Human Target Page #7

That you essentially invited the gunman

to shoot you instead.

CHANCE:

What’s your point?

STEPHANIE:

If you have such a low opinion of people,

why risk your life for them? Why be the

guy who’ll take a bullet for a stranger,

a human target for hire, if they deserve-

CHANCE:

I didn’t say they deserve it.

STEPHANIE:

You just said-

CHANCE:

I said people have secrets, and secrets

can be dangerous. Nobody deserves to die.

Stephanie takes that in a moment. The silence is broken,

though, as HER PHONE RINGS. Chance grabs it, answers...

CHANCE (INTO PHONE) (CONT'D)

Yeah... When... This morning-- Today?

...no such thing as coincidence... Do me

a favor, keep digging... I’ll connect

when we hit destination.

Chance hangs up. He looks up at Stephanie.

CHANCE (CONT’D)

Mark Hoffer was killed this morning.

STEPHANIE:

What?

CHANCE:

His car exploded. Unofficial police

report says there was Primasheet residue-

STEPHANIE:

Oh God...

CHANCE:

Same explosive as the one in your car. I

need you to start thinking... What did

you talk to him about?

STEPHANIE:

I don’t know, all kinds of things...

(CONTINUED)

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 32.

CONTINUED:
(3)

CHANCE:

Scandal? Something personal?

STEPHANIE:

No.

CHANCE:

Privileged information?

STEPHANIE:

No, never. I mean, once I--No, nothing

privileged.

CHANCE:

Once you what?

STEPHANIE:

About eighteen months ago, I had a run-in

with management about a design issue.

Happens all the time, but this one they

gave me an especially hard time with. I

was mad when I talked to Mark, I felt bad

immediately that I said anything to him.

CHANCE:

What did you say?

STEPHANIE:

There’s a component in the brake

assemblies, a Y-Wing connector, that we

bought from a new supplier. Most YWing’s

are titanium, these were some

alloy I’d never heard of. So I did some

testing. When I exposed them to a

significant static charge in just the

right way, they overheated.

CHANCE:

Is that a problem?

STEPHANIE:

Not if the static charge is below a

certain limit. But at extremely high

speeds, it could lead to a catastrophic

failure of the brakes.

CHANCE:

Train won’t stop.

STEPHANIE:

Not when you want it to, no.

CHANCE:

So what happened?

(CONTINUED)

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 33.

CONTINUED:
(4)

STEPHANIE:

I told management, they rejected my

conclusions. Said I over-estimated the

charge, that it’d take a driver recklessly

exceeding safe speeds for there to even

theoretically be a problem. Said it’d

cost billions to retrofit my changes, and

that ‘my compulsive need for perfection’

wasn’t compelling justification. But

where I come from, when something’s broke

you fix it. So I kept pushing. A week

later, they caved. Said they’d make the

fixes. I haven’t thought about it since.

CHANCE:

So far, so good. Why’d you tell Hoffer?

STEPHANIE:

I don’t air dirty laundry outside the

office, I didn’t even tell James. But

Mark caught me right in the middle of it.

I was frustrated, I made a mistake.

CHANCE:

Stephanie... Is there a chance he was

gonna write about this?

STEPHANIE:

Write about it?

CHANCE:

Nice sidebar to go along with the launch

of the train? ‘Engineering firm cuts

corners on safety measures for largest

public works project in U.S. history’?

STEPHANIE:

It’s possible. But what difference would

it make? If they fixed the brakes, what

difference would it make if he wrote...

They both arrive at the hypothetical answer at the same time.

It hangs in the air a moment. But before either can respond,

we hear THE CHAIN SLINKING TO THE GROUND downstairs.

Chance grabs Stephanie, they hide behind a bulkhead near the

rear of the car. Chance draws his gun...

FOOTFALLS up the spiral stairs... Slowly approaching... But

as they get closer, something about it seems wrong to Chance.

Whoever’s clunking around out there, it ain’t a professional

assassin. Chance holsters his gun.

(CONTINUED)

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 34.

CONTINUED:
(5)

CHANCE THEN SPRINGS... A quick move to subdue the

intruder... Pins him up against the wall... But-

STEPHANIE (CONT'D)

Wait--No, stop!

We get a look at the guy. IT’S TOM.

CUT TO:

INT. MONTEREY ONE - COACH CAR - 2ND FLOOR - MINUTES LATER

Chance, Stephanie and Tom, seated-

TOM:

When I couldn’t find you, I asked James

where you were. He seemed weird about

it, didn’t really answer. I got worried,

so I came looking for you.

CHANCE:

(to Stephanie)

At least your husband can follow

instructions...

STEPHANIE:

How’s Bill?

TOM:

There’s a doc up there, he’s managed to

stabilize him. They talked about

stopping and medivac-ing him to UCSF, but

McNamara figures it’s actually faster to

keep him on the train... They put the

pedal to the floor; a chopper would

actually be slower than we are right now.

(then)

Stephanie, you gotta tell me what’s going

on here?

(re:
Chance)

And what the hell is this guy’s story?

Stephanie looks to Chance. What do I tell him?

CHANCE:

I need you to go back to the main car,

Tom. If anyone asks, you couldn’t find

Stephanie. You don’t know where she is.

TOM:

Wait a minute--Steph, if there’s

something wrong, I want to help-

(CONTINUED)

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 35.

CONTINUED:

CHANCE:

And I’m telling you, you can help by

going back to the main car, and keeping

your mouth shut. Don’t talk to anyone.

Tom looks to Stephanie, who silently affirms.

TOM:

Alright...

But as Tom gets up to go-

STEPHANIE:

Hey... Do you remember the flap about

the Y-Wing connectors? About a year ago?

TOM:

(thinks)

Vaguely... You’d talked to some reporter,

wanted to make sure you hadn’t violated

your confidentiality agreement...

STEPHANIE:

You didn’t tell anyone else at the

company about that, did you?

TOM:

Did I say anything...? Why would I--

No, of course not.

There was a bit of a hitch in his answer. Chance clocks it.

TOM (CONT'D)

Steph, are you sure you’re okay?

STEPHANIE:

Yeah... Yeah, I’m fine.

A beat, before Tom exits. Chance eyes him warily as he goes.

CUT TO:

INT. CHANCE’S OFFICE - DAY

Guerrero sits at the computer, Winston over his shoulder.

WINSTON:

What is this?

GUERRERO:

Contents of Mark Hoffer’s hard drive.

WINSTON:

Do I want to know how you came about it?

(CONTINUED)

Human Target - Steinberg Network Revisions 1/23/09 36.

CONTINUED:

GUERRERO:

An editor at the paper owes me. Few

years back, a utility company hired a guy

to hassle him and his family over a story

he was working. I got him out of it.

WINSTON:

How did you do that?

GUERRERO:

I decided to stop hassling him.

(re:
computer screen)

There’s nothing here. Nothing

interesting, anyway. Just some notes,

his schedules, expenses...

THE PHONE RINGS. Winston answers, then signals to Guerrero

for him to pick up an extension as well.

INTERCUT WITH:

INT. MONTEREY ONE - COACH CAR - 2ND LEVEL - DAY

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