Circle of Treason Page #15

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Scrolling through the text, her eyes catch on -March, 1985,

made contact with Sergey Dmitriyevich Chuvakhin with a view

to developing him as a source.

Sandy studies the screen, thinking.

INT. AMES HOUSE - STUDY - NIGHT

Rick is writing a note on a YELLOW POST-IT - drafting a

message to his KGB handlers: ‘IF YOU CANNOT MEET 1 OCT,

SIGNAL NORTH AFTER 27 SEPT WITH MESSAGE AT PIPE.’ A knock at

the door. Rick tears up the note and dumps it in the trash

as Rosario walks in. Eventually -

ROSARIO:

I’m a Princeton graduate. When we

met, you said I was the only woman

you knew who understood Marquez. I

have a doctorate from Georgetown.

Rick looks thrown by this apparent non-sequitur. Rosario

studies him quietly, then puts something down on his desk.

ROSARIO (CONT’D)

So why do you treat me like I’m an

idiot.

Rick glances at what she’s put down - the ‘Dear Friend’

letter and Polaroids of the land outside Moscow. They regard

each other in a silence...

Then, Rick stands and moves over to the stereo.

RICK:

I’m about ready for a drink. You

want one?

He puts on MUSIC. Loud, like to cover what they say next:

ROSARIO:

(close)

Is it the Soviets?

79.

RICK:

(casually)

I’m working for them.

ROSARIO:

As part of an operation?

RICK:

No.

Rosario takes a beat to process it.

RICK (CONT’D)

It was safer if you didn’t know.

ROSARIO:

(after a beat)

Safer for me or for you?

He doesn’t answer. And she SLAPS him, hard - surprising him.

ROSARIO (CONT’D)

I’m your wife. I would never

betray you.

He regards her a moment, smiling, relieved to find he

believes her. He kisses her.

ROSARIO (CONT’D)

Does anyone suspect you?

Rick thinks... then shakes his head.

ROSARIO (CONT’D)

Don’t underestimate them.

RICK:

They’ll never find anything.

ROSARIO:

I did.

He takes that on board... then kisses her, part of his burden

of secrecy lifted.

RICK:

My friends take very good care of

me.

As they start to make out...

80.

EXT/INT. PULCINELLA’S ITALIAN KITCHEN - NIGHT

From outside, we see Jeanne paying the check at her customary

table. The sense she is watched.

LATER:

Jeanne leaves the restaurant, zipping her anorak, noticing a

solitary MAN smoking a cigarette outside in the parking lot.

As she walks towards the street, she glances back. The man

keeps smoking, watching her. Distracted, she starts across

the street -

An oncoming CAR swerves, missing her by inches.

Jeanne stumbles, trips, the traffic racing past, the BLARE OF

HORNS. As the cigarette smoker rushes over to help her up...

JEANNE:

I’m fine... I didn’t look!

Recovering, she looks now - and sees the DARK SEDAN that

almost clipped her, turning at a stop light down the street.

INT. DAN’S DESK IN THE OFFICE OF SECURITY - DAY

A clerk drops a thick envelope from American Express on the

desk, where Dan is sitting with his feet up playing Tetris.

DAN PAYNE:

(still playing)

Thanks.

The clerk doesn’t leave, setting down a second even thicker

envelope and then a third. Dan, curious now, sets the game

aside, opens the first envelope, examines a few of the credit

card receipts inside - and reacts with astonishment.

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

Dan is in shirtsleeves at her desk, surrounded by statements

and credit card receipts, the tape from an adding machine

spilling onto the floor

DAN PAYNE:

(excited)

They’ve been charging anywhere

between eighteen and thirty grand a

month! Right here

He finds a statement -

81.

DAN PAYNE (CONT’D)

-they got hit for an extra

eighteen thousand for late payment.

This is a guy makes sixty-nine

thousand eight hundred a year

before tax.

SANDY:

(a hint of surprise)

Oh yeah? That much?

DAN PAYNE:

So how the hell is he paying off

two hundred a year in credit card

bills!?

Jeanne and Sandy exchange a glance. Sandy excited now;

they’re getting closer.

JEANNE:

It doesn’t help us unless we can

tie it to the KGB.

EXT. CIA - PARKING LOT - LATE AFTERNOON

They walk through the parking lot.

SANDY:

Rick was a developing a source back

in eighty five. Chuvakhin. An

arms control specialist at the

embassy here in D.C. It could be

his cut out.

JEANNE:

Can we link him to the money?

SANDY:

We can try.

They stop by Sandy’s car. Jeanne looks around, uneasily.

JEANNE:

There are two hundred Soviet

officials in this city. Maybe a

third are KGB.

(Sandy waits to hear her

point)

Be careful, okay? He might be

getting nervous.

Sandy watches as Jeanne walks off through the parking lot.

82.

EXT. VIRGINIA - NIGHT

Sandy driving home along the Dulles Toll Road, the expressway

heavy with traffic.

INT/EXT. SANDY’S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT

As the exit she wants looms in her windshield, Sandy signals

and changes lanes. Her eyes move to the rearview mirror.

She sees a dark sedan a few cars back signal the same way.

EXT. RESTON - NIGHT

Sandy merges with the traffic on the 602, followed, a moment

later, by the sedan.

INT/EXT. SANDY’S CAR - MOVING - NIGHT

Her eyes glancing to the rearview - noticing that same sedan

still behind her - Sandy weighs a brief decision, then

signals and calmly makes a right turn onto Sunset Hills Road.

Approaching the traffic lights, Sandy checks her mirror

again. She sees the sedan make the same turn behind her.

Nervous now, fighting a sudden, sickening wave of paranoia,

she stares at the road.

Up ahead, the vehicles in front of her cross just before the

traffic lights change to red.

Acting on instinct and adrenalin, Sandy hits the gas,

swerving left across three lanes of oncoming traffic at the

lights and speeding down Old Reston Avenue.

As horns blare behind her, Sandy checks her rearview,

relieved to see the sedan boxed in, unable to follow her.

EXT. GRIMES HOUSE - NIGHT

Sandy pulls up and cuts the engine. She sits there for a

moment, trembling, then breathes out a smile as if mocking

herself for acting so stupidly. She climbs out.

At her front door, her hands shake so badly that she drops

her keys. Bending to retrieve them, she notices something

out of the corner of her eye that chills her.

The same sedan that followed her cruises slowly along the

street in front of her house, then speeds up and drives away.

83.

INT. GRIMES HOUSE - NIGHT

A dinner party is over. Dirty plates, coffee cups, wine.

Gary and the girls - now 19 and 15 - along with several

friends of hers and Gary’s, stare at Sandy as she arrives -

wondering where she’s been.

INT. GRIMES HOUSE - LATER - NIGHT

The guests have gone, Tracy and Kelly clearing plates in the

kitchen and trying not to listen to the argument next door.

GARY (O.S.)

It’s been in the diary for weeks.

This time. This one time you said

you’d make it.

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