THE HARBINGERS
EPISODE 18: Good Grief
Transcript
TEASER
(The sounds of a prison. There’s the blare of a klaxon.)
NARRATOR: United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility. May Twenty-Sixth, 2031.
(A few footsteps as someone steps forward.)
GUARD: Step up.
(Some more footsteps.)
GUARD: Hold.
(Another klaxon.)
GUARD: Go ahead, Doctor. You’ve got twenty minutes, all right?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Okay. Thank you.
(Adam steps up to a visitation window. He sits down. Takes a deep breath.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Hey.
(A small pause.)
AMY STIRLING: Hey.
(We hear Amy’s voice through a filter, as though it was coming through the phone that Adam is using to talk to her.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: You’re really here.
AMY STIRLING: Well, you know.
(Amy taps the glass between them.)
AMY STIRLING: Here behind three inches of plexiglass, but -
GUARD: Don’t touch the glass!
AMY STIRLING: ... sorry. But yeah. I’m here. It’s good to see you. Even if it is through strictly untouchable glass.
(A small pause.)
AMY STIRLING: So? Three weeks in, how are you doing?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Fine, Amy.
AMY STIRLING: Are the other boys picking on you?
ADAM BLACKWELL: You mean the other prisoners in Super Max? No, they’re not. It, uh, turns out that when the answer to “What did you to end up in here?” is... what I did... the boys tend to leave you the fuck alone. It’s... more lonely than scary. Than anything, really.
(Amy places her hand against the glass.)
AMY STIRLING: Well, that’s not -
GUARD: Do not touch the glass.
AMY STIRLING: Sorry. Sorry! Sorry.
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s okay.
(A pause.)
AMY STIRLING: Hey, umm, there was something that I wanted to ask for your help with.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah, what’s up?
AMY STIRLING: I was talking to Karen Jeong the other day -
ADAM BLACKWELL: You were talking to Karen Jeong?
AMY STIRLING: I picked up the phone and called Karen Fucking Jeong, don’t faint.
(Amy holds up a pile of papers.)
AMY STIRLING: She’s been going through some of the new stuff they’ve been digging up at the Robinson.
(She places them on the security drawer, then uses it them through to Adam.)
AMY STIRLING: It looks pretty interesting, but we’ve been having some trouble with the bits that are circled in red. Something about -
ADAM BLACKWELL: “The king of the... Thrice-Flooded Lands? The... World of the Three Seas?”
AMY STIRLING: Yeah, kinda slippery, isn’t it?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh yeah... I think you’d need to cross-reference this with the stuff from the Shen. Lots of... ambiguous phrases, or allusions to... things we haven’t quite placed yet. I can try to narrow it down, but...God, I wish we had more than twenty minutes.
(A small pause.)
AMY STIRLING: Keep it. Keep it! You’re allowed paper, aren’t you? Take your time. Give me a call when you’re done with it.
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... you’re sure?
AMY STIRLING: Yeah. It’ll give me a reason to come back.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Thanks, Amy. How are you doing?
AMY STIRLING: Eh, you know me.
ADAM BLACKWELL: How’s the tour?
AMY STIRLING: The tour is... not happening.
ADAM BLACKWELL: What? Oh, god, don’t tell me they still don’t want you to -
AMY STIRLING: No, no, it’s - they want. They really want. It’s not that. But... I’m taking a bit of time. To think about what I want to do. What the best way to use my magic is right now. Yeah, yeah, shut up.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I didn’t say anything.
AMY STIRLING: Your eyes said volumes.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I didn’t.
AMY STIRLING: Don’t look at me. Look away.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I - sorry. Looking away.
(A small pause, then they both chuckle lightly.)
AMY STIRLING: I know. Amy Stirling slowing down to think things through for once. Will wonders never cease?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Hey - I’ll see that and raise you Adam Blackwell in prison. Didn’t exactly have that in the old Bingo card.
AMY STIRLING: Well... here we are.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah. Here we are.
(The scene fades away as we go into our opening titles music.)
ANNOUNCER: Audacious Machine Creative Presents: The Harbingers. Created by Gabriel Urbina. Episode 18: “Good Grief.”
ACT ONE
(The sounds of the meeting room on the navy ship. The heavy metal door opens.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Well, well, well... Doctor Adam Blackwell. As I leave and breathe.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Miss Skinner.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: So... how are things? How’s the prison sentence?
ADAM BLACKWELL: What, the one you didn’t get me out of? Very long.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Ah.
ADAM BLACKWELL: How’s the law firm?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Lucrative. The dead languages?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Fascinating as always. Erica?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: She sends her regards.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Isn’t that nice? You still seeing that nice lady from Long Island?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: No, that didn’t quite work out. You still the most powerful man in the world?
ADAM BLACKWELL: That didn’t quite work out either.
(A pause… then they both chuckle.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Adam.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Claudia.
(They shake hands. Skinner takes a seat.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: It’s good to see you...
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... you just wish it was under different circumstances?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Pretty much any other circumstances, yes.
ADAM BLACKWELL: They tell me you’re here to help us figure out how to get out of this mess. Without starting World War Three, preferably?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: ... something like that. An ambitious program, I know, but I have great faith in our abilities. I’ll... need your help piecing some things together. Figuring out some possibilities, getting a handle on the situation.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Just like old times, huh?
(A small pause.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Adam... I need to make something clear before we go any further. I’m not your lawyer. Not anymore. I’m here in my capacity as a government attorney.
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... which means?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Among others things? That you and I no longer enjoy privilege. These conversations are not confidential to us. Anything you say here, I will be relaying as needed.
ADAM BLACKWELL: And so... what? I should watch out for what I say? Miss Skinner, I don’t know if you remember, but I’ve got a six hundred thousand year prison sentence waiting for me when this is all over. The second I’m done being useful, they’re shipping me back to Colorado. You really think I need to be worried about saying the wrong thing and getting into trouble?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: I seem to remember a certain amount of concern over who knows what and when. I’m just saying... it’s not exactly like old times.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah. Okay. I hear you.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Thank you. So, shall we get started?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Set a course. Where to?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Let’s begin with the thing that got you out of prison. Amy Stirling suggested that for some time before the Boston disaster you had developed a fascination with the issue of how the Harbingers dealt with the wrong person getting their hands on magic powers. Did you ever find the answer you were looking for?
(A pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Not really, no.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Ah, ah, ah, not... really? So you found something?
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s... slightly complicated.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Well, I’ve got a bit of time. Want to tell me a story?
(The scene changes to the sounds of a university library.)
NARRATOR: Sinclair University. September, 2029.
(Adam grumbles under his breath as he goes through some pages.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Everything okay, honeybunch?
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s fine, Julian.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Well okay, then.
(A bit more grumbling… then Adam slams whatever book he was going through shut.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: God fucking dammit!
(A pause.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: You want to maybe use your words, Dr. Blackwell?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Sorry, sorry, I just... these people are driving me crazy!
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Which people?
ADAM BLACKWELL: The Harbingers!
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: ... I’ll confess, that’s a more interesting answer than I was expecting. What did they do this time?
ADAM BLACKWELL: They kept shitty records!
(Adam grabs his materials and marches over to where Julian is.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Look, look, look: this is from that new site in Peru: “And lo, those that tried to take the Shral from their wielder found themselves burnt-slash-consumed by their light-slash-fire-slash-power, which shall grow wild in the shielding-slash-defending of its master.”
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Roughly matches what we found on Sri Lanka and in the Robinson Site...
ADAM BLACKWELL: Doesn’t it just?!
(Adam holds up some notes to McCandless.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: The Robinson Site, of course, where we found this catchy number: “And upon the clash of the prince’s death, the spark of magic within his hand-slash-grasp became a wildfire that consumed and destroyed” and blah blah blah.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Adam -
ADAM BLACKWELL: Which is fine - totally fine - until you consider the accounts of conquest found in the ruins in New Zealand, and Puerto Viejo, and the Shen Site. “And there did war break King Rallen, and the flame-slash-strength of his starlight was taken by his enemy.”
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Have you considered that perhaps you’re taking ancient poetry a touch too literally? Yes, okay, I heard myself as I said that, never mind.
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s a contradiction, isn’t it? Half of what they left behind suggests that these rings protect their wearers. That they can unleash wanton, random destruction on anyone that fucks with them. Fine, sure, but then how are there dozens of accounts that seem to point to Harbinger kings and queens and sorcerers and I don’t know what the fucks taking shrals from one another? How the fuck did the Magus King get all eight of them? Hmm? Well?!
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Adam, can I ask: does the sudden urgency have anything to do with the fact that what might be the most powerful of these rings is now in the hands of a military that -
ADAM BLACKWELL: OF COURSE IT - (lower) Of course it does...
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Uh-huh. And can I also ask: did you ever go on that vacation?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh, don’t start.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: I am going to start. You’re a mess, my friend, and it’s only the second week of the semester. You need a break.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I can’t take a break, I need to - I need to solve this.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: You didn’t solve it all summer, you’re not solving it now. You need reinforcements, you need some fresh eyes on the problem, and you need a mai tai. Maybe three of the last one.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Well, where am I supposed to get those? You’re busy, you’ve got your own research.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Where are you going to - ? Adam, you’re at a university. Talk to your students.
ADAM BLACKWELL: No, this is - this is too important, it’s too sensitive, it’s too - I can’t even tell them half of what they’re supposed to look for, remember?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Then tell them the other half. Tell them enough. But get them to do some of your dirty work for you, preferably before you collapse.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I... I don’t know, Julian. This feels like one where we really shouldn’t get it wrong.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Adam, I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but it isn’t the old days of you and Amy Stirling fighting over half a roll of masking tape. Thanks to you, the grad program is insanely competitive. Everyone in it has earned their place here. Hell, I think Petersen might have killed someone to be here, that girl scares me.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh, she’s harmless.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: She’s not and you know it. But the point is: you have dozens of people here that are dying for a chance to prove they’re the next you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... and how do I give it to them?
(Julian starts gathering up his things and getting ready to leave.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: I don’t know. But think of something, will you? And... run a comb through your hair or something. Seriously, man.
(The scene fades back to the meeting room on the ship.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s one of the recurring problems of archeology. You’re... reconstructing a three-dimensional photograph from the bits and pieces that a culture chose to leave behind... minus all the things that don’t last for thousands of years, minus all the things that you don’t find, or that you don’t read correctly, or all the connections you don’t see, and... well, pretty soon you’re squinting at a blurry picture that someone’s hung up way on the other side of the room. What?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Just between you and me? How much have you missed this? The research, the academia, the... trying to make the blurry photos on the far side of the room make sense?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh, you have no idea. And... I miss the teaching. Working in a classroom, making people understand this incredible world that was here before. I miss all of it.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And? How’d it go, bringing your students into the mix?
(The scene fades to a seminar room at Sinclair. Various grad students mill about.)
NARRATOR: Two weeks later.
REKHA KOTHARI: Professor McCandless? Did... did Doctor Blackwell tell you what this meeting is about?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: He did not, Miss Kothari, no. But knowing Adam, it should be... entertaining enough, I’m guessing.
REKHA KOTHARI: Oh, I’m sure...
(The door into the room bursts open and Adam enters.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Federico Ramírez. A kewpie doll to anyone who can tell why that name is interesting to the people in this room. Yes, Mr. Avery?
AVERY: He’s a researcher, does work with Harbinger artifacts.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh, come on. Everyone the people in this room care about is a researcher who does work with Harbinger artifacts. Tell me something I don’t know. Rekha?
REKHA KOTHARI: He’s the head of field work at the University of Buenos Aires.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Bit warmer, not quite what I’m looking for. C’mon, people, I thought you were supposed to be well informed, could somebody please be impressive? Miss Rodriguez?
RODRIGUEZ: He’s found something.
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... say more.
RODRIGUEZ: Okay… I got a friend at Andrés Bello. He was just complaining that they just spent three months trying to get the rights for some big monster they found in the Pacific... only for Buenos Aires to swoop in and get it out from under them.
(A pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Very good, Miss Rodriguez. Your kewpie doll is in the mail, expect it in four to six weeks. Julian, could you hit the lights please?
(McCandless switches off the overhead lights. Adam begins clicking through a slideshow presentation as he says the following:)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Ladies and gentlemen and those who lie between, meet what is being tentatively called the Stoakes Site. Brought to us courtesy of the Royal Navy of New Zealand’s new long range SONAR technology tests. Located two hundred and forty miles to the south of Chatham Island, the underwater site looks to contain at least seven extant building complexes, with possibly more underground. New Zealand’s navy is trying to do a survey and looked to recruit an archeological team to assist in the expedition. Fede Ramírez won the knife fight, so he and a team of eighteen of his students get to go down there. Except... Señor Ramírez owes me an enormous favor from a thing a while back, so there’s a seat for me on this rollercoaster, if I want it. It’s just a shame I’m so busy with classes and grading and field work proposals, isn’t it? I guess I’ll have to find... someone to give it away to. Is everyone paying very close attention?
(A small pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Good. Here’s the deal, kids. I got some work for you to do, and I need it to be the best, fastest, most thorough work that any of you will ever do. So we’re gonna Glengarry Glen Ross the shit out of this. ABC: Always Be Closing - “closing” in this scenario meaning, “doing thoughtful, insightful archeological work.” Harbinger rings of magic. We know they passed hands, they went from one individual to another, and they did it without blowing a global empire to smithereens. What we don’t know is how. So I am in the market for anyone that can shed some light into this little mystery. A connection I’ve missed, a narrative I haven’t seen a translation of, some historical insight that we haven’t chanced upon yet. I want it substantiated, though - no guess work, no patchy conjecture, no shadows on the cavern wall. Show your work, I’ll be going through your receipts. Whoever brings me something I don’t know, wins. First place is a once in a lifetime ticket to the Stoakes Site. Second place is a set of steak knives. Third place is you TA my intro class in the spring semester. Any questions? Yeah?
AVERY: Who the fuck are Glenn, Gary, and Ross??
ADAM BLACKWELL: Get out of my sight, all of you. Find me something good.
(At once, the students start darting out of the room.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: What?
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Nothing, nothing. I’m just so proud of you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh, shut up.
(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 meeting room on the battleship.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And so the student becomes the master.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Something like it.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: I mean, some of these folks you had working for you... Carl Avery, Ximena Rodriguez, Garrett Williams...
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... Rekha Kothari...
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Oh, how could I forget. But the point is... I’ve looked up what a lot of them are doing since they graduated. It’s an impressive group of people, impressive and talented.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Is there a question that’s coming?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: I guess the question is... why the hesitation? To bring these folks into your inner circle? Did you feel like you couldn’t trust them?
(A pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: There’s a difference. Look, when I started as a grad student at Sinclair? Studying the Harbingers is that thing that got you beat up by the Star Wars kids for being too nerdy. There was nothing in it but the love of the game. When these folks got started, a grad student at that same program had gone on a field trip and come back the most powerful man in the world.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: So there was wanting to be Adam Blackwell... and then there was wanting to be Adam Fucking Blackwell. There’s a right way and a wrong way to do it?
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s what President Shepherd said. Once you know that power’s out there, for the taking, waiting to be found? You start to get real stupid real fast. So I’d done my best to steer them away from doing research into anything that was too hot.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And had them staying up late to sort through your fan-mail, if memory serves correctly... What changed?
ADAM BLACKWELL: What changed... Nothing changed. Everything changed. Years went by. The Doomscroller happened. The Captain happened. I had a tingly feeling in the back of my neck that the whole “what do we do if one the people that gets a ring goes totally off their fucking rocker” question might be kinda pressing, more pressing than keeping everything that I’d like to keep a secret a secret. And Julian got to me. He convinced me that... these weren’t some power-hungry narcissists that were dropping into the survey class. These were people that were on their way to a dissertation. There had to be some love of the game in them. And so I thought... well, as long as I don’t tell them what the other rings we haven’t found do -
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Which you couldn’t, because that was classified...
ADAM BLACKWELL: - what’s the worst that could happen? Let’s... Give it a shot and let the chips fall where they may.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And on October fourteenth?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Chips started falling.
(The scene fades to a lecture hall.)
NARRATOR: Three weeks later. Richards Lecture Hall.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: You know what I really love, Miss Kothari? Getting calls in the middle of the night asking me to come into the office.
REKHA KOTHARI: Sorry, Professor McCandless, but - Dr. Blackwell told us to call the moment we had something, and -
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: You think you have something?
REKHA KOTHARI: I... I might. Maybe. It feels like a promising lead, but I - I kind of want the two of you to look it over, before we rush into any -
ADAM BLACKWELL: Rekha? Do you have something?
REKHA KOTHARI: Yes. I have something.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Okay then. Let’s hear it.
REKHA KOTHARI: Okay. Right.
(Rekha takes her place at a podium. As she speaks, she clicks through a slideshow presentation that is being projected over her.)
REKHA KOTHARI: Okay. Well: my first instinct was to go strictly primary. Look at the historical records that we’ve uncovered in An-Serith, in the recent findings in Oceania, in the Shen Site - anything that was the Harbingers’ history as told by the Harbingers. I looked at trying to put together something like a timeline, see if there was a way to determine an order for the events that we’re aware of.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Which...
REKHA KOTHARI: Doesn’t work. Yeah. The margins of error get too wide too fast, there’s too many gaps in our knowledge of Harbinger date-keeping, and... too many variables stack up too quickly. So... that doesn’t work.
JULIAN MCCANDLES: Well, okay. Fast presentation, thank you, Miss Kothari.
REKHA KOTHARI: But then... I had an idea. Because our histories don’t just get written in a single place. It... seeps into all sorts of crevices, it gets carried forward, gets turned into stories and gossip and hearsay. Historical anecdotes about the Roman Empire can be found as far as the ruins of ancient Aksun, and they were not nearly as well traveled as The Harbingers. So to find the missing pieces of historical tissue... we might just need to know where to look.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: ... for example?
REKHA KOTHARI: I thought you’d never ask. Gentleman, consider the town of Wycliffe in Dorset, England. A tiny, fairly unremarkable location, except for three factors. One: indications that the area has been inhabited in one way or another since at least one thousand, five hundred years before Christ. Two: the fact that for almost all that time, the area has been seen as... well, haunted. There’s hundreds of years of rumors and superstitions in the surrounding area, stories about Wycliffe being a hotbed for the... unnatural. The result has been that the area has been far more isolated throughout the ages than most its neighbors. A survey in the 1930’s found the conditions in the village that now stands there to have been closer to what one would expect in the 1700’s. And number three: The presence of several stone slabs with words in the Language of the Sun carved onto them, which were found in the old ruins in the woods that surround the township.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Tablets which have been studied extensively, and which only contain a smattering of terms which are still legible. Not enough for a historical account.
REKHA KOTHARI: No, agreed. But we don’t need to get the account from the tablets. They’re just a piece of the puzzle.
ADAM BLACKWELL: And when we put the puzzle together?
REKHA KOTHARI: You get an ancient place, where there’s continuity of habitation, which has developed in a state of heightened cultural isolation - at least by the standards of Western Europe - and which we know had some contact with the ancient Harbinger culture.
(A small pause.)
REKHA KOTHARI: In 1988, the University of Hertfordshire commissioned a survey of local folklore in remote English settlements, with a particular focus on that which has survived as a part of the oral tradition. When they went to Wycliffe, they found something fascinating: three women, all in their late seventies, who remembered a myth told to them in their youth, a myth that no one else in the country seemed to be aware of. The myth of - and you will pardon my shoddy pronunciation, I hope - Pæt Gewin Pære Steorran Léohtes. Roughly translated? The war of the starlight.
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Interesting...
REKHA KOTHARI: The myth tells the story of two great and powerful kings, each gifted with a great treasure. One that let one of them call down fire from the heavens, one that let them... traverse great distances as if they were nothing at all. And one day, the two of them came into conflict, for reasons that are colorful and fascinating, but I think you want me to skip to the punchline?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Please, yes.
REKHA KOTHARI: Well, there’s armies and battles and intrigue, but ultimately... one king starts winning the war. The one that can close distances. And his armies surround the castle of the king who could call fire from the heavens. And they knew that if they attacked him, he could just destroy them with his powers. And that even if they could reach him, his powers would incinerate them before they could get the treasure away from him. And so... they had an impasse. To break it, the king who’s winning puts out an order. And his soldiers bring him a beautiful woman from the other kingdom, one who it was known the trapped king loved. And at exactly noon the following day, there was a rustle of wind in the trapped king’s royal chamber. And he turned around, and there she suddenly was. Teleported to his throne. Her throat cut open. The next day, it was one of his sons that appeared. And the following day, a servant who had once saved the king’s life. Every day, exactly at noon, he was made to look at the body of another loved one who had died because of him. Because he hadn’t surrendered. It went on for a hundred days, according to the story. And on the hundred and first day, the trapped king emerged from his castle. And without a word, he laid his treasure at the feet of the other king. And he was put to death. And his castle was pulled apart and his name was removed from the history in the halls of memory. Or, as one woman’s account called that halls of memory: Æn-Scherith.
(Rekha takes a deep breath and steps away from the podium.)
REKHA KOTHARI: That’s, uh, that’s how they did it. They didn’t overcome the magic. They didn’t... they didn’t break the spells. They broke the man. They found a way to make the person that was wearing the ring want to give it up. Because the alternative was just too... too painful.
(A pause.)
JULIAN MCCANDLESS: Adam? What do you think?
(Adam lets out a low breath. Gets to his feet.)
REKHA KOTHARI: Doctor Blackwell?
(Adam walks over to where Rekha is. A pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m sorry, Rekha.
REKHA KOTHARI: S-sorry?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah, I’m very sorry. Because from personal experience? The other students are going to hate you when they find out you’re getting the seat on the trip.
REKHA KOTHARI: You’re - you’re serious?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah, of course I’m - this is incredible work, Rekha. Well done.
(A pause. He’s holding out his hand.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh, come on. I’m trying to do a thing, shake my hand already before -
REKHA KOTHARI: Sorry, sorry!
(She reaches out and shakes his hand.)
REKHA KOTHARI: Oh my goodness, thank you. Thank you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s - no, no thanks necessary. You earned it. Great job.
(The scene fades back to the meeting room on the ship.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: You don’t beat the magic, you beat the man. That was Rekha’s great insight, the missing piece of the puzzle. Once we knew how to look for them, other similar narratives started to emerge from the woodwork. A clash between a prince and a sorcerer queen, a war between two magicians. It always came back to the same thing: one of them was forced to give their ring to the other one. Because the alternative they were presented with was too horrible.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: The war of attrition. And the innocents that got hurt along the way?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Harbinger culture was never one to concern itself too much with collateral damage. Sometimes you just have to throw a volcano at your problems.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: I see...You told all of this to Joseph Musa?
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s not every day you get a visit from the White House Chief of Staff. But yeah, he came to see me. He wanted a way to deal with a problematic magician. I told him...
CLAUDIA SKINNER: ... the only way was to fight the war of attrition?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Either that or stop caring about collateral damage.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And which of those answers did he like less?
(The scene fades to a prison cell.)
JOSEPH MUSA: That’s really the best you’ve got?
NARRATOR: United States Penitentiary, Administrative Maximum Facility. Adam Blackwell’s cell. June nineteenth, 2032. Forty-six hours into the Atlantic crisis.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m sorry, but that’s... that’s all we ever found. Two magicians meet. They break bread. They don’t like how the other person breaks their bread. They can’t use their magic against each other, they can’t kill each other, so... they make each other’s lives miserable. And whoever can make the other person’s life more miserable, wins. It’s... kinda poetic.
JOSEPH MUSA: It sounds like the world’s stupidest teenage squabble.
ADAM BLACKWELL: That too, in a way. But yeah, what you gotta overcome isn’t the magician, it’s the person. So you gotta find some way to hit her where it hurts. Freeze her bank accounts, take away her pony, I don’t know.
JOSEPH MUSA: It’s not that easy.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah, I know, I’m just thinking. I mean, she’s gotta want something. Otherwise why is she doing all of this? Whatever she’s after, point a gun at its head. You guys are usually pretty good at that. What?
(Joseph holds up a folded up piece of paper.)
JOSEPH MUSA: Two different four star generals have strongly advised me not to show this to you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... but you’re going to... ?
JOSEPH MUSA: I am. Because the woman I work for has made it clear in no uncertain terms that we can trust you with this. Don’t prove her wrong, okay?
(He hands Adam the folded up piece of paper. A long pause as Adam unfolds the note and reads it. He sighs.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... okay. Is it too late to revisit the whole... “gun to the head” thing? Mr. Musa, to just... ask the indelicate question... on a scale of one to holy fucking shit, how desperate are you right now?
JOSEPH MUSA: A magician just declared herself a new nation. We don’t know how to hurt her, but when she wants to hurt us she can just snatch planes out of the sky. Anything we throw at her, our best estimates say she can throw right back at us. And she’s not gonna stop until we hand over what has up to this point been the most destructive magic item in the history of the modern world. How fucking desperate do you think I am, Adam?
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... yeah, okay, point taken.
JOSEPH MUSA: What I need is help finding a way to defuse this situation. Want to help us out?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I - I mean, of course. I’ll do whatever I can, it’ll just be... a little hard to do it from behind bars.
JOSEPH MUSA: I don’t disagree.
(Joseph Musa walks out of the cell.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Wh-where - where are you going?
JOSEPH MUSA: To the warden’s office. I need to have a word with her.
ADAM BLACKWELL: What? What are you - ? Oh come on. It’s not gonna be that easy!
(The scene very abruptly cuts to the sound of a helicopter winding down on the deck of the navy ship.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m... I’m still not completely comfortable with how easy that was!
JOSEPH MUSA: This way, Doctor Blackwell!
NARRATOR: The deck of the USS Doris Miller. The North Atlantic. Nine hours later.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Seriously, it should not have been that easy!
(They’re walking away from the helicopter and into one of the lower decks as they say:)
JOSEPH MUSA: They’re setting up your quarters now, according to the admiral. Take a moment to get settled in, but just a moment. We’ll need you for a briefing on the latest after that we’ll -
ADAM BLACKWELL: Mr. Musa. Is... Is this it?
JOSEPH MUSA: Is what it?
ADAM BLACKWELL: This. It’s just... I’m a criminal. I was in prison. There’s a woman holding people hostage, demanding I be... Shouldn’t there be... I don’t know, guards? Or a tracker, or some sort of -
JOSEPH MUSA: Adam. Do you want an ankle monitor, son? Because I can get you one, just say the word. Look, there is no armed guard, or trained snipers, or bomb that goes off if you don’t do what we tell you. There is nothing keeping you here, the same way that as long as that thing is on your finger? Nothing was keeping you at ADX. You were there for the same reason you’re here now: you’re a good man, Doctor Blackwell. You’re not gonna let us down.
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... what if I do, though?
JOSEPH MUSA: You won’t.
ADAM BLACKWELL: How do you - ?
JOSEPH MUSA: I just know, okay? I’m a very smart man and I know things. Now turn around, already, she’s been waiting for about a minute now.
ADAM BLACKWELL: What? Who has been - ooph!
(Someone has just rushed forward and enveloped Adam in a tight hug. After a moment…)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Hi, Amy.
AMY STIRLING: You’re here. You’re really here.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah... I’m here. I’m really here.
(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 October 8th for Episode 19, "Bolt in the Blue." 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, André Teamer as Joseph Musa, Leah Khambata as Rekha Kothari, Joshua K. Harris as Julian McCandless, Emily Agy as Rodriguez, and Wesley Scott as Avery. It also featured the voice of Mark Soloff. Our original music was composed by Nicholas Podany. Our original show art was created by Cassie J. Allen.
Our dialogue editor for this episode was Astra Duffy. The executive producer for the series is Eleanor Hyde. 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 September 24th, 2003, Professor Albert Hume published An Empire of Ice. The pop science book, a deviation from Hume’s previous hardliner academic work, was an international bestseller and is hugely influential to the modern public’s understanding of the ancient Harbinger civilization.