Circle of Treason Page #18

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Then, she starts the car and drives away.

95.

EXT. HIGH SCHOOL - DAY

Lessons are over and older students mill in the school

parking lot, gossiping and flirting. Among them we find

Tracy, now seventeen.

A shift of perspective reveals Sandy, waiting in her car.

Through the windscreen, she sees Tracy spot her and react

with surprise - mom never picks her up.

Sandy waves to her.

INT. GRIMES HOUSE - DAY

Gary comes home from work to the unusual sounds of his wife

and youngest daughter laughing and chatting in the kitchen.

He watches the two of them from the doorway a moment before

Sandy notices him. Their eyes hold.

INT. JEANNE’S APARTMENT - NIGHT

Jeanne stands at the balcony window of her apartment looking

out towards D.C. The city lights glitter in the distance.

INT. GRIMES HOUSE - NIGHT

Sandy and Gary are curled up on the couch watching Jeopardy

on television. The phone rings and Sandy answers it.

JEANNE (V.O.)

(over phone)

I have a question.

INTERCUT Jeanne in her apartment and Sandy at home

SANDY:

Forget it, Jeanne. I’m through.

(Jeanne is silent)

I leave the agency now they’ll

throw in twenty-five grand early

retirement. Forget it. I’m done.

JEANNE:

(pause)

Can you live with it?

Sandy hesitates. Gary watches her from the sofa. Jeanne

listens to the silence down the phone. Gary watches,

uneasily, as Sandy carries the receiver out of the room to

gain confidentiality:

96.

SANDY:

It doesn’t matter. We can’t launch

a criminal investigation without

them.

JEANNE:

Then we’ll have to persuade them.

SANDY:

How are you going to do that?

Jeanne doesn’t say; she may not be sure herself.

JEANNE:

What are you doing first thing

tomorrow?

SANDY:

I said I’d take Tracy in, why?

JEANNE:

I need a ride.

INT/EXT. FBI FIELD OFFICE - BUZZARD POINT - DAY

A view from high in the Washington Field Office of hurricane

fences and drifting smoke from tires burning in a scrapyard.

BRYANT (O.S.)

I’ve seen the report.

In fact, he’s holding it right now. Jeanne and Sandy follow

ROBERT ‘BEAR’ BRYANT, 50, head of the WFO, down an eleventh

floor hallway with windows overlooking the Anacostia River.

BRYANT (CONT’D)

If my guys say it could be him,

then it could be him. They say it

could be someone else, guess what?

He hands Jeanne back the report.

JEANNE:

The problem is, Ames has two valid

passports and a lifetime of

experience evading surveillance.

If he wants to get away, he’s going

to do it.

They reach an elevator. Bryant calls it then regards the

little old lady in tennis shoes and blonde standing with her.

97.

BRYANT:

That’s not my problem. Some whack

job down in Texas just killed

seventy nine people who thought he

was the Son of God. I’ve got

agents chasing round the city after

every towelhead with a van after

what happened in New York. I’ve

got bigger problems.

JEANNE:

(after a beat)

Yeah, I can see that. It’s tough

to make a call. The intelligence

isn’t a hundred per cent.

BRYANT:

No, ma’am. It’s not.

The elevator is arriving. Sandy looks ready to go home.

JEANNE:

But see, what I don’t understand is

how to evaluate the risk of doing

nothing. Of being the one who let

the worst traitor in U.S.

Intelligence history get away.

After all, the Bureau lost two of

its own assets and spent the last

eight years calling for increased

cooperation with CIA. And now here

we are, presenting you with our

best estimate of who you need to be

looking at, and you want to throw

it in the Too-Hard tray. What do

you think the probability of your

career surviving that is? Sixty

per cent? Fifty? As low as forty

five? I’d need to work on it a

little harder. But it’s not my

problem.

Bryant - who during this has stepped aboard the elevator,

listening at first with amusement, then with growing

indignation, and finally with a begrudging acknowledgement

she may be right - holds the door to prevent it from closing.

98.

INT. WAREHOUSE - VIRGINIA - DAY

As warehouse doors rattle open, Holt shows Jeanne and Sandy

inside the cavernous space, where a dozen or so agents from

the FBI TASK FORCE are assembled on folding chairs for a

briefing from LES WISER, 38, the Special Agent in charge of

the investigation.

HOLT:

You can sit here.

He directs the women to chairs at the back and goes to stand

with the others while Wiser briefs his team of agents,

‘soundmen’ from the Technical Support Squad, surveillance and

evidence specialists -

WISER:

We’re close to FISA approval for

wiretap and phone monitoring on the

subject’s residence, and we’re

putting pressure on the Attorney

General for a warrantless search

and seizure. In addition, the FAA

has agreed to provide aerial recon

and we have our ghosts on site for

direct surveillance.

On a bulletin board behind him - which names the FBI

operation ‘NIGHTMOVER’ - there are surveillance shots tacked

up of Ames and the house at 2512 North Randolph Street.

WISER (CONT’D)

Our goal here is to confirm the

subject in operational activity,

catch him in the act of espionage,

filling a dead drop or exchanging

restricted files with the Russians.

We still don’t know this guy’s a

spy.

A beat on Sandy and Jeanne, who betray a flicker of

impatience.

WISER (CONT’D)

We’re on him night and day until he

does that. Technical are going to

fit his vehicle with a beacon.

SANDY:

How?

Wiser, surprised by the interruption, takes a second to find

the source - the blonde over by the wall.

99.

WISER:

How? We break into it, drive it

out here, and install it.

TSS AGENT:

(pitching in)

Jaguars are renowned for circuity

failure. You don’t want him taking

it to the shop and they pull it out

of the dash. We advise an external

fit only.

Wiser nods. Sounds good. But Sandy’s not through yet.

SANDY:

You’re going to break into his car

and drive it out here?

WISER:

Don’t worry, we remove the odometer

so we don’t add any mileage.

SANDY:

What happens when somebody spots

Rick’s car getting stolen, and

tells him he might want to look out

the window?

A beat.

SANDY (CONT’D)

This operation is classified at the

highest level. Outside this room

there are six people who know about

it, and one of them is the

President. How’d you figure on

explaining what a dozen G-men are

doing crawling around Langley to a

staff whose job it is to identify

foreign surveillance?

A long beat.

SANDY (CONT’D)

Agent - Wiser is it? Rick Ames is

a trained C.I. Officer. He aced

our Internal Ops course. He was

giving Soviet spies the runaround

when you were popping zits at

Junior Prom. If you wade in like

you’re chasing some bank robber, he

is going to make you, and this

whole op will be burned by the end

of the week.

100.

A silence. The men shift. Wiser stares.

SANDY (CONT’D)

The ‘I’ stands for Intelligence.

In case it’s not a concept you’re

familiar with.

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