"Could it be that they made an appointment?"
Seeing Tom West pull open the side door and enter, Matthew quietly moved over to the wooden door.
He carefully observed for a while, then leaned in to listen, but there was no movement inside.
He couldn't help but grasp the doorknob and slowly pulled the door open.
This was the crew's warehouse for storing some costumes and props.
It wasn't time to start filming yet, and the door was usually locked.
Aside from coming to collect his training uniform that day, he hadn't seen anyone enter or exit this warehouse.
In the past two days, Kate Jeffries and Tom West had been whispering during training, which had already made Matthew uneasy.
He always felt that these two might be up to something.
Now that they had entered the unmanned warehouse area one after the other, were they going to discuss some secret, illicit plot?
He put himself in their shoes and thought it was very likely.
Of the two, Tom West was the training instructor, and Kate Jeffries was an assistant producer with a father who was a former BBC executive.
Her position in the crew was only higher than, not lower than, his as a character actor.
Matthew felt that if they made the first move, he would very likely be struck out.
So, he slipped into the warehouse, preparing to see what Kate Jeffries and Tom West were up to.
Behind the side door was a long corridor, with separate warehouses on either side.
Each warehouse had two large double doors.
Due to the older equipment, the fact that the set was enclosed, and the outer warehouse door was locked, these doors were not locked, but only secured with large metal bolts.
As soon as Matthew entered, he hid behind the nearest door, using the recessed corridor wall to conceal his body, and pricked up his ears to listen for sounds.
However, apart from the faint hum of the dehumidifier, there seemed to be no other sounds.
After observing for a while, he lightened his steps and walked forward, looking around as he went.
Just like the entire Hatfield Aerodrome, there were no surveillance cameras installed here.
After a while, Matthew relaxed, but he still hadn't found Kate Jeffries and Tom West; after all, the warehouse was too big.
After walking for a while, a lateral fork appeared in the corridor.
Matthew couldn't help but scratch his head, unsure whether to continue along the original path or turn into the fork.
Just as he was standing blankly in front of the fork in the road, a slightly high-pitched, sharp female voice suddenly came from the other side of the branch corridor.
"Tom!" She seemed to be calling someone, "I'm here!"
How could Matthew forget this voice? He instantly recognized it as Kate Jeffries.
"I'm coming..." The man's voice was clearly Tom West, and he sounded eager, "I've been cooped up for days."
Then came Kate Jeffries's voice again, "I know, that's why I chose a very special place."
"Will there be anyone here?"
"The warehouse is only inspected once every three days, no one will come."
Then, the sound of a door closing rang out, and the conversation disappeared.
Matthew leaned against the corridor wall, poked half his head out to look, and the branch corridor was empty.
He turned into the branch corridor, again lightened his steps, and slowly walked over.
Soon, the voices of Kate Jeffries and Tom West could be heard again.
"How does it feel on the gun cabinet..."
"Fantastic..."
Some indescribable sounds came from behind a door, and Matthew, not a pure young man, immediately guessed what Kate Jeffries and Tom West were doing.
He scratched his head, "So these two hooked up, huh."
Matthew wasn't interested in eavesdropping and wanted to leave, but a sentence from behind the door made him stop.
"Tom..."
The speaker was clearly Kate Jeffries, "When are you going to help me deal with that Matthew Horner?"
Matthew felt a surge of anger,
but he suppressed it.
Things were indeed as he had guessed; Kate Jeffries, like him, clearly didn't want to let it go.
"This can't be rushed.
There are so many people on the training ground, I can't target him for no reason, can I?
I have to wait for him to make a mistake.
These past few days, he hasn't given anyone anything to use against him."
"You have to do it quickly! I get angry just seeing that scoundrel!"
In fact, Matthew, like Kate Jeffries, felt an inexplicable anger rise whenever he saw the other person.
"Calm down, this kind of thing can't be rushed!" Tom West seemed more sober, "Matthew Horner was personally chosen by Tom Hanks.
If we target him for no reason, it could cause a lot of trouble."
Although Kate Jeffries was arrogant and overbearing, hearing Tom Hanks's name, she instantly fell silent.
Let alone her, even her father wouldn't dare to easily offend someone of Tom Hanks's caliber.
"Are we just going to let it go?" Matthew heard Kate Jeffries's unwilling voice.
"Training still has a long way to go.
Don't rush, there will always be an opportunity..."
Tom West's voice gradually lowered, and then indescribable sounds began again.
Matthew listened for a while, heard no more valuable words, and, while the two were still fooling around, quickly left the warehouse.
He exited the side door, restored it to its original state, and returned to the dining hall.
"So fast today?" Michael Cudlitz asked curiously when he saw Matthew return, "Fifteen minutes earlier than before."
Matthew shrugged, "No choice, my girlfriend is busy with work."
Although he hadn't called just now, he had spoken to Britney a few times these past few days.
However, Britney was busy preparing for next year's world tour, and her work was exceptionally demanding.
The two of them had only chatted for a total of ten minutes over these few days.
Despite his age, Michael Cudlitz was particularly curious, "What kind of work does she do?"
"Singing," Matthew said casually, "She's had a lot of engagements recently."
Michael Cudlitz thought Matthew was talking about a resident singer or something similar, "Being busy is good, that way you earn money."
Matthew didn't explain, just nodded, "Yeah, the income is pretty good, more than mine."
He took out his phone to check the time, "Let's rest for a bit, there's weighted cross-country in the afternoon."
Michael Cudlitz stopped talking, and Matthew leaned back in his chair, closing his eyes as if resting, but in reality, he was contemplating the words spoken by Kate Jeffries and Tom West.
Undoubtedly, these two hooking up was very unfavorable to him.
Leaving everything else aside, just considering Tom West, he was the military training instructor, and there was still a month of training time ahead.
Matthew couldn't guarantee that he wouldn't make mistakes or give them other leverage during training that Tom West could seize upon.
Moreover, being constantly on guard was a very exhausting thing, especially when guarding against people with some power within the crew.
This couldn't go on.
Perhaps one day, he might fall into the hands of these two.
From Kate Jeffries's words, it seemed she was planning to remove him from the "Band of Brothers" crew.
Ronald Speirs was a role he had earned through hard work and effort; he couldn't just give it up like that.
What should he do?
Matthew crossed his arms and began to seriously consider it.
Speaking of which, he had indeed caught a small secret of Kate Jeffries and Tom West.
These two were having a rendezvous in the crew's warehouse and fooling around...
But in a Hollywood crew, these things were nothing.
According to his understanding, this was a relatively open industry.
Actors or other people in the crew who took a liking to each other and fooled around in makeup trailers or other hidden corners would at most incur gossip, but wouldn't lead to any serious consequences.
Tom West was one thing, but whenever he thought of what Kate Jeffries had said that day, he got angry.
Even when he worked on construction sites, he had never encountered such an unreasonable woman.
His patience at the time didn't mean the matter was over.
Matthew thought for a while longer.
Perhaps he could find a way to use the relationship between Kate Jeffries and Tom West.
The afternoon training quickly began.
The three-mile weighted cross-country run was quite tiring.
With thirty pounds of weight on his body, it was completely different from running empty, and even someone with excellent physical fitness like Matthew was panting heavily after finishing.
He didn't know why, but Tom West's attitude in the afternoon was particularly strict.
Since most people's performance was unsatisfactory, he demanded that everyone do an additional thirty push-ups after a five-minute rest.
In the following days, the training intensity gradually increased.
Tom West even made the actors practice crawling in the cold mud, and training didn't stop even on rainy days.
Matthew felt a bit strained, and the other actors were complaining endlessly.
In some respects, this British instructor was a typical example of being serious and responsible, but actors were not soldiers after all, and many of them came from good backgrounds.
After several days of harsh training, many inevitably harbored resentment towards Tom West.
"He's simply a devil instructor!" someone complained in the changing room, "We're actors, not soldiers!"
After so many days together, the twenty-five actors had gradually become familiar with each other, and someone immediately chimed in, "Running three miles with weights, and then making us do thirty extra push-ups, isn't he doing this on purpose?"
Michael Cudlitz also joined the chorus of condemnation, "This afternoon, I almost didn't make it back."
This remark first caused a burst of laughter, followed by a chorus of sighs.
"Sigh..." Matthew also shook his head and sighed, "It would be great if we could have a gentler instructor."
"You seem very relaxed," Michael Fassbender, who was nearby, interjected, "Among us, you're the one who handles the training most easily."
Matthew took off his sweat-soaked cotton shirt, "I want to be even more relaxed!"
The others all nodded; this training intensity was indeed a bit much for actors.
The changing room door was pushed open from the outside, and a British actor walked in, "Stop fantasizing, I just heard some bad news."
"What bad news?" Michael Fassbender asked loudly, "James McAvoy, tell us quickly."
The British actor named James McAvoy came and sat in front of his locker, saying loudly, "My training uniform was ruined.
I just went to the assistant producer to exchange for new clothes, and as I passed Gary Goetzman's office, I heard that scoundrel Tom West suggest something to Gary Goetzman!
We're all... doomed!"