Exit, pursued by a bear

By Peter D Wilson

Tony Anderson, an academic attending a conference in Prague during the Cold War era, is mistaken by security chief Alexander Placek for an expected western emissary to illicit dissident groups. In order to undermine such activities he sends Anna Jirak to worm her way into Tony's household as a spy. This she does by posing as a political refugee needing a form of marriage to the now-widowed Tony in order to escape deportation.
In time the marriage becomes genuine, so when Placek turns up demanding that Anna should wreck Tony's standing by accusing him of multiple adultery with supposed refugee women, she refuses. Placek's unwelcome duty then requires him, in the course of offering Tony a session chairmanship in a forthcoming conference in Kiev, to denounce Anna as a traitor to her own family and friends. Unwilling though Tony is to believe the story, it has enough verisimilitude to create a doubt that she cannot dispel, and in despair she takes an overdose of medicine.
Determined to avenge her fate, but knowing that he must work with Placek at the Kiev conference, Tony consults his cousin Eric in the UK security service. Eric advises an indirect approach by joining an actual dissident support group. This proves to be badly run and Tony is persuaded to take charge of it.
In Kiev, Placek confides in his devoted assistant Elena about his distress at the news of Anna, whom he had regarded almost as a surrogate daughter. He instructs Elena to accompany Tony on the city tour when he expects contraband to be somehow handed over, but the plan is thwarted by local police who turn out to have been Tony's contacts.
Back home, some time later, Tony is visited by Eric together with Placek who, disgusted by new instructions from his masters, wishes to defect but needs the help of Tony's group for Elena to escape. Tony is reluctant but urged by Eric, for his own reasons, to comply. Anna, who is now revealed to have survived the suicide attempt at the cost of a partial breakdown, praises Placek's character and adds her own plea that convinces Tony to agree, and insists that the two couples should thenceforward be friends.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter D Wilson
• Release date: Oct 4, 2011
• ISBN: 9781465904539

Peter D Wilson

Peter Wilson was born in Nottingham, England, in 1936. After education at Nottingham High School, where he changed course from classics to science because he couldn’t get on with Greek, he gained an open scholarship to St. Edmund Hall, Oxford, to be taken up after National Service (1955-57) in which he was a radio mechanic at the SHAPE military headquarters near Paris. At Oxford he gained first-class honours in chemistry, then took a PhD at Leeds University.In 1964 he was appointed to a research position at the nuclear reprocessing site at Sellafield in Cumberland (the north-western corner of England), then operated by the United Kingdom Atomic Energy Agency (UKAEA) of which the relevant division became British Nuclear Fuels plc (BNFL) in 1971. He remained there until retirement in 2001, mostly working on process chemistry development. For the last dozen years he was chiefly concerned with certain aspects of long-term waste management and related strategic issues, helping to form the company technical policy thereon and presenting its rationale in international discussions. He was also the technical member of a team representing the UK in gaining acceptance of an extension to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to cover a possible loophole. His book "The Nuclear Fuel Cycle" (Oxford University Press, 1996) has become the standard text on the subject. Following his retirement, BNFL set up and financed a "Peter Wilson Medal and Prize" for research and communication, to be awarded annually for ten years at Leeds University.He lived in Seascale, a coastal village near to the Sellafield site. His interest in amateur dramatics dated back to the 1960s and for many years he was an active member of the society based in Gosforth, the next village inland. His collection of stories, plays and film scripts along with some factual material may be found at https://peterdwilson.wixsite.com/peterwilsonscripts

Book preview

EXIT, PURSUED BY A BEAR

A reading screenplay by

Peter D. Wilson

Copyright Peter D. Wilson 2011

Peter D. Wilson asserts his right under the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work.

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Disclaimer

This script is a work of fiction, and any resemblance therein to persons in real life is coincidental.

Cover photograph: Pruhonice Castle, Bohemia. Copyright Peter D. Wilson 2011.

CONTENTS

Characters

Opening

Anna

Breakthrough

Defiance

Revelation

Confrontation

Plotting

Kiev

Fiasco

Defection

Author

MAIN CHARACTERS

TONY: A university don; middle-aged, affable, by inclination unworldly but forced by circumstance into intrigue.

PLACEK: The most impressive character in the piece. East European, similar in age to Tony. He speaks in not quite perfect English. Scheming and devious in the course of duty, to which he is devoted, he is nevertheless personally honourable and by no means the traditional heavy. Although utilised as a cover for other activities, his academic position is perfectly genuine and justly earned. He normally presents a coldly analytical and sardonic shell to the world, but occasionally reveals a strong quasi-paternal affection for Anna.

CLARA: The Vicar's wife; a well-meaning if bossy organiser, of mature years. Her nervousness before introducing Anna is sufficiently out of character to warrant comment.

ANNA: Another East European, with English initially less accomplished than Placek's. Pretty, early twenties; not exactly the ingénue she first appears.

ERIC: Tony's cousin, a senior military type with connections in the security services. Laconic, frank to the point of rudeness.

ELENA: Placek's assistant, mature, with more than a soft spot for him and little sense of subordination.

Return to Contents

INTERIOR, DAY. TONY'S SITTING ROOM, CHRISTMAS EVE 1985, AFTERNOON

Tony, casually dressed, enters clumsily with a large box of Christmas decorations. Looking round for somewhere to put it, and finding nowhere more suitable, he dumps it on the floor and starts rummaging through the contents.

Clara, in outdoor clothes, looks in from the hall.

CLARA: Anything I can bring while I'm out?

TONY: Nothing I can think of.

CLARA: Right, I'm off.

TONY: Thanks, Clara. It's extraordinarily good of you ...

CLARA: Not at all. After all, I got you into all this in the first place.

TONY: It was hardly your fault.

CLARA: I did twist your arm pretty hard. I'm glad of a chance to make some amends.

TONY: Even so, just at this time ... You must have plenty more on your plate.

CLARA: Nothing as important as this. But for goodness' sake have the place more or less ship-shape before I get back.

TONY: I'll try. But I don't know how long Eric's business will take.

CLARA: When do you expect him?

TONY: It depends on when he can collect this mysterious visitor he's bringing along.

CLARA: Do your best, anyway. See you soon.

TONY: Right. 'Bye.

Clara withdraws. Tony starts sorting the decorations, then checks his watch and switches on the radio.

ANNOUNCER (voice over): ... in the classic recording by Jacqueline du Pré with the LSO under Barbirolli. And now, in place of the advertised programme, we are broadcasting a recording of last Thursday's concert from Prague, given by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Vaclav Neumann. It is an all-Czech programme, with ...

At the mention of Prague, Tony stiffens and his eyes glaze.

DISSOLVE TO A NONDESCRIPT LOBBY, 1981

A notice board carries a heading SLAVONIC STUDIES ASSOCIATION: INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE, PRAGUE 1981. Placek is at the board, affixing a new sheet. Tony enters, worried, carrying a document case. He strides up, nodding in greeting to Placek who bows slightly in return and makes way. Tony checks a timetable, consults his watch, and relaxes slightly to look at other items. After a moment Placek speaks, in grammatically accurate but not always idiomatic English.

PLACEK: Er - excuse me, Professor Anderson ...

TONY: Yes?

PLACEK: I must apologise if I disturb you.

TONY: Not at all ...

PLACEK: Then allow me please to congratulate you on your paper.

TONY: Oh - thank you, Dr. ... ?

PLACEK: Placek, Professor - Alexander Placek. May I present my card?

TONY: Thanks. (Fumbling with his wallet) Er - I'm afraid I seem to be out of them.

PLACEK: No matter. The details are in the office. Yes, your paper - how refreshing it is to hear a respectable piece of work, capably presented. Too many of our purported authors, I fear, have made the least possible effort to get on - what do you say? - the bandwagon.

TONY (somewhat distracted): Yes, I suppose that does happen.

PLACEK: Whatever became, I ask myself, of the first intention to bring together the real experts simply to discuss their latest work?

TONY: Smothered by the political side-issues, I imagine.

PLACEK: It does appear so.

Beat

PLACEK: I gather