Breakwall - 4.5 - Old Blood
Ripples and Fate
Breakwall - Episode 4.5 - Waylon seeks to confront Nick after concluding his work with Jonny. Follow us on Twitter for news and updates. Join us on discord to hang out with cast and crew! Want to support the show? Please check out our Patreon as Cybernautica is 100% Fan Supported!
CREDITS:
Alexander Doddy as Nick Ballard
Luke A. as Waylon
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Written, Designed and Edited by Damian Szydlo
Script Editing by Jupiter Sanders
Show theme by Doug Maxwell
Music and Sound Effects from Syrinscape & Audioblocks
TRANSCRIPT
[SCENE NOTE: Scene begins as Waylon walks into the Albatross, the hub is quiet and his footsteps are loud as he approaches the bar to take a seat.]
FADE IN
NICK
“Well, I never thought I’d see the likes of Waylon Grant taking up a stool at the Albatross again. A drink, Detective?”
WAYLON
“I’m afraid this is not a social call, Mr. Ballard. I had thought we’d reached a mutual agreement. Terms on avoiding future contact.”
NICK
“That’s right. We did. Though I recall it being a bit short of mutual. More or less me just agreeing to your wishes. You wanted to be left alone, so I left you alone.”
WAYLON
“Yet here we are.”
NICK
“Oh for the love of god, are you really going to look a gift horse in the mouth? I can’t go back and change the way things went…”
WAYLON
“An interesting choice of words seeing as you still found a way to hold your ‘gift’ over my head for your own benefit. Slipping past my defenses. Echoes of our past just below the surface of the present.”
NICK
“Look here, I’ve very few regrets in this life but what I did back then counts for one of them. I was new to the business, Waylon. Thought everything needed to have a price. That I was doing the hub wrong if I’d compromised my client. By the time I came to my senses about the whole thing… it was too late. They’d covered it up, put their sacrificial lambs out for the slaughter.”
WAYLON
“Alex’s life was beyond any price, financial or otherwise. She was only a child.”
NICK
“Do you think I don’t know that? It’s something I’ve lived with ever since. Never shook the shame of it. That I should’ve vetted the job better or maybe that I put too much trust in the system. That I didn’t do MY damn job.”
WAYLON
“After all this time… You’re still holding onto it. Still haunted. Surprisingly sentimental of you.”
NICK
“I told you as much, didn’t I? That I wouldn’t give up on it. Told you I’d keep looking, make it right if I could. Turned out the answers were under my nose the whole time. They’d scrubbed everything. Except for the Fifty-Four-Forties archives. Lucy was smarter than that.”
WAYLON
“You say ‘was’. Ms. Deville… did something occur? Is she alright?”
NICK
“She’s safe. Decided to fold up shop and head towards retirement. Transitioned her hub to Nancy. Seems she grew a heart too big for this business. Figured it’d be shrewd to pluck through the records after she’d uploaded them. That’s where I found the file. Before you’re too hard on her, I don’t think she knew the significance of what she had there. It’s been a minute since it... well, since it all happened.”
WAYLON
“It has. I’m… trying something new. Forgiveness. Let’s put our past out to sea. Besides, we now have bigger problems.”
NICK
“Problems? What do you mean?”
WAYLON
“Ripples. I fear that when you stirred the waters… found what you did about Alex… that you disturbed fate. The assassin that took the life of your contact was familiar to me.”
NICK
“Christ, I forgot just how vague you could get. Are you going to spit it out?”
WAYLON
“Derby Bell.”
NICK
“Well, I’ll be damned. That’s a name I was hoping would stay out of the business going forward. Thought she’d be content cashing in on her image. She’s back in the game then?”
WAYLON
“So it would seem. She… fortunately didn’t seem to remember me. I’m… uncertain that she would of held her blade even if she had. My past familiarity with her helped in saving your merc. I’d say that we’re even, seeing that it was Jonny’s arm that came between her sword and my own life. If that sounds particularly dire, then I regret to inform you that it gets worse.”
NICK
“Worse than a big money assassin trying to keep me out of her business? Alright, break the hard news to me then.”
WAYLON
“She ID’d your merc by reputation. You’re slipping, Nick. You should have utilized an unknown for the job.”
NICK
“Thought I was. Seems that my little Jonny’s no longer the hubs best kept secret, then. I hate to break off this reunion of ours but there’s no telling how far reaching Derby’s contract is. Preparations need to be made and Jonny needs to be warned. I appreciate the visit, especially given our history. Please, take this chip for your trouble.
WAYLON
“Don’t make this into a transaction, Mr. Ballard. My visit was to say… thank you… and as a professional courtesy. Stay safe, a storm is brewing.”
NICK
“Well, it can’t rain all the time. If you need anything else… with the Alex situation. I’m here.”
FADE OUT