Harmony Read Online Free Page B

Mi. Just haven’t got my hands on a clean copy yet. It’s not… well, it’s not exactly
local
.”
    Micah ended a delicate stroke that left his brush suspended like a baton. He frowned faintly at the sketch. “Not local?”
    Howie grinned like a happy shark.
    Crispin rolled his eyes disapprovingly and reactivated the Marin holo. Jane sighed, though of course not loudly enough to offer the appropriate public protest. Being an apprentice is often like seeing an accident about to happen while reluctant to cry out a warning, just in case it doesn’t.
    You see, Micah was extremely busy at the time, booked nearly seven years in advance. His projects were big, spectacular and complicated, and he liked to take his time with them. He liked to take ours as well, worrying every one of the details he was so justly famous for. We were already way behind schedule with the Marin project currently on his desk, even though it didn’t go into actual production for another year and a half. There were models and spec sheets and drafting and programs backed up far enough to occupy another three people if we’d had room enough and terminals for them. But between his home, the studio, and the adjacent conference room shared with the studio on the other side, Micah had used every micrometer of his officially allotted space, and he wouldn’t hear of an assistant working at home, out from under the Master’s dogged supervision. I didn’t really blame him. Three years had been enough to teach me how little I knew. But the point is, Micah was better at his art than he was at saying no, and right then, the absolute last thing we needed was another project.
    “Has an outside producer attached to it,” Howie added.
    “Is that outside, or Outside?”
    Howie laughed indulgently, and I pictured some sooty, raw-eyed Outsider shedding mud all over Howie’s expensive leather chairs.
    “It’s Reede Scott Chamberlaine, from London.”
    “You’re getting into bed with him?”
    “He owns the script.”
    “Howard, think again.”
    “Yeah, yeah, he’s a skinflint and he’ll cheat me blind. Don’t worry, I can handle him. We watch him close enough, we might learn something about making money. It’s worth it. You’ll see.”
    Howie ducked out of the cave, squared his shoulders, and let his eyes drift soulfully toward the skylight. The Big Sell was coming, but watching Howie sell was always entertaining, so we all stopped work to listen.
    “The Ark’s been in a real rut lately—one nice, uplifting spectacle after the other, no messiness, no waves. Sure, it’s been great for the box office, but it ain’t why I got into the business. Nor you either.” He flicked a mocking glance at the crude profile of turrets and ruined battlements rising from the holo pad, then offered Micah his most earnest smile. “This piece is different.”
    “And?” Micah rinsed his brush noisily. He had a talent for making total skepticism sound polite. Most people never noticed when he was being rude, and if Howie noticed it now, he knew Micah too well to let it show.
    “It’s time to take a risk, Mi. A big one.” The catch in Howie’s voice was subtle enough to convince me he’d finally fallen victim to his own hype. “Time to knock that pseudo-liberal audience of mine on their asses! Send ’em out remembering more than their ticket price and the outfit the star was wearing!”
    Songh and Jane glanced at me in mute alarm—as if there were anything I could do. I thought Songh must watch Jane very carefully to be always able to do exactly as she did. Micah’s only reaction was a faint pursing of his lips under the dark brush of his mustache.
    The Arkadie did not particularly cater to the daytime tourist trade that supported many of Harmony’s newer theatres. Its audience of mostly local residents and their guests
was
liberal, certainly by Chicago standards. But as a result, it was more than usually self-satisfied, and Micah despised smugness.
    Howie knew