FADE IN:

EXT. PHOENIX USA - NIGHT

SUPERimpose: "2086 AD"

Moonlight shimmers over the city.

EXT. FOOTBALL STADIUM GROUND

The field is full of jubilant people throwing books onto
bonfires.

INT. MOBILE COMMS CENTRE - CONTINUOUS

This small enclosure is lit with the faint glow of exotic
electronic equipment and display screens. A LISTENER occupies
it, his world engulfed in one display screen and a headset.

He listens enraptured to the voice of AEU, which is mellow
and cultured but has just a hint of computer generation.

                   AEU (V.O.)
         He is on his way. Get ready.

Listener types rapidly as he talks.

                   LISTENER
         They're about to bite.

                   HARSH VOICE (V.O.)
         Just don't mess up on the timing.

EXT. STADIUM VIP EXIT - CONTINUOUS

JP walks out through the doors to applause of high-ranking
official types. He holds himself confident and erect - an
important man, but his eyes dart here and there like a hunted
animal.

INT. MOBILE COMMS CENTRE - CONTINUOUS

                   HARSH VOICE (V.O.)
             (urgent)
         Now!

Listener types rapidly.

                   LISTENER
         Cutting in.

He hits the transmit key, then starts talking. His voice
simulated like AEU's.

                   LISTENER
             (simulated)
         He's out. ignore previous
         instructions. Make direct for the
         limo.

EXT. STADIUM VIP EXIT - CONTINUOUS

JP stops to thump an applauder's upper arm.

                   JP
         Big crowd. Well achieved.

JP is jumpy, and is startled badly as firecrackers going off
nearby. He hurries away from the man, who looks after him
with confusion.

EXT. STADIUM CAR PARK - CONTINUOUS

Four assassins hardly to be seen creep through the shadows
between the cars, hugging automatic rifles. They head towards
a large limo surrounded by bodyguards.

The assassins pause as they approach an open space, checking
their equipment one last time.

The leader indicates, and they make a combined dash.

As they break cover there is a flash from nearby, and they
all collapse to the ground.

A security guard emerges from the shadows and approaches the
unconscious bodies warily, holding a handgun.

He talks into a lapel pinned radio.

                   GUARD
         Looks like we got some. Sector blue
         five.

                   HARSH VOICE (V.O.)
         How many?

Guard squints as he counts.

                   GUARD
         Four.

                   HARSH VOICE (V.O.)
         Good. We got em all.

EXT. STADIUM VIP CARPARK - CONTINUOUS

JP approaches his limo with his five attractive wives
standing around the chauffeur attended open door, watchful
bodyguards close-by.
His wives all look like Barbie dolls except one, MISTY, whose
dress and poise shows a little more dignity. JP flashes an
uncertain smile at her, but she is too saddened with the roar
of flames and zealots from the stadium and misses it.

JP gets in the back with irritaton.

                   JP
             (petulant to wives)
         Get in!

His other wives look daggers at her as they all join JP and
his PHYSICIAN in back of

INT. LIMO

                   PHYSICIAN
         How have the hands been?

JP holds a surgeon-gloved hand up to silence him, and
immediately activates a radio in roof of the car.

                   JP
             (anxious)
         Situation?

                   HARSH VOICE (V.O.)
         Defensive success. Offensive, a few
         more seconds.

INT. COMPUTER NETWORK SIMULATION - CONTINUOUS

Listener watches his screen as it simulates the status of a
transmitted virus.

In the centre is a multi-coloured object like an organic
virus, it travels down a tube made of a mesh grid.

Suddenly the long extending tube closes, and the virus
disintegrates.

INT. LIMO

                   HARSH VOICE (V.O.)
         Offensive is negative. Same
         problem, our viruses aren't
         adaptive enough.

                   JP
             (angry)
         You mean you messed up. Out!

Misty looks thoughtfully at JP as he slumps back furiously,
then gets a book from under her coat and starts reading.

JP sees his physician looking curious at him.

                   JP
         Just business.

Physician shakes his head.

                   PHYSICIAN
         So? How have they been.

                   JP
         What? Oh - yes. Hands. It's more
         the knee. Been killing me.

Misty sighs ironically as she tries to lose herself in her
book.

                   PHYSICIAN
             (patronising)
         I'm more concerned about the hands.
         Lets get the gloves off.

                   JP
             (angry)
         It's the knee, damn-it.
             (Dismissive)
         Never mind, go see to chauffeur
         Hand looked mauled by cat.

Deflated, JP's physician exits, slipping JP a pill. Chamber
music starts to drift out the speakers.

JP activates the intecom for the chauffeur.

                   JP
         Airport, when ready.

                   JP
             (dismissive to wives)
         Suggest you all have naps. Long
         flight soon.

JP closes his eyes, frowning.

EXT. LARGE PRIVATE JET - NIGHT

Flies through a clear starry sky.

INT. BUSINESS COMPARTMENT

JP shuts and locks the door, then sits at a desk activating a
switch. The small IT room comes alive with LEDs and screens
showing various business and stock-market information.

                   JP
         Connect, Argus, encrypt.

                   COMPUTER
         Connections with argus being
         established.

JP drums his fingers and looks at the ceiling.

                   COMPUTER
         Three connections made. Four
         failed.

                   JP
         Project.

Three people appear in hologram.

                   FRANCOIS
         It's about time!

                   JP
         Yes. Busy.

                   IVAN
         It failed. Didn't it.

                   JP
         Only partly. Captured four agents,
         so maybe learn something.

                   CHI
             (furious)
         You put an important asset at risk
         for no reason.

                   IVAN
         Not to mention yourself. God knows
         we're thin enough.

                   JP
         Fervour in that area was getting
         low. Had to take a hand.

                   CHI
         But you didn't have to take her, or
         your other wives along.

                   JP
         Had to look natural.

                   CHI
         You just thought you could end this
         war without giving her up. Stop
         barricading.

JP's attempted response is interrupted

                   FRANCOIS
         Anyway, it's been discussed. It's
         time to use her the way we planned
         against the AEU.
         We didn't revive her just to be
         your private little fantasy, or
         mouse-trap.

                   JP
             (indignant)
         Oh, really?

The three hologram images become fuzzy.

                   IVAN
             (breaking up)
         JP! Don't ... dare dis ... ect!

                   JP
             (confused)
         I'm not...

He is interrupted by an alarm and the computer's voice.

                   COMPUTER (V.O.)
         System integrity alert. Virus
         infection in progress. isolate all
         cak-ik-nok-tinka

The computer's voice becomes garbled then stops as all the
equipment shuts down and the lights extinguish, to be
instantly replaced by red backup lighting. A piercing
emergency siren replaces all other sound.

INT. PASSENGER CABIN - CONTINUOUS

Bathed in red emergency lighting and piercing alarm. The
aircraft begins juddering as it starts to lose control.

JP's four barbie dolls panic and begin screaming.

Misty holds a book with her white knuckles.

                   MISTY
             (to book)
         Oh no! Not now, Please!

She kisses it passionately.

INT. BUSINESS COMPARTMENT

JP is sat bolt upright in his chair with his arms stiff in
front of him, eyes glued to the small window, waiting for the
inevitable.

Suddenly, everything changes again. Standard lighting flicks
back on, and the siren stops blaring. The equipment powers
back up, and the vibration from the airframe smooths out as
it gets control back.

JP takes deep breaths as he recovers a little more slowly
than his environment.

The intercom buzzes as he his AIDE reports.

                   AIDE (V.O.)
         Sir? Are you alright?

JP takes a moment to react to the voice, then slowly reaches
to activate the mike.

                   JP
             (carefully)
         Yes. I'm ok. What happened.

                   AIDE (V.O.)
         Virus attack, probably up the comms
         link.

                   JP
         Thought We're protected, and
         encrypted.

                   AIDE (V.O.)
         It's only a hunch at the moment.

JP brushes a hair back.

                   JP
         A hunch?

                   AIDE (V.O.)
         Peters doesn't know for certain,
         yet. But he's recommending
         encryption codes be changed daily.

                   JP
         He's always recommending that.

                   AIDE (V.O.)
         He respectfully begs to remind you
         of the AEU's complexity. He thinks
         it's in the realms of probability
         it could crack through, given time.
         A daily change would render it un
         crackable.

                   JP
         Tell him we'll have to discuss it.
         What happens meanwhile?

                   AIDE (V.O.)
         He's shutting down all non
         essential transmissions until we're
         on the ground.

                   JP
         Oh! very well. Tell him well done.
         Quick work killing the virus.

                   AIDE (V.O.)
             (disbelief)
         He says he didn't do anything.

                   JP
         he says what?

                   PETERS (V.O.)
         Sir, I'm running checks to confirm,
         but it looks like the virus very
         efficiently shut down all our
         systems, and then immediately
         brought them back unmolested. If it
         was me, there's only one reason I'd
         do something like that.

                   JP
         go on.

                   INTERCOM (V.O.)
         To show what they could do if they
         wanted. A warning shot over our
         bows, in a manner of speaking.

INT. PASSENGER CABIN - CONTINUOUS

                   CAPTAIN
             (calmly over Tannoy)
         Sorry for that bit of unexpected
         turbulence. The stewardess will be
         coming around to check everybody's
         ok, and take any requests for
         refreshments. Please note the
         safety-belt sign, which will be on
         for the remainder of the flight.

The Barbies are talking excitedly and complaining to each
other.

Misty smiles at her book, then kisses it again.

                   MISTY
         Not today then.