Circle of Treason Page #23

---

Tight on a screen, a view of the Ames residence from an FBI

camera across the street. His Jaguar parked in the driveway.

The FBI TECHNICIANS listen to the live feed from the house.

Dan Payne sits, staring at the monitor. No sign of Rick yet.

ROSARIO (V.O.)

You have to go in? Is anything

wrong?

RICK (V.O.)

They just want me to take a look at

something.

They hear the SHOWER come on, the voices becoming indistinct.

122.

INT. AMES HOUSE - MORNING

The shower is on. But Rick is already fully dressed. He

faces Rosario, puts a finger to his lips. The tension she

sees in his eyes alarms her.

ROSARIO:

What is it? Rick?

His gesture says something like, ‘shut up, I need to think.’

INT. FEDERAL COURTHOUSE - ALEXANDRIA - MORNING

In his august chambers, Wiser and Mark Hulkower wait while

Federal Magistrate BARRY PORETZ, dressed for the golf course

he was evidently dragged from, reads carefully through an

affidavit outlining the evidence against Rick and Rosario.

INT. CIA - COUNTERNARCOTICS CENTER (NHB) - MORNING

Redmond arrives, looks in on where Sandy, Jeanne and Edger

are staring at the phone -

REDMOND:

He leave yet?

(nobody answers - which is

his answer)

Can they take him in the house?

JEANNE:

(negative)

We need to split him and Rosario.

SANDY:

The son shouldn’t have to see it.

INT. AMES HOUSE - MORNING

Paul looks on, anxious, as his father and mother confer

heatedly in the living room, MUSIC covering their voices:

RICK:

(low, urgent)

I don’t go in they’re going to

wonder why not.

ROSARIO:

(low, panicked)

And if you do go? If they already

know?

123.

Rick’s thought of that; it doesn’t help. He’s on a cross.

INT. FBI SAFE HOUSE - MORNING

As the technicians listen to the rock music drowning the feed

from the house, Dan eyes that monitor... where Rick is

suddenly seen leaving the house.

DAN PAYNE:

He’s out... he’s out of the house!

INT. FEDERAL COURTHOUSE - ALEXANDRIA - MORNING

Poretz, flipping to the last page of the affidavit, where

he’s supposed to sign, searches for a pen on his desk. Wiser

and Hulkower both rush to hand him a pen of their own. As

Poretz then signs the affidavit and Wiser grabs it from him

INT. JAGUAR - PARKED - DAY

Rick regards his own eyes in the rear view mirror. He stares

at himself for a long moment. When he looks away, he has

made his decision.

INT. CHEVROLET SEDAN - PARKED - MORNING

Through the windscreen, we can see a view of the street

leading down to the Ames house as the Jaguar pulls out.

Donner lifts a radio.

DONNER:

(into radio)

He’s moving.

EXT. FEDERAL COURTHOUSE - ALEXANDRIA - MORNING

Wiser bursts out of the courthouse and runs to his car. He

reaches through the window and grabs his radio off the seat

WISER:

(into radio)

We got it! We got it!

INT/EXT. FBI SEDAN - NELLY CUSTIS DRIVE - MORNING

In one of the two FBI sedans from the parking lot at the Roy

Rogers, the driver receives the signal through his earpiece.

Behind him a SWAT TEAM in tactical vests check their weapons.

124.

EXT/INT. JAGUAR - MORNING

Rick pulls up to for a red stop light at North Randolph

Street and Quebec. He sits, staring quietly ahead. The

lights change to green but Rick doesn’t move right away.

He depresses the car’s cigarette lighter. We study his face,

his emotions hard to read - his sense of foreboding mingled

with resignation, perhaps something close to relief.

He lights a cigarette, then makes the right turn onto Quebec.

INT/EXT. JAGUAR - N. QUEBEC STREET - MORNING

Rick drives up the steep two-lane street to where it

intersects with Nelly Custis Drive. The lanes are empty.

Then (hearing a SIREN whoop), he glances to his mirror: and

sees a red light strobe inside the sedan behind. He slows.

At that moment the TWO SWAT VEHICLES swoop down from Nelly

Custis, blocking the road ahead. Four SWAT GUYS burst out,

side arms drawn.

Now, hearing tires squeal, Rick cranes around to see a second

vehicle appear behind him. He feels the jolt as Donner

inches his sedan’s bumper against the rear of the Jaguar.

He faces front as the EIGHT AGENTS, all armed, some in vests,

close in and surround the car.

DONNER:

FBI! Keep your hands in sight and

step out of the car!

INT. AMES HOUSE - MORNING

Rosario, in her robe, opens the door - revealing a pregnant

FBI AGENT. She has words with Rosario in Spanish as she and

more agents fan out inside the house.

INT. FBI SAFE HOUSE - MORNING

Dan sees the agents head in on the monitor and grabs a phone.

INT. CIA - COUNTERNARCOTICS CENTER (NHB) - MORNING

The phone rings and Edger picks up. Jeanne and Sandy read

his expression - they got him.

125.

EXT. NORTH QUEBEC STREET - MORNING

Donner and Dell Spry yank Rick’s door open and pull him from

the car, grabbing his keys.

DONNER:

You’re under arrest for espionage!

Put your hands on the car!

INT. CIA - COUNTERNARCOTICS CENTER (NHB) - MORNING

Jeanne absorbs the news quietly. She feels Sandy reach for

her hand. They hold their look to each other, overwhelmed.

EXT. NORTH QUEBEC STREET - MORNING

As Rick is cuffed and led to Donner’s Chevrolet...

PETER JENNINGS (V.O.)

One of the burning questions in

Washington, ‘How could it have

taken so long?’ So long to arrest

the highest-ranking CIA officer

ever accused of selling out to the

Russians.

INT. GRIMES HOUSE - DAY

The news report plays on t.v. Gary watches with growing

comprehension, finally let inside what his wife has done.

Footage of Ames led in cuffs from the courthouse.

PETER JENNINGS (V.O.)

(on TV)

Aldrich Ames and his wife Maria are

still of course the ‘alleged’

spies. But there is no doubt in

Washington tonight that this is an

intelligence disaster.

EXT. CAPITOL HILL - DAY

We are WIDE OVER the iconic Capitol building.

INT. CONGRESSIONAL HEARING - CAPITOL HILL - DAY

Alone at a table in the crowded room, Jeanne faces a panel

from the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

126.

REP. GLICKMAN

You agree then, that Ames might

have been caught five, even eight

years earlier had the CIA been

looking harder?

JEANNE REP. GLICKMAN (CONT'D)

If there is a fault here, Lives might have been saved.

it’s in the nature of The damage contained -

intelligence gathering -please, enlighten me.

JEANNE:

I’m an analyst, my team are

analysts. It’s a slow painstaking

process. But we were dealing with

an officer’s livelihood. We

couldn’t afford to be wrong.

REP. GLICKMAN

You’re an analyst. So what made

you think you were capable of

leading a counterintelligence

investigation?

Jeanne weighs and discards a more measured response, before:

JEANNE:

(leaning in to her

microphone, deliberately)

We caught him, didn’t we?

EXT. CAPITOL HILL - LATER - DAY

Jeanne and Redmond emerge from the building. They stand

looking over the Mall.

REDMOND:

It’s a circus of ass-covering.

Everyone’s to blame, so no one is.

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes