BR Chapter 1

8/4/2019 BR Chapter 1

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BLADE RUNNER



LOS ANGELES

NOVEMBER, 2019



Chapter 1

Holden and leon



Chapter 1 - Holden and Leon

LOS ANGELES

NOVEMBER, 2019

We slowly glide over

a bleak cityscape,

Los Angeles in thenot-so-distant future.It is dark, after sunset, with citylights glowing through the densemurk of the city's almost impene-trable smog and perpetual rain. Inthe foreground a refinery's sky-piercing shapes loom ominously,

with flames belching from meth-ane-burning stacks. A police"spinner" or air-car speeds by whilea lightning bolt briefly lights up thedistant horizon.

Soon, two huge, loomingpyramids, the giant search lights ontheir apexes throwing glowing col-

umns into the night sky, appear on

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the horizon. Two morepolice spinners streak to-ward one of the pyramidsas we near it, it's lightedwindows bearing witness to the ac-tivity within.

The city lights and belchingrefineries are reflected in the eye of someone gazing out over the darkcityscape - the eye of agent Holden

who is standing in his dimly-lit,smoke-filled office, a huge ceilingfan slowly turning above him. Hewaits for the subject of his next in-terview.

A woman's voice over an in-tercom announces, "Next subject...Kowalski, Leon... engineer, waste

disposal... bio-section, new em-

ployee, six days", as Leon walksthrough a corridor toward Holden's

office. He knocks on the officedoor..."Come in" Holden says as

he moves toward a chair, puffingon a cigarette. Leon enters,crosses to the other side of the ta-ble and remains standing whileHolden activates his Voight-Kampff

machine. The device whirs to lifeand elevates it's "eye probe" whileit's "breather" begins to cycle. Leonwatches the proceedings withseeming nonchalance.

"Sit down"Holden says as hepunches a button onthe V-K machine, ac-

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tivating a large monitor which dis-plays an enlarged view of the pupil

and iris of one of Leon's eyes. Twoother, smaller monitors, at the left of the larger show spectral traces andother information as the machinewatches for any possible emotionalresponses from the subject.

"Care if I talk", Leon asks, "I'mkinda nervous when I take tests..."

"Now, just please don'tmove", Holden says with some im-patience.

"I'm sorry," Leon says, "I al-ready had an IQ test this year, I don'tthink I've ever had one of these...."

Holden interrupts

him... "reaction timeis a factor in this soplease pay attention.

Now answer asquickly as you can."

"Sure.""One one eight seven at

Hunterwasser.""That's the hotel""What?", Holden asks,

somewhat annoyed."Where I live." Leon replies."Nice place?""Yeah, sure, I guess. That

part of the test?""No. Just warming you up,

that's all.""Huh. It's not fancy or any-

thing..."

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Holden begins hisquestioning:

"You're in a de-

sert... walking along inthe sand when..."

Leon quickly interrupts, "thisthe test now?"

"Yes. You're in a desertwalking along in the sand when allof a sudden you look down..."

"What one?", Leon again in-terrupts."What??", now Holden is

definitely annoyed."What desert?", Leon asks."It doesn't make any differ-

ent what desert, it's completely hy-pothetical", Holden replies.

"But how come I'd be

there?""Maybe you're fed up.

Maybe you wanna be by yourself...who knows? You look down andyou see a tortoise, Leon, it's crawl-ing toward you."

"Tortoise? What's that?"Holden takes a long drag

from his cigarette, "You know whata turtle is?"

" 'Course.""Same thing.""I never seen a turtle." Leon

says. Holden glances up, his an-noyance showing plainly on his

face. "but I under-stand what youmean." Leon quickly

continues.

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"You reach down and flip thetortoise on it's back Leon."

"You make up these ques-tions mister Holden?" Leon's ownanger is now starting to build. "Or they write 'em down for ya?"

"The tortoise lays on it's back,its belly baking in the hot sun, beat-ing it's legs trying to turn itself over but it can't... not without your help."

Leon's eyes are wide open now inbarely controlled rage. "But you'renot helping".

"Whaddya mean I'm not help-ing??", Leon almost screams it, hisanger growing by the sec-ond.

"I mean you're not

helping." Holdensays, somewhatamused at the reac-

tion he's getting fromLeon. "Why is that,

Leon?".Leon looks down momentar-

ily, as if confused, but says noth-ing.

Then Holden breaks the ten-sion with a smile and a dismissivegesture with his hands... "They're

just questions, Leon," he says, tak-ing another drag from his cigaretteand leaning back in his chair. "Inanswer to your query they're writ-ten down for me. It's... a test de-signed to provoke an emotional re-

sponse." Leon listens intently as

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Holden says, "Shall wecontinue?" a smile break-ing across his face. Leon

nods but says nothing.He leans forward as Holden contin-ues his questioning.

"Describe in single words...",he says, "only the good things thatcome into your mind... about... your mother."

"My mother?""Yeah.""Lemme tell you about my

mother..."Leon is leaning forward, his

hands unseen below the table.Suddenly the area of the table infront of him erupts in flame as he

fires a hidden gun. The force of the

blast hits Holden hard, turning hischair and violently forcing him

through the wall behind him. Leonis standing now and, with his gunarm outstretched, fires again andHolden is blown into the next cubi-cle.

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BR Chapter 1

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