Click to load or right-click to download full-size image.

INT. DR. LAL’S OFFICE – DAY

LINDA BAINS enters, all silent middle-aged secretarial professionalism. She also carries a silver coffee service, which she sets on the table.

HARRY

Thank you, Linda.

LINDA

Will you need anything else, Dr. Lal?

HARRY

No, that will be all. Please be sure to close the door on your way out.

Linda leaves. George sits, silent and nonchalant, until the CLICK of the door closing. Then he leans forward with a concerned look on his face, his air of easy confidence dissipated. Harry pour coffee for George and himself as George talks.

GEORGE

This isn’t about the investment, Harry. I’m here because…well, I’ve got a strange problem and I’m not really sure what to do about it.

Harry hands George a cup of coffee on a saucer.

HARRY

Oh? What kind of problem?

George takes a swig of coffee before putting the cup on the table.

GEORGE

We’ve been doing some good business lately, redeveloping old red-brick warehouses down by the riverfront. You know the story. You buy the decaying property, gut it, rebuild the interior with condos, shops, and restaurants. Tear out the rail spur that used to feed the place and turn it into a bike path. And now you’ve got an industrial-chic property right near downtown. Young professional types, they eat that shit up. Before you know it you’re practically printing money.

HARRY

Okay, so what’s the catch?

GEORGE

So we acquire this property, right? And I send in one of my engineers to do a preliminary survey. Ten minutes in I get a phone call. “Mr. Rocke, sir, you need to come down and see this.” Guy sounded real shaken up. So I go down.

HARRY

And what did you see?

GEORGE

Right there in the main floor, there was…something. Something I can’t describe, except that it was…big,

HARRY

Big?

GEORGE

I swear to you Harry, it wasn’t there when we signed on the place. Someone must have put it there. Or maybe it grew there or crawled into there or…I don’t know. It was alive and it was moving and I can’t really say more than that.

HARRY

I don’t understand, George. Why come to me? Why not go to…animal control?

GEORGE

You don’t understand. This thing is monstrous and I don’t need the media circus, to say nothing of perhaps the fucking Environmental Protection Agency, coming down on me just because it showed up on my property.

HARRY

George, I…

George leans forward and puts a hand on Harry’s shoulder.

GEORGE

Harry, you remember back in college? You were always the science genius, the Phi Beta Kappa guy, the guy who knew how to solve things and fix things. And I’m the guy who barely got a C-minus in introductory biology and that was with your help.

HARRY

Well…

George sits back

GEORGE

I’m asking you for your help again now.

HARRY

I don’t know, exactly…

GEORGE

I will also make it worth your while. You want to make the drugs of the future, right? Well, I wasn’t kidding when I told you that business was really good, and I can really help you, if you would help me. At least just take a look and give me some advice about how to handle this.

Harry sits and sips coffee for a minute thinking matters over.

HARRY

I suppose I and some of my people could come out and take a look.

GEORGE

(happy, relieved)

Great! That’s great! One thing…

HARRY

Yes?

GEORGE

You know those spacesuit things you science guys sometimes wear?

HARRY

You mean Hazmat suits? Sure, we have those. Why?

GEORGE

You might want to wear them, just to be safe.

Harry steeples his fingers, looking pensive.

Please do not reproduce this storyboard or its associated screenplay text without permission from Faustus, who may be contacted here.