REPORT: BETRAYAL
FILE #: 305

AT BROOTS’ HOUSE: Broots is making breakfast for his daughter Debbie and calls her to come downstairs. Instead of eating, she reminds him of her birthday, which is coming up soon. She only has one wish: Seeing Paris. Broots tells her she can’t go to Paris till she’s 25. When Debbie leaves for school, Broots puts on the headphones of his Walkman and turns on the tape: It’s a French course. Listening to the tape, he doesn’t her Miss Parker coming from behind. He startles when she puts her hand on his shoulder. “It’s bad enough that you talk to yourself, but in a second language?” she says. He explains that he wants to take Debbie to Paris for her birthday. When Broots asks Miss Parker what she’s doing there, she smiles and replies, “I was in the neighborhood”. “Since when?” Broots wants to know. Miss Parker tells him that she couldn’t risk talking on the phone. Apparently, somebody had been transferring classified information three times since Broots had installed his new security program. Miss Parker wants Broots to go to the “Data Annex”, a Centre facility for storing low-security data, in order to find out who transferred the data there.

ELSEWHERE Jarod is watching a DSA of one of his old Sims. Young Jarod had designed a building whose structure would resist even an earthquake of 7,5. However, if a bomb sabotaged the reinforcements of the building, the whole thing would go down. Sydney tells little Jarod not to worry, that The Centre would never allow anything like that to happen. In the present, adult Jarod is looking at a headline saying “Serbian Consulate in Rome Brought Down by Terrorist Bomb”. After pasting the article to a glass wall next to two others, Jarod makes breakfast for himself: Pop Tarts (the same as Broots was making for his daughter). Looking at an origami figure, he plays another DSA, showing an adult Jarod and another man. Jarod is teaching the man how to make origami. Then we hear to more voices saying “they found out you refused to complete the last sim” and “we wanna strongly encourage you to reconsider”. Then we hear “Jarod, help, help, it hurts, Jarod” and Jarod screaming “Nooo!”, kneeling and crying.

IN THE MEANTIME, Broots is on his way to the Annex. We see a car parked in front of the building. We can’t see the driver’s face, but we see that he is taking out a black mask. The Data Annex is located in a “store” called “Through the years”. Broots’ colleague at the Annex tells him that there has been another intercept. It is obvious that none of the people working at the Annex actually know who they’re working for and what The Centre does. When Broots goes to the bathroom, the man we’ve seen in the car enters the store with a machine gun, shoots the salesman, enters the Annex and kills all of the employees. Broots can’t hear him because he is wearing his headphones again. Coming out of the bathroom, he sees the massacre and the masked man, who is sitting at one of the computers. Hearing Broots say “Oh my God”, he turns around and tries to shoot him. Broots, however, makes it to the bathroom and manages to escape through the ventilation system.

SOMEWHAT LATER AT THE CENTRE Mr. Lyle shows Miss Parker a tape of the incident at the Annex. Lyle says he ordered a “decon team” to find Broots. It seems The Centre believes Broots was involved in the incident. The “Tower” has declared this to be a “Schedule 7” incident, which means Broots will only live as long as The Centre doesn’t get him.

IN A DIFFERENT PART OF TOWN, we see Broots still running. Out of breathe and scared to death, he hides in a corner and calls Sydney from his cell phone. But the connection is interrupted (obviously by The Centre), Broots’ cell phone is deactivated. Broots find a public phone and calls Sydney again. Sydney warns Broots that he is in great danger and that he and everybody he knows may be a potential target. He is just telling Broots not to trust anyone, when Lyle comes in and pulls Sydney’s phone out.

The next thing Broots can think of is Debbie. He goes to her school, just in time to see Miss Parker arrive and take Debbie with her. When Broots comes home (what a stupid thing to do), he finds his backdoor open and his computer gone. He has come to get his gun, but when he tries to load it, he is so nervous that he drops all the cartridges. Crawling on the floor to pick them up, he finds a man standing in front of him. As he looks up he sees that it’s Jarod, carrying a gun. Still thinking that Jarod might be the one who stole the data from the Annex, Broots says “Jarod! Please…I’m, I’m sorry…I…I…I didn’t mean to do it” “Do what?” Jarod wonders. “Well, whatever it is you’re trying to kill me for”. Jarod explains that he’s not trying to kill Broots, but that he’s here to help him, and that they don’t have much time. He asks Broots to trust him. Broots replies that Sydney has advised him not to trust anyone, when suddenly a red laser light lands on his neck. Jarod sees it just in time and jumps on Broots, saving him from being shot. They see the shooter walking towards the front of the house and Jarod says “You might wanna reconsider that”. They manage to escape and arrive at Jarod’s apartment. Still in the car, Jarod tells Broots that all this is about the data intercepts That Broots was sent to investigate. When Broots asks Jarod why he knows so much about what’s going on at The Centre, Jarod doesn’t answer, and instead tells him that a former Centre operative has been working with a co-conspirator at The Centre. This man, he says, he will kill every possible witness, even Broots who doesn’t know anything. Broots says he didn’t give a damn about himself, he’s only worried about his daughter.

AT THE CENTRE we hear Miss Parker say, “she’s saved”. Miss Parker took Debbie to her house and has Sam the sweeper protected her. Lyle comes in and tells Miss Parker and Sydney that they haven’t found any new evidence the decontamination team is still looking for Broots as the possible leak. Miss Parker says that Broots isn’t the leak, but that he could find out who is. Lyle doesn’t care, Broots is expendable he says, replaceable by any monkey. Miss Parker then surprises us by telling her brother that she still can’t believe they were born of the same flesh and blood and that Broots is more of a brother to her than Lyle will ever be.

AT JAROD’S LAIR: Jarod offers Broots Pop Tarts and they both agree to the fact that they “have eleven essential vitamins and minerals”. When Broots expresses his concerns about Debbie and Miss Parker taking her, Jarod assures him that Miss Parker would never harm Debbie, she didn’t have it in her heart, or eyes. Broots replies that he knows that, and that the shooter at the Annex definitely did have “it” in his eyes. Jarod’s mind flashes back to an incident a few years ago at The Centre. Sydney presented Jarod to a man called “Damon” who was going to work with him on a few “special” projects. Broots realizes that Jarod knows the shooter: It’s Damon. Jarod explains to Broots that he’s found out that Damon had a source at The Centre, who was transferring some of his old Sims to the Data Annex. Because of the lack of security there (only non-classified information is stored at the Annex), Damon was able to break in and download the Sims. When Broots wonders what Damon would want with some old simulations, Jarod shows him a DSA, showing young Jarod who had just developed a new safety system for an aircraft. There is, however, one lack in the system: The pilot would lose control if the plane were exposed to ultra-high frequency electromagnetic energy. Then Jarod shows Broots an article with the headline: Pilot Loses Control: Bosnian Military Transport Crashes. And also: Prague Subway Gassing Baffles Authorities. Damon has used Jarod’s Sims for terrorist attacks related to the political situation in Ex-Yugoslavia. Now he has stolen another sim, but no one knows what it is and where he will use it. Jarod asks Broots for help, in order to stop Damon before there’s another headline. They drive to the Data Annex, but before they go inside, Broots says he needs to know what’ happening to Debbie. He calls Sydney from Jarod’s cell phone. Sydney tells Broots that Debbie is safe and Broots asks Sydney to thank Miss Parker. Then Jarod takes over the phone, informs Sydney that Damon is back and tells him what happened at the Annex and Broots’ house. Sydney says he’ll see what he can find out and remembers Jarod to be careful. Jarod’s mind again flashes back to that terrible day e few years ago. Jarod is teaching origami to a man named Kenny. Then we see Damon watching them and Jarod screaming “Nooo!”.

SOMEWHERE IN A MOTEL ROOM, we see Damon lying in bed, in front of him a very lightly dressed hooker. Damon is talking to someone on his cell phone, obviously his source at The Centre. The other man’s voice, however, is electronically scrambled. “I know Jarod”, Damon says, “He’ll come to me”. The voice reminds Damon that they cannot take the risk of being discovered. Damon says he’ll take care of it.

AT THE DATA ANNEX, Jarod and Broots find the office totally cleaned up, no traces whatsoever of the shooting. Jarod says they have ten minutes max before they can detect them. He asks Broots if he’ll be able to find out what Damon was accessing. Broots replies “Well, I designed the system…um, that’s, that’s a maybe”.

AT THE CENTRE, Miss Parker is mad because the two computer wits replacing Broots can’t find out anything about who the leak might be. Lyle comes in and says he can’t seem to find Broots’ daughter. Miss Parker replies by saying “Do I look like a baby sitter?”. One of the computer guys interrupts them saying that someone is accessing the computer at the Annex.

AT THE ANNEX, Broots is almost finished. He asks Jarod about what happened between him and Damon, but Jarod refuses to answer. Then they hear a noise: Someone is entering the building. When Jarod goes outside the room to check, a sweeper comes up behind him. He disarms Jarod, but doesn’t notice Broots is sneaking up from behind. He knocks the sweeper down with his (empty) gun. When Miss Parker arrives at the Annex, Broots and Jarod are already gone.

AT JAROD’S LAIR Broots and Jarod watch the DSA that they got from the Annex. It shows adult Jarod watching a tape with scenes of war. Sydney says he needs to finish the simulation, but Jarod refuses. Sydney replies that “the enemy” was going to genetically alter the smallpox virus, so it could carry Ebola and that their only goal was to find a vaccine. But in order to find a vaccine, Jarod would have to recreate the deadly organism. If that information got into the wrong hands, they could use it to kill.

Jarod knows that Damon will strike the following day at five o’ clock, but they have no clue where or who he intends to kill.

AT MISS PARKERS OFFICE Lyle is waiting for her. When she comes in, she tells him that his “monkeys” haven’t been able to find out anything about who the source is, only that some kind of shipment has been arranged. All they have is a series of numbers, apparently written in code.

Sydney enters and Miss Parker basically throws Lyle out. Miss Parker leaves as well, leaving Sydney alone in her office. He finds the note with the code number, calls Jarod and passes it on to him. After the phone call, Jarod’s mind flashes back again. This time he is standing on a balcony inside The Centre, next to Damon.

“I know how you feel Jarod”, Damon says.

And how could you know how I feel?” Jarod asks.

“I was a pretender once”, he says.

“Was?” Jarod wonders.

“They gave me my freedom”, Damon replies, “I can get them to do the same for you”.

“I don’t trust them” Jarod says.

“Yeah, neither did I. Just finish this last sim and I promise you; we’ll walk outta here”.

BACK IN THE PRESENT Jarod and Broots are still trying to crack the code. Broots says he just wants his daughter and his life back. He misses Debbie. Jarod tells him not to worry. When Broots asks Jarod why he’s doing this, Jarod replies “Because…I respect you”. “Me?” Broots asks surprised. “I can only hope that one day I’ll be half the father that you are” Jarod says. Broots tells him about his plans of traveling through France with Debbie. That’s when it hits them both: The supposed code numbers were really GPS coordinates. Damon will receive his “shipment” in a small park outside Washington D.C.

AT THE CENTRE Miss Parker enters Sydney’s office with a tape of his last conversation with Jarod. She’s mad that he steals information from her and passes it on to Jarod, while she is trying to help Broots. Sydney explains to her that, shortly before Jarod’s escape from The Centre, they were having trouble controlling him because of his growing sense of morality. That’s why The Centre brought in Damon, in order to break his resistance. Apparently, Sydney was (once again…) unaware of the methods Damon was using. He shows Miss Parker a DSA of a conversation between Jarod and Damon. Damon promises Jarod that he will get his freedom as soon as he completes this last sim. Jarod is very concerned, he calls the project a Pandora’s box, and he doesn’t know who will have the key to it. Sydney says that of course all this was just a lie, that it wasn’t “just” another exploitation of Jarod, it was the ultimate one. He tells Miss Parker about Kenny, a janitor at The Centre, who possessed a child-like innocence. Jarod had befriended him and grown very protective of him. We see another DSA showing Kenny, Jarod and Damon sitting at a table. Jarod is teaching Kenny origami, when another man comes in.

Jarod: “And what’s this about?”

Damon: “They found out you refused to complete the last sim and they asked for the three of us to come down here.”

The other man: “We wanna strongly encourage you to reconsider.”

The man takes his gun and shoots Kenny in the knee, who drops to floor screaming in pain.

Jarod: “What are you doing !?”

The man: “You have one minute to change your mind.”

Jarod: “Are you crazy!?!” he runs towards the man, trying to attack him, but Damon stops him.

Damon: “Listen to me! Listen! He’s gonna kill him. And probably both of us as well. So, for Kenny’s sake, finish the last sim and walk away from this place.”

Kenny is still screaming a moaning “Jarod…help”

Jarod pulls out a disk saying “Here! I already finished the sim. And that’s everything you need, everything they need is on this! Now take it!”

Damon takes the disk and pushes Jarod away to the other man who holds him. “What are you…?” Jarod says. And when Damon pulls out his gun he begs “Noo…”. Damon shoots the helpless Kenny still on the floor while Jarod screams “Nooooo!”

Damon to Jarod “The Centre owns you. And there’s nothing you can do about it. Don’t make it so difficult next time.”

We see a devastated Jarod falling on his knees and crying.

Even Miss Parker is truly shocked by the amount of cruelty in this scene. Three weeks after that incident, Jarod escaped. Sydney says that Damon had confirmed all of Jarod’s suspicions about The Centre and Miss Parker adds “and destroyed Jarod’s hope of ever being given his freedom…”

Miss Parker now understands that Damon has to be stopped by all means, at least for Broots’ sake.

IN WASHINGTON Broots and Jarod are watching Damon and another man, who handles him a metal case. Jarod gets out of the car and confronts Damon. He lifts his gun and tells Damon to give him the case. But Damon knows that Jarod won’t shoot him. He turns around pretending to leave, only to spin around and shoot Jarod with the gun he’s just pulled. Damon escapes while Jarod is lying on the floor bleeding and Broots is coming up to help him.

IN JAROD’S LAIR Broots is taking care of Jarod’s wound and Jarod asks, “Why are you doing this?” – “What?” Broots asks. – “You could take me to The Centre. Schedule 7 or not, with me as the prize they would welcome you back.” Broots says that there is a time and place for everything, and that right now, he owes Jarod. “And besides”, he adds, “I respect you”. “Me?” Jarod wonders. Broots: “You help people. You care. When others look away, you try and make a difference”. And that’s why he can’t look away now. Broots thinks that now he has a right to know what happened between Damon and Jarod. “It’s on the DSA” Jarod just says. Jarod turns on the TV very loud while Broots watches the same DSA that Sydney and Miss Parker were watching before. The news reporter talks about a service at the Freedom Hall in Georgetown, where Czechs, Serbians and Bosnians will pray for the end of the war. It’s scheduled for exactly 5 o’ clock. the service was referred to as the “seed of hope”, which reminds Jarod of something Damon said at the park: “Jarod, Humanity’s seed of hope”. Now they know Damon’s plan.

AT THE CENTRE The computer team has managed to crack the code. Miss Parker and Sydney are preparing to leave.

IN GEORGETOWN at the service, Broots and Jarod enter the church. Damon is going to let the virus in through the ventilation. Broots warns the people by saying there is supposedly a bomb inside the building, while Jarod goes to get Damon. Jarod finds him in the first floor and Broots comes up as well. “Who’s helping you at The Centre?” Jarod wants to know. “Same person who always has” Damon says and throws the virus-container towards Jarod. While Jarod jumps to catch it, Damon grabs Broots and threatens to kill him. “Not this time” Jarod growls and follows Damon who pulls Broots downstairs into the church. Damon says he will let Broots go as soon as he’s save, but this time, Jarod doesn’t believe him. “He has a daughter. Who needs him” Jarod says in a last effort to bring Damon to his senses. “It doesn’t make a difference”, says Damon, releases the safety catch of his gun and holds it up to Broots’ neck. “It does to me” Jarod growls as he shoots Damon.

AT MISS PARKER’S HOUSE Debbie and Sam, the sweeper is playing checkers, when Broots and Miss Parker arrive. Father and daughter are reunited, they hug and Broots pulls out two flight tickets. “Happy birthday” he says.

SYDNEY AND JAROD ARE TALKING ON THE PHONE. Jarod has tears in his eyes. After all that Damon has done to him, Jarod still feels remorse about killing him. He thinks about what he could have done differently. “It just feels so…empty” Jarod replies when Sydney says that he has saved Broots’ life and the lives of many others.

Sydney reminds Jarod of the old saying “He who saved but one life, saves the entire world”.

When Jarod leaves the phone booth, he leaves behind the little white origami swan that Kenny had made for him.