Nigkala Tales Pt. 21: Murder Mystery

When the film gets too real

Thanks to my editor kenjisato. Also, to LanguageTool. Combined, they put me right. Any problems left all belong to me.

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The latest film for the Nigkala series is 'Vengeance At Last'. It is about her need for vengeance when her father is killed, and I got hired not only for the lead, but also as the Assistant Producer. We would shoot on location near the ancient city of Kish. I arrived three months early to help out with everything. The largest issues were a local dispute over women's rights causing crowds of protesters, and a related problem of securing locations to shoot everything.

As a western woman with a prominent position of authority over men, I was often the target of protests by men against changing the way things are. I was likewise held up as an example of the power a woman can hold. A few days after I arrived, I was invited to eat dinner with the owner of a building we wanted to use. He told me to meet him at a local restaurant. As I moved to enter, a large man stepped in front of me.

He said, in the local language, "You are not welcome here."

Replying, I said, "I have been invited. Please stand aside."

"No. Now leave."

"Again, please stand aside. I am expected."

"Bitch, I said leave," he then rushed me, thinking to push me to the ground. While he was a big man, I am a bigger woman. I also expected something like this and had augmented my weight. His push got nowhere. He stood up to gather his wits.

"So, you wish to use force. Very well." I then shot a hand out and grabbed his clothes and lifted him off his feet. "Allow me to place you out of my way." I then turned around and released him two feet off the ground behind me. I then turned back and headed in. He got up, gathered himself, pulled out a knife and charged me. I whirled so fast, he had no chance. My kick hit him in the head, sending him flying almost twenty feet into a wall, and then he fell to the ground. As I saw him try to shake it off, I whammied him and said, "Stay down." He just gave up then. There was utter silence on the street as those who saw, were stunned. I just calmly walked in, and asked to be taken to the man I was meeting.

We had been served, and were in the middle of eating when the large man came into the restaurant with two more large men. They headed our way, and the restaurant got quiet to see what was about to happen. I gave no visible indication I paid them any attention, but I did harden my skin in case they chose to use weapons. They stopped at our table, and broke into our conversation.

"Bitch. Time to leave. You can walk out or be thrown out, and I hope you choose to resist." I ignored him, and continued talking to the man I was with. "Okay guys, bring her." They laid hands on me, and tried to lift me, but I added sufficient weight to counter their strength without breaking the chair.

"Uh, boss, we can't lift her."

"Then hit her first. Knock her out, and she'll come easily enough."

They tried, but after a few hits, I told my companion, "Excuse me a moment." Then stood up slowly and turned around. Shooting out both hands, I grabbed their clothes and lifted them both off their feet. "Gentlemen, you are causing a disturbance. You do not belong here. Now leave." As I said that, I used An's authority on them. "The door is over there. Go." I then let them go, and they fell two feet to the ground. One landed on his feet, the other did not. Both left hastily. Again, with An's authority, I pointed to the large man, and said, "Come here," and waited.

It was clear he didn't want to obey, but I just pushed An's authority. Suddenly, to everyone's surprise, he started to approach. It was hesitant, and sporadic, but he came. Eventually, he was in front of me.

"Bow to this gentleman, and beg his forgiveness for interrupting our peaceful conversation." In addition to An's authority, I laid a hand on his shoulder, and used my extra weight to push him down. He didn't want to, but as I applied more weight, his back began to bend, as did his knees. Even when he was fully bent, he tried to resist, so I whammied him, "Beg for his forgiveness, now. And be polite about it."

A few seconds later, he said, "Sir, I have disturbed you. Please forgive me," then he looked at me. I looked to my companion.

He just said, "It is clear you acted without thought. I will forgive you, this time. Do not do it again."

"You heard him. Now depart, and don't let us see you again tonight." I released him, and he slowly got up, and left, fear clearly on his face. I again sat back down, and soon conversations resumed, but centered on me.

"I am sorry about that. He seems to be under the impression I don't belong here, even though you invited me."

"How did you do that? Those men were as large as you."

"You know, I play the character Nigkala. Well, I rarely have a stunt double, as finding someone to be my double is quite difficult. Also, the fights are real, even if scripted. When I lift an opponent, it is not a special effect. I am that strong. Usually I need two hands to do it, but the standard attire here makes it easy to use one hand. I figure doing it one-handed carries more impact."

"It does, believe me, it does. And you kept so calm, even when they started hitting you."

"They acted like thugs. I am a warrior, a professional. They think they have power because they are big. I know I am powerful because I know I could easily kill them, even with three against one. I did not feel they were a significant threat."

"Wow. You are that dangerous?"

"Yes. I teach unarmed fighting at the highest levels. I know a number of weapons, and am able to kill easily if I want to. Back home, the police know this, and I made sure the local police also know it. They also know I am quite peaceable. It is because I can easily kill that I am so calm. I have no desire for trouble. If I ignore slights, things go along more smoothly. But at times, as you just saw, some cannot let things go."

"I see. I mean, I did see."

"Enough about them. They are not important. Let's get back to our meal, and discussion about using your property." We returned to our discussion, and he finally agreed to let us use his property. He also said he would encourage others to allow us to film. When we finished, I insisted on paying the bill, as it was a business meeting where I was seeking something from him. He finally allowed me to. We parted at the door.

The next day, I was scheduled to speak with a local union that we wanted to hire as set construction workers. I chose to walk there, and did my best to keep a low profile. Even so, several recognized me. When I got there, several were talking about the upcoming work. I gathered their attention, and began discussions. I took extensive notes of what they wanted, and I gave them an estimate of what we were ready to give. We talked back and forth a bit, but by the end of the day, we came to an agreement. I think the food delivery I arranged for lunch might have made them more amenable to working with me.

Every few days, I seemed to encounter men who chose to publicly disrespect me. I ignored what I could, and tried to peaceably deal with the rest. I made use of An's authority, and my whammie to get my way, while trying to be as fair as I could. A few times, I was 'invited' to speak with the cops. They were never able to make anything stick, because they never had any proof that I started anything. And admitting I was being charged for defending myself would have been even worse. They generally let me go with the warning that they were watching me. So the next time they talked to me, I asked what they saw while they watched me during whatever incident caused my presence there. They never liked answering that question.

As the weeks went by, everything was coming together. The director was casting all the extras, including an older man intended to play Nigkala's father. I chose to spend some time with him to help us get chemistry. I also spent time with others that I would be working with. I did caution everyone that being active in the protests could interfere in the film. I especially told the old man playing my father, as I knew he was an activist. I urged him to stay low-key until the filming was done.

Eventually, we had to hire some people to keep the protesters away from the shoot. We also recorded them during the shoot so that we could use the sound to cancel the sound that carried to the set. The protesters often pointed to me as an example of change. Some wanted it, some hated it. I just tried to stay out of it. One worry I had was the escalating violence happening on both sides.

The day before shooting was scheduled to begin, there was an explosion at one of the nearby protests. I issued orders to tighten security, and I requested the producer to get more security to handle the troubled situation. I personally vetted the security team to ensure they had no hidden agendas.

We shot the outdoor scenes first, so we could make use of the locations before too many protesters showed up to disturb things. We even did a few fight scenes in the street. However, twice I was handed a real weapon rather than one blunted or trick weapon. It was only my habit to verify my weapon with my rock sense that I caught the solid and sharp metal rather than the blunt, rubber, or spring-loaded tip. I had to reprimand the grip each time. I also passed the word to the other fighters to verify their props before using them.

Next, we did the sex scenes, where I had various encounters. We chose to film my street sex scenes on a closed section of the street, blocked off from view of everyone, and relatively quiet. We planned to add better sounds in post-production rather than risk the sensibilities here. The inside scenes were a lot easier to control, and could have full sound from us.

The last day of shooting was the big party sex fight scene. We were using a large warehouse decked out as a mansion with a wide-open layout. Even though the party was in six rooms, everyone could see anyone in any of the rooms through open arches, sometimes with low walls making the arch into a window to the next room. Most of the ladies looked like the locals, but were of western culture, and thus had fewer hang-ups about open sex. Halfway through, a fight would break out, catching me with my pants down, so to speak.

We shot the bad guys breaking into the western side, while I was on the eastern side. While I was nude, under a man, I pushed him off, and grabbed my weapons from the armor lying beside me. Running up to the fight, I joined in.

My 'Father' screamed, "Don't kill me!" and then cowered beneath a large man with a sword.

Then we switched to the camera looking over my shoulder. I turned to see him and cried out, "No!" I then threw my trick dagger at the large guy, timing it, so it would get to where he was just after another bad guy fell into him, knocking him out of the way. The script had my knife pierce my father in the heart, and lots of blood would spill. That's not what happened. For some reason, the guy coming from off camera waved his arm and my knife was deflected and missed. But the actor playing my father screamed, and there was a dagger in his chest, with real blood.

I knew it wasn't my knife, as I could see it on the ground nearby, leaking fake blood. I shouted, "Medic! Man down!" and rushed over to him. I could see his life draining before me. So without thinking, I laid him down and pulled the dagger out. Then I pressed my hand over the wound to keep the blood in. Quickly, I scanned him with Inanna's healing and realized the blade had pierced the heart. He would be dead in seconds if I didn't do anything. So I fed him chi, even as I instinctively pushed Inanna's healing to close the wound in the heart, without the usual 'perfect' image.

I took another look, and realized he was hovering on the edge of death, and my chi was helping to keep him on this side. I pushed half again as much chi to sustain him, then focused on Inanna's healing to fix his heart and move a lot of the blood spilled within his chest back into his veins and arteries. When the image came, I pushed hard, supplying a lot of my chi to power it, rather than use up his. While this worked, it also shocked his system so much, his heart stopped. I did the only thing I could think of - I sent a tiny spark into his heart to restart it. When I realized it was beating, and more than half the spilled blood was back where it belonged, I pulled my focus back.

That is when I found the medic there trying to get me to move, so they could attend him. "Uh... Oh. Sorry. I was too focused on him. Just say when."

They positioned everything, and then said, "Go," so I backed off. I stayed near, so I could supply chi. As they got him patched up, I lessened the chi slowly down to nothing just before they were going to take him off to the hospital.

The director decided to halt the shoot for the day, and try to finish it tomorrow. Even as we were getting dressed, some police came up to me to arrest me for the attempted murder of the activist that played my father. I yelled to the director, "Finish the shoot without me. I'll be okay. Send the lawyers for me."

"Shut up!" The police said, as they were handcuffing me. I went quietly.

The first problem was getting me in their car. I wound up sitting sideways. They also had three or four cops with drawn guns, every time I was being relocated or outside the cell. In fact, the first cell they put me in held five violent men. As soon as the cops went out of sight, they came up to me, and the leader said, "Oh, we're going to have fun with you."

I replied, "I have no desire to fight you. Please leave me alone."

"I don't think so. You two, grab her arms and hold her." They moved in and grabbed my arms.

"Please leave me alone."

"Let's see what she looks like under those clothes." He moved forward and grabbed my shirt to pull it out.

I just flexed, and pulled both men holding my arms together quickly, smashing their leader between them. Both men holding me got knocked off, and the leader also fell down. "I said leave me alone. Do not make me repeat myself." I then moved over to a bench and sat.

I saw the leader get up, think a moment, and then yell, "Everyone. Get her. Show her who runs things here."

I just augmented myself to harden my skin and increase my weight. When they started hitting me, I just let them for a bit, before saying, "Gentlemen. It appears you have made a poor decision. It is time to rethink your decision." I just lashed out, hitting each of the attackers in the center of the chest, hard. Most had the breath knocked out of them, all were pushed back, often several feet, and fell down. I then got up and walked over to the leader.

"You don't seem to get it." I then grabbed him with both hands, raised him over my head, and bashed him into the ceiling several times before I tossed him into his friends. "You have no power over me." I then went back to the bench. I said, "Now, please leave me alone," and then sat back down. It seemed he finally learned.

An hour later, and the cops came in to bring me to the interrogation room. They were clearly surprised I sat alone on the bench and the others all were on the other side of the cell, ignoring me. The lead cop tossed a pair of cuffs, and told me to put them on, so I did. Then they let me out of the cell and escorted me to the interrogation room. There was another man there, in a suit.

Once in the room, the cop asked, "What happened in the cell?"

The suit said, "Don't answer that."

I said, "Those people thought I was there for their pleasure. We had a civil discussion where I turned them down."

"You expect me to believe that?"

"Go ahead and ask them if I was impolite."

"Right... moving on. Why did you try to kill Muhtadi?"

The suit said, "Don't answer that. I'm your lawyer."

"I did not try to kill the old man." I turned to him and introduced myself. "Hi, I'm Becky Sue Tate. What's your name?"

"I'm Jack Burton, no relation. Here's my card."

I took it, and I saw his details, and recognized him as belonging to the law group we used in the country.

Breaking into our conversation, the cop said, "We have your fingerprints on the blade. You put it into him when you threw it."

"Of course my prints were on it. I pulled it out. As for throwing it, I don't know that it was thrown. The dagger I threw had a fake blade, and it was knocked down midair, and I saw it on the ground nearby. Check the films. I'm sure they will let you see the shots."

"Why did you choose to attack him?"

"The script called for me to throw my dagger at the actor playing an enemy, who would be knocked out of the way, allowing the dagger to continue and hit Muhtadi. The dagger I threw was designed to look real, but do no damage. He was okay with that, and the dagger I threw was the fake dagger. I don't know how the real dagger got there. As he survived the attack, why don't you ask him?"

"We will, be assured of that, and we'll see that he says you threw the dagger that hit him."

"I'll wait to see what he says."

Jack said, "Becky Sue, please don't admit to anything."

"What I said is the truth. Easily found out by asking anyone involved in the scene. There is no point in hiding the obvious."

"Even so, please let me say it. You don't know all the legal ins and outs, and what they might use against you."

"Very well. I'll try."

The interrogation seemed to go on forever, but I later learned it was only two hours. While I occasionally did not heed my lawyer, most of the time I would whisper to him, and he would handle the response. When the session was over, Jack said, "I need to talk with my client in private."

"Okay. You can use this room for an hour."

"This room is set up to record everything. I said in private."

We eventually were escorted to a conference room, with two guards outside the doors.

"I hope we are private here."

"You are not sure?"

"You never know."

"Let me think for a moment." I then looked around the room, even as I scanned the room with my other senses. I discovered an open mike, so I walked over and looked at the potted plant. Lifting the pot, I saw a wire, so I followed the wire until it went into the wall. There I found a socket the wire was plugged into, so I pulled it out. Continuing my scan, I found no other devices. "I think we are clear now."

Jack raised his eyebrows.

"An actress is a jack of all trades. You would not believe what I've learned over the years."

"Actually, I am not surprised. I represented enough of them. So, before they cut this short, tell me what happened from your point of view."

I did, but I also mentioned that I had twice found my prop weapon was the real thing by mistake. I suggested it might not have been a mistake. After giving that information, I asked, "How is Muhtadi?"

"He's out of surgery. They don't know why the heart was still going, because there are signs it was cut and also that it stopped. They're calling it a miracle. But he's still quite weak. They won't let anyone see him."

"Have you looked at the video of the event?"

"Yes. It's not that clear how the dagger got there, but the dagger you threw is clearly seen to not hit him, and on the floor."

"What do you suggest?"

"At this point, sit and wait. Don't talk without me. I'll be pushing for your release, and to clear your name. I think that when Muhtadi speaks, we will learn the truth."

"Okay, I can do -"

At that point, the door was opened, and several cops came in and told us our time was up. They insisted I be handcuffed again, and I allowed them. They then took me back to a different cell. I was the only one in there, so I didn't have any issue with cellmates. When they left, I just sat down and relaxed. I decided to listen in on things, so I used An's power to have the air carry the conversation from the chief of police here.