It wasn't often Alexandra troubled with her looks, but reservations at the Star Room with Rachel were worth making a bit of effort. When she'd spent almost an hour arranging her eufiber into a flawless imitation of a Mengala original, a lovely black hip-hugging dress embellished with an intricately embroidered dragon in deep blue and an equally ( Read more... )

The plan had been to slump upstairs, turn on the Spice Channel, and maybe pass out under a hat and scotch fog until Rachel finished tonight's exercise in mad science, something that he knew, from the handful of times these bursts of lucidity and he had crossed paths, might mean she'd be a good goddamn deal later than the "couple hours" she'd so ( Read more... )

A week had passed since the conference, and Gerad landed in Pretoria with high hopes. Stealing time over the previous weekend had proven difficult, and the chain of coy glances from across the room, notes left in conspicuous places, and the kind of general teasing that two exceptionally intelligent novas could get up to over the following thirty- ( Read more... )

There's an old Bill Hicks bit that intercuts with "Not to sound like Randy Pan, the Goat Boy, or anything, but..." [i]But god damned if that doesn't win the gold medal, numero uno, pole position slot for dresses I'd most like to see decorating my bedroom floor. Or a lab desk. Or a pool table. Fuck, I'd settle on a bathroom stall. [/i ( Read more... )

[b]Edison Technological Summit, Manhattan, NY - XX XXX 2007 - 1615 EST[/b ( Read more... )

Manhattan, New York; 10:00 am - 2/18/07 ( Read more... )

[b]Pretoria, South Africa; 11:00 pm - 2/25/07[/b ( Read more... )

Pretoria, one week later, ??? local.

The mood was winter in Rachel’s Pretoria condo, in spite of the heat outside, which could only be described as ‘African’. Gerad had spent the last five days feeling as though he was walking across an iced-over pond, each pace forward a single misstep away from sending him plummeting into the frigid waters below. ( Read more... )

The Empty Quarter, Saudi Arabia; 7:30 pm, 2/23/2007

“Blue team, this is the Blue Six Actual. Tighten your line of advance and proceed as planned. Eyes open, soldiers.” Colonel Gafar al-Shammar's jaw took a firmer set as the colored lights representing two battalions of armor and their supporting elements from the 4th Armored Brigade responded ( Read more... )

Pretoria, three hours later“Dr. Alinsky? Ma'am? What did you want me to do with the report on Project Firefly ( Read more... )