Agent to the Stars Read Online Free

you,” he said. “Thanks. I think you’re going to enjoy this.”
    â€œI hope so,” I said. “I’m in for the long haul. So who is the
client? Is it Tony?” Antonio Marantz had been caught fondling a sixteen-year-old extra on the set of the latest Morocco Joe film. It was a bad situation made worse by the fact that the sixteen-year-old that People ’s “Most Eligible Bachelor” was fooling around with happened to be a boy, and the son of the director. After the director’s fingers were pried from Tony’s throat, everything was hushed up. The director got a million dollar raise. The boy got a Director’s Guild “internship” on the Admiral Cook biopic that was filming in Greenland for the next six months. Tony got a stern lecture about the effect that cavorting with underage boys would have on the asking price of his next role. The crew got lesser but still fairly rich favors. Everyone stayed bought; it didn’t make the gossip sites. But you never know. These things spring leaks.
    â€œNo, it’s not Tony,” Carl said. “Our client is here.”
    â€œIn the building?”
    â€œNo,” Carl said, tapping the aquarium that was between us. “Here.”
    â€œI’m not following you, Carl,” I said. “You’re talking about an aquarium.”
    â€œLook in the aquarium,” Carl said.
    For the first time since I entered the room, I took a good look at the aquarium. It was rectangular and neither especially big nor small—about the size of the usual aquarium you’d see in any home. The only thing notable about it was the absence of fish, rocks, bubbling filters, or little plastic treasure chests. It was filled entirely with a liquid that was clear but slightly cloudy, as if the aquarium water hadn’t been changed in about a month. I stood up, looked over the top of the aquarium, and got a closer look. And smell. I looked over the aquarium at him.
    â€œWhat is this, tuna Jell-O?”

    â€œNot exactly,” Carl said, and then addressed the aquarium. “Joshua, please say hello to Tom.”
    The stuff in the aquarium vibrated.
    â€œHi, Tom,” the aquarium gunk said. “It’s nice to meet you.”

CHAPTER Three
    â€œ How do you do that?” I asked Carl.
    â€œDo what?” Carl asked.
    â€œMake it speak,” I said. “That’s a really neat trick.”
    â€œI’m not making it speak, Tom.” Carl said.
    â€œNo, I know that. I realize it’s not a ventriloquist thing,” I said. “What I’m asking is, How does sound come out of it at all? Jell-O doesn’t strike me as the most efficient medium for sound.”
    â€œI’m not really sure about the physics of it, Tom,” Carl said. “I’m an agent, not a scientist.”
    â€œThis is very cool technology,” I said, touching the surface of the gunk. It was sticky, and resisted my fingertips a little. “I mean, I’m not going to rush out and buy Jell-O speakers, but it’s still very cool. What is it? Something from a science fiction movie? Is our client doing a film about gelatinous aliens or something?”

    â€œTom,” Carl said. “It’s not about a movie. That,” he pointed to the aquarium, “is our client.”
    I stopped playing around with the gunk and looked over at Carl. “I’m not following you,” I said.
    â€œIt’s alive, Tom,” Carl said.
    The stuff wriggled slightly under my fingers. I pulled them back so quickly I felt a seam on my suit jacket rip. An inside seam. Near the shoulder. I had paid $1,200 for the jacket, and it let me down in the first moment of crisis. I focused all my mental energy on considering that jacket seam, because the only other thing to think about at the moment was that thing in the tank. The jacket seam, that I could handle.
    Finally, after a few minutes, the words came, something