Since recent events revealed Vittorio as a supposed Ndakinnian agent, Chepi was only too happy to transfer custody of their disgruntled travel companion over to command central, certain if he really was working for Intelligence, it had probably been a coon’s age since he’d reported in.  Once they’d relieved themselves of that burden, she and the ( Read more... )

Drustan begrudgingly traversed the labyrinth of tunnels beneath his Apothecary heading to Vito’s subterranean headquarters, annoyed at being summoned for a meeting.  He noticed a sign above the entrance to Vito’s offices and was sure it had not been there before.  Since he’d arrived before the others, he made a quick check of each entrance to the ( Read more... )

Palos, SPAIN.

Edgardo Gagliardi plodded slowly towards the docks with his eldest son close at his side.  Hoping to rebuild his family’s fortunes in the New World, he should have been full of excitement at the start of this great new enterprise, but his heart was heavy.  After gathering his children and fleeing from his enemies in Italy, he’d used ( Read more... )

Dejhan wandered through the house he had shared with his grandmother in a wistful sense of amazement.  He had been surprised to find that not only was it still standing, but she’d left it in his name.  Nana had died while he was going through the Academy as part of his rehabilitation for the armed robbery he’d been busted for.  He had not known ( Read more... )

Fehed never had any problems with feats of endurance, but his mind was elsewhere while the troop finished up the last mile of their final basic training run, as another hurdle yet loomed ahead of the young cadet when he returned to the barracks. Everyone had to select a military specialty, but he was still unsure what he should do.  Back at base ( Read more... )

Casimiro shifted in the leather seat of his mid-sized midnight blue sedan, trying to work the circulation back into his lower half.  He’d been parked here in stakeout mode for hours, waiting for Dr. Karen Strathmore to finish her workday, hoping she might have more valuable information for him tonight than she did last night ( Read more... )

Alden dreads election years.  He despises having to talk to the press.  The complexities of his job alone are bad enough without the added pressure of having to answer inane interrogatories about how he feels about this or that policy, over the establishment of which he has absolutely zero influence or control.  His number one responsibility, as ( Read more... )

Chepi, Tala, and Fehed waited at the conference table of the meeting room they’d been directed to, trying not to seem either bored, nervous, or impatient, and striking an ineffective balance between all of those options.   They had been summoned there by Adagatiya Demothi of the Ndakinna Intelligence Agency.  Before too long, they all stood, as the ( Read more... )

Ron had been looking forward to going up to the cabin and spending some time on the lake for a while now.  The weather was nice and he’d had to wait months to get a pass to leave the city at the same time as his friends.  Greg had gone up the night before, and would be waiting for them ( Read more... )

Rhiannon surveyed her team from her vantage point at the back of a covered armored half-track.   The six of them were tightly packed into the mobile com unit.  Auley was busy at the onboard computer.  Tala and Fehed were in front, with Tala driving and Fehed on the mounted machine gun.  Chepi and Vittorio sat with Rhiannon in the back.

She was ( Read more... )