The Women in the Alert

MARA: The alert turned six victims into six threats in under twenty words.

MARA: The six women in the alert had names.

PRICE: Where would they run?

ELISE: They aren't running. Voss is moving them under cover of the alert.

MARA: How?

ELISE: If police stop a van, they see patients being returned to care.

PRICE: Unless we know the route.

ELISE: I know one stop.

MARA: Of course you do.

ELISE: Do you want moral clarity or do you want them alive?

MARA: Both.

ELISE: Then you are new here.

[SFX: Car interior, highway rain.]

MARA: We drove west toward an abandoned weigh station off Highway 6.

MARA: Mom thinks you are dead.

ELISE: No, she doesn't.

MARA: You don't know that.

ELISE: Mothers know the difference.

MARA: She is in memory care.

[Pause]

ELISE: Does she know you?

MARA: Sometimes.

ELISE: I am sorry.

MARA: For which part?

ELISE: All the parts I can afford right now.

PRICE: Car behind us.

MARA: A black SUV held two lengths back. No headlights.

PRICE: Mara, when I say go low, go low.

MARA: Why?

ELISE: Because they do not shoot to scare.

[SFX: Tires on wet asphalt. Impact against rear bumper.]

MARA: The SUV hit us before Price finished counting.

[SFX: Engine roar.]

PRICE: Glove box.

MARA: What?

PRICE: Now.

MARA: Inside was a flare gun, two road flares, and a revolver.

MARA: You said you were retired.

PRICE: I am. That's why everything is old.

ELISE: Flare.

MARA: What?

ELISE: Shoot the road flare backward.

MARA: That sounds illegal.

ELISE: So is kidnapping.

[SFX: Window down. Wind. Flare ignition.]

MARA: I dropped the flare out the window.

ELISE: They won't follow past the weigh station.

PRICE: Why?

ELISE: Because there are cameras they do not control.

[SFX: Empty weigh station. Rain on metal roof.]

MARA: The first van arrived at 1:12 a.m.

PRICE: No.

MARA: The cruiser parked beside the vans.

ELISE: We need one license plate and one face.

MARA: We need the women.

ELISE: If we rush them, everyone dies.

MARA: You don't know that.

ELISE: I know the sound a Taser makes before a body falls.

MARA: The deputy handed one driver an envelope.

PRICE: Tanner Polk.

MARA: You know him?

PRICE: He took my statement after Orr died.

[SFX: Camera zoom beep, very faint.]

MARA: Then one woman in the second van looked directly at us.

MARA: Elise moved before either of us could stop her.

ELISE: Callum wants me, not them.

CALLUM: That used to be true.

[MUSIC: End.]