Circle of Treason Page #9

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INT. CIA - OFFICE OF PERSONNEL - DAY

Dan waits in a reception area playing Nintendo Gameboy,

shuffling the little black and white bricks around to form

lines. A secretary emerges and hands him some files - copies

of Aldrich Ames’ Personnel records.

44.

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

An intern drops some mail off at Dan’s desk, where he’s

flipping through the personnel file.

He opens the envelope and pulls out some complicated

paperwork under a U.S. Treasury Department seal - a credit

report for Ames.

After skimming it, he picks up the Gameboy again and plays.

DAN PAYNE (V.O.)

I got to admit the mortgage thing

threw me.

INT. CIA - NEW HEADQUARTERS BUILDING - JEANNE’S OFFICE - DAY

Jeanne, Sandy and Dan study the paperwork in her tiny office.

DAN PAYNE:

You’re talking a house cost over

half a mil. And they paid cash.

JEANNE:

Check again. Could you have missed

a loan somewhere?

DAN PAYNE:

(definitively)

No mortgage. No loan. I verified

it with the realtor. Apparently,

the house was a gift from Rosario’s

family. As for your Jaguar...

He hands Sandy a copy of Rick’s CIA Credit Union records.

DAN PAYNE (CONT’D)

He took out a $25,000 loan through

the Credit Union, and he’s paying

it off in amounts commensurate with

his salary.

Sandy looks relieved; Gary was right.

JEANNE:

Anything unusual in his personnel

evaluations?

DAN PAYNE:

He’s got a couple D.U.I.s. Been a

little too drunk at a few Christmas

parties. But if that’s a crime,

then arrest the whole D.O.

45.

Jeanne smiles, but it’s clear to Sandy she’s still wary.

JEANNE:

When was he last polygraphed?

DAN PAYNE:

Eighty-six. He cleared out.

JEANNE:

So his next is due when, April?

DAN PAYNE:

Want me to try and move it up?

JEANNE:

No. We don’t want to alert him.

SANDY:

(defensive)

Alert him? Weren’t you listening?

The money’s hers.

JEANNE:

Then why not tell you that? Why

this story about his ‘investments.’

SANDY:

He’s a man. They don’t like to be

paid for. Right, Dan?

Dan shrugs like, ‘she’s right.’ Jeanne looks unconvinced.

JEANNE:

You said the wife was working when

they met?

SANDY:

She was an attache at the Colombian

Embassy in Mexico City.

JEANNE:

Latin women of standing don’t work

unless they have to.

SANDY:

Jeanne. I had a friend in

counternarcotics check it out. The

uncle donated land worth millions

to build a soccer field for

deprived kids. They’re in real

estate. They own ice-cream

parlors. The President of Colombia

got her the job. Rick’s living off

his wife.

46.

Jeanne glances at her, then back to Dan.

JEANNE:

Dan, you want to prepare a memo for

the Office of Security? Make sure

the polygraphers know to hit him on

his finances.

Sandy watches Jeanne. Wondering what she’s started.

DAN PAYNE:

Okay... but you ask me, the guy’s

legit.

EXT. RUSSIAN COUNTRYSIDE - DAY

A sleeper train, the iconic Red Arrow in crimson-and-gold

livery, barrels north.

INT. TRAIN - MOVING - DAY

The door to the rear caboose bangs open as JACK DOWNING, late40s,

CIA’s Moscow Station Chief, comes back in from a smoke.

As he moves down the car of the speeding, rattling train

towards his berth, Downing collides with a heavyset Russian

coming the other way.

There’s a beat of surprise, a moment of eye contact. Then

the Russian apologizes and continues down the carriage, just

another passenger on his way out for a smoke.

Downing glances down. Holding an envelope he wasn’t before.

REDMOND (V.O.)

The guy approached Jack Downing on

board the Krasnaya Strelka around

dawn, local time.

INT. CIA - NEW HEADQUARTERS BUILDING - BEARDEN’S OFFICE - DAY

A nice corner office in the modern glass and steel building.

The walls decorated with shots of Bearden, turbanned, in

Afghanistan, training mujahideen. He’s taken over as Chief

of Soviet Division.

BEARDEN:

He checks out?

47.

Sandy, Jeanne and Redmond wait as Bearden flips through the

contents of the envelope: internal KGB documents,

surveillance shots of assets including Poleshchuk/WEIGH.

REDMOND:

He’s Second Chief Directorate.

Counterintelligence. Right in the

inner circle.

SANDY:

I don’t buy it. The guy walks in,

says he wants to defect and guess

what? He knows all about the ‘85

losses. He’s playing us.

BEARDEN:

You’ve said it yourself, the KGB

don’t dangle officers this high up.

JEANNE:

Maybe they never had anything to

hide worth taking the risk before.

BEARDEN:

(dismissive)

That’s Cold War thinking. The

game’s changing over there. A lot

of new rats are jumping ship.

SANDY:

Jeanne’s right. They’re trying to

throw us off.

REDMOND:

Look, there’s always a chance he’s

controlled. The question is, what

do we have to lose?

BEARDEN:

(drily)

Apart from the money?

REDMOND:

The money, a U.S. passport, one of

our exfil plans. If he’s bad,

there’s got to be a reason they’re

running him at us. If he’s good,

then he’s gold.

INT. CIA - NHB - 2ND FLOOR HALLWAY - A FEW MINUTES LATER

Jeanne and Sandy walk down the hall from Bearden’s office.

48.

SANDY:

You might want to fight your corner

a little harder next time.

JEANNE:

You don’t win a fight with a man by

telling him he’s wrong.

Sandy half smiles, glancing at her. But Jeanne is serious.

JEANNE (CONT’D)

It’s interesting they’d throw

someone at us. I don’t imagine

they’d do it for anyone who’d

retired. Let’s talk to the

officers who had access to the

cases. Maybe they’ll have some

insight.

SANDY:

(a dry look)

You think one of ‘em will come

right out and tell us he’s the spy?

JEANNE:

Oh, not in so many words.

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

Dan eats a sandwich as he types at his computer. Under the

date December 5, 1990, glimpsed phrases: ‘...information

concerning Ames’ lavish spending habits over the past five

years...’ ‘While serving in SE Division, he had access to a

number of operations that were later compromised...’

‘...There is a degree of urgency involved in our request.’

INT. CIA - OFFICE OF SECURITY - DAY

The memo in the hands of a harried-looking POLYGRAPH

OPERATOR. He skims it as he walks into his office.

Inside, he tosses it on his desk among a pile of paperwork

and moves through to a room beyond where a CIA employee sits

wired to a polygraph machine. The door closes behind them.

INT. CIA - NEW HEADQUARTERS BUILDING - CONFERENCE ROOM - DAY

Jeanne and Sandy face Bearden across a conference table in a

bright windowed room high in the new headquarters building.

49.

JEANNE:

As you know, we’ve been looking

into the 1985 losses. We’ve

compiled a list of officers from

the D.O. and D.I. who had access to

those cases over the period in

question.

BEARDEN:

(flat)

Suspects.

JEANNE:

Anyone who might know anything.

Frankly, Milt, we’re in the dark

here.

Jeanne smiles. Bearden looks at them. Sandy smiles.

BEARDEN:

What do you want to know?

INT. CIA - NEW HEADQUARTERS BUILDING - BATHROOM - DAY

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