Satanella 11

Screenplay
August 19,2019
ISBN 978-5-00077-931-6

Wise is a math teacher in New York, who lives a modest life and dreams of taking the post of the school headmaster. He is considered to be one of the best cryptographers in the world; and that is why Alba Flower, his lawyer, asks him for help, because only he knows that with the help of a secret key, one can discover the magic formula. Great power lies in that formula and with that power comes authority: this is something that people have been trying to achieve for a century. However, the circumstances are such that the deal with the evil spirit is off; it was after this that the teacher must be careful with his thoughts, which are beginning to turn into reality. Defiance of the enormous human temptations and Wise's indifference did not allow him to cover the entire globe with blood and light it with the glow of fires, even though his servant Flower is Satan's own helper.

INT. AIRPLANE FLYER-A, MORNING

We see the pilot ORVILLE Wright and the passenger THOMAS Selfridge, sitting in the seats of the airplane. They have frightened faces. The engine is running loudly.

THOMAS
What happened?

ORVILLE
(shouting)
The propeller has cracked!

THOMAS
Damn, I shouldn’t have mentioned the devil!

Orville is trying to straighten out the airplane and head for the airfield.

ORVILLE
What are you even talking about?

THOMAS
Well, before the flight, a very strange man in a black suit approached me and offered me a big reward if I didn’t fly.

ORVILLE
And you?

THOMAS
I sent him to the devil...


ORVILLE
So the devil came for us...

The airplane loses control and falls to the ground.


EXT. FORT MYER FIELD, VIRGINIA, MORNING

People are running to the airplane. Among them, we see WILBUR WRIGHT, EDITH BERG and the officers of the U.S. Department of Defense.

WILBUR
ORVILLE, are you all right?

ORVILLE
Yes but there’s an engine lying on my foot.

WILBUR
I’ll get it off your foot now.


           EDITH
Thomas, how are you feeling?

Thomas’ head is lowered, his eyes are closed and he’s silent. Blood is flowing from his temple. Edith takes his pulse.

WILBUR
What’s with Thomas?

EDITH
No pulse. He’s dead...

Far away from the airplane, we see FLOWER. He’s wearing a black coat and a black hat on his head. He opens the door and gets into a car.

INT. INSIDE THE CAR, MORNING

In the back seat, we see WISE, a mathematics teacher. He’s dressed in a light suit, with a white hat on his head.

WISE
The flight didn’t last long. The airplane fell. It happened because I wished it so if they didn’t let me fly with them.

FLOWER
Sir, I have fulfilled your order. A person can learn to control an airplane but not his fate.

WISE
I need to buy an airplane like that.

FLOWER
As you wish.


INT. MCSORLEY’S OLD ALE HOUSE, EVENING

In a bar located in Manhattan’s East Village at 15 E 7th St, we see Wise and his friend MORROW, sitting at the bar counter. Both are mathematics teachers. The BARTENDER is pouring beer into mugs. On the bar wall, we see the inscription, “Be Good or Be Gone.”

WISE
Tell me this. Why do they scatter sawdust on the floor?


MORROW
So that these Irish waiters and bartenders have less work when patrons spill beer on the floor...


WISE
I see. But when they serve beer, they also spill it on the table...

MORROW
I want more beer, some raw onions with slices of cheese. Do you have any money?

WISE
Sorry, the money’s all gone. Besides, we’ve had enough for today. Everything is bought and everything is sold if there’s money!
MORROW
And besides, is there anything more valuable than money?

WISE
And what’s more valuable than money, in your opinion?

MORROW
A dream!

WISE
Tell me.


MORROW
One should dream of wine, a game of cards, delicious food, luxurious velvet furniture, long journeys to exotic countries, fancy suits and diamond rings, their own horses and huge dogs. Add to that high society life in the company of earls and barons, theater and circus, a fling with some famous singer or animal tamer. Sweet idleness when you can sleep as much as you like, butlers in tail coats and, most importantly, you should dream about women, a whole harem of them, women of all colors, heights, constitutions, temperaments and nationalities.

WISE
You need money for a dream like that. Therefore, all that you’re saying now is just empty words, an annoyance of a captive and pathetic thought.


MORROW
When dreaming of the impossible, you should at least dream bigger. You can live smart, useful and with some style.
But why not suddenly become, as if by the wave of a magic wand, for example, the President of the United States? What are you dreaming about, Wise?

WISE
(smiles happily to their neighbors at the bar counter)
What I’m dreaming about? I don’t need anything. Take this place... bright, cozy... a company of lovely, good friends... a nice conversation.

MORROW
You have no imagination!

WISE
I want a big garden... and many beautiful flowers in it. And all kinds of birds, which exist in the world and animals...

And they are all tame and nice. And we all live there... simple, friendly and happy... No one quarrels or fights over anything... A garden full of children... and we all sing very well... And work is pleasure... And different streams... and the fish come when you ring the bell...

MORROW
In a word - paradise!

WISE
Yes but I need money for this. I’m waiting for funding from the Department of Defense.

MORROW
You never told me about that.

WISE
I’ve come up with a cipher for the American ships. Move closer to me...

MORROW
(lighting a cigarette)
Tell me more about this method.


WISE
It’s a very elegant method for a polyalphabetic cipher. I use cylinder disks or pieces with letters on them. To encrypt, you need to rotate the cylinder disks so that you get a message and then record some other line. To decrypt, you need to rotate the cylinders so that you get the code and then search for a line that makes sense as a message...

MORROW
And who’d need something like that?

WISE
Don’t yell... at the Fore River Shipbuilding Company in Quincy, Massachusetts, the aircraft carrier Birmingham was launched on May 29, 1907, was commissioned on April 11, 1908 under the command of Commander B.T. Walling. In 1909, U.S.S. Birmingham together with U.S.S. Salem will go from America to Libya and back, participating by request of the American Navy in the study of long-range propagation of radio waves under radio physicist L. Austin and his assistant Dr. Louis Cohen’s command.

MORROW
I have always told everyone: not only you are the best mathematician in America but you’re also the best cryptographer in the world!

BARTENDER
Another round of light beer on the house.

Wise and Morrow drink their beer and leave. Wise goes home in the most wonderful mood. With a tender feeling, he watches the silver circle of the moon rapidly roll in the sky among the clouds.


INT. WISE’S APARTMENT, NIGHT

Wise takes his time before he enters his apartment, balancing between the wall and the railing. He silently opens the outer door, carefully undresses and goes to bed. He takes the morning newspaper that he hasn’t finished reading but the letters are all blending together, forming blurry lines. Finally, his eyelids become heavy, his eyes close and he falls asleep.


INT. WISE’S APARTMENT, MORNING

Wise opens his eyes. He’s frightened of something. He quickly sits down on the bed. In a dusty, golden solar pillar, which is slanting out of the window, slightly bent over in a half-bow, stands a STRANGER in a black frock coat. He’s holding a black top hat. He has black gloves on his hands, a fiery red tie on his chest, an ancient, rumpled, reddish briefcase under his arm and in his feet, on the floor, is a small new hand-bag of yellow English leather.

WISE
Who are you?

STRANGER
(in a creaky voice)
I knocked twice. No one answered. Then I decided to turn the handle. It was not locked. Amazing carelessness. To rob you would be the simplest thing. You know, there are such expert thieves, who only get into such apartments to say “good morning.” I certainly wouldn’t dare to disturb you this early.

WISE
I don’t even know you.

Wise sees in front of him the straight, slightly hooked nose of the stranger with nervous goat nostrils, his pale, mockingly curved lips under his arrogant, belligerent mustache, his sharp long French beard.
But most of all, they resemble some kind of an old, half-forgotten image - the stranger’s eyebrows, abruptly rising from the bridge of the nose in straight, dark, gloomy features. His eyes are almost colorless.

STRANGER
My name is Flower. I came to discuss your inheritance.

WISE
(with fright and haste on his face)
I’m Wise, a mathematics teacher but I need to get up, get dressed and go to work. I work at a school.

FLOWER
(Takes out from his vest pocket an ancient, onion-shaped watch with a keyring on a hair cord in the form of Adam’s head and looks at it)
It’s three minutes past ten. And if it were not an extremely important and urgent matter... No, do not worry like that. You probably won’t even have to go to work today at all...

WISE
Ah, it’s terribly unpleasant. You caught me undressed, just wait a bit. I will only tidy up myself and will be at your service right away.

Wise puts on his shoes, puts on a robe and runs into the bathroom where he quickly washes and dresses. After a very short time, he returns to his guest refreshed, although with red and heavy eyebrows from yesterday’s drinking. He sits down in front of the stranger.

WISE
Now I’m ready. We’ll have tea soon. To what do I owe the pleasure?

FLOWER
(holds out a business card)
First, please allow me to introduce myself. I’m a lawyer.

WISE
(slightly tilts his head and mutters with  perplexity in his eyes)
Nice to meet you too. But I...