“I know you like the museum,” Jacob said. “And this guy we’re making a delivery to will blow your mind. He’s a total weird genius type.”
She could see he wanted to spend time with her, and she did feel slightly guilty for how she handled the other night at DeSoto’s, so she said, “Fine. What are we delivering?”
“Some Nicolas Cage movies on DVD, VHS, and Blu-Ray, including Zandalee.”
“Zandalee? What’s that?”
“A rare Cage movie. Worth big credits. The professor went nuts when we told him we have it.”
“The professor?” This was getting stranger.
“The guy’s a professor at Rice. Philosophy, I think. Anyway, he’s writing a book about the rise of the Church of Cage and how it coincides with streaming media, or something. I don’t know, just ask him.”
“Well, that sounds interesting.”
◆◆◆
“I hate traffic,” Jacob said, cutting across two lanes.
“Why don’t you let the van drive?”
“Because I like driving.”
“Well, then you have to deal with traffic.”
“True.”
“So how did Gomez’s meeting with the SRS go?”
“They are willing to help, but we have to help them with a few things.”
“Typical.”
“I don’t like it, but it’s the way it works. We need some things, and they can get them for us. We’ve worked with them before, so I don’t think it will be a problem. Besides, Gomez says they are trying to get a bigger footprint in the city, and they might be a good ally to have.”
“Don’t miss your turn,” Sandy said.
Jacob cut back across two lanes to make the turn.
“I just don’t know how much they can be trusted,” Sandy said. “They’ve been known to turn on people.”
“People who were much bigger than we are. We’re small time and not a threat to them.”
“I hope you’re right. I wouldn’t want to be forced into a working relationship with them.”
She could see Jacob was thinking about the possibility.
“That’s crossed my mind,” he said, “and I don’t want to either. Freelancing suits me, suits all of us. I think it’s a risk we have to take, but I have no intention of being an errand boy for the Russians and the Chinese.”
“Glad to hear it. The bigger question is, do we have a plan yet?”
Jacob slowed down and entered the university parking lot. He pulled up to the security guard and rolled down the window.
“Can I help you, sir?” the guard asked, stepping to the van.
“Retro Media. We have a delivery for Professor Weston,” Jacob said.
The guard checked his computer. “You can park in the lot to your right. You will want to go to the Humanities building, room 210.”
“Got it.”
Jacob was right, the professor had a weird genius thing going on. His long hair looked like it hadn’t been washed or combed in days, his glasses were taped in two places, and his shirt had a stain near the pocket, leading Sandy to decide he had a homeless person look as much as he had the weird genius look. He acted like a little kid at Christmas when they entered his office carrying a box of videos. He got worse when he started going through the box, repeating, “This is amazing,” as he examined each video. Sandy didn’t see how he could be amazed by a single video, the shelves on the walls were lined with them, stacks of VHS tapes littered the floor and the desk, and she felt sure the boxes stacked almost to the ceiling in the corner of the office were full of them also.
His expression went blank for a moment when he reached the bottom of the box. A panicked look replaced the blank stare. When he spoke he stammered, “Zandalee? I thought you said you had Zandalee?”
Jacob smiled and took a VHS tape out of his backpack and handed it to the professor.
“You did not tell me it is the uncut and unrated version. Oh, this is fantastic,” Weston almost shouted.
“Is it any good? I haven’t seen it,” Sandy said.
Professor Weston held the tape with one hand and his long bangs back with the other. “One of the true underrated masterpieces of Cage’s art. He is sublime, as he was so often. Of course, critics of the day did not like it. One could argue that the studio itself did not like it, sending it straight to video,” he said with a dismissive look.
Sandy wasn’t sure what straight to video meant, but she nodded.
“Well, we’ve got to go,” Jacob said.
Professor Weston ignored him and continued. “The critics of the day were such fools. They could not understand what Cage was doing. He took acting to a new level, a new territory. That was his genius. Did Jacob tell you about my book?”
“He did mention it.”
“In the book, I argue that Cage was the greatest prophet of the twenty-first century. He foresaw the advent of the internet meme driven culture, a culture expressed and consumed in small bites of disconnected information, a culture where context is no longer as relevant as the moment, but, and this is important, not the moment of creation, but rather the moment of consumption. Because of this enlightened understanding, he made the acting choice of presenting memeable moments in his films.”
“Well, we’ve got to go,” Jacob said again, starting for the door and guiding Sandy with him.
“Did you know,” Professor Weston continued, “for a time people were deep faking Cage into other films, often as every role. Many people do not know that he did not play Luke Skywalker or Harry Potter. That is why these old media are so important. They are the original texts.”
Sandy stopped. “They did what with deep fakes?”
“It started in the early days of deep fakes, so some were crude, but people put Cage into other films, making him the lead
