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(FOOTSTEPS)
Where's the plutonium?
(CRAVEN CROAKS) With Jedburgh.
Where's Jedburgh?
I don't know.
What happened?
We found the hot cell.
And?
Where am I?
You're in an American Air Force hospital.
I feel sick.
Radiation, Craven. Nausea's the first of its symptoms.
(POURS WATER)
- Has bad is it? - It's bad.
It's important, old chap, that you tell me everything you know.
They found the hot cell. It had been sealed off.
Apparently, there had been some sort of explosion, resulting in massive radiation.
Anyway, Jedburgh went in and located the plutonium
and carried it out in a Harrods bag.
Has Craven got any idea where Jedburgh went?
He says his last words were something about ''meeting Moriarty at the falls''.
If there's an Irish component to this, I shall retire.
(FOOTSTEPS ECHO )
(BREATHES HEAVILY)
They all drowned.
Dad.
Em.
- What's that? - A present.
- It's black. - It's an arctic flower.
They all drowned.
I know. I was there.
Why didn't you tell me?
Dad, you were on their side.
No!
- I'm Neilson. - Nallers.
What happened?
There's been a shoot-out. Jedburgh and three of my men.
- Where's Jedburgh? - He got away.
What about the plutonium?
He took it with him.
(MAN SHOUTS) Sir!
- We've found another one! - Four of my men...
- What about the police? - I haven't called them yet.
(MAN) Well done, Jemima! (WOMAN) This girl's no slouch.
(MAN) Right, Morag. I'll go with the four. Put the pressure on, OK?
You're in with a chance, my dear.
- (JEDBURGH) What do you think, Pete? - Six inches on the right.
- Piece of cake. - Should be.
(BALL DROPS INTO HOLE, APPLAUSE)
(WOMAN) Bloody good shot. (MAN) Well done, Darius.
Home again, home again, jiggedy-jig.
Are you all right, old sport?
- Yeah, I'm fine. - You're not looking too good.
I think that old lady in there is trying to poison me.
I'll see you later.
Mr Jedborough.
You forgot your sandwich again today, Mr Jedborough.
(LAUGHS) Mrs Girvan,
mince between two slices of white bread is not my idea of lunch.
I'd rather eat the damned Bible.
Mr Jedborough!
Jedburgh.
(COUGHS)
Hernandez? Cómo estas? Darius Jedburgh.
Yeah... You recuerda me.
Look, I'm the hombre who put the bomb in your bus about a year or so ago.
Yeah, that's right. High Command.
Yeah. Yeah. The gringo from Texas.
Hey, listen, Hernandez. I'm taking a vacation in Scotland...
It's in Great Britain.
Yeah, Kilmichael.
Kill as in muerte - you know, death, murder.
Michael as in St Michael, the patron saint of the CIA.
I know he's your patron saint. Haven't you wised up yet?
Every time you pray to him he tells the agency.
(TWIG SNAPS)
(PHONE RINGS)
(BEEPS)
- Harcourt? - It's clementine. I'm with craven.
- What made him skip? - He saw a lead coffin.
It had his name on it.
At least he knows his days are numbered.
Yes. Yes, he does.
That's why he wants to find Jedburgh. He wants a guarantee that he won't be hassled.
- And he'll get back the plutonium? - Yes, he feels that's his responsibility.
Tell him to try Scotland. Grogan's there. He's at a conference at the Gleneagles Hotel.
- This business at Northmoor. - Yes.
The minister wants to know whether you sanctioned the operation.
Well, in a roundabout way, yes.
- Darius Jedburgh. - Hello, Taffy.
- How they hanging? - Never better.
This is Carlo Barlotti. Brookings Institute.
- Hello, Colonel. - Pleased to meet you.
- Is Jerry Grogan coming? - No. He'll be late. Business in London.
- How many bodies? - Four, Minister.
- And three at the plant makes seven. - How long can this go on for?
- Until he's caught. - Do you think he's mad?
Well, he wasn't before, but he certainly is now.
Now, this is the report on IIF?
It's a copy. We sent the original to the Director of Public Prosecutions.
- Why? - It proves that there is a hot cell at Northmoor,
built in contravention of IAEA safeguards.
It was never under IAEA safeguards.
The contamination in the reservoir can now be traced to it.
They are liable to prosecution under the Radioactive Substances Act of 1960.
Is this really within your brief, Harcourt?
Northmoor was producing plutonium illegally, contrary to the Nuclear Installations Act of 1968,
the NPT and every other international agreement.
They are breaking every law in the nuclear rule book.
Northmoor was producing very small quantities of plutonium by a secret laser process,
which was classified as experimental.
I knew about it, and so did some colleagues.
- You knew about it?! - From day one.
An experimental station with a defence component is not subject to the restrictions you've quoted.
If you knew what caused the contamination, why was I brought in to investigate it?
Because the Americans became suspicious.
- So I was purely part of a deception plan? - Yes, if you like.
- You must have known that I'd find out. - Yes, of course I did.
I just thought you might take longer, that's all,
and have used less unorthodox methods of breaching the mine than Craven and Jedburgh.
- I will not withdraw that report. - That's up to the Cabinet.
But it's your duty to get the plutonium back, since you were responsible for its removal.
(CLEMENTINE) How long have you got?
Three days like this,
and then it's rapidly downhill...or so I'm told.
What are you going to do about it?
I haven't...
I don't know.
I'd like to find Jedburgh first, if I can.
- He still has the plutonium. - I know.
You know, I'm very fond of you, and if there's any way I can...
You've already been an enormous help.
You can't die alone, Ronnie.
Why not?
We all do, you know.
I left a report of my investigations so far with my bank manager.
If you give him this, he'll give the report to you.
It was going to the Chief Constable...
but now I'd rather Gaia have it.
Don't try and come after me.
(CHATTERING)
Oh, excuse me.
(INDISTINCT)
Excuse me a second.
- Hi, Bobby. - Hello, Darius. What the hell are you doing here?
Fulfilling a long-standing engagement.
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the second NATO Conference on Directed Energy Weapons.
(PHONE RINGS)
- Hello, Pendleton. - This is Bennett.
- Who? - Bennett.
I'm speaking from the Gleneagles Hotel in Scotland. Jedburgh is here...
about to take part in a debate on the high frontier. What are you going to do about it?
The question is, how high is high?
With the latest Star Wars technology, are we on the edge of a new space race?
And what does that presage for the future of that other race, the human race?
(HARCOURT) My sources in Washington sent me a complete rundown of what's going on there.
If you believe Washington, you're naïve.
(PENDLETON) Bennett called. Jedburgh's at Gleneagles...and he's not playing golf.
- Bobby, what's up? - No time to talk. Go straight onto the platform.
- Where's Jedburgh? - Inside.
Darius Jedburgh is an old friend.
(APPLAUSE)
For several years, before his posting to London as an energy attaché at the US Embassy,
Colonel Jedburgh reported to the Director of Scientific Intelligence at Langley.
He's also been a member of the Standing Committee on Nuclear Materials Safeguards
and the International Anti-Terrorism Committee.
Finally, I'm sure that my last guest needs no introduction.
Our first nuclear entrepreneur, the President of the Fusion Corporation of Kansas,
the Henry Ford of the Sunrise Industries, ladies and gentlemen, Jerry C Grogan.
Hello, Darius.
Where's my plutonium?
And so, to open our debate tonight on the future of space,
I call upon the President of the Fusion Corporation Kansas, Jerry Grogan.
Ladies and gentlemen, I must apologise for my late arrival.
However, I had to wait for confirmation
that my company's bid for International Irradiated Fuels is to be allowed to stand.
It is.
(NEWSREADER) The decision to allow the bid to proceed from the Fusion corporation of Kansas
for International Irradiated Fuels, the British private nuclear waste plant,
was greeted in the city with cautious optimism.
Fusion, a contender for substantial contracts for President Reagan's Star Wars programme,
will bring to IIF fresh capital and a new sense of purpose.
There's still strong opposition to the sale in some quarters.
At a NATO conference at Gleneagles Hotel this morning...
(GROGAN) When we unlock a chain reaction, the energy in it was put there
in the first ten seconds of the universe's existence.
That is an awesome thing. We are tapping into the very source of God's creation.
Today we have access to that power, but we do not control it,
and that is the sole purpose of my corporation - to find a way to control it.
When we have done so, we can say, for the first time in history, Man will be in charge.
(APPLAUSE)
(VOMITS)
(RETCHES)
That's enough, Dad.
What we're trying to do at the moment is to take the plutonium bomb and explode it
in a vessel no larger than the circumference of my arms,
and to control the energy in there.
By harnessing that energy, we can direct it, as lasers, half way across the world
to shoot down enemy rockets in their silos.
That is the capability for which we are aiming. It will cost us billions of dollars to get there,
but in the end, it'll be worth it.
(APPLAUSE)
You're getting angry again.
I'm dying.
Do you regret it?
- I feel so much is left undone. - Other people will continue the job.
You'll be with me.
- I still don't understand. - Dad, it's happened before, you know.
Millions of years ago, when the Earth was cold,
it looked as if life on our planet would cease to exist.
But black flowers began to grow, multiplying across its face,
till the entire landscape was covered in blooms.
Slowly, the black flowers sucked in the heat of the sun, and life began to evolve again.
That is the power of Gaia.
It will take more than a black flower to save us this time.
This time, when it comes, it will melt the polar ice cap. Millions will die.
The planet will protect itself. It's important to realise that.
- If Man is the enemy, it will destroy him. - Is this a warning?
All I'm saying is don't spend your last hours seeking revenge, Dad.
The planet will do it for us...in time.
(GROGAN) I believe that fusion motors will power the great spaceships of the 21st century,
which will leave the earth in their hundreds to colonise the solar system.
That, ultimately, is what the phrase ''high frontier'' means.
(cONTINUES ON PA) The historical expansion of Man into space,
with all the parallels it evokes of the rigours and heroism
of America's 19th-century trek westward.
Like our forefathers, we will be escaping poverty and tyranny,
and, as in the past, war will provide the anvil upon which...
- The others? - On their way.
(APPLAUSE)
I foresee, within the next 100 years,
the beginning of Man as an interplanetary being, a celestial warrior.
And furthermore, a solar empire for the United States of America and her allies.
Looking at our overpopulated, over-exhausted planet,
I don't see how we can turn our backs on such a future,
no matter what it costs or how long it takes.
Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.
$500,000 million for a defence system for Washington DC seems a bit pricey to me,
but then, I don't live there...
- He has to be stopped. - He's an accredited speaker.
The man is sick!
- He'll say things better left unsaid. - That audience is 100% secure.
They can take anything he can throw at them.
Jerry Grogan suggests that in 100 years from now,
the human race will leave the planet and move into space.
Jerry is a hell of a salesman. He can make such an unappetising idea sound attractive.
Now, the way Jerry tells it, it sounds just like an extension of the old Oregon Trail.
It calls for the same American virtues of self-reliance, independence, know-how.
But it will not be that way.
This new international nuclear state that Jerry's a part of, they do not cherish such virtues.
You got that straight from the horse's mouth, because I used to be a part of it.
Read between the lines of a Jerry Grogan speech,
you'll find not the frontiersman but the Teutonic knight.
Not democracy but a despotism.
This future nuclear state will be an absolute state
whose authority will derive not from the people but from the possession of plutonium.
And to make sure we all know what we're talking about,
I brought some with me today.
(MIXED REACTION FROM AUDIENCE)
(GASPS)
Two bars of weapons-grade plutonium.
I stole this stuff on orders, straight out of Jerry's latest acquisition.
Twenty-four people have died for this stuff, including me.
All I have to do is bring these bars together and we'll have a criticality.
- Careful, Darius. - 400 rads, ladies and gentlemen.
A lethal dose to anyone within ten yards. Get it while it's hot!
(SHOUTS OF PANIC)
Hey, don't y'all want to be part of the new age of plutonium lunacy?
Don't you want to see mankind become enslaved to this new priesthood of plutonium culture,
see the earth become a desert,
all its natural resources plundered to build some new Jerusalem in the Milky Way?
(SNIGGERS)
- Why did you let him go? - We had no alternative.
- None? - He still has 20 kilos.
(GROGAN) In an explosive configuration - his words.
- Is 20 kilos enough? - To dispose of the east coast of Scotland...yes.
- If he wanted that, he'd have done it by now. - Nobody was taking that chance.
Instead, a particularly sensitive relationship between you and my government
is public property.
We could have had a catastrophe in there.
Colonel.
- What did he say about Northmoor? - Not much.
The whole hall was in such a state of pandemonium, I doubt if anyone noticed.
The man is quite insane. He completely misread Jerry's argument.
Did he? I thought he put his finger right on it. Either we stay or we go.
- Go where? - (SCOFFS QUIETLY)
- Well, then. What next? We have to find him. - We should leave it to Craven.
- Bennett? - There are alternatives.
(KNOCK)
There's a telephone call from Inspector Craven for Mr Harcourt.
Any objection to leaving it to Craven?
As long as he finds the plutonium, it's OK by me.
Well, Harcourt, you'd better make sure that he's fully briefed...hadn't you?
He used to play here twice a week. Said he felt at home.
- When did you see him last? - Oh, a couple of days now.
He was a good loser,
which is just as well, because we have a lot of strong players.
OK. That's fine. Thanks.
- Who's their man? - Nallers.
He drinks at the Chelsea Barracks. He's, um...
He's rumoured to be the state executioner.
Who would he be after here?
(KNOCK AT DOOR)
It could be you, old boy. The Minister didn't take too kindly to that report of yours.
But it's more likely to be Jedburgh. Ah, good.
Thank you.
I thought I ordered oatcake.
(SLOW BLUES MUSIC ON PIANO )
(BELL CLANGS)
What took you so long?
- How have you been feeling? - Sick.
Boy, have I ever been sick.
- Did you come alone? - Yeah.
What the hell are you doing up here?
Mostly dying. I've bought the farm, boy.
You talk to Harcourt?
- Last night. - He tell you I was at Gleneagles?
Yeah. You caused quite a stir.
- Yeah. Nothing on TV, though, I see. - No. They've got that screwed down tight.
Yeah.
What about you?
- What about me? - How long have you got?
Two weeks.
That's too bad.
- It was a hell of a mission though, huh? - You didn't complete it.
Well, they were waiting for me with guns. My own people started shooting at me.
Honour went out of the window the day they invented that stuff.
Do you know what Harcourt told me last night?
Grogan had reached the conclusion that the enquiry would stop the takeover,
so he decided to get the plutonium another way.
Then he thought of you. Who would walk into a cave full of radiation?
You would, given the right scenario.
All he had to do was call Washington to make sure they fed you the right orders.
They didn't just betray you...
they made a fool of you.
No shit, Sherlock. You think I didn't figure that out?
- Where is the plutonium? - It's in the bottom of a loch.
- What shape is it in? - It's in pretty good shape. I packed it in chalk.
And as core, I put a pound of plastic explosive.
- You turned it into a bomb?! - Yeah.
- Why? - 'Cause that's the problem with plutonium.
It's limited in its application.
It's not user-friendly, but as a vehicle for regaining one's self-respect,
it's got a lot going for it.
Damned right I turned it into a bomb.
Is it armed? Fused?
There's a detonator, if that's what you mean.
It's a plutonium bullet.
Would it work?
Well, fired from a high-velocity rifle... it just might.
A nuclear explosion?
Hell of a way to go, huh?
- It seems rather hard on the rest of Scotland. - Yeah, that's what I thought,
especially the golf courses, So I decided against it.
What other ideas have you had...to end it all?
Well, I called up this especially humourless bastard called Hernandez.
He runs this rinky-dinky terrorist outfit.
I'm supposed to be on his death list, so I invited him up. He hasn't showed.
- Where's the plutonium? - Loch Lednock,
ten miles west of here, by the dam.
- Mind if I use the phone? - You going to call Harcourt?
- Yes. - He'll only turn it over to Grogan.
They'll screw you the same way they screwed me.
I'll have to take that chance.
Craven?
They'll trace the call.
- They? - The opposition.
They'll come looking for us.
If we're lucky, they will.
(PHONE RINGS)
- Pendleton? - I've found him.
What about the stuff?
Loch Lednock. By the dam.
Be careful. It's packaged.
I'll meet you there tomorrow. Eight o'clock.
(HANGS UP)
Well, has he got it?
He... He knows where it is.
We meet him eight o'clock tomorrow morning.
Loch Lednock.
He'll be dead by then. I just hope he gave you the right instructions.
(JEDBURGH) # It was the year of the preacher...
- # It was the time of... # - # It was the time of the preacher
# In the year of 01
(BOTH) # When you think it's all over
# It has only begun
# And he cried like a baby
# And he screamed like a panther
- # In the middle of the night... - Yeah, you remember.
# And he saddled his pony
# And he went for a ride... #
I am no longer seeking vengeance.
You know what you are, Craven? You're something special.
You've been freeze-dried from some earlier epoch, just waiting for this to happen.
Waiting for what to happen?
All this.
The confrontation between good and evil.
- And what side are you on? - The side of the angels, boy. Always have been.
Jedburgh...
You are not and never will be on the side of the angels.
There are angels who will stand by me. St Michael, for instance.
- Then, you do believe in Gaia? - As an idea or what?
As an idea.
You mean that the earth goddess will defend itself against all dangers?
- Including Man. - Man will always win against nature.
(CAR DOORS SLAM)
You were saying?
I think you're wrong.
(SIGHS)
On my way here, I had a weird conversation with Emma.
She warned me about a black flower,
which she said would spread across the northern hemisphere
and melt the polar ice cap.
- Grogan would zap it. - She said...
that the planet will turn against mankind and destroy him.
Have you ever been to Afghanistan, Craven?
- Is this relevant? - I was there last year,
studying the drinking habits of the Russian soldiers.
They'll drink anything as long as it's alcohol-based.
Glycol, anti-freeze, brake fluid.
But the black flowers were out there Craven, up on the mountains.
The Afghans eat them.
I think you're taking the piss, Jedburgh.
I am merely confirming the existence of the black flowers.
If Grogan don't zap them, the Afghans will.
(THUMPING)
Ah, shit.
I think you're wrong.
If there is a battle between the planet and mankind, the planet will win.
Where's that going to leave you?
On the side of the planet.
Do you want to wait inside or go and meet them head on?
I don't see the point of moving from this spot.
The point is to take as many with us as we can.
- Why? - Because they're going to have our ass.
(CHATTER)
- (HARCOURT) Well, what's next? - Geneva. Nuclear non-proliferation treaty.
- Same old circuit? - We get some new faces.
Of course, the old ones drop out. What's for pudding?
(CRASH)
(FOOTSTEPS)
- You will come tomorrow? - Yes, but I'm swimming off Sizewell later.
Every weekend sees one of us swimming around outside some nuclear power station,
while the world's press takes snaps from a safe distance.
- Makes me sick. - How sick?
(FOOTSTEPS RUNNING)
(GUNSHOT AND THUD )
(GUNSHOT, GLASS SHATTERS)
(MACHINE GUN FIRE)
(SOLDIERS YELL)
(COUGHS)
(FOOTSTEPS)
(SPLUTTERS)
(COUGHS AND WHEEZES)
- Colonel Jedburgh? - Yes, sir?
What's the problem?
No problem...
(THUD )
Normally, I don't drink champagne, but tonight's an exception, I think.
(GLASSES CLINK)
- Is this Craven? - Just do it.
- Do it! - No, no, old son.
You're on our side.
I AM NOT ON YOUR SIDE!
(HARcOURT) My dear clemmie,
within hours of Jedburgh's death and in conditions of great secrecy,
the plutonium was recovered from Loch Lednock.
It was an IIF show.
No one else would take responsibility for the stuff, certainly not Her Majesty's Government.
Myself and Pendleton turned up just to show the flag
and to remind Grogan that this was only the first round.
Ah, yes... Grogan was there,
watching the proceedings like some 20th-century vampire,
although after his exposure to Jedburgh's plutonium at the conference,
I don't hold out much for his chances.
You asked about craven. The last we saw of him was up on the hill overlooking the loch,
staring down at us like a wild animal.
Neither myself nor Pendleton felt it appropriate to wave.
Besides, by my reckoning, he was not long for this world.
When we left, he was still on the hill.
I only wish we could have shouted some words of comfort,
told him that in the end, the earth, Emma's beloved Gaia,
would be saved from ultimate destruction, and that the good in all of us would prevail.
But in the circumstances, I don't think he would have believed it.
As we drove down the valley, I thought I heard a cry,
but it was lost in the noise of the helicopter.
When I looked back, he was gone.
(CRIES) Emma!
(ECHOES)
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