The PHONE RINGS. He answers.
GORBACHEV
Yes.
(beat) Put them through. (beat)
Well?
INTERCUT WITH: Shcherbina on the phone in the command suite at the Polissya. Legasov next to him, on a second handset.
SHCHERBINA The graphite fire is nearly out, and the bubbler tanks are being drained. We have successfully eliminated the risk of thermal explosion.
Gorbachev slowly exhales. Then realizes Shcherbina has fallen quiet on the other end.
GORBACHEV
And?
SHCHERBINA The situation inside the core is deteriorating faster than anticipated. The concrete pad will hold for 6 to 8 weeks, but after that, Legasov estimates a 50% chance the fuel will breach the pad and melt down into the groundwater itself.
GORBACHEV And where does that groundwater go?
SHCHERBINA The Pripyat River, which feeds into the Dnieper.
(MORE)
SHCHERBINA (cont'd) The primary water supply for approximately fifty million people-not to mention crops and livestock-would be... unusable.
Gorbachev closes his eyes. Can't take it anymore.
SHCHERBINA We are recommending we install a heat exchanger under the pad to lower the core temperature and halt the meltdown. In order to do this, I'm told we'll need all of the liquid nitrogen in the Soviet Union.
GORBACHEV (long pause, then) Alright.
SHCHERBINA And of course, we'll need—
GORBACHEV
Whatever you need, you have it. That should be clear by now. Is there anything else?
SHCHERBINA My apologies. No. Thank you for--
But:
LEGASOV
Yes. I wanted to address the 30 kilometer exclusion zone--
Shcherbina reacts. What does Legasov think he's doing?
GORBACHEV
What exclusion zone? Is that Legasov? What are you-- ?
SHCHERBINA (jumping in quickly) Minor details, General Secretary. Premier Ryzhkov has determined that--
GORBACHEV (angry)
If he determined, then he determined.
Shcherbina glares at Legasov. Idiot.
GORBACHEV Legasov, you are there for one purpose, do you understand? To make this stop. I don't want questions. I want to know when this will be over.
LEGASOV
If you mean, when will Chernobyl be completely safe, the half-life of Plutonium-239 is 24,000 years. (beat)
Perhaps we should just say, "Not within our lifetimes."
A stunned Gorbachev hangs on the phone for a few silent moments... and then slowly hangs up. Then:
SHCHERBINA I think you and I should take a walk.
LEGASOV
(wary) It's late. I'm tired.
SHCHERBINA (not negotiable) We're taking a walk.
319 EXT. PRIPYAT - STREET - NIGHT 319
A DOG walks steadily, tail wagging. Happy. A bit of SAUSAGE sails into frame, and the dog snatches it out of the air. Now another DOG enters frame. Then a CAT.
REVEAL: Shcherbina and Legasov walking down the abandoned city street. Street lamps shining for no one.
As they go, Shcherbina casually rips pieces of a large kolbasa and tosses them back to the left-behind pets, a dozen of whom follow him like he's some kind of Pied Piper.
SHCHERBINA Would you like some kolbasa?
LEGASOV (enough with this) What is it you want? An apology? I won't sit back and let these people—
SHCHERBINA What's going to happen to our boys?
LEGASOV What boys? The divers?
SHCHERBINA The divers, the firefighters, the men in the control room. What does the radiation do to them? Precisely.
Legasov doesn't want to answer this question. But:
LEGASOV
At the levels some of them were exposed to... ionizing radiation tears the cellular structure apart. The skin blisters, turns red, then dark. There's nausea, dizziness, fever, loss of consciousness.
Shcherbina throws the last of the sausage into the night, and the pets chase after it, disappearing into the dark.
SHCHERBINA
Continue.
LEGASOV
This is followed by a latency period. The immediate effects subside. The patients appear to be recovering. Healthy, even. But they aren't.
They arrive at a bench. Shcherbina sits. Legasov joins him.
SHCHERBINA (calmly, again) Continue.
LEGASOV
This lasts for only a day or two. Then the cellular damage begins to manifest. The bone marrow dies, the immune system fails, and the soft tissue and organs begin to decompose. The arteries and veins spill open like sieves, to the point where you can't even administer morphine for the pain, which is-- unimaginable. And within three days to three weeks, you are dead. That is what will happen to those boys.
Shcherbina takes it in. Then:
SHCHERBINA Strange. How the things we can't see are the most dangerous.
(beat) And what about us?
LEGASOV
We've gotten a steady dose, but much less of it. Not strong enough to kill the cells, but consistent enough to damage the DNA. In time... cancer. Or aplastic anemia. Either way, fatal.
SHCHERBINA Well. In a sense, it would seem we've gotten off easily then... Valery.
His first name. Legasov notes the familiarity. The kind between friends. A moment between them, and then Shcherbina just barely nods his head to the left.
Was that a signal? Legasov glances back down the street in the direction of Shcherbina's nod, and sees:
THIRTY METERS BEHIND THEM - a MAN AND WOMAN under a street lamp. Clearly following from a distance.
But not just any man and woman. The "husband and wife" from the bar. The wife who asked Legasov if there were anything to worry about.
They don't seem worried now at all. Nor do they seem like a husband and wife. They just stare back at Legasov.
Dead-eyed. Expressionless. And above all, no attempt to disguise who they truly are.
Legasov turns back to look straight ahead. Terrified. My god... that night... he almost told them what he knew...
Shcherbina resumes walking. Legasov moves with him. Stiffly. Trying not to look back.
SHCHERBINA Now you know why I wanted to take a walk. Obviously the work site is bugged. But I suspect our rooms as well. Even our bathrooms. They say you haven't taken a proper shit until you've done it in front of the KGB.
And now Legasov understands the reason for Shcherbina's impassioned defense of the Soviet state.
LEGASOV
I've seen them before. They've been here the whole time.
Shcherbina sighs. Legasov is a smart man, and yet so stupid.
SHCHERBINA Of course they've been here the whole time. If we're seeing them out in the open now— it's because they want us to know.
Legasov glances back one more time at the man and woman. But keeps walking along with Shcherbina.
And the pets... and the KGB... keep following.
320 INT. POLISSYA HOTEL - LOBBY BAR - NIGHT 320
Legasov, returning, crosses through the now-abandoned lobby, then sees:
KHOMYUK alone at the lobby bar, papers spread out around her. Scribbling calculations. A bottle of vodka and a glass.
He hesitates. Makes a silent decision. Then crosses over and takes a seat near her at the bar.
She glances up at him from her work, then eyes back down to her calculations. But she slides a spectrograph page over to him from the top of her papers. Keeps her eyes on her work as she talks.
KHOMYUK
You've seen that? The fuel is melting faster than we expected. The pad—
LEGASOV I know. I have a plan.
KHOMYUK Heat exchanger, I hope.
LEGASOV
Yes.
(her equations) There's something I've wanted to ask you, Comrade. But I see you've been asking it yourself.
She finally slams her pencil down. Beyond frustrated. The anger of a relentless mind facing an unsolvable puzzle.
KHOMYUK
Why did it explode. I've worked the numbers over and over, presuming the worst possible conditions in an RBMK reactor, and I get the same answer every time.
LEGASOV
Which is?
KHOMYUK It's not possible.