Pat Cadigan by Synners (epub)

Author:Synners (epub)
Format: epub
Published: 2023-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

21

On one of the many screens set into the wall in Rana Copperthwait’s office, an actress with wild black hair crossed her arms and looked petulant. “Couldn’t we at least get a couple of German shepherds or something?”

“Not a chance,” said Rana Copperthwait. “Now, die. And this time, make it look like death, not a multiple orgasm.” She stabbed at the console on her desk, turning off the sound, and let out a tired breath. “She knows she’s supposed to be freezing to death in the wilderness with wolves all around her, waiting to gobble her up, she knows it’s all going to be put in later, during the finish. What could be clearer? I have to watch these productions constantly to make sure they’re all doing what they’re supposed to do, not what they think they want to do.”

She gestured at the other screens showing different features in various stages of production and then flicked on her million-watt smile again. Gabe felt blinded. “I love what you’ve done. Just the little bit I’ve seen is enough to let me know you’ve got a winning combination in those women. How soon do you suppose you could work up a treatment for a feature?”

Gabe swallowed. “I don’t know. I don’t really, uh, work that way with them. With the program, I mean.”

“With them,” Copperthwait corrected him. “Look, you don’t have to pretend with me, I know they’re real to you. I told you, I understand artistic people.” Her smile faded a bit. “Just how do you work?”

He glanced at Manny from the corner of his eye. There were no secrets now, nothing to hide, but he still felt uncomfortable talking about it in front of Manny. “Well, I just, uh, put on the programs, and then the RNG—”

“Orange E?” Copperthwait blinked her overdone eyes at him.

“Uh, R-N-G. Random number generator. It, uh, selects situations and prompts from a random pool of choices—”

“But surely you have produced results you’ve desired?”

Gabe shifted in the too-comfortable chair, bumping his foot against the front of her desk. Manny was frowning at him again. “Even then I try to leave room for some random elements. So it’s more like a real experience. If you see what I mean.”

“I’m sure I do.” Copperthwait kept her smile on him as if she were pinning him to the chair with it. “Is an outline just completely out of the question?”

He opened his mouth to answer, and she suddenly sat up straight. “Maybe it is,” she said, staring at him thoughtfully. “Maybe I’m missing the point here, maybe I’m missing the very thing that gives your creation the charm that captivates me and will captivate the whole country. Orange E. Orange E. Like life. You can’t know exactly what’s going to happen, not exactly.” She rubbed her fingers delicately against each other. “All right, how about this—you give me some locales, a basic situation as a starting point, and that’s all. Bare bones. Make it something like, oh…” She made a painful, thinking-hard face.

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