Mortal Lock

by Andrew Vachss

  You can buy anything. That’s what the Sex Tunnels are for. You just have to remember that nothing is for free. That’s why kill-sex costs the most credits, because they can only use the product once.

  Nobody is supposed to be afraid to go into the Sex Tunnels anymore, because the Rulers made it safe for everyone.

  But the Book Boys still scare some people off. The Rulers say they are terrorists—there’s a reward for naming any of them. The whisper-stream always flows when one of them is caught, but that never changes anything.

  CUT TO:

  THE RULERS LIE

  THE TRUTH CAN’T DIE

  HUNTER

  (still on the prowl)

  People have sex outside the Sex Tunnels, but that has to be sanctioned … and only approved sex is sanctioned. So, if people want to have unsanctioned sex and don’t want to pay for it, they have to go into the Uncharted Zone.

  Some of those who wanted to have sex with children, that’s where they went. They took the children with them. They said this was different from the Sex Tunnels—what they were doing was love. They said you shouldn’t have to pay for love, just for sex. So they went where they could do what they wanted without paying.

  But none of them ever came out.

  CUT TO BOOK BOYS MESSAGE:

  YOU PAY IN CREDITS

  AND WE COLLECT YOUR DEBITS

  HUNTER

  That one was tricky. A debit is a death. Everyone knows that. But … who died? And why?

  Whatever it meant, it didn’t stop anything. The people who say they love children still go into the Uncharted Zone. You can even buy maps of how to get to the places where the children are kept. But nobody knows if the maps work, because the people who sell them keep disappearing.

  Maybe they never go into the Uncharted Zone at all. Maybe they go Outside. Maybe that’s what the Book Boys are telling us.

  CUT TO:

  WE ARE NOT THE TERRORISTS

  THE TERROR WAS OUTSIDE

  THEN, NOT NOW

  HUNTER

  (sits down, unwraps a bar, chews slowly)

  (interior monologue)

  Sometimes, I wonder if there are any Rulers at all. The whisper-stream says there was a computer program. It was built Outside, because Underground had to be built before the Terror took over. It had to be ready for people a long, long time before anyone came down here. At least the life-support systems had to be in place. Some say the tunnels were all dug by prisoners, like the people sent to the HydroFarm work to make the power that drives everything here. And some say it was mostly children, the used-up children.

  Everybody says. Nobody knows.

  Some say the Rulers don’t ever put you Outside at all—they just kill you. That part could be true. My friend, Horto, he wanted to go Outside. You can’t buy something like that—it’s supposed to be a punishment. So Horto broke a Major Rule, and they came and took him.

  Horto promised to contact me. Everybody says there are transmissions from Outside; they come into the Uncharted Zone. If you’re in there, you can pick them up. Merchant Boys bring them back, and sell them to the people they’re meant for. And you can even hire a Messenger to look for you, if you expect one. But nobody knows if the messages are real, or just made up. Made up in Underground, I mean. I think, if Horto ever contacted me, I’d know. We were true friends. But he never did.

  The Hunter finishes his meal, carefully pockets the wrapper, and goes back to work. His movements are more calculated now. Stealthy. His face is a mask as he opens his eyes WIDE, then closes them, repeating the exercise to accustom himself to a deeper darkness ahead.

  HUNTER

  (interior monologue, as he moves)

  I know secrets even the Book Boys don’t. The man who took me into the Uncharted Zone when I was a child told me it was the only place where we could share our love.

  After a while, he shared me.

  When I got too old, they walked me far away and left me there. I found my way out, just stumbling along. I didn’t have anything to trade so I had to do other things.

  Later, I joined a kill-crew. The initiation was easy. The only rule they had was that you couldn’t kill anyone for a reason, like getting even or something. You had to kill for the killing. We covered all the tunnels.

  That’s how I found out that other kids like me had made it out, too. They never said anything, but I could see it on them like a sign. Some of them had grown into the ones who took me into the Uncharted Zone—now they say they love children, too.

  After I killed the first four of those, my crew realized I was doing it for a personal reason, so they kicked me out.

  That’s when I discovered not all the other kids who got kicked out turned into the ones who took me. They hated them, too. Just like I did.

  A party of three men passes by where the Hunter lies in wait. One has a pale-beamed flash, another carries what is clearly some form of tranquilizer gun, the third all different kinds of restraints.

  The Hunter slides along until he is standing in the direction they are headed. As they close in, he raises a small spotlight in one hand and triggers it. The blast of light is so extreme that the three men fall to the ground, temporarily blinded. The Hunter drops the spotlight, unsheathes a two-handed sword, and steps forward.

  HUNTER

  (interior monologue, as he walks off … deeper)

  I shouldn’t say, “Just like me.” I can always tell who they are, but that’s the only thing we share. Some of us turn into the men who love boys; some of us turn into men who hate those men. But most of us, we just … blend in, I guess. We’ll never be a crew. Never be together. All we share is the Secret.

  But that doesn’t matter. I learned one thing from those men who loved me: I don’t need love. I don’t need a crew. I don’t need any friends. I don’t need anything. I don’t even need to keep doing this.

  The Hunter shifts to a listening posture. He nods, as if confirming a deep truth, then flattens himself against the tunnel wall until he becomes invisible.

  HUNTER

  (unseen; we are hearing his thoughts as V/O)

  No, I don’t need it; I just like it. I like it a lot. Maybe this is my love.

  FADE TO BLACK

  COME IN ON INT: Rose’s cave

  ESAU

  (still talking)

  Or maybe I did, and I never knew. So I ended up … where you found me. Scrubbing the truth off the walls.

  ROSE

  (reacting to Esau’s self-loathing tone)

  Maybe you were just—

  ESAU

  I was just … nothing. Look, Rose, I never realized that Book Boys could be girls. I know I’m not good enough to be a Book Boy myself. I couldn’t be a Guardian, either—they wouldn’t have someone like me. But I could be your guardian, Rose. If you’ll have me, you can have my life, too.

  Rose watches Esau’s face, searchingly, but her expression is unyielding.

  ESAU

  I’d never let you down, Rose. Never, I swear. I don’t just love you; I love that you stand for something. I’d be proud to die for you, Rose. At least then I wouldn’t be a nothing anymore.

  ROSE

  (sets her jaw)

  You were never a nothing, Esau.

  She reaches her arms out to him. FADE OUT on Rose holding Esau, so tightly they seem to merge into a single being.

  FADE TO BLUE (SAME EXACT COLOR AS BOOK BOYS’ PAINT)

  FADE IN

  INT: Gathering hall

  ALL FOUR WOMEN

  (in unison)

  The Book of Revelations and Transformation is proof of the power of true knowledge. And the danger of false knowledge.

  FADE TO BLACK

  Humming noise fills the black

  FADE IN

  INT: Gathering hall

  At the podium is a man in his late thirties. This is Zak. His face is smooth to the point of elasticity—his eyes, especially: they switch back and forth constantly between the empathy of a nurse and the iciness
of an executioner.

  ZAK

  We are many colors, but we are all the People. How we appear has no meaning; how we act is where the truth is always found. The Book of the Mind explains the teachings of the Book of Transformations, and clarifies the Book of Obligations. Inside, we are not all alike. My name is Zak; I am an Insighter. Our work is to see the inside of people, and to decide. Some we can help; some we can heal. And some we must expel.

  FADE OUT on the man speaking …

  OPEN ON:

  A young man dressed in Game Boy gear. He is alone, moving with the resolute stride of a man-on-a-mission. Because he displays a variety of twitches and tics (tardive dyskinesia) others quickly clear a path for him. A Game Boy is dangerous enough, but a crazy one is walking dynamite, and this one is talking to himself in classic schizophrenic fashion.

  RADIOMAN

  (as if addressing another person)

  I know she’s on the HydroFarm—it was on the Info-Board. Not her name; they never do that. But I know her ID! And when she is finally with me, I’ll know everything about her. All I have to do is take her away. She wants me to do that. I don’t care what you say; I know she does.

  FADE TO:

  Long shot of the hydrofarm, the camera making it clear that the scope of the entire enterprise is too vast for a single shot—“overheads” are limited in underground—but enough to show work fields, gro-lights, and “quarters” for the workers.

  Close in on a girl who is hand-harvesting under the watchful eye of an overseer. As we come in closer, we see this is the infamous Charm, leader of the Dancing Girls.

  CHARM

  (interior monologue, as she works)

  The trick in here is to keep your place without killing. If you kill anyone on the Farm, you never get to leave.

  I’ve been here before. That was only a 4-cycle punishment, but I didn’t have my name then, so it was hard.

  But now I have my name. Charm, Leader of the Dancing Girls. Dancing Girls don’t stand on platforms and take off our clothes for credits. “Dance” means fight. And I’m not charming.

  None of the other crews want to dance with us. Even those crazy Game Boys, the ones with their little blasters, they step off. Their blasters aren’t that good; you have to be real close for them to work. And if you get close enough to us, you’re going to die. Razors never jam the way their blasters do. And they never miss, either.

  Razors are better for scaring people, too. A lot of people don’t even know what blasters are, but everyone knows a razor. Everyone gets afraid when they see that thin blue edge. Everyone knows how easy it goes through flesh.

  A giant misting machine releases a blanket of fine spray over the work field. The workers all stand still, waiting for it to pass.

  CHARM

  (still interior monologue, almost musing)

  That water; I don’t know how they make it. One time, an old man told us that, before the Terror, water just dropped down by itself. Nobody made the water; it just happened. Those real old men are insane—this one wouldn’t stop jabbering about this “rain” nonsense, not even when I told him we were going to take his tongue.

  All boys are crazy. And the Game Boys are even crazier. But none of them are as mad as that Radioman. He tells everyone that I love him because he hears it in his head. That’s the most psycho thing I ever heard in my life. I don’t love anyone. I don’t even know what it means when people use that word. I know it doesn’t mean sex. Some of the Dancing Girls work the Sex Tunnels, for credits. They all say the same thing: you never hear the word “love” in there.

  Radioman is a Game Boy. They’re the ones who started the whole thing about the marks. You got a mark for every life you took. I had a lot of them. I’m a Dancing Girl, so I wore them on my thigh, since it was so fashionable.

  (Charm gazes down at the drab uniform she now wears, as if she knows a secret, but her expression never changes, and she continues to work at the steady, measured pace of an experienced bracero.)

  CHARM

  (still interior, but tone almost regretful)

  But then it all went bad. Word got around that if you killed someone who already had marks, then their marks belonged to you. So people stopped going after the easy kills and went after the ones who already had marks. It was harder, but you could get marks so much faster. A lot of people in crews got put Outside, because it’s against the Rules for crews to fight each other. The Rulers were all confused, but then the Book Boys straightened them out:

  CUT TO:

  A Wall-warning:

  EVEN IN THE DARK

  YOU CAN’T SHARE THE MARKS

  WHEN YOU KILL JUST FOR YOU,

  YOU KILL YOUR OWN CREW

  CHARM

  (interior voice, as she rotates her neck to loosen up)

  By the time the Rulers figured out this wasn’t gang war, the bums had their own crew. That was a surprise. And I guess it made the Rulers very upset. You could tell because they changed the Rules, and they do that only when they get angry.

  By then, most of the crews had already stopped wearing their costumes. And when they did, it was on the fringes, near the Uncharted Zone. That wasn’t much fun. People don’t recognize you’re moving all together in a fan unless you’re all dressed the same. Without the gear, it was lousy. What’s the good of being the boss of a crew if nobody even knows it is a crew?

  And not everybody was into the marks thing, anyway. Radioman was a Game Boy, but he never got a signal inside his head to take a mark, so he never did. That made him the lowest in his crew, but he didn’t care.

  Radioman doesn’t care about anything. One time, he just walked up and said he loved me. Right in front of everyone. It was so insane I couldn’t even get mad; I just laughed at him. One of the other Game Boys laughed at him, too. That one had a lot of marks, so I ripped him. The other Game Boys were scared to shoot, because we all had our razors out. That was before it stopped being fashionable. Taking marks, I mean.

  CUT TO:

  Radioman is still walking, moving deeper into the tunnels. Still talking to himself.

  RADIOMAN

  (not thinking; talking inside his head)

  There has to be a way to get people to the HydroFarm. The Rulers must use a Conveyor. It’s too far to walk. The ones who come back always say it took a long time to make the trip. They couldn’t see anything, but they knew they were moving. And new ones come back every twenty-four.

  Shots of Radioman pathetically trying to “interview” recently discharged inmates—all still wearing HyroFarm uniforms—as they depart the Conveyor.

  RADIOMAN

  I am always polite, so I guess they don’t tell me because they don’t know. But it has to be somewhere inside the Charted Zone. All the power for Underground has to come from the HydroFarm. The Rulers could never risk losing it. Besides, the Conveyor runs only inside the Charted Zone.

  RADIOMAN

  (making it clear he is addressing the Voice)

  I’m sorry. I apologize. I know I shouldn’t ask people questions. Only you. You know, don’t you? Just tell me, and I’ll do anything you want. I always do, don’t I?

  Radioman resumes his walk through the tunnel until he fades from view. We come back in on …

  CHARM

  (grimly resigned, but not defeated)

  It’s all a circle. You work here to make electricity. They use electricity to make you work. And that works. Nobody wants electricity on them. Being wet all the time, it doesn’t take much. All one of the Overseers has to do is tap you with the prod.…

  It’s easy enough to get away, but not many even try. They never keep you more than twenty cycles, and you can have Zoners for free. Some of the people here, they don’t feel anything, they just smile. They can still work, though, so they never get jolted. Plus, if you escape, they double whatever time you had left.

  And even if you could get away, where could you go? If you have a crew, it would a Betrayal to go back to them—Harboring, that’s b
reaking a Major Rule. If you ever want to go back as Leader, you can’t get the others in that kind of trouble. A leader has to protect her crew. Even if you’re the best dancer, that’s not enough.

  Show next monologue as a v/o to a “silent movie”

  The Love Boys leader was Cameo. He was huge. And a great fighter, too. But when the Police Squad came, and one of the Love Boys twisted his ankle, Cameo didn’t go back for him. The Love Boys beat Cameo to death. They put his body on the Conveyor, so everyone could see it.

  If I just wait until my time is done, I can go back and be Leader again. There’ll be a new girl who wants to keep her place, so we’ll have to dance. I can’t wait. That’s the worst punishment of all—you can’t dance here.

  Charm squats, as if having difficulty with a stubborn root. The camera shows us she just wants an excuse to look at a tiny slice of metal glued to the underside of her thumbnail.

  CHARM

  (twisting her lips ever so slightly)

  I had to buy that tiny little slice of nuim. Not with credits, they don’t have any in here. If you’re caught with credits, they think you’re getting ready to escape … and then you get jolted. Nobody can take too many of those; it makes you like you’re on Zoners all the time: always smiling, but you can’t even eat. They have to feed you with tubes so you can work. So I paid with sex. I didn’t even have to look at the Overseer while he did it.

  They all like to sex me, because I have a reputation. They all know how I get so excited and wet and make the noises they like. It’s easy: I just close my eyes and think I’m slicing on them. That always works.

  CUT TO:

  Artificial darkness

  Charm is alone in her dorm. That is, others are present, but they are resolutely looking away as …

  Charm sits naked on her bunk, and uses the nuim to cut a thin, straight line across the front of her left thigh. Her touch is practiced; the blood is so faint that it looks as if she drew a red line with a fine-point marker.