REINDEER GAMES

                        ASHLEY
           No, Nick, no--

                        RUDY
           You're in on this.

                        ASHLEY
           I love you!

Rudy stares at her coldly.

                        RUDY
           Y'know, in a way, I'm glad it's me.
           'Cause you woulda broken his heart.

Ashley stares, panicked. Pug's still watching them.

                        RUDY
           Your pen palls dead, lady.

                        ASHLEY
           If you say that, if you keep
           saying that, they will kill
           you. If they think you're not
           you, they will kill you. Don't
           you see? I know what you're
           doing, but it won't work!

                        RUDY
           Nick died for me....

                        ASHLEY
           I won't let him hurt you! He just
           wants what you know!

                        RUDY
                 (ruefully)
           ... maybe I die for Nick...

                        ASHLEY
           Just tell him what you know,
           Nick! That's all they want! And
           we'll get out of this!

Rudy gives her a stone cold stare. Ashley crumbles, touching his
face, shaking her head, tears. Devastated.

                        ASHLEY
           He found them...I swear, Nick...
                 (helpless)
           ... he found them...

The truck shudders through downshifts, to a groaning stop. Ashley
embraces Rudy fiercely, holding on for the last.

The trailer gate RATTLES open into the truck's roof.

Ashley shuts her eyes.

EXT. REST STOP/INT. GABRIEL'S RIG - CONTINUOUS

The rig all alone at a snowy rest area. Gabriel, Merlin and Jumpy
climb inside as silhouette sentries. Gabriel surveys, then lifts a
piece of paper:

                        GABRIEL
           "My sweet, sexy Ashy-lashy, I have been
           dreaming of you constantly, and knowing
           you are out there makes these walls not
           seem so close or so strong or so cold..."
                 (to Merlin/Jumpy)
           Women live for this stuff.
                 (reads on)
           Dreaming 'bout your this, dreaming 'bout
           your those, gettin' X-rated on me here,
           Nicky ... where are we... oh, right,
           other side...
                 (turns paper over)
           "Someday I'm gonna take you up by Lake
           S. Before I went in, before goddamn
           Millie, 'fore I had my situation, I
           used to work up at this casino, working
           security. Used to watch for people
           stealing chips, counting cards, getting
           piss-drunk, that kinda shit. Indian
           place, they hired this reject outta
           Vegas to run it, got about as much
           business sense as a buffalo patty.
           Anyways, it's a fun place to run some
           numbers and play."

Gabriel puts the letter down.

                        GABRIEL
           You're a good writer, Nick. I give this
           writing an A-plus.

                        RUDY
           I never worked at no casino.

                        ASHLEY
                 (hopeless)
           Nick...

Rudy steps out of her hold and stalks forward:

                        RUDY
           That's the guy I was in with, I did
           my last ten months with him. He
           rode a two-year bit for manslaughter --
           split a guy's skull open at
           a bar for harassing his girl. That's
           Nick Mason. He worked at that casino.
           He's the one who wrote her letters.
           Me, I'm a damn mechanic, my last job
           was a Quickie Lube, I did five for
           lifting cars. I don't know shit about
           blackjack, I don't know shit about
           Indians. I'm not him.

Gabriel stares at him. Then crumples the letter.

                        GABRIEL
           Bury this guy.

Merlin and Jumpy grab Rudy and THROW him from the truck. He HITS
the snowy parking lot on his side, hands bound.

                        ASHLEY
           Gabriel, you promised!

                        GABRIEL
           I promised that when he helped us,
           we'd be gone! When he helped us!
           Loverboy don't want to play!

Merlin and Jumpy drop to the snow, picking Rudy up.

                        ASHLEY
           You promised me!

                        GABRIEL
           And you promised me you'd get your
           sweetheart to help!

Rudy meets eyes with Ashley. She's caught.

                        GABRIEL
           He'd rather die than be with you,
           he'd make a fucked-up boyfriend anyway.
                 (to Merlin/Jumpy)
           Bury him all over the place.

                        ASHLEY
           NO!

She charges at her brother. Gabriel grabs her, spins her into
control and PUNCHES her in the jaw. She goes flying out of the
truck. HITS the ground hard. In shock.

Merlin and Jumpy march Rudy across the lot. A stand of dark and
snowy woods ahead...

                        MERLIN
           Beats prison, I guess.

                        ASHLEY (o.s.)
           NICK!!! NICK!!! NOOOOO!!!

Rudy struggles, desperate but held firm. Jumpy loads a handgun, as
he muses for the very first time:

                        JUMPY
           The problem with prison... is that
           it is founded on the fundamentally
           flawed perception of rehabilitation
           through punishment. A society can't
           hope to create a "changed man" by
           surrounding him with the worst in his
           fellow man; what it "rehabilitates"
           is solely a conviction that if he can
           survive the inhumanity of prison,
           what then, can he not withstand? He
           has seen man's darkest soul and kept
           his sight: what is left for such a
           man? What faith? What fear?

At the woods' edge, Jumpy gives the gun to Merlin--

                        JUMPY
           Don't get no blood on my boots--

The gun goes to Rudy's head. A bullet fills the chamber. Ashley
SCREAMS. Rudy shuts his eyes tight and--

                        RUDY
           WHAT DO YOU WANT TO KNOW!

Merlin and Jumpy stop. Ashley stops screaming. Gabriel turns.

                        RUDY
           About the Tomahawk! What the hell do
           you want to know!

His guards look to Gabriel. Rudy nods, sweating.

                        RUDY
           I spend six months writing
           poetry and my goddamn
           pen pal fucks me over. Thanks for
           the stamps, Ash. You want me,
           you got me. Whaddya want to know.
           Ashley gasps relief. Gabriel smiles.

                        GABRIEL
           Every-thing.

Merlin and Jumpy march Rudy back. Still on the ground:

                        ASHLEY
           I love you ... Nick, I love you...

Rudy won't meet her eyes.

                        GABRIEL
           Hey. She says she loves you, Nick.

                        RUDY
           She says a lot of things.

                        GABRIEL
           She's getting you to help us...
           'cause she knows if you don't, you're
           dead. You just tell us what we need to
           know, you two live happily ever after.
           My sister loves you, motherfucker,
           and I ain't gonna have you break her
           heart.

                        RUDY
           Wish I had a brother like you.

                        GABRIEL
           A girl says she loves you, you say
           something.

Rudy looks at Ashley. Her eyes plead forgiveness.

                        RUDY
           I had better sex in prison.

                        GABRIEL
           Heyyy. Be nice, convict. We're
           gonna be working together here.
                 (to his boys)
           Get him back in the rig.

Merlin and Jumpy wrench Rudy backward. Ashley reaches out to him,
starts to speak. He looks right through her. She goes silent,
casts her eyes to the snow.

                        PUG (o.s.)
           He's not the guy, Monster.

Everyone looks to the truck. Weasel-faced Pug has sidled next to
Gabriel. Spits some chaw.

It hits Merlin's boots. Merlin growls.

                        PUG
           Whole time you were driving, he
           was telling her he's not the guy,
           he's not the guy. I know why he'd
           tell us he's not the guy. why's
           he - tellinq her he's not the guy?
           What if he's not the guy?

Gabriel considers, jumps off the truck. Walks to Rudy:

                        GABRIEL
           The man who wrote those letters loved
           Ashley, boys. He lived for her love.
                 (nods)
           Let's see him live for love.

Gabriel puts a gun under Rudy's chin. Rudy flinches.

                        GABRIEL
           Where's she work?

                        RUDY
           What?

                        GABRIEL
                 (forces gun harder)
           Wrote you a hundred letters, didn't
           she? Where's she work?

                        RUDY
           J.C. Penney. Beauty and fragrances.

                        GABRIEL
           What's her middle name?

                        RUDY
                 (thinking hard)
           Samantha.

                        GABRIEL
           What'd they call her in high school?

                        RUDY
           Bam Bam.

                        GABRIEL
           What'd they call her in college?

                        RUDY
           What college.

                        GABRIEL
           Where'd she drop her cherry?

                        ASHLEY
           Gabriel!

                        RUDY
           Canada.

                        GABRIEL
           Be more specific.

                        RUDY
           A station wagon in Canada.

                        GABRIEL
           What's her greatest fear?

                        RUDY
           Her brother.

                        GABRIEL
           Wrong, Nick. It's drowning.

                        RUDY
           No. It's her brother.

Rudy stares him down. Gabriel shrugs.

                        GABRIEL
           That's love.

He puts the gun away. Ashley regains her breath.

                        GABRIEL
           Let's get back on the road.
           It's time to start talking, Nick.
           Time to start telling tales--

                        RUDY
           Nick don't talk till Nick gets something.

Gabriel gives a challenging stare. Rudy stares right back.

It's a showdown.

                        RUDY
           Hot. Chocolate.

The trucker slowly smiles. His crew chuckles.

                        MERLIN
           You want that for here or to go?

                        RUDY
           I been in Iron Mountain for two years,
           truckdriver. I do one more crime, I'm
           back there for good, so fuck you and
           fuck your sister and fuck your trucker
           friends. You want to hear about some
           goddamn job of mine? I want some
           hot-goddamn-chocolate.

They've stopped laughing.

                        RUDY
           And some pecan-fucking-pie.

INT. TRUCK STOP-- NIGHT CLOSE ON HOT CHOCOLATE AND PECAN PIE

The six of them sit in a booth, Ashley leaning on Rudy's shoulder
apologetically. The four truckers watch him scarf his pie. "White
Christmas" plays over the speakers.

                        GABRIEL
           So when you worked there--

Rudy raises a finger sharply. Silence. He continues eating.
Scrapes the last of his pie crumbs.

                        GABRIEL
           You knew the place--

                        RUDY
           Hey.

Rudy stares hard. Gobbles the crumbs, washes it down with his hot
chocolate. Savors it. Sets the mug down.

                        RUDY
           Y'know, I could really go for
           some onion rings.

Gabriel nods to Jumpy, who snaps his arm up, SMASHING his knuckles
into Rudy's face.

                        ASHLEY
           Gabriel! You said talk to him.

That's all you ever said...

                        GABRIEL
           We're talking, aren't we?

Rudy holds his nose. Blood trickles.

                        GABRIEL
           How much money's in that casino?
           Day-to-day.

                        RUDY
           I don't know.

                        GABRIEL
           The hell you don't.

                        RUDY
                 (sighs, a guess)
           Five million?

                        GABRIEL
           You wrote Ash that letter, you told
           her that story 'bout working
           Christmas Eve, bout how they'd send
           half the security guys home, nobody
           comin, in that night. And the rest
           of you got shit-faced drinking hot
           buttered rum. That a true story
           now?

                        RUDY
           Christmas ... Eve ...

                        GABRIEL
           You know where the guards are. You
           know how to get in and out. You know
           where the money is.
                 (nods)
           We're taking down that casino,
           convict. You're the guy gonna tell
           us how.

Rudy turns slightly pale.

                        RUDY
           Hey, it's ... been two years--

                        GABRIEL
           We got faith in you, Nick Mason.
                 (smiles)
           You're our inside man.

INT. TRUCK STOP BATHROOM - NIGHT

Rudy slams in, letting the door smack shut behind him. It's a tiny
windowless closet. Rudy kicks a stall door, pacing.

                        RUDY
           ... goddamn it, Rudy ... goddamn it ...
           goddamn girl, goddamn Nick ... you're
           so smart, so fucking smart ...

He stalks a circle, grabs a sink, and stares at his reflection in
the mirror. He looks a wreck. He settles down.

                        RUDY
           Where's your Christmas dinner now...

INT. TRUCK STOP - MOMENTS LATER

A COUPLE leaves the booth behind Gabriel's crew. Pug and Merlin
reach c-ve-r. steal their leftovers and dig in. Ashley fidgets.

Jumpy regards the garlands painted on the windows beside:

                        JUMPY
           I've read where the retail industry
           does fifty percent of its business
           between December 1st and December 25th.
           Half the year's business, in one
           month's time. It seems to me an
           intelligent society would legislate
           a second such gift-giving holiday,
           create, say, a Christmas Two -- late
           May, early June -- to further stimulate
           growth and prosperity. For who would
           protest such a holiday? Taking the
           fifty percent model, a Christmas Two
           would grow this country's annual per
           capita income by close to one-third.