Original subtitles

DANNY: He was murdered.

He was murdered, Claire.

(Gasps)

WOMAN: Who murdered him?

I don't know.

British MI6. The Chinese Ministry for State Security.

American CIA. Israeli Mossad.

We're not up against one intelligence agency.

We're up against them all.

That conversation took place in my bedroom.

We were face-to-face.

Why did they murder him?

MARCUS: Alex decided to apply his concept to speech.

A lie detector?

He did it for me?

He knew you'd find out that he'd lied about much of his life.

He must have worried that you'd end up hating him.

He must have worried about that moment every day.

I would like to finish this particular adventure with you, Daniel Edward Holt.

If you'll have me.

- (Mobile ringing) - Scottie?

Danny.

SCOTTIE: There will be a note.

(Breathing heavily)

I have a question.

How do we live without the people that we love?

I can hear his reply...

"We must figure this question out for ourselves."

(Chuckles)

He's right.

He was always right.

Except, my friend,

I don't want to know.

I don't want to know how to live without you.

I don't want to figure out how to stop feeling this sad.

(Inaudible)

Marcus, this isn't the time...

Yes, it is, Claire. It's exactly the right time.

(Sighs)

I've destroyed my copy of Alex's research.

You should destroy yours.

You asked for my advice. There it is.

You can take it or...

Or not.

- But I won't help you... - That's enough.

It was...

A nice idea.

(Theme music playing)

SARA: Danny!

Come on.

Okay.

(Danny laughs)

- Sorry and goodbye. - Mmm.

This is where you two met.

I visited the nurse who took your blood sample.

I was curious, because it's not procedure.

So I asked a straightforward question.

"Why did you do it?"

This man was afraid.

Afterwards, I'd barely left the room, my phone rings.

It's my superiors demanding to know why I'm interrogating him.

And you know what I said?

"No reason."

It wasn't much.

But it's as far as I'm prepared to go.

-Why? -Listen, this is what's going to happen.

You'll be the early innocent suspect,

and I'll be the simple-minded copper.

That's the account that's going to be written.

(Sighs)

With Scottie we had a chance. Without him we haven't.

I don't accept that.

We knew him better than anyone.

What would he do?

You're confused, Danny.

Between trying to prove how much you loved him.

And trying to prove a conspiracy.

You're confused. And I wonder if you haven't always been.

What's that mean?

Scottie was sentimental about you.

You're doing this for him. He was doing it for you.

Maybe I was doing it for him.

But it's not real, Danny. It won't work.

Whatever you do. Whatever you try.

It won't work.

(Desk drawer opens)

He sent me this.

There was a letter. It read,

"Ambition, but no conviction. Love, Scottie."

Walk with me.

I'll be here when you're ready.

(Computer trilling)

(Printer whirring)

(Loud banging in distance)

(Loud creaking in distance)

(Dog barking)

(Doorbell ringing)

(Ringing continues)

(Ringing continues)

How'd you find me?

You gave us this address.

11 years.

A long time.

And now?

Dan, your Dad's dying.

We weren't much as parents.

You read about me in the paper?

We read about you.

But that's not why you're here?

You need money?

- No. - No?

MOTHER: No.

This was a mistake.

Tell me why.

Why now? Why today?

Weeks, that's all he's got left.

We've said goodbye.

MOTHER: Want to do a better job of it?

There's something we'd like to show you.

If this a lie please stop the car and let me out.

Because I've been through too much for this to be another lie.

I won't be angry. I know it's not your fault.

But just stop the car. And let me out.

But if you drive me home, after I've given you this chance, I...

Mum?

(Camera beeps)

All right if I...

(Camera beeping rapidly)

(Shutter clicks)

(Father wheezing softly)

I wish this could be true.

Shh.

People can change this much, you know.

For real, I mean.

(Wheezing loudly)

You're not dying.

Not today. Not next week.

They're scary people, Dan.

They know everything about us.

Everything we've ever done wrong.

What did you do?

This isn't like pinching stuff from the shops.

- Why am I here? - MOTHER: Why are we here?

Being made to do this? Being threatened?

What have you dragged us into?

(Voice fading) How could you do this to us? To your father?

(Continues indistinctly)

(Inaudible)

DANNY: They gave you this, didn't they?

They told you to take a photo.

Why?

(Camera whirrs)

I always wanted to know,

wouldn't it have been easier to have loved me?

I can't say why we never did.

I'm not angry any more.

(Rapid beeping)

(Beeping)

(Printer whirring)

(Shredder whirring)

MAN: Have you been to any forums on living with HIV before?

No? If you take a seat, maybe over there, all right?

Hi, guys.

Hi.

I'd like us to welcome Ryan.

A lot of people don't speak until they've been a few times.

So you shouldn't feel any pressure.

But I wanted to give you the chance.

And remember there's no point talking unless you feel able to tell the truth.

Maybe you're not ready?

- I'll go. - Danny.

My partner, his name was Alex, he died some months ago

and I've been trying to

find out why he was killed...

Are you okay?

DANNY: And, erm, he was working as a spy,

MI6, when we were together...

(Breathing heavily)

- (Indistinct shouting) - (Sirens wailing)

COP: On the ground!

...an attic in his apartment...

...and, erm, one of the ways they did that was to, er,

inject me with the HIV virus.

(Inaudible)

You have to believe me!

(Voice breaking) If you don't believe me,

I don't have anyone else, Scottie.

I don't have anyone else.

What are you going to do now?

I'm going to do nothing.

(Indistinct talking)

(Indistinct talking)

Let's go home.

DANNY: I wish this could be true.

I rather thought it might be you.

Is it too late to talk?

Too late?

(Sighs)

Perhaps it is.

(Bangs cane)

What harm can it do?

What good can it do?

What good?

What possible good?

What good can any of us do?

Better leave him be.

He's just a boy.

(Chuckles)

CHARLES: Just a stupid boy.

(Laughing obnoxiously)

I take it you have something you wish to discuss.

More than that, you intend to accuse me?

- I have a question. - A question?

I'll permit a question.

But just one.

That will be all.

We both loved him.

Yes.

Can't we pretend, for a while, that's all we need to say?

There was always something of the mystic about you.

Fortune teller-soothsayer,

a person who knows nothing yet sees everything.

Alex was the last person to hold your hand.

- A question? - A statement.

Yes.

Yes, he was.

(Laughing)

You blame me for his death.

- Question? - Statement.

Yes.

Yes, I do.

How can you blame me,

unless you know why he was killed?

It is a good question.

For all your efforts,

all your loss, all your grief, and sacrifice.

You have nothing.

You accept that I'm continuing this conversation

solely for my own personal reasons?

- Which are? - It's very important to me

that you understand how much I loved my son.

Show me his room.

Alistair spent more time in this room than any other.

How do you know?

How?

No, no! No, don't!

- Stop! Stop! - How'd you know?

-How? -Stop! No, no, don't! Don't! No!

(Sobbing) Don't.

Please.

(Breathing heavily)

Because he was my spy.

I made him a spy.

I told you that my husband was an important man.

An important man, with a second-rate mind.

We were together at Cambridge.

The tutor who recruited him was as blind to my talents,

as he was to Charles' flaws.

Nonetheless, in the gentlemen's club of MI5,

Charles flourished while I was relegated...

Hosting dinners and cocktail parties for his spies.

(Indistinct talking)

(Laughing obnoxiously)

Three moles at the heart of his organisation.

And Charles didn't see them.

They were men like him,

talked like him, dressed like him,

fucked like him.

Well, two did, anyway.

They were his friends.

Agents were lost. Operations compromised.

When the three finally defected we were disgraced,

removed from the service, exiled from power,

left to rot in this place,

guarded night and day

by agents for fear that we too might be traitors.

I took to drink for a while.

I became promiscuous for a while.

Scandal engulfed me.

But it couldn't go on behaving that way.

You either step into the abyss...

Or step back from it.

You cannot walk along its edge for long.

You know this edge, don't you?

- Yes. - Yes.

Alex was your step back?

He was mine too.

I decided to have a child.

He'd be my future. My saviour. My second chance.

I'd make him into the spy I should've been.

My spy, made by me.

It was a mistake.

Not a lie. Not the truth.

For once your intuition's let you down.

You decided to have a child.

What?

Fuck old Charles and see what happens?

Not much of a plan, considering how stupid you think he is.

But luck was on your side.

Your child was a genius.

Be very careful what you say next.

I want to tell you a story...

About a man.

While other people were laughing and drinking,

this man would just walk...

ALEX: Until he reached the exact same spot,

where he'd sit, with his back to all those people.

While he did everything to signal to the world

that he wanted to be left alone...

ALEX: More than anything,

he hoped that someone passing

would understand that what he really wanted,

was the exact opposite...

And that this someone would sit next to him.

And strike up a conversation.

ALEX: I was that man.

You were that someone.

Why was he so lonely?

I put too much pressure on him.

I made him too important in my life.

It was unfair.

I see that now.

No child can redeem their parents.

Hard to connect to people,

especially when you're not sure how they're connected to you.

For an hour or so, I hoped that my real parents were real parents.

Daniel!

(Inhales and exhales deeply)

I was in a state.

I didn't deserve to be his mum.

Surely you can't be so conventional as to think

there's only one way to bring up a child?

We are both his mother.

Neither one less real nor more real than the other.

I took care of his mind and she took care of his other needs.

He didn't know?

FRANCES: No.

Except he did.

Didn't he? He knew.

On some level, maybe.

He was very young when it happened.

At the time she was working for me and stealing.

I went to her house, to threaten her with the police

if she didn't return the items.

I've never seen anything like it.

(Flies buzzing)

No father. No mother to speak of.

She thought the boy disturbed.

Damaged by her drink and drugs.

I saw how precious he really was.

(Zapping)

- We came to an arrangement. - An arrangement?

I would be his mother.

I'd be his nanny.

He'd be provided for in every way.

Every opportunity. Every comfort.

- Charles agreed? - He resisted, initially.

And he was persuaded.

You can persuade anyone...

Of anything, couldn't you?

In this society it's not enough to be born brilliant.

I opened up a world that would've been closed to him.

DANNY: He didn't belong there.

He's not you.

He wasn't like you.

Just a few years, that's all I asked.

And then he'd be free to do whatever he wanted.

Such as end all lies?

Such a sentimental, ridiculous notion.

I warned him.

I tried to save him.

I tried.

(Buzzer sounds)

(Dialling)

MAN: Sir?

(Indistinct talking)

(Knocks)

(Indistinct talking)

Mrs Turner?

(Breathing heavily)

(Groaning)

(Continues groaning)

(Monitor beeping)

(Panting rapidly)

- Alistair? - Ahhh!

Ahhh!

- Shh! - Ahhh! Frances!

- Shh! - (Screaming)

Shh!

FRANCES: Alistair. Shh...

Listen.

We have very little time.

Listen to me.

You're in a great deal of trouble.

But there is a way out. Do you understand?

I understand.

It's all been arranged. This is a warning.

You'll go to America, for a few years, to work.

A new identity, a new life, a new name.

But you must leave everything behind.

This project... What were you thinking?

All you have to do is say yes.

You'll be flown out tonight. No belongings. No bags.

Alistair, all you have to do is agree.

All you have to do is agree.

(Yelling)

No more!

- (Sobbing) - Alistair.

All you have to do is agree.

I agree.

You will go to America?

I'll go.

You must speak clearly.

I will go to America.

You will destroy your research?

I will destroy it.

You'll never work on it again?

I'll never work on it again.

You'll leave it all behind?

Alistair, you must never make contact with anyone from this life again.

Alistair?

(Sobbing)

His name is Danny.

Danny?

I'll never speak to him again.

(Gasps) No!

This can be a new start for us, too.

You'll hate me for a while.

But I love you so much.

I love you too.

(Kisses)

(Shouts) Get me out of here!

(Breathing rapidly)

(Sobbing)

(Shouting)

FRANCES ON RECORDING: You must speak clearly.

ALEX ON RECORDING: I'll go to America.

FRANCES: You will destroy your research?

ALEX: I'll destroy it.

FRANCES: You'll never work on it again?

ALEX: I'll never work on it again.

FRANCES: You'll leave it all behind?

Alistair, you must never make contact with anyone from this life again.

- His name is Danny. - FRANCES: Danny?

Alistair?

ALEX: I'll never speak to him again.

Frances. Frances!

FRANCES: This can be a new start for us, too.

You'll hate me for a while.

But I love you so much.

ALEX: I love you, too.

(Alex groans)

- Let me out! - (Beeping)

- Let me out! - (Beeping)

- Get me out of here! - (Beeping)

(Beeping)

Oh.

Well, it's wrong. It's wrong!

I can go back up there. I'll talk to him.

I'll explain.

He'll listen to me.

He didn't understand, that's all.

(Stammering)

I can persuade him.

Alistair. Alistair.

He'll listen to me. He'll listen to me.

Let me speak to him!

Let me speak to my son!

(Screams) Let me speak to him!

Let me speak to my...

(Groans)

(Groans)

(Sobbing)

I know a police officer.

You fail to grasp what has been done to you.

The fact that you know the truth is irrelevant.

No one is going to publish anything you say.

No one is going to investigate your claims.

No one will believe you.

But they'll believe you.

You're his mother.

What do you owe them?

You gave them your son.

Tell me,

were I to agree,

what would we do?

We'd tell them the truth.

I can't.

- (Sobs) - She can't.

- I want to hear it from you. - You've heard it from me.

DANNY: His name is Alex.

His real name.

- The name you gave him. - She won't help you.

She renamed him, but you let it slip.

- (Sobbing) - DANNY: Deliberately.

FRANCES: She can't help you.

(Groans)

(Sobbing)

It's time you left.

She's gone.

(Breathing heavily)

(Sobbing)

(Fire burning in distance)

(Nanny breathing heavily)

For her son.

For Alex.

All she can do.

It's all she can do!

Just a stupid boy?

(Sighs)

(Footsteps approaching)

Let's burn them down for real.

We'd probably better hurry.

You understand, we don't stand a chance?