Dammit 2

	Hugh and Stephen are in an office. Hugh is finishing a 
	phone conversation.


Hugh		Right. Much obliged for your time, Keith.

	Puts phone down.

		Dammit.

Stephen		What?

Hugh		It's pretty much as we feared, John.

Stephen		Yeah?

Hugh		Only a whole heap worse.

Stephen		Suppose you start from the beginning.

Hugh		Not much to say. Seems that twenty minutes
		ago, our time, Derwent Enterprises went into
		liquidation.

Stephen		What?

Hugh		Keith called a couple of hours ago from Helsinki.

Stephen		But that was Keith just now, wasn't it?

Hugh		Yeah, just now our time. But he called a couple of
		hours ago his time.

Stephen		I see. And he called to say that Derwent has
		gone under?

Hugh		That's right.

Stephen		Damn!

Hugh		Damn it to damnation!

Stephen		Damn, blast, and two extra slices of buttered
		damn. Who else knows about this?

Hugh		It'll be all round town before you can say "Hell and
		double-blast, dammit to Hades twice."

Stephen		Hell and double-blast, dammit to Hades ...

	The phone rings. Hugh picks it up.

Hugh		Yes.

	He hangs up.

		Derek knows.

Stephen		Dammit.

Hugh		If they pull on their options ... Christ it doesn't
		bear thinking about. This whole health club could
		go belly up.

Stephen		Right. I want to know who's behind them, I want
		to know who's pulling the strings, I want to know
		WHAT IN HELL'S NAME IS GOING ON.

Hugh		John, I do believe you're scared.

Stephen		You're damn right I'm scared, Peter. I sense
		Marjorie's hand in this.

Hugh		Marjorie?

Stephen		I never told you this, Peter, but when Marjorie left
		me I settled a block of shares on her and the boy.

Hugh		Shares in the health club? Were you out of your
		goddamned mind?

Stephen		In the club, no. I knew I couldn't trust her there.
		But I gave her shares in D-Tec.

Hugh		And you think ...

Stephen		Think? I don't think anything. There isn't time to
		think. There's only time to act.

Hugh		But is Marjorie really capable of pulling a
		scrimshaw trick like this?

Stephen		(Bitter laugh) Marjorie? She would float her own
		grandmother as a holding corporation, and strip
		her clean of preference stock if she thought it
		would hurt me.

	Stephen picks up a framed photo of Marjorie and 
	her son.

		Three pints of damn and a chaser of hellblast!!

Hugh		What about the boy, John?

Stephen		The boy's Dennis, Peter.

Hugh		No. What about the boy.... John.

Stephen		Leave the boy out of this, Peter. He's only a boy.

Hugh		Something I've always wondered, John.

Stephen		Yeah?

Hugh		How come the boy has been living with Marjorie
		since the divorce?

Stephen		Hih. The court ruled that I was violent and
		unstable, an unfit father.

Hugh		You, John? That's a damned laugh. If they had
		seen the way you've parented this company ...

Stephen		Well, Marjorie told this story ... one night I came
		home, I was tired, there was something about
		the way she looked at me, I sensed a mocking,
		a sneering ... I dunno, anyway I flipped ...
		emptied a bowl of trifle over her pretty little head.

Hugh		And she got custody.

Stephen		Very.

Hugh		John, it must hurt, not being able to watch
		Dennis grow up.

Stephen		Hurt? No. He's nothing to me now.

Hugh		Oh yeah, John? So how come every year on his
		birthday you take him down to London to see
		Phantom of the Opera?

Stephen		I do that because I hate him.

Hugh		Fair enough.

Stephen		But I give Marjorie due warning ... if she wants a
		fight, then by God she's going to get one!

Hugh		And the prize, John?

Stephen		As big as they get, Peter. The entire leisure market
		in the Uttoxeter catchment area goes to the winner.
		No strings attached.

	Picks up photo of Marjorie.

		Why can't you leave me alone?

Hugh		John, what was it you once said to me about
		perspective?

Stephen		Er ... I seem to remember asking you how it was
		spelt....

Hugh		No, no, after that.

Stephen		What are you saying to me, Peter?

Hugh		I'm saying, John, I'm saying, I'm saying ...
		dammit I'm saying I'm here, Marjorie's a hundred
		and fifty miles away her time, if we can't fight this
		bastard son of a mongrel bitch then we aren't the
		team who weathered the Babylex crisis and came
		up smelling of roses. That's what I'm saying.

Stephen		Peter, you're right. Call Ipswich now, your time
		and tell them Derwent Enterprises or no Derwent
		Enterprises this Health Club is in business and
		stays in busines.

Hugh		And if Marjorie should call?

Stephen		Marjorie? Never heard of her.

Hugh		Dammit John, I love you when you're flying.

	Stephen speaks into an intercom.

Stephen		Sarah, bring in a pot of hot strong coffee and a
		dozen memo pads. (Intercom off) Now, let's get the
		hell out of here before they arrive.

Hugh		I don't really believe in all this
		fuss about clouds of radioactive
		dust. It'll all blow over before
		long, I'm sure of it.