“What’s that?” John asked.
“Nothing.”
Daddy smiled. “Just don’t wander too far away. Got it?”
“Got it.”
Stryker had shown up in a separate SUV that was now parked behind the limo. There’d been room for him in the giant luxurious vehicle the others had arrived in, but the team had decided the more vehicles, the better as they blocked the view a little more.
The group acted naturally and started their “business”.
“I think we need to frame some stuff right here,” Stryker said, pointing to an area outside of the building. “That’ll be perfect for the escape shot. But I think most of the work will be on the inside.”
The door opened and a security guard stepped out. “Can I help—” His eyes lit up as they landed on Harrison. “Hey! You’re him!”
He hurried forward, his hand outstretched, clearly eager to shake.
Harrison pumped it. “Nice to meet you. Harrison Trent.”
“Man… I’m… what’s going on?” He looked behind him at the building and then back to Harrison. “One of your movies is literally playing on the TV in our security office. You gotta come see it!”
“That’s awesome,” Harrison said. “Movies are why we’re here. We spoke to the owner about possibly doing some pickup shots here for an upcoming project we’re filming on the Strip. But we need a storage facility for a couple of scenes and, looking online, we think this one fits the bill. Is it cool if we look around?”
Stryker nodded and stepped forward. “We aren’t filming anything today. Just doing some initial scouting.”
Trixie watched as the security guard scratched his chin, looked behind him again, and then back at Stryker and Harrison. “Man, the boss didn’t let me know you were coming.”
“Crap,” Stryker said, looking at Harrison. “Dude, we might have the wrong spot.”
“You said the storage facility about half a mile off the Strip,” Harrison said.
“Uh, guys,” the guard said. “There’s probably a dozen facilities that fit the bill.” It was evident, based on the look in his eyes, that he was trying to decide rapidly what to do. Trixie felt a little guilty that they were lying to him. But he was still getting to meet a world-famous movie star. This was probably more excitement than he’d ever encountered on the job!
“Tell you what,” he finally said. “You’re already here. Why don’t you just do your thing. I mean, you’re just having a look around. Potential customers do that all the time. Plus, we’re better than that other facility. Guarantee it. You should stay right here.”
“Hey, thanks!” Harrison said, shaking the guy’s hand again.
“Don’t mention it.” The security guard looked a little sheepish as he added, “Hey, you mind dropping by the office in a minute to sign some stuff for me and Brett? He’s the other guard.”
“Don’t mind at all.”
The guard seemed elated as he held the door open for them all and then hurried off, seemingly eager to tell that Brett guy who he’d just met and what was going on.
“That worked out perfectly,” John said in a low voice as he walked beside Trixie. “We could’ve used your access to get inside, but the guys in the car might have grown suspicious at you having a keycard.”
Trixie nodded but kept silent. She wasn’t sure why. It wasn’t like the guys watching were close enough to hear her voice and figure out who she was. But now that they were so close to pulling this off, her nerves were on edge.
She wiped the bead of sweat from her brow and tried hard to keep her mind from spinning a thousand different directions.
Just stick to the plan, Trixie. Daddy is there. The other guys are here. This will work!
Inside, she found a long, semi-dark corridor lined with orange garage-type doors all the way down. Every now and then, they came to crossways where one could venture right or left and find identical hallways. With the lack of windows, it was somewhat discombobulating and eerie.
“Man, they need to have better lighting in here,” Isaiah noted.
“Yeah. Are they just trying to give this place creepySilence of the Lambvibes?” Ace asked.
“Hey, it’ll be perfect for our shots!” Stryker announced.
