RELIC

                              D'AGOSTA
                        (screams)
                    Somebody tell me!  Where is it now?

                              MAYOR
                        (quiet)
                    Lieutenant.  In the south corner.

     D'Agosta sweeps his light to the Mayor who stands rigid in front of
     the others, points to his left.  The light moves to the far end of the
     room where THE DARK SHAPE OF MBWUN crouches over the body of a man.
     It's lunging up and down with odd, jerking motions.  The man is long
     past making a sound.  From the monster comes a faint crunching and
     slobbering.  Jonathan rises, comes to D'Agosta.  So does Frank.  They
     stand shoulder to shoulder, raise their guns.  D'Agosta motions for
     Kawakita.

                              D'AGOSTA
                    On three.

     Kawakita stumbles to join them, tries to join in.  The barrel of his
     shot gun still swings wildly.  He steadies it by taking it in both
     hands.

                              D'AGOSTA
                    One, two... three.

     All three fire.  There's a loud report.  The kickback knocks Kawakita
     backwards.  Screams erupt from the huddled group.  Hobbes abruptly shuts
     up.  The men fire and fire until there's nothing left.  D'Agosta reaches
     for more shells, comes up empty.

                              D'AGOSTA
                    Jonathan!  Get everyone behind me!

     Jonathan moves.  D'Agosta sweeps his light across the room but already
     the shape is gone.  Cuthbert hides behind the Mayor, calls out in a
     terrified squeal.

                              CUTHBERT
                    It went out the door to the rotunda!

     D'Agosta runs across the room to a set of double industrial doors.
     There's a noise in the darkness beyond and he just manages to slam
     both doors.  He picks up a metal chair and jams it through the handles.
     Backs up.  The doors shudder as something hits them hard.

                              D'AGOSTA
                    Get everyone into the stairwell!

     Jonathan, the Mayor, Cuthbert and Kawakita together herd everyone
     towards the stairwell.  They move inside.

     INT. STAIRWELL - NIGHT

     Dark and close.  The smell of gunpowder and death.  The Mayor's Wife
     sees Bailey's body and clutches her mouth so as not to throw up.

                              CUTHBERT
                    Sweet Jesus!

                              D'AGOSTA
                    Get his gun and his walkie talkie,
                    Jonathan.  Move.

                              CUTHBERT
                    My office is on the third floor!
                    There's a walk-in safe and a
                    portable phone!  We can lock
                    ourselves in the safe and call for
                    help!

                              D'AGOSTA
                    I have to help Pendergast.  Kawakita
                    and Jonathan stay with me.  The rest
                    of you can go with Cuthbert!

                              MAYOR
                    I think we should stick together!

                              FRANK
                        (taking Bailey's shotgun)
                    Me too.

                              CUTHBERT
                    I'm leaving.  Whoever wants can come
                    with me.

     No one follows.

                              D'AGOSTA
                    Wait!

     Cuthbert's gone.

                              D'AGOSTA
                    Jonathan, go with him!  He isn't
                    armed.

     Jonathan grabs Hobbes' leash from the Mayor and bounds up the stairs.

                              MAYOR
                    Good luck!

     Everyone else follows D'Agosta.  Together, they head down.

     EXT. MUSEUM - NIGHT

     Police cars are pulling up outside the museum.  Sirens wail.  Torrents
     of rain limit the number of onlookers.  Crowds of people are scattered
     about.  There's disbelief on everyone's faces.  Many people are in
     shock.  Ippolito sprints through the pelting rain to a GUARD STATION
     near the gate.  He yanks the door open and jumps inside.

     INT. GUARD STATION - NIGHT

     A number of museum security personnel are milling in confusion.

                              IPPOLITO
                    All right everyone.  I'm in charge.
                    Status report.

     One of the security men, WATERS, rises.

                              WATERS
                    Swat teams are on the way.  Fire
                    trucks with them.  Everything's
                    slowed down because of the rain.
                    We're bringing in portable
                    generators.  They'll get the
                    emergency lights working but they
                    won't pump enough power to lift the
                    doors.

     Ippolito pulls out his walkie talkie.

                              IPPOLITO
                    D'Agosta?  Ippolito.  Come in.

                              D'AGOSTA (ON RADIO)
                        (a string of curses followed by...)
                    Where the hell are you?

                              IPPOLITO
                    I made it outside.  I'll co-ordinate
                    the rescue efforts from here.  Help
                    is on the way.  Just sit tight.

                              D'AGOSTA (ON RADIO)
                    It's a little late, you son of a
                    bitch.  There's a friggin' monster
                    loose in here!  Get the FBI, the fire
                    department.  Find metal cutters, cut
                    through.  And bring a cannon.  The
                    damn thing is huge.

     A long moment as the men look at each other.

                              WATERS
                    Did he say monster?

                              IPPOLITO
                    Panic attack.

     INT. MUSEUM STAIRWELL - NIGHT

     D'Agosta's group has reached a lower floor.  Here this stairwell ends.
     Ahead stretches the hall of the Asian peoples.

                              IPPOLITO (OS)
                    D'Agosta, put on the Mayor.

     D'Agosta passes the walkie talkie to the Mayor.

                              MAYOR
                    Mayor Jordan here.

                              IPPOLITO (ON RADIO)
                    This is Ippolito, head of museum
                    security.  Relieve D'Agosta and take
                    command.

                              MAYOR
                    Don't tell me what to do you chicken
                    shit bastard.  I saw you cut and run!
                    Lieutenant D'Agosta stayed with us.
                    He is in charge.  There is a monster.
                    I saw it.  Cut through those doors
                    and get us out of here, now!

     The Mayor shuts off the walkie talkie and they round another corner
     and disappear from sight.

     INT. SECURITY ROOM - NIGHT

     Ippolito finds Waters and the others staring at him.  Humiliated, he
     swallows hard.

                              IPPOLITO
                    All right.  The steel doors are
                    designed to retard cutting.  We can
                    go through them, but it would take
                    hours.

                              WATERS
                    The quickest way in would be to go
                    through the roof, sir.  Cell two goes
                    up to the fifth floor.  There are sky
                    lights up there.

                              IPPOLITO
                    Co-ordinate with the fire department
                    and SWAT teams.  Move.

     INT. HALL OF THE ASIAN PEOPLES - NIGHT

     It's very dark.  The huge shape of MBWUN can barely be seen sliding out
     of the stairwell and into the Hall of the Asian Peoples.  Then DIM RED
     HALL LIGHTS come on in the corners of the ceiling.  The monster utters
     a low growl.  The emergency generators are beginning to come on.  The
     animal lopes to the spot where we last saw D'Agosta and his group,
     sniffs the ground.  It looks up and, with a curiously human gesture,
     cocks its massive head.

     The silence is broken by VOICES!  They're in the distance and muffled,
     but definitely there.  The monster crouches eagerly, lopes forward with
     great stealth.  The voices are getting louder.  We follow as it goes
     through the hall and down...

     A STAIRWELL... At the bottom, Mbwun quickly turns a corner... The voices
     have stopped.  Mbwun creeps forward, enters...

     INT. HALL OF MARINE ANIMALS - NIGHT

     A huge room several stories high.  A WHALE hangs suspended from the
     ceiling.  Dioramas of fish line all the walls.  Mbwun pauses next to a
     diorama of the gentle, vegetarian sea cow, THE MANATEE.  The two make a
     startling contrast.

     A pause and then the voices are heard again, much louder now.  The
     source is right around the edge of the Manatee display.  Mbwun LEAPS
     FORWARD, claws lashing out.  He turns the corner and crashes through a
     wall of GLASS as he grabs at the source of the voices...

     A display of small, extraordinarily life-like TALKING HOLOGRAMS!
     They've been re-activated with the emergency power system.  Each little
     talking figure is no more then five inches high.  They move around a
     small three dimensional display of marine animals, explaining the lung
     systems of fish.

     MBWUN... stands in the pile of broken glass, stares at the holograms,
     mesmerized.  He makes a noise that sounds astonishingly like a CHUCKLE!
     Then he reaches out one long claw and tries unsuccessfully to touch
     one of the holograms.  But the shadowy creatures can't be caught.  The
     beast seems to realize this, SNORTS and moves off.  As he goes he
     passes behind a

     LARGE GLASS ELEVATOR.  It stands in middle the open room.  The elevator
     is designed to carry people upstairs and down in the two story
     exhibit.  In the dim light, with his poor vision, the monster doesn't
     see D'Agosta, the Mayor, Kawakita, and their entire group SANDWICHED
     INSIDE.  The monster exits the exhibit and quietly D'Agosta slides the
     doors open.  Everyone, all thirty-five people in evening clothes,
     quickly get out and run across the exhibit to another stairwell at the
     far side of the hall.

     INT. SECURE STORAGE AREA 1012 - NIGHT

     Margo, Frock and Pendergast wait in the darkness.  Pendergast, for the
     first time, seems fazed.

                              PENDERGAST
                    I don't know how to deal with this.
                    It's hellish.  Like nothing I ever
                    saw.  I'm not trained to deal with a
                    monster, a supernatural creature
                    like that.

                              MARGO
                    It's not supernatural.  Mbwun is an
                    animal.  Part lizard, part human, a
                    genetic freak of some kind, like the
                    half-goat, half-sheep they found
                    last year in the jungles of Vietnam.

                              PENDERGAST
                    But this isn't the jungle!  This is
                    New York.  How did it get here?  A
                    thing like that crossed two
                    continents.  It makes no sense!

                              FROCK
                        (lame)
                    We think it may have something to do
                    with the eggs we found in the crate.

                              PENDERGAST
                    I don't believe it.

                              MARGO
                    None of that matters now.  The people
                    upstairs need us.  We have to help.

                              FROCK
                    We can't.  We've managed to get
                    inside the one place that's safe.  I
                    think we should sit tight and wait
                    for reinforcements.  If we go
                    outside, we're risking more lives.
                    You have to accept it, Margo,
                    there's nothing we can do.  The
                    building must be swarming with
                    police by now.  It won't take long
                    for them to get through the doors.