HELL OF A DEAL, a supernatural satire

Chapter Sixteen

16

"Hey Al, I can't be participatin' in no gang rapin'." It was Iced Benz on the other end of the cell phone connection.

"What?" Al snapped out of his slumber, and he fumbled with his phone.

"Gang rapin' some Iraqi girl, man, that ain't cool."

"Hold on. Who told you that?"

"I got the script."

"You do? I don't even have the script."

"Yeah well you lucky. This is nasty. I'm gonna have to back out. I can't be havin' girls think I'm some kind a rapist!"

"B. Let me talk to the writer, and sort this out."

"It's very uncomfortable. This whole film is. Director's some kind a freak."

Al switched on the reading lamp. "It's an early, early draft, and it should never have gone out. Don't worry. I'm on it." Al could feel Benz's discomfort across the divide. Neither thought they would ever be having this sort of conversation.

"The way it is," said Benz, "I can't be in this movie. I can't be part a no gang-bang perpetration. I mean. I could watch. Maybe."

"You would watch?"

"I could say suttom negative. You know?"

"What would you say?"

"Like, this is unnecessary. Let's get back to the mission. Suttom to set me apart from them other guys. You know what I'm sayin'?"

"I do."

"I'm out." Benz hung up the call.

Al needed to read that screenplay immediately and attempt to get through to Lou with several much needed changes. This kind of thing crossed an invisible line. Most people couldn't see that line coming, but they knew instantly when it was crossed. This could kill the picture at the box office. It could very well preclude a theatrical run at the multiplexes.

First thing in the morning, Al drove over to Lou's hotel. The main room of Lou's suite was moderately tidy compared to the last time Al was there.

Al had seen several very expensive hotel rooms reduced to rubble over his many years. This was relatively tame.

Al called over for Lou's attention. "Lou? I'm here."

Lou ate his breakfast while smoking a cigar as he read the daily trades. "Yeah, L. What's on your mind?"

"You guys finished the script?"

"All done." Lou snapped the page, and he showed Al a new write-up concerning the Terra deal.

Al nodded. "And you sent it out to artists, without letting me read it first?"

"So?" Lou sipped his coffee.

"So, Iced Benz just backed out completely. Your plot scared him away pretty good."

"He'll be back. What's his problem?"

"Gang rape."

"Al. There's a powerful, gripping, historic scene in that one movie of yours. The rape of the — the battlefield rape. What was it called?"

"Battlefield Rapist, yeah, a very controversial film."

Lou crunched his bagel. "I didn't think so. I thought it was great."

"Thank you. There were protests." Al stood stoically. "I'd say it's the most delicate possible situation there is. You might as well throw in some target practice with kittens. Uh. You don't actually do that do you?"