The Speed of Thought

[first lines]

[There is a long aural montage of strangers talking, presumably overheard in their thoughts by Joshua]

Emily:
[Emily is chatting on the phone while walking down a busy street at night] I'm supposed to trust you? Trust is earned, my friend. Anyway, get your ass down here. If you take too long, I may be gone.

Joshua Lazarus:
[She enters a nightclub and sits at the bar. Joshua approaches her] Hi. My name is Joshua.

Emily:
I'm Vanessa.

Joshua Lazarus:
Vanessa. You are a...

[he rubs his forehead with his index finger]

Joshua Lazarus:
...Virgo.

Emily:
I'm not an obvious Virgo.

Joshua Lazarus:
It was obvious to me.

Emily:
[She smiles] You're very intuitive.

Joshua Lazarus:
You could say that.

[He pauses]

Joshua Lazarus:
Vanessa. You're name's not really Vanessa, is it?

Emily:
[She's embarrassed] Emily.

Joshua Lazarus:
That was the Argentinean Finance Minister. They want me to bankrupt him because he's not playing ball. They can't have that.

Sandy:
That's awful. I should just say no when they ask to hire one of you. And they always ask for you or Kira. You're the only scopers they consider level-headed. Anyway, I'm sorry to make you do these abominable government jobs, but the Home needs the money.

Joshua Lazarus:
You don't have to justify yourself to me, Sandy. You saved my life.

Joshua Lazarus:
I started hearing the voices again.

Sandy:
Can you control them?

Joshua Lazarus:
For now.

[He pauses]

Joshua Lazarus:
How long do I have?

Sandy:
From the recurrence of the voices, sanity is generally lost within a month. I'm so sorry.

Joshua Lazarus:
Don't be. I've had enough time. Thank you for being straight with me, Sandy.

Sandy:
[Sandy rises and pulls a pill bottle out of his pocket] Here. These are stronger. They should help a little. Make sure you take them regularly!

[He grimaces]

Sandy:
I'm needed back at the Home, Josh.

[He pulls some papers from his inner coat pocket]

Sandy:
So... you should decide this now. Don't make the same mistake Bobby made.

Joshua Lazarus:
[Josh looks unhappy] You decide for me. I mean it.

Sandy:
Have you visited Bobby recently?

Joshua Lazarus:
No. I can't.

Sandy:
The NSA insists on permanent restraints, even with the sedation.

Joshua Lazarus:
Yeah. Just...

[He picks up a pen. A tear rolls down his face]

Joshua Lazarus:
Nothing, uh... sentimental with, uh, with the ashes.

[He wipes his eye]

Joshua Lazarus:
You promise me?

Sandy:
When you feel like the voices are becoming too much, come back to the Home.

[Josh and Anna run into each other at a market]

Anna Manheim:
Hi!

Joshua Lazarus:
Hey.

Anna Manheim:
You're staying on the outside?

Joshua Lazarus:
We don't believe in being in people's heads if they don't want us there. Unless they're normals.

Anna Manheim:
Who's 'we'?

Joshua Lazarus:
There are others like us. Not many.

Anna Manheim:
You know, when I said, yesterday, "Get out," I didn't mean you had to get out of the house. I meant, get out from...

[she touches her forehead]

Anna Manheim:
...here. I wasn't prepared for it.

Joshua Lazarus:
You are now?

[He focuses, and they appear, facing each other, in the dark, dreamy area that is telepathy]

Joshua Lazarus:
Better this time?

Anna Manheim:
Better.

Joshua Lazarus:
You're fuzzy, you know.

Anna Manheim:
I know - I thought it had to be this way, but you're not.

Joshua Lazarus:
[He smiles] We'll fix it for you.

Anna Manheim:
I'm - it's okay, it doesn't bother me.

Joshua Lazarus:
Don't worry. It's an easy technique.

[Joshua has just met Anna in the market and returns to the car, where Bridger is waiting for his report]

Bridger:
What'd you get?

Joshua Lazarus:
Well, some vodka for me, and...

[teasing her]

Joshua Lazarus:
...for you, a laxative. Cherry flavor.

Bridger:
[She's not amused] What did you get from the girl?

[Joshua is in a restaurant when Anna enters and takes a seat, many tables away. She shuts her eyes and concentrates. He enters her mind, where she is sitting in a room with rectangles of different colors on the walls, as in paintings by Mondrian]

Joshua Lazarus:
Nice place you have here. Very... organized.

Anna Manheim:
[Teasingly] Are you talking to me? I don't recall inviting you in.

Joshua Lazarus:
No, I was talking to the busboy. He's a telepath, too.

Joshua Lazarus:
We need order. It's how Sandy teaches us to deal with the chaos.

Anna Manheim:
Who's Sandy?

Joshua Lazarus:
Sandy taught me everything. Who trained you?

Anna Manheim:
What do you mean?

Joshua Lazarus:
I mean, who taught you to use your abilities?

Anna Manheim:
No one.

Joshua Lazarus:
That's not possible. You can't fight the voices on your own.

Anna Manheim:
You don't have to fight them. It took me years to learn that.

Joshua Lazarus:
I don't follow you.

Joshua Lazarus:
You missed my birthday, by the way.

Kira:
Happy belated condolences.

Joshua Lazarus:
Both made it to 28, huh? What are the chances of that?

Joshua Lazarus:
I'm... I'm... good.

Kira:
[She looks skeptical] You're "good."

[Referring to scopers:
]

Kira:
We don't do "good."

[Bridger - who's a woman - corners Joshua in the men's bathroom]

Bridger:
[Referring to the "unknown scoper" whom Joshua knows is Anna] Who is it?

Joshua Lazarus:
I don't know yet.

Bridger:
Well, that's bullshit. I mean, you got a lousy poker face, Lazarus. You're lucky you can cheat.

Joshua Lazarus:
You spend a lot of time here in the men's room. Is there something I should know?

Joshua Lazarus:
You ever think about what it'd be like to grow old?

Kira:
Nope. Just like I don't think about what it'd be like to be a frog - 'cause it ain't gonna happen.

Anna Manheim:
I've been wanting to ask you, how could you be so unethical with my father? It's not like you.

Joshua Lazarus:
[He looks down, then meets her eyes] I'm just doing my country's bidding. The NSA loves us. We're like wiretaps without wires. No warrant required.

Anna Manheim:
Give me a real answer, Josh.

Joshua Lazarus:
Sandy teaches us that these jobs are for the greater good, and the NSA payments he uses to help other scopers.

Anna Manheim:
I don't like that term, "scopers." It's an ugly word, and you use it to justify the ugly things they make you do. How would you like it if I were cheating your father?

Joshua Lazarus:
I haven't seen my father in twenty years, so...

Anna Manheim:
You've been taught to keep everyone out, but if you let everyone in, you'd be happier.

Joshua Lazarus:
No thanks. All that selfishness, the million petty hatreds and prejudices, it's too much.

Anna Manheim:
There is the other side. There is the rose that blooms in the lover's heart.

Anna Manheim:
[She smiles at him] You just have to let yourself see it.

Anna Manheim:
[Referring to the postcard she gave him] Look on the other side.

[He turns it over. She has written, "To many years together." He looks up at her and her smile fades]

Joshua Lazarus:
Anna, I should... I should tell you more about Windman's Syndrome. You have a chance. You're only 26. Maybe they can find a... a cure in time for you.

Anna Manheim:
I'm not actually 26. I'm sorry. I made you think I was 26.

Joshua Lazarus:
[He is stunned] You can't lie in a merge.

Anna Manheim:
Well, I kinda did.

[She giggles]

Joshua Lazarus:
So, then, how old are you?

Anna Manheim:
[softly, but smiling] I just turned 31.

Joshua Lazarus:
That's not possible.

Joshua Lazarus:
Anyway, they don't... they don't trust me anymore. They wanna send me back to New York.

Anna Manheim:
Then I'm coming with you.

Joshua Lazarus:
They'll be watching me. They always are. If they see us together...

Anna Manheim:
What else can I do? I'm in love with you.

Joshua Lazarus:
I'm so used to being alone. I thought it had to be that way.

Anna Manheim:
I think we deserve some happiness.

Joshua Lazarus:
We don't have much time left.

[after 20 years, Joshua finds his father in a temple]

Joshua Lazarus:
Hello, Abba. It's me, Abba.

[His father hugs him and begins to weep]

[after re-introducing himself to his father, Joshua agrees that he was taken away from his parents for being "sick," using the Russian word]

Ephraim Lazarus:
[delighted] So! You remember some Russian, too!

Joshua Lazarus:
A little bit.

Ephraim Lazarus:
And what else you remember?

Joshua Lazarus:
I remember the... the numbers.

[He frowns down at his father's arm, where the sinister numbers have been imprinted]

Ephraim Lazarus:
Yeah.

Joshua Lazarus:
I remember trying to rub them off, but I couldn't.

Anna Manheim:
You know why people like us don't trust anybody? Because we never have to. Knowing isn't trusting.

Joshua Lazarus:
Just because you save people's lives, doesn't give you the right to kill them.

[last lines]

Joshua Lazarus:
You're here...

Anna Manheim:
I'm here.

[On the verge of Windman's Syndrome, Joshua is confronted by a voice in his sleep that eventually appears before him as a circus clown]

Clown:
Fine. You want face-to-face? You got it. You want me to take off the mask?

[the clown removes its mask but the same mask is beneath it]

Clown:
Get the point?

Joshua Lazarus:
Exactly what do you want from me?

Clown:
You have to leave. Soon. Get away.

Joshua Lazarus:
How?

Clown:
That's your problem.

Joshua Lazarus:
Why?

Clown:
Because you know something you shouldn't. I have to go now.

Joshua Lazarus:
I'm just supposed to take your word for it?

Clown:
I'm just telling you what you already know. Just think of me as your conscience talking. Make sure you take the girl. She knows it, too.

Joshua Lazarus:
What does it matter if I'm going to be dead in a couple...

Clown:
You have more time than you think.

Joshua Lazarus:
This is weird, having to guess what you want. No wonder normals are so terrified of sex.

Bridger:
Hello, Lazarus. Oh, you look a little too conscious for my liking. It's amazing how these drugs keep you mind-reading freaks talking, even when you're semi-comatose.

Joshua Lazarus:
What'd I get?

Bridger:
Hmm? Oh, you're more coherent when you're conscious, but then, of course, you're much less cooperative.