“Press play,” Tamlin said. “This is the best part.”
He pressed play and Poppy’s character suddenly winced in pain.
“My back,” she said, grabbing it.
“He’s stuck a poison dart in your back!” Emmy’s eyes widened.
Poppy’s character stood up straight and looked over at the man with the jaw. His eyes were broody and dark and evil-looking now.
“It’s you! Ignatius!” She gasped and pointed at him. “But you’re dead. Your plane crashed . . . it can’t be!”
“But it is.” The man with the jaw threw his head back and let out a loud, long evil laugh. “I’m back.”
Ryan laughed. “Seriously? Do people still buy evil laughs like that?”
“Ssshhh,” Emmy and Tamlin hushed him again.
Poppy turned and whispered, “You are going to miss my big dying scene now.”
“It’s the best dying scene ever,” Tamlin said.
“What makes it so goo—” Ryan stopped talking and watched as Poppy threw herself on the carpet and wriggled across it in an attempt to remove the dart from her back. “Oh, I see.”
“The director wanted to go for something very dramatic.” Poppy looked over at him and rolled her eyes.
Everyone’s eyes were glued to the screen as Poppy finally pulled the dart from her back and did a running forward roll out of the office. She looked around at the people working there and then pointed her finger back at the CEO’s office. “He’s returned,” she yelled. “He’s coming for us. RUN!”
“Wait,” Ryan pressed pause again. “Why are you forward-rolling out of the room?” He remembered the one that she’d done in his office. And in fact, wasn’t this the exact same line she’d used on him during her interview?
“Ramona is trained in martial arts, she’s actually a spy who was sent by the Arab sheikh to gather information on the company,” Poppy said.
“Is that who you’re working for?” Tamlin gasped.
Poppy nodded. “But she was killed off before she could reveal that. And that she was also having a love affair with the sheikh. He gave her a baby tiger as a gift once.”
“Okay, let’s watch the rest of the scene,” Emmy urged.
Ryan pressed play again.
Ramona came out of the forward roll and started running down the passage. She tripped and stumbled and then fell to the floor. But soon she was up again, running down the stairs. She burst through the door and ran into another passage, where she stopped.
“No! No!” she shouted as a massive rat—a very evil-looking, massive rat—came running out!
“That’s the mutated rat!” Emmy gasped, transfixed.
“Wait!” Ryan paused the show again. “Why are they mutating rats?”
“Because,” Tamlin said, “they’re creating the ultimate biological weapons for the government.”
“Okay.” He nodded. He guessed it did make some sense—in this world anyway.
“Ryan, stop pressing pause!” Emmy clicked her fingers and he pressed play again.
Poppy’s character screamed and ran in the opposite direction, only to stumble into the laboratory, fall onto the floor and roll in the glowing radioactive slime covering it. She got up again, covered in luminous green liquid, and tried to run.
“How long does it take for the poison to kick in?” Ryan asked, feeling somewhat amused.
“I’m telling you, they’re going to bring your character back to life, that’s why they made you fall into the radioactive slime,” Tamlin suddenly said.
