Page 56 of The Session

“Yes, it’s very important to us that he do well,” Tru replied.

“Okay, but I have to ask: Is there some sort of performance bonus if he succeeds?” Mark pressed.

“A substantial one,” Tru admitted.

“I haven’t talked to the kid yet, but I already see part of the problem.”

“What’s that?”

“These are the people you call in to coach a team throughout a season,” Mark explained. “Or, at worst, make sure Matt Damon doesn’t trip over himself running down the turf in a soccer movie. This kind of pressure is not what anybody needs right now. We’re less than twenty-four hours away from his tryout, and he’s being treated like a lab system.”

“All right. What would you do?” Tru asked.

“I don’t know. Let me talk to Ozzy and figure it out.”

He walked over to Ozzy, who was chugging from a water bottle handed to him by an attractive young woman wearing yoga pants and a tight T-shirt.

Ozzy’s face lit up, and he grinned ear to ear when he saw Mark. “Coach Greenley,” he called out in his British boarding school accent.

“It’s just Mark,” he replied, holding out his hand to shake Ozzy’s.

“I’ve watched that video fifty times, and I’m sure you’ve seen all the new AI versions of it,” Ozzy added.

“AI versions?” Mark asked, turning to Tru, who’d followed him over.

“Oh. People have been replacing either Bettencourt’s face or yours with various celebrities’ and politicians’. Some are funny; some I don’t understand,” Tru explained.

“My favorite ones are where you’re carrying progressively more and more obese people. Those are the funniest,” Ozzy added. “Have you seen them?” he asked the girl with the water bottle.

“Just the original,” she replied, trying to hold back a smile.

Ozzy shook his head. “A minute ago, I was the star here, and now you show up. I have to be careful what I ask for.”

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about. You got moves I’ll only have in my dreams,” Mark told him.

“You are very kind to say that,” Ozzy replied. “Miss Tru, would it be okay if I took a walk with Coach Mark?”

“We have lunch set up by the beach. Take as much time as you want. It’s why he’s here,” Tru said.

Mark and Ozzy walked off the field and toward a path Mark assumed led to the beach. When they were out of earshot of the crew, Ozzy said, “So you’re here to motivate me.”

“I have no idea what I’m supposed to do. Maybe you could help me out,” Mark replied with a small laugh.

They followed a bike path that wove through dense vegetation. Most of this part of the island was fairly flat, with only a few palm trees visible above the mangroves.

“I was hoping you could tell me how you did it,” Ozzy admitted.

Mark heard footsteps and glanced behind him. “Are they following us?”

“All the time,” Ozzy replied.

Mark shrugged. “I wish I could tell you some deep insight, but it just comes down to training—the same as when you’re on the field. I had to make a judgment and go against my instincts that said stay down. If I did any thinking, that was it. Everything else was pure instinct.”

“But did you know that was in you?”

“No,” Mark replied, almost scoffing. “I don’t know if that’s in me right now. If the same thing happened again, I might run. I guess you just have to have it happen enough times to know if it’s in you or not.”

“What do you think my chances are?” Ozzy asked.