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. He chomps down on the sandwitch and finds that it is rancid, he spits it out and holds his stomach.



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.  He attempts to hack into Primrose but he is booted.  He stares at Primrose logo.


(Flashback) Primrose logo.  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 watches as his company car is towed away.  He exits the cab back at his apartment building and steps over a small pile of stuff on the stoop.  His key doesn't work.  He finds that the stuff is his.  Someone he knows walks by and opens the door.  He won't let Jay in.  "Two guys - a man and a woman, actually, came looking for you this afternoon. They said they were from the IRS."



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 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.

Jay completes the cobbled-together computer with a still-smoking solder on a cell phone modification.  He loads up Changeling.  As a test, Jay orders more pizzas w/ Kirk's credit card.  Visiting the IRS, he notices what all the hubub is about- twenty grand of unpaid taxes (suddenly).  He unhooks and switches the phone to "voice."

IRS employee picks up the phone - it's late at night.  "I need your username, ma'am.  We have a policy not to ask for passwords."  "I'm supposed to change mine, but you how that is."  He loads up her homepage and tries the name of one of her kids as a password- bingo.  He uses the access to delete himself.


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?"

The police come by the cafe and conduct the "have you seen this man?" conversation.  He is considered violent and is wanted on several felony counts.

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.
After checking the "emergency trunk latch," he rides home with Kirk in his trunk.

In Kirk's house late at night, Jay attempts to break into FHN and Primrose.  He uses clues from stuff hanging on walls in Kirk's study - kid's names, etc.  Running a browser history check - he discovers a hidden account 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.  Jay is concerned about folks downloading sensitive information or viruses - Trudy mentions how bad the Primrose security was- specifically their late night remote admin functions.  "If someone logged in while those were going on, they might be able to attain root permissions and do God knows what."  Indeed.


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 pulls a lever and the computer smokes up.  "This is why you must always back up."

Agents surround the make-shift computer.  One agent pulls up one of the hard drive plates.  "A lever in the back -pull it and the hard drive plates fall into a bath of acid- cleans them right up.  It's completely devoid of magnetic substrate."  "get someone to read it - low level recovery."  "you don't get it, there's nothing there.  Pro's don't even do this shit."  "Who the hell is this guy?"

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.  He duct tapes Krik's hands behind his back.  "I've made Changeling better than you can imagine-"  "It's dead and so are you."  "I can't be dead if I don't exist."  "You're a fool, they're bound to backtrack when they figure it out."  "That's exactly what I want."

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.  Trudy sits on her couch and shouts out fake name suggestions.


DN: FHN disks being printed/shipped.

DN: Changeling 3.0 download site - URL constantly changing.