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Sambalanga

Page 4

by James Cage

Jaime remains in the van. Johnny opens the back of the van and grabs Marta's and The Bear's bags.

  The Bear takes the two bags from Johnny.

  THE BEAR

  (Speaking directly to Johnny)

  Go with Luke and take Jaime to his room.

  The Bear, carries the bags and enters the main house.

  CUT TO:

  EXT. FRONT OF MOTEL TYPE BUILDING - MOMENTS LATER

  Johnny, Luke and Jaime exit the vehicle in front of a motel type building. Johnny retrieves Jaime's bag from the van and hands it to him.

  JOHNNY

  (New York City Accent)

  Follow Luke and me.

  They walk to the motel rooms.

  JOHNNY (CONT'D)

  This is your room, Jaime, and this is your key.

  He hands him a key then points to other rooms.

  JOHNNY (CONT'D)

  My room is over here and Luke's is over there.

  LUKE

  (Cajun Accent)

  You are in the middle. If you need us for anything just knock on our doors.

  JAIME

  OK.

  CUT TO:

  INT. JAIME'S ROOM - EVENING

  This is a simple motel room that contains, one single bed and a chair, desk, electric lamp and kerosene lamp. A bottle of water and drinking glasses are on the desktop. There is a small bathroom and shower. There is no television or radio. A windup alarm clock sits on the desk.

  Jaime checks the time on his wristwatch with the windup alarm clock.

  INSERT

  The windup alarm CLOCK shows 7:00 o'clock.

  JAIME

  Woo.

  Exhausted Jaime lies down on the bed.

  EXT. DOORWAY JAIME'S ROOM - MOMENTS LATER

  Luke BANGS on the door.

  LUKE

  (Shouting)

  Jaime it's dinner time.

  The door opens and Jaime comes out.

  Luke and Jaime walk a few yards across the ranch compound to the dining hall building and enter.

  INT. DINING HALL - NIGHT

  The Bear and Marta sit at the front table with a young, lean, muscular, Latino man, SERGIO.

  There are FIVE MEN eating at a nearby large round table. Johnny sits alone at a separate table. There are a few empty tables.

  The five men are seated at the round table: ALAN, PAUL, MARCOS, THE COLONEL and THE MAJOR. They are all dressed the same way: plain white short sleeved shirts, tan chino pants, plain black shoes, white socks.

  Alan and Paul are brothers. They speak with Eastern Canadian accents. Alan is six feet tall and thin. His younger brother Paul is two inches shorter and more muscular. They are in their twenties.

  Marcos is average height and slim. He is the youngest member of the group. He is about 20 years old. He has a more lively personality then the others. He speaks with a Brooklyn accent.

  The Colonel and The Major are spit shine military men.

  Luke and Jaime sit down with Johnny.

  There are TWO WAITERS. The FIRST WAITER is middle aged, small stature, brown skin, slight moustache. He speaks to the SECOND WAITER in Spanish. The Second Waiter is a younger man, possibly the son of the First Waiter.

  FIRST WAITER

  Eso es para el Oso Sonrisa. (This is for the smiling bear.)

  He hands the Second Waiter a bottle of wine.

  Jaime listens to the First Waiter's Spanish and looks at Luke.

  JAIME

  El Oso Sonrisa, that means the funny bear?

  LUKE

  Not exactly, it means the smiling bear.

  Luke glances over at The Bear, Marta and Sergio.

  LUKE (CONT'D)

  The Latino guy sitting with The Bear is Sergio. Sergio leaves on assignment tomorrow.

  Johnny looks at Jaime, then glances at the large round table.

  JOHNNY

  The three young guys at that table are Alan, Paul and Marcos. The older guys are instructors. The bald headed guy is the Colonel and the one with the short-cropped hair is the Major. You'll meet them tomorrow during your training.

  JAIME

  Do you guys teach anything?

  JOHNNY

  I'm the physical training instructor. I teach karate and boxing.

  LUKE

  I teach knife fighting and basic karate. The Major over there will teach you Spanish.

  JAIME

  What about the Colonel?

  LUKE

  He teaches electronics. He'll show you how to operate a ham radio.

  JAIME

  That sounds cool.

  The Second Waiter comes over.

  SECOND WAITER

  (Speaks in English to the Table)

  Tonight you have a choice of either a chicken or fish dinner.

  LUKE

  I'll have chicken.

  JOHNNY

  Me too, chicken.

  JAIME

  The fish, please.

  DISSOLVE TO:

  EXT. RIFLE RANGE - DAY

  TITLE CARD: THE NEXT DAY

  Jaime and The Bear look at a number of firearms placed upon a table.

  The Bear picks up a rifle.

  THE BEAR

  This is a Remington 22 caliber, single shot rifle similar to the one you shot in Mexico. I want to go over basics using this rifle.

  He places the rifle down and picks up the machine gun.

  THE BEAR (CONT'D)

  This is a Russian Kalashnikov assault rifle known as the AK47.

  He removes the clip.

  THE BEAR (CONT'D)

  The clip holds thirty rounds of ammunition. You can use this machine gun as an automatic weapon or as a semi-automatic weapon.

  JAIME

  What about those guns?

  Jaime motions toward the other guns on the table.

  The Bear jams the clip back into the AK47 and puts the machine gun down. He grabs two handguns from the table, one in each hand.

  THE BEAR

  (In his left hand.)

  This is a Smith and Wesson 38 caliber long barreled policeman's special revolver with a silencer. (In his right hand)

  This is a Colt Commander 45 automatic.

  The Bear places the Colt automatic on the table. He unscrews the cylinder shaped silencer from the Smith and Wesson and shows it to Jaime.

  JAIME

  Why do I need to know how to use a silencer?

  THE BEAR

  It's part of the training.

  He places the revolver and silencer on the table and picks up the Colt automatic.

  THE BEAR (CONT'D)

  This is a Colt Model 1911, Commander 45 caliber, semi-automatic pistol with seven rounds in the magazine.

  He disengages the magazine.

  THE BEAR (CONT'D)

  I'll teach you how to shoot all these weapons.

  The Bear places the Colt Automatic on the table. Next he uncovers a long barreled rifle with a large scope.

  THE BEAR (CONT'D)

  This is a sniper's rifle, with scope. You'll be able to easily hit any target up to 500 meters. The rifle has a rotating bolt action. The magazine holds ten shots. You can set this as a single shot weapon or a semi-automatic.

  JAIME

  What's the name of the sniper rifle?

  THE BEAR

  There are no markings on this rifle. It is a Russian Dragunov. The cartridge is 7.62 mm by 54. It is longer than the cartridge used in the AK47 machine gun, which is 7.62 mm by 39.

  JAIME

  When do I start shooting?

  THE BEAR

  Right now.

  The shooting lessons begin. The Bear instructs Jaime. Jaime fires the Remington rifle.

  CUT TO:

  INT. GYMNASIUM - DAY

  KARATE MONTAGE BEGINS

  A.) Jaime stands next to Luke. They are all dressed in white karate uniforms with white belts. Johnny and Luke wear black belts. Everyone is barefoot. They watch as Johnny teaches basic karate moves to Alan, Paul and Marcos. Ea
ch has mixed success in replicating the moves.

  B.) Johnny pairs off with Alan. Paul and Marcos are paired. Luke instructs Jaime. The others look on, out of the corners of their eyes as the new guy begins to practice.

  C.) Karate training begins. Each group thrusts, blocks and throws punches at each other. Jaime is a quick study and perfectly executes the moves Luke shows him.

  DISSOLVE TO:

  INT. JAIME'S ROOM - DAY

  SOUND. KNOCK at the door.

  JAIME

  Come in.

  Luke and Johnny enter the room.

  JOHNNY

  I have your personal schedule for the next two months.

  (Pause)

  Life at the ranch is orderly and disciplined.

  He hands Jaime the schedule.

  JAIME

  OK.

  JOHNNY

  This is the main rule. Do not tell any of the other trainees about your assignment. All assignments are classified. You can tell another trainee that you are leaving on an assignment but give no detailed information. You got that?

  JAIME

  Yeah.

  Johnny looks at Luke.

  LUKE (RAPIDLY)

  Each evening wind the alarm clock in your room. Every morning at 6:00 AM the three of us will run three miles. We'll begin with a slow jog. In two months you will be running three miles at 7 minutes per mile. If you smoke, you'll be limited to three cigarettes per day. We supply the smokes, Marlboros from the states. No smoking at breakfast. You can have one cigarette after lunch and two cigarettes after dinner. There is no smoking in the motel rooms.

  JOHNNY

  After the morning run, come back to your room, shower and relax. Breakfast will be served at 8:00 AM. It is overtly hot and muggy here. You'll need to shower often. Lunch will be served in a few minutes at 12:45 PM. You can socialize with the other trainees at lunch-time.

  JAIME

  OK.

  LUKE

  At fourteen hundred hours, that's 2:00 PM, you report to the classroom building.

  Luke walks to the window and points. Jaime follows.

  EXT- CLASSROOM BUILDING - SAMBALANGA RANCH - MOMENTS LATER

  LUKE (V.O)

  The classroom building is over there next to the gym. Go to Room Number 1. The Major will teach you Spanish until sixteen hundred hours that's 4:00 PM. You report there Monday through Thursday. On Friday at fourteen hundred hours, report to Room Number 2. The Colonel will show you how to operate a ham radio.

  INT. JAIME'S ROOM - MOMENTS LATER

  Luke and Jaime walk back over to Johnny.

  JOHNNY

  After sixteen hundred hours you are free to do what you like. You can study your Spanish, work out with weights at the gym, read a book.

  LUKE

  There is a phonograph and an eight

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