Scene Ten – In Front of the Church

The streets empty, leaving only Renhart. He suddenly darts forward and hides in a doorway. A suspicious man in trench-coat and fedora walks slowly along and passes by his hiding place. Renhart steps out, with one arm extended, a folded newspaper obscuring the hand he points at the stranger.

Renhart: Don’t move.

Alexei: …….

Renhart: Take your hands out of your pockets, slowly.

Alexei: You-!

Renhart: Let’s do as I say.

Alexei: ……..

Renhart: Why don’t you give me your gun?

Alexei: I don’t have one.

Renhart: Liar, it’s in your hat.

The man spins around to face him, enraged.

Alexei: I knew it must be you, Renhart!

Renhart: I told you not to move. I’ll shoot.

Alexei: Dammit, what are you up to?

Renhart: Enough. Just give me your gun. Leave it in the hat. Throw it here.

Renhart takes the gun out from Alexei’s hat, and once he has it safely in his hand he tosses the newspaper aside and reveals that he wasn’t carrying a gun himself.

Alexei: Damnit, you tricked me!

Renhart: Yes. …. It’s been a while. I thought you were in Europe?

Alexei: It’s your fault.

Renhart: What?

Alexei: It’s your fault I got transferred.

Renhart: ……….

Alexei: Look at this eye; it’s become practically useless.

Renhart: Don’t be ridiculous. Weren’t you trying to shoot me? It’s not my fault that your gun accidentally discharged.

Alexei: It’s all the same thing!

Renhart: What a cruel, unjustified grudge.

Alexei: (laughs) But aren’t you the same? The fact that you’re here—

Renhart: I quit.

Alexei: What?

Renhart: I’ve quit the CIA.

Alexei: Don’t play with me. Who’d believe such a thing?

Renhart: I work here at the embassy now.

Alexei: ………

Renhart: What about it? Why don’t you scrap it and quit too? No matter where you go, it’s all the same.

Alexei: What is?

Renhart: I saw the guns that the guerillas have. They’re Soviet. Do you really think you’ll get a Communist revolution in this country? This lot isn’t Communist.

Alexei: I know that.

Renhart: Then why?

Alexei: Because this is my job. It’s how I’m valuable to my country.

: I’m a professional spy.

: Alexei Azimoff.

Renhart: Don’t say such ridiculous, provincial things.

: In any case, our doctrines have reached the end of their tethers.

Alexei: And why should that bother me? I’ll accomplish my job.

: That’s all.

Renhart: What do you think handing out weapons to the guerillas will do?

Alexei: If we stir up social unrest, the government will be driven into a corner. They’ll probably start a war with England to avoid the attack.

Renhart: And that would be your cue?

Alexei: That’s one way of looking at it.

Renhart: And what about you?

Alexei: It doesn’t matter. I just put my orders into action.

Renhart: Stop playing dumb. What you’re doing is no different from a corporate take-over.

: An official stance of impartiality and

a pretence at a peaceful doctrine

Selling out freedom

Suffering from poverty

Alexei: It’s the same in every country.

Renhart: It’s not a joke

Don’t count us together

Alexei: Almost all of humanity is foolish.

Renhart: Your lot, for example

: Have you ever eaten delicious food? Can you imagine an affluent lifestyle?

Alexei: Don’t say any more!

Renhart: What is happiness, and what is sorrow?

Alexei: Stop it!

Renhart: Do you even know?

Alexei: Be quiet!

Alexei:

I was once the child of a family of poor laborers

One time my bread ration was larger than usual

I chewed it happily with lots of thanks

But it was a trap

They called me

Greedy Alexei, Bread Thief Alexei

I was to spy on my friends as my atonement

At that time something in me was destroyed

If I was going to do it,

I would become a top-notch spy

I am a professional spy, Alexei

Former bread thief

Now I’m the man they’ve nicknamed The Razor

I have no use for principles

My country appreciates me for being able to carry out my mission

That’s the value of my life

Alexei: I am a pro spy, Alexei Azimoff.

Renhart: The former bread thief. In my country, you decide your own value.

Alexei: …That’s true even though you quit the CIA?

Renhart: It is.

Alexei: Then why are you here? Why are you keeping an eye on the guerillas?

Renhart: Just some small reasons.

Alexei: You’ll report on our activities?

Renhart: They’ll know it soon enough even if I don’t do anything, don’t you think? The police have confiscated your guns.

Alexei: That was taken into account beforehand. Everything is going as planned.

Renhart: Do you know what they’ve done?

Alexei: ……

Renhart: Alexei!

Alexei: Attacked a trader’s warehouse.

Renhart: That’s all?

Alexei: What else is there?

Renhart: Why don’t we exchange information? I’d like to know a little more about that trader.

Alexei: You first.

Renhart: A laser alignment system that was in the testing phase with NATO was mixed up in it.

Alexei: Really? How?

Renhart: I don’t know.

Alexei: It was already finished? Ours is still in the prototype phase.

Renhart: In any case, it’s not out on the market yet. Meaning—

Alexei: It’s coming first-hand from the military.

Renhart: Probably.

Alexei: Therefore making that trader one part of the route.

Renhart: That’s what I want to know.

Alexei: There’s no mistake, is there? A man in the company called Escalada works as a weapons broker from the back.

Renhart: Who’s his business partner?

Alexei: It appears that he works on an extensive scale, from here in South America to Africa. But how the goods get into the illegal channels….

Renhart: There’s no evidence, but can’t we think of another way?

A sound of movement reaches them, a kicked can.

Alexei: I think I’d better be going now.

Renhart: Sure.

Alexei: See you, Renhart. Take care. If what you’re saying is true, it’s not some half-baked opponent.

With this menacing warning, he tugs his hat brim low over his eyes and begins to stalk off.

Renhart: Your hat is on backwards.

Alexei spins it around, tugs it back down again, and leaves.

Renhart: Probably that alignment system ended up on the route by mistake. It leaked out, and the weapon being tested fell into illegal channels. Doing that doesn’t always need a man in position. “It’s not some half-baked opponent”?…. This jewel search has turned into something serious. I thought I’d be able to take things a little easy after quitting the CIA. Somehow it seems that the god of death likes me. Bruce, we won’t be freed after all, will we? Not until we die.

Renhart reminisces about his time as a spy.

Renhart: Actually, that was ordinary for us. We would do anything to get our hands on the information we needed, so that they didn’t get ahead of us. Behind all that, how many were crippled, how many buried in the darkness? Bruce, you were one of them too.

Renhart’s partner Bruce and rival Alexei appear. Unknown men shoot at the spies from the dark, and Bruce dies.

Rehnart: …Was it really necessary? In the end, nothing in the world has changed. Did we fight to keep things from changing?

Renhart faces off with his old boss, Hume.

Renhart (voice over): Hume abandoned us. If he had come to rescue us, I think Bruce wouldn’t have died. European Bureau Chief? Hah! To him we were just consumable goods.

Renhart, alone.

Renhart: We’re chess pieces in a match between major powers. But there can never be victory or defeat. Is that world peace? Even now I don’t know what Bruce and I risked our lives for. But I’m never going back there. It’s all in vain now, but I’m going to live on for myself with what life is left to me.

: When I struggle on, the people are so very far away

My words of prayer, too, are torn away by the wind and disappear

What do I grieve for now?

I don’t intend to hurt, but I wander without knowing where I go

My heart is heavy

I stop at a strange town

Rusted wishes and worries, I’ve thrown them all aside

When I walk alone once more, the road begins from futility

Solitude is better than any cure

Protecting nothing, searching for nothing

When you live alone, you plow through all the other faces

The road I follow today continues wandering on without end

Johanne: Mr. Renhart.

Renhart: Johanne, what is it?

Johanne: I’ve been looking all over for you. After before, I went back to the embassy and got a call from Officer Troilo. He says he wants you to call him back.

Renhart: I see, got it. Then let’s go stop by the police station.

Johanne: Um, it seems that the investigation was closed.

Renhart: Investigation? What investigation?

Johanne: You know, when we went there and they were saying that guerillas broke into the warehouse.

Renhart: Yeah.

Johanne: He said the damage report was withdrawn. Then he said his place was here. (She hands him a piece of paper.) If you like, I’ll go with you.

Renhart: No, I’ll find a car and be fine. Will you be all right on your own?

Johanne: Yes, of course.

Renhart: Well then, see you.

Johanne: Good night!

Renhart (voice over): Somehow they’ve realized the situation. That’s why the damage report was withdrawn. They intend to lose the police in the dark before they let the criminals drag things out to be exposed. Now, their priority is recovering the weapons?

Date: 2015-02-16; view: 757