Rise To Stardom - Chapter 67

Chapter 67: Friendly Alliance
“You chilly?” Bruce gestured to Kyle’s chiseled abs and toned upper torso.

“A bit, but it’s nothing I can’t handle.” Kyle casually replied despite the cold air conditioning in the room.

Currently shirtless, a few make up-artists were adding a few colored marks to both of their faces to give the impression of healing bruises.

Their lips on the other hand, both of which had burst open during their fight scene in the 10-minute long take, was healing naturally so there was no need to apply any make-up on it.

On Kyle’s lower torso though, was a stitched wound, also thanks to the small team of talented artists, some of whom were still putting finishing touches onto the wound.

“How long have you been working out Kyle? You look very fit.” Bruce inquired, curious about how long the young man had been maintaining his lean muscular physique.

His muscles were well-defined, sharp and attractive, but it wasn’t one that immediately stood out when he was fully clothed in Alex’s dress code as it was more of a sleeper build.

If he was wearing a well-tailored suit or outfit however, his buffed build would very much stand out.

“I actually started late last year so… five and a half months, I guess…” Kyle responded, placing a hand on his chin.

As he did, one of the make-up artists gestured to him to bring his hands down and Kyle gave a small yet polite apology. That was on him and he should’ve been more careful.

“Hmmm. Interesting…” Bruce said, his tone of choice curious.

“I guess you must have some really good genetics if you’re already this buffed within such a short time frame…” the man added, a slight hint of envy in his eyes.

He was someone who needed to work his ass off to always stay in shape so his envy was understandable.

“I guess so…” Kyle on the other hand replied with a slight tilt of his head, wondering why Bruce had that sort of expression on his feature.

A few minutes later though, both were let out of the make-up room and made their way over to Mark who was currently discussing something with Hank, their producer.

Usually, the man was busy with other things such as endorsements and sorting out a few legalities here and there but today seemed to be an off-day for him.

Currently in a small yet well-furnished room that they were going to be using for the next scene, the cinematographers, along with the sound and lighting equipment staff, went about doing checks here and there in preparation.

“We’re slowly getting there, aren’t we?” Hank stroked his beard, a proud smile on his lips.

“Yeah. Just a month and a few more weeks and we’ll be done.” Mark responded and then, upon noticing Bruce and Kyle from the corner of his eye, said to them;

“Ah~. There you are”

“Hi Mark. It’s been a while Hank.” Bruce casually said, offering the latter a handshake.

Kyle too also gave his own greetings and after a few seconds of mundane exchanges, the Director went straight to business.

“Well, this should be a very easy scene to pull off for both of you so let’s try to get it in one take.”

“Sure.” Kyle and Bruce responded, their heads nodding in understanding.

“Good. Alright, everyone. Quiet on set!” Mark then called out to the crew as he took his spot on the Director’s chair.

Quickly, everyone moved over to their respective positions and Hank retreated into a corner of the room.

Bruce and Kyle, also took their spots and soon, began to act out the scene at the director’s command; one that followed up about a few scenes later from the previous 10-minute long-take scene.

—

{Epoch One | 16th May 2019 | Act 4 | Scene 2 | Take 1}

Involuntarily twitching his eyes a few times, Alex shot up from the bed, his eyes wide open and his senses at an alert.

Gazing about the unfamiliar room, the young man tried to get out of bed when he heard a familiar voice speak to him.

“I’d advise you to take it easy. Your wounds aren’t healed.”

Turning his head around and noticing the man who had assaulted him, sitting a few meters away from his bed, Alex frowned.

“I must have blacked out…” he muttered to himself, not really remembering the last few tidbits after he had informed the man before him about him being Pierce’s son.

Like a stubborn goat though, he was about to ignore the man’s advice and grab his black shirt and jacket when Sam began to list off a few things casually from the tablet in his hands.

“Alex Hunt. Born to Pierce and Rebecca Hunt on August 7th, 1995 in Santa Barbara, California.”

“After high school, attended University of Pennsylvania and graduated with a double major in Engineering and International Relations at a surprising age of 17.”

“Joined the army and became an Army Ranger a few months after, serving later in the 5th Battalion of the 88th Regiment.”

“Five distinguished years later, after serving in the Army as one of their very best, you gained an honorable discharge and proceeded to join the CIA with plans to eventually join the EMF.”

“But after the unfortunate death of your Father in the first suicide serial bombing case two years ago, you went completely radio silent, forging your death and living as a ghost.” Sam finally concluded, staring straight at Alex who was unable to refute a single word.

Realizing that he was literally an open book before the man, Alex, with his tongue rolling about the insides of his mouth, an expression of slight annoyance on his hardened features, slumped back onto the bed.

Even if he did still want to get out of here, the stitched wound on his torso wouldn’t make it easy.

The man was right. He needed to heal.

“You were following in your father’s footsteps, weren’t you?” Sam inquired but Alex questioned instead;

“And who the hell are you supposed to be?”

“Sam Watts. Your father’s closest friend and confidante… Or at least I thought I was…”

“Can’t believe he never told me he had a wife and a kid.” Sam scoffed at the irony of it.

But, deep down, he knew that Pierce must’ve done it for the sake of protecting his family from all the dangerous missions he had to go on.

They did make a lot of enemies after all during their globe-trotting espionage expenditures.

Alex on the other hand, finally had the hardened expression on his face relax a bit as he stared at the man properly for the first time.

“Your necklace. The ring on it. Pierce always wore it religiously. I don’t ever remember him taking it off throughout all of our years together.” Sam pointed to the silver ring on Alex’s neck.

Fiddling with it as he listened to Sam speak, Alex let out a few words after a brief moment of silence;

“My father wasn’t the culprit of that first bombing case. That much should be obvious by now.”

“I’d expected the EMF to back him up after the event, clear his name and let it be known that he was only a victim but, they didn’t.” Alex continued.

“Instead, they put the blame on him and even now, despite similar cases coming to light, they pretend the first case never even existed.”

“That could only mean that the EMF also have a hand in the events that happened…” Alex paused while Sam continued in a very familiar tone;

“Which is why you decided to take matters into your own hands. It’s why you stopped aspiring to be an EMF agent because, they weren’t as clean as they made themselves out to be…”

“If the terrible things they had done wasn’t going to come to light, you were planning to force it out yourself regardless. However long it took.” Sam completed the young man’s thought process.

“You really are as crazy as your old man because that was something he would definitely do…” the man said, his stoic demeanor never changing.

“But, you’re also right.” Sam agreed with him, catching a slightly surprised Alex off-guard.

“Which is why I should also inform you that I’ve gone rogue.” Sam declared and Alex had the surprised expression on his face change into one of mild intrigue.

“Listen Alex. I’m also in this for the exact same reason as you are.” the Ex-Special Agent said and continued;

“And I know that if we put our resources together, we’ll be able to uncover a lot…”

“But first, I need you to tell me something.” he asked and Alex gave him a serious look.

“You weren’t planning on exploding Abraham’s car, were you? Especially with so many civilians around?”

“I wasn’t. The chip was a modified one I tweaked to only blink instead of triggering a remote explosion.” Alex replied and then added;

“I would never, put the lives of innocents at stake at the cost of my goals. Anyone I’ve killed or screwed over in an effort to bring the truth the life, was definitely deserving of it.” he answered, his eyes reflecting the solemnity in them.

Having already been tracking him for a long while now, Sam knew that Alex’s words held an undeniable truth to them.

Despite the number of bodies he had put down in his quest to expose the EMF and clear his father’s name, only those who truly had an history of some very terrible things would meet their demise at his hands.

Even Abraham’s bodyguards whom they had killed off just a few hours ago, all had some truly nasty records that would have them sent to life imprisonment or even worse, a death sentence.

In fact, in a previous scene, one which had occurred after their scuffle, Sam had been going through Alex’s and Abraham’s records, obviously to find out why Alex was going after him.

In the act of doing that, one thing led to another and, he soon realized that all of the bodyguards that worked for the man, were previously criminals turned EMF agents, all of whom had their past records erased.

As a result, Sam came to a conclusion that Abraham definitely had all this dirt on them, which was why, despite how skilled they had been, skills that could be better used in other fields of the EMF’s vast organization, they still worked as a bodyguard for the man.

Holding the solemn gaze of the young man whose eyes were genuine with his words though, Sam, for the second time in the past two years since the death of his friend, had his stoic expression relax a bit as he extended a handshake.

“Well then, I look forward to working with you Alex. Let’s clear Pierce’s name and root out all of the EMF’s dirty little secret.”

Staring at the extended hand, still contemplating if he really wanted to go through with this, Alex let out a deep sigh and then, with a determined gaze, received the handshake.

“CUT!”