Nick of Time Page #9

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ELEANOR GRANT hands over the autograph.

ELEANOR GRANT:

Are you all right? Elevators make me

queasy, too.

GENE gives her a sick smile, abruptly turns away. He takes

his hand out of his pocket. It's shaking. He clenches it to

stop the shakes.

The doors open, startling him.

INT. THIRTY-FIFTH FLOOR - DAY - 12:2 9PM

ELEANOR GRANT and her entourage exit to greetings and

applause.

GENE stays in the elevator, frozen, alone with MR. SMITH.

The doors close and the elevator descends.

INT. "RED ELEVATOR" - DAY - 12:29PM

MR. SMITH is fuming, his face red. He explodes.

MR. SMITH

She was right in front of you! What's

wrong with you!?

His fists clench. He seems about to lose control. He backs

GENE into a corner, physically terrified.

MR. SMITH

Are you 'f***ing with me!?

GENE:

The gun...

MR. SMITH

What about the gun?

GENE:

It wasn't loaded. I didn't put the

bullets in it.

MR. SMITH

You...

He raises a fist. Struggles with the impulse to smash GENE,

controls it. Angrily, he takes the gun from GENE's pocket,

expertly loads it with bullets from his own pocket.

MR. SMITH

You won't get many chances like that,

Mr. Watson. That's the way life works.

Don't blow the next one.

He indicates the glass,wall of the elevator with his eyes.

GENE looks out and down.

GENE'S POV

The van. It's moving into a parking spot across from the

Bonaventure, on Flower Street.

INT. THE VAN - DAY - 12:29PM

LYNN is coloring a picture in her stolen book. MS. JONES

takes a look.

MS. JONES

That's pretty good.

LYNN:

I've done much better ones than this.

MS. JONES

You have, huh?

LYNN:

Oh, yes. I'll show you. I have much

more colors at home.

MS. JONES

That's good.

(checks her watch)

That's good, sweetie pie.

INT. RED ELEVATOR - DAY - 12:29PM

The elevator continues its descent and the van disappears

from view. GENE strains to see it again, but it's impossible.

MR. SMITH jams the loaded gun into GENE's pocket.

MR. SMITH

There, all loaded. Ready for the

hunt.

The elevator, doors open into the lobby.

INT. BONAVENTURE HOTEL - THIRD FLOOR - YELLOW ELEVATOR LOBBY -

DAY - 12:
29PM

MR. SMITH walks out. GENE follows. MR. SMITH, suddenly becomes

self-conscious, walks away from GENE. The object of his

shyness:
A JAPANESE TOURIST COUPLE nearby. The man is taping

his wife with a video camera.

VIEW THROUGH VIDEO CAMERA - 12:31PM

We see what the camera is seeing, the WIFE, smiling. Behind

her, we see GENE, looking confusedly after Mr. Smith. He

turns, walks out of frame. In the corner of the picture, a

read-out of the TIME:

12:
31:00.

INT. BONAVENTURE HOTEL - SHOESHINE STAND - DAY - 12:31PM

Back in real life, GENE walks toward a shoeshine stand outside

the Men's Room. "Huey's Polished Act" and below that, hand-

lettered, "Disabled Veteran" where HUEY himself, a fiftyish

black man, reads a "Smithsonian" magazine.

He sees GENE and perks up - a customer.

HUEY:

Having a rough day? Down at the heels

as they...?

But GENE goes right past HUEY and into the Men's Room.

HUEY:

(calling after him)

You don't see your face, you don't

pay!

HUEY gives up, goes back to his magazine.

INT. MEN'S ROOM. - DAY - 12:31PM

Gene goes- over to one of the sinks, runs the cold water,

splashes his face, looks in the mirror, into his own eyes.

He tries to find an answer, a way out. A pay phone, on the

wall behind him, comes into focus. Then a hand reaches in,

grabs the receiver...and yanks it, snapping the wire. Gene

spins around. It is MR. SMITH, of course.

MR. SMITH smiles. GENE doesn't. MR. SMITH leaves.

INT. BONAVENTURE HOTEL - THIRD FLOOR - DAY

GENE exits the Men's Room and walks back the route he came.

INT. BONAVENTURE HOTEL - SHOESHINE STAND - DAY - 12:32PM

HUEY sets down his magazine again.

HUEY:

Having a rough day? Down at the heels

as they say? What you need is a shoe

shine, shoe shine, shoe shine today.

It's HUEY's usual patter, he's said it a thousand times.

GENE looks around.

MR. SMITH is in the lounge area, facing the Flower Street

entrance, able to keep the Men's Room and GENE in view.

HUEY:

Take ten, take a break, take a seat,

take a load off. Put the world in

perspective.

GENE lets HUEY usher him into a chair.

The gun in his jacket pocket clunks against the arm of the

chair. A grim reminder. He pulls out the itinerary.

ECU - ITINERARY

12:
45 - Governor Eleanor Samara Grant - Pacific Rim

Multi-Cultural Conference - Pool Deck - Fourth Floor

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