The Planner

Chapter Eight: Hollywood

In the Hollywood office Planner and Bates shook hands with a spiky blonde haired thirty-something man wearing large glasses. On the wall was a large poster for the “Pearl Harbor” movie.

“Hi, I’m Planner.”

“Bates.”

“I’m Nigel. Hi. Thanks. Do sit down,” said Nigel nicely in a British accent.

“Hopefully we won’t take up too much of your time,” said Planner.

“Thanks. All the noise in the office stops us from recording master tapes so we are just rehearsing at the moment. I really am a scriptwriter. Just finished on Pearl Harbour… Ben Affleck…” said Nigel, pointing to the poster.

“Right. Good for you,” said Planner slightly dismissively. “Can you take me back to the original objectives of this mission?”

“Well,” smiled Nigel. “In general, the team here work with some of the best writers in Hollywood to provide narrative and context to the agency’s staged events.”

Planner raised his eyebrows.

“So like TV news reports?” asked Bates.

“No, they can be stilted or ad-libbed. No, our services are used for naturalistic dialogue, such as the demands and threats from the hijackers.”

“Everyone sit down. We are returning back to the airport,” suggested Bates, in a parody of a Middle-eastern accent.

“Yes, just like that,” said Nigel with a fake smile.

“So where are you with your work?” asked Planner.

“Our task expanded a couple of months ago. I presume you know about the problems with the fourth target? The Capitol Building? There were problems with that,” Nigel signalled upwards, “from above.”

“Oh?” Planner said returning the fake smile.

“Yes. We’re the replacement operation for the forth target.”

Bates narrowed his eyes.

“Yeah…” Nigel realised he was not receiving good vibrations from his visitors. He perked up hoping to improve rapport. “A big mix up, I understand. I was at this screening when a good friend of mine…”

Planner interrupted smoothly, “Can you tell us why there were problems?”

Nigel maintained his broad fake smile, “Problems with the fourth target? Three reasons really. There was an expectation that the fourth target was going to be the Capitol Building. Apparently the-powers-that-be wanted to pass a bill after the Big Event? While the President could have passed the bill as an edict, it was felt there could be push-back. It could be seen as all dictatorial,” said Nigel with air-quotes. “You know, so best let congress and the senate do it. It would seem normal that way.”

“And the other reasons?” said Planner.

“The generals,” said Nigel with a salute. “The air force generals… didn’t like Washington being seen as undefended against two civilian aircraft. Even one makes them look pretty bad.”

“Hmm. Right. Third reason?”

“Technical. The capitol building is quite a small target, you need to weave around the Washington monument and so on, so they needed to fix extra radar…”

Planner interrupted, “Yes, I know about this. You need high fidelity radar coverage and military mode GPS to reliably hit the target. It’s not so easy in Washington to accommodate the extra kit.”

“Is that what you did in New York?” Bates asked Planner as an aside.

“Yes. The technical stuff is my forte,” said Planner.

“It’s not mine,” volunteered Nigel with a laugh. “So as I was saying, I was brought in a few months ago to bring out a… narrative. The seeds of hope to rise from the despair…”

“Is this one of the psychologist’s ideas?” said Bates sardonically.

Nigel points to himself, “Er, no. It was mine actually. I was thinking: how would the Big Event be made into a movie? We needed drama. So while I was attending the rushes of the Pearl Harbour movie… I was thinking: how do I make a movie from this? What thread would I take? And obviously the strongest dramatic theme is the hijacking… and what would happen if, on one of aircraft, the last one,” Nigel made some fists, “the passengers fight back!”

“Sounds a bit fanciful. I understand the Air Force wanted to take credit for stopping the fourth plane,” Planner said.

Bates turned to Planner in surprise. “Where did you hear that?”

“That’s unofficial,” smiled Planner. Focusing back to Nigel, “So, the plane crashes en route to Washington. Is there anything else I need to know?”

“There’s a lot of plot details,” Nigel said but his voice trailed off realising that he was not impressing either Planner or Bates.

“So is this team of Hollywood writers all indoctrinated?” asked Planner.

“No,” said Nigel carefully. “No, they basically act as a think tank and we just take some of their ideas away. But they do benefit. They often go off and write something akin to the agency’s own plot scenario which often makes it to the screen⁷⁰. There is quite a bit of quid-pro-quo.”

“You have the passenger details?” asked Bates.

“I think so. Are more coming through?” asked Nigel.

Planner interrupted by pointedly looking at his watch, “Ok, thanks. Good luck with the plot details. Sorry, I’ve another appointment. Thanks for your time.”

Bates was surprised when Planner stood up, shook Nigel’s hand and left the room. Bates did the same but at the door, Bates paused and asked Nigel, “So how is this movie story ever going to be discovered? Written notes found in the wreckage? Cockpit voice data recorder?”

“Voice recorder?⁷¹ Right. Good one. Must do that. No, the story will be relayed by passengers”, said Nigel. “It’ll be an Orson Wells World-of-the-Worlds-type production. Different viewpoints from people crouching in the isles, in the loos, using their cell phones⁷².” Nigel used a phone call gesture.

Bates nodded and smiled and continued out the door.

* * * *

Bates and Planner grabbed their Pastrami, Rye and Pickle sandwiches in the canteen and returned back to Planner’s private office.

“So Hollywood? Unimpressed?” said Bates.

“You could say that,” said Planner.

“I was saying that,” said Bates, taking his first bite.

Planner finished chewing and said, “I think we have a disaster on our hands.”

Bates swallowed, “Yes. That’s the idea.”

“We’re developing a byzantine, gothic horror… soap opera of a disaster! It’s not going to be believed,” grumbled Planner and bit into his sandwich again.

“We can scrap the whole Passenger Revolt storyline,” suggested Bates.

“No,” said Planner. “No-one will ever hear about it, just let sleeping dogs lie on that. I guess it’s the Carrot and Stick operation that’s bugged me.”

Planner outlined the earlier discussion he had had, particularly, with Jenny. They decided she was one of the “Psychologists” that had been frequently referenced.

“I’ve just had this vision of Stick Men⁷³,” continued Planner. “Going around bumping off journalists and other do-gooders, by the score, since the back-story just isn’t that strong and just so implausible; it’s going to look so obvious.”

“Well, I presume you’ve seen the computer models, the ones modelling public reaction to BE2?” said Bates.

“The Change Readiness Models⁷⁴?” said Planner with a laugh. “Changing the political atmosphere? It’s all done with a modicum of science, some statistics, a Cray computer and a lot of wishful thinking,” he said dismissively. “If the storyline is not believed, by say N percent of the population, then with just a few tweaks to the parameters of the model, you’ll get a completely different outcome. In reality, if the story isn’t believed, the only atmosphere that this event will create… is revolution. There could be riots in the streets.”

“I don’t think that is going to happen. That’s very pessimistic: I thought you were a radiator not a drain?⁷⁵ You’ve said yourself that we don’t have investigative journalists anymore. We’ll be framing the rhetoric.⁷⁶”

“Maybe. Maybe not,” mused Planner. “It’s not just journalists anymore. There’s academics, scientists… Have you ever looked in any history books lately?”

“People don’t read history books! They watch television,” mocked Bates.

“What about the History channel?” said Planner.

“Only shows world war two,” said Bates sarcastically.