MADRID,
SPAIN.
The hot sun has broken through the new morning, casts down on the sprawling highway passing through rocky Spanish inland areas, down which the BMW cruises with the sun beaming down on it. The sleek car is driven by a well-groomed James Bond, who looks assured with Zoe Nightingale at his side, looking very sexy, as they drive on.
BOTANICON RESEARCH FACILITY,
MADRID.
A series of futuristic laboratories and corridors make up the core of the Botanicon research facility building, labs involved in botanical bio-engineering. The largest lab is entered by Jacqual, with her henchman Marcos in tow. At the heart of the lab is a large horizontal bio-tank where Marlin Vibert lies very much alive, worked on by a female doctor.
The doctor is named Nadia Damescu, a sexy young woman in her twenties with jet black hair and good figure, beauty disguised behind scientists clothing. She is working consoles that are engineering bio-implants onto Vibert's injured body, a repair job almost fully completed.
Nadia keeps quiet as Vibert looks delighted to see Jacqual approach the tank and throw down developed photos of 007 and Zoe. "Ah, Jacqual, you bring me proof of your new sport"
Jacqual says nothing and merely watches as Vibert looks at the photos from his tank, grinning and murmuring at what he sees. "And they're on their way?…" he asked.
In response, Jacqual nods and Vibert's grin widens even further.
"Then let's make sure they get a warm welcome."
-
The beautiful old capital city is driven through by the BMW, rapidly heading through the residential areas to industrial ones. The vehicle soon arrives outside the twelve-storey Botanicon building, huge metallic gates barring the inside, patrolled by security.
From inside the car, Bond and Zoe observe the heavy armed security contingent.
"Last time I infiltrated this place I had fake ID from the CIA." Zoe admitted worriedly. "No such aides this time."
Bond nodded. "There has to be another way in."
"Like where?…" asked Zoe, sceptically. It was then she saw a radical idea form in Bond's mind.
"What about right through the front door?…" he said as he hit the pedal, lining the BMW up directly parallel to the metallic gates, and switching on his special fog lights. The lights appear visible even in daylight, a beam scanning the gates for an electronic keypad, finding one on each side. The fog lights cut past the password and Bond switches them off as the gates begin automatically electronically opening.
As Zoe looks on impressed, Bond begins to step out the car.
"James, where are you going?…" she asked, confused.
"To see if I can't get their attention," Bond replied. "Try finding a way in, go!…"
Zoe watches as 007 begins to make a dash through the gates into the patrolled forecourt. She sees security guards starting to swarm on him and spot the BMW, running towards it. Zoe jumps in the drivers seat.
A large forecourt filled with cameras and security, massive protection, is penetrated by Bond as he runs for the main entrance doors. He turns to see guards coming at him both sides and watches the BMW skid around and drive off at speed down the road.
He continues his dash to the entrance as the guards stop and fire a hail of machine-gun bullets, which he outruns.
-
The tank holding the bio-enhanced Vibert begins rising onto a vertical axis, giving the man sight of a viewscreen on the wall.
Nadia stands watching at the side behind Jacqual and Marcos, the sight of Bond running to the entrance visible on the screen.
Vibert smiles as lasers begin scanning his entire body in the tank as he watches.
-
The BMW speeds around a corner along the roads of the industrial estate filled with technology building such as Identicon. The car screeches to a halt in front of an adjoining skyscraper.
Out the window, Zoe sees half a dozen armed guards running down the road towards the car. Worried, she begins looking around the vehicle.
"Where does he keep those gadgets?…"
Zoe presses a button under the knob of the gearstick, overturning the glove compartment cover to reveal a gadget panel.
"A-ha!. Showtime!…"
-
The hail of bullets continue to fly around 007 as he closes in on the entrance.
The front doors then kick open and a dozen guards pour out, one holding a bazooka-rifle he aims directly at Bond. Seeing it, Bond quickly stops and looks up, observing an abandoned window cleaning machine lodged halfway up the building.
Pointing his watch up at the machine, Bond presses a button on it and out flies a piton which attaches quickly to the machine. The guard fires a bazooka missile which hits the ground under Bond the second after he reels the piton in, flying up off the ground. The explosion roars under him, just missing him. Bond is levered up to the cleaning machine, which he grabs, climbing up onto.
He looks down to where part of the ground now smokes and a melee of guards lie.
"You can always rely on a window cleaner." he quipped.
Perched on the machine, 007 examines the window in front of him, seeing it is black-tinted and seeing inside is impossible. He withdraws a pair of shades which he puts on, able to see through tinted glass. Bond finds behind the glass is a huge ventilation chamber with fans and two dozen armed guards dotted around. He uses the glasses to zoom in through the chamber, seeing an entrance to the main labs at the far end of it.
As he looks close, the revived figure of Vibert steps into the doorway, able to see him. At that moment, Bond is jolted as a helicopter flies down from the roof above and hovers behind him, transmitting Vibert's voice loudly.
"Welcome to my world, 007," boomed Vibert. "I'm so glad you could see it before you die."
Bond then sees twin guns extend from the helicopter, aiming straight at him. He slowly raises his hands in the air, caught. He then looks behind the helicopter to the building opposite, raising an eyebrow at seeing the BMW driving up the side. The car drives it's way onto the opposite roof and Zoe spins it around at the far end, clearly giving herself a run up.
"Clever girl." he admitted to himself.
Bond dives for cover on the machine as the BMW speeds across the roof and flings off the edge at incredible speed. It literally flies through the helicopter, which explodes as the BMW passes through, it's armour plating churned up by the blast.
The fiery remains of the helicopter crash down into the forecourt on the guards.
The BMW sails over the window cleaning machine and crashes through the Identicon windows, landing on the building floor.
The huge chamber is filled with guards, some of whom are run over or sliced by the glass as the BMW crashes in and lands.
Bond jumps through the window as the guards fire bullets at him and the BMW, as he arrives and opens the door to a thrilled Zoe.
"Wow!. This is one cool car!…" she said, excitedly.
"Well, the fun's over." replied Bond. "Go and get the vial case. I'll give you cover."
Zoe nods and jumps out of the car as Bond jumps in, closing all the doors. He presses a gadget button on the glove compartment.
Vibert barks orders at his guards through the see-through door to his lab where he stands watching as Zoe heads away from the car.
The BMW suddenly begins rising as a base emerges from under it, allowing the car to rotate. Machine guns extend from the headlights. The car is now one big gatling gun, it's bullets churning up guards from all sides as Bond rotates the car with the steering wheel.
The BMW fires bullets into the fans, which explode and rock the building, killing more guards along with the ones being churned up.
-
Holding her gun ready for action, Zoe moves quickly through the futuristic corridors interconnecting the different labs.
The shadowy Jacqual trails her silently.
-
The BMW finishes off the last of the guards, Bond presses the gadget button retracting the gatling gun base, wheels touching the floor.
He observes Vibert standing at the far door and hits the gas, the BMW speeding through the chamber towards the door.
Vibert doesn't flinch as Bond fires a missile from the headlights which flies into the door, blowing it and the nearby wall out.
As the BMW speeds it's way inside, Vibert is flung off his feet by the explosive blast up against the far wall of his core lab.
-
A small lab room specifically designed to hold the two vial cases in a chilled storage chamber, is entered cautiously by Zoe from the corridor, on alert for any armed security.
She slowly starts to approach the vial case, which she finds easily exposed before her.
-
The lab has been virtually destroyed by the explosive blast, the BMW now at the centre, surrounded by blasted wall.
Bond gets out of the car with gun ready and sees the viewscreen snowy but intact, showing the vial case room as Zoe enters.
He turns to where Vibert is slumped up the wall, slowly starting to rise, uninjured. Bond fixes his weapon on the man.
"How the hell are you still alive?…" he asked, seeing Vibert smile at the question.
"Bio-grafted skin implants" Vibert boasted. "Works wonders for life expectancy. Your friend may soon need such treatment."
Vibert nods towards the viewscreen and Bond turns to see Jacqual appearing behind Zoe in the vial case room as she approaches the case. Suddenly, Zoe realises and turns as Jacqual kicks her with a roundhouse. A fight breaks out between the two women, a brutal one.
007 watches it as he holds his gun on a grinning Vibert, not moving. He sees Zoe kick Jacqual down, who then pulls out a device she presses before fleeing the vial case room.
Bond begins to connect the dots and sees the real second vial case in the same room as he, which Vibert is now observing.
"Zoe, no!…" he shouted desperately, futiley.
The moment Zoe is seen to open the fake vial case, the viewscreen turns snowy and a huge explosion kills her, blowing out the vial case room. The explosion blows through the far wall of the lab, rocking the building. Bond loses his gun and dashes for the real vial case.
Upon grabbing it, he stops as Jacqual appears behind him, putting a knife to his throat. 007 stops and drops the case before him.
Marcos enters and picks up the case as Vibert heads to the BMW and opens the boot, finding the other vial case, which he hands to Marcos.
Amidst this, Bond sees an exposed vial marked 'Balfour' lying on a nearby table, his hand discreetly pocketing it with no one noticing. Vibert then walks over to Bond with an unbearable grin.
He said, smugly. "I'm sorry our reunion was so brief, Mr Bond, but I'm a busy man. I hope you don't enjoy your death."
"Don't worry, I'll soon enjoy yours." Bond retorted.
With a disbelieving laugh, Vibert heads out of the room with Marcos following with the cases.
Jacqual pushes Bond into the BMW and rips out the seatbelts, tying him to the driver's seat so he cannot escape. She creepily touches his face with her silky hand before pressing the button counting down the car's self destruct mechanism. Jacqual then flees.
-
Near the fiery forecourt, a car waits in which Nadia is already sitting miserably.
She sees Vibert join her in the back as Jacqual sits in the front passenger seat, Marcos putting the vial cases in the boot before driving the car away with great haste.
-
The interior of the VMW is preserved, although the exterior is badly beaten up. Bond is tied firmly into the driver's seat. He sees the self-destruct timer counting down it's last 10 seconds on the radio. Bond sees the roof blown away and sees a way out.
Wrenching free his feet, Bond uses them to press a gadget button that blows the front wheel suspension, tipping the car up. He kicks the button which ejects the drivers seat, flinging him through the roof horizontally with the car tipped up. He flies like a bullet through the lab and ventilation chamber as the BMW explodes, triggering a cascading blast billowing out a fireball.
The fireball bursts out of the destroyed windows engulfing the window cleaning machine seconds after Bond flies out. The parachute in the ejector seat opens and Bond manages to shake off the seat, guiding himself to land on the building roof opposite.
He detaches the parachute, straightens his tie and walks off.
LOSANA HOTEL,
MADRID
An attractive hotel bedroom that held eye-pleasing paintings and wallpaper, dim lamps lighting the pleasant interior. Bond sat relaxed at a desk table using a laptop which has connected him via satellite to M, in her office at MI6 headquarters back in London.
"I've informed our American friends about Ms. Nightingale's untimely demise, they were less than pleased." M admitted over the clear-cut satellite link allowing her and 007 to converse.
"Did you tell them Vibert's alive?…" enquired Bond, now sipping a glass of liquor while winding down.
"I thought it best not to deliver two pieces of bad news at once," M declared. "The CIA do like to make a drama out of things."
"Maybe with good reason," admitted Bond, solemnly. "Zoe suspected Botanicon were involved in human cloning. That's what the vials were for."
M nodded. "The vial you sent us earlier, the one marked 'Balfour', would perhaps back up her theory."
"Let me guess. It's DNA was an exact genetic replica of that of the man I killed in Hawaii. Or thought I killed." said Bond.
"It may mean Balfour is still out there, if the man you killed was a duplicate." M announced.
Bond nods and finishes his drink, in rather a sombre mood after the sudden demise of the woman he'd shared a bed with just one night earlier. "He's the least of our worries. We need to know why Botanicon would be cloning people, or why the vials are marked with the eight major powers of the world."
"There may be a way to find out, 007," M declared. "Are you familiar with Malprade Industries?."
Bond begins pouring himself another straight vodka as he considers the question.
"A bio-engineering conglomerate, Suisse-based with international connections. I believe Botanicon is a subsidiary of the firm."
M nodded at the correct given facts. "It's owner, Maximillian Malprade, has a large stake in Botanicon. We don't know much about him, he's a recluse. He's hosting a charity gala ball at his summer mansion in San Martin in a few days time. If he is involved, the vial cases we need may be there."
"And so should I be." Bond declared, a determination rising within him.
"It's already been arranged." M announced. "And if you do track down Marlin Vibert, remember, keep your mind off Zoe Nightingale, and on the job."
Bond nodded with a wry smile. "In my mind, M, I'm always on the job."
"Precisely." replied M, 007 unable to resist a grin at the subtext as he sips his drink……