Drama Queen (5 page)

From the back of the truck, EJ could hear the delivery women talking to each other.

‘Can you believe what a drama queen that Sydney Radisson is?' said one. ‘She went off at the director yesterday, accusing her of ruining the scene then yelling at the lighting assistants that they had made her look bad. She was horrible! And then she started on the catering supervisor, demanding to know where her special chocolates were. Can you imagine? Fifty double-fudge chocolate bars! Crazy!'

That doesn't sound so crazy,
thought EJ.
Sounds rather delicious, actually.

‘I know,' said the other woman, ‘and then she accused her personal assistant of spilling her perfume bottles. The poor assistant kept trying to tell her she didn't do it, but Ms Radisson just kept yelling at her.'

EJ blushed a little when she heard that. It sounded a little like the way she had behaved with Bob. Perhaps he really hadn't known that she had a diary?

‘And then she started yelling at everyone, telling them that no one must open her bottles. Apparently this precious perfume comes inside little balls and they went everywhere.'

Balls?
thought EJ and she remembered the message she had decoded: ‘first ball drop a success'.
Just another coincidence?
wondered EJ.
I need to see those perfume bottles.

Then EJ held on to the side of the truck as it turned sharply and on to what felt like a rough dirt track. After a bumpy ten minutes or so, it came to a halt.

‘Here we are,' declared one of the delivery women, opening the cab door. ‘Let's get this load unpacked and head back for the next one.'

EJ needed to find somewhere to hide. She turned on her phone and used its light to quickly assess her hiding options. There were big boxes everywhere but all of them were taped shut. Then EJ spied three tall white cubicles on the other side of the boxes. She climbed over to see what they were. There were doors on them and on each door was a sign.

EJ groaned. Somehow all her missions ended up involving a toilet. There was a loud bang as the
truck door began to open. There was no more time. EJ opened the toilet door and went in. She locked the door behind her, sat on the toilet seat lid and waited. She could hear the women unloading the boxes, the trolley wheels squeaking as they rolled up and down the ramp. Then she heard the sound of heavy boots close to the toilet.

‘Give me a hand, will you?' It was one of the delivery women. ‘I just need to tilt this loo onto the trolley.'

EJ stuck both her arms out to the side of the toilet and pushed hard against the cubicle walls to make sure she didn't fall off the toilet seat as it was tilted on its side and taken off the truck.

‘Is it just me or does this one feel heavier?' asked one woman.

EJ held her breath.

‘Maybe a bit,' replied the other. ‘Let's put it down here.'

EJ breathed a quiet sigh of relief when the trolley stopped and the toilet was set down. She
listened as the sound of the footsteps went away and the truck drove off. Then slowly, quietly, she opened the toilet door, just a tiny crack so she could see out. She seemed to be in some kind of outdoor delivery area and, as there didn't seem to be anyone around, she slipped out of the toilet and made her way through the piles of delivery boxes. Now she could hear voices and as she came past the last row of boxes, she walked out on what looked like a huge pop-up, temporary village.

EJ wasn't sure what she was expecting the movie location set to be like but it wasn't this. She thought there might be a few cameras and a few lights, the actors, obviously, and then a few more people behind the scenes. What she didn't expect to see was this mini city. Everywhere there were trucks, trailers and tents. There were tents with kitchens and tables and chairs, tents with racks of clothes and tents with equipment: lights, cameras, computers and what looked like an endless supply of electric cable. And there were so many people
running around, talking frantically into earpieces and phones, carrying clothes, carrying cups of coffee that EJ couldn't really see what was going on. But as she watched, she saw that all the frantic activity was centred on an area far ahead where equipment and people ringed a clearer spot. Suddenly, a loud voice cut through all the noise.

‘Okay everyone, quiet on the set...'

EJ could see a woman holding a megaphone and sitting on a director's chair on the edge of the clear area. There were two women with large cameras on either side of her and three other women with large spotlights.
The woman in the chair must be the director,
thought EJ.

‘And action!' cried the director.

Everything went silent then EJ heard another woman talking.

‘You, you, you...'

‘And cut,' said the director through the megaphone. ‘Sydney, the line is, “You won't catch me!” Can you remember that? It's quite a small line.'

‘Well, like obviously, I was distracted, I...'

‘Okay then, let's go again. Quiet everybody and action!'

‘You won't catch it! Oh darn it!'

‘And cut!' cried the director, her voice sounding tired and more than a little irritated. ‘Okay, people, let's take five. Sydney, we need to talk about your lines.'

Everyone started talking again and EJ watched as the camerawomen moved cameras to new locations, lighting women adjusted lights and other people wrote on clipboards and talked noisily into phones.

‘I need to get a bit closer,' she said to herself, ‘and without being noticed.' And then she walked into a large box, knocking it over. A few people turned around at the noise but EJ quickly ducked behind another box.

Not a great start to not being noticed,
thought EJ but then as she looked at what fell out of the box, she thought it might have been a clever move after
all. EJ had knocked over a box of clothing and she picked up a pink cap with the word CREW across the top.

‘Perfect,' said EJ as she put the cap on and walked out of the storage area and towards the set. She clipped her phone to her shorts and put in her earpiece. Next she took her spy pad charm and activated it and put it under her arm. Now with her crew cap, phone and pad, she looked busy and involved like everyone else.

As EJ walked on, she could see that the set location was divided into different areas. There was the catering area with huge camping stovetops and long tables and benches where people sat having coffee. There was the technical area with film equipment, cameras and large spotlights all stored in large vans. There was a costume department with racks and racks of clothes and boots, including a whole rack of black trench coats just like the one Sydney Radisson wore in
Spy Movie.
It was there that EJ spied a lanyard with a security card hanging on a coathanger
on one of the racks. EJ looked around and then casually picked up the pass. It was a lighting crew pass. Someone must have left it there.

Lighting, that's appropriate for a
SHINE
agent,
thought EJ. She took her spy pad, whispered her code name and keyed in her code. She then pressed the photo-shop app and smiled. There was a quick flash, EJ looked at the screen, pressed a few buttons and waited. A green light went on and a small passport-sized photo slid out from a slit at the bottom of the pad.

‘Not my best but it will do,' said EJ as she took the photo, peeled off the back and stuck it over the existing photo on the pass. If no one looked too closely, they would never know. Special Agent EJ12 was now officially on location.

EJ left the costume area and headed up towards the clear area and the large circle of people. As she approached, she could see scaffolding nearly ten metres high with a platform at the top on which four people were standing. As EJ walked around to where she could see the other side of the scaffold, she realised it had been made up to look like the outside of an office building, and the women on top of the platform now looked as if they were standing on the roof of a high-rise office block. Next to them was another high scaffold but this one had a lift and cameras attached so the camerawomen could film
at any height. On the ground, in front of the building façade, was a large pile of soft mattresses, like the ones EJ used at gymnastics. As EJ got closer, she could see it was Sydney Radisson on the platform holding a white fluffy cat, surrounded by three other women, one with a tin of hairspray and comb, one with a little case and one holding a bottle of water. Sydney looked bored and cross.

She looks much smaller, and grumpier, in real life,
thought EJ.

‘Okay, let's get ready to go again,' cried the director through her megaphone. ‘We are going to try the jump scene again. This is scene six. Agent White is being chased by Agent Black and is now standing on the top of a building. She calls after her and then jumps, carefully avoiding the four old ladies walking their poodles. Okay everybody, cue old ladies, cue poodles!'

From the side, four old ladies, wearing long coats and carrying walking sticks walked out, each with a small black poodle on a red leash.

‘Perfect, old ladies, keep walking, please. Camera one, stay on the ladies, camera two on the poodles, please, and cue Sydney.'

Sydney Radisson passed her cat to the woman holding the water bottle and stepped forward to the edge of the platform.

‘Perfect and check hair,' cried the director.

The girl with the comb rushed forward and fiddled with Sydney's hair before spraying enormous amounts of hairspray over it.

‘Thank you,' cried the director. ‘Make-up check, please,'

The other girl came forward and brushed some powder on Sydney's cheeks and applied some lipstick and then stepped back out of the camera shot.

‘Okay, lighting is good, roll cameras and action!'

Sydney put her hand up as if to shield her eyes from the sun and looked out and then down towards to the ground. She looked behind her and called out, ‘You won't catch me!' Then she leant
forward over the edge of the platform.

‘And cut! At last! Beautiful, Sydney, just beautiful, darling,' the director cried. ‘Cue stunt. Camera three get ready for the jump.'

Sydney stood back and snatched her cat back from the assistant while another woman, dressed in exactly the same costume and with identical hair as her stepped forward.

‘And action!'

While Sydney sipped on her water on the side and stroked her cat, the stuntwoman walked up to the edge of the platform and jumped out and down on to the safety mattresses below. She got up, brushed some dirt off her pants and walked off.

Sydney didn't do the stunts,
realised EJ.
She hardly does anything at all!

‘And cut! Okay, people, that's a wrap for this scene. And listen up, there's a change to the schedule. Sydney, we have deleted the speedboat scene. Our next and your last scene will be the bridge scene at the reservoir.'

Sydney dropped her water bottle and her cat, which nearly fell off the platform. Sydney didn't notice. ‘That's not supposed to be until tomorrow,' she shouted to the director. ‘I'm not prepared. I need my rest!'

‘You will be fine, Sydney, you will be fantastic!' the director reassured her.

‘I will not be fantastic. I will be exhausted. You will have to change the schedule.'

‘I'm sorry, Sydney, I really am but I can't do anything about it,' the director replied. ‘The city has really stepped up security around the reservoirs and we only have bridge access this afternoon.'

‘You, you, you...' stuttered Sydney, her eyes narrowing. ‘You can't do this! This is unbelievable! I am going to my trailer! I need to rest!'

After what?
wondered EJ.
She said one line.

The platform was lowered and Sydney's cat ran off while Sydney stormed off in the direction of a row of silver caravan-like trailers that were parked at the back of the shooting area. EJ watched as the
movie star began furiously texting on her phone.

Should I follow her?
wondered EJ.

It was her phone and a message from
SHINE.

Someone on the set was sending a message to a
SHADOW
agent. EJ looked around—nearly everyone was using a phone. The message could have been sent by any one of the people on the set. But then she looked at Sydney again, who was now almost running to her trailer. EJ had a hunch—and she had learned to follow her hunches—and that meant following Sydney Radisson.