[scrippet]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.[/scrippet]
[scrippet]
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.
[/scrippet]
(to be continued…)
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