I said, “Got them?”
A
rch said, “Gleason called. You got the parts in Michael Bay’s movie.”
We both stopped pedaling. Archie grinned at us, then slapped me on the shoulder so hard it almost knocked me off the bike. He said, “They’ll send over the contracts and scripts later. He said to tell you to be ready, that they’ll be kicking it into high gear in a few days.”
“Thanks, Arch,” Hondo said.
“You two deserved a break. You’ve worked hard on this and done all the right things, so it was time. Glad I could bring you the news.”
We were giddy the rest of the day, but still managed to make a few more calls to locate Jett Sunday.
That evening we watched Lock and Load. I’ll say one thing; Marcus is a heck of a cinematographer. He caught all of the action, moving from person to person as it happened and not once did he cut someone off at the shoulders or have any of us in half-frame. Of course, his camerawork also showed how fast John Wesley was with a pistol. Faster than me, faster than Hondo. Faster than anybody I could think of, except maybe our Border Patrol friend Hunter Kincaid. I’d hate to bet on the outcome of that one.
Our phone rang fifteen minutes after the show ended. I put it on the speakerphone. “Ohmygod ohmygod, ohmygod, that was fantastic!” Emma said. “You two are honest and true action heroes!”
“That’s us,” I said, “He’s Honest and I’m True. We’re the Action Detectives, as opposed to just regular plain old private detectives.” Emma made a sound like she was choking on a lifesaver, then I realized she was attempting to laugh.
Emma said, “Oh Ronny, your humor is fantastic! It’s great that Hondo has a comical sidekick like you.”
I sat up in my chair as Hondo held his hand up to me in an, I know, I know gesture. He said, “Emma, are you calling just to tell us it was a good show?”
“Oh my, no! It’s better than that. We’re going national. They picked us up! Nightline is doing a special on the show tomorrow, too, and The Tonight Show wants to book me for next week! Isn’t this just fantastic news?”
Fantastic must be the new buzzword in Hollywood, is what I figured.
“That’s great, Emma. Did you get any calls on the girl?”
“No, no calls on her. Lots of calls from women about you two wonder boys, though. Isn’t that fantastic?”
I leaned toward Hondo and whispered, “If she says fantastic one more time, I’m going to hurl.”
“What was that, Ronny? I couldn’t make it out.”
I started to speak but Hondo was out of his chair and had one hand on my mouth as he leaned down to the speakerphone, “Ronny said that was fantastic news, and he’s in a hurry to do more segments.”
“Fantastic, Ronny. I feel the same way!”
Hondo shook his finger at me and tried to hold down a grin and as he silently mouthed, Quit it. I made a fake barfing motion, then settled down. Hondo said, “Great news, Emma. I guess we’ll see Marcus in the morning, get started on the next one.”
To her credit, Emma didn’t use the F word. “Goodnight boys. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.”
CHAPTER 11
I was first in the office the next morning and hadn’t even sat down when the phone rang. I looked at Caller ID and saw my name calling the office.
I said, “Hello, is this Ronny Baca calling Ronny Baca?” I heard hoots and laughter in the background.
Atticus said, “Hey Holmes, I got you on speaker.”
“You three come up with anything?”
“Uh-huh. We got the translation for you.”
I got a pen and paper. “Go ahead.”
“CMARM…SN.”