As Evil Does Read online

  Even her vocal cords changed. Forcing her voice to be a bit rougher around the edges. Not enough to ruin her singing voice, but it showed a certain level of expression she normally lacked.

  Then, after that was finished, she moved off into the day, a state away, to California. Specifically, she stepped out directly in front of Don Holmstrum’s office building. Like most such places, it was in a nice building that was high on internal decorations, while being shared with several dozen other businesses. The truth was that being a movie and television production company didn’t really take that much space to get done.

  No, what it took was, of course, money. A thing that Keeley had enough to set herself up in a similar operation, if she wanted to. It was something to think about, if she got bored. For now, it was enough to play with Don and his friends, letting them do the day to day work.

  As she passed into the building, not hurrying, since she didn't have an appointment and frankly doubted that she was easily going to get in to see the man looking like she was, without naming herself or using mind control. As it was no one really noticed her. Part of that was looking older. Past a certain age, women weren’t given as much attention as when they were younger and pretty. Mainly due to the fact that young women were valuable due to biology. They could have babies, which placed them near the top of importance chart for humanity from the start. Once that ability went away, they were required to show value in other ways.

  Working or creating things using their own effort.

  Most of them failed at it, of course. That was the fault of society and a real wrong being done to women. They were treated as being special from a very young age. No one hung a lantern on it, but everything was always made easier for them. Then, one day in their forties, they woke up and people expected them to actually be useful in order to make their way. Most women got around that one classically by being married. They had a slave to provide for them, so they didn’t have to work too hard.

  When they’d given that up, in the nineteen-seventies, things had altered for a lot of them. They hit a certain age and while men still opened doors for them, they weren’t catered to enough to really get the easy ride they were used to. To most of them it seemed like they were being abused over it.

  Keeley could see it. No one was watching her pass as she moved smartly up the stairs, instead of taking the elevator. It left her feeling more or less invisible.

  The other half of the equation for the day was that she was in Shallowland. L.A. Worse, she was literally in a building where famous actors and actresses moved in and out regularly. The people selected by life to be handed everything, due mainly to their looks.

  If she’d been in Indiana, some of the people would have at least smiled at her and given her a polite nod. In this space she might as well have been truly invisible. Except that no one accidentally stepped on her. Not on the stairs, at least.

  When she got up to Don’s office space, which took up most of a floor, even if they didn’t need that kind of space to do the work, there was no one inside. At least, no one was inside the front space. She could feel Don, behind his office door. He was connected to her, having been taken as a slave, about a month before.

  That was to help him with his sex addiction, since being a producer that still used the casting couch wasn’t going to work too well for him. Not given the modern climate. At least she was telling herself it was about her trying to help him, instead of having just gotten lazy and taking him was easier to do than to talk to the man and help him learn self-control in a normal fashion.

  He was on the phone. Reading his mind wasn’t too hard to do, but the words coming from him were boring, being about making sure he had funding lined up for a new program he was putting together. It wasn’t even one that Keeley was working on. She collected the information on it anyway. Along with the fact that there was a good reason that the front desk was empty at the moment.

  Joan, his old secretary, who had been a tight and decently cute sixty something, had gotten a bit of work done that had left her seeming like a twenty-three year old mega-hottie. That, plus her contacts and the fact that she could actually act meant she was off working on a new romantic comedy, along with L.C. Marks. That was big. For both of them, really. If L.C. could pull it off, showing he had range beyond playing tough guys or mercenaries, it would really open things up for him.

  They still had to do the work, but Joan and L.C. had a real chance to make it happen.

  She stood there for a moment, then moved around the desk and settled, picking up the old-fashioned corded phone halfway through the first ring. She had to reference Joan’s memories, which were held outside of herself, placed in the library that floated there. A collection of about a billion minds and personalities. Not all of them Human. Without much work she had the right memories brought up, having worked with them not too long before.

  “Donald Holmstrum’s office, how may I help you today?” She managed to sound polite and efficient. The way a secretary should.

  After a brief pause, a woman spoke. She sounded fairly youthful. High pitched and chipper, if in a forced way.

  “I’m calling for Cynthia Remark. She’d like to set an appointment with Mr. Holmstrum on the seventeenth, if that’s at all possible?”

  Cynthia Remark was an actress. One who, when Keeley checked her memories on the topic, hadn’t worked for nearly six years. The woman wasn’t a brilliant writer, so she was probably trying to use her old contacts in a desperate bid to find any sort of work she could. The woman was past her best by date, for the shallowland denizens. In her forties. Too young to believably play a grandma, and long enough in the tooth that she’d be too old for the main character. Unless they could find just the right part for her, of course.

  Keeley scanned the projects that Don had going on, then Steve Moore, who was working away, down the hallway. Truly, they didn’t have anything which would fit the woman. Not to their own way of thinking. The weird part was that they could have slapped her in half a dozen leading roles for various projects and modern America wouldn’t have thought anything of it. She was pretty, after all and not old. Not for real people.

  Screwing her lips up, Keels tilted her head.

  “One moment? Or really, can you hold for five minutes? I need to talk to the boss on this one.”

  There was a sigh, then.

  “Okay. I understand.” The words were wrong for a personal assistant. So was the tone. There was an air of desperation in it that didn’t fit the situation at all.

  Meaning the woman on the phone was, most likely, Cynthia herself. Pretending to be her own personal assistant, which probably meant she was on hard times. Not working for six years could do that, if you weren’t careful with the millions you’d earned in your twenties and thirties.

  “One bit, honey.”

  She had to buzz into the office. Well, she could have gone to the door and actually introduced herself, but she didn't bother.

  “Mr. Holmstrum? Would you be interested in having Cynthia Remark to read for the lead in The Department? She has enough age and gravitas to pull that off. Well, if we age her up a bit.”

  There was no answer for a moment, then, instead of asking who the hell she was and why she was interrupting him, the man sounded considering. He was good about rolling with whatever happened. It was a thing that Keeley had noticed in the past from the man.

  “That… Is different. I was thinking someone younger than that for it. You think we should use an older gal? That could work. Will the audience go for it, do you think?”

  She nodded, even if he couldn’t see it.

  “If we let her hit a nice milf aspect to things? I think so. Plus, the role is for a woman that’s a Field Director for DHS. You don’t get to that level by twenty-nine. Should I set up an appointment for her on…” Keeley had to actually tap on the computer then, using Joan’s codes to get into it, since the woman had actually bothered to be good at her job, before leaving it. Tapping for a bit, she s
miled.

  “You have openings in your schedule on Tuesday the twelfth, tomorrow, at ten in the morning, the same time slot on the fifteenth and on the eighteenth, all day.” That was a Tuesday, so the slow day for the week, it seemed.

  “Ahhh… Let’s get her in early? We’ll want a camera set up for that, since it will be a sell, if we like her work. She has the chops. Good thinking on that.” Finally, as if it made any sense at all, he asked the question she would have tried to find out first thing. Most people would have. “Um, who is this?”

  Keeley shrugged.

  “I’m your new secretary. Joan set it up for you, to make sure you had someone competent for the job. It’s only to fill the gap, of course. I’ll start interviewing for a full-time person as soon as I find out what you’ll need for the position. I’m Linda Demeny.” The last name was a bit too close to Demony, but the man didn’t catch on instantly. He was bright enough, but closer to average than not.

  “Linda? That’s Joan for you, isn’t it? Always taking care of me, even if it’s not her job. I should marry her, don’t you think?” The tone was playful.

  It honestly wasn’t the worst idea, if he could really learn to keep his dick in his pants most of the time. Joan would know that him only sleeping with half the woman he used to was actually an improvement, so it could work.

  “Would you like me to set up a date for you?” She deadpanned the whole thing, since it could happen.

  Donald simply laughed. It sounded real.

  “Heh… Probably not, doll. She clearly deserves better than me. Set up that thing with Remark though?”

  “Right away, sir.”

  She tapped her way back to the the correct line, only four minutes later.

  “Ms. Remark?”

  Instead of trying to pretend to hand the phone off, the voice just shifted.

  “Damn. That obvious? What’s the bad news?” There was a tone of defeat about the whole thing.

  “Nothing bad at all. We’d like you to come in and read for the lead role in a new project. It’s called The Department. You’ll want to get up to speed on the DHS. I’ll have a script sent over, if that’s good for you?”

  The woman sighed.

  “Really? I mean… Yes! That sounds interesting? What’s the role?”

  “The main character is a Field Director, set to handling terror related emergencies. It’s a drama, not an action piece. Television.”

  There was a bit more energy then.

  “Okay… Okay. I can do that. Please send that over. When do I need to be ready by?”

  Keeley didn’t give her a list of options. Sooner was better, after all and the woman didn’t sound all that busy.

  “Be here for a ten a.m. meeting with Mr. Holmstrum, in the morning tomorrow. We’ll be recording, so put a face on for it. We might redo that while you’re here, to try a few different looks. I can do the makeup for that… I can confirm that time slot?”

  The woman sounded a bit strange then.

  “Ten in the morning? So… I don’t have to suck him off first, before even getting to read for it? That’s different. Don always… well, he paid off, you know? It was a way to get in the door, early on. I was expecting more of that, to be honest. Things haven’t really been going well for a bit, in my career.” There was an honesty to the words, at least.

  Linda the secretary nodded. That was Don’s normal mode of operation.

  “He’s stopped doing that sort of thing. If you’d like to make an appointment for that… Well, he’s already in on the project, so you don’t have to. He’s also a sex addict who’s been stewing in his own juices for the last month. You should wait until after the read though, or really, until you have the role locked down. He’s had some work done, and gotten in shape, so that might be worth looking into.” There was no reason for the woman to do it at all, of course.

  Rather than bitch her out for suggesting anything that gross, there was a soft chuckle.

  “Eh, maybe? I’m not seeing anyone right now, and it’s not like I haven’t done that one before. Thanks… Um, not to be the entitled actress, but I forgot your name. Sorry about that. I think we’ve met a few times?”

  Linda smiled.

  “Nope. I’m Linda, the new girl. That was Joan. She’s had some work done as well. Magical in nature. She looks totally different. Currently she’s starring in a coming movie project alongside L.C. Marks.”

  That got a surprised cough in response.

  “The um, older woman that worked there? Is that a joke?”

  “Not at all. She looks like she’s twenty now. A ten, as well. I wasn’t kidding about the level of work done. We could get that going for you as well, but I doubt it will be needed. Really, we’ll need to make you look a bit older for this part. If we can sell that to the director, of course.”

  As they spoke, a man walked into the office. He was good looking, without seeming to be dressed up and spiffed on a level that spoke of being there to beg.

  “Ah, someone is here. I’ll send that script over today, Ms. Remark.”

  “Thanks, Linda. Call me if you need anything? Oh! My address!”

  She had that already, but took it down, so she wouldn’t seem like some kind of creepy stalker.

  Then she turned to the man, who was a bit impatient seeming. As soon as she looked up, the shifting man, who was high on something that was probably cocaine, which she could tell from the sniffling, bounced at her.

  “I need to see Don. Now. That bitch Gloria said that she’s going to fire me. Me! Can you believe that shit? If she does, I’m suing. I have a pay or play contract anyway, I don’t have to even sue, so… Fuck. Right?” The man wasn’t making a vast amount of sense, to be honest.

  Linda nodded anyway.

  “Why was she planning to let you go?” That would be the important part of things.

  The man looked away and swallowed. He was young enough to be cute, and genetics hadn’t stinted him that way. What he didn’t seem, was bright.

  “She… I came in a bit low energy, so I, you know, did some blow? It got me to be too jazzed and I couldn’t shoot yesterday, since that’s wrong for the part. She’s saying that I’m wrong for the part now, but it’s just the drugs. I can stop, it’s just…” He looked upset about it.

  She nodded at the man. What he was saying was, when she read his mind, true enough.

  Not the part where he didn’t need the drugs. Just that the man was a decent enough actor when he wasn’t screwing up. She even picked up his name, then had to double check that part, since it was wrong. It should have been, anyway. It was actually just stupid.

  His first name was Nickels. It was fake, but he’d rounded it out with a bland last name. Smith.

  “Gloria St. James? Let me put a call in to check on this.” She held up her left hand, doing the work with her right, holding the phone with her chin, as if it were a common thing for her to do. She had to look the number up on the computer, since knowing that off the top of her head would have seemed wrong.

  When the phone picked up, Linda moved into an agent voice, instead of a more professional secretary sound.

  “Gloria here.”

  “Hi, Gloria. This is Linda Demeny over at Holmstrum and Associates. Let me short hand this for you. Nickels Smith. We don’t want to have a payout on that. It will shut down production if we have to do that. Most likely, anyway. We can get him to clean up for the role, then into rehab as soon as shooting is done. Will that work for you?”

  There was an actual hiss.

  “I don’t recognize the name. Linda? Still… I know. I don’t want to screw the shoot, either. He’s just such a pain in the ass to work with. He’s always late and when he bothers to show up, he can’t work, being too stoned or jumpy for it. I’ve tried talking to him. Begging, and yelling… None of that worked. Can you do better than that, somehow? I’m hanging by a thread here.”

  She nodded, since she really could do better than that. Not that she wanted to bother taking the m
an as a slave, in particular. He was good looking and could act. Other than that, he was dead boring. He had no hobbies or skills that made him interesting when those factors were taken away.

  “It will be handled. Thanks, for giving him another shot. We understand that this will require a rewrite to the contract… If he won’t play ball, well, then he’s not worth the effort. He’ll be there on time tomorrow.” She was mainly setting Nickels up using those words. He did not seem pleased by the idea of the contract being changed.

  They probably couldn’t really do that, of course. It would take teams of lawyers and weeks, or even months to do that. What they could do was trick the man into thinking that he had to actually do the work if he wanted to be paid.

  Of interest, Donald was standing behind his door, listening to her work. He was even picking up on part of what was being gone over. He got the basic idea, even if he didn’t think it would work, really.

  She had to talk for a minute, making nice and acting as if she wanted to set Gloria up for another project, as soon as she was finished with the current one. There were a few things coming up that she would be good for. No one described her as being a tough director to work with. Really, her problem was normally the other way around. She tended to give the production company whatever they wanted. Even to the point of it messing with her movies a bit.

  Meaning Nickels was being a real pain if she was willing to risk a whole project just to get rid of him.

  Hanging up, Linda smiled. It had to make her look a bit like a high school vice-principal.

  “All right. You’re back in. You can’t mess this up. You get one more chance.”

  The door opened up, with Donald coming out, pretending he didn't know who was standing there.