Script created with Final Draft by Final Draft, Inc.
TEASER
1 EXT. JOHANNESBURG PARK - DAY 1
A suburban park. Pigeons pecking round a rubbish bin. The
pigeons flutter up as...
A middle ages man pushes a pram into frame. He stops next to
the bin.
The man takes a doll out of the pram. He holds it up,
animating it for the child's amusement.
We hear ticking.
Close on a package inside bin. The ticking is louder.
The man is staring down at the baby. Smiling, making contact.
He reaches down to tickle and touch, grins at the unseen
response. We hear the coo, gurgle of the infant.
Close on the package. Once again the ticking is louder.
The man adjusts the blanket, making sure his charge is warm.
A last moment of contact with the child, who gurgles happily.
The man puts the doll back in the pram. And then...
The man, pushing the pram, exits frame.
The bin explodes.
Eerie silence.
Dust and debris.
Chaos.
Out of which, images slowly become clear.
The man, shattered, bleeding.
The twisted pram.
A baby's bottle, punctured, leaking milk into the blood.
A bloody spattered, torn, doll's head.
CUT TO:
ACT ONE
2 EXT. JOHANNESBURG - DAY 2
ESTABLISHING SHOTS: JOHANNESBURG CITY, SENSE OF BUSY,
DEVELOPING CITY INCLUDING DOWNTOWN SHOTS, SKYSCRAPERS
HIGHWAYS AND SUBURBS. A CITY AT WORK AND PLAY.
CUT TO:
3 EXT. ZT OFFICES - DAY 3
ESTABLISHING SHOT - ZT OFFICES.
CUT TO:
4 INT. A ZT OFFICE - DAY 4
(WOODEBURNE, HILTON)
Title: two days later.
Guy Woodeburne is a burly, charming, suited man in his late
forties. He is holding on his cell phone, simultaneously
browsing through the evidence and slurping up Chinese noodles
from a take-away container. The person on the other side
catches him with a mouthful half way in.
WOODEBURNE
I'm holding. I've been holding for
fifteen minutes.
(wiping mouth; irritated)
Yes!
Woodeburne moves on. His POV:
We glimpse the doll's head from the teaser.
One of the larger offices/spaces has been converted into
Bomber HQ. Operation Second Wave.
Shelves display the accumulation of evidence from three
previous explosions.
A section marked CT, 7th March.
Among the exhibits is a piece of mortar with a bloodied
snippet of cloth.
A heading, Victim: Jaco Sandbooi.
WOODEBURNE (CONT'D)
Guy... Woodeburne. No! D, E, B, U, R,
N, E.
(fierce)
I'm a forensic explosives expert with
the NIS and I urgently need to have
the line fixed!
We loiter over evidence headed: JHB 1, Xth of X, (six weeks
previous) a shattered cell phone, shards of make-up
applicators.
Victim: Denzela Ledwaba.
WOODEBURNE (CONT'D)
(O.S patient)
No! It says: this service has been
suspended due to lack of payment. But
I've paid.
Woodeburne, distracted, stares down at the shocking name.
WOODEBURNE (CONT'D)
(fierce)
What I want to know is who do I have
to mate with... to get my phone
connected again?
The door crashes open and Hilton puts his head in.
HILTON
Guy.
WOODEBURNE
(to Hilton; warm)
One second.
CUT TO:
5 INT. ZT OFFICES -OPEN PLAN - DAY 5
(HILTON, WOODEBURNE, HANNALIE, SAKKIE)
Hannalie and Sakkie look up from an intense whispered
conversation.
Simiso is separate, grim, lounging at a desk with a magazine.
The Rastaman, Moage Modise, has come in to discuss something
with Hannalie but leaves shortly after the scene begins.
Woodeburne, with chopsticks and noodles, enters.
HILTON
Clash of interests is sorted. NIS is
out of it. We handle the
investigation, but Guy is seconded to
us for the duration.
WOODEBURNE
(delighted; around the
noodles)
Destiny calls.
HILTON
In so far as we deal with NIS, we do
it through Guy.
WOODEBURNE
That's the way to play it.
HILTON
(to Guy)
You got something for us?
WOODEBURNE
Two things from the new site. One, the
numbers are there again. On a remnant
of the explosive casing. Fifteen,
eleven, fifty-five.
HILTON
Same as CT and the first Joburg bomb.
WOODEBURNE
Ja.
(beat)
But this one goes on: 6003 081.
HANNALIE
Why would the bomber put a number on
the mechanism?
WOODEBURNE
(shrugs)
Two... there's something...
interesting.
Woodeburne calls up an image on a palm-top.
WOODEBURNE (CONT'D)
This is a magnification of the
opposite side of the shard with the
number on it.
Hilton takes the palm-top.
Hilton's POV. The magnified image. On a sliver of twisted
metal, two letters are visible: ZT.
A look between Woodeburne and Hilton.
A long, difficult silence. Hannalie is the first to voice the
thought.
HANNALIE
Denzela wasn't a coincidence.
And the death, just six weeks ago, is suddenly with them
again.
HILTON
No.
(beat)
Guys you're a top team and I know you
all give a hundred percent.
(look to Simiso; who stares
back; grim)
But I want to acknowledge, just in the
privacy of this room... that this one
is personal.
Sakkie and Simiso and Hannalie share a look.
SAKKIE
(almost under his breath)
For you, Denzela.
Close on the faces of the team. Each and every one of them is
dedicating their lives to finding the person who killed
Denzela Ledwaba.
CUT TO:
6 INT. RADIO STATION - DAY 6
(THEMBI NDLOVU, RADIO VOICE)
Radio Zansi morning drive anchor, Thembi Ndlovu, is behind
the mike. She is spunky, beautiful, smiling. Thembi Ndlovu
loves her work.
THEMBI NDLOVU
... what I'm saying, Clive, if these
men claim they can have two wives,
three wives, four wives, so can women.
I don't care who doesn't like it, but
I enjoy sex. Okay? We girls love sex!
And I'm not ashamed to say it.
(flirting)
And baby, when I'm rich and old and I
own the station, then maybe I'll get
me two little toy boys to warm my
nights.
(hits button)
That's it from Thembi Ndlovu on the
drive, Jozi. Next up, Chris Tofile
with Zansi Phezulu.
Thembi pulls off the head phones.
We hear the Zansi jingle and...
RADIO VOICE
(o.s.)
This hour with Thembi Ndlovu was
brought to you by QR Security - your
peace of mind in Jozi.
Thembi's producer, Cliffie, is signalling to her. He is a
seated at a computer. He gestures urgently: come and look.
Thembi, worried, heads for the booth.
CUT TO:
Close on Cliffie's computer screen. It shows a Mail programme
in action as Cliffie clicks through the received e-mail. They
are mainly from fans.
Subject: Thembi is da bomb!
Subject: Inappropriate broadcasting
Subject: You go girl!
Subject: The Cure.
Thembi sits into frame and swings to face the screen.
THEMBI NDLOVU
Same guy?
Cliffie nods and opens the mail marked: The Cure.
Thembi, is very focused as she reads.
THEMBI NDLOVU (CONT'D)
(continuing; reads)
"The substance kills, but the
substance is the cure... you can play
a role in the dialectic... perhaps
even become the treatment...
(long beat)
If you help me, maybe we can stop the
bombs."
(beat; to Cliffie)
What's the number for Zero Tolerance?
CUT TO:
7 INT. ZT OPEN PLAN - DAY 7
(SAKKIE, HILTON, MOAGE, SIMISO, HANNALIE)
Sakkie is fielding a call from the press.
SAKKIE
(quiet danger)
My friend, I don't care if you the
International Herald Tribune. This is
a dedicated line for the bomber
investigation and we ask journalists
please not to use it.
Sakkie slams down the receiver.
Hilton is on the phone, one way, to the man.
HILTON
Yes.
MOAGE
(urgent)
Boss?
HILTON
(hand over receiver)
I'm talking to the President's Man!
(phone)
Thembi Ndlovu. From Radio Zansi.
(you meeting with her?)
She's coming in as we speak.
Hannalie and Simiso are hunched over MOAGE's PC.
MOAGE
It's here. I've got it.
Hilton gestures to MOAGE: with you now.
SAKKIE
Man, if that guy calls me once more...
SIMISO
Why don't they call Press Liaison?
SAKKIE
Because the bastards know if they use
the red line, we have to answer it.
HANNALIE
(urgent; to Hilton)
It's here!
HILTON
(phone; tense)
We've just down-loaded the e-mail she
got from him. I'll call you as soon as
we've spoken to her.
Hilton cuts the connection.
HANNALIE
(re mail)
He calls himself: The Cure.
SAKKIE
(reads; slowly)
"The masses are like skeletons...
wraiths staring into the darkened
windows of imported four-by-fours."
MOAGE
Babylon. Like the prophet says.
HILTON
Look at that.
(reads)
"Does the government want the problem
of the poor to be...
(dwells on the phrase)
...dissolved in the solution of Aids"
MOAGE scrolls down.
HANNALIE
This guy is way out there.
SAKKIE
What's that mean?
HILTON
(to MOAGE; re scrolling)
We trying to read it.
MOAGE
There's something you want to see.
(pointing)
There. End of the message.
Close on the e-mail signature on the screen: The Cure - 15-11
55.
HANNALIE
(o.s)
Fifteen, eleven, fifty-five...
SAKKIE
So it's not a hoax.
HILTON
No.
(beat)
It's him.
CUT TO:
8 INT. BOMBER'S LAIR - DAY 8
Close on the screen of a lap top. Words appear on the screen.
The bomber is typing.
"The poor of Diepsloot and Orange Farm and Kyalitsha call for
justice. Those who enriched themselves under apartheid, those
fat pigs who wallow in their wealth..."
CUT TO:
9 INT. ZT HILTON'S OFFICE - DAY 9
(HILTON, HANNALIE)
Hilton is sitting behind his desk. He is on the phone to a
contact at home affairs.
HILTON
He's always blocks out some digits in
the sequence. But we've got the whole
thing now. Looks like it could be an
ID number.
(what is it)
Fifteen, eleven, fifty-five... 6003
081.
Hannalie puts her head in.
HANNALIE
Ndlovu's here.
HILTON
(to Hannalie)
I'll be a second.
(phone)
Listen, that number is to be kept
completely confidential. Only the
bomber and the investigating team know
it. We keep it that way, we rule out
hoaxers.
CUT TO:
10 INT. BRIEFING ROOM - DAY 10
(HANNALIE, THEMBI NDLOVU, SIMISO, HILTON, MOAGE, SAKKIE)
Sakkie and Simiso stand with Thembi Ndlovu.
HANNALIE
Mr du Bois will be with us now.
THEMBI NDLOVU
Thanks.
HANNALIE
I have to tell you, I love your show.
I'm a big fan.
THEMBI NDLOVU
Thank you.
SIMISO
Me too. You da bomb!
Hilton, on his way in, puts out his hand.
HILTON
Hilton du Bois.
THEMBI NDLOVU
I know.
(off his look)
Your appointment was front page news.
HILTON
Yes. Thembi, this mail you forwarded
to us.
THEMBI NDLOVU
Ja?
HILTON
It implies it's the second time he's
mailed you.
THEMBI NDLOVU
It is.
HILTON
(beat)
Why didn't you contact us before?
THEMBI NDLOVU
I get about five hundred e-mails a
day. Some of them are from mad people.
This looked like one of those.
MOAGE
You deleted it?
THEMBI NDLOVU
Yes.
(beat)
Is it him?
HILTON
(beat)
Yes.
THEMBI NDLOVU
You know this?
HILTON
Yes.
HANNALIE
What did the last mail say?
THEMBI NDLOVU
I didn't read it. Cliffie said it was
a rant. Politics, Aids, Capitalism.
SAKKIE
Cliffie?
THEMBI NDLOVU
My producer.
HILTON
Hannalie, I want you to talk to him.
HANNALIE
Bring him in for interview?
HILTON
No. Press are all over this like flies
on a week old snoek. Set up a discreet
meeting. And see if you can recover
that first mail off the Zansi server.
(to Thembi)
You didn't mention it over the air.
That you'd got this mail.
THEMBI NDLOVU
No.
(beat)
And if he contacts me again?
HILTON
Do nothing. From now on you going to
have people with you, protecting you,
watching you, all the time.
Starting...
(to Sakkie)
Sakkie?
SAKKIE
As she leaves. Get Jack with three
teams working eight hour shifts. I'll
introduce you to Jack on the way out.
HILTON
Thembi, know this. We have to be in on
everything. Your phones, your cell,
your e-mail.
THEMBI NDLOVU
(beat)
I'll have no privacy at all?
HILTON
None.
(beat)
But you'll be safe.
THEMBI NDLOVU
And if he mails again?
HILTON
(hands her card)
Call this number.
Don't mention bombs or bombers. Use
the words "the second wave".
Operational code.
THEMBI NDLOVU
(beat)
Some time, I'm going to have to deal
with the issue on the show.
SAKKIE
Deal with it?
THEMBI NDLOVU
I talk about what the audience tells
me to talk about.
(beat)
Right now... they want to talk bombs.
CUT TO:
11 INT. ZT HILTON'S OFFICE - NIGHT 11
(HILTON)
Close on a laptop screen.
Hilton is going over the bomber's mail to Thembi, trying to
get into the man's head.
HILTON
(reads)
The nation is one organism. To cure
the whole... it might be necessary...
to kill the part. The substance
kills... but the substance... is the
cure...
Hilton swings round in his chair, repeating the words.
HILTON (CONT'D)
(continuing)
"The substance kills, but the
substance... is the cure."
CUT TO:
12 INT. HANNALIE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT 12
(HANNALIE, SEDICA)
Hannalie and Sedica lie wrapped in each other's arms.
Note - this is shot very tight. All we need is the headboard
and the bed.
HANNALIE
Everyone's just... focused.
SEDICA
You must all be so scared.
HANNALIE
No one shows it.
(beat)
I think that's why no one even talks
about Denzela. It's too horrible.
(beat)
She's just gone.
(beat)
In bits.
She closes her eyes at the nightmare of it all. Sedica puts
out her arm to comfort her.
SEDICA
And Hilton? How's he coping?
Hannalie just shrugs.
Silence. The only movement is Sedica's slender fingers
caressing her lover's neck.
CUT TO:
13 INT. ZT HILTON'S OFFICE - DAY 13
(WOODEBURNE, HILTON)
Hilton is in a one-to-one meeting with Guy Woodeburne. Hilton
has just asked: what does the bomber want?
WOODEBURNE
I'm not a shrink. But do you know how
many loons there are in the world.
Like how many Americans think they've
been visited by the Angel Moroni and
told to join the Latter Day Saints? Or
been abducted and abused by aliens.
HILTON
"The substance kills... but the
substance is the cure."
WOODEBURNE
(beat)
I've had one thought.
(off his look)
All the bombs. Capetown, the one that
killed your agent, the park bomb... In
the debris, there's evidence of a
container. It's been puzzling me,
because it's not functional.
(off his look)
What if this guy... is just
practising.
HILTON
Practising.
WOODEBURNE
Ja.
(beat)
And some time he's going to use
this... "substance".
HILTON
Which would be what?
WOODEBURNE
(beat; shrug)
Some kind of WMD?
(weapon of mass destruction)
Poison Gas? Germ warfare?
(beat)
Anthrax?
Close on Hilton. It is all coming down on him.
CUT TO:
ACT TWO
14 INT. ZT HILTON'S OFFICE - DAY 14
(HILTON, WOODEBURNE)
Hilton is ushering Guy Woodeburne into the room.
HILTON
I got a call from home affairs.
(beat)
The number we put together from the
bomb sites...
WOODEBURNE
Ja?
HILTON
It is an ID Number.
(beat)
Belongs to Nigel Jones.
WOODEBURNE
(shocked)
General... Nigel Jones?
HILTON
You know him?
WOODEBURNE
(beat)
Deputy Secretary of military
intelligence.
HILTON
Ja.
CUT TO:
15 INT. BOMBER'S LAIR - DAY 15
Close on the screen as the bomber types.
"...doctors who collaborated in the murder of detainees,
those politicians who commanded the dogs of war and then
denied it, the suited leaders who commanded the men who
barbecued the heroes of the revolution... These people stand
at edge of a vertiginous brink..."
CUT TO:
16 INT. ZT BRIEFING ROOM - DAY 16
(SAKKIE, SIMISO, HILTON, WOODEBURNE, GUY WOODEBURNE,
HANNALIE)
The Unit is struggling with the implications of the new lead.
SAKKIE
Why would Jones, if he is the bomber,
plant evidence that leads to himself?
SIMISO
Maybe he doesn't think he's leaving
it. He thinks the metal wouldn't
survive the blast.
SAKKIE
So why use it then?
HILTON
(beat)
Or he knows it will survive, but it's
not the bomber's ID.
(beat)
The bomber is pointing our attention
at someone else.
Guy Woodeburne is impressed.
WOODEBURNE
Ja?
(beat; pleased)
You think he's that clever?
SAKKIE
(beat)
There a lot of people that hate guys
like that.
GUY WOODEBURNE
(beat)
Like what?
SAKKIE
Like Jones. People that changed sides.
Jones was big with the CCB...
HANNALIE
Didn't he testify before the Truth
Commission?
SAKKIE
Ja.
(beat)
Bomber is left wing. Maybe he has an
issue with Jones... so he implicates
him...
Angle on Guy Woodeburne, smiling: possible, but unlikely.
HILTON
(beat)
I'm going to meet with Marlene Burger
again. Guy, I want you to access
Jones's files from NIS.
WOODEBURNE
They code blue.
(beat)
You want to speak to your man. Get him
to authorize it.
Hilton speaks with quiet authority.
HILTON
It's authorized.
(beat)
We fly low under the radar on Jones,
people. He's a can of worms.
(beat)
Sakkie... I want you to head the
surveillance team. And he mustn't
smell you.
SAKKIE
He won't.
HANNALIE
You know he was on Thembi Ndlovu's
show last month?
HILTON
Who?
SAKKIE
(shocked)
Jones?
HANNALIE
Ja. She asked him if he held back at
the Truth Commission. Mentioned
someone... Jezzie...
SIMISO
Jezzie Anderson?
HANNALIE
Ja.
SAKKIE
Who is she?
SIMISO
She and three other girls were killed
travelling to Joburg from a Hugh
Masakela concert in Gabarone in the
eighties. Car exploded.
(beat)
One of those unsolved ones.
CUT TO: