The Night Manager Page #8

PINE:

I don’t blame you.

ROPER:

Corkoran’s jealousy is infectious.

Hard to shift. Of course really

Corky’s jealousy is lust. What he

would give for a night with you.

He smiles. Beat.

ROPER (CONT’D)

What about you? What’s your tipple?

Men? Women? Young? Old? We can get

you anything here.

PINE:

I’m fine thanks.

ROPER:

Not sure I trust a man who can’t

let his hair down.

PINE:

You’ll have to trust this one.

ROPER:

But you like it being here don’t

you?

PINE:

Very much.

ROPER:

Feel more at home here than you did

in the army.

PINE:

I feel more at home here than

anywhere in my life.

The Night Manager ep 4 final

He stares at ROPER. And my god, it might well be true.

61

INT. ISTANBUL. HOTEL. PINE’S BEDROOM. NIGHT. 61

PINE enters his Istanbul hotel room. Breathes deep.

Stares at himself in the mirror. Himself as ANDREW BIRCH.

Does he like a little too much what he sees in front of him?

Then the hotel phone rings.

He picks up.

PINE:

Andrew Birch. Who is this?

Pause on the line. Then a voice. Female. JED.

62

INT. MALLORCA. ROPER’S VILLA. BEDROOM. NIGHT 62

JED:

Jonathan.

63

INT. ISTANBUL. HOTEL. PINE’S ROOM. NIGHT. 63

He can hear her breathing. She is in her bedroom in the Roper

apartments on the peninsular.

PINE:

Get off the line.

He should hang up. But he can’t. He can’t quite put the phone

down.

JED:

Don’t go Jonathan. I need you. I

just need to know you’re there.

Jonathan?

He breathes deep. Then hangs up. The phone rings again. He

does not answer.

It rings and rings and rings.

64 INT. LONDON. NEW IEA OFFICES. NIGHT. 64

BURR is sitting by a phone. Her new OFFICER, GRACE sits with

her.

GRACE:

Don’t you get tired?

A beat. BURR returns from wherever she was in her head.

The Night Manager ep 4 final

BURR:

Tired?

GRACE:

How many weeks are you?

BURR:

Uh... twenty-something. Twenty six.

I think.

GRACE:

You should go home. I’ll call you

when Steadman reaches Madrid.

BURR:

No, I’d rather be here. Thank you.

GRACE:

Doesn’t your husband mind?

BURR:

Mind what?

GRACE:

Your always being here. I know mine

would.

BURR:

He knows why I do this. He knows

about the school sports day.

GRACE, curious. Sports day?

BURR (CONT'D)

He shouldn’t - Mr Burr is not

cleared for anything besides

cooking risotto and taking out the

rubbish - but I had to tell him

about the sports day.

BURR sees her confusion. A long beat as she braces herself

for the re-telling. It comes out slowly, almost dreamily.

BURR (CONT’D)

I was in Baghdad. 2003. Must have

been about your age. I was attached

to the United Nations Monitoring,

Verification and Inspection

Commission. Catchy title. We got

these reports of an incident near

Rayat, up by the Iranian border.

Kurdistan. Satellites couldn’t make

anything of it. The Head of Station

sent me... Actually, that’s not

quite true, I volunteered. Gordon

was bloody furious when I told him.

But, you know, what’s the point

otherwise?

The Night Manager ep 4 final

She drifts to a stop. GRACE fidgets, bringing BURR back.

BURR (CONT’D)

When we got there, it was a school

sports day. Or it had been.

Running races, long jump, picnics.

Must have been a lovely day. Until

somebody dropped two gas shells

over the sports field, one

containing sulfur mustard, one with

Methylphosphonofluoridate. Either

of you know your organic chemistry?

GRACE, pale as a ghost.

GRACE:

Sarin.

BURR:

The idea of the mixture is to stop

people getting masks on, you see.

You mustard gas burned the

children’s hands and face, melted

the skin. Which allowed the Sarin

to attack the breathing muscles.

Lot of the kids had lung tissue

around their mouths, on their

faces.

(long beat)

And that’s when I first saw Richard

Roper in the flesh.

She’s almost smiling now. This is very weird.

GRACE:

Roper... had supplied the gas?

BURR:

Oh no. Roper had nothing to do

with it. Sorry, I thought...

That’s the whole point.

GRACE is flummoxed.

BURR (CONT’D)

Roper started selling Sarin after

the sports day. Because of it. He

saw what I saw - one hundred and

twelve children, fifty-eight adults

-and he thought to himself:

business.

(beat)

That’s the Roper.

She pauses. Gulp in the throat.

The Night Manager ep 4 final

BURR (CONT’D)

So Mr Burr knows, I’m married to

him, and I’ll have his child. But

he also knows I have to be here.

Beat. The phone rings. Startles GRACE, who then jumps up to

answer it.

GRACE:

It’s SINGHAL on line 3. There’s

a problem in Istanbul.

65 OMITTED 65

66 INT. ISTANBUL. HOTEL. PINE’S ROOM. DAWN 66

PINE wakes from a deep and horrible sleep, face sweating.

The ringing is continuing. His hotel phone is ringing.

He turns, sees the time. 6 am. He picks it up.

VOICE (ON PHONE)

Your newspaper’s outside your door

sir.

The phone rings off. PINE gets up, opens the door. There is

indeed a newspaper outside the room. And written in pen on

the corner of the newspaper is “Room 605”.

But PINE’s room is very clearly 421.

67 INT. ISTANBUL. HOTEL. CORRIDOR. DAWN. 67

PINE walks out of the hotel room into the corridor in hastily

assembled clothes. It’s barely light. The hotel sleeps still,

just the odd MAID vacuuming the corridors.

PINE walks to the lift.

68 INT. ISTANBUL. HOTEL. LIFT. DAWN. 68

PINE enters the lift and presses 6.

69 INT. ISTANBUL. HOTEL. 6TH FLOOR CORRIDOR. DAWN. 69

PINE walks out the lift and walks along the corridor. He

reaches Room 605.

He knocks.

The Night Manager ep 4 final

The door opens. It is SINGHAL.

70 INT. ISTANBUL. HOTEL. SINGHAL’S ROOM. DAWN. 70

PINE walks in to see PEARL, SINGHAL and GARDENER in the room.

SINGHAL:

What the hell are you playing at?

PINE:

What are you talking about?

SINGHAL nods. GARDENER walks to a laptop. Clicks the mouse.

A voice plays on a recording. Female. JED.

JED (ON LAPTOP)

Jonathan.

PINE (ON LAPTOP)

Get off the line.

JED (ON LAPTOP)

Don’t go Jonathan. I need you. I

just need to know you’re there.

Jonathan. Jonathan?

Then her breathing, his breathing.

The OPERATIVE presses stop.

SINGHAL:

Well?

PINE:

Well what?

SINGHAL:

Are you conducting a relationship

with that girl?

PINE:

What business is that of yours?

SINGHAL:

Oh dear God.

He walks to a phone. Picks up.

SINGHAL (CONT’D)

Yes he’s here. Yes it’s what we

thought.

Hands it to PINE.

It’s BURR in the IEA offices in London.

The Night Manager ep 4 final

BURR:

Now you listen to me Jonathan. This

is what you’re going to do. You’re

going to return to your room,

collect your passport and money,

nothing else, you hear me? Then you

walk downstairs, meet Rob and Pearl

in the foyer and they’ll put you in

a taxi which will take you to the

airport.

PINE:

Why would I do that?

BURR:

We’re pulling you out. You’ve blown

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