Disclaimer: I make no money or profit from this story. All characters from F/X are the property of Rysher Entertainment and affiliated organizations.

Rivals

Tony

Part 1:

"One move and the President dies," the man growled.

Heavy eyebrowed and moustached, the man had a long scar running from his ear down to his chin. He sneered as he held the President by the throat, a gun to his head.

"Put your gun down," he said, sneering.

"Do it, Palmer," the President's personal secretary said.

Palmer Stone hesitated for a moment, staring into the man's eyes. Then he slowly began to lower his weapon.

"All right, all right," Palmer said, "just take it easy."

The scarred man smiled.

"Ah, the great Palmer Stone," he said, "not so heroic after all. It is too easy!"

The scarred man turned to look out of the window as troops surrounded the White House. Palmer went into action immediately launching across the desk and crashing into the scarred man. Wrenching the gun out of his hand it went off into the wall. The two men struggled to get up off of the floor and Palmer faced the scarred man. As the President dove to one side Palmer smashed the man in the face sending him hurtling back against the window. The window shattered and the man began falling backwards out of it. But he was off center and smacked his head against the wall instead.

"Ow!" he said, stopping and holding his head.

"Cut!" an exasperated voice yelled.

Jim Loefler sighed heavily.

"Sorry," the scarred man said sheepishly, "I slipped on the carpet."

"Reset, again!" the director said throwing up his hands.

"I don't believe it," Rollie Tyler said, walking up onto the set, a mimic of the oval office in the White House, "the third time! This shouldn't be that hard."

"That's what happens when an actor wants to do his own stunts," Eldon said walking past Rollie and toating a set of cables.

Rollie just shook his head and went to put up a new window. The glass was specially made, made of sugar rather than glass. It shattered extremely easily and caused no injury.

"Get me another one!" Rollie yelled to another crew member, "Ang, see to the wench and cables for the bomb scene while we're at it!"

"Sure thing," Angela Ramirez responded, walking away from behind the central, portable F/X workstation where she controlled the multiple special effects controls.

"Ow!" the scarred man yelled again.

Rollie glanced over to see him staring in a mirror at his head.

"Aw man, I'm bleeding!" he whined.

"I told you to let a stuntman do it, Bob!" Jim yelled, and threw up his hands again, "Somebody get me my Alka-Seltzer!"

"I think I need the nurse!" Bob whined again.

"All right, all right," Jim said, "hold on that reset, Tyler!"

Rollie shook his head as Bob Lamma pealed the fake scar off of his face, still holding his head.

"I think I might have a concussion," he said as the nurse walked up, "check my eyes, will you?"

Jack Reed, aka Palmer Stone, grinned and shook his head as well.

"Bob, you wimp!" he said, walking to makeup.

"Aw be quiet, Jack," Bob said with a grimace, and turned to the nurse, "ow! Not so much peroxide!"

"More problems Jim?" a booming voice said.

Rollie turned to see a towering figure walk onto the set. Jay Hunter, the producer of "Takeover" walked up to Jim Loefler.

"Nothing we can't handle, Jay," the red, wavy haired director said, "don't worry."

"We're already weeks behind schedule," Jay said with a frown, "and that means money. I'm worried."

He glanced around and spotted Rollie.

"Tyler!" he said, "Come over here. I want to talk to you."

Rollie walked over as Angie, from around the corner tensed.

"Gonna get the bill," she whispered.

Jay walked with Rollie away from the crowd of workers.

"Listen, Rollie," Jay said, "I understand you've had a rough time of it these past couple of months. Jay Jr. came to bat for you, talked me into keeping you on when you left town. I like you Rollie, and your work, but, well, we're behind schedule and you don't have everything we need for some of the scenes I want in this movie."

"I told you Jay," Rollie said, "getting some of that specialized equipment takes time. The 3D rendering is being worked on, right now. Eldon's getting models rigged up for the explosion scenes, and your son has a lot of talent in this area. We can-"

"I know, I know," Jay said holding up his hand, "but you still aren't going to be able to do this in the time I need. Which, is why I've called in some extra help."

"Extra help?" Rollie said, "What kind of extra help?"

"Ever heard of Jaxxor Productions?" Jay asked.

Rollie frowned.

"Yeah," he said tentatively, "they're a special effects outfit. Why?"

Angie peaked around the corner from her work. Rollie and Jay were talking and Rollie seemed to be getting upset. She could hear his voice rising and he began gesturing widely. Jay put his massive arms around his chest and stood like a statue. He mumbled a few words and Rollie shook his head. A moment later they walked away from eachother. Angie walked up to Rollie.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"You won't believe this," Rollie grumbled.

"What?" Angie said as Rollie walked past her at a quick pace.

She rushed after him.

"Remember Jaxxor Productions?" Rollie said with a grimace.

"Yeah," Angie said scratching her head, "they're that special effects company that beat us out to do "Moon Strike," so?"

"So they're coming in," Rollie said.

"You mean we're fired?" Angie said with a gasp.

"No," Rollie said, "Jay Jr. talked Jay out of that. But he's bringing Jaxxor in as 'help.' He wants them to do the wireframing, rendering, and model detonations as well as backdrops on the final action sequence. He says he wants it to be really big, and we've been too preocupied to start on it. Apparently the head of Jaxxor heard about this and put something together and brought it to Jay. Got him all excited."

"So we're working with them?" Angie said.

"Yeah," Rollie said, "on a couple of other scenes too. We're supposed to 'combine creative efforts.' I wouldn't want to combine anything with Vryon Jax."

"Vryon Jax?" Angie said with a smile.

"The most obvious stage name you've ever heard, right?" Rollie said, "Well the guy's just like the name. A real jerk, and far too competitive for my tastes. Cheats, too. Plus he's had trouble with cutting the safety margins on some of his projects."

"Oh no," Angie said, "anybody get hurt?"

"A couple of stunt men," Rollie said, "but he was exhonorated. Some miraculous new evidence showed up that it was some faulty equipment which was supposed to be checked by the set crew. Not his fault."

"Hmm," Angie said, crossing her arms, "this doesn't sound good. We're putting a lot of work into this project."

"Tell me about it," Rollie said looking around.

Rollie had poured his heart and soul into this movie. After all the trouble with Loubar and the Shou Xin he and Angie had immersed themselves in their work. It felt good, and Rollie had thrown in all the bells and whistles. He'd pulled in every favor, got the best of everyone, and Angie had spent so much time in front of a computer screen that her eyes had glazed over. Just to get this insult.

"When is he coming?" Angie asked.

Rollie frowned and pointed at the door.

"Right about now," he said.

Angie looked over and watched Vryon Jax walk through the door. He was short and stocky, with a long beak nose and light brown hair which was pulled back in a ponytail which went down to the middle of his back. Angie could see the mischief and ego glistening in his brown eyes even from far away. He wore a thick brown leather jackets, his hands inside of them. He walked straight upright, and seemed to look down his nose at everything. They watched as Jay walked up and shook his hand.

A woman walked up behind Jay. She was a brunette, a head taller than Vryon. She wore a brown suit and had a Jennifer Aniston hairstyle, clipped short and pulled forward. Vryon seemed to be introducing her. A few moments later, Jay pointed over in Rollie and Angie's direction, and Vryon and his assistant walked over.

"Well, well," Vryon said in a soft English accent, "if it isn't Rollie Tyler. Still working with your little company, are you?"

Angie saw the telltale signs of Tyler anger, but Rollie forced a smile.

"Hello Vryon," he said, "still the Hollywood bigshot wanna be, I see."

Vryon laughed.

"Not a wanna be anymore!" he said, flashing white, capped teeth, "I am!"

He gestured at his assistant.

"Meet Anita Lord," he said, "my assistant. The best assistant I ever had. This girl can do things with a computer unlike anything you've ever seen."

"Oh," Rollie said, "I'm sure I've seen. Nice to meet you."

"And you," Anita said, also with an English accent.

She smiled slyly at Rollie, a glint in her eye. Rollie cleared his throat.

"And it's nice to see you again," Vryon said looking over at Angie, "um, Amber wasn't it?"

"Angie," Angie said dryly.

"Right," he said, "how could I forget?"

"We don't have much time," Anita said, glancing around, "looks like we've got a lot of work to do."

"Excuse me?" Rollie said.

"Oh, didn't Jay tell you?" Vryon said, "We'll be, sort of, observing, and lending a helping hand in some of the stunt work. We'll be handling most of the last, major, most important scene of course."

"Of course," Rollie said with a sideways smile.

"Well then," Vryon said, "glad to be working with you. It's always nice to have a helping hand. I'm sure you'll learn a lot."

"I'm sure," Angie said with another sideways smile.

Angie crossed her arms and Rollie stuck his hands in his pockets. Vryon smiled at Angie, Angie sneered at Anita who was smiling at Rollie, while Rollie sneered at Vryon. It was going to be a long movie.

* * *

Part 2:

"I'm going nuts here!" Rollie yelled, throwing his jacket across the room.

"I know, I know," Angie said, walking into the loft behind him.

"Who does this guy think he is?" Rollie said waving his arms around in the air, "He waltzes in, and just takes over! He's the help, not me!"

"I know, Rol," Angie said again, "but we just have to deal with it."

Rollie growled and went to get a beer. Vryon Jax had been absolutely intolerable throughout the entire day. Rollie flopped down on the couch and popped the top off, taking a long swig. He sighed and tried to relax, but his muscles refused to cooperate. Jax had literally redesigned every stunt, every piece of special effect magic that Rollie had labored to create. He'd talked with the crew and stunt coordinators without consulting Rollie and had made "small adjustments," as he had called them. When he'd gone to Jay, Jay had liked what Vryon had done!

"Jay thought I was jealous!" Rollie said, ranting, "Jealous! Me! Of him! That overbearing, smug, pompous-"

Someone buzzed the door and Bluey barked. Angie opened the door and let Francis Gatti in.

"Hey Rol," Francis said, "I was on my way home and thought I'd just drop by-"

He stopped when he saw Rollie's flushed countenance.

"What's wrong?" he asked, glancing at Angie.

"Oh, not much," Angie said when Rollie just shook his head, "a little professional rivalry, is all."

"Little professional rivalry?" Rollie mocked, aghast, "Little professional rivalry? Francis, listen, I've got the biggest jerk in the whole U.S. of A on my back messing with my work. My work! What I do!"

"Huh?" Francis said, "What are you talking about?"

"Vryon Jax and Jaxxor Productions," Angie said, "He was called in by Jay Hunter to 'help' out with production."

"Oh yeah," Francis said nodding, "I heard of them. They did the effects for 'Star Shooters.' They were great. I went back twice just for-"

He stopped as Rollie shot him a sideways look.

"Uh, never mind," Francis said, "Two effects companies on one project? Isn't that a little, weird?"

"That's what I said!" Rollie said, throwing up his hands, "But Jay was mad at us for leaving him in the lurch for that while during all the, trouble, we had. He said if I thought it should be just one company, then I would have to go."

"Whoa," Francis said, scratching the back of his head, "Well, I guess you'll just have to grin and bear it then."

"Yeah," Rollie said, taking another swig, "right. I think I need a couple hours in the VR chamber to cool down. Plus I've got to think. Vryon want s to out do me every step of the way. I'll need to come up with something pretty fantastic. Vryon'll be setting up the big sequence all day tomorrow, maybe while they're doing that I can put something together. I'll have to think."

"Yeah, sure," Francis said, "I can't stay anyway. But, hey, Rollie, don't let some jerk get to you. You guys are the best in the biz, and don't you forget it."

"Thanks Francis," Rollie said, "It's not the competition I'm worried about. My name's all over this movie. If Vryon Jax messes something up-"

He shook his head again.

"You guys can handle him," Francis said, "after all, look at the people you've handled recently."

"True," Angie said, "I doubt Vryon Jax could be much worse than any of them."

"Maybe," Rollie said, "but then again, who knows. 'Night Francis, and thanks."

Francis smiled as Rollie walked away, both he and Angie watching him.

"Keep an eye on him," Francis said, "I don't want to be called in to break up any brawls. Not good PR, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, I know," Angie said, "and I'll be keeping an eye out. That is if I can get Jax's arrogant assistant off my back. I swear, if she gives me one more bit of computer advice."

She turned to Francis.

"Can you believe it?" Angie said, "I was setting up the portable workstation and here comes miss prissy looking over my shoulder. I put together one of the most efficient IDE's along with a self-explanatory, user friendly, and completely personable graphical interface that I've seen and she comes along and calls it 'cute.' She said, 'oh, well that's cute.' Then she goes on to tell me how they've been using this new UNIX based software package running under a Silicon Graphics station which allows them to multitask their rendering and electronics and equipments control applications simultaneous and in real time so the director can watch the effects as they happen! Ha! That's crazy! Can you believe that?"

Francis raised his eyebrows.

"Um," he said, "No?"

"There's no way you can get the sequencing right in real time!" Angie said, ranting a bit herself, "I've tried! Not to mention the pixellation hazards when dealing with film speed variations during shooting! There's no way you can make that compatible with the digitals you convert them into! Even if you could it'd be so expensive, and not worth it in the end anyway! She's full of so much hot air, I'm shocked she doesn't float away!"

"Well, ok," Francis said, backing up slowly, "I guess these guys are getting to you. Sorry, Ang. I'm sure you can handle them."

"Oh, I'll handle her all right," Angie said, crossing her arms and narrowing her eyes at him.

Francis fled quickly.

* * *

"Are you sure you can make it work, Vryon?" Jay asked, "I mean we've caught up some on our schedule, but we still have a lot to shoot. And the way you have this scene it'll cost more than originally."

Vryon Jax sat in Jay Hunter's office talking about the final, explosive action sequence they were coordinating.

"Plus Rollie told me that it would be too dangerous too-" Jay started, but Vryon held up his hand.

"Forget what Tyler told you," he said, "he doesn't have the proper equipment or know how to make it safe. I do."

"I don't know," Jay said, scratching his head.

"The bigger the boom," Vryon said, "the bigger the box office receipts."

Jay nodded slowly.

"Ok," he said, "if you it can work. Then let's do it."

Vryon smiled.

* * *

"Hello Marty," a slithery voice said.

Marty Laufman spun around. He had been in his small trailor on the set, going over his bills. He was the main stunt double for Jack Reed, the star of 'takeover' but it still didn't pay as much as he needed.

"Who are you?" Marty asked, his voice wavering as the man, wearing a long black leather jacket, stared at him with black beedy eyes, "how'd you get in here?"

"You're late on payment, Marty," the man said in a soft Spanish accent, "Mr. Bayer doesn't like it when people are late on payments."

"Hey, hey," Marty said holding up his hands, "hold on. I told Mr. Bayer I'd have the cash real soon. I'm about to get paid-"

The man lunged forward and grabbed Marty's blond hair in one leather gloved hand.

"Mr. Bayer doesn't want to wait," he said, "you owe him. Big time. And he's already given you a week longer than you originally asked for. His patience is coming to an end. I'm one of his new enforcers, and I'm not quite as lenient as the others. I assure you, you don't want me taking your debt out in body parts."

"Please!" Marty said, his eyes bulging wide, "I'll have the money real soon! I got a hot tip! See, there's this horse-"

"Shut up," the man said, backhanding Marty across the face, "I don't care about some tip. You couldn't pick a winner if your life depended on it, which it does."

"One more day, please," Marty begged, "Just one more day. I'll pay interest! I'll pay you!"

The man paused and slicked back his black hair with one hand.

"All right," he said, grabbing him by the collar, "one day. Twice what you owe."

"Twice?" Marty said, "But-"

"Twice," the man said, tightening his grip, "or el Serpeinte will make you sorry. You understand?"

Marty nodded. The Snake smiled wickedly and let him go. He dusted off Marty's shirt with one hand. He glanced around.

"Not very good for such a dangerous job," he said, "a pity."

The Snake tapped Marty's head.

"Remember," he said, leaning over so Marty could smell his garlic breath and expensive cologne, "twenty four hours."

"Yeah, sure," Marty said, nodding furiously again.

The Snake chuckled and left the trailor. Marty sat frozen for a moment. Then ran to his cupboard. He pulled out a bottle of whiskey and popped off the top. Twice what he owed! That was twenty grand! How was he going to pay that? He had a big stunt sequence they were shooting tomorrow. In the movie, it was going to actually be the last scene, but they were shooting it now for weather and time reasons. It was to be shot at the end of the day. He had to be there. If he could get an advance check tomorrow, and then borrow a bit. Maybe he'd have enough to at least stall Bayer, or this new goon of his.

Marty took a long swig and cringed slightly. He wiped his sweaty brow with the back of his shirt sleeve. One day.

* * *

Part 3:

Rollie sat in the VR chamber, beer in hand, as he ran a relaxation program. Vast dunes of sands and high cliff walls surrounded him as gentle classical music swirled around in the background. He sat and thought. Tomorrow Vryon would be working all day on the final action sequence, while he would be working on a few other mid-movie sequences. He sat with the script in his hand, and his notes. He'd have to do something different though, rethink his approach. He couldn't change the stuntwork drastically, that had been practiced too much, but he could change the effects surrounding it. Something to impress Jay Hunter enough to get Jaxxor Productions out of his hair.

Rollie stared at the idea behind the stunt. It was a big stunt, in it's own right. In the scene the hero, Palmer Stone, had to get past a large group of bad guy guards patrolling the White House grounds. He would fire a grappling hook from a building across the street, hooking it onto the roof of one of the sections of the White House. Then he would glide across it dropping small compression grenades on the guards as they fired, in vain, at him from the ground.

They had had problems with the timing, so Rollie would have to make it perfect. At the end of the stunt man's ride down the line he would crash through a window, into the White House. This scene he had put together from scratch, it was already impressive. The key would be the camera work, and the timing on the explosions. If he couldn't have the big scene, then every scene he had would be perfect.

* * *

The night had passed slowly for Rollie, he had tossed and turned continuously, unable to keep Vryon Jax out of his head. He came into work, and apparently his night of no sleep was apparent.

"Hey, Rollie, you feeling all right?" Eldon had greeted him.

"Fine," Rollie had replied, "we got the charges ready?"

"Yeah, no problem," Eldon said, "I've already got the line down on the set, we'll just have to drop in the charges on the marked spots and from there it's up to you."

Rollie made his way through the bustle of people moving around the set. They were filming outside today, in both cases. Vryon would be setting up a block away, at a huge open space where they had set up a mock section of the White House. Soon hours of carpentry work would be blown to smithereens.

The budget for this film was enormous. They already had helicopters flying in for the filmed parts of the scene, while Jax would be doing the computer animation for the less realistic parts. The job Jay Jr. had done was supposed to have been used, until Vryon decided it was too "unrealistic."

Rollie was developing a small headache from all this as he spun to avoid dropping his cup of coffee against a rushing worker. They were filming on a small plot of land next to another small wall mockup. Here the stuntman would slide down and through the window they had set up on the wall.

They were going to have to film several smaller sequences before this one, and each from several angles. They would be using this same plot of land for a few fight scenes. Rollie walked up to Angie, working at the portable control station.

"What's up, Ang?" Rollie asked, taking a long drink of his coffee.

"Still working on the timing for these explosive charges," Angie said, "not going well."

"You'll get it done," Rollie said.

"Yeah, well," Angie said, "that's not what Anita said. She came by already this morning. Said the layout Eldon had come up with was all wrong. Said at the camera angles we were using it would look awful."

"And you said?" Rollie said, taking another swig, his styrofoam cup warming his hand.

Angie just smiled, and Rollie nodded.

"Well," Rollie said, "I didn't get much sleep last night worrying about this. I can't believe this has me so rattled!"

"It's understandable," Angie said, "I assure you. Eldon tell you about the big scene?"

Rollie shook his head.

"Apparently Vryon's come up with the explosive setups himself," she said, "and Eldon got a peak. He says it's way bigger than originally planned, that they won't need to insert any computerized fireballs. He also said it's way too dangerous."

"Tell Jay?" Rollie asked.

"Vryon caught him as he was talking to him," Angie said, "starting ranting about how Eldon was using primitive equipment, and that he knew what he was doing. He asked him if the 'help' normally told the boss what to do."

"I'm really not liking him," Rollie said, his eyes narrowing as he took another swig.

Rollie rubbed his arms as a gust of wind made his long brown jacket blow around him.

"Kinda cold today," Rollie said.

Angie was wearing a thick black jacket herself.

"Tell me about it," she said, "our wonderful actors were complaining."

"What?" Rollie said, "Them? Complain?"

Rollie shook his head.

"Could it get any worse?" he asked.

"Dude!" a voice yelled.

Rollie groaned and glanced at Angie.

"I just had to ask, didn't I," Rollie said.

Rollie turned to see Jay Jr. coming toward them wearing a nothing but a Hawaiian t-shirt and shorts. He had a wide grin across his face. Rollie's mouth dropped open.

"Are you nuts?" Angie asked, "It's freezing out here!"

"But I have you to look at," Jay Jr. said with a smile, "and that keeps me warm, baby."

Angie rolled her eyes toward the sky and shook her head.

"What are you doing here, JJ?" Rollie asked.

"Pops said I could work with you guys today," he replied, "get a little training."

He glanced around.

"So," he said, "what should I do?"

"Sit down and be quiet," Angie mumbled.

"Not much for you to do right now JJ," Rollie said, glancing at Angie again with a look that said 'remember, he helped us out.'

"Hey, anything man, anything," Jay Jr. said.

Rollie scratched his chin in thought when a yell came from across the grass. A worker was looking on the bottom of their shoe.

"Aw man!" the man said, "Not again! Dumb dogs! Someone keep them off the set!"

Rollie smiled, and put his arm around Jay Jr.

"Tell me, JJ," Rollie said, "ever used a Pooper-Scooper?"

* * *

Vryon Jax sat, leaning way back in his chair, looking over his storyboards. This sequence was going to be huge. The explosion alone would make the movie. Half the White House, disappearing in a column of smoke and fire while the hero runs in front of it, carrying the President's daughter on one shoulder. It would be beautiful.

Vryon's eyes blazed like the fire he was imagining. Anita walked up to him.

"How's the set up going?" Vryon asked.

"Just fine," Anita said, "we added the elements you wanted, and increased the charge."

Vryon smiled.

"You let that stuntman know?" Vryon asked.

"You mean Laufman?" Anita asked, "Yes."

Rather than having the hero merely run out of the building, he would be blown out, and then continue running, child in hand. In order for the stuntman's flight path to be controlled, he would be hooked to a small wench system suspended from a framework set above the mock White House. On cue he would be catapulted at high speed and fly across the screen while the first explosion blew the windows out of the set behind him. Then after he landed, and began running, a second explosion would take the whole thing down. It would be done as one huge scenerio, no cuts, no redos. It was brilliant.

"I'm going down in history you know," Vryon said, "As a visionary. I think my next movie will be full of nothing but uncut action sequencies. One camera shot, never leaving. It'll make me famous."

"Perhaps," Anita said with a raised eyebrow, "Then again perhaps not."

Anita glanced at the clipboard she held.

"Did you check the rigging for the pulley system?" Anita said, "We had to install a new safety pin on the pulley wheel."

"Yeah, yeah," Vryon said, waving his hand, "I will. Now I'm going to go talk to Jim about those camera angles."

They both walked away.

* * *

Behind the White House mockup, in a small corner, lay a pile of equipment to be used during the shoot. On top lay the main pulley assembly, which would soon be hoisted onto the heavy metal scaffolding which would support it. The pulley wheel had a thick rope that ran through it, attached to several smaller, thin ropes, which were affixed to the stuntman's belt.

The pulley wheel itself had an arm which would be bolted down, and a powerful, but portable, hydraulic motor would wind the rope at the push of a button. There was one large, main bolt which ran through the arm and was screwed into holes on the scaffolding.

As a cloud passed over the morning sun, a shadow was cast across the equipment. A leather gloved hand reached down and turned the large pulled slightly, just enough to expose the bolt. A small hacksaw appeared in the hand, and, slowly, timing it's carves with the hum of workers and machines so as not to be heard, the hand slowly sawed a thick groove through the middle of the bolt, on the underside. The hand turned the yellow pulley back slightly and the groove disappeared, unseen under the arm. Footsteps slowly moved away and the cloud vanished, and sunlight glared down, hit the glistening metal, and was reflected back into the sky.

* * *

Part 4:

"Look at this! Can you believe this?"

Eldon held a long metal bolt up to Rollie's face.

"I just caught this!" he yelled, "Our stuntman could have been killed!"

Rollie took the bolt and looked it over.

"It's just a little rust, Eldon," Rollie said.

"Just a little rust?" Eldon said, "That little rust could have caused the bolt to break right in two!"

"What did this go to?" Rollie asked.

They were standing on the lawn, directly under the large tree from which the stuntman would be gliding down on the thick triple wound rope.

"The attachment to the tree," Eldon said pointing up, "This bolt attached the pulley to the arm which was bolted around the tree. If this snapped while he was gliding across-"

"I gotcha, I gotcha," Rollie said, holding up his hands, "good work Eldon, I'll get us a new one."

Eldon nodded and walked away. Rollie shook his head, staring at the bolt. Angie walked up behind him.

"Rust?" she asked.

Rollie nodded.

"Rust."

* * *

Noontime came and Rollie's stomach had begun growling. He had given the bolt to the maintenance crew, who were going to get another. Rollie had had a brainstorm while working on a few fight scenes with the stunt coordinator. Unfortunately his ideas were for the big sequence. In the final scene an enemy helicopter, full of bad guys, would crash into the White House and explode, killing, essentially, all the bad guys and the main bad guy inside.

Jay wanted as much realism as possible. The storyboard that had put together for the scene was limited because of limited abilities. They would have the actors in mock up of a cockpit, then splice in an exterior scene with a 3D rendered simulation of a military UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter. The filming of the explosion on the life size model would then be composited onto the computerized flight path of the helicopter using some advanced computer composition software.

Rollie, however had had another idea. It would require a model version of the helicopter, a small explosion, and a bit blue screen effect. If he was right, he could actually composite the image of the bad guys into the minature helicopter and do one, no cut away, zoom out pan of the helicopter flying into the White House. It would be completely seamless and utterly realistic. If only he was the one doing the filming. With his idea the blowing up of the mockup set wouldn't even be necessary, just for the actor to do a little filming in front of the blue screen and more composition. It would actually cost less, and cause less damage and danger. Rollie pounded his fist into his palm in frustration.

"You ok, Rol?" Angie asked.

Rollie turned around, startled.

"Huh?" he said, "Oh, yeah. Just thinking."

Angie smirked and patted him on the shoulder.

"Don't worry boss," she said, "Vryon'll mess up and we'll be back on top with Jay before you know it."

Rollie smiled, and then his stomach growled loudly.

"Lunchtime," he said, patting his stomach.

"You're telling me," Angie said, "I'm starved. Want me to grab us some sandwiches?"

Rollie nodded and Angie walked away. He would have to talk to Jay.......

* * *

Pete Reynolds, equipment supervisor, set the bolt down on the table.

"Joe!" he yelled to another large, burly man, "I'll need new one of these!"

Joe nodded absentmindedly and Pete walked away. Joe was leaning over a letter from his fiancee, whom he hadn't seen in a month. He didn't seem to take much notice of anyone. Pete had set the bolt on the table, but the table was lying at an awkward angle. A slight gust of wind was all the bolt needed to roll softly off the table and onto the grassy floor.

* * *

Vryon Jax rummaged through all the heavy duty equipment they would be using for the scene. The giant pulley system was impossible to move and he grumbled as he searched through the heavy cable, attempting to unravel it.

"I'm going to fire all of them," he said under his breath, "all of them."

He slipped as he leaned over another knot and fell against the pulley. He yelled and held his bruised forehead.

"No," he said, "I'm going to kill all of them."

Then he stopped. The main bolt which would attach the pulley to the scaffolding was loose. It hadn't been placed fully back in it's socket. He turned it slightly and his eyebrows raised. It had a very thin, but very dangerous groove cut into it, right down the middle. During shooting it would have snapped causing who knew what kind of injuries. He pulled it all the way out with a grunt and shook his head in disgust.

"Idiots," he muttered, and walked away with it.

He made his way to where one of the maintenance men was reading a letter.

"Excuse me," he said gruffly.

The man didn't look up.

"Excuse me! Idiot!" Vryon yelled, and Joe looked up.

"I'll be needing another one of these!" he said, pointing at the bolt.

"I know, I know," Joe said, "I said just put it over there."

Joe went back to reading his letter, and Vryon eyed him strangely. He shook his head.

"Imbeciles," he said, "I'm surrounded by imbeciles."

Vryon laid the bolt on the table and walked away. Pete came walking by and saw it.

"Ah a rustless one," he said to Joe, "that was quick."

"Yeah, yeah," Joe said softly.

Pete smiled.

"Ah, young love," he said with a chuckle, and picked up the bolt.

Pete walked over to where Rollie had been preparing his scene and found the metal casing Rollie was using to attach the pulley rope system to the tree for the stuntman to glide across. He quickly inserted the bolt in the socket with a push and yelled for someone to secure it. Pete shook his head. Good thing someone had caught that rust, it would be tragic if anything were to go wrong.

Off in the distance a pair of binoculars came down revealing the face of The Snake. His gloved hand tightened in anger. Another method would have to be employed.

* * *

Marty Laufman was sweating. Again. No sign of the Snake or another other of Bayer's thugs. He didn't have the money, but if he could do this scene, get paid, maybe he could stall. Or maybe he could get out of town. All he had to do was the big scene, and then be gone. He had till the end of the day, at least. 24 hours. He had time.

* * *

Angie walked past where Vryon Jax and Jaxxor Productions was setting up the final scene. Vryon was standing with his hands in the pockets of his black leather jacket and attempting to look very much in control. He was shouting orders at everyone and glancing at his computer systems every few minutes. On the back of his jacket was the large Jaxxor Productions symbol, four stylized  letters: JXOR. The letters, especially the X, was very reminiscent of the X in the F/X logo. She shook her head and chuckled a bit to herself.

"Tyler wannabe," she muttered in disgust, "you don't hold a candle to him, Jax."

As Angie passed the rear of the mockup she saw out of the corner of her eye, a lone figure slipping out of inside the mockup building. He was wearing a long black leather overcoat. The man quickly ran up, over a small hill, and out of site. Angie's eyes narrowed and she jogged over to the spot. She glanced inside the building, and then walked slowly over the hill. Down below was a large parking lot full of cars, but no person in sight.

Angie slowly walked down the other side of the hill. Off to the left of the lot was a large set of trees and bushed, she peered into them, trying to make out anything. She saw something move.

"Hey!" she yelled, and the figure ducked out of sight.

Angie backed up, and began heading back over the hill. She made it back to the top, when the man appeared next to her, from out of the trees, to her right. Angie spun and gasped. The Snake stood before her, a man who not too long ago had kidnapped and tried to kill all of them. His thick black hair was still slicked back and heavily gelled. His beedy black eyes peared at her down his long thin nose and his tall, thin body moved lithely to block her path.

"Hello, my dear," he said, a soft Cuban accent and lisp marking his words, "so we meet again."

Angie turned and started running immediately, too shocked to think of screaming. She headed down into the parking lot at full speed, her arms, legs, and heart pumping at full speed. She turned on her heel and headed down the lot, toward, what she hoped, was people and safety. The Snake, his long overcoat flapping like a cape behind him, lept off the hill and down onto the lot. He was after in a moment and ran like a gazelle. His long legs, dressed in black jeans, covered ground quickly and he caught up with Angie.

Just as he was behind her Angie turned quickly and planted her leg into his gut. The wind rushed out of him and he stopped. Angie was ahead of him again.

"Not this time," the Snake hissed and lept onto the trunk of a parked car.

Leaping from car to car he quickly came along side Angie and lept into the hair tackling her as she ran. Angie was thrown to the ground, the Snake on top of her, and she smacked her head against the pavement. A slight yell and she was unconscious. The Snake got up and dusted himself off with his hand. He easily picked up Angie and swung her over his shoulder.

"A shame we don't have time for some fun," he said.

Walking back to the mock up building, he glanced around and then slipped inside again. Inside was a hollow shell, with plastic explosives and dynamite carefully arranged along the walls. The Snake, however, had added a few changes of his own to the explosive packs.

"A few extra here and there," he hissed, "and a few crossed wires should do the trick. It will be a grand explosion."

The Snake slipped outside, then came back in with a bundle of rope. He lifted Angie and binded her hands and legs together, and then secured her three feet off the ground to one of the beams connecting one wall to another. Angie hung upside down, still unconscious. He then gagged her mouth with a handkerchief. The Snake stroker her hair away from her face.

"The detonation is to happen today at six. It will be a tragic accident," he said with a soft smile, "a shame."

The Snake sighed heavily, then began to laugh deep in his chest. He left Angie dangling on the rope, the explosives on the wall surrounding her, and the seconds ticking away.

* * *

Part 5:

"Anybody seen Angie?" Rollie asked, walking up to a group of workers.

Everyone shook their heads and Rollie threw up his hands.

"Where'd she go?" Rollie asked, exasperated, "We've got shooting to do!"

Rollie walked across the set, the slightly chilled dirt crunching beneath his feet. He walked along the lawn, trying to spot Angie, whom he had sent to grab some lunch twenty minutes ago. He spied Jay Jr. scooping at the far end of the yard. He had a decidedly disgusted look on his face as he scooped up a large mound of dog leftovers and plopped them in the bag.

"Aw man!" he yelled, as he stepped in some for the fifth time.

"JJ!" Rollie yelled, getting his attention, "You seen Angie?"

Jay Jr. shook his head.

"Say, you need a fill in, I'm here!" he said with a wide smile, holding out his hands.

As he did so the bag ripped open dumping it's entire contents across Jay Jr.'s shorts and onto his shoes.

"Dude!" Jay Jr. screamed, leaping back.

Rollie shook his head.

"No," he said, "I won't be needing anyone."

"Maybe she went to lunch with Jordan, instead," Jay Jr. said, attempting to wipe off his shorts and only succeeding in dirtying his hands.

"What do you mean?" Rollie asked.

"Well," he said, "Jordan told me they were going to dinner tonight, maybe he took her to lunch instead."

"Angie didn't say anything to me about that," Rollie said.

Jay Jr. shrugged.

"Why should she?" he asked.

A few flies were buzzing around and Jay Jr. swatted at one divebombing his head. He missed and slapped himself in the face, leaving a big splotch across his cheek.

"Dude!" he cried in horror, spitting a bit.

Rollie closed his eyes and hurried away. He left his section of the set to find Angie. Rollie walked past Vryon's huge mockup where the pyrotechnicians were working feverishly, prepping the explosive charges and carefully checking the shadow the building cast, so they could match it up exactly when adding in the computer effects.

Vryon was no where in sight, and Rollie eyed the circus of people coldly as he walked past. Anita was making her way through a crowd of men, barking orders. They scurried to fulfill them. Rollie chuckled.

"Not exactly Angie," he said under his breath.

Rollie made his way behind the mockup building and scanned the area. The lunch wagon had been setup a ways away, but Angie wasn't there. He walked across and spoke to the man serving. He described Angie, but the man hadn't seen her. Rollie was now getting worried. Where could she have gone?

Rollie, distracted, quickly rounded a corner and ran smack into Vryon Jax.

"Whoa there Tyler!" he said with a grin, "Trying to bump off the competition?"

"I don't have time, Jax," Rollie mumbled, moving past him.

Vryon moved back and blocked his path.

"Hold on now," he said with a wider grin, "trouble? Maybe I can help. You forget how to do something? Set a charge perhaps? Turn on a camera?"

Rollie's jaw tightened. He then smiled tightly.

"No," he said, "actually I was trying to remember how to act like an idiot, and was hoping you could help."

Vryon's smile disappeared.

"Come on Tyler," Vryon said, "Jealousy does not become you."

"Jealous?" Rollie said with a snort, "Jealous of what? Your woman repellent of a personality or that matted up rag you call a ponytail?"

Vryon sneered and pushed Rollie back.

"Watch it Tyler," he said with a growl.

Rollie lept forward and pushed Vryon back, who tumbled to the ground.

"Hey!" a booming voice said, "Break it up!"

Jay Hunter walked up to the two of them.

"Just what is going on here?" Jay said, staring at Rollie, fury in his eyes.

"Tyler just got a little miffed is all," Vryon said, standing up and dusting off his leather jacket and jeans, "no harm done."

"Don't try to cover, Vryon," Jay said, "Now if there's going to be a problem-"

"No problem," Rollie said holding up his hands.

Jay sighed heavily.

"Listen Rollie," he said, "that scene is supposed to be done right after lunch. You ready?"

"Pretty much," Rollie said with hesitation, "but I can't seem to find Angie. She was supposed to get lunch, but she never did. Frankly, I'm worried."

"That little filly?" Vryon said with a chuckle, "Maybe she ran into an old flame. That lucky dog."

"Well," Jay said, "I'll send a couple security men out looking for her. Meanwhile, can you do the scene yourself?"

"Yeah," Rollie said slowly, "but-"

"No buts," Jay said holding up his hand, "I want it done. We're behind schedule already."

Rollie nodded and Jay walked away. Vryon brushed past him, bumping his shoulder.

"Have fun with your, little, scene Tyler," Vryon said with a hiss and a smile.

Rollie stared at his back hard until Vryon turned the corner and disappeared from sight. With a great force of will, Rollie unclenched his fists.

* * *

Angie's head hurt. Not just hurt, it pounded, it was horrible. It felt like a stampede of caffeine-high elephants had stormed through, around, and on top of her head to the beat of a Latin Mambo. All the blood seemed to be rushing through her head, and her legs felt weak. Her feet had fallen asleep.

As Angie opened her eyes, she finally realized she was upside down. After recovering from that shock, she realized she was bound and gagged. A few muffled attempts at a scream confirmed that. She remembered now. The Snake. He must have caught her. Angie glanced around as best she could and her heart skipped a beat. She was surrounded by explosives. She must be inside the mockup Jax was going to blow up. When it went, she would go with it.

Angie began screaming and shaking, trying to loosen herself, but the bonds were too tight. She only succeeded in swinging a bit, adding to her disorientation. Her head pounding, her eyes watering from the dust and gunpowder, and her equilibrium completely skewed, Angie wondered how she had gotten herself into something, again.

* * *

"Places!" Jim Loefler, director, yelled.

The stunt coordinator scurried out of the way, as the various stuntmen took their positions. Rollie stood at the portable workstation, looking over the controls. One push and the program Angie had written would set off a pretimed sequence of small explosions as the stuntman slid across the rope, dropping concussion, well fake concussion, grenades.

Rollie had a bad feeling in the bit of his stomach. He didn't like doing this without Angie, especially when he didn't know where she was. They had been in enough trouble over the past several months, he didn't want to think of going through anything like that again.

All the workers scattered, the stuntman securely placed in the harness in which he would slide down the rope into the fake wall that had been set up. He would glide down, and avoid the bad guys guns, drop grenades, and crash through the window. Simple, compared to some things that had been done, but everything had an element of danger, and every precaution had to be taken.

A new bolt had been set into place, Rollie had been told, and everyone knew the coordination of the stunt precisely.

"Get ready!" Jim yelled, "We're rolling on this one! I don't want to reset here!"

The stuntman gave the thumbs up signal and the bad guy extras set their fake guns in their arms.

"Ok!" Jim yelled, taking his large chair, set in a cherry picker style hydraulic arm, and raising it, "in 3!"

Rollie got ready along with everyone else.

"Action!" Jim yelled, and everyone went into motion.

With one push the harness was let loose and the stuntman began to slide down the wire at high speed. The bad guys fired their fake weapons, not hitting the hero, of course, while the stuntman pulled a few of the fake grenades out of his pocket. He dropped on in the middle of several guards and the timed explosion went off, scattering the stuntman, who threw themselves to the ground.

This repeated two more times as the stuntman flawlessly dropped the grenades in their predetermined positions, knocking out the guards. No one noticed the bolt slowly bending as he glided down. The groove in the bolt widened, slowly, as the stuntman continued his descent.

The stuntman dropped a fourth grenade, but when it landed, something went wrong. The following explosion was about three times larger than it should have been. It knocked the poor stuntmen to the ground and the man in the air turned in shock as the fireball rocketed toward him. He veered in his harness, trying to avoid it, applying more stress to the bolt, which finally snapped.

The wire collapsed sending the stuntman flying threw the air uncontrollable, and smacking into the wall fifteen feet in the air with an audible thud, then falling to the ground headfirst. There was a cry from several in the crowd and Rollie sprinted over, staring in horror. The three stuntmen caught in the explosion were burned, two unconscious. Rollie ran up along with several others to the stuntman who had fallen off of the wire. He lay unmoving in a strange position on the ground.

Rollie dropped to his knees beside him. The day had just gone from bad, to worse, to tragic.

* * *

Part 6:

Rollie and the rest of the crew watched as two ambulances carted the men away. The stuntman who had fallen, Roger Morris, was carefully placed in a stretcher, after fitting him in a neckbrace. He was alive when they took him away, but the EMT's who had arrived said it looked like he had some bad fractures, possibly in his neck or spine. The three other men were all right, just burned.

Rollie slowly ran his hand through his hair. Two simultaneous accidents. This couldn't be coincidence, he had checked everything so thoroughly. Angie had tested everything. Angie! He still didn't have Angie. Who knew where she was.

Jay Hunter walked up silently to Rollie. He took him by the shoulder and they walked off by themselves.

"Listen Rollie," he said softly, "I don't know what happened just now, but the media will be all over this soon. I can't afford to have this happen again."

Jay held up his hand, stopping Rollie from speaking.

"I'm sorry Rollie," he said, "but I'm letting Vryon take over the rest of it. All of it."

"But Jay!" Rollie said, "I need to figure out what happened! This was crazy! Plus, with Angie missing, I don't think this was an accident."

"Sabotage?" Jay asked, "That's just what we need to get out, that this movie has saboteurs running around. Come on, Rollie, that's not believeable. I suppose you'll tell me it was Vryon."

"I didn't say that," Rollie said.

"Then who?" Jay asked, "Why?"

Rollie shook his head.

"I don't know," he said solemnly.

"Well it's not your concern now," Jay said, "you'll have to pack up and go."

"Listen Jay," Rollie said, "I think Angie's still somewhere on the set. We've got to find her! Plus,  plus I had this idea for the final scene, something that would be far less dangero-"

"Oh no, Tyler," Jay said, holding up his hand again, "I have people out looking for Angie. So far, nothing. And the final scene is Vryon's. He hasn't had any, accidents."

"But he will with the way he's running things," Rollie said.

Jay just shook his head.

"I'm sorry Rollie," he said again.

Jay turned and walked away and Rollie kicked at the dirt in anger. Where was Angie?

* * *

"Anywhere else we can check?" a security guard asked, glancing at the other guard accompanying him.

They had been sent out looking for Angie, but so far, nothing had happened.

"Nah," the other man said, "we've looked high and low."

"Hey, what around the mockup?" the first guard asked.

"I don't know," the second said, "maybe."

The two men began walking across the set toward the mockup building.

"Hey you!" a voice yelled, "What are you doing?"

Vryon Jax ran up to the security guards.

"Searching," the first one said, "we've got orders to search for that missing crewmember."

"Well she's not in there," Vryon said, "and that entire building is rigged with extremely sensitive and delicate explosives and electronic equipment. You will not go in there!"

The first guard shrugged.

"All right, then," he said glancing at the other, "I don't want to get blown up."

Vryon muttered something and then walked away. The two guards turned, and headed back to their posts.

* * *

"Negligence?" Rollie asked, "What do you mean negligence?"

Jay put his hand up for the umpteenth time. Two police officers had been talking with Jay, and were now talking with Rollie.

"This was pretty bad, as accidents go," the one officer said, "medics say the one guy is paralyzed from the neck down. We have to look into this, make sure it was just an accident. After all, two things did happen."

"I don't know," Rollie said, sitting down in a chair and shaking his head, "I have no idea."

"We'll need to go over the area," the officer said, "I imagine an insurance agent or two will be out here to comb over what happened. We'll probably need to ask you a few questions later on, Mr. Tyler. Please stick around town. Now, we'd like to take a look-"

Jay grumbled, and yelled to one of the techs to show the officers around.

"Tony here will accompany you," Jay said, gesturing at the dark curly haired tech.

"This way," he said.

The officers walked off, and Jay held the ridge of his nose as if he had a headache.

"This is going to be a nightmare," Jay said, "By the way, all my guards just reported back in. Angie's not on the set."

Rollie pounded his fist into his hand.

"She has to be!" he said.

"Well, she's not," Jay said, "now I don't want to have to-"

"I'm going Jay," Rollie said, "we've got a lot of equipment to pack up."

Jay nodded and walked off. Vryon Jax came up behind Rollie and patted him hard on the shoulder.

"It's all right Tyler," Vryon said, "it's all right. I'm sure you'll find another job."

Rollie shrugged Vryon's hand off and forcibly controlled his anger.

"Just stuff it, Jax," Rollie growled, "and go crawl back into your hole."

Vryon laughed and ruffled Rollie's hair.

"Poor little Tyler," he said, "this really will put a kink in your reputation."

Rollie was ready to leap out of his chair when Eldon walked up.

"Hey Rollie, we could use some guidance here," Eldon said, "what do you want us to do with the cabeling? We rigged up this thing especially for this scene."

"Archive it, Eldon," Rollie said, "maybe you can use it again later."

Both Vryon and Eldon walked off, leaving Rollie alone. Rollie glanced at his watch. It was a quarter till two. Vryon would probably start working out some of the scenes, using Rollie's ideas no doubt, and then between five and six set off the big boom. Not that it mattered, he wasn't going to be around anyway.

Rollie's main concern was Angie. It simply wasn't like her to disappear. Rollie stood up and began striding off. He had two friends in the NYPD and an FBI agent was supposed to take Angie out to dinner today. It was time to make a few calls.

* * *

Marty Laufman was sweating again. This accident had him nervous. Really nervous. He wondered if it was a warning, a warning from this Snake character. He still owed the money. It was due by the end of the day, and the end of the day was when he was doing the final scene. Was the final scene sabotaged? What was he getting himself into?

He needed more time. Definitely more time. Maybe he could get Vryon to push up the time a bit on the scene. That was what he could do. He could convince Vryon they needed to do it sooner. That's exactly what he would do.

* * *

Angie was dizzy. Too dizzy. The room spun around her like a top. She wondered if she had a concussion. The Snake had tied her up with heavy duty rope, and it was digging painfully in her skin. The Snake had also tied her feet to her hands so every time she moved one or the other would be stretched, the rope would slide, and she would get a little jolt of pain.

Her goal was to reach her PDA. After all the trouble they had been through, she and Rollie had installed a little "panic button" program on their PDA's. Once activated, it would let the other know they were in distress, and pinpoint their location using a GPS satellite connection. Angie had turned off her PDA before going to get lunch. It was still snug in her jacket pocket, but she couldn't reach it. If she could just get her hand out, or around her head, somehow turn on the PDA that's all it would take.

Angie's head was swimming, though. The more she struggled the more the ropes burned and the dizzier she got. In her frantic motion to wrestle free of her bonds, the PDA came loose from her pocket. It slid down and Angie tried to catch it with her chin but it hit her chin instead and fell to the ground below her head, out of reach.

"No!" Angie said in a muffled tone through her gag.

Angie raised her head, which, in her upside down position, allowed her to look at the floor. Her eyes opened wide. The PDA on button must have been hit when the PDA hit her chin. Somehow, miraculously, the PDA had landed face up, and was on. The little distress icon, a small red circle, sat silently in the bottom right corner of the screen.

Angie began struggling mightily, but still could not free herself. Finally, after several seconds, her chest heaving, she relaxed again. The motion had caused her to start spinning slowly as she hung there. She looked at the PDA again. It seemed to spin slowly, three feet below her. The button, with which only one push would bring help, was close, but yet so insurmountably far away.

* * *

The Snake stared at himself in the mirror, and smiled a slight smile. His hair freshly gelled and slicked back, and his black eyes shining bright he adjusted his black overcoat and black shirt collar. In just a few hours Marty Laufman would be dead, seemingly an accident. Mr. Bayer would know that he was a good worker, and would no doubt pay him well. Poor Marty. Poor, gambling addicted Marty. The Snake planned to watch the explosion, he liked to watch his work.

Then, after that, he had a date. A beautiful spitfire he had met a while ago, by the name of Anita Lord.

* * *

Part 7:

"She hasn't been missing long enough Rol-"

"I don't care!" Rollie yelled, "Angie wouldn't have just left like that! You know that Mira!"

Rollie spoke to Detective Mira Sanchez on the phone in the loft.

"I can't file an official missing persons report," Mira continued.

"Well you can at least help me out, here!" Rollie said.

"What do you want me to do?" Mira asked, her tone changing slightly.

Mira had become more protective of Angie after Loubar, and the incidents that followed.

"I want to come the set myself," Rollie said, "but I won't be able to get around the security guards."

"So you'd like me to," Mira said.

"With a few escorts, yes," Rollie said, "including me."

"I don't know, Rollie," Mira said, "that'll be tough to explain to the Captain."

"Forget the Captain!" Rollie said, "Angie may be in trouble!"

"Have you checked around other places?" Mira asked.

"She's not at her apartment," Rollie said, "and there's no where else she might have gone. Mira, this is serious."

"All right, all right," Mira said, "I'll see what I can do. I'll be back in touch soon."

Rollie hung up and glanced at his watch. It was a three thirty. For some reason Rollie felt like time was running out, he just couldn't figure out why.

"Where are you Ang?" he whispered to himself.

Rollie sat down and ran his hands through his hair. His next thought was to call Jordan, but he had no idea how to get in touch with him. Angie must have had his number, though.

Rollie glanced at his PDA, which he was holding in his hand. The thing that worried him the most was that Angie hadn't hit the distress button. That either meant she wasn't in distress, which he doubted, or that she couldn't hit the button for one reason or another. It was the possible reasons that caused him stress. Rollie laid the PDA on the coffee table and decided on how to find Jordan.

Rollie walked over to the computer and sat down. Maybe Angie stuck it somewhere. Rollie pulled up the file directory and started scanning through the folders, hoping to find an address book of some sort. Angie used the system, mostly, and Rollie knew she put things on it. A folder caught his eye, tucked away under a few other items. It was named 'Angie's PS.'

Rollie opened it, and found several files. All were named rather cryptically. Rollie had a tinge of guilt at perhaps invading Angie's privacy, but this was serious. He opened the first file, which was named 'My J.' It was a database, of sorts, categorized by date. Rollie pulled up the first entry and began reading.

"I discovered something the today," it read, "about myself. About myself, and about Rollie. I'm not sure what to do. I'm in so much pain, and yet at the same time I-"

Rollie quickly closed the file. 'My J' apparently stood for 'my journal.'  It was Angie's personal diary. She was keeping an electronic diary and it seemed to date fairly far back. Rollie closed out the folder entirely, lest temptation get the better of him. Still, he wondered...

* * *

Angie had finally stopped spinning. However her head had not. The pounding had subsided a bit, thankfully, but she was still dizzy and her feet and legs were still mostly numb. Every few minutes she would glance down at the PDA, out of reach. She couldn't believe that no one had come to check on the explosives, do a final inspection. She imagined it was the incompetence of Vryon Jax that was the cause of that.

Angie craned her neck to steel a glance above her. The Snake had tied her to a beam extending from one wall to the other. The beam was solidly planted, with no signs of weakness. She couldn't force it to break. Her glance also revealed a few small pieces of cement, the size of large pebbles, which were lying on top of the beam, somehow falling there during construction.

An idea struck Angie, and she quickly began pushing her left shoe off with her right foot. Slowly her tennis shoe worked off, and dropped to the floor with a thump. She had considered dropping her shoe on the PDA, but she feared the force might break it. A pebble, however, would not.

Angie then began the much more difficult process of getting her sock off. She first threw her other shoe off, and then began slowly working the sock on her left foot, which was closest to one of the pebbles, off. It was arduous, for she couldn't see well, and had to go by touch. Her feet were still numb, though, making the process more difficult. As she moved her feet blood began to circulate again, bringing was stinging but welcome feeling.

Angie was sweating. It was colder outside, but in here, added with the stress, she was burning up. Sweat poured off her brow as she tried to wrench her sock off using her toes. The motion pulled on her arms, tied to her feet, and she had to reach back as far as she could, arching her spine way back and almost pulling her arms out of their sockets.

"I need to get back in the gym more," she thought, as her muscles began aching from the strain.

Finally, her sock came off her foot and floated to the ground. That, unfortunately, was the easy part. Now she had to reach the pebble, and drop it onto that tiny little icon three feet below her. Angie stretched her foot, and reached out with her toes. The sharp edges of the pebble scraped against her skin and a tiny splinter entered her toe. Angie ignored it, and grasped the pebble firmly between her big and second toes.

She slowly pulled her foot away, pebble firmly in her grasp. She looked down again at the PDA. The icon was so small. Why had she made it so small? The PDA, unfortuantely was directly underneath her head, so she would have to swing out of the way to hit it. The odds were phenomenally against her hitting her target, but she had to try.

Angie slowly began rocking back and forth, causing her upside down body to swing slowly, back and forth. Angie swung harder, causing her to arch farther back and forth, the ceiling and floor coming into view and disappearing in regular intervals. The PDA flew past her as she gained momentum, quickly, too quickly. But she needed to make a big swing to drop the pebble.

Finally, when she thought she had enough room, she let herself swing once more and as she swung back of the PDA, let the pebble fall from her toes. It slowly fell downward, spinning softly. Angie swung back and over it, seeing the ceiling again. As she came back, the PDA again came into view. The pebble had landed about an inch to the left of the device, and Angie swore under her gag.

She began to swing less and less, and finally came to a rest, her head still spinning. Angie looked up again, and reached out with her toe to grab another pebble of cement. A slightly larger piece, she grabbed it quickly, but painstakingly, and began swinging her body back and forth, up and down yet again.

The board creaked with every swing as Angie slowly made larger and larger archs in the air. Angie recalculated her aim this time, and let the pebble fly. It fell through the air and as Angie swung back she heard the blip of the PDA. Hope surged through her as the PDA came into view. The pebble has struck a button, but it was the wrong one. It had merely struck the "check date and time" button, which was a mere hairsbreadth away from the distress button. A little window showed that it was nearing four o'clock.

Angie fought back a wave of nausea as she swallowed her thick saliva for the umpteenth time. Her mouth was extremely dry, and her stomach rumbled with hunger. There was one more pebble that she could reach, and then only just barely.

Angie stretched as far as her hip would allow, and slowly rolled the pebble closer to the edge of the board. She twisted her toes quickly and grabbed it. Angie began swinging for the third time. She swung back and forth, anxious and extremely nervous, this being her last chance. Her toe had become sweaty from the exertion, and as she swung the pebble slipped from her foot before she was ready.

Angie gasped as it fell, and hit her jacket. It got caught on the zipper for a moment, and Angie gritted her teeth, trying not to make herself swing anymore. The pebble moved slowly with each swing, and it finally slipped and fell again. It struck her chin and rolled down it, coming to a rest on her Adam's apple. Angie raised her head, held her breath, and gritted her teeth as she tried to keep her head perfectly still.

She finally stopped swinging, the pebble still resting precariously on her throat, held down by her chin. Angie didn't dare move, and beads of sweat rolled down her chin, throat, and then around the pebble, tickling her. Angie considered her options, which weren't many. The PDA was still directly below her, and she only had one shot.

Angie, with incredible slowness and control, let her head slowly tilt back. The pebble moved and rolled up her chin slightly. Angie tilted her head back even further, and arched her neck back. The pebble rolled over and rested on the edge of her chin. Angie swung back slightly, and the pebble fell. She watched it was it fell directly below her, and onto the PDA. It was off course, though, she could see that.

Amazingly, it struck the pebble which was already lying on the PDA's screen, and bounced up into the air. Angie said a silent prayer as it came up, and fell again. It landed on the PDA again, and struck a button with a bleep. A screen came up and Angie read it upside down. It read 'Distress Call Sent.'

New waves of emotion, those of relief and joy, flooded over Angie's body. She squeezed her eyes tight to keep from crying. Now Rollie would know exactly where she was. All she had to do now, was wait for him to come and get her.

* * *

"So when are we doing this Vryon?" the lead pyrotechnician asked Vryon Jax.

"Five thirty," he said, looking up from his laptop, "one of the stuntmen convinced me to do it as early as possible. Dusk'll be coming soon anyway, and we may have a storm front moving in. I want to get this done now."

"Five thirty it is," the man said, and walked away calling to his crew.

Five thirty it was.

* * *

Rollie was going stir crazy. It had been a half an hour since he'd called Mira, and she hadn't gotten back to him and wasn't answering her phone. Rollie hadn't found anything else on the computer, and was nearly hysterical. He paced back and forth across the floor quickly, rubbing his hands.

"That's it!" he yelled, grabbing his coat, "I can't take it anymore!"

Rollie ran from the loft, an idea in his head. He would go find Angie himself, security guards or no security guards. Rollie ran through the door, putting his coat on, and the door slammed and locked behind him.

As he did so, his PDA, on the coffee table, blipped. A soft, steady alarm emanated from it, and a little message appeared on the screen. 'Distress Signal Recieved' it read. Another little window popped up, this time of a map. The Global Positioning System had tracked the source of the signal, and pinpointed it to with three feet of it's exact location. A little red blob pulsated on the map, showing Angie's precise position. The alarm echoed softly in the empty loft.

* * *

Part 8:

Rollie drove the van quickly. He would have to search for Angie himself, and he had this feeling that she was still somewhere on the set. The only way he would be able to search the set, however, was to be in disguise. That alone, wasn't a problem. Getting around the security guards might be, though. And what would they do if they caught him? He was already being scrutinized for the problems going on, they might very well use that as proof that he was trying to sabotage the film.

Rollie placed the pair of fake glasses on his face, and smoothed out the fake black moustache. A baseball cap hid his hair underneath. He glanced in the rear view mirror at himself. It would have to do. Somehow, he felt he didn't have time.

* * *

Rollie arrived and parked a good ways away from the set. He walked slowly down the street, and came around the back way of the set. Glancing around he quickly climbed the chain link fence and began walking across the lawn like he belonged there. He spotted a familiar figure walking across the lawn. One holding a pooper-scooper and wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt.

"Hey JJ," Rollie said walking up behind him.

Jay Jr. spun and stared at Rollie.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"It's me, Rollie," Rollie said in a whisper, "I need your help."

"Rollie?" Jay Jr. said scrutinizing him.

"Yeah it's me," Rollie said.

"Prove it," Jay Jr. said.

"What?" Rollie said, becoming impatient.

"The real Rollie is taller," Jay Jr. said standing back and crossing his arms, "and he has a birthmark shaped like Australia on his right butt cheek. Show me."

"What?!" Rollie cried, "No I don't! Where'd you get that idea? Now listen, here, little man-"

"Rollie dude!" Jay Jr. cried out, and embraced him, "It is you! Listen, dude, I'm sorry about-"

"Ok, ok," Rollie said, pushing Jay Jr. off of him, and wrinkling his nose at the various items JJ had left on his clothes, "forget about it. And thanks for trying to help us. Anyway, I need your help in something else now."

"Yeah I know," Jay Jr. said, "Angie missing still?"

Rollie nodded.

"And you're back to look for her," Jay Jr. said with a grin, "a little cloak and dagger. And you need me to be your trusty sidekick. Your Robin. Your Kato."

Jay Jr. jumped into a bad karate stance and began making jerky movements while yelling Bruce Lee style.

"JJ-" Rollie started.

Jay Jr. dropped to the ground, and spun around at another imaginary attacker, planting a kick in the air.

"JJ!" Rollie said, struggling to keep his voice down.

"Yeah dude?" Jay Jr. asked.

"Are you done?" Rollie asked, putting his hand to his forehead.

"Yeah," Jay Jr. said with a grin, and then pretended to karate chop at Rollie.

Rollie grabbed his hand.

"Listen," Rollie said intensely, "Angie's somewhere on the set, I know it. And she's probably in trouble. I'm sure she is. This long she would have hit her distress call but-"

Rollie slapped his pocket and then stopped. He rummaged in his clothes for a moment.

"What's the matter Columbo?" Jay Jr. asked, smiling.

"My PDA," Rollie said, groaning, "I left it at the loft! I've got to get it, Angie might try to contact me. Listen, I'll be back soon, but I need someone to start looking for her-"

"Leave it to me dude," Jay Jr. said, throwing the pooper scooper down and saluting smartly.

"This is serious," Rollie said, "Something dangerous is going on, I know it. You have to be careful."

"Always, dude, always," Jay Jr. said.

Rollie mumbled and nodded, and then took off back toward the fence.

"I'll be back in twenty minutes!" he called over his shoulder.

"I'll be here!" Jay Jr. yelled back, and then, dropping into his karate stance again, took off.

"Oh, and see if you can contact your brother, huh?" Rollie called again.

Jay Jr. gave him the thumbs up signal, and disappeared behind one of the trailers. Rollie shook his head.

"What have I done," he mumbled, and then began heading back toward the van.

* * *

Where is he? I'm going to kill him. I really am going to kill him. No, worse, I'll slowly kill him. I'll-

Angie's head was swimming. She couldn't think straight anymore. Where was Rollie? She'd been staring at explosives around her for who knew how long now. Hours, days, weeks. It was hot, and her muscles were strained to the point that the slightest movement sent spasms of pain across her body. She had an itch in the middle of her back. A horrible, tingling itch. It felt like several dozen baby spiders were slowly, carefully, stepping and creeping their way along the middle of her spine, sliding across her skin and tickling tiny hairs.

She couldn't reach it. Not by a long shot, and it was beginning to drive her insane. Her nose also constantly felt like she was going to sneeze. It would wrinkle at the dusty haze, but just wouldn't sneeze. The ropes had turned the skin on her wrists and ankles raw now, and her feet and lower legs had fallen completely asleep from lack of circulation. This was slow torture.

Angie burned at the thought of the Snake. When she got her hands on him. No, if she got her hands on him. Wait, she couldn't think like that. Rollie was coming, she had sent the distress signal. He was coming.

Suddenly Angie heard a noise outside of the building. She began screaming, under her gag, as loud as her hoarse voice would allow. That was probably him now.

* * *

Jay Jr. snuck carefully around the corner, and then darted between two trailers. He peaked under both, and then in the window of one. A woman was changing inside and she screamed at the site of him. Jay Jr. gasped and ran for his life and she came screaming out of the trailer, her curling iron in hand.

He hadn't seen hide nor hair of Angie. Where could she be? He had traversed across the back part of the lot for the past fifteen minutes. He was moving quickly. He wanted to find Angie before Rollie got back. Security, supposedly, had checked everywhere. Where hadn't they checked?

The most dangerous places, Jay Jr. thought, answering his own question. And the most dangerous place was around Vryon Jax and his little explosive show, due to go off soon. Jay Jr. shot off toward the mock up White House set. He came around the back way and glanced around. Everything was pretty open: the pyrotechnicians going over the wiring, Jax himself overseeing.

Jay Jr. looked at the White House building itself. It was large, very large, almost full size. It was only a section, a small section, but it was big enough. And they were going to blow it up. Jay Jr. shook his head at the craziness of it. Jay Jr. saw a brown figure out of the corner of his eye. It was a dog, a mutt, under one of the trailers. Probably the source of all the garbage Jay Jr. had been scooping up.

Jay Jr. narrowed his eyes and crawled over to the dog.

"All right you-" Jay Jr. started menacingly.

The dog looked up quickly and bared its teeth. It started into a low growl.

"Uh-oh," Jay Jr. said, and took off.

The dog barked widely and took off after him. Jay Jr. ran like the wind, not looking behind him, and not seeing the dog reach the end of his leash with a yelp.

Jay Jr. finally stopped when he had reached the back of the White House mockup. He glanced around, catching his breath. It was only then that he noticed a small opening in the back of the White House mockup, probably where they set up the interior explosives. Jay Jr. walked around to it, and thought he heard mumbling inside.

"Angie?" he said.

* * *

"Hello my sweet," a soft voice said.

Anita Lord spun around with a gasp. And then smiled.

"Hello darling," she said stroking his cheek.

The Snake leaned over her, till she could smell his thick cologne.

"Ready for our date tonight?" he asked slowly.

She smiled and turned back to her car. She had been getting some things out of her car in the parking lot, and they stood their now.

"So my dear," the Snake said, "Like my little work on Tyler's set?"

Anita nodded.

"Even though it was supposed to be on Vryon's," Anita said, "your boss won't like that you've failed to kill that stunt man."

"He'll die today," the Snake said, "thanks to some, renovations, on the explosives equipment."

Anita smiled.

"Did you like my work on Tyler's set?" she asked.

"The explosion?" the Snake said, "I wondered if that was you. Beautiful touch, my dear, beautiful."

"I try," she said, "that Tyler and his little perky assistant was getting on my nerves."

"Angela?" he asked, "Oh, don't worry about her."

The Snake pointed to the White House mockup, a good ways in the distance.

"She'll die as well," he said, "she saw me, so I strung her up in there."

"Then you might want to stop him," Anita said, pointing as well, to Jay Jr., sneaking inside.

* * *

Jay Jr. caught sight of Angie hanging there and his mouth dropped open.

"Dude," he said softly, "what happened to you?"

Angie screamed as loud as she could under her gag and began struggling again. Jay Jr. walked slowly up to her.

"Who did this?" he asked.

Angie's eyes turned into balls of fury as she stared upside down at the flowers on the Hawaiian shirt and shorts.

Jay Jr. untied Angie's gag, and she took some deep slow breaths.

"Get me down," she said slowly and forcefully, unbelieveably relieved someone had found her, and worried that Rollie hadn't shown up.

"We've been looking all over for you!" Jay Jr. yelled, "Something went wrong with the stunt and Rollie got fired! But he came back in disguise to look for you but he forgot his PDA so he sent me looking while he went to go get it."

Jay Jr. stepped back for a moment and eyed her.

"Even like this," he said, "baby you're still gorgeous. Maybe more so."

Jay Jr. winked at her and Angie restrained herself from saying what she wanted to.

"Get me down," she said again slowly.

"Oh, right," he said, looking around for something to cut her down with.

"Look out!" Angie said, seeing a familiar, tall, thin, black outfitted figure step in.

Jay Jr. spun around and faced 'El Serpiente.'

"Tsk, tsk," the Snake hissed, "you shouldn't have found her. Now you must die as well."

"Who-" Jay Jr. started, but the Snake lunged at him before he could say anymore.

Jay Jr. dodged out of the way, unfortunately away from the door. The Snake reached behind himself, and then with a whip of his wrist a switchblade appeared in his hand.

"A little stereotypical, I know," the Snake said, "but it works."

Jay Jr.'s eyes opened wide as the Snake lunged at him, knife in hand. JJ quickly scrambled back behind Angie.

"Hey!" she yelled.

Jay Jr. looked out at the Snake from behind Angie. The Snake made a lunge to the right, and Jay Jr. moved both he and Angie out of the way. Another lunge to the left, narrowly missing Angie's head, and Jay Jr. swung her back.

The Snake ran around Angie trying to get in a decent blow.

"Whoa, dude!" Jay Jr. said, "Can't we talk this over first?"

"No," the Snake said with another lunge.

One swip missed Jay Jr.'s head as he ducked, another cut his shirt as he jumped back.

"Dude!" he said in dismay, "This was my favorite!"

Jay Jr. shimmed up one of the wooden girders supporting the walls, as the Snake lept and swung, planting the knife in the wood just below Jay Jr. JJ began screaming for help as the Snake began climbing after him.

Jay Jr. grabbed a wooden beam above him, and swung himself upright. He ran carefully across the board which supported Angie, to the other wall. He then began climbing higher, using the studs for support.

"Viene aqui, idiota pequena!" the Snake yelled, and lept from one wall to the other.

Angie was swinging still, shaken from the boards she was tied to trembling as the two men climbed around them. As the Snake climbed after Jay Jr., JJ took one foot and planted it directly in the Snake's face. The Snake yelled and fell to the ground with a groan.

"I'll get help!" Jay Jr. yelled, leaping down himself and running out of the building.

"JJ get me down!" Angie yelled, but then began yelling a warning as the Snake got up and took off after him.

Jay Jr., frantic, took off in the wrong direction and ended up in the parking lot. He ran down the length of cars till he saw Anita.

"Hey, hey dudette!" he yelled, "Got a phone? I got a crazy on my tail!"

"Oh really?" Anita asked, then calmly pulled out a gun, "Are you sure?"

The Snake came up behind Jay Jr., chuckling.

"Good work my dear," he said.

"What's going on?" Jay Jr. asked.

"Shut up and get in," Anita said, opening her car's trunk.

"In there?" Jay Jr. said, "aw, sorry, dudette, but, see I got arachnophobia-"

"That's claustrophobia, and I don't care," the Snake said, "now get in."

"I got asthma!" he yelled, as the Snake grabbed his head and pushed him in.

"It's stuffy in here!" he yelled, "I need my inhaler! Hey! Let me go!"

The Snake took Anita's gun and hit Jay Jr. over the head with it. JJ slumped and fell into the trunk. The Snake closed the trunk with a bang.

"Yet another loose end?" Anita asked.

The Snake sighed and nodded.

"We'll take care of him later," he said, "right now, I have to regag someone, and then we have fireworks to see.

* * *

Part 9:

Jordan Hunter walked onto the large, outdoor set, scanning the place, not for his father, but for Angie Ramirez. Not seeing anyone he recognized, he asked a passing worker.

"Oh," the man said, "Tyler F/X got fired. Some guy got really badly hurt cause of negligence or something. Jaxxor Productions is doing all the effects now."

Jordan raised his eyebrows, and went off in search of his father.

"What's going on Dad?" Jordan asked when he found him, "You fired Rollie and Angie? What were you thinking?"

The much larger Jay Hunter took his son around the shoulders and scooted him away from a crowd of people.

"Listen son," he said, "I got a stuntman who's hospitalized, probably will in a wheelchair for the rest of his life, and cops crawling all over the set, all because of those two. I can't afford messups, not with the kind of money on this, not with investors breathing down my throat. Now, this man, Vryon Jax, has done nothing but top notch work."

"Well do you know where they went?" Jordan asked, "I was supposed to take Angie out to dinner tonight."

"Actually," Jay said, rubbing his chin, "Rollie mentioned something about not being able to find Angie. Security couldn't find her either-"

"What!" Jordan yelled, "What do you mean couldn't find her? When? For how long?"

"Cool it, son," Jay said in a fatherly tone, "a few hours ago, at least. I'm sure he found her by now. She probably was just-"

Jordan held up his hand and sighed.

"Ok, Dad, I'm sorry," he said, "Look I'd like to go find her. I think I'll head to their place."

"Feel free," Jay said, "but don't try to talk me into rehiring them."

Jordan shook his head. He wanted to find out exactly what happened from Rollie and Angie anyway. As he turned to walk away an instinct, an instinct honed from his time as a cop and FBI agent, began to hum. His partners used to call it his 'spider sense,' a sense of danger. Jordan looked around his peripheral vision and caught a glimpse of someone, a hundred or more yards away, looking at them with binoculurs, from a hill looking over the set.

Jordan pretended not to notice and made his way to his car. Rather than getting in it though, he doubled back and came around behind the hill. Carefully he crept his way threw the thin bit of woods and peaked out from behind a tree. Whoever it was was gone. Jordan walked up to the spot where he believed the man had been watching, and bent over it. He searched around the grass, but found nothing. As he leaned over a scent caught him in the nose. Faint, very faint. Cologne? A strange brand of cologne. Where had he smelled that before?

* * *

Rollie burst into the loft and ran up to his PDA. He was shocked to hear an alarm softly pinging. He picked it up, to see that a distress call had indeed been sent. From the GPS coordinates, Angie was somewhere on- on the set still! Rollie hit the 'zoom in' command, and the longitudinal map zoomed in to the square he specified. Zooming in once more, Rollie could get an idea of where on the set she was.

"Oh no!" Rollie cried, as he recognized the spot, and now realized why he had felt time was running out.

Rollie was out of the door in a heartbeat.

* * *

"Get ready people!" Vryon Jax yelled, "We're doing it now!"

There was a hustle and bustle as stuntmen prepared, the pyrotechnicians and modelers readied the set.

"I want another look at the interior explosives," one technician said to Vryon.

"How long will it take?" Vryon asked.

"Well, I need to trace the wiring, make sure none of it was damaged," the man said slowly, "I don't know, fifteen, twenty minutes."

"No time," Vryon said, "we've checked that enough. Get that stuntman primed and in the harness, and ready the pulley. Make sure you've got those charges set right, and all hooked into the computer for detonation."

The man nodded, looking unsatisfied, and ran off. Vryon rubbed his hands together and glanced around for Anita. It was time to make a little magic.

* * *

"Come on Marty!" one of the techs yelled, "It's show time!"

Marty Laufman's heart was racing, but not from fear of the stunt, from fear of the Snake. Nothing had happened yet, and he didn't have the money. Would he have sabotaged the set? No, there was no way he could. Every effects artists in the business would have checked and quadruple checked the equipment before setting it off. At least this far, he was safe.

* * *

Angie could hear the hustle and bustle going on outside, slightly. The Snake had regagged her, with two gags this time. Her ears were ringing for some reason and she was having trouble seeing. Angie had done the best to bite the Snake, but he had just kissed her on the forehead and went on his way unharmed.

Rollie hadn't come yet, and, amazingly, no one had come in to check the explosives. They must have been pretty confident. No one could hear her muffled cries, and now, she knew, she was really in trouble. They were going to set the thing off soon. Too soon. Too soon to save her.

* * *

The van skidded around the corner, narrowly missing a pedestrian. Rollie was driving like a madman, twice nearly turning the van over. His eyes opened wide as he saw a classic New York traffic jam up ahead, directly in his path. Rollie swore and turned the van hard, not daring to slow down.

He turned into the oncoming traffic lane, and several cars skidded out of his way. Rollie felt a jerk as he bumped over the curb and half of the van began driving along the sidewalk. He struck a newsstand and sent flurries of papers and one very scared old man fleeing.

"Sorry!" Rollie yelled out of the window.

Jerking the van back Rollie veered into the correct lane again, between two cars that had stopped. The cause of the traffic jam was some accident, but Rollie didn't have time to stop. This time he veered the other direction, onto the tuft of lawn to the right of his lane, part of a small park, and drove through the grass at high speed, tufts of dirt flying in all directions. Several people walking their dogs scattered, their dogs barking furiously at Rollie as he zoomed by. Not once did he take his foot off of the accelerator. Amazingly, no police had shown up yet. Even if they did, they'd have to follow him all the way to the set.

"Hang on, sweetheart," he muttered, "I'm coming."

* * *

Jordan walked along through the tuft of woods carefully, slowly walking toward a crew parking lot. He had his gun in his hand. Angie disappeared? Something didn't feel right. He knew it. He walked slowly, barely making a sound, carefully sidestepping the leaves and branches on the ground. There were a lot of shadows casting as dusk came, and he didn't notice one black figure huddled under a bush.

As he passed the shadow went into motion knocking the gun out of his hand and shoving him to the ground. Jordan gasped and put up his hands as the figure lunged on top of him. Grabbing the attackers hand he stopped a knife from entering his skull just an inch above his head. With a groan he pushed the attackers knife up and away from him. With one free hand, he took his palm and slammed it into the man's forehead. The man relaxed and backed off for a moment, but a moment was all Jordan needed.

Jordan, using a judo style move, grabbed the man's waist inbetween his legs, and flipped him over. Jordan, with one swift movement, lept to his feet to face the man, also standing. Jordan's eyes opened wide.

"You!" he said in surprise.

The knife was in the man's hand again.

"Yes," the Snake muttered savagely, "me."

* * *

Vryon looked up as Anita stepped up next to him.

"Where have you been?" he asked, sounding annoyed.

"Oh just taking care of some business," she said sweetly, "we all set?"

"Yeah," Vryon said, "We're not going to mess up like Tyler did."

"Right," Anita said in a tired voice, glancing away.

Vryon looked over the computer console. The big boom was actualy a series of explosions. Several smaller ones, blowing out of the windows, and then three larger ones, one going up, and one going out. It was a fine art to make it work right, especially with a rig this big, but Vryon was confident he could make it work. The stuntman would be perfectly safe, and it would make history. He would make history.

Vryon's finger waved eagerly over the button. Just one push when it was time. Just one.

* * *

Rollie made it to the set without getting stopped by the police, and without killing himself or anyone else. The mockup White House was still a ways off, though. It would take time to walk there.

"So we won't," Rollie said to himself, and careened past horrified security guards.

* * *

"Ah!" Jordan cried as the knife sliced into his raised upper right arm.

The Snake was good with the weapon, too good. Jordan had been unprepared for that since he was relatively easy to take down before. Now he would have to fight in earnest. Jordan concentrated on the Snake's eyes, which would betray his movements. A slight flicker towards Jordan's gut and he knew.

The Snake lunged at Jordan's stomach. Jordan sidestepped him, grabbing his arm to wrench the knife out of it. The Snake was thin and quick, though, and landed a punch just below Jordan's ribcage. The air rushed out of him and he backed off. The Snake came at him again, wildly, yet with the temperment of training, and an evil intention. Jordan ducked under his swing.

"Where's Angie?" Jordan yelled, "And what are you doing here?"

The Snake grinned.

"Angela is a bit tied up," he hissed, "as for wh