37      EXT. ANDREWS AIR FORCE BASE – NIGHT                                                       37

 

We SEE AIR FORCE ONE and other government jets, mechanics running, trucks coming and going.  It’s

a dreary, rainy night.

 

37A   EXT. MAIN GATE                                                                                                       37A

 

A limousine comes through.  Guard salutes.  Limo proceeds to terminal area.

 

SANDECKER (V.O.)

If it weren’t for Dirk Pitt we’d

be back at square one.  And our

mining engineer would be stretched

out dead on that Russian island.

 

37B   EXT. ANGLE ON TERMINAL                                                                                   37B

 

Limo stops near a building that houses “Distinguished Persons” room.  Sandecker and Seagram get out and

head for the building.  We GO with them.

 

SANDECKER

Dirk got him out.  He had to shoot

a soldier to do it.  But he got

the job done.

 

SEAGRAM

Who is this guy, Dirk Pitt?  All

of a sudden he’s involved in the

Sicilian Project and I never

heard of him before.

 

SANDECKER

He used to be a Navy man.  Put

in his time and retired early.

Since then, he and I have tackled

quite a few things together.

 

SEAGRAM

You mean he works for you?

 

SANDECKER

Sometimes he does.  Sometimes he

doesn’t.  Depends on the job.  If

it’s something that looks

 impossible, something that can’t

be done, chances are he’ll take

a crack at it.  Anything else . . .

thumbs down.

 

38      INT. TERMINAL                                                                                                         38

 

They come Inside “Distinguished Persons” room.

 

SEAGRAM

You mean he only works when he

feels like it?

 

SANDECKER

That’s right.  I have to take

him when I can get him.

 

SEAGRAM

He sounds like a pain in the

ass.

 

39      EXT. LANDING AREA – SANDECKER/SEAGRAM’S POV – NIGHT                  39

 

A small Navy jet taxis up to a spot forty yards from the terminal where Sandecker and Seagram wait.

 

40      ANOTHER ANGLE                                                                                                     40

 

As Sandecker and Seagram come outside and move toward the plane, an ambulance wheels in, turns and backs slowly toward the jet side door.  The wind blows the rain against the side of the plane.

 

41      TRAVELLING TWO SHOT                                                                                       41

 

We FOLLOW Sandecker and Seagram.  As they arrive at the side of the T-39, the door jogs out and up and

the six-step stairway drops down.  They start to mount the steps with Seagram ahead.  OVER THEIR

SHOULDERS we SEE Dirk Pitt suddenly fill the doorway.  He is bareheaded and jacketless, otherwise in the

same clothes he wore on Novaya.

 

PITT

(to Seagram)

Where do you think your going?

 

SEAGRAM

We have to see that man you brought

in.  It won’t wait.

 

PITT

Yes, it will.  We have to get him to the hospital.

 

He shouts off to the ambulance attendants.

 

PITT

(continuing)

Bring a gurney over.

 

42      ANOTHER ANGLE                                                                                                     42

 

SANDECKER

How is he?

 

PITT

Bad shape, Jim.  They patched

him up before we flew out of

Norway but he lost a lot of blood

and he’s doped to the gills.

 

SEAGRAM

(one-tracked mind)

He can talk, can’t he?  We have

to ask him some questions.

 

PITT

Maybe you didn’t hear me.  I said

this man’s going to the hospital. 

As fast as we can get him there.

 

SANDECKER

(a hand on Seagram)

Come on, Gene.

 

The ambulance men run up with a gurney.  One of them disappears inside the plane with Pitt.

 

43      TWO SHOT – SEAGRAM AND SANDECKER                                                        43

 

They are beside the plane.

 

SEAGRAM

(he’s hot)

Who the hell does he think he’s

talking to?

 

SANDECKER

Don’t push it, Gene.

 

44      HIGH ANGLE                                                                                                              44

 

Pitt and the ambulance man carry Koplin out and stretch him on the gurney.  A Navy medic moves alongside

holding a plasma bottle up.  Koplin is covered by a rubber sheet.

 

45      TRAVELLING SHOT – SINGLE ON KOPLIN                                                         45

 

His eyes are open but glazed.  His lips are moving and muttering but he doesn’t know what he’s saying.

 

46      EXTREME HIGH ANGLE                                                                                          46

 

We SEE the gurney pushed into the ambulance.  The medics climb in the back and the attendants climb in the

front.  Then the ambulance takes off.  HONKER GOING and lights flashing.

 

47      OMITTED                                                                                                                    47

 

48      INT. LIMO – PITT, SANDECKER, SEAGRAM                                                       48

 

SEAGRAM

I don’t believe that . . . it doesn’t

make sense.  I won’t be satisfied

till I hear it from Koplin himself.

 

PITT

Then go to the hospital, for

Pete’s sake, and wait till he comes to.

 

SANDECKER

(to Seagram)

Let him finish the story, Gene.

 

PITT

He’s sure there was byzanium there

once but somebody took it out. 

Koplin said they must have taken

five hundred pounds.  Maybe half

a ton.

 

SEAGRAM

We’re sunk.  That means the Russians

got it.

 

CAMERA DROPS DOWN TO A LOOSE THREE-SHOT, FAVORING Pitt.

 

PITT

Koplin says no.  Not the Russians. 

He says that mine was worked by

Americans.

 

SANDECKER

How did he figure that?

 

PITT

He found clothes in the mine,

packages of American chewing

tobacco.  And all the tools and

equipment had been shipped from

Colorado.  Also there was a copy

of the Rocky Mountain News dated

sometime in 1911.

 

SEAGRAM

1911!

 

PITT

(going on)

And he found a man.  Frozen stiff. 

Somebody had burned his name in a

board and left it with the body. 

‘Here lies Sergeant Jake Hobart

United States Army.  Froze in a

storm.  February 10, 1912.’

 

SANDECKER

Are you saying that the Army sent

a bunch of men to a Russian island

seventy years ago to steal maybe

half a ton of byzanium?

 

PITT

I’m not saying anything.  I’m just

telling you what Koplin told me.

 

49      HIGH ANGLE – ANDREWS AIR BASE, MAIN GATE                                           49

                                                              

Guard waves the limo through.

 

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