IVES (CONT'D) The bomb is in the rock high above to trigger a collapse, sealing the cavern.
RED SOLDIER 2 How do we defuse the bomb up there?
IVES:
We don’t. The explosion takes place as planned, exactly ten minutes after our landing. Everything is synchronized to that explosion.
Both teams have countdown watches – ours counts down from ten at landing, to zero at the explosion.
He holds up his wrist to display a BLOOD-RED ‘10’ – IVES (CONT'D) Blue team is the reverse –
INSERT CUT:
a PREVIOUS BRIEFING (BLUE TEAM). NEIL watches as Wheeler holds up her wrist to show a VIVID-BLUE ‘10’ –
WHEELER:
Ten at the explosion, to zero at our extraction. If you are not at the LZ by zero, you are not leaving.
BACK TO RED-TEAM BRIEFING –
IVES:
Our job is to fail to defuse the bomb, while the splinter unit achieves its task undetected.
Which is?
RED SOLDIER 1
IVES:
Need to know. And you don’t. Any other stupid questions? Right, let’s get ready.
Everybody RISES. The Protagonist approaches Ives.
PROTAGONIST:
I wanted to be on the first wave.
IVES:
There is no first wave – Red team and Blue team operate simultaneously. Do not get on the chopper if you can’t stop thinking in linear terms. You want to be on the team who lifts the contents of that capsule?
PROTAGONIST:
Absolutely.
IVES:
That’s us. We’re the splinter unit.
Just us?
PROTAGONIST:
IVES:
No one who knows the contents of that capsule can leave the field. I thought we’d manage ourselves.
EXT. COAST OF VIET NAM – DAY Mahir shows Kat how to use a small pistol. Kat wears a two- piece bathing suit with a shirt over. He puts the pistol in a diver’s bag, loops the lanyard round Kat’s bare ankle.
MAHIR:
It’s forty feet from the private deck to the water. Can you jump it?
KAT:
I can dive it.
They hear the chopper SPIN UP. Mahir shows her a FLARE GUN –