sorry if i scared you. i was heading home and saw the lights. we met before, in the can.
so do you normally work this late?
you kidding? this is an early night. hard to believe that once upona time a man's success was measured by how little he had to work. you know in sweden the average worker gets 7 weeks a year vacation? do-you like accounting?
it's all right. if you enjoy working with assholes. jonathan laughs, glances at his monitor screen.
well, i'm probably disturbing you -
so worth and berman, huh? don't you have to like be in mensa to work there? jonathan smiles, shrugs modestly.
been with them long?
really. so you were poor? jonathan is given pause by the bluntness of the question.
not around here. practically every suit i know is harvard by way of andover.
me? hell no.  i'm princeton. by way of exeter. jonathan laughs. wyatt smiles, takes a few idle paces.
so. jonathan.
jonathan?
by the clock on the wall there? you've just talked for 37 minutes straight. wyatt looks at jonathan -- and cracks up. jonathan hesitates, then he too starts to laugh so now they can't stop, their laughter filling the expansive room -- until it's drowned by the sound advance of pouring rain.
leaving, huh? so where to next?
hey, wait up a sec. well, good meeting you, jonathan. ,wyatt turns and starts to walk off with the other lawyer. jonathan bends for his briefcase -
wait, so you have off tomorrow? jonathan looks up to wyatt smiling at him from down the hall.
you don't happen to have .a. decent backhand, do you?
out!
commiserations, messer. good game. they shake hands at the net. jonathan is exhausted.
they asked if we'd fancy a post-game cocktail. don't worry, i got us out of it. jonathan is barely able to speak.
are you kidding? they're a couple of first years at merrill. screw that, we can do better. hey, you ok? jonathan nods as an amused wyatt helps him to his feet.
man, i remember when these first came out. i think i was a frosh at boarding school. jeez, are these strings natural gut?
have you ever considered contacts? jonathan halts, confused to find wyatt studying his face - his eyeglasses in particular.
too bad. you have an attractive face. your eyes especially. jonathan looks self-conscious in his towel.
it's not a come on, just an observation. you don't get much, do you.
no, flood insurance. how many women have you slept with?
of course you know. everyone knows.
maybe four?
me? i have no idea.
i meant everyone like you. confused, jonathan looks up -- as wyatt disappears into a shower stall.
tonight?.  fine. i'm on the list? jonathan finds wyatt half-dressed, seated on a bench by a locker and talking on his cell phone.
there better be. wyatt hangs up, looks up to find jonathan staring, puzzled.
something wrong? jonathan reaches into his locker for his hanging jacket, and pulls out his own cell phone. it's identical to wyatt's.
oh - and you thought i was using yours? i can afford my own phone calls, you know.
i'm pulling your dick, jonathan. actually, i was just firming up some plans for tonight. are you free?
you're not. what do you say, are you in?
to brooklyn? forget it, you can borrow something of mine.
t a uten abend, herr kleiner. this way, jonathan.
like it? it's a gerhard richter. kleiner downstairs is a hot shot art dealer - he hooked me up with the gallery in munich. wyatt disappears into the next room. alone, jonathan wanders, pauses by the framed snapshots. the young people in them are like wyatt -- beautiful, strong, wealthy. jonathan pauses by one photo in which wyatt looks a bit younger, his hair bleached blonde and loosely spiked.
talk about a bad look. startled, jonathan quickly turns to find wyatt standing right behind him,. a slick, expensive suit draped over his arm.
here, try this one. what?
you hope you can pull it off. you know who you remind me of? james getz.
a guy i roomed with freshman year at princeton.  real smart - witty too, when you loosened him up. only from day one, he just didn't fit in. for starters, he was dirt poor. but it wasn't that. see, there was always this boundary - this wall - between getz and everyone else. you could argue we laid the foundation, but he built it. built it by believing the lie.
that he was any different. the clothes, the money, the wry anecdotes - it's all one big masquerade. anyone can get in, you've just got to wear a costume. but getz never got that. he assumed he could never scale the wall, when the truth is he was the only one guarding it. it never occurred to him his anonymity could be an asset. no one gets over like the guy who's just a face, an impression. we are - all of us - only who we're perceived to be.
who, james getz? oh - he killed himself.
with both hands. jonathan can't help but laugh as wyatt hands him the suit.
it's a little self-conscious, but i thought you'd get a kick out of it. how's that suit working out?
keep it then. i've got two just like it. jonathan's about to protest, when a waitress arrives.
we'll try not to spill any. so what's the wildest thing you've ever done? sexually, i mean.
all right, what's the lamest thing then?
and you called it? so what happened?
you called a sex ad - from money magazine. that is beyond lame. jonathan too starts laughing - when the phone at their table lights'up. wyatt looks to jonathan, raises a brow - then picks up. he listens a moment, smiles, hands it to jonathan.
that depends on what you mean by that word. stretch the definition and you could incorporate most of the men as well. you know in amsterdam prostitutes not only belong to a union, they have to pay taxes.
not really. i just get around.  jonathan, relax. it's not like she just shot your dog. i was only trying to help. besides, what are you looking for - a relationship? as if you have time for one? this was your first day off in how long?
four for me. face it, we've mortgaged our youth. pimped out our twenties. but we still have needs. and there's nothing shameful about wanting them met.
what if i told you.  christ, i sound like an infommercial.
listen. you don't think that women have these same urges? young women, just like ourselves, successful and working their asses off to stay that way? you better believe they do.
and - well - let's just say, there's a way. a way it can be taken care of.
some other time.
at the corner, please. the rhiga royal. listen, i have to meet someone.
hey. you had a good time tonight?
i'm glad. listen, that thing with the hooker, i'm really sorry if i -
i'll give you a call tomorrow. wyatt climbs out. jonathan watches through the cab window as wyatt disappears into the golden glow of the lobby. later: driving in the cab, jonathan catches his reflection in the glass. he smiles, liking how he looks in wyatt's suit. outside, rainy manhattan passes by ina hypnotic blur.
hey, jonathan.
you really ought to block your caller id. so - same place as yesterday?
i wonder what the founding fathers would make of this scene. wyatt regards face after face of young men and women wearing expensive suits, wolfing down lunch so they can get back to work - a good 2. 3 of them talking on cell phones as they eat.
yes?.  shit. okay, see if you can.gettme on the 6:15 out of jfk tonight.  fine. wyatt rests his phone on the ledge next to jonathan's.
rutherford needs me to join him asap in london to paper some financing with lloyds. i tell you about this?
yeah, i should be gone a few weeks. jonathan tries to mask the wave of loneliness setting in.
nah, it'll be boring as sin.
shit, i'd better get back. you ready?
suit yourself.
long time no see.
i have some instructions. follow them and i might let her live.
this should've been simpler. i frame you, you panic.
press pause on the questions and listen. the brokerage firm you're auditing is clute nichols. as a standard part of that audit you're temporarily privy to all client accounts as well as access codes required for transactions. at 11 p.m. tonight you're going to skim from those accounts a total of $200 million and transfer that money to an account i've established overseas.
i know you don't. but i do. your passport. now, please. jonathan takes it out and tosses it to him. wyatt catches it. and hands jonathan an envelope.
it's all in there. 11 pm tonight. their banks will just be opening.
i can live with eventually. i always have.
you answered the ad, jonathan. "feeling all alone out there? have a great job, fine personality and good looks to match, but no time to.meet that special someone? help is just a phone call away -"
not lies, jonathan. foreplay. and now.  now you're fucked. he grins his 'charming' grin and starts for the door.
remember: be smart. i'll be watching you. and.  feel free to take a shower, looks like you could do with one. the front door slams. jonathan just stands there, staring shell-shocked at the envelope.
absolutely.
yes. i'm going to travel. i want to see the world. peterson nods benignly.
what's taking you?
i said what's taking you?
don't worry about what i'm doing. just finish the transaction. now.
in one of the rooms. safe. i got us a table.
to friendship. jonathan just stares back at wyatt.
he was dead when i met him. just like you. the rest was a mere formality. of course he didn't have your bargaining chip. speaking of which.
i told you, she's in a room. alive.
as soon as you're done, i'll tell you the room number.
hey, i like you, okay? you'll be fine.
i do, jonathan. in my way. after all, you're my creation. i'm the one who gave you life.
yeah, well, i'm weeping big wet ones for you both. now, let's get on with it.
what is it?
you stupid fuck.
no. get up.
they will now. jonathan takes the hundred, and heads into
what the hell are you -- and then he sees auburn hair glance unsurely at the eloise portrait, then at her cell phone's clock -- and now realizes:
motherfucker! he jumps up, shoves auburn hair aside - eyes darting to the business center to find jonathan no longer behind the glass, just his laptop resting on the counter where he'd been standing.
nice try back there, jonathan. looks like you picked up a thing or two from me. jonathan tries to strike him - when with a lightning quick movement wyatt whips the iron rod through the air, cracking jonathan across the face.
killer instinct, pall
me? no - no, i'm just a face in the crowd. i'm a tourist, just passing through. jonathan's pov: wyatt's face presses closer, now almost in focus as he presses jonathan's torso back over the ledge -
as for you, you had your fun.  wyatt presses closer, crushing jonathan's back to the edge.
now we're going to go back down.  insert jonathan's hand reaching into wyatt's pocket, his fingers fumbling for the cell phone .
we're going to get that laptop.  close on jonathan's fingers blindly prodding - he has the phone now - his fingers feel for the antenna.
and we're going to finish this, once and for - - when with all his strength jonathan jams the cell phone up into wyatt's eye, the antenna punching into the retina.