ACT I
SCENE I

[enter CIA and three HENCHMAN, stage right. They wait.]

[enter MASKETTA with three PRISONERS and PAVEL.]

CIA: Doctor Pavel, good friend and true ally -
CIA am I, an agent of truth
Who shall deliver you thus to safety.

MASKETTA: But hark, friend, for Pavel was not alone;
This trio, haughty and rough, did we find
In the company of your valued prize.

CIA: Nay, art thou dim? These friends you shall not bring.

PAVEL: Friends? These are no friends of mine, CIA.

MASKETTA: These bounties you may claim freely, my friend,
Though worthless they are not, for they are great
Of danger and great of value – these men
Do work for the fearful mercenary:
The villain, the shadow, the great masked man.

CIA: It is of Bane you speak – my one true prize?
[MASKETTA nods.]

CIA: Then go hence and get these bandits on board.

ACT I
SCENE II

[enter CIA, the three PRISONERS and the three HENCHMEN.]

CIA: What bring’st thou into my operation?

[CIA pulls out a gun and a roll of parchment.]

CIA: This flight plan, drafted in haste, makes note of
Myself, my men, yet only one of you!

[the HENCHMAN drag one of the PRISONERS downstage]

CIA: He who shall divulge that which we must know
Shall remain safe and unharmed here within –
But he who covets silence above all
Shall fly: out, out, and down towards the Earth.
[to the first PRISONER]
Tell me true – who is your sole financier?
[CIA fires his gun off-stage. The HENCHMEN drag the PRISONER back upstage]
CIA: This man’s wings failed him in the last: pity him!
Bring up the next victim of our dark scheme!
[aside]
And mayhaps this next man shall spill the truth,
Or I am lost for a new idea!

[the HENCHMEN drag the next PRISONER downstage]

CIA: Tell me quick, of Bane and his evil plans!
[pause]
Loyal, this one – for a mercenary.

[the third PRISONER speaks up]

PRISONER: Or perchance he is puzzled that you might
Discharge shot and flame into a man’s head
Before ejecting him whence from this plane.

CIA: At last – your tongue seems open and willing!
Tell me, my prisoner, what is thy name?

PRISONER: Thou would’st not have given thought to me, true,
Had I not adopted this maskéd guise.

[CIA takes off the PRISONER’S hood. This is Bane.]
BANE: Identity is lost, words matter not:
Of sole importance is our final plan.

CIA: If I take this off, render you maskless –
Will your life be forfeit? Will you thus die?

BANE: The searing pain should be too much to bear…

CIA: But great of stature and strength, art thou not?

BANE: …Forsooth, though I mark the pain to be yours.

CIA: And to become my prisoner, my prize:
Was this some sordid scheme hatched in your head?

BANE: There is no doubt of this, for we strove to
Learn that which Doctor Pavel had told you.

PAVEL: My prattling tongue was stilled in fear of you,
O great and terrible master of fear!

CIA: And here you stand, Bane, captured and helpless:
What steps shall you now take, in this great and
So terrible plan you have enacted?

BANE: I think you have guessed it, my poor doomed foe,
For next, by wit and power, I shall thus
Conclude my great plot, devilish and fearful,
By crashing this play… with no survivors!