Writers Tennis Part 14

(Nagi)

Kenneth was pacing a circle behind the camera. His expression was tense - brows furrowed, eyes dark, and he and Eddie were deep in conversation. Angela averted her gaze politely - she had no desire to read their lips and see any more than she had to see. So she paused by the table where the blue screen crew was set up.

Oddly enough, the blue screen crew for this film was a group of nervous, young Japanese men who spoke little English but ignored their translator more often than was helpful. Angela had once done deep cover with a group of otaku who were hacking government computers and selling data to the highest bidder, so her Japanese was good. At first the techs looked nervous, but once Angela settled back into the rhythm of the foreign language, they opened up. She played ignorant about the blue-screen process, as this was technically her alias’s first big visual effects film, and the men scrambled to explain it to her.

Before things could really get interesting, however, Eddie called things to order.

“All right, let’s get this baby blocked and then shot. Angela, Kenneth, start over here!”

Angela moved to stand opposite Kenneth on one corner of the set. The lights overhead had been filtered to give a nighttime effect. Angela resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the thought of a kiss in the middle of the night and followed Eddie across the set. The blocking was simple and, Angela thought, artful. She and Kenneth were supposed to exchange blows and arc down diagonally across the open room, and once the fight came to a head - with Angela pinned up against a wall, and she could never imagine a boy like Kenneth actually being able to pin her - the kissing would begin. The closer they got to the wall, the more pale Kenneth became.

“You clear with that?” Eddie asked.

Angela nodded and headed back to her corner of the set. Kenneth settled in opposite her, and then it came, that fateful cry,

“Action!”

Angela leapt at Kenneth and started into the fight choreography, careful to pull her hits. They followed the blocking across the set, and then it came, the fateful pin. Angela saw terror flash across Kenneth’s face, but he leaned in to kiss her.

And then someone yelled, “John Henricks, get on the ground! This is the FBI!”