Chapter Text
THE OUTDOOR SITTING AREA OF A CAFE ON BOARD OF A SHIP AT THE BANKS OF THE THAMES, NEAR THE EASTERN END OF LAMBETH BRIDGE
It’s late summer. Tourists and Londoners on their lunchbreak are enjoying the last days of summer sun. In the background, downstream, at the other side of the river we see Big Ben and the House of Parliament.
At one table a family - mother, father and a little girl, about two years old. The father helps the girl to drink apple juice from her glass.
THE ENTRANCE DOOR TO THE INTERIOR OF THE CAFE
A dark haired woman with large sunglasses and a sun hat comes out of the door. She walks over to a table at the railing next to the family’s table and sits down. There is a half-finished large glass with a fancy coffee drink in front of her.
The observant viewer has recognised Eryka by now.
She comfortably leans back in her chair and takes a sip from her coffee drink looking out over the river, enjoying the scenery.
We hear a child giggling.
Eryka looks over to the family at the next table.
THE FAMILY’S TABLE, SEEN FROM ERYKA’S POV
The father is fooling around with the kid. The kid is laughing. The mother observes father and daughter smilingly.
From this angle the camera is filming upstream. The camera pans up slowly taking in more of the background. It's lingering on a large building that's visible a little further upstream. It's the MI6 headquarter.
BACK TO ERYKA’S TABLE
Something vibrates in her purse. She takes her phone out and looks at the display. She gets a book out of her purse and puts it onto the table in front of her. She takes a look at her phone again and starts to flip through the pages of the book.
CLOSE-UP OF THE PAGE OF THE BOOK
We see Eryka’s finger run down the lines on the page. She stops at one line and her finger runs along the words in the line. Her finger stops under “Can’t”.
Cut to the broader angle:
ERYKA AT HER TABLE
Repeatedly she’s looking at the phone’s display and flipping through the book, her finger wandering over the pages. After a while she closes the book and puts the phone down onto the table. She leans back in her chair frowning discontentedly.
The family at the next table gets their food. Eryka waves at the waiter.
ERYKA: I’d like to pay, please!
The waiter gets to Eryka’s table. She hands him a credit card. After she has payed she gets up and leaves.
Cut to:
THE FAMILY’S TABLE
In the background we see Eryka walk over the landing stage.
FATHER (to daughter): Do you want some of Daddy’s tomato soup?
In the background Eryka strolls along the foot path at the river bank, moving away from the cafe without any apparent hurry.
The child nods eagerly. The father puts some of his soup into a smaller cup and places it in front of his daughter. He hands her a tea spoon. They all start eating.
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A CEMETERY
A funeral is taking place. People standing at an open grave. The vicar is talking.
In the front row a man and a boy, about twelve year old, both wearing dark suits. The man has his hand on the boy's shoulder. He is blankly staring at the grave. Tears are silently running over the boy’s face, but he doesn’t make a sound.
Later:
STILL AT THE CEMETERY
The boy and the man are sitting on a bench under a tree on the cemetery. The man has taken off his jacket. It’s slung over the backrest of the bench. The other people who were at the funeral can be seen leaving in the background. A few rows of graves away the gravediggers have started to fill up the grave.
BOY (softly but determinedly): Mum got murdered!
FATHER (slightly annoyed): Don’t start again!
BOY (desperately): But you can’t just ignore it!
FATHER (trying to control his anger ): I’m not ignoring anything, Georgijs! ( softly ) I understand that you want to find a reason for this, but sometimes bad things just happen…
GEORGIJS (stubbornly): This didn’t just happen!
FATHER: WHY would anyone murder her?
GEORGIJS (softly): I don’t know.
FATHER (calmly, exhaustedly): Georgijs, we’ll get through this together. It’ll be hard, but we can do it. But, PLEASE, don’t make this more difficult than it already is! It’s just the two of us now. We really need to stick together!
GEORGIJS (agitated): Then why aren’t you believing me?!
The father looks at him for a while.
FATHER: Ok… Yes,... Alright… I still think, you're seeing ghosts, but I’ll think about something, ok?
Georgijs nods. His father puts his arm around his shoulders.
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THE CAFE ON THE SHIP ON THE THAMES
A waiter is collecting the family’s plates and glasses after they have finished eating. The girl is cranky. She’s whining.
MOM: I think she’s tired. I should take her home.
DAD: Yeah, and I need to get back to work… (To the waiter) The bill, please!
Suddenly the girl throws up on the table in front of her. The mother jumps up.
MOM: Oh, God, Gracie…
The waiter rushes over with a bunch of napkins. The father starts to clean up the mess, while the mother tries to calm down the kid who’s crying loudly now.
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CLOSE-UP OF A TABLE WITH A HEAP OF DOCUMENTS ON IT (PASSPORTS, DRIVER'S LICENSES, CREDIT CARDS…)
A pair of hands appear in the picture and starts to sort them. In the process we see that all documents have Eryka’s picture on them but belong to different identities with different names and different nationalities. There are six different sets of documents for six different identities:
Sarah Westphal - Belgium
Kristīna Hamann - Latvia
Chaya Dayan - Israel
Violetta Grigoryeva- Russia
Janine DeMarco - USA
Ani Nazaryan - Armenia
Cut to the broader angle:
ÉLISE’S FLAT
Eryka is sitting at Élise’s kitchen table sorting her identities. She puts together six piles, one for the documents of each identity. Her suitcase is open on the floor. It’s unpacked. Piles of clothes around it on the floor. The lining of the suitcase is taken out and a second bottom plate for the suitcase is lying on Élise’s bed.
The door in the background opens and Élise gets in. She stops in her track, when she sees Eryka. She hastily closes the door behind herself.
ÉLISE: What are you doing here?
ERYKA: You said you didn’t have time to meet me in England, so when I drove through here on my way back from London, I thought…
She gets up and helplessly shrugs her shoulders.
ERYKA (cont’d): I just really wanted to see you...
Élise’s shocked expression slowly shifts to a smile.
ÉLISE: OK...
They hug and kiss each other.
ÉLISE (her arms still around Eryka’s neck): It’s convenient and scary at the same time that you don’t need a key…
Eryka smiles at her.
ERYKA: Your lock is still as ridiculous as it was three years ago...
Élise smiles back. She lets go of Eryka. She takes off her backpack and puts up her jacket beside the door.
ERYKA (looking around in the flat, cont’d): I didn't think I’d ever come back here when I left last time...
ÉLISE: ...and you really shouldn't. It's not very smart for you to come here, is it?
Eryka sits down at the table again and continues her work with her documents.
ERYKA: We have done this for over two years now. Nothing ever indicated that someone was following or observing you.
ÉLISE (just stating an observation, not really worried): We’re getting careless.
She sits down at the table beside Eryka. She looks at some of the driver’s licenses. She takes up some of the passports, turning a few pages.
ÉLISE (not disbelievingly but admiringly): And you seriously speak all the according languages with a pronunciation that lets you pass as a native?
ERYKA: Mostly, yes… Otherwise you can always put something in the backstory that explains a slight accent.
ÉLISE (holding up a passport, not meant as a joke): I like your picture best in the Armenian one...
ERYKA: You shouldn’t really see this…
She puts the Latvian passport into her purse and the corresponding driver’s license and credit cards into her wallet. She starts to put the other piles into a punched pocket each.
ÉLISE: I know that you’re dealing with stuff like this anyway...
Eryka takes the Armenian passport from Élise and puts it into a punched pocket with the other Armenian documents. She gets up and takes all of the packages of identities over to her suitcase.
She crouches down beside it and puts the punched pockets with the documents beside each other so they form a flat layer at the bottom of the suitcase. She puts the second bottom plate that has been lying on Élise’s bed over the documents, fastening it with little clips. She draws the lining over it, fixing it all around at the rim of the suitcase. She packs the piles of clothes from the floor back into the suitcase and closes it.
She gets up and turns towards Élise who’s still sitting on the chair at the table.
ERYKA (quietly): I’m thinking about quitting…
ÉLISE (surprised): Ok… Why?
ERYKA (hesistantly): I’m not sure really...
ÉLISE (still surprised): What does that mean for us?
ERYKA: I don’t know… I don’t even know if I’m actually going to do it. It’s just a thought up to now…
ÉLISE: Ok...
Eryka shakes her head. She walks over to Élise.
ERYKA: Let’s not talk about that now…
She straddles Élise and puts her arms around her neck. Élise smiles at her and puts her hands on Eryka’s hips.
ÉLISE: Ok…
They start kissing.
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A RESIDENTIAL STREET IN LONDON
The man we saw at the cafe on the ship during lunch time with his family walks along the sidewalk, a briefcase under his arm. He walks into the small front garden of one of the houses.
THE FAMILY’S LIVING ROOM
A sofa, two arm chairs, a coffee table in the middle. There are toys spread on the floor. Through a french window we see a sand box and a small plastic slide in a small garden.
The mother we saw at the cafe at lunchtime is sitting in one of the arm chairs. The girl sideways on her lap, her head leaned against the mother, asleep.
The front door opens. The father gets in.
DAD (from the front door, softly, to not wake the child ): How is she?
MOM (worriedly): She threw up two more times on the way home and several times during the afternoon. She’s got diarrhoea, too. I spend the whole afternoon changing her diaper. And she’s running a fever. She seems to be getting hotter every minute.
DAD: I’m not really feeling too well either. I suppose I caught her bug…
MOM: Oh, I’m sorry, honey...
The father gets into the kitchen in the background. He fills a glass with water and drinks from it. He closes his eyes and inhales deeply. Then he rushes towards a door beside the front entrance. We hear him throw up behind the door. Mom in the arm chair looks strained.
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ÉLISE’S FLAT, THE BED
The room only dimly lit from the city’s lights from outside. The light of the lighthouse passing through the room in a regular rhythm.
Eryka lying on her stomach on the right side of the bed, asleep, her face turned towards the wall.
Élise on the other side of the bed, moving slightly, waking up. She smiles slightly, when she becomes aware of Eryka beside her. She turns towards her, spooning her, puts her arm around Eryka’s waist from behind.
Eryka stirs slowly. She takes Élise’s hand that’s lying on her stomach and draws Élise’s arm tighter around herself.
ÉLISE (mumbling): Sorry, I didn’t want to wake you.
ERYKA (mumbling): It's alright...
Élise nestles her face into Eryka’s hair from behind. Eventually she carefully brushes Eryka’s hair aside and tenderly kisses her neck from behind.
After some moments Eryka turns around in Élise’s arms and looks at her smilingly for a few seconds, before she places a kiss on her mouth.
ÉLISE: When do you have to leave?
ERYKA: Six… At the latest...
She kisses Élise again.
ERYKA: You need to work early, too…
ÉLISE: Yes, I do… We should really get some sleep...
She kisses Eryka. Eryka kisses her back, longer this time.
ERYKA (when getting her lips free after some time): Yes, we definitely should…
They smile at each other.
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THE MASTER BEDROOM OF THE FAMILY WE SAW ON THE SHIP
The room is dimly lit from the father’s bedside lamp. The mother lies in bed, sleeping. The girl is lying prone in the middle of the bed. The father is not in bed, instead we hear a heaving sound from the adjoining bathroom.
The mother wakes up. She throws a glance at the bathroom door and sighs.
She turns around to the child and brushes the hair from her face to look at her.
CLOSE UP OF THE KID’S FACE
There is a large stain of blood on the sheets under her face. Gracie is bleeding from nose and mouth
Cut to the broader angle:
THE BEDROOM
MOM: Jesus Christ! Gracie!
She sits up and kneels beside Gracie. She turns her around to her back. She is not moving or waking up. Blood all over her face.
MOM (panicking): Mark! We need to call an ambulance!
Mark gets out of the bathroom, looking very exhausted.
MARK: What’s the matter?
Before the mother can answer the child starts to convulse.
MOM (looking shocked at her husband): What is happening?
The father gags again and throws up on the floor while Gracie’s seizure continues.
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ÉLISE’S FLAT, THE BED
Passionate but tender sexscene depicted adequately for The Tunnel’s usual air time.
It’s safe to assume that despite the best resolutions Élise and Eryka won’t be getting much sleep this night…
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OPENING CREDITS
TBC