The Hoax Page #7

Come here.

Let me show you something.

It's postmarked from Nevada.

That's Hughes country.

What are you saying?

He wants us to help him bust Nixon.

He's with us, Dick! Howard is with us.

How did you know the Dillon Read

hydraulic systems were faulty?

You're not listening,

Clifford, goddamn it.

I made sure they were faulty

through a couple of well-placed bribes.

So, why didn't you just go to

Defense with the information

and get the contract?

Well,

I couldn't have

handled the contracts then.

So instead of tattling on them,

I fixed their planes.

I intertwined our technologies.

I ate that company from within,

and they let me

because they were hypnotized.

That's the way, Clifford.

When your rival is powerful,

find an opportunity.

Create a crisis for him.

But instead of taking

short-term advantage,

save the day for him.

Nothing confuses a man more

than a kind gesture from his enemy.

Nothing renders him more vulnerable.

It's Edith. Turn it off, turn it off.

I made sure they were faulty

through a couple of...

It was Andrea. We got a problem.

Keep it down, guys,

you're going to wake the neighbors.

Clifford, I don't believe

you've met Frank McCullough.

- No. Hi, Frank.

- How are you?

Dick Suskind. Dick?

Hello.

I got a phone call yesterday

from Chester Davis,

- who's Hughes' personal attorney.

- Yes, yes, yes.

Apparently at 1:
00 p.m., our time,

Howard Hughes is going to call

to speak to an intermediary

by telephone.

And as the last journalist

to have spoken to Mr. Hughes,

we mutually agreed

that Mr. McCullough

should receive the call,

because of his ability

to identify Mr. Hughes by voice.

Mr. McCullough has also assured us,

at least for the moment,

that all of this will remain off the record.

And Mr. Davis also insisted

that Ralph Graves be present

and in the room

at the time of the phone call,

which I have to say, Cliff,

that one kind of surprised me,

given Hughes' representations of Life

in your alleged communications

with him.

If you'll excuse me,

I have to go to the bathroom.

Shelton, this...

What am I supposed to say?

This is an ambush.

You know exactly what the guy is

gonna say on the other end of this line.

But that's why Mr. McCullough is here,

to identify the voice

of the man in question.

I'm neutral here, Mr. Irving.

So, now we wait.

Can't watch this charade.

You can find me in the lobby.

Stay close, Clifford.

Hello?

It says exit, there's no exit.

Oh, my God.

Sh*t!

We can't get out.

Howard Hughes. My God.

We have no reason

to believe that that was him.

McCullough hasn't heard from him.

He hasn't spoken to him in 12 years.

Breathe. Listen, Dick.

There's an angry billionaire.

- He's chasing me, he's hating me.

- You're hyperventilating.

- Go on.

- No.

Walk. We're going up here.

Keep moving, come on. Come on.

Cliff, I can't... I gotta take a piss.

I'll confess, I'll do anything they want.

I just have to use the bathroom.

- Okay, right here, right here.

- What?

Look, hide in there.

Watch your head.

Hide there.

If you've got to, piss in your pants.

- You just go ahead and you stay there.

- I'll stay right here.

What happened?

We don't know yet.

McCullough asked us

to leave the room.

The man I just spoke to

was Howard Hughes.

His speech patterns and inflections

would be impossible to imitate.

And he told me

that he's never met you,

and that your book is a fraud.

A hoax.

Mr. Irving?

I'm listening.

Now, knowing Howard,

I don't find this to be conclusive at all.

I mean, he is a very strange man.

But considering the scarcity of proof

that you've provided,

my best guess at this moment

is that you are a charlatan.

If there is even a whiff

of impropriety to this,

if you have exaggerated

or changed even the slightest detail,

I will prosecute you

to the full extent of the law

for grand larceny and mail fraud,

unless you tell me right now

just what the ballfuck is going on.

I have...

I have betrayed your trust.

The book, the entire story, is false.

I have lied to the entire world.

And no matter what happens now,

I am so relieved.

I have off-the-record material

on that two-faced prick,

puts him in f***ing jail.

I'm going to tell Howard,

either he shows his ant-bitten face,

or I release it!

I've had it!

You have three days to produce

Howard Hughes and the manuscript.

Grand larceny, Cliff? Mail fraud?

Jesus... No way.

This is just too much! Too much!

We've got a move, there is

a move here, we're just not seeing it yet.

Stop the car. Pull over. Stop the car.

- I've gotta make a phone call.

- What are you doing?

What am I doing? I'm calling Barbara.

That's what I'm doing.

Yeah, it's me.

What?

It's over, Cliff. I can't go to jail.

Now, with you or without you,

I'm gonna tell them tomorrow

that Howard Hughes called

and he pulled out of the deal.

You can pay them back the money.

I talked to Barbara.

She had very strong feelings

about this.

I'm sure she did.

You're an honorable man, Dick.

Aren't you?

Are you an honorable man?

Did you make

a commitment to me, Dick?

Did you say you were in this

till the end?

- Yeah.

- Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Reaching a worldwide audience,

taking down a corrupt President.

That's the end! Not this!

- It's finished, Cliff. It's finished.

- Yeah, right. Sure.

- I'm sorry I disappointed you.

- Good.

Do you read? Yeah.

I encourage people to read, because I...

- Right.

- That way, they read my books,

and I sell books

and I can make some money.

That is why I love it when people say,

"I'm a reader."

I say, "Good for you, and good for me."

- I bet you are a good...

- Hey, cowboy. We gotta go.

- No, no, I don't wanna go.

- Yes, you do.

We gotta go.

I've just been having a very interesting

conversation with these lovely ladies.

- Come sit, have a drink, have a drink.

- WOMAN:
It's true.

No, you can't jazz anything up.

You have to be historically accurate.

I need to find a great book.

The one book...

- Tommy, two. Two more doubles.

- TOM:
Yeah, sure.

His two main preoccupations...

Am I right?

Were war and sodomy.

Now, this is my problem.

It's a hazardous business, sodomy.

- Yes, this is what I hear.

- "What you hear..."

It's what you hear.

That's the way.

When your rival is powerful,

find an opportunity.

Create a crisis for him.

But instead of taking

short term advantage,

save the day for him.

Hi.

Cliff?

What happened last night?

I smell...

I smell...

Oh, no.

Oh, God. No, I didn't...

Oh, I didn't.

I did, didn't I?

It's all right.

Dick, listen to me.

It was a mistake.

It was a mistake.

She's wanted security for a long time,

hasn't she?

- Yes.

- Yes, she has.

Well, you can give her that now.

I promise you, I will make this work.

I will make this work. I promise.

I intertwined our technologies.

I ate that company

from within.

And they let me

because they were hypnotized.

HERE COMES THE SUN PLAYING

The Mayor of New York planned this

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