‘Well, yeah, you definitely need a break after working your arse off like that,’ said Eddie.
As always, the sarcasm went clean over Grant’s perfectly gelled hair. ‘I know, dude, I know. So, anyway, how are you guys? Macy tells me you’re on a big vacation — like a world tour or something?’
‘You could say that,’ Nina replied.
‘Cool! Where’ve you been?’
Eddie started counting off places on his fingers. ‘So far? Vietnam, Thailand, Australia, Italy, France, Spain, saw my family in England… We just started a bit of a west coast tour here in the States. Did the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, and after LA we’re going on to San Francisco and up to Seattle.’
‘That’s a lot of travel, dude,’ said Grant, impressed. ‘So what made you decide to do it? You two are usually total workaholics. Well, you are, Nina,’ he added with a laugh.
She didn’t return it. ‘We just wanted a break,’ she said quietly. The faint sigh underlying her words attracted a curious look from Macy.
The actor didn’t notice, though. ‘And when did you kick all this off?’
‘Two months ago,’ Eddie told him.
‘Two months! Hope you remembered to get all your frequent flyer miles!’ Grant laughed again. ‘But while you’re in LA, everything’s on me, okay? How you like the limo?’
The movie star had arranged for a stretch limousine to transport the couple around the city — though its styling was not what Nina would have chosen. ‘It’s, ah, fine,’ she said. ‘Thanks for organising it for us. It beats taking cabs everywhere. Or having a rental car.’
Eddie huffed. ‘We could have been cruising around California in a Mustang GT500 convertible, but nooo…’
‘Yeah, I remember how much you like your fast cars, man!’ Grant said. ‘You know, that time you drove me through New York at, like, two hundred miles an hour? It actually helped my acting. When I did Nitrous 2, whenever I was driving I just remembered how it felt, Method-style! I got some great reviews for that, so thanks, dude.’
Even the star’s best reviews tended to feature the word ‘wooden’, so Eddie didn’t want to imagine what his bad ones were like. ‘Don’t you mean Ni-two-rous?’ he asked, grinning. The predecessor of the movie currently shooting had been given the rather awkward moniker Ni2rous.
Grant waved a hand. ‘Don’t get me started, man. Leno and Letterman both gave me crap for that when I was promoting it. I don’t pick the titles.’
‘You can’t pronounce them either.’
‘Dude, enough!’
‘At least you won’t have any problems with this one,’ said Nina. She indicated a stack of equipment cases, which were labelled simply Nitrous 3.
‘Nah, that’s just the working title,’ said Grant. ‘We’re getting a focus group to decide on the coolest option. Oh, hey, what do you think? The two titles we’ve got are…’ He paused for dramatic effect. ‘Nitrous 3: Overdrive! Or alternatively… Nitrous 3: Maximum Boost! Which one’s best?’
‘I don’t think either of them fully captures the subtle nuances of the series,’ said Nina, arching an eyebrow.
‘Yeah,’ Eddie agreed. ‘It should be something more like Nitrous 3: Tits and Explosions! With an exclamation mark.’
‘It’s a PG-13, so no boobies, man,’ Grant said with regret. Macy gave her boyfriend a huffy pout. ‘I like the exclamation thing, though. I’ll suggest that.’
‘Nitrous 3: Balderdash,’ Nina added under her breath. ‘Nitrous 3: Physics, Schmysics…’
‘Anyway,’ said the actor, ‘give me five minutes to get changed and we’ll go have lunch. There’s something I want to talk to you both about.’
Husband and wife exchanged looks. ‘What is it?’ Nina asked.
‘Spoilers, man,’ Grant said with a cocky grin as he headed for his trailer. ‘You’ll find out soon.’
It was nearer ten minutes than five, but Grant eventually emerged, having changed from his character’s costume of ultra-tight jeans and white T-shirt into a blue Italian suit and a pair of sunglasses. ‘Very stylish,’ said Nina approvingly. As much as she loved Eddie, his usual outfit of considerably cheaper and looser T-shirt and jeans, allied with a scuffed black leather jacket, was not exactly high fashion.
‘Thanks,’ Grant replied, beaming. ‘Thought I oughta look smart if we’re talking business.’
Another exchange of puzzled glances. ‘What business?’ demanded Eddie.
‘I’ll tell you soon. Come on, let’s take a ride.’ Walking arm-in-arm with Macy, Grant led the couple to a golf cart. The actor at the wheel, they drove off.
Nina looked up at the building facades as they cruised past. ‘It’s amazing. They look so real.’
‘They are real,’ Eddie said with a mocking smile. ‘They don’t do everything with CGI yet.’
‘You know what I mean. They’ve done a really good job of distilling New York. I know it’s just painted plaster, but it’s still quite impressive how realistic it is.’
‘Hey, if you want to see something from New York that’s really impressive,’ Grant piped up, ‘check this out.’ He turned at the next intersection, the free-standing four- and five-storey mock-up buildings giving way to flatter frontages wrapped around the exterior of a sound stage.
Macy looked over her shoulder at Nina. ‘You’ll love this,’ she said. ‘I couldn’t believe it when I saw it. It’s kinda freaky.’
‘What is?’ Nina asked.
‘You’ll see,’ said Grant. The golf cart pulled up at a ramp leading to the sound stage door, outside which was stationed a uniformed security guard. ‘Hey, my man!’ called the actor as he climbed out. ‘Showing my friends the set. That cool with you?’
The guard’s expression suggested that it wasn’t, but within the walls of a film studio, nobody dared challenge the wanderlust of an A-list star. ‘No problem, Mr Thorn,’ he said through his teeth as he proffered a clipboard. ‘If they’ll sign in here, please?’
‘Come on, come on,’ Grant said excitedly. Macy, Nina and Eddie scribbled their names, then followed him inside.
A strong scent of paint and fresh sawdust greeted them, the thwack of someone hammering nails echoing through the cavernous chamber. Before them was a huge wall, a mass of wooden panels supported by metal scaffolding and beams of rough raw pine that stretched almost to the lighting gantry high above. Nina had to tip her head back to take in its whole height. ‘What is it?’
‘You’ll know when you see it. Come on, around here.’ Grant led them along the stage’s side, passing several workmen. He waved to them in greeting. ‘My man! How you doing? Dude, good to see you. You too, guy. Hey, dude.’
‘You know them all?’ Nina asked when they were past.
‘Not a one,’ replied Grant with a shrug. ‘I do two or three movies a year, and there are, like, six hundred new people working on each of them. Keeps ’em all happy if I say hi, though.’ He paused at a set of double doors in the great wall. ‘Okay, this is it. Go on in, Nina.’
Intrigued, Nina advanced through the doors, walking into—
‘Oh, wow,’ she gasped.
For a moment, she felt a bizarre sense of dislocation, as if she had travelled over two thousand miles in a single step. The room she had entered was very familiar: the lobby of the General Assembly building at the United Nations in New York. Three floors of elegantly curved white balconies overlooked the chequerboard floor of the public space, light through the tall ranks of windows opposite reflecting off the gleaming replica of Sputnik suspended overhead.