Circle of Treason Page #12

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SANDY:

Fifteen years, I don’t remember you

ever sharing one.

JEANNE:

What do you want, I should have had

somebody make you a little badge?

We do what we have to do in service

of the agency.

SANDY:

Then serve it. They brought you

back to find out what happened.

62.

Jeanne just looks at her, says nothing.

SANDY (CONT’D)

What are you going to do? Retire?

Sit at home, watch Jeopardy for the

next twenty years? It will haunt

you.

Jeanne looks at her, then looks away. Eventually -

JEANNE:

You remember the interview, they

convert you to professional?

SANDY:

(thrown)

Sure. Why?

JEANNE:

March of ‘fifty-five. He asked me

when I planned on getting married.

He said, that would be the end of

my career because I’d have to stay

home and raise the children.

SANDY:

They asked me the same thing in

‘67, you believe that?

JEANNE:

I told him, I didn’t plan on having

children. I’d never thought about

it before.

Jeanne stares out quietly. Sandy, feeling the regret in her

eyes, tries to lighten the mood.

SANDY:

You know what I said? ‘I don’t

know - when do you?’

JEANNE:

(smiles; then)

They brought me back because you

can’t ask a computer to comb the

files, look at the data, look for

connections that may or may not

exist - for the next, five, ten,

however many years. They brought

me back because they could trust me

to take my time... and to put the

Agency first.

(a beat)

I was never meant to find anything.

63.

Sandy smiles like it’s a joke; then smiles like it’s a bigger

one. It’s not, she realizes.

SANDY:

I don’t believe that.

Jeanne’s silence says something like, ‘believe what you want -

it’s true.’

SANDY (CONT’D)

If we’re wrong, then okay, we’re a

punch line. I don’t care. What if

we’re right?

JEANNE:

If we’re right, then CIA’s the

punch line.

A beat on Sandy.

JEANNE (CONT’D)

The Cold War built the Agency. But

what’s going to maintain it? How’s

it going to look for their

Congressional funding, they admit

every operation we ran against the

Soviet target for twenty five years

was for nothing? Because of one of

their own. There’s no way to win

this.

(pause)

We were never meant to find

anything.

A pause as the waiter returns, setting down their meals.

Sandy waits, watching Jeanne quietly, until the guy has gone.

SANDY:

Only if he gets away.

JEANNE:

Excuse me?

SANDY:

Then it really was for nothing.

All of it. Polyakov. Poleshchuk.

They’ll have died for nothing. And

you’ll have wasted your life. But

only if nobody catches him. So

I’ll ask you again: do you think

we’re right?

Jeanne reacts, a flicker behind the eyes. Sandy can see her

words have landed.

64.

EXT. WASHINGTON D.C. - NIGHT

A white Jaguar XJ-6 drives north along Massachusetts Ave.,

the Mall and Capitol building illuminated behind.

INT/EXT. JAGUAR - MOVING - NIGHT

Opera music plays on the car stereo. Rick drives, his face

impassive in the passing headlights. A traffic sign

announces he’s crossing into Maryland.

EXT. LITTLE FALLS PARK - MARYLAND - NIGHT

The Jaguar glides into a parking area, past a wooden sign and

tourist map marking the entrance to ‘Little Falls Park.’

EXT. LITTLE FALLS PARK - FOOTPATH - NIGHT

Rick strolls along a footpath through the woods. As a JOGGER

approaches from the opposite direction, Rick lowers his face,

waiting for the guy to pass before he makes his way towards a

pedestrian bridge spanning a creek.

EXT. LITTLE FALLS PARK - FOOTBRIDGE - NIGHT

Reaching the bridge, Rick stops and takes a long look around

before stepping off the path. He searches under the bridge,

finding a PACKAGE wrapped tightly in layers of black plastic.

INT. AMES HOUSE - STUDY - NIGHT

Unwrapping the package, Rick discovers it contains $37,000 in

hundred-dollar bills. He reads the accompanying NOTE from

his KGB handlers, advising him of a future meeting in Bogota.

INT. CIA - NEW HEADQUARTERS BUILDING - CIC PEN - DAY

A workman affixes a plaque to the wall beside the door to an

office in the CIC pen: 43C - Aldrich Ames - Senior Analyst.’

Passing on her way in to work, Sandy notes the new office -

and who it’s for - and hurries through the pen without taking

off her coat.

65.

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

The door already open, Sandy knocks and walks in. Rick is

perched on the corner of Jeanne’s desk, casually flipping

through the papers on it.

RICK:

Jeanne around? I wanted the memo

on Fedorenko.

SANDY:

I was looking for her myself.

He puts down the papers he was browsing and looks at her.

RICK:

(grins)

Let me know if you need a hand.

We’re gonna be neighbors.

He walks out, passing very close to her. Sandy watches him.

INT. CIA - NEW HEADQUARTERS BUILDING - REDMOND’S OFFICE - DAY

Jeanne faces Redmond across his desk in his new office; he’s

now Deputy Head of the Counterintelligence Center.

REDMOND:

You sure this is how you want to

spend your last eighteen months? I

could put in a word for you with

counterespionage.

JEANNE:

Oh, no.

REDMOND:

Fifth floor, nice view, name on the

door.

JEANNE:

I’d like to give this one last

college try. I think our assets

deserve that.

He studies her a moment, pleased. It occurs to Jeanne that

he may have been testing her resolve.

REDMOND:

You pick your team. But I want the

Bureau involved.

Jeanne looks at him, a flicker of distaste.

66.

REDMOND (CONT’D)

I’m not interested in spinning out

a lot of theories. I want to hand

somebody over to the D.A. with

enough evidence to put him away for

a long time.

(Jeanne nods)

Are you looking at anyone in

particular?

JEANNE:

I’d like to establish a consensus.

There are a hundred and ninety-

eight names on the Bigot List,

every one of our personnel who had

access. I’ll need the Feds to see

their files.

REDMOND:

I have to kick that up to Price.

JEANNE:

And he’ll kick up to Seventh, then

they’ll spend six months kicking it

around the corridors.

REDMOND:

(amused)

You want me to share sensitive

files with another government

agency without permission?

She rises to go, looking back drily from the door:

JEANNE:

What are they going to do, fire me?

EXT. LANGLEY - DAY

An FBI-issue Crown Victoria pulls up to the security

checkpoint off Dolley Madison. The MARINE on duty takes ID

from the two dark-suited agents inside, glancing from the

names on their FBI cards to the men themselves: JAMES HOLT

and JAMES MILBURN, both mid-40s.

JEANNE (V.O.)

We’ve identified all those CIA

employees who had access at one

time or other to one or more of the

compromised cases.

67.

INT. CIA - NEW HEADQUARTERS BUILDING - CIC PEN - DAY

An analyst codes the door. As he walks Holt and Milburn

through the pen, the agents admire the technology on display,

analysts bent over consoles, a feeling of focus and precision

-the modern CIA.

JEANNE (V.O.)

These are people we know, people

we’ve worked with for years.

They walk past 43C. Rick peers up from his desk as they go.

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