Circle of Treason Page #11

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JEANNE:

Any experienced KGB C.I. officers

who might have handled a spy.

SANDY:

It’s going to take a while.

As Sandy returns to the files, and there are a lot of them...

JEANNE:

(rattles them off from

memory)

Let’s start with Danilev, Vasily;

Karetkin, Yuri; Khrenkov, Aleksei;

Lysenko, Sergei; Vassiliev,

Alexsander...

56.

INT. CIA - POLYGRAPH ROOM - CONTINUED

POLYGRAPH OPERATOR

Why do you think the machine shows

a reaction when asked about contact

with foreign nationals?

RICK:

I’m married to one.

Rick grins. The Operator doesn’t. The temperature drops

several degrees.

INT. CIA - JEANNE’S OFFICE (NHB) - CONTINUED

Dan’s fingers fly over the keyboard, as, on screen, a name

blinks up, highlighted in green.

DAN PAYNE:

Wait, back up. Say that one again.

JEANNE:

Which, Vassiliev?

DAN PAYNE:

No. Before that.

INT. CIA - POLYGRAPH ROOM - CONTINUED

The operator waits for an answer that satisfies him. Rick,

relaxed, tries to provide him with one.

RICK:

Look, my wife’s Colombian. I meet

friends, colleagues of hers all the

time down there. In Bogota. I

don’t know anything about them.

Now, are you asking me, am I

hundred per cent certain they’re

not foreign intelligence? Could

they know who I work for, be

sounding me out? It’s possible.

Nothing’s a hundred per cent.

INT. CIA - JEANNE’S OFFICE (NHB) - CONTINUED

On the screen, a green field blinking over the name:

KHRENKOV, ALEKSEI. An Avianca flight listing puts him

Bogota, Colombia 12/23/89 - 12/28/89.

HOLD on Jeanne, Sandy and Dan as they look at one another.

57.

EXT. CIA - PARKING LOT - DAY

Milt Bearden walks to his car past executive parking spaces

reserved for the Director, Deputy Director, and DDO - the

barons of CIA.

Jeanne and Sandy catch up...

SANDY:

Milt. Got a minute?

EXT. CIA - PARKING LOT - A FEW MINUTES LATER

Jeanne and Sandy talk with Bearden by his car.

SANDY:

All we’re saying is, we need to

limit his access until O.S. come

through with the polygraph.

BEARDEN:

Based on what? He was in Bogota

the same time as this Khrenkov?

SANDY BEARDEN (CONT'D)

That. The money -- Any city in the world is

gonna have KGB.

BEARDEN (CONT’D)

(to Jeanne)

I imagine you even had one or two

pass through on the back of a pickup

in Gabon once in a while.

JEANNE:

(letting that go)

It doesn’t prove anything, we know

that. All the same

BEARDEN:

JEANNE (CONT'D)

You’re damn right it doesn’t.

- the money is suspicious.

Until we have a chance to dig

a little deeper into his

finances, I’m urging caution.

BEARDEN:

You didn’t find his mortgage. You

find my mortgage? You ask Redmond

about his rich wife? You want to

throw the keys to every Jaguar in

this parking lot in a bowl and pick

your suspect that way?

58.

SANDY:

Nobody wants it to be Rick.

BEARDEN:

I think you’re wrong. I think you

do want it to be Rick. I think you

got a grudge, Sandy, ‘cause you

think you’re smarter than he is

only no one else gets it. I think

it burns you both up a guy can have

a pretty wife and a big house and a

family and still get up every day

and do his job protecting America.

Sandy stares; she can’t believe it. Jeanne is

expressionless.

SANDY:

Look, just wait until the polygraph

comes in

BEARDEN:

I don’t have to. He cleared out.

The Office of Security sees no

reason to investigate him further.

They closed their file. You ladies

have a good weekend.

He gets in his car, reverses, and pulls away... leaving them

there by the rows of expensive vehicles in the executive lot.

INT. CIA - PARKING LOT - LATE AFTERNOON

Jeanne is walking home. Sandy’s car pulls up alongside.

SANDY:

Want a ride?

JEANNE:

Where to?

SANDY:

(isn’t it obvious?)

Home. It’s on my way.

JEANNE:

I’ll walk.

Sandy considers, then drives away. We STAY WITH Jeanne.

59.

INT. JEANNE’S APARTMENT - EVENING

Jeanne unlocks her door. She stands there, looking around

her apartment - undecorated since the fifties, shelves piled

deep with books, a lounge chair in front of the T.V. All she

has to show for herself.

She switches on the NEWS. Bombing over Baghdad during Desert

Storm (1991).

INT. GRIMES HOUSE - EVENING

The T.V. on here, too, tuned to JEOPARDY. Gary and Tracy,

now aged 14, are watching from the sofa. They hear the front

door open, Sandy coming home.

ALEX TREBEK:

(on TV)

When the future state of Iowa

became part of the U.S., this man

was president. Thirty seconds,

ladies...

The iconic music starts up.

TRACY:

(calling)

Mom, President when they made Iowa

a state - ?

Calling from the hall

SANDY:

Jefferson. The Louisiana purchase.

She moves to the living room threshold, keeping her coat on.

ALEX TREBEK (V.O.)

The future state of Iowa came to us

through the Louisiana Purchase, and

the man who was President was -

Thomas Jefferson. You’re right!

GARY:

You’re a smart cookie, you know it?

SANDY:

That’s why you married me.

He cranes around to grin at her, standing there in her coat.

GARY:

You going somewhere?

60.

INT. JEANNE’S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Jeanne is watching Jeopardy on the ancient T.V. in her living

room. There’s a knock at the door. From her reaction we

sense this is an unusual occurrence.

Out in the hall, she opens the door to - Sandy.

INT. JEANNE’S APARTMENT - A FEW MINUTES LATER

Sandy looks around the apartment, Jeanne busy in the kitchen.

JEANNE:

Would you like something to drink?

SANDY:

I’d go for a glass of wine.

JEANNE:

Let me look. I wasn’t expecting

anyone.

Now or ever, Sandy’s expression seems to say as she takes in

the place. She moves to windows giving out onto a balcony

and tries them.

SANDY:

Do you have a key for this? We

could sit outside.

Jeanne reappears, with a half-finished bottle of wine that

looks like it’s been in a cupboard since Nixon was president.

JEANNE:

Oh, probably. Somewhere.

SANDY:

(after a beat)

Let’s go out.

EXT. PULCINELLA’S ITALIAN KITCHEN - NIGHT

Traffic races past the restaurant on Old Dominion Drive.

INT. PULCINELLA’S ITALIAN KITCHEN - NIGHT

A waiter pours wine for them both at their table in the busy

restaurant. Sandy looks over the menu.

SANDY:

What’s good here?

61.

JEANNE:

The eggplant parmigiana.

SANDY:

What else?

JEANNE:

I don’t know. I have the eggplant.

SANDY:

(after a beat)

We’ll take the eggplant.

Sandy hands off the menu to the waiter. Long silence before

SANDY (CONT’D)

Do you think we’re right?

Jeanne doesn’t say anything. Sandy interprets her lack of

response as doubt.

SANDY (CONT’D)

Look, I know you don’t have a very

high opinion of me, I don’t really

care. I care about the people who

relied on us. Who put everything

on the line for us - their careers,

their families, their lives - and

relied on us to keep them safe.

JEANNE:

Why do you say that?

SANDY:

We have a duty to those in our

care. They deserve an answer.

JEANNE:

No, you think I don’t have a high

opinion of you?

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