A man in a bad wig is striding purposefully toward us. Right now, we don't need to know his name, so we'll just identify him by his most memorable attribute: WIG.

We're on the street. People pass Wig in either direction. He just keeps looking straight ahead, keeps walking.

WIG (V/O):
Go. Fortrightly. Boldly. Look neither to the left nor to the right. You have your mission. Concentrate only on your mission. Don't be distracted. Distraction is everywhere. Float above it.

CUT TO:
Another street. Wig is still walking toward us. He passes a BUSKER with a banjo.

WIG (V/O):
Don't stop. Don't slow down. Don't listen to the music. Music weakens the resolve. Music siphons the life essence. Keep walking.

CUT TO:
A back alley. Wig is still walking toward us.

WIG (V/O):
Darkness, light. What do these things matter? Love, hate. Pain, pleasure. I know only the rhythm of moving forward. Bullets can't stop me. Fire can't slow me. I know only that the reward of treachery is death.

CUT TO:
Inside an office building. Wig is still walking toward us.

WIG (V/O):
In a universe of souls, what is one soul, more or less? Loved or unloved, what does it matter?

As the voice-over continues, Wig mounts a staircase and turns into a corridor.

WIG (V/O):
The lowliest bacterium, the mightiest god. They blink into existence, then blink out of it. No-one weeps. At least, not for very long.

He stops at a door and enters without knocking. A bald man is sitting behind a desk - this is ERNIE.

ERNIE:
Yes, can I help you? Murray? What do you want? What's going on?

Ernie rises and stands beside his desk. Wig approaches and stops directly in front of him.

WIG (V/O):
Don't hesitate. One is as good as another.

THE WIG LEAPS FROM THE FIRST MAN'S HEAD onto Ernie's bald head.

The first man - MURRAY - looks confused. He blinks and stares around as though he's just awakened in a strange room.

Ernie - NOW WEARING THE WIG - looks straight ahead. He walks toward us and out of the office.

WIG (V/O):
There is only the mission. There are no other factors. The sun and the moon, the earth and the ocean. Boil them all together.

As Ernie walks down the corridor, his ASSISTANT runs up behind him.

ASSISTANT:
Ernie? Where are you going? What's Murray doing here?

WIG (V/O):
Do not talk to the woman. Do not listen to her. Do not feel her hand on your arm.

The assistant puts her hand on his arm. Ernie keeps walking. End of the corridor, down the stairs. His assistant stops at the top of the staircase, watching him descend, puzzled. She calls after him:

ASSISTANT:
Should I reschedule Carol?

CUT TO:
The street. Ernie is walking toward us.

WIG (V/O):
Better to be blasted through space. Better to be torn through time. Better to be baked on the sun-hardened sands of Mercury than to suffer a traitor. Traitors will be destroyed. Traitors must be destroyed. It is the only law that is universal. The only law that transcends race, species, atomic polarity...

He turns into the entrance of an apartment building. He pauses at the door and pulls out a CHAIN FULL OF KEYS. He tries the first one in the door, and it doesn't fit. He tries the next one.

WIG (V/O):
The mission is everything. In future days perhaps there will be peace, perhaps there will be unhurried reflections on battles fought. Now there is only haste and hurry. Coiled serpents in the veins. Blood that beats with the songs of billions.

He finds the key that fits. The door swings open.

CUT TO:
An elevator. Ernie is staring straight ahead as the elevator goes up.

WIG (V/O):
Only the mission. Only the mission. Only the mission.

CUT TO:
An apartment. A woman - PAULETTE - comes out of the kitchen carrying a glass of milk. She gives a start as she sees Ernie standing in the hall.

PAULETTE:
Jesus! Ernie? What the hell are you...? What is that thing on your head?

THE WIG LEAPS FROM ERNIE'S HEAD onto Paulette's head.

CUT TO:
The elevator. Paulette - NOW WEARING THE WIG - is staring straight ahead as the elevator goes down.

WIG (V/O):
Only the mission. Only the mission.

CUT TO:
The street. Paulette is walking toward us.

WIG (V/O):
Treachery. It coils around us like greasy smoke. It leeches into our blood and saps our power. Like a toxin. Like an inebriant. Like...music...

Paulette slows down as she passes the BANJO-PLAYING BUSKER.

She stops in front of him and watches him play a song. Her mouth is slack, but her eyes move like she's trying to communicate something.

The busker stops and looks at her.

BUSKER:
You all right?

PAULETTE:
I...

WIG (V/O):
ONLY THE MISSION!

Paulette quick-turns and resumes her march. The busker watches her go.

WIG (V/O):
Music weakens the resolve. Music siphons the life essence. How many battles have been lost because of music? How many lives sacrificed?

CUT TO:
Another office building. In the foreground, a SECURITY GUARD is talking to a MANAGER.

GUARD:
...So I says to him, Murray, what the hell are you doing in here? Casey told me you scared her near half to death. And he just stares at me like he don't speak English. So I says...

Behind them, and unnoticed by either, Paulette enters and marches up the escalator.

WIG (V/O):
In time our civilisation will fall and a new civilisation will rise in its place. In time our star will go cold and in time beyond that the universe itself will tremble to a halt. But now there is only my mission, and while I live, I live only for the mission. Do not look to the left or the right. Up the stairs.

...The above monologe is concurrent with, and largely drowned out by, the continuing dialogue of the two characters in the foreground:

MANAGER:
Hold on, I don't understand. What was Murray doing in the ladies' room?

GUARD:
Casey said he just walked in on her. But here's the thing...

MANAGER:
He didn't try to touch her? Or...molest her...?

GUARD:
No, no, he just walked in on her. But here's the thing, he was wearing this ridiculous wig. So I says to him...

CUT TO:
The second floor. A corridor. Paulette walks down the corridor and turns into the ladies' room.

CUT TO:
The ladies' room. Paulette enters a stall and sits down on the toilet. She's waiting.

TIME PASSES. We're looking down on the stalls as various women enter, sit down, stand up, flush, and exit. Still Paulette is waiting.

CUT TO:
Inside the stall. Paulette is staring straight ahead. Now we hear footsteps. She cocks her head, then rises.

CUT TO:
The sink. A woman named DIANNE is rinsing out her coffee cup. Behind her the stall door opens and Paulette steps out. Dianne looks up into the mirror. Their eyes meet.

Dianne turns. They face each other.

PAULETTE:
Traitor! In the name of our forefathers, and by the authority vested in me by the Council of Illuminates, I sentence you to death!

Dianne's HAIR STARTS TO GROWL.

Paulette's wig GROWLS BACK.

It sounds like a couple of angry pumas about to pounce.

Now, with a howl, Paulette's wig and Dianne's hair - also a wig - leap toward each other and collide in midair.

The wigs fall to the floor and there is a vicious WIG FIGHT, with sound effects.

CUT TO:
The second floor corridor. The door of the ladies' room.

Nothing happens for a few seconds. All is silent.

Then the door opens and Dianne emerges. Her wig is in place, but a little mussed. Dianne is leading Paulette, who is now wigless, and obviously confused.

PAULETTE:
...but I don't understand how I got here...

DIANNE:
It's alright, sweetie, we'll call you a taxi and get you straight home.

PAULETTE:
What time is it?

...And they wander offscreen. We PUSH IN toward the ladies' room door...and...

CUT TO:
Inside the ladies' room. There are signs of a wig fight - loose hairs scattered everywhere...

We TRACK AROUND the bathroom, but there is nobody to be found...until we PUSH IN to the garbage can...

There, half buried in used paper towels, is our hero THE WIG.

WIG (V/O):
...The lowliest bacterium...the mightiest god...they blink into existence, then blink out of it. No-one weeps...at least...not for very long...

THE END.