"Thanks for playing." "It's always a pleasure." " Who's next?" "Sketchy, what d'you say?" " No." "I already owe you two pay cheques." " I'll let you break." " No." "Nope." "I'll play left-handed." "You can blindfold me." " No, man." " No?" "OK." "Nobody likes a show-off, Alec." "Max. 50 bucks, and you get to humble your old buddy Alec." "What d'you say?" " You're all right." " Thanks anyway." "Anybody?" "You?" "You?" "You?" "Come on!" "It's not that dif..." "Logan, what d'you say, pal?" " Wanna play me in a little game of pool?" " Oh." "Uh..." " I break?" " Yeah." " Rack 'em." " Ha-ha!" "Move over." "Excuse me." " Alec." " Yeah?" "Could you stand back?" "Well, well, well." "Not too shabby." "Can I... get you another beer?" "No." "You sure?" "He's gonna run it now." "I just wanna play it." "It's like a guitar, you know?" "It's beautiful." " Corner pocket." " Sure you don't wanna try a bank shot?" "Oh, no." "No, no." "I'm sure." "Maybe not that sure." "Tricky shot." " You can do it." " Sketchy, where's the love?" "Guys." "Beat it." "You gotta admit, that was pretty cool." "Silly boys playing with their sticks and balls." "I may vomit." "Hey, Logan." "Another 50 bucks says you miss this shot." "You're on." " Nice game." " Thanks." "You rock!" "Go wash your hands." "What?" "I'm clean." " What's going on?" " The whole love bug dealio." "After he beat your ass, Max gave him a beer and they might have touched." "Dosed him with the virus." "Now would not be a good time for one of your smart-ass remarks." "Hey, I hate to lose, but I'm not wishing the guy dead." " What did I just say?" " I was being serious." "I'm OK." "I could have killed you over a stupid game of pool." "I thought it was a very satisfying game of pool, actually." " You wanna get a drink?" " Better not risk it." "I'm gonna go home." "Good boy, Chopper." "Way to stand guard." "Back in the day, they'd give you 10 cent a can. 10 cent!" "Nowadays, you'd be lucky if you get 10 cent a pound." "I'm tellin' you, Chopper, it's gettin' harder and harder to make a livin' every day." "You hear that?" "Stay." "Stay, Chopper." "Stay." "They designed her to be the perfect soldier, a human weapon." "Then she escaped." "In a future not far from now, in a broken world, she is haunted by her past." "She cannot run." "She must fight to discover her destiny." "f divided by xy." "No, xz." "It's gotta be right." "That Manticore creep could've been onto something and didn't know it." "Sorry I painted over your virus papers, Max." "It's OK." "I can still make out most of it." "It's just this function that's screwing me up." "fx-1 times delta x equals..." "What is that?" "It's a squiggle." " Squiggle." " Could be an approximate sign." "fx-1 times delta x is approximate to delta q." "The messenger RNA would codify the interruption in the protein strand, the DNA wouldn't be able to replicate, and the virus would hit a dead end." "No." "It's a squiggle." "See?" "Yeah." "Still, it makes sense." "So the virus bitch is going down?" "Could be." "You know, I never would've caught this if you hadn't painted over my papers." "You gotta blaze?" "I'm gonna see if I'm on the right track." "Thanks, big fella." "Why are you shaking your head." "Are my calculations wrong?" "Well, they're not so much wrong as not right." "Great." "You never told me where this virus came from." "Do you mind my asking?" "A government agency gave it to me, hoping I'd give it to a friend of mine they wanted to kill." "You don't wanna tell me, don't tell me." "Whatever." "Serves me right for getting my hopes up." "Hey, you're not gonna start cryin', are you?" " Just give me my papers." " Hold on." "Your numbers were off a bit, but the theory's viable." " Which part?" " Luring the virus into a protein dead end." "It has a kind of Pied-Piper-ness to it, with a little Chuck Heston thrown in there." ""Take that, you damn dirty virus!"" "So you're saying you can make it work?" "Yeah." "Yeah, all I need is a blood sample and... 20,000 dollars." "You ask me, 20 large is still a small price to pay for you and Logan to get together." "I just wanna know I'm not gonna kill the guy if, say, I touch his hand by accident." "Or if, say, you spend a long weekend making hot monkey love to the man... by accident." "Does he know about the man with the cure?" "I'm gonna try to get the cash first." "I don't wanna have to owe him if this falls through." "Where you gonna get the money?" " I'm gonna sell my soul." " There's the devil." " What are you doing tonight?" " And why do you ask?" "Got word from this fence I know." "There's a collector willing to pay top dollar for Star Wars:" "Episode Vll." "After the Pulse, they shut down production." "This is the only footage that exists." " Is that the one where Captain Kirk dies?" " I guess." "Anyway, the reel's locked up in a vault at the Fox Building in Belltown." "Max, are you asking me to steal something with you?" "It's a two-man job." "I'm shocked." "I don't do that kinda stuff any more, Max." "You yourself showed me the error of my ways." " Did I mention your take was 20 grand?" " What time do I pick you up?" "Do you have to do that in the kitchen?" " My gums are killing me." " Well, rinse out the sink." " Mom, I'm a vegetarian." " And I want pizza." "You both are gonna eat this meat loaf, and that is final." "Irving, would you tell them?" "Somebody kill me." "There's security stationed here, here and here." "They do rounds in rotations." "We'll have 30 seconds when the entrance guard relieves the lobby guard." "Past that point, smooth sailing." "In and out in five minutes." "Does this qualify as stealing from a bad guy, or do you have a new handy excuse for swiping something that doesn't belong to you?" "People have the right to see this stuff." "It shouldn't be locked up in a vault." "Of course, yeah." "That Murdoch is one evil fiend." "Just stick to the plan." "Trust me, it'll be the easiest money you've ever made." ""Trust me" she says." ""We'll be in and out in five minutes."" " We've been in here an hour." " Shut up!" "Check and see if the guards are still there." " Still there." " How many?" " Two." " Two?" "Max, I think we could take 'em." "Not before they trip the alarm." "Better wait for the next shift change." " Wanna know what I'm doing with my share?" " No." "Fine." "Rude, but fine." "What are you gonna do with yours?" " Donate it to charity." " Yeah, right." "I'm thinking, what?" "New motorcycle?" "New apartment?" "New boyfriend?" "New DNA markers for current boyfriend." " He's not my boyfriend." " Oh." "Ew!" "I can't believe this." "I've been stuck here for over an hour to facilitate you having sex." " That's what I've been reduced to." "I'm a pimp." " It's not even like that." "Tell me that he's worth all this trouble, Max." "Tell me how he rocks your world." "Something." "Maxie?" "Hey." "You and Logan have done it, right?" "I mean, before the whole virus thing, you knew each other for what, a year?" "Max?" "Could you two be more lame?" "Not that this is any of your business, but... with me and Logan, it was just never the right time." "Oh, yeah." "Yeah, sure." "I can see how the right time might elude you... for a year." "Guards are gone." "Let's get the film and get outta here." "Great idea." "...97, 98, 99, 20,000." "OK." "So let's do this." "Roll up your sleeve." "The immunoglobulin's gonna take a lap through your system." "It's gonna neutralise any virulent cells in your bloodstream." "There you go." "How do I know it worked?" "See those little green circles?" "Those are antibodies, completely encasing the virus nuclei and protein coating." " So it's working?" " This thing's completely dead in its tracks." "I'm cured." "I can't believe it." "Yeah, this thing couldn't hurt a flea now." "It's totally..." " Uh-oh." " Uh-oh?" "What do you mean, uh-oh?" " This virus... is mutating." " Mutating how?" "They're eating through the protein coating." "After that the virus is back in business." " You're not gonna cry, are you?" " How long until the coating is history?" "Well, at the rate they're going, 13, maybe 14 hours." "I wouldn't put it past 12, just to be on the safe side." "I can say with complete confidence you'll be virus-free for 12 hours." "Got a minute?" "What did you want to talk about?" "Let me ask you a... hypothetical question." "Those are my favourite kind." "Supposing, just supposing..." "I found a temporary cure for the virus." "Is there such a thing?" "That's where the supposing part comes in." "OK." "Hypothetically, how long would this temporary cure last?" "10 hours and 50 minutes." "You're serious." "So we can touch... and nothing will happen?" "I don't know about nothing, but... you won't die." "Oh, my..." "Max..." "We have to think about this." "Because when it's over, it's over." "No repeats." " We'd be back where we started." " Exactly." "10 hours seems like a long time, but it isn't." "Not really." "It'll have to be long enough." "I was hoping you'd say that." " We've got 10 hours." " Evidently." "We've been waiting for the right time." "Here it is." "I don't..." "I can't believe I'm gonna be all girlie on you, but..." "I don't wanna blow this on a quickie." "It should be perfect." "Perfect." "How about a perfect quickie?" "Open this." "Barkeep." "Another Scotch." "And a tequila shot for the pretty blonde." " That's all right." "I was just leaving." " Come on." "Once you hear the good news about Max and Logan, you might be wanting that drink." "What news?" "Why don't you fortify yourself?" "Bottoms up." "So how long were you and Alec stuck in the closet?" "About an hour." "He was yapping the entire time." "He's a yapper." "Yeah, stuck in a closet with Alec - you're pretty much describing my worst nightmare." "It was worth it, though." "It got me here." "It feels like old times." "Better." " Logan and Max." " Max and Logan." "Every happiness." "Ha!" "Wonder what they're doing right now." "You know what I mean." "Logan's so romantic." "I bet he made her dinner." "Wine, candles..." "I bet it's perfect." "That sounds like them." "I mean, "Why consummate two years of unbridled passion when we can have pasta?"" "You're a pig." "You don't know anything about love." "I know more than you think." "Besides, you're a liar." "How so?" "Because you don't wish them happiness." "You want Logan for yourself." "You had it all dialled in when Max was at Manticore, presumed dead." "You and Logan, doing your hero thing, spending hours in his fancy apartment, all tuned up about the ways of the world." "It was a good time for you, right?" "Yeah, he was thinking about Max every second of every day." "He never believed she was dead." "And when she came back, he was the happiest I've ever seen him." "Yeah, until the virus thing." "Even with the virus, they never gave up on each other." "And no matter how I feel about it, I have to respect that." "Because that, my friend, is true love." "Yeah, right." "Have they ever even once said "I love you"?" "No." "Max would choke on the words." "Logan, he'd say it, in an email." ""He's not my boyfriend." "We were never even like that." "It was never the right time."" "No, Logan is a repressed WASP and Max is a... a broken toy." "The two of them will never work out together." " And you are cynical." " No." "I'm someone who believes in going after what he wants, and damn the consequences." "When you've been dead 100 years, little girl, you have only just begun to be dead." "We're living on borrowed time." "If you don't put your heart out on the line, you're never really living at all." "If I loved someone, I'd tell her." "And if I wanted someone, then I would let her know, straight up." "Asha..." "I want you." "Come home with me." ""Warning." "Use only in well-ventilated areas."" ""Headaches, dizziness..."" ""Could cause harmful health risk."" "Gossamer." "Gossamer." "Smell Gossamer." "All right, man." "Who are you and why are you..." "Oh, my God!" "Oh, my God!" "Pretty wack." "Max..." "There's something I've been wanting to tell you... for a long time." "Yeah." "Me, too." "You first." "Max, I..." "Oh." "Stop getting busy, please." "Joshua, what are you doing here?" "!" " Gossamer." " What?" "On the loose." "He's hurting people." "Gossamer." "OK." "What is that, some kind of Manticore thing?" "Max and Joshua have to stop him." "That's the plan." "Come." "No." "Joshua, not now!" "Can't this wait... nine hours and 20 minutes?" " No." "Now." " Joshua, you don't understand." "Hey!" "Look, if this thing is hurting people, then..." "Can my life suck any harder?" "Here we are." "Make yourself at home." "I'll get us a drink." "Thanks." "My feet are killing me." "I got this from an old guy on the waterfront who specialises in pre-Pulse small batch, of all things." "Turn on some music." "I got that tricked-out stereo out of a dumpster, if you can believe it." "Asha?" "Asha?" "Are you sure he's dangerous?" " Max, he's hurting people." " Then we have to stop him." " Well, first we gotta find him." " He's in the sewers by my house." "That makes sense." "If it can't move in plain sight, it'd have to use the sewer system." " Doesn't narrow things down." " Where'd you catch up with it?" " Little Debbie's." " Bakery." "Sector Five." "Our best bet's to start there and backtrack towards Joshua's place." " That's a lot of ground to cover." " Max and Joshua can cover ground." " No." " Yeah." " No!" " Yeah!" "I can't chase this thing down and worry about you too." "You know it's not safe for you out there." " Should I ask for Alec's help?" " That's an idea." "I'll talk to Matt Sung, see if there are other reports about this thing, figure out its MO." "We've only got eight hours and 53 minutes." " I always feel like I'm kissing you goodbye." " Go." "Alec?" "Alec?" "Hey." "Wake up." " Hey, Max." " Asha?" " What?" " I need your help." "Can you get dressed?" "OK." " Please hurry." " Yeah, yeah." "One of the Gossamers is loose in the big city?" " There's more than one?" " There's a bunch of 'em." "Manticore used 'em to track down targets on scent." "X4 gone rogue, give Gossamer one of his T-shirts, let him smell it - wouldn't stop till the kid was found." " What'd he do once he found him?" " It depends." "Some were bred for retrieval, so they'd disable the subject and wait for the handlers." "Others were bred for elimination." "Those were some pretty bad guys." "I hope it's not one of those." "Either way, they all have this goo that shoots out of their mouth." "It stuns the victims." " Goo?" "That's terrific." " Should be fun." " So, where do you wanna start looking?" " The sewers." "I haven't got to crawl in a stinkin' tunnel with you for two weeks." " It's not like I had anything better to do." " Sorry this interrupts your evening." "Here I am, hanging out at Crash Bar with Asha, who I hardly know, and it just seemed the right time." "How about you?" "Come on." "Now that the virus is out of the way, right?" "Just get in the sewers." "You guys crack me up." "Hello." "Logan, hey." "We were just talking about you." "Hey, you called me, pal." "Yeah, she's right here." "Hey." "Eight hours and ten minutes." "Tell me you got something." "Talked to Sung." "There was another attack about four miles west of Joshua's place." " Irving Green." " Any connections between the two victims?" "Kind of." "I talked to Irving's wife, and she mentioned he'd had a cavity filled yesterday." "The guy that Joshua saw grabbed, Hal Johnson, had also just been to the dentist." " Same dentist?" " Dr Carlos Rabell." "Huh." "Alec says Gossamer's trained to sniff for stuff." "Maybe whatever Manticore trained him to find is at the dentist's." "All right." "We're going underground." "Leave a message in case I don't have a signal." "Gossamer going down?" "Yeah." "I'm gonna check out a lead." " Remember what Max said?" " Stay put, it's not safe, blah blah blah." "That's right." "So, you lay low, and don't touch anything, and there's some food in the fridge." "Eight hours to be with the girl of my dreams, and I'm at the dentist's office." "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah." "You got an appointment?" "You keep checking the time." "Don't worry about it." "Are you and blondie an item, or is she just another one in Alec's long line of conquests?" "Asha's a good kid." "For the record, nothing happened." "Why?" "Do you wanna double-date?" "Yeah, sounds like fun." "Hey, this is Alec's cellphone." "Leave me a message and I'll call you back." "It's me." "I know what Gossamer's after." "It doesn't get us any closer to his location, but..." "This has been a fun night, Max." "I wanna thank you, really." "First I get to spend an hour and a half with you in a dark closet." " Now my evening's gonna end in this sewer." " Shut up." "Boy, two years of waiting's really made you tense." "Look." "It's here." "Check this place out." "We should split up." "Be careful." "Gossamer!" "Here, boy!" "Uh-oh." "Come on, Logan, pick up." "Logan?" "Logan." "Logan, wake up." "Logan?" "Logan?" " Are we there yet?" " Alec, can you get out?" "Yeah, I thought I'd hang around cos it's so comfy." " I can't move either." " Where are we?" "Some junkyard." "Gossamer must've brought you here." "Hey!" "Is somebody there?" " What was that?" " Hey, get us outta here!" " Who's "us"?" " I'm Hal." "That's Irving." "Then there's Gordie." " I own the place." " Get us outta here!" "Before that thing comes back and eats us!" "Gossamer's a herbivore." "He only kills for sport." "That's good to know." "We're gonna get everybody out." "Just hang tight." "Do you have any idea what Gossamer wants?" "It turns out the dentist was using Kevlar to fill cavities." "What's Kevlar?" "It's a material used in weapon casings and body-armour plating." "I guess Manticore trained this thing to track down enemy soldiers by targeting the stuff." "Great." "I'm gonna die with armour plating in my teeth." " I don't wanna die!" " No one's gonna die." "I hope." "This quack didn't fill your cavities." "Why'd it go after you?" "I was holding Kevlar when it slimed me." "Can we just concentrate on getting outta here before this goo monster comes back?" "Joshua." "He'll get us out." "Joshua." "Who we told not to leave my apartment." "Max?" "Logan?" "I can't believe how screwed up all this is." "I know." "And to think I thought my night was gonna end up in a sewer." "I wish." "For the last time, shut up." "It's your fault that I am sitting here in this monster saliva to begin with!" " It's not her fault." " Yeah, right." "It's not my fault." "It's just my life." "Even if we get outta this, what happens tomorrow, Logan?" "We still have the Nomlies, and Manticore, and all fate's against us." "I should've known that one night was just too damn much to ask." "How much time do we have left?" "Not enough." "Max, it wouldn't have been enough anyway." " We knew that." " Whoa." "Whoa, whoa." "Call me slow on the uptake, but am I getting the impression that this virus thing is still hanging around?" "Shut up." "Logan?" "Logan?" "Logan." "Gossamer." "Max and Alec." " I'm so sorry." " I know." "Max?" "Logan?" "Joshua!" "Joshua, in here!" "Joshua!" " Hey, buddy!" " Joshua!" "Get us out." " I didn't stay put." " That's OK." "Come on." " Come on, hurry up!" " Get us outta here!" "Hurry!" "Come on!" " You OK?" " Yeah." "Hey, buddy." "Back here." "Come on!" " Kevlar!" "Where's the Kevlar?" " By the phone." "Gossamer!" "Want some of this?" "Come on!" "Come and get it!" "Come on, come on." "That's right, that's right." "Come on." "This way." "Nasty-ass mutant son of a..." "That oughta hold him for a while." " What was that thing?" " Not to worry." "There is a logical explanation for everything that happened here tonight." "Just give me a minute." "Hang tight." "Come on, let's clear outta here." "Let's give these two some breathing room." "You all right?" "Come on." "Here it is." "Come on." "Here you go." " Watch out there, pal." " He's OK." "He's just lookin' for somethin' to keep him busy." "Here you go, boy." "That's why he came here, I guess." "All the Kevlar in all these old car parts." "It's mostly just the junkers that have any in 'em." "Come on." "Here you go." "So what is he, anyway?" "Well, like I already explained to the other fellas, he's... a Tasmanian ant-eating aardvark." "An "antvark", as we in the trade call him." " Trade?" " Zoo trade." "I'm with the Tasmanian Zoology Foundation." "He escaped from one of our facilities." "Now, wait a minute." "Finders keepers." "You wanna keep this thing?" "Like as a pet?" "Why not?" "His spit's gotta come in handy." "Smells like silicone." "Worth at least a buck a pound." "What do you say, Chopper?" "You want a little brother?" "What?" "Chopper says yes." " Good boy." " Well, good." "Looks like everything's sane and right in your world." " Just keep him locked up at night, OK?" " No problem, no problem." "How much time?" "Two minutes." "I keep thinking about the night we took down Manticore." "When I thought I'd lost you." "I came home and sat on my sofa and I didn't get up again for days." "The sun came up, the sun went down." "I just sat there." "It was like I couldn't move." "It hurt too much to move." "And that's how I feel right now." "I knew this would happen." "We shouldn't have taken the chance." "We had to." "You know we did." "We can't keep going through this, though." "I know." "That year we wasted, dancing around each other, afraid of actually admitting how we felt." "If I had that time back, I would do things so differently." "Well, I guess that's it." "I love you, Max." "I love you, too."