An investigation into a string of bizarre robberies leads Helen Magnus and Will Zimmerman to a crime ring of thieves who seem to be able to slip between the cracks of the law... literally.
[Malcolm runs down alley which dead ends. Car lights shine on him. He looks up to see a police car coming into alley. He runs to end of alley and opens a door to a chute.]
[The policemen have exited the car and are running down alley with guns drawn.]
POLICEMAN 1
Do not move! I don't want to shoot you!
[Malcolm climbs up and goes down chute. He pulls out a flashlight and looks around. As the policeman struggle to get the chute doors open, Malcolm sees a pipe that draws his attention. He pries the grate off and looks into it with his flashlight.]
POLICEMAN 1
Come out with your hands up!
[The policemen have managed to open the door to the chute. Malcolm raises his hands to the side of his head and squeezes his head. His head deforms making it narrower. The policemen go down chute into an empty room.]
[Will is walking into the library carrying a brown bag. He walks over to where Henry is sitting at a computer. Magnus and Ashley are standing on either side of Henry looking over his shoulder.]
Okay, I’m still not getting why this ends up on our radar.
ASHLEY
Just wait.
MAGNUS
The officers enter the basement just moments after the gunman did, and once inside, they report that there's absolutely no sign of him.
WILL
So, what, he just...disappeared?
MAGNUS
According to the police, there was absolutely no way this man could have possibly exited. [Grabs file off table] It's all in the police report. Quite the enigma.
[Magnus hands Will a file.]
[Will turns and walks away studying the file closely.]
These urban myths we're talking about go back a lot further than contemporary sightings.
WILL
But they're all part of what, the same phenomenon?
MAGNUS
No, no, there's quite a range. Flexpeople -- Whole tribes with genetic defects in collagen synthesis. There's a sect of ShintoMonks that are said to bow without bending.
ASHLEY
Then you've got your turn-of-the-century sideshow contortionists -- The Human Corkscrew. Henry Athol the Boneless Wonder, and not the least, my personal favorite, Elastic Ed.
WILL
But no one's ever been able to fully document these folding men?
MAGNUS
Well, if they even exist; they must be quite elusive.
WILL
You know, there was this case that I worked on at the agency that never got solved but had a very similar set of circumstances.
Are you serious? She knows when you switched from boxers to briefs, man. What's the similarity?
WILL
Three bank employees gunned down in cold blood, and the robbers run into a vault with the cops on their heels, and apparently "disappear".
MAGNUS
According to Will's report, the only possible means of escape was a nine-inch-square ventilation shaft, a scenario that didn't win you many points, if memory serves.
WILL
No, but it gets weirder. Um, the only thing that was stolen in that robbery was half a million dollars...in gold.
ASHLEY
Whoa.
WILL
Do you think it's possible that Austin and our folding man are somehow connected?
[Will is sitting at desk working as Magnus and Ashley come in.]
MAGNUS
Looks like your cold case file may have given us our first positive lead. I analyzed trace blood from that bank vault. It didn't match any of the victims.
ASHLEY
Which means it must have come from one of the robbers.
WILL
Do you have a DNA match? Because we could never find one.
MAGNUS
Nor did I, at least not to an individual who left it, but we did find someone right here in Old City whose DNA matches sixteen alleles out of the twenty that we looked at.
WILL
That many genetic markers has got to be a close relative.
MAGNUS
Probably the Austin thief's father. He's a 71-year-old by the name of Oliver Braithwaite. His DNA was in the system from a suspect sweep a few years back.
WILL
Do you have an address?
MAGNUS
He's a drifter, from what we can tell.
ASHLEY
Hangs out in my favorite part of town, the old Bryant Street corridor.
They call him Nomad. He's taken the best of our youth, ripped them from their homes, turned them against their families. Aaron was going to study medicine.
Well, he may be crazy, but he's also a criminal genius. He gets folders hooked on this addictive drug of his. He's got some hotshot drug chemist to make it locally. If I could...find out where... ...I'd kill him myself.
MAGNUS
We want to stop this Nomad, too. Maybe we can help each other.
OLIVER
I just...want my boy back, that's all.
MAGNUS
We'll do everything we can. I promise you.
[Oliver nods and leaves.]
WILL
So, who would know about this high level of trafficking?
What he does with his own criminal enterprises is really not my concern.
ASHLEY
What is your concern?
JONES
That he's making his move on me. It's how he's planning to consolidate his power. I'm thinking we can do each other a solid -- I tell you where Malcolm is, you get a lead on Nomad and take care of my problem.
ASHLEY
More than fair.
JONES
Our good friend Malcolm’s been spotted near the old cannery. My men went to capture him, but he's, uh, slippery.
[Malcolm stops and looks at Ashley and Will. He turns and starts running upstairs. He jumps down on the other side into the loading docks. He brings his hand to his head and starts to fold. He jumps through a small window in the fence. As he comes out the other side he lands inside the back of the van. Magnus is waiting for him and shuts the door.]
Gold's unreactive to most chemicals, but it will bond to certain organic compounds. Now, this one's part of a whole new wave of metallotherapeutic pharmaceuticals.
WILL
-So it's a medicine?
MAGNUS
-For normals, yes. But for folding men, at least based on what I’ve seen of Malcolm’s DNA, it creates a virtually instant craving. It likely also dulls the pain of folding, acting like a sort of beta blocker. Without it, the pain would be beyond excruciating.
WILL
Well, if Jones is right, two nights from now, Nomad floods the market with this, cheap, powerful TPG. It turns the whole society of folding men into his private criminal army.
MAGNUS
(Well) If this quantity of designer drug is being made locally, it'll leave a trail -- we'll look for that. Meantime, find out what you can from Malcolm.
Nomad never would've let himself get caught unless he wanted to be. He would've turned you into a stain on the sidewalk first. Why'd you bring me here? What do you want from me?
WILL
I want you to help us get Nomad before he can do any more damage.
-No matches to an individual. But genetic markers indicate it was definitely the blood of a folding man.
WILL
Retribution for the help that he provided us?
ASHLEY
Not retribution, a power grab -- control of the city's crime syndicate and hundreds of thousands in drugs and cash. [Sighs] Just as Mr. Jones feared.
MAGNUS
No doubt Nomad will use it to pay for his truckload of TPG. We've got less than nine hours. If we don't intercept that drug shipment and Nomad gets his way, the city had better brace itself for a major crime epidemic.
WILL
I still think Malcolm knows more than he's telling us.
Well, based on his father's description, I think he might be a chink in Nomad's armor -- Intelligent, close to his family.... See what you can find out.
That one took you down a notch, didn't it? What, did you expect me to deny it? Nomad knew more about you than you knew about him. Irony was, you came so close to breaking that case. He got a real kick out of that.
WILL
Were you in the vault with him?
MALCOLM
Yeah.
WILL
-That didn't bother you?
MALCOLM
-Of course it bothered me. The bank manager was begging for his life...said he had two little kids, one with serious mental problems. Nomad just shot him in the head, laughing the whole time.
WILL
All those years, you didn't think about just walking away?
MALCOLM
And go where? We had to stay together for safety. Why is...? Why is that so hard for you to understand?
[Magnus is sitting next to Oliver on the couch. Will is sitting in chair across from them.]
MAGNUS
I'm so sorry. When we promised you that we would find your son, I never imagined that it would be like this.
OLIVER
I wanted Aaron...to be a doctor. I could imagine him working in a place like the Sanctuary. He...He was a smart boy. He was kind. [Sobbing] What is there left for me? What's left for any of us?
[Magnus is sitting at computer with Henry and Ashley on each side of her. They are looking at the monitor.]
HENRY
When you broke it all down for me, the most basic recipe for TPG, no shortcuts, everything from scratch, the only local buyer is a small manufacturer just three miles north of the city.
I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but we found Aaron at the location you gave us....
MALCOLM
No....
WILL
There's not much doubt about who's responsible.
MALCOLM
He was my best friend. If I had only supported him, he'd probably still be alive, if we had all just stood up to Nomad like he wanted.... His blood is on my hands as sure as if I pulled the trigger myself.
WILL
But you didn't pull the trigger. You're not a murderer, Malcolm.
MALCOLM
Aren't I? How do you know what I’m capable of?
WILL
You're right. I don't.
MALCOLM
I've watched him kill more than once and done nothing. I helped him beat a man to within an inch of his life. And guess what? I enjoyed it. I've given over what I am, who I am, to a monster.
WILL
Your awareness, your remorse, that's what separates you from Nomad.
MALCOLM
Nomad's just an excuse. My addiction is just an excuse. I'm the monster. I'm the monster!
Look at me. I can't even get through a day without gold pumping through my veins.
WILL
You're kicking it. And if you can do it, so can other folding men.
MALCOLM
I'm too weak. I'm too weak. My strength comes from the gold and from Nomad.
WILL
No, your strength comes from you. Malcolm, listen to me -- folding men are dying. Innocent people are dying. Now, you know where he is.
MALCOLM
I can't....
WILL
Why don't you do it for Aaron? He gave his life up for you guys. We're running out of time, Malcolm.
MALCOLM
I...I can only tell you where they used to be based. It's in an old factory. The city shut it down. Toxic metals. All kinds of places to hide. No matter where Nomad moved, he always kept information there, in loose floorboards, in the walls -- The locations of his safe houses, the drug labs, weapons caches....
WILL
Where would I find these things?
MALCOLM
I'll -- I'll give you the address, I'll, uh, draw you diagrams of it, describe it all to you.
[Will realizes that Malcolm is actually Nomad, not Carver; that while in the Sanctuary, Malcolm had switched their positions, portraying himself in his story as being in Carver's role and saying that Carver was in Nomad's role.]
WILL
You're Nomad. Carver is your pawn. They're all your pawns.
MALCOLM
(as Nomad)
Mind like yours, Zimmerman? Too smart for the room. Overthinks everything.... The easiest to, uh, manipulate.
WILL
Can't you see what he is? He's just an addict. He's just an addict with a messianic complex. He doesn't care about any of you.
MALCOLM
(as Nomad)
You still don't get it. I love my people. I'm doing this for my people. No more cowering in the shadows. I'm bringing them into the light.
WILL
And what about anyone who gets in the way?
MALCOLM
(as Nomad)
I think you know the answer to that. In a little while, I'll have my hands on enough TPG to draw recruits from all over the continent -- A small army of the most powerful folding men.
WILL
Whatever you do to me, they'll know, at the Sanctuary. They'll know, and they'll be all over you.
MALCOLM
(as Nomad)
If I know Doctor Magnus -- And I do, at least by reputation -- she's undoubtedly already fallen for my bait. It's amazing the kind of disinformation you can plant with just a little know-how. Oh, and you'll love this, Will. The TPG, my TPG.... [Whispering] It wasn't made locally. It's coming from Austin.
[Will sighs]
MALCOLM (O.S.)
(as Nomad)
I wasn't worried about the police or Mr. Jones or anyone, for that matter, except the Sanctuary. I had to make sure that none of you would interfere.
WILL
He ordered you to kill that pawnshop owner. All it took was a look.
MALCOLM
(as Nomad)
Well, unfortunately, all these revelations -- you won't be able to share them with the rest of the world.
WILL
And what about Aaron? You going to let someone take the rap for that, too?
EXT. OLD CITY - OLD FACTORY - FOLDING MEN HIDEOUT - DAY
[Truck is pulling up to dock The driver goes to back up truck and starts to unload. Ashley is behind him with gun aimed at him.]
ASHLEY
That looks like barrels of fun.
INT. OLD CITY - OLD FACTORY - FOLDING MEN HIDEOUT - DAY
CARVER
He was just a kid!
MALCOLM
(as Nomad)
He was trying to undermine me. He was trying to undermine all of us. He deserved a traitor's death.
MAGNUS
Drop the guns. I will not ask again.
CARVER
(to Malcolm)
You son of a bitch.
[Malcolm shoots Carver but as Malcolm turns to shoot Magnus, Carver fires his gun at Malcolm as he is falling. They both collapse and die and the rest of the men lower their guns. Magnus moves to kneel by Will.]
Four to six weeks and most of our folding men can be returned to their homes. Hopefully drug free.
WILL
Look, can you just say it, please? I mean, it's the elephant in the room. -I let myself get conned.
MAGNUS
-We all let ourselves get conned. Some of us just had a plan "B".
WILL
Yeah, well, that's the last time I play by the old rules.
MAGNUS
Don't be so hard on yourself. We stopped the destruction of an entire culture of abnormals. And you got to the bottom of one of your agency's biggest mysteries.
WILL
You're right. What am I talking about? I'm a hero.
ASHLEY
Actually, on a scale from zero to hero, you're more like --