Circle of Treason Page #17

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JEANNE:

I’m that close to retirement.

89.

RICK:

(after a beat, smiling)

Then what? Nice condo down in

Florida? View of the ocean?

The PHONE rings.

RICK (CONT’D)

It’s got to beat being stuck in a

basement, working files nobody

cares about any more.

JEANNE:

I care.

He smiles. Jeanne immediately regrets betraying herself.

The PHONE keeps ringing. She makes no move to answer it.

RICK:

Are you going to get that?

Jeanne follows him into the living room. As she crosses to

answer the phone, she notices something - Sandy’s chronology

sits on the side where she left it, the name Aldrich Ames

featured prominently on the first page.

Glancing to Rick - relieved to see he’s studying photographs

on her wall of scenes from her time in Africa - Jeanne moves

a magazine over the file as she answers the phone:

JEANNE:

Jeanne Vertefeuille.

SANDY (O.S.)

We’ve got him.

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

Sandy on the phone in Redmond’s office. Dan in b.g. taking

Redmond through printouts marking the correspondence between

Ames’s lunches and the deposits.

SANDY:

Three times he met with Chuvakhin

and made cash deposits to his

account the same day or the next.

INT. JEANNE’S APARTMENT - CONTINUED

Rick turns around to watch Jeanne on the phone. She is

expressionless.

90.

SANDY (O.S.)

Rick is a goddamn Russian spy!

JEANNE:

Let me get back to you on that. I

have people over right now. Thanks

for calling.

She hangs up, with a shrug to Rick, as if to say ‘cold

caller.’ Rick watches her.

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

Sandy looks at the receiver, surprised and perplexed - Jeanne

never has people over...

INT. JEANNE’S APARTMENT - CONTINUED

Jeanne sits on the sofa, forcing herself to focus on Rick and

not glance to the incriminating dossier on the coffee table.

RICK:

You know, it’s shameful the way

they’ve treated you. They had a

chance to make a statement. The

first female Chief of Station. And

they gave you Gabon.

JEANNE:

Oh, I don’t know. I kept pretty

busy.

He approaches her.

RICK:

It’s a backwater, Jeanne. They

don’t value you enough. I don’t

think they really value any of us.

She studies him quietly, aware he’s trying to undermine her.

JEANNE:

Are you talking about me, or

Carleton?

That hit home. His expression clouds and he moves away to

conceal his emotion.

RICK:

My father was a... mediocre

officer.

91.

JEANNE:

Still, it was shabby the way they

edged him out.

He turns with a flash of anger.

RICK:

That’s what I’m saying. You give

the best years you have, every

ounce of intellect you have to

offer. And for what? So they can

shuffle you around, mark the clock

until you retire or drink yourself

to death?

Jeanne watches him, sensing he’s fighting a deeper conflict

than with her.

RICK (CONT’D)

Why give your loyalty to a place

like that?

INT. SANDY’S CAR - MOVING - DAY

Sandy speeds along Old Dominion Drive, towards Jeanne’s

apartment.

INT. JEANNE’S APARTMENT - CONTINUED

Rick paces, on edge, Jeanne trying to maintain her composure.

JEANNE:

Honestly, Rick? This is a job to

me. It’s always been a job. How

else was a twenty year old girl

going to travel the world?

There’s a kernel of truth in it, just enough to sell the lie:

JEANNE (CONT’D)

I’m happy to spin my wheels until

my pension.

A pause as Rick measures her.

RICK:

They’re wasting your time down

there.

Jeanne considers him...

92.

JEANNE:

Between us? I think you’re right.

If there was a mole he’s long gone.

We missed our chance to get him in

eighty-five.

They hold their look to each other... Rick expressionless.

EXT. MCLEAN HOUSE - DAY

Sandy pulls up, fast. She climbs out and hurries inside just

as Rick is heading out. Seeing him, Sandy stops dead.

RICK:

Hey.

SANDY:

Hey.

She tries to conceal her reaction but isn’t entirely

successful.

Rick watches Sandy head inside, wheels turning his head.

INT. JEANNE’S APARTMENT - A FEW MINUTES LATER

Sandy enters and finds Jeanne on the couch as before, a

little shaken after her encounter.

SANDY:

You okay?

(Jeanne nods)

What did he want?

There’s a pause, Jeanne not sure she knows herself - or can

sum it up in a single answer.

JEANNE:

He knows we’re on to him. If we’re

going to get him, it has to be now.

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

On a t.v., Clinton responds to the capture of Mohammed

Salameh. Mugshots of Salameh. Footage of the World Trade

Center bombing. It’s March 1993.

Jeanne and Sandy collar Redmond on the way out of his office,

the news report on TV continuing in the b.g. Redmond looks

atrained.

93.

REDMOND:

You seen Holt and Milburn yet?

They shake their heads, exchanging a look; something’s off.

SANDY:

Why, what is it?

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

Jeanne leafs quietly through a thick report at her desk, a

title page identifying it as the findings in the joint

FBI/CIA probe into the compromises, its author James Milburn.

SANDY:

(incandescent)

Are you kidding me!? Have you had

your head up your ass for the last

two years? This is our guy.

Everything we have points to that.

DAN PAYNE:

(picking up her cue)

Between nineteen eighty-five and

nineteen ninety-one he’s pulled in

over one point three million

dollars from unidentified sources.

SANDY:

That makes him the highest paid spy

in U.S. history and you want to let

him walk!?

MILBURN:

(cool, calm, analytical)

It makes him guilty of something,

but we can’t say with a hundred

percent certainty it’s espionage.

DAN PAYNE:

(sarcastic)

No, he won it shooting craps.

MILBURN:

Maybe he did. Maybe he’s smuggling

emeralds in from Bogota with his

wife. Or cocaine. Now if you’re

asking me, is Ames the most likely

suspect? Then my answer’s yes.

But there are four more candidates

who warrant further investigation.

As well as thirty-five others who

can’t be ruled out.

94.

SANDY:

(can’t believe it)

Thirty five!?

MILBURN:

I’m not about to advise the Bureau

to open a formal criminal C.I. case

based on a hunch.

SANDY:

(controlling herself)

He met with Chuvakhin three times,

he made deposits the very next day.

Holt? Help me out here?

HOLT:

(finding it hard to meet

her eye)

Any dime a dozen ambulance chaser

could kick this past the D.A. You

can’t prove the money’s from

espionage.

SANDY:

That’s where the f***ing FBI comes

in! Do your job!

HOLT:

(looking at her; he means

this)

I’m sorry, Sandy. You don’t have

it.

Sandy continues to stare at Holt until he looks away. She

glances at Jeanne, who sets down the report, expressionless.

INT. CIA - NEW HEADQUARTERS BUILDING - ATRIUM - DAY

Sandy crossing the sleek lobby, heading for the exit. Jeanne

calls after her

JEANNE:

Sandy...

Sandy ignores her, doesn’t even glance back. She walks out.

EXT. CIA - PARKING LOT - DAY

Sandy climbs in her car and slams the door. She sits there,

the disappointment and frustration etched in her face.

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