THE HARBINGERS
EPISODE 20: Sweet Dreams
Transcript
TEASER
(We hear smooth jazz-y piano music and the sounds of a party. At first we hear them slightly muffled, as though through a wall.)
NARRATOR: The Old Post Office, the Washington D.C. Waldorf Astoria. March, 2026.
(Then, a door opens and someone exits into a garden, giving us a moment of hearing the party clearly before the door shuts.)
(Adam takes a few steps. Stops. Takes some deep breaths.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Okay. Okay, okay, okay, okay, okay...
(The door opens again, as another person follows him out.)
ANDREW WALKER: Are you all right, Mr. Blackwell?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m... I’m doing fine, Mr. President
ANDREW WALKER: Okay, good. I suppose I should apologize. These events can be... well, exhausting for even the best among us.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I... don’t know how you do this kind of thing all the time.
ANDREW WALKER: Oh, you do it enough and you start to build up an immunity. It’s a bit like poison that way. Is there anything I can do to help? A cigar? Stronger drink? Armed escort?
ADAM BLACKWELL: No, that’s - honestly, Mr. President, this whole night has been plenty generous already.
ANDREW WALKER: Nonsense. I consider it the bare minimum I could do, after everything you’ve gone through these past few months.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Well, that’s very nice of you to say -
ANDREW WALKER: It’s not, Adam. You’ve earned this. Have you given any more thought to what I mentioned the last time we spoke?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I have, sir, and... Once again, I have to tell you, with a properly funded commission to study Harbinger artifacts, with government support, with new equipment and a proper...
(Walker laughs a bit.)
ANDREW WALKER: Adam, you’re still thinking so small. On the other side of that wall? There’s generals, there’s the country’s biggest defense contractors, there’s heads of R&D... you give them six months of your time and you’ll be set for life.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Sir, all due respect, I don’t know if... making money is the highest calling we should be thinking about here.
ANDREW WALKER: Adam, getting rich while helping to defend the land of the free and the home of the brave? There’s nothing more American than that, believe me. (A pause.) Look, I get it. It’s not your cup of tea. But everything you’re looking for? Research teams, government funds, all the support your university could want? It’s so easy to make it happen... if you give us something in return.
(A pause.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: If... if it needs to be all or nothing, sir, I... I think I’m gonna have to decline. We’ll find the funding somewhere else.
ANDREW WALKER: Adam, if this is about what happened when you were under military custody -
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s not. Trust me, it’s... it’s not. But this thing in my hand isn’t a weapon. It shouldn’t be. That’s all there is to it.
ANDREW WALKER: I think you’re being very naive, son. But... it’s okay. I’m gonna figure you out. I’ll get you to come around yet.
(He gives Adam a pat on the shoulder.)
ANDREW WALKER: Don’t stay out here too long, all right? They’re all waiting for you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’ll just be another minute.
ANDREW WALKER: All right.
(Walker turns around and heads back inside. Once he’s gone, Adam lets out a low breath.)
WOMAN: Good on you.
(A woman is standing next to him, until this moment unnoticed. She smokes a cigarette.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m - I’m sorry?
WOMAN: You didn’t roll over. You stood your ground. I believe that exchange went to you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Thanks, but... I am way out of my depth here.
WOMAN: If I might offer some free advice? Men like Andrew Walker love to make you feel like they have power over you. But the dirty little secret is... they don’t have it if you don’t give it to them.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I... he’s the president of the United States, I think he has some power.
WOMAN: And you are the most powerful man in the world, if the newspapers are to be believed.
ADAM BLACKWELL: No, that’s - that’s just the Times being dramatic.
WOMAN: I wouldn’t be so sure. I expect you’re about to spend a lot of time talking to men who have done a very good job convincing the world to act as if they have power. Politicians. Businessmen. Captains of industry. And by all means: take them seriously, and listen to what they have to say. But at the end of the day?
(She tosses her cigarette to the ground. Stomps it out.)
WOMAN: Remember that power isn’t something that happens by consensus. In all the ways that matter, real power is about one thing and one thing only: being able to do something no matter how many people might try to stop you.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m... not sure I know what you mean.
WOMAN: That’s all right - I have every faith you’ll figure it out in time. Pleasure to meet you, Mr. Blackwell. I expect great things from you.
(She walks away, opens the door, and steps into the party. The sounds of the scene fade to the familiar sounds of the meeting room on the navy ship.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And that was it?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah. That was it. That was the first time I met Jacqueline Saint-Pierre.
(The scene fades away as we go into our opening titles music.)
ANNOUNCER: Audacious Machine Creative Presents: The Harbingers. Created by Gabriel Urbina. Episode 20: “Sweet Dreams.”
ACT ONE
(The sounds of the meeting room on the navy ship.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: All right... I suppose we’ll have to deal with her sooner or later, let’s deal with her sooner.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Jacqueline Saint-Pierre.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Industrialist, CEO, Forbes magazine’s wealthiest woman on Earth, international terrorist because “oh why the hell not” I guess...
ADAM BLACKWELL: And wielder of Shral Ta Alevia.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: The Ring of the Skies. Miss Stirling already gave me the preliminary on her abilities, what her ring can do, the extent of its powers...
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... how fucked we are?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Yeah, that too.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Well, that’s good. Are we about done for the day, then, or what?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Not so fast. “You don’t defeat the magic, you defeat the person,” right? Wasn’t that Miss Kothari’s big revelation? Let’s talk about defeating this one particular person.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m more of the... ancient history, long-lost languages kind of a guy, Miss Skinner...
CLAUDIA SKINNER: No, no, you can help. Speak to her character, her temperament, her psychology. What makes her tick.
ADAM BLACKWELL: JSP’s been as dead center in the public eye as anyone can be since she was in her twenties. She’s done more interviews and had more articles written about her than Amy, Damián, and Captain Choi combined. Even when people don’t know why they know her, they know they know her.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Try saying that ten times fast.
ADAM BLACKWELL: What can I contribute to the subject that you don’t already know?
(A small pause.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Let’s start with this: what did you think of her? Well, you famously got along rather famously with our South American friend. You clashed against The Captain. You’ve got that big “I Heart The Doomscroller” tattoo on your chest...
ADAM BLACKWELL: Very funny.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Where’d Miss Saint-Pierre rank? You first met in a Washington gala, three months after you went public. First impression.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I... I didn’t know what to think. I had my head full of Walker, everyone else in that room that wanted me to work with them. She seemed... indifferent. Like it was just this weird little play that she was walking past and sort of glancing at. Like...
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Like she was above it all. (A pause.) Okay... what about the second time you met her?
ADAM BLACKWELL: The second time was... summer of 2029, I guess. I crossed paths with her because of Eckerberg. I’d been working on Project Vesper for a few months at that point.
(The scene fades to a fancy corporate office.)
NARRATOR: Jerome Eckerberg’s personal office, The Observatory. June, 2029.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Okay, you gotta help me out here, help me understand because this is breaking every part of my brain. You... are very wealthy.
JEROME ECKERBERG: Yes, I am.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Like... decadently rich. “Maybe it should be illegal” levels of rich.
JEROME ECKERBERG: Well, I don’t know about that, but - ?
ADAM BLACKWELL: You’re like... the third wealthiest individual on the planet, going by net worth, aren’t you?
JEROME ECKERBERG: I am.
MELISSA ERICKSON: I think maybe second these days, actually, depending on how you do the math.
JEROME ECKERBERG: Oh, sure.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Great, sure, yeah, why not. But somehow - and this is where the aforementioned brain-breaking comes in - because somehow all of that is true and also...
JEROME ECKERBERG: We are completely out of money.
ADAM BLACKWELL: How? What? And to return to my original point: how?
MELISSA ERICKSON: Project Vesper’s expenditures have gone past what we had projected. We’ve made great advances, but... going fast costs money and we don’t have any.
ADAM BLACKWELL: No, no, that’s not true. He has all the money. The entire point of him is that he has all the money.
JEROME ECKERBERG: My assets all tied up right now, Adam. I’m over-leveraged.
ADAM BLACKWELL: What does that even mean?
MELISSA ERICKSON: It means he can’t just write himself a check to cover the costs of Athena for a month, we’re talking figures in the billions. He can’t conjure that up out of thin air.
ADAM BLACKWELL: But he’s a billionaire, shouldn’t he be - ?!?
MELISSA ERICKSON: Look, just - just trust us, all right? We need a lot of money and we need it very quickly or all the work we’ve done so far is gonna be for nothing, okay?
(Adam lets out a little annoyed groan.)
JEROME ECKERBERG: For a moment it seemed like the American tax-payer would be coming to the rescue, but no. Congress has slowed that down too much. We might not get funds for another year, maybe two. That’s too long to wait - we can’t risk the pendulum swinging back to an administration that’s in the pocket of the fossil fuel industry. Vesper needs to work, and people need to see it working ahead of the mid-terms next year.
MELISSA ERICKSON: And the sooner we get things wrapped up with Vesper, the sooner you can stop pretending to care about the energy grid and start enjoying the benefits of my undivided attention.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Fine. Fine. So... what’s the plan, then? Are we doing a bake sale? Putting together a Kickstarter?
JEROME ECKERBERG: Let’s call those Plans B and C. Plan A is investment.
ADAM BLACKWELL: You’re gonna do a Series A or something?
JEROME ECKERBERG: Oh, look who suddenly knows something about business. No. Anything like that would dilute my controlling share too much.
MELISSA ERICKSON: The last thing we need is a board telling us what we can and can’t do.
JEROME ECKERBERG: What we need is someone with vast amounts of capital on hand, someone who can cover the budget for the next twelve months, and someone eccentric enough that they’ll do it for something other than a controlling share in Athena.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Don’t suppose there’s a lot of people in the world that fit all that criteria.
JEROME ECKERBERG: There is exactly one person in the world that fits that criteria. The good news is: she’s agreed to meet to discuss investing. I have an appointment with her in London tomorrow. I’m heading straight to the airport when we’re done here.
ADAM BLACKWELL: And the bad news?
JEROME ECKERBERG: The bad news is the meeting is contingent upon the person that has made all of this possible also being in attendance.
ADAM BLACKWELL: In what world is that bad news? Ten minutes alone with Mel and she’ll believe that anything’s possible.
MELISSA ERICKSON: Awww, you know exactly what to say to make a girl feel special... but that’s not who he meant.
ADAM BLACKWELL: What? Then who? (A pointed pause.) Me? They want to meet me? Why do they want to meet me?
JEROME ECKERBERG: Call it a harmless whim - just a bit of due diligence before she signs on the dotted line.
ADAM BLACKWELL: But - I don’t know anything about negotiating this kind of deal.
JEROME ECKERBERG: More good news: you don’t have to. Leave that to me. You just need to come along, make nice, maybe answer some questions. It’s going to be the easiest thing in the world.
ADAM BLACKWELL: It’s not, though, is it?
JEROME ECKERBERG: Probably not, no, but I’m afraid I can’t give you a choice on this. Grab your bags, Dr. Blackwell - you’re gonna love England.
(Adam sighs, and we fade back to the meeting room on the navy ship.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: They say it’s the first rule of getting insanely wealthy: never spend your own money when you could spend someone’s else’s money.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I guess you’d know. Oh, don’t look at me like that. Remind me how much you charge per hour, again? And now you’ve got the White House on retainer?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: You think government work is the best way to make money?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I think you’re probably earning a lot more than I ever did teaching at Sinclair.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: ... you’re probably right about that, yes.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Okay. So don’t say “Oh, the problems of the insanely wealthy” like you’re not a part of the one percent.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Mmm... look, I’m not gonna pretend I’m not well off - or even that I haven’t profited from a lot of the strange, turbulent things that we’ve lived through in recent years - but... there’s a difference.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Okay... what’s the difference?
(A small pause.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: You ever hear the Chris Rock joke about the difference between rich and wealthy? Someone who makes a lot of money is rich. The man who signs the rich man’s checks? He’s wealthy.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Not much of a joke.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: He says it better, and I’m dressing it up a bit for polite company. A rich man can buy almost anything. A wealthy man can buy things that shouldn’t be up for sale.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Amy’s starting to get into your head.
(Skinner scoffs. There’s a small pause.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: My brother had a stroke last year.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Wait, what, what did - holy shit, I’m so sorry, is he - ?
CLAUDIA SKINNER: He’s okay, yes. He’s recovering and doing very well. He got the care he needed very soon after it happened. But... he lives out in Seattle. The moment I heard, I dropped everything. Went straight to the airport, didn’t even pack a bag. And with my bank account and my Alexander McQueen suit and my name on the side of the building... it still took about five hours from when I found out to when I got on a plane. After you found out you were going to England, how long was it before you were in the air?
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... forty minutes. Tops. Yeah, okay. That’s the difference.
(The scene fades to the cabin of a private jet.)
NARRATOR: Jerome Eckerberg’s personal Gulfstream G800. Somewhere over the Atlantic. Midnight, Boston time.
(Melissa Erickson walks down the aisle, sits down on a seat next to Adam.)
MELISSA ERICKSON: Looks like we’re still a few hours out if you want to get some sleep.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’m all right, thank you.
(There’s some rustling of paper as the two of them work on respective small piles of paper.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: What are you working on?
MELISSA ERICKSON: Making some adjustments to the new machine gravity supports. You?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Some colleagues down in Australia just pulled some stuff from a dig site, wanted me to look over some of the writing samples they found.
MELISSA ERICKSON: Let me see?
(He holds up a piece of paper to her.)
MELISSA ERICKSON: You can really make sense of that?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I can make way more sense of this than I could of whatever you’ve got going on over there. Don’t you have people that can do that for you?
MELISSA ERICKSON: Oh, hell no. This is my day at the beach, no way I’m giving it up.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah?
MELISSA ERICKSON: Well, you know how it goes. You become a good engineer, you get to build things. You become a great engineer, you have to manage people.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh. Yeah. I’m familiar with that phenomenon.
MELISSA ERICKSON: Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy to be project lead. It’s my dream job. But... sometimes it’s nice to just take a break.
ADAM BLACKWELL: With, you know, some nice relaxing logarithms?
MELISSA ERICKSON: Your house is way too glassy for this tone, man.
(They both laugh.)
MELISSA ERICKSON: But... yes. It has been suggested by some people who might not be completely crazy... that I might have a bit of a problem with the workahol.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I think I’ve also gotten some calls from those same people, yeah.
MELISSA ERICKSON: I could stop any time I want to.
ADAM BLACKWELL: You just don’t want to?
MELISSA ERICKSON: Fuck no. Stopping? That’s just stupid.
(They laugh again.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: I don’t know... an actual break does sound nice. I should figure out how to take one for real, go find some sand to lie down on, some water to swim in... maybe learn how to surf or something.
MELISSA ERICKSON: Nah, man, don’t.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Don’t what? Learn to surf?
MELISSA ERICKSON: Don’t lie to yourself like that. Look, Mr. E? He’s addicted to results, he wants to get to where he’s going. You and me? We’re about the work. We’re about not stopping. If you ever actually got to a real beach, you’d be trying to dig up an old tomb from under the sand fifteen minutes after you got there. This? This is the break, Adam. This is the beach. Everything else? It’s just what we put up with to end up here.
ADAM BLACKWELL: But then... is there even a point? To just... doing the work?
MELISSA ERICKSON: Of course there’s a point. That’s what great about physics and archeology: the more you do it, the more of it there is to do.
ADAM BLACKWELL: You know, Mel, I think you’re great.
MELISSA ERICKSON: Of course you do. It’s always nice to be around other people who have all the same bad habits you do. Now, if you’ll excuse me? I’m gonna get back to my logarithms.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Enjoy the beach.
MELISSA ERICKSON: Thank you, I will.
(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 US Navy base.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And after you got to London?
ADAM BLACKWELL: We checked into a hotel room. Got a few hours of sleep, just enough to start to really feel the jet-lag. And then... off we went. To a noon meeting at Jacqueline Saint-Pierre’s London office.
(The scene fades to a sleek, modernist office.)
NARRATOR: London. Twenty-eighth floor of the Shard.
(An elevator door opens as Adam, Melissa Erickson, and Jerome Eckerberg step into the office.)
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT: Welcome, lady and gentlemen, to Saint-Pierre International.
JEROME ECKERBERG: Thank you very much.
MELISSA ERICKSON: Damn... look at this place.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah, it’s something all right...
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT: Miss Saint-Pierre will be with you momentarily - she should be getting out of another meeting in just a minute or so.
JEROME ECKERBERG: Quite all right, thank you.
EXECUTIVE ASSISTANT: Actually... Mr. Eckerberg, Dr. Erickson, could I trouble you step this way for a moment? There’s some paperwork we need you to sign off on.
JEROME ECKERBERG: Of course. Adam?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I’ll stay out of trouble until you get back.
JEROME ECKERBERG: See that you do.
(The assistant leads Melissa and Eckerberg away.)
(Adam stands around for a moment. Then he notices something.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: What is...?
(He takes a few steps towards whatever he’s looking at, then taps on the glass of a display case.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: That’s odd... why design it that way?
(A pause.)
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Like what you see?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Miss Saint-Pierre.
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Mr. Blackwell. No, excuse me, Dr. Adam Blackwell. It’s lovely to see you again.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yes, same here. Thank you for extending the, uh, thank you for your hospitality.
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: It is my privilege. But tell me - what do you think?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I... I think I’m not sure what I’m looking at. It’s a model?
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: A maquette, to be more precise. A scale reproduction of Atlantis.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Atlantis?
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Not that Atlantis, Doctor. An artificial island I’m constructing. A floating city state. That’s the way it’ll look, in... twenty-five or so years.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Why are all the buildings that shape?
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: The helix? A matter of practicality. It increases the surface area that’s exposed to sunlight at an exponential rate. Each tier is not just living and working areas, but also green spaces. Parks, orchards, vegetable gardens, pharmaceutical greenhouses - all nurtured by natural sunlight and automated off of the energy captured by the solar panels.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Wow.
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Each one is a tower block, a farm, an office center, and a West End street, all in one. Completely self-sufficient. Food to live, space to work, medicine to stay healthy, community to be fulfilled by.
ADAM BLACKWELL: And what are the people who live there going to do?
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: They’ll pursue whatever they wish to pursue. That’s the point of the whole enterprise. A city to bring together the world’s best scientists, engineers, teachers, artists, researchers... anyone who wants to live in a place where innovation is the rule rather than the exception.
ADAM BLACKWELL: And you have to build a whole new island nation to make that happen? You can’t do that here, or in New York, Paris?
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Paris, Dr. Blackwell, is laid out the way it is because Baron Haussmann rebuilt the city into a series of wide boulevards, as that would make it much harder for revolutionaries to build barricades. It is a city quite literally built to make it harder for its people to break away from the old ways. I’m looking to do the opposite.
ADAM BLACKWELL: And the sense of a place’s history?
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Oh, I adore history. It’s why I have every intention of making some.
(Adam chuckles a bit at that.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Well... it’s a beautiful design. I hope I get to see your island one day.
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Me too. It’s just... a shame it might not be enough. Oh, it simply might not be. We can try to optimize, and we can try to make the most of what we have left, but... too many of the smartest people in the world tell me it’s gonna be too little too late. Our standard of living has outpaced what our planet can provide for us. Even if we make the best of everything we have here, all we’re doing is just putting off the inevitable. But sooner or later, we’ll consume all the finite resources within our grasp. The final, irreversible point of no return for us as a species.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Then... why build something like this island? What’s the point?
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Oh, the point is simplicity itself. The point, Dr. Blackwell, is that every additional day we buy for ourselves is one more day for someone to be brilliant. It’s one more day for someone to figure out a way out of our problem and to find a way for our species to... endure. To reach further than we ever have before.
(Some footsteps approach.)
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Ahhh. Jerome.
JEROME ECKERBERG: Jacqueline. Thank you so much for seeing us on such short notice.
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Oh, not all, this is the most entertaining thing we’ve had in ages, I’m besides myself. Here, come, come, we’ve arranged lunch. Let’s have a bite to eat and then we’ll talk.
(The scene fades back to the meeting room on the navy ship.)
CLAUDIA SKINNER: Twenty-five years, huh? That timeline got moved up a bit... It’s like Miss Stirling said, it gets easier to build something when you can get around gravity.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Oh, that’s only half of it. The magic helps, absolutely. Makes it all much easier, much faster. But it also draws certain people to you. The kind of people who want to work with magic to make things happen quickly. The people in that ballroom in Washington, who wanted to work with me back in 2026? Half of them ended up doing business with Saint-Pierre International instead.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: It was both an asset and a siren call for all the people she wanted to have under her thumb... I gotta give it to Mademoiselle Saint-Pierre, she knew what she was doing.
ADAM BLACKWELL: That’s the problem - she usually does.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: How’d the pitch go?
ADAM BLACKWELL: ... interesting. She took us to this... lounge, I guess, she had. Gave us a three course meal, poured us all a glass of two-thousand quid wine. Eckerberg and Mel did the dog and pony show, explained what we were trying to do, what they needed. JSP didn’t really react much, besides asking a question here and there. Until finally...
(The scene fades to a luxurious meeting room at Saint-Pierre International.)
NARRATOR: An hour and a half later.
MELISSA ERICKSON: These are just the early projections, based on the tests we’ve been running these past few months. But if we can achieve even half of what we think we can, we’ll still be upending the American power grid in less than a year.
JEROME ECKERBERG: The US government is behind us, and where they go the EU will follow. Japan and India will be right behind them.
MELISSA ERICKSON: And it’s green energy on a big enough scale to finally put the oil plutocrats out of business for good. That’s the kind of good publicity you can’t buy most days.
JEROME ECKERBERG: Jacqueline, I know you. You’re about innovation, about finding a way to get ahead of what we’re gonna need ten years down the line. This is it: abundant, sustainable energy for the world. And you can be a part of it.
(A pause.)
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Thank you. This is very interesting. And what do I get, in exchange for keeping the lights on at your energy company?
JEROME ECKERBERG: Besides a considerable cut of the profits, until your investment is recouped? Implementation rights. We’ll give you access to our blueprints, our proprietary designs.
MELISSA ERICKSON: Athena’s tech, not brick and mortar. We don’t have the infrastructure to build reactors across three different continents.
JEROME ECKERBERG: Sooner or later, we’d have to buy a construction company, or start one. Better to work with one that’s already established, and that shares our values. And who will reap contracts to the tune of billions in profits.
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Good. Well argued. You’ve been very quiet, Dr. Blackwell.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I... I’m not the business guy, Miss Saint-Pierre. Mr. Eckerberg and Dr. Erickson know how this stuff all fits together. I’m - I’m just along for the ride.
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Are you now? From what I understand... your magic is what makes this whole process possible, isn’t it?
JEROME ECKERBERG: That’s not... exactly right, no.
MELISSA ERICKSON: What we can do with Vesper is a hybrid prototype, using both fusion and his magic for power. Adam has accelerated our development, has let us do things today rather than in ten or fifteen years. But we’re figuring out how to replicate those results without -
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Except you’re not promising me returns in ten years or fifteen years, you’re saying we’ll be doing this soon. We’ll be doing this now. Correct? Jerome, no offense, but if you left Athena tomorrow, we both know there’s two dozen executives who could take over as administrators. They might not be as talented as you, or have your sense of vision, but they’d get it done. And if you, Dr. Erickson, got struck by lightning tomorrow - heaven forfend - I’m sure there’s at least one physicists that would be silently thrilled their voodoo curse has finally yielded some results and they can have your job. If he disappears tomorrow and takes that ring with him, there’s no one who can take his place, correct? (A pause.) There we are, then. You are the indispensable component to all of this, Dr. Blackwell. You are the only part of this that cannot be replicated, you are the only part that is well and truly essential. Which means... that the three of you are not asking me to get into the energy business, or the infrastructure business... you’re asking me to get into the magic business. You’re asking me to become a shareholder in Adam Blackwell Incorporated.
JEROME ECKERBERG: And... how does that change things?
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: For starters...
(She slides a plate across the table towards Adam.)
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Doctor Blackwell, would you be so kind as to teleport this apple for me?
ADAM BLACKWELL: Excuse me?
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: I’ve never seen it with my own eyes, your magic. It’d be nice to have confirmation that you can actually do it, before we move forward.
JEROME ECKERBERG: Jacqueline, come on. Dr. Blackwell’s powers are well documented, you - he teleported a heart to Japan, for Christ’s sake, and -
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Jerome, I’m not talking to you at the moment. (A pause.) Call it an audition, Dr. Blackwell. If you want me to invest billions of my dollars into this venture... Show me the man behind it is all he’s cracked up to be.
(She pushes the plate closer to him.)
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Take this apple and put it... put it on top of Jerome’s head. William Tell. I’m a sucker for the classics.
ADAM BLACKWELL: I... I’m not...
MELISSA ERICKSON: Miss Saint-Pierre that’s - that’s really not necessary. And it could be -
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: You trust this man with your nuclear reactor? You trust him with your life, you trust him to hit a bullseye then? Well, I want to see him hit a bullseye right here, right now. And if he can’t show me that my investment will be in good hands... or he won’t extend me that simple courtesy... well, I really don’t know there’s much for us to talk about. So? What’ll it be?
(A pause… then Adam gets to his feet.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: Thank you for your time, Miss Saint-Pierre. Have a good day.
(He starts to walk towards the door. After he’s taken a few steps:)
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: You’re really going to throw away something you need just to... what? Stand on pride?
ADAM BLACKWELL: I could ask you the same thing.
(He stops walking and turns around to face her.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: You say that you want to... what was it? Figure out a way for us to endure? To reach farther, so we can have what we need to survive? Yeah, that’s really hard to do... unless you have a ring that can instantly teleport matter across space. Then, all of a sudden, all it takes is someone figuring out the right words to say at the right time - all it takes is someone being brilliant - and we could have all kinds of things we want right here for the taking. And I don’t know what kind of resources we need that we could get out of... out of some passing asteroid or a moon of Jupiter or who the fuck knows what. But I’d be willing to bet my left hand that you do... or at least that the “smartest people in the world,” you know the ones you have working for you? They know, don’t they? So please: stop talking like we’re imposing upon you by asking you to get into the magic business. You want to be in the magic business. In fact, I think you maybe need to be. But no matter how much you want to, you just can’t do it... unless I agree to do it with you. So how about you stop fucking around, and give us what we need to help stop the world from having an energy crisis? And then, if I feel extraordinarily generous, maybe one day I’ll return your call, when you want to talk about how to solve the rest of our problems. How does that sound?
(A pause. Saint-Pierre gets up and walks up to Adam.)
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: (low:) Good show, Dr. Blackwell. (Louder:) Jerome?
JEROME ECKERBERG: ... yes?
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: I’ll have an offer sheet for you before end of business on Friday. Sound good?
JEROME ECKERBERG: ... absolutely. That sounds great.
JACQUELINE SAINT-PIERRE: Capital. It was wonderful meeting with you. Enjoy your time in London.
(She walks to a door, and exits the room.)
JEROME ECKERBERG: Thank you, Adam.
ADAM BLACKWELL: Yeah, don’t... don’t mention it.
(The scene fades back to the meeting room in the navy ship.)
ADAM BLACKWELL: She was as good as her word. The offer came through, and the funding was right on its heels. A week later, Mel went back to work. I just... couldn’t get the way she had looked me out of my head. She wasn’t angry, or even annoyed. She just... looked at me like I’d made a good move on a chess board. Billions of dollars, people’s lives on the line, and she just... looked happy to be entertained for once.
CLAUDIA SKINNER: And so...?
ADAM BLACKWELL: And so... what did I think about her? After the second time I met her? I thought Jacqueline Saint-Pierre seemed like she just might be the most dangerous woman on the planet. And that was four months before she got magic powers.
(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 November 5th for Episode 21, "Scream Drive Faster." 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, Emmy Bean as Claudia Skinner, Beth Eyre as Jacqueline Saint-Pierre, Dan Granata as Jerome Eckerberg, Sunnie Eraso as Melissa Erickson, and Mark Soloff as Andrew Walker. It also featured the voice of D. Casselian. 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. 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 October 22nd, 2029, Australian singer-songwriter Annie Shetland released a new single with lyrics completely written in the Language of the Sun. The song received a mixed reaction from both critics and fans, and, following the Boston tragedy the following summer, was quietly removed from her tour setlist and most streaming platforms.