77
BRIAN
Oh, Raleigh. It's surreal. A cocktail bar in the jungle.
Those undulating blacks… Half naked transvestites…
Babies of three crawling round begging. It's Dante's
Inferno.
RALEIGH
Nobody blinks at it. We're outside the law. That's why
there are old Germans, Hitler fugitives, in there. You
can do any unsocial thing you want here, Brian. It's
rather great.
BRIAN
I think I should help you get out.
RALEIGH
I don't want to, thanks. I like living in anarchy. Gun
fights. Indian attacks. That sort of thing. Just look in
the river. Scores of white corpses, full of arrows, half-
eaten by Piranhas. Here. You'll need one of these, you
gringo.
He hands him a revolver.
BRIAN
Thanks. I'll return it on my way out. Where are we, in
God's name?
RALEIGH
Ap-yac-as. Or up-your-arse as I call it.
BRIAN
It's certainly not in the Fodor Guide.
RALEIGH
Brian. You're wasting your time. You know they must
be dead.
BRIAN
How would you know? You deserted…
RALEIGH
They left me to die actually. Your noble father and
brother…My foot went very lame and they were
78
determined to get to their rendezvous with the
priesthood, come what may.
BRIAN
Raleigh. You're not such a bad sort. Here have my
card. That's my phone number in Carlisle. Just in case
you ever come back.
Music. Light fades.
SCENE FOUR. MATO GROSSO VOID.
ALBERT in spotlight. Dressed up in a designer explorer's outfit. He is
cheerful again. To audience.
ALBERT
I wasn't finished with the Fawcett saga. Not by a long
way. Without Jess's cynical presence I was able to let
rip. Untrammelled, I set off for New York and found
Fawcett's original manuscript in a New York archive
and it bore no resemblance whatever to the huge best
seller "autobiography" which Brian claims to have
merely edited. In fact Brian wrote it himself from a few
notes and essays claiming it was all his father's work
and put a smoke screen over the real story. Brian very
cleverly created a cosy imperial adventure tale to
mislead the public for generations to come. Brian is the
only one alive who knows the motives for that
mysterious quest. Motives perhaps too shocking for the
public to take in. Sacrificing your son like Abraham and
Isaac…When I heard he had returned to Mato Grosso I
had no option but to follow him.
He checks his digital video camera and lines it up, hand-held for a close-
up of himself.
ALBERT
(To camera) Brian Fawcett is the last connection and
only connection I have of getting to the facts. So here I
am in Cuiaba. The jumping off point of all expeditions
into the dangerous Mato Grosso.. I'm just going to
enjoy a glass of Kachasa and then off to "Dead Horse
Camp"……
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Music.
"M" in black, full-length peasant clothes with a frightening grin has crept
up on ALBERT and as he turns, confronts him, their faces inches apart.
ALBERT
What? …O que o disse, senhora?
"M" gives him an overpowering stare.
ALBERT
Who the hell are you? Christ, you're giving me the evil
eye!…
"M" continues for an excruciatingly long moment.
ALBERT
Cruzieros?
He reaches for money to give her. She ignores the gesture and continues
staring, freezing him to the spot.
ALBERT
Your eyes….are inhuman!
"M"
(Quietly) I've got you!
Blackout.
SCENE FIVE. RIO SANGUE.
Night. BRIAN lies asleep on the ground. Voices come in and out of his
mind as shadowy figures pass by. The voices are recorded with echo
distortion and have a weird uneasy quality.
VOICE OF STRAUSS
( A Brazilian German accent) My name is Colonel Paulo
Strauss of the Brazil Theosophical Society. Your father
reached his intended destination and descended into an
underground city inhabited by Martians. He emerges
from time to time aboard a flying saucer…
80
VOICE OF PATERSON
( Irritated Imperial English voice) I'm disgusted by the
way you continually ignore my researches. I'm Timothy
Paterson, Fawcett's nephew and I know what I'm
talking about! Uncle Percy actually found a sixteen
million-year-old city and has since been involved in
switching mankind from the fifth sub race to the sixth
sub race of the Fifth Root race, if you follow me. The
task is not easy, living as one does between the fourth
and the ninth dimensions. Its time you accepted these
facts.
VOICE OF CHABBERT
( Friendly American voice). Brian Hi! Rene Chabbert,
here. I finally solved it. Your father's lost city does
exist. I found it on Landstat Satellite X-ray photos. It's
right there West of Cuiaba. I was planning to reach it in
a hot air ballon, but unfortunately I've had a motor
accident and don't walk anymore. But I know Fawcett
freaks from all over the world will take up the
challenge…Somebody will reach that lost city very
soon.
BARNES
( An erudite cockney accent) Mr Fawcett. Brian, if I may
call you so. The statuette your father took with him
was not from Atlantis or even Brazil. Sir Henry Rider
Haggard picked it up from Zimbabwe. He was being
shown round the old ruins and just popped the
statuette into his pocket. As regards old artifacts he
seems to have been a bit of a kleptomaniac. The words
on it are Phoenician and translate:
"To invoke a happy future, just come along to my
temple."
BACON
( Voice of mild English alternative academic) Brian…
I can honestly say that a day doesn't go by when I am
not in touch with your father… He is with the Great
White Brotherhood.…and achieving supreme results in
furthering the world's progress towards a new Golden
Age… Should you not take a more compassionate
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