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The man repeated the sounds suspiciously as though they were a foreign word instead of an abbreviation. "Eeoopeeem?" |
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Mariah spoke slowly, unclenching her jaw. "Unit Production Manager. Angela will be wondering what's happened to me." I'm wondering what happened to me, she thought. |
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"What is this 'unit production manager'?" the man persisted, peering at her as though she'd lost her mind. |
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"Tell you what," she said a bit too sweetly. "Why don't you just let me go on in and look for Angela?" She took a step toward the man and got a whiff of unwashed uniform and old horse. She wrinkled her nose. These people were certainly taking this character thing too far! |
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"There's no women inside the fort this morning," he insisted, still using a thick accent. "The sergeant wants no interruptions to the drills, either. Why don't you look in town for your friend, miss?" |
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She opened her mouth to protest, then stopped. Why not visit the town set? she thought. She didn't want to argue with this strange young actor, and she could always come hack if no one there gave her the answers she sought. Besides, her head still hurt, and it already pounded in time with the footfalls of the drilling soldier extras inside the fort. She had no desire, for now, to get any closer to the source. |
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Going hack the way she'd come, she stopped outside the fort near the Blockhouse. There was a river to her left and another beyond the town to her right, both angled to meet a third straight ahead. They seemed similar to the Monongahela and Allegheny as they met to form the Ohio at Point State Park. Whoever had done the location scouting had done a magnificent job. This place was just like Pittsburgh must have been soon after civilization had arrived. |
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Where could anyone have found a spot as perfect as this? It had to have been undeveloped before the sets were built. Was it in some foreign country? |
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And why couldn't she recall participating in the selection processor even getting here? |
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Her breathing quickened as fear burst through the muzzi- |
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