The Night Manager Page #7

40

EXT. ISTANBUL HOTEL. CAFE/FOYER. DAY. 40

PEARL sits in the Istanbul hotel coffee room. Reading a

newspaper and doing nothing. Bored and depressed.

The Night Manager ep 5

Then suddenly the hotel concierge approaches.

CONCIERGE:

Miss Pearl?

PEARL:

Yes.

CONCIERGE:

A gentleman is here to see you.

PEARL gets up, walks to the front desk. The TAXI DRIVER,

exhausted, is there.

TAXI DRIVER:

Miss Pearl. Friend of Mr Singhal?

PEARL:

Yes.

TAXI DRIVER:

I drove all night. I am to give you

this.

He holds out the piece of paper. Pine’s writing. PEARL opens

it. Looks inside. Her jaw drops.

TAXI DRIVER (CONT’D)

He said you would give me another

two hundred if I got here by nine

o’clock.

He looks at the wall. It is five to nine. PEARL smiles.

PEARL:

Yes I think we can manage that.

41 INT. LONDON. NEW IEA OFFICES. DAY. 41

ANGELA BURR bursts into the offices. Eating a hasty sandwich.

BURR:

Where is it?

SINGHAL:

Here.

She rushes over and sees a scan on the computer.

Hand-written note from Jonathan Pine. Registration numbers of

twenty trucks. Heading south-east into Turkish-Syrian border.

Humanitarian Aid. Starting point. Hills near Jalahar Camp.

BURR:

My god. He did it.

Beat. BURR turns to GRACE with an almost euphoric gleam.

The Night Manager ep 5

BURR (CONT’D)

Get me Mayhew on the phone.

BURR looks through the registrations.

SINGHAL:

It’s South East Turkey. We think

it’s somewhere around Kasimli. The

trucks are heading towards the

Syrian border. It’s just over two

hundred miles. Rough country.

BURR:

Which gives us three hours to find

the trucks and stop them at the

border.

BURR’s phone rings.

BURR (CONT’D)

Yes?

GRACE:

We can’t reach Mayhew. It’s his

last day. They’re saying he’s not

available.

ANGELA BURR puts the phone down.

42 INT. LONDON. FCO. MAYHEW’S OFFICE. DAY. 42

REX MAYHEW’s private office. Files being cleared out. His

secretary GLORIA is helping him sort his affairs. MAYHEW

looks pale with stress.

A buzzer at the office door.

MAYHEW:

Tell them I’m not here.

His SECRETARY walks to the door. REX MAYHEW hears a

discussion that become an argument and then a scuffle.

SECRETARY:

I’ll call the police.

ANGELA BURR:

I am the bloody police.

ANGELA BURR walks in, slams the door on the SECRETARY, and

throws down the Pine piece of paper. Speaks quietly.

ANGELA BURR (CONT’D)

Twenty aid trucks. Going to the

Syrian border. All containing

illegally exported UK and US arms.

(MORE)

The Night Manager ep 5

ANGELA BURR (CONT’D)

And Roper’s fingerprints all over

them.

MAYHEW stares at the list.

ANGELA BURR (CONT’D)

It’s real Rex. It’s what we need to

take them down. All of them.

REX MAYHEW:

I can’t do anything. I told you we

have no allies.

ANGELA BURR:

I don’t need allies. I need a

foreign office mandate confirming

that an illegal cache of arms is in

those trucks. I’ll take that to

Joel Steadman and he can deploy US

soldiers at the border to stop the

convoy, search it and seize the

weapons. But I can’t do it without

FCO top brass confirmation. One

letter from you representing the

Permanent Secretary. One signature.

MAYHEW stares at BURR.

ANGELA BURR (CONT’D)

Please Rex. As of today you’re

still in position. We’ll never get

this chance again.

MAYHEW stares at her. His eyes are filled with the tiniest

light.

43 INT. WASHINGTON. STEADMAN’S OFFICE. DAY. 43

JOEL STEADMAN has his feet up in his Washington office,

staring at a board packed full of photographs of Mexican gang-

leaders. Supposedly trying to match them to a file he has in

front of them. But he can’t concentrate.

Then the phone rings.

JOEL:

Steadman.

ANGELA BURR:

Joel listen to me. I’m faxing

something to you now. It came from

our boy. Tell me what you can do

with it. And take it straight to

the military. No Langley

involvement. Clear?

The Night Manager ep 5

JOEL:

Sure.

The phone goes down.

The fax flickers. It’s a letter from Rex Mayhew confirming

the illegal convoy of arms from Turkey to Syria by Richard

Onslow Roper and requesting immediate US military action to

stop and search the convoy at the border.

STEADMAN stares at it. Then reaches for the phone.

EXT. HILL FORT. DAY.

PINE walk across the hill fort. PINE passes the empty cart of

the Kurdish Man Cengiz. He recognises it instantly. As do we.

But no dead old woman. No Cengiz. No kid.

Just two empty bullet cartridges lie on the ground.

45 INT. HILL FORT. RADIO STATION. DAY. 45

PINE approaches and enter ROPER’s personal satellite hub.

Full monitoring equipment, satellite images of the local

area, and a tracking computer programme that is tracking the

convoy of trucks as they head their way towards the border.

TABBY and FRISKY are already inside. As is ROPER. And to

PINE’s surprise, JED.

ROPER turns to PINE.

ROPER:

She’s my lucky mascot.

He hands her a drink. JED flicks a look at PINE. Then asks

ROPER:

JED:

Where’s Corky?

She looks over to PINE but he doesn’t meet her gaze.

ROPER:

He wasn’t feeling well. He had to

fly home.

Something chilling about this. She senses it. Hides her fear.

ROPER turns to business.

ROPER (CONT’D)

What’s the ETA?

JASPER:

The convoy should be through the

border in one hour sir.

(MORE)

The Night Manager ep 5

JASPER (CONT'D)

We have their signal if you’d like

to track them.

ROPER nods.

PINE, ROPER, LANGBOURNE, FRISKY and JASPER watch the little

satellite tracker of the trucks making its way across the

terrain towards the border.

PINE stares at ROPER.

46 INT. LONDON. NEW IEA OFFICES. FCO. DAY. 46

BURR and SINGHAL are waiting. BURR at her desk. Next to her

sits GRACE.

Suddenly BURR’s phone rings. It’s what they’ve all been

waiting for.

BURR:

Yes?

STEADMAN:

This is your American friend.

BURR:

What’s the news?

STEADMAN:

Authorisation received by US army

to seize and search the convoy of

twenty aid trucks 1800hrs local

time at the Syrian border.

BURR checks her watch.

BURR:

You’re a good man Joel.

STEADMAN:

The convoy has been identified and

is being tracked on US military

satellites. You want a visual?

BURR:

What do you think?

She flicks on her laptop. STEADMAN relays a visual of the

same tracking image that ROPER is watching, this time from US

satellite imagery.

BURR (CONT’D)

How long?

STEADMAN:

Thirty minutes.

The Night Manager ep 5

BURR:

Ok. And Joel, when they seize the

the weapons, they should go

straight to the media. Give them

all our files. On Roper, The River

house, Langley. Tell them to hold

an immediate press conference. No

protocol, no reporting structure.

No mention of us. They get all the

glory.

BURR smiles. This is the moment she has waited for, for ten

years.

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