Ghost Ship Page #12

Mail bags lie in piles along the wall, stacked between more

wooden crates and palettes, when something catches Epps'

eye.

A heavy, metal door in the wall is twisted on it's hinges,

as though blown back from some terrific explosive force.

Epps approaches, coming to the twisted door. She shines her

light inside.

A clutter of debris, shelving and wood, are visible in the

shadows, when her light catches a glint of something. She

swings her light back, revealing a yellowish bright object

between broken wood slats.

Epps steps in. She kneels, shining the light closer. The

yellow glint is metal. Epps pulls back a slat, sliding away

some of the debris to reveal that it is cast from a kilogram

ingot of gold.

She reaches out. She raises it, completely untouched by the

years. She pulls back still more debris, revealing a stack

of gold ingots, some having tumbled to the side. She slides

away a large trunk that has fallen, pushing off more junk to

see that the stack is much larger, perhaps four feet high

and five feet across.

A beat as Epps stands there, looking on at $50,000,000 in

gold.

INT. CHIMERA - CARGO COMPARTMENT - DAY

The debris has been cleared away to reveal a clean 5'x 5' x

4' stack of gold ingots.

DODGE (O.S.)

What the f*** we gonna do with it?

Greer, Murphy, Epps, and Dodge all look on.

GREER:

What the f*** you think we gonna do

with it? It's ours, baby. It's all

ours.

Murphy has stepped forward, taking an ingot, inspecting it.

GREER:

How much you figure that's worth,

skipper?

MURPHY:

(still looking it

over)

Hard to say. Maybe forty, fifty

million.

GREER:

Ho, baby!

EPPS:

That's a lot of money for somebody

to just let float away.

Murphy looks up at her from the gold.

MURPHY:

Yes, it is.

A beat as they all hold there.

MURPHY:

It's a hell of a lot of money.

DODGE:

What, you think there's something

funny about it?

MURPHY:

A ship with fifty million dollars in

gold aboard, adrift? And nobody seems

to care enough to come looking for

it?

GREER:

If they thought it was lost at sea,

they probably just wrote it off.

MURPHY:

Not for fifty million. An ocean liner

maybe. But fifty million in gold,

they come looking for.

EPPS:

Maybe they didn't want it back.

Maybe the whole fat deal was insured.

MURPHY:

Maybe. But there's always somebody

whose interest's at stake.

GREER:

All I gotta say is it looks like

that somebody's us right now.

Greer cackles as he high fives Dodge.

EPPS:

And it looks like somebody got here

before us too.

The steel hatch is twisted, as from a great hand ripping it

back from the wall.

DODGE:

(inspecting it)

Didn't happen yesterday, I'll tell

you that. Torn parts rusted bad as

the rest of the boat.

MURPHY:

Then it happened before they scuttled

her.

EPPS:

You mean, before she sank.

GREER:

Cargo like this could make a crew

think twice.

MURPHY:

That it could.

A beat, as they all look on at the gold.

INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - CREW QUARTERS - NIGHT

After dinner, Murphy, Greer, Dodge and Epps sit around the

galley table.

GREER:

Then why didn't they take it.

EPPS:

Probably didn't have time.

DODGE:

Or somebody stopped them.

MURPHY:

Either way, they must've had a pretty

good reason.

GREER:

Must be a damn good reason to jump

ship and leave fifty million dollars

aboard.

A beat as they consider it.

DODGE:

So what're we gonna do. That's the

big question, right?

MURPHY:

A salvage claim to a vessel's cargo's

as valid as a claim to the vessel

itself. It's ours.

DODGE:

Then we're rich. We're damn, filthy

stinking rich.

MURPHY:

It looks like it.

A beat as they let this sink in.

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