Entries Tagged 'Creative Works'
CYOA I: Part 2.2: The Dakmoore Connection
Harrison County Detective Benjamin Herrick fiddled with his badge as FBI Special Agent Mark Stevenson briefed the department on the case. It had been one very long day, and it looked like it was only going to get longer. The patronizing attitude of the FBI only made it worse – just because he was a local detective didn’t mean he was less capable than Stevenson. He had worked on the Federal level but had resigned his post for a quiet job in a small town after being nearly killed by a bomb planted by the shadowy crime syndicate Variant Alliance.
“Jon Turner’s job at the IAEA gave him access to a lot of technology that many hostile nations would love to get their hands on,” Stevenson declared, while bringing up a PowerPoint of Turner’s job description. “By examining call logs over the last few months, we believe the temptation to sell knowledge of that technology overwhelmed Turner. We found that he had made calls to numerous embassies in Washington and to various foreign nationals scattered around the U.S. and Canada, some of whom we found in our database. We believe he was dealing primarily with Syria, but indirectly through third parties.”
“And you think his ‘clients’ then decided to take him and his family out?” Herrick was a bit skeptical. “If he was providing information to them, wouldn’t they want to keep him around?”
“It seems Mr. Turner started to get cold feet. We were able to crack several encrypted messages that had been caught by our surveillance systems over the past few weeks. Turner had initially insisted on only providing information about countries under IAEA surveillance, but apparently that was not what they really wanted; they wanted the technology.
“When they confronted Turner with their real desire, he started stalling. Apparently he didn’t mind hooking them up with our diplomatic enemies, but he did have some qualms about being directly involved in the transfer of several key schematics of advanced fission devices.
“This morning,” Stevenson continued, waving his hand in the air, “Turner received an e-mail telling him incentive for cooperation would occur today. It was two hours later —”
“When Mrs. Turner called dispatch,” Herrick questioned.
“Exactly. Once the Mid-County Fire Protection crew was able to extinguish the remnants of the house that were still burning, I did some investigation and found a wire tap on the phone line, just a few hundred feet from the house. When they intercepted her call and realized their effort might be found out, they activated a remote explosive device to silence her.”
“So where’s Jon Turner?”
“He’s missing, although we believe he has been kidnapped by the organization he was dealing with. Jon was in New York preparing a briefing at the UN for the secretary general at the time, and a camera outside of a Manhattan coffee shop shows someone with his likeness being charged at by two men in black and carried away.”
“Have you heard anything from Parkway Med’s ER concerning Mrs. Turner’s condition? Maybe she would know something more…” Herrick was interrupted by the secretary’s voice coming in over the intercom.
“There’s a Mr. Adams on the line that wants to talk to you, sir. Line one. He says it is urgent and concerns the Turner case.”
“Thanks, Maria,” Herrick replied. Herrick punched the blinking button on the phone as he glanced over at Stevenson and the agent gave him a knowing look. As soon as any crime like this one hits the media, everyone thinks they have an urgent scoop. “Herrick,” he said into the receiver in an annoyed tone.
“Mr. Herrick. Well, it is finally time for us to talk again. The pleasure, of course, is mine. We have Turner and his son and plan to use whatever means we can to get every bit of information we want from him. I think this is going to be a treat,” the voice that had talked to Riley responded.
“Dakmoore – if only I can see the day I never hear your filthy voice again.”
“Glad to see you still have your exquisite sense of pleasantries, Benny. Let me cut to the point. We want one hundred million dollars by noon tomorrow – no make that euros, you know, with the exchange rate and all.” Dakmoore chuckled for a moment. “Remember the good old Alliance days? Good days, Ben, good days – you almost had us before you resigned from the Bureau, not that you ever would have actually been able to put the remaining pieces together.” Dakmoore sounded amused.
“Get to your point,” Herrick interjected.
“I see you aren’t the reminiscing type, Ben. You need to quit being so rushed all the time. Well, as I was saying, one hundred million Euros by noon tomorrow or we will use the technology we’ve acquired in a big way. No tricks this time, Benjamin; you amuse me, but I won’t spare you if you get in the way.”
“Aren’t you being a little presumptuous in assuming that Turner will speak that soon?”
“Oh, tsk, tsk. You don’t really think we depend on only one contact, do you? I’m hurt that you would underestimate me, detective. We want Turner’s information for future ‘use,’ sure, but we’ve already obtained everything we need. Turner was too dumb to realize that the information he was left out might be filled in by a more cooperative underling.” The phone went dead.
What will you do? Tell Agent Stevenson the whole story and then go with him to fill Washington in about your knowledge of Dakmoore. (3.1) David continues the story with this option. Explain to Stevenson that it was really nothing, because you know that no one knows Dakmoore like you do and you can pursue this much better by yourself. (3.2) Christopher takes the story in this direction.
How to Continue CYOA
The first two people to comment here requesting to do so will get to continue the story on their blogs. Just pick which story direction suits you and run with it. Why not give it a try?
As Christopher explains on his blog entry about this, you will probably want to link backward to the previous part (or perhaps both previous parts) so that someone new can read the whole story. Also, it will be helpful if you title your piece with your option number, and likewise provide numbers to correspond with the options at the end of your segment of the story so that things continue in an easy to follow fashion.
Christopher has given permission for participants to “steal” his CYOA graphic (featured at the beginning of this piece), so you may want to include that in your entry for easy identification. Have fun!
The Commercial
“Step right up and order now,”
Cried he with the miracle cleaner on tee-vee.
“It'll clean off anything, I'll show you how.”“I was as dumb as a cow,
No longer, thanks to this fruit - you see?
Step right up and order now.But she protested, “we aren't to touch this bough,
It would be a sin, that's key!”
“It'll clean off anything, I'll show you how.”“Sin,” laughed he, “just use this, I vow;
Spotless and smarter you'll be.
Step right up and order now.So she, and he too, ate the chow.
What a trick, but the trick's on thou,
They saw the sale 'twas faulty.
“It'll clean off anything, I'll show you how.”
Never listen when they say slyly
“Step right up and order now,
It'll clean off anything, I'll show you how.
Well, this is a bit more substantial than my haiku from last night, although whether it is any good is an entirely different question. I actually thought it up while writing Haiku II last night, but I was too tired to write it out at that point. I guess this could be called a metaphysical poem, although Donne need not worry that I will be taking his place any time soon.
Late Night Haiku
I
Hear fountain babble,
Time for sleep has grown past due.
Winter dooms crickets.
II
PowerBook hums softly,
The keyboard clicks under fingers.
Look! Ideas form now.
III
My foot numb, asleep.
Pins and needles arise inside.
Sleeping birds care not.
Foreboding
Sing out the song of sorrow, song of grief, but let the good prevail. — The WATCHMANIn one of the highest points in the history of tragedy, Aeschylus opens the first play of the Oresteia, Agamemnon. The scene is at the end of the Trojan war.
I'm still looking for that signal flare, the fiery blaze from Troy, announcing
it's been taken. These are my instructions
from the queen. She has a fiery heart,
the determined resolution of a man.
When I set my damp, restless bed up here,
I never dream, for I don't fall asleep.
No. Fear comes instead and stands beside me,
so I can't shut my eyes and get some rest. — The WATCHMAN
A weary watchman talks about the endless nights of watching for the relay of fires across the hills to Argos, home of King Agamemnon, Atreus's son. The fires, which arrive, signal the fall of Troy and the impending arrival of Agamemnon home. This should be a joyous event. Only home seals the king, and the never heeded prophetess Cassandra, to a brutal death at the hands of Agamemnon's wife Clytemnestra and her lover Aegisthus.
As for all the rest, I'm saying nothing. A great ox stands on my tongue. But this house,
if it could speak, might tell some stories.
I speak to those who know about these things.
For those who don't, there's nothing I remember. — The WATCHMAN
The watchman knows far more than he feels safe to tell the doomed king, leaving fate to take its deadly course rages forward toward the destruction of the king, his revenge through son Orestes and the bloodthirsty persuit of Orestes by the Furies of matricide.
One disgrace exchanged for yet another, the struggle to decide is hard.
The man who sins is sinned against,
the killer pays the price.
Yet while Zeus sits upon his throne
this decree from god remains—
the man who acts will suffer.
Who can then cast from this house
its self-perpetuating curse?
This race is wedded to destruction. —The CHORUS of ARGOS
The eclipse that causes the crimson moon is an artistic liberty I have taken.
Quotes taken from the translation of Agamemnon by Ian Johnston of Malaspina University-College.
The Writing in the Shadows
I often set goals that I'd like to accomplish that I know I likely will not. Other goals are long lasting and may not be reached for some time, but hopefully will be reached sometime over the course of months and years. I've written somewhat about this before, but one of those goals is to accomplish a few things with the written word that would be far more meaningful than small articles and commentaries. I mentioned these writings in passing in the last post, but what kind was I referring to? I am glad you asked.
In particular:
- A novel — yes, I'd like to write a great American novel. I've actually started on one, but never had time to take it very far. I have three chapters written as it stands — the first and second chapters of the story are in place, so the basic framework that sets everything in motion is done. I also have one chapter that might be toward the middle of the book, right before the climax of the story.
- A play — I've started one of these too (can you see I have a hard time sticking to one project at a time?). I'd like to write a good tragedy in the tradition of those of past times. A tragedy has a unique and powerful emotional impact and I have some ideas on how I'd like to harness that impact.
- A non-fiction book — I like fiction, although my speciality has been and continues to be non-fiction. I'm just not sure what I'd write here. I know I'm a bit odd for wanting to write a non-fiction book but not knowing what it would be about… but, hey, you already knew I was odd, did you not?
- A collection of sonnets — this is something that needs to accumulate over time, not be done quickly. So, I've started writing them when something occurs that seems like it could be captured well in this form. The sonnet form is challenging, yet its iambic pentameter seems to flow quite naturally for many thoughts. What will I do with these sonnets? I don't know. Maybe they will stay on my hard disk forever, maybe I'll post them online… who knows.
As I said, these are long term goals I cannot begin to complete anytime soon, but inch by inch I come closer to eventually realizing them and I think the process — almost as much as the end result — will make it worthwhile.
Why the title? Well, for one thing, the play and the novel both have a dark tone to them, so they are most definitely on the shadowy side (that also explains why the events I've been whining about this week would be helpful). Also, as I noted, I'm not sure any of these things will ever come off my hard disk, so they are, indeed, in the shadows. If you want to know plots… well, you are just going to have to live with a cliffhanger here — I don't want to spoil the plots!
