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Wiretaps
Vaughn Transcript


1.16 The Prophecy

March 10, 2002


Thanks to Christy and Lori at Vartanetc. Used with permission.

Setting: CIA offices. Vaughn walks in to find several DSR Agents rummaging through his office.
Vaughn: Who the Hell are you?
Evans: Carson Evans, DSR. We have authorization.
[Evans hands Vaughn a warrant authorizing the search.]
Vaughn is now in Devlin's office.
Vaughn: The National Security Agency is investigating Bristow?
Devlin: The Department of Special Research, yes.
Vaughn: Off the books paranormal guys, because her picture was in a manuscript?
Devlin: That's special access only.
Vaughn: Well, I'm Sydney's case officer.
Devlin: The loop is closed on this, on orders from the DCI himself.
Vaughn: I don't care who issued orders. If the NSA knows something, I should too. [Devlin gives him a knowing look.] We should. [Devlin looks downward.] Unless you already do.
Devlin: Close the door.

Scene: Usual warehouse. Sydney arrives, Vaughn is already there.
Sydney: I got your message. If its about the surveillance photos, I've encoded them into JPEGs.
Vaughn: Forget the surveillance photos.
Sydney: The ones that might identify The Man? The ones I nearly got eaten by a pack of dogs trying to get?
Vaughn: You're being investigated by the DSR.
Sydney: DSR?
Vaughn: Department of Special Research. It was created during World War II to investigate Nazi interest in the Occult. After the war, an executive order was signed empowering them to investigate fringe science: parapsychology, remote viewing--
Sydney: What do they want with me?
Vaughn: They want to know why your picture is in the Rambaldi book. [Sydney looks down and sighs.] I know, it seems ridiculous.
Sydney: It is ridiculous.
Vaughn: But your picture--
Sydney: A picture. Not mine.
Vaughn: They don't think so.
Sydney: They're wrong.
Vaughn: They took my files--everything I have concerning you. Now at our next scheduled debriefing, they're going to bring you in for questioning. I just wanted to give you a heads-up.
Sydney: This drawing is five hundred years old. Millions of women have looked like that! My mom looked like that. Maybe it's a picture of my mother.
Vaughn: Well they don't think so. Your mother's dead and they have reason to believe the woman in this picture is still alive.
Sydney: I don't understand.
Vaughn: The DSR partially decoded text from that page.
Sydney: And? What did it say?
Vaughn: Well, they didn't tell me. But, apparently Rambaldi refers to future dates indicating this woman is still alive. The DSR is referring to this text by name. They're calling it The Prophecy.

Setting: CIA offices, meeting room. The DSR is running Sydney through a battery of psychological tests, after declining to tell Sydney what the Prophecy is. Sydney is cooperative, but you can sense her thinning patience. Vaughn is watching from an observation room full of monitors. There is a DSR man sitting in the room, apparently keeping track of one of the monitors. Haladki walks in.
Haladki: Hmm. Love the tech stuff.
Vaughn: Haladki?
Haladki: [Looks past Vaughn at monitor showing Syd's eyes on the top half of the screen and a line graph on the bottom of the screen. He adjusts one of the buttons on the monitor.] It's like a thermometer. The heat from their eyes tracks brain patterns.
Vaughn: What are you doing here?
Haladki: My department got tapped to facilitate inter-agency cooperation.
We momentarily go back inside the meeting room to watch as Sydney is asked if she would cross a forest clearing when she came to it. She hesitates, is asked again, and she answers that it depends. You can sense her frustration with the process. We then return to the observation room. [Vaughn exhales.]
Haladki: Gentlemen, if you need anything I'll be in my office. [Haladki leaves room.]
The tests continue as Vaughn watches on. Vaughn takes off his suit jacket and tosses it into a nearby chair. Haladki briskly walks in.
Haladki: We need to cut this short.
Vaughn: What is it?
Haladki: Sorry. Need to know only. [Haladki bends down to whisper something to the DSR man, who then leaves into the meeting room.]
The DSR man goes into the meeting room, whispers something to one of the other men who stands up and asks Sydney to come with them. They want to run an MRI, a lumbar puncture (a.k.a. spinal tap), and some blood work. Vaughn and Haladki are still watching.
Vaughn: What the Hell's going on?
[Haladki ignores him and continues watching the meeting room.]
Sydney refuses to allow the diagnostic tests unless she is told what's going on. The DSR people refuse to tell her, and the guard at the door (same guy from the observation room) reluctantly steps out of her way when she threatens him if he doesn't get out of her way. Vaughn and Haladki are still in the observation room. Sydney walks out of the room.
Haladki: They're just letting her leave?
[Vaughn casts a disgusted look at Haladki.]

Setting: Usual warehouse. Syd and Vaughn are seated on crates/boxes and are mid-conversation. Presumably, Sydney has been telling Vaughn what she learned from her father about the location of the code key to Page 47 of the Rambaldi manuscript.
Vaughn: You're going to break into the Vatican?
Sydney: The last thing I'm going to do while DSR is waiting for test results to prove I'm guilty of something I don't even understand is sit on my ass.
Vaughn: But the Vatican?
Sydney: The secret archives. All I have is an inventory number. I don't know the form the code key's in and its Rambaldi so it could be anything. I called you because I need a partner for this op. Someone I can trust.
Vaughn: [Sighs, nods.] We'd have to fly out separately. Under cover.
Sydney: Different airports in Italy.
Vaughn: Meet up in Rome.
Sydney: We'd have to leave tonight. You in?
Vaughn: [Looks thoughtful.] Yeah. I'll break into the Vatican with you.
[Vaughn smiles. Sydney smiles back.]

Setting: Rome, Italy: The Vatican. Sydney and Vaughn arrive in van.
Syd and Vaughn are in blue construction worker uniforms and Vaughn is carrying a tool bag in each hand while Sydney adjusts her tool belt. They walk into the solarium where a young woman is beautifully singing in Italian, being instructed by and older woman. Vaughn is walking ahead of Sydney, who now also carries a tool bag. The singing instructor, speaking Italian, stops Sydney and Vaughn. Sydney responds with something else in Italian, presumably explaining that they're construction workers and need to pass through. The woman seems to believe them, they start to walk off again, and then the woman stops them again. She says something in Italian, to Vaughn. Vaughn responds in Italian, and this finally appeases the woman. They are allowed to continue.
Vaughn: So, I was thinking we're in Rome, which is the same city as Trattoria DiNardi. That's my favorite restaurant in the world.
Sydney: Yeah?
Vaughn: Yeah.
Now Syd and Vaughn are in the Vatican's basement.
[Vaughn welds open a passage. Sydney and Vaughn go through the passage and climb down some ladder rungs. They are now in a tunnel, searching with flashlights, and bantering.]
Sydney: So why is Trattoria DiNardi so great?
Vaughn: Well, its only good if you like food.
Sydney: Hey, did you know Kobe Bryant was named for a steak?
Vaughn: Yeah, actually I did. You said the explosion will trigger the alarm.
Sydney: Which is on a fifteen second delay.
Vaughn: And you said you could disarm it in under twenty seconds. How far under twenty?
Sydney: I work better under pressure.
[At the spot where they need to activate the explosion, Syd and Vaughn work together to get the explosives set-up. Banter continues.]
Vaughn: I was thinking later tonight, after we get the code key, maybe we can check it out.
Sydney: What? The restaurant?
Vaughn: Its almost too good not to.
Sydney: Unless SD-6 spots us there and has us killed.
Vaughn: Well, the food's so good its almost worth the risk.
[Sydney puts the final explosive into place and activates a code on the keybad on the device, while Vaughn holds a flashlight over her shoulder for light.]
Sydney: Okay, its set, let's go.
[They grab their tools and make a run for a doorway in the tunnel.]
Sydney: Ready?
[Vaughn has an arm around the back of Syd's waist, as she reaches for his other arm which is already in place for her to huddle into. They hold each other in this semi-embrace during the explosion. They make their way to a tunnel in the wall and crawl through it. They are now in a room in the Vatican which is full of statues and various other artifacts. They make their way to the alarm system control box. No dialogue is heard but we see Vaughn holding a flashlight over Syd's shoulder, mouthing something to her about the colored wires she is cutting--they are deactivating the alarm. They split up and each search for the code key. Sydney spots and old crate bearing the inventory number she knows carries the code key. Vaughn finds her and helps her open the crate to see a painted portrait of a pope.]
Sydney: This is Pope Alexander the Sixth. Rambaldi was his chief architect. Rambaldi made a habit to hide his real work in ordinary things. The code is hidden in this painting.
Vaughn: You know, we don't have time to take it with us. [Pulls out knife and aims it toward the painting, ready to cut.]
Sydney: Wait a minute! [Spotting some writing on the painting's frame, Syd grabs Vaughn's flashlight and translates aloud.] Read the first line. "Begin with the eleventh letter. Three rows of sixteen among the X axis and the"- this is it. This is the code key.
Vaughn: [Pulling camera out of tool bag.] All right, I got it.
[Vaughn starts snapping photos while Syd holds the flashlight for him. They both stop when they hear a noise. We see Vaughn go to investigate, see a Vatican guard holding a gun at Vaughn and saying something in Italian. The guard starts to report what he's found via a walkie-talkie and then Sydney creeps in from behind the guard and fights him to the ground. Alarms blare.]
Sydney: He sent in for back-up. We've got to move!
[Syd and Vaughn make their exit.]

Setting: Vaughn drives in and parks his car next to Sydney's behind the warehouse where they frequently meet.
Vaughn: How was your flight?
Sydney: It was okay. Have you sent in the pictures yet?
Vaughn: Yeah. And in a couple of hours we'll know exactly what Rambaldi wrote--the truth. Which is the only defense you need.
Sydney: I know.
Vaughn: And they agreed to wait on decryption before taking any action. So why don't you go home and relax. This insanity is almost over. Next time we're in Rome--Trattoria DiNardi.
Sydney: I'd like that.
[Syd watches as Vaughn goes to his car.]

Setting: Sydney, having been out at a club with Will and Francie, spot several DSR agents in the club. She makes her exit, using a phone call to Hong Kong as her alibi to her friends. She is discreetly followed by the DSR agents and helped into a van.
Sydney: Vaughn?
[The DSR men start cuffing Sydney's ankles and wrists.]
Vaughn: Sydney, listen--
Evans: Pursuant to National Security Directive 81A, you are now in the custody of the Federal Government.
Sydney: What the Hell is going on?
Vaughn: I promise we'll figure this out.
Sydney: What about the code key we found? What happened?
Vaughn: The CIA had the same key. They broke the Rambaldi code correctly.
Sydney: What?
Vaughn: Those medical tests you took were looking to match three specific physical anomalies Rambaldi mentioned: DNA sequencing, platelet levels, and the size of your heart. You match all three.
Sydney: So what does the prophecy say?
[Vaughn looks over at Evans.]
Evans: "This woman here depicted, will posses unseen marks. Signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works, bind them with fury--a burning anger unless prevented. At vulgar cost this woman will render the greatest power unto utter desolation."
[Sydney looks over at Vaughn, who looks downward. Sydney's eyes fill-up with tears.]


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