GUNSLINGER GIRL
"Picking Out The Stitch"
By
Robert Frazer
With characters created by "Wraith11" / "Alfisti"
AUTHOR'S NOTE
-Like another of my stories, Firing For Effect, this is a comic script as opposed to a prose story. This isn't a lazy attempt to avoid proper writing, but rather an appeal to the potential of entwining two separate media, visual art and the written word, to evoke strong images - while exerting the discipline to keep to the confines of limited space and panels demanded by the page.
-Also, the Indonesian spoken by the Goons in this story was obtained with an automatic translator program - I apologise in advance to any of my East Indes friends if I've mangled your language!
-To early readers who saw this when it was first uploaded, it is worth looking at it again - this is now an updated and extended edition of the script with three extra pages and sundry edits throughout.
PAGE ONE
-A splash page for the title and to introduce the comic, along with its principals. This image takes up the entire page.
-The image shows the rear part of a Perodua Myvi car, pulled up on a grass verge beside a road. Note the specific make of vehicle – this is not the J&M fratello's traditional Audi Quattro, as they are on an exceptional excursion here.
-It is night-time but the environment, while dark, is not pitch-black – the moon is out and inks the surroundings in blue, highlighted with a dusting of silver. The background is that of a tropical sugar plantation, with perhaps the silhouette of a lone heaped mountain rising in the background (depending on the perspective the artist chooses).
-The boot of the car is open and its hatchback door is raised up. The interior of the car is lit. JETHRO and MONTY sit on the edge of the boot. They are poring over a map, with their heads together in close conference – with them illuminated by a pool of yellow washing out from the car, the contrast with the remainder of the page gives the pair an intimate character.
-The title card and credit card are placed in empty sky towards the top of the page. At the bottom-centre edge of the page is the caption.
CAPTION: "Youth is the Lord of Life. Youth has a kingdom waiting for it: everyone is born a king, and most people die in exile." – Oscar Wilde.
PAGE TWO
Panel 2.1
-A large panel: the majority of the page.
-Towards the top of the panel there is a letterbox-style inset panel depicting an aerial shot of an Indonesian landscape, in order to establish the setting. It is coastal and forested, but not uninhabited with roads and buildings visible.
CAPTION (INSET PANEL): Riau, Sumatra.
-The majority of the main panel is empty space, depicting the graduating colour of an early morning, lightening as it descends down to a pleasant bungalow at the top of a sloping lawn. The only key detail is that there should be patio doors facing out onto the lawn.
-The captions run down one side of the page in a list-like sequence, ending once the sky hits the treetops of the background.
CAPTION 1: You ever play that parlour game, 'Six Degrees of Separation'? It's fun.
CAPTION 2: Here's one – how do you link a European crook on the lam to safe tropical haven?
CAPTION 3: You know a guy in the Sicilian police who can lose your description.
CAPTION 4: He knows a guy in the Cosa Nostra who handles smuggling.
CAPTION 5: He knows a guy in an American Mafia branch who can route your connection to the Philippines.
CAPTION 6: He knows a guy with a fishing boat who could hop over to Indonesia and out of the reach of extradition treaties.
CAPTION 7: He knows a guy who can fake a Hong Kong passport.
CAPTION 8: And he knows a guy who can get you set up in a tidy little late-Dutch Colonial villa.
Panel 2.2
-Zoom in on the patio doors.
-JACOPO is on the other side of the glass, looking out past the camera. Although it is early morning he is nonetheless fully clothed, in a light shirt and slacks.
-He has a mug of soup in one hand, but his other is leaning a forearm onto the glass on which he rests his forehead. JACOPO has a weary, disconsolate expression, giving his line a rueful tone.
CAPTION: I'm the life and the soul of the party.
PAGE THREE
Panel 3.1
-Flipping the perspective of the previous panel – we are now behind JACOPO, looking over his shoulder to the view outside.
-We do not see the bungalow garden through the window, but rather an image of AGAPITA fighting with a pistol in a dusty and sandy abandoned building site – see Chapters Six and Seven of the prose story "Occupational Hazards" for reference.
-JACOPO's expression, reflected in the glass, is dark and hooded.
CAPTION 1: I used to be an agent gathering contenders for the "Gladiator Games" – a spot of human bloodsport – back in Italy.
CAPTION 2: It's been fully a year since our 'Coliseum' came crashing down around our ears.
Panel 3.2
-The camera is inside the room that JACOPO is occupying, looking across it to him in the background.
-It is a spacious combined lounge and dining area. The lighting is low and subdued in soft mauve, lit only by the morning light from the windows and not any electric lamps.
- JACOPO turns away from the patio doors and into the room.
-We have returned to reality and the actual local environment is visible outside. The bungalow is not right on the shoreline, but the sea is visible in the background through the windows.
CAPTION 1: You think that I could learn to enjoy my retirement – appreciate my survival – but this is all the glitter of not gold but pyrite.
CAPTION 2: It's a gilded cage – a secret garden whose walls are too high to climb.
Panel 3.3
-JACOPO is walking beside the dining table. He tips his head back to take a swig from his drink.
-This is an opportunity to take in JACOPO's full body.
CAPTION 1: I'm supposed to be out – supposed to be free. Supposed to be beyond the reach of the government's grubby grasp.
CAPTION 2: How come, then, I have a grab-bag under the bed and I'm up at the crack of every dawn – no lie-ins for me – throwing back a cup soup for quick energy in case today's the day I need to run?
Panel 3.4
-A small panel, almost an inset itself.
-Concentrate on JACOPO's face.
-We see his head turn and his brow furrow as he hears a sound.
JACOPO: Hmm-?
Panel 3.5
-JACOPO has moved from the lounge/dining room and into a hallway.
-Facing him is MONTY. While JACOPO recoils in shock and horror at the intruder, MONTY herself one arm against the wall nonchalantly, with her legs crossed. Note that she is wielding her Walther PPK, but is keeping it out of sight with her other arm behind her back.
-The open front door to the bungalow should be visible in the background.
CAPTION: ...not without reason, as it turns out.
MONTY: Mister Jacopo, I presume?
JACOPO: Who the Hell are you—
Panel 3.6
-Concentrate on MONTY.
-She suddenly whips out her PPK, levels it and fires!
SFX: Blam! [report]
PAGE FOUR
Panel 4.1
-Looking towards JACOPO, concentrating on his face and upper body.
-The bullet flies over his shoulder, smacking an Indonesian GOON who was creeping up behind JACOPO in the face! The GOON's head snaps back and a halo of red bursts out from him. A knife falls out of his grasp.
-JACOPO looks horrified at this close and sudden violence.
SFX: Blatch! [impact]
Panel 4.2
-In the door-frame joining the hall to the lounge/dining room.
-MONTY, with a vicarious smile and a purposeful smile, smoking pistol in hand, pushes past JACOPO to reach the door-frame. The body of the GOON lies at her feet, ignored.
MONTY: One of the goodies, Jacopo.
Panel 4.3
-The camera is behind MONTY and looking past her into the lounge/dining room.
-More GOONS can be seen pushing through the opened patio doors.
-MONTY fires her pistol, shattering glass and making the GOONS both inside and out duck for cover, but not hitting anyone.
-Now appearing serious, MONTY turns her head back to the camera and shouts behind her.
SFX: Blam! [report]; Kresh! [window shattering]
MONTY! GO! Out the front! There's transport waiting!
Panel 4.4
-Back in the hallway. The camera is on the floor, looking down along the hall's length.
-JACOPO attempts to stoop down and run low. A pair of rounds shoot through the lounge/dining room doorframe and knock chunks out of the wall above JACOPO, showering him with plaster. MONTY, half-visible around the edge of the frame, grits her teeth in frustration.
SFX: Thuntch! Thwunt! [impacts]
MONTY: Damnit, hurry!
Panel 4.5
-Looking across the dining table towards MONTY.
-MONTY continues to fire at off-panel enemies as she moves over to grab the edge of the table. Incoming fire hits the walls around her and shatters a small vase on the table.
-The SFX for MONTY's grip on the dining table in order to draw attention to it as a significant action.
SFX: Blam! Blam! Blam! [reports]; Stap! [Monty grabbing table]
Panel 4.6
-In a feat of cyborg strength, MONTY actually swings the whole table up to obstruct the door-frame and give JACOPO some additional cover!
-Shots thud into the wood of the table, and one also chews into MONTY's shoulder.
-MONTY grunts with effort, but she doesn't seem too exerted by the action even despite the fact that she's been struck – this is to convey the remarkable nature of cyborgs to laymen.
SFX: Thunk-a Thunk-a Thunk-a [impacts on wood]; Spatch! [impact on MONTY]
PAGE FIVE
Panel 5.1
-Outside the front of the bungalow. There is a small but well-tended garden here, and a short driveway in which sits a Proton Wira (no, not a high-end sports car – JACOPO didn't have that much money stowed away!). JACOPO makes his way over to the car from the front door. He looks about him for threats, but he seems quite composed, not sweating in panic.
JACOPO (THINKS): Thanks for the save, doll, but that's a debt I've no intention of letting you collect. I've got transport of my own.
Panel 5.2
-JACOPO suddenly leaps back from the door of the car as it bursts apart, raked with automatic fire from off-panel.
SFX: Brakkata brakkata brakkata! [reports]
JACOPO: What-!
Panel 5.3
-Looking past JACOPO to the road. The road is metalled, and it is forest on the far side in the background.
-At the edge of the driveway a GOON brandishing a submachine gun gesticulates angrily at JACOPO. His weapon is a K50-M – an old relic of the Vietnam War but consequently suited for a group of bandits as opposed to elite special forces.
-While we can hear the rising engine note of another vehicle approaching, note that it is not yet visible in the panel.
SFX: Vrrrrrrrrrrrmmmm... [approaching car]
GOON: Bajingan kotor putih! Jangan bergerak!
Panel 5.4
-The same perspective as Panel 5.3
-The Perodua Myvi (as seen in Page One) screams in woth tyres smoking, smacking into the GOON and trampolining him off of the bonnet and bodily flinging him off towards the panel edge. JETHRO is at the wheel of the car.
SFX: ..SkreeeeeeeWHUNTCH! [braking and impact]
GOON: Huuuuuk!
Panel 5.5
-A stunned JACOPO has not moved – MONTY emerges from the front door of the bungalow and shoves him roughly in the back to push him along, causing him to stumble.
-In addition to the bullet-bite in her shoulder, Monty has a trickle of blood running down her forehead and a couple of roses budding out on her torso. However, her pistol is smoking, she moves freely as if unharmed, and no-one is pursuing her...
MONTY: What are you waiting for, for the chauffeur to open the door for you? This isn't Raffles! Get in!
PAGE SIX
Panel 6.1
-The Perodua Myvi is driving down the forest road at high speed, with appropriate speed-lines to indicate that. There are no other vehicles on the road.
-There is a visible dent in the bonnet where JETHRO hit the GOON.
JACOPO: You've ruined your bodywork.
Panel 6.2
-Inside the cabin of the Myvi.
-JETHRO remains at the wheel, while JACOPO and MONTY sit in the back. MONTY is changing her pistol's magazine. JACOPO looks understandably wary, but JETHRO is smiling and sanguine, and despite her injuries MONTY also smiles at the joke in her dialogue.
JETHRO 1: Good of you to worry, Jacopo, but this is a rental.
MONTY: I prefer to say, 'disposable'.
JETHRO 2: Nothing we'll miss for the old Audi, anyway.
JACOPO: So do either of you want to stop destroying the local economy and tell me what that was all about?
Panel 6.3
-JETHRO adjusts his rear-view mirror to get a better look at JACOPO.
-The panel focuses on the rear-view mirror itself, so giving a narrow letterbox view of JACOPO (who is also off-centre), like the viewing panel in a cell door.
JETHRO (OFF-PANEL): Remember your most esteemed and august Patrons in the Gladiator Games, long gone and unlamented? Well, one of them's decided to tie off a loose end and has put out a contract on you.
Panel 6.4
-Looking across the back seats, from JACOPO in the foreground to MONTY in the background.
-MONTY leans an arm on the rear door beside her and regards JACOPO with a lidded, dismissive expression and a sardonic smile.
MONTY 1: Your head's now worth two hundred thousand dollars.
JACOPO: Only that much? I'm insulted.
MONTY 2: Benefits of outsourcing to the developing world, evidently.
Panel 6.5
-Reverse the perspective of the previous panel, so that now MONTY is in the foreground and JACOPO is in the background.
-JACOPO gestures towards MONTY's injuries, looking understandably perturbed at how she seems to be shrugging off bullet wounds with no apparent concern.
-A frown momentarily twists MONTY's face.
JACOPO 1: .Are you sure you're alright there?
MONTY: Actually, no – this shirt was new for the trip. Damn waste of money to mess it up so quickly.
JACOPO 2: ...uh...huh. So, I suppose my next question is – what outfit you two are with, and why did you rescue—
Panel 6.6
-Looking through the windscreen of the Myvi.
-Three Land Rovers are oncoming, obstructing the entire road and closing fast.
SFX: Bwwwraaaooowwwrr! [engine roar]
JETHRO: Damn-!
PAGE SEVEN
Panel 7.1
-The Myvi swings off the road and grinds to a juddering, jerking, leaf- and soil-churning halt in the undergrowth of the forest immediately adjoining the road.
-In the background, the three Land Rovers start braking on the road.
SFX: Grrrrnnl-grrrrrrrrrgl [Myvi stopping]; Skree! [Land Rovers braking]
Panel 7.2
-Looking down on the scene from above.
-More GOONS begin dismounting from the Land Rovers and making their way over to the Myvi.
-The Myvi has been abandoned, and JACOPO, MONTY and JETHRO are nowhere on-panel.
-The Myvi's doors are closed except for the driver's door, which is slightly ajar.
GOON A: Anda harus menjalankan cepat! Jangan biarkan mereka pergi!
GOON B: Saya tidak ingin kehilangan uang ini!
Panel 7.3
-One of the GOONS notices that one of the Myvi's doors is ajar. Falling out of the footwell is a clipboard with a number of papers attached to it.
-The GOON points towards the clipboard excitedly. Other GOONS are already making their way past the car and into the forest.
GOON: Apakah bukti bahwa? Kita dapat menemukan di mana mereka akan...
Panel 7.4
-The camera looks down the crack of the part-opened door towards outside.
-The GOON in the previous panel has squatted down to retrieve the clipboard, and uses his other arm to pull open the door further.
-In the foreground, a pair of armed grenades, disturbed by the movement of the door, fall out. Their spoons are swinging freely. The GOON looks up to their sound, momentarily baffled while he processes the sight.
SFX: Clink, clink [grenades dropping]
Panel 7.5
-Changing the scene to the fratello and their ward making their way through the forest. JACOPO is central, with JETHRO leading (carrying his own weapon now) and MONTY providing a rearguard. JETHRO has a wry smile at his impromptu booby-trap working.
-A dirty column of black, oily smoke rises up above the treetops in the background from the resultant explosion.
SFX: Batoom. [distant explosion]
JETHRO: Just as well that it was a rental...
PAGE EIGHT
Panel 8.1
-The camera is at head-height and shows the three main characters in profile as they continue to make their way through the forest. They have the same marching order as the previous panel.
-JETHRO is just passing by a tree-trunk.
JACOPO: I hope you know where you're headed... I don't want to get tangled in roots here and left trapped for easy pickings.
MONTY: We've a boat on the shore – it's a quick hop to Singapore. Now stop jabbering—
Panel 8.2
-The same perspective as the previous panel.
-An incoming round suddenly blows a thick chunk out of the tree-trunk above JETHRO's head. All three characters spasm and raise their arms to shield their faces as they are showered with shrapnel-like splinters.
SFX: zip-Thunk! [incoming round and impact]
JETHRO: Yow!
Panel 8.3
-The camera pulls back some way to take in a gunfight at range between JETHRO and MONTY and five GOONS. As the VIP in this mission, JACOPO has gone prone to stay out of the line of fire.
-As they are heading down towards the coastline, the three main characters are at the bottom of a gradient, while the GOONS are at the top.
-Perhaps show some intervening undergrowth being cut and thrown up by the scissoring exchange of fire. One GOON falls down as impacts tear up his chest, but his comrades press on.
SFX: Blam! Blam! Blam! [J&M's reports]; Brakkata Brakkata! [GOONS' reports]
MONTY: You think that they'd call it a day and cut their losses!
JETHRO: They're bandits! It just means a bigger cut for whoever's left!
Panel 8.4
-Zoom in on the three main characters.
-JETHRO is forced to go prone himself as the GOONS' heavier firepower becomes apparent. Bullet impacts kick up soil and chip away at trees all around the trio, as the incoming automatic fire is intense. MONTY remains in a kneeling position, but she flinches as she takes a hit to the forearm – she seems more irritated than pained, though.
SFX: Thwappa thwappa thwappa thwak! [impacts]
JETHRO: Damn, this is too hot! Monty, it looks as though you might have to send a message to the angels!
Panel 8.5
-Concentrate on MONTY – bloodied but unbowed – as she looks up and shields her eyes from the strengthening morning light that bleaches her clothes crisp and enriches her injuries to sumptuous ruby.
Panel 8.6
-The moment passes, and the colours become more muted again as MONTY follows through on her handlers' coded instruction and begins climbing a tree. Her expression is thin-lipped.
PAGE NINE
Panel 9.1
-A montage-sequence (half the page?) showing a wide panorama of boughs and branches through which multiple impressions of MONTY swing and scamper, adapting her free-running skills to navigate a more traditional sort of jungle. Each image of her is faded, to indicate successive movement across the page.
Panel 9.2
-Looking down through the leaves with MONTY to the heads of a pair of unsuspecting GOONS who are continuing to fire at off-panel targets.
SFX: Brakkata brakkata! [reports]
Panel 9.3
-A tall panel. At the top, MONTY leans out from her position and shoots her pistol down at the two GOONS multiple times, tearing through them bloodily and having them spasm and collapse around each other.
-A third GOON, a little separated from the first two, recoils and turns in horror at being flanked in such an unexpected way.
SFX: Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! Blam! [reports]
Panel 9.4
-The living GOON from the previous panel wheels around and blasts MONTY's position, chewing up the boughs of the tree badly. MONTY is unharmed though as she smartly skips out onto a thinner extended branch, handling her poise with all of the grace and assurance of a professional acrobat and tightrope-walker.
SFX: Braaaaaaap! [reports]
GOON: Licik bangsat!
PAGE TEN
Panel 10.1
-The lighter branch bends down with MONTY's weight, and she hangs from it with one arm.
SFX: Creeeee... [branch loaded]
Panel 10.2
-From this hanging position, MONTY swings her leg round in a powerful arc of a neck-breaking kick that snaps the GOON's head around. The GOON's eyes are open, stunned as much as anything else!
SFX: Wh-krak! [kick]
Panel 10.3
-MONTY drops down to the ground, and the branch snaps back up above her.
-She is beside a tree-trunk in the foreground. She is looking away as another GOON suddenly rounds a tree-trunk in the background and charges her!
GOON: Grrraaaaggghhh!
Panel 10.4
-A small inset panel focusing exclusively on MONTY's hand as she thrusts it flat against the trunk that she is standing beside.
Panel 10.5
-While the GOON is firing at point-blank range, his closeness is actually an advantage for MONTY. By using her hand-print as a pivot MONTY flips herself over the GOON's fire, with one leg swinging round in a wide, long, circular arc.
-Even as he fires the GOON looks worriedly to the heel swinging round to meet him...
SFX: Budda budda budda!
Panel 10.6
-The kick connects, stoving in the last GOON's cranium.
SFX: Whunch! [impact]
Panel 10.7
-A moment's respite – with no bodies and the lower edges of the panel discreetly obscured by intervening undergrowth, we have an opportunity to see MONTY stand up and sigh out a long breath in a reflective moment of relief. For a moment, the jungle is not merely a smear of background colour or dense and cloying, but like in Panel 8.5, suddenly is suffused by a richer gemlike emerald tone.
PAGE ELEVEN
Panel 11.1
-Down at a pontoon reaching out from a rocky and weed-choked shore – this is not an idyllic tropical beach by any means! JETHRO is at the wheel of a small yacht (24'-28'?) and JACOPO is loosening the mooring lines. MONTY is jogging up along the pontoon towards them.
-A fisherman tends to his simple row-boat on the other side of the pontoon, ignoring the trio.
Panel 11.2
The yacht, with sails raised, is now cutting through the water, with the Sumatran hills retreating in the distance. The sun is out fully. The boom has swing out from the yacht, with the boat sailing on a run (the wind behind it).
-If the perspective allows it to be seen, JETHRO is at the wheel of the yacht, while JACOPO sits with him in the cockpit. MONTY is making to head down into the saloon of the yacht.
JETHRO: Monty, you'd best head down, pick out those bullets in you and change that shirt of yours – Singapore's anal about its laws, we don't want to give the Customs guy any excuse to have fun.
MONTY: Good idea, skipper.
Panel 11.3
-Bring the camera into the cockpit.
-The lower foreground is occupied with JETHRO's pistol, which lies on one of the benches. In the background, JACOPO gives it an askance glance, his lips moving sllently as he processes a curious thought.
-JETHRO is clipped off at the panel edge, but we can see his elbow as he keeps to the helm.
JETHRO (OFF-PANEL): Bring up those forms, too! We need to do a bit of bureaucratic chicanery to get Jacopo over the border, and then-
Panel 11.4
-JACOPO has suddenly stood up and he is pointing JETHRO's pistol at the handler's head!
-JETHRO looks surprised, not quite processing what has happened. JACOPO peels his face into a sneer.
SFX: Klik! [pistol readied]
JACOPO: Bring up a pair of life-vests while you're down there, "Monty" – you and your beau here are going for a refreshing romantic swim back to shore.
Panel 11.5
-Show JETHRO from the side. He doesn't take his hands from the wheel, but he grits his teeth and stares straight ahead fixedly.
JETHRO: Jacopo, is this really necessary?
JACOPO: Two fluent Italian-speakers pulling my fat out of the fire at exactly the opportune moment? You two are government. I'd like my money to stay tax-free. Be grateful I'm not just shooting you.
Panel 11.6
-Looking towards the hatch leading into the yacht saloon.
-MONTY is half-out of it – and she has a fuming expression of boiling thunder. As independent as she is, she's still a cyborg, and the conditioning has a number of red lines that it won't tolerate being crossed...
JACOPO (OFF-PANEL): Hurry up, girl, my patience isn't infinite!
Panel 11.7
-MONTY suddenly launches herself forward, filling the entire panel with tear-streaked inflamed bawling fleckspittled outrage.
MONTY: DON'T YOU DARE HURT MY HANDLER!
PAGE TWELVE
Panel 12.1
-MONTY's-eye view of JACOPO, speed-lines all bearing down on him. He still has his pistol trained on JETHRO but his head turns to look at the approaching cyborg with visible shock and alarm.
JACOPO: Idiot!
Panel 12.2
-A small panel focusing on JACOPO's grip on the pistol. There are lines to indicate him tightening on the trigger...
SFX: Criiiiik... [tightening trigger]
Panel 12.3
-Concentrate on MONTY's hand as it wraps around the muzzle of the pistol.
-The weapon goes off, messily chewing up MONTY's hand, but causing no other damage.
SFX: Blurch! [round being stopped by hand]
Panel 12.4
-Pulling back the camera to take in the entire cockpit of the yacht again.
-Her expression in an open, feral snarl, MONTY uses her uninjured hand to smash JACOPO in the face, visible knocking out some teeth and probably crushing several more inside as well, and a gruel of blood and enamel spurts out of his mouth. He is knocked against the back stays of the cockpit. The pistol drops.
-JETHRO pulls his head back in alarm.
SFX: Whukk! [punch]
JETHRO: Easy, Monty! I'm okay! We still need him to talk-
Panel 12.5
-With broken teeth making his mouth a nest of edges and razors, JACOPO snarls and kicks out, planting two feet in MONTY's midriff and knocking her backwards away from him.
-At the same time, he reaches a hand out and grabs the wheel.
SFX: Wham! [kick]
MONTY: Oof!
Panel 12.6
-Looking down towards the stern and directly at the wheel.
-JACOPO now moves to the side, punching JETHRO in the side of the face and barging him away from the helm. As he does so, his hands spin the wheel around, with motion lines to show that he isn't just gripping it for support.
JACOPO: Pity. I have nothing to say!
JETHRO: Monty! Gybe-unk!
Panel 12.7
-A small panel.
-Concentrate on a running block of the sail's sheets. Rope runs through it at high speed.
SFX: Shrrrrrrll... (running wheels)
Panel 12.8
-A small panel.
-Concentrate on MONTY's face. She turns her head behind her with a puzzled expression - not being overly familiar with boats, something unexpected is happening.
PAGE THIRTEEN
Panel 13.1
-The boom comes flying back into the cockpit, slamming into side of MONTY's head with a sledgehammer-impact that's only amplified by the tremendous moment of the swing!
-MONTY is literally knocked off of her feet by the blow.
SFX: Braaaaang! [impact]
Panel 13.2
-MONTY, apparently stunned and insensible, topples down onto the floor of the cockpit, limbs splaying out in an uncontrolled way and smacking the other side of her head on the corner of a bench as she does so.
SFX: Klunk! [impact]
Panel 13.3
-The camera returns to where the pistol fell back in Panel 12.4.
-A grinning JACOPO - rendered devilish by the blood that continues to dribble out of and smear around his mouth - reaches down to snatch the weapon up.
Panel 13.4
-The same perspective as the previous panel.
-Suddenly, MONTY's hand reaches in from the panel edge and lays itself over the pistol.
-JACOPO looks up, baffled at the unexpected intervention.
JACOPO: Eh?
MONTY (OFF-PANEL): So sorry, Jacopo, but it's something that other fratelli at the Agency have often complained about-
Panel 13.5
-MONTY literally butts forward, smashing JACOPO's nose in with her cranium.
SFX: Krunch! [nose crushed]
MONTY: ...I'm a bit hard-headed!
PAGE FOURTEEN
Panel 14.1
-JETHRO, knocked into one corner of the cockpit, starts to come to. He is rubbing a shiner of bruise that is blooming out on his face.
-JACOPO, defeated, lies slumped on the floor, huddled like a bundled-up raggedy blanket and completely pathetic and helpess. A visibly incensed MONTY, teeth clenched and eyes flaring, continues to kick him while he's down.
SFX: Whack, whomp [kicks]
MONTY: Bastard, bastard, bastard...
JETHRO: Uuuuhhhnnnhh... Monty...?
Panel 14.2
-JETHRO pushes himself back to his feet, and reaches alarmed at MONTY's excesses.
JETHRO: Woah, Monty! He's down! I'm safe!
Panel 14.3
-JETHRO hurries over to MONTY and embraces her from behind.
-MONTY jumps a little, surprised by the contact. It shakes her out of combat-mode.
JETHRO: Discipline, Monty. You're always so composed - don't let one dumb mook rattle you and spoil it.
Panel 14.4
-The same perspective as the previous panel.
-MONTY suddenly looks very distressed vulnerable. She gnaws her lip and turns her head and buries it in her handler's arm, brings her uninjured hand to clutch one of JETHRO's own.
MONTY: Skipper-sir-but you-he was-I couldn't-
JETHRO: Ssh. No-one knows but us, eh?
Panel 14.5
-The same perspective as the previous panel.
-MONTY is now a little more composed. She closes her eyes and emits a long relieved sigh, her head tipped up - her shoulders shudder as she comes down from her danger-high.
SFX: Aaaaaah. [sigh]
JETHRO 1: See? All's well that ends well. So, never mind me - how's your hand?
MONTY 1: Eeeeesh... we might need to head back to Rome to fix it.
JETHRO 2: Well, don't get blood all over my shirt.
MONTY 2: Sorry.
Panel 14.6
-A change of perspective.
-MONTY separates from JETHRO and looms over the battered, bloodied, bruised - and bowed - JACOPO, who cringes on the deck.
MONTY: Hey.
PAGE FIFTEEN
Panel 15.1
-An inset panel in empty sky at the top of the the main Panel 15.2 (see below)
-MONTY leans down and lets some blood still dripping from her damaged hand patter down onto JACOPO's forehead and dribble into his eyes. JACOPO snivels.
MONTY 1: Listen, wiseguy. Having to run back to HQ for a tuneup puts me in a bad mood.
MONTY 2: Before now, Social Welfare Agency policy was to let you stew in the backside of nowhere until you ran out of money and came crawling back to Italy, begging for a plea-bargain. This little contract put out on you piqued our curiosity, though. Why now, after all this time?
Panel 15.2
-A complete splash page to conclude the adventure.
-The camera is following the yacht as it makes way towards the city of Singapore, whose towers are emerging from the sea haze in the background, while a noonday sun dapples the water with diamond iridescence. They are just one of many different ships in the water, from small skiffs to a huge container vessel. All is tranquil and routine. There's no suggestion of the adventure that they've been through, or the fierce angry passion that they've just experienced, and no-one on any other vessel would think that anything was amiss...
MONTY 1 (CAPTION): Congratulations, Jacopo – you know something we don't know.
MONTY 2 (CAPTION): You must have had some difficulty with this patron—
JETHRO (CAPTION): -and a problem shared is a problem halved—
MONTY 3 (CAPTION): -so start talking.
THE END