by Lila Dubois
Runako, lounging in the armchair, was frowning at the ceiling. “You have to do all this? You will go to different places, ask for prices, take pictures?”
“No. We’ll bring in a location scout who will do that. They’ll give me information and I pick the best of what they find, check to see how it fits with what we need, and include it.”
“So you must supervise this person.”
“Yep. And that’s just for location. There’re a million things besides location that haven’t been taken into consideration. The pink neon elephants in the room are the Monsters.”
Runako looked around, presumably for an elephant, “There are no pink elephant monsters.”
“Good to know. What I meant was that we aren’t sure how we’re going to do the Monsters in the movie. Realistically it’s going to have to be some form of CGI, but we might be able to do it with modeled live action. Meaning we might get some of you to be our models, take a 3D scan of you and feed it into the computer. Then we would hire actors who would work in front of a green screen, meaning they would stand in front of a green wall, and act out the motions, but instead of seeing the actors the computer would assigned the actors movements to the digital model of you.”
Margo held her breath to see if he’d understood that. It didn’t seem like a complicated concept to her, and even most lay people would understand it, because they’d seen enough behind the scenes footage to get the basics.
Runako had done his movie pop culture homework, but unless he’d watched all zillion hours of behind the scenes footage on The Lord of the Rings he might be lost by her explanation.
“It is like…The Two Towers, or Return of the King.”
Figures. “Close. What we’d want to do is actually closer to what Tom Hanks did with The Polar Express but I’m guessing you don’t have that DVD with you. We’d want to use the technology from that with live action settings. A cartoon, even a good one, won’t have the same effect.”
“That is very complicated.”
“So now you know why I need to go home.”
Runako ignored that. “Why don’t you just use the real Monsters?”
“You mean you and Luke and the other guys?”
“If it will be a movie about Monsters there should be real Monsters in it.”
“That would be simpler, but we need actors.”
“We would be the actors. Why do you assume that performance skill is not something we are capable of?”
“Are you the Monster Brad Pitt?” Margo asked.
“I liked that movie.”
“Which one?”
“Troy.”
Figures. “What I meant was are you the star actor among the Monsters?”
“No. But Henry is.”
Margo blinked. After all the girl’s had done with these guys the least the guys could have done was mention that the best actor in their race was one of them. Then again, had she and the girls ever bothered to ask? Probably not.
“That’s…that’s something to take into consideration, but acting in theatre, and I’m assuming that you have them, right? Okay, yeah well the thing is acting in theatre is really different than acting for film.”
Runako sat forward, and there was a glint in his eyes. “We could be taught to do this film acting, yes? Henry is the best, but I am very good also.”
Margo knew that glint. She’d seen it in the eyes of extras and acting students everywhere.
Then again, having the guys play versions of themselves would dramatically cut the budget. It would also be the first big clue that something was going on. Once they started working on the movie and word got out what it was, people would ask who was doing the special effects, and when all the big houses shrugged and said “Not I” people would start to wonder.
They’d need to budget extra for security and legal. Closed set. No talk papers signed by everyone. Money to sue the dumb extra who would leak what was going on.
“I need a pen and paper. I need a laptop, I need to get this down.” Margo snapped, fingers twitching with a need to commit all this to paper.
Runako sat up, alerted by her tone as to the shift in mood.
“I think a laptop is one of the things I brought,” he said apologetically. There was pink on his cheeks, and Margo realized he was embarrassed that he didn’t know for sure.
“Where is it?”
Runako brought her a hard-sided silver case. The closure was complicated and took Margo a minute to figure out. She made a show of cursing and struggling to make him feel better.
“We’re going to feel really dumb if this is just a case full of laundry that Michael wanted Jane to model.”
“I didn’t bring any of the clothes he wanted me to get. I saw no point in kidnapping her only to give her clothes.”
“Some day you really have to show me this kidnapping handbook you’re working off of.”
The case popped open and inside was a gleaming laptop. She snatched it up and hugged it to her chest. “Oh yes, my pretty, you and I will do beautiful things together,” she cooed.
Runako raised his brows and took a seat next to her.
Margo popped open the lid. Holding the computer with one arm she started to close the case. A small pouch wedged in with the power cable caught her eye. Margo plucked it out and zipped it open with her teeth. Inside was a satellite wireless card.
“How,” she whispered reverently, “how did Michael know?”
“Know what?” Runako asked, gaze darting between her face, the beeping computer, and the wireless card.
“How did he know to get one of these, and how did he afford it.”
“I bought it,” Runako said, nudging her a bit. “He gave me a list, but I took the list to the store. I bought all these things.”
Taking the hint Margo switched her adoration from the computer to Runako. “You’re a genius.” She leaned over and kissed him. Runako cupped the back of her head and started to deepen the kiss, but Margo slithered away.
“Time to get started.”
She set aside the wireless card, knowing all productivity was shot if she wasn’t able to get on the Internet. The computer only had basic programs, certainly none of the complicated budgeting programs designed specifically for movies that she had on her own computer, but a simple spreadsheet worked just as well.
Aware of the seriously gorgeous, if slightly befuddled, guy beside her, Margo talked out everything she wrote down. Runako soon joined in, asking questions and making suggestions, which helped Margo clarify her thoughts.
Two hours and one pair of aching eyeballs later Margo had a sample budget worked up.
“This is amazing,” she leaned over and gave Runako an enthusiastic kiss. “You’re seriously good at this. You’re very logical, and you’re not influenced by the way things should be done. This,” she motioned to the screen, “is workable, and with a budget like this we could approach individuals instead of a financial group. We have to wait for the screenplay and adjust, but I know she’s writing it as a summer blockbuster, and this is a summer blockbuster style budget—without the massive FX allocation.”
Margo stopped to clear her throat, which was rough from nearly two hours of non-stop talking. With a sigh she leaned back, saved the files in four different places, and picked up the wireless card.
“Time to make contact with the outside word.”
Chapter Thirteen
Runako didn’t try to stop her. Margo stole a glance his way, and he was staring into middle space. She slipped in the wireless card, and after a few tense moments it picked up a weak signal.
There was no way she was going to get an Internet call out with a signal that weak, but she could send an email. Ignoring the two hundred new messages in her inbox, Margo sent an email to her friends.
Subject: The Kidnapped Margo Makes Contact.
Thanks so much for ALL YOUR HELP. Jerks. Yes, Runako kidnapped me and has taken me to some remote cave in the Rockies. You might be interested to know that it w
as Michael who arranged to have these caves outfitted for a captive because he was planning to bring Jane here.
I’ll be back on Monday—no I have no idea how we got here so I don’t know when I’ll arrive.
Until then, take a look at the docs I’ve attached. Runako suggested we move forward with the Monsters playing themselves. I told him we needed actors—turns out Runako’s a pretty good actor, and Henry is considered the best actor among them. How did that little detail slip by us?
Anyway, don’t worry about me, Stockholm syndrome has set in.
Margo
She sent the email with a smile on her face. She checked the time, guessed that she was in the Mountain Standard Time zone, and decided to wait a bit and see if any of the girls responded.
With another sidelong glance at Runako, who was still distracted, she opened a search window. It took her a while—she hadn’t remembered the name correctly—but after ten minutes she was looking at the website of a company called “BlackWolf” whose symbol was a snarling red wolf head against a black background.
The information on their website was sparse, but she struck gold on blogs. Every liberal blog, from Pro-Choice to Anti-War, was up in arms about BlackWolf, and had at least one piece on them.
They were primarily a mercenary training company. Their website had said they trained bodyguards and security specialists, but the blogs were saying they trained assassins. They had government contracts, and were operating as a security force in several troubled areas around the globe.
As troubling as all this information was, Margo went looking for something else. She found it in a three-year-old blog post. The blogger cited missing person’s reports, documented the scientists that arrived at the BlackWolf compound, and finally detailed a killing spree undertaken by a former BlackWolf trainee. All this, according to the blogger, was evidence than BlackWolf was working on genetic modification—creating super humans.
Margo closed the lid of the laptop and leaned back, thinking hard.
What should she do? She had a gut feeling that the people who had taken Runako’s sister were BlackWolf men. Either they’d stumbled on her in the forest, and captured her with no premeditation, or they’d hunted her, and kidnapping and experimenting on her was premeditated.
Either way, she should give this information to Runako.
“Yes,” he said, startling her. “I will play myself. I should inform Jane that she needs to write a part for me.”
“Sure. Good idea. Look there’s something I need to tell you, something I need you to know.”
Runako looked her up and down, frowning. “You are not hurt.”
“No, nothing like that. It’s…uh…” Margo swallowed and steeled her nerve, “…it’s about your sister.”
Runako’s face turned to stone and his eyes were bright and sharp as flint. “Why?”
“I think I might know who killed her.”
His eyes widened in shock, and he lost the frighteningly stone-like expression. He stammered out a question in his language, then shook his head and said “How?”
“You said there was a logo on their shirts, a wolf’s head, right?”
“Yes. But I looked for the symbol and never found it.”
“The situation, combined with the logo information, sparked something in my memory.” Margo opened the laptop, clicked to the BlackWolf homepage, and turned the laptop to Runako. “Is this it?”
His reaction was immediate and dire. Runako stared in shock for a breath and then jumped to his feet. His hands curled into fists as he threw his head back and roared. His wings burst from his back. For a moment his great blue bat-like wings flared above his human body, before his human skin was shredded by his true form, which burst forth, fueled by his rage. The cave echoed with the sounds of crunching bone and tearing flesh. Margo swallowed a scream, but couldn’t stop herself from shrinking back into the corner of the couch.
Runako opened and closed his wings as he flexed his arms. His claws flashed menacingly in the light.
“Where,” he said. The word was so guttural she barely understood.
“I don’t know—wait, wait don’t do that—I’m not sure where exactly, but people suspect they have a secret compound in Colorado. There’s an aerial shot of it and a general area guide, but that’s all I could find.”
“Show me.”
Margo pulled up the maps she had found. There was a small patch of metal roof visible through the trees of a dense forest. The nearest road was at least twenty miles away, and that was an unnamed mountain road.
Runako directed her to widen the map to give a better overall view. Margo did so with shaking fingers. Runako loomed over her, one wing spread above her head and braced against the back of the couch, almost like a third arm. His breath was hot on the side of her face. She was acutely aware of her nakedness beneath the blanket and how terribly vulnerable her soft skin was against his golden claws.
“I know this place,” Runako said grimly.
“You do?”
“It is not far from here, a few hours only. She was so close…so close.”
“There’s nothing you could have done,” Margo said soothingly.
Runako snarled at her. He turned his face to hers, pulled his lips back from his teeth and snarled. Margo screamed and flinched back.
“Do not be stupid, human. If I’d know her location I could have gone to her. I could have killed every human who touched her, demolished their little dwelling with my hands and set it afire so their corpses disintegrated to ash. I could have. I would have.”
Margo had made her comment without really thinking about it. It was a standard platitude. He was right. If he’d known he might have been able to save her.
That didn’t mean that he had any right to get bitchy with her.
“Why don’t you step back. Don’t get pissy with me. I’m helping you. I know you’re angry, but you’re not angry at me, or at the people who killed her. You’re angry at your sister. You’re mad that she couldn’t tell you where she was so you could save her. But you can’t admit that you are mad at her because she’s dead.”
Runako snarled and turned away. His wings rose and fell with his breathing. Margo held her breath. Had she gone too far? She wasn’t a counselor, and Runako definitely needed to be seeing someone to help him deal with his sister’s death.
“Why did she panic?” he said in a low voice. “I know they were hurting her, but she knew I was there with her. She knew I was there. If she could have focused, given me something…”
Holding the blanket in place Margo stood. She reached up and put her hand on his back, between the wing joints. His back felt like iron, and he was almost painfully warm to touch.
Margo remained silent, hoping he understood that her touch on his back was comfort, support and understanding.
“I must go,” he said finally. “I have to find the place where she died.”
“If you go it’s just as likely that you’ll end up like her.”
“I won’t let them take me. I’ll kill them.”
“By the time you get close enough to get at them you’ll be full of bullet holes.”
“I am not without firing weapons of my own,” he said. He flexed his hand and two darts shot out of his wrist. Margo gulped as the darts embedded themselves in the wall. How sharp were they that they could pierce stone?
“Okay, you have weapons of your own, I’d forgotten about those. I still say that just showing up and killing everyone in sight is a bad plan.”
“That’s a great plan.”
“What if they retreat inside, lock the doors and don’t come out? If it’s really a secret lab I bet they have some pretty heavy-duty defenses—no convenient large windows or air ducts. They’d have food and water in there and could wait you out, or, while you’re distracted trying to get in, they could send a sniper up into a tree and bam, two shots to the head and you’re done.”
Runako had turned to face her as she spoke. By the time she was d
one talking he was grinning.
“You have a plan,” he said through his smile. “You already have a plan that conquers all these things.”
“I do.” Margo took a deep breath. Was she really about to do this? She might get killed, all over some female Monster she’d never known. She wasn’t willing to die for Runako’s sister—she wasn’t that altruistic—but she was willing to put her life on the line to help him.
She loved him. Standing in front of him, about to lay out a plan that would probably get them both killed, she couldn’t deny that she loved him. It was ridiculous—she barely knew him, but he made her feel beautiful and smart. Her heart sped up every time he walked into the room, and he touched her with cool confidence that she found incredibly arousing, as well as reassuring.
“Okay, here’s what we’re going to do,” she said. When she looked at him she no longer saw a Monster, she just saw Runako. Her Runako. Her beloved.
“Hello? Is anyone there, please we need help.”
Runako’s arm over her shoulders Margo scanned the building for any signs of life. Runako hobbled along beside her, favoring his left leg.
“Help! Please, my boyfriend is hurt.”
A section of metal wall opened—a door. There was nothing defining it as a door—not even a doorknob on the outside. The doorway was dark, but Margo could feel someone watching them. She turned her head to Runako, letting her hair fall in front of her face.
“They’re watching, look hurt.”
“I am hurt,” he growled. His face contorted in a grimace of pain. Margo’s heart lurched. The injury had been the scariest part of the plan. She’d planned to have Runako injure himself—it had to be convincing—and then, once they’d been taken into the compound so he could be looked after, he would shift into Monster form, heal himself instantly and then kill the bad guys.
The “kill the bad guys” part of the plan was making Margo more than a little sick to her stomach. Part of her was in denial—she didn’t want to face the fact that what they were doing was premeditated murder. The other part of her didn’t like these guys, they were bad news all around, and if they were really doing genetic experimentation with materials and information they collected through torture, she wanted them gone. Guys like this, with even a fraction of Runako’s strength, would be really bad.