The Saint Page #25

INT. TRETIAK' S HEADQUARTERS - NIGHT

Ilya emerges from the basement stairwell and races for the front door. Templar comes up; sprints after Ilya.

Ilya, with Templar hotly behind, gets to the front door, flings it open, and... freezes. And Ilya and Templar are suddenly staring down the barrel of --

A RUSSIAN TANK. Just sitting there in the mansion courtyard. Russian soldiers behind it. Ilya and Templar duck. The tank FIRES. The MISSILE PROJECTILE explodes from the tank's barrel, flies through the mansion's front door over Ilya and Templar's heads...

... wings across the interior of the mansion...

.. . and SLAMS into the rear wall of the mansion, exploding, blowing the wall down, revealing ANOTHER TANK at the mansion's rear, lumbering toward it. Ilya slams the door shut and whirls on Templar. They trade blows. Ilya has the better of this. He shoves Templar aside and races back through the foyer. Templar recovers and races after Ilya, tackling him in the middle of the floor. They roll on the floor, trading vicious blow after vicious blow, when ---

-- A TANK SHELL RIPS into the mansion's domed cupola. Templar and Ilya look up in horror as --

THE 20 FOOT DIAMETER CRYSTAL CHANDELIER descends. Templar and Ilya dive away. The chandelier CRASHES spectacularly in the middle of the foyer, exploding like a glass grenade. A HUGE PIECE OF CRYSTAL hits Templar in the side of the head, opening a gash, dazing him. There's no place to go. Except up. Ilya races for the staircase. Templar recovers and takes up the chase again. Up the staircase they go. A SECOND TANK MISSLE slams into the dome, imploding it. CHUNKS OF STONE and MASONRY fall on Ilya and Templar, knocking them both backward.

INT. TRETIAK'S MANSION - ZUBOV'S LAB - NIGHT

The lab is rocked by the explosions. RACKS OF CHEMICALS in beakers fall to the floor, SMASHING. The chemicals begin to ooze together. A chemical reaction is occurring. The mixing chemicals begin emitting smoke.

INT. TRETIAK'S MANSION - CORRIDOR/TRETIAK'S OFFICE

Tretiak's men are at the windows with automatic weapons, firing on the army below. Two men drag a crate into the office. They open it, revealing an –

ANTI-TANK GRENADE LAUNCHER. They pull it from the crate and set up the tri-pod...

ON THE STAIRCASE - TEMPLAR AND ILYA continue up the staircase. Ilya reaches the mezzanine. He climbs atop the balustrade and jumps to the lip of the crater in the dome. He pulls himself up. Templar repeats Ilya's actions: climbs atop the balustrade and jumps to the lip of the crater. As he pulls himself up... ILYA appears. He compresses his foot against Templar's knuckles. Templar grimaces. There's no way out this time. There's a burst of ORANGE LIGHT as A TANK SHELL explodes on the roof, knocking Ilya off his feet, allowing --

-- Templar to pull himself up to the roof.

EXT. TRETIAK' S HEADQUARTERS / NEVSKY PROSPECT - NIGHT

The tanks continue firing. Russian Marines fire round after round into the mansion. Tretiak's men inside return the fire. Harry, Remy and Frankie run up, looking with alarm at the vicious firefight. Realizing Templar is within...

INT. TRETIAK'S OFFICE

The anti-tank grenade launcher is operational. One of Tretiak's men loads, the other fires, and --

EXT. TRETIAK'S MANSION - NIGHT

-- an ANTI-TANK SHELL launches from the window and hits the tank in the courtyard, blowing its turret off. Tretiak's men fire assault rifles from the windows. No one's surrendering. It's a fight to the death...

EXT. TRETIAK'S MANSION - ROOF - NIGHT

Templar and Ilya, on the mansion's roof. The view is mind-boggling: the nighttime St. Petersburg skyline looming in the background and, below, three Russian tanks firing shell after shell into the mansion. Across the exploding, crumbling rooftop, Ilya and Templar go. A TANK SHELL explodes in front of Ilya. Ilya falls, concussed by the shell. Templar dives upon him, wrenching the COMPUTER DISK from Ilya's pocket. Ilya slams his forearm into Templar's head. The disk flies from Templar's hand, scuttles across the roof shingles, falling through a crater...

... it flutters to the mansion floor, 50 feet down. They get to their feet, circling each other. Their footing is not trustworthy, like ice in Spring. Tank shells SLAM into the mansion's upper architecture and roof. A shell hits the mansion's east wall, detaching the DRAIN PIPE running up it. Ilya draws a SWITCHBLADE. Backing Templar up. Templar's at the very edge of the building. There's no place to go. Templar's feet are unsteady. Because the cornice of the building is crumbling beneath him. ...

And Templar falls. He looks over his shoulder, his wrists turning, hands opening, and...

... Templar catches the detached DRAINPIPE. The drainpipe sags under Templar's weight, bending... And it stops. Templar hangs there, bobbing up and down above the alley between the mansion and the adjacent building, fifty feet below. Ilya turns back. He's going after the disk. Ilya jumps through the crater to the mezzanine and races down the staircase...while in the basement...

INT. TRETIAK'S MANSION - ZUBOV'S LAB - NIGHT

Another whole shelf of chemicals falls, smashing. The chemicals continue to mix...

EXT. TRETIAK'S HEADQUARTERS - ROOF

Templar dangles from the drainpipe. KA-CHUNG. It gives. It gives again. The drainpipe is about to break. Templar looks down into the flames and demolition below...

INT. TRETIAK's MANSION - STAIRCASE/FOYER - NIGHT

Ilya races reaches the foyer. The building is imploding, chunks of stone falling all around him. Ilya's eyes are wild. He wants that disk...

Ilya gets to it. Clutches it. It's finally in his hands. He goes for the staircase. ...

INT. TRETIAK'S MANSION - ZUBOV'S LAB - NIGHT

The chemicals are steaming now, in a froth, becoming more and more and more volatile...

EXT. TRETIAK'S MANSION - NIGHT

Templar, dangling from the drainpipe, looks wildly around for an escape. If he could just get to that adjacent building...

It's too far. And his hands are slipping...

Then, from the mansion's basement, the very guts of the building, the chemicals in the lab detonate and --

THE MANSION EXPLODES FROM WITHIN.

INT. TRETIAK' S MANS ION - STAIRCASE - NIGHT

Ilya's eyes bulge in terror as the staircase collapses under him. Ilya falls, engulfed in flame, still clutching the cold fusion disk.

EXT. TRETIAK'S MANSION - NIGHT

The drainpipe fully detaches from the collapsing mansion wall. It falls away from the mansion, with Templar still holding on...

Templar releases from the drainpipe and catches the lip of the roof cornice of the adjacent building. Templar pulls himself up and looks back at...

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