Ghost Ship Page #5

EXT. CHIMERA - FORWARD DECK - MOMENTS LATER - NIGHT

Murphy and Epps move cautiously along, shining their lights

as they go. Despite the omnipresent corrosion, everything

seems to be in order. The decks are clear and there is no

apparent damage. They come to a hatchway. Epps shines her

light down the darkened passage. Murphy moves in.

INT. CHIMERA - PASSAGEWAY - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT

Murphy and Epps move down the passageway. Even the walls in

here are rusted. They come to a flight of stairs.

INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - PILOTHOUSE - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT

Greer and Dodge wait. Greer reaches for his radio.

GREER:

(into radio)

Talk to me, skipper.

After a moment, Murphy comes back on the radio.

MURPHY:

We're in a stairwell just under the

main superstructure.

INT. CHIMERA - STAIRWAY - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT

Murphy and Epps climb the darkened stairway.

MURPHY:

This is definitely an old boat, maybe

sixty years old. She hasn't been in

service for at least twenty years.

Probably a lot longer.

They top the stairs and walk into a wider passageway which

takes them into an open area. Their lights shine around them,

revealing sinks and counters and racks of old kitchen

equipment, a few pots still hanging.

They move through the galley and into another, narrower,

passageway.

INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - PILOTHOUSE - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT

Greer and Dodge look on.

MURPHY:

It's funny.

GREER:

How's that?

MURPHY:

Besides a little rust, everything's

pretty well-preserved.

Greer and Dodge look at each other.

MURPHY:

How she got out here is one hell of

a good question.

(a long beat, then)

Jesus.

Dodge and Greer hold there, waiting. Only silence from the

other end.

GREER:

What is it?

No answer.

GREER:

Murphy.

No answer.

GREER:

Murphy, goddamit.

MURPHY:

(finally)

Sorry.

Another beat in silence.

GREER:

What is it?

INT. CHIMERA - BALLROOM - CONTINUOUS - NIGHT

Murphy and Epps stand at the top of a stairway, looking over

an immense ballroom. Murphy raises his radio.

MURPHY:

It's a passenger ship. It's a damn

passenger ship.

Though it is dark, there is enough light to see its ornate

opulence, tables and chairs in place near a large dance floor

and orchestra well, and a magnificent crystal chandelier

hanging over it all.

EXT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - FOREDECK - NIGHT

Epps and Murphy climb down the deck crane as Greer and Dodge

meet them at the bottom.

MURPHY:

(jumping down)

There's nobody on that boat.

INT. ARCTIC WARRIOR - CREW QUARTERS - NIGHT

Dodge, Epps, Greer and Murphy sit around the galley table.

DODGE:

Probably slipped her moorings, got

tangled up in a current.

EPPS:

Out here? What, so a seven hundred

foot passenger liner drifted out of

Spokane harbor and nobody managed to

bump into her until now?

DODGE:

Somebody's probably looking for her

as we speak.

MURPHY:

Whatever the reason, she's adrift

and abandoned. We've got every right

to salvage her.

GREER:

You mean tow her back? That's a thirty

thousand ton ship you're talking

about.

MURPHY:

We've done it before.

DODGE:

Yeah, from one side of the harbor to

the other. But we got half the Bering

Sea and the whole Alaskan gulf to

drag her over.

MURPHY:

You have any idea how much a ship

like that could be worth in salvage?

The fittings alone could go for a

few million.

DODGE:

If you get it back in one piece.

MURPHY:

It's a risk I'm willing to take.

GREER:

All we got to do is hit some rough

weather and you can forget about it.

MURPHY:

So we cut her loose and wait it out.

A little weather couldn't be anything

she hasn't seen before.

DODGE:

It's a bloody navigation hazard.

One boat can't control a ship that

size.

MURPHY:

The damn thing's been floating around

for God knows how long and it hasn't

hit anything yet. So we take it easy.

A little of the old push pull.

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