RONIN Page #26

GREGOR:

Edvard said the same thing about you

before he died.

MIKHI:

I'm shocked, shocked to think that you'd

believe him.

GREGOR:

(suddenly sharp)

Enough!

Gregor raises the Briefcase which is still attached to his

wrist via the handcuff. Gregor rests the Briefcase on the

table.

MIKHI:

Ahh...

The moment of truth. Before this scene can develop any

further, a VOICE comes from Off Screen, and as the Voice

speaks, Gregor blanches.

SEAMUS (O.S.)

The moment of truth, is it?

ANOTHER ANGLE - Deirdre and Seamus have entered the room.

And we notice something unusual: nobody is alarmed (except

for Gregor, that is). It's as if they were expected.

GREGOR:

What is he doing here?

As Seamus speaks he walks through the room, examining the

valuable china and crystal, all the while moving inexorably

closer to Gregor. His face is, if anything, even more

horrific than it was a short while ago, as his formerly fresh

wounds have started to scab over.

SEAMUS:

What am I doing here? Why, I'm here to

see my partners, Gregor, the boys in the

Russian Mafia. See, your bosses had

hoped to screw me by hiring you to pull

your thieving double cross. But they

only just found out that what's in the

briefcase is completely useless without

me. I can't fight them, and they can't

kill me -- that means we're gonna have to

do business together.

GREGOR:

But you hate each other!

SEAMUS:

What's a little hate between business

partners?

EXT. THE WOODS - MEANWHILE

Vincent's CIGARETTE is stubbed into a rock and the two men

rise with a slow purpose. They exchange a look and then Sam

steps forward, leading the way

SAM:

I'm on point, Vincent.

A WIDE ANGLE - THE BACK LAWN OF THE CHATEAU -

Pure Kurosawa. The JAPANESE DRUM we've heard before starts

to play again as -

THE LONG SHADOWS of Sam and Vincent come out of the woods and

into the brilliant light of the back lawn. For one minute

they stand still, and among the many weapons that Sam carries

is a long automatic rifle, strung over his back, and in the

SILHOUETTE for one minute it looks like a Samurai sword. Now

the two men start to move across the lawn, hugging the

shadows of the various statues and hedges, trying to keep

from being discovered for as long as possible.

BACK IN THE DINING ROOM -

GREGOR:

(to Seamus)

So, you've got it all figured, do you?

SEAMUS:

Figured enough to know there's an odd man

out and I'm looking at him.

GREGOR:

I think not.

(holds up the Briefcase)

I have, of course, taken the precaution

of wiring the briefcase to explode five

seconds after it opens. Unless, of

course, I deactivate it before it goes

off.

DEIRDRE:

(under her breath)

That f***ing figures...

GREGOR:

Should any of you decide to rush me, I'll

kill myself and whoever happens to be

near me at the time.

MIKHI:

And more importantly --

GREGOR:

I'll destroy whatever's in the case.

BEAT. Nobody moves. Nobody speaks. Until finally -

SEAMUS:

It looks, Gentlemen, as if we're gonna

have to sit down to table and work out an

agreement.

Before this entirely too-weird scenario can play itself we go

back to -

THE BACK LAWN OF THE CHATEAU -

Sam and Vincent are closer to the Chateau, moving in stealth,

avoiding any entanglements and then Sam turns a corner and

comes face to face with - A GUARD, and his gun is aimed at

Sam's head:
Sam's a dead man as we go -

BACK TO THE DINING ROOM

AUTOMATIC WEAPONS FIRE splits the night, and everyone in the

room looks at one another, before Mikhi speaks.

MIKHI:

What was that?

BACK OUTSIDE THE CHATEAU -

The Guard who had Sam in his sights falls down, dead, shot by

- Vincent, whose smoking weapon is cradled in his arms.

Vincent smiles at Sam.

VINCENT:

That's one less I owe you...

Sam smiles, but it's no time to get satisfied. their

presence revealed, there's no point in moving quietly. Sam

draws his weapons and as he and Vincent charge across the

lawn towards the Chateau while -

BACK IN THE DINING ROOM -

MORE GUNSHOTS from outside -- not a war, but enough to cause

serious alarm. Deirdre, ever the soldier, draws her two

automatic pistols.

DEIRDRE:

(to Seamus and Mikhi)

You two stay here and watch our mutual

interest.

She nods at Gregor and his Briefcase, indicating what this

mutual interest is. Then she turns and bolts the room, and

as she does we're -

BACK OUTSIDE THE CHATEAU -

Sam and Vincent are running along, hugging the ground and

whatever darkness they can find, while blind weapons fire

rips into the ground around them, Russian thugs not even sure

what they're shooting at, but shooting all the same as Sam

and Vincent hurtle towards -

A BACK ENTRANCE TO THE CHATEAU -

Some kind of kitchen storage area, and as Sam and Vincent

burst in from outside - FIVE RUSSIAN HOODS come flying in

from an interior entrance, and this is it, Sam and Vincent

are outnumbered, outgunned, they're going to die and then -

They take out the entire room - Sam holds an automatic pistol

in his left hand, and a submachine gun in his right, and when

he fires, he does so in short controlled bursts, firing only

when he has the target in his sights, while - Vincent fights

with a kind of sheer force, a shotgun in one hand, an Uzi in

the other, he fires at anything and everything that moves,

and he hits almost all of it - And suddenly the room is

quiet. Everybody's dead except for Sam and Vincent. They

drop their spent weapons and take out fresh ones even as they

move towards - THE DOOR - It leads to two passages, each one

leading to a separate wing of the chateau.

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