Pictures at 11 by Norman Spinrad

Author:Norman Spinrad [Spinrad, Norman]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

3:05 P.M

Onscreen:

A FULL SHOT ON Toby Inman, Kelly Jordan, and Horst Klingerman. All three of them are sweating. Jordan has a bit of a glazed look. Klingerman, grim, frazzled around the edges, eyes narrowed, jaw tight, with the look of a man whose digestion has been soured by swallowing far too much of his own bile, wipes his hand across his mouth nervously.

Toby Inman has a jumpy no-more-Mr.-Nice-Guy look as he punches in the next call.

“KLAX-TV, you’re on the air with Kelly Jordan and Horst Klingerman, and I do hope you’ve got something more important on your mind than hearing the sound of your own voice on TV.” Male caller’s voice-over: “I sure do, Toby. I’d like Horst and Kelly to look you in the eye, and then look us in the eye, and tell us whether they could really kill you.”

Toby Inman pales for a beat. Kelly Jordan freezes. Horst Klingerman’s face is unreadable. A long beat of deadly silence.

“What kind of question is that?” Kelly Jordan finally says. “I don’t see—”

“The real question, now ain’t it?” the caller’s voice says silkily. “You talk a lot about blowing things up and killing people and you look real cute with your exploding vests and machine guns. But could you really do it?”

A close-up on Toby Inman, sweating harder now, looking not into the camera but to the right, apparently at Horst Klingerman.

Caller’s voice-over: “You got what it takes, or you just a couple of bigmouth pussies? One picture’s worth a thousand words. So look Toby in the eye, look us out here in the eye, look yourselves in the eye—know what I mean?—and say whether you could really kill—”

“Why don’t you go back to rubbernecking freeway pile-ups, ghoul-boy?” Toby Inman snaps rather shrilly as his hand starts to move toward the button console—

A hard jerky cut to a shot on Inman and Klingerman as Horst Klingerman grabs it.

“No!” Klingerman says. “I am not afraid to answer!”

Another awkward cut, this one into a full shot on the three of them as Kelly Jordan tries to reach across Toby Inman to touch Horst Klingerman, fails.

“Hey, cool it, Horst, this creep—”

“No, Kelly, our credibility has been questioned, and so we must answer!”

“It’s some kind of trap, Horst, it’s a trick, we don’t—”

Male caller’s voice-over: “Are you killers, or are you liars?”

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