(Max, Original Cindy, Herbal Thought, and Sketchy are moving a water heater into Max’s apartment building as Jacinda directs them.)

JACINDA: A little to the left. Careful.

SKETCHY: But why not? Hell, it’s been thirty years. Grunge is due for a revival, and I can get paid if I’m the one doing the reviving.

HERBAL: Ah. So this is not about making music. This is about making money.

SKETCHY: This is Babylon, dude. I want a car.

MAX: I’m so looking forward to hooking up this thing and having a nice hot shower.

JACINDA: Amen to that. All my little boy can talk about is taking a bubble bath.

SKETCHY: Hey, Jacinda, has anyone told you you have beautiful eyes?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Ugh!

SKETCHY: What?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Sista girl’s the bomb, but now is not the time or the place, fool.

(They start going up a flight of stairs.)

SKETCHY: Have you got rivalry issues with heterosexual males such as myself?

ORIGINAL CINDY: I’m gonna put the smackdown on your ass.

(Sketchy sees a rat nearby and drops his end of the water heater. Original Cindy has to drop it as well and get out of the way.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: You fool!

(Herbal and Max manage to hold on to their end of the heater.)

HERBAL: All right.

MAX: Okay, on three. One, two...three.

(Herbal and Max push on the heater. Max pushes so hard that the heater flips up and settles at the top of the stairs. Sketchy and Original Cindy stare. Max grabs Herbal’s arm.)

MAX: Herbal, you got some guns on you.

HERBAL: Yeah. Thanks.

(Later, in their apartment, Max comes out of the bathroom in her robe and sits next to Original Cindy on the couch.)

MAX (sighing happily): A hot shower in my own apartment. If that ain’t heaven, girl, I don’t know what is.

ORIGINAL CINDY: I’m glad, ’cause that water heater cost enough.

MAX: It was worth every penny.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Gimme your paw.

(Max extends her hand so Original Cindy can take it.)

MAX: What are you doing?

ORIGINAL CINDY: What? You never had a manicure before, boo?

MAX: No. Sounds too much like Manticore. Besides, it’s kind of girly.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Shugga, sometimes you so butch, it’s hard for me to believe you don’t play on the all-girl team.

MAX: I’m just not into the whole pampering thing. Give me a hot shower, clean undies...I’m good to go.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Yeah, well, there’s nothing a man likes more than to know his woman minds the details.

MAX: Yeah, well, I’m no man’s woman, okay?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Whatever.

(Max and Original Cindy hear squeaking and scratching.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: We got a rodent problem, boo. Hear them gnawin’?

MAX: Yeah. So you really think men pay attention to this kind of stuff?

ORIGINAL CINDY: I know they do. Not consciously, though. I mean, the male mind likes to think it’s thinking on some larger issues, like the workplace...conquest...meeting adversity head-on. But it’s way more subtle than that.

MAX: Original Cindy, an expert on men. Who’d have thunk?

(They laugh.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: Original Cindy’s aiight with the mens. Just don’t ever ask her to go to bed with one.

(They hear plaster cracking. Suddenly the water heater crashes through the ceiling and lands in front of them.)

MAX: Somebody out there just doesn’t want me to be happy.

(At Crash, Original Cindy is playing pool against a guy as her friends watch. She wins.)

MAX: That’s my girl.

ORIGINAL CINDY (to her opponent): Don’t hate the playa. Hate the game.

(The guy pays her and leaves. A woman watching from the background speaks up.)

WOMAN: Who said you was a playa?

ORIGINAL CINDY (surprised to see her): What’s up, boo?

WOMAN: We on?

ORIGINAL CINDY: I only play to win.

WOMAN: Yeah?

ORIGINAL CINDY: And that’s not been my experience with you.

MAX: Do we know who this is?

HERBAL: That is Diamond.

SKETCHY: She’s hot.

ORIGINAL CINDY (setting up the table): How long you been back in Seattle?

DIAMOND (chalking a stick): Not long. I just got paroled.

ORIGINAL CINDY: When are you gonna quit being a bad girl?

DIAMOND: When you stop liking me that way.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Don’t even try and put that on me. Do the crime, do the time.

DIAMOND: Only that’s all over now. From now on, I’m living straight.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Mm-hmm.

DIAMOND: At least as far as the law is concerned.

ORIGINAL CINDY: And you came all the way back here to drop the knowledge that you turned over a new leaf. What makes you think I care?

DIAMOND: What makes you think I came looking for you? Maybe I just want to get my drink on.

(Original Cindy takes a shot.)

DIAMOND: I’m just playing. Look, I...I heard you was going to be here, so I came down to tell you...I been missing you. And I’m sorry.

ORIGINAL CINDY (lining up another shot): You ain’t done nothing wrong.

DIAMOND: Yeah, I did. I didn’t work hard enough to keep you.

(Original Cindy misses her shot. Diamond takes one and sinks a ball.)

DIAMOND: This your crew?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Max, Sketchy, meet Diamond. (To Diamond) And you remember Herbal Thought.

HERBAL: Mm-hmm. My sister.

DIAMOND: What’s up?

SKETCHY: Can I get anyone an adult beverage? Diamond?

DIAMOND: Let me hold a forty...long as you don’t be thinkin’ it gets you play.

SKETCHY: I pretty much get the drift here. You don’t feature dudes.

DIAMOND: Let’s just say Diamond’s never met a man worthy of her kiss. But I know how you boys like a challenge.

SKETCHY: Forty coming up. (Walks away)

(Diamond wins the pool game. Original Cindy hands over some money.)

DIAMOND: Diamond doesn’t want your scrilla, boo. She wants this.

(Diamond kisses Original Cindy. Max’s pager goes off, and she walks away to return the call.)

(In his apartment, Logan is writing in his journal. Max enters silently and sneaks up behind him. She looks over his shoulder until he notices her presence with a start.)

LOGAN: Max.

MAX: I didn’t know you wrote poetry.

LOGAN: You startled me.

(Max grabs Logan’s journal starts flipping through it.)

LOGAN: It’s not poetry.

MAX: Looks like poetry to me.

LOGAN: May I please have my book back now?

MAX (giving it back): Okay. You paged me?

LOGAN: Yeah. Uh...Pierpont Lemkin, the go-to guy from the Marbury cartel—

MAX: I met Original Cindy’s ex tonight.

LOGAN: Oh, that’s nice, because Lemkin is paying off the sector police to look the other way so he can run arms unchecked.

MAX: You should have seen Sketchy’s face when he heard they were making out and he missed it.

LOGAN: Mmm. ’Cause word on the informant net is Lemkin’s crew is behind the heist of those nuclear warheads from March Air Force Base.

MAX: What is it with guys and lesbians anyway? I mean, what’s so damn fascinating about being unwanted by the opposite sex?

LOGAN: Have you heard anything I’ve been saying?

MAX: Every word. I parallel-process and multitask like there’s no tomorrow.

LOGAN: Good chance we’ll be out of tomorrows if we don’t take Lemkin down, and fast.

MAX: What do you need?

LOGAN: His records—who he’s paying and how much. It’s all on this disc. A guy in his inner circle got me the encryption algorithms so I can bust the code, but I need the disc.

MAX: So get your guy to grab them for you.

LOGAN: He’s dead. Executed. His body turned up on his mother’s doorstep.

MAX: Nice.

LOGAN: However, he did manage to get the combination to the safe.

MAX: So this is a box job.

LOGAN: Yeah. I hacked into the mainframe of Lemkin’s insurance carrier and dumped the blueprints to his house. The guy’s a real security freak, so you’re going to have to do some recon before you hit the safe.

(Logan gives Max a copy of the blueprints.)

MAX: On another matter, not unrelated...that new hot water heater is non-operational, due to an accident caused by rats eatin’ up our building. If I happen to find some cash along with these discs, you don’t mind if I help myself? I realize your mission is to save the world, and what I’m suggesting probably sounds opportunistic, but—you know, stealing from a thief really isn’t like stealing at all.

LOGAN: Just get me the discs. Anything else you do, I don’t want to know about.

MAX: Cool. (Heads for the door)

LOGAN: So they were really making out?

MAX: Yeah.

LOGAN: Hmm.

(Max enters her own apartment and sees an open jar of peanut butter and some bread on the counter.)

MAX: Hmm.

(She spreads some peanut butter on a slice of bread. A rat squeaks and walks around on the counter, hidden by the dishes.)

MAX: Rat bastard.

ORIGINAL CINDY (emerging from her room): What’s going on?

MAX: Mickey’s cracked-out cousin thinks he’s settin’ up house in our crib.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Um, could you try and keep it quiet? ’Cause Diamond’s in there trying to sleep. She’s beat.

MAX: I bet. How come you didn’t talk about her before?

ORIGINAL CINDY: There’s some things that words just can’t explain.

MAX: You’re that tight, huh?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Diamond opened my eyes. She turned me on and turned me out. Till then, I was a saddiddy thing—all quiet and shy.

MAX: So she brought out your inner bitch.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Among other things. Diamond brought me sunshine. I ain’t gonna front, though—she brought me a gang of rain, too. She was always having issues with the law, so I wouldn’t see her for long stretches.

MAX: Do I need to lock my stuff up?

ORIGINAL CINDY: It ain’t even like that. Besides, she says that’s all in the past.

MAX: She gets her act together, maybe you two can...work out.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Maybe. Um...do you mind if she crashes here for awhile?

MAX: No. No problem.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Thanks. Oh. Check it. She’s going to be on the mike at Guru’s tomorrow. We got love, if you want to drop by.

MAX: Diamond’s a singer?

ORIGINAL CINDY: My girl drops the word.

MAX: She got skills?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Diamond’s the tongue-twister, aiight?

DIAMOND (from the bedroom): Where is my boo?

ORIGINAL CINDY: I’m coming, shugga. (To Max) Good night.

MAX: Good night.

(The rat squeaks. Max catches him by the tail.)

MAX: Gotcha. But you know what? One rat deserves another.

(The next day, Max rings the doorbell at Lemkin’s house. A maid answers the door.)

MAX: Hi. Delivery for a Mr. Lemkin.

MAID: Sure.

MAX: I’m going to need a signature.

(Max purposely drops her clipboard while handing it to the maid.)

MAX: Oh. Sorry.

(While the maid squats to pick up the clipboard, Max lets the rat into the house and shrieks. The maid turns to look, and shrieks when she sees the rat.)

MAX: It went over there!

(A bodyguard with a gun comes to the door. Max points him in the direction of the rat.)

MAX: A rat. It was this big, I swear.

(While the others are off chasing the rat, Max quietly approaches the room where the safe is located. As soon as she reaches the doorway to the preceding room, lasers appear, crisscrossing the room. She looks at them for a minute. Lemkin approaches her from behind.)

LEMKIN: Who are you?

MAX: If you’re Mr. Lemkin, I just delivered a package for you.

LEMKIN: What are you doing here?

MAX: I gotta pee. I was just looking for the ladies’.

LEMKIN: Pee outside. (To a bodyguard) Get her out of here.

MAX: Fine.

(The bodyguard escorts her out of the house.)

(That night, Max, Diamond, and Original Cindy leave Guru’s and walk down the street, laughing.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: You was kicking some dope rhymes in the club, for real, for sure.

DIAMOND: Oh, when Diamond drop her word it go down and it stay down. You—you feel me.

ORIGINAL CINDY: No doubt, no doubt. I mean, you were off the hook in there, boo.

DIAMOND: Well, you know... (They laugh)

MAX: Listening to you two...it’s like reading original text. Talking about yourself in third person...the whole “shugga boo” dealio...I totally get where it comes from now.

ORIGINAL CINDY: If you saying that I’m biting Diamond’s flava, I’m not even trying to hear that.

DIAMOND: Boo, don’t even listen to her. (To Max) She get her stilo from Diamond.

(Max laughs.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: Original Cindy don’t bite nobody’s stilo. It don’t come from nowhere ’cept me, which is why the name is Original Cindy. Period, point blank.

DIAMOND: Boo... boo...I was just doggin’ you. I gotcha. (Laughs)

MAX: Hey, I’m sorry I even brought it up. Geez.

(Max spots a tough guy ahead and an SUV with more men inside.)

MAX: You guys get ghost. We got a situation here.

DIAMOND: What you mean, “situation”?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Just do like she says. She knows what she’s talking about.

(Original Cindy and Diamond run away.)

MAN BEHIND MAX: Don’t move.

(Max turns around to see a gun pointed at her. She kicks the man with the gun and knocks him out. Two more men approach, and she jumps in the air to kick them both down at once. Another man runs at her, and she kicks him down as well. Diamond stops running to watch Max for a minute. Max blocks a man’s punches, kicks him, flips over him, and chokes him.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: Come on, let’s get out of here.

(Diamond and Original Cindy continue running. Max finishes off the last guy. She picks up his gun and leaves.)

(At Logan’s apartment, Max tells Logan about her encounter while he lifts weights.)

LOGAN: What makes you so sure these weren’t Lydecker’s people?

MAX: Well, they weren’t jarheads, for one thing. Lydecker’s posse’s all, “GI Joe, hut-hut-hut.” (Salutes informally) Plus, they’re strapped with way more firepower than this.

(Max hands Logan the gun she picked up.)

LOGAN: No shortage of folks looking for Manticore technology.

MAX: Run a check on that. It might narrow the field.

LOGAN: I’m all over it.

MAX: Well, this little girl’s going to go home and chill out before she knocks that safe over.

(She sits next to him on the exercise table.)

LOGAN: It’s worth noting—while you’re right, my mission is saving the world, it doesn’t mean that I don’t worry about you.

MAX: Worry accomplishes nothing. But it’s nice to know that you think of me as more than your own private cat burglar.

LOGAN (nudging her): Way more.

MAX (smiling): Can I take that to mean that my name shows up now and then in those little poems of yours?

LOGAN: Without stipulating into an admission that I do, in fact, write poetry...maybe.

MAX: Maybe, huh?

LOGAN: Mmm.

MAX: I can live off of that for a couple of days. Later. (Leaves)

(At home, Original Cindy is doing Diamond’s nails.)

DIAMOND: Hope your girl is okay.

ORIGINAL CINDY: She called from her boyfriend’s crib before. She’s cool.

DIAMOND: I wonder what those guys were after.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Who knows? Homegirl’s a real trouble magnet, though, for real.

DIAMOND: Mmm. I need some air. Do you mind opening a window or something?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Mm-mm. (Gets up)

DIAMOND: So, boo...

ORIGINAL CINDY: Mm-hmm? (Tries to open the window) It’s stuck. Hold on.

(Original Cindy goes to get something to help her pry the window open.)

DIAMOND: If you could live anywhere...

ORIGINAL CINDY (from the other room): I’m listening.

DIAMOND: ...and money was no object, where would you go?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Someplace warm, where it doesn’t rain 362 days a year. Like Mexico.

DIAMOND: Yeah... right on the Gulf.

ORIGINAL CINDY (opening the window): Yeah. White, sandy beaches...so warm.

DIAMOND: Maybe we’ll make it there someday, you and me.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Right, right.

(Original Cindy rejoins Diamond at the table and sets the tool down.)

DIAMOND: What you doin’ with a slim-jim?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Belongs to Max.

DIAMOND: Use these for stealing cars.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Great for opening windows, too. Anyway...nice fantasy, but my arms are too short to even reach Mexico.

DIAMOND: Life’s too short, baby. Sometimes you gotta take what you need to be happy, ’cause you might not get another chance.

(Max walks in.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: You all right?

MAX: Yeah, fine. They were just trying to get me to change long-distance carriers.

DIAMOND: Girl, I’ve been in some street fights, but I ain’t never seen no moves like yours before.

MAX: I took karate as a kid.

(Max takes back the slim-jim.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: Window was jammed.

DIAMOND: Uh-huh.

MAX: See you girls in the morning.

(The next morning, Original Cindy is getting ready for work. Max is in the shower.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: So you want to hook up later and have lunch?

DIAMOND: Sounds good. Maybe tonight I can be the wife and cook you dinner.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Mmm... later.

(Original Cindy kisses Diamond on the cheek and leaves. Diamond goes into Max’s room and snoops through Max’s bag. She finds a couple of flashlights, some lock-picking tools, and the blueprints to Lemkin’s house—with the location of the safe marked. The water in the shower turns off. Diamond hurries to repack the bag and return to the living room. Max emerges and attempts to pour herself some coffee.)

DIAMOND: Girl, you shower quick.

MAX: No point hanging out when the water’s cold.

DIAMOND: Sorry—we drank all the joe. Did you want some? (Offers Max her own cup)

MAX: No.

DIAMOND: So, Max, I been wondering...just running things through my mind, you know?

MAX: What kind of things?

DIAMOND: Like the way you handled yourself in that fight, and how you got a slim-jim just lyin’ around, and how you deliver packages for a living and can still afford this trick-ass rice-burner of yours. (Looks at the Ninja)

MAX: Tips have been good lately.

DIAMOND: Or maybe you’re supplementing your income with an alternative career, not unlike the one I pursue myself.

MAX: Is there a point to this? ’Cause I got work.

DIAMOND: If you ever looking for someone to get your back, step to me. I’m available.

MAX: I’ll keep that in mind.

(At Jam Pony, Sketchy is on the phone. He calls Max over on her way in and holds out the receiver.)

SKETCHY: Max, throw me some details—what’s it like over at your crib? Three hot babies, hanging around and rubbing moisturizer on each other?

(Max smiles and speaks into the phone.)

MAX: Yeah, Sketchy, then we put on our sexy lingerie and have pillow fights.

SKETCHY (into phone): See?

(Max joins Original Cindy at her locker.)

MAX: Hey, you got a sec?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Yeah.

MAX: Um...I think it would be better if Diamond wasn’t staying with us.

ORIGINAL CINDY: You said it was okay.

MAX: I know...but the situation isn’t working for me. I’m sorry.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Which means what, exactly?

MAX (quietly): Look, I’m not trying to make this personal...but I don’t know who those guys were the other night, and I don’t know what they wanted. (Original Cindy shakes her head) And I can’t have someone around that I don’t know and who doesn’t know what the score is with me.

ORIGINAL CINDY: She’ll be gone in the morning.

(Original Cindy walks away, upset. Max’s pager goes off and she uses the pay phone to return the call.)

MAX: Logan, me hitting you back.

LOGAN: Yeah, the gun came back to a guy with nine different aliases, hooked up with an outfit called the Nomads.

MAX: And I’m guessing they aren’t a speed-metal band.

LOGAN: More like bounty hunters working out of Tacoma.

MAX: It just gets better and better. Do we know who the client is?

LOGAN: We don’t; that’s going to take some digging. But these guys are very expensive. Whoever they’re working for’s got deep pockets.

MAX : Thanks for the heads-up.

LOGAN: Max, you might want to think about getting out of town for a while...lay low?

MAX (smiling): First I gotta knock over a safe for a friend.

(That night, Max rolls up her bag so it’s flat and straps it to her waist like a belt. She quietly leaves the apartment. Original Cindy is asleep. Diamond, only pretending to be asleep, hears Max go.)

(Max arrives at Pierpont Lemkin’s estate and leaps over the locked front gate. Diamond shows up moments later, having followed Max at a distance, and climbs over the gate. Inside the house, Max approaches the room with the laser grid alarm and somersaults her way through the lasers. She removes a painting from the wall to reveal a safe, cracks the safe, and puts some money and the discs into her bag. Diamond, hidden from sight, watches from the other end of the grid. Max replaces the painting and uses a crossbow to shoot a rope through the lasers. She anchors the rope and uses it to slide her bag across the rigged room. Diamond grabs the bag. The rope bounces, breaking a laser beam and setting off a loud alarm. Gates close over the window and door of the room Max is in, trapping her inside.)

(Max is handcuffed to a chair in an interrogation room, presumably at the police station.)

DETECTIVE: You’re lucky the cops got there before Lemkin took care of you himself. He’s a bad man.

MAX: Good fortune smiles on me wherever I go.

DETECTIVE: Only you got captured at the scene.

MAX: Heard there was a party at that address. I wanted to meet some boys.

DETECTIVE: Look, the maid ID’d you from your little visit earlier.

MAX: Honest mistake on her part. I must have one of those faces.

DETECTIVE: And your partner’s in the wind with all the cash.

MAX: My what?

(The detective shows Max the surveillance tape from Lemkin’s. On the tape, Diamond is taking the bag.)

DETECTIVE: Come on. Give me Diamond and maybe I can make this all go away.

MAX: Is that her name? I’ve never seen her before in my life.

DETECTIVE: Lemkin wants back whatever was in that safe in a bad way. My boss wants this case closed, and there are some very powerful people after your friend. Everyone goes away happy, you help us out.

MAX: You must be all worn out, working for all these people like you do.

DETECTIVE: You and Diamond have a rendezvous point?

MAX: You just watched her swing with my hard-earned cash. You seriously think she’s waiting over at the doughnut shop to split it with me?

(The detective gives up and leaves the room. On the way out, he speaks to a man waiting at the door. The man is one of the guys Max fought on the street the previous night.)

DETECTIVE: She’s all yours.

(The man enters the room and shoots a tranquilizer dart into Max. She passes out.)

(Max wakes up restrained on a bed in a lab or cell.)

VOICE ON P.A.: Will Dr. Marcus report to Decontamination?

(Max gasps and looks around. She sees two men looking into the room through a window in the door. One of the men is named Sidney Croal; a speaker carries his voice into the room from the hallway.)

CROAL: Have you been experiencing any headaches in the last 24 hours?

MAX: Where am I?

CROAL: Answer the question. Headaches? Nausea?

MAX: No.

CROAL: Bleeding from your nose or gums?

MAX: No.

CROAL: Pain in the joints or limbs?

MAX: No, but I’m beginning to notice a very acute pain in my ass.

(The men unlock the door and enter the room.)

MAX: Where am I?

CROAL: Where is Diamond?

MAX: Wish I could help, but like I told the cops, I don’t know the lady.

CROAL: No, my interest in her is on a rather urgent matter, not to mention time-sensitive.

(Max shrugs.)

CROAL: Okay. I’ll make arrangements to have you returned to police custody.

(The men leave the room and talk to each other while looking in at Max. Max overhears their conversation through the door.)

CROAL: Did she give us anything under pentothal?

ASSISTANT: Nothing that gets us any closer to our girl.

CROAL: Get rid of her. As for Diamond, we have six hours, tops, before all hell breaks loose.

ASSISTANT: Okay.

(The assistant re-enters the room. Max feigns ignorance.)

MAX: So, is this some kind of hospital or something? ’Cause, you know, I’m not sick.

(He prepares a syringe.)

MAX: And I’ve already had my shots. Chicken pox, measles, whooping cough, tetanus...

ASSISTANT: Something to help you sleep.

MAX: I don’t sleep.

ASSISTANT: You will.

MAX: I don’t think so.

(When the assistant approaches the bed, Max kicks out of the ankle restraints and kicks him in the head. She uses her legs to grab him around the neck until he passes out. She pulls her wrists out of the restraints, sneaks out of the building, and hides in the back of a truck that’s leaving the compound.)

(Max walks into Logan’s apartment.)

LOGAN: I’ve been paging you all day. I thought something might have gone sideways at Lemkin’s.

MAX: Something did go sideways—Diamond.

LOGAN: Original Cindy’s new, old, former, on-again girlfriend?

MAX: Yeah, and big surprise, she’s trouble. Does the name Synthedyne mean anything to you?

LOGAN: Oh, yeah. Started out as a pharmaceutical company in the late 1990s.

(Logan hacks into Synthedyne’s files.)

LOGAN: Synthedyne made billions during the influenza outbreak of 2011, stockpiling vaccine and then selling it on the black market at inflated prices. Gave them the capital to branch out. Lots of subsidiaries. Into everything from orange juice to private prisons. (Brings up a picture of Sidney Croal) Here’s the CEO. His name is—

MAX: Satan. We’ve met.

LOGAN: You did have a busy night.

MAX: He asked me lots of questions about Diamond. Man’s on a mission for Miss Thang.

LOGAN: So why would a player like Croal be interested in Diamond?

MAX: Maybe they dated when she was going through her experimental period, and it ended badly.

LOGAN: Or maybe he was her landlord.

(Logan has found a mug shot of Diamond and reads from her file. Max reads over his shoulder.)

LOGAN: Diamond Latrell—serving a three-year sentence for receiving stolen goods. Incarcerated at the Synthedyne Correctional Facility for Women.

MAX: Escaped two weeks ago and is currently at large. Guess we found our connection.

LOGAN: Now we just have to figure out what it means.

(At Jam Pony, Original Cindy is getting her lunch out of her locker.)

NORMAL: Hot run, 1298 Chapel.

ORIGINAL CINDY: That’s on the other side of town.

NORMAL: All right. Well, why don’t I read off some addresses and you can pick the ones you’re in the mood to visit, all right? 1101 Wexler. No? 17 Haskell. 283 Clancy. Clancy’s such a pretty street this time of year.

ORIGINAL CINDY: I’m on break right now.

(Normal walks away. Diamond shows up.)

DIAMOND: You’re on permanent break, baby girl.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Yeah, right.

DIAMOND: I’m serious. There’s something I haven’t told you that you need to know.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Here we go. What did you go and do this time?

DIAMOND: I wasn’t up for parole for another 18 months.

ORIGINAL CINDY (angrily): So when they catch up with you—and they will—they’re gonna throw your ass back inside and I’m gonna end up alone, just like always. That’s just not good enough for me anymore.

DIAMOND: Look, I’m not going back.

ORIGINAL CINDY: You can’t live your life on the run.

DIAMOND: I don’t have that much life left.

ORIGINAL CINDY: What are you talking about?

DIAMOND: Doctors in the joint say there’s something wrong with me. Some kind of cancer or something. I mean, they had me on all these medicines to keep it in check, but that’s no kind of life in there. That’s why I walked.

ORIGINAL CINDY: You’re just running your game, same as always.

DIAMOND: Not this time. I spent my whole life running...never staying in one place or with one person long enough to have a real connection. When I got the news that that clock was running out on my ass, the only thing I could think of was seeing your pretty brown eyes one more time. I’ve blown every opportunity I had to get with you. I’m not going to screw this one up. It’s my last shot at being happy. Maybe it sounds selfish.

ORIGINAL CINDY: No. It sounds beautiful.

DIAMOND: So Mexico it is, then?

ORIGINAL CINDY: Got a little cheddar put aside. It’s not a lot, but...

DIAMOND: No, forget your pennies. From now on, you and me are livin’ large.

(Diamond shows Original Cindy her bag full of stolen money.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: Whoa.

DIAMOND: Look, I ain’t gonna front. The way I acquired this cash ain’t entirely legal. But I figure stealing from a thief ain’t entirely illegal, either. But like I said before...sometimes in life, you just gotta take what you need.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Original Cindy’s going to tender her resignation and buy a bikini.

(Max and Logan are at Sebastian’s place.)

SEBASTIAN (via voice synthesizer): Synthedyne...they figured out a way to dovetail two enterprises by using convicts as biotech guinea pigs. They tell the prisoners that they’ve got something fatal—cancer, AIDS, whatever—and the prisoner agrees to be treated.

LOGAN: But they’re perfectly healthy and Synthedyne’s just using them to build a better virus.

MAX: Cute.

SEBASTIAN: In Diamond’s cell block, they were testing a designer disease called AN918.

MAX: She’s been staying in our apartment.

SEBASTIAN: As long as she was receiving her meds, the disease was controlled and not communicable.

LOGAN: But she’s been out of Synthedyne for two weeks.

SEBASTIAN: Then pretty soon she’ll become terminal, and with this particular strain, highly contagious.

MAX: I have to find Original Cindy.

(At Jam Pony)

MAX: Where is she?

NORMAL: Vamoosed out of here with that lesbian love doll of hers. Where the heck have you been all day?

MAX: Where did they go?

NORMAL: I don’t know and I don’t care. Good riddance, as far as I’m concerned.

(Max joins Herbal Thought and Sketchy at their lockers.)

MAX: Guys, I gotta find Original Cindy. It’s a matter of life and death.

SKETCHY: She and her exceptionally fine squeeze bounced down to Mexico to make sweet girl-on-girl love, which I’d give my hat and ass to watch.

MAX: Mexico?!

HERBAL: She gave me this to give to you.

(Herbal hands her a note to read.)

HERBAL: I’ve never seen our sister so happy, but...sad at the same time.

MAX: Did she say how she was getting there?

HERBAL: Bus.

(Max runs out of Jam Pony.)

(After dark, the bus is on the road. Diamond and Original Cindy are inside. Diamond groans softly.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: You aiight, girl?

DIAMOND: Head hurts, that’s all.

ORIGINAL CINDY: A little sleep, you’ll feel better.

DIAMOND: Diamond won’t feel better till she’s sipping on a mango margarita and skinny-dipping with her shugga.

(Max is on her Ninja, trying to catch up.)

(A helicopter approaches the bus.)

(Max arrives on the scene and sees that the bus has been stopped.)

VOICE ON BULLHORN: Everyone off the bus. Move quickly and stay together.

(People in biohazard suits are escorting people off the bus.)

VOICE ON BULLHORN: Everyone off the bus. Don’t ask any questions. Just move!

(Max looks up and sees the helicopter leaving with Original Cindy and Diamond in it.)

(At Synthedyne, Diamond is shivering on a bed in an isolation room. Original Cindy, locked into an adjoining room, looks at her through a window in the door. Sidney Croal and his assistant, who is now wearing a neck brace, watch from the hallway.)

ASSISTANT: Here’s the lab report.

CROAL: Oh, looks like Diamond’s AN918’s gone full-blown and she’s contagious.

ASSISTANT: The other one tested negative for the disease, but we dosed her with the antidote anyway, just to be safe.

CROAL: You should have checked with me first. I was planning to put them together to see how long it took for the symptoms to present once Diamond infected her.

ASSISTANT: What do you want me to do with her now?

CROAL: Well, we can’t let her go.

(Original Cindy bangs on the window separating her from the two men.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: Hey! You can see this woman is sick! Help her! Give her something!

(They look at her and walk away.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: What is the matter with you people?

(Max gets inside Synthedyne by hiding under a truck.)

(Inside Synthedyne)

VOICE OVER P.A.: Mr. Scott, please report to the security office. Mr. Scott, to the security office.

(Max comes up behind the assistant and grabs him.)

MAX: How about a little adjustment?

(She shoves him face-first into a wall. He groans and collapses. She hits an alarm button on the wall.)

(Shortly afterward, alarms are going off and people are running around in biohazard suits.)

VOICE ON P.A.: Firebug’s in sector five. Sector five...

(Max, wearing a biohazard suit, finds Original Cindy’s room. She enters, locks the door behind her, and takes off her hood.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: Max? Thank God! Get us out of here.

MAX: Put this on.

(Max hands her a biohazard suit.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: What about Diamond? I can’t leave my girl.

(Diamond weakly gets off the bed and comes to the window in the door.)

DIAMOND: Original Cindy...go on, now. Go on with Max. Leave Diamond here.

ORIGINAL CINDY: No, I’m not even trying to hear that.

DIAMOND: Don’t make this harder now. I got this cancer, and I’m dying.

MAX: You were murdered. The doctors at Synthedyne lied to you when they told you you were sick. Injected you with a biological agent and pretended it was medicine. I’m sorry. It’s too late.

(Tears start rolling down Original Cindy’s and Diamond’s cheeks. They press their hands to the glass.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: No matter what happens in my life, you are my first and my truest love. You know that.

DIAMOND: I’m going to be sitting up in heaven, watching my baby girl shine. (To Max) You got her back?

MAX: Always.

DIAMOND: Well, I got a confession to make. I jammed you up before.

MAX: It’s forgotten. I’ve been on the run myself. I know what it can make you do.

(Pause)

MAX: We gotta go.

DIAMOND: Before you go, there’s one last thing I need to do...and I need your help.

(A short time later, Max and Original Cindy are outside the building. Max hotwires an SUV. They get inside, and Max drives toward the gate at top speed.)

GUARD: Okay, slow it down!

(Max keeps driving.)

GUARD: Stop!

SECOND GUARD: Come on! They’re not stopping! Get out of the way!

(The SUV crashes through the gate and drives away.)

GUARD: What the hell was that?

(Inside Synthedyne, Sidney Croal is talking on his cell phone.)

CROAL: Noon? By the time we play 18 holes, it’ll be dark.

WORKER: Sir, there’s a possible contamination in sector five. Per regulation, we’re sealing off the area and evacuating the building.

CROAL: I’m on the phone.

WORKER: I need to ask you to put on this suit for your own protection.

(Croal gestures for the worker to put the suit down. The worker does so and leaves the room.)

CROAL: Look, after the money that I have schmeared that starter with, you tell the son-of-a-bitch I want a 7 A.M. tee time...That’s right. Yes...Okay.

(Someone in a biohazard suit enters the room. Croal thinks it’s the same worker from a minute ago.)

CROAL: What do you want now?

(The person takes off her hood, and we that it’s Diamond. Her face is broken out. She points a gun at him.)

DIAMOND: Hey, baby.

SIDNEY CROAL: Diamond, I can help you. There’s an antidote.

(Diamond holds up a glass vial.)

DIAMOND: You mean this? No, shugga. It’s too late for Diamond and we both know it. I’m stone-cold dead.

(Diamond drops the vial. It breaks.)

DIAMOND: Oh, and so are you, ’cause there ain’t no more of that. (Slowly approaching him) Looks like Diamond finally found a man worthy of her kiss.

SIDNEY CROAL: Oh, God.

(Pointing the gun at his chin so he can’t move away, Diamond kisses him.)

(In their apartment, Original Cindy is sitting on her bed. Max joins her.)

MAX: Hey.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Hey.

(Original Cindy shows Max an old photo of herself.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: This is little Cynthia McEachin...scared of her own shadow. Doesn’t even trust herself enough to cross the street on her own. And she doesn’t exist anymore. (Puts the photo away) So tonight I’m going to say a prayer and thank Diamond for that—for helping me get my arms around who I really am, you know?

MAX: Yeah, I know.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Hard as I tried not to have all these feelings for her...’cause it’s easier that way...

MAX: The feelings kept coming anyway.

ORIGINAL CINDY: No doubt. And even though you ain’t with that person, you’re not alone in the world either, ’cause of the vibe they be throwing in your direction.

MAX: Weird how that is.

ORIGINAL CINDY (taking Max’s hand): It’s called soul power, shugga. Only thing that’s going to help Original Cindy stay strong through this bitch.

(She takes a look at Max’s nails.)

ORIGINAL CINDY: Look at this manicure. I just did this three days ago. Nails all busted, polish chipped...

MAX: Price a girl pays for kicking ass.

ORIGINAL CINDY: Mm-hmm. Well, sista girl’s going to help you out, aiight?

MAX: Aiight.

(They laugh.)

(At Logan’s apartment, the living room is full of candles. Max and Logan are drinking wine.)

MAX: These brownouts are getting to be a major drag. This is, like, the third one this month.

LOGAN: They’re hoping to have the power back on next Thursday. How’s Original Cindy doing?

MAX: Time heals all wounds, right?

LOGAN: I’m not sure anyone really gets over their first love.

MAX: I wouldn’t know.

(Max notices Logan’s journal lying nearby and picks it up.)

MAX: So when do I get to scroll through your lyrical pen scratchings?

LOGAN (taking it away): Uh, you don’t. And boy, do I wish you’d stop bringing it up.

MAX: Why do you always get so embarrassed about this?

LOGAN: Because my dad was one of those manly men who thought introspection meant you were weak.

MAX: Since when did Logan Cale, man of letters, speaker of truth, let the Fred Flintstones of this world get under his skin?

LOGAN: Since I was about three.

(Max gives in, rolling her eyes.)

LOGAN: You really want to see one of my poems?

MAX: Only if you’re cool with it.

LOGAN: Oh, well, I don’t know about “cool.” More like vulnerable and completely exposed, but...okay.

(Logan opens his journal to a poem and hands it to Max. She reads it silently.)

MAX: You wrote this about me?

LOGAN: Depends. Do you hate it?

MAX: It’s all right.

LOGAN: Well, then, yeah. It’s about you.

MAX: Cool.

(Logan chuckles nervously and looks away. Max secretly removes a page and hands the journal back. He takes it, surprised.)

MAX: I gotta bounce. Don’t want to miss the curfew.

LOGAN: Oh, okay. I’ll see you later.

(Max leaves. Logan throws the journal down and chuckles.)

(Later, Max is sitting on top of the Space Needle.)

MAX (voiceover): “Forever eyes. Dark. Somebody’s angel.” Whatever. But I never had anybody write a poem about me before. So whoever’s out there looking to put me in a cage or straight kill me, even if they succeed, they’ve already failed...because of this. Thanks, Logan. You’re gonna help keep me strong through this bitch.