Wednesday morning, the 4th of May...
The conference room on the third floor of the Plaza de Troyes rang in the aftermath of the CEO of 21twelve studios' shouted question. She stood at the head of a long, mahogany table, and stared into each of the ten silent, stunned faces collected around it. Her lush, full lips, normally parted in a wide smile or an infectious grin, were compressed into a thin, tight, harsh line. Fire burned and danced in dark, kohl-rimmed eyes, and high spots of color were picked out in her tawny cheeks. Lelah Rivka was angry. No, she's wasn't angry ? she was livid.
?Who the f*ck did this?? Lelah shouted again, once more stunning the department heads by her use of obscenities. She was clutching a copy of the morning's edition of the Rhy'Din Post, open to a page whose headline read: 21twelve Studios Script Leak!. The paper had been laying innocuously upon the table, next to a stack of signed contracts when the department heads had entered the room, called away from their desks by an emergency staff meeting. Every single one of them had known what was going to happen when they received that phone call. They'd all seen the buzz around the three leaked scenes on the extra-nets. They knew what it meant for their careers. None of them was short-sighted enough to think that they could find work on other worlds if they screwed over Lelah on Rhy'Din. The woman had powerful backers in her little enterprise, men and women with fingers in all the pies of business and commerce on many, many worlds. If they betrayed Lelah, they wouldn't find work in a diner in Podunk, Idaho.
With a disgusted snarl, Lelah threw the paper to the floor at her feet, where it lay discarded and broken, like the body of a carrier pigeon that delivered bad news. Then she picked up the stack of signed contracts, eyes skimming the names of each before she tossed them at the appropriate person. ?You all signed non-disclosure statements. You all signed contracts that strictly forbade you from speaking to the press about up-coming projects. Do I need to get attorneys involved in this? Do I need to not only sh*t-can the person who did this, but sue them for repudiatory breach of contract as well??
The department heads all exchanged panicked looks, no one saying anything. None of them had done this. None of them was stupid enough to have done this. Lelah might be a small, beautiful, easy-going woman, but she was also not only an award-winning actress, but a director as well. She was used to dealing with stubborn, pig-headed men and aloof, ice-queen women. She had a length of steel running down that shapely backbone, a length of steel that she could wield as a bludgeon if need be.
The silence stretched out uncomfortably for several seconds before Adam Higgins, the production designer, spoke up. Adam was a short, middle-aged man with a goofy smile and the ability to poke fun at anyone and anything and not be offensive. ?Lelah,? he said, his voice breaking before he cleared his throat and started again. ?I think I speak for everyone here when I say that no one here would be dumb enough to do this. Perhaps,? his voice broke again and he reached up to wipe away a condensation of sweat on his upper lip. ?Perhaps it's time to look at other people in our departments. Secretaries, gophers, even the camera and sound techs. Maybe...maybe even the FX department.?
Marie-Therese LaCroix, head of the hair design department, gasped when Adam mentioned the FX department. It was no secret that Ori Simon, the wizard Lelah had hired to produce most of the studios' special effects needs, was a close friend ? possibly even a lover ? of Lelah's. Was Adam intentionally committing career suicide or did he know something none of the rest of them did?
Lelah blinked, blindsided by the mention of Ori's department. Then she burst out in a fit of hysterical laughter. Tears ran down her face and she gasped for air, her slight shoulders rocked by the force of the giggles and guffaws. The rest of those collected in the conference room looked at each other, the thought that perhaps Lelah had finally cracked obvious in their expressions. When her laughter finally died down, she delicately swept tears off her cheeks with the tips of manicured fingers. Lelah blew out a deep breath and shook her head. ?Oh, Adam,? she said with the sort of look that a tiger has on its face before it dove at the throat of its prey. ?That is the funniest thing I've heard in a very long, long time. Do you want to know why?? She included the rest of them in this question, looking steadily at each face before saying, ?Ori is the only one here, the one person in the entire office, who hasn't received the script yet. He hasn't even seen it!?
The shocked silence didn't have time to settle, the implications of Lelah's statement didn't have time to penetrate the sluggish brains before she braced herself on the table in front of her and leaned forward. In a voice that betrayed no small amount of that steely resolve, she said quietly, ?Each of you will run an investigation into this within your own departments. Each of you will speak to every single member of your department and ask them if they did this. Use computer forensics, use truth-sayers, use whatever the f*ck you can get your hands on, and uncover who did this. You have until Friday afternoon to bring me the person who did this. Or I will fire each and every one of you.? Frankie Dellatore, the production manager, opened her mouth to question this decision, but Lelah held up a single finger and said, ?Yes, I can. Yes, I can fire you all in one fell swoop. And if you don't figure out who did this, I will.? She put her right hand over her heart and raised the left in the air. ?My hand to God, I will. Now get out.?
The conference room on the third floor of the Plaza de Troyes rang in the aftermath of the CEO of 21twelve studios' shouted question. She stood at the head of a long, mahogany table, and stared into each of the ten silent, stunned faces collected around it. Her lush, full lips, normally parted in a wide smile or an infectious grin, were compressed into a thin, tight, harsh line. Fire burned and danced in dark, kohl-rimmed eyes, and high spots of color were picked out in her tawny cheeks. Lelah Rivka was angry. No, she's wasn't angry ? she was livid.
?Who the f*ck did this?? Lelah shouted again, once more stunning the department heads by her use of obscenities. She was clutching a copy of the morning's edition of the Rhy'Din Post, open to a page whose headline read: 21twelve Studios Script Leak!. The paper had been laying innocuously upon the table, next to a stack of signed contracts when the department heads had entered the room, called away from their desks by an emergency staff meeting. Every single one of them had known what was going to happen when they received that phone call. They'd all seen the buzz around the three leaked scenes on the extra-nets. They knew what it meant for their careers. None of them was short-sighted enough to think that they could find work on other worlds if they screwed over Lelah on Rhy'Din. The woman had powerful backers in her little enterprise, men and women with fingers in all the pies of business and commerce on many, many worlds. If they betrayed Lelah, they wouldn't find work in a diner in Podunk, Idaho.
With a disgusted snarl, Lelah threw the paper to the floor at her feet, where it lay discarded and broken, like the body of a carrier pigeon that delivered bad news. Then she picked up the stack of signed contracts, eyes skimming the names of each before she tossed them at the appropriate person. ?You all signed non-disclosure statements. You all signed contracts that strictly forbade you from speaking to the press about up-coming projects. Do I need to get attorneys involved in this? Do I need to not only sh*t-can the person who did this, but sue them for repudiatory breach of contract as well??
The department heads all exchanged panicked looks, no one saying anything. None of them had done this. None of them was stupid enough to have done this. Lelah might be a small, beautiful, easy-going woman, but she was also not only an award-winning actress, but a director as well. She was used to dealing with stubborn, pig-headed men and aloof, ice-queen women. She had a length of steel running down that shapely backbone, a length of steel that she could wield as a bludgeon if need be.
The silence stretched out uncomfortably for several seconds before Adam Higgins, the production designer, spoke up. Adam was a short, middle-aged man with a goofy smile and the ability to poke fun at anyone and anything and not be offensive. ?Lelah,? he said, his voice breaking before he cleared his throat and started again. ?I think I speak for everyone here when I say that no one here would be dumb enough to do this. Perhaps,? his voice broke again and he reached up to wipe away a condensation of sweat on his upper lip. ?Perhaps it's time to look at other people in our departments. Secretaries, gophers, even the camera and sound techs. Maybe...maybe even the FX department.?
Marie-Therese LaCroix, head of the hair design department, gasped when Adam mentioned the FX department. It was no secret that Ori Simon, the wizard Lelah had hired to produce most of the studios' special effects needs, was a close friend ? possibly even a lover ? of Lelah's. Was Adam intentionally committing career suicide or did he know something none of the rest of them did?
Lelah blinked, blindsided by the mention of Ori's department. Then she burst out in a fit of hysterical laughter. Tears ran down her face and she gasped for air, her slight shoulders rocked by the force of the giggles and guffaws. The rest of those collected in the conference room looked at each other, the thought that perhaps Lelah had finally cracked obvious in their expressions. When her laughter finally died down, she delicately swept tears off her cheeks with the tips of manicured fingers. Lelah blew out a deep breath and shook her head. ?Oh, Adam,? she said with the sort of look that a tiger has on its face before it dove at the throat of its prey. ?That is the funniest thing I've heard in a very long, long time. Do you want to know why?? She included the rest of them in this question, looking steadily at each face before saying, ?Ori is the only one here, the one person in the entire office, who hasn't received the script yet. He hasn't even seen it!?
The shocked silence didn't have time to settle, the implications of Lelah's statement didn't have time to penetrate the sluggish brains before she braced herself on the table in front of her and leaned forward. In a voice that betrayed no small amount of that steely resolve, she said quietly, ?Each of you will run an investigation into this within your own departments. Each of you will speak to every single member of your department and ask them if they did this. Use computer forensics, use truth-sayers, use whatever the f*ck you can get your hands on, and uncover who did this. You have until Friday afternoon to bring me the person who did this. Or I will fire each and every one of you.? Frankie Dellatore, the production manager, opened her mouth to question this decision, but Lelah held up a single finger and said, ?Yes, I can. Yes, I can fire you all in one fell swoop. And if you don't figure out who did this, I will.? She put her right hand over her heart and raised the left in the air. ?My hand to God, I will. Now get out.?