CRISIS - Part III

From: (EXECUTIVE)
Date: 31 Mar 1997 08:45:12

"CRISIS" --- Act 3 ==> "The Omaha Project"

[ Following hot on the heels of the action packed second act,
Executive's mind numbing epic continues with act 3! ]

----------------------------------------------------
Wade comes out of a warehouse administrative office, and contacts
Quinn on her walkie talkie.
"Good news, Quinn. After putting in 5 applications and three seperate interviews, I got a job doing data entry at this plumbing supply place. Over."

[ This pseudo-military talk is out of character and stupid sounding. Over. ]

QUINN: "That's great! Did you manage to line up interviews for the others? Over."

[ If only it were. ]

WADE: "Yeah, they'll see the rest of us on Monday morning. But what about you? Over."
QUINN: "Come on Wade! You know I have to keep working on the timer if we can ever expect to get home. Over." There is a brief pause.
WADE (disgusted) [ Perhaps with the script ] : "All right, Quinn. But you damn well better work on the next world. It's not like any of us actually need a vacation! Over."
QUINN: "Meet as at the motel when you're ready. Over."

[ Meet "AS at" the motel? Is she supposed to meet him as though they were at the motel? ]

Before going to the motel, Wade stops in at The Ming Garden Chinese restaurant on 5th Street. After placing orders for herself and her friends, she sits in the booth depressed.

[ What exactly is a "booth depressed", anyway? Over. ]

She looks up to see a familiar face at the booth in front of her. The young woman comes over to her booth.
WADE #2: "I know who you are, honey."

[ Apparently she has stepped into Mel's Diner by accident. Over. ]

--- WADE: "Uh, maybe we shouldn't be seen together!"
WADE #2: "Don't worry, if anyone asks -- we're identical twins!" WADE: "What do you want?"

[ Executive to get a brain, would be nice. ]

WADE #2: "We developed sliding on this Earth, and we may be able to help you."

[ That is about as good a way to open a conversation as any. But she didn't end the sentence with "Over." ]

WADE: "Who exactly is 'we'?" WADE: "I'll tell you after we eat. Our orders are ready."
The ladies, similarly dressed in white slacks but different colored blouses, both approach the counter and pay for their meals. --- WADE #2: "You sure are hungry!"
WADE: "It's for my friends back at the Dover Motel." --- WADE #2: "Are you driving?"
WADE: "No." --- WADE #2: "I have a car parked out front. It's the 1989 blue Ford Probe. I'll give you a lift.

[ Whenever I offer to give someone I ride, I'm sure to tell them the make of my car first. Some hitchhikers are very particular about the cars they ride in. ]

--- WADE: "Thanks, it sure beats walking 3 miles!"

[ Like any level-headed person, Wade measures the distance to all the restaurants on all the earths they go to. ]

A few minutes later they arrive at the motel and meet with the others.

REMBRANDT: "I told you to get me Moo Sho Pork, Wade. This is General Tso's chicken!
WADE: "I'm sorry, Rembrandt. It's all that they had."
BROWN: (looking up at the two Wades): "Oh man, here we go again!"
WADE: "Everybody...meet Wade" --- WADE #2: "You can call me Julie, if it makes things any easier."

[ Whoa, what a brilliant line! ]

MAGGIE (starting to eat her Egg Foo Young): "Why should we trust you?"

[ That line fits into the flow of things easily, doesn't it? ]

WADE #2: "Because the information we have may be of great value to you."
QUINN (doing mathematical calculations before he eats): "Just who is 'we'?"

[ Calculating the calories, I guess ]

WADE: "Same question I asked earlier."
WADE #2: "Our Professor Maximillian Arturo and my father, Dr. Don
Welles were working on a sliding project in
Omaha, Nebraska about 2 years ago. Max had a bad heart around that time, and suffered a fatal coronary attack.

[ Coronary attack? Who talks like that, Dr Ex-Lax? Wade #2 magically knows Quinn and friends had a Prof Arturo also. ]

REMBRANDT: "The Arturo we knew died a tragic death. First he had his brain fluid sucked out of his skull with a
needle, and just hours later the same bastard shot him in the chest."

[ Whoa! The machismo in that line sends chills up my spine! "The bastard!" And we all know how often Remmy says things like that. Such eloquence! Where can we learn to write dialogue like that, Executive? I want to know so I can blow the place up with the plastic explosives in my backpack -like in part 1- to strike a blow for good taste. ]

--- QUINN: "At close range."

[ It was obviously vital for Quinn to add this scintillating detail ]

WADE: "I think I just lost my appetite..."

[ Perhaps she lost it at close range ]

WADE #2: "Look, I work as a programmer at the Pentagon. Some of my dad's associates work there. When I go back to
work on Monday, I'll try to arrange for you guys to meet with my
father in Omaha -- all expenses paid."

[ As we know, all Pentagon programmers can arrange all-expense paid trips to Omaha for people from other universes. Heck, she can do it at close range as well! ]

QUINN: "Well, if it isn't too much trouble. What do you want in
return?" --- WADE #2: "Nothing really. I just owe
a debt of gratitute to my father. I know that you can help him as much as he helps you. Maybe even more."
BROWN: "Sounds like a wild goose chase to me, and another weekend
wasted - plus Monday. In the meantime, I guess we can tour Washington, go to the movies, get drunk at this bar I passed on the corner....

[ Remmy, yet again captured perfectly, would rather get drunk than get an all-expense paid trip to a place where they could work on sliding and maybe get home, which they were discussing earlier. How DO you do it Executive? ]

MAGGIE: "So much for our new jobs!"
At the same time, a telephone conversation is taking place between 2 men.

[ At other times, telephone conversations usually take place between 1 man. ]

PRESIDENT DOLE (in his White House office): "Listen Fred, we have Miss Welles on videotape at the Washington Monument coming out of what appears to be a wormhole.

[ And we all know Dole would recognize a wormhole if he saw one ]

GENERAL ZIMMERMAN: [ I wonder where you got that name... ] "I can assure you that there will not be a security breach, Sir. The tape wasn't released to the media. Only you and a few key people in my command are aware of Miss Welles involvement in this incident.
PRESIDENT DOLE: "From what the FBI knows about sliding, we must keep a close watch on Wade Welles. We still don't know for certain exactly how much information her father disclosed to her concerning the Omaha Project.
GENERAL ZIMMERMAN: "It will all be taken care of, Sir. I am officially putting Colonel Patterson >>> on the case.
Dole hangs up <<< the phone with his good hand. He goes over to his TV and turns on the news.

[ No end to quotation marks. The General appears to have the same problem describing events around him in the third person, that Quinn has. Over. ]

DOLE: "Why the hell is George jumping out of an airplane at his age? To think he once ran our country!"

[ If trapped in this plot, most probably would jump out of a plane, likely without a parachute. To think, Ex-Lax actually wrote this!
To think, he could conceivably become president unless some amendments get passed to strip him of the right to run for the position. *shudder* ]

Continued in next topic....

[ I can't wait!!! ]

T h e
E x e c u t i v e