Misha Williams

 77 
BRIAN 
Oh, Raleigh. It's surreal. A cocktail bar in the jungle.  
Those undulating blacks… Half naked transvestites…               
Babies of three crawling round begging. It's Dante's 
Inferno. 
 
RALEIGH 
Nobody blinks at it. We're outside the law. That's why 
there are old Germans, Hitler fugitives, in there. You 
can do any unsocial thing you want here, Brian. It's 
rather great. 
 
BRIAN 
I think I should help you get out. 
 
RALEIGH 
I don't want to, thanks. I like living in anarchy. Gun 
fights. Indian attacks. That sort of thing. Just look in 
the river. Scores of white corpses, full of arrows, half-
eaten by Piranhas. Here. You'll need one of these, you 
gringo. 
 
He hands him a revolver.  
 
BRIAN 
Thanks. I'll return it on my way out. Where are we, in 
God's name? 
 
RALEIGH 
Ap-yac-as. Or up-your-arse as I call it. 
 
BRIAN 
It's certainly not in the Fodor Guide. 
 
RALEIGH 
Brian. You're wasting your time. You know they must 
be dead. 
 
BRIAN 
How would you know? You deserted… 
 
RALEIGH  
They left me to die actually. Your noble father and 
brother…My foot went very lame and they were 

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 78 
determined to get to their rendezvous with the 
priesthood, come what may. 
 
BRIAN 
Raleigh. You're not such a bad sort. Here have my 
card. That's my phone number in Carlisle. Just in case 
you ever come back. 
 
Music. Light fades. 
 
 
SCENE FOUR.  MATO GROSSO VOID. 
 
ALBERT in spotlight. Dressed up in a designer explorer's outfit. He is 
cheerful again. To audience. 
 
ALBERT 
I wasn't finished with the Fawcett saga. Not by a long 
way. Without Jess's cynical presence I was able to let 
rip. Untrammelled, I set off for New York and found 
Fawcett's original manuscript in a New York archive 
and it bore no resemblance whatever to the huge best 
seller "autobiography" which Brian claims to have 
merely edited. In fact Brian wrote it himself from a few 
notes and essays claiming it was all his father's work 
and put a smoke screen over the real story. Brian very 
cleverly created a cosy imperial adventure tale to 
mislead the public for generations to come. Brian is the 
only one alive who knows the motives for that 
mysterious quest. Motives perhaps too shocking for the 
public to take in. Sacrificing your son like Abraham and 
Isaac…When I heard he had returned to Mato Grosso I 
had no option but to follow him. 
 
He checks his digital video camera and lines it up, hand-held for a close-
up of himself. 
 
ALBERT 
(To camera) Brian Fawcett is the last connection and 
only connection I have of getting to the facts. So here I 
am in Cuiaba. The jumping off point of all expeditions 
into the dangerous Mato Grosso.. I'm just going to 
enjoy a  glass of Kachasa and then off to "Dead Horse 
Camp"…… 

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 79 
Music.  
"M" in black, full-length peasant clothes with a frightening grin has crept 
up on ALBERT and as he turns, confronts him, their faces inches apart. 
 
ALBERT 
What? …O que o disse, senhora? 
 
"M" gives him an overpowering stare. 
 
ALBERT 
Who the hell are you? Christ, you're giving me the evil 
eye!… 
 
"M" continues for an excruciatingly long moment. 
 
 
ALBERT 
Cruzieros? 
 
He reaches for money to give her. She ignores the gesture and continues 
staring, freezing him to the spot. 
 
ALBERT 
Your eyes….are inhuman! 
 
"M" 
(Quietly) I've got you! 
 
Blackout. 
 
 
SCENE FIVE. RIO SANGUE.  
 
Night. BRIAN lies asleep on the ground. Voices come in and out of his 
mind as shadowy figures pass by. The voices are recorded with echo 
distortion and have a weird uneasy quality. 
 
VOICE OF STRAUSS 
(A Brazilian German accent) My name is Colonel Paulo 
Strauss of the Brazil Theosophical Society. Your father 
reached his intended destination and descended into an  
underground city inhabited by Martians. He emerges 
from time to time aboard a flying saucer… 
 

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 80 
 
VOICE OF PATERSON 
(Irritated Imperial English voice) I'm disgusted by the 
way you continually ignore my researches. I'm Timothy 
Paterson, Fawcett's nephew and I know what I'm 
talking about! Uncle Percy actually found a sixteen 
million-year-old city and has since been involved in 
switching mankind from the fifth sub race to the sixth 
sub race of the Fifth Root race, if you follow me. The 
task is not easy, living as one does between the fourth 
and the ninth dimensions. Its time you accepted these 
facts. 
 
VOICE OF CHABBERT 
(Friendly American voice). Brian Hi! Rene Chabbert, 
here. I finally solved it. Your father's lost city does 
exist. I found it on Landstat Satellite X-ray photos. It's 
right there West of Cuiaba. I was planning to reach it in 
a hot air ballon, but unfortunately I've had a motor 
accident and don't walk anymore. But I know Fawcett 
freaks from all over the world will take up the 
challenge…Somebody will reach that lost city very 
soon. 
 
BARNES 
(An erudite cockney accent) Mr Fawcett. Brian, if I may 
call you so. The statuette your father took with him 
was not from Atlantis or even Brazil. Sir Henry Rider 
Haggard picked it up from Zimbabwe. He was being 
shown round the old ruins and just popped the 
statuette into his pocket. As regards old artifacts he 
seems to have been a bit of a kleptomaniac. The words 
on it are Phoenician and translate: 
 "To invoke a happy future, just come along to my 
temple." 
 
BACON 
(Voice of mild English alternative academic) Brian… 
I can honestly say that a day doesn't go by when I am 
not in touch with your father… He is with the Great 
White Brotherhood.…and achieving supreme results in 
furthering the world's progress towards a new Golden 
Age… Should you not take a more compassionate 

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