Page 230 - SHERLOCK transcripts

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Leonard Hansen
Jack O‘Mara
Mary Uslowski
Rick Nader
Elaine Dyson

Standing beside him, Doctor Stapleton finally begins to understand.)
STAPLETON: HOUND.
(She stares in growing horror at the screen as more information from the project appears and
words and phrases are highlighted such as “Paranoia,” “Severe frontal lobe damage,” “Blood-
brain,” “Gross cranial trauma,” “Dangerous acceleration,” “Multiple homicide,” accompanied by
photographs of some of the subjects of the project screaming insanely.)
JOHN (softly): Jesus.
SHERLOCK (still scanning the information as it flows across the screen): Project HOUND: a new
deliriant drug which rendered its users incredibly suggestible. They wanted to use it as an anti-
personnel weapon to totally disorientate the enemy using fear and stimulus; but they shut it
down and hid it away in 1986.
STAPLETON: Because of what it did to the subjects they tested it on.
SHERLOCK: And what they did to others. Prolonged exposure drove them insane – made them
almost uncontrollably aggressive.
JOHN: So someone’s been doing it again – carrying on the experiments?
SHERLOCK: Attempting to refine it, perhaps, for the last twenty years.
STAPLETON: Who?
(John nods at the screen, indicating the names of the project leaders.)
JOHN: Those names mean anything to you?
STAPLETON: No, not a thing.
SHERLOCK (sighing): Five principal scientists, twenty years ago.
(He pulls up the photograph of the team and begins zooming in on individuals within it. The
closer footage shows that they are all wearing identical sweatshirts. Looming out of a diamond
pattern in the centre of the sweatshirts is a large snarling wolf’s head and the legend
“H.O.U.N.D.” is printed underneath. There is some smaller text underneath but it’s not yet clear
what it says. Sherlock continues to zoom in and out of the photo to look more closely at the
faces.)
SHERLOCK: Maybe our friend’s somewhere in the back of the picture – someone who was old
enough to be there at the time of the experiments in 1986 ...
(He stops when he sees a face he recognises, and rolls his eyes a little as he realises the truth.)
SHERLOCK: Maybe somebody who says “cell phone” because of time spent in America. You
remember, John?
JOHN: Mmm-hmm.
(Brief flashback to Doctor Frankland giving a card to Sherlock and saying, “Here’s my, er, cell
number.”)
SHERLOCK: He gave us his number in case we needed him.
STAPLETON (staring at the photo on the screen): Oh my God. Bob Frankland. But Bob doesn’t
even work on ... I mean, he’s a virologist. This was chemical warfare.
SHERLOCK: It’s where he started, though ... and he’s never lost the certainty, the obsession
that that drug really could work. Nice of him to give us his number. (He reaches into his pocket
and takes out Frankland’s card.) Let’s arrange a little meeting.
(He walks away from the computer. John walks closer to it and looks at the last image – a very
tight close-up of one of the sweatshirts. Stitched below the “H.O.U.N.D.” legend is the name of
the American town and state where the project was based: “Liberty, In”.
Just then John’s phone begins to ring. He digs it out of his pocket and frowns at the number on
the screen, apparently not recognising it. He answers.)
JOHN: Hello?
(Initially the only sound he can hear is a woman crying.)
JOHN: Who’s this?
MORTIMER (over the phone): You’ve got to find Henry.
(John looks round to Sherlock.)
JOHN: It’s Louise Mortimer. (Into phone) Louise, what’s wrong?
MORTIMER (tearfully): Henry was ... was remembering; then ... he tried ...
(She gasps.)

Transcripts by Ariane DeVere (arianedevere@livejournal.com)