The Transmitter Mast
Billy and Grace
In a small village in southern Holland, Grace Silkson lives, and she is tired—just very tired all day. Her hair is falling out, her nails are eaten short, and she has an inexplicably loud ringing in her ears twenty-for-seven. She herself says it is because of the transmitter mast that was put up near her house a few years ago. The doctor thinks it's all between her ears and dismisses her so-called radiation sickness. Billy's mother knows better, but she’s stuck. Her husband, Gerard Silkson, died of cancer last year, and he initially had the same symptoms Grace has now.
If only she hadn't lost Gerard so early and found herself in need of money, she would be moving out right away. Now she has just enough energy left to go to the bathroom by herself and to walk back and forth to the refrigerator. Her son Billy is eighteen years old and has an intellectual disability; he has no friends at all, dropped out of school early, and now works full time at a bicycle repair shop. It is Billy who does the shopping for his mother and keeps the house somewhat tidy. He can see that his mother’s health is deteriorating, yet the whole situation doesn't really get through to him; the saying "a blessing in disguise" rarely has such a sour aftertaste.
John, Elize, and Eric
John Hartman is in his early twenties and a deft thief of anything he can get his hands on. John has the unique gift of appearing and disappearing unseen, which is very convenient for a thief. Late at night, he sits at home with his girlfriend, Elize, on the couch, watching TV. Elize has been depressed for days, but she just won't tell John why. John knows very well why his girlfriend is depressed. The messages she was getting daily have recently stopped. Those messages she read as carefully and as unobtrusively as possible, but usually right after her phone went off, her attitude changed every time she got a new message and looked at them.
John knew there was someone else. He took drastic measures and secretly gave his girlfriend a sleeping pill about a week ago. While Elize had fallen asleep on the couch, John unlocked Elize's phone with her fingerprint and read the messages sent between Elize and Eric. John typed a message to his girlfriend's lover, got a message back, deleted this message and the message received from Eric, and left his house.
A young man in a leather jacket, jeans, and sneakers walks into an old shed on an abandoned property. It is poorly lit and very dusty. Piles of pallets and boxes lie throughout the shed. The man walks step-by-step further into the shed. "Hello, Elize? Why did you want to meet here? Is this another one of your naughty games?"
Further on, the man hears the sound of a pebble rolling away. At first, he is startled, but then a smile appears on his face.
"Oh, you want me to come find you? Okay, little girl, then I'll look for you, and when I've found you, I'll give it to you good in this dirty, old shed!"
The man walks in the direction from where he just heard the sound.
After he has taken a few steps, a man emerges from behind some boxes. The boy in the leather jacket is startled and shouts, "You?"
"Indeed, Eric!" says the other man from the darkness. "I am Elize's friend!"
No further conversation takes place. A single shot sounds through the shed. John is not much of a talker.
He grabs Eric's phone and sees if he can open it with Eric's fingerprint; fortunately, he succeeds. John sends a message to Elize, stating that it is over between her and Eric and that he does not want to have any contact anymore. Then John destroys the phone, and he throws it along with Eric into a previously chopped hole in the concrete in the middle of the shed. Dropping the dig bucket of a heavy excavator up and down the hole, along with the phone, he pulverizes Eric's body completely, then sets it on fire. When he has distributed Eric's remains among several garbage bags, cleaned the processing site, and refilled the hole with fresh concrete, he waits patiently until it’s night.
John throws garbage bags containing the pulverized and charred remains of Eric off a bridge in the river. The current causes all the evidence to disappear. John cleans the remaining garbage bags at home and throws them away with the rest of the plastic trash. Elize is still asleep. John opens Elize's phone again and sees that she has one unread message—my Dear John message from Eric. perfect!
He closes the phone, puts it in Elize's hand, and goes to bed alone.
Rico and Freek
Middle-aged Rico Van Meersel is the minister of health. A mysterious, debilitating illness is rearing its head in more and more people. Many opposition parties allude to radiation sickness from transmission towers, accuse the minister of laxity, and want him out of the job as quickly as possible. Van Meersel is urinating in the toilet of the Dutch House of Representatives when Minister of Justice Freek Van Der Bomen comes to stand next to him.
The old and experienced Van Der Bomen looks down for a moment and says, "Easy does it, Rico; just aim for the fly, son!"
Rico responds irritably. "Freek, do you mind? I'm a little busy here."
"Ah, come on," responds the Minister of Justice. "I've seen plenty of bared peckers before; what I wanted to tell you is that I might be able to solve your current problems in the House of Representatives."
"I'll be fine, thank you!" replies Van Meersel, hoping Van Der Bomen will leave him alone now, but Freek continues to persuade Rico: "Rico, the people who have a big stake in the 6G network asked me if I couldn't do something for their cause."
Van Meersel holds up one hand and makes a squeezing motion with it. "You mean, they’ve got you by the balls."
Freek smiles briefly and says, "Rico, in this matter, my balls are your balls too. It is essential that 6G moves forward, and you are going to make damn sure of that!"
"What's so special about that 6G?" asks Rico.
Freek Van Der Bomen gives no direct answer to that: "Rico, all we have to know is: if there won't be 6G, there won't be 7G or an 8G, etc. The point here is that if they vote you out, they’ll push your party colleague Annemarie Dommen forward. Annemarie is for more research, and research leads to delay. We don't want a delay, Rico."
Jack H
Rico Van Meersel feels so cornered that he threatens to resign right away. Then Freek threatens that it is now too late for that, for his people will see this as a betrayal, and another delay may very well bring out the worst in them. Under immense pressure, Rico agrees to help the Minister of Justice, who hands him a prepaid phone that has only one number on it. With trembling hands, Rico van Meersel dials the number.
When the phone rings three times, it is answered:
On the other end of the line, a heavy male voice sounds: "Jack Hall."
"Hello?" says Rico.
"Rico, I've been expecting your call."
Rico looks at Freek, who shrugs his shoulders as well as his eyebrows, as if to indicate that, of course, he knows your name.
Rico continues the conversation: "I have a problem."
"I know that, son," replies Jack.
Rico is super nervous and raises his voice. "Well, if you already know everything, then why am I calling you?"
"Because you have to ask me and not the other way around, son."
"What do you want me to ask?"
"Nothing, son."
"Okay!" replies Rico as he tries to control his nerves. "Can you solve my problem?"
"Will do, Rico."
The phone connection is immediately disconnected, and Rico hands the phone back to Freek Van Der Bomen, who takes out the SIM card, breaks it, throws it in the toilet bowl, and flushes it; he puts the phone back in his pocket. "Right choice, Van Meersel. Right choice!"
As Van Der Bomen walks out of the restroom, Rico shouts, "What's going to happen now, Freek? What did I just do?" The answer comes to Rico in the form of a bathroom door that slowly closes.
Jack and Billy
In the afternoon, Billy Silkson rides home from his job at the bicycle repair shop along the meadows. All of a sudden, a man stands in the middle of the road. He waves with two hands. Billy stops and asks what is going on and if he can help the man. The man has a heavy voice and looks like a lumberjack. "Well, son, my car is stuck in the mud, and you look like a very strong boy."
"That's right, sir," brags Billy as he stands triumphantly with his chest out.
Together, the two walk down a side road, where, after a hundred yards, they arrive at the man's car. Together, they push the car out of the mud. "Thank you, son! What's your name?"
"Billy," replies Billy, "and yours?"
"My name is Jack Hall," replies the man as he cleans his hands with a towel he got out of his truck. "Say, Billy, I just rested in the field over there,” as the man points at a transmitter mast in the middle of a field, “and I forgot to bring my bag; can you get it for me, please?"
Billy still has plenty of energy and replies, "Yeah, sure, just tell me where it is."
"You see that transmitter mast? That's where I left it, up against the fence."
Billy walks into the field and has to look hard before he sees the army green bag. When he has walked around the fence of the transmitter mast a few times, he sees it lying there, picks it up, and walks back to Jack Hall. When he returns, the man asks if Billy would like a ride home. Billy politely declines and says that he's almost home. But Jack Hall points to Billy’s flat tire.
"Oh no!" cries Billy, naively as he is. "My tire is flat!"
The Police
Together, Jack and Billy drive toward Billy's house. Jack stops on the side of the road, where there is little traffic, about a mile from Billy’s home and says, "This is where I'll drop you off; otherwise, I'll have to make a detour."
Billy gets out and gets his bike out of the trunk of the car. He thanks Jack Hall for the ride, and he continues walking home. Billy calls out, "Bye!" but Jack is already speeding away.
Later that evening, a police car stops in front of the Silkson family home. The sirens and blue lights turn their living room into a disco. Billy looks out the window with big eyes—how exciting!
Grace also heads to the window to watch the tumult outside and looks worried. "What a racket, huh, Billy?" Grace rubs lovingly through Billy's hair to calm him down.
"They're coming over here!" shouts Billy loudly.
Grace is perplexed and opens the door even before the officers ring the bell: "What's going on, officers?"
Two officers casually walk in, past Grace, while they ask if her son, Billy, might be home.
"May I ask why you want to know this, officer?" asks Grace anxiously.
"We'd like to take him in for questioning, ma'am!" it sounds.
"Questioning? But he didn't do anything!"
Billy holds his mother's arm tightly. "Mommy! Do I have to go?"
"Ma'am, your son is our number one suspect in the case of the transmitter mast fire."
Billy is terrified. "But I didn't do anything!" he cries.
The officer does not respond to Billy's denial and reads him his rights. Then Billy is put in handcuffs and immediately taken away for questioning.
"Good evening; this is the eleven o'clock news. Once again, a transmitter mast has been set on fire. This time in Standdaarbuiten. The police have already arrested a suspect this evening. It is an 18-year-old boy from the same place. He was seen by a security camera hanging near the mast. Minister of Justice Freek Van Der Bomen reacts shocked and says that the perpetrator can count on a hefty punishment despite his youthfulness and his intellectual disability: "This has to end now... 6G has nothing to do with radiation sickness... Baseless allegations... conspiracy theories... We must set an example..."
A month later, Billy is convicted of arson and must serve six months in prison. Poor Billy.
Matt, Conner, and John
It is very early in the morning, and Matt McHeat is sitting with Conner Colt in the back of a blue van, eating sandwiches. The two are employees of a special division of the Homeland Security Department and enjoy great freedom within this organization. Like John Hartman, they take whatever they can get and bend every rule until they have what they want. John Hartman is walking down the street in the early hours of the morning to see where he can easily break into. When he walks past Matt and Conner's van, the door suddenly opens, and he is dragged inside.
When the door slams shut, Conner yells in his ear, "Hey, John. You want a job?"
John looks around and sees that the van is full of eavesdropping devices, and one side hangs full of monitors.
"Who are you?" shouts John.
He immediately gets punched in the face by Matt McHeat. "Shut the fuck up, murderer!"
John hasn't a clue what’s going on. Again, Conner asks John if he wants a job, to which John replies by screaming no. Matt punches him in the face again: "Wrong answer, killer!"
Conner grabs John's pinkie, and he bends it until it breaks. John screams in pain in the practically soundproof van. Conner again asks if John is looking for a job. John understands that these guys only want to hear one answer, and he answers, "Yes, I want a job!"
Conner lets go of him, and John squirms on the floor of the bus in what can only be described as the fetal position. Matt stands in front of John and smiles, "See! I knew you were looking for a job."
Matt pours John a glass of water, and Conner nurses his new colleague's face and carefully splints his broken pinkie. Matt and Conner sit down on two stools, and after John has calmed down a bit, they tell him what they expect of him.
Jack Hall works for Matt and Conner as a fixer, but like Matt and Conner, Jack bends most rules as well. After they bugged the restroom of the House of Representatives for a while, Matt and Conner became suspicious that Jack Hall and Minister of Justice Freek Van Der Bomen were working together, which is strictly forbidden without Matt and Conner's permission. By shadowing Van Der Bomen from that day forward, their suspicion became a reality a couple of weeks later, when Jack Hall and Billy were seen together the day of the fire at the transmitter mast. Jack Hall should “retire”, according to Matt and Conner.
But How Did They Know...
Minister of Justice Freek Van Der Bomen hates loose ends and has ordered Jack Hall to kill Billy. Now that Billy is in jail, he is an easy target. Jack will silence Billy through his connections in prison. It is John's job to protect Billy. When John asks why, Matt replies that Conner and he are after Jack Hall. Jack must disappear because he is only allowed to work for Matt and Conner, and honesty is everything in this business.
There is only one problem: Jack Hall is one of the best and hardest to catch, so it is vital that Billy survives prison. When Billy is a free man again, Jack Hall will personally kill Billy. When John asks what makes Matt so sure, he replies that they know Jack Hall better than anyone else. "When his first idea fails, Jack does it himself." Conner makes an affirmative nodding head movement.
John Hartman is instructed to turn himself in to the police for theft; he must protect Billy in prison. Matt and Conner will arrange for him to be placed in the cell with Billy, and they will also use their connections to determine Billy's sentence, which will be the same length as Billy's. Should John decide to still not cooperate, he will be sentenced for murdering his girlfriend's lover.
John knows he is guilty, but he still wonders where he made a mistake when he took Eric's life. He cleaned up everything nicely, didn't he? How could these two possibly know what I did? Matt replies, "Thank your smartwatch."
"My smart watch?"
Conner smiles and says, "We have been watching you for some time because you are a handy, resourceful, and virtually invisible thief, and we wanted to recruit you for this quality, so you can imagine our surprise when we suddenly saw you dismember someone with an excavator. You were very thorough, and you left no trace. Well, by coincidence, only a digital one, and we have that."
The Prison
Billy Silkson is lying in his bed with his eyes open in the last cell of a long row of cells. When the door to his cell opens, the guard tells him that he will have a new cellmate. Billy looks up curiously from his bed to see who his new cellmate will be. The first one was transferred yesterday without further explanation, and he was quite a nice and quiet man, according to Billy. A big, strong guy walks in with broad shoulders and shaved hair.
He looks like one of those Marine men, Billy thinks to himself, as long as he's nice. It is John Hartman who, thanks to Matt and Conner, is placed in Billy's cell exactly as planned. When the guard has removed John's handcuffs and the see-through hatch is hard-slammed shut, John and Billy are alone, and Billy's curiosity turns to relief when John holds out his hand and introduces himself. John Hartman does a formidable job, and he becomes very close with the feeble-minded Billy in the following weeks.
A few weeks later, Billy and John are shivering in their cell in the evening. When they hear a guard walking by, John bangs on the door and shouts, "Hey, why is it so cold?"
The hatch of their cell door opens, and a voice tells them that the heating has gone out, so John, Billy, and the rest of the prisoners must prepare for a cold night. When the lights go out, Billy and John are shivering in bed. A moment later, John climbs out of bed and crawls into bed with Billy. They lie close together and benefit from each other’s heat. Billy gathers all his courage and asks John what he did to get sent to prison."
John explains that he is a burglar and that he turned himself in because he wants to turn his life around.
"Really?" asks Billy.
"Yes, really!" says John.
John then asks Billy what he did.
"I've been falsely accused of arsing at a transmitter mast, but I swear that I'm innocent!"
"Yes, of course you are," jokes John.
But Billy assures John that it is the truth. "I was coming from work at the bicycle repair shop, and then suddenly a man stood in the middle of the road and asked if I could help him with his car. Then I went and got his bag, which was near the transmitter mast. Well, and then the camera filmed me, and now the police and the judge think I set this mast on fire."
Friendship
John asks if Billy suspects the man of setting fire to the transmission tower. Billy looks at John indignantly and replies innocently as he is, "No, of course not! He was perfectly nice, and because my tire was flat, after I got his bag, he took me home too."
"But they didn't question him?" asks John.
"I never mentioned his name, John. I don't want to get him in trouble."
John cannot believe how naive Billy is, nor can he believe how loyal, innocent, and kind Billy actually is.
"What was that man's name anyway, Billy?"
"Jack Hall."
"Jack Hall?" asks John, "Jack Hall! Like Jackal. I think Jack Hall is a fake name, Billy."
Billy shoots in laughter at John's assumption that Jack Hall is actually Jackal. "That's just a coincidence, don't you think, John?"
"Of course, Billy, that's just a coincidence," replies John, who manages to completely suppress his sarcasm. Billy crawls close to John, who presses him firmly against him.
"John?"
"Yes, Billy?"
"What is your biggest fear?"
"My biggest fear?"
"Yes."
John has to think deeply about this question, and he is surprised that he thinks about it at all because he doesn't care about Billy. Billy is work. Billy is a job, yet after a while, John answers very honestly, "Being betrayed, Billy. But actually, what I'm most afraid of is that I'll never love and trust anyone so much that I won't be afraid of being betrayed anymore."
"I would never betray you, John."
"I know that, Billy. I know that. What about you?"
"What am I most afraid of?" asks Billy.
"Yes."
Billy doesn't have to think about that for long. "I'm afraid of drowning, but most of all, I'm afraid of drowning when no one loves me. I'm afraid of drowning alone, so to speak. No one loves me, John."
"What about your mother?"
"Yeah, that's different. I mean..."
John interrupts Billy and rubs his thumb over Billy's shoulder. "I know what you mean, Bill."
Not much later, the two fall asleep side by side. The next morning, when John returns to his cell from a game of table tennis in the rec room, Billy is nowhere to be seen. John walks back and asks the first person he meets if he has seen Billy. The person replies that he saw Billy walking with a towel. John is startled—that means Billy has gone to take a shower, all alone!
De Beuker
When John arrives at the showers, the guard, Lenny, is standing in front of the doorway. With one arm, he leans against the doorjamb. "Not now, John. Get out of here!"
But John gets in Lenny’s face. When the latter wants to push him away, John grabs his arm, turns his body, and throws the guard down the hall. John runs over to Lenny, who is lying on the floor, groaning in pain, and wields the neck clamp until the guard loses consciousness.
Then John quickly walks into the showers and sees De Beuker, the prison's meanest inmate and Jack Hall's insider, standing behind Billy.
They are alone. De Beuker has his arm firmly clamped around Billy's neck, and with his other hand, he rubs over Billy's buttocks. Instead of immediately freeing Billy from his dire situation, John just stands there for a few seconds, watching the spectacle. Only when De Beuker pushes his genitals against Billy's buttocks and Billy cries out in panic does John intervene. John runs up to the two and bites into De Beuker’s ear. This all-crippling pain causes him to let go of Billy immediately. He then grabs hold of De Beuker's head and bangs it against the wall several times.
When John and Billy are back in their cell a little later, a whole group of guards come in, handcuff John, and take him to the warden's office. Minutes later, John stands in front of the desk of the prison warden, Hans Vromen, and looks at him questioningly. The warden rubs through his little gray beard and asks John what just happened in the showers. John replies that he was attacked by the guard and that he only defended himself when the guard tried to push him away. But the warden won't listen to John and certainly doesn't believe he was trying to save Billy, and John is charged with assault on a guard and an inmate. The warden says John will be placed in isolation for at least a week.
The Rules
As the guards are about to take John away, the warden's phone rings: "Hello, warden Vromen speaking."
It’s the Commissioner of Prisons (one of Matt and Conner's connections). The warden listens intensely to the voice on the other end of the line and doesn't get a word in. A moment later, the warden hangs up. He tells John that there’s been a misunderstanding and orders the guards to take John back to his cell immediately and to transfer De Beuker, who has been taken to the infirmary, to another prison.
Lenny, the guard, can’t believe his ears and yells at the warden, "What is this? Warden, this man attacked me and attacked a prisoner! It's a miracle I'm standing here!"
The warden says he doesn’t want to hear it, and he orders Lenny to take a week's leave. Lenny is beside himself and shouts as he leaves the office that he is not going to let this one slide.
Fifteen minutes later, the warden is sitting alone in his office at his desk when the phone rings. It's Lenny. "Hello, Vromen! Can you have someone pick me up? I just got run off the road by someone."
The warden is startled by this news and asks Lenny if he’s alright.
"I'm fine, but I'm shocked. What a strange day. I could have been killed, and, by the way, that bastard just drove on! That’s a hit and run!"
The warden reassures Lenny and says that a colleague will come to take him home.
When the warden hangs up the phone, it immediately rings again: "Hello, Vromen here."
Through a voice changer Matt McHeat’s distorted voice sounds on the other end of the line: "See what happens when you don't stick to the rules? Accidents happen, don’t they, warden?"
Then Matt hangs up. The warden is not scared off easily and has some connections of his own, but still, he decides not to report this and is sure to leave the whole situation with John, Billy, De Beuker, and Lenny alone.
A few months later, it’s early in the morning as Billy and John walk out of prison simultaneously. They shake hands and say goodbye.
"Well, Billy, take care of yourself!"
"You too, John. And thank you for protecting me."
"No problem, man."
Billy is greeted by his mother, who is parked near the prison gate. John walks across the parking lot, looking for a blue van; at the end of it, Matt and Conner are waiting for John. Matt gets out of the van and congratulates him: "Excellent work, John!"
Conner shakes his hand as he boards the bus. "Great job, man!"
John asks what's next, now that he's free. Matt puts his hand on John's shoulder. "Now you go home, John; we'll be in touch when we need you. Here’s some cash." Matt hands John an envelope with twenty thousand dollars in it.
John Is Home
Less than an hour later, John rings the doorbell at his own house. When Elize opens the door, John grabs her and throws Elize over his shoulder. He immediately runs upstairs and throws her on the bed. Moments later, John and Elize are in bed together. Elize looks sideways at John and says, "It doesn't matter, honey; it's probably because of the stress of the past six months."
Much to his frustration, John can't seem to get excited.
"I don't know, honey," replies John, "maybe I got impotent there."
"Hmm, really?" Elize smiles as her head disappears under the sheets. John feels Elize's hair tickling his chest as she slowly moves down, continuously kissing his body while doing so. John is wondering—how can this be? I've been looking forward to this moment for months, and now nothing happens.
He notices that he is just no longer interested in his wife. For some reason, he misses Billy, and John would prefer to call Billy’s name out loud right now. While Elize’s mouth has arrived at the crown jewels, John's thoughts wander off to prison. He sees himself walking into the showers again, and he sees De Beuker assaulting Billy.
"Mm, there you are!" Moans Elize from under the sheets as all of John's bodily functions begin to fully function again.
John banishes De Beuker from his mind. Billy is now the only one left, and in the middle of the hot, steamy showers, Billy and John embrace and kiss each other. A few minutes later, Elize’s head pops up from under the sheets, and she cleans the corners of her mouth with her fingers. "Wow! That was a lot, honey. See, you still got it!"
With a big grin on his face, John falls asleep immediately.
Home Sweet Home?
After Grace has exuberantly hugged her son, they get into the car that’s parked right in front of the prison and drive home. Billy looks dreamily out of the window of the car at the surroundings, and it seems as if the whole world has changed during his time in prison. He no longer recognizes the surroundings at all. Billy worriedly looks at his mother: "Mommy, where are we?"
Grace smiles as she looks sideways at her son for a moment. "You don't recognize it here, do you, Billy?"
"So, where are we going?"
"We're driving to our new house, Billy!"
"Our new house?"
"Yes, Billy, the Housing Association finally took action and offered us another house."
"Do I have a big bedroom, Mom?"
"Of course, it’s super huge!" shouts Grace out loud as she thoroughly enjoys Billy’s eyes that light up from sheer joy.
Following the many letters Grace has sent, her increasingly deteriorating health, the sentencing of her son Billy Silkson, and the urging of some safety-wise-concerned local residents, the Housing Association decided to place Grace Silkson and her son elsewhere in the village. In her new home, far away from the transmitter mast, Grace visibly got better and is shopping again and doing chores around the house on her own. Billy is happy for his mother, and he’s looking forward to the size of his new bedroom.
After they’ve arrived at home and have finished supper, Billy retreats to his room for a while. Grace smiles contentedly as she watches her son walk up the stairs, happy that everything turned out all right.
The Assault
Matt and Conner are by no means happy about Grace Silkson's good health. The two had counted on her dying soon. After all, a cemetery is the perfect place for a murder. It is enclosed by a dense hedge; there is no camera surveillance; and everyone is focused on the ground, the place where their loved one lies. Their plan is to give Jack Hall the ideal opportunity to kill Billy.
Conner is hiding in the garden that very same evening at the Silkson residence with a heart attack pistol in his hands (this is a silent pistol that, reportedly, was used decades ago by the CIA; it contains a dart made of ice containing a poison that will stop the heart; the victim will show all the signs of a heart attack). Matt and Conner have decided that Grace must go in order to catch Jack Hall. Grace's death will not arouse suspicion from anyone, given her years of well-documented ill health.
While Billy is asleep in his bed at night, Grace goes out in the garden to have a smoke. There is a full moon that night, and Grace looks up to take a good look at the brightness of the moon. A click sounds from the back of the garden; a minute later, Grace Silkson collapses and dies of a heart attack. After a while, Conner emerges from the bushes, climbs over the fence, and disappears unseen into the night.
The Funeral
By eavesdropping on Freek Van Der Bomen, Matt and Conner find out where Billy will be killed. The conversations reveal that Freek Van Der Bomen wants it to look like suicide and wants this whole thing completed as soon as possible. And exactly like Matt and Conner suspected, Jack Hall comes up with the option of killing Billy at his mother's grave. According to Jack, this should make the suicide story all the more plausible; Freek agrees.
Everything goes according to plan. Matt and Conner have been keeping a close eye on the cemetery from their bus since Grace's death, and John has been given a pistol with a silencer to kill Jack Hall. However, the question remains: when will Jack Hall make his move? Billy doesn’t know that John will also be at the cemetery. Matt and Conner forbade John from officially attending Grace's funeral. It is obviously too important to take out Jack Hall.
John would have never even wanted to go to the funeral in the first place if he hadn't been daydreaming about Billy a few days earlier while making love to his girlfriend. But now John increasingly feels that he can't live without Billy, and he doesn't want to betray him. John has betrayed friends before, but never a lover; it's just not in him. Matt and Conner don't care about Billy, but John swears to himself to save Billy before Jack kills him.
Three days later, Grace Silkson was brought to her final resting place. After a short service at the church, the casket is taken to the cemetery. Billy is the only one present. When the pastor and all the funeral home staff have gone, Billy is left sad and alone with the casket at his mother's open grave, where, before leaving for home, he says goodbye to his mother for the last time.
Billy walks quietly down the cemetery. When he’s almost at the exit, John suddenly emerges from behind some conifers and greets him, "Hey, Billy!"
Billy looks sideways, and he is pleasantly surprised to see his friend. "Hello, John, nice to see you again."
"I want to tell you how sorry I am about your mother."
"Thank you," Billy replies. "She was just doing a little better..."
The two talk for a few more minutes. John says he has to go, but before John leaves, he walks up to Billy and kisses him on the mouth. Billy doesn't know what's happening to him, but he holds John tightly and lets it happen, and thousands of butterflies fly through Billy's stomach. John looks at Billy and says, "I really have to go now; take care of yourself."
And as John walks away, Billy keeps watching him until he completely disappears from sight.
Bastard!
When John steps back into the blue van, Matt grabs him and shouts, "What the hell do you think you’re doing, asshole?"
John tries to grab a hold of everything as Matt pushes him in all directions. "What are you talking about, man?"
"The kiss, you faggot! The kiss you gave to the bait!"
John should have known; Conner and Matt don't miss a thing. He looks down, and Matt realizes that John feels something for Billy. "John, you mustn't fall in love!" He places his hand under John's jaw, holds his head up, and looks him in the eyes. "It's bait, John; you're in love with a worm!"
Then Matt and Conner tell John that they saw Jack Hall in the cemetery. In order to be as unobtrusive as possible, Jack left when the funeral home staff also left, so fortunately he did not see John with Billy. Conner is convinced that Jack will strike the next time Billy comes to the cemetery.
John asks if he will also be killed if he continues to work for them, like Jack Hall. Matt sits down on a stool and breathes deeply. "John, if you're going to think for yourself, you're definitely not going to make it. Just roll with the machine; that's how society, prison, and even heaven work; just roll with it, okay?"
John assures Matt and Conner that he will stick to the rules and tells Matt that the kiss with Billy was nothing more than a goodbye kiss.
Matt laughs cynically and responds mockingly, "The Judas kiss."
John is not at all religious and does not understand the comment, "Who is Judas?"
Matt looks at Conner for a moment, rolls his eyes, and then looks at John again and says, "Never mind."
Johns Note
John sits at home at night at the kitchen table with a note and a pen in his hand. He has to warn Billy about Jack Hall. He writes down a warning to Billy and puts the note in his pocket—even if I have to sneak out to the cemetery every night from now on. I won't let you down, Billy.
John can't call Billy or visit him because Matt and Conner see and hear everything. John puts on his coat and lays his phone on the chair in the kitchen, so they can't track him.
He carefully walks outside. Fortunately, his specialty is getting from A to B unseen, so this should work. He sneaks through all the adjacent gardens and disappears unseen into the night. When he arrives at the cemetery, he worms his way through the thick hedge, places the note for Billy on Grace Silkson's grave, and disappears again.
Bye, Billy
As expected, Billy goes to visit his mother the very next morning. Matt, Conner, and John stand guard on a side street far away from the cemetery. In the bus, all the screens are on and connected to the hidden cameras that monitor various streets in the area, as well as the cemetery and, of course, Grace Silkson's grave.
A black BMW pulls up and parks in a dark section of one of the nearby streets. A man in a black suit gets out and walks inconspicuously toward the cemetery. Conner and Matt stare wide-eyed at the screen. “It’s him!” Matt whispers.
Conner taps John on the shoulder, "Walk over to that BMW and make sure you are not seen."
That's no problem for John; he leaves the bus toward the street where Jack Hall's BMW is parked, and he thinks of only one thing—read the note, Billy!
Billy walks through the entrance of the deserted cemetery to his mother's grave with a bouquet of flowers in his hand. Moments later, Billy stands at his mother's grave and says, "Hi, Mom, I'm here again." Billy grabs a handkerchief and wipes away his tears. When he puts his handkerchief away, he sees that there’s a piece of paper wedged between a vase and the headstone. Billy bends down, picks up the note, and unfolds it. Because he’s been crying a lot, he can't read it properly, and he rubs his eyes for a moment. Then he reads—Billy, run! I love you, John!
Even before Billy has been able to process the content of the note, he is grabbed from behind. It is Jack Hall; he pulls Billy's head back by his hair, and without hesitation, Jack Hall slits Billy's throat with a razor-sharp knife.
He then twists Billy's arm around his back and places his knife in Billy's hand.
Billy sinks through his knees and grabs his throat with one hand.
Jack squeezes hard so that Billy's fingerprints will remain on the knife.
He holds Billy down as the young boy struggles to breathe.
Billy's greatest fear becomes reality: drowning in his own blood in front of the grave of his mother. But as he experiences his last moments here on earth, a tremendous sense of tranquility comes over him as he suddenly realizes the meaning of John's note—he loves me!
At that point, Grace's spirit awakens, and she watches her son fight in vain for his life. As Billy dies, Grace's spirit rises up from her grave. And as Billy's spirit leaves its body, Grace's spirit embraces the spirit of her deceased son. She holds Billy tightly, leans back, and they both fall backwards into her grave, where they are reunited for eternity.
Hi, Jack
Jack Hall flees from the cemetery unseen and arrives at his car a minute later.
He grabs his cell phone and calls Freek Van Der Bomen, "Hello, Jack here. It's done."
"Oh, that’s wonderful news. Thank you, Jack."
Van Der Bomen hangs up the phone and walks into the House of Representatives with a big smile on his face.
Earlier, Matt drove out of the alley and is now parked on the other side of the road, about a hundred yards away from Jack's BMW. When he sees Jack coming, he calls him. Just when Jack is about to get into his car, his phone rings. He answers and asks who’s on the other side of the line.
Matt answers, "Hi, Jack! What are you doing here?"
Jack is totally caught by surprise and instantly knows the jig is up. "Matt! Hey, it's not what you think!" responds Jack as he looks around suspiciously.
"Oh, I think it is, Jack; I think it’s exactly what we think."
"Can't we talk about it, Matt?"
"Look to your left, Jack."
Jack looks down the street, past all the cars, and finally sees the blue van. It is the very last thing Jack Hall will ever see because, from behind a parked car, John emerges with a pistol with a silencer on it, points it at Jack Hall, and shoots him in the head.
John’s Betrayal
Conner walks across the cemetery to Grace Silkson’s grave. He sees John’s note lying there and reads it. Matt is still in the van and picks up the phone when Conner calls him, "What is it, Conner?"
Conner puts John's note in his pocket. "Matt! He tried to warn the bait. I have the note here."
Matt watches from the van as John puts Jack Hall's body in the trunk of the BMW and quickly removes any traces of blood from the sidewalk with the necessary cleaning supplies.
Matt curses and hits the steering wheel. "God damn it! That stupid homo!"
"What do you want to do, Matt?" asks Conner as he walks away from the cemetery.
Matt starts the van. "Ride along with him," says Matt as he drives towards John. "When you get to the processing site, you take out John! I'll pick you up there, okay?"
"Will do, Matt."
As Conner walks towards the BMW, Matt drives up to John, turns down his window, and shouts from the van, "Good job, John. I'm proud of you! Listen, wait right here because Conner will be riding with you, okay?"
John looks at Matt and nods affirmatively.
"Good evening; this is the six o'clock news. The young teen, Billy Silkson, who set fire to a transmitter mast six months ago, has been found dead at the grave of his recently deceased mother. The police are assuming suicide for now. Minister of Justice Freek Van Der Bomen calls for an even tougher approach to arson at transmitter masts because of the major consequences with regard to national security as well as general safety issues, and he demands cooperation on a fast legislative amendment from the House of Representatives in order to effectively quell fake news, such as persistent rumors about the harmful effects of the 6G network, among others."