Circle of Treason Page #16

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In the living room...

SANDY:

I got roped into something last

minute. I’m sorry.

GARY:

There’s always something. There is

always some thing more important.

SANDY:

(irritably, still tense)

It was just a dinner...

GARY:

No it’s not.

His roar stops her; Gary is not a shouter.

GARY (CONT’D)

I can’t do it any more, Sandy. I

can’t be a support system for

whatever it is you feel you have to

do. The girls deserve better. I

deserve better.

This cuts her deeply, and Sandy takes a moment to recover,

trying to explain herself.

SANDY:

If you knew what it was...

GARY:

Going through old files in a

basement? On the Soviet Union

which by the way no longer exists!?

84.

SANDY:

(evenly)

If I could tell you, you’d

understand.

Gary studies her quietly a moment. He seems close to

understanding, to forgiving her. Then -

GARY:

(cold)

But you can’t.

He walks out past her, leaving Sandy to stand there alone.

EXT. MCLEAN HOUSE - EARLY MORNING

Emerging from her building in tennis shoes, Jeanne stops in

surprise. Sandy is waiting by her car.

SANDY:

I’m taking you to work from now on.

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

Dan upends a carton over his desk, spilling out canceled

checks, deposit slips and credit card receipts - an avalanche

of financial data.

As he begins to sift through it, entering figures from a

receipt into a spreadsheet on his computer, he hands the

receipt across the divide between their cubicles to Sandy.

Sandy cross-checks it against the detailed chronology of

Ames’s movements on her monitor, then places the receipt in

another carton.

As we now see there are dozens of the cartons on Dan’s desk,

waiting to be processed...

SANDY (V.O.)

The FBI cabled Ames in Rome in July

of eighty-six, wanting to know what

was going on with Chuvakhin.

INT. JEANNE’S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Jeanne studies Sandy’s five-hundred page chronology. Sandy

paces, searching drawers and counters as she briefs Jeanne.

JEANNE:

They were still meeting?

85.

SANDY:

It sounds like it. Only he stopped

reporting them in late eighty-five.

They exchange a look.

JEANNE:

Have the Jims see what they can dig

up at Buzzard Point. If the FBI

had Chuvakhin under surveillance,

we could maybe get them meeting

outside of his sanctioned contact.

(then)

What are you doing?

During this, Sandy been rifling the contents of a drawer,

sifting decades of junk. She gestures to the balcony window.

SANDY:

Looking for a key to those. I’ll

be honest, you could use some air

in here.

Jeanne nods, but she’s not really listening, engrossed in the

chronology.

EXT. LANGLEY - DAY

Rain. Sandy’s car is one of few vehicles parked on the lot.

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

Sifting deposit slips, Dan logs information from one into his

database -5/18/85 - $9000 -then hands the slip over the

divide to Sandy in her cubicle.

Sandy enters the date in her chronology. Then she stops

cold, staring at the screen. We see the deposit she just

logged -5/18/85 - $9000.

And above it, among the list of Ames’s reported activity for

the day before:
5/17/85 - lunch with Chuvakhin.

Sandy scrolls down to the next lunch with Chuvakhin - 7/5/85.

Dan, oblivious, is tapping away, inputting data from the

slips piled on his desk. Sandy peers over the barrier.

SANDY:

Dan.

86.

DAN PAYNE:

(typing)

Mm.

SANDY:

You got July there?

DAN PAYNE:

Mm-hm. Getting to it.

SANDY:

Hurry it up will you?

Dan shoots her an impatient look. Sandy, a beat, rolls her

chair over to his desk and tips out a box of bank receipts.

As Dan starts to protest

SANDY (CONT’D)

Where’s Jeanne?

INT. SUPERMARKET - DAY

As the checkout girl rings up the last of her purchases,

Jeanne eyes the rain slapping against the glass outside.

EXT. SUPERMARKET - DAY

Jeanne exits, carrying her bag of groceries through the rain.

She stops in her tracks when she sees a red Jaguar parked in

a bay ahead, rain drumming off the roof. The driver gets out

and she sees it’s Rick.

RICK:

Jeanne!? Hey, I’ll drop you home.

She hesitates, wary, almost certain it’s no accident he’s

here.

JEANNE:

It’s okay, I’ll walk.

RICK:

(rain spilling off him)

In this?

He holds the door for her, the rain beating down. Jeanne

could refuse and risk alerting him, or accept and risk she

doesn’t know what.

JEANNE:

If you’re sure it’s no trouble.

87.

Rick shakes his head, holding the passenger door. Jeanne

climbs in with her groceries. She watches, expressionless,

as Rick shuts the door and walks around to the driver’s side.

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

Sandy, sifting bank deposit slips, finally comes up with what

she’s looking for - a CITIBANK deposit slip from July 5, 1985

in the amount of $5000.

She scoots back to her terminal to check it against the date

on screen. There it is: Lunch with Chuvakhin - July 5, 1985.

Having caught on, Dan quickly finds another receipt, saying:

DAN PAYNE:

The next deposit’s July thirty-

first.

Sandy searches for the relevant entry... but finds no record

of lunch with Chuvakhin on July 31st.

DAN PAYNE (CONT’D)

It’s not enough. Twice could be a

coincidence.

A beat on Sandy... who suddenly stands and rushes out.

JEANNE:

Where are those FBI tapes?

EXT. MCLEAN HOUSE - DAY

The Jaguar pulls up. They sit there, in the pouring rain, in

the car.

RICK:

(re:
groceries)

I’ll help you up with those.

JEANNE:

No need.

She has spoken too sharply, and moderates her tone.

JEANNE (CONT’D)

Thanks for the ride.

RICK:

C’mon... I insist.

He takes the grocery bag from her, gets out of the car.

88.

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

Dan looks on as Sandy forwards through SURVEILLANCE FOOTAGE

OF THE SOVIET EMBASSY from a fixed FBI camera trained on the

16th Street entrance: traffic blurs past... staff come and

go. We see the date marked on the time code - 7/31/1985.

DAN PAYNE:

(excited)

There. Back up.

Sandy rewinds... the soviet officials reversing through the

gates, among them a man in raincoat and glasses. Sandy

freezes the tape then shuttles forward frame by frame as...

the figure (Rick) stops at the gates and does something odd:

He looks right into the camera.

Sandy hits pause and glances over to share her excitement

with Dan. They’ve got him.

INT. JEANNE’S APARTMENT - DAY

Rick carries Jeanne’s grocery bags into the kitchen.

RICK:

Where do you want these?

JEANNE:

Oh, anywhere’s fine. Thank you.

He sets the grocery bags down on a counter and takes the

place in. The drab furnishings and anemically-stocked

shelves of a woman who lives alone. Jeanne waits for him to

leave.

RICK:

How are you doing, Jeanne? You

look tired. They’re working you

too hard.

JEANNE:

It’s only a few more months.

RICK:

Are you that close to figuring it

out?

Jeanne senses a sharpening of his focus - as if he’s gauging

her response.

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