(Foreboding music begins to play, and we see several pairs of feet emerge from a newly opened door. Behind them, being wheeled in is an upright figure draped in black, with its hands cuffed in front of him. The wheeled figure approaches Sloane and others who are stationed there to receive it. Someone pulls the cloth off of the figure’s head.)
Sark: (looking up, realization dawning in his eyes as he sees who is in charge of the special ops unit he is to work with. He shakes his head in disbelief.) This is… classic.
FIRST MENTION OF SARK
Dixon: Is this really the only way to get intel on CRF?
Jack: You disagree with my methods.
Dixon: Sloane signed an agreement with Langley. He’s prohibited from engaging with certain operatives. (insistently) Sark’s on that list.
Jack: Sark will only negotiate openly if he feels he’s met his intellectual match. As acting director, I’ll take full responsibility.
SARK SCENE #2
(Camera shows a questioning between Sloane and Sark taking place on a television screen. As Sark begins to speak, the camera brings us to the actual scene.)
Sark: Four years ago, if I’m not mistaken, you fooled a small army into thinking they worked for the CIA, when in fact... they worked for you. How you convinced the U.S. government into offering you the real thing is a story I’m dying to hear. It’d suffice to say, Arvin, you have my undying admiration.
Sloane: (after a pause, pushes a folder of documents across the table to Sark. Sark lifts his still-cuffed hands and opens the folder to look at the pictures within) You recognize those men. They were going to help you escape our custody in Johannesburg. (pausing again) Turn the page.
(Sark turns the page and there is a visible intake of breath. His mouth is slightly agape for a moment, then he closes it abruptly.)
Sloane: (slightly menacingly) An object lesson. This is what we will do to you… if you refuse to cooperate. Now. How do we retrieve the bomb?
Sark: (sighing silently and lowering his eyes) The Cadmus Revolutionary Front is run by a man named Uchek Sanko. We worked together under my last employer.
(Camera shifts to Jack, who, in another room, is listening to their conversation and looking up Sanko)
Jack: I’ve got him.
Sark: Sanko will be taking possession of the bomb shortly. I told Mr. Vaughn in Johannesburg that I would help you infiltrate CRF and retrieve this bomb, from Sanko. (camera goes back to Sark) And I promise you, I will. You have my word.
Sloane: (dubiously) Your word?
Sark: (forcefully) Which has a considerably greater value than when you knew me last. Incarceration has given me a sense of… (searching for the right word) perspective. (nods smugly, but seriously)
Sloane: Well… I’ll consider that.
Sark: But first I have a demand. I’ve heard from unreliable sources that Lauren Reed… (blinking) is dead. Now, I’ve filed numerous requests about her status, but all have gone unanswered. What I want… is to visit her grave. I want to see her body, for myself.
Sark: (turning his head, and starting in a more demanding tone of voice) There’s something else. (Sloane turns back.)
SECOND MENTION OF SARK
(Vaughn and Sydney are walking hurriedly through an APO chamber.)
Sydney: I heard about Sark. He didn’t give you anything in South Africa.
Vaughn: (disappointedly) No, he was onto us from the beginning. They’re questioning him now. Sark can give us intel on how to stop the CRF. We still have a chance.
Sydney: (insisting) We can’t depend on Sark…!
Vaughn: I understand he’s cutting a deal. (sighs) Look, I don’t like it any more than you do, but if listening to him helps us get the bomb back, then I can live with it.
Sydney: Even if you’re right… what if Anna gets away.
(Jack walks up to them.)
Jack: Sark has agreed to lead us to Uchek Sanko, the leader of CRF. We believe Sanko can provide us with operational intelligence that will allow us to stop Anna… and recover the weapon.
Sydney: When do we leave?
Jack: (continuing, with a glance towards Vaughn) He has, however, made a demand. It involves you. He wants to exhume your wife’s body. (Sydney lowers her head and winces.)
Vaughn: Fine. Let him.
Jack: That’s not all. (both Sydney and Vaughn look up with trepidation) Sark has demanded that you open her coffin for him.
Sydney: No.
Jack: Agent Vaughn?
Sydney: You can’t order him to do this..!
Jack: (cutting in) I’m not ordering, I’m asking. Sark’s participation in leading us to CRF, in stopping Anna, is dependent…
Vaughn: I’ll do it.
SARK SCENE #3
(Again foreboding music plays, as a few guards lead Sark and Vaughn into a greenish futuristic-looking chamber.)
Sark: (looking around) This is where you keep her.
Vaughn: (walking over to the vaults and pressing some buttons) For natural security reasons, some bodies aren’t allowed a public grave. In this case, we don’t want Lauren’s death to become public knowledge.
(Sark lifts his chin and looks a little intimidated by the vault drawer containing Lauren slowly sliding outwards.)
Vaughn: (spitefully) This make you feel better? Watching this happen?
Sark: (nodding) It gives me hope. That I can still achieve closure.
Vaughn: Guys like you don’t believe in closure. That would actually require to care about something.
Sark: (looking up defiantly and nodding slightly in understanding) Perhaps that’s true. Perhaps all I can hope for… is a moment for us all to share. You. Me… Her. In letting go of all pretext and subterfuge, we can finally admit the truth. Your wife loved me. Not even death can change that. (harshly) Do it. Open it.
(Seething, Vaughn walks over the vault and yanks it open.)
Vaughn: You want your moment. Take it.
(Vaughn steps back and uses his hand to wipe a bit of perspiration from above his lip. Sark makes his way slowly to the encasement, and bends down, his cuffed hands reaching for it. There is a stricken expression on his face, and Vaughn looks highly disturbed. Sark purses his lips and starts to zip the bag open.)
Vaughn: (suddenly and viciously) Stop!
Sark: (looking up terrifyingly and speaking quietly) My agreement, Mr. Vaughn, allows for this.
(Vaughn gets a hold of himself, closing his eyes. Sark turns back to the task at hand, and reveals the bullet-holes in Lauren’s chest. Vaughn looks away. Sark traces the wounds with his slightly shaking hands, his mouth open in a tragic expression.)
Sark: (quietly) A perfect triangle pattern. (nodding resignedly) Consistent with CIA training. (he looks up at Vaughn, and stands slowly) It was you. (forcefully, with his teeth clenched) You did this.
Vaughn: Yes, I did.
(Sark, shaking his head, kneels back down, his face contorting. Vaughn looks away again. As he kneels, Sark rocks back and forth once, and sobs quietly, hiding his face in his clasped hands. He summons himself, and stands back up, turning to Vaughn)
Sark: (in a more detached, final tone, but visibly swallowing back tears) I’ll take you to CRF. (looking down) But I want you to face… what you did. I want you to look at her.
(Vaughn looks down at Lauren’s face, and recoils. He looks back at Sark, who still looks inconsolable.)
THIRD MENTION OF SARK
Vaughn: Sark gave us the contact protocol for a meet with the CRF. It’s a coded message in the classified ads. If all goes as he says it will, we should have a response by the evening edition.
Sydney: And then what… you and I go in alone?
Vaughn: (grinning) You mean is it a glorified date?
Sydney: That’s not what I meant. But is it?
Vaughn: No. Not exactly. We’ve got to take Sark with us. He insists we won’t get through the front door without him. So… we rely on the explosive tracking device we put in his neck. If he tries to burn us in any way… sabotage… escape… whatever…
Sydney: We take him out.
SARK SCENE #4
(Sark, Sydney, and Vaughn are in a jet, on their way across the seas. They are sitting on crates arranged in a semi-circle.)
Sydney: The man we’re meeting with… Uchek Sanko. What else can you tell us about him?
Sark: Sanko’s expertise is coordinating terrorist activities.
Vaughn: And you’re convinced he’ll know where the bomb is…?
Sark: I’m quite certain he’s the one that tasked Anna to get it. Per our protocol, he took out a series of ads in response to mine. (gesturing towards the newspaper in front of him) This one here. Says I’m to meet him at a club in Venice, where we’ve done business before. It says I’m to come alone. (looking up)
Vaughn: (raising his eyebrows and replying sarcastically) Alone? That’s interesting.
Sark: (fixing a deathly stare on him) I gave you my word, Mr. Vaughn. Am I to take it you don’t trust me?
Vaughn: You’re about to betray one of your former partners. It doesn’t really instill faith in your loyalty.
Sark: My past infidelities are just that. Mistakes I’ve learned from. Repented for. (glancing at Sydney) I’ve become a trustworthy man.
Vaughn: Well, the answer’s no. Where you go, we go.
Sark: (nodding and looking once again to Sydney) When Lauren and I, we set up a weapons deal with Sanko before the Covenant imploded. The thing is, he’s never met her face to face. All he knows is her voice.
(All three are silent. Sydney looks at Vaughn.)
SARK SCENE #5
(In the specified club in Venice. Sark and Sydney situate themselves in a sitting area, while Vaughn watches from a balcony above. )
Sark: (not looking at Sydney) I must… tell you. Lauren and I had a reputation… certain intimacies were public knowledge. (Sydney sits warily) We must maintain appearances. (Sark looks up at her smugly.)
Sydney: (under her breath) Dream on, you perverted freak.
Sanko: (walking up to them, with his hand around some woman’s waist) Oh… Mr. Sark.
Sark: (bored) Mr. Sanko. It’s good to see you.
Sanko: (looking at Sydney) And you must be… Lauren Reed. Mmm? … pleasure to meet you after so long. (kisses her hand creepily)
Sydney: (simpering) The pleasure’s all mine… obviously.
Sanko: So… let us to toast. To CRF, eh? (pouring some shots) Salut!
(All three take their respective shots, Sanko’s being a body shot off the girl he is with, who giggles. Sanko sighs in contentment, tearing into his lime. Sydney smiles slightly uncomfortably, and Sark holds back a knowing grin, both realizing that Sark’s words were fairly accurate.)
Sanko: So. (sniffing) What is the nature of your business?
Sark: You represent certain interests that stand to profit to the market… If you were to provide us with some insider information, we would be happy to split the profits.
Sanko: How nice of you. Information… about what?
Sark: Our sources tell us you’ve just acquired a chemical bomb. What do you intend to do with it?
Sanko: (casually) Which weapon are you talking about?
Sydney: (smoothly) The one you hired Anna Espinosa to steal. (Realization dawns in Sanko’s eyes, but he doesn’t speak.) Obviously, you’ve never heard of her. So it’s a waste of time… (She stands up.)
Sanko: (abruptly) You want something from me? I want something from you… my dear.
Sydney: (sitting back down) And what is that?
Sanko: (nodding towards Sark) Mr. Sark has told me about your… (cocking his head) predilections. Mmm? I have a room above this club. I like to watch that. For myself.
Vaughn: (speaking to Sydney through her earpiece.) You have my permission to kill him, if you’d like.
Sydney: (pausing) I’m sure Julian’s told you we never mix business with pleasure. (picking up a lime and, her arm around Sark’s neck, placing it gently in his mouth. He looks up at her as she takes another shot.)
(Sydney lowers her mouth to Sark’s and kisses him thoroughly, while both Sanko and Vaughn watch. Sanko gives a little groan of satisfaction, and Vaughn looks perturbed. As Sydney swiftly pulls away, Sark gasps in slight pain)
Sanko: (staring at them in fascination) Ooh. Ah.
(Sark looks down and reaches up to touch his bloodied lip. He then raises his head and a self-satisfied smile is creeping onto his face.)
Sark: (hiding a smirk) I told you she was special. (wipes away the blood with a napkin)
Sanko: Yes… She is indeed special. (raises his glass to toast them, but the glass shatters, and he clutches his neck)
(Sydney, Sark, and Vaughn look up at the sound of the shot, and the former two immediately get down and begin to make their way to the stairs.)
Sydney: (desperately) Anna…?
Vaughn: Above us.
Sydney: I’ll take the lead. (reaching out to cuff Sark to the nearby railing) We’ll cover each other’s corners.
Sark: (insistently) Give me a gun…! I can help.
Sydney: Stay here and shut up. (He looks at her silently, and she runs off, up the stairs.)
(Vaughn and Sydney chase after Anna, but all of a sudden she has disappeared.)
Sydney: (breathlessly) Let’s get Sark. We might still be able to cut her off. (They hurry back down the stairs, and see an empty pair of cuffs hanging on the railing.)
(Camera flashes to Anna and a few me, who are leading Sark down a hallway and out of the building.)
SARK SCENE #6
(On a boat that is speeding away from the scene, through the canals of Venice.)
Sark: (frantically, as he sees Anna put on a pair of gloves) What are you doing…?
Anna: There’s an explosive device in your neck.
Sark: Wait. How do you know that?
Anna: There’s no time for painkillers. (ordering to her men) Hold him down.
(to Sark) Don’t move.
Sark: Please. (gasping as she slices into his neck.) Ah…! God.
(The camera flashes to Vaughn activating the tracking device, and finding the signal displayed on the screen.
Vaughn: Syd! We have to blow the tracking device.
Sydney: Vaughn, no, wait a second!
Vaughn: No. It’s our back-up protocol!
Sydney: No, no, wait! He might lead us to Anna.
Vaughn: He’s out of our custody. We can’t take that chance. We have to blow it now.
(Meanwhile, Anna pulls out the chip triumphantly from Sark’s neck, whose face is contorted in pain. Vaughn and Sydney watch as the activator reads “Signal lost.”)
Sydney: What happened?
Vaughn: It failed.
(Back on the boat, Anna smiles and reaches out her hand to Sark.)
Anna: Anna Espinosa.
Sark: (out of breath) Julian Sark. It’s nice to meet you.
FOURTH MENTION OF SARK
(Sydney, on the phone with her father.)
Sydney: We played right into her hands. Anna killed Sanko right in front of our eyes, and then distracted us long enough to grab Sark.
Jack: You couldn’t have predicted this. We had no intelligence indicating that the two shared a history or agenda.
Sydney: Still. I should’ve considered it was a possibility.
Jack: We need to focus on where Anna and Sark are headed, with the bomb. Contact all your sources. See if anyone has heard anything.
Sydney: I’ll check back on the hour.
Jack: Good.
FIFTH MENTION OF SARK
(APO)
Dixon: (to Jack) APO is laundering traffic. We’ve called in every favor we can to get Sark and Anna on different intelligence radars. Considering the destructive capacity of the bomb they have in their possession, they’re going to take the extra precaution in covering their tracks. At this point, we’ll take anything we can get.
SARK SCENE #7
(Scene opens on Sark sitting at a table, his eyes down, arms at his sides, and not touching the food that is set out for him. We hear footsteps approaching.)
Anna: Not hungry? (pouring some wine) I thought after a year in a maximum security prison, that you would appreciate… a decent meal.
Sark: (cryptically) Beware a summit that begins with shared bread… the sated man is at his weakest.
Anna: (eyeing him and sitting down at the table) Who said that?
Sark: (raising his chin and meeting her eyes) A Vietnamese general I had dinner with once. For dessert… I put a bullet between his eyes.
(Anna picks up her fork and reaches out to steal a string bean from Sark’s plate. He looks at her, and there is a glimmer of something extremely dangerous in his eye.)
Sark: (The corners of his mouth turn up slightly, and he gets down to business.) I appreciate the rescue… I assume there’s a… price.
Anna: When I heard… of a young man, so ruthless in his shifting allegiances, that he killed his own father, I thought this is a man I am fated to work with.
(Sark nods and smirks.)
Anna: My aim tonight was Uchek Sanko’s head. CRF is a weak organization… no vision. Considering the power of the bomb I stole for them, they did not pay me nearly enough.
Sark: (knowingly) So you decided to go into business for yourself.
Anna: I thought it an appropriate time… and then I spotted you in the club.
Sark: (smugly) And you saw your opportunity.
Anna: Yes.
Sark: (He sighs, satisfied with the new power he has found in this conversation. Making a big show out of considering this prospect, he bites his bottom lip and responds) A partnership. My brains… your skills.
Anna: (smiling) You flatter yourself, but, something like that. (raises her glass to toast him)
Sark: I must tell you, that selling a bomb on the black market can be tricky. (taking a sip of his wine)
Anna: I already have a buyer in mind. Right here, in this very city. (pausing) Michel Guino.
Sark: A man with whom I have an excellent credit rating.
Anna: Yes, Mr. Sark. I know you do.
(Sark smirks and, still looking at her, pointedly takes a forkful of food, and eats it slowly.)
SIXTH MENTION OF SARK
Jack: Anna’s selling the bomb to a man named Michel Guino. Gateway of all arms sales in and out of central Russia. Guino’s on the watch list, we have satellite surveillance.
Sydney: Where’d the intel come from?
Jack: Classified, but reliable. Your mission is to intercept the bomb, and to detain the principles.
Sydney: Do we have a confirmed location for the meet with Anna and Sark?
Jack: Guino’s on the move to a property he owns… a graveyard. He’s been ordered to hold meets there. Marshall’s sending coordinates. If this exchange goes through, Sydney, both Anna and Sark will be in the wind. We may never have this opportunity again.
SARK SCENE #8
(An outdoor structure and fountain, at the graveyard in Venice. Sark and Anna approach Guino and his men.)
Guino: (in French) Is that you, Mr. Sark?
Sark: Oui. (Yes.)
Guino: (in French) How long has it been since you’ve been out of prison?
Sark: About fourteen hours. (coming to stop before Guino) Ms. Espinosa was kind enough to set me free.
Guino: (in French) You vouch for this woman as a business partner?
Sark: (frowning) She came here with me, didn’t she?
Guino: Mademoiselle Espinosa… as the buyer, I dictate certain terms, starting with good faith on your part. (smiling politely) Put your weapon on the stone… please. (She does so, and opens the briefcase to show Guino, who admires it.) C’est jolie, ca… it’s very nice.
Sydney: (hiding on a rooftop nearby, with Vaughn) Let’s go. (Vaughn nods and they get up.)
Anna: Is the (vice) acceptable to you, Monsieur Guido?
Guido: It is.
Anna: And the price. Is that acceptable also?
(Guido doesn’t answer, but calls an associate to wire twenty million dollars to their account. Meanwhile, Vaughn and Sydney are on the move.)
Vaughn: Give me ten seconds.
Guido: The transfer is almost complete. (Anna looks at Sark, who nods seriously.)
Sydney: Go! (Vaughn and Sydney attack the group, shooting down a couple of Guido’s men. Everyone begins to move. Guido runs off with the briefcase, and the others escape also)
Vaughn: (to Sydney) You get Sark! I’ll go after the bomb. (Vaughn catches up with Guido, effectively knocking him out, and recovering the bomb a second before it hits the ground.)
(Meanwhile, Sark is running frantically through the hallways of the building, and we see Anna catch sight of him. She runs after him in the same direction. Sark reaches the end of a hallway, where there is a large gate door. He slips through and shuts it quickly, locking it.)
Anna: (angrily) What are you doing?!
Sark: (doesn’t respond to Anna, but calls out to Sydney, who appears down the hall) Sydney…! (She stops at the sound of his voice.) I’m a man of my word. (He lingers at the gate for a second, before turning away.)
Anna: (in realization) I will kill you! You bastard…!
(Sydney reaches Anna and fighting ensues. Sydney finally gets her down and knocks her out with the gun Vaughn tosses her way.)
Sydney: The United States government has some questions for you. (Vaughn approaches her and hugs her.) We got her.
