9/11 A Play in Three Acts

9/11



———————————————



A Play in Three Acts



By



Nathana Hale





































CAST OF CHARACTERS*

(in order of appearance)


Dave Klezmer A wiry, sixtysomething New York

developer.


Nick Kandinsky A burly, upbeat candy store owner and lifelong friend of Dave.

Ivar Lenmark A tall, tough New York developer

and classmate of Nick and Dave.


Bryce Goodman Special Services “arrangements”

man, thirtysomething.



Carleton Group Ten major global operators,
ages fifty to seventy.

Vice President A sixtysomething heavy.


Mario Donatello Carleton Group chair, fiftysomething.

Sophie Bernstein Dave’s secretary, fiftysomething.

Herb Walker Dave’s long-time lawyer friend

and classmate.

Max O’Hara WTC security man, fortysomething.

Two Call Girls

Two Catering staffers

Wellwishers

Three Protesters

Two Security Men

Governor’s Rep.

Mayor’s Rep.

Port’s Rep.

Stanley Weiss A world-famous architect.



*All New Yorkers have heavy accents.






































































Scene


Various indoor locations around Brooklyn and Manhattan.


Time


July 2000-2003.








I-1-1





ACT I



Scene 1


SETTING: Brooklyn’s “Nick’s Corner

Candy Store.” Nothing’s changed since NICK KANDINSKY inherited it from his father: Ice cream case at left, candy case at right. Novelty items across the top, like bags of Nerf balls. The back wall has 50 years of photos, pennants, posters. At center, just over a mounted bat, is a full-page ad of DAVE KLEZMER at 53, undersized in a football uniform. He mugs as he high-steps across the goal line——football held aloft. The banner headline says: “Klezmer scores again!! 100% Occupancy at WTC #7!!!” (in the World Trade Center complex). Five tables——two chairs each——face us. A jukebox is at left by the door.



The Manhattan skyline——dominated by WTC’S Towers——appears through the big corner windows at left. So do PEDESTRIANS and vehicles.


AT RISE: DAVE lounges at the last table

at right. NICK’s mopping the floor during dead time (between lunch and the after-school crowd). DAVE’s in shirt sleeves. His sporty coat hangs over the opposite chair. He licks a two-scoop waffle cone——careful to drip it on a napkin.

Adjusts spectacles to view life passing by windows.







I-1-2

NICK
Ivar coulda made the Dodgers! First Norsky in the league. Hottest hitter in school. After me, of course.

(pauses)
Remember when me and him was invited to Dodger tryouts?
He never showed. Just quit playing. Coulda won pennants for them. And Herbie! Coulda been with Lombardo on piano. Clarinet. Instead, what’s he doing?


DAVE

(sighs)
Nick, get off the woulda-coulda-shoulda. Ivar’s folks wanted Ivy League. So he got Yale. Herb and me. Two jobs to get through NYU. Ivar and me are buying up Manhattan. Herbie’s bossing two hundred lawyers in mergers and acquisitions. What’s with you today?


NICK
Jealous, I guess. Got stuck helping Pop run the store.

(CHUCKLES)
You and Herbie practically lived here, thank God.


DAVE
Only piano around. What did your dad do with it?


NICK

Goodwill. What was left of it. Top and front gone.


DAVE
I would’ve taken it. Herbie, too, maybe


NICK
Oh, sure! A stripped down upright next to the Steinways!

(stops mopping)
Hey, Ivar’s stopping in sometime today. Stick around.

(DAVE stops in mid-lick)
Still trying to talk me into selling. Finish off the string of brownstones he’s fixed into condos.

(pauses)
I dunno. What he offers on this place won’t hardly cover buying one of them condos. Or even my digs upstairs if he converts it.


DAVE
This isn’t a brownstone! It’s a wood-frame Mom-and-Pop
store! He’ll put a Starbucks in here!



I-1-3

NICK
Over my dead body!! He’s not gonna piss on Pop’s grave. Dropped over right there. Selling a Hershey bar.


DAVE
He’s not buried in the basement. Nick, Indians probably pitched teepees on this spot. Some Dutchman probably bought it from them and then, sold it to. . .


NICK

(resumes mopping)
My granddad put up this building! First one with indoor plumbing! Electricity! Pop was born here! I was born here.


DAVE
You and your sisters were born at St. Mary’s hospital! C’mon! You could get a thirty percent tax credit if you try to make it a National Historic Site. Leave it as it is.

(NICK reacts)
Could qualify. Built way before 1936. Historic plumbing and electricity site. Your dad significant to kids galore.


NICK
Naw. I’m holding out for a free condo upstairs.



DAVE
He gave a real deal to my secretary on those brownstones. Sophie’s moving in Saturday.


NICK
Aha! Got himself a spy on your wheeling and dealing!


DAVE

(reacts)
Ivar’s stores and residences. Not office buildings.
Wish he’d do something with that boarded-up store uptown.


NICK
Might tear it down. Build a skyscraper. Stores on the bottom. Offices in the middle. Condos at the top.


(DAVE stands. Wipes mouth.

Looks at his picture. Takes

down the bat, a bag of Nerf

balls. Lays $5 on counter.

Tosses Nerf. Swings. Misses.)

Nearly hits candy case.)

I-1-4

NICK

(quits mopping)
What in hell you doing?


DAVE
Working off the ice cream.


NICK
Jesus H. Ceee-rist, you’re a health nut! All them dieters! Runners! Bikers! Gotta stock more yogurt than ice cream!

(snatches Nerf ball)
OK, Hotshot! Aim for the back wall.

(pitches Nerf, DAVE misses)
Steee-rike!! You’re out!!


DAVE
Like hell!


(A MAN comes around

corner and doffs his

Panama hat to watch. It’s

IVAR LENMARK, a ringer for

Daddy Warbucks (“Annie”)

in an Armani summer suit.

He ENTERS as DAVE whacks

a line drive——to the candy

case. NICK feigns a

spectacular catch.)



NICK
You’re out, you bastard!!

(sees IVAR)
Well, well, well! Here he is! With a billion-dollar offer for this place? If not, I’m taking DAVE’s offer.


(DAVE LAUGHS. Handshakes

all around.)



IVAR

(CHUCKLES)
Nick’s still pissed I didn’t show up at Dodger tryouts.


NICK
You could of made Durocher’s farm team!


(IVAR tosses hat, jacket

on table. Loosens tie.)

I-1-5

IVAR
Got a Dr Pepper back there?


(NICK gets one. IVAR

looks at DAVE’s ad.

Puts $2 on counter.)



IVAR
“Lucky Dave!” Forty-seven floors nearly done and no tenants. Opening day: Brokerage rushes in to rent most of it. I’d have wound up with a triple bypass.


DAVE
Calculated risk.


(They stare at each other.)



IVAR
How come you don’t invest in this neighborhood? Bedford-Stuyvesant’s hotting up, I can tell you.

(DAVE LAUGHS)
You see what my people did on the brownstones down the street? Got them for a song. Sell them for millions.
Condos beautiful as they were back in 1870.


NICK

(SNORTS)
And cut up into tenements back in 1900.

(pauses)
You done a bang-up job spiffing them up. But I think about the rats and the roaches and the stink and the hollering. And the beatings. Shootings. And cops! Always the cops! Misery’s still in them walls.


IVAR
Not any more. Fully restored and featured in the Times!
Plenty to go around over here, Dave.


DAVE
No thanks. I’m into fresh starts now.


IVAR
Fresh starts, eh? That why you’re bidding against me for those two broken-down Towers?


(He nods at Towers.)


I-1-6

NICK

(to DAVE)
Jesus H. Ceee-rist!! In here every week. And you don’t say nothing about buying the Towers!!


DAVE
I’m not buying. We’re bidding to get the lease. Didn’t tell you because it's bad luck to talk until a deal’s closed.


NICK
You gotta pay to be the landlord?


IVAR
“Leaseholder.” Leaseholder or landlord: we get the rents.


NICK
Yeah, and all the headaches. Like that fire when it was new. Or them basement bombs. How much the lease gonna cost?


IVAR
I’m bidding three-billion twenty-five.



NICK

(WHISTLES)
Jesus H. Ceee-rist!! With them numbers, where you get this “broken-down” business? Tower’s only thirty years old! Bigger draw than the Empire State! Times Square!


(DAVE knocks Nerfs toward

window. Hits reflection of

Towers.)



IVAR
Been in them lately?


NICK
Never. Got a heights problem. When I was a kid, cousin took me up the Empire State. Threatened to throw me off.

(IVAR shakes head)
Listen: Them Towers is like beautiful dames. Just because
I like looking at them don’t mean I’m going in them.



DAVE
But you sat with us in the top row of Ebbets Field!


NICK
Empire State ain’t quite like Ebbets Field.

I-1-7

IVAR
Nick, the Towers got no more than ten years. Asbestos top to bottom. Outsides corroded to hell! Governors been pushing the Port to show a profit. Only way they can do that is to rebuild. But Rudy says “no dice” to demolition permits because the Towers were built on public bonds. Bondholders wouldn’t have a coupon to clip.

(pauses)
But if the Port leases them, winning bidder can rebuild.
Charge bigger rents. Bigger skim-off for the Port.
Bigger tax rake-off for Rudy, Jersey, and New York state.



NICK

(sees DAVE nod)
They’re landmarks!! They say: “This is New York! Biggest and best city in the world!” You guys is traitors to your own hometown!! Remodel, for criss-sake!! Tear out the asbestos! Replace the siding! Buy some drapes!


DAVE
That’s two-hundred million dollars of taxpayer money the Port doesn’t have. But they know we do.

(NICK reacts)
We do love the Towers, Nick! But twenty-thousand people don’t. They breathe asbestos every day! Port’s going to get sued! If one plate breaks off, it’ll kill people. Million-dollar lawsuits against taxpayers! Occupancy is gonna be zilch soon.

(pauses)
I’m gonna build a masterpiece!


IVAR
Funny, I could have sworn you and I were going to hang onto them for a couple years. Resell the lease. Or sublet.
So, Nicolas, don’t get your knickers in a knot. Towers will be there ‘til the priest throws dirt on you.


DAVE

(to IVAR)
What are you gonna do with the Towers? You’re a shopping-mall guy. Wal-Mart in one tower? Macy’s in the other?

(pauses)
Ivar, you’ve never built a skyscraper in this town!
I did!! Building Number Seven. Next to the South Tower.
Been there fifteen years. Port directors know how I operate. I got the edge. Pull your bid! Put your billions on reopening that store uptown!

I-1-8

NICK
You guys should hear yourselves. Pair of greedy traitors to this town. I’m ashamed to know you!


DAVE
We’re greedy? Then, give me change from that fiver.


IVAR
Yeah! When we dicker about your place today, I hope I don’t hear a greedy asking price.



DAVE
Nick, the Towers are old and dangerous!



NICK
Like me and the Statue of Liberty. You can’t demolish and replace either of us!


IVAR

(checks watch)
Uh. . . weren’t we going to dicker for this place?


NICK
Yeah, but I’m having my say! Towers are public property! I’m the public! And I want some answers from you guys.


IVAR
Shoot!


NICK
How much rent is the Port getting a year?


DAVE
Two-hundred million.


NICK
Canceled out by that two-hundred million for repairs.
How about taxes you’re gonna have to pay?


DAVE
Twenty-nine million. City gave the Towers an abatement.


NICK
Insurance payments gotta be ball-breakers. Fire. Basement bombs. And them A-rabs just might come back. How much?



I-1-9

IVAR
Let’s see: Couple-three billion in coverage comes to. . .


NICK
Stop right there! For real-estate tycoons, you’re dumb as hell. Tenants bailing. Security so tight, nobody wants in. No money for taxes or insurance unless you’re gonna charge it on VISA or get a pay-day loan.

(shakes head)
So why the hell would you guys wanna bid on the Towers?


DAVE
Rebuilt, everything would change. Taller. Wider. Safer.
New leases! Five——even ten——times the rent.



NICK
Rudy’s just gonna let you big dogs walk off with all that cash, huh? By the time he gets through with you, taxes’ll be three-hundred million! Ditto to the Port’s rake-off.


IVAR
Question, Nick: You still charging two cents for those Tootsie rolls? Selling ice cream for a nickel a scoop?


NICK
That ain’t a fair comparison.


DAVE

(hits another Nerf)
Oh, but it is!


IVAR
You gonna raise hell if I resell this place? Rebuild?


NICK
I might not sell. Might make it one of them National Historic places. Oldest candy store in Brooklyn. My old man sold the billionth Hershey bar. To Mother Teresa.


(IVAR and DAVE react)


IVAR
Damn! Just when I was about to do a walk-through.



NICK
Lemme check the antique light fixtures in the can first.


I-1-10

(He rushes to restroom.)



DAVE
Knock it off. Nick’s all worried about where he’s gonna live if you screw him on this place.


IVAR
I’m not gonna screw him. This is a fixer-upper. Subway, stores a block away. A coffeehouse here would be a gold mine! I’ll get a Starbucks franchise. Or help Nick start his own. It’ll keep him alive and kicking.


DAVE
If you’re so much in love with gentrifying neighborhoods, why bid on the Towers?


IVAR
Same reason as you. You haven’t got a lock on them or the Trade Center just because you’ve got a building there.
I could write a cheque now for the whole shebang. Including your Building Number Seven. Hardly feel it.

(DAVE reacts)
I was gonna suggest you drop out. You’re gonna have to round up a gazillion lenders to swing this deal. Every one of them between Bermuda and Saudi Arabia know about the Towers. They won’t lend you a dime.


DAVE

(reacts)
I’ve got sources you know nothing about.


IVAR
Even if you get all that dough together, lenders gonna insist on at least three billion for insurance! Nick’s right. You’ll have a stroke every month paying the premiums. And loan payments to the Port. For once, Dave, this is not one of your calculated risks. You’re gonna be standing on the street in your entire wardrobe.


DAVE

(clutches bat)
Go to hell!


(NICK returns just

as IVAR pitches.

Swing and a miss.)



I-1-11

DAVE
I’m fulfilling a lifetime dream: A ruby beyond price in a Class A location. And the eighty-eighth floor——free!

(to NICK)
I’ve got a hundred and sixty employees now!


(DAVE hits a pop fly.

NICK catches it.)


IVAR
Why not? Occupancy’s in the toilet.

(shakes head)
Your dad may have taught you a lot. But sure as hell wasn’t baseball! Lemme show you how to hold a bat, for criss-sake.


(DAVE weighs hitting him.)



NICK

(grabs bat, Nerf bag)
I just mopped. I don’t want no blood on the floor.
Dave, them Towers is an ego trip that’s gonna kill you. Put up a place in Midtown. Or over here where you was born.

(to IVAR)
You! Do something worthwhile! Like with that goddamned eyesore uptown? Rudy’s gonna condemn it pretty soon.
Bye-bye tax write-offs. And bye-bye building!

(looks at Towers)
Between the fire and bombs and them A-rabs maybe coming back, you guys tempting the Devil hisself! And he’s gonna give it to you——in spades! I don’t wanna be around when he does!

(hands them bat, Nerfs)
Don’t get them dirty! I still gotta sell them!!



(Sits in disgust watching

them take turns whacking

Nerfs into the audience

until they run out.)




(BLACK OUT)



(END OF SCENE)









I-2-1





ACT I



Scene 2


SPLIT SET: At LEFT, is a hallway’s end of

The Ritz-Carleton Hotel. At RIGHT, is the dark interior of a business suite. The hallway’s end has a mirror behind a table and a bouquet. A settee is against the right wall on our side of the suite’s door. The elevator is opposite that door.


AT RISE: A “DING” announces an elevator

stopping. Out steps BRYCE GOODMAN, Field Director of the super-secret Proactive Pre-emptive Operations Group (P2OG). He’s a dark-haired, serious cross between James Bond and Dick Tracy. The suit is unwrinkled.

The shoes, super-shined. He puts ear to door. Checks watch. Paces for a moment. Goes to settee. Sits ramrod straight.



LIGHTS go down on LEFT SET.

Come up on RIGHT SET: The meeting of the “Carleton Group.”

A board table faces a gigantic map of Central and Far Asia on

the back wall. It’s marked with a projected 1,100-mile oil pipeline through Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Turkey——Baku to Ceyhan.

Around the table are the ten directors of the Carleton Group. World movers and shakers—aged 50 to 70: SAUDI PRINCE at left, flanked by an AFRICAN-AMERICAN GENERAL (ret.) and SWISS BANK DIRECTOR. Those with backs to us at the left side of an opened laptop are former leaders of

I-2-2



BRITAIN, SOUTH KOREA, and ISRAEL.

On the other side are those from TURKEY, INDIA and a former SECRETARY OF STATE. At right, are the CEOs of the world’s largest firms in oil, munitions, aircraft, and construction.

At right, in a wing chair is the VICE PRESIDENT.



Bookcases line the right wall fronted by a portable screen. At the back left corner is a 40-inch TV set with video equipment

encased in a large cabinet.

At the map with pointer is the

Group’s silver-haired chair MARIO

DONATELLO. His super confidence

comes from a long career of high posts in the CIA, Pentagon, and munition-aviation industries.



DONATELLO
This pipeline will be over a thousand miles long. Finished, early two-thousand-five. Move a million barrels a day from the Caspian fields to tankers off Turkey. Ceyhan.

(taps site)
The plan is to dispose of Saddam and Iran’s Ayatollah. Build a spur for their oil. Profits plowed back into a pipeline to the Far East. That’s where the biggest markets for oil and gas will be. The idea is to weaken Russia in Central Asia. Make China almost totally dependent upon us for energy.


THE SAUDI
Is the intention also to weaken us?


DONATELLO
You’ll have access to that pipeline. Providing you don’t start selling oil in euros. Saddam is going to pay a high price for doing that.


(ISRAELI goes to map,

annoying DONATELLO.)




I-2-3

ISRAELI
I’d should like to mention that my government is negotiating with Turkey

(gestures to TURK)
for a spur from Ceyhan. Four underwater pipelines to Askelon. Two for water. The others, gas and oil.

(pauses)
While the lines are being laid, our American friends have guaranteed coast-line security with the Sixth Fleet.
We’ll clear a ten-mile protective strip from Turkey to our border. We call it “Greater Lebanon.”


(LAUGHTER)



DONATELLO
Once the two-thousand election re-installs our man, we’re going to pacify the Middle East. Liquidate Iraq. Iran.
We secure their oil fields. Israel gets permanent security.
We then move on to pursue our interests in Africa.
And Southeast Asia.

(gestures to CEOs)
They’re adding shifts to turn out aircraft and munitions. Just came up with a most effective weapon for mopping up civilian resistance. What’s it called again?


MUNITIONS CEO
A cluster bomb. Hundred booby traps in a single shell.
More effective than a hundred shells. Cheaper, too.


DONATELLO
We’re clearing Africa for resource development with three tactics: Spreading of AIDS. Selling munitions to the locals. And letting Coca-Cola bottle all water for overseas markets. The fewer the people, the less interference.


SECRETARY OF STATE
What about the North American Union on this continent?


VICE PRESIDENT
On schedule. Treasuries will be pooled with Mexico and Canada. Protesters? Locked up in re-education camps.
This Union will be stronger than the European Union economically and politically in pooling resources.


TURK
Americans won’t object to losing their Constitution?



I-2-4

VICE PRESIDENT
Most don’t know what it is. They’ll never miss it.


INDIAN
Let’s go back to Iraq. Britain occupied it for fifty years. And were driven out.


VICE PRESIDENT
Forgot to arm the tribes to kill each other off.


BRIT
How are you going to get Americans to agree to an attack and occupation? Most won’t remember Saddam Hussein except as their ally against Iran.


VICE PRESIDENT
He’ll look like Idi Amin by the time we strike!


DONATELLO
The launching pad for our New World Order, comes from a group called The New American Century. They’re concerned America’s defenses have been put to sleep by the Soviet collapse. They want upgrade and expansion. Phase out all treaties. Phase in the Star-Wars shield.



SOUTH KOREAN
Will Captain Kirk be in charge?

(LAUGHTER)
I only meant that such a shield will be obsolete by the time North Korea nukes Asia.


AIRCRAFT CEO
We’ll be upgrading every year. We invest enough in Congress to get plenty of funding.


(LAUGHTER)



DONATELLO
Gentlemen, please! That group suggests a new Pearl Harbor. That’s right! A new Pearl Harbor! It’s the Vice President’s view the target should be the World Trade Towers——again. Only this time, we’ll destroy them. Then, blame it on Saddam hiring Al-Qaida terrorists. Revenge for the Gulf War. Revenge for supporting Israel. Whatever works to get his oil fields.

(pauses)



I-2-5

DONATELLO (Cont’d)
Has to be catastrophic to get Americans to agree to a
pre-emptive attack and occupation of Iraq. We’re still weighing whether the Towers’ hit should be nuclear.
Or something like Oklahoma City. Or planes carrying missiles. Or just missiles.


BRIT
Come! Come! Arabs can’t even repair a car, much less make a missile or a nuclear weapon! Or deliver one. Look how they bungled the bombing last time around in a truck.


(Nods from all except

INDIAN and GENERAL.)


SECRETARY OF STATE

(stands)
Hold off! I’ve got reservations about this Pearl Harbor business. Everything depends on bringing down the Towers.
Can a plane or a missile do it?


GENERAL
Negative. But a simultaneous hit by two planes or missiles outside and bombs inside could. That means sneaking in and setting the charges. Tower security is as tight as a prison. You’d need collusion with them.


DONATELLO
But the Port’s privatizing. Taking leaseholder bids so they can get demolition permits. Towers are in such terrible shape, the Port wants to rebuild. A few honied words from us to the leaseholder when he takes the keys should do it.


VICE PRESIDENT
Who’s bidding?



DONATELLO
Three heavy hitters. Ivar Lenmark, Dave Klezmer, and a joint venture that probably won’t make it.


VICE PRESIDENT
What do we know about this Lenmark?


DONATELLO
Old money. CEO’s CEO. Sharp. Tough as nails. Doesn’t miss a trick. Can buy and sell Trump. And did. Secretive as hell.



I-2-6

VICE PRESIDENT
Why isn’t he one of us?


DONATELLO
He’d blow us out of the water. No, Klezmer’s our man. Rags-to-riches show-off. Immigrant’s kid. Grooves on big risks. Social climber with a yacht. Hustler’s charm and drive. Gullible sometimes because of a big heart.


ISRAELI

(stands)
No!! Absolutely not!! It cannot be Klezmer!! He’s too tied to Israel!! He’s like a brother to General Sharon and three premiers. Everyone knows he’d give his life and all he owns for Israel. Well, most of what he owns.

(pauses)
Invested millions to start a free-trade zone in our Negev desert. Knesset said “no! Such zones use slave labor!”

(in agony)
Choose him and the world will think Israel did this
Pearl Harbor!!


DONATELLO
I don’t agree! Klezmer’s ideal! Owns Building Seven in the Trade Center. Easy to woo.

(pauses)
He’s a super-patriot. Eternally grateful to the feds. They saved him on that building when his main tenant went broke.
He cut the rent and got the FBI. CIA. Secret Service. Pentagon. SEC. IRS. And the Mayor’s emergency quarters. Rudy’s bunker and boudoir. Even gave him an elevator!


AIRCRAFT CEO
SEC and IRS!! Include Building Seven! Millions will cheer?


(LAUGHTER)



DONATELLO
Building Seven is included.


VICE PRESIDENT
How you cutting out Lenmark?


DONATELLO
He’s super-suspicious. Officious. And superstitious.
My people know how to handle that type. Trust me.



I-2-7

VICE PRESIDENT
When are they opening bids?


DONATELLO
Friday.


VICE PRESIDENT
When do they hand over the keys?


DONATELLO
Soon as terms are settled. Could be end of the month.
End of summer. End of the year.


VICE PRESIDENT
Forget end of the year! Who’s doing the rigging?


DONATELLO
Best Special Operative in the world for this part of the project. Bryce Goodman. I invited him to brief you folks.


(Goes to the door. Summons

BRYCE. He ENTERS. Bows to

group. Moves screen to

block map. Strides to

laptop. Turns it on.

It’s cued to a

PowerPoint presentation.

He nods to DONATELLO

to dim lights.

Switches on projector to

PowerPoint 1: The Towers.)



BRYCE
Gentlemen, I guarantee my people will finish off the Towers this time.

(nods at DONATELLO)
As you’ve been told, this is going to be a combined air and ground attack. Let me fill you in about our target’s status. It’s got monumental repair problems. Inside, it’s asbestos. Outside, the metal frames are corroded from weather and pigeon dung. Yeah, pigeon dung. It’s full of uric acid and salt. Have a look.


(PowerPoint 2: Arrow points

to asbestos in cross-section

of wall. PowerPoint 3: Close-up

of corrosion.)

I-2-8

BRYCE (Cont’d)
Going to cost the leaseholder a fortune. Repairs will equal rents. And, then, there’s insurance. Look at the premium hikes because of terrorism coverage.


(PowerPoint 4: Graph of

1970-1999 rates.)


We’re going to talk that lucky leaseholder into demolishing and rebuilding as soon as soon as he gets the keys. Play the prohibitive-costs card. The terrorism and lawsuits cards. And one on the low cost, speed, and ease of our way of demolition. We’ll add building Seven, too, if he wants group rates to modernize it.

(checks audience)
At the signal for the outside hits, we pull the Towers——and maybe Building Seven.


(PowerPoint 5: Building 7.)


Here’s Building Seven, by the way. Forty-seven floors. Owned and built on Port property by Dave Klezmer.

(they react)
In the excitement, my people will also liberate a billion dollars of gold and silver from the sub-basement of Building Number Four.

(MURMURS)
Belongs to a Canadian bank and the Commodity Exchange.
We’ll wring our hands and tell them the city’s clean-up crews must have made off with it.


BANK DIRECTOR
My bank will be honored to store it until our shares are divided. We’ll even deliver it to your door.


(The group reacts.)


BRYCE
So the Americans will rise up and back the Iraq mission. The two states and their Port get rid of a white elephant. The leaseholder gets billions in insurance to rebuild so he charge tenants a hundred dollars a foot. And you-all get a little something, too.


INDIAN
But. . . but what of the people who work in the Towers!


I-2-9

VICE PRESIDENT
Can’t make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.



INDIAN
But. . .



ISRAELI
What’s a few thousand compared to the six million who died to create Israel?


BRIT
So the idea is to rig the Towers in the days between the switch between public to private ownership. After they come down, blame it on Arab hijackers?



DONATELLO
You’re on the right track.


BRYCE
Our challenge with the Towers is that nothing, absolutely nothing hitting a steel skyscraper can knock it down. Empire State took a hit in forty-five. A B-twenty-five. Lost in the fog. Going two-hundred miles an hour. Tore this hole between the seventy-eighth and seventy-ninth floors.


(PowerPoints 6 & 7:

Shots of the hole.)


One engine shot straight out the other side. The other, down an elevator shaft. Building shook a little. Impact absorbed by a brick exterior. Most of the plane fell
outside. Both floors caught on fire from the fuel. But fires don’t melt steel beams. Besides, the Empire State beams were inside eight inches of concrete. Fire burned twenty-two hours in a Madrid skyscraper last year. Beams were barely singed.


(PowerPoint 8:

Towers’ construction.)


The Towers’ core of beams can take simultaneous hits by three seven-o-sevens. Going six-hundred miles an hour.
Be like hitting a steel wall. They’d bounce back.


GENERAL
But today, planes are bigger. They use jet fuel.


I-2-10

BRYCE
Still won’t melt steel. Burns at only fifteen-hundred degrees. Steel needs three-thousand!


VICE PRESIDENT
Move along for criss-sake!!


(BRYCE stares at him.)



MUNITIONS CEO
How about thermate. Cuts right through beams and railroad tracks. Used for big demolitions.


BRYCE
You get an A! That’s what we’re going to use.


TURK
What is this “thermate?”


BRYCE
A mix of thermite. Sulfur. Aluminum. Barium nitrate.
Comes in bags like garden stuff. Burns at six-thousand degrees! Cuts through steel like butter. Turns concrete into dust. They’re even making “super-thermate” now.

(pauses)
Does leave molten steel bubbling at the bottom for a few days. Demolition people——“powder monkeys”——wrap the bags diagonally around the joins of two beams. That’s called “stepping a building.” When ignited, thermate slices them horizontally. Wrapped beams look like this:



(PowerPoint 9: Joined beams

wrapped with thermate bag.)

Powder monkeys rig the top half of a building. Every fourth or fifth floor. When a detonator is pulled, a basement blast first carves a huge hole for the building debris to fall into. The beams and concrete dust.

(pauses)
We want to experiment with mini-nukes on this job. One to
create basement holes. One on the roofs to ignite the thermate “cutter charges.” Here’s a building rigged with thermate. See the smoke and flames rippling each floor?


(PowerPoint 10: Cutter

charges ring top floors

of collapsing building.)

I-2-11

BRYCE (Cont’d)
All that energy will suck the top half to bring down the bottom half into the basement hole. It’ll drop at free-fall speed. A second per ten floors. So the Towers’ hundred and ten floors should come down under ten seconds.

(switches off laptop)
No rubble. But lotsa dust.


TURK
How much dust is “lotsa?”


BRYCE

(CHUCKLES)
Curb-high probably on the Towers. Anybody breathing it can kiss their lungs goodbye.


INDIAN
What of the people in the Towers with all that radiation?


BRYCE
They’ll be vaporized.



INDIAN
Then do this on a Sunday. Most will be home. Pearl Harbor was on a Sunday!


SECRETARY OF STATE
Wait a minute! The insurance companies aren’t going to write a cheque without an investigation. The minute they see those cut beams, they’ll set off a hue-and-cry about “controlled demolition” They’ll call it an “inside job.” They’ll know it takes days to do that amount of rigging. Not some impulsive bombthrowers.



BRYCE
They’re not going to see those beams! Two minutes after the all-clear, our trucks will load them up. Whisk them to ships bound for the Chinese scrap yards.


SECRETARY OF STATE
The police and firemen will never let you do it! You’d be removing evidence from a crime scene.


BRYCE
They’ll be so busy, they’ll be grateful someone’s hauling away the beams.


I-2-12

VICE PRESIDENT
How long will this job take to rig?


BRYCE
Six weekends——if we include Building Seven.


MUNITIONS CEO
How are your people going to rig without alarming the tenants into breaking their leases?


BRYCE
Announce power-downs for the top half of the buildings to expand broadband services. Send out notices about no elevators. No electricity. “Don’t come in.” I doubt weekend workaholics will even notice our people. Or question what’s on the hand trucks.


ISRAELI
In Israel, we certainly do! All citizens are taught to. . .


BRYCE
Anybody gets nosey? They’ll call Security. My people will bustle up and snow the hell out of them.


GENERAL

No elevators? No lights? How can they move materials?

See what they’re doing?


BRYCE

They’re Special Ops. Not a problem.

(to DONATELLO)
They do need to infiltrate the security company, though.


VICE PRESIDENT
Don’t sweat that detail. The President’s cousin is the CEO. Brother’s a board member. They know what to do.


BRYCE
With all due respect to the President, Sir, I do sweat the details! My people will be the entire security force on those weekends. Please take care of that detail ASAP.


VICE PRESIDENT
Those arrangements have already been made, young man!!
And considering the tight schedule of coordinating this operation around the country, there better be no screwups!



I-2-13

BRYCE
Not on our end. I hope not on yours.


VICE PRESIDENT

(furious, stands)
Understand, Gentlemen. This is a top-secret, highly orchestrated operation! Any leaks from any quarter and we’ll wag the dog! If you get my drift.


(BRYCE shakes hands

with DONATELLO.

Gives VICE PRESIDENT a

hard look. EXITS.)



DONATELLO

(whispers to VICE PRESIDENT)
His record is spotless, Sir. Count on a cakewalk!


(VICE PRESIDENT is steamed.

Sits. DONATELLO moves screen.

Gives uneasy smile to group.

Returns to world map.)

Let’s now turn to Iran.





(BLACK OUT)



(END OF SCENE)




































I-3-1





ACT I



Scene 3


SPLIT SET: DARKEN RIGHT SET. LEFT SET is

DAVE’S office in Building No. 7. At rear, is the room-wide window facing the South Tower. Office walls are covered with photos, renderings of his buildings and a 130-foot yacht, a map of the five boroughs. A floor hat rack is by the door atop a carpet protector. A red hard hat hangs on the bottom branch.

At left, a settee looks barely used. DAVE’s desk and Eames swivel chair face us

diagonally. On it is a photo of Klezmer and wife, a boy and two girls, a closed laptop, a Rollodex, a stack of large

Post-its, and a phone.


AT RISE: DAVE hasn’t had time to remove

his fur-collared coat, Astrakhan Russian hat, or wet galoshes. He’s on the phone in the final throes of raising cash for Friday’s bid and has just had a big “hit.” Grins excitedly as he jots down information on a

Post-it pad.


DAVE
Yeah, I know it’s steep, Frank, but with your store among them, it’ll fly back with interest. You know me . . . Yeah, Friday’s bid day. You’re staying on my boat when you come in. Gimme the flight number and time!!


(Writes info. Places

it neatly on desk.)


Gotcha, Frank. Hi to the family!


I-3-2

(Hangs up. Stunned at

multi-million loan.

Does gratitude prayer.)


Yes!!!



(Sings, dances with

eyes closed. SOPHIE,

his long-time secretary,

ENTERS. She’s the mature

Executive secretary.

DAVE sweeps her into a

victory dance.)


DAVE
We’re gonna make it, Sophie! Just a few more million!
No more feeling like a peanut . . . Phones open?


SOPHIE

(a breathless nod)
Mister “K,” Herb Walker is here.


(DAVE doffs galoshes,

coat, hat to rack as

HERB WALKER ENTERS.

From silver hair and

jowls to judicial bearing

and powerful handshake,

he’s the lawyer Fortune 500

companies call about

mergers and acquisitions.

He carries a slim portfolio.

The long-time friends hug.

HERB looks at the Towers.)


HERB
I never get over this view!


(DAVE joins him.)



DAVE
Next time, we may be up on eighty-eight North Tower.


HERB
In your dreams!!



I-3-3

DAVE

(LAUGHS)
Herbie, I’m gonna win that bid!! Biggest real estate deal in this town since the bead swap! Towers. And the “dwarfs”: Buildings Four! Five! And Six!



HERB

(puts portfolio on desk)
Your father——God rest his soul——would be overcome. Your mother? Worried about you getting too big for your britches. But my old, old friend, I wish you well.

(pauses)
May it not change you whichever way the bidding goes.


DAVE
Who are you? My rabbi? Or my friend?


(LAUGHTER)


HERB
Today, I wear the hat of the NYU Alumni Scholarship Fund.
I have come with my tambourine for your cheque. Or pledge.

(gets serious)
Uh. . . with your heavy financial commitments tied up, perhaps we should put the scholarships on hold?


DAVE

(pats HERB’s shoulder)
No. No. No!


HERB
Ah! Always the noble and loyal heart! NYU blesses you!


(He opens portfolio.

Removes document.

Pulls out pen.)


DAVE

(impish look)
I’ve rethought the gift, Herb. I’m adding room and board.

(stuns HERB)
Remember how bad it was to live at home? Work days? Class every night? Study on the subway? How we envied kids in dormitories. They didn’t have to support families?


HERB
Uh, DAVID! That comes to forty-thousand dollars——each!

I-3-4

DAVE
So?


HERB
So that’s less money for the Towers!



DAVE
“Less, schmesh!” I want to wire up the scholarship.


HERB
The business college?

(pauses)
Math? Pre-Med? Law? Of course the basketball program always needs a little help.


DAVE
“C” students. Sophomores majoring in English.


HERB
English! English!! And “C” students?! I can see sophomores! They usually stick it out. But English majors!!


DAVE
“C” students are a university’s most loyal——and generous—— alumni. Think about Oprah’s gratitude to her college.



HERB
All right! “C” students. But English majors!! Most become English teachers! Who never have money! And they never stop correcting our grammar! When I was before the Supreme Court, a retired English teacher came up afterward and. . .


DAVE
True! True! But nobody gives money to English majors. It’s either jocks or geniuses. Yet the written word is the only thing that lasts in a civilization. And I have always admired their lifetime devotion to its preservation. Remember Miss. . . Miss. . .


HERB
Stop with the Commencement speech! Write what you want.


(HERB hands him pen.

Points. DAVE writes

proviso. Signs document.

Herb handles it as if it

were sacred writ.)

I-3-5

DAVE
Sophie’s got the cheque out front.


(He grins. They hug.

HERB closes portfolio.)





HERB
What you got against “A” students? We struggled, too!!



DAVE
Let’s argue this over dinner Friday.


(DAVE walks him to door.

CHUCKLES. Looks at Towers.

Sighs.)


Five more days and you’re mine!


(A portly, sixtysomething SECURITY

GUARD, cap in hand, steps in.)



GUARD
S‘cuse me, Mister Klezmer. Coupla minutes?



DAVE
My God, of course, Max. What is it?



GUARD
It’s not a strike or nothing like that, Sir.


DAVE

(pretends to wipe brow)
So?


GUARD
A bunch of us just got two-weeks notice. Company says we’re not high-tech enough! Bringing in some kinda special guys. Mr. “S,” I been with the Company since it took over. After the bombing. Never missed a day. Never minded the overtime. Or the ‘mergencies.


DAVE
Not high-tech enough? You just had a training upgrade!






I-3-6

GUARD
Yessir, we did! They said it still wasn’t enough! The new guys are like them Navy Seals. But we’re quick learners!


(Phone RINGS. DAVE puts

an arm around the GUARD.)



DAVE
Lemme see about this, Max. Back to you this afternoon.



GUARD
Thanks a bunch, Mister Klezmer!


(GUARD dons hat. EXITS.

DAVE is mystified.

Phone RINGS again.

He rushes to answer.)



DAVE
Klezmer. . . Hey, Lenny, we just picked up a quarter billion! A quarter billion!! Australians. The Westfield stores. Yeah . . . They want the retail space, though.

(pauses)
If we have to buy out leases downstairs, get them a sweet deal in mid-town. West side. Lemme know when you get the spots. I’ll talk to them. Make it personal. I don’t want them going away mad. Might need them again.


(SOPHIE ENTERS. She

looks into hall.

Closes door carefully.

Puts ear to it to listen.)


I’m going after GMAC. And a coupla banks who like my track record——and luck.


(DAVE waves a good morning.)


Lenny, you’re a prince! Call you back at five.


(Hangs up starry-eyed.)



SOPHIE
Mister “S,” a Bryce Goodman is on his way up to see you. Says he’s manager of our new weekend security force. I didn’t know we had one.



I-3-7

DAVE
Guess we do now. Can never have too much security here. So?

(sees she’s upset)
What’s going on?

SOPHIE
There’s security and then there’s “security.” I don’t like the sounds of this. I smell CIA or the Mafia. . . or. . .



DAVE
Sophie, you were married too long to that FBI guy. Got to stop being paranoid. Hey, have we got a day ahead of us!


SOPHIE

(ignores the hint)
This guy fits with a heads-up from a straight-talker I trust. And, yes, it’s from my “Ex,” but it has to do with the Towers. He just called me. He’s in a swivet!

(he motions her to the settee)
He says something’s really stirring. Like an attack on the Towers!! But the political types aren’t listening to peons reporting this stuff. All kinds of infighting going on. FBI against the CIA. State Department. Vice President camped over at the Pentagon.

(pauses)
He thinks you ought to pull your bid. Sell this building and get out of Dodge. He hasn’t been this frantic since I told him I wanted out. He’s super concerned about the WTC.


DAVE
F’God’s sake, Sophie! We’ve been on bomb alert for the last eight years! I’ve a drawer of warnings! Even from Israelis!


(SOPHIE stands. Paces.

DAVE shakes head. Pulls

out drawer for notebook.

Opens it. Finds a page.)


DAVE
Tell your Ex I appreciate the warning. But life can’t go on if we worry about bombthrowers. Terrorists have been around since time began. Josephus’ ancient writings said Judas was a terrorist? That the Iscariots wanted Rome out of Jerusalem? True, they used daggers instead of bombs!



SOPHIE
I know our history! Rome used terrorists as an excuse to level Jerusalem. My Ex says this bunch’s doing the same!

I-3-8

DAVE
Sophie! Trade Center buildings are now as safe as the Pentagon! Security’s just been upgraded with some kind of Green Beret types. Listen to what our insurers say. You’ll stop worrying about the Center.


SOPHIE
Mister “S”!!


DAVE
First, nobody can get into the Towers——garage to upstairs—without a tenant’s okay. Photo ID. Being re-photographed. Parking garage is employees-only! Heavy background check for an ID card.

(pauses)
Truck barriers! Checked one at a time. Undercarriages to cargoes. Drivers are all but X-rayed.

(she reacts)
Lobbies! Twelve X-ray machines! Twelve! Three-hundred Security people! With cameras!


SOPHIE
How about the outsides! Remember the guys who parachuted from the top? Climbers who went to the top? That French highwire nut walking between the Towers?

(pauses)
Every time I see a plane come too close, I start thinking about suicide hijackers.


DAVE

(CHUCKLES)
No way! In the first place, air defense is solid as a rock! Even if a hijacker somehow got past air controllers and all those fighter planes, we’d be safe. Says right here that in the opinion of the structural designers: “. . . the Towers could withstand such an impact from a large modern passenger aircraft.” These are experts, Sophie!


(A TAP on the door.

BRYCE ENTERS. Gives

them “don’t-mind-me”

gesture. Warm smile

to SOPHIE. A nod to

DAVE. He shakes snow

from hat——on protector.)



I-3-9

DAVE
A plane would only damage the Towers‘ skin.’ Spilled fuel would fall to the Plaza. . . “extinguished by the New York City Fire Department.” Replacing the skin would be the only expense. Maybe four-hundred million——from insurance.

(pauses)
You know what President Kennedy said about assassination?



BRYCE
If your number’s up, it’s up.

(grins at SOPHIE)
Had to interrupt, folks. I’m Bryce Goodman. Weekend manager for your security company.



(He offers handshake

to SOPHIE. She refuses.

DAVE is incredulous.

BRYCE LAUGHS. Waves both

hands in surrender.

DAVE gives a wan

handshake. SOPHIE

quickly EXITS.)


I understand one of your people complained about why we’re having to let a few people go?



(BLACK OUT)



(END OF SCENE)



































I-4-1





ACT I



Scene 4


SPLIT SET: We’re back at NICK’s candy

store at 6 a.m. of the gloomy

late January day. The sidewalk is almost cleared of snow. A shovel

leans against the door.

The store lights are on.


AT RISE: NICK, bundled up, emerges

from the store with a pail of sand. Begins sprinkling it

on the sidewalk.

IVAR comes around the corner.

NICK frowns. Continues

sanding. IVAR takes up the shovel to finish the sidewalk.



NICK
Before we start talking about you buying this building,
you better know the whole neighborhood’s pissed at you for busting Dave’s dream!


IVAR
The neighborhood doesn’t give a goddamn, Nick! You and Dave are the only ones pissed. He was thirty million short of my winning bid. Hey, the deal’s still gotta go through closing. If he can top me. . .


NICK
If he’d won, you’d just shrug it off, huh?


IVAR
I’d lick my wounds for a day or two. Marvel I got three billion twenty-five together. Invest it in something else. Tear down my sixtieth-street eyesore. Put up a dazzler.

(NICK keeps sprinkling sand)
Can’t keep Dave down for long. He’s coming to the closing. We’re making a night of it. Why don’t you come, too? I’ll tack on a plug about this place going upgrade.


(NICK halts)



I-4-2

NICK
I’d go, but I got that heights thing.


IVAR
You’re not really mad about the Towers. Or my not going to Dodger tryouts. You’ve just never liked me. I’m not Polish or Jewish or Italian. We don’t mix like you guys.


NICK
You eat funny stuff, too. McDonald’s don’t sell blood sausage and lutefisk. And you guys don’t laugh a lot!
Sour and dour!


IVAR

(LAUGHS)
Long nights, forty-below winters, and blizzards.

(pauses)
Nick, you were a better hitter than I ever was. But afraid to go on your own hook. I knew I’d never make the Dodgers. Never looked back. You’ve done nothing but look back.
“I coulda been a conten-dah!”


(NICK covers IVAR’s shoes with

sand as he passes. IVAR does a

double-take. Wipes them. NICK

makes another pass with the sand.

IVAR lifts the shovel. Reconsiders.

Drops shovel. Makes a snowball.

Sends it straight to NICK’s neck.)


NICK
You sonuvabitch!!


(Heaves the pail of sand

at IVAR. Misses. Scoops up

snow. Hits him in the face.

IVAR scoops up snow.

NICK knocks him into a

snowdrift. They pummel

until exhausted.)



IVAR
You win! You win!! Jesus Christ! Got coffee in there?

(NICK helps him up. They

clump into the store. Shuck

overcoats. IVAR shines shoes

with a batch of napkins.

I-4-3

NICK goes behind counter.

Returns with coffee pot,

cups. Pours. IVAR nods.

The sun rises behind Towers.

They look. Sip.)


NICK
Don’t take them Towers down! Fix them up. Do something spectacular. But don’t take them down!

(pauses)
What you said out there. . . you’re kinda right. Shoulda talked Pop in to making this a Seven-Eleven. But he could never forget the Depression. Was nuts on never owing a dime. So he never could get ahead to buy a franchise. Stuck with volume business on cheap sweets.



(IVAR reaches into coat

pocket. Power Points a paper to

NICK. He unfolds it. Eyes pop

at high offer. Stares at IVAR.)



IVAR
Probably a little low. But this place needs work.



NICK
You ain’t cheating your company?


IVAR
Look, you old coot. I want this building! Got a great location! A corner of a fixed-up neighborhood. Block from the subway. Stores. I’m giving you lifetime digs——on one condition.


(NICK throws up his hands.

Stands. Shakes head. Paces.)


It’s six-thirty, Nick! Coffeehouses have lines out the doors by now. ‘Til nine. They gotta drive them out, eight at night! You’re not too old to learn how to run an espresso machine! You make damned good coffee! I want a coffeehouse here!

(NICK reacts)
I’ll find an espresso machine. Throw in a month’s supply of coffee. You can still sell those cheap sweets.


(NICK takes his time. Looks

around the shop. At IVAR.)

I-4-4

NICK
Okay!! I’ll accept your offer.

(pauses)
I throw in a little janitorial service. But I can’t run no coffeehouse, Ivar. I been in Starbucks. Operation’s too fast. All them hippy smart-asses behind the counter! And I’d have to do all that IRS, Social Security stuff.


IVAR

(stands)
So hire some non-hippy dumb-asses!! Talk to H & R Block!

(outs on coat, hat.)
Nick, You finally got enough cash to be a “contenda”!!

(NICK busses cups, pot)
Okay! Rot upstairs in front of the goddamned TV. Or come down and boss the kids! Do the books. Sweep the floors.
It’s up to you. But I’m putting in a coffeehouse!!


(A hysterical SOPHIE

races into the store.

They grab her. She weeps

soundlessly.)



NICK
F’God sakes! What? Somebody hurt you?


SOPHIE

(collects herself)
Mr. K got hit by a car last night! Was just on the radio!
Knew you boys were friends. So glad you’re open.


NICK
Goddamn it to Hell! Is he. . .


(She breaks loose.)


SOPHIE
No! No! No! Broken pelvis!! Crossing fifty-seventh. Around ten. Walking home after killing himself to raise cash to beat our bid. This drunk came barreling toward Madison!

(NICK staggers into chair)
He’s at NYU Medical with a mob of lawyers and bankers. Still raising cash! They said he cut off the morphine so he could make decisions!! Can you believe it?


(NICK and IVAR react.)



I-4-5

IVAR
Drunk driver just happened to be passing by. Booked and released, I’ll bet. I could wind up the heavy.


SOPHIE
Don’t talk crazy! Mister K’s the one who’s crazy! Getting those Towers will kill him one way or another!



NICK

(pokes IVAR’s chest)
He ain’t gonna die! He’s a bulldog when he wants something.

(pauses)
You let Dave win that bid or I ain’t selling this place to you! Not for a million-billion dollars!! Plenty others gonna feel that way on your deals! So think about it, Daddy Warbucks! I don’t wanna spray this place for roaches!


IVAR
Daddy Warbucks!!


NICK
The guy what owned the world. You even look like him.


(He goes behind counter

to turn off coffee.

IVAR and JULIE

exchange glances.)



IVAR
Okay, Nick. I’ll throw the fight!

(they react)
Not because you think I’m Daddy Warbucks. Or because I’m generous to a guy who coulda been killed over the Towers.

(pauses)
I go on hunches. Those Towers are like jinxed ships! Shipyards fix them up, but they’re doomed. Smart sailors never go aboard.


NICK
Towers are jinxed?


IVAR
Think about it. Six-floor fire back in seventy-five. One guy died. Couple dozen firemen in the hospital. Then, the basement bombing. Six dead. A thousand got hurt. Now, Dave gets hit. Remodeling. Rebuilding won’t change a thing. The whole complex is jinxed. I’m out!

I-4-6

NICK
You’re full of shit!



SOPHIE
But your bid’s been a running story for months! You’re going to talk about jinxed ships to the Wall Street Journal? The Times? On TV! To your board!!

IVAR
Hell, no!! And you guys are gonna zip your lip if you want Dave up and around. This toe-to-toe scrap’ll do it.



NICK
But when he finds out. . .


IVAR
F’criss-sake, you just ordered me to throw the game!
Called me Daddy Warbucks if I didn’t. Make up your mind!


NICK
How you gonna do it without tipping him?


IVAR
Stall closing ‘til he’s on his feet. And has the cash lined up. I’ll bargain hard on terms they won’t like and leave the game middle of March.


SOPHIE
What kind of terms?


IVAR
‘Stead of ninety-nine year lease, I’ll demand thirty-nine. Tell them: “My board strongly objects to carrying so much debt.” I’ll refuse the hundred million deposit on grounds I got triple-A credit. Refuse to pick up their millions in unpaid taxes. Cut the eight-hundred million down payment.

(LAUGHS)
If that doesn’t do it, I’ll cut my bid to one-and-a-half billion. That was all they thought they’d get in the first place. They’ll give me the boot and Dave, the towers.


NICK
So he’s up there killing hisself to beat a bid that ain’t.


IVAR
He’ll make it back in rent——and when he sells the lease. This is a gift that’ll keep on giving.


I-4-7

SOPHIE

(reacts)
You want to see Mister K? My car’s ready to go.


(NICK grabs a napkin.

Scribbles “Back Soon!!”

on it. Hunts for tape.)



SOPHIE

(quietly to IVAR)
Why don’t I believe your jinx reason?


IVAR
I think it was racetrack driving. Someone wants me “out.”


(NICK finds tape.

Rushes to tape sign

on front door.)



SOPHIE

(whispers)
Why wouldn’t they go after you? You won the bid!



IVAR
Look like a contract job. Suspicion all over Dave.
Somebody wants sympathy and big donations for him.


SOPHIE
He’s being set up?


IVAR
Watch and wait. Then, warn.


SOPHIE
Been there. Done that. He’s so hellbent on getting those Towers, he’s not listening.


NICK
It ain’t polite to talk behind people’s back.


(SOPHIE rolls her eyes.

They EXIT)



(BLACK OUT)



(END OF SCENE)

II-1-1





ACT II



Scene 1


SPLIT SET: DARKEN RIGHT SET. LEFT SET is

the elevator hallway to the Carleton business suite before

the regular meeting of the Carleton Group. Doors are open.


AT RISE A “DING” signals elevator

arrival. Out step VICE PRESIDENT and DONATELLO. DONATELLO’s in shirtsleeves, pushing a two-shelf cart. It’s loaded with laptops, rolls of maps, and binders. On top (protected from prying eyes by his suit coat), are stacks of top-secret folders for Carleton Group members.



DONATELLO catches breath. Leans

on cart.



DONATELLO
Next time, let’s get someone to haul this stuff!


VICE PRESIDENT

(scowls)
No!! No outsiders!


DONATELLO
Where’s the President going to be?


VICE PRESIDENT
Florida. Some grade school. Kids reading to him, thank God! Slew of cameras. He’s practicing looking shocked.

(they LAUGH)
Your Mister Goodman did well in scaring off Lenmark.


DONATELLO
I said he was reliable. Klezmer better be a weinie.


(VICE PRESIDENT LAUGHS)



II-1-2

VICE PRESIDENT

(pulls, opens folder from cart)
He’s a hungry weinie. This report said he caved to almost everything. Afraid they’d go with the third bidder. Afraid they didn’t think he had a big enough operation. Afraid not to pay a hundred million deposit. Or the eight-hundred million down payment. Or the two-hundred million for repairs. Or the hundred and twenty million annual payment.
The back taxes. Talk about desperation!


DONATELLO
But weinies don’t raise three-billion-two.


VICE PRESIDENT
Thanks to us. Says here he did wangle rebuilding rights if “terrorists” pay a return visit. He got that right!


(ROARS with LAUGHTER.)



DONATELLO
Wrong! Maybe. Lenmark didn’t make that demand.


VICE PRESIDENT
Probably planned to sell the lease before the ink was dry.

(CHUCKLES)
The lenders demanded three-billion-five of insurance!!


DONATELLO
How the hell’s he going to pay the premiums?


VICE PRESIDENT

(LAUGHS)
Who gives a shit? He’s served his purpose.


(Elevator “DINGS.” Door opens.

TWO CALL GIRLS step out.)



BOTH
Hi, Fellas!


(VICE PRESIDENT races

through double doors.

GIRL NO. 1 follows.)


DONATELLO

(unnerved)
Wrong floor. Wrong suite. Wrong night, I’m afraid.

II-1-3

(GIRL NO. 1 emerges.)



GIRL NO. 1
Jesus!! The old guy’s calling Security! Hit the stairs, Sherry!!


(They EXIT. DONATELLO

ROARS. Pushes cart

through double doors.)





(BLACK OUT)



(END OF SCENE)
















































II-2-1





ACT II



Scene 2


SPLIT SET: DARKEN LEFT SET. RIGHT SET is

DAVE’s palatial new office on the eighty-eighth floor of the WTC’s North Tower. The view is of uptown Manhattan’s Empire State

Building, Chrysler Building, etc.

Because he’s just taken possession of the towers, his massive desk facing us is loaded with flowers as is the floor. Balloons float in bunches and singles. Half are black.



A piece of floor statuary is in the far left corner of the room. A settee is just beyond the desk. A wing chair is at the left front for visitors needing private chats. A credenza runs the length of the right wall with various pieces of art and an electronic keyboard within reach of his desk. Wall art is of renderings and buildings he owns.

He has a state-of-the-art chair.


AT RISE: It’s DAVE’S big day. He’s

just come from outdoor ceremonies for taking possession of the Towers. THREE CATERERS pass among the guests with drinks.

He’s in shirtsleeves, standing on his desk——a Wall Street Journal under his shoes——and finishing a speech to a room full of well-wishers——among them: NICK, IVAR, SOPHIE, HERB, et al.

They burst into “For He’s a Jolly Good Fellow.” He’s waving two huge gold-painted cardboard keys, just given him by the Mayor.

II-2-2



BRYCE arrives, portfolio under an arm. Leans against doorway.)



DAVE

(lifts keys)
Because I got a bum pelvis, Rudy made these out of the finest. . . cardboard.


(Crowd LAUGHS. IVAR

helps him down and

shakes hands. DAVE

is so pleased to see him,

he offers the keys.)



IVAR
Bang-up job getting all that cash at the end! Lucky Dave!



DAVE
This could’ve been your day.

(pauses)
Why’d you throw the fight?



IVAR

(grins)
Sick of fixer-uppers. Better pouring dough into pulling down that midtown store. Gonna build me an elegant skyscraper! Fifty-four stories! Top twenty million-dollar condos. Twenty-four of them. Offices and stores below.


DAVE
Sly dog! Made Rudy wait six years to tax something!


IVAR
Don’t you like seeing him sweat?

(they LAUGH)
Ever need help on this joint——except money, of course——
I’m your man.



DAVE

(irked)
I’ll keep that in mind!


(They shake hands.

IVAR heads for the

doors. BRYCE watches

him EXIT.

II-2-3

GUESTS swarm around

DAVE: NICK has his

head down to avoid

the windows and a

vertigo attack. SOPHIE

“mother-hens” him.



DAVE’s still irked,

but puts on smile.

Hugs HERB WALKER.

Chats with each GUEST

until party wanes.

DAVE thanks, pays

Departing CATERERS.

He hugs the departing

NICK, SOPHIE, HERB.

All but BRYCE, still

in doorway. DAVE

goes to windows to

savor the view and

day. MURMURS gratitude

prayer. Turns and is

startled to see BRYCE.



DAVE
Somebody steal the silver, Mister Goodman?



BRYCE

(forced grin)
No, Sir. Thought it the best time to talk about our new security system. Want you to be able to go home on a high note. Sleep well from now on.


(DAVE walks to the desk,

eyes him. Dons jacket.

BRYCE fingers envelope.

DAVE sits. Leans back,

arms crossed. BRYCE opens

envelope. Hands him a

document.)



BRYCE
Sorry to say we’re getting the same old song about potential terrorists hitting the Towers. Different verse this time, however.



II-2-4

DAVE

(disturbed)
Which is?


BRYCE
Israeli intelligence says a Saudi gang may hijack a coupla planes. Hit the Towers.

(DAVE leans forward)
They say you’ve important contacts in Israel. Might check with them as soon as possible. Keep me informed.



DAVE
Mister Goodman, I’ve been in that building across the complex——Number Seven——for the last fifteen years. I know we’ve got dozens of fighter planes ready to scramble to protect this coast. Especially the Towers! They’d intercept in two or three minutes!


BRYCE
We’re well aware of that, Sir. But my particular job deals with every kind of emergency. What if terrorists were to sabotage those fighters so they couldn’t take off? Or decoy them out over the ocean a few hundred miles.

(DAVE comes to attention)
You’d be in the exact same boat as the Empire State people.

(stands, shows photos)
Have a look at that hit.


(He’s got DAVE’s attention.)



DAVE

(stops at one photo)
It was summer. Foggy Saturday morning. I was about thirteen. Even in Brooklyn, people went nuts! Thought the Japs somehow skipped California and Chicago to bomb us!
Sounds stupid, but panic does that. It was horrible!

(BRYCE nods)
How big is that hole in the Empire State?


BRYCE
Eighteen by twenty. Took out the seventy-eighth and ninth
floors. But my point is, it cost nearly ten million to repair——in today’s dollars.


DAVE
Most of which was covered by insurance. As are the Towers.
Three billion five hundred! More than enough to . . .

II-2-5

BRYCE
But how about time and occupancy, Sir? It took three months to fix. They lost dozens of tenants and couldn’t get new ones for a long, long, long time! Tremendous loss of rents.


DAVE

(unnerved)
Moonlighting as an insurance salesman, are you?


BRYCE
I wouldn’t be doing my job, Sir, if I didn’t also point out the casualties and the cost of that basement bombing.

(pauses)
What if a jumbo jet knocked down the Towers during the day? Twenty-thousand people work here!


DAVE

(reacts)
Mister Goodman, steel skyscrapers are designed to withstand hits from several jumbo jets. I happen to know that jet fuel doesn’t burn hot enough to melt beams.


BRYCE
That may be, Sir. But I’d remind you that the fire in this Tower back in seventy-five, took out six floors.


DAVE
It had no sprinkler system!! Nobody died! Got hurt!


BRYCE
Lucky it wasn’t a work day, Sir! Imagine all those people trying to get down the stairs. Away from burning drapes. Chairs. Rugs. Smoke inhalation. Kinda like the Triangle Shirtwaist fire. All those women jumping down elevator shafts. Windows. They put holes in the sidewalk.

(DAVE puts hands over ears)
You’d need a trillion to cover claims for twenty-thousand.


(DAVE sinks into chair.)



DAVE

(wearily)
We’ve always had periodic evacuation drills. Posted evacuation routes. We know people don’t panic if they know what to do.

(pauses)
So what are you driving at?

II-2-6

BRYCE
Make those drills regular, not periodic.

(DAVE nods wearily)
But the best and smartest decision is something the Port has wanted to do for the last few years.



DAVE
I know. Demolish the Towers! Rebuild. Bigger, safer buildings mean more tenants.


(BRYCE sits on desk.

Irks DAVE.)


BRYCE
Do it now with the changing of the guard!


DAVE

(rubs forehead)
I was gonna hold off for a coupla of years. I’d have