The Saint Page #19

TEMPLAR:

City gas line.

JILLIAN:

We can't stay here, we'll asphyxiate.

Templar and Jillian clamber up the steel runged ladder to the manhole cover. Templar pushes up the manhole cover, popping his head out, looking around. HIS EYES widen with alarm ---

A POLICE VAN is rolling straight for his head. He ducks and closes the manhole cover as the VAN RUMBLES over it. Templar listens. Above, the van has stopped. Templar pushes up the manhole cover. The VAN has stopped directly over the manhole.

EXT. MOSCOW - STREET IN FRONT OF THE U. S. EMBASSY

Templar slithers out. Pulls up Jillian. They're under the van now. The van's rear door opens; TEN MEN jump down to the pavement. We see their BLACK BOOTS; they are MOSCOW POLICE, arriving to arrest the looters. Templar and Jillian crawl toward the van's rear. Templar looks toward THE U.S. EMBASSY. It's 100 yards away, but looks like 100 miles.

TEMPLAR:

Both of us will never make it. But one of us can.

(draws his gun)

Give me ten seconds, then break for the embassy and don't stop running until you're at the gates. It's a hundred yards, so move it.

JILLIAN:

What are you going to...

TEMPLAR:

That's my business.

JILLIAN:

Wait...

(he stops)

.. .Simon. Don't do this. They'll kill you.

A long, tense pause.

TEMPLAR:

The world can do without Simon Templar. It can't do without you.

(smiles grimly)

See you around sometime.

He takes a deep breath and logrolls out. ABOVE THE VAN - TEMPLAR gets to his feet in the street, gun drawn. He races from the van, heading in a direction away from the embassy. ACROSS THE STREET - ILYA double takes, seeing Templar sprinting from the van.

ILYA:

Kill him!

Ilya, Whitehead and Tretiak's men sprint down the street after Templar, firing as they run, leaving --

JILLIAN UNDER THE VAN with a clear path to the embassy. She counts it off: three. . . . four. . . . five . . . . .

TEMPLAR dives behind an OVERTURNED CAR and comes up firing on Tretiak's men.

IN THE U. S. EMBASSY'S FRONT COURTYARD Colonel Crosby watches the situation unfold.

COLONEL CROSBY:

What the hell is going on.

IN THE STREET - ILYA, WHITEHEAD and the other men close in on Templar, laying down a withering fusillade of fire. Templar returns fire from behind the car.

UNDER THE VAN - JILLIAN

JILLIAN:

. . . nine. . . . TEN. . . .

Jillian logrolls out from under the van. She sprints for the embassy gates. BEHIND THE OVERTURNED CAR - TEMPLAR sees Jillian running for the embassy. As he returns fire, he exhorts her under his breath.

TEMPLAR:

Go. Faster.. . .

ILYA, firing on Templar, sees Jillian. He spins, running in a new direction. He's going to get Jillian before she can reach the embassy. JILLIAN, sprinting, screams to the embassy marines.

JILLIAN:

Open the gate!

IN THE EMBASSY COURTYARD - COLONEL CROSBY turns to his second in command, a Lieutenant JONES.

COLONEL CROSBY:

Do it.

Lieutenant Jones and a MARINE PRIVATE push open the embassy gates. COLONEL CROSBY watches Jillian helplessly. There's nothing he can do. Not until she reaches the embassy. On Jillian comes, legs pumping, feet pounding the pavement. ILYA is right behind her. She can feel his breath he's so close. Twenty yards. Fifteen yards. Ten...

BEHIND THE OVERTURNED CAR - TEMPLAR dodges bullets, corning thick and heavy now, and watches in terror as ---

ILYA, with a desperate reach, collars Jillian. She shrugs off her jacket, leaving Ilya with the jacket but no Jillian. Jillian lunges through the embassy gates...

... and is instantly surrounded by U.S. Marines. Jillian looks up at Colonel Crosby, panting.

JILLIAN:

I'm an American citizen.

COLONEL CROSBY:

You have our full protection ma'am.

(looks at Ilya)

Back away from the gate.

Ilya's black eyes stare at Colonel Crosby. He backs away from the gate. He turns and sees –

AT THE OVERTURNED CAR - TEMPLAR, out of bullets with his hands raised, surrounded by Tretiak's men behind the overturned automobile. Ilya, fuming, walks across the street to Templar. AT THE OVERTURNED CAR - ILYA walks up to Templar. With the calm efficiency of a hangman, Ilya puts his hand on Templar's shoulder and forces him down, down to his knees. He sticks his gun to Templar's head.

He's going to execute Templar right there, behind the overturned car in the street.

IN THE EMBASSY COURTYARD - JILLIAN, watching, frantically turns to Colonel Crosby.

JILLIAN:

Do something!

COLONEL CROSBY:

That's Russian soil out there, ma'am.

Jillian turns away, horrified, shielding her eyes.

BY THE OVERTURNED CAR - TEMPLAR AND ILYA

TEMPLAR (Russian)

Wait. A cigarette. It's customary.

Ilya looks at Templar. Looks at his men. And Ilya laughs. Chuckling at first, then open-mouthed. All of TRETIAK'S MEN laugh in Templar's face. Ilya takes out a cigarette. Hands it to Templar. Lights it for him.

TEMPLAR (Russian)

Thank-you.

And Ilya and Tretiak's men continue to laugh.

They won't be for long... Because Templar is looking at A GRATE above the municipal lines below. And TRETIAK'S MEN are sniffing the air, wondering why it smells like rotten eggs... Templar flicks the cigarette into the grate and dives away as --

THE ENTIRE STREET IN FRONT OF THE U. S. EMBASSY blows sky high as THE GAS MAIN ignites . Ilya, Whitehead, and the other men are blown off their feet. Some are killed. Asphalt and dirt rain down, followed by --

WATER, as the municipal water main goes up. Ilya and Whitehead get to their feet, looking around, water falling like a monsoon. Templar is gone. And the police van is SPEEDING away.

INT. POLICE VAN - DAY

Templar guns the van through Moscow streets. He pulls out his cellular phone. Punches numbers.

EXT. MOSCOW INTERNATIONAL AIRPORT - DAY

Remy stands by his jet, smoking a cigar, looking impatiently at his watch. His cellular phone beeps.

REMY:

Simon, where the hell are you... You want me to do what?

Remy clicks off the phone and scrambles up into the cockpit of the Lear.

INT. POLICE VAN - DAY

Templar guns the van straight for --

A group of TRETIAK'S MEN conducting the building-to building search. They pull two sedans into the intersection, blocking it.

INT. MOSCOW INTERSECTION - DAY

Templar doesn't slow - he accelerates, and hits the two cars where their bumpers meet, BLASTING through them --

-- and races on past the intersection.

INT. REMY' S LEAR JET - DAY

Remy's Lear jet skirts Moscow rooftops, just 200 feet off the ground. As the jet clears the KREMLIN roof, we see majestic Red Square spreading before us...

EXT. RED SQUARE - DAY

TEMPLAR'S POLICE VAN roars into Red Square as --

ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE SQUARE - REMY'S LEAR JET touches down. In Red Square. It taxis to a stop next to Lenin's tomb. The police van SCREECHS up next to the Lear. Templar races from the van to the jet, dodging BULLETS fired from --

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