Disappear Key moments: Bryon pitches to client his team's new product. Byron's boss stops meeting & announces that the company has been sold. The technology is now shelved (puchase and squash method). Byron aks why he was not involved in decision. Byron quits. Byron breaks into car to steal laptop. Back in Byron's hideout, he boots it up to win95, checks it out again. Byron returns laptop and duct tapes the window back together. Byron breaks into a used computer shop and steals parts. Byron welds & duct tapes together Frankie. Standing on a bridge, Byron uses device to steal cell numbers. Byron is a shitty name. Temp names Opening: Homeless dude sits in an alley across from an apartment building and watches cars through the brim of his hat. A lady tosses a few coins in after getting out of her car on her way into the apartment. After a moment or two, he smashes the window [loud siren sounds everywhere] and grabs her laptop and cell phone. After a moment, he smashes another window to get a sandwitch sitting on the passenger seat. Dude gives presentation on Primrose Solutions' new technology, a method of masking an IP route in real time. It would allow dissidents to communicate with the outside world without fear of being shut down, consumer advocates to criticise media outlets without fear of slap suits. "and it would also allow copyright violators to distribute their cracks with impunity." Emergency meeting. Primrose has been sold to Family Home Networks (the Internet with training wheels!). "FHN contacted us several weeks ago and wanted us on their team." FHN has been buying up tech companies and co-opting or shutting down divisions which compete directly with them. Dude confronts company man about buyout. "Don't you think that a decision like that would include me? I helped bring this company to a position to be purchased." "I understand that. No one here doubts your dedication, the contribution you've made to the bottom line last year." "How about right now? Imagine this place without me." "Okay, [closing eyes] I am. What of it?" "Your whole enterprise product line would fade away." "And it is with you here, Dude. That's not the future, you're not the future. FHN is our future." Dude meets a woman quite accidentally. He's arrested for loitering and she's a public defender or a social worker (I can't decide). At some point she gets to know him better than he wants her to. He retreats. He comes back to his hovel to find her waiting for him. "What is all this stuff?" she asks. In the end, Dude confronts company man. "I've corrupted FHN's 6.0 client. FunHouse will be installed by default on an estimated four million home PC's and servers. Oh, and I've been working on it- improving it a great deal. But you'll learn all about that in time." "FHN has a dozen levels of RSC security. You're bluffing." "Probably. Honestly, I can't remember." Primrose is not a good name for the company (someone's using it) Trudy owns and operates a cyber cafe. Crimes of survival to begin, then crimes of revenge, then reconcilliation. Selling out leads to the end of the company. Jay's name is on the pattent along with Kirk. Trudy: It was a job I loved, but it was still a job. There was a wall between that and what I wanted for the other part of my life." Jay's car repo'd. Credit card cancelled. Everything he has is somehow owned by the company, golden handcuffs. Trud remembers Jay from two years earlier when he was vital to the company, a bit of a jerk, though. She tells him what he doesn't want to hear, pulls him out of the slump. Kirk was not withholding payroll taxes, etc. The IRS is interested. FHN fires all Primrose employees, keeps Kirk on board as FHN middle-management. In the end, though - once they figure out that he knows nothing about the technology, he is dumped like the rest. It is very important that Jay order pizza (donato's) online at some point. Jay accesses Kirk's secret Primrose account and "liberates" it. In the end, he converts it to cash and lays piles of it at the feet of ex-employees and buys an old junker of a car. He soon finds the account frozen- IRS? Jay orders stuff for other people, Kirk gets a side of beef. Non-returnable. Trudy witnesses Jay's violence. Jay stays on as the cafe's "tech support." Kirk claims that the company is pretty much bankrupt before FHN buys it up. Kirk, desperate, tries to help the authorities catch Jay. But in the end, they finger him. During the FHN take-over, they find irregularities in the books, Kirk arranges for Jay to be blamed. FHN calls in the IRS. But that argument is pretty damn weak. Characters: Jay Huchison (protagonist) Trudy Weskowski (former co-worker, current owner/operator of cybercafe) Kirk (president of Primrose Systems) Lauren Kozcheck (IRS agent) Dick Kassner (FHN VP involved w/ buyout) OPEN: Jay appears to be a homeless man, sitting in the alley next to a dry cleaners. After a woman parks her car in front of him, he smashes her rear window and steals her laptop, cell phone, and sandwitch. He walks away as the alarm blares. Jay stands on bridge with a cell code grabbing gun, loading the phone with the stolen codes. Back in his hideout, Jay connects to the Internet with the cell phone. He orders something with a stored password/credit card info. "Cookie. Cookie!" Hearing sirens, he removes the HD and dumps it into the river and books to the meeting place. It's a pizza (Dontato's, of course) Jay reaches for his (non-existent) wallet. "The tip has already been taken care of, sir." (Flashback) Jay demonstrates his team's new improvements to their pattented technology for masking IP addresses, Changeling 3.0. Jay takes a peice from the laptop and adds it to his cobbled-together computer, Franky. (Flashback) Kirk announces the sale of Primrose Systems to Family Home Networks (FHN) for a tidy sum. Everyone will begin work Monday on new utilities for the next-generation FHN client. They will receive all kinds of benefits a small company like Primrose could have never offered them. (Flashback) Jay corners Krik in his office. He is furious. "How dare you!" Jay threatens to quit. Kirk calls his bluff, humiliates him. Jay in the school bus yard steals a large battery. (Flashback) Jay's company car is repo'd. Notice has been given to his landlord- he is evicted. Due to poor Primrose bookkeeping, Jay owes huge back taxes. Jay smashes another car window and nabs an odd-looking laptop. Back in his hideout, the thing boots up to windows 3.1. Cut to shot of him carefully placing the laptop back in the car and taping the window back together with duct tape. A pair of cops show up and get a good look at his face. They chase him. He escapes. (Flashback) FHN auditors notice discrepencies- seven million worth. Kirk points in the direction of the recent ex-employee. Jay erases his identity from all databases. Jay adds another peice to his cobbled-together computer, Franky. It is complete- wireless Internet + Changeling security. Jay orders more pizzas w/ Kirk's credit card. Kirk is arguing with the pizza guy, claiming that he did not order any pizza. He opens the door and seven more stand outside with other cars approaching. He looks suspicious. "Where are you?" Jay runs into Trudy at her Internet cafe (The Vertual Mug). She recognizes him (he tries to avoid her). They talk a little- he looks horrible. She is suspicious. Jay's cellular gun is taped to the bridge just out of sight, grabbing hundreds of cellular phone codes. Trudy witnesses a smash and grab crime. She notices that it is Jay. Primrose offices are emptied. Kirk, wearing his FHN badge, takes down the company signage. Jay is across the street watching this. He notices agents (IRS) watching the place. He uses a device to snag the combo on the keyless entry to Kirk's car. He rides home with Kirk in his trunk. In Kirk's house late at night, Jay accesses a well-hidden act. for Kirk with the missing seven million in it. Jay sets up a new account and transfers funds. FHN not curious about money- "bookeeping error. chump change." FHN executives quiz Kirk about Changeling. Have all copies been destroyed? Does anyone else have the code, know how it works, etc. Kirk does not know. He looks nervous. "The only way to truly kill a technology is to own it." "What are you still doing here?" Jay shows up at cafe and offers to re-work the networking protocols and update the router OS. Trudy, suspecting, offers him a full-time job as CTO. Kirk barges in on a meeting of the agents with a laptop running Changeling. "I'm here to help." Back at the coffee shop. It's getting late. He wants to talk to her. She asks tough questions and he bolts. Some local cops recognize him and chase him for a while. He escapes and gets back to his hideout. Trudy is there. She tries to convince him to change his ways. In the pre-dawn hours, they hear helicopters and seen bright lights outside the hideout. They flee. Jay destroys Frankie. Dawn comes up and they are chasing the two through the city. Kirk is with them. The group of agents and Kirk run through an abandoned building hallway chasing Trudy. Kirk is winded, following them. Jay pops out of an apartment and grabs Kirk. Jay produces a printout of the user info for his secret Primrose account. The feds bust into the room, but Jay is gone. "He's gone. Sweep the streets." Trudy runs out of the building onto the city street below and tries to blend in with the throng. Trudy bumps into people and shreiks. Jay finds her. Trudy: "I am going to kick your ass when this is all over." "I have to get to a bank to deposit some back pay." Agents are talking to Kirk. An agent emerges from the bathroom, "I think we know where our phantom went- and a little more." Agent: "Sir, you'll want to come with us." Next to the open bathroom window is a mirror with Kirk's act. info written in soap. Computer screen. Jay's face with a new identity being written. New name, etc. Jay is working on this in Trudy's apartment. DN: FHN disks being printed/shipped. DN: Changeling 3.0 download site - URL constantly changing.