EPISODE THREE – MAKE IT

EXT. BROADMOOR

The setting is a peaceful street by morning.

INT. VALENTINE’S HOUSE

Valentine is eating breakfast, some hastily prepared cereal.

Valentine (V.O.): Today was a day that began like any other. First of all, a little bit of food to get me going.

Valentine brushes his teeth.

Valentine (V.O.): Wash myself in preparation for a hard day’s work of lazing around in the office.

Valentine dresses.

Valentine (V.O.): Break in some new Italian shoes.

Valentine exits. Lydia is sitting on his doorstep.

Valentine (V.O.): And of course, I then exit my house to find some strange random girl waiting for me.

Valentine: Oh, it’s you.

Lydia jumps up.

Lydia: Good morning, sunshine!

Valentine: What do you want?

Valentine takes a swig of his energy drink.

Lydia: A job.

Valentine chokes on his drink and spills it.

TITLE CARD: MAKE IT

EXT. VALENTINE’S HOUSE

Valentine: You’re joking right?

Lydia shakes her head. Valentine locks his door and unlocks his car.

Valentine: I’m getting in my car now, so I will be focussing on that. When I look up, you had better have disappeared.

Valentine gets into his car, sets his can down and starts the engine. He looks to his side, where Lydia is seated, strapped in already.

Valentine: Ech….

He has a distinctly unimpressed look on his face

Lydia: I can’t wait!

Valentine: Where’s my wallet?

Lydia: I think I sold it for food.

Valentine: You’re as bad as Remington. I’m dropping you at the arcade.

INT. RED STAR OFFICE

Lydia is there. Valentine is sifting through paperwork, looking pissed.

Elli: Here’s an employment form for you to fill out, honey.

Lydia: Thank you!

Valentine: Hey, Elli! What are you doing! Don’t give that to her!

Elli: I need a clerking assistant and you know it.

Valentine: What do you think I hired Hagen for?

Hagen: I want to do some fieldwork! I’m not cut out for paperwork.

Valentine: We all have to do paperwork, look at me. I hate it but I’m still doing it.

Lydia: I want to do fieldwork too!

Valentine: You, go away!!

Silence

Valentine: Hey, don’t forget this, little girl. You owe me $1.8 million in damages.

Lydia: So how about I work here to pay it off then?

Valentine: Why do you want to work here anyway?

Lydia: I want to work for my hero. ^_^ It’s my life’s ambition.

Valentine: You’re not old enough to have a life ambition yet.

Enter Remington.

Remington: Hey, fools.

Everyone: Hey.

They raise their arms in salute. Remington takes a seat.

Remington: Aurelio and Tenorio are at war again. And we have our first contract.

Valentine: Is that so?

Remington: Yeah. Tenorio are offering $1,000,000 if we retrieve a certain Aurelio enforcer for them.

Remington tosses Valentine the file.

Valentine: Shadow Lucimar.

Lydia: What exactly do you people do anyway?

Valentine: You don’t know but you still want a job?

Lydia: Yep!

Remington: When people don’t want to get official government organisations involved in their private matters, and don’t have the manpower to get the job done themselves, they come to us. We perform services such as retrieval, surveillance, negotiation… sometimes even execution.

Lydia: So what you really mean is kidnapping, theft, extortion and murder?

Valentine’s eyebrow twitches.

Remington: That’s an unsophisticated way of putting it.

Lydia: That’s so cool! But how come the people you’re ah, retrieving, surveilling and executing never come back after you? You all look in pretty good shape.

Remington: We are contractors. We just do our job. The responsibility lies with whoever hired us.

Valentine: At least in theory.

Lydia: Oh, I see. So what can I do?

Valentine puts down the file and stands up.

Valentine: You can go home and thank your lucky stars I’m too nice to revenge myself upon you.

Lydia: But you are. You won’t let me work here.

Valentine and Remington exit.

Lydia: Jerk.

She goes over and studies the file that Valentine left.

Enter Armside.

Armside: Elli, where did Valentine go?

Lydia (snickers): Showtime!

INT. CALIFORNIA CAFÉ

Remington: California Café. Nice little place, huh? Lucimar’s usual hangout. Probably won’t show his face here anytime soon now that hostilities have started.

Valentine: If he won’t be here, then why are we here?

Remington: Because the salmon and cheese sandwiches they serve here are excellent. Anyway, he’ll be tucked away planning how to strike Tenorio hard, so we have to find him and stop him before he does.

Valentine: Is he really such an unstoppable beast?

Remington: Nah, he’s an overrated pussycat. But he is a tricky customer, good at slipping through the net. We’ll have to be on our guard.

INT. ARMSIDE’S CAR

Armside: Valentine really said it was okay for you to follow me while I track Lucimar?

Lydia: Oh yeah. He said the only way I could learn is to shadow a trained professional.

Armside: He really called me a trained professional? That doesn’t sound like him.

Lydia: But you are, aren’t you?

Armside: Hell, yeah, I am! I’m man all over.

Lydia: So, do you make a lot of good cases?

Armside: Oh yeah, I’m top of the bunch. Once, I single-handedly gunned down fifteen guys in a bar on the trail of a dangerous mafia executor, who I ran down in the slums on a dark rainy night, then wham! Bam! (He mimes punching) I knocked him flat with my bare hands, hahaha!

Lydia: You’re my hero! Hands back on the wheel.

Armside: I’m fine.

The car swerves awkwardly and he grabs the wheel.

Lydia: How did you get into this business?

Armside: I used to be a cop, in the same department as Valentine and Remington. They quit and started this business, and it didn’t take long for me to follow them.

Lydia: But Valentine was in the Knight Bridge Guard, wasn’t he?

Armside: So was I. Oh, I was never on that show. I wasn’t much interested in that.

Lydia: Why did you leave?

Armside: It was a hard time for me and I wanted to be with friends.

Lydia: Why was it a hard time?

Armside: …Lucimar’s apartment is three blocks down. We should walk from here.

INT. VALENTINE’S CAR

Valentine and Remington are seated.

Valentine: So you really don’t know where he would be?

In the backseat is a man with a badly beaten face tied up.

Remington: Come on Glenn, you’re his closest associate in the syndicate. Surely you’d know.

Glenn: “In the slums” is the best I can do. When war starts like this, we all scatter; it makes us harder to track.

Valentine: Where are you going to hide away?

Glenn: I can’t say.

Remington: He doesn’t know shit.

Valentine: Where are you going to hide away? I need an answer.

Glenn opens his mouth.

Valentine: If the next word out of your mouth isn’t the address of your hidey-hole, I guarantee the second will be “Oh God, my crotch, you’ve shot me in the crotch!”

Glenn (gulp): Five, The Keys, Valley Parade.

Valentine starts the car.

INT. LUCIMAR’S APARTMENT

Armside: Do you find if I smoke?

Lydia shakes her head and Armside lights up. They work fast, rifling through drawers, checking through mail.

Lydia: Armside-kun, look at this. He owns and sublets an apartment in Sector Four. Maybe that’s where he is hiding.

Armside takes the document.

Armside: Wow, I think you’re right. I got to call Valentine and tell him about the lead!

Lydia: No!! Don’t!

Armside: Huh?

Lydia: I mean, why don’t we check it out ourselves first? We don’t want to send him on a wild goose chase or anything, right?

Armside: Ah, okay, I guess.

Lydia: He heh…

BREAK

EXT. THE KEYS

Valentine: Remington, escort Glenn here into his home.

Remington grabs Glenn from the back and drags him along to his door. Valentine presses his head against his window. A car zips past.

Valentine: Hey… wasn’t that…

He flicks his car phone on and calls Armside.

INT. ARMSIDE’S CAR

Armside flicks his phone on. Lydia looks spooked and puts her finger to her mouth in a doomed to failure hint to Armside that he should keep his mouth shut.

Armside: Hey.

Valentine (O.S.): Did you just drive past me? I’m at The Keys.

Armside: Yeah, I passed through there.

Valentine: Where are you headed?

Armside: Lean Drive. Lucimar owns an apartment there. Lydia found out.

Lydia screws her face up in horror.

Valentine: Lydia?

Armside: Yeah, she’s still with me.

Valentine: Still? When did she start?

Armside: Eh?

Armside looks at Lydia who smiles all cheerful like.

EXT. LEAN DRIVE

Valentine: And now, I’m in a difficult position because I need both Remington and Armside here, so neither of them can give you a ride. And you can’t wait for us either, because I don’t trust you with a car. So I guess you’re stuck with walking home yourself. Now you must leave us alone and never hang around us again. Ever. Or I will, I promise, punish you.

Lydia: But-

Valentine: No, no, no, no, no, no and one more time, No. Just to make it clear so there’s no misunderstanding, I’ll say it real slow, Nooooooooooo. Alright?

Remington: Sorry kid, but you heard him. Beat it; you don’t want to get involved in this right now.

Armside: Go wait at the office for us; we’ll be back before you know it.

Valentine slaps Armside on the back of his head.

Valentine: Don’t encourage her!

Lydia skulks away.

Armside: What’s your problem? She just wants to help.

Valentine: Why is she even here? What does she want?

Armside: You’re too suspicious.

Valentine: I just don’t trust women.

INT. LUCIMAR’S APARTMENT

A bunch of stoned dropout types are in a smoke-filled room, playing cards. In comes another guy.

Dude: There are three guys lurking outside. Seems suspicious.

Lucimar: What do they look like?

Dude: Serious.

Lucimar: I’m movin’ out, my brothers. Later.

Lucimar exits via the back door.

EXT. LUCIMAR’S APARTMENT

Lucimar pulls on his coat and runs away. Lydia notices him go.

INT. LUCIMAR’S APARTMENT

Remington, Armside and Valentine burst into the smoke filled room with their guns raised.

Remington: None of you losers move, or I’ll blow every single one of your heads off!

Valentine: You two check the other rooms. (To the people in the room) Lucimar. Where’d he go?

He is met with silence.

Armside: Nothing.

Remington: Back door is open.

Valentine: Let’s go.

EXT. LUCIMAR’S HOUSE

Valentine: Where do we go from here?

Armside: He has another property in the Heights.

Valentine: Okay, let’s go.

Armside: Hmm. Problem.

Valentine: What?

Armside: My car is missing.

INT. ARMSIDE’S CAR

Lydia is driving with the radio on full blast, heavy J-rock. She sings along joyfully.

INT. VALENTINE’S CAR

Remington and Armside are riding along.

Valentine: She talks a lot, huh?

Armside: Yeah. Real enthusiastic girl. She asked a lot of questions.

Valentine: She’s a troublesome one, eh. She kind of reminds me of my wife when she was young.

Armside: She kind of reminds me of myself when I was young.

Valentine: Man, why did you say that?

Armside: Say what?

Valentine: You totally killed my moment, geez, I mean-

They bicker on…

EXT. THE HEIGHTS

Lydia is sneaking around a small building. She peers in one semi open window and sees a room with the television on but no people in it.

Lydia: Very good.

She climbs in quickly, maybe a little too quickly as she falls down on her way in.

Lydia: Ow! No, that was bad.

INT. THE HEIGHTS

Footsteps approach and she rolls behind the sofa as Lucimar enters with a plate of warmed food.

Lucimar: One can never underestimate the entertainment value of Celebrity Fear Factor.

Lydia (V.O. thinking): What a weirdo, he’s talking to himself.

EXT. THE HEIGHTS

Armside: But I think I really connected with her you know? Like there was a bond between us.

Valentine: Is this the place?

Armside: Yeah. And I don’t know, maybe I just wanted to be the father again. It just feels like a once in a lifetime opportunity for me.

Valentine: We’ll finish this conversation later.

Armside: Is that my car? Why is it dented?

Valentine: Ah, shit.

Remington cocks his gun.

Remington: So do we get to kill him?

Valentine: Only if we can’t restrain him.

Remington: Let’s see where the night takes us. (Laughs in an attempted sinister manner)

INT. THE HEIGHTS

Lydia reaches an object, which happens to a cover slip for an Aerosmith record. She flings it to the side, distracting Lucimar. She then pounces and whacks him round the head as hard as she can with a beer bottle.

Lucimar: Ow! I mean, ow, woman, ow!

Lydia: You’re supposed to be unconscious, dammit!

Lucimar: You’re dead meat!

Lucimar punches air as Lydia takes advantage of her tinyness to dodge. She stabs him in the shoulder with the broken bottle and then kicks him in the crotch as hard as she can. He screams out like a little girl and tumbles over. She kicks him again in the head, knocking him out and shutting him up.

Lydia: Woo hoo!

Lydia hops up and down in excited celebration. Suddenly, Remington, Armside and Valentine burst in, guns drawn, and shortly, jaws hanging open.

EXT. THE HEIGHTS

Armside: Young lady, you are in serious trouble.

Lydia: I’m sorry about the car!

Valentine: As punishment, you’ll have to work without your pay for the next two months.

Lydia: Really? O thank you!

Lydia hugs Valentine.

Valentine: Oh, get off! (Lydia gets off) Now beat it. Go on; get out of here before I change my mind.

Lydia exits the screen.

Remington (to Lucimar): Give me your wallet.

Lucimar is handcuffed in the back of Armside’s car and can’t reach his pocket anyway.

Valentine: I used to have a wallet once…

Armside: When are you gonna drop the tough man act then? Ah, I know. It still hurts, doesn’t it? It does for me. It does for Remington too. But the best thing you can do is… look to the future, isn’t that right?

Valentine’s car starts. Despite the fact he’s not in it.

Valentine: Huh… Oi! Hey!!

END – SEE YOU TOMORROW, SCOOTER

Episode Four preview

Valentine: Friendship is a funny thing. From your friends, you expect favours for free, yet you’re shocked when they do the same. Maybe they’ll stab you in the back. More confusing is that beyond the point of a betrayal you still consider a person a friend. But this can be abused to teach people valuable lessons. Next episode, last Child.