Sincro: F.B Cavalcante
If you want a piss, would you mind going round the back.
- You Mister Raven? - Look, I haven't got any money.
No, no. I said...
Are you Mister Raven?
Do I look like management?
I'm a philosophy graduate.
Raven.
Look, Mister Raven is the manager.
Would you like a word with him?
Not just now, thanks.
Norman?
Those cats have had the bins over again.
You're going to have to excuse me,
I'm afraid. I've got a fascinating day ahead.
Norman!
Yes, I'm onto it, Miss Hennessey.
Soon as I've solved the Third World food crisis, that is.
Good work, Saul.
It's a night club.
He's the manager.
I know he's there.
It's confirmed.
Ten o'clock tomorrow night, local time.
Hello?
Could I just ask?
I've a feeling I'm late.
Perhaps I'm early.
Look...
I know I'm supposed to be here.
It just sort of feels right.
Sorry?
Look, I'm sorry, I'm afraid we're closed.
Must be National Weirdo Day.
You reckon it'll be that easy, do you?
Why not?
Want a drink?
- What is it? - I don't know.
I just don't feel right about this one.
Well...
I'm not losing my nerve.
So what have we done then, Saul?
Bit of sabotage here and there, some data theft.
Look, there's no point in acting tough with me.
If you're not scared...
You're dangerous.
Understand?
So...
Why don't you feel right?
I mean...
We know who the victim is...
We know when we're going to kill him...
And we know we can get away.
Yeah, everything's fine.
Yes.
Why?
Is this your dead body?
Can I help you?
Let me give you a clue.
You're trespassing.
Am I?
Bit old for this place, ain't ya?
Shall I call the police?
Go and have another Pot Noodle, Norman.
Yes, right, okay, fine.
I'll just go and have another Pot Noodle.
Did I see you here last night?
I was outside.
Slept it off in the bins?
Beware happy hour.
The door wasn't locked properly.
Could you tell me...
Where I am?
You are in a bad way, ain't ya?
If I were you I'd use that approach when I got home.
I didn't know where I was very impressive,
I can't remember.
Did you buy me a drink last night?
Cos I did come down for about an hour.
There was a woman...
And a man with a bowler hat...
Then he was in a suit.
That must have been after I went to bed.
No, our speciality is techno-techno,
louder than you can imagine.
A lot of sweaty dancing bodies and overpriced beer.
You are in a bad way...
Norman!
Coffee.
He was your friend, wasn't he?
Your cell leader.
We didn't have time for friendship.
We were just survivors, relying on one another...
Waiting to see which one of us got it first.
And now he's gone.
You could have give it up.
What stopped you?
Hatred.
Hatred of what they did to our people.
Hatred of what they're still doing.
You remember that hatred.
It'll keep you alive.
Come on.
We'll go and see that night club of yours, shall we?
I ought to be going.
Are you in trouble?
Lawyer?
Stockbroker? Accountant?
International terrorist?
Traveller.
You're a salesman or something.
Sort of.
There was a door.
Is there anyone else here?
Well, there's Mister Raven, the new manager.
His office is upstairs.
Mister Raven?
He's just a kid.
We're walking him in...
Testing his management potential.
There was someone.
-Look, if you're in trouble... -Did I say I was?
No, I said if you were in trouble,
maybe you came here last night to forget.
You had one drink too many or whatever.
Now, in the cold light of day...
You don't know what to do, you don't know where to go.
And you don't want to talk about it.
Something like that.
Look...
There's a flat upstairs...
Company owned. I'm staying there at the moment.
If you'd like to freshen up...
Get yourself together before you go...
Or whatever.
What'd you think to that?
Sound reasonable?
- Very generous. - Good.
Tamora Hennessey.
And you are?
Don't tell me, you'd rather not say.
Well, just you stay with your coffee for a bit.
I've got one or two things to sort out.
- That's it. - Right.
Take a look round the back.
What are you going to do?
I have to think.
We don't want any unknown escape routes for him, do we?
You stay where I can see you.
What's he doing now?
Eat your crisps.
Quietly.
Classic signs of persecution complex.
You did philosophy, not psychology.
Hello, stranger.
Listen...
We've got a car out front.
Look who's turned up, Mister Egan.
You'd better get in.
So what happens now?
- Does he take command again. - Shut it, Saul.
I think it's a fair point.
So, what happened?
I don't know.
I can't remember clearly.
I take it...
-I'm supposed to be here. -You were supposed to be here
He doesn't know, Egan.
Maybe he has been got at by the Protectorate.
- He may just... - Shut it!
- Get out. - Your friend's right.
I don't know.
Where I am, why I'm here.
I don't know who you two are.
I know that I know you...
And I know that place.
There was a door.
I saw it.
And before?
How the hell did he get here, that's what I want to know.
If you don't know what you're supposed to be doing here,
why bother turning up in the first place?
I don't know.
So tell me what you do know.
Try!
Just images.
A girl...
A man with a bowler hat...
And a train.
- A steam train. - Where?
Reporting in.
No further contact with the strange Preceptor cell.
No further degeneration.
It looks as though he'll survive until the operation's complete.
It's tomorrow night at 10.
And you want Mister No-Brain with us?
He is...
He was one of the best.
We don't know what's happened.
We'll see how he is tomorrow.
And then what...
If he has been planted here.
I mean...
I say we sack the bastard now.
I'll decide...
Tomorrow.
It's dark outside now.
You understand? Dark.
Come on.
Wake up.
Wake up!
- What are you going to do to me? - You wanna leave?
- Why, are you going to let me leave? - I might do.
Go on.
Where are you going?
- Where are you going? - I don't know.
- He said I could. - I don't know.
Not good him up.
Time up.
That's enough. I said tie him up.
There's a cab on its way.
Keep an eye on him, let me know.
Are you sure about this?
- We'll have to risk it. - What are you doing?
I want you to listen to me very carefully.
This is going to hurt you.
Look at it from our point of view.
Our information is that they caught you.
Now, we don't know what they do to people like us...
People like you.
If you're caught...
You seem to disappear...
Apparently.
People like us?
-Who are we? -You disappeared.
You were meant to be here,
with us, now...
But you never turned up.
Did the Protectorate send you to sabotage this mission,
to infiltrate this cell? They'd like that.
-Look, I'm sorry, but -Got it!
Shall we try with these again?
No, I didn't think so.
Another communication beam active.
They're desperate.
We've pulled up a hunter pulse...
And you know what that is.
I've seen you use it often enough.
It's a searchlight into the mind...
That's what you call it.
Well...
I want to know what's on your mind.
It's you.
Hang on...
- I recognise the face. - Preceptor agent?
Custodian. She gets about.
Custodian?
They erase his memory...
Send him on a wild goose chase
with her to keep an eye on him.
What for?
The Estrangement Programme.
How did you break free?
Absorbing too much energy.
The simulation's collapse is accelerating.
Concentrate on returning everything to its proper place.
That way your neural net interface may find the correct program.
Alien software screwed up the Protectorate's programming.
And brought him to this transfer point where
he was heading in the first place when
the Protectorate lifted him.
Protectorate scanning pulse.
There's still time, Saul.
Fascinating.
We're literally breathing down their
necks and they're risking everything.
Do you hear that?
-Do you hear that? -Yes.
That is a scanning pulse from the Protectorate.
They're our enemies.
If they find us here we're finished.
Understand?
- Understand? - Yes!
If you really are on our side...
I have to know.
Why are you here?
You know why he's here, Egan!
Shut it.
-If that scan finds this portal open -We have to know why he's here.
What's that?
The target.
That's not where
No!
Why are you here!
I have to kill, Egan!
There have been some developments.
Do you think it found us?
We're still here, aren't we?
Lost Preceptor Cell Leader located at this transit point.
He seems to have arrived without a portal.
The cell have him now.
I couldn't intervene without risking detection.
Well, it's unclear whether his correction programme is intact or not.
Yes, certainly. I'll continue observation.
Don't come any closer.
-Look, you're -I know what I am.
-I just found out, thanks to you. -Now look...
It was either that or we...
Or you would have killed me.
Is that all killing is to you?
What does it mean to you?
I'll tell you what it means to you.
It's a way of life.
Not any more.
It's too late.
What do you mean, too late?
You made all those decisions a lot time ago.
To become a terrorist, a murderer?
What am I, some kind of psychopath?
You're a Preceptor.
You're fighting for justice.
Our people were the teachers,
creators of knowledge which established the great dimensional web...
Which encircles, pervades every aspect of this stunted little macrocosm.
We belong to a species that live belong all this...
This physical universe.
Our people were betrayed.
By the Protectorate.
Yes.
The Enforcers, the Custodians, the Emissaries.
All part of that vile bureaucracy which choked
the dimensional pathways with their regulations...
Because to them...
Upholding the rule of our creation were more
important than the creators themselves.
Was that why we have them killed?
What had that woman done to deserve death?
I could see it in her eyes.
She didn't understand.
This Raven...
What has he done to deserve
You don't understand.
I do, Egan.
I do understand.
The terrible thing is...
I still want to kill him.
I have to kill Raven.
No, wait.
Free.
What the hell happened?
I really thought I'd reached him.
- I have, in a way. - Where is he now?
Gone to kill Raven.
Well, that's all right then, isn't it?
You prat!
Look, that is Raven.
This is the random power break we detected.
The random power break reaches its correct
transverse point at 10 o'clock tonight.
That's when we kill him...
Because that's when it's safe...
To get back into the dimensional Web.
All right, all right.
Right now we have a Protectorate scan pulse sitting on our arse.
It's got to be 10 o'clock tonight local time,
Or we're up shit creek.
If he blows it now...
Well Saul...
You can stickyour head between
your knees and kiss your arse goodbye.
So we kill him...
Before he gets to Raven.
We have to.
He's dangerous now.
Knew you'd come round.
Set me...
Free....
Reassimilation.
He'll go in through the back way.
Shit, get back to the flat now.
Help me.
Free...
This...
Physical world.
We should have let you die.
Who?
I have to kill Raven.
I want to kill Raven.
No!
Physical.
Smells of piss.
I thought you might like to take up my offer after all.
I suppose you're not going to tell me how this happened.
Two old friends of mine beat me up.
Friends?
Yes, they're definitely my friends.
I'm just not sure who I am any more.
Very deep.
No.
It's just before I retired things were better.
The good old days.
Yes.
Now...
Now I feel weary of it all.
- Of what? - The fighting!
Sorry.
I can't be making much sense to you.
Well, it helps to talk.
It feels dangerous.
As if talking might somehow...
What?
Why didn't you just throw me out into the street?
I felt responsible.
Maybe you got drunk on our drink.
Maybe.
Maybe?
I know this world of yours.
I've seen thousands like it.
Urban cages.
Sentient lifeforms trapped in faceless concrete warrens.
People here...
Don't feel responsible...
And they don't help strangers.
Perhaps you should see a shrink.
Maybe you've been on drugs.
Maybe you should stay away from your friends.
Who are you?
Aren't you going to ask me to leave?
Why?
Do you want to leave?
I'm physically assaulting you...
And you don't want me to leave?
Well...
Maybe I fancy you.
Raven?
Hello?
Your friends are here.
- What are you going to do? - What are you going to do?
Well, it's definitely the same genetic code
we gave the Protectorate in our warning.
Never thought it'd be such a pathetic specimen.
Jesus!
It isn't about enjoying it.
We wait until 10 o'clock.
Shut it!
You think I'm enjoying the company of that?
Take another look around.
He may have turned up.
Shit.
Please...
Set me...
Free.
You'll be free, my friend...
Tonight.
I didn't imagine you to be so....
Pathetic
There you are
that's the random choice information...
On a computer net.
Of all the worlds that ever exist...
Every likely to exist...
This time round...
The finger of fate fell on you.
I'm giving you a stay of execution, you know that?
A very old friend of mine is coming here, and he's going to kill you.
But he's lost his way...
Up here.
So he has to die as well.
There are more important things...
Than friendship.
There is...
A greater cause.
I'm sure you won't mind waiting.
Never mind.
Hello, stranger.
What on Earth?
You can go, darling.
No, I think you can go
That...
That doesn't look like a real gun to me.
Protectorate!
Yeah, right.
You bastard!
You set us up!
There's a Protectorate portal in the office.
Right under our noses?
We'll have to do the job now.
There's no power break to escape through.
We'll have to risk it. I'll do it.
-I have... -We were like brothers,
fighting together.
That's how I shall always remember you.
Protectorate.
So, what are you going to do?
You can't kill us.
You can't do anything unless you catch us in the act.
Your precious rules.
I can kill you in self-defence.
I have no connection with the Protectorate.
So it's true.
The Estrangement Programme.
Yes, we know.
Hasn't quite worked with him though, has it?
You can see how t hey set us up.
The power break we detected.
The dimensional Web isn't going to occur, It's a fake.
Saul and I will just have to risk it...
Like we used to in the old days...
- Remember? - Yes.
If we're sharp, we'll get away.
But you're in no fit state...
You know that, don't you?
- Don't you? - Yes.
You have to stay here.
Take Saul's gun...
Finish the job.
Play the game.
Strike a blow for the Preceptors.
He won't listen to you.
What harm has Raven ever done to the Preceptors, Egan?
They betrayed us.
They let us die in our billions because of their rules and regulations.
I know the history.
We demanded an investigation, we demanded justice.
They subjugated us.
And so we play a pointless game with people's lives?
We break their bloody rules!
We lead them a merry shitty little dance because
we know they're duty-bound to protect this...
Stinking universe.
That way...
They know the Preceptors are still alive.
And that way the killing goes on for ever...
Achieving nothing.
We've forgotten what we're fighting for.
All that's left...
Is the game.
Saul!
Do it, Solomon.
Remember who you really are.
Get back!
Why not just do it here and now, Solomon?
Isn't that the dream you had?
You are torn between what you
once were and what you are now.
You can't go back to being a terrorist...
- A murderer. - Shut up!
Get back to the office.
Run!
Move it!
Run.
Raven...
Run.
You...
Set me...
Free.
He was barely alive when we reconstructed him....
And set him up here as a replacement for the real Raven.
Bait.
You were prepared to let him die...
Just so you could capture the people who killed him?
Morals?
From you?
Well, it's true.
We half expected him to die before Saul and Egan got to him.
But there has been some...
Reassimilation
He started to speak.
You...
What are you going to do with him?
At least he'll have some kind of life in the Web...
Free from physical corruption.
And what about me?
The game's up.
You remember your crime,
you remember your punishment.
You were supposed to have relived both
until we thought you had mended your ways.
With that girl to watch over me. My Custodian.
What happened to her?
I presume she's returned to her original transverse point.
I see.
Everything in its proper place.
But what about me?
What's my proper place now?
Think of me as your new Custodian.
Just for a while
What is it?
He's escaped into the Web without me and blocked off this transfer circuit.
Reset.