EXT. LONDON STREETS -- NIGHT

Chase scene. Gunter veers along like the worst kind of student driver, narrowly avoiding crashing into things and people... sometimes very narrowly.

INT. LONDON BUS -- NIGHT

Gunter is scared, but also laughing, as exhilarated as a young hotshot pilot who’s been given a new and difficult plane in which he can’t possibly get killed. Sarah hangs on with an excited look on her face. Joy, though, is actively afraid for her life as Gunter just misses another car.

JOY

Oh, look out!

GUNTER

It’s all right! It handles just like a J U Eighty-eight!

JOY

No wonder we won the war.

They have a close scrape with another bus, SHOOT PAST. In a cross street, a POLICE CAR notices, swings into PURSUIT.

JOY

Oh God, we’re all going to be thrown in jail forever. Not that you care!

Another NEAR MISS in the traffic as Gunter CORNERS insanely.

JOY

Will you take it easy?! Some of us here aren’t dead yet and we like it that way!

GUNTER

(cheerful)

Chickennnn.

More chase scene, and the increased HOWLING OF SIRENS, as the bus plunges OUT OF SHOT.

INT. ORMONDE HOTEL -- NIGHT

George is heading for the front door with Bruno. Doris looks up from the desk.

GEORGE

Be back in a while, love.

DORIS

George, is this a good idea?

GEORGE

Doris, he’s got to go. If we let him go in the yard, he’ll dig up your flowerbeds again.

DORIS

But just for tonight...

GEORGE

I’ll be fine.

Doris sighs, comes out from behind the desk, unlocks the door.

DORIS

Be careful.

GEORGE

I will. Come on, Bruno.

He goes out. Doris looks after him, concerned.

EXT. LONDON STREETS -- NIGHT

As before: yet more chase scene, wailing SIRENS of lots of police cars, and the good old Routemaster bus plunging down streets the wrong way or in the wrong lane, making traffic avoid it in numerous interesting and desperate ways.

JOY

Drive on the left! Drive on the left!!

GUNTER

All right, all right, it just seems wrong somehow...

At one point the bus plunges right around Piccadilly Circus and out the other side, past that Burger King.

JOY

Your old “haunts”. Wasn’t one crash here enough?

Gunter LAUGHS. He LOSES the closest of the cops, weaving his way among the streets--

EXT. STREET NEAR ORMONDE HOTEL -- NIGHT

George walks the little terrier down the street. He doesn’t see it, but he is being stalked by an Erickson van. He stops by a tree, stands there whistling while Bruno does his business.

GEORGE

Good lad, Bruno. Mummy will thank you for not burying that in her geraniums...

Far-off SFX of SIRENS and RACING ENGINES can be heard, George REACTS to this, only slightly concerned.

GEORGE (CONTD)

Bloody joyriders. Come on, Bruno.

The van drives past, hiding George from view.

INT. LONDON BUS -- NIGHT

Gunter is lost in a maze of side streets. The cops CLOSE IN.

GUNTER

This city was designed by lunatics.

JOY

So a driver with your talents should feel right at home. What’ll we do?

GUNTER

Keep going and hope for the best.

But now Gunter is running down a cul-de-sac, nowhere else to go. The SIRENS and the blue lights are only a couple of blocks behind them, briefly delayed by a car Gunter’s just missed hitting. Gunter brings the bus screeching to a halt a loading area behind an office building.

GUNTER

So much for hope!

He and Sarah and Joy DIVE out of the bus. Down the street, the cops are NEAR --

Gunter GRABS Sarah’s hand, pulls her through a wall with him: they’re GONE. Joy stands there alone, in absolute shock.

A second later, a DOOR in the wall OPENS; Gunter’s hand GRABS JOY’S ARM and DRAGS her in. The door shuts just in time. The cops RUNNING down the alley find an empty bus, an empty street, silence...

EXT. DIFFERENT LONDON STREET -- NIGHT

At the front of the building, Gunter, Joy and Sarah EXIT through another door and head down the street.

JOY

That was close!

GUNTER

Yes. But there are still the Erickson people to lose.

JOY

They’ll be looking for a man and a little girl...

GUNTER

Exactly: not a woman and a girl. You two go on. I will follow. Sarah will tell you what happened.

JOY

All right.

(wry, but affectionate)

Listen, you did good. But after this? Stick to bombers.

They SEPARATE and EXIT in opposite directions.

INT. ORMONDE HOTEL -- NIGHT

Joy comes in with Sarah. Doris meets her at the door, looking worried, though she HUGS Sarah in relief.

DORIS

Oh, pet, I was ever so worried! You go straight up to bed.

(to Joy)

Where’s Gunter?

JOY

He’s okay. He’ll be back soon.

DORIS

What a relief. Have you seen George?

JOY

Uh, no.

DORIS

Well, never mind. There’s someone waiting for you in the lounge.

JOY

Oh God...the authorities work fast around here, don’t they. Okay...

Joy steels herself, goes in... and finds Harry sitting there, looking contrite.

HARRY

Uh, hi.

(beat)

Neutral territory...

JOY

Yeah. Yeah.

Joy sits down next to Harry, guilty. They have trouble looking at each other.

JOY

Look. It’s not like you think. I was --

HARRY

Me first.

(struggling)

Joy, I was way out of line at dinner. I was confused. About what you were telling me about George. And especially about Gunter. I tend to expect the worst, just in case it happens. Even if I know it’s not happening.

Joy wants to interrupt. Harry holds up a hand to stop her. The front door OPENS again: subdued VOICES are talking there.

HARRY

After how I’ve been ignoring you, and not just on this trip -- what you gave me, I had it coming.

(beat: this is hardest for him)

And about Gunter, and George, and what you said about the way they were... Who am I to say that you didn’t see something that you thought meant they had to be, that could only be explained by...

Joy has been listening with increasing astonishment. Now she takes Harry’s hands and holds them.

HARRY

(gives up)

Look, if you say they’re dead, you probably have a good reason. And as long as you’re not having an affair with one of them, or both of them, I don’t care, okay? All I want to know now is, when can we get a slightly bigger...room?

Someone CLEARS HIS THROAT O.S. Harry STARES past Joy in shock. She turns. Straight-faced, Gunter is leaning through the wall.

GUNTER

Excuse me. Doris asks what time in the morning you want breakfast, since we are all turning in so late tonight.

HARRY

Oh my God.

(to Joy)

You mean he really is...

JOY

And you said you believed me, even when you didn’t...!

She smiles, gets up and pulls Harry with her.

JOY

I’ve got a lot of explaining to do. Let’s go somewhere a little less neutral.

(to Gunter, off her glance at Harry)

Eight thirty?

HARRY

Uh, fine. Fine. See you then.

JOY

‘Night, Gunter.

GUNTER

Guten abend, Joy. Mr. Collins --

HARRY

Harry.

Gunter nods. Joy and Harry head out, get into the little lift. Its door closes.

Gunter pauses at the front desk, where Doris stands, watching the front door.

GUNTER

Eight thirty.

DORIS

That’s fine.

They both stop, hearing something SCRATCHING at the front door, and a BARK. Bruno is there, his leash dragging. But not George.