#s8m21

[zrtranscripts]

Season 8, Mission 21: I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Hanged Man

~

SAM YAO: Five, Jody, you've reached the town. We don't know who was working with Jones, or who has the Edda, or who drew all those super creepy pictures of people they wanted to kill, or if they're all the same person. It's dark, but try and stay out of sight. I've got some cams on the island, but yeah, [sighs] a lot of them don't seem to work well in the dark, so I might not see anyone following you. Have you got the map?

[paper rustles]

JODY MARSH: This is from Jones' papers, right? It marks out a route in symbols and says "Follow in the footsteps of the father of the slain," which isn't at all sinister.

SAM YAO: Yeah. Amelia and her people have been going through everything we found in Jones' stash. They've correlated what they've got with Ellie's notes, and the only thing they're sure comes directly from the Edda is that map.

AMELIA SPENS: Which is why you and Five are going to follow the route for me.

SAM YAO: Amelia! Sam, why didn't you say she was with you?

AMELIA SPENS: I'm not. I'm in my stateroom aboard the Undaunted. Since Team Janine has proven a complete liability, I'm overseeing this mission.

JODY MARSH: Hey, Janine's not well. Paula says she's permanently lost vision in one eye. And we still managed to make a successful alliance with Dearg labs, and we discovered that the red fungus comes from Mor Island like the Edda.

AMELIA SPENS: You also discovered several caves bursting with red fungus, which might have been useful to know about earlier. I've sent marines to scour them with flame throwers. All traces of silver mud will be delivered to Dearg for analysis.

SAM YAO: The laird is doing a good impression of an irritated landowner rather than a sinister skincoat. He complained to Janine about damage to a historic sight.

AMELIA SPENS: And the UK is losing more land to the red fungus. Everything we've learned about the Edda suggests that it contains an account of a way to stop it. That's why my marines are searching house to house for the Edda, but so far, they've turned up nothing. All we have is that map. Jones scrawled something on it about the source of the red fungus, and he wrote "skincoats" next to it.

SAM YAO: Right. So following this map might help us understand what's in the Edda. Or guess at it, anyway.

AMELIA SPENS: It's a faint hope that ancient history might save us, but we must follow every lead. Chop chop! Run!

~

SAM YAO: Okay, you're at the first location marked on Jones' map. It's the street in town we, um, destroyed.

JODY MARSH: The houses are burned-out shells.

AMELIA SPENS: Honestly, I send one envoy out as Prime Minister and you set fire to a town! It's just as well no one has the vote.

[paper rustles]

SAM YAO: The route runs between the uh, the squiggle we think is the church and the um, blob we're pretty sure is the pub.

[paper rustles]

AMELIA SPENS: Isn't the smiley face the pub?

[paper rustles]

JODY MARSH: That's a Celtic symbol. It represents the graveyard.

AMELIA SPENS: [sighs] Are you sure this map is to scale?

JODY MARSH: It was drawn by an unstable murderer and is based on a book that's a thousand years old. Of course it's not to scale! I've done the best I could, but -

[cough]

SAM YAO: Someone's coming.

AMELIA SPENS: Probably a displaced islander coming to recover the remains of their treasured possessions from the ruins of their family home.

JODY MARSH: Aw, shut up.

SAM YAO: Right, time for you to get out of there. The next mark on the map is up that hill to the north. Run!

~

JODY MARSH: We got away from that person, Sam. Did they see us?

SAM YAO: Don't think so. It's Hamish McDougall, the grocer. Amelia was right about recovering possessions. He came out of a burned-out house with a charred box labeled "king of the rocks - costumes."

AMELIA SPENS: This is the same king of the rocks ceremony that Jones kept raving about? The one in the rhyme Chief Macallan told us? Moons and pools and stones and fruit? Isn't it a bit of a coincidence that he should pop up on the map's exact route?

SAM YAO: Nah. No, not really. The full moon isn't far off, so everyone's preparing for the ceremony.

JODY MARSH: Besides, the king of the rocks parade doesn't go anywhere near the route on Jones' map.

AMELIA SPENS: All right, then. The next location's marked by a crown?

SAM YAO: That's the laird's manor.

AMELIA SPENS: Ah, yes. The man who not only shot Jones, but had a secret tunnel filled with red fungus in his back garden.

SAM YAO: Yeah, just have a quick look and then get out as fast as you can. It's at the top of the hill. Run!

~

JODY MARSH: Five and I have scaled the back wall. We're in the laird's garden. It feels a bit cheeky, being here on the sly. He's always been dead nice to us.

SAM YAO: I know, but well, the truth is we have to suspect everyone, don't we?

JODY MARSH: So what are we looking for, exactly?

SAM YAO: Anything that looks like it might be connected to the red fungus.

AMELIA SPENS: Other than the tunnel full of red fungus beneath the place, you mean? You could sneak through a window and see if the laird has the Edda. He's been... resistant to the idea of my marines searching his home.

JODY MARSH: We can't just break in!

SAM YAO: Jody, shhh! Keep your voice down!

[door opens]

LAIRD REID: Who's there? If that's another lackey from that blasted Prime Minister – [cocks gun]

JODY MARSH: [whispers] It's the laird! He's got a shotgun!

LAIRD REID: Who is that? Oh, Five, Jody! What on earth are you doing?

JODY MARSH: Um - !

AMELIA SPENS: Oh, for goodness sake, lie!

JODY MARSH: Actually, we're following the route of this map. It's from Jones' notes on the Edda.

LAIRD REID: Interesting. May I have a look?

AMELIA SPENS: I despair.

[paper rustles]

JODY MARSH: See? Your manor's marked with a crown.

LAIRD REID: Hmm. I think you might have made a mistake. Why don't you and Five come with me, and I'll offer an alternative theory.

SAM YAO: Uh... I don't think that's a good idea.

LAIRD REID: Come along. It's not far.

SAM YAO: Five, don't – [sighs] Okay. Do follow him, but be careful, guys. There's lots of reasons not to trust him.

~

LAIRD REID: We'll have a good view from up here. Do you have a spare headset?

JODY MARSH: Yeah. Here you go.

LAIRD REID: Sam, hello.

SAM YAO: Hi.

AMELIA SPENS: Laird Reid.

LAIRD REID: Oh! And Prime Minister. A delight, as always.

AMELIA SPENS: I should very much like to know why you've kidnapped my people in the middle of a crucial mission.

LAIRD REID: [laughs] I'd hardly call it kidnapping. I wanted to show them something. Look, up on that hill there.

JODY MARSH: It's an ancient stone circle. I've been up there. There's a carving of the sun in the middle.

LAIRD REID: Aye. During the king of the rocks, there's a parade over it waving yellow streamers. Does the shape of it remind you of anything?

SAM YAO: Uh, well, stone circles sort of, um... It looks like a crown?

JODY MARSH: Oh, you're right! Wait. Have we been reading the map upside down?

AMELIA SPENS: So this exercise has been a complete waste of time?

LAIRD REID: [laughs] It's not their fault. There's a clue on the map, but you'd have to know a lot of Norse mythology to spot it.

JODY MARSH: Ellie would have known.

LAIRD REID: Aye. Your Ellie, or my wife. Those words on the map there, follow the footsteps of the father of the slain? That's another name for Odin. In his quest for knowledge, Odin hung himself upside down.

AMELIA SPENS: Ah, that does make sense. An ancient code for those in the know. 

JODY MARSH: Just a sec. Jones drew this map from the Edda, we're sure of that?

AMELIA SPENS: That's what the Norse history boffins tell me. We're as sure as we can be that that map is in the Edda.

JODY MARSH: But look, Five. Turned upside down, it does follow the king of the rocks parade. The ceremony isn't just some folk tradition, it's from the Edda! Laird Reid, we'd never have figured it out without you.

SAM YAO: You've got the follow the rest of the route.

LAIRD REID: Tell me what you find.

JODY MARSH: We will.

SAM YAO: Hey, wait. What - what's over to your left?

JODY MARSH: I don't see anything.

SAM YAO: No, I thought... [sighs] No, you're right. There's nothing there now.

JODY MARSH: What was it?

SAM YAO: Well, it looked like a person in one of those gray coats. You know, the skincoats. I'm sure they were there!

JODY MARSH: Probably just shadows playing tricks with your eyes.

SAM YAO: Yeah, maybe. Look, just finish following the map and get home safe as soon as you can. Uh, the next marker's by the shore. Go, run!

~

JODY MARSH: There's a snake marked on the map here. Looks like the footpath leading into that cave. The parade starts outside it. Let's see if there's anything hidden in there, Five.

SAM YAO: Um, now if Jones had the missing pages of the Edda, do you think he knew the ceremony came from it?

JODY MARSH: Hard to say. His notes weren't exactly coherent. Mostly ramblings about what he'd do when he was made king of the rocks.

[zombie moans]

SAM YAO: Zombie!

JODY MARSH: Worse, a creepy child zombie! It's walked in through the cave entrance. It's blocking our exit.

AMELIA SPENS: Shoot it!

JODY MARSH: We didn't bring weapons!

AMELIA SPENS: Oh, for pity's sake!

SAM YAO: Uh, doesn't the king of the rocks cave have another opening?

JODY MARSH: Yeah. The parade used to start there, lighting bonfires deep into the cave. I heard the laird say the town council stopped it because of health and safety.

SAM YAO: Then you need to get to that entrance. Go!

~

[zombie moans]

JODY MARSH: There's a breeze up ahead.

SAM YAO: The cave opens out over the sea. If you let the zombie follow you out, then knock it off the ledge -

JODY MARSH: Way ahead of you. I'll lead it towards the opening. Five, grab some rocks. Aim for its knees.

[rocks clatter]

SAM YAO: It's slipping. Just one more!

[zombie croaks, water splashes]

JODY MARSH: Amazing shot, Five!

SAM YAO: Uh, guys, have a look at the cave ceiling.

JODY MARSH: Oh God. Amelia? The ceiling in this place, it's covered in those big bulging alien egg-looking things. Like the ones we found in Jones' camp, the things that coconut pomegranate-y seedpods hatch from.

AMELIA SPENS: The pods that brought red fungus to the mainland.

JODY MARSH: Yeah. And there's hundreds of the egg things in here, over our heads. 

SAM YAO: Hold on. So the king of the rocks used to start with the islanders lighting fires in this cave?

AMELIA SPENS: And we think Jones lighting a campfire is what caused seedpods in his cave to hatch out.

JODY MARSH: So we're saying the king of the rocks is from the Edda, and part of the ceremony is causing fungus seedpods to hatch? And they used to do it on purpose for some reason?

SAM YAO: Um, but shouldn't Mor Island be overrun with V-types, in that case?

AMELIA SPENS: And certainly hatching more pods won't help us fight the red fungus. [sighs] The ceiling. It's not what I'm used to. In general, I've found when I want something, there's someone I can bargain with, some deal to be struck. But this... we're looking for knowledge no one has anymore about the meaning of a ritual whose origins are forgotten.

JODY MARSH: Jones' notes kept mentioning Edda verses 321 to 327. If we could read them, they might explain it all.

AMELIA SPENS: Yes, but we can't. I've just heard from my marines. Their house to house searches have yielded nothing. [sighs] I won't allow those seedpods to further devastate the mainland. The Edda is the key! We must get that book back! [sighs] So I'm going to need to find someone to negotiate with, aren't I?

~