If I found out anything has happened to our father and you knew about it, there won’t be enough spare body parts in Blue Cove to piece your sorry ass back together.
Lyle opens cell phone and dials		This is Lyle. Cut off his anesthesia. I’m coming down to see him now and I need him alert.
Miss Parker {to Broots}		Let’s see where the rat scurries.

		Centre SL 20 Infirmary Hallway
Broots		You think your father’s in there?
Miss Parker		Based on what we’ve seen down here before, I sure hope not.
		Lyle snatches curtain open
Miss Parker		Raines!
Broots		I thought he was dead.
Miss Parker		Not anymore.

		Infirmary room;
Raines (grabs Lyle’s wrist)		I want it back.
Lyle		And I want answers. If you won’t give them to me, I’ll spread the rest of you around like a download from Napster.
Jarod’s lair

Ethan		It’s like a big riddle Jarod. All these things seemed to be tied together. Maybe the photos are just about your face, maybe the messages on all this other stuff.
Jarod		No, that would be too obvious. The chameleon knows it. He said this was a game. He wanted me to dig for answers. Look at that, his hand is forming the sign language equivalent for the letter g. {picks up another photo} H. {another photo} O. {another photo} S. {last photo} T. The chameleon is trying to tell me he’s a ghost.
The Centre
Broots		It was like something right out of Scoobie Doo, monster Raines is chained down in some weird cellar and Master Lyle comes down to pay him a visit.
Sydney		I can’t believe Raines is alive.
Miss Parker		But for how long? Lyle wasn’t exactly tucking him in with a good night mint.
Sydney		It is quite possible that Raines is our final link to your mother and to Dr. Thompson.
Broots		Which is why we need him alive.
Miss Parker		Let me know the second Lyle so much as peaks out from under his rock.


		National Security Agency
Agent Zane		Hey, you never did tell me why the chameleon said our secrets.
Jarod		You said it yourself, he’s toying with us. Saying things like our secrets divides us, makes us question our loyalties. Obviously, it’s working.
Agent Tracer		Jarod, this was left at reception for you.
Agent Zane		Gonna open it?
Jarod		My notebook. I left it in a taxi.
Agent Zane		Thoughtful guys, those cabbies.
Jarod walks away
Agent Zane		Are you good at keeping secrets Agent Tracer?
Agent Tracer		The federal government seems to think so.
Agent Zane		I want everything you can dig up on Jarod Morse. My eyes only.

Jarod flips through red notebook which includes photo of his mother with tears added in ink.		Why are you crying mom? {Another clipping reads: NSA AGENT Jarod Morse ~ Private Service Tonight At Elk Grove Park}
Elk Grove Park
Jarod finds casket with origami piece.
Flashback
Eddie		I like your crow Jarod.
Jarod		Oh, it’s not a crow, it’s Onisius. The Greek god of retribution.
Eddie		Well that’s not what he told me.
Jarod		Who?
Eddie		Him. {Eddie points to man}
Present day
Jarod		Alex.

		The Centre Parking garage
Lyle (answers cell)		Lyle. I just emailed the address Raines gave me. Did you get it? Good. You want me to what? The emphysema freak’s a harmless puddle in a wheelchair now..you..ok. Yes sir. Okay, consider Raines a dead man.
Sydney {spying on Lyle}		Miss Parker, Miss Parker, it’s me.
Lyle draws gun and makes his way to the infirmary
Infirmary
Raines reaches for and drops bed pan
Miss Parker		All filled up and no where to go?
Raines		Leave me alone. I’m in enough pain without you.
Miss Parker		Listen up doc, a little bird has whispered into my ear that hunting season has just opened and your the prize kill so that gives you exactly two choices. Either you answer my questions and I consider saving your pathetic carcass or I leave you here to have your parts picked clean like a beat up Buick in a chop shop. What’s it going to be sport?
Raines		I’m listening.
Miss Parker		I want to know about Dr. Tommy Thompson.
Raines		I knew him. He worked here. If I tell you any more than that, I might have to talk about your mother.
Miss Parker		Talk.
Raines		After I’m safely out of here.
Elevator dings
Broots		Miss Parker, someone’s coming.

		Lyle enters infirmary, opens fires, opens curtains to discover Raines gone.

		Mr. Parker’s residence
Miss Parker		You were saying about my mother?
Raines		It was Catherine who insisted I hire Dr. Thompson.
Miss Parker		Was he her lover?
Raines		I don’t know. They clearly had a history together.
Miss Parker		Being lovers would certainly explain why my father never liked Dr. Thompson.
Raines		Your father didn’t like Thompson because he blamed him for Jarod’s escape.
Sydney		Tommy Thompson never had anything to do with Jarod. Why would Mr. Parker blame him for Jarod’s escape?
Raines		I can’t believe you didn’t know.
Broots		Didn’t know?
Raines		Jarod didn’t escape alone.
Jarod’s lair
Jarod		Three of us escaped that night. Me, Eddie and a third pretender named Alex.
Ethan		And you think is Alex is the chameleon?
Jarod		A ghost is the chameleon.
Flashback
Radio traffic		Sweeper 211, prepare for nightly lock down.
Sweeper (enters code)		Lock down complete. {Sweeper stumbles, groans)
Jarod (watching sweeper)		Come on, come on.

		Sweeper collapses Jarod produces long instrument which he slides under door to retrieve keys from collapsed sweeper
Radio traffic		Sweeper 211, report in. (continues as Jarod gets keys) Alarm sounds. Jarod reaches through bars and unlocks door, runs to Eddie’s room.
Eddie		What did you give him?
Jarod		A natural sedative that I derived from mold and dust in my room.
Eddie (freed and looking at camera)		Jarod, they’ll see us.
Jarod		They already have. Come on.
Present time
Sydney		Why weren’t we told about the other escapees?
Raines		The cover up directive came from high up.
Sydney		The tower?
Miss Parker		My father?
Sydney		Triumvirate?
Raines		I don’t know. I do know this. The cover up was all about the pretender named Alex.
Flashback
Alex (calls from locked room)		Good luck Jarod.
Jarod		Alex. They said they transferred you out of here.
Alex		They’re liars. I’ve never begged before.
Jarod		I don’t know if three of us can make it but we’re going to try.
		Footfalls, heavy doors slam close
Jarod		One more to go!
Eddie (falls)		Jarod! Jarod.
Jarod		Alex help.
Alex (stares)		Come on!
		Jarod and Eddie safely make it past closing doors and to a waiting Alex
Jarod		Are you okay?
Alex		Thank God you made it.
Jarod		Yes. Come on.
Running continues
Escapees enter Rehydration Core
Door closes
Jarod		It’s sealed.
They climb to reach another exit
Eddie		Jarod.
Jarod		Release valves, they know we’re here. Cover your faces.
Release valve sprays Alex who slips.
Alex		Ohh!
Jarod		Alex no! Hang on. I’ve got you.
Alex		Don’t let me fall Jarod.
Jarod		Hang on.
Alex		Don’t let me fall! Don’t let me fall!
Alex slips
Jarod		No!
Jarod’s lair
Jarod		I couldn’t save him.
Ethan		Alex died?
Jarod		Or so I thought.

		Mr. Parker’s residence
Raines		Eddie, the other pretender, got away.
Miss Parker		Eddie?
Raines		A subpar pretender. Once we realized Jarod was the only pretender of value, the search for Eddie stopped.
Broots		What about Alex?
Raines		He was found in the rehydration core, nursed back to health and shipped out.
Miss Parker		Where?
Raines		I never heard anymore about it.

		Jarod’s lair

Jarod		It’s not fair.
Ethan		About Alex?
Jarod		I can’t imagine what the last five years have done to him.

		Mr. Parker’s residence
Miss Parker		If this other pretender, Alex, is somehow tied to Dr. Thompson then maybe their paths lead to my father.
Alex’s lair
Mr. Parker is un-hooded by Alex
Mr. Parker		What do you want?
Alex		I want everything.
Alex slices Mr. Parker’s tie with knife
Alex		Why Mr. Parker, you look mad enough to kill me but you can’t. I’m already dead.
The Centre
Miss Parker		Tell me you found Tommy Thompson.
Broots		No but I finally cracked Mr. Lyle’s phone archive. It’s the call he received from your father.
Broots’s gadget plays conversation
Mr. Parker		Lyle listen, your mad man is inside my house. Now dammit, do something! Hey! Hey you, get away from me! Y…stop! (crash is heard)
Lyle		Dad? Dad are you okay? Dad!
Dial tone
Broots		That’s where it ends.
Miss Parker		No, Scooby Doo, that’s where it begins.
The Centre parking garage
Lyle and two men walk
Lyle		I’m good.
Man		Alright Mr. Lyle
Miss Parker		Boo.
Lyle exclaims in surprise and drops keys
Lyle		God! You scared the-
Miss Parker		It’s called crap Lyle and as full of it as you are, I’m sure you have some to spare.
Lyles reaches for dropped keys as Miss Parker steps on them
Miss Parker		Looking for something? Or should I say someone?
Lyle		What are you talking about?
Raines		I’m talking about the alive and kicking emphysema ridden ghoul you’re harvesting for body parts.
Lyle		Then you know Raines is alive.
Miss Parker		I know a little about a lot. Raines, Tommy Thompson and your mad man Alex. What I don’t know is why.
Lyle		It’s simple. Survival. Alex kidnapped our father and he’s made it clear that he’ll kill him if I don’t carry out his every wish.
Miss Parker		Why wasn’t I told?
Lyle		When it comes to psychos, Alex is the real deal. The more I contain this, the better I thought dad’s chances would be.
Miss Parker		Like hell.
Miss Parker presses play button on recorder		Lyle, listen to me, your mad man-
Miss Parker		Daddy called him your mad man. Now-
Miss Parker (reaches for and grasps Lyle’s hand.)		You tell me why or I’m returning this to Mr. Raines.
Lyle		Uh. God, you’re a crazy bitch.
Crunch is heard as Miss Parker grips Lyle’s thumb
Lyle		Oh!
Miss Parker		You don’t know the half of it.
Lyle exclaims in agony as she shifts the direction of Lyle’s newly stolen thumb
Lyle		Alright, alright! After the escape, I took Alex to Africa, the Triumvirate assigned him to me. It was an impossible task. I tried to mold him but this guy is way too evil, way too whacked to be pliable.
Miss Parker		Sounds like you two are birds of a feather.
Lyle		Jeffrey Dahmer would be afraid to flock with this guy. No matter what I did to control him, he fought it. He started reporting directly to the Triumvirate, gleefully carrying out their dirty work.
Thumb bleeds, Lyle exclaims as Miss Parker shifts thumb’s direction
Lyle		Now whatever it is he’s doing for them now, he seems to have added another wrinkle.
Miss Parker		Wrinkle?
Another crunch, shout as Parker tortures Lyle’s thumb
Lyle		Payback of some kind, hell bent on revenge on anyone from his Centre past.
Miss Parker		Like killing our father.
Miss Parker painfully releases Lyle’s thumb.
Lyle		Which he may have already done.
Inner sense voices
Miss Parker		No. Daddy’s still alive. But Alex will kill him.

The Centre
Miss Parker		You’ve found my father.
Broots		No. Tommy Thompson. I cracked the encryption on double T’s file and found that the Dr’s transfer to Cairo was just a cover up for where he was really sent.
Miss Parker		Which was?
Broots		Exactly where the Centre sends people when they want their gray matter martinized.
Sydney		The renewal wing.
Broots		Exactly.
Sydney		They sent Thompson there for a re-education.
Miss Parker		Let’s go.
Broots		Uh no, he’s not there anymore.
Miss Parker		Where is he?
Broots		Good news, bad news. The good news is after he was released, they set him up in Westbrook, Maryland.
Miss Parker		Bad news?
Broots		Bad news is there are two addresses in Westbrook where he might be.
Miss Parker		Good news, bad news Broots. You take one, I’ll take the other.

Jarod’s lair
Inner sense voices/ Ethan reacts as he views computer screen with two addresses
Ethan		Miss Parker’s in trouble. I gotta help her. I gotta help her.
National Security Agency
Telephone rings
Jarod		Jarod.
Ethan		I found Tommy Thompson.
Jarod		Where?
Ethan		Two addresses in Westbrook, Maryland. I’m faxing them to you right now. Jarod, I’m going.
Jarod		You’re going where? To Thompson’s?
Ethan		No, to see Miss Parker, my sister. She’s in trouble, I have to warn her.
Jarod		To warn her about what?
Ethan		I can’t explain it right now okay? I love you brother, I have to go.
Jarod		Ethan.
Telephone rings (presumed caller is Alex)
Jarod turns on cell phone to interfere with conversation
Agent Zane (outside door)		Pick up!
Agent Tracer reacts to static when Jarod picks up phone		Ah! I’ve lost audio.
Agent Zane		Can you still trace?
Agent Tracer		Uh, yeah.
Jarod picks up phone		Morse.
Alex		Four rings. I was starting to think you were avoiding me buddy.
Jarod		I’m not your buddy. Alex.
Alex		Took you long enough to figure out it was me genius.
Jarod		I thought you were dead.
Alex		A lifetime has passed since I died just like a lifetime has happened for you. The big difference though, I’ve dedicated myself to eradicating the insignificant and you’ve chosen to help them. The crippled, the abused, the, uh, mentally challenged, they all seem to have you as their advocate now don’t they Jarod? Like I said it’s a flaw in your character, it’s almost as if you’re trying to heal thyself through your works of kindness.
Jarod		You know nothing about what I do.
Alex		Oh, you’ve left your mark. (Alex places bloody fingerprint on wall) Mysterious doctor saves crippled boy, fireman saves estranged family, abused elders saved by reclusive industrialist. (Alex clicks open knife) But to what end? (Alex cradles phone between shoulder and head as he begins to peel off fingerprint with knife blade) I mean does it make you feel more like a real person Jarod? Is that it? Listen, you do yourself a favor, stop trying to be like them, like a real person with a real past. You and I aren’t and never will be.
Jarod		What was robbed of us at the Centre does not have to be the arbiter of who we are now.
Alex		It doesn’t? Oh, ok the you tell me one thing of any permanence in your life, one thing that means anything and don’t say family please, those you have found, those you haven’t have to hide from you in order to stay safe from the danger that permeates your entire existence. See, the Centre still has that power over you Jarod. Me, I took that power away.
Jarod		What are you talking about?
Alex		Well didn’t you read the paper today? It’s in the top drawer of your desk. Sorry I missed you on my route this morning. See by taking the lives of my own family, I stole the Centre’s power, I forever released myself from emotional bondage to the boys in Blue Cove.
Jarod		You’re insane.
Alex		No Jarod, I’m free. And now they can’t hurt me anymore and that makes it my turn.
Jarod		Eddie was one of us.
Alex		Eddie knew too much.
Jarod		What about me?
Eddie		I’m sowing the seeds of your destruction as we speak.
Call ends
Agent Tracer		Got it! We’ve got the trace.
Jarod reaches for and reads the fax that Ethan sent as Agent Tracer speaks
Agent Tracer		It’s an address registered to a Tommy Thompson in Westbrook, Maryland.
Jarod		Oh no.
Westbrook, Maryland

Miss Parker (tries light switch which doesn’t work)		Perfect. Dr. Thompson? Tommy Thompson?
A bomb is shown in the room as well as mice in cages. Parker walks towards an open safe, finds tear shaped diamond ring, flashback to vision of her mother saving her/ the ring.
Miss Parker		Mom.
Present time
Miss Parker (studies ring.)		What the hell is going on?
Miss Parker places ring on her finger and it catches red light from the bomb. She turns to see five seconds left on the timer and runs but is caught in the explosion.
Miss Parker (once again covered in rubble, a burning support beam looming overhead)		Oh my God. Perfect. {She struggles to remove the rubble trapping her} Oh.
She hears movement
Miss Parker		Here! I’m over here!
Catherine Parker appears in the smoke and dust
Ethan		Miss Parker! Miss Parker! I’m sorry I couldn’t get here sooner.
Miss Parker		I don’t understand. How could you be-
Ethan struggles to lift beam from Miss Parker’s leg.
Ethan		Give me your hand.
Miss Parker		It was a premonition, not a dream.
Burning support beam falls just as Ethan pulls Miss Parker free
Ethan		Tommy Thompson’s not here.
Miss Parker		Then he must be at the other address.
Ethan		Let’s go!

The ‘other’ address (NSA agents enter with guns drawn)
Agent Zane		What have you got?
Jarod		A very dead Tommy Thompson.
Clatter is heard from closet behind agents. Jarod opens door to find a cowering Broots!
Broots		Please don’t shoot! (He sees Jarod) Oh my gosh.
Jarod		You have the right to remain silent. (Jarod grabs Broots, pulls him close) And I suggest you do. Cuff him.
Mr. Parker’s residence
Sydney is downloading simulations (Starpoints for Jarod) when Miss Parker and Ethan enter.
Miss Parker		Where’s Broots?
Sydney		Bad news all around I’m afraid. Broots never got back or called. As for Raines, he was gone when I got back here several hours ago.
Miss Parker		Probably got one of his werewolves in training to drag his butt out of here. No doubt he’s holed up in the woods somewhere licking his wounds until the next full moon rises.
Sydney		Any luck finding Dr. Thompson?
Ethan		No. We went to the second Thompson address. There were police cars there and an ambulance pulling away.
Sydney		You don’t think that Broots-
Miss Parker		Let’s hope not Syd.
Sydney stands to leave
Miss Parker		You’ll keep me posted if you hear from him?
Sydney stops, nods, exits.
Miss Parker		Sighs.
National Security Agency
Agent Zane (referring to Broots)		Besides claiming he had nothing to do with the murder, this whimp has lockjaw and won’t even give us his name.
Jarod		Well, give me five minutes alone with him, I’ll give you enough information to write his biography.
Agent Zane		I’ll stay, thanks.
Jarod		So, you won’t talk, is that it?
Broots		I don’t know what to say.
Jarod (pours a cup of water)		Well, why don’t we start with your name?
Broots		It’s Broots but I don’t think I should say anything else.
Jarod		Why not? I mean, did we offend you by bringing you here today? We are sorry but the fact that we found you hiding at the scene of a capital murder did give us probable cause. Still won’t talk. Well, I guess something really must have you spooked. Or should I say someone?
Broots		Uh, okay, if you’re so smart, then why don’t you tell us?
Jarod grabs Broots’ hands
Jarod		Hands like butter with little calluses on each finger tip screams computer geek. (Jarod grabs Broots’ forehead) The dull, sunken withdrawn look in his eyes says internet porn junkie and these cloths, they say unemployed and that corpse like complexion says recluse. The little indentation on your second finger, left hand says you just removed your wedding band. Naughty boy. If you can believe somebody actually goes to bed with this. No, this loser here, he had nothing to do with the murder.
Broots		He’s right uh, not about the loser part.
Agent Zane		{to Broots} Shut up. {to Jarod} How do you figure?
Jarod		Cough if I get off track Mr. Broots. Our married, unemployed, web whacker here was at the scene of the crime because he made a date with a woman he met on the internet. Were you planning a little afternoon rendezvous Mr. Broots? (Broots nods) Let me guess, your internet fantasy girl, she’s tall, slender, leggy, has a penchant for leather, has sharp claws and an even sharper tongue?
Broots		Um, usually.
Jarod		Fantasy girl must have realized what a tremendous geek you were and she gave you the wrong address? Not wanting to park the family gremlin in front of chat room Charlene’s, hitched a ride and he gets there, nobody’s home but the door’s open so you let yourself in, you found the body, you heard the police pulling up and you hid in the closet and that, as they say, is that, isn’t it Mr. Dot Com?
Broots		Dead on.
Jarod		I’ll check out his story. In the meantime, why don’t you put him down in the hole?
Broots		The hole?

Mr. Parker’s residence
Miss Parker		Why did you come for me?
Ethan		Mother’s voice told me to.
Miss Parker		She told you to save me?
Ethan		Just to go. Even though I’d been there before, sort of.
Miss Parker		What do you mean?
Ethan		Well, ever since I can remember, I’ve had this repeating vision. I’m in a burning room and this woman emerges from the smoke to save me. She’s wearing this ring (Ethan reaches down, takes Miss Parker’s hand) and the reflection off the ring is so bright that I’ve always thought of it as like a beacon for her.
Miss Parker		She’s our mother.
Ethan		Yes, I know that now because you look just like her. Tell me everything that you can remember about her. Please.

National Security Agency
		Jarod types up and prints a report on Broots then offers it to Agent Zane
Jarod		The information on that Broots character.
Agent Zane		Guy checks out just like you said. Spring him.
Jarod’s cell phone rings
Jarod		Yes.
Sydney		I found it Jarod, I found the Starpoints sim.
Jarod		I know there were five undercover agents. A Bosnian labor leader, a Russian Diplomat, an Irish priest and an Arab oil minister. I need to know the name of the fifth undercover agent.
Sydney		It’s a she. An ambassador from Sweden. A Hilga Ulfsoon.
Jarod		Uflsoon. Thank you Sydney.
Jarod hangs up, dials number
Jarod		Yes, I need the number for the Swedish embassy please. Thank you.
He hangs up, dials again.
Jarod		Swedish Embassy? This is Olav Bjorn, Stockholm Daily News. I need Ambassador Ulfsoon’s Washington, D.C. itinerary for my photographers. The Opera house reception. Four O’clock.
Flashback		The Chameleon is not without culture.
Present day
Jarod		Thank you. (hangs up phone)
Agent Tracer		Zane! I got the results from that bloody fingerprint from the murder scene. You’re never gonna believe who’s print it is.
Agent Zane		Jarod is our chameleon? (Zane and Tracer run to Jarod’s office.)Where is he?
Elevator dings
Broots		That’s it? I just walk out of here?
Agent Zane		Jarod!
Jarod		No .You just run out here.
Pursuit ensues
Tires squeal as Jarod and Broots flee scene
Agent Zane (runs inside, picks up phone)		It’s Zane. I want to blanket APB Agent Morse. I don’t why and I don’t how but Jarod is our chameleon.

Mr. Parker’s residence
Ethan		Sounds like she was an amazing woman.
Miss Parker		She always was to me. That’s why it’s so important that I find out what she meant about my father knowing all the secrets. It may sound strange but I I’ve always felt that she was looking out for me, like a guardian angel.
Ethan		She has been.
Phone rings
Miss Parker		What?
Mr. Parker		It’s me angel.
Miss Parker		Daddy, I’ve been so worried.
Mr. Parker		Listen to me, I need you to come to the south shore shipyard, twenty, five o’clock and I need you to come alone.
Miss Parker		I will but-
Mr. Parker		You’re my last hope angel.
Miss Parker		Daddy. Daddy!

Jarod’s car
Broots		I’m having a breakdown here.
Jarod		Shut up and let me think.
Broots		Uh think. You know what I think, I need to check into a clinic. Wouldn’t that be a laugh? What clinic would I check into? The minute I tell them the truth about my world they’d be convinced I was crazy. Where are we going?
Jarod		The opera.
Broots		The opera? I hate the opera, there’s no hot dogs, there’s no popcorn.
Jarod		Shut. Up.
Broots		I’m sorry, I’m sorry but when I’m nervous, I talk and right now I’ve got a lot to be nervous about. First there’s the explosion in DC underground and there’s Miss Parker’s start seeing visions and Raines getting murdered and then unmurdered and then Lyle who used to not have a thumb, getting a thumb and Mr. Raines who had a thumb losing his thumb to Mr. Lyle and then finding out that not only one pretender escaped from the Centre no, three of them of did and then trying to locate a a a a live psychiatrist only to find a dead doc and being arrested by a guy who’s not really a federal agent, oh and while we’re at it, why don’t we just throw Mr. Parker into the mix.
Jarod		What about Mr. Parker?
Broots		Well, he was kidnapped.
Jarod		Kidnapped?
Broots		By the guy, Alex, the other pretender.
Jarod		I’m letting you off here.
Broots		What?
Jarod		Get out!
Broots		Why? Okay.
Jarod		Get out!
Broots gets out, slams car		I’m having a breakdown here.

Opera house
Cop on stake out sees Jarod
Cop		Dispatch, put me through to Agent Zane.
Clock chimes at Four
		Jarod sees Alex at window with gun and saves Ambassador and takes a shot to the shoulder
Cops		Shots fired at the opera house, officer needs assistance. Stay down!
Jarod		The Ambassador is still alive Alex! Your little game of tag is over. Looks like you’re not going to win this time.
Alex		You have to know what game you’re playing before anyone can win anything.
		Alex surprises Jarod, knocks him down
Alex		How the Centre could ever think I was second to you amazes me…didn’t perfect any simulation. Once Mr. Altruism was finished, who do you think they brought in to corrupt your findings hmm?
Jarod		What?
Alex		Who do you think made the planes crash that you made so safe? Who you do think found and murdered the witnesses you gave new identities to, turned your vaccine into a epidemic?
Jarod		You bastard!
		Alex kicks Jarod and runs, pursuit ensures, Alex closes gate, locking Jarod inside.
Alex		Tell me Mr. Altruism, where was your flaw in character the night we escaped?
Jarod		Eddie and I tried to save you. You know that.
Alex		What I know is that while you walked around free, I was shipped off to the Triumvirate and turned into their puppet. They needed a back up pretender while they were out searching for you. Well, I’m not a back up anymore.
Jarod		So Starpoints was just a way for you to show off to the Triumvirate how talented you were? And Eddie found out. Didn’t he?
Alex		Oh, Eddie was a speed bump. Jarod, you turned a routine Triumvirate assignment into something wonderfully personal to me. Luring you was simple. It’s that flaw in your character that made it so easy. Always risking your life for somebody who’s not important to you world.
Jarod charges gate		The Ambassador is important to the world.
Alex		Not the world. Your world. The Swedish Ambassador? She’s nothing to your world. But Miss Parker is. In fact, you have no idea how important to your life she really is and after today, you’ll never know.
Alex leaves, again, Jarod charges gate
Jarod		Alex! Alex! Alex!
Footsteps approach
Agent Zane		Jarod freeze!
Cop		Ma’am, this man didn’t shoot the Ambassador. He saved her life.
Jarod		Andrea I know you have questions about me and rightfully so but I can catch the chameleon if you just let me go. Alone.
Agent Zane		No way.
Jarod		You once told me that Eddie had a big heart and there was something about me that reminded you of him. I know you have questions but I don’t think that you question that my heart is in the right place. Please. Trust me!

Mr. Parker’s residence
Telephone rings
Ethan		Hello?
Jarod		Where’s Miss Parker?
Ethan		South side shipyard.
Shipyard Alex’s lair
Miss Parker		Daddy, daddy where are you?
Muffled sounds come from locked freezer
		Miss Parker lays down gun, opens freezer, finds her Mr. Parker
Mr. Parker		Damn, what you took you long?
Miss Parker		Daddy, I’ve been trying.
Mr. Parker		Untie me. We’ve got to get out of here before that sick bastard gets back.
Alex		Too late. That sick bastard is already here.
Miss Parker runs for gun, Alex reaches it first
Alex		So nice to finally meet you Miss Parker.
Mr. Parker		Damn. It. There’s got to be a way to get out of this, something that will make you happy, you psychopath!
Alex		Oh I am happy Mr. Parker, but there is something that I’d like to clarify.
Alex pistol whips Mr. Parker
Alex		I’m not psychopath, I’m a sociopath. There’s a difference. You see a psychopath is insane. He can’t distinguish between wrong and right. A sociopath knows the difference, he just doesn’t have a conscience, you know? So he doesn’t care. It was that conscience that your people took away from me.
Miss Parker glances behind Alex to Jarod enter
Alex		So now blowing your brains out or eating a popsicle is all the same to me.
Miss Parker		Why shoot him?
Alex		Cause he’s the one who thought I was inferior to Jarod, the one who sent me to the Triumvirate but I am not second to Jarod and if either of you were to be alive to be read tomorrow’s paper, well, you’d see that point was proven.
Miss Parker		Can I ask you one thing?
Alex		What’s that?
Miss Parker		For years, I’ve been searching for the secrets that only my father knows. I came to ask him.
Alex		Well that is ironic and funny, isn’t it pops?
Miss Parker		Ironic?
Alex		You’re right about your father knowing all the secrets.
Miss Parker		Then why funny?
Alex		He’s not your father.

Jarod		Alex!
Shot is fired, hits Mr. Parker
Miss Parker		Daddy!
Alex and Jarod fight
Miss Parker		Daddy.
Mr. Parker		It isn’t supposed to happen this way. There’s so much you need to know.

		Jarod chases Alex outside to the end of shipping crane over looking water
Jarod		There’s no where left to go Alex!
Alex (looks down)		Well, there’s on place.
Jarod (extends his hand)		Come back in. What was done to you, what was done to me was inexcusable but it’s not worth dying for. Let me help you.
Alex		Now why would you want to help me?
Jarod		I have a flaw in my character remember?
Alex		No thanks.
Jarod		It doesn’t have to end this way.
Alex		You don’t know what you’re saying Jarod.
Jarod		I know that there is always hope, always.
Alex		There’s no hope for me or for you. Do you have any idea what they would do to me if they got me back? Do you even know why they want you back so much, why they’ve been chasing you for five years? You really think it’s about being a pretender do you?
Jarod		What are you talking about?
Alex		You have no idea who you really are. Did you find your mom yet?
Jarod		No.
Alex		No, they’re never going to let that happen.
Jarod		Why not?
Alex (laughs)		And they thought you were the smart one.
Alex steps back
Jarod		No Alex!
Jarod grips Alex’s wrist
Jarod		I’ve got you!
Alex		No Jarod. You save me, you win but if I fall, only you lose.
Alex pulls back, falls
Jarod		No!
Splash
The Centre
Inner sense voices/flashback
Miss Parker		I don’t understand.
Catherine Parker		Ask your father. He knows all the secrets.
Telephone rings
Miss Parker		What?
Jarod		It’s Jarod.
Miss Parker		Consider yourself lucky to be sure of even that.
Jarod		Did they find Alex’s body?
Miss Parker		Not as far as I know, but I don’t often get told the truth.
Jarod		You sound as worn down as I feel.
Miss Parker		The word is lost Jarod and it’s getting dark fast. For starters, I don’t know where Broots is and Ethan is gone. I don’t if he left or if he was taken-
Jarod		Taken?
Miss Parker		He started a note he never finished but there’s no sign of struggle.
Jarod		What about your father?
Miss Parker		Unconscious and in intensive care at the Centre, if he his my father, all of which leaves me wondering just exactly who I am.
Jarod		Welcome to the club.
Miss Parker		Tell me the truth Jarod, do you know if he’s really my father?
Jarod		Do you know why the Centre wants me back so badly? Is it just because I’m a pretender. Or is it something else?
Miss Parker		Even if I knew, you know I couldn’t tell you.
Jarod		Then I guess that leaves us down the same dead end. All secrets. No answers.

		Both Miss Parker and Jarod are alerted by incoming message
Jarod		Hang on.
		Email they both receive is a photo of their mothers taken together
Miss Parker		You are not going to believe what I just got.
Jarod		Our mothers. Together.
Miss Parker		This is the key to the biggest secret of all.
Jarod		And the first one who finds the answers wins.

Raines’ computer		Your mail has been sent
Raines		We’re even now, my children. God speed

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