NORTH NORTH HOLLYWOOD - Chapter 39 -by Peter Nolan Smith

THIRTY-NINE

Rising through the numbing layer on unconsciousness, Sherri first thought that she had been injured in a car accident, then realized her paralysis and blindness were the result of being blindfolded, restrained and drugged. Three years clean and she could still distinguish identified the concoction to be a combination of Morphine, Codeine, and Valium. Sherri sighed comfortably, thinking how easy it would to become hooked again and of how little defense she would offer to anyone wanting more than she could give, while she was in that state.

Despite the cotton in her ears, she discerned the movement and voices of people around her, though not who they were or how many. Even without a clue to where she was, she deducted that she had been kidnapping by Louis Sinreich and Sherri was scared not for herself, but for what he might have done to Lena.

Panic seized her and she sobbed, giving into the enormity of her predicament, though several minutes later she regained her composure only to question what she could do to escape. The answer was very little and no fruitless struggling could change that, so Sherri went back to praying that Lena was all right, as a girl's hand stroked her hair gently and stuck a straw through the small hole cut in the tape over her mouth. She couldn't imagine Louie setting Lena free or that her lover was working for the producer, so Sherri guessed the girl had to be the phony Lena from the Skylark.

While the offered water could be drugged, her mouth was parched and she sucked down cool liquid, as if it were fresh air. Once finished, Sherri mumbled a thank-you behind the tape, since no one here would listen to her muffled scream for help.

Tending to a captive woman had not been part of Alice's job description and she turned to protest to Louie. The look in his eyes told her to shut up and Alice went over to scrunch in the corner with a whimper.

"Stop that.” Louie ordered in exasperation and fingercombed his unwashed hair. He was a mess, but he would have to put off a shower, until this crisis was over. "There's nothing wrong. This is just like that other film you saw at my house."

"Yeah, but___" Alice had serious doubts about that film too, especially seeing the smear of blood on the floor. Sensing her mounting disbelief, Louie crouched down to the redhead and said, "You want to take her place. No, then just be a good girl and bear with me for a few minutes. Everything is going to work out."

Louie patted her on the head and went over to the window of the control room, in which the two inventors and Jimmo were huddled in a corner, as if they were planning a MACGYVER escape, except all the doors in the studio building in Van Nuys were and no one was going anywhere, unless Louie Sinreich said so and he wasn't saying so, until everything that had gone wrong had turned right no matter how long that took.

Within his office Louie sat down and would have fallen asleep, but instead the telephone rang. It was his secretary calling to say that none of the five films scheduled to begin shooting had gone into production and the Johns were in the process of backing out of their deal. This day just kept worst and he tried to pinpoint where everything went wrong. The answer was easy.

The man from nowhere.

It was all his fault.

Everything would have worked out, if it weren't for that drifter. Che would have brought Lena to her bungalow. He would have to persuade her somehow to join his organization and with her on board, Sherri's falling in line would have been a cinch. The SINSEX experiment would already be over and he would be well on his way to being a billionaire, ready to construct BABYLON in the desert.

Of course nothing had worked out, but this string of disaster was all going to change once he got back on Lena. Once he recovered the harness, database, and PC for SINSEX, the geeks would have another chance to cross-reference the orgasm Lena had experienced with the SOMA for the porno simulacrum. If the SINSEX suit actually worked, then no one could argue with his methods, because success has a funny way of balancing out any of Life's little failures.

He perched his head in his hands, then dozed off for a few seconds. This nap could have lasted for hours, except the cellular beeping phone on his lap woke him with a start and he answered it, asking, "What is it?"

"It's me." The voice on the other end said.

"And?"

"She called just like you said she would. I starred-69 and got this motel on the PCH. Here's the number."

"Good work. Now get out of there and come back here." Louie hung up thinking things were beginning to come back together and not a minute too soon.

Louie smiled to himself and cleared his throat, as he dialed the number he had been given. Once he dangled the bait, Lena and the man from nowhere would come running, then everything would come together like it always should have.

Of this he was sure.