Cliffhanger Page #6

TRAVERS:

(to other agents)

Stay put! Don't panic, goddammit!

Travers moves into

THE COCKPIT:

where the pilot seems nervous, but oddly, not frightened.

PILOT:

He's coming in too slow.

TRAVERS:

(cool)

No -- we're going too fast, and we're

too high up. Push flaps forward twenty

degrees and drop to five thousand

feet.

THE CABIN:

Matheson is out of his seat, pistol drawn. Seems a little puny

under the circumstances.

MATHESON:

(to agent)

You got any rifles?

AGENT:

Forward compartment -- left side --

Matheson rushes through a curtain to the area between the

cabin and the cockpit and pulls open a closet door. To his

horror, he finds inside not rifles, but

TWO DEAD BODIES:

who we'll recognize as the missing FBI agents from the photos

Matheson showed Travers.

MATHESON:

backs up in horror -- and he sees Travers calmly coming out of

the cockpit. Rattled, Matheson pulls his gun on Travers.

Travers looks dumbfounded -- then angry.

TRAVERS:

What the hell are you doing --

MATHESON:

Checked the plane from top to bottom,

huh? You f***er --

(clicks hammer back)

Put your hands behind your head! It's

over!

Travers puts his hands out and walks forward -- slowly,

backing Matheson into the cabin. Not in surrender, but as if

he's calming a nutcase. The other agents see this and don't

know which way to jump.

TRAVERS:

Calm down -- give the gun to me --

MATHESON:

(to other agents)

There's a couple of dead bodies in the

front compartment -- they're FBI

agents --

TRAVERS:

He's losing it --

They now think Matheson is crazy too -- he looks nuts -- the

other agents move behind him. Matheson gets even more frantic

and point his gun at them.

MATHESON:

Goddamn it! Don't you see what he's

doing! He's hijacking the f***ing

shipment!

(back to Travers)

Don't make me shoot you!

The other two agents get behind Matheson and rapidly disarm

him. Travers pulls out his gun with a slow, leisurely move.

TRAVERS:

Don't make me laugh.

Travers FIRES his gun three times, one for each agent's

chest -- the agents are cut down, realizing too late what's

happened. A fourth SHOT knocks Matheson over a seat as if he'd

been kicked. Travers puts his gun away and puts on a radio

headset as he goes to a window.

TRAVERS:

(to mouthpiece)

Move into position.

EXT. QUALEN'S JET - GULFSTREAM

maneuvers over the DC-9 -- and holds steady above it.

CUT TO:

EXT. CEMETERY MARKER - COLORADO - DAY

The stone reads "Susan Collins -- 1965 - 1991". It's

surrounded by wreaths -- one of which has an old snapshot of

her attached to it. Mementos sent on the first anniversary of

her death.

GABE:

brushes some of the falling snow away from the marker. He lays

down his flowers and pauses for a moment -- then gets into the

Bronco and drives away.

INT. FORD BRONCO - DAY

Gabe looks out the window at the countryside he used to belong

in. He's wondering if he still does.

CUT TO:

EXT. TREASURY JET/QUALEN'S JET - FLYING

Qualen's jet is now flying parallel to, and slightly above,

the Treasury jet. The door in Qualen's jet is open, and we get

our first good look at --

INT/EXT. QUALEN'S JET

-- Qualen, who is also wearing a headset radio and is wired

to a safety line in the jet. He's lowering a thick steel cable

down to the Treasury jet.

Qualen is as deadly as advertised -- 150 mph winds are tearing

at him through the open door, but he is unfazed and

unfrightened.

TRAVERS:

is also wired to a safety line by his own jet's open door.

TRAVERS:

(into radio)

More -- more -- keep it coming --

THE TWO PLANES:

Qualen's jet lowers the cable into the Treasury jet -- it

looks like an Air Force midair refuelling -- difficult and

dangerous. After about thirty feet of line is lowered --

TRAVERS:

-- takes it in and clips it to a ring at the top of the jet's

doorway.

TRAVERS:

(into radio)

Locked on. Move into lateral position.

INSIDE QUALEN'S PLANE

The pilot, KRISTEL, is a woman. Her skill, like her hard

beauty, can be measured in a glance: she's a lot calmer than

her counterpart in the Treasury plane.

KRISTEL:

Moving into lateral position.

ON THE TWO PLANES

Qualen's jet lowers itself, banking to the side -- the

Treasury jet raises itself. Both are now flying side by side,

with the cable serving as a thirty foot bridge.

TREASURY JET CABIN

Travers, unclipped from his safety line, cautiously goes to

the cockpit. The pilot, nervous, struggles with the controls.

PILOT:

We're right on the edge of the

storm -- let's move it.

Travers pulls the two dead FBI agents out of the

compartment -- one is dressed in a flying suit like the pilot,

one in a suit like Travers.

PILOT:

This isn't going to work -- Wright

will suspect something.

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