Diamonds From Tequila (Dagmar Shaw Thrillers 4) by Walter Jon Williams

Author:Walter Jon Williams [Williams, Walter Jon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: thriller, hollywood, alternate reality games
Publisher: Walter Jon Williams
Published: 2017-12-02T16:00:00+00:00

7.

I’m sitting in my cabana that afternoon when Hadley, the director, comes to see me. He doesn’t bring me food.

“Jesus Christ, we’re in such fucking trouble,” he says.

I’m almost grateful that he’s not oozing sympathy. He wanders over to one of the baskets of fruit I’ve been given and starts popping grapes into his mouth.

Hadley is bearded and blond and twitchy, with a full range of nervous tics probably acquired during the course of helming a series of huge, complex films, where a single mistake on his part, or on the part of practically anyone else connected with the production, could result in a couple hundred million dollars disappearing just as surely as if it had been doused with gasoline and set on fire. He’s devoted to his films with a formidable single-mindedness that’s just slightly inhuman.

“We’ve still got Loni’s two big scenes,” he says. “Completion bond company thinks we can just cut them and nobody will notice.”

A completion bond is the film’s insurance, who guarantee that in the event of some catastrophe that threatens the production, either the film will be completed or the backers will be repaid their investment. On a big production like this, specialists from the completion bond company are on the set a lot, mostly auditing the various departments. But though they’d obviously prefer that the film be made and they don’t have to pay anyone back, they don’t guarantee that the film will be any good— and they might well be within their rights to insist that the film do without an important subplot and two important scenes. All they care about is whether the movie’s in the can, preferably on time and under budget.

You can imagine my delight in the prospect of my first big feature being a hacked-up, incoherent mess.

“I’ve got to argue them out of it,” Hadley says. He’s pulled a pineapple out of the fruit basket and is absently tugging on the leaves at the top. But he’s too weak to actually yank any of them out, so he loses his patience and slams the pineapple back into the basket.

“Somebody made me a casserole,” I said. “It’s in the fridge. Why don’t you beat that up instead?”

Hadley looks at me. “You’ve got to help, mate.”

“Damn right I will.” I lead with my ace. “I’ll call Bruce Kravitz.”

He puts a finger to his nose. “Brilliant.”

Hadley isn’t a Kravitz client— all PanCosmos directors capable of handling such a big, complicated production were off on other projects— so he doesn’t have access to the biggest cannon in the industry. But I do.

I call Bruce right then, and he understands the equation right away: crappy film => declining careers for PanCosmos clients.

“I’ll start calling around,” he says.

I’m telling the good news to Hadley when Tom King, the line producer, strides in.

“Thought you’d better know,” he tells Hadley. “The cops have been running background checks on everyone connected with the production, and they’ve come across a problem.”

I feel my shoulders tense as I anticipate the news that Ossley is about to be arrested, but that isn’t what Tom is telling us.

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