"Come Spy With Me" is the twenty-second mission of Season 9.
Finally reunited with Sam and have a plan to escape. But someone has hidden secrets and the enemy has more eyes than you know.
Cast[]
Crew[]
- Writer: Zombies, Run! Writing Team
- Director: Matt Wieteska
- Sound Designer: Mark Pittam
- Series Created By: Naomi Alderman
Plot[]
Drone Escape[]
Maryam and Janine have a plan to buy time to get you to the Mahgreb Protectorate. The metal room you're in acts as a Faraday cage as Maryam sets off an EMP to take out the nearby drones and the radio tower. It also prevents images being take from the area for a few days until Red Scorpion fixes things. Unfortunately, you have to take Ernie Van Ark with you. While Sam rummages in his bag, a drone escapes. It must have hidden in the bag and wasn't hit by the EMP. You need to catch it quickly! It could destroy your whole plan!
In Sight[]
Sam has climbed up the radio tower with binoculars to get a better view. He's spotted the drone and you're heading in the right direction. Ernie is trying to get the long-range monitoring equipment working. Maryam spots the drone ahead. After it!
Tree-climbers[]
Ernie brings seats up for him and Sam that clip onto the tower. He insists that he's not the same person as Van Ark and that Red Scorpion base never told him anything. He's got Janine's monitoring equipment working! Maryam says she's got a good shot if you hold her up, but she misses when she's startled by zombies in the trees!
Backup Generator[]
You're escaped the zoms, but are having trouble locating the drone again. Ernie wonders if it's possible he could have some of Van Ark's memories. Sam tells him that you just don't know what Van Ark did to himself with those injections. You hear a hum on Sam's end of the line, and realise that the backup generator for the radio tower is coming on. Thankfully you've spotted the drone again.
Everyday Occurrence[]
You've got about ten minutes until the backup generator is completely online. Ernie says it's unusual to have backup systems here and Maryam realises that means Guillemette thought you would come this way. She asks Sam to connect Janine's equipment to a satellite using a code. It gives you access to the Maghreb satellite, and live images of the area. Maryam admits that as well as being a doctor she's also a spy for the Maghreb protectorate. Ernie is shocked but Sam is nonplussed – this sort of thing happens to you a lot and he's choosing to trust her.
Exposed[]
You manage to catch the drone. Sam asks Maryam to explain herself. She says that she really was a doctor and children's TV presenter, who had a show teaching children how they could help make the world a better place. When the apocalypse came, and Red Scorpion base launched an unprovoked attack against the Maghreb, she decided to become a spy to help. Red Scorpion base hoard supplies and are extremely paranoid. She was heading to New Agadir to do recon when she found out about you, and she joined up with you. She even managed to plant a few bugs in Red Scorpion base while you were there. The Maghreb knew she was joining up with you, and they will help you if you can get there. But there are Red Scorpion helicopters on the horizon. You need to run and meet up at the bridge!
Tracking Dilemma[]
You manage to meet up with Sam and Ernie while the helicopters head to the cell tower. You need to head into the mountains to be out of range. Maryam says that she's sent one of her people to pick Peter up. But Ernie thinks that the cameras in the cell tower came back online just as you were leaving. If they managed to get a picture, then Red Scorpion base will figure out that you've been able to track each other and be able to use it themselves.
Transcript[]
[door clangs shut]
SAM YAO: So we are safe in here when you do the uh, the uh, thingy outside, right, Maryam?
MARYAM ABANI: Safe as we can be while we’re still in Red Scorpion territory with a bounty on your head, Five here. Janine explained the whole plan to me. We’re buying time for her and Mo to arrange transport to the Maghreb Protectorate for you, Five. This metal room is a Faraday cage. I’m setting off a small EMP outside to take down the cell tower we’re in and all the drones around us.
SAM YAO: But that means all long-range comms will be down, right? Now what if Peter tries to get in touch with us? What if he’s in trouble and needs us?
MARYAM ABANI: Janine said that’s highly unlikely, Sam. He knows any communication could give his position away. He’s strong! Well, [laughs] from what you’ve told me, he’s virtually immortal. He’ll be fine.
SAM YAO: Hmm. I know, I know. And Veronica will be safe in here from the EMP, too. Okay. Yeah. You can go ahead.
MARYAM ABANI: Take my binoculars. You might be able to see it happen. Three, two, one, now!
[electricity zaps]
SAM YAO: Oh wow! Did you see that, Five? In the tree canopy, those things that look like big insects just-just plummeting! I count what, five? No, six of them.
MARYAM ABANI: This area is full of Red Scorpion drones. Now the cell tower we’re in is out of action, not only are the drones dead, but no pictures can be transmitted from this whole area. Should be two or three days before Red Scorpion can fix it.
SAM YAO: And by that time, we’ll be more than halfway there, Five. We can send someone back for Peter once we’re safe. If they don’t catch up with us using Mr. Trustworthy’s tracker. [sighs] I can’t believe Janine thinks we have to take Ernie with us. “Better than leave him to betray our location to our enemies, Mr. Yao.” I mean, when she’s right, she’s right, but… I wish she were wrong. [door creaks open] You all right out there, Ernie?
ERNEST VAN ARK: Oh, um… yes, I suppose so. Thinking about all you’ve told me. It’s… a lot to take in.
SAM YAO: Yeah, well, we can talk all about it over the next three days of hiking through some lovely forest mountains. Nature and nurture, good and evil. Why we didn’t really uh, oh you know, trust you even before you planted a tracker on Five. Oh, lots of time for all that fun chat.
ERNEST VAN ARK: That’s sarcasm, isn’t it?
SAM YAO: Yeah, it could be. Hey, Five, never guess what I’ve got. Saved it for a special occasion, and I think this reunion is it. In my pack, I’ve only gone and got… a Curly Wurly! Let me just get it. [backpack unzips, drone whirs] What is that?
MARYAM ABANI: It’s a drone! Must have hidden in your pack when we were in the Faraday room. It couldn’t transmit in there, it won’t have given us away before the EMP, but it could now. We have to stop it!
I’ve winged it, but it’s still flying! We have to chase it down, Five. It’ll have photos of you, proving to Red Scorpion that you’re still alive. All Janine’s good work undone! We need to get out of this cell tower and catch it before it gets in range of another tower. Run!
~
SAM YAO: All right, I’m climbing up the cell tower mast here with my binoculars. You’re both hearing me okay?
MARYAM ABANI: Loud and clear, Sam.
SAM YAO: Right. Now that drone has a distinctive shape. Now I’ve got it in sight and you’re heading in the right direction. Up the forest path ahead of you.
MARYAM ABANI: I’m a good shot. Years of… archery on the kids TV show I presented. If we have a clear sight of it, I’ll be able to take it out.
SAM YAO: It’s heading north toward the next communication cell over.
MARYAM ABANI: Janine left long-range monitoring equipment in my pack, Sam. If you get it working, you should be able to keep track of the drone all the way to the edge of the comm cell.
SAM YAO: Yeah, Ernie’s examining it now. Now I don’t like letting him anywhere near any technology, really. I know he’s not really Van Ark, and he turns out not to have been the boss of Red Scorpion… but he was grown from bits of Van Ark, so maybe he sort of is him?
MARYAM ABANI: Needs must. Just as long as we keep the drone in sight. There it is, Five! I just glimpsed it in a gap in the trees. We can catch it. Run!
~
ERNEST VAN ARK: Here, Sam, I brought up two of these little seats I found. Look. They fasten onto the tower, you see? So we can be comfortable and secure up here while we keep an eye on Maryam and Five.
SAM YAO: Hmm. Yeah, I suppose that is a bit better. Used them before at the base?
ERNEST VAN ARK: No, I-I just figured out how they work by looking at them. I’m good with… I’ve got a brain that’s good with technical things.
SAM YAO: Figures.
ERNEST VAN ARK: I’m not him, you know. I don’t remember any of the things you’ve told me, not at all. All I remember is Red Scorpion, watching Friends, looking after the plants. They never told me anything or showed me anything.
SAM YAO: But somehow you did manage to work out how to get the magnification working on Janine’s long-range equipment.
ERNEST VAN ARK: It’s easy, really. Look, you zoom in here. There’s you, Five, and here’s the drone flying low over the trees. I suppose they programmed them that way to evade detection, otherwise it would be too easy for them to be shot down. Did you say that’s how I… the other me died? Shot down with a rocket launcher?
SAM YAO: Yeah, well, we don’t know who did that. Five, Maryam, you’re in a great position. You should see the drone overhead in around 30 seconds.
MARYAM ABANI: Okay, Five, hold my legs. If I stretch out between the trees, I should get a clear shot.
SAM YAO: Oh wow, Maryam, that’s a really impressive position you’re holding.
MARYAM ABANI: Yeah, I did a lot of circus skills for my TV show. Here it comes, Five.
[drone whirs, zombies growl, MARYAM screams]
SAM YAO: What’s happened? Did you get the drone?
MARYAM ABANI: Zombies! Zombies in the trees! Tree-climbing zombies, they’re all around! Five, we’ve got to get out of here. Run!
~
SAM YAO: Okay, keep heading north. You’ve outpaced the zombies.
MARYAM ABANI: Any sign of the drone?
SAM YAO: I’m sure I’ll find it on screen again soon.
MARYAM ABANI: I can’t believe I missed the shot!
SAM YAO: You were literally falling through the air with a zombie falling after you! We’ll find it again.
ERNEST VAN ARK: I’m scanning, but I can’t see it.
SAM YAO: We’ll find it again.
ERNEST VAN ARK: Do you think it’s possible I could have any of Van Ark’s memories in me? Maybe that is how I worked out how to use this gizmo so quickly. In Friends, Phoebe remembered losing an arm in her past lives.
SAM YAO: We don’t know. No one knows! You injected yourself with strange things that only you understood, and no one knows what effect they had on you. But somehow, Red Scorpion managed to regrow you from a teaspoon full of smeared cells. And this is not the time! We need to find the drone! Uh, yeah, what-what’s that sound? That-that humming sound.
ERNEST VAN ARK: Backup generator.
MARYAM ABANI: What? A backup generator for the cell tower? That means it’ll be back online within a few minutes!
SAM YAO: We don’t know that’s what it… wait, there are lights coming on below us. Yeah, yeah, that’s what it is.
ERNEST VAN ARK: Look, on the screen. The drone!
SAM YAO: Northwest of you. Five and Maryam, take the left hand path. Go, run!
~
MARYAM ABANI: Oh, I can’t see it, Sam! Not anywhere.
SAM YAO: No, I’m looking, too. That cell tower underneath us is making all sorts of beeps.
ERNEST VAN ARK: It’s running through its setup. We’ve got about 10 minutes, I think, if that. I worked on some of the telecoms at Red Scorpion, that’s how I know. I don’t remember it from the past.
MARYAM ABANI: All right. If you know so much, what does it mean that they put a backup generator and backup systems here? Do they usually do that?
ERNEST VAN ARK: No, they usually only monitor these towers once a month.
MARYAM ABANI: Guillemette thought we might come this way, that’s what this means. Sam, you’ve got Janine’s equipment. It can connect to satellites.
SAM YAO: Yeah, but we don’t have any satellites.
MARYAM ABANI: Input the following code: Z3H NB8 3419.
SAM YAO: Uh…
MARYAM ABANI: Do it.
SAM YAO: I am… connected to the Maghreb positioning and monitoring satellite! It-it’s sending me live images of where we are.
MARYAM ABANI: You should be able to see the drone with that.
SAM YAO: Maryam.
MARYAM ABANI: Yes?
SAM YAO: You’re not a doctor and children’s TV presenter, are you?
MARYAM ABANI: Not entirely, no.
SAM YAO: So you’re a spy, right? For the Maghreb?
MARYAM ABANI: Yes.
ERNEST VAN ARK: Oh my God.
SAM YAO: Yeah, yeah, this kind of thing happens to us all the time, Ernie. Try not to be surprised, or a bit upset. [sighs] All right. I’m gonna have to trust you, Maryam, even though you’ve uh, you know, been lying to us since we met you. Five, I see the drone on the satellite image! Take the right fork on the path now. Now! You can catch it if you run!
~
[drone whirs]
MARYAM ABANI: There, Five, I see it! Let me boost you up into the tree. [gunshot] You got it! Good shooting, Five.
SAM YAO: That’s fantastic! Well done, everyone. Phew, okay. Okay Ernie, we can come down from our perch. And… and now we’re safe. We’ve all learned a lot about each other today. Maryam, would you like to tell us anything about this-this being a spy business you’ve been up to?
MARYAM ABANI: I’m not here to betray you to Red Scorpion, obviously.
SAM YAO: Well, yeah. I presume you’ve had plenty of chances to do that. So… I guess everything you’ve told us about yourself was a lie.
MARYAM ABANI: Almost none of it was a lie. I really was a kid’s TV presenter. Did I ever tell you what the show was about? We taught children all the little ways you can make the world a better place. And then the apocalypse happened, and Red Scorpion did what they did, and I thought I need to put my money where my mouth is.
SAM YAO: Yeah. Okay, yeah, I get that.
MARYAM ABANI: I promise, the Maghreb want to help you. Red Scorpion have… Red Scorpion think of themselves as the last outpost of the United States of America, maybe the last surviving one. No one knows what’s happened in America.
SAM YAO: The Maghreb was at war with Red Scorpion, right? In the early days of the apocalypse?
MARYAM ABANI: If you call launching an unprovoked attack on us war. Their leadership is paranoid! Whoever their boss is has encouraged them to hoard what they have.
ERNIE VAN ARK: It’s not me.
SAM YAO: Yeah, we know that. What we don’t know is who it was. Abel has, uh… made some enemies over the years.
MARYAM ABANI: The boss might not be anyone you know. They’re keeping close guard on their resources. They believe they have to keep everything they can until they re-establish contact with the USA.
SAM YAO: That’s why they don’t want to release the panacea to the world.
MARYAM ABANI: I was heading for New Agadir to do reconnaissance on Red Scorpion when I heard about you. You didn’t exactly enter the country quietly. I realized you could help me get into the base, so I pretended I’d been sent to help you, just hoping you weren’t in direct contact with the UK.
And it worked! I planted a couple of bugs in Red Scorpion while we were there, and I think I got a computer virus into some of the supersoldier’s augments. Look, the Maghreb knew I was joining up with you. They told me to use my judgment. They will protect you if we get across the border.
SAM YAO: They’ll release the panacea to the world.
MARYAM ABANI: Yes! I know they will.
ERNEST VAN ARK: Sam, I’ve packed up all our things.
SAM YAO: Okay. We should be moving out. Meet you at uh, the bridge half a click from where you are. I think we have a shortcut if we head down that… what’s that, another drone?
MARYAM ABANI: Look, Five, on the horizon. Helicopters. Red Scorpion. Sam, Ernie, you have to get out of the cell tower now. Five, we’re exposed here! We’ll meet at the bridge. Run!
~
MARYAM ABANI: It’s okay, it’s okay! They’re heading for the cell tower. They must just be here because it went out.
SAM YAO: Five, Maryam, good to see you.
MARYAM ABANI: We have to keep moving, up into the mountains again, out of this communication cell. Listen, I couldn’t tell you this before, but I sent one of our people to pick Peter up. He’s safe.
SAM YAO: What, really?
MARYAM ABANI: We’re the good guys, Sam.
SAM YAO: And Red Scorpion still think Five and Janine are dead, so we’re safe, too. For now.
MARYAM ABANI: I think so.
ERNEST VAN ARK: I don’t think we are, actually.
SAM YAO: … Listen, if we are gonna believe you’re not evil, you have to not say things that are incredibly sinister and then just stop, okay?
ERNEST VAN ARK: Oh, sorry. I see what you mean. No, what I mean is that I think the cameras in the cell tower came back online just as we were leaving the building. I saw the red light come on.
SAM YAO: Maybe they didn’t get a picture of us.
MARYAM ABANI: But if they did, if they know you’re with us…
SAM YAO: Then they’ll work out that you had a way to track us, and they’ll use it, too.
Codex[]
Supplies[]
The following supplies can be found in this mission.
(List may be incomplete.)
Axe
Bandages
Batteries
Book
Bottled Water
Box of Lightbulbs
Car Battery
Cooking knife
Makeup
Mobile Phone
Money
Paintbrush
Penknife
Prescription Pain Meds
Radio
Sleeping bag
Sports Bra
Thermal underwear
Tinned Food
Tool Box
Trainers
Trousers
USB Key
Whisky
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