NATALIA: How is Sylvia?
JACSON: Sylvia? Sylvia?
PETER WEISS
NATALIA: Isn't Sylvia coming today? I thought you were leaving to–
gether.
JACSON
nods.
NATALIA: Then
I'll
see you afterward in the garden.
NATALIA
goes off.
TROTSKY,
bending over the manuscript, pen in
hand, reads a while. Then he turns with an irritable gesture to
JAC–
SON,
who is still sitting on the corner of the desk.
JACSON
stands
up, grinning nervously. He stands behind
TROTSKY,
waiting.
TROT–
SKY
sits motionless over the manuscript, as at the beginning.
JACSON
silently moves up close behind him. Slowly he pulls an ice axe from
the raincoat. Its handle has been shortened. With both hands he lifts
the axe high over
TROTSKY'S
head and prepares to bring it down.
BLACKOUT
(Translated from the German by Geoffrey Skelton)
