The Spy Who Came in from the Cold Page #8

---

A friend of Alec's.

He, He wanted me to get in touch with,

How? How were you

to get in touch with him?

- H-He left a card.

- What was his name?

- I-I don't know.

- It was a blank card?

- No. I-It,

- What was the name on the card?

I don't know!

I, I don't remember,

What was the name on the card?

Smiley.

George Smiley.

Smiley was indeed Leamas' friend.

He was also a planner

in the section called Satellite Four...

which operates

behind the Iron Curtain.

It was to Smiley's Chelsea house...

that Leamas took the taxi

after lunching with Ashe...

and the plot to incriminate

Comrade Mundt was set in motion.

The plot has failed.

All right, Karden, let her go.

She knows nothing. Nothing at all.

Get her home. I'll tell you the rest.

- Don't tell them because of me.

- She cannot leave the court until,

- She knows nothing, I tell you!

- She cannot leave the court.

Karden is right.

It was an operation,

an operation planned by London...

in which I was to pose as a defector

and give evidence to Fiedler...

that would hang Mundt.

We counted on Fiedler, I must admit.

We counted on his hatred for Mundt.

And why the hell shouldn't he hate Mundt?

Mundt hates him.

As for the girl, she's nothing but a frustrated

little thing from a crackpot library.

She's no good to you.

Send her home.

What are you talking about, Leamas?

Are you mad?

Are you out of your mind?

Don't you realize what you are saying?

- Comrade Fiedler,

- Save the girl! Save the Jew!

Save my Christian soul!

Don't you realize what he has done?

He saved Mundt,

and Mundt is London's man!

Comrade Fiedler

will be held in custody.

The hearing is closed.

The tribunal will make

its report to the Praesidium.

Comrade Mundt is reinstated.

The man, Leamas, and the girl

are under arrest.

- So Fiedler was right.

- Yes.

Where's the girl?

By the car.

You hit the main road

after 20 kilometers. Turn right.

As you enter Berlin

you pass a signpost to Potsdam.

Turn right again. Go for four kilometers.

The road's quite straight.

When you reach the canal, turn left and

follow the water until you see three lights...

hanging on a diversion sign.

The boy will meet you there.

He's quite young, but he knows the Wall.

You'll never get away with it,

you know.

What will they find in the morning?

Empty cells, Leamas. Open doors.

Escaped prisoners. A car missing.

There's a conspiracy, you know.

I shall have to find the guilty ones,

the accomplices.

Do you know where I shall find them?

Amongst Fiedler's friends.

Conspirators. Scum.

Drive carefully.

Good-bye, Leamas.

- Why is he letting us go?

- He's letting us go

because we've done our job.

- Come on, get in. We haven't much time.

- For what?

- Time to get to Berlin, to the Wall.

- To Berlin?

You and Mundt are enemies, aren't you?

What bargain did you

make with him, Alec?

What's going to happen to Fiedler?

He'll be shot.

Why didn't they shoot you?

You conspired with Fiedler against Mundt.

You said so in court.

Why did Mundt let you go?

All right, I'll tell you.

I'll tell you

what you were never, never to know.

Mundt is London's man.

He's their agent.

They bought him

while he was in England.

We're witnessing the lousy end to a filthy,

lousy operation to save Mundt's skin...

to save him from a clever little Jew

in Mundt's own department...

who had begun to suspect the truth.

London made us kill him,

kill the Jew.

Now you know.

God help us both.

You wait here.

Why did Mundt let me go?

I'm a risk to him now.

As you said, it was a bargain.

No you, no me.

What was my part in all this?

I want to know.

You were a pawn in the plot.

London knew it was no good

just killing Fiedler.

If he'd been killed, people would've

started asking by whom and why.

Maybe he'd told friends he suspected Mundt.

Maybe he'd left notes, incriminating notes.

London had to eliminate suspicion.

Public rehabilitation,

that's what they organized for Mundt.

I was sent to discredit him.

He was sent to discredit me.

And love?

We made it very easy for them.

They used us.

They cheated us both

because it was necessary.

Fiedler was nearly home already.

If it hadn't been for us,

Mundt would have been killed.

They were bloody clever.

All the way down the line

they were bloody clever.

Clever? They were foul!

How can you turn the world upside down?

What rules are you playing?

There's only one rule, expediency.

Mundt gives London what it needs,

so Fiedler dies and Mundt lives.

It was a foul, foul operation,

but it paid off.

Who for?

What the hell do you think spies are?

Moral philosophers measuring everything

they do against the word of God or Karl Marx?

They're not. They're just a bunch

of seedy, squalid bastards like me.

Little men, drunkards, queers,

henpecked husbands...

civil servants playing cowboys and Indians

to brighten their rotten little lives.

Do you think they sit like monks in a cell,

balancing right against wrong?

Yesterday I would have killed Mundt

because I thought him evil and an enemy.

But not today.

Today he's evil and my friend.

London needs him. They need him so that the

great, moronic masses you admire so much...

can sleep soundly

in their flea-bitten beds again.

They need him for the safety

of ordinary, crummy people like you and me.

You killed Fiedler!

How big does a cause have to be

before you kill your friends?

What about your Party?

There's a few million bodies on that path.

There is a moving searchlight beamed

onto the Wall where you are to climb.

Now, your signal to go

will be when the beam stops.

As you near the Wall they will

move the searchlight off that area...

to conceal you from outside observation

by other detachments.

Have the flanking detachments

been briefed?

No. No, only the guard

in the sector.

It would be too dangerous

to arouse too much curiosity.

Here go slowly, please.

Uh, it's the next on the left.

Stop.

Go through that small door.

At the far end you will see the Wall.

First there is a barbed-wire fence.

There's a handkerchief to show you

where you can go under.

The detachment have placed

the emergency climbing irons in the Wall...

to a height where you can stand,

pull yourself and the lady over the top.

- Through barbed wire?

- It has been cut.

If anything goes wrong,

If you fall or get hurt, don't turn back.

They shoot on sight within the area

of the Wall. You must get over.

Your friends will be waiting for you

on the far side. Good luck.

- Thank you.

- Go on.

Don't look back, Nan.

Climb. Climb!

- Nan!

- Jump, Alec!

Jump, man!

Jump, man!

Mr. Leamas! Go back, please!

To your own side, Mr. Leamas!

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes