The Last Swan (3) ANN 10 minutes. I have to get back. INT. ROGO'S LAB (DAY) Rogo watches a 747 drift across the sky. He looks at his watch then Ann rushes in. She pivots then stops and looks back at him. ANN I have to get my laptop. But she doesn't move. ROGO Something wrong? ANN No, some days you look good to me. I'll meet you in the lobby. INT. DRUG COMPANY LOBBY (BRIGHT) Rogo on a pay phone. ROGO ...I cant. I've got to see it through. It's either that or close down the process and start over on Monday and that's a loss of 2 weeks...You're right, but it isn't...I dont know...I'll be home when I can. Enough! He hangs up. Ann has been waiting in the wings, now she runs up, slightly disheveled and sexy as Hell. She is carrying her laptop. She stares at him again. He walks out carrying the aluminum suitcase. She follows him. ANN Where are we going? ROGO A hockey game. Next week, the circus. Meet your culture. ANN The circus? Why? ROGO Things I've left undone. ANN They threatened to kill you! ROGO We'll talk about it later. Once we start, the rest of the night is shot. Let's save it for last. INT. MADISON SQUARE GARDEN Ann and Rogo watching a hockey game. A nasty stick fight breaks out on the ice. ROGO Testosterone poisoning. THE SAME A player does the hat trick and skates around the rink. The crowd are on their feet cheering, in triumph. Ann and Rogo too. He begins to smile. EXT. THE STREET OUTSIDE ANN'S BUILDING (MURKY) Rogo and Ann. He takes the suitcase and Ann’s laptop out of the trunk of his car. POV follows Rogo and Ann into the hallway of her apartment house. A LITTLE OLD LADY opens her door a crack and peeps out. She looks at the suitcase. OLD LADY Full of sex toys, I hope. ROGO Dead babies. OLD LADY That's all right for you, bringing work home every night, but she's a young girl. But she's a young girl, she should be out looking for romance and adventure. ROGO (to Ann) Take that advice. ANN I'm not that bored. Nowhere near. The old lady slams her door shut. INT. ANN'S APARTMENT (DIM) Ann and Rogo. Their coats come off, but they keep the rest of their clothes on for the moment. ANN Are we drinking? ROGO Not just yet. He notices a stack of foreign fashion magazines on the end table by the arm chair. Since when did you start reading fashion magazines? ANN Objection? ROGO No, I think it's a good idea. You dont always have to be making a political statement. Ann sets up her laptop on her desk ANN I have it all typed. New England Journal of Medicine, yes? ROGO What will you do with half a million? Your share of the Nobel. ANN Not much. Buy a condo, pay the taxes, and the money's gone. ROGO A million. And forget the taxes, off the books. ANN Barely middle class. Bake apple pies, be active in the PTA, see lots of Broadway musicals, whatever it is they do. It's comfort, it's not enough to buy freedom. ROGO It's not enough to act rich, if that's what you mean by freedom. ANN I mean, if I had 50 million, I'd get a law degree and enter politics. ROGO Could you do it on a million 5? ANN I could try. No,not off the books. I'd last until someone noticed I was there, then it's over with a bang. ROGO Then it's all completely hopeless? ANN What is? Rogo opens the suitcase, it's full of $100 bills. ANN (continuing) Bonus? You said. ROGO Payoff. They’re killing it. You're entitled to half. There’s a long silence, then Hell lets out for noon. Ann is doing a volcanic monologue, Rogo is walking around the room, punching the walls, holding his head, scrawling THEY'VE LANDED in the condensation on a window. He reels through the apartment turning on appliances, trying to drown her out: TV, CD player, dishwasher, blender and finally the shower. She follows him closely, turning them off one by one. Finally, he grabs a beer mug and a bottle of blue gin. After the 3rd gulp, he smiles at her and begins pantomiming a pitcher shaking off the catcher’s calls. That doesn’t slow her down either. He tries to lock himself in the bathroom, but she kicks the door open. He sits` down in the bathtub with his head in his hands and let’s her rave. ANN When I met you, I thought you must be strong too because you have all the symptoms. When strong people are young everyone around them tries to feed off them, to squash them or avoid them. They grow up feeling they are in some kind of quarantine, exiled within themselves. Being strong they are most resilient with amazing endurance but, even the strongest tire some time. If they haven't had the good fortune to meet at least one other genuinely strong person by 30 that feeling of quarantine can become unbearable and then, where all others have failed, the strong person takes up a systematic and sneaky campaign of self destruction. There's only one snag, strong people can never be truly suicidal, just miserable. With strength comes an inescapable sense of duty, especially if you're talented, which refuses to let you put the barrel of a .38 against the roof of your mouth and pull the trigger, it would be much easier to shoot some total stranger in the street. The truth is that strong people are masters of slowly punishing themselves. Now, just when Dr. David Rogozin was convinced that his plan of self dissolution was succeeding, He finally meets another strong person. That really pisses him off for many reasons: First, because he was sort of looking forward to sliding into oblivion, sure that no one would notice but damn it someone did. Now, his rationality desperately seeks some way of pigeon-holing the situation. He chases shadows like Pygmalion scenarios or unrequited love stories but, none of these ruby slippers fit. And, no, no matter how hard his misery tries to play lap dog she will never buy; it, not even for a minute. The part of him that she has awakened and responds to is much more primordial than he dares admit, after all he has been trying so long and hard to forget about it he had almost convinced himself that he could get away with it. The concept terrifies him, thus the push to rationalize it, to push her to rationalize it, but that would be an awful disappointment wouldn't it? because what really terrifies him are his own life force and creativity stirring after their long hibernation. He is not in love with her, He cares about her but, he is not in love with her. She just happened to trip a circuit breaker that even he was sure he had forgotten. The current of thought and feeling that fills him was not triggered by her or her attentions, it is his own neglected self that fills him, she just happened to see it there dormant. Maybe her appearance distracted him from his misery long enough for that imprisoned self to send the SOS. At any rate, now he has a real dilemma, his life force demands that he start creating and he cannot do that vicariously through her, nor can he turn their connection into a Neil Simon play. ROGO More like The Bride Of Frankenstein. ANN Damn right! ROGO Look, I dont have a choice here. ANN You have a choice. You're going to take that money and use it to complete the tests on your own. Have you no shame? Have you no decency? ROGO Frankly, no. ANN Well, you're going to do it or we dont act out your fantasies ever again. The one about the training school for ladies’ maids? ROGO All right, I'll do it. ANN I hate all men! ROGO Me too. I love you, Baby. ANN I love you too, Baby. ROGO Engels said it all: We live in pre-history. Do you have a gun? ANN My ex-boyfriend was a cop. When we broke up he offered to get me a gun. ROGO Sporting of him. ANN I told him I'd probably shoot him with it. ROGO Get a gun. ANN Am I going to need it? ROGO You're going to need a passport. We're going to be taking a trip very soon. ANN To where? ROGO Good question. EXT. STATEN ISLAND FERRY -- EVENING (DARK, BLUSTERY) Garvey and Waxner are sitting out on the rear deck eating Chinese take-out with chopsticks. They look cold and uncomfortable. GARVEY They can still clock us with parabolic mikes. WAXNER Not in this wind. GARVEY His intern, the child-woman flitter-fluttering in the shadows: Duane says she wont give up. What are you going to do about that? WAXNER Alone, she's just one more crazy lady with a conspiracy theory. She knows it. She wont be a problem. Sometimes the money takes a while to sink in. GARVEY Jersey. If only the stench would stay the same but, it's always surprising. It keeps changing and I dont know if someone farted or it's something I stepped in or there's a gas leak and the car is about to blow up. WAXNER The lo mein is greasy. GARVEY Greasy? it's unspeakable. I'd like to shoot whoever taught them about micro- wave reheating. He throws the lo mein overboard. The seagulls dive for it. GARVEY (continuing) Did he believe your jazz about the new-use patent? WAXNER Why not? it might be true, almost true. GARVEY He's going to talk. WAXNER You dont have to justify anything to me, just convince me that we're going to get away with it. GARVEY He'll talk just for the moment of glory even though it kills him. WAXNER I didn't know you had that much respect for him. But, then why bother to give him the money? GARVEY No good reason. I dont want a situation like last time. We got very lucky on that one. I won’t run that risk again. WAXNER Car bombs are getting a little obvious. I've seen that on TV 3 times this week. He looks around nervously but, in the wind and cold rain, the rear deck of the ferry is deserted. GARVEY We're doctors, we use poison. He holds out his hand. First, the tape, Waxner hands it over WAXNER Like I said, I dont have the competence for this. INT. ANN’S BEDROOM (NIGHT) Ann is in a big brass bed under a fluffy comforter. Rogo is standing naked, drenched with sweat and still panting, trying to catch his breath. Both of them are very much alone with their thoughts. ROGO You all right? ANN Fine. She gets out of bed naked, except for high-heeled boots and wiping herself with a fluffy beach towel from beside the pillow. ROGO I get the feeling that you fake one on me once in a while. ANN Not this time. It was fine, not as brutal as you sometimes try to act. ROGO I have to do something about Jessica. ANN Who's Jessica? ROGO My wife. ANN No you dont. I want things to stay exactly the way they are. She pats her stomach. Remember, she's pregnant. ANN (continuing) You could move to Minneapolis, visit your child once in a while; maybe, this one wont be crazy, not growing up around you. ROGO You are such a total whore. ANN Why? EXT. WALL STREET AREA (EVENING AFTER RUSH HOUR) Garvey and Waxner walking down the middle of the street. No traffic, no pedestrians, it looks like the night after the end of the world. GARVEY We could get killed down here. WAXNER That would be poetry. GARVEY If he committed suicide, he's depressed enough, and that would discredit any results he left behind. WAXNER If he even got struck dead by lightning Annabelle would claim it was murder. Garvey nods agreement. GARVEY The two of them in a suicide pact. WAXNER Too romantic, too much like fun. We'd get lady writers with 3 barrel names writing books about it. It cant attract media attention. Any investigation is going to turn up something embarrassing. GARVEY Yes, it has to be boring. It has to be tasteless. WAXNER We have that part locked. Garvey glares at Waxner for a slow count of 3, finally, Waxner shrugs. GARVEY And it has to be tomorrow. If we wait any longer, you'll think of too many reasons why it cant be done at all. EXT. ROGO’S HOME (NIGHT) He exits the garage and walks wearily into his house. POV follows him in. His wife sees him and walks out of the room. He sits down in the living room, looking around him in disbelief. His son walks by on his way out. ROGO Hello, Sunshine! His son gives him a look of pure hate and keeps walking. Rogo turns on the TV with the sound off. It's a sit-com: Squat, grinning people with big hair. Even with the sound off the rattle of canned laughter comes through. He looks like he's going to cry. He gets the horrors, grabs his coat and runs out. WIFE (V.O.) That's right, run out without even saying Hello! INT. ROGO’S LAB (NIGHT) He opens the door, turns on the light and then freezes like a well bred pointer. The lab has been cleaned out. The shelves are empty and the equipment is gone. He checks the file cabinets. They're empty too. He walks over to the hazardous waste bin and unlocks it. He takes out a transparent plastic sack with his notebooks, hard disks and the two vials of the drug. He checks his shoulder bag. He has an antique .38 belly-gun and 3 very modern looking quick-loaders. He puts the sack inside with the gun on top. He types a complicated password into his desktop computer and uses the mouse to trundle the files over to the waste basket. He takes a long look around him then turns out the light and closes the door. POV follows him out through threatening looking shadows to the company foyer. THE GUARD gives him a professional smile. GUARD Working late, Doctor. ROGO You have to run fast as you can just to stay in the one place. The guard doesn't know what he's talking about, but gives him a professional chuckle. EXT. ANN’S APARTMENT (NIGHT) Rogo knocks on the door. She answers wearing baggy shorts and a pink T-shirt with the logo: BEER IT’S NOT JUST FOR BREAKFAST ANYMORE She gives him a weary smile then she notices the expression. Then she sees the notebooks and vials in his hands. She stops smiling and waits for him to speak. ROGO The lab's been cleaned out. They got everything. They thought they did. Everything important was in the hazardous waste bin, the one place they couldn't look. ANN Why? I guess that isn't much of a question. You had a deal. ROGO I said Checkmate and they said Call And Raise. Rogo divides up the documentation. He lays out the notebooks, a disk and a vial for Ann. He keeps a hard disk and one vial for himself. She looks at the notebooks in his hands. ANN How far are they going to go? She looks at him questioningly. He adds a .38 belly gun and 3 quick-loaders to her share. She picks up the .38 and checks to see that it’s loaded ANN I would have thought you hated wheel guns, I mean, low tech and all that. ROGO That’s a rather desperate attempt at detachment. It’s happening to you and it’s happening now. He takes out his pipe. He tries to fill it and gets tobacco all over himself. He tries to light it and cant. He throws it down and lights a cigarette. ANN How's the kid? ROGO Still paranoid schiz. ANN They're frequently very talented. ROGO If they can stay out of jail long enough. Nothing I can do for him, anyway. ANN I guess we still have a couple of hours. Still gin? ROGO It's winter, I switch to scotch. You were here last winter. ANN Glad you remembered. ROGO You dont seem surprised by any of this. ANN It isn’t real. She takes him by the hand and leads him to the bedroom. She’s sucking her thumb or biting her nails, it’s hard to tell. INT. BEDROOM --- STRICTLY FUNCIONAL There’s an ashtray, whiskey, Vaseline and a pile of fluffy towels within easy reach of the king size bed. ROGO (admiringly) Do you ever feel fear? ANN You learn how to keep all that tuned out. ROGO But you've never had combat training so, how did you learn ? ANN A contact sport. I worked my way through undergrad as a call girl. Surely, you must have known. EXT. PHARMACEUTICAL FIRM PARKING LOT (NIGHT) Rogo is sitting in his car smoking. He puts out the cigarette and switches to a pipe, but cant get it lit. He relights the cigarette butt. The radio is playing the Newark jazz station. THE SAME (THE SKY HAS TURNED GRAY) THE SAME (DAYLIGHT) Rogo checks his watch. It's 7:30. The news comes on. He ignores it and starts to get out of the car. ANNOUNCER (V.O.) ...and now for the local news. Police are seeking Dr. David Rogozin for embezzling 2.5 million dollars from Palimpsest Inc., a New Jersey pharmaceutical firm. ROGO (mumbling) Right on cue. What is this? divine intervention? He changes the station. 2ND ANNOUNCER (V.O.) Dr. Rogozin had claimed to have found a cure for breast cancer. ROGO (to himself) Jung called it synchronicity. 2ND ANNOUNCER (V.O.) It was discovered that he had faked the results of his research and, when threatened with exposure, he stole the funds and ran. ROGO (to the radio) But he's got more moves than ExLax. . Rogo turns off the radio and looks up at his office window. Garvey and Waxner are looking back at him. INT. ROGO’S OFFICE Garvey is standing at the window with a huge hypodermic behind his back. It has a brass plunger and thumb rings and is filled with something green and nasty. EXT. ROGO'S OFFICE Rogo looks back at them. He puts the car in gear and peels out of the parking lot at 90 mph. INT. ROGO’S OFFICE WAXNER You said he'd be up here trying to give the money back. GARVEY I know what I said. Waxner is typing on Rogo's PC: SUICIDE NOTE Yadda Yadda, may God forgive me, I’m outta here----Rogo POV pulls back. Garvey throws the hypo into a hazardous waste container and clears the PC. The monitor pulses softly. GARVEY. It's time we called Tokyo and did some damage control. They have to back us up. They dont have a choice. WAXNER You said he didn't have a choice either. GARVEY It's his Wonder Woman assistant. I told you something had to be done about her. WAXNER What about him? The police catch him, he's got quite a story to tell. GARVEY They're not going to catch him. Waxner checks Rogo's PC. WAXNER The memory's been cleared and the disks are missing. They look at each other. INT. WAXNER’S OFFICE (DAY) Waxner is there with a DETECTIVE and a couple of uniformed cops. The uniforms leave. WAXNER We went over all this last night. DET All we knew then was what you told us. You drew it out the money yourself. There’s no evidence that Dr. Rogozin actually received it. WAXNER You can check with my supervisors. DET I have. The chief accountant. Controller? WAXNER Comptroller. DET Yeah, thought that was a misprint. He backs you up. Same choice of words. You two have been rehearsing your story. WAXNER Why shouldn't we? DET It would be helpful if there were some trace of Dr. Rogozin. Like, if his credit card was used to rent a motel room. Any chance of that happening? WAXNER He has 2 million in cash. Why would he leave a trail with a credit card? DET Yeah. WAXNER And if he didn't steal the money, where is he? The detective watches a cart load of frozen beagles go by. He takes out his .357 MAGNUM. He dumps the bullets and puts 1 back in. DET You know how Russian roulette started? Russian troops stationed in Siberia started playing it out of sheer boredom. He points the gun a Waxner and spins the cylinder. He cocks the hammer and pulls the trigger. There's a click. WAXNER You can break the firing pin like that, letting the hammer fall on an empty chamber. The detective cocks the hammer again. What do you want to know? DET The whole story from the beginning. WAXNER This will be painful to listen to. DET Go ahead. The nerves are dead. POV pulls back as Waxner talks MOS. THE SAME
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