by Finian Blake
“What are you doing here?”
“I am going to LA to visit a friend. It is a surprise.”
“I am sure it will be.” Liz and Jeff necked until the plane was in the air.
“I would like a blanket.” Liz said asking the stewardess quietly. The stewardess put one foot in the side of the seat and the heel of her shoe on Jeff’s zipper. Jeff turned his head up to say something and as his nose brushed her knee he noticed an over-powering smell of rose. Jeff looked up to see Jennifer towering over him. She came down with two blankets handing one to Liz, giving her breast a firm squeeze as she straightened the blanket over her shoulders. Next, Jennifer spread a blanket over Jeff’s lap giving his pants a firm squeeze.
“I hope you enjoy our personalized service. We aim to please.” Liz reached in from the other side making it a double grip on Jeff.
“Your aim is perfect,” He coughed. Jeff’s first vacation in years would be memorable to the last second.
After the seat belt sign was turned off, Liz got out of her seat to use the toilet deciding to stretch her legs for a few minutes before returning to her seat. She moved easily in her fine lavender linen dress with it hanging perfectly on her. Her seamed hose fit perfectly with Liz walking smoothly in her four inch high heels. She had intentionally dressed provocatively to stimulate Jeff so she stood across from the toilet stretching to give him a good view, attracting the attention of an older woman in her fifties that was sitting behind her and Jeff. The lady came forward to use the toilet as an excuse to talk to her. She was well dressed in a raw silk maroon pant suit. The blouse under her jacket was near transparent maroon giving a partial hint of a lacy maroon brassiere. Instead of using the toilet, she walked boldly up to Liz.
“I could not help noticing how perfectly your clothes hang. Where did you buy them?”
“I had them made the seamstress is really talented. I normally don’t dress like this for travel, but I wanted to give my boyfriend something to remember. We are heading out to LA to work on some ideas for my studio just outside of Manchester. Jeff has his own studio in Los Angles.” Liz smiled extending her hand. “My name is Liz and you are?”
“My name is Opal. I am heading to New York for a series of fashion shows. My husband Alfred and I manufacture lingerie, and I never resist the opportunity to check out the competition. May I ask who you are wearing underneath?” Liz was feeling bold she looked down the aisle to the stewardess who was talking to a passenger in the last row of first class. Liz waved to Jennifer pointing at the toilet looking at Opal. Jenifer waved an ok sign. Liz opened the door quickly pulling Opal inside.
“What if the stewardess comes?” Opal protested weakly.
“I use her as my model. There won’t be a scene.” Liz opened the front of her dress to display her lingerie. The brassiere was also a custom fit. There were no bulges or bags and since Liz sunbathed naked there were no tan lines.
“This is custom. Nobody does this anymore! Who did you get to make these?”
“Let us get out of here, and I will tell you.” Opal backed out of the toilet looking down the aisle seeing that not even a head was raised. The only one that seemed to notice was Opal’s husband and he had a smile that reminded Liz of a vulture. Liz asked Jeff to move to an open seat across the aisle inviting Opal to sit with her and before she sat down, Liz pulled her portfolio out of the overhead bin.
“I have some more examples in here. Right now I am doing some erotic art. I am planning on doing advertising and commercials once we get reworked. We have a full studio with the latest equipment and we can handle your needs no matter what they are.” The first few pictures were the ones that Jeff had her take the first night they were together. Opal reviewed the pictures carefully examining the lingerie in each shot.
“These are highly erotic. I cannot believe that somebody is doing this kind of work and I do not know about it.”
“My seamstress has an exclusive clientele and she has more work than she can handle without advertising.” Liz said using her most confident voice.
“Will you give me her name please?”
“I will do better than that. Here is my card please come visit me in about a week. I will make a reservation for you and your husband. If you call before that, ask for my twin sister Terri, just use my name.” Liz handed Opal a card that read ‘KNOLL PRODUCTIONS’. Opal resumed her seat and Jeff returned to his seat. Liz threw the blanket over his lap putting her head on his shoulder. Opal heard Jeff moan after a few minutes and when she looked between the two seats she noticed some motion beneath the blanket.
An hour after Liz left, a helicopter from the studio flew over. William and Marshall replaced Andrew with Quincy, the director. They made several passes over the Inn to get a variety of angles. He took note of the new project in the courtyard. The helicopter swung in for a landing and was met by the women with Adam electing to keep a low profile. Susan greeted the studio people adjourning to the security room. Marshall started in without delay.
“This is Quincy. He will be the director on our picture. We are way behind with everything. Andrew disappeared and it seems that he had some kind of involvement with the snuff ring that was in the newspapers a few weeks ago. His camera woman seems to have disappeared too. It is believed that she was killed by the same ring, since her car was found at a preserve with the interior covered in her blood and her bloody clothes inside. He hired her directly and nobody at the studio even knows what she looked like. The police were forever at the studio looking for him. We are no further along today than we were when we talked to you two weeks ago. I see that you are adding something new to the cottages.”
Susan smiled, “Yes, we are adding a small pub to the courtyard, plus a stable and a kennel to the equestrian property. You suggested it and we had the plans in the works, so we decided to push ahead. Please, feel free to work on your own schedule. However, we will not wait for your decisions. If our plans happen to coincide we can do some business.”
“That is a harsh attitude. We had problems to take care of back at the studio,” Marshal protested.
“We have problems too, but we take care of business. While you were settling your problem, we expanded by twenty-five percent. We will be completely finished with that expansion in sixty days and the pub will be finished in two weeks. Terri will take care of your needs and Lynn will write the contracts. Please let her know what your decisions are. I have business to take care of today.” Susan walked off and left the studio people with Terri. Susan wanted to make it clear that their studio was not their only business.
Terri rolled out the drawings giving the interior, front, side and rear views of the pub. She also had an artist’s rendition of the pub and outdoor courtyard. The building was scaled to fit with the Inn’s courtyard. The drawing of the interior showed the beamed ceiling and the bar. Terri had exceptional talent for designing to a period giving the interior and exterior a look of being a hundred years old. Quincy studied the sketches and scale.
“This seems to fit with our set design. We can even use this for some interior shots. Let’s take a stroll and see the rest of the property.” Terri guided them through the false hedgerows which divided the property.
“We will be able to run most of our equipment and cables through these tunnels. How wide is that road?”
“The road is nine hundred meters long and thirty five meters wide. There is a minimum depth of four feet of compacted gravel across eighty feet of the width with a turnaround at each end of the road, so we can park large lorries on both sides of the road, with no fear of damage and still have room for two way traffic on the road itself. The CAA certified us to land small commercial aircraft on the road plus we have two helicopter pads in our service area, as you have experienced. The Inn has three backup generators each one capable of lighting all of the key areas.”
“What about those barriers in the middle of the road?” Terri called security on her radio and within two minutes all of the barriers were pulled ba
ck into the hedgerows.
“Have you ever thought of taking up set design?” Quincy could not see any power poles or other signs of modern civilization from inside the Inn that would have to be hidden since the hedgerows managed to block out the outside world.
Terri moved over to the Equestrian property. Quincy looked over the buildings. The stable looked ancient and when he entered, he went wild. Everything was up to date and modern. The veterinary area could even handle moderate surgeries and yet, it had an old feel to the interior. The exercise track was a full mile. Susan’s house had the look of a small manor house with Lynn’s kennel matching the time period in appearance. The steeple chase course was a full twenty six acres providing a more than respectable training area.
“I can see adding several scenes to the shoot. This will work very well. What about the property on the Knoll? Marshal and William informed me that you have control of that section too.” Both men nodded in agreement. They had remained silent for the tour so that Quincy could get his questions answered. On their earlier tour they had already made up their minds. Both of them were looking at huge savings in set design. Even with the rental they figured that they could save a few million on production costs.
“The Knoll belongs to me,” Terri said with noticeable pride. “I saved it for last because it is my baby. I designed everything up there.” Terri drove up to the Knoll using the tunnels. She drove into the base of the Knoll taking the elevator to the Garage not stopping to show both men the two basement areas wanting to save that for last. The Garage was a huge building and it took up seven thousand square feet. There were five bays that were two cars in depth and it contained a professional machine shop.” Terri led the way to the studios.
“There is a second story on the garage plus two sub basements for a total of twenty eight thousand square feet in the garage and fourteen thousand square feet on two levels in the studio and in the two greenhouses there is fourteen thousand square feet. We have six businesses on this level. There is my design studio, Suki’s electronics studio, Liz’s production studio, Tom’s gun club, Frank’s security company and an active farm. None of the buildings line up squarely with the other structures plus there are hedges and trees separating each area so their large size is not readily apparent. The outside of all the buildings are designed to look like sections of a ruined castle.”
“Suki and I split the lower level, and Liz uses the whole second floor.” When the tour reached the second floor, the studio people were definitely impressed finding that the equipment and backdrops were all professional.
Quincy gave a disapproving cough, “It seems that the editing facilities are lacking.”
“We found a way to work with that problem. We can get to that later. Liz is out of town in LA finishing some cooperative arrangements and will be back in about a week.” Terri toured the home and the guest cottages moving to the edge of the Knoll. The entire lay out of the Inn became apparent. Quincy could see the cottages, picnic pavilion, farm greenhouses and the security center of the lower level. Terri went to the new construction and the green houses behind the studio. The new gym was staked out on the grounds.
“We are planning a twenty thousand square foot gym and a training field of equal size in front of the gym plus twenty small apartments for students that use our security company for training. All of the new construction will match the rest of the property with the total foot print of all of the structures using less than one acre out of sixty.” Terri took the cart back to the elevator and stopped at the first level.
“This is our answer to not having a darkroom in the studio. We have seven thousand square feet of editing space on this level. We can do still development and movie film. We have light tables and editing equipment for anything from commercials to documentaries and can work with audio, film and video. Liz was going to have the darkroom in the studio but there wasn’t enough room. It is also easier to control light and humidity down here.”
“This is unbelievable.” Quincy said enthusiastically. “Some of this is better than our equipment. We have more equipment but what you have here is state of the art and a few of your pieces have only recently hit the market.”
“We still have twelve hundred square feet that is unplanned yet. Let us move down to the lower basement.” Terri drove in the elevator moving down one level. One third of the level was taken up by an indoor shooting range. One third was taken up by a first class gunsmith’s shop. The other third was taken up by a sales and storage room. “This is a licensed gun club and many of our customers keep their weapons locked up here. We do have an outdoor shooting and trap range. I saved the service area for last for a special reason.” Terri started out by driving to Beth and Arleen’s shop.
“We have a seamstress on the property. We make outer clothing, lingerie and are kicking off a line of custom linens with our clients finding the quality to be unbeatable. There are three thousand square feet of working space and we are planning six thousand square feet more, so you will be able to do costume repair on site.” The service center is our last stop. Terri walked over to the service center going straight to the security room.
“We have full electronic security over the entire complex with a security team of skilled experts having at least two on duty twenty four hours a day. Your equipment and sets will be secure.” Terri’s last stop was the dining area. “Finally, we have two complete kitchens which can comfortably serve one hundred people allowing all of your catering to be done on property. Our chef has prepared a cold lunch for us. I will have Susan and Lynn, join us to answer the business questions.”
Lynn was first to arrive. She was dressed in a grey pin stripe business suit looking very professional. She did not waste time.
“Do you have any interest in working with us?” The studio people were caught off guard by such a direct question. Normally there was some small talk. “This is an active business, and we cannot afford to unnecessarily stall any plans.”
“Yes, we do have an interest. The studio is behind on this picture and we need to start shooting in three weeks. That project on the pub looks like it will hold things up.” Lynn referred the question to Terri.
“We can have the exterior done in two weeks and the interior done by the third week,” Terri smiled. “There are three crews on the project now and the landscapers will be starting next week when the outside work is complete.”
“Then let’s talk money. How much do you think that the whole property will lease for.” Marshall and William liked the no nonsense format.
“We have people in residence on the property that will work with your needs. If we do not have to completely relocate them I think that fifteen thousand Pounds a day will work. You wanted thirty days so that should come to four hundred fifty thousand for thirty days of shooting. If you can give us a reliable shooting schedule we will adjust from there by renting the sections that you don’t need. You may break up the time or reserve the whole block at one time. If you need to move our people we will need to charge for the relocation. If we can move them within the property that figure will not be charged. That figure is for location privileges, but costume, catering, machine shop, animal boarding, and studio equipment need to be negotiated separately. The more notice we receive the cheaper it will be. If you use our people to do some of the work we can talk about cheaper privileges. We need to pay our people while the Inn is unavailable. We keep security twenty four hours a day, but if you require more security our people will work with yours.” Lynn leaned back waiting for Marshal’s comments.
“That sounds like it should work well enough of course we will need to draw up contracts. How soon could you have your lawyers contact our lawyers?”
“We can do that right now. I will be handling all of the negotiations.”
“Can you also speak for the Knoll,” Marshall asked.
“The Knoll is a separate property and I have been authorized to negotiate for them,” Lynn said with confidence. “The fifteen thousand
will cover their lease too. Of course there will be a restoration clause to make any repairs on your modifications.”
“Legal handles all of the fine details,” Marshal said. “It will be in writing as part of the contract.” Susan had been watching the negotiations on the monitor. Lynn gave a signal and Susan came out to the table. Marshal stood to greet her.
“Ah Susan, it appears that we will be working together. How soon can we send some advance people? We need to figure out our story board.”
“Any time as long as we have a verbal commitment. I will need twenty four hours before they start work. Quincy can have a cottage for three days to figure things out starting today. If the deal goes through it will be no charge.”
“I would like my wife to check this out. Is there any chance that we could work something out?” Marshal pressed looking for some personal perks.
“Alright, I will allow three cottages for three nights. Let Lynn know when you would like to arrive. When are your attorneys going to be available?”
Adam was watching Terri roll around the property with the studio executives from upstairs in the gym noting that things were going to get crowded at the Inn in the next few days.
Ralph was due in early tomorrow morning. Adam talked to Wilson to find a Caribou picking up a lead on two aircraft. One was from the Royal Air Force and the other was from an oil company that no longer needed short takeoff and landing capabilities. He would have to go to Gatwick to see both of them. The military Caribou had some high hours but was well maintained, but it was the Buffalo version which had the heavier framework and turbo prop engines with the improved propellers. The one from the oil company had much lower hours but was short on maintenance. There were only three neighbors that would be affected by the noise. With the park on the other side of the river there would be a minimum of people to deal with all three neighbors went along with reasonable assurances. There would be daylight fair weather operations only, there would be advanced warning of exceptions and there would be monetary compensation for any losses due to over flights. Most of the flights would arrive and depart over the river, except for practice use of the strip which would be extremely limited.