The American Side Page #5

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have time to earn it.

Where are you going?

Those were Borden Chase's

men back there.

Chase?

His sister took the designs

from the safe.

He's been ringing her out

to get 'em back.

What will you do?

Convince her

to go to the police.

Get one good shot at him.

Really?

I don't even

own a gun.

Hey.

He doesn't know

I burned it.

[footsteps approaching]

[footsteps fading]

[electric sparking]

I must've shorted out

the security system again.

I've done some things,

but you take the prize.

Pretty wild stuff,

isn't it?

Oh, come on.

Don't be so provincial.

That's the second time

you called me that.

All these books

and no thesaurus?

-Where is she?

-In the dungeon.

I don't like your jokes.

You seem like the type of guy

who thinks anyone

with money is a crook.

I think everyone is a crook.

You're a killer.

I'm a businessman.

Now, what will it cost me

to turn your attention back

to reservation cigarettes

and discount liquor?

Your sister,

and I'll throw in a bonus.

What can you possibly offer me

besides admiration.

The former contents

of your safe.

I can get it back,

never mind how.

Mr. Paczynski.

-Refreshed?

-Recharged?

Apparently he caught a glimpse

of our little therapy session.

He can't get his

brain around it.

So now we're going

to spend the evening

staring one another?

She leaves with me.

That's the deal.

She's not on

a leash...today.

Deal for what?

The design, tell him.

That design took me

25 years to acquire.

Do you know

what I would do to someone

who tried to steal it?

Lighting her up like

a Christmas tree

wasn't enough?

Over a million people

were treated with

electroconvulsive therapy

last year alone.

Treated for what?

Emily.

My sister wouldn't

steal from me.

Because she knows

that if she did,

the retribution

would be biblical.

[thud]

What kind of a man would

betray his sister's trust

because of the accusations

of a night crawler like you.

Open the safe.

We're family, Mr. Paczynski.

That's a gene pool

screaming for chlorine.

The feds will be coming.

[sighs]

[man]

He'd have taken the money.

This broad offers you

the golden goose

and you wanna

cook it for dinner.

He's got a goddamn

electric chair in his house.

Don't you think that's

a little out of the ordinary?

You're ordinary.

These people are not.

And the grain elevator?

Not only was there

no dead body,

but the FBI never heard

of your Agent Barry.

-What?

-And,

as you can see,

no sordid Chase

family history either.

He's got something on her.

Except maybe the old man

contemplating the long goodbye.

-Why?

-Read.

William C. Chase,

three arrests, three months,

summer of '69.

All up to the state park

at the Falls.

Trespassing?

Either he was suicidal

or smoking wacky tabacky.

Pretty thin, you'd agree?

Unless he was wearing

a scuba suit.

Just what the hell goes on

inside your head?

Personal items returned.

A flash light and an ax,

no snorkel.

Leave that

to the professionals, Charlie.

[door creaking]

What was Soberin

building for you?

I was there.

I was seven years old.

You didn't hire Nikki Meeker

for a barrel ride.

What do you think he could

build with half a design?

I didn't want him to build it.

I wanted to know what it was.

How would Soberin know

what it was any more

than Nikki?

He worked for the same outfit

as your FBI gal.

-DARPA?

-Sure.

Enlisted to inform them

any time he got wind of

extraordinary discoveries,

inventions or people.

DARPA has no

operational mission.

They want a radical innovation

of any kind.

You don't think that something

like guided missiles

came along because

some general filled out

an R and D request.

They don't mind

a thousand failures

because one success changes

the whole goddamn game.

And a guy like Tesla would

be a goldmine for an outfit

like that.

Don't kid yourself.

Tesla is the outfit.

?

Reagan's Star Wars,

the HAARP complex

in Alaska,

the Manhattan Project...

Bohemian Grove's greatest hits.

Soberin was briefed

on Tesla's

unpublished theories.

If a design surfaced...

He was trained to recognize

what it was for.

-But he didn't.

-He did.

He just didn't tell you.

If someone had both halves...

And knew how

to put them together,

that someone could

change the world.

?

[door creaking]

?

[Emily]

Charlie.

What happened?

I can't go back there.

Then go to the police.

They won't believe me.

-I'll make 'em.

-What can we prove?

Why'd you stand by him

back there?

He never believed

I broke into the safe,

but he put on a show

about trusting me.

And when you left,

he opened it.

Oh, Jesus.

Take your hand out.

Take it out.

Goddamn it.

It's not your fault.

I should have

never taken the design.

We gotta get you

out of here.

-I've made plans.

-Then go.

For all of us.

I'm not going anywhere yet.

He'll kill you.

He'll kill Nicole.

Please. Let me do this.

Then let's get you

and Nikki out.

[polka music playing]

[Charlie]

You all right?

I'm just, um,

figuring something out.

This is Emily Chase.

She can get you out.

The Professor will take you

both to the pump station.

She'll have a boat

there tonight.

The government keeps

track of people like me.

She's got the best forged

passport I've ever seen.

The sketch on that napkin?

I knew there was

something about it.

I had to flirt with my wife

to get this back.

It's a book I started

writing once.

Government conspiracies,

the moon landing,

Superbowl 25.

I'm kidding,

but there was

a Project Nick.

It involved particle beams,

and plasma, and projects

within projects.

And one of them

was a version

of Tesla's dream

to capture, amplify

and transmit the unlimited

energy of the ionosphere.

Something that could

only be accomplished

on a massive scale.

Theories.

There was also reference

to a discontinued offshoot

of that program

code named Tin Man.

-What was it?

-Nobody knows.

I do.

What Tesla thought he could

do for the energy

in the ionosphere,

he found he could do

for the energy that exists

around every living thing.

The energy of a person

amplified and focused

like a machine.

Tin Man.

Imagine a whole

army of soldiers.

That's why.

That's why he split it in half.

Why not destroy it?

Hope.

That someday we would

be wise enough to use it

as he intended.

The hell with hope.

I'm with you. Let it burn.

I still had hope.

Oh, sh*t.

Well, imagine this

in the wrong hands.

Or we can end it right here.

[sighs]

You think this thing

would actually work

Whenever you

look at the moon,

think of walking on it.

Some people have.

[car starting]

[car starting]

I was very glad

to get your call.

I hope you'll keep in mind

that I've already paid

for this once.

We're all paying for it.

You're not still in a fit over

that childhood game of ours.

Emily and played it

a thousand times.

There's never been any danger.

I've seen her since.

You practically

took her hand off.

Paczynski, that Polish, right?

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