Ashes to Ashes Series 3
Episode 8
END OF THE WORLD
The story so far…..
Alex Drake woke up in 2009 and was delighted to be reunited with her daughter Molly. After seeing images of Gene Hunt filling screens around her hospital bed and in the corridor Alex had to be restrained and sedated. Molly comforted her mother as she drifted off to sleep….only to awaken in a hospital bed at the beginning of 1983.
Following Gene's "shooting" of a senior colleague, the Commissioner has decided that he should be accompanied for the foreseeable future by a member of the Discipline and Complaints team – DI Jim Keats.
Gene apologised to Alex for "shooting" her and for not believing her about what she had said about the Operation Rose robbery. He did not want to discuss the other thing that Alex had confided in him – the future is something Gene Hunt does not want to discuss.
In a strange turn of events, DCI Litton showed up to inform Gene that his ex-wife has been found murdered. Gene decides to investigate only to find the trail go cold. They try to lure the killer out by means of a fake Dating Agency as the late Mrs Hunt had been placing personal ads, one of which led to her death.
Gene reveals that he suspects her death has something to do with a file that he and Alex once stole from a weapons research facility. A file he has kept locked in a filing cabinet in CID ever since. Codenamed Artemis, the file was about his wife – Mrs Diana Hunt. Mrs Hunt it would seem had become involved in CND and was being surveilled by MI5. Gene thinks the fact that she has now been found dead is too big a coincidence.
Alex's dreams have been getting stranger. She is increasingly frustrated to remain trapped in 1983 after getting such a brief glimpse of getting her life back and returning to Molly.
OPENING SCENE
Hospital facility
Two nurses finish their checks and leave their patient. Camera pans to show ALEX DRAKE, head bandaged, lying asleep. She is surrounded by monitors. The bed is also attended by three people whom we have not seen before. The monitors show CID in 1983. GENE HUNT comes bursting out of his office.
GENE: Who's been messing with my drawers?
CHRIS: Didn't know you wore any guv
GENE: DC Skelton I am not referring to drawers of the girly frilly variety. I am referring to my filing cabinet – in particular the big green one with the combination lock on it inside which was a very important file!
A voice comes out of the monitor, we do not see who is talking.
ALEX: Are you sure someone's been able to get into it guv? I mean who could possibly know how to crack the code?
We can now tell the monitors are showing 1983 from Alex's POV
GENE: You tell me Bolls. I had the combination kept nice and safe – no one would be able to guess it. (His eyes wander to the side of the room) Oh shit!
ALEX: What is it?
GENE: Ever wondered why I never felt the need to play darts in my office despite having a dartboard displayed so proudly?
ALEX: Actually, no
GENE: Well the reason is because I kept the combination to the filing cabinet displayed on said dartboard. Each dart represented how many numbers to the left and right. Blue dart for right, red dart for left. Only some buggers gone and cracked me code
ALEX: Well how do you know they've guessed it?
GENE: Cos they've left me a bloody thank you note!!!
On the dartboard is a note saying "THANK YOU MR HUNT"
OPENING TITLES
ALEX: My name is Alex Drake. I've been shot and sent back in time. I got back home but now stuck back in 1983. But I am going to find a way back again to my daughter. No matter what it takes.
CUT TO: CID 1983 – this time we see Alex and Gene sat at his desk.
ALEX: What exactly was in the file Gene? I know there was information about your wife but there must be something else. Something that someone would take a big risk about. I mean walking into CID, into your office, entering the combination and walking out of here with that file.
GENE: I'm racking me brains Bolly. I mean I've told you everything that I know. They tracked her movements – the CND stuff, the beaver-munchers at the RWF.
ALEX: Did it mention anyone else? Any other contacts she may have had that…..
GENE: I did all this when the bloody woman turned up dead in the Manchester Ship Canal! There's nothing else! Nothing!
Knock at the door. DI Jim Keats enters.
KEATS: Hello DCI Hunt. I've just had a call from the Commissioner. He's read my final report and wants to see you.
GENE: Oh, marvellous! My day gets better and better!
KEATS: And you DI Drake. Both of you – my car – now.
GENE: You'd better ask nicely Detective Inspector or I'm going nowhere!
KEATS: I'm sure your non-compliance with the Commissioner's request would only be another nail in the coffin of your career DCI Hunt.
GENE: If we're going to the Yard then I can get there in my own bloody car! I know the way.
KEATS: Oh no. Not the Yard. Not for this. The Commissioner would like a more inconspicuous word.
GENE: Would he really? Now this is interesting. Talking off the record are we? All a bit cloak and dagger.
ALEX: I don't like the sound of this guv. Why would the commissioner want to see you and I in private, off police premises?
KEATS: Oh sod this –
Suddenly Keats draws a revolver. Gene is quicker on the draw and blows a hole in Keats chest. Jim Keats' dead body crashes through the glass door of CID.
Ray dashes over.
RAY: Crikey guv I know you didn't like the bloke but you've gone a bit far this time!
ALEX: No Ray – he was going to shoot the guv. Look – he's drawn his gun.
CHRIS: No! Why would he do a thing like that?
GENE: I don't know Chris but I'm not hanging round here to find out. And I suggest all of you keep your weapons handy until I find out what is happening round here.
RAY: Right guv – whatever you say. What am I going to do with him?
GENE: Don't tell anyone. Clean up as best you can. Take him down the basement and dump him in the stores. I will be in touch as soon as I find anything out.
ALEX: Where are you going to go?
GENE: I am not going anywhere. We on the other hand are going for a drink where no one will think of looking for us.
CUT TO QUATTRO – Gene is at the wheel.
GENE: What the hell's going on Bolls? My wife – murdered. My office – violated. A fellow officer walks into my domain and tries to kill me!
ALEX: Where are we going guv?
GENE: Somewhere where I have always felt safe.
They sit in silence.
Back in CID Ray, Chris and Shaz are hauling Jim Keats' body in to a dimly lit lift.
SHAZ: I can't believe I'm doing this
RAY: Well it's happening – hit the button for the basement and let's get this over with.
They hear a distant bang. Shouting. More bangs.
They all turn and look at each other as the lift doors close.
Back in the Quattro Gene's radio crackles into life.
YARD: This is Superintendent Samuel Gerrard of Scotland Yard. DCI Hunt you are ordered to return to Fenchurch East Satation immediately
GENE: Why – so you can finish the job off that you sent Jim Keats for?
YARD: Your time is up DCI Hunt. We're closing down Operation Rose.
GENE: Operation Rose? What the hell are you talking about – I put a stop to that last year!!
YARD: That was only the beginning Gene. Operation Rose continues for many years. But we're having to shut everything down – our security has been compromised.
GENE: Why is my life so bloody complicated?!! What the hell are you talking about – "Continues for many years"? Don't tell me you're a voice from the bloody future as well!
YARD: I'm afraid so Chief Inspector
Cut to lift arriving back at CID. Doors open. The lift appears empty. Ray, Chris and Shaz poke their heads round the doors, weapons drawn. Ray emerges first, checks the corridor is clear and signals Chris and Shaz to follow. Ray enters CID to find everyone slain and the whole office trashed. Shaz gasps as she comes in and collapses into Chris's arms.
RAY: Right we're going
CHRIS: What?
RAY: It's not safe here. I've told you before the safest place is with the guv.
CHRIS: You've not told me that before
RAY: Well I've told one of you – now let's get out of here before they find out they've missed us
Cut to Quattro – Gene still driving
GENE: Has she put you up to this? Is she in on this? She always seems to know what's happening a little too well – claiming she's from the future. And what about Tyler? He was a weird one as well – you send him did you – transferred him from Hyde?
YARD: Yes – we sent Sam Tyler and we sent Alex Drake to you Gene. They both had jobs to do although they didn't know it.
GENE: They had a job to do but didn't know what the job was?
YARD: That's right
GENE: So pardon me for being a bit thick here but how can you send someone to do a job and expect them to do it if you don't tell 'em what you want them to do?
YARD: Sam was told at the end of his mission. But he couldn't go through with it. He died for you Gene – you meant that much to him. We spent seven hours trying to revive him but in the end he slipped away.
GENE: I spent seven bloody years trying to make sense of him.
YARD: Well while he spent seven years with you starting in 1973 we spent seven hours trying to mend his brain that he smashed to pieces jumping from the Greater Manchester Police Headquarters. We sent him to destroy you Gene. Bring you down. He was meant to end your career – send you back to your wife with a nice fat pension. You see if your career was over Mrs Hunt would have stayed with you and never got involved with the whole weapons protest thing
GENE: Little bastard…..!
YARD: He couldn't do it Gene. He turned his back on the mission and went back to you.
GENE: Sam……..
YARD: And then we sent Alex Drake to you.
GENE and ALEX share a dangerous look.
GENE: Go on
YARD: She doesn't know why she's been sent to you Gene, you must believe that. We hoped that she would uncover the Artemis file. We hoped you would confide in her Gene and tell her what was inside the file. Then you may have got to your wife before she was killed.
ALEX: (Boiling) Would you like to tell me what the hell is going on? I mean I'm the one who's been shot – twice. I don't what reality is any more!
YARD: Don't you recognise me Alex?
ALEX: You – why should I recognise you?
YARD: It's Peter
ALEX: Peter?
YARD: Peter Drake
ALEX double takes
ALEX: Pete – what…. Why?
GENE: Peter Drake? I thought he was 13 years old!
ALEX: Errrr…… yeah
Radio crackles again
RAY: Guv?? Are you there? Come in guv!
GENE: Ray – are you OK?
PETER: Ray – how come you're still……
RAY: Who's this on the other channel guv? You'll never guess what's happened! They've gone into CID – it's must've been like Gunfight at the OK Corral. Everyone's dead. The place is a wreck.
GENE: Ray – get out and take anyone else who's still alive and go somewhere safe. I don't want to know where – and don't go saying anything with this psychopath listening in.
RAY: Guv – we need to stick together on this. Shaz is a wreck and Chris isn't doing much better. Where are you going?
GENE: Not now Inspector! I will try to get in touch later. What I really need is for someone to take all these bloody fruitcakes away so I can lead a normal life!
RAY: I think I know where to take us all guv. Don't leave it too long, eh
GENE: Thankyou Raymondo. We will speak again soon. Now – Peter Drake. Is this the same spotty teenage lad who cracked George Staines over the head with a rock last year?
ALEX hesitates….
PETER: Yes Gene. I would like to explain all of this to you but there isn't time. I need you to let Alex go so we can get her back and to safety.
ALEX: Back? Back where? I feel like I don't know where home is anymore.
PETER: Back where your body is in 2008.
ALEX: And where's that?
PETER: It was in Quebec
ALEX: Canada??
GENE: Don't they think they're all French over there?
PETER: It's where our concept was born. But we've moved you back to London now
GENE: She's going nowhere!!
PETER: But Gene – if she doesn't leave she'll die. And she'll be stuck there with you – forever.
GENE: Well I'm sure DI Drake can make up her own mind about that
ALEX's eyes flash around – trying to comprehend what is happening.
ALEX: I need to know more. No, I need to know EVERYTHING. The whole damn lot of what the hell you've put me through Peter. You come and meet me and Gene and you tell us what the BLOODY HELL IS GOING ON!!!!
PETER: I can't do that. But I might be able to send someone else.
ALEX: Well you do that – where do you want us to meet?
PETER: Where are you now?
GENE: Heading towards Putney.
PETER: Stop at Putney Bridge. Someone will meet you.
ALEX: How will we know who to look for?
PETER: They'll find you. And you'll know who it is when you see them.
GENE: And no funny business Peter. We are both armed
PETER: Fine – just be quick. I need Alex back here as soon as possible
The Quattro continues on its journey.
Switch to Gene and Alex standing on Putney Bridge.
GENE: No wonder you were always so weird Bolly. Five minutes in your world and my head is spinning so fast it could take off from between me shoulders
ALEX: You should try standing in my shoes
GENE: Too high, too small and too red
ALEX sniggers
GENE: I'm sorry Bolls
ALEX: What for?
GENE: For not believing you when you told me all that stuff about being from the future. But you can't blame me. I mean who'd swallow a story like that!
ALEX: Apology accepted
VOICE: Hello Alex
ALEX spins round. ARTHUR LAYTON is standing on the bridge with his dishevelled coat.
GENE: Who the hell are you?! Wait a minute….. Layton?? My God man you must have had a rough couple of years since you got sprung from clink.
LAYTON: Try twenty seven years Mr Hunt
GENE: What?
LAYTON: It's been 31 years since the Price's legal team got me out of prison. This is how I've ended up. Bit different to how it used to be – running drugs, coppers in my pocket. But Alex here saw to it that my empire came to an abrupt end.
ALEX: Why did he send you?
LAYTON: I'm the messenger boy for Operation Rose. Got meself into trouble with the security services. Went to the police for protection but they didn't want to know. I got contacted by Peter Drake. Don't ask me how he found me but he did. Asked me to get involved with Operation Rose. Saw it as an escape route.
GENE: So what exactly is Operation Rose?
LAYTON: Rectification of the Sequence of Events. ROSE. Your late ex-wife was killed because someone wanted to get their hands on a weapon she had stolen from the Edgehampton Research Facility. After she had been killed the place she had told her assassin to search was empty. The bomb was not discovered for many years but when it did it got into the hands of Islamic extremists. A suicide bomber eventually detonates the device in the middle of the Opening Ceremony of the London Olympic Games in 2012.
My mission when I was recruited was two fold. Get hold of the guy who would eventually turn the bomb over to the terrorists or put you back into 1981 where you could see the whole story unfold and try to change some version of the future.
ALEX: Who on earth would hand over a neutron bomb to a bunch of fundamentalists?? Is this who you were on the phone to before you shot me? This same person had something to do with the death of my parents??
LAYTON: Yes Alex – one man did all that
GENE: Well who is it Layton – cough up!!
LAYTON: Evan White
ALEX looks stunned
ALEX: Evan….? No – he's got Molly??! I trusted him… He can't possibly…. !
LAYTON: Tim and Caroline Price were CIA agents working for the American government keeping their eyes on the developing situation over here with regard to Human Rights and eventually trying to discover more about the UK's nuclear capability. Evan was an undercover MI5 agent trying to find out what the Prices were up to. When they got too close to Martin Kennedy, Evan arranged for me to be released from prison. I wired a bomb to his car and he let Tim & Caroline use it to pick you up from school. You should be aware that as an experienced security agent, Evan White is quite adept at mind control techniques. Evan had given Tim a Bowie tape after he had hypnotised Tim into making his confession video. He left Tim instructions in his subconscious to play the tape only when you were all in the car.
ALEX: So the confession tape wasn't real??
LAYTON: Evan's affair with Caroline became part of the plan to get rid of the Prices. It provided Evan with a reason for Tim to kill himself and his family. Didn't you think it was all a bit too convenient, Evan turning up at the scene with this video already in his pocket?!
ALEX: But why all three of us?
LAYTON: Evan was acting on instructions. I believe MI5 wanted unrestricted access to your parents' property – the house, family papers, documents…….
GENE: And it was him who handed over a nuclear bomb to these nutters?
LAYTON: Neutron bomb, Mr Hunt. He never stopped looking for it. After he killed your wife, he became obsessed with tracking down the bomb. Eventually he found it but tried to blackmail the British government over a number of years. He wanted them to hand over millions of pounds. Felt he was owed after all the things he'd done. Still the British government wouldn't pay up so he sold it the fundamentalists instead.
ALEX: Bastard! Bastard, bastard, bastard!!!!
LAYTON: The team also sent in a guy called Martin Summers to stop a gold bullion heist. The proceeds would eventually fund the start of Operation Rose but the team are trying to cover its tracks through time. Summers I think went in on the pretext of being able to clear his own conscience – made things a lot cleaner from our point of view.
ALEX and GENE exchange confused glances
LAYTON: And I also took the opportunity of righting a bit of a wrong from my own past when I got sent back to 2008 to get you back to 1981, Alex
ALEX: What do you mean?
LAYTON: On the morning of 20th July 1981 Alex Drake was shot dead by a police marksman. I had been blackmailed into creating the hostage situation – instructions had probably come from someone high up in the Met.
ALEX: Why would the Met want me dead??
LAYTON: As I say Operation Rose was started by senior officers within the Metropolitan Police. One of their senior criminologists, Judy Reeves came up with a tiny implant which contained massive amounts of information about a case file. Locations, people, events. A guy called Peter Drake had been interested in drugs from a young age. He grew his own cannabis and ended up touring the world and collecting drugs from every corner. He experimented and found out that he could manufacture a narcotic that could send the user into a dreamlike state that would be so vivid, so real that once the trip had ended they would swear what they had experienced was real. The Met combined the two – the implant and the drug to review unsolved cases. Then one day someone found that during the trip when someone had taken a car - the present day owner phoned up to report their car stolen. The Met got curious. It seemed that during these trips the future was being changed. So with the bomb going off they decided to see if they could alter some version of the future.
GENE: But…
LAYTON: They sent a guy called Sam Tyler first. The Met sent out questionnaires across the country and Sam's came back as someone who would fit the bill. Uncorruptable, meticulous and be ruthless enough to bring down Gene Hunt and send him back to his wife. I was sent to hit him with a car. Once he was unconscious I fitted him with an implant but I got interrupted. Once the Ambulance Service turned up he was sent to a hospital and we couldn't monitor him. We sent a man into Manchester - our surgeon Frank Morgan who tried to retrieve the implant but he couldn't get it out. After Sam jumped from the police building we sent Frank down to try and save Sam. They kept him alive for over seven hours but it was no use. That meant Sam probably stayed in this world for about seven years before you lost him.
ALEX: Yes, fine but what about me – why did the Met want me dead?
LAYTON: They didn't bank on Sam spilling his heart out on to a tape and sending it to you. Loads of people in the Met knew you had plans to write a book about your cases. Other people knew of the technology but the Met did not want their Operation to become public. They would do anything to preserve its secrecy. So that morning, I took a busker hostage and was told to ask for you to come and negotiate. One of the marksmen was meant to shoot you – explain it away as a police accident. I was sent back into 2008 to send you back into 1981 and uncover Artemis. I knew where you were going to be on 20th July so the day before I paid a visit to Molly at her school. I told her not to ask questions but to listen to what I was going to tell her. I told her that the following day you would be interrupted on your journey from school to go to a hostage situation. I told her that you would be shot unless Molly could persuade you not to get involved. But in the end she had to run out in front of all of those guns – she's one brave kid……. Once the 2008 Layton had taken Molly down to the riverbank I was waiting. I shot my younger self and told Molly not to say anything. That left me clear to get hold of you, try to sort this mess out. I tried to blackmail the one person who started all of this, see if I could drop a big enough stone in his pond but he wasn't interested. So I did the job I was sent to perform – I sent you back to 1981
ALEX tries to comprehend what she is hearing
LAYTON: But now – in 2012 - the terrorists are trying to get into our compound. The powers that be need to shut down your part of the operation Alex and get you out.
GENE: So – you're telling me that I exist only on some microchip implanted in her brain in the future?
LAYTON: That's what they thought but it might be that this version of you is real and is able to influence the future….
GENE: If I give you a slap would it prove to you that I am real – 'cos that's my prediction as to what's going to happen in the next 10 seconds!
LAYTON: Alex – we've got to go. There is an easy way back but we've got to do it now!
GENE: She stays with me.
GENE draws his gun and points it at Layton
LAYTON: Don't do this Mr Hunt – hundreds of lives are at stake here
ALEX: Gene – you can't win this one! Let me go
GENE: After everything we've been through! You expect me just to let you run out on me…? With him??!!
ALEX: I could make a difference! If I get back to 2012 I could help break this terrorist cell! Gene please!!!
GENE looks back and forth between Alex and Layton. He huffs in frustration and lowers his weapon.
GENE: All right – bloody go then! But Alex
ALEX looks back
GENE: You make sure you nail these terrorist bastards
ALEX smiles. She runs over and plants a massive kiss on Gene's surprised lips. ALEX dashes back to LAYTON and they exit the bridge. GENE stands on the bridge, touching his lips in disbelief.
Cut to - LAYTON and ALEX approach Markham's boat the Lady Di.
ALEX: Oh – hang on a minute. You're not going to shoot me again are you?
LAYTON laughs
LAYTON: No – not quite
ALEX: Good – cos I'm getting really pissed off about the amount of times I've been shot in the past 27 years
They board the boat.
LAYTON: Lie down on the bed please Alex.
ALEX: I think I'd rather you shot me. No offence
LAYTON: None taken. I need you lying down so I can get you back.
ALEX compliantly lies on the bed
ALEX: Once I'm back – how do you get back?
LAYTON: I don't. I'm stuck here. That's the price I paid for what I did. There's two versions of me now here. God help me if this doesn't work and they send another one of me back here. I'll be able to start me own football team after a few years wouldn't I?
ALEX: So what do we do?
LAYTON pulls out his gun, aims it at Alex's head and fires. ALEX just has the time to scream "NO!!!!" before he pulls the trigger. Her head is rammed into the bed, a jagged spot of blood around the entry wound.
LAYTON: Sorry Alex but if I'd told you I can't see you letting me shoot you again. Good luck ……
Clumping footsteps and then a gasping GENE HUNT is standing at the entrance of the barge.
GENE: Layton! Alex?
GENE sees the limp body of DI ALEX DRAKE on the bed.
GENE raises his gun.
GENE: Bastard!
LAYTON: No – Mr Hunt – I had to do it to send her back…. I'm not armed – look
LAYTON stretches out his arms and lets the gun drop from his fingers
GENE: Too late
He pumps three bullets into LAYTON who falls backwards onto the deck of the Lady Di.
GENE walks slowly over to ALEX's body, cups the back of her head in his hands, drops to his knees, puts his head on Alex's stomach and sobs
CUT TO:-
ALEX DRAKE awakes with a start. She is sitting on the deck of a dingy boat. ARTHUR LAYTON is making a telephone call, pacing the deck of the boat a few feet away.
LAYTON: Well that's your choice……
ALEX quickly looks around, She feels her forehead and quickly appraises the situation.
ALEX: Can I have the phone please Arthur?
LAYTON: (Down the phone) Hang on a minute…. (To Alex) Why?
ALEX: Because I would like a word with Mr Evan White
LAYTON: How do you know??
ALEX: The phone please Arthur
LAYTON hands the mobile to ALEX
ALEX: Hi Evan it's Alex. You remember – the daughter of Tim & Caroline Price. The people you arranged to have killed. Well you'd better listen to me you piece of scum. I'm coming after you Evan – and when I find you I'm going to blow your brains out! (Pause) Molly? Where are you taking her? You think you're so bloody clever don't you – you dare to harm her and I'll blow your bollocks off before I kill you – understand??
ALEX ends the call
LAYTON looks bewildered.
LAYTON: What's going on???
ALEX sends LAYTON flying with a huge right cross to the chin. His gun clatters along the hull of the barge. She strides purposefully over and picks up his gun, puts it into her pocket and leaves the barge.
ALEX strides up to her car, opens the door and picks up her radio.
ALEX: Delta 9 to control. I want an alert put out to locate an Evan White – white male, mid forties, mousy hair and beard. Last seen on the Millennium Footbridge with a 12 year old girl. He is believed to have abducted this little girl. This is a top priority – I need him found
CONTROL: Any idea who the girl is DI Drake?
ALEX: She's my daughter
CONTROL: YOUR daughter?
ALEX: Yes – my little girl Molly. I need White traced and arrested. He may be armed though.
CONTROL: Fine – we'll send a tactical response unit immediately. Where do you suggest a rendezvous?
ALEX: There's a café about a mile away from White's house. He can't be too far away from his property but we've got to be quick. Stress to your team that they must get there fast – I'm not sure my hostage negotiating will count for much in this one
CUT TO: ALEX's car parked on the street in front of a café. She impatiently checks her watch. She snaps her neck round when she hears screeching tyres. A flame red Audi TT careers down the street. ALEX squints to read the registration plate – her mouth drops open to see it reads JLY751V.
The Audi screeches to a halt. ALEX jumps backwards out of her seat when she hears Peter Drake's voice come out of her police radio
PETER: Something's gone wrong!!? She's not coming out of it.
SOUND OF GUNFIRE.
PETER: Aaarrgh!!
ALEX anxiously looks out of the window as an older GENE HUNT steps out of the Audi TT. Followed by an older RAY CARLING, SHAZ GRANGER and CHRIS SKELTON
ALEX: Oh my God!!!
ALEX nearly wrenches the door handle from the car as she opens the door and flings her arms around each team member in turn.
GENE: I appreciate you may be under stress DI Drake so I will excuse your over-emotional state
ALEX: But you're real ……. You're all real!!!!
GENE looks behind him and exchanges a look with his team
GENE: Real? As opposed to what?
ALEX: You know – made up…. In a dream… Oh I can't believe it….
GENE: Right well let's get on with the job in hand…. DI Drake – I am
ALEX: Gene Hunt
GENE: Oh – control tell you I was coming then? All right then well we have hostage negotiator DI Sharon Granger
SHAZ: Pleased to meet you DI Drake – I've been an admirer of your work for some time…
ALEX: Wow!
GENE: DS Christopher Skelton – Communication Expert. If he's holed up in there and we need to know what he's up to – Chris is your man
ALEX: Fantastic!!!
GENE: And DS Ray Carling – Personal Combat expert. If we get close enough Ray can snap his neck in two in the blink of an eye
ALEX: Hmmm. Controlled aggression – I like it!
GENE: So where is this bloke then – the one that's got your little girl
ALEX: He lives about a mile away – house in Kensington Row
GENE: OK – lead the way. Nice and slowly though – Gently Does It
ALEX: Hmmmm. Not the Gene Hunt I remember
GENE: Excuse me have we met before?
ALEX: I think maybe – in a previous life
GENE: Has anyone ever told you you're a bit weird?
ALEX: I can think of one person who springs to mind
GENE: Yeah? Well they were right! Shall we?
CUT TO: ALEX and GENE's cars pull up and they emerge.
GENE: Which one?
ALEX: Number 23 – about 50 yards down on the left
GENE draws a gun and runs, crouching towards the flat.
EVAN emerges from the flat, holding MOLLY's arm. He turns to lock the door
GENE: Evan White!!! POLICE!!!!
EVAN spins around ands sees the approaching officers. He pulls out a knife he has hastily grabbed from the kitchen and holds it to Molly's throat.
EVAN: We're leaving
GENE: Oh I don't think you're going anywhere. Let the girl go
EVAN: You don't want the death of a little girl on your conscience would you?
GENE: Nor would you
ALEX: Oh I don't know. You'd be surprised at what Mr White can bear to live with.
EVAN: Alex – Tim & Caroline? How have you found out?
ALEX: Oh – not just Tim & Caroline. I believe you may have killed this man's wife
GENE: Hang on…… My missus was killed 20 years ago by some nutter she went on a blind date with!
ALEX: Do you want to confess Evan? To the murder of Mrs Diana Hunt?
EVAN: How do you know all this Alex? Who the hell have you been talking to?
GENE: Are you telling me it was him? He shot my Diana?
ALEX: Afraid so
GENE: Why should I believe all this?
EVAN: It's true Mr Hunt. I don't know how she found out but it's true. Now look – just put your weapons away and -
GENE clinically points his gun and fires. EVAN is shot in the left lung. He falls to the ground, pulling Molly with him. MOLLY yelps.
ALEX rushes over to MOLLY.
EVAN pulls his knife out of MOLLY's stomach
ALEX: NO!! You bastard!!
She smacks Evan viciously across the face and pulls MOLLY away from him, hugging her as close to her as she can.
MOLLY: This wasn't supposed to happen! It was you who was meant to get killed in front of me remember!
ALEX: Molly – don't talk. Stay calm and we'll get an ambulance – you'll be fine
MOLLY: Mom – it wasn't your fault – it was Evan. It was him all along – I thought he was so nice….
ALEX: Sssshhh! We all thought he was nice Molly. Keep quiet.
MOLLY: I love you Mom. Look – a rainbow
MOLLY is looking over ALEX's shoulder. ALEX turns round and looks into the sky.
ALEX: There's no rainbow Molls – just clouds
ALEX turns back. MOLLY is silent, staring
ALEX: Molly – don't go. Please –
EVAN is coughing, lying on the ground.
ALEX gently lays Molly's body on the ground. She remembers Layton's gun in her pocket. ALEX draws the gun and points it at EVAN's head.
SHAZ: Guv!!! She 's got a gun – please don't do it DI Drake.
ALEX: Call me Alex, Shaz. If you're going to be a hostage negotiator then start calling people by their first name – it helps
SHAZ: Sorry – Alex. But if you pull the trigger you'll be ruining your life. He's already ruined his – don't do the same to yourself
ALEX: He's ruined my life as well though Shaz – he's taken everything away from me that I loved! My parents – my daughter …..
GENE: Alex – I would completely understand it if you put this miserable toerag out of his misery. But you can build a new life. He can't. Won't be given the choice. Put away behind bars for the rest of his life. But you can live again
SHAZ: You could even love again
A tear drips down ALEX 's cheek.
ALEX: I wouldn't know where to start
GENE: In my experience it usually starts with a drink. Come on Alex – put the gun down. Molly wouldn't want you to waste your life on this piece of scum.
ALEX looks back at Molly's blanched face
She drops the gun and sobs uncontrollably, collapsing into Gene's arms
CUT TO
A church. Mourners are lined up as a small white coffin is carried inside.
CUT TO
Same church. GENE HUNT approaches ALEX DRAKE
GENE: Lovely service
ALEX: Yes
GENE: Thought you'd like to know. We found something when we searched White's house.
ALEX: Oh?
GENE: Yeah. Been kept hushed up though. We found a briefcase in there – I was all for busting it open but a load of spooks turned up and advised that we send away any unidentified possessions for analysis. Anyway, I got it looked at by some bloke I know at Heathrow – he put it through one of his x-ray machines. Turns out it was a bloody bomb – handed it over to the bomb squad.
ALEX: Gene – you should have handed that over to the army. It's a neutron bomb
GENE: How do you know that? Our guys defused it anyway so no problemmo now
ALEX: This has all been so crazy
GENE: Tell me about it. So what are you going to do now?
ALEX: Get back on with life I suppose. That's what you're supposed to do isn't it – carry on in the face of adversity. I just can't believe you're here though Gene – it's amazing – you haven't aged as much as I'd thought
GENE: Aged? Since when?
ALEX: I met you back in 1981 and – this is going to make me sound even weirder than you think I am already – and we had all sorts of adventures!
GENE: Oh
ALEX: You think I'm really crazy now! Crazy lady…..
GENE: You don't happen to know about anything called Operation Rose do you?
ALEX's expression drops.
ALEX: Might do
GENE: Just that my superior officer let me see this Classified Document. Said that he would like to use one of his teams to build a profile. Said that he would like to choose me. My team. Interrogated me for hours. Said it was important he knew my habits, my team, my methods from earlier in my career. Told me he knew I'd changed but it had to be early in my career as a DCI. Said something about how all our lives would have been different if I'd spent more time with my wife…. He said that they needed more detail from 1973 and then a few months later that they needed information about 1981….. So when you said – I guessed you must have been involved in the project too
ALEX: More than you'll ever know
GENE: I didn't have many photos of me as a young copper so I think they may have built a profile of me using my more recent self
ALEX: I think maybe a bit of the old Gene and the new Gene crossed over….
GENE: Oh. Was I good?
ALEX: The best
A tear starts to emerge from Alex's mascara
GENE: Hay – enough of tears. How's about I whisk you away somewhere. I mean I know you're a bit weird but if you fancy it I know a place that does a lovely cappuccino
ALEX: Gene! I've just said goodbye to my dead daughter. I've got dozens of people expected back at the house for curled up sandwiches and warm beer! I can't just leave!
GENE: Would Molly want you to be miserable?
ALEX: No – but I think she would expect me to be respectful to her memory!
GENE: Oh suit yourself! But remember this Alex – life is for living. You'll be in ashes soon enough in the grand scheme of things. So grab life while you've got the chance and make the most of it You just think about that Alex Drake
GENE turns and walks down the churchyard. ALEX stands and thinks of MOLLY.
ALEX: GENE!
GENE turns round, eyebrows raised
ALEX: That cappuccino. How about tomorrow?
GENE: Yeah – tomorrow. Fine. Tomorrow's good
ALEX: I hope so
GENE walks through the churchyard as mourners come up to talk to ALEX.