The Great World Leader, A3S2

Scene 2

We are in Aiden’s office. It looks disturbingly like the Prime Minister’s office, everything set in the same places, pictures and commendations hung around the room to look like his mentor. Fischer Port enters, gun in hand, looking confused.

FISCHER
You want to keep Aiden away from me?

She presses a button on the phone. When she speaks, her voice is broadcast over a loudspeaker.

Manasseh Kupp please report to Aiden Quartermass’s office.

She hangs up the phone.

Aiden will be here faster than his head can spin.

She paces around the room. Manasseh Kupp strides into the office.

KUPP

Fischer? Where is the old man?

FISCHER

Not far from you, sir.

KUPP

I need to report. Did Aiden take him someplace?

FISCHER

I've been looking for Aiden myself. Be sure to send him my way if you happen on him.

KUPP

Why did you call me?

FISCHER

Why does anyone call you, Manasseh?

KUPP

It doesn’t matter at all. The deed is done. Three canisters of LPDM, are in the air, enough to make Tarnikesh City a ghost town.

FISCHER

No...

KUPP

Yes! Fifteen years of silence, fifteen years of foreign powers calling us weak, it’s all over.

FISCHER

How can you justify such a thing?

KUPP

The first time we dropped LPDM, the world took a step back and paid attention to us.

FISCHER

Manasseh, no.

KUPP

If someone questioned, we answered, and then...

Manassah hesitates, looks up at Fischer twice.

Then the old man became weak. Had I known, I'd never have seen Aiden's father crushed. his father beaten. Fifteen years the world has laughed at us, but that’s over now.

FISCHER

No.

KUPP

The world will remember our glory!

FISCHER

You didn’t.

KUPP

One canister of LPDM will explode over the capital building. The other two will be ten miles north and south. The encompassing blast will cover 90% of the city. It hits in twenty minutes. In four hours, even the corpses will be gone.

FISCHER

You're sick.

KUPP
The history books will applaud me.

FISCHER
The books printed here.

KUPP
And the books printed elsewhere will be nothing but propaganda. We have a mission.

FISCHER
A mission? A mission? These are people! These are civilians. These are mothers, these are children, these are people that love their lives, and will die in agony! These are people that have never held a gun, these are people that don’t think about things beyond their borders.

KUPP
They are the enemy.

FISCHER
Mothers and their babies?

KUPP
Babies that will one day march against us.

FISCHER
Hell awaits you, Manassah Kupp.

KUPP
I do this so no one else has to.

Fischer is speechless. Manasseh laughs.

KUPP
Do you think I enjoy this? It’s horrible. More people have died by my command than you will ever meet in your life. Sick? Not any more than you, Aiden, the old man, or anyone else in our position. Someone must embrace it, so you can look away.

FISCHER
You’re not making sense.

KUPP
Fischer, do you think I don’t know the truth about your loyalties? Don’t try and pretend you can’t figure this out.

FISCHER
Tell me, Manasseh, tell me your master plan.

KUPP
It’s not all that deep, really. I’m just a scapegoat.

FISCHER
Spell it out for me, pretend I’m stupid.

KUPP
Do you think the attack on Tarnikesh was just thrown together? I’ve been working on it for years. Not just Tarnikesh City either, I have the plans laid for a hundred strategic cites where to most effectively drop an array of weapons for maximum predation.

FISCHER
You’re a monster.

KUPP
YOU’RE DAMN RIGHT! My country thanks me.

FISCHER
There will be re-education...

KUPP
I do what every man wants and few can perform. When conscious calls, only one of us can be a murderer.

Fischer hesitates.

KUPP
Would you like me to recount the names of the thirty-million, four-hundred and eleven people that have met their end by my hand? I don't know those from Tarnikesh yet.

FISCHER
I'll teach you each one!

Fischer pounces on the desk, draws her gun and points it at Kupp's head.

KUPP
Prove me right.

She pulls the trigger. Manasseh cries out and falls dead. Aiden enters a moment later. Fischer spins around to see him, clutching the gun to her chest.

AIDEN QUARTERMASS
Manasseh...! Did he...?

FISCHER
Did he what? Look at the way your breath catches. Do you miss him already? Do you feel sad for his loss? What do you feel about all the people in Tarnikesh City that are right now dying much slower than I let him go? The people of Tarnikesh... My friends!

AIDEN QUARTERMASS
He is one more person that should have been alive tomorrow.

FISCHER
You don’t believe that, do you?

AIDEN QUARTERMASS
No, I don’t, but if I’m going to be the leader the old man wanted me to be, I’m going to have to learn.

FISCHER
Victor Mercurian was the greatest murderer the world has produced.

AIDEN QUARTERMASS
To be his opposite would be the pinnacle of morality.

She aims her gun at Aiden.

FISCHER
Not a time to discuss morality.

Aiden spreads his arms wide.

AIDEN QUARTERMASS
So do it! Come on, Fischer, make this easy on me!

She tenses. There is an extended silence. Aiden laughs wildly.

AIDEN QUARTERMASS
That’s what I thought.

Fischer tries to speak but is cut off when an explosion shakes the building.

AIDEN QUARTERMASS
What now?

FISCHER
Why, that’s the not-too-distant sound of a Tarnikesh missile hitting home! We’re under attack.

AIDEN QUARTERMASS
I’m assuming we have you to thank for this honor.

FISCHER
I tried to warn them, but Manassah already released the weapon.

AIDEN QUARTERMASS
General Hallis had the button under his finger when he heard from you.

FISCHER
(wickedly)
You won’t have to worry about that, Aiden.

She points her gun at him. Before she can aim and fire, a second missile hits, and Aiden runs out of the room. Fischer tries to give chase, but a third missile hits nearby and knocks her off her feet. Paneling collapses around her. She jumps to her feet and dashes out of the room. Lights go down. End Scene 2.

Go to Scene 3