Seven Days in May Page #8

to stay in your room.

Frankly, I don't understand it,

but the orders were quite specific.

I'll just have to live with it.

As to the call, I was really phoning

for a mutual friend of ours, Jiggs Casey.

Mutt, isn't it?

That's what they call me.

How do you know Jiggs?

He has been up before our committee

a number of times...

...and he's done some favors for me

on occasion.

Could I get you a drink?

Those part of your orders, Colonel?

I don't understand.

To get me snoggered?

No, sir. I just...

These bottles have been coming in

every hour on the hour.

Doesn't that seem a little odd to you?

I mean, keeping me cooped up in here

with a flow of bourbon!

- I don't know what you're saying.

- What do you know?

About what?

Would you sit down and hear me out?

I guess so.

I want to preface this

with an assurance to you.

My mind is sound, even though I've been

cooped up here for a day and a night.

Do you trust Jiggs Casey?

You name it, he can have it, sir. Why?

If he told you something,

would you believe him?

I would, indeed.

All right, then. Check this one out.

When you told Jiggs about ECOMCON

last Monday...

...he'd never heard of it before.

That's funny.

There was a moment, just one moment.

How did you know about

my seeing Jiggs on Monday?

He told me.

He told some other people, too.

He'd never heard of it before.

After you left, Jiggs went over

all the JCS orders for the last year.

There was no record of ECOMCON

or anything like it.

Impossible. Colonel Broderick goes to

Washington all the time to brief the brass.

Not all of the brass.

Not President Lyman, not me.

A very selective briefing.

All you've got to know is this:

The government of the United States is

at the top of the Washington Monument...

...tipping right and left, ready to fall

and break up on the pavement.

Just a handful of men can prevent that.

And you're one of them.

Now you listen to me, Mutt.

I'll tell you the damnedest story

you ever heard.

You're relieved. I'm taking the civilian

in my custody. Go back to the barracks.

Senator Clark.

Post 10.

Give me Colonel Broderick's office.

I'm sorry, but I have orders that the civilian

is not to leave the base.

I'm countermanding those orders,

and escorting the civilian into town.

Sir, I don't know.

Colonel Broderick said that...

Throw the keys over here.

Eject that cartridge belt,

and throw it down on the ground.

You stay put right here.

I'll phone the White House.

When this is over, you can take off

your girdle and have yourself a good cry.

Say, have you got a dime

to stop a revolution with?

Ma'am, did you see a real tall soldier

with a funny hat waiting right here?

No.

Could your men have been mistaken, Art?

Not a chance, sir.

The gate guard was too positive.

It was Henderson all right.

Brought into the Fort Myer stockade,

10:
30 this morning.

Rode in the back of an Army sedan

under guard. Now held incommunicado.

Okay, Arthur. Thank you.

At least he's alive.

Admiral Barnswell, sir.

Admiral Barnswell, this is the President.

Well, sir, he came aboard a few days ago...

...he passed on your personal greetings,

and that's about the size of it, sir.

Frankly, no, Mr. President.

He gave me nothing to sign.

I'm sorry, sir. I can only recount to you

the situation as it occurred.

I signed no paper.

He took nothing with him.

Well, if anything happens

to revitalize your memory, Admiral...

...l'd appreciate a phone call.

It's now 2:
20 on a Saturday afternoon.

At 2:
20 tomorrow afternoon...

...somebody will have thrown a switch

at Mount Thunder...

...General James Scott will be

on all three television networks...

...explaining to the United States people

why this crucifixion is an act of faith.

What would you call this?

Sponge-throwing time?

Mr. President, what are you waiting for?

Fire Scott, Hardesty, Dieffenbach, Riley.

Sedition, pure and simple.

Close down Mount Thunder.

Declare a state of martial law.

And then where do I stand?

A lunatic. A paranoiac.

A screaming wild man

with nothing to back him up...

...because his proof is scattered

over a mountain...

...disappeared in an airport, or it's all part

of delirium tremens of a dipso senator.

Would you allow me to strike

that last idiotic remark?

There's no need, Jordie.

It's just what the Congress would say.

But you do have one last alternative.

And that is?

To use these letters

that Casey got from the girl.

When you get to the bottom of the barrel,

where we are now, you use expedients.

Hit the network cutoff.

Network cutoff.

Good.

Now, one more time. Position A.

Site G. Pope Field.

- Position B.

- ECOMCON force. Site Y.

- Position C.

- Site X. Mount Thunder, C.P.

Good, good.

Let's hear it.

Barney Rutkowski, Air Defense.

He's screaming bloody murder about those

12 troop carriers dispatched to El Paso.

Says they're checked for El Paso

and then lost on the radar screen.

Wants to know where they went and why.

He also wants to know why 30 more

are at Bragg with the same destination.

- What did you tell him?

- I told him it was classified and to forget it.

Well, that ought to do it.

He's a hard-nosed book player

with a radar screen at his bed.

If I know him, he's not going to stop here.

He'll go right up to the President.

Go ahead, Barney.

One of my controllers was watching

a flight of troop carriers Wednesday...

... heading for El Paso.

They turned northwest

and dropped off our radar screens.

We tried to find out about it

through channels...

... and all we get is the big stall.

There's some kind of a secret base

out there...

... and I think I should have been

notified of it.

Keep going, General.

Thirty more transports were due at this

classified place at 7:00 a.m. Tomorrow.

Now I learn it's been moved up

to 23:
00 tonight.

I want all those aircraft grounded.

You're to give the order

that they're to stand down.

That's been authorized by the President,

can be verified by calling the White House.

Do you understand that?

I guess I do, sir.

I want you available.

Phone in and let this office know

where you are.

Yes, sir.

The next step should be

to your liking, Chris.

- Esther?

- Yes, sir.

Call the Pentagon.

Tell General Scott

I want to see him right away.

I think it's time we faced the enemy,

Mr. President.

He's not the enemy.

Scott, the Joint Chiefs...

...even the very emotional, very illogical

lunatic fringe, they're not the enemy.

The enemy is an age.

A nuclear age.

It happens to have killed man's faith

in his ability...

...to influence what happens to him.

And out of this comes a sickness.

A sickness of frustration.

A feeling of impotence,

helplessness, weakness.

And from this, this desperation...

...we look for a champion

in red, white and blue.

Every now and then

a man on a white horse rides by...

...and we appoint him to be

our personal god for the duration.

For some men it was a Senator McCarthy.

For others it was a General Walker.

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