The Saint Page #2

FATHER YIN:

Who.. . who did this...?

The boys look at Michael Quinn. Then Francis speaks:

FRANCIS:

I did father.

And another boy, James:

JAMES:

I did father. .

And another and another: "I did father." They all say it. And the littlest youngest boy, surrounded by his new confederates, smiles slightly. His eyes glint.

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Begin MAIN TITLE SEQUENCE

EXT. ST. PETERSBURG, RUSSIA - NIGHT

A chilly September night. A rally is underway in the Dvortsovaya Ploshchad, the vast square at the foot of Nevsky Prospect Boulevard. The Winter Palace and Hermitage loom in the b.g. 500,000 ST. PETERS BURGERS' stand shoulder-to-shoulder, listening to a SPEECH. INTERNATIONAL T.V. CREWS (the BBC, CNN, etc.) are transmitting the event.

SPEAKER (o.s.)

In I917 Lenin stood here and promised a new age. The result? Tyranny. Poverty. The darkest years in our history.

THE SPEAKER stands on a platform behind a cluster of microphones, his image projected on a huge screen (like the Sony screen in Times Square) above and behind him.

He is MICHAEL ROMANOV, coal-haired, fierce, ardent, eyes glinting like onyx, voice cutting the night air.

ROMANOV:

In 1987 Gorbachev stood here and promised a new age. The result? An end to communism. Democracy. A free economy. And what else? Chaos.

(crowd CHEERS)

The economy run by criminals, the government run by charlatans. And they are in league together! Thieves! Traitors!

(louder CHEERS)

Men and women of St. Petersburg, citizens of Russia, the salt of this country, this must end!

(deafening CHEERS)

Join me then in the song of our forefathers.

Romanov begins to sing, ably, the first verse of "Mother Russia" (the Russian anthem before the Bolsheviks).

THE CROWD joins him. The Ploshchad rings with the voices of half a million Russians...

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EXT. ST. PETERSBURG - NIKKO HOTEL - CONTINUOUS

We're 12 stories up, outside the city's Nikko hotel. The rally across town is a distant glow. We hear the singing crowd.

TWO HANDS appear, gripping the nooks of the exterior architecture. A MAN IN BLACK climbs up, securing a sling to the window frame in which to sit. A bulky BACKPACK hangs from shoulder straps. He produces a diamond cutter; begins carving a man-sized aperture in the window. Below, in the foyer –

INT. NIKKO HOTEL - GRAND FOYER BALLROOM

-- A JAPANESE SECURITY MAN sits at his guard station, watching C.N.N. NEWS on a small television. Wolf Blitzer is reporting live from the rally.

WOLF BLITZER:

(on t.v.)

An extraordinary allegation, Bernard, that Russia's present leadership, including President Victor Karpov, is connected with the country's underworld.

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