The Saint Page #22

FRANKIE:

No, no, no, Karpov's office is in the nuclear operations room. The entry hatch can't be activated from above - only below.

REMY:

It's lead-lined and reinforced with eight feet of concrete. Explosives and drills are out.

TEMPLAR:

Electronic by-pass?

FRANKIE:

Negative. Understand something, Simon, please: this is not a bank. This is the former Soviet Union's missile command. Forced entry is impossible.

A long pause. Everyone looks at each other. Templar examines A PHOTOGRAPH of the facility. He fixates on it. He sees something.

TEMPLAR:

What's that?

Templar points at the SMALL DETECTION UNIT next to the Nuclear Operations entrance hatch. Frankie looks at the photograph, then picks up a set of blueprints. Starts flipping through...

FRANKIE:

Uhhm.. .that is the facility's...

(comes to the relevant page and reads:)

... radiation detector. In the event of nuclear fall-out it automatically closes the hatch.

Everyone turns to Templar.

TEMPLAR:

You're saying the system can think.

FRANKIE:

Yes.

TEMPLAR:

Then it can be lied to.

CUT TO:

INT. TRETIAK'S HEADQUARTERS - ZUBOV'S LAB - DAY

Romanov and Tretiak stand on one side of the lab. ACROSS THE LAB, ZUBOV and DR. SINGH are huddled over a hydrogen tank, just like the one we saw in Jillian's lab. The tank is surrounded by hundreds of testtubes and beakers containing chemicals.

TRETIAK:

The world will continue to spend half its gross national product on oil.

ROMANOV:

And Russia will spend none. Within five years we will be the wealthiest nation on earth.

TRETIAK:

And it's leaders, Romanov, the most powerful people.

CUT TO:

EXT. ST. PETERSBURG - ADMIRALTY - NIGHT

The situation in the city has worsened. The ROMANOV SUPPORTERS outside the admiralty now number several thousand. They carry pro-Romanov banners and shout: DOWN WITH KARPOV! In the b.g., we see more rioting. Gunfire crackling. An overturned truck.

A MILITARY AMBULANCE careens around the corner and rolls past the Romanov supporters up to the Admiralty gates. TWO RUSSIAN NAVY M.P.'s open the gates. The ambulance pulls inside. The driver's window rolls down. It's Harry Winston dressed as a RUSSIAN ARMY PARAMEDIC.

HARRY WINSTON (Russian)

Two soldiers shot by looters!

The M.P. waves the ambulance through. Harry waves back. The ambulance pulls into the Admiralty compound, going past to the rear, to the NAVAL HOSPITAL EMERGENCY WARD.

EXT. ADMIRALTY - NAVAL HOSPITAL

The ambulance pulls up next to the emergency ward. The back door opens. Remy, dressed as a PARAMEDIC, gets out. Remy and Harry haul out two heavily bandaged RUSSIAN SOLDIERS on stretchers. The stretchers expand into rolling gurneys. Harry and Remy roll the wounded soldiers inside.

INT. ADMIRALTY - NAVAL HOSPITAL

Harry and Remy roll the gurneys through the emergency ward. NAVAL DOCTORS and NURSES are scrambling around, attending to WOUNDED SOLDIERS. The scene is frenetic. The gurneys roll past the operating rooms, through double doors, into a room. No one notices.

INT. ADMIRALTY - HOSPITAL STORAGE ROOM

A room stocked with hospital supplies. The wounded "soldiers" spring off the gurneys. They are TEMPLAR and ILYA. Ilya wears the uniform of a NAVAL M.P. Templar wears a bulky, lead-lined anti-radiation suit. Templar shoulders his backpack. Harry Winston stands on a counter, pushing up the CEILING TILE. Templar and Ilya climb atop the counter. Harry forms a stirrup with his hands and hoists Templar, then Ilya, through the hole in the ceiling.

INT. ADMIRALTY - VENTILATION DUCTS - NIGHT

Templar and Ilya crawl through the ventilation duct to a WIRE MESH OPENING. Templar rips off the wire mesh screen. Thirty feet below, in the recessed entrance to the nuclear situation facility, TWO NAVAL GUARDS are walking their shift. They walk around the corner. . .

TEMPLAR:

We've got sixty seconds. Move.

EXT. ADMIRALTY - SIDE OF BUILDING

Templar crawls out of the ventilation duct, his feet finding a windowsill. Just three inches to stand on. Ilya crawls out, his feet finding the same windowsill. The two men are side-by-side. They begin inching across the sill to a STEEL-RUNGED ladder leading to the concrete floor below. Ilya's FOOT suddenly slips. His arms flail. He tries to keep his balance, but fails. Templar catches Ilya's wrist. A terrifying tableau: Ilya, hanging over the concrete floor below, held up only by Templar. If Templar let's go, Ilya's dead. They stare at each other...

And Templar pulls Ilya back. Ilya gets his footing. Catches his breath. Nods to Templar. They continue to the ladder and descend.

EXT. ADMIRALTY - PERIMETER WALLS

The naval guards walk their shift.

EXT. ADMIRALTY - NUCLEAR SITUATION FACILITY - NIGHT

Templar and Ilya hurry across the concrete floor to the entrance hatch. Templar kneels next to the RADIATION DETECTOR, unshouldering his backpack. Templar's anti-radiation suit has a goggled hood, which he dons. He then carefully lifts from his backpack a PLEXIGLASS RECTANGULAR BOX the size and shape of a shoe box, and a high-powered cordless BOLTDRIVER. The plexiglass box has two' compartments, one empty, the other filled with SMOKY GAS. Templar positions the plexiglass box over the radiation detector. He unpockets FOUR CONCRETE BOLTS CREWS and bolts the box tightly to the concrete floor with the cordless boltdriver. (The plexiglass box has a steel mount with holes for this purpose.)

EXT. ADMIRALTY - PERIMETER WALLS

The naval guards reach the end of the perimeter wall, then turn back toward the nuclear situation facility...

EXT. ADMIRALTY - NUCLEAR SITUATION FACILITY - NIGHT

Templar turns a knob on the plexiglass box; THE DOOR separating the two compartments within the box OPENS. Inside, THE SMOKY GAS releases. It wafts into the radiation detector's sensors.. ..Templar watches anxiously, talking to it...

TEMPLAR:

Radon isn't plutonium but you don't know that...

The detector's EMERGENCY LIGHT begins BLINKING.

TEMPLAR:

Boom, you just got nuked.

(unbolts the box)

Now it's two months later and the radiation's gone...

Templar rips the plexiglass box away from the detector, releasing the RADON GAS into the air. A moment passes. The EMERGENCY LIGHT turns off and, open sesame, THE CONCRETE HATCHDOORS separate, revealing STAIRS. Templar rips off his hood. He and Ilya descend.

EXT. ADMIRALTY - PERIMETER WALLS

The naval guards are nearing the rear of the Admiralty. Around the corner is the nuclear situation facility...

INT. ADMIRALTY - NUCLEAR SITUATION ROOM - DAY

Templar and Ilya race down. At the base of the stairs is the HATCHDOOR open/close switch. Templar throws the "close" switch. Above, the hatch doors start to close..

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