RELIC

     INT. COP CAR - NIGHT

     Pendergast sits in silence.  D'Agosta is visibly disturbed.

                              D'AGOSTA
                    I don't like animals.  Never have.
                    Dog bit me when I was little.  After
                    that I gave up on pets.  Animals are
                    irrational.  Give me a psychotic
                    killer any day.  If there's one thing
                    that makes me queasy it's being part
                    of a food chain.  My first case as a
                    rookie, two brothers climbed a fence
                    at the zoo.  It was late August.  Over
                    ninety.  The polar bear was inside
                    his cave.  Kids didn't know he was in
                    there.  All they saw was the pool.
                    They got to swimming and splashing.
                    The noise woke up the bear.  By the
                    time I arrived, both little boys
                    were in pieces.  The bear was
                    dragging one kid around by the foot.
                    I can still hear the mother
                    screaming --

                              PENDERGAST
                    This isn't an animal, Vince.  I've
                    been on this case four months,
                    remember?  I've learned a few things.

                              D'AGOSTA
                    You've been holding out on me
                    Pendergast.  You have a suspect
                    capable of this?

     Pendergast looks over, nods quietly.

                              PENDERGAST
                    Let me tell you about it, Vince.

     EXT. NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM - DUSK

     The yellow crime scene tape is torn and flapping in a light rain.  Most
     of the emergency vehicles have left.  The police have released the
     employees who are now headed home.  We see Frock and Kawakita exit.
     Cuthbert isn't far behind.  Pendergast approaches them, headed back
     inside.

                              PENDERGAST
                    Excuse me.  Has Dr. Green left?

                              KAWAKITA
                    Before eight?  You must be joking.
                    She's in the physical anthro lab
                    making up for lost time.

     Pendergast nods his thanks.

     INT. MUSEUM HALL OF THE GEMS - NIGHT

     The gems glow in the darkness as Pendergast passes through the now
     empty room.

     INT. METEORITE ROOM - NIGHT

     Pendergast's footfalls are lost in the carpet as he goes down the far
     stairs.

     INT. HALLWAY - MUSEUM - NIGHT

     Pendergast goes down a long, dark hall alone.  He arrives at a door
     marked PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY LAB, enters.

     INT. PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY LAB - NIGHT

     The skeletons throw odd shadows on the ceiling.  Margo's computer
     screen glows at the end of the room, casting the only light.  But her
     chair is empty.  The room is quiet.  Pendergast approaches slowly, looks
     around.

                              PENDERGAST
                    Dr. Green?

     No answer.  Pendergast glances at the computer screen, sees graphs and
     complicated notations.  He scrolls down, leans closer.  He can't figure
     it out.  He slides into Margo's chair, fascinated.  Then...

                              MARGO (OS)
                    You have a warrant to look at that?

     Pendergast leaps up.  Margo has appeared in the doorway behind him, a
     cup of coffee in her hand.

                              PENDERGAST
                    Special Agent Pendergast.  FBI.
                    Forgive me.  I guess I was snooping.
                    What is this?

                              MARGO
                    An invention of mine.  It's a
                    computer program designed to
                    describe the characteristics of a
                    given species from a reading of its
                    DNA.  I call it the Genetic Sequence
                    Extrapolator.

                              PENDERGAST
                    How does it work?

                              MARGO
                    With a DNA analysis from a fossil
                    you can use this program to tell the
                    species and sex of the animal,
                    whether it was nocturnal, what it
                    ate, how it hunted, how big it
                    was...
                        (abrupt)
                    You aren't here for a lesson in DNA.

                              PENDERGAST
                    No.
                        (a moment)
                    I came to talk about Dr. John
                    Whittlesley.

     Margo turns to put down her coffee.  She takes a moment to compose
     herself.  When she turns back, her voice is quiet.

                              MARGO
                    Somehow, when all this happened... I
                    knew it would come back to John.  Is
                    he really dead?

                              PENDERGAST
                    Maybe not.

                              MARGO
                    If he were alive he'd have contacted
                    me.

                              PENDERGAST
                    You have time to talk?

     INT. MUSEUM HALLS - NIGHT

     Pendergast and Margo walk together though various exhibits and halls.
     They pass dioramas of ferocious wild animals that have been tamed and
     stuffed behind glass.

                              PENDERGAST
                    Dr. Whittlesley was last seen in
                    Belem, Venezuela a week after the
                    rest of his expedition disappeared.
                    A taxi driver drove him to the
                    harbor where he boarded a cargo
                    boat.  That boat washed up in my
                    district.  Everyone on board was
                    killed.

                              MARGO
                    And John?

                              PENDERGAST
                    Disappeared.  His body wasn't among
                    the victims.

                              MARGO
                    I don't understand.

                              PENDERGAST
                    The people killed were mauled and
                    their brains were eaten.  Just like
                    Beauregard.  One part of the brain
                    was extracted with surgical
                    precision.  The hypothalamus and
                    thalamus to be exact.

     Margo pales.

                              MARGO
                    John couldn't have anything to do
                    with a horrible thing like that.  He
                    was a fine man despite his
                    problems --

                              PENDERGAST
                    You loved him.

                              MARGO
                        (a moment, taken aback)
                    Yes.  Once.  We met at Columbia.  John
                    held the Cadwalader Chair in
                    Statistical Paleontology when I was
                    a grad student there.

                              PENDERGAST
                    You were going to be married.

                              MARGO
                    How did you know that?

                              PENDERGAST
                    I ran an internet search on Dr.
                    Whittlesley.  Got a list of his
                    scholarly articles and the
                    engagement announcement in the
                    Times.  I also found a record of your
                    restraining order.

                              MARGO
                    That was two years ago.  John was
                    still in love with me.
                        (she looks down)
                    He wouldn't leave me alone.

                              PENDERGAST
                    You were afraid of him, weren't you?

                              MARGO
                    He was afraid of himself.  He tried
                    suicide once.  He was ill.  Manic
                    depressive.  He had wild emotional
                    highs and lows.  Not a happy
                    affliction for a scientist.  He'd
                    been revered in our community.  By
                    the end he was a joke.

                              PENDERGAST
                    Tell me about the last expedition.
                    What was he looking for?

                              MARGO
                    A legendary monster called Mbwun.

                              PENDERGAST
                    A monster?

                              MARGO
                    Yes.  He developed his own theory
                    that he called the Calisto Effect.
                    It held that evolution wasn't always
                    gradual or driven by natural
                    selection.  The environment would
                    sometimes cause sudden and grotesque
                    changes which could result in a
                    "monster species".  It made no sense.
                    But he felt he had evidence that
                    Mbwun was such a monster, living in
                    isolation on the tepui for thousands
                    of years.

                              PENDERGAST
                    What happened?

                              MARGO
                    No one knows.  The Kothoga who live
                    on the tepui are cannibals.

     Margo's voice catches again.  Pendergast reaches for his handkerchief
     but she shakes her head, determined to keep control.

                              MARGO
                    No.  I'm all right.  I won't let this
                    affect me anymore.  John wouldn't get
                    help.  His ego endangered the lives
                    of others.  His theory came first.

                              PENDERGAST
                    What if Whittlesley arrived on the
                    tepui and no monster was there?  Was
                    he desperate enough to create one?

                              MARGO
                    I don't understand.

                              PENDERGAST
                    Something came up in autopsy
                    tonight.  Imbedded in Beauregard's
                    body we found a claw.

                              MARGO
                    My God.  Then it was an animal.

                              PENDERGAST
                    I don't think so.  I think we were
                    meant to think it was Mbwun.  Did
                    Whittlesley's monster have claws?

                              MARGO
                    I don't know.  He sent back a statue
                    that's supposed to be an exact
                    representation.  But I've never seen
                    it.  It's in the exhibit.

                              PENDERGAST
                    Would you mind showing it to me?

     INT. SUPERSTITION EXHIBIT - NIGHT

     This exhibit is unlike anything we've seen in the museum.  Horrifying
     artifacts under single spots appear to float in a velvet blackness.
     Patterns of light and shadow play over skeletons and voodoo dolls.
     There are tombs, a torture chamber, and endlessly curving, maze-like,
     winding halls.

                              PENDERGAST
                    Where would we find it?

                              MARGO
                    I'm not sure.  We should split up.
                    You take that hall and I'll take
                    this one.

                              PENDERGAST
                    All right.  I'm as macho as you are.
                    Perhaps.

     Without further discussion, Margo takes the right fork leaving
     Pendergast behind.

     ON MARGO...

     As she finds herself alone.  The silence is intense.  She heads slowly
     into another long, dark, tunnel passing a set of Maori tattooed heads.
     The eyes are stuffed with fibers, the shriveled lips are drawn back
     from rotting teeth.  Margo passes without a look.

     ON PENDERGAST

     In another part of the exhibit, he nears a Mayan tomb.  A skeleton in
     the center wears a headdress and tribal robes.  Gold rings encircle
     bony fingers.  Pendergast takes a moment to appreciate it, heads into
     the next hall.

     ON MARGO

     getting farther from pendergast, and ever deeper into the gloom.  The
     walls around her are lined with symbols of witchcraft.  There are
     shaman dancers, masks covered in grasses and shells.  From the New
     Guinea coast there is Kokpah, God of a secret male society, and Zoe-
     ba, an awesome mannequin in black costume with an angry pointed mask.

     Finally the walls open up into another gallery.  Beyond it is more of
     the shadowy hall.  Margo stops and for the first time she wavers.  This
     gallery is the most frightening yet.  It features images of THE DEVIL
     from different cultures around the world.

     In the dim light, Margo is dwarfed by abhorrent statues of SATAN,
     TORNARSUK (the Eskimo evil spirit), INCUBI from India, Tibet, New
     Guinea etc.  And there in the center of the gallery sitting on an altar
     and lit by a spot, is a small figurine.  Margo is instantly drawn to
     it.  As she gets close enough she sees the label in Gothic letters.

                              MBWUN

                    Savage God of the Kothoga, also
                    known as "HE WHO WALKS ON ALL
                    FOURS".

     The statue is terrifyingly life-like.  Margo stares at The Beast.  Mbwun
     is covered in scales and stiff hair, with glittering green eyes and
     crude, reptilian features.  The figure is hunched over in a threatening
     crouch.  It's long forearms trail to the ground ending in THREE LARGE
     CLAWS!