PERMANENT INTERESTS - EPISODE 13

There’s rustling in the bushes on the edge of the forest where the wolves live…

EXT. PATIO - CARLETON HOTEL - NEXT MORNING

Anne sits alone, continental breakfast for two on the table. Vic crosses the patio and comes up behind her.

VIC

How's Dan Cochran these days?

She turns. Surprised by his perfect American accent, it takes a moment for her to remember how she knows him.

ANNE

The cop at the police station?

He nods and sits opposite her. His grin is infectious.

ANNE

Who are you? You're not LeFevre's assistant.

VIC

My good friends call me Vic.

ANNE

Your accent's better than mine. KGB or GRU?

Vic laughs with easy grace. He fills the second cup from the carafe and stirs in two sugars.

VIC

Haven't you heard? The Committee for State Security and the Red Army Intelligence Service no longer exist. Just like the Soviet Union, victims of defeat.

He regards her a long moment as he sips his coffee.

VIC

Harry's leaving the Agency was a great loss. He always had a nose for what was really happening. This time, though, he saw one phantom too many.

ANNE

Oh, really? Which Phantoms do you mean? Are you talking about the forty obsolete F-4E Phantoms to be transferred from the Turkish air force to Syria?

Vic glances over and sees David come out onto the patio.

He signals a passing WAITER for another coffee cup, then he rises and looks down at her.

VIC

It's real easy to talk your way outta shit in a garbage dump like Nagorno-Karabakh. Those kids really didn't know what's what, you know?

(pauses for effect)

It's not so easy in the real world.

(smiles)

See you around.

Anne is puzzled and worried at the implied threat as David sits in the chair Vic just left.

DAVID

Who was that?

ANNE

Proof we're closer to the truth. I'm beginning to think paranoia is a healthy emotion.

The Waiter returns with a clean coffee cup as David stares across the patio at Vic's departing back.

EXT. CANNES HARBOR - LATER

A launch crosses the harbor toward the large yacht seen earlier.

IN THE LAUNCH

David and Anne regard the yacht as they approach.

It's even bigger and more ornate than one first imagines.

ANNE

I know people who've been trying to meet this guy for years, David. And you just call him up?

DAVID

Like I said, his daughter's into rock'n'roll.

She frowns as David strums an air guitar. He grins back.

DAVID

I hear tell intelligent women turn him on.

The launch noses to the yacht's Jacob's ladder. A SAILOR throws a line down to them.

ON DECK

ANNIELLE, a gorgeous combination of Arab and French, 22, waits.

She watches David help Anne out of the launch, and they come up the ladder.

Annielle embraces David a bit too personally for Anne.

ANNIELLE

(Oxonian accent)

David! Why didn't you call earlier? We had this divine party and --

DAVID

(catches Anne's look)

Annielle, this is Anne Hamilton.

ANNIELLE

(notices the dynamic)

Miss Hamilton. I've seen you so often on the television, I feel I know you already.

They shake hands. Annielle leads them below.

INT. YACHT DINING ROOM - LATER

STEWARDS clear away the remains of the meal, the kind of service so unobtrusive they're shadows. Turkish coffee is poured into bone china cups inlaid with gold filigree.

AHSAN AL'AKHBAR reigns. He's Saudi, debonair, in a Savile Row suit of impeccable taste and astronomical cost.

Annielle sits on one side of him, Anne to the other, David across from him.

AHSAN

Beyond similar tastes in the cinema, Miss Hamilton, what other interests have we in common?

ANNE

World affairs - particularly an interest in how those who govern are influenced by the gifts they receive.

David flashes her a look: that's a good way to get booted out of here, but Ahsan smiles.

AHSAN

A game as old as government itself. Did you know, Miss Hamilton - may I call you Anne?

(she nods)

Did you know, Anne, that my family have done what I do for seven hundred years?

She didn't know. But she's quite taken by her host.

AHSAN

We Arabs have been history's middleman: the spices of the East for the dinner tables of the West, the knowledge of the ancient world transmitted to the modern.

ANNE

The Godfather could have said that.

David grimaces at that, but Ahsan enjoys her quickness.

AHSAN

The sea breeze has come up.

(to David)

Shall we take advantage of it?

Anne knows when a guy like Ahsan Al-Akhbar speaks seriously, no woman is ever involved. She's woman enough to hate it, her voice says she's professional enough to accept it, as David moves past.

ANNE

Would it be possible to get a tour of your collection, sir? I love the Impressionists.

ANNIELLE

Please, Miss Hamilton.

EXT. YACHT - DAY

David and Ahsan walk the deck in the bracing breeze.

AHSAN

Anne's series on the struggle in Lebanon being more involved with control of the ancient trade routes than with present ideology was most impressive.

He regards the harbor a moment, then turns back to David.

AHSAN

It displayed an understanding of history I don't usually find in you Americans.

DAVID

You ought to tell her yourself.

AHSAN

Ah, a believer in equality between the sexes!

DAVID

She's a smart lady. She knows what's what.

AHSAN

Does she?

DAVID

She knows Charles Sims visited you the day he died.

He waits to see if the lie is true. Ahsan nods. David smiles to himself and follows him to the bow. They lean against the railing. David decides to go for it.

DAVID

She knows about the sale of forty F-4 Phantom jets.

AHSAN

Arms dealing is a respectable international business. You yourself could purchase all manner of surplus weapons directly from your Pentagon.

DAVID

This isn't about that.

AHSAN

(stares out to sea)

The sun is lovely on the water this time of day.

DAVID

(takes the hint)

Harry Long knew about a plot to arm a Fourth Reich using Third Reich gold.

AHSAN

An interesting tale. I notice you used the past tense.

DAVID

He was murdered two nights ago.

Ahsan's impassivity cracks for an instant, then he looks David in the eye.

AHSAN

May I offer some advice?

(David nods)

Chase the Phantoms. Some mirages are more real than others.

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