EXT. WALL STREET - SUMMER - MORNING
Maria Sanchez, 20s, a beautiful young Columbian, exits at the tail-end of people coming up the subway steps and takes a moment to stand there, looking up at the imposing facade of Gaines & Filcher.
INT. WALL STREET CAFE
A TV mounted high on the back wall is tuned to an interview show featuring the Host and his guest, Ambassador Rodriquez.
HOST(TV)
... very outspoken, especially on the
subject of these Coffee Wars.
RODRIQUEZ (TV)
I had to give up my Senate seat to be-
come UN Ambassador. But that doesn't
mean I gave up my right to speak out.
Some of this is lost to the loud hiss of the milk steamer, as Charlie, in the take-out line with Henry, strains to hear.
RODRIQUEZ (TV)
... and certainly there have been rogue
elements before, but with reference to
this latest incident of aerial spraying,
we've been hearing the same thing for
some time now. First in Brazil, then
Jamaica, Equador, Central America …
And now Columbia.
The two counter clerks use the espresso machine for cover as they argue over how much coffee to put in each measure.
HENRY
This going to take all day or what?
Due to the noise of the steamer, Charlie gives up on trying to hear the TV.
HENRY
Excuse me ... Hey!
CHARLIE
Jesus, Henry, relax.
HENRY
(To Clerk) Short shots, I wanted short
shots, I asked for short shots.
One clerk pours espresso in a number of to-go cups, while the other steams more milk. Both ignore Henry.
HENRY
(To Charlie) It's 9, I'm late.
He pays with a ten-dollar bill as the Clerk fits lids on the two lattes.
CHARLIE
Since when did being on time ...?
CLERK
Together? Twelve-fifty, please.
HENRY
Twelve-fifty?! When'd that happen?
Charlie drops a 20 on the counter and leaves.
EXT. WALL STREET CAFE
Once outside, Charlie stops to light a cigarette while Henry hurries off, calling back over his shoulder.
HENRY
Doing an orientation, gotta spoon-feed
some goddamn Harvard business major!
Harvard, for Christsakes!
EXT. NEWSTAND
Charlie buys a paper. The headlines: COLUMBIA - DEATH TOLL TOPS 2 MILLION … DOWNED PILOT IS U.S. CITIZEN.
INT. GAINES & FILCHER - TRADING ROOM
Charlie's on his way to his office when he sees Maria for the first time: On the other side of the room. With Henry. He stands there watching as the Secretary watches him.
SECRETARY
Summer job. Young enough to be your
daughter, Charlie.
Her beauty has a look-but-don't-touch quality to it, a self-contained severity, and yet she moves with liquid grace. He can't take his eyes off her. She's coming this way.
SECRETARY
Name's Sanchez. Maria Sanchez.
Henry makes like he doesn't even notice Charlie, even as he and Maria pass within ten feet of him. She, however, meets his look in passing and smiles.
SECRETARY
Probably just gas.
CHARLIE
(Dazed) What?
SECRETARY
Nothing. (BEAT) You want this?
She holds up a fax, of which he takes no notice until Maria's disappeared inside the Filing Room. It's the same three-word message: ‘Just for Fun’. Balling it up, he hits with a no-look hook shot to a wastebasket in the corner.
EXT. GRAND CENTRAL - DAY
Charlie enters, unaware of Stiletto who, instead of following him inside, hurries off down the sidewalk.
INT. MAIN CONCOURSE - LOCKER AREA
There is no envelope for the blue-sleeved diskette Charlie takes from the locker this time.
REVERSE POV - THROUGH GLASS CEILING
A small video camera and transmitter are clamped to a crossbar, the lens trained on the area below where Charlie's now leaving.
EXT. SIDESTREET - MIDTOWN
Stiletto enters a low rent rehearsal studio sandwiched between a porno theatre and warehouse.
INT. REHEARSAL STUDIO
In the darkness, a single point of red light, revealed as the power indicator on a video recorder, comes on when the door opens and Stiletto enters, flicking the light switch.
The room's one window is closed off behind interior shutters which, like the ceiling and walls, are soundproofed. There's a table for all the video gear, a cot, two chairs and a boom box. Stiletto checks his watch against the footage counter for the tape now rewinding, hits the stop button, and then sits to view play-back on a monitor.
The scene displayed is an overhead view of the storage lockers at Grand Central. It isn't long before Charlie appears.
Using a mouse to isolate the subject, Stiletto's able to enlarge what he's isolated: A freeze frame of Charlie with the diskette …
INT. GAINES & FILCHER - OFFICE
Charlie inserts the new diskette in the computer, enters the access code and then leans back to read what comes up on the monitor: there’s a number of options, buy orders involving currencies and market indexes. Using a window for calculations pegged to exchange rates, the math is soon done. But it doesn't add up. So he does it again. With the same result. He tilts back in his chair, incredulous.
CHARLIE
What’s going on? Jesus, I can't do this.
He reaches for the phone. As before, when the call goes through there's that same high-end buzz in the line and the same recording that he doesn't bother listening to; he hits the 3-digit extension for voice mail.
CHARLIE
Hastings, Sir. Sorry to trouble you, but
with respect to our next investment, I'd
like to go over the particulars with you
before proceed- ...
When a beep indicates the end of the allotted message time, he hangs up in frustration and hits redial. Once again, as soon as the Institute's switchboard voice recording comes on, he taps in the extension. He speaks rapidly.
CHARLIE
Hastings again, Sir. I'd appreciate it if
you'd get back to me as soon as you can,
Sir, by 3 if I'm to get this done today. I
just want to be sure we're on the same
page here because, to tell you the truth ...
Cut off yet again, he bangs the phone down, checks his watch, gets up, and is halfway across the room to the window when he stops and comes back to his chair. Calling up the client list directory, he finds the name and phone number for Pettis, the fund manager, on page one, then scrolls down to the next page where, listed alphabetically, is a client roster of some 200 names and numbers. The first is Atkinson.
Charlie, dialing the listed number, is taken aback when he hears the same high-end sound he always gets when calling Pettis. And when the call's picked up by an answering machine, he hangs up Tries the next number on the list. Different area code, but there it is again, that same distinctive sound. And yet another recording. This time, however, he decides to leave word.
CHARLIE
Mr. Bacon, this is Charlie Hastings -
Gaines and Filcher. I'm calling about
the fund, Sir. I do of course know
it’s irregular, phoning you directly ...
Cut short by the message-end beep, he slams the phone down.
INT. REHEARSAL STUDIO
Stilettto’s still watching the computer monitor. It’s the same overhead view of the lockers at Grand Central, people coming and going … Hitting fast forward as he sits here in a kind of stupor, he works the guillotine cigar-slicer, chopping pencils into carrot rounds.
INT. TRADING ROOM
Henry, like most of the other Traders, eyes Maria as she tags after another File clerk, gathering paperwork from the out-trays.
INT. OFFICE
There's that high-pitched signal in the line again as Charlie waits for his call to go through: It’s ringing: Three rings, and now a busy signal! When he tries it again, the same thing happens. On the monitor, the cursor’s stopped at the last name on the client roster.
He makes a printout of both the option formula and his calculations.
INT. REHEARSAL STUDIO
The Fat Man comes in. Stiletto, still watching surveillance tapes on the monitor, hands over a number of digitalized photos. Videotapes are stacked to either side of the computer.
(SUBTITLED – SPANISH)
FAT MAN
Nothing?
Stiletto indicates the stack of tapes to the right of the computer.
STILETTO
Done those. I’m up to 9 o’clock.
FAT MAN
This morning?
STILETTO
Last night.
FAT MAN
He's got to be there somewhere.
STILETTO
Somewhere. You find him.
When he stops the tape and gets up, only to then lie down on the cot, the Fat Man sweeps the table clear of all the rounds of sliced pencil, then fits a cigar through the hole in the guillotine and sends the tip flying. Lighting up, he crosses to a shuttered window and opens it, blowing smoke out onto the fire escape.
INT. GAINES & FILCHER - EXECUTIVE SUITES
Gaines looks over the option formula printout, then hands it back to Charlie who sits opposite him at the big desk.
GAINES
Over my head, Charlie. But if you're
asked to execute on something, that's
what you do.
CHARLIE
But this is 700 million dollars! You
been keeping track of exchange rates
lately? It doesn't make any sense.
GAINES
Well, apparently it makes sense to your
clients or whoever's managing the fund
for them.
CHARLIE
But what if it's a misprint or something?
And I can't get through to him! Every-
time I call, all I ever get is voice mail.
GAINES
It's the new Millennium, Charlie, every-
body’s busy, busy, busy. Take a deep
breath. Relax.
CHARLIE
Okay. But it isn’t just the fund manager.
Look, I know I'm not supposed to deal
directly with any of the clients on this
account, but ...
Gaines stifffens at this mention of clients, sits up straight, puts off lighting his pipe.
GAINES
(BEAT) But what?
CHARLIE
No, I didn't. Of course, I didn't. All I
mean is, if I can't get through to Pettis,
to actually talk to him - and I can't –
then that's it, clients be damned. I - I
don't know, it's just ...
GAINES
(Finishing for him) Damn annoying.
Standing up, he comes around from his side of the desk, and waits for Charlie to follow him to the door.
GAINES
When you've got a hunch to play, you
play it, and you play it while it's still a
hunch and you've still got some takers
out there. Go to it, Boy.
INT. FILING ROOM
One Fileclerk shows a printed transaction record to another who's been explaining settlement procedures to Maria.
FILECLERK #1
What's the name on this?
FILECLERK #2
No name. Just the number. 1066.
It's 4:55. While the other clerks gather up their things to go, Maria stalls, wait-ing to see where this document gets filed.
INT. PENTHOUSE - NIGHT
Charlie comes awake with a start and gets up. He goes to check the fax machine in the living room ... Nothing there.
INT. REHEARSAL STUDIO - NIGHT
The number of tapes to be reviewed is down to just a few. The Fat Man, watching the monitor, yawns, checks the time, and is on the point of waking Stiletto when he finally sees what he’s been waiting for: somebody at the locker, somebody with a key. It’s Coach.
(SUBTITLED- SPANISH)
FAT MAN
Sonofabitch ... (To Stilletto)Wake up!
I got him. Wake up!
He rewinds the tape and plays it back again as Stiletto pulls up the other chair and takes over at the keyboard, letting the tape run until the Fat Man says stop, then hitting the print button: Coach there in freeze frame: At the storage locker. Facing this way.
FAT MAN
Get one of the shirt. The pocket.
Zooming in, the stitched-in name of McCoy's Health Club shows clearly on the pocket of Coach’s polo shirt.
EXT. HEALTH CLUB - EARLY MORNING
Across the street in a No Parking zone is the same car seen before outside the deli. The Fat Man's at the wheel, watching the health club entrance.
INT. GAINES & FILCHER - LOBBY - MORNING
Charlie looks over the front page of the NY Times as he waits for an elevator: DOLLAR LOSING GROUND - RECORD LOWS.
INT. GAINES & FILCHER - 39TH FLOOR
He's absorbed in his reading as he makes his way slowly along the corridor, two Suits trailing their voices as they pass through the glass doors.
SUIT #1
... and not a word from the Fed. Dollar
keeps on slipping like this ...
SUIT #2 (OS)
Slipping! We're in a goddamn free fall!
INT. GAINES & FILCHER - TRADING ROOM
Henry's at his desk, studiously ignoring Charlie when he comes through on the way to his office. Taking one of the steaming mugs being served by the Office Boy, he takes a sip. And screws up his face.
OFFICE BOY
Postum. Can't get coffee anymore.
HENRY
Stupid spics!
INT. OFFICE - LATER
With an index of constantly adjusting exchange rates there before him on the monitor, Charlie sits watching the Dollar's continuing decline.
INT. FILING ROOM
Besides Maria, there’s only one other file clerk in here, and he’s too busy with his work to concern himself with what she's up to at the file cabinet behind him.
INT. TRADING ROOM – LATER
Charlie emerges from his office as the last few traders are on their way out. He pats himself down for cigarettes. Of all the employees, the clerks in the Filing Room are the only ones still hard at it.
EXT. ROOFTOP - LATE AFTERNOON
Charlie takes a deep drag. And chokes on the smoke when the door thuds shut behind him. It's Gaines.
GAINES
You're still coming up here to smoke?
You can smoke in your office.
CHARLIE
(Coughing) S’okay. Need the exercise.
He puts out the cigarette and checks his watch.
GAINES
Yanks home to Boston tonight. Figured
maybe you'd like to go with me.
CHARLIE
I'd like to, really, I ...
GAINES
Another time then. (BEAT) You okay?
CHARLIE
A little concerned about the dollar.
GAINES
Ebb and flow, my boy. Ebb and flow.
CHARLIE
It's ebbing all right.
Gaines smiles and, throwing up his hands, turns to go.
GAINES
You don't want to go to the game, you
don't want to go to the game, but I want
to go to the game.
INT. HALLWAY
Charlie comes in through the emergency exit, Gaines just ahead of him crossing to another elevator, a private car, that has been held waiting.
GAINES
Don't forget what Yogi said, Charlie.
Ain't over till it's over.
INT. TRADING ROOM
A Fileclerk switches off the lights and is closing the door to the Filing Room when Charlie approaches.
FILECLERK
You just missed her.
EXT. GAINES & FILCHER
Surveying great herds of pedestrian traffic from the steps, Charlie spots a bit of red dress just now disappearing behind the newsstand, and goes after it.
It's not Maria.
INT. PENTHOUSE BEDROOM - NIGHT
The television, on without sound, flickers as lightning makes the walls jump, a whiplash illumination that’s followed by thunder. Charlie’s in bed. He sits up - hasn't been watching TV, but he is now, turning up the volume on a C-Span interview with Ambassador Rodriquez.
RODRIQUEZ (TV)
Well, I'm no longer the Ambassador.
HOST (TV)
So next week when the General Assembly
convenes to debate the merits of UN
intervention, you, who worked so long
to bring this about, won't be there?
RODRIQUEZ (TV)
Not in any official capacity.
HOST (TV)
Unofficially? (BEAT) The President
announced that you were stepping down for
health reasons.
RODRIQUEZ (TV)
The fact that I have cancer has nothing
to do with why I stepped down. I stepped
down because I was asked to.
Another flash of lightning scrambles the reception, and it's a few seconds before the picture holds steady again. It’s raining now. Charlie lies back down.
HOST (TV)
... feel about your not being invited to
participate when the President met with
the NSC to discuss the situation down
there. Why do you think ...?
RODRIQUEZ (TV)
The National Security Council is an
appendage of the CIA. Next question?
HOST (TV)
KemCo?
CHARLIE
(Surprised) Kemco?
RODRIQUEZ (TV)
Another appendage.
HOST (TV)
But, Mr. Ambassador, even if the cannisters
in that helicopter could be traced to
KemCo. that wouldn't necessarily mean
Agency involvement.
More lightning, this time simultaneous with a long sustained and very loud roll of thunder, knocking out the electricity. Charlie sits there in the TV's afterglow.
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