www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Able 2017 WIND WHISTLES EERIE MUSIC WIND WHISTLES UNSETTLING MUSIC MUSIC INTENSIFIES Yes, hello. Could I speak to Angela Burr, please? PHONE RINGS It's concerning Richard Roper. You English, Pine? To the core, sir. Wise man. Corky! Are you proposing marriage to that young lady? Highly bloody unlikely. Nearly there, Chief. I'm terribly sorry about that, it's the new security, I'm afraid. The Swiss police insist. There seems to be nothing we can do. You been here long? Weren't here last time we came, was he, Frisky? No, he wasn't. I've been here for two and a half years, sir. Before that? I was in Italy and, before that, Tangier. All done! About bloody time! Whatever happened to your signing hand? Wanker's colic, Chief. Limp wrist, more like. Your key, sir. It's a little outre, I confess, but our less sophisticated guests adore it. Well, I adore it and I'm bloody sophisticated! Taiwan. Tabby. How was the ride in, sir? Noisy. It can be terribly bumpy up there, even on a clear night. Heroic of you to venture aloft at all, if you ask me. MUTED CONVERSATION CORKORAN SPEAKS FRENCH Champagne, sir? Yes, thank you. HE CONTINUES SPEAKING FRENCH Gregory, listen to me. All we need is delivery by Tuesday. So tell your friends by the Vltava that they need you to start driving tomorrow morning. This room is probably exactly as you remember it, sir, although the bathrooms have been completely refurbished. There's a new free-standing tub, mini spa facilities and a Jacuzzi. I'm going to take a bath, baby. All right. Pretty, isn't she? I went to New York to buy a painting and came back with her. Liar. You said you were buying a horse. It was a painting of a horse. Sandy, are you coming to bed? This is Lady Langbourne, best skier within 100 miles, I guarantee it. Once upon a time. Knees gone, poor old thing. Completely worn out. Goodnight, my beloved. TEXT ALERT Soldier Boris says OK, Monday lunchtime. OK, Monday lunchtime? Fix. Aren't we getting rid of these? They were supposed to be here by six o'clock. Anything come, Pine? A package for us? Nothing that I've seen, sir. I'll chase it for you. Your friend Apostol says he can meet you in town tomorrow night. Too public. Make it here. Play golf, do we, sweetheart? No, sir, I don't. Me neither. Just the nineteenth hole. Darling, some more shampoo, please. She means the... Ah. Take it into her, will you, old boy? Certainly, sir. Only joking. Although I think we might need another couple of bottles of this stuff. Of course, sir. Absolutely, right away. Find out what happened to that bloody parcel, will you? Yes, sir. I'll have it sent up as soon as it arrives. Can I see tonight's late arrivals, please? Yes. Just a second. Here they are. Thank you. Could you do photocopies of these for me, please, Fraulein? We're doing a marketing survey of the Tower Suite guests. Yes, of course, Mr Pine. Thank you. DOOR CLICKS SHUT Ah, Alfred. Could you deliver this to Mr Roper? Also, one more thing - please don't forget to empty the rubbish from their bins right away. Mr Roper hates mess. Of course. Thanks. Can I help you, madam? Do you really stay awake all night? Yes, madam... it's my job. Is the pool open? Give me one moment, please. METALLIC JANGLING Can I help you, gentlemen? Is the bar still open? Yes, of course, sir. Perfect. Allow me to escort you. Thank you. LOW CONVERSATION Hi! How are you? Good evening. Good to see you. You, too. Are you well? Hi, I am Jed, so nice to meet you. Apo, how are you? You look well. You, too. Thank you. This is Mercedes. Hello. Nice to meet you. She has never been to Zermatt before. And I said, "You have to come!" But of course. HE WHISTLES I know what you're thinking. Which is the daughter and which is the mistress? The young beauties will be leaving us in a moment. Make sure they're well serviced in the lounge. I trust that won't be too painful for you. Ladies. Come. Apo... Yes? I've received an offer. Combine harvesters. Some time in the next six months. Looking for interested buyers. Glimpse of the infinite. Yes. It's reassuring. Up to a point. You work here all year? Indeed, sir. I don't think I could do that. Too bloody quiet for me. Get used to it eventually. Keeping away from the world, are we? Got a girl? No, sir. All alone. Well, I suppose we all are, in the end, aren't we? You know, a lot of people would have tossed that cigarette away when the paying customer turned up. Good for you. We leave tomorrow, so until the next time... adios! Goodnight, sir. HE BREATHES OUT SHAKILY Angela Burr? Yes. Jonathan Pine. Nice to meet you. THEY SPEAK GERMAN Thank you for coming all this way. I appreciate it. Pleasure. These are for you. Richard Roper was recently a guest at the Meisters Hotel. Do whatever you want with those. I don't want to be involved. Thank you. So, why did you do it? Why does Jonathan Pine, respected hotelier, risk his career by snitching on his guests? First in Cairo and then here. I don't know. Yes, you do. Something stirred, I suppose. What stirred? Listen, if there is a man selling a private arsenal to an Egyptian crook and he's English and you're English and those weapons could cause a lot of pain to a lot of people, then you just do it. Anyone would do it. Plenty wouldn't. You were a soldier yourself, of course. Yes, I was. Iraq. Two tours. You know what those weapons can do to a body. I saw things in Iraq that didn't line up with my idea of what it means to be a soldier. And then there's Sophie Alekan. Your Sophie. She wasn't my Sophie. Mr Pine... what happened to Sophie Alekan makes us all involved. What happened in Cairo... shames me to the bottom of my soul. Please, join me for lunch. It's on me. Thank you. Thank you. Mr Burr always wanted to come to the Swiss Alps. He likes the peace and quiet, does Mr Burr. You don't? All this snow and silence makes me want to scream. HE CHUCKLES Don't worry, I'm not going to. OK. How long have you been together? 20 years, come November. Wow! Congratulations. It's marriage, Jonathan. It's not a state of bliss. Any children? First and last. So there's no mention of Cairo on your professional CV. I checked. Yeah. I took it off after I left. Why? I had to. So if Roper checked with Meisters for a biography, Cairo wouldn't come up. No. What about Freddie Hamid? To him I was just a man in a uniform. He never knew my name. So just a little bit of airbrushing and you'd be clean? Clean. Do you handle cash in that hotel of yours? Yeah... Sometimes. Suppose you stole some of it? Or all of it? Would anyone notice straight away? Not if I was clever about it. Ah, well, luckily you are clever, Jonathan. Cos I checked. Did you? Course you did. Don't get many visitors here, do you? No. Oh, TE Lawrence... of Arabia. The lonely genius who wished only to be a number. Would you put that back, please? Whose initials are these? They're my father's. It's private. Oh, sorry. I didn't realise it meant that much to you. Yes, you did. He was undercover in Belfast, wasn't he, your father? Yes, he was. Same regiment as you. Yeah. I read that they had to put his uniform back on before they buried him. What do you want, Ms Burr? I want to make you an offer. Come and work for me... and afterwards when it's all over, I will look after you. Resettlement, new name, new identity, new life. An offer to do what? To bring down Richard Roper. I've spent ten years of my life going after that man. I've had microphones up his arse, I've had GCHQ tapping every bloody e-mail. I've had a thousand satellites overflying him and I can't get close to him. Do you know why? Because he's too smart. But that'll change. I want to put you inside his operation. I will give you a legend as thick as your arm. You will be in so deep, you'll worry that you'll never get out of it. There's not a scrap of you that won't get used, there's not an hour that will go by that you won't be scared. But you will nail him. You will nail him for Sophie Alekan. You will nail him for your country. And you will nail him for the man that owned that book. Or you can go back to the hotel of non-existence. It's up to you. I think he's going to do it. What do you need? I need to give him a criminal history, something for Roper to find. It's got to be West Country and it needs to be real. I need the Home Office on board. And I need you to take out at least three Devon police officers, take them to lunch, get them to play the game. No half measures, then, eh? And not a word to the River House, Rex. Do you understand me? Not... a... word. I do hope I'm not about to regret the soft spot that I have for you, Angela. KNOCKING All right. This is Rob Singhal, my deputy. Hello. You up for it? You're sure, are you? Yeah. Right, well, sit down, have a cup of tea, for God's sake. You're making me feel nervous. Thanks. No. All you've said so far is yes. Do you want me to say no? Well, now would be the moment. Now, or forever hold your peace. Oh, you're too bloody perfect, Jonathan Pine, that's your trouble. I don't want you perfect. Go on, have a biscuit. Eat it. You are going to put on the performance of your life. There is half a psychopath lurking in there, Jonathan. I want you to find him and stick to him. Once you get down to Devon, you are the world's second worst man, first place already taken. There is no right or wrong for you down there. Do you hear me? It's all me, me, me. Don't give anyone an inch. Anyone pisses you off, you smack them. Anyone crosses you, God help them. I want you to scare the shit out of everyone, and that includes me! Richard Roper must know that you're in the same league as him. Laws don't apply to him, and they don't apply to you, either. He sees that, we get him, he comes to the table, we get him over a barrel, we skewer him! Are you comfortable with that? Yes. Right, this is our insurance. To say that you jumped, we didn't push you. WATER DRIPS, ECHOING Tell me what you saw when you got to the cottage. Er, the, the kitchen was a mess... and there is blood on the... on the floor. Did he kill him? SHOP BELL TINKLES Hi. You all right? I've, erm... taken Rosum's cottage. I was told to leave the rent here. I'll be here for a while. Is this your place? Oh, no, it's my mum's. I'm just looking after it. Right. You're from up country? Yeah, that's right. What you doing down here? BABY GURGLES He's a big lad. SHE CHUCKLES Is he yours? Yeah. Well... What was the name? Jack Linden. MOTORBIKE REVS THEN DRIVES OFF A WOMAN GROANS SHE MOANS MOANING GROWS LOUDER Who are you? Get out. Nobody even lives here! Well, I do now. What do you want? Police, right? No. Whatever you are, get lost. I've got an offer for you. Yeah, well, I'm not interested. You deaf? I told you to get lost. Now listen to me, OK. I don't know who you're buying off, but things have changed. I have a delivery coming in a few weeks' time. You're buying off me now, OK? Piss off. HE GROANS I would advise a different business language from now on. HE GRUNTS HE GASPS FOR BREATH Try it. Try it. No! Sh-sh-sh-sh. Sh-sh-sh-sh. HE PANTS AND GROANS HE COUGHS AND SPLUTTERS Who was that? You OK? ROPER: Let's try a little thought experiment here. Take all the things you own, clothes, house, car, and ask yourself what part of all that did not depend on commerce and the free movement of capital. For the benefit of the hard of thinking in the room, I'll give you the answer. The answer is none. None! My Safe Haven project for refugees is not funded out of love, or a bleeding heart. I do it because it benefits me to have the communities in which I wish to operate sympathetic to my interests. And the truth, which no-one dares admit these days... is that only by freeing capital do you free the world. QUIET CHATTER Hey. Pint of Blue Anchor, please. That's him. Cheers. Hey. You all right? Yeah. My mother says you want mineral water. I don't think so. Oh. Well, I've brought them now. Coffee? I wouldn't say no. I googled you, Jack Linden. HE CHUCKLES And what did you find? Bugger all. So you like it here, do you, all on your own? What do you do here all day? Bit of cooking. I can cook. Oh, yeah? Mmm. I was good. I won prizes. I was going to be a famous chef. Well, what happened? I stopped. Why? Cos I married a loser, had a brat, and screwed up my life. Right... Erm... And the father is...? No, he isn't. He ain't been Charlie's father since he was three days old. He came to the hospital with a box of Cadbury's milk chocolates and tuckered all the nice ones. He couldn't wait to flee. Where to? Don't ask me. Is he abroad or...? Tom Quince?! Sorry, say again? Tom Quince, it's Charlie's father's name. Nah, he's never had a passport in his life. He's probably somewhere round Bude, smoking a ton of pot and trying to sleep with the weekend talent. THEY CHUCKLE It's... It's a great pleasure to introduce the Chief Officer at the US Directorate of Defence Trade Controls, Joel Steadman. Firstly, gentlemen... and lady... Sorry. ...I want to thank you all for inviting me to London to share a little of what I know about the global arms trade in the 21st century and how to confront it. Now, there's about 3,000 years of wisdom in this room and I represent about six weeks of it. CHUCKLING But hell, those odds never stopped an American before. Now there's two philosophies on how to confront international arms smuggling. You can exploit or you can enforce. Now, I'm an enforcer, and I'll tell you why. You go down the exploitation path, this is what happens. You identify a bad guy, you watch him, get all kinds of dirt on him, and you approach him. And then what do you do? Well, then you recruit him. You recruit him to get to the next guy, then you watch him, and you recruit him, and so on, and so forth. And pretty soon the lines get blurred, your enemy becomes your friend, and hey... the devil has all the best lines, right? Now I'm an enforcer. I go after someone... and I bring 'em down, and the reason why I'm here today is to ask you folks for a little help. Joel. Mr Dromgoole. Excellent to see you. Thank you. You know these guys? Palfrey. Nice to meet you. Nice to meet you. I enjoyed your speech. Well, let's keep the channels open at all times. Absolutely. Particularly when it comes to the Middle East. Anything you have at all. I have money and people ready to work with you. Sure will, Geoffrey. Speak to you later. Thank you. Joel. Ah! Good to have you with us. Nice to see you. Angela. Hello, Joel. HE LAUGHS What do you think of the ale? Jury's out. I see, erm, you're not drinking. You didn't tell me you were flying in. You didn't tell me something a lot more important than that. Why were you in Madrid two weeks ago? It's an operation called Limpet. We're going after Richard Onslow Roper. His people are meeting with a Spanish lawyer in Madrid. Juan Apostol. Yeah. Also known as Apo. We think there's a new deal in the pipeline. But you can't get close. Can anyone? They're phone records from the mobile phone of Lance Corkoran. Roper's front man. They show calls to London, Beirut and Madrid. How the hell did you get this? I've got a new asset. I want to get him on the inside of Roper's set-up. You got any idea how dangerous that is? Does River House know about this? It's got to be a church mouse operation. Why did you call ME? Cos I need your money. Look... Joel, I'm on my own in this, and I don't like it. I'm doing something no-one else has done before and I'm scared shitless. I need a friend. I've got some more stuff coming on Tuesday night. You got the money? Good. Hi. Harlow. Right. From London. Is that what you wanted? Well... yeah. It's a funny old gig, this one. I shall expect a lavish funeral. I'm sure they'll do what they can. Well, then... Tom Quince. Are you ready? We need to wait for the stuff. It'll come and it'll all be OK. Yeah. It'll be OK. It'll be OK. It's going to be OK. GLASS SMASHES Now get out! OK! OK! OK! OK! MOTORBIKE REVS AND ZOOMS OFF WHAT?! WATER DRIPS, ECHOING Jack? Jack? Tell me what you saw when you got to the cottage. The kitchen was a mess... and there is blood on the floor. There you go. Did he kill him? The man he attacked in the pub? Yes. Why did you go to the cottage? I was fetching empties. Have you been there before? Yeah. Once or twice. Why? To deliver for my mother. That's all. Did he ever mention his previous life? No. Ever mention Switzerland? No, why? Did he say he was leaving? No. Name Jonathan Pine mean anything to you? No! So he never told you his real name? No. He said his name was Linden. Jack Linden. He never told you who he was. No, he never said who he was. I wanna put you inside this operation. I will give you a legend as thick as your arm. You will be in so deep, you'll worry that you'll never get out of it. Hanging on by your fingernails. There's not a scrap of you that won't get used. There's not an hour that'll go by that you won't be scared. But you will nail him. You will nail Richard Roper. www.able.co.nz Captions were made with the support of NZ On Air. Able 2017