THE HARBINGERS
EPISODE 12: The Lost Art of Keeping A Secret
Transcript
TEASER
(The sounds of an academic building.)
NARRATOR: Sinclair University. Rogers Hall. April, 2029.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I... am going.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Sounds good.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I am going far, I am going away. I am going -
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: - far away? To a different galaxy, perhaps?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I am going away because for the first time in years I can go away.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: I am besides myself with joy for you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: The children won’t be back from spring break for another two weeks, there’s no major events on the academic circuit, and nobody in Boston needs me for the next few days. The planets, the stars, the comets in the asteroid belt - everything has finally aligned, and so -
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: You’re going away?
ADAM BLACKWELL: - away I go.
(A door opens. Rekha, the graduate student from Episode 10, enters.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Have fun. Morning, Miss Kothari.
REKHA KOTHARI: Good morning, Professor McCandless.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Rekha, have you heard?
REKHA KOTHARI: You’re going away. I have heard. Where are you going away to?
ADAM BLACKWELL: A place of wonder and enchantment and whimsy known only as... The Four Seasons Puerto Escondido.
REKHA KOTHARI: It is known that way because that is what it is called?
ADAM BLACKWELL: That is precisely the reason why it is know that way.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Don’t encourage him...
ADAM BLACKWELL: And on the premises of this mythical place, I shall enjoy five different buffets. Eleven swimming pools. Thirty-two kinds of outdoor recreational activities. Want to know how many of those activities I will be recreating?
REKHA KOTHARI: Thirty-two of them?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Zero. Once I get on that plane in… three hours and eleven minutes, I am doing two things. I am doing fuck and I am doing all. Just that for five days. Fuck all. And... big drinks! Big drinks with teeny, tiny little umbrellas in them. That’s it.
REKHA KOTHARI: I hope you have a good time, Dr. Blackwell. Uh, Professor McCandless, here’s the latest from the Shen site.
(Rekha passes McCandless some papers.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Thank you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh, is there anything new about the crypt? Because I was thinking that -
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: I thought you were going away?
(A pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: You’re right. I am going far, I am going away, I am going now. My bags are packed, my coat is donned, I have performed the magical incantation that shall summon an Uber to take me to the airport. Turn the little sign on the door of this building over to “closed” because, my friends, my Romans, my countrymen, Adam Blackwell is officially on vacat -
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Would you just go already?!
(Adam’s phone starts vibrating as it gets a phone call.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Ahh, that must be my little ride-share chariot calling even as we speak. I am going. (He picks up the phone call.) Good afternoon, this is Adam Blackwell.
OPERATOR: Please hold for the White House.
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... aaand already I have a bad feeling about this.
(There’s a click from the phone line.)
ANDREA SHEPHERD: (over the phone) Dr. Blackwell. Good afternoon. Is now a good time?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m - I’m actually about to go to the airport. I’m going to Mexico. It’s my first vacation in -
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Adam. Is now a good time for the president of the United States?
(A pause. Adam sighs.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah. Now’s a good time, Madame President. What do you need?
(The scene fades away and the episode’s opening theme begins to play.)
ANNOUNCER: Audacious Machine Creative Presents: The Harbingers. Created by Gabriel Urbina. Episode 12: "The Lost Art of Keeping a Secret”
(The opening theme resolves and fades away.)
ACT ONE
(The sounds of the lawyer’s office. Skinner’s tape recorder sits between her and Adam on the table, running.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Okay, let me ask you... how far does privilege stretch? You’re my lawyer, I’m your client. Everything between us is supposed to be confidential, yeah?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: ... up to a point, yes.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah, that’s what I’m asking. What’s the point?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Well... if you said something, and I was left with the reasonable impression that disclosing it would be the only way to prevent someone’s death or someone getting seriously hurt... I’d have to break privilege. If I was worried that our professional relationship might result in a conflict of interest, I could disclose enough to ascertain whether that was the case or not. If disclosing something might prevent you from committing fraud, or doing something that would substantially harm someone’s financial interests, or -
ADAM BLACKWELL: What about something where... me sharing the information with you... would be the crime?
(A pause.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: This... of course... is a purely speculative question?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Of course, of course. Call it a bit of... academic curiosity.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Right.
(She leans towards the recording device that’s running on the table.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: This is Claudia Skinner, and this concludes information/prep session seventeen for case MGR-83-1.
(She hits a button on the tape recorder, and it stops running.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Okay, the thing that -
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Bup bup bup bup. (Hits an intercom.) Erica? We’re ending a little early for the night. We’re all done here.
ERICA PFEIFFER: (over the intercom) O-okay? Umm, do you want me to clear out the - ?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: I’ll handle, it don’t worry about it. I’ll see Dr. Blackwell out too. You can head home for the night.
ERICA PFEIFFER: ... all right. Well, in that case, umm, I’ll... see you tomorrow.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: See you tomorrow, thank you.
(Skinner lets go of the intercom.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: So -
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Wait...
(A pause. From the other side of a wall, a door opens and closes.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Okay. You are going to sit there and tell me that somewhere in between the bad date and the linguistics workshop and the artificial star almost blowing up underneath Boston, we’re going to, you know, just for fun, throw in a side dish of secrets of goddamn state? Jesus Bleeding Christ on the cross... What level of classified are we talking about? (A pause.) Oh fuck me. Okay, officially: no, you told me nothing about this. If this somehow gets brought up in the hearing, you and I will both clutch at our pearls out of the sheer, outraged shock that a respected member of the government would put the nation at risk by sharing classified secrets, okay? Then, I’ll start yelling and I’ll do some very scary things that will result in that person going to Leavenworth for opening their mouth, not you. Because you, my slippery friend, never told me shit about any of... whatever this is. Savvy?
ADAM BLACKWELL: And… unofficially?
(Skinner sighs.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Unofficially... if a punch is coming I need to know so we can be ready. So... let’s have it. Where the fuck is this going?
(Adam takes a deep breath. The scene fades to a hallway.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: I was going. I was gone, almost. Three more minutes, I’d have been in a car. Three more hours and I’d have been on my way to Mexico. Beautiful Mexico, with its big drinks that have teeny tiny little umbrellas in them.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Adam?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Shut the fuck up about it already?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Please. You know, when this day started, I really didn’t think this is where I’d end up.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Julian when... when I first took one of your classes on dead languages from thousands of years ago, I really didn’t think this is where either of us would end up.
(McCandless chuckles a bit.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: “May you live in interesting times.” You know, my father once told me that saying comes from an ancient Chinese curse. They used to throw it at their worst enemies. Please go live through... events.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Is that actually where it’s from?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Ah, who knows. Probably not. But that’s not the point.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Is the point that you’re feeling cursed right now?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: The point... is that I wish my father were still alive to see where I am right now.
(A pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: I wish my sister could see this. (A pause.) She, uh, she passed away when I was seventeen. Car crash. She was two years younger than me.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: What was her name?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Laurel. Laurel Madison Blackwell. (A pause.) I... wish I could talk to her. Talk to her about... everything. Everything that’s happened.
(A door opens.)
AIDE: Gentlemen, we’re ready for you. Step this way, please.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Thank you.
(Adam and McCandless rise to their feet and walk through an open door into a new room.)
NARRATOR: Map Room, Ground Floor of the White House. April second, 2029.
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Adam. Thanks for coming down.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah, of course. Umm, allow me to introduce Professor Julian McCandless.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Madame President.
ADAM BLACKWELL: The world’s leading expert in all things Harbinger.
ANDREA SHEPHERD: It’s a pleasure, professor. I appreciate you being here.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: It’s... it’s my privilege to be of assistance.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Which... what exactly are we helping you with? And why did it have to be right now?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: I’m guessing it has something to do with... ?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: With the big set of ancient stone slabs on the table here? Yeah, that’s what I need help with.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Jesus Christ, these look...
ANDREA SHEPHERD: ... considerably older than Jesus Christ? Yeah. We thought so too. And the writing on them?
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s... a combination of the Language of the Sun and... I think a few other things? You need these translated? That’s why you called the two of us here?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: That’s why I called the three of you here.
ADAM BLACKWELL: The three of - ?
AMY STIRLING: Boo.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yaagh! Goddammit...
AMY STIRLING: Hi Adam.
ADAM BLACKWELL: How very nice to see you, Amy. I’m surprised you could get away from the tour for a night...
AMY STIRLING: I’m surprised Eckerberg let you get away from Boston for a night. I’m guessing you finished your homework early and ate all your vegetables?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Well, at least what I’m doing is -
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Yeah, if we could maybe speed through this part? Banter banter banter, growl growl growl, grr grr grr. Can we get back to the old writing carved on these rocks, please? How long do you think it would take the three of you to translate these?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: ... a day? Maybe two?
(Andrea lets out a sharp laugh.)
ANDREA SHEPHERD: I can give you seven hours.
AMY STIRLING: Se-seven hou - what? Why seven hours?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Because these are archeological artifacts recovered by US agents in international territory. Standard practice says we have twenty-four hours from when we acquire the material to release all information about it out to the public.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Okay, that’s - if anything that’ll make translation go faster. We can get Oxford on this, and Buenos Aires, and -
ANDREA SHEPHERD: No. In… in seven hours and five minutes, I am declaring these military assets and all knowledge about them classified. At 5:19 tomorrow morning, these no longer exist.
ADAM BLACKWELL: And why are you doing that...?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: I think that’s your cue, Admiral?
(Some footsteps as a figure walks towards them.)
ADMIRAL WINTERBOURNE: Ma’am, I want to once again express my concern at -
ANDREA SHEPHERD: It’s noted, Admiral. They’ll behave themselves. Besides... in two minutes you’re going to be the least pissed off person in this room. Brief them.
(Admiral Winterbourne takes a breath.)
ADMIRAL WINTERBOURNE: Approximately thirty-six hours ago, deep range sonar scans detected an underwater detonation in the Sea of Japan. Surveillance placed two South Korean submarines entering the area, but only one leaving. Officials in Seoul claim they were performing a deep sea survey on a wrecked ship, but we have no intelligence of any wrecks in the area. The U.S.S. Willamette, one of our Columbia-class submarines was close enough to perform a salvage operation. They did not find a wrecked ship. Instead... they found an old structure on the sea bed.
AMY STIRLING: ... what kind of structure?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: The old, stone kind, Amy. The kind these two get paid to study.
ADMIRAL WINTERBOURNE: The Willamette also located the remains of the missing South Korean submarine. And within those remains... they found these items. Presumably, they were recovered from the structure.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Wait, does the South Korean navy know that - ?
ADMIRAL WINTERBOURNE: No. Our crew got in and out undetected.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Well, as far as you know, but -
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Professor, when the Admiral says they got in and out, that’s the end of that. Are we clear?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: ... yes, ma’am. Apologies, Admiral.
ADAM BLACKWELL: But wait, wait, wait... only one submarine was lost? The other one made it back? So presumably they might have found more things down at the structure? And if they were willing to leave these behind...
ANDREA SHEPHERD: ... the rest of what they found must have been even more valuable than these are. Very good, Dr. Blackwell. We had our in-house experts look at these and they verified that they look authentic. Started translating this one. Got far enough to realize it’s an accurate description.
ADAM BLACKWELL: An accurate description of what?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Of the powers that thing on your finger lets you do, Dr. Blackwell.
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... this stone slab says what my ring can do?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Oh yes. And that’s not even the good part. My people are not quite as good as the three of you, but they’re good enough to spot one word that turns up in each of those slabs. Shral.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Ring... eight slabs...
AMY STIRLING: ... each describing a different ring. Eight rings... just like the statue of the Magus King.
(A few steps as McCandless steps up to the table.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: So... right here on this table we might have a full catalog of every Harbinger ring... and what kind of magic they would let someone do...
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Including the one that is almost certainly now in the hands of the South Korean military. Welcome to the party. Seven hours and two minutes. Get to work.
(The scene fades back to the lawyer’s office.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: You had this back in April of last year? The US government had this before you - before the Captain and - Jesus Fucking Christ, Adam.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I know. I know.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And you just... I mean, this was the archeological find of -
ADAM BLACKWELL: I know.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: A trove of information like what was on those slabs must have -
ADAM BLACKWELL: It did. I know.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: The fact that it was all -
ADAM BLACKWELL: Claudia. Yes. Je sais. This was a lot. It was the kind of thing that might change my field in a day more than it had changed in a century.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And you were just... happy to go along with it being... red-taped out of existence?
(Adam laughs a bit.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: What makes you think I was happy about anything that night?
(The scene fades back to the same space as before in the White House.)
NARRATOR: The Map Room. Four hours later.
AMY STIRLING: You’re being too literal.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Where am - how am I being too literal? By writing down what is literally on this piece of rock?
AMY STIRLING: “Shral ta Alevia, coren dor grelcor syldron.” Syldron, Adam, not -
ADAM BLACKWELL: No, no, that wouldn’t apply here, because -
AMY STIRLING: It absolutely would, because -
ADAM BLACKWELL: Look at the way it’s reflected in this passage over here, it has to be elydron, or -
AMY STIRLING: Oh, so you think it literally means air particles, like the gas that’s all around us at all times -
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m not saying that yet, I’m just saying that if you look at the writing more generally, we could -
AMY STIRLING: We’ve still got two more of these to do, remember? And so if you could just stop second guessing yourself that would be great!
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m not second guessing anything, I know exactly what I’m doing and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but at this point I have years more practice at this than you do!
(A pause.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: You two need a room or something?
ADAM BLACKWELL: (simultaneous with the below) No, it’s fine, we just...
AMY STIRLING: (simultaneous with the above) I mean, whatever, it’s only a...
(A pause.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Okay, then. In case you were curious, you’re both wrong. Adam, you are being too literal. But Ms. Stirling, you’re forgetting the top third of the tablet, it points towards the tertiary usage. “Shral ta Alevia, coren dor hyldra elgor.” Agreed? (A pause.) Very good. Now, can we please move onto the next one? Before we run out of time?
AMY STIRLING: Yeah, all right.
(They all go back to work, flipping through some pieces of paper. Then, after a few seconds…)
ADAM BLACKWELL: No, this is - this is wrong.
AMY STIRLING: Well, that must be a world record. You want to let me write something down before you tell me what’s wrong with my translation?
ADAM BLACKWELL: No, that’s not - this whole thing is wrong. This is - this is the archeological find of a lifetime! This is the Childers Column times eight! We shouldn’t be rushing through this - this should be getting studied, it should be getting scanned and carbon dated, it should go to Rowbotham and Jeong and Ramirrez so they can tell us all the things we missed! And then it should be in a museum so that people can look at it for the next four hundred years and figure out all the things that we all missed.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Adam...
ADAM BLACKWELL: Tell me I’m wrong.
AMY STIRLING: You’re wrong and a child. I get it. This incredible. I’d... I’d give my left hand to get to keep studying these, and I don’t even do this professionally anymore. But come on. These things on our fingers? They could be weapons. They could be dangerous.
ADAM BLACKWELL: How much harm has either one of us done? Okay, Doomscroller’s responsible for some scary stuff, but we’ve survived, we’re still -
AMY STIRLING: Adam. Be serious here. The things Damián could do with his ring if he wanted to -
ADAM BLACKWELL: Damián has done less with his ring the entire time he’s had magic than either of us have done in a week.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: You can’t think of it in those terms -
ADAM BLACKWELL: The world has had magic for more than three years. We’re still here. And now we’re just going to let her destroy something invaluable just because it maybe has information that might be dangerous? Who is she to make that call?
AMY STIRLING: She’s the woman that eighty-seven million people voted for to be exactly the person that makes that call for us.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Eighty-seven million Americans. A few years ago, someone who shall remain nameless wouldn’t miss a single chance to remind me that the Harbingers were a global phenomenon. How is it okay that we get to make this choice for everyone on the planet?
AMY STIRLING: That’s funny. Because a year ago someone was yelling at me about how we need to be careful.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I am being careful.
AMY STIRLING: No. You are being extremely reckless and finding a clever way to justify it to yourself.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Listen to me -
(A door opens as Andrea Shepherd enters the room.)
ANDREA SHEPHERD: All right, I’ve got a minute to... What? What’s wrong with the two of you? What’s wrong with the two of them?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: It would take a brighter man than me, madame president. But if you’d like our findings so far...
(McCandless stands up. There’s a rustle of paper as he flips through some pages.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: We’ve been able to examine six of the tablets. Four of them correspond to the rings we already knew about. Shral Ta Keren, Ta Siran, Ta Veiren, Ta Roldran. The rings of movement, of the mind, of divination, of sympathy. The other two... describe previously unknown articles. One is Shral Ta Alevia.
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Which is?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Our best, rough stab at it? The ring of the skies. The slab describes an article that grants authority over the air, over... over a Harbinger word that kind of means the act of falling.
ANDREA SHEPHERD: It lets you fly?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: That’s the... conservative guess, yes. It lets you fly. Or make things other fly.
ANDREA SHEPHERD: And the non-conservative?
(A pause.)
AMY STIRLING: Gravity manipulation? Maybe on a... pretty big scale?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Okay... What about the other one?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Shral Ta Juren. The ring of the body. The slab describes a power over physical forms, an ability to cure, to make things healthy. But... it could also describe the ability to manipulate illness. To control... again, rough translation of a complicated linguistic idea, a “lack of health.”
ANDREA SHEPHERD: It could describe that?
AMY STIRLING: Yeah, could. There’s... a lot of pretty educated guess work here.
ANDREA SHEPHERD: ... right. Is there anything about where these are supposed to be? About whether there was a ring down in that underwater structure?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: No. Nothing so far, at least.
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Damn... All right. Anything else?
AMY STIRLING: That’s it.
ADAM BLACKWELL: No. That’s not it.
AMY STIRLING: Adam -
ADAM BLACKWELL: I think you’re about to make a big mistake. I think these are objects of immeasurable historic value. I think these could tell us more about the world that came before ours than anything else we’ve found in centuries. What you have on this table is Pompeii, and you don’t have the right to just wipe it away out of fear. And I think you need to slow down long enough to think about this. And if you just take a bit of time, here... you’ll realize I’m right. In fact, I think you already know I’m right. So please, just... take an hour to think about what you’re doing here, okay?
(A pause… and then…)
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Well... Doctor Blackwell... I think that you should know that - when I stepped into this room just now? - I walked away from a call with the governor of California about a massive wildfire half an hour south of San Francisco. I’m also waiting for a report from the commander of the sixth fleet about whether we’re about to have a fascinating real estate dispute with France over a chunk of the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, the Canadian economy’s falling apart, and I just lost three votes I need to get a healthcare subsidy through congress. So, yeah, I definitely got some time to... what was that? Slow down... and think... and let you condescendingly tell me all about how I’m wrong and you’re right. (A pause.) Two hours and fifty-eight minutes, got it? Go.
(The scene fades away.)
ANNOUNCER: The Harbingers will be back after these messages.
ACT TWO
ANNOUNCER: And now... back to The Harbingers.
(We return to the sounds of the lawyer’s office.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Forgot who you were talking to for a minute, didn’t you?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I... yeah. I guess, I did. (A pause.) Two days. Two days after that was one year from her knocking on my door and asking for help with Kris Middendorf. She’d come a long way since that day, sitting next to me on the floor at that hospital. And as angry as I was in that moment... she’s always been smart. Smart about these things, really. Hasn’t always gotten it right, but...
CLAUDIA SKINNER: But you always feel like she’s tried to do her best. Even when all she’s had are bad options. Yeah. (A pause.) I’m glad that you made sure that she...
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... yeah. Well. It was the least I could do. Considering.
(A pause.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: In 2025, it took you a whole night to translate a piece they’d dug up from the Robinson Site. And that was so impressively quick that it led to you... being at the center of all this madness. The three of you translated eight of these in just a few hours?
ADAM BLACKWELL: The study of the Harbinger languages had come a long way in those years. Julian and I had done a lot to expand the vocabulary. Amy’s always been brilliant, even if sometimes she leaps to a crazy conclusion. Credit where it’s due... Shepherd called the right three people for the job.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And the three of you just... got it done?
ADAM BLACKWELL: We just got it done. Well... after a fashion.
(We fade back to the familiar sounds of the Map Room.)
NARRATOR: An hour later.
AMY STIRLING: All right, so... “in this covenant is granted... the... dominion over... issues -”
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: “- or matters -”
AMY STIRLING: Right. “... of the...” I don’t know “daionica.”
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: It’s a slippery term. Lots of double meanings. But generally... “distant place?” “Far off place?”
AMY STIRLING: So another ring related to moving matter? To… speed? Adam what do you think? (A pause.) Adam?
(Adam takes a deep breath.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: How does it make any sense to keep secrets in a world that has the Doomscroller in it?
AMY STIRLING: (simultaneous with below) Oh my god, give it a rest.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: (simultaneous with above) Adam, could we please concentrate - ?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I am serious. There is a man out there who can snap his fingers and know whatever he wants, and we’re going to destroy an incredible finding just to keep a secret that can’t be kept anymore? Come on!
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Erigo Cradel Shar Tercora. “The power of one cannot affect the other,” remember? The rings are immune to one another.
ADAM BLACKWELL: How do we know that? Hmm?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: We know that because you two -
ADAM BLACKWELL: No, we didn’t. She tried to read my mind, I tried to teleport her hair. We never tried something specifically on the rings.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Adam -
ADAM BLACKWELL: Maybe it’s only the wielders that are immune. Maybe the rings themselves are - we don’t know!
(A pause.)
AMY STIRLING: All right. Fine. Try it.
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... excuse me?
AMY STIRLING: Try it. Teleport my ring. Right now. Let’s get it over with.
(A small pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Take it off. Put it on the table and I’ll -
AMY STIRLING: No. If you really think it’ll work? Teleport it off my hand. You got enough control to send something to the moon? You got enough to do that much. Let’s go.
(A long, tense pause… then, Adam exhales.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Sorry, I’m - I’m sorry. I’m just... I’m so tired.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Go take a lap.
ADAM BLACKWELL: No, I’m fine, it’s just -
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Go get some air. Ms. Stirling and I will keep going. We’ll need fresh eyes when you get back.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Okay. Okay, I’ll... I’ll be back in ten.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Make it fifteen, all right?
(As Adam exits, the scene fades to the sounds of a White House garden.)
NARRATOR: Five minutes later.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Fuck me...
(He retrieves a cigarette from a pack and lights it. A door opens and closes.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: What a night. God, this is...
(Some footsteps approach.)
ANDREA SHEPHERD: You know, Dr. Blackwell... I don’t know how other people have done it, but in my White House? Nobody’s allowed to smoke without me.
(Adam chuckles lightly.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: That’s, uh, that’s very fair. Here, let me...
(He lights a cigarette for her. She takes a drag.)
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Thank you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Shouldn’t you be... I don’t know, making sure Canada doesn’t burn down or something?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: I got a few minutes between calls. Long enough for a cigarette. Are you all right? I kinda gave you a pretty good bitch slapping earlier. You okay?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m fine, Madame President. It’s... I’m fine.
(She takes another drag from her cigarette.)
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Okay. Forty seconds. Convince me.
(A slight pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: The Harbingers had this myth. About this girl who wanted to protect her family from a monster. But she didn’t have the tools to do that. So she... created this word. And used it to cut the monster. And that’s where the Harbingers got “vitelca.” Their word for sword. And the word... led to the thing. And suddenly everyone in the village could be safe from the monsters. (A pause.) We do more when we know that more is possible. When we have the words to describe it. When we have the idea. It’s as simple as that. Tonight, you and I learned that at some point in history, a man could fly. I think it’ll be a lot harder to get to that point where we can fly again if we keep it a secret from everyone... don’t you?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Not bad. Not bad at all, Dr. Blackwell
ADAM BLACKWELL: But?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: But... if I tell the world about these tablets, I need to tell them where I found them. And then South Korea knows we got their submarine. And they’ll know we know they found something.
ADAM BLACKWELL: But - I’m sorry, did I miss something? Aren’t they our allies?
ANDREA SHEPHERD: They are. But right now they’re our allies who are lying to us, and who might have just acquired a military asset of incredible power. So we know, but we don’t tell them we know. That’s the move for tonight.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Ooookay? I - it’s not that I don’t get it, I do, but from the point of view of history, this is -
ANDREA SHEPHERD: You ever read any Thomas Merton? (A pause.) Check his stuff out sometime. American monk. One of the first to write about what it means to believe in God when you live in a world where Hiroshima and Nagasaki happened. You know what concept he hated? History. Because when we look at things from the point of view of history... no one’s responsible. No one’s accountable. It’s all just... history. (A pause.) “We cannot go on playing with nuclear fire and shrugging off the results as history. We are the ones concerned. We are the ones responsible. History does not make us, we make it — or we end it.”
(A pause. Andrea Shepherd takes a drag from her cigarette.)
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Look, it’s one thing for people to know there might be more magic rings out there. It’s another for everyone to have a list of what they are, what they do. Because for the right thing? For the right kind of sword? There is no limit to how stupid people are gonna get. And then we’re all history.
(She tosses the cigarette to the ground and puts it out with her shoe.)
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Thanks for the cigarette, Doctor. I’ll see you inside.
(Andrea Shepherd walks away.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... yeah. See you inside.
(The scene fades back to the Map room.)
NARRATOR: Ten minutes later.
(A door opens as Adam re-enters.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Hey. Okay, I’m back. Sorry again. How are you doing, are you getting anywhere with... what? (A pause.) What - what is it? What’s wrong?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: We... we think we have it. At least the top line stuff. For both of the last two.
(A slight rustle as he holds up a piece of paper. Adam grabs it.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Do us a favor and... proof this for us.
AMY STIRLING: Do us a favor and tell us we got something wrong.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh-okay...
(Adam reads from the paper, muttering softly. Slowly the muttering comes to a stop. A long pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... holy fuck. (A heavy pause.) I, uh, I... no. I don’t think you got anything wrong.
AMY STIRLING: Adam, we canno-
ADAM BLACKWELL: No. No, we can’t. Nobody else can find out about this. This is...
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: I know, Adam. I know.
(A pause.)
AMY STIRLING: Thank you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah. Don’t... don’t mention it.
(The scene fades back to the lawyer’s office.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: You... you actually changed your mind? You wanted them to get rid of the stone slabs?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Well... they tell me I’m a pretty stubborn guy, but once in a blue moon I am so enormously wrong that even I can admit it. (A pause.) President Shepherd was right. There’s a difference between knowing nuclear power is possible and knowing there’s a bomb somewhere for the taking.
(A pause.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: But... do you really think it did that much good? To keep it a secret? I mean... to go with your metaphor, two more bombs were found before the end of 2029, and then one more in the first half of this year.
ADAM BLACKWELL: But nobody tore the world apart trying to find them. By the time people understood what those rings did, they were found. It was done. That was the difference.
(A pause.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: What’d it say, though? What was on that piece of paper that got you to change your mind?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Something that when I saw it, I thought... “I’d burn down half the world to get my hands on this.”
(The scene fades back to the White House Map Room. There’s some hammering as some officers seal up a large crate.)
NARRATOR: The Map Room. Two hours later.
(The hammering stops, the job done.)
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Thank you, Officers. Dr. Blackwell, Professor McCandless... Ms. Stirling. Do you have anything else to report?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: No, ma’am.
AMY STIRLING: No, that’s it.
ANDREA SHEPHERD: And you are as one in your recommendation?
(A slight pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: We are.
ANDREA SHEPHERD: Very good. Thank you for your assistance tonight. Admiral?
ADMIRAL WINTERBOURNE: Pursuant to the findings recovered from the Sea of Japan in the early hours of April first, 2029...
(The Admiral keeps talking, but over her we are Adam and Amy talking in tight whispers.)
AMY STIRLING: You all right?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah, Amy. I’m okay.
AMY STIRLING: It’s the right thing to do. Between Walker and Donahue and... Too many people are afraid of us right now. The last thing we need is word getting out about the ring of demons.
ADAM BLACKWELL: That’s the one that worries you? I’m more concerned about the other one.
AMY STIRLING: Yeah. Well... with any luck? Once these tablets are gone? No one will ever find out that somewhere on this planet there’s a ring that lets you talk to dead people.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah... with any luck...
ADMIRAL WINTERBOURNE: ... and so, by the authority of the office of president, all matters related to these findings are declared classified and confidential, and their unauthorized disclosure will henceforth be considered a crime against the government and citizenry of the United States of America.
ANDREA SHEPHERD: It is so ordered.
(The scene fades away as the episode’s closing theme begins playing.)
ANNOUNCER: This has been The Harbingers. Created by Gabriel Urbina. Come back on May 7th for Episode 13, "Sex, Drugs, and Existential Dread." Today's episode was written by Gabriel Urbina. It was directed and sound designed by Jeffrey Nils Gardner. It featured the voices of Andrés Enriquez as Adam Blackwell, Lauren Grace Thompson as Amy Stirling, Emmy Bean as Claudia Skinner, Joshua K. Harris as Julian McCandless, Sabrina Odigie as Andrea Shepherd, Leah Khambata as Rekha Kothari, Kristen DiMercurio as Erica Pfeiffer, and Marsha Harman as Admiral Julia Winterbourne. It also featured the voice of Christopher Wilson and Betsey Palmer. Our original music was composed by Nicholas Podany. Our original show art was created by Cassie J. Allen. The executive producer for the series is Eleanor Hyde. You can learn more about the show, see a timeline of the events of our story, and become a supporting member at AudaciousMachineCreative.com. This is an Audacious Machine Creative production. Thank you for listening.
(The episode’s closing theme concludes and fades away.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Today’s history tidbit: on March 26th, 1882, Jacques Arsenault published his bestselling novel A Journey Into the Past. In it, he depicted the Harbinger ruins that can be found throughout the globe as the result of time-traveling expeditionaries from the Twenty-Third Century.