Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 93267 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 466(@200wpm)___ 373(@250wpm)___ 311(@300wpm)
“The tears were secret, held inside.”
“Uh-huh.”
Salem consumed a full slice before asking, “What was the weirdest or best story when it comes to your job?”
“Hmm, I don’t know about ‘best’ but I do have a crazy one.”
“Hit me.”
“Well, this was while working with the Brazilian film studios, actually. I do freelance work with them if they’ve got a scene where something goes kablooey.”
From Salem’s expression, he hadn’t expected this. “What, really?”
“Yup. They use explosives in some form or fashion sometimes to get the right effect, and they hire experts so it doesn’t do actual damage. Kinda hard to blow up a car on camera without actually blowing up a car, if you get what I mean.”
“Okay…so you’re on a movie set, and…?”
“It was one of those crazy action movies. Not a blockbuster hit, either, although I saw the movie later and it wasn’t half bad. Anyway, in this scene, a prop plane slams right into an eighteen-wheeler, and they both explode upon impact. Not exactly what would happen in real life, but movie magic at its finest, am I right? My job was to rig the whole thing so they would explode on impact. I talk with the crew, get things set up, we walk through angles and whatnot. Prop plane is actually on wires, with a massive crane guiding it in, so it can’t go off the rails and hit something else. Takes a full day to set this up.”
Salem looked very interested in where this was going.
Gregori put his pizza down, hands getting involved in the storytelling. “The only person not happy with me is the action director. He’s wanting all sorts of impact from this scene. He kept arguing, telling me I wasn’t using enough powder for him.”
“Powder?”
“Powder explosives,” Gregori elaborated. “Most pyrotechnic explosions are a mix of gunpowder, kerosene, and select minerals for some razzle dazzle. Like something you’d see in fireworks.”
“Ohhh, gotcha.”
“Anyway, he’s arguing with me about this. He wants more of this, more of that, and I’m arguing back with him because what he wanted was insane. It would have blown up the whole set. I’ve never in my life raised my voice at someone like I did with him. He was being so stupid about the whole thing. I shut him down and told him I wasn’t adding anything more to it. Like, I’d walk and break contract if he didn’t let this go. He stomped off, fuming, and I thought that was the end of it.”
Salem rolled his eyes. His mouth was full of pizza, but his expression said it all.
“Yeah. He didn’t listen. Good guess. The bastard snuck back onto the set and added another twenty barrels of kerosene. Basically another two hundred gallons, as they were ten-gallon barrels.”
“Oh my god!”
“I had no idea. I thought it was a done deal, right? I was only on set again the next morning to oversee everything, as I was still under contract. So we’re all set up for filming, they get some cameras up close and running, but under protective bulletproof glass just in case. The action director was far closer to the set than he should have been, directing a camera, and I thought about saying something to him, but I just didn’t want another argument. I figured, he’s an adult, he’s responsible for himself. And then it’s lights, camera, action. Whole thing went kablooey.”
Gregori spread his hands wide as he made an explosive noise. “Never mind having a burning plane and truck, they blew sky-high. Everyone was knocked down due to the shockwave, including me. The director and cameraman were so close, they took almost a direct hit. I scrambled up to my feet and immediately used ice magic to suppress the out-of-control fire. It damn near burned down the whole set before I could get it contained.”
“Oh. My. God.” Salem had stopped eating, riveted now. “Were they okay?”
“Well…mostly? The cameraman was largely protected by the camera in front of him and the protective shield, so he wasn’t too bad off. Just a little scorched around the edges. The action director had been outside the shield, though, ’cause he kept popping in and out like a jackrabbit. He did not fare as well. His face and hands looked like he’d been on the beach cooking all day, he was so red. Eyebrows were clean burned off. As was some of his front hairline.”
“Wait. Wait. He’d stepped away from the protective shield?”
“I didn’t say he was smart.”
A startled laugh erupted from Salem. “He must have looked comical.”
“Oh, for sure. All the while, he kept babbling about how he hadn’t added that much kerosene, it shouldn’t have done that, yadda yadda. Honestly, if he hadn’t confessed, I might have suffered the fallout. All of the evidence was burned, after all.”
“Did he keep his job?”