The Night Manager Page #5

PINE:

Certainly sir.

HAMID, agitated, waits as PINE calls the room he knows will

be empty.

PINE (CONT’D)

No reply I’m afraid sir.

HAMID:

Give me the key.

PINE:

I’m afraid I can’t do that sir.

HAMID:

Just give me the damn key.

PINE:

It’s not hotel policy to open

guests’ rooms...

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 2323.

HAMID grabs him.

HAMID:

Do you know who I am?

PINE:

Yes.

HAMID:

Then you know who my family are.

Open the room.

He stares hard at PINE.

30 INT. CAIRO. NEFERTITI HOTEL. HATSHEPSUT SUITE. NIGHT. 30

PINE opens the door. HAMID walks in fast. Looks round.

HAMID:

Where is she? When did you last see

her?

PINE:

The night before last. I can ask

the day staff...

HAMID:

Sh*t!

He kicks the bed in rage.

His phone rings. HAMID speaks in ARABIC. But PINE understands

every word.

HAMID (IN ARABIC) (CONT’D)

Yes! No she’s not here! I’ll find

her OK! Just stop treating me like

a little kid!

He stares at PINE.

HAMID (IN ARABIC) (CONT’D)

You speak Arabic?

PINE looks back blank-faced.

PINE:

Excuse me?

HAMID nods. Carries on his phone chat. Low voice.

HAMID (IN ARABIC)

Listen tell Roper I have it all in

hand. It’s all being dealt with.

Roper:
PINE’s body tenses as he hears the name. HAMID hangs

up, stares at PINE.

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 2424.

HAMID (CONT’D)

The minute she appears, you call

this number.

He hands him the card.

HAMID (CONT’D)

You call! You hear me!

PINE:

Certainly sir.

HAMID:

If anyone asks, I was never here.

HAMID tears out of the room. PINE looks round the room. Then

with trained efficiency he collects some stuff for SOPHIE.

31-32 OMITTED 31-32

33 INT. CAIRO. NEFERTITI HOTEL. CORRIDOR/LIFT. NIGHT. 33

PINE is escorting SOPHIE fast out of her room to the lift.

PINE:

It belongs to an archeologist

friend, he’s heading back to London

tonight and the house will be free

for two weeks.

SOPHIE:

Do I have to go?

PINE:

I think it would be safer.

SOPHIE:

Come with me.

He stares at her.

SOPHIE (CONT’D)

Please.

They wait for the lift.

PINE stares at her. Makes a call.

PINE:

Youssuf. I need your help.

SOPHIE smiles.

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 2525.

34 INT. LONDON. FCO. EARLY MORNING. 34

ANGELA and a very splendid English foreign office mandarin,

REX MAYHEW, are walking and talking in a government building.

They talk quietly, sense of a secret shared.

BURR:

What more do you need?

MAYHEW:

Angela...

BURR:

You sent me these papers? There

isn’t some other RM in the foreign

office sending me top secret files

by private courier?

MAYHEW:

I sent them to you for information.

As I did to everyone involved in

arms intelligence and enforcement.

BURR:

Rex why have you set me up in that

little shoe box in Victoria?

Richard Roper is selling arms to

the youngest Hamid brother in the

heart of Cairo in the middle of the

Arab Spring. This is exactly what

we’ve been looking for...

MAYHEW:

Notwithstanding all that, the

Permanent Secretary is concerned

that if you go full throttle after

Roper without telling our friends

across the river...

BURR:

That something might actually get

done. That’s it isn’t it?

MAYHEW:

There is another point of view on

all this.

BURR:

And what’s that?

MAYHEW:

That Richard Roper is performing a

useful national duty. Under the

counter but valuable nonetheless.

She stares at him.

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 2626.

BURR:

You’re joking me.

MAYHEW:

Arming certain key players whosemobile phone numbers we have in ouraddress book may be preferable toindulging a whole new bunch ofreligious lunatics about whom weknow nothing. The PermanentSecretary would therefore very muchprefer we brought the River Crewalong with us in any operation wewhich to instigate.

BURR:

I know those people. They’ve

lunched too much with the enemy andnot paid the bill.

MAYHEW:

The JIC meeting will be next week.

We will have a full and frank

discussion, we will share the

intelligence like brothers, andsisters, and we will move forward

together as one harmonious family.

Now I have to be at my club infifteen minutes. I would invite youbut you know... member rules.

BURR stares, apparently indignant.

BURR:

Rex. You seriously belong to a clubthat won’t allow women?

MAYHEW:

Well I mean...

She smiles.

BURR:

Go and eat where you want. Bet thefood’s sh*t anyway.

35 OMITTED 35

36 I/E. EGYPTIAN DESERT/YOUSSUF’S CAR. NIGHT. 36

A battered old car across the Egyptian desert. The whiterocks of the desert pass like ghosts in the night.

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 2727.

37 EXT. EGYPTIAN DESERT. CHICAGO HOUSE. DAWN. 37

The car draws up at a strange building perched in the desert.

Out of the car steps JONATHAN PINE, YOUSSUF, and SOPHIE

ALEKAN, her face bandaged.

YOUSSUF is speaking to PINE.

PINE:

Give my excuses to the hotel. And

tell no one we’re here. Not even

your family. If you see Freddie

Hamid in the hotel text me.

YOUSSUF:

Call me if you need anything.

PINE nods, they embrace, and YOUSSUF drives off into the

desert.

38 I/E. EGYPTIAN DESERT. CHICAGO HOUSE. DAY.. 38

They open the door to the house. It’s small, stone walls,

rugs and runners on stone floors. Simple, almost spartan.

SOPHIE:

It’s sweet. What is it used for?

PINE:

It’s a sort of monk’s cell for

academics, mainly meteorologists

and geologists. The University of

Chicago pay for it under some

stipend.

SOPHIE:

Sounds like a front for something.

PINE:

Almost certainly.

SOPHIE half-opens the shutters, checks the window. PINE sits

on the other side of the room. Pours a drink for them. Hands

it over. Sits back on the far side of the room.

SOPHIE:

Why do you sit so far away?

PINE:

Out of respect I suppose.

SOPHIE:

Is that why you came all the way

here? To respect me?

Beat.

TNM Ep1 PRE-SHOOTING SCRIPT 15-3-15 28.

She approaches him, her face terribly wounded.

SOPHIE (CONT’D)

You have many different voices Mr

Pine. You say one thing and that

person touches me. Then that person

is called away and someone quite

different takes his place. We have

a changing of the guard. Are you

like this with all your women?

PINE:

You are not one of my women Miss

Alekan.

SOPHIE:

Then why are you here?

She walks slowly up to him. Smiles.

SOPHIE (CONT’D)

I want one of your many selves to

sleep with me tonight. You can

choose which one it is.

He makes a move towards her. He kisses her bruised and broken

face with a terrible gentleness.

39 INT. EGYPTIAN DESERT. CHICAGO HOUSE. DAWN. 39

PINE and SOPHIE lie under sheets in the Chicago House in

Egyptian desert.

PINE:

How did you get the papers?

SOPHIE:

Freddie left his briefcase one

morning when he was late. He’s such

an idiot, I don’t know how he can

be a businessman. When he came back

the next night he asked me if I’d

looked inside. I said no. I thought

maybe he believed me.

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