CHAPTER 23 — The Oil Field
EXT. OIL FIELD 513 - AFTERNOON
The friends approach Oil Field 513 from the desert ridge. Below: an industrial hellscape. Rusted pipelines snake across cracked earth. Smoke stacks belch orange fumes. Drilling rigs grind and screech. Everything is metal and heat.
At the centre: a massive extraction tower. Cables run from its top into the ground, pulsing with faint light. The Binary Light's energy is being siphoned.
GASMO (VOICE 1)
Watso's operation. He's extracting the Light's energy to power something.
GASMO (VOICE 2)
To power Shadow's ship. The ship that will take the pole to Evil A.
PING studies the compound through his rebel sunglasses.
Twelve guards. Two at the main gate. Four on patrol. Six near the tower. There's a drainage channel on the east side.
That's our way in.
We split up. Ping, Didge, Wini — you take the east channel and get to the tower controls. Zoo, Bijou, Gasmo — with me through the pipe system.
Since when are you giving orders?
Since the wall paintings said we should.
ZOO smiles. First real smile in days.
EXT. OIL FIELD - DRAINAGE CHANNEL - AFTERNOON
PING, DIDGE and WINI slide into the drainage channel. Rust-coloured water runs ankle-deep. The pipes groan above them.
INT. OIL FIELD - PIPE SYSTEM - AFTERNOON
ZIN, ZOO, BIJOU and GASMO move through the massive pipes. The metal walls are hot. Steam vents hiss.
GASMO (VOICE 1)
Watch the pressure valves. They blow every forty seconds.
GASMO (VOICE 2)
Thirty-eight. I've been counting.
A valve explodes steam. They duck. Move on.
BIJOU spots something through a grate in the pipe floor. A room below. Someone is chained to a chair.
Down there. Look.
ZIN looks through the grate.
Berg.
INT. OIL FIELD - HOLDING CELL - AFTERNOON
BERG is chained to a heavy chair. His Ministry suit is torn and filthy. His face is bruised. He's been here for days.
BIJOU and GASMO pry open the grate. ZIN drops down. ZOO follows.
Berg. Berg, can you hear me?
Zin? Zoo? How did you—
We're rebels now.
Rebels. Ha. I always suspected you two would cause trouble.
ZIN works on the chains. GASMO drops a tool down.
_(quietly, almost to himself)_
I thought I was helping. I thought...
HE CAN'T FINISH. THE SENTENCE JUST STOPS, LIKE A MACHINE RUNNING OUT OF POWER.
What happened to you?
Watso. The night you escaped through the cleaning cabinet, he came to my office. Said I knew too much about the Light. Said he needed me out of the way while he moved the pole.
We thought you were working with State Security.
State Security was looking for ME. As a missing person. Watso told everyone I'd gone on holiday. Holiday! I've been chained to this chair eating protein bars for a week.
The chains come loose. BERG stands, shaky.
BERG (CONT'D)
He's upstairs. The extraction tower. He's been pumping the Light's energy into a transport pod. Shadow wants to send it to orbit.
To Evil A.
You know about her?
We know everything now.
INT. OIL FIELD - EXTRACTION TOWER - BASE - AFTERNOON
The group reconvenes at the base of the extraction tower. PING has disabled two guards with E-pill darts. WINI and DIDGE have found the control panel.
The extraction is at seventy percent. The pole is up top, being drained.
If we shut it down from here, the whole system overloads.
GASMO (VOICE 1)
Don't shut it down. Reverse it. Feed the energy back.
GASMO (VOICE 2)
Gently. Like returning a borrowed book.
GASMO (VOICE 1)
Gently nothing. Crank it.
WINI and DIDGE work the controls. The pipes begin to shudder.
INT. OIL FIELD - EXTRACTION TOWER - TOP LEVEL - AFTERNOON
ZIN and ZOO climb the tower. BIJOU covers the stairway below. BERG follows despite his weakness.
At the top: a circular platform open to the sky. The Binary Light's pole hangs suspended in an extraction cradle — a ball of swirling white and red energy, cables piercing it from all sides. It pulses weakly. Sick.
WATSO stands at the controls, his back to them.
I was wondering when you'd show up.
He turns. He looks tired. His suit is stained with oil and Light residue. His hands glow faintly where the energy has burned them. HE LIGHTS A CIGARETTE. HIS HANDS ARE STEADY FOR ONCE. HE HAS ACCEPTED SOMETHING.
WATSO (CONT'D)
This is a job. Your sister made it complicated.
HIS VOICE IS FLAT. NO ANGER. NO IDEOLOGY. NO SPEECH ABOUT THE GREATER GOOD. JUST A MAN WHOSE TRANSACTION WENT SIDEWAYS.
WATSO (CONT'D)
The famous twins. You know your sister ruined everything?
What are you talking about?
Her. Walking through that wall. Talking to the rebels. Falling for that VJ idiot. Everything was working. The system was working. Shadow had his plan, I had my payment, and Twin City stayed exactly as it was supposed to be. Controlled. Efficient. Safe.
Safe for who?
For everyone! You think the rebels are heroes? They're chaos. They're disorder. Everything the Algorithm built, everything that keeps Twin City running—
Is a cage.
Is a HOME.
He lunges at ZOO. Not with a weapon — with his bare hands, glowing with stolen Light energy. ZOO dodges. The energy arcs off WATSO's fingers and hits a pipe, which bursts.
Water begins flooding the platform from the burst pipe. The extraction system screams.
WATSO grabs ZOO by the collar.
WATSO (CONT'D)
Your sister ruined everything. And now you'll both pay for it.
ZIN grabs a loose cable from the extraction cradle. It crackles with Light energy. She swings it at WATSO. He releases ZOO.
Water is rising. The machinery grinds. Gears turn in the floor.
WATSO lunges again. ZOO pushes him back. WATSO stumbles into the extraction cradle's mechanism — the gears catch his coat, pull him in.
WATSO (CONT'D)
No— the system— I served the system—
The machinery takes him. The gears turn. WATSO is pulled into the mechanism he served. The extraction cradle sparks and goes dark.
Silence. Then the rush of water.
EXT. OIL FIELD - EXTRACTION TOWER - UNDERWATER - AFTERNOON
The platform floods completely. ZIN and ZOO are underwater. The burst pipes pour thousands of litres per second.
Underwater: strange beauty. The Binary Light's pole, freed from the cradle, floats in the water. It pulses — stronger now, no longer drained. Red and white light fills the flooded chamber.
ZIN reaches for ZOO's hand. They float together in the light.
For a moment, everything is quiet. The Light illuminates them from within. They can see each other clearly — really clearly — for the first time.
ZOO opens his eyes. Points up. They swim.
EXT. OIL FIELD - TOWER EXTERIOR - AFTERNOON
ZIN and ZOO burst through the surface. They climb out of the flooded tower onto the exterior scaffolding. BERG pulls them up.
Below, the water drains through the broken pipes. The extraction tower is ruined.
Watso?
ZOO shakes his head.
BERG closes his eyes. Nods.
A sound. Deep. Wrong. Like a bass note felt in the chest. 27 Hz.
The sky darkens. Not clouds. Something is moving between them and the bright sun.
DR SHADOW steps out from behind the tower's antenna array. He is calm. He has been watching.
FOR THE FIRST TIME, WE SEE HIS FACE FULLY. NOT IN SHADOW, NOT HALF-TURNED. THE LIGHT FROM THE POLE ILLUMINATES HIM — OLDER THAN EXPECTED. LINED. NOT CRUEL. TIRED.
Impressive. Truly. But the pole is still here, and my employer is... impatient.
GASMO STEPS FORWARD ON THE SCAFFOLDING. THEIR EYES MEET. A BEAT. THE YEARS BETWEEN THEM VISIBLE IN THE AIR.
GASMO (VOICE 2)
Hello, old friend.
Gasmo. Still hiding in the swamp?
GASMO (VOICE 1)
Still running from yourself?
THE MOMENT HANGS. TWO OLD MEN WHO MADE DIFFERENT CHOICES STANDING ON OPPOSITE SIDES OF A RUSTED PLATFORM. NEITHER RAISES HIS VOICE. THE QUIET IS THE LOUDEST THING.
SHADOW BREAKS THE GAZE. He walks towards the Light, which still floats in the draining water of the wrecked platform.
ZIN steps between him and the Light.
No.
Little twin. You've been brave. But you don't understand what you're protecting. The Light doesn't belong to you. It doesn't belong to the rebels. It belongs to the Algorithm. And the Algorithm belongs to her.
We saw the paintings. The Light chose us.
The Light doesn't choose. It records. It is a machine. And machines serve their masters.
He reaches past ZIN. She grabs his arm. He is stronger — much stronger. He pushes her aside.
ZOO tackles him. DR SHADOW throws ZOO off like a doll.
PING appears on the scaffolding above. He drops — lands on DR SHADOW from behind. DIDGE follows. BIJOU. They pile on him.
DR SHADOW throws them off one by one. He is not human. Not entirely.
GASMO (VOICE 1)
The railing. Push him to the railing.
GASMO (VOICE 2)
The water. He's weakened by the Light's energy in the water.
ZIN and ZOO charge together. Shoulder to shoulder. Twin force. They hit DR SHADOW at the waist and drive him backward.
His feet slip on the wet scaffolding. He grabs the railing. It bends.
She is coming. You stopped nothing.
The railing gives. DR SHADOW falls.
HE DOESN'T SCREAM. HIS FACE, AS HE GOES OVER, IS NOT AFRAID. FOR ONE FRAME — JUST ONE — HE LOOKS ALMOST... RELIEVED. THE DEAL IS OFF. THE LEASH IS GONE.
Down through the scaffolding, through the broken pipes, into the flooded depths of the extraction tower.
He doesn't surface.
GASMO STANDS AT THE RAILING AND LOOKS DOWN INTO THE WATER. HIS HAND GRIPS THE METAL. BOTH VOICES ARE SILENT.
The 27 Hz sound intensifies. The friends look up.
Something vast is moving across the sky, blotting out the bright sun.
What is that?
GASMO (VOICE 2)
Evil A.
GASMO (VOICE 1)
She's here.