After the beep
Joe
You know who this is
Something’s come up
I'm on it
I have to go right now
I’ll fill you in later
If it pans out
10001
Back in the hunt
As he hangs up the phone
Randall realizes his thoughts
are on the adventure before him
instead of the unfortunate allure
of his counterpart
This is a necessary and
much welcome evolution
resulting in a calm
in the face of the storm
Imminent danger
within the sister storm
of righting all of this with Susan
hasn't caught up with him yet
You take each turn as it comes
10002
Logan airport, Boston
Enterprise rental kiosk
Yes please
I need a car to be waiting
When I get to Minneapolis
Yes I understand that
But I want to rent it here ok?
Yes
Here’s my card
Can we be quick please?
My flight leaves soon
Three or four days
Whatever you have available is fine
Can we keep the card open?
And it will be there?
Perfect thank you
10003
The address is wrong!
Minneapolis airport at the car
Lydia enters the passenger side
Uh huh they both are
Cities are switched
Zips are correct
55114 is Saint Paul
I mapped it last night
On the internet
Public Storage
That makes sense
Do they have names?
Public Storage
Which one?
Both
Do you think the switch
Was intentional?
Lightly veiled I’d say
And the unit?
I don’t know
You don’t know?
Wow I wasn’t expecting that
I’m not a psychic Sparks
Recorders tickets
Secret meetings
Address switch?
I was thinking 007
Jane Bond
Efficient thought process
Deductive reasoning
Successive approximation
Common sense
Ordinary assets
In my field
And I should think yours Sparks
Thinking
Is hardly a black art
Though many fear it
So all that deductive reasoning
What does it tell you Dr. Carnegie
About which storage units?
Making light of my doctorate?
Did you do that to Jonathan?
It’s Lydia
If that’s too difficult, try L
You’re right I’m wrong
I’m sorry
You may call me Dr. Carnegie
In a professional capacity
As a courtesy Sparks
Do you mind me calling you Sparks?
If so simply say so
No
I don’t mind Lydia
Alright
As for which units
We’ll see when we get there
That’s your deduction?
No Sparks
That’s common sense
Shall we be going?
10004
Public Storage 1
2516 Wabash Avenue
Saint Paul MN 55114
Late afternoon
No fence
Plenty of cameras
There’s no way to know
Go through slow
Down the left row
Then back up the right
Stop here
Let me see your key
That makes sense
Right there
Unit 16 has two locks
Let's try the keys
(Success
The roll-up door opens
dust and cobwebs
boxes stacked to the ceiling
Near the door a smaller box)
There’s a hard drive here
That’s all in this one
Let’s check a large box
It’s heavy like books or something
Maybe printer paper?
Open it Sparks
Computer punch cards
It's full of them
There must be thousands here
Let’s go
Grab the box with the drive
And one of the cards
On to the other unit?
Exactly
Let's get something to eat first
10005
Public Storage 2
3245 Hiawatha Avenue
Minneapolis MN 55406
5:30P.M.
There it is
Unit 34 has two locks
(She spies the box
as the roll-up door opens
another hard drive
along with tons more data cards)
Doesn’t this seem a bit too easy?
You’re catching on Sparks
It’s probably a trap
But it’s what we have
Yeah but
We don’t know who’s trap
If it matters that much
You can ask when we find them
Maybe they have a suggestion box
But we’re stuck for tonight Sparks
We have to move these boxes
In the morning we’ll rent new units
Pick up some locks and a hand truck
We’re moving the boxes?
Actually, we’re hiding the boxes
We can’t ask about the units
Without answering a lot of questions
But we can rent our own units
We’ll have the keys and they won’t
Problem solved
10006
Two units
Sharing one name
With duplicate contents
In two separate cities
A distance not far
Was it redundancy?
Or more of the same?
Two keys and two locks
Open two different doors
From two packages posted
From far away shores
And a friend from the past
Who is living no more
Was the path to be trusted?
Were the locks enough rusted?
And ahead of the questions
Two thoughts spring to mind
Do they know we are here?
And was it too easy to find?
10007
I find your efficiency
Unnerving
It’s spooky that’s all
It’s like you come up with answers
Before the questions
It’s a game
Called ‘What’s that mean’
More an exercise really
Jonathan started it
Maybe we did
It encourages thought cascade
This is what happened
How did it start?
And what does it mean?
He’d say
“Often it’s easier
To find the question to the answer
Than the answer to the question”
This is what happened
So boxes become the answer
How did it start?
Someone had to put them here
It might have been Alan
We don’t know that, and he’s gone
It could have been someone else
So what does that mean?
It follows that the boxes
Could soon be gone
Until we know what we have
We need to make sure
We don’t not know
What we’ve lost
Or who else has access
I’ll bet you’re scary at chess
Don’t know never played
10008
Randall watched
Lydia’s response in near disbelief
Her expression so impassive
no smile nor tell of jest
mechanical
Really?
Was her intellect so beyond sport
or competition?
She seemed almost Civil
10009
We need a room for tonight
Rooms
I have a girlfriend
A fiancé
And she would not understand
You
This
Us
In the same room
Doesn’t she trust you?
She trusts me
Do you trust you?
What?
Does she have
A reason not to Sparks?
Perhaps
Something you’re not sharing?
No!
It’s
(Randall is flushed and speechless)
Cat got your tongue?
Relax Sparks your secret’s safe
My secret?
I don’t have a secret!
Can we change the subject?
(she pauses)
Could be a problem
Admitting your weakness
All this sensual tension
Hmmm
(she smiles)
I get it
This is a joke, right?
Perceptive
10010
Lydia's Axiom
Conan meets Kermit
for the first time ever
Do you even know
Who you are Sparks?
To begin with you’re a man
Men love with their eyes first
They see life as conquest
Women love with their minds first
They see life as survival
There are three genes
A woman looks for
In the DNA makeup of a man
She wants to mate
With Conan the Barbarian
Communicate with Kermit the frog
While Barney the Dinosaur
Watches the children
Men want to be Conan
Until something scares them
Then they fall back to Kermit
Women revere Conan
But he cheats, he’s a pig
And he’s pointless to talk to
Women want a man
That knows when
And how much to be each
Men want a woman
Who doesn’t threaten them
Someone they can be Conan around
Your Conan
Follows shiny things Sparks
While your Kermit defends home
Kermit struggles with contradiction
Conan doesn’t care
10011
Love is a liability
You were lying to yourself
And needed a tune up
Trust requires truth
Now it’s real and honest
I don’t need you to be my hero
My Conan died
Real is better
And love is a liability
She is not a liability!
And if she was I wouldn’t care
You’re the liability Sparks
That’s why we must see this through
We still need two rooms
She wouldn’t get this
Does she have a name?
Her name is Susan
‘She’ is a Conan thing Sparks
Perhaps
You should refer to her as Susan
I never thought of it that way
But you’re right
Well then Sparks
There won’t be anything
For Susan to get, will there?
We’ll just make sure
To keep your little virtue intact
Right Kermit?
10012
Tell her
Does Susan know?
Not yet
Sparks!
Risk doesn’t depend on knowledge
Do you intend to tell her?
I don’t know why I said that
Yes she knows
Not every detail, but yes
Does she know
About Jonathan’s death?
She was at the funeral
Does she know about me?
She knows
I tried to speak with you
And I couldn’t
Start there Sparks
Tell her I’m helping you
Tell her
The cosmos dealt me bad
It took everyone I loved
And now it’s dealt to you
Tell her you can’t protect her
You want to but you can’t
She needs to know
Tell her the truth
How you feel about her
Tell her like you told me
Then let her decide
And respect her decision
It seems easy when you say it
It is easy Sparks
It’s only difficult
If you think like a man
That’s not your fault
Easy now
It’s true!
10013
Betas work together
Alphas compete
But alphas protect
Trust me Sparks
The last thing you want to do
Is threaten a beta
When betas turn alpha betas can kill
So where do you fit in?
I draw from each as I need to
I can see that
I’ve never put it together before
It’s direct and I like it
You’re honest yourself Sparks
You might have some beta in you
Thank you Lydia
It sounds good when you say it
You’re ok Sparks
I can see why Jonathan liked you
So did he have some beta in him?
No Jonathan was pure alpha
That’s what I loved about him
Let’s find our rooms
And get some rest
10014
Two rooms please
Singles please, cash
Just tonight
No wake up thanks
Good night
10015
Adjacent rooms
You want 47 or 49?
47’s fine Sparks
Thoughts on tomorrow?
Early start, eight ok?
See you then
Goodnight
10016