Fly By Night - "The Last Stop" 3/10/07

[Zaphod]

Hey Everyone,

From Sept. 06 to January 07 you followed my CJ Run For Your Life! and your comments and criticisms encouraged me to continue imagining the story. You also awarded me a trixie award for best story in a city journal.  Back in mid January when the Spring 07 semester started up I needed to worry about RL. At the same time I didnt like where the story was headed. The character I had created in my head kept changing. Not his background or who he was, just his personality and appearance, though that part never came up anyways. Anyways,  So did the sort of story I wanted to tell. I want to do something more realistic, but also crazier and more creative at the same time.  So I decided to stop and get organized. While doing that I decided to read some stuff and generally do what it took to get better ideas. Also, I think I can do better this time than I did last time.  Some of that stuff I came up with a few months ago seems so lame(for lack of a better term) now.

Fly By Night  is a continuation of the story in Run For Your Life!.  This first update is not as long as it could be, its just to set up the story and an important character. I dont know if im going to do the post linking thing again, that was always a large amount of work.   And anyways, I feel confident I can make the story somewhat easier to understand if you just jump into it than last time

The Last Stop
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Capitol City, New Columbia | 5:35 PM | October 25, 2006
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        Frank Sprackles stepped out of the metro train into the cool october air. His assistant offered to get him a car for his short 2 day trip to Capitol    City, but he declined. He just said he felt like seeing the city from a different perspective this time... He was in Capitol City to do other things, but while he was here he'd stop by and visit someone he rarely saw in person.  After walking through the small empty parking lot he crossed the street and headed towards the historic New Towne neighborhood. Beautiful 18th century brick rowhouses lined the picturesque streets, which were clogged with parked luxury cars. Soon he came up to his destination, 1060 Kingsbrooke. The house looked just like the all the others, well taken care of, a flag in the window, a pumpkin already set out for halloween. 

    Soon was he was inside, sitting on a fine leather couch with a cup of coffee.  He and his host talked about the recent controversial decision to move the Portsmouth Wolves to Greenville. Whatever the deal was, it was a probably a load of crap, a power play to get an expensive new stadium built at the taxpayer's expense. Not that it actually mattered. He was here to talk about more important things...

    The person he was talking to was Congressman Dan Evans, a prominant member of the Conservative Party. He came from a predominately suburban district, and was on several defense related commitees. He also had connections with people inside the 'beltway bandits', consulting and contractor type companies which did work for the government both at home and abroad. He and Sprackes often did not see eye to eye when it came to politics. However, they shared a similiar interest, and often tried to work together. Still, they didnt always get along.

  Evans got up to get another cup of coffee and then returned. Sprackles knew he'd be pushing an issue that he really wanted to avoid, the incident last month with three of his operatives. They supposedly made a mistake that allowed the Empire's royal secret police, the ZeT, catch one of the NIA's (less than favorite) contacts. The ZeT was infamous for having agents and informants virtually everywhere. Sprackles knew his operatives weren't actually to blame for what happened, and this entire situation was a set up of some kind, possibly coming from inside the NIA itself. Then again he still didnt know the whole story. Regardless, two of the people he hated to let go , both were native Asahkan and Kanaar speakers and could blend in well in the Empire

Evans spoke. "... Have you gotten anywhere in tracking down those fools who let the ZeT nail our person in Takoa , or do I have to do it?"

"I know they're both in the mainland right now hiding and we can't do anything. As soon as we actually have options then we'll move." Sprackles said. This was bogus of course, while they had gone undercover earlier, he had organized a way for them to get out, and now the two were back safe. He had no plans of firing them, or framing them, or anything else to get rid of them. He'd later figure out a way to keep Evans quiet.

Evans nodded. "Huh... then we'll see... Anyways, changing the subject.. You know anything about this deal with Novak? Is he actually going to stand trial, or has he been 'permanently detained'?  "

"The latter... they don't want to have a trial because due to the lack of usuable or presentable evidence he'd get off free. Im not sure how they are keeping the media in the dark. Anyways, I heard a rumor from some security people that they took him to Daramm Air Base where they keep the captured terrorists they dont want the media and human rights groups to know about"

...

"Of course, its only a matter of time before the ***** hits the fan. Matter of fact, let me show you something.... Came out just the other day...about time really "

    The ARCO project was now public. Soon reporters and bloggers scouring the web would find this and soon it would be on all the 24 hr news channels. . Haha..it never took to long for anything to stay secret nowadays. Many different activist groups often did spying of their own, and they were notorious for bringing the world all sorts of technically unclassified things that governments didnt entirely want people to know about. Whether it was right or wrong was debatable, depending on who you were. But as it stood, those guys could be assets if you played your cards right, and Sprackles was very well aware of this fact. From the sarcastic tone of his voice, it was obvious that Evans had not yet been 'enlightened' of this fact...

         Anyways, Sprackles had run across Jim Novak once, the scientist recently accused of working for the Empire and kidnapping people to use as human guinea pigs. He had encountered him and his assistant/bodyguard several months ago in a small town in Texoma. What happened after that wasn't part of the plan. Since then he had been desperately keeping his ear to the ground, listening for any news concerning Novak and what he was up to.

        Because, until things have been resolved with Novak, and Raxgene has used its recently acquired formula to come up with a workable treatment, he'd continue to suffer. He rubbed his eyes..he couldnt see straight... It was a good thing he didn't drive here. Tonight would be a long night. The coffee would only do so much.  All he could hope for is that he wouldnt have another episode.



    ...

    To be continued

[bat]

Fantastic start and great pictures! Looking forward to more!

[Travis]

Hello,

I was an avid viewer of your CJ at ST, and your storyline is better than
most books I've read. I am quite eager to see the the continuation, which looks great so far by the way. 
I can't wait for the next update. See you later! 

[NikNik]

GREAT, GREAT, GREAT Hamster Zaphod (still got to get used to the new name) is back with another MD!!!

My first thoughts were, will he tie this one to Run for your life but as soon as I read " Novak"  I knew it.

.....reading.....
....reading some more......
...reading. Finished? Oh, yeah you mentioned this to be a small update.
Where are we going to, what will be the implication of the ARCO project being uncovered.

I am all ears eyes now.

Nik-Nik

[emilin]

Just excellent!

So nice to be able to follow your story from the beginning this time.

[Fred_Ginger]

Hamster, (Damn did it again, ahem) Zaphod!  I'm not sure if I'll follow this here or over at ST.  Be assured I will follow it!  I sure hope RL doesn't interfere so I'll get my updates on a regular basis! 

[sc4portugal]

Hamster/Zaphod i think i wll follow this at ST but now i will comment here, great work 

[Pat]

wow Steve as always great work and wonder cliffhanger as a normal 

patrick

[Cali]

awesome start zap...well laid out

[dedgren]

Steve-

Continued great story, continued great pics, continued nifty use of additional content...

...what more could we ask for?

Updates Every Day!  Yeah, that's it!  Every Day!  And Free Ice Cream!  Don't Forget About The Ice Cream! Teah!  And...

Well, you get the picture- you've got at least one instant fan here.

Good Luck!


David

[Darmok]

Great continuation Steve, (I just saw David's post...)
As always I'm impressed by your writing, what I like about it is simply this, when I read your stories, I'm there! there's  no feeling that we're reading a story but rather like we are there along with the protagonists and witnessing the story!

And I must say that I agree with Niek, I'll be all eyes and follow...
I also agree with David's Ice Cream request, can we choose our favorite flavor? if so I'll have chocolate!!!
Hummmmm.....

Where was I..... oh yes! Great work my friend, I'll certainly follow and try to post once in a while!

Take care

[Zaphod]

PERSONAL REPLIES:




bat: thanks man

Travis: cool, glad to see you here

NikNik: Thats a good question, what will happen now that there is public knowledge of the ARCO project. But you really have to wonder why it leaked so easily, and also why its not making a huge splash in the news. Perhaps its no surprise, or nobody believes it, except for this guy:

Dale Gribble(link)



Of course, we don't know whats going to happen to the ARCO project. Shaun seems to have gotten away without much a trail, only a few people know an they arent talking.

But it makes you wonder whats going to happen now. When he found that old tunnel, maybe he found not just a hole but an entire underground world, in a metaphorical sense...

emilin: Cool, great to have you on board.

Fred_Ginger: Heh I know how RL is. Either place, good to have you reading

sc4portugal: Cool, like I said, either place its all good

patfirefghtr: yeah lol, thats how it always is though

Cali: thanks

dedgren: I guess I could figure something out involving ice cream. Maybe when its really freezing up in alaska and in quebec for darmok, I could just mail a carton to you guys. It might be drippy on the way up there, but if the snow really gets that deep up there and those arent photoshopped pics, I imagine it'd refreeze on your doorstep.

Darmok:Awesome, thats why I like writing this story too, and something I want to continue. I like reading books that make you feel like your right there.

Back Home

Carra, Jorarahka, Halre | 7:01 PM | October 25, 2006

    I was standing in front of my house. I was nervous. All I could think about was if everyone was okay. With the exception of some relatives I didn't really know, I was on my own, and they were about it....heh...I was just making myself upset over nothing.everything was fine...I knocked on the door but nobody was home. I looked in the window and felt relieved. Everything looked normal. Mrs. Slager's enormous brown and white cat, buster, was sprawled out on the top of the sofa. He certianly didn't appear to be starving so obviously everything was okay.

Anyways, I didnt have my key so I had to get the spare.

    I  went up to the bottom front door.  The bottom apartment belonged to Mrs. Slager. I knocked and she wasnt home. I knew she had a spare key in her office. I also knew there was a spare key just to the downstairs under the mat. I used it and went in. She didnt mind me coming down here to use the kitchen, but she would be so pissed if she figured out I was getting into her office stuff. But I was locked out and didn't really care.

    I went into Slager's office. On the shelf was a little picture of the queen and a little Great Victoria flag. I found the keys under all that lying in a mug on the computer desk. I grabbed them, careful to make it appear nothing had changed. The cat followed me around meowing loudly. It almost sounded like he was saying "let meee-out".  When I opened the door I let him come through as I was going out, and he waddled his fat butt out into the yard. Then I went up the stairs.

    I gritted my teeth and held my breath as the upstairs door squeeked open. I had a feeling they went through my stuff.. I walked to the second of the two bedrooms and opened the door. Sure enough, my drawers and my closet were messed up. At least they didn't take my laptop. I walked over and noticed on top was a newspaper, placed there as if it was waiting for me. It mustve been Mrs. Slager to put this up here. Only she read the crappy english language version of the newspaper. I knew Asahkan well so I could watch regular tv and read the regular news. Matter of fact if my first name wasnt 'Shaun' nobody would ever know I wasnt born here. My parents were both from this area and only lived in New Columbia for a while when I was little. I looked like most people here, really short, dark hair and skin, dark eyes. Maybe I was taller though...haha

I picked up the paper. It looked On the front page it said "19 yr old west Carra suburbs man dissappears in forest, search cancelled". Sure enough, it was about me

So thats what they said. Makes you wonder what actually happeneds to those people who are said to just vanish out in the woods or desert or wherever...

huh...

The small picture wasnt mine. It was some random guy who didn't look anything like me at all. It made sense, someone supplied a phony pic of me to the papers so if I ever turned up nobody would know about it and question what actually happened....

    I laid down on my bed for the first time in what felt like forever, and pulled the phone out of my pocket. It was completely useless as a communications device when I was gone,  but now I was back in my coverage area, I could use it again. I called Barry and he answered.

"Hey..who is this? Its important I know who you bought this phone from because it belonged to my younger brother and I havent seen him in a long time..." he sounded rather upset

"You've been telling...Hah im glad Im not related to you..." I said sarcastically

"Shaun...what the ****, where are you?"

"I'm at home now...and its sort of a long story..."

After a few minutes Barry came back and not much later, Mrs. Slager showed up. She came storming through the door hitting the cat in the rear with a broom, herding him into the house...."Who let the bloody cat out? he was eating my geraniums again!!!..that fat bastard, well...oh...huh"

"Shaun?!"

Soon everyone was sitting in the front room downstairs. I told them everything that happened, and showed them the northern Colteca newspaper about Novak I kept to prove where i'd been. Barry just sat there with his mouth open.

"So, what happened after I left?"

Barry spoke up

"...... That night they held me til about 6 am interrogating me. I told them all I knew and nothing else. After that they fired us and gave us papers. Then I came back. While I had been gone they came by here and searched everywhere, including your computer. Obviously they found nothing, and when they left told us they'de be back if we told the media. Later, the newspaper and TV station called for a picture. We didnt know what to do so we took the sample picture from a new frame and sent it to them. Nothing bad happened after that. We were going to not give them a picture but I thought they'de figure out a way to get one anyways. I thought If I sent them a fake picture at least if you came back you wouldnt be hounded or turned in or something."

"So...you guys sent that in...thanks for doing that.."
I never wouldve guessed, I figured..eh whatever. I felt good that I could go out in public and not have to worry about dealing with "hey man its like that dude who dissappeared" whenever anyone took a good look at me.

"Look, we just had a feeling you'd come back, after all it was your own decision to run off in the first place. After a week or so we got upset, but still..and well your back so it doesnt matter.." he said

"Look...I don't know how to say it...but Im sorry I did this...Now we're fired and you guys had to go through that...". I still felt guilty for what I did even if everything worked out

"You know.... heh....Don't worry about it... You did what you had to do, we were fine....Mind you, the only reason why I'm not angry here is that I got another job doing real engineering work that pays more. In 3 weeks im moving out and into a way nicer place. If I was still unemployed because of you I'd be kicking your ass right now.... Its a long story how I got it, but basically it was a private company that has a thing against the government run mines here.

I don't know what your going to do though. Your not completely broke as I understand, maybe the college will work something out for you?"

"Thanks...I guess..." I said. I was in trouble now.. school wasn't something I had really been thinking of..

The rest of that night felt strange. I thought I would be glad to be back, but for some reason I didn't feel that way...

Later we were watching TV.

"Anything happen when I was gone?" I asked. I wondered if anything/anyone I had heard of or seen had ever made the news, besides Novak. Not that I really thought it would, but I still was curious.

"One thing. They had been making a big deal about catching this wanted white collar criminal guy in San Pedro, in a city called Ciudad Escobedo. Nobody cares though. Some stupid celebrity bit the dust and thats all they've been talking about, who the baby's daddy is, who gets the money, you know that sort of thing.."

"Haha... typical..."

Late that evening I went on my laptop. I didnt get any new emails, and nobody on any forums had any idea I was gone. I turned it off, leaving it on at night made the room hot. It was sort of strange how unseasonably warm it was here. It was only the middle of spring, maybe not officially, but it was for the climate here.

I wondered about my friends and people who knew me and what they thought.  After all, I had "dissappeared in the woods"... I couldn't just make up a story to tell them...Oh well, i'd figure something out. I really wanted to talk to someone I hadn't seen in a while. I got my phone out again and sent her message. I didn't know if she would actually answer the phone since it was late.

....

I also wondered if I should email sophia now..ehh.. I'd do it tommorow, I wanted to go to bed...


A few hours later, in the early morning

Two workers wearing green jumpsuits and hard hats walked through the gate of the Petrokor Refinery.  Instead of going to the office, they went to the deserted loading depot. Pipelines carried everything here, only special chemicals and the occasional spare part came by rail. The small switching engine wasnt present today, nor was any of the loading crew that worked in the building.

The taller worker with a beard keyed in a password and entered the small warehouse. Inside was a small metal shipping container full of drums containing some kind of industrial solvent. The shorter worker used his big ring of keys to start up a forklift sitting in the corner. He wheeled it around to the container and the two unloaded several heavy drums.

Soon they unearthed a pallet of barrels which was different than the rest. Inside the barrels were old 80 pound artillery shells. They were encased in sand to prevent them from being rattled around and damaged. Sitting on top of the sand was detonation cord. The two men quickly strung the cord through the tops of the drums and attached them together to a small device. Then they put all the drums back into the back of the container. The 4 pallets, with 12 shells total, was hidden under the other drums which were stacked in the trailer from ceiling to floor.

Then they left and went back to the office.

"Everything's all good to go, sir. We put the placard on the truck and filled out the manifest sheet. The cleanser is all ready for them to pick up next monday" they told the foreman. Then they left....

The two odd characters got into a small car and headed off down the road.

"How's that camera we rigged up in the cab looking?"

"Good, you can't really see the passenger side but that shouldnt matter." The shorter guy glanced at his phone. On the screen was the image of the cab of the truck the drums were loaded into...

...

...

To be continued

[Pat]

Yuppers Steve that is normaly how it works and you are doing such a kiccccccck butt over that
little torment factor lol, that should be your CML "The Tormentor" lol
Awsome update and a kick butt read as well - pat

[Heinz]

hello. that's a great story you've started here. would definitely love to see more updates. everyday, maybe? lol. id love for your story to be part of my staple of reads. im enjoying it. and not having so much time in hand, i sadly dont have time to scan through CJs at other sites. so frequent updates here, i believe would be loved by myself and many others, i believe. those houses, in the "Back Home" update, your own? or where can i get them?  see you around, often i hope 

[Fred_Ginger]

Drums, shells, cameras?  Uh, oh, what are those two up to?

[NikNik]

Exciting!

Shaun is back. Nice.
eeeh what was the story about dan Evans and frank Speckles about then???

Barry: "Its a long story how I got it, but basically it was a private company that has a thing against the government run mines here." ... Well if that isn't a lead to a new story then I do not know.
Or another one: They had been making a big deal about catching this wanted white collar criminal guy in San Pedro, in a city called Ciudad Escobedo. Nobody cares though

Lots of new leads apart from the drums, shells (kaboem!) and the camera's (I guess there will be something critical in the passenger seat.

Nik-Nik

[dedgren]

Steve- If you are not in fact a ringer [linkie] just having some fun with us, I think you've got a major shot at successfully writing fictional stuff.  Great imagination, a sense of story, good detail, and you never forget about your audience.  The pics, while really good in and of themselves, are just gravy.

...brown gravy, in the case of this last update...

Marvelous stuff here.


David

[football_fever]

That picture with the refinery is one of the best I've seen from the game.  You should maybe use it for the picture contest game.  I'd like to know how to do that sometime, as it has the EXACT feel for a CJ/MD idea that I have.  I'll be waiting for more, hamster