A YOUNG MONK answers.
ROBED FIGURE
(perfect Mandarin)
I must see the abbot.
The monk GASPS at the sight of him.
INT. SPARRING ROOM, SHAOLIN MONASTERY - CONTINUOUS
A hand strikes a match, a brazier erupts in flame, shadows flicker. The young monk leads in the robed figure.
MONK SING, the abbot’s body guard, moves away from the brazier and positions himself in front of the abbot, hawk-like eyes glare at the unwanted guest.
ROBED FIGURE (CONT’D)
(Mandarin)
I am sorry to disturb you...
The abbot opens his eyes from his deep meditation. The robed figure bows his heads in respect. The abbot is startled as he sees the face behind the voice, still unseen by the camera.
ABBOT
(Mandarin)
I heard rumors about Yu Bai Shek’s
disciple...
ROBED FIGURE
(Mandarin)
I need your help.
ABBOT
(Mandarin)
You know I cannot grant that
request.
(switches to English)
You should not even exist.
SAMUEL THARPE is revealed, chiseled African American features, solidly built. He buries his emotion, but we stillcatch a glimpse of pain from the statement.
SAM
The people I’m after should not
exist. They were trained in the
sacred Shaolin arts...
INT. CORONER’S LAB, CIA BASE - NIGHT
Dim, fluorescent lighting. A CORONER enters the room, pulling on surgical gloves.
CORONER
This couldn’t wait ‘til morning?
His ASSISTANT stands next to the naked body of a woman. Elaborate tattoos snake down her arms. HORSE RIPPER.
His figure blocks the critical parts of her body, but what we can see is extremely attractive.
ASSISTANT
They were dressed in monk’s garb,
not a mark on them.
The coroner walks over and takes a closer look. Under the sterile lights, her skin looks pale as death, but without a cut or bruise anywhere. Next to her are two other naked male bodies in the same state.
He first checks her eyes. They are sunken in and scarred, but it is an old wound. She was blind.
CORONER
Scalpel please...
The assistant hands the coroner the scalpel. He then digs through a container of the deceased’s belongings. There aremonks robes, an ornate scarf...and something else...
The coroner walks back to the autopsy table.
The assistant lifts a mysterious BLACK MEDALLION. The markings are in an unknown language or code. It appears almost other worldly. His eyes grow wide.
The coroner leans over HORSE RIPPER with the scalpel.
ASSISTANT
(his back to the coroner)
Have you ever seen anything like
this?
As the scalpel is about to pierce Horse Ripper’s flesh, her hand grabs his wrist. Before the coroner can scream, she sits up violently and twists his neck.
The assistant turns at the sound. Horse Ripper, sightless eyes still closed, grabs the scalpel and launches it at the assistant’s chest, piercing his heart, dead on.
INT. SPARRING ROOM, SHAOLIN MONASTERY - NIGHT
The monks appear disturbed by the story. Sam continues.
SAM
They infiltrated a CIA base.
Sam tries again to bury his emotion.
SAM (CONT’D)
And killed my son.
ABBOT
Who are they?
SAM
Their leader’s name is Kali.
The name registers on the abbot’s face, but he says nothing. Sam sees this, but does not push him on it.
SAM (CONT’D)
And he got what he came for...
INT. ELECTRONICS LABORATORY, CIA BASE - NIGHT
We dolly across carnage. CIA corpses litter the floor.
Horse Ripper is clad in a monk’s robes, eyes now masked by the ornate scarf. The two other “corpses” both now clothed in robes, flank each side of her. Her face leans down on an off screen object that casts a GLOW.
SLOW-MOTION. Sam’s face appears from the shadows behind, rushing at them silently with his sword raised.
With heightened senses, the blind lady monk suddenly tilts her head to the side. She’s heard Sam.
She quickly pulls her men back, turning what would’ve been a double kill stroke into double flesh wounds.
Sam’s blade cuts across both men’s chests. They SCREAM. Horse Ripper and the weakened Dark Monks fight Sam, 3 vs. 1.
The lady monk disarms the sword from Sam. He falls back and picks up a pistol from a nearby dead guard.
