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SCENE 1
We hear a televised report of a hostage taking involving an oil tanker that has been foiled, due to the "untiring work" of the national security force. This report is followed by the strange story of a car carrying five people, found dead beside the road in Montana - no cause of death.
We meet the characters of Duke and Andrew - two Reachers - in the bar at Cat's Reach, "The Cat's Meow". They're watching the news report on Duke's wide screen tv.
Three other Reachers return by seaplane from their last mission - Erika, Mac and Tong.
We establish the characters at Cat's Reach and their families.
The Reachers meet to discuss their last mission, and to go over the details for their next assignment. The government has been able to keep it all hush-hush, but a small town of forty-five people in an isolated area of Montana has been wiped out by a mysterious disease. Biological warfare is suspected. The five people found dead in the car in Montana were part of it. Unfortunately those five deaths couldn't be covered up before the media reported it.
Andrew decides who is going to go on the mission. Whoever goes must find out what the virus is, how it was caused, and how to prevent it from spreading. He decides on Randa, his wife because she's a specialist in biology, Erika, Mac and the new man, Ben. Andrew and Duke exchange a significant glance.
Tong Yee is up late printing passports, birth certificates and driver's licenses for everyone.
SCENE 2
The team leaves Cat's Reach the next morning and flies to Seattle. They're met by a boat, which takes them up the coast to an isolated pier. They go into a house and meet a man who looks like Santa Claus - he's to give them further instructions. He gives them what information he can on the case. Ben feels that he's being watched. We see a reverse POV showing that someone is indeed out there - but not who.
The team goes to the town that was wiped out. A new development - a woman that worked in the local bank had left town the day before everyone died - she came back not knowing what had happened. She's been given extensive medical tests, and there's nothing wrong with her. Everybody else is dead, and there are no clues. The government disavows any knowledge of biological weapons being used and swears they're not to blame. Randa looks at the situation, and decides that it has to be something that was brought into the town, and it must work very quickly. Everyone that died had respiratory arrest, but the scientists working on it don't know why. The authorities don't want to let any information out about this, because they feel that there would be widespread panic. A map showing the location of dead bodies shows a circle, with the exception of one small area. Randa visits the area and discovers that the people who survived were on well water, while the rest drank from a common supply. She does further research and finds that the everyone who got their water from a common source is dead, while those people that lived on well water are fine. She thinks something was placed in the water supply.
Ben asks how people can get to the town - could they get there by helicopter, could they fly in? The conclusion is that the person would have had to drive in.
Ben says that in the small village he was raised in in Israel, everyone knew if a stranger came through. The same would probably be true here. Randa says true, but all the witnesses are dead. Ben says no, there's one left - and if the person that put it in the water supply was checking out the area for a few days before the drop, he probably needed money at some point, since he would be unlikely to use a credit card. They go to the woman survivor, who worked in the area's tiny bank.
They get the surveillance tapes from the bank, and have her view them for the period ten days before the attack. She points out any strangers, and Mac electronically enhances the images so that they are clear. Then Erika taps into the instant teller records. They go through all the withdrawals made in the ten days before the attack, going through each name with the bank teller. She tells them which people are local, which names she doesn't recognize. They come up with a list of thirty names, and run those names through the computer data bank. Three come back as having some kind of police record. Two are for small time crime, one name stands out - Daniel Cameron - served time for extortion, some involvement in organized crime. They get his address in New York and verify it with his instant teller card. Now they have a possible perpetrator, but no motive and they know he couldn't come up with this alone. Erika checks airport records. They find out that he flew into the closest airport five days before the deaths, and flew out the day that the bodies were found. He flew back to New York. The Reachers fly to New York.
Back at Cat's Reach - Andrew sees his daughter Lisa and Tong's sister Mara trying different hair styles and makeup. The two girls lament the fact that they'll never meet any boys on Cat's Reach.
As they talk, an almost mystical figure appears, stepping from a war canoe in the evening fog and beginning a strange ceremony of returning to their land - its Russell John, chief of the First Nation band. He and his family have returned from the Queen Charlotte Islands where they've lived for some years. The Indians have always had a small reserve on the far side of Cat's Reach, but they've never used it before. Now they've come back, and they mean to establish land claims on ALL of Cat's Reach. Lisa and Mara's eyes open wider when they see the rest of the First Nations family - which includes two handsome young teenage boys.
SCENE 3
The Reachers get to New York, where they find that Daniel Cameron is at his address. They start tailing him. Mac goes into the basement of the apartment building disguised as a phone repairman and puts on a wiretap. Ben rents an apartment that looks directly into Daniel's apartment, and sets up a highpowered microphone, camera and video setup. Finally they get a phonecall to his apartment - saying just to meet at a certain spot at a certain time.
The Reachers are waiting at the drop spot. They have their highpowered microphones set up, and have Randa dressed as a bag lady with a wire on her, wandering near the spot where the drop is to take place. She also has a camera attached to her shopping bag for photos and video.
A few minutes before the drop time a man shows up and sets down a brown paper bag on a bench beside him. He looks around surreptitiously. Ben is watching over the telescope. He sees Daniel approaching and studies him for a moment. Ben leaves the room.
Erika watches as Daniel sits down beside the stranger. Mac monitors their conversation. Randa edges closer taking pictures of the two men, and particularly of the stranger on the bench.
We see Ben at a local store, buying a couple of things including some clothing, and asking for a brown paper bag to put it in.
Ben comes back in, putting clothes on over his regular ones so that his outer clothes match those of Daniel. He nods at them, and pulls out a revolver, checking the chambers.
We hear the stranger say that he has another assignment for Daniel. He says that he'll call him, and tell him where to pick up the next package, plus the instructions for the job. He adds that the fee for the next job will be even higher, because it's on a much larger scope. The stranger says that he'll phone Daniel with instructions within the next forty-eight hours. Daniel takes the brown paper bag and leaves. The stranger leaves, and Randa follows him.
Ben and Mac head out after Daniel. Ben stops Daniel in an alley and Mac knocks him out. Ben checks through the bag and finds that it's full of cash - 100 dollar bills. Ben flips the bad to Mac, who walks out of the alley one way as Ben heads in the other.
Ben reaches a nearby bank. He pauses in the doorway, holding his brown paper bag. He extracts a duck mask and pulls it down over his face, then pulls out his gun. He steps in the bank, and tells them to fill up the bag with money - 100 dollar bills.
In the alley, Daniel starts to wake up. A mysterious fist knocks him out again.
Ben runs from the bank, cop cars in the background, shouting coming behind him. He does a couple of spectacular leaps over objects, then he speeds around the corner of the alley, pulls off the mask and the outer clothes, throws the clothes in dumpster, then slips the mask on the unconscious Daniel and places the gun in his hand. He throws the bag of money down beside him, then does a flip and disappears up a fire escape, just as the cops come around the corner and see Daniel lying there with the cash.
Mac walks down the street with Daniel's original bag of money, a hat pulled down over his eyes. He hands the bag to a Salvation Army person.
Randa has followed the stranger to his hotel. He walks in, and she sheds her bag lady hat and coat, showing smooth sophistication underneath. She follows him into the hotel, walks up to the desk and holds out a cellular phone. She says that the person who just walked through the lobby and stopped at the desk dropped this and she'd like to return it. The desk clerk says that they'll leave him a note, and she watches as they key in his room number. She pushes the record button on a device in her pocket, and the phone number dialed is deciphered from the tones. Randa turns and walks out of the hotel.
BACK AT CAT'S REACH - Maggie is looking after Ben and Erika's kids and she helps them work out some racist things, plus they each have their own horror stories that have brought them to Cat's Reach. As they play, a little Indian boy comes up to them and watches silently. Finally the three start to play together. Maggie and Andrew watch, then turn to see the Indians making their camp nearby. The band leader, Russell John, watches Andrew suspiciously.
Stephen Higgs watches Martha John gathering herbs and berries in the woods. She realizes he's there, and asks him to come out. They talk, and she begins to show Stephen some of the herbs she's gathering, and tells him what each one is for. He begins to show a shy interest in what she's doing.
In New York the Reachers have now completely diverted all of Daniel's calls from his apartment, just in case. All calls now come to their apartment opposite his.
Erika sits down and gets into the room records for the hotel. She finds the name of the person in that room and they look for it in the data file. Nothing. They decide they'll have to go into the hotel and find out more information about him.
Ben, Erika and Randa wait at the hotel until the stranger goes out. Ben tails him while Erika and Randa go into the hotel. They get staff clothes on and open his room up. The find a computer - Randa goes through it and finds out some of the details of his experiment, but not the whole thing - just enough to know that what they're dealing with is an accelerated hantivirus - something no one else has been able to cultivate in a test tube. It's been genetically altered to stop reproducing forty-eight hours after exposure to air or water. Erika puts a computer virus into Carl's computer and onto his floppy disks that will self-destruct in forty-eight hours.
Randa puts an airline style tracer into the back of the stranger's cellular phone. They get the phone number from the cellular and then leave the room.
Carl goes to a phone booth and makes the call to Daniel's apartment, only he gets Mac. They're told where the next pickup will be, and that instructions will be with it. It will be in such and such locker in the train station, with a combination lock - here is the combination. When he leaves, Ben steps into the booth and gets the phone number of the booth. He phones Mac and tells him the number. Mac plays with his gadgets, and the calls from that number are monitored by them as a third party.
Erika traces the man's cellular number and finds out that the man's real name is Carl Rivers, and he's from Canada, just across the border from Bellingham, Washington. They run a trace on him and find nothing. Erika goes into his income tax statements and finds out that he's got a doctorate in biochemistry and teaches at a Canadian university. She looks in his municipal taxes and finds out that he has farm status - he lives on a farm just across the American border into Canada. They check his employment records from the university and find out he's been disciplined several times for going beyond his research boundaries.
They go to the train station and pick up the package. It's a very carefully secured vial, with a list of instructions. Go to Seattle, Washington, find a way to get access to the main reservoir and wait for further instructions at a certain phone booth. Be there by noon two days later. Randa kills the virus contained in the vial.
SCENE 4
Randa and Ben fly to Seattle on the next flight. Erika and Mac wait for the next phone call in the booth, or to his cellular phone, or his hotel room. It comes late at night, on the phone in his hotel room. The mysterious caller says that they liked the demonstration, is the larger one ready to go, and is the additional merchandise ready for pickup. Carl says yes, unless he hears differently he'll proceed with the larger "demo", that everything is in place for it, and the other merchandise can be picked up for the twenty million fee as agreed upon. Mac is tracing the call. The caller and Carl agree to meet in the Seattle Aquarium at a certain time. Carl says that if the second "demo" goes ahead, this drop will allow both parties time to leave Seattle safely. Mac finds out the call comes from Iraq. They realize this person in Iraq is trying to spring the people that bombed the World Trade centre. They contact Andrew who in turn contacts the highest authorities. They reluctantly confirm that there has been a threat of some terrible tragedy if the prisoners aren't let loose.
Ben and Randa are in Seattle together. There is a lot of tension between them - each has lost family members to the other person's countrymen. Their tension finally erupts into sexual activity in their hotel suite.
Mac and Erika contact Tong Yee at Cat's Reach and have him print them 20 mill in American bills. Mac flies back to pick it up, almost crashing the plane on takeoff from Cat's Reach during a violent storm.
Ben and Randa are out together having dinner, trying to sort out what happened between them. After dinner they're walking down the street when Ben is spotted by an old enemy. He tails them back to the hotel, and tells Ben he has a choice - he can come to work for this person, or die. Ben refuses. The man prepares to shoot them, when suddenly he's knocked to the ground. Duke is standing behind them. Duke has been following them since they left Cat's Reach, sent by Andrew as a safety to make sure Ben isn't a "plant". He's now convinced that Ben is what he seems to be. Duke looks at Randa and asks if she has any extra bras and panties. Duke and Ben disrobe the man and dress him in the bra and panties, then they place the old enemy into a neighbouring room, unconscious with a stocking mask on his face. A woman sleeps in the bed, and the man is draped across the foot of the bed with some of the woman's jewelry in his hand. Then Ben and Duke go back to their room, and call the woman's number. They then call the front desk and report a disturbance in the woman's room.
Carl arrives in his Seattle hotel room. He phones the Iraqi leader and asks if a decision has been reached about the "drop". The Iraqi says that their demands haven't been met, and to go ahead with the next phase. He reminds Carl to meet his men in the aquarium for the final drop, just before the vial goes into the water supply. Ben and Mac check out Carl's hotel room and see the briefcase Carl has prepared for the drop. Ben and Mac go shopping.
Mac and Erika arrive in Seattle and they get set up for the handoff of "the merchandise" at the aquarium.
Carl arrives at the aquarium. He has a briefcase with six vials of the stuff. He's waiting for Iraqis. The Iraqis are carrying a similar briefcase with 20 mill. The Reachers have a matching briefcase with 20 mill in counterfeit cash. A couple of the Reachers stall the Iraqis at the front gate of the aquarium for five minutes. Mac and Duke come in disguised as the Iraqis and do the handoff of fake cash to Carl for the vials. Carl thinks everything is fine. He walks away. Ben comes in dressed as Carl. The Iraqis arrive. Ben exchanges briefcases with them. Ben gets the real 20 mill, the Iraqis get a briefcase full of ... dead fish. They find out and report to their leader. He tells them to find Carl and get the formula for the virus - then get rid of Carl. Randa kills the virus in the six vials.
Carl doesn't know anything has gone wrong. He makes the phone call and tells Mac, waiting at the phone booth, to drop the vial in the water supply. Then Carl packs and leaves the hotel with the briefcase full of counterfeit cash. He gets in his car and leaves.
SCENE 5
The Reachers pile into a semitrailer truck that Mac has waiting. They follow discretely, checking to find out Carl's location by stopping and looking at a satellite readout. Carl drives into a barn on the American side of the border, the entrance guarded by two men with rifles and watch dogs. The door closes behind his car. The Reachers park and approach the barn. They take out the two guards and dogs with dart guns and drugs.
The Reachers get inside the barn only to find that Carl has disappeared. They finally locate the tunnel entrance. They question a guard (Randa injecting truth serum) as to what's on the other side of the tunnel. They find out that there's a barn over there as well.
Mac and Ben have a quick conference, then Mac makes a call to Tong through Andrew, asking him where they can get marijuana plants and hydroponic lights. Tong asks where they are, then answers without hesitation - obviously aware of every drug operation on the west coast.
Back at Cat's Reach, Andrew is in the Cat's Meow when he gets the call for the marijuana plants - unbeknownst to him Russell John is listening in the background and says, "I knew these people were up to something. They're drug smugglers. It's only a matter of time till we can trap them somehow. Then we'll have the island to ourselves."
Erika asks how they can get the plants. Duke holds up the briefcase filled with twenty million cash and smiles. Mac and Duke go to pick up the plants while Erika, Randa and Ben secure the guards. Randa and Ben in a quiet moment talk about what happened in Seattle. Both vow that it won't happen again. Mac and Duke arrive back with the plants and paraphernalia, which they leave on the American side. They go down into the tunnel, surmising that it was built many years before, possibly for drug, tobacco and booze running. They find a side tunnel partially closed over. Duke opens it up and finds out that there is some very interesting vintage booze, long forgotten in the side tunnel.
Carl checks that the top of the tunnel is shut on the Canadian side in his own lab, and checks to make sure that the doors are locked, then pulls out the briefcase with the twenty mill counterfeit money. After counting it, he moves a panel in the roof of the lab, and puts the briefcase up in the roof. The he goes up the stairs out of the lab, and locks the door behind him, dropping concealing material over entrance. He's in a barn. He walks out of the barn past two more guards, then goes into the house. Carl turns on the television set in his bedroom as he repacks his suitcase and tunes into the news channel. He's puzzled that there's no talk of a gigantic catastrophe. He switches to another channel, getting more puzzled and slightly alarmed.
The Reachers get into the lab. Randa goes over the lab equipment and looks for further supplies of virus. She finds them and heats them to kill the virus. Erika goes through the computer and destroys the files, then destroys the floppy disk copies. They discuss the possibility that there may be more files or virus elsewhere in the building, and decide that the lab has to be burned. Duke finds the exit from the lab to the barn, then sees the additional guards. They take out the guards with the dart guns. Then they go back to the tunnel and bring all the marijuana plants and lights in, and put them up in the barn.
BACK AT CAT'S REACH - Andrew interrupts Lisa's first kiss with the Frank John, the First Nations boy. Russell John, his grandfather, is angry with the boy and takes him away. Andrew sits Lisa down and talks to her about love, lust and all that stuff....holding up his marriage to Randa as an example.
Meanwhile, the Iraqis are approaching the farm, intent on killing Carl and recovering the vials.
The Iraqis sneak up on the barn and surprise the Reachers. A fierce but silent fight ensues, with the Reachers winning.
Duke goes back down to the lab and looks around. He finds the tile moved in the ceiling, brings up the briefcase full of fake money, and scatters it across the guards and the unconscious Iraqis. The scene is set. Mac makes a call to the RCMP, telling them that a big drug deal is going down at the farm.
Erika goes down in the lab and begins to set a firebomb, then she goes to work on the tunnel.
Carl is still looking at the television, unable to believe that there's no news of the disaster in Seattle. He flicks the channels desperately, then turns off the tv. He goes to the window, and notices that all the lights in the barn are off. He goes out the door, and begins to approach the barn, calling to the guards, who don't respond.
A series of spotlights hit him as he stands in the courtyard, and the police hail him, telling him to put his hands up. He laughs when they tell him why they're here, telling them he knows nothing about any marijuana farm. They walk toward the barn, he talks loudly to alert the guards. They walk into the barn and he turns on the lights, saying "see, nothing here."
He turns toward the inside of the barn and is shocked to see many, many marijuana plants, hydroponic lights, the Iraqis, the guards and stacks of bills from the suitcase littering the floor.
The RCMP arrest Carl, taking him, the guards and the Iraqis away. The Reachers watch discretely till the police cars are gone, then they push the remote control setting the lab and barn on fire, commenting that the police will probably think Carl had the place booby trapped himself. They retreat through the tunnel. Duke pulls out a couple of crates of the old whisky to take along. Erika blows the tunnel as they emerge in the American barn.
The guard dogs are awake, but instead of attacking they turn out to be friendly. Duke scoops them up and throws them into the semitrailer truck.
They leave the unconscious guards on the American side to recover, get in the semitrailer and drive away.
SCENE 6
The Reachers arrive back at Cat's Reach from Mac's plane. As they emerge, Mac questions Duke about the briefcase he still holds. Duke laughs and says that it's part of their retirement fund, and hands it to Andrew for safekeeping. The children are all agog over the two dogs, and want to know where Duke found them. He's named them Bonnie and Clyde.
Erika greets her niece, Ben greets his little boy, Randa greets her children and husband. They bring out gifts, Duke shows off the cases of booze. Maggie, Tong Yee and his mother and sister appear. The children, thinking their parents have been away on various cover activities, ask questions about what they've supposedly done - some of them awkward to answer.
The First Nations people appear. Tension is evident between Russell John and Andrew. The two young girls, Mara and Lisa, smile shyly at the two Fist Nations teenage boys. Martha John, Russell's wife, introduces herself warmly to the two returning women.
SCENE 7
Andrew and Randa are in bed that night. Randa turns to Andrew and says, "There's something I have to tell you."
THE END |
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