“She’s staying in the area for a reason, and she’s getting information off the television, the local channels. That’s the only way she could have known who I was after I pulled her from the wreck.”
“Sure, she watched the news, heard your name and the name of our agency.”
Hondo said, “After your little dance today with John Wesley makes the air, I figure she will know a little more. If we can get on air tonight or tomorrow, then we’ve got a chance to communicate with her.”
I thought a second. “We’ll also be communicating with the people who are after her.”
Hondo nodded, “If we meet up with them, Emma will have some scenes that’ll make her day. I figure we’ll get a little action, maybe some fighting, some shooting.”
I put my feet on the floor, “Listen, if John Wesley’s around, it might make the North Hollywood shootout look like a spitball fight.”
“We’ll start carrying a little extra.” For me that meant an extra clip for my .45, for Hondo that might mean extra pistols, grenades, and a small nuke.
I said, “What if Magilla’s there, too?”
“He’s yours. I understand he likes it mano-a-mano.”
“Well sure,
that’s a fun thought, going up against King Kong. I can hardly wait.”
“King Kong was a wuss compared to Magilla.”
Oh, great.
**
Emma showed up on time with three assistants and her one-person camera crew. She could barely contain herself as she told us of her meeting with the media brass. “They are a hundred and ten percent behind this project.”
“I was hoping for a hundred and twelve or thirteen percent myself,” I said.
The cameraman, a slender black man named Marcus, got it. Emma said, “A hundred and ten percent is all you can have. It’s the maximum.”
“Oh, excuse me. I thought the max was a hundred percent, and then you said a hundred and ten, well…” I looked at Hondo out of the corner of my eye and he was wagging a finger at me like, Let up.
Emma continued, “We’ve worked a nightly fifteen minute time slot that can be included in the studio’s local program allotment and the station is highlighting it as the newest, most hip, most right-now reality show on the air.”
“Right-now reality, the next day,” I said.
Emma said, “Exactly! Like it’s happening right now.”
I said, “Sure, wouldn’t want to say something is happening now when it’s already history.”
Hondo threw a paper clip at me and said, “Emma, go ahead. Ronny’s just excited.”
Emma said, “I know what you mean, Ronny. I was talking ninety miles an hour when I pitched the idea.”
Hondo said, “How do you want to work this?”
“What we’ll do is have Marcus shadow you from morning to evening, then we’ll edit the best twelve minutes for air the next day, leaving the three additional minutes for commercials. It will be done as a combination show and news piece, with the drama of a reality show and the timeliness of current news. No other reality show has ever put their program on so close to when the actual events happened. Our JIT approach on this will be trendsetting.”
“What’s JIT?” I asked.
“Just In Time,” said Emma. It allows us maximum flexibility for scene placement. Of course we’ll do several rough cuts during the twenty-four hours before airing, in order to make best use of our time.”
Hondo said, “What’s up for today?”
“I’ve already intercut the news videos of both of you as an intro, and will follow it with scenes of you two that will set a base location to start each show. For this first episode, the last five minutes will be to learn what you’re working on today. Future shows have the base location intro and then we go straight to your day’s work.”