The Game Page #16

ON THE CEILING, a red-bulbed SMOKE DETECTOR.

CHRISTINE:

(cheery, in character)

So, what do you say we go for a

drive? We'll take your car...

She takes his hand and pulls him. Nicholas yanks away...

NICHOLAS:

No! I'm sick of this...

CHRISTINE:

Nicholas...

Nicholas points up at the smoke detector, addressing it...

NICHOLAS:

You can come out now, if you're

there. Come on out! Let's go!

Nicholas walks to the fireplace, picks up a FIREPLACE POKER.

He moves to SWING it up -- SWATS the smoke detector.

Christine runs to the picture window.

CHRISTINE:

Now you've done it!

THRU WINDOW:
THUG 1 and THUG 2, muscle men, climb out from

the CABLE REPAIR VAN, running this direction.

Nicholas comes to look, poker in hand.

NICHOLAS:

What? Oh, and I suppose they're going to...

THRU WINDOW:
Thug 1 and 2 draw guns, pointing...

Nicholas furrows his brow, unsure.

CHRISTINE:

Get down!

WINDOW'S BLOWN IN by GUNFIRE! as Christine tackles Nicholas.

Shattered glass showers down. KNICK-KNACKS FLY TO PIECES.

Christine crawls. Nicholas follows. They flee, Nicholas

gasping and glancing back, terrified...

IN THE KITCHEN:

Christine pulls Nicholas thru a door...

INT. CHRISTINE'S GARAGE -- NIGHT

Christine and Nicholas come downstairs to the empty garage.

Christine's dad looks up from his solitaire game at a card

table, a day player thrown off by this backstage intrusion.

CHRISTINE'S DAD

What the hell... !?

Christine leads Nicholas out the REAR DOOR...

EXT. CHRISTINE'S BACKYARD -� NIGHT

They run along the back of the house...

NICHOLAS:

What is this!?

CHRISTINE:

God, wake up, it's a con!

Around the corner, toward the front, Christine stops, looking

across the front lawn to Nicholas' Bentley.

INT. CHRISTINE'S GARAGE -� NIGHT

Thug 1 and 2 bluster in, guns up. Christine's dad points to

the open rear door, afraid. Thug 1 thinks quick -- SLAMS

the GARAGE DOOR OPENER...

The OPENER'S MOTOR RATTLES to life, GARAGE DOOR RISING...

EXT. CHRISTINE'S FRONT LAWN -� NIGHT

Nicholas and Christine speed away in the Bentley.

BEHIND, Thug 1 and 2 crawl under the garage door, giving

chase, FIRING. Too little, too late. They run to the van.

EXT. SUBURBAN STREETS -- NIGHT

The Bentley roars onwards...

IN THE BENTLEY:

Nicholas drives, white-knuckled. Christine watches behind.

ON THE STREET:

The van pursues, far behind, but closing ground.

IN THE BENTLEY:

Nicholas checks his mirror. Christine looks forward...

CHRISTINE:

Look out!

ON THE STREET:

The Bentley SIDESWIPES another CAR as Nicholas runs a light.

The Bentley keeps going, the other car SPINNING...

The van BRAKES HARD to avoid the spun-out car. The van

reverses, angling to get around...

FURTHER ON:

The Bentley SKIDS into an alley, lights off, still moving.

The van, having lost half a block, misses this and continues

straight, raging forward, then SCREEEEECHING to stop...

In the middle of a four-way intersection, stumped. The van

chooses a direction, cutting a corner, roaring away...

INT. BENTLEY -� NIGHT

CHRISTINE:

(looking back)

Okay... they're gone...

She's thrown forward as Nicholas SLAMS BRAKES. He reaches

across and throws Christine's door open.

CHRISTINE:

What are you doing... ?

NICHOLAS:

Get out.

CHRISTINE:

I could've handed you to them. They

find me now, I'm dead...

NICHOLAS:

Get out of my car!

CHRISTINE:

You don't have a choice. No one else

is going to tell you what's going on.

Nicholas stares at her with hatred.

CHRISTINE:

Do you want to know? If I'm gone,

you never will.

Nicholas flips the headlights on, puts the car in gear and

drives. She pulls the door shut.

NICHOLAS:

You can talk while I drive us to the

police.

CHRISTINE:

No cops. I've got a warrant out.

Mail fraud. They'll take me in, but

you won't be able to prove anything

else.

Christine takes out cigarettes, lights up.

CHRISTINE:

I can't believe they didn't take the

time to get the house right.

Nicholas grabs the cigarette, throws it out his window.

NICHOLAS:

Who are "they?"

CHRISTINE:

I don't know, nobody does. I'm an

employee.

NICHOLAS:

Then, what good are you?

CHRISTINE:

I know things... like who you can

trust. Like that your brother was in

on it from the beginning.

NICHOLAS:

That's a lie...

CHRISTINE:

Yeah? I was your waitress on your

birthday. Connie told you about

C.R.S. that day, remember? I was

already playing my part, before you

started the game.

Nicholas looks to her, realizing the truth of it.

Christine's lighting up a new cigarette.

CHRISTINE:

It wasn't his fault. He thought it

was his only way back. They fleeced

him real good.

NICHOLAS:

How? How could they have gotten

anything?

CHRISTINE:

They did the same to him as they did

to you.

NICHOLAS:

What are you talking about... ?

She gives him a pitying look.

CHRISTINE:

They've already got it, Nicholas.

They got everything.

Nicholas shoots her a glance; this is absurd.

CHRISTINE:

Check your accounts. That night in

your office, when we were there...

FLASHBACK -- NICHOLAS' OFFICE -- THAT NIGHT

Christine runs her finger down Nicholas' TELEPHONE. She

looks to see Nicholas is preoccupied, lifts the receiver...

Reads the PHONE NUMBER underneath. She turns, looks down...

There's a NUMBER written on the PHONE JACK on the wall: #C4.

CHRISTINE:

I got the number to your private line

and modem. I gave C.R.S. remote

access to your computer...

FLASHBACK -- VARIOUS INSERTS

NICHOLAS' C.R.S. TESTING: Nicholas' hand scribbles his

SIGNATURE... fills out a FINANCIAL QUESTIONNAIRE. A TAPE

RECORDER'S REEL SPINS... a PENCIL blackens TEST BLOCKS...

CHRISTINE:

You already gave them everything

else. Handwriting, voice samples,

psych-info. They used it all to

figure out your passwords.

FLASHBACK:
ON A MONITOR, combinations of LETTERS and NUMBERS

SCROLL BY, multiplying, too quickly for the eye to see...

CHRISTINE:

From there, they only had to keep you

distracted while they broke into the

network and transferred your holdings

to dummy accounts.

FLASHBACK:
FIGURES appear on a COMPUTER SCREEN; HIGH NUMBERS

flying down to 000,000,000's. More NUMBERS, falling.

CHRISTINE:

Remember Jim Feingold, the guy who

signed you up? He did five years for

hacking Citibank in eighty-four...

FLASHBACK:
PAN UP from deft fingers at a keyboard to JIM

FEINGOLD, lit by cold COMPUTER SCREEN GLOW.

BACK TO SCENE IN BENTLEY

Nicholas sweats. He checks his watch, takes out his

cellular, dialing with his thumb. Christine smokes.

CHRISTINE:

Why else would they be willing to put

you under... ?

NICHOLAS:

(into cellular)

Overseas operator? Please dial

Allgemeine Bank, Zurich.

CHRISTINE:

They don't care about you anymore.

Alive or dead is the same, as long as

they bury you deep enough.

EXT. HIGHWAY -- NIGHT

The Bentley SPEEDS out a tunnel on the highway toward S.F.

INSIDE THE BENTLEY

NICHOLAS:

(into cellular)

Guten tag. Vilen dank, Englisch.

Blue-two-backslash-five. Mother's

maiden name:
Miller. Six-nine-zero,

D as in David. Yes. The balance...

(listens)

That's impossible. When did... ?

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