Illusiveone - 342: Redoing My Life, Ready or Not

“I don’t think Mr. Adler needs to be part of this unless Congress actually summons him personally,” Eve said.

“No,” Mason Pool replied from the other side of the video call. He had recently taken over as CEO of Chrysos after the previous chief executive stepped away because of health problems. “Nothing has been issued yet. There’s just discussion that Congress may call the heads of the major technology and social-media companies to testify.”

“Then why are we even talking about Daniel?”

Mason hesitated. “Because there’s a chance they could request him specifically.”

“Mason, you’re the CEO of Chrysos. Daniel owns the company, but you’re the person running its daily operations. If Congress wants somebody to explain moderation policies, advertising practices, or whatever else they decide to ask about, you’re the person who actually knows those things.”

“Yes, I know. I’m only saying there’s a possibility they could decide Adler’s name gets more attention.”

Eve leaned back in her chair. That, unfortunately, was believable. Daniel Adler sitting before Congress would generate considerably more headlines than almost any chief executive they could summon.

“If there’s actually a request for him, we’ll deal with it then. Until that happens, prepare as though you’ll be representing Chrysos yourself.”

“Understood. I just wanted him to know.”

“Sure. I’ll pass it along.”

They exchanged quick goodbyes before Eve ended the call.

“Congressional summons,” she muttered, staring at the blank screen. “What a load of bullshit.”

She opened Daniel’s schedule again.

The next two months looked miserable.

Interstellar was releasing at the end of November, and Daniel had produced it, which meant a premiere. That would happen while Ready or Not was entering the final stretch of principal photography, forcing the production to pause briefly for a day or two so Daniel could leave Canada.

Then there was Suicide Squad.

Daniel and Margot would return from Canada in a week for the premiere, spend several days dealing with that, and then go straight back to Ready or Not. If the revised schedule held, principal photography should finish within roughly three weeks of their return.

Then December arrived.

And Daniel and Margot were getting married.

Eve had been working for him long enough now to understand that the phrase “quiet month” did not exist anywhere near Daniel Adler.

Another notification appeared.

Guillermo del Toro.

Eve opened it immediately.

Frankenstein was deep into post-production despite being almost eleven months away from release, and Guillermo was considering a small number of reshoots. He also wanted Daniel’s thoughts on several script changes that could affect those scenes before he committed to anything.

Eve read the message twice and checked the priority notes Graves had given her.

Daniel had been very clear about Guillermo.

If del Toro contacted him personally about a creative problem, it went near the top.

Eve typed back.

Daniel is filming at the moment, but I’ll make sure he gets this. He’ll contact you by tomorrow morning.

Guillermo responded with a quick thank you.

Eve marked the message for Daniel’s evening briefing, then checked the time and stood.

She had another meeting.

Daniel had asked both her and Graves to remain in LA while he was in Canada. Between the two of them and the rest of the office, they could handle almost everything that did not require Daniel personally, allowing him to actually focus on directing.

Eve left her desk and headed toward Daniel’s office, where the meeting with legal was being held.

She found Graves outside speaking with Mitchell Pritchett, Daniel’s attorney.

“I don’t even know how they got on,” Mitchell was saying. “Like, did Daniel do something?”

“Not that I know of,” Graves replied. “Pretty sure this was Haley.”

Eve approached them.

“What happened?”

Graves looked over.

“Mitch was just telling me that his sister and her family are going to be on Family Feud.”

Eve smiled.

“Oh. That sounds fun.”

“Unfortunately,” Mitchell said.

He paused and frowned.

“I still think Haley had something to do with it.”

Graves shook her head. “It wasn’t Daniel. We would’ve known.”

The three of them started toward the office.

Eve looked at Mitchell.

“So, how does Daniel know Haley anyway?”

Mitchell stopped walking for half a second.

“Wait. You don’t know?”

“No.”

Graves answered before he could.

“Daniel and Haley dated in high school.”

Eve blinked.

“Oh. Right.”

“Thankfully, they ended things amicably,” Mitchell said. “Otherwise, continuing to work for him would’ve been slightly awkward.”

Graves looked toward Mitchell.

“Speaking of family, are you still planning to leave?”

Mitchell immediately shook his head.

“Oh, thank God, no.”

Graves raised an eyebrow.

“Cam finally changed his mind?”

“Cam finally realized that our current lifestyle, our dream house, vacations, all of it would have to be cut down considerably if I quit and he took the coaching job.”

“A mansion,” Graves corrected.

“It is not a mansion.”

Eve looked at him.

“I’ve seen the new house.”

Mitchell sighed.

“It’s a large house.”

“It’s a mansion,” Graves said.

Eve nodded. “Definitely a mansion.”

Mitchell looked between them.

“Okay, fine. It’s a mansion. Bigger than my dad’s too, which I’m sure will become an issue eventually.”

Graves laughed.

“But?”

“But Cam realized he likes the mansion. So, for the foreseeable future, I’m staying.”

“Good,” Graves said. “Replacing you would be annoying.”

“Always nice to feel appreciated.”

They entered Daniel’s office, where several members of the legal, financial, and investigative teams were already waiting around the conference table.

Eve took a seat beside Graves and opened her iPad.

Daniel had been trying to acquire Arsenal, and Stan Kroenke remained the largest obstacle. Daniel had specifically asked his people to find anything that could provide leverage during negotiations, and whatever had been uncovered was important enough that Mitchell had requested Graves and Eve attend personally.

They would have to brief Daniel that evening.

Mitchell waited until everyone had settled before beginning.

“Daniel asked us to find leverage on Stan Kroenke. We may have found something, although not in the way we expected.”

Graves folded her arms.

“What did you find?”

Mitchell opened the first file.

“It started with the Los Angeles stadium project. Kroenke’s people have repeatedly described the stadium as privately financed, which is broadly accurate. There are reimbursements and public costs connected to infrastructure and services, but we already covered those with Daniel. That isn’t what interests us anymore.”

Eve began taking notes.

“We started looking at subcontractors involved in roadwork, utilities, environmental cleanup, site preparation, and security. Three companies stood out because, on paper, they appear legitimate, but when our investigators tried to find the actual operations behind them, there was almost nothing there. No meaningful staff, no equipment, no offices consistent with the scale of the work they were supposedly performing.”

Mitchell moved to the next document.

“The ownership structure runs through several holding companies before eventually connecting to a development consultant named Marius Tinch. Tinch has worked with senior people around the project for years, and we have records showing meetings, communications, and payments connecting him to people involved in the development.”

Jenn Shaw, one of the attorneys seated across the table, took over.

“We found an older civil case involving one of Tinch’s former companies. Documents from that lawsuit gave us an email address that connected to another entity, which connected to another. So far, we’ve identified eleven companies tied into the same network.”

“What were they doing?” Graves asked.

“In some cases, contracts appear to have been inflated,” Jenn replied. “A subcontractor would perform work for one amount, but the project would record a larger total. The difference was then broken apart into consulting fees, management costs, equipment charges, and other expenses.”

Mitchell nodded.

“We can currently document roughly twenty-three million dollars moving through questionable transactions. The forensic team believes the total could be considerably higher, possibly forty to sixty million, but they are not prepared to certify that range yet.”

Eve typed the figures into her notes.

“Where did the money go?”

“That’s where it becomes sensitive,” Jenn said. “Some of it moved into consulting firms, and from there we found payments to people associated with lobbying groups, political organizations, and individuals connected to the broader approval process.”

Graves frowned.

“Bribes?”

“We cannot say that,” Mitchell replied immediately. “And Daniel absolutely cannot say that. We can establish that money from questionable contracts moved through a network of companies and later reached politically connected people. We cannot prove that those payments were made in exchange for approvals.”

“And Kroenke?”

“We also cannot prove he personally knew any of this,” Mitchell said. “People working beneath him signed contracts, and Tinch met with senior figures connected to the development, but we have nothing showing Kroenke ordered, approved, or even knew about the scheme.”

Jenn moved another document into the center of the table.

“There is one area where the evidence is much stronger. One of the shell companies submitted invoices claiming environmental cleanup work had been performed by a legitimate contractor. We contacted that contractor directly.”

“They didn’t do the work?” Eve asked.

“They never issued the invoices.”

Graves looked up.

“So they were forged.”

“Yes,” Jenn said. “Someone used a real company’s name to submit false invoices. That is straightforward fraud.”

Mitchell leaned back.

“The reason something like this can disappear is scale. This is a multibillion-dollar development involving thousands of contracts, subcontractors, consultants, and separate entities. A few million dollars hidden across dozens of transactions is difficult to notice unless somebody specifically goes looking for it.”

Eve looked through her notes.

“So right now we know somebody was stealing money.”

“Yes.”

“But we don’t know how far upward it goes.”

“Exactly.”

Graves tapped the table.

“What happens now?”

“We keep investigating quietly,” Mitchell said. “If this gets exposed too early, everyone involved lawyers up, records vanish, and anything we haven’t already secured becomes much harder to obtain.”

Graves glanced down at her notes.

“So, simplified version for Daniel?”

“Someone around the stadium project appears to be stealing money. We can prove fraud occurred. We cannot yet prove who ultimately benefited or how high the knowledge goes.”

“That I can work with.”

Eve and Graves exchanged a look.

They both knew Daniel had been searching for something that could change the balance with Kroenke, especially after the man had refused to meet with him.

This was not yet what Daniel had asked for. But it might be the beginning of it.

.

.

.

“Well, this is good,” I said, leaning back in my chair.

The information they had uncovered around Kroenke’s stadium project could become extremely useful.

The stadium mattered to Kroenke far more than another piece of real estate. The entire Rams move to Los Angeles was built around it. He had spent years positioning himself for the relocation, buying the land, dealing with the league, fighting off competing proposals, and selling the entire project as one of the biggest privately financed stadium developments in American history.

And now the Rams were in Los Angeles.

That meant the stadium had to work.

Kroenke needed the NFL happy. He needed Inglewood happy. He needed investors, sponsors, broadcasters, corporate partners, and eventually hundreds of thousands of people willing to spend money there every year. More importantly, he needed the story around the project to remain exactly what he had been selling it as.

And now we had found a few problems that could cause him a very large headache.

I had no intention of revealing any of that yet.

First, I needed to actually meet the fucker.

Stan Kroenke and I had spoken on the phone once. I had asked for a meeting as well, only to get some vague excuse about scheduling and availability. I had never asked again after that.

Now I had something interesting enough that perhaps he could come to me.

Eve shifted slightly on the screen.

“How’s filming going?”

I smiled.

“Well, yesterday I spent ten minutes directing my fiancée while she kissed another guy on a bed.”

Both women laughed.

“I expected it to be more awkward than it was,” I continued. “Still awkward, though.”

I glanced toward the production schedule lying beside me.

“Everything else is going well. We’re shooting a lot of the action material today and tomorrow, and then I’ll be back in Los Angeles. What’s my schedule around the Suicide Squad premiere again?”

“I’ll send the revised version,” Graves said. “There were two changes this morning.”

“Oh, and the Dunphys are going on Family Feud.”

I laughed immediately.

“Yeah, I know. Haley told me.”

I could already imagine Phil, Claire, Haley, Alex, and Luke trying to function as a competitive unit. Competition brought out some very specific personality defects in nearly all of them.

One particular game night at Jay’s house still occasionally appeared in my nightmares.

“I’m definitely watching that.”

After five more minutes, we ended the call, and I left the temporary office that had been set up for me inside the mansion.

We were spending most of the day filming the hunting sequences inside the house, and the place had been transformed by the crew. Lighting rigs were hidden around corners, tracks ran along sections of hallway, stunt equipment occupied rooms that would never appear on camera, and half the furniture had either been replaced or reinforced because somebody was eventually going to be thrown into it.

I went looking for Margot outside in one of the trailers, and as I walked in, I heard “Devil Woman” playing softly in the room. Scarlett was standing behind Margot with a knife. Margot was wearing Grace’s wedding dress and sitting on a chair while Scarlett held the knife behind her with an expression that would have been deeply concerning if I did not know exactly what they were doing.

I stopped in the doorway.

“Whoa. What’s going on here?”

Scarlett did not lower the knife.

“Move. You’re in the shot.”

I looked behind myself.

Scarlett’s assistant was standing several feet away, taking photographs on her phone.

“Oh.”

I stepped aside.

“And here I thought you’d finally snapped.”

Scarlett looked toward me.

“If I ever snap, you’re first.”

Margot laughed from the chair while Scarlett repositioned herself and raised the knife again. They took several more photographs, some serious and others just the two of them fooling around, with Margot pretending to scream while Scarlett grinned like a lunatic above her.

“Post some of those,” I said. “Instagram or something. Could be decent early marketing.”

Scarlett glanced toward her assistant.

“You heard the boss.”

Margot stood up.

“Maybe not the one where I look like I’m sneezing.”

“That’s the first one going up,” Scarlett said.

It took almost another hour before we were properly ready to film.

The sequence we were shooting involved Charity, Scarlett’s character, pursuing Grace, Margot’s character, through one of the corridors of the Le Domas mansion.

The stunt team had already rehearsed everything before Margot and Scarlett arrived.

The spear gun was a modified prop built to fire safely for the wider shots, while the actual impact near Margot would be created through a combination of a separate projectile, breakaway glass, practical effects, and editing.

I walked through the sequence with both of them again.

“You’re exhausted here. You’ve been running for a while, you think you finally have an exit, and for maybe half a second there’s relief. Don’t telegraph the spear before it comes.”

Margot nodded.

“So I’m focused completely on the window.”

“Exactly. Scarlett, don’t rush your entrance. Charity thinks she has her. She’s enjoying this.”

Scarlett lifted the prop spear gun.

“So, slightly insane rich-woman confidence.”

“Thank goodness it’s your specialty.”

She stared at me.

Margot laughed.

“Positions!”

The crew moved quickly.

Margot took her mark farther down the corridor while Scarlett disappeared around the opposite corner. Two stunt coordinators checked the window one final time, and the camera operator settled behind the rig that would follow Grace through the hallway.

I moved behind the monitor.

“Ready?”

Calls of “Ready” came back from each department.

“Go ahead.”

Margot ran.

The camera followed her down the long corridor as the locks on the doors and windows disengaged around her with a series of heavy mechanical clicks. She looked from side to side, increasingly desperate, before spotting the small window at the end.

She reached it and began pulling it open.

The spear hit.

“Fuck!”

She stumbled backward, one hand instinctively going toward the bloody line across her shoulder.

From farther down the hallway, Scarlett appeared with the spear gun.

“I got you,” she whispered as she reloaded. “I got you, bitch...”

I watched the monitor, impressed.

Margot grabbed the nearest thing available.

A bright dodgeball.

She hurled it.

The ball struck Scarlett directly in the face with a surprisingly solid thump.

Scarlett recoiled.

“Okay, that hurt.”

Margot immediately broke character.

“Oh my God, I’m so sorry,” she said, already laughing as she hurried over.

Scarlett rubbed her cheek.

“I’m sorry!”

I looked at the playback.

“We should do that again.”

Scarlett turned toward me.

“You want to try it?”

I smiled.

“No, I’m good back here.”

A few people nearby laughed.

Scarlett pointed at me and made a face.

The crew reset the hallway while Margot returned to her mark with another dodgeball. Scarlett took her position again, this time bracing herself slightly more without making it obvious on camera.

We started from just before the throw.

“Let’s do it.”

Margot grabbed the ball and hurled it.

It smacked Scarlett in the face again.

Scarlett stumbled backward exactly as Charity should, giving Grace enough time to run past her.

“Okay, that’s enough.”

I watched the monitor.

“Good. Again from Scarlett recovering.”

Margot moved farther down the hallway while Scarlett returned to where the ball had struck her.

Once everyone was ready, I called action again.

Scarlett straightened, irritated and furious now, reloading the spear gun as she went after Margot.

Margot sprinted toward the staircase, and I followed the shot on the monitor as Scarlett came after her.

“I lied before!” she shouted. “That dress makes you look like a slutty marshmallow!”

Margot disappeared up the stairs.

“Okay, that’s enough.”

I pointed toward Scarlett.

“I want another angle on your last line. Start from ‘I lied before.’ Give me a little more satisfaction with it, like Charity genuinely thinks that insult is devastating.”

Scarlett smiled.

“Oh, I can do that.”

The crew reset while Margot returned to her mark near the staircase.

Within minutes, everything was ready again.

I watched Scarlett settle into position and lift the spear gun.

“Go ahead.”

She leaned forward, eyes fixed on Margot.

“I lied before! That dress makes you look like a slutty marshmallow!”

Margot ran.

“Okay, we’re done.”

===========

scarlettjohansson[Photo 1: Scarlett standing behind Margot in Grace’s wedding dress with a knife raised.][Photo 2: Margot lying dramatically across the bed while Scarlett grins down at her.][Photo 3: Scarlett leaning closer with the knife while Margot pretends to look terrified.]

Wedding season

@margotswife

Daniel Adler, I am so sorry. It’s over for you. Margot is absolutely leaving you for Scarlett.

@CeReject

Daniel Adler getting Ross Gellered in real time.

@margotswife

LMAOOOO

@brwatc8

WAIT

IS THIS FROM THEIR ACTUAL WEDDING???

@filmufan

No

Pretty sure this is from Ready or Not, the movie Daniel is shooting with Margot right now.

@brwatc8

Oh, thank God, because I had QUESTIONS.

@cincat

So Daniel Adler, a man who is literally getting married in like a month, decided his next movie should be about a bride being hunted by her new in-laws on her wedding night.

Margot, I’m not saying this is a red flag, but maybe sleep with one eye open.

@gothrl93

Scarlett looks WAY too happy holding that knife.

@movif8

I read that Scarlett’s character in the movie is married to another character named Daniel.

What exactly is Daniel Adler trying to tell us here???

@scroctor

WAIT, WHAT?

He wrote himself into the movie spiritually just to have Scarlett married to a guy named Daniel???

@movif8

Apparently Adam Brody plays Daniel Le Domas, who is Scarlett’s character Charity’s husband.