Jesse looked across the emergency room just in time to see a ragamuffin figure slip in through the sliding glass doors. The woman wore slightly tattered sweatpants, a blue sweatshirt with the hood up, and mirror shades. Jesse’s first impulse was to go take the woman in hand. If she was a victim...
2024-01-29 14:16:50 +0000 UTC
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Micah trudged through snow. A few days before, he'd managed to pick up some boots at a small general store in a town he'd come across. They'd had jackets, but he didn't need warmth. Traction, however, he couldn't do without. He also bought some maps, some rope, and a compass. Fortunately, the own...
2024-01-28 15:43:32 +0000 UTC
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John Walker looked down on the Earth from above. He wished he could spend his life in the sky like this. He found peace above the strife, the politics, the people.
Above the atmosphere.
He wished he could live in space, but working here wasn’t a bad start. After a final wistful look...
2024-01-28 15:10:51 +0000 UTC
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Okay, hopefully not nothing. It's taken me a while to really get a handle on how much I can do without leaving myself bed ridden for a week, but I think at this point I've mostly got a handle on it.
So, since I figure you guys might want to know (and have some feedback regarding priorities)...
2024-01-27 11:26:19 +0000 UTC
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Ricardo knew he was not a brave Pixie. Not like his muy macho X. He did what he did very well, but his passion was clothing, accessories, and above all shoes. He loved shoes. The bane of his existence was that he never got to wear any originals. All he could wear were knock-offs made to ...
2024-01-27 10:59:23 +0000 UTC
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Steve looked across the tiny break room and watched Jesse play with her sugar glider, Cory. The little rat bugged him. It would hide in her pocket and jump out at the least opportune times. Still, she doted on the thing. Charlie kept telling him to make a play, but it seemed too weird. She was al...
2024-01-27 10:49:14 +0000 UTC
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Time slowed down, and Angela Merylin stared at the skylight. The screaming injuries, the crying children, the angry voices of two dozen stressed people all faded into the background. One by one, she sifted through possibilities until only one remained. Closing her eyes, she checked the facts agai...
2024-01-26 12:00:59 +0000 UTC
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Drew Williams stared at her bathroom mirror in disgust. Six years on the force wasted. Four years of college, four years of graduate school, all shot to hell by one stupid bust. Fog crept up the mirror as the reprimand played over and over in her head. The rhythm of the words settled into the pou...
2024-01-26 12:00:29 +0000 UTC
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Half an hour after Phil started, after a succession of images, names, and questions, she had entered almost all the museum staff in the new system. She’d identified the security guards, entered the frequencies of their walkie talkies and the numbers of their cell phones on file. The staff in th...
2024-01-25 11:18:06 +0000 UTC
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Matt leaned back on the hard surface of the courtyard. The lights off the pyramid in front of him were nearly as beautiful as the tiny woman at his side, and far less likely to blush when he stared. The two of them had taken a break, sitting directly on the ground. When Michaela sat on benches si...
2024-01-24 05:32:30 +0000 UTC
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Micah stopped halfway up the cliff face. It had been a while since he did any free climbing, but it came back to him quickly. He looked a question at his left shoulder, and the ugly imp perched there shrugged.
"She's still up there. I got no idea why. Not my lookout. I just tell you where s...
2024-01-23 14:18:24 +0000 UTC
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From her sanctum in Micah's office, Phil watched the museum. The dedicated server running the advanced security software was hidden away under lock and key, protected even more heavily than the artwork. Micah's desk PC allowed her access to the cameras, but in order to do anything other than look...
2024-01-22 05:35:06 +0000 UTC
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Matt looked down at Michaela as she led him toward what was possibly the most famous museum in the Western world. He wasn't upset about going, but he hadn't expected to visit until they'd had a week or so of wandering around Paris.
"Why the change in itinerary, angel?"
She tilted her ...
2024-01-21 14:58:38 +0000 UTC
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Just a quick thank you to everyone who has subscribed! I know I've been slower than I want to be about getting things up here, but everyone in the house is sick (including me), so I'm working with less spoons than usual. Never fear, I will get more up here as quickly as I can!
Thanks again ...
2024-01-21 13:33:39 +0000 UTC
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Tee drifted through the galleries, stopping every few steps to clean, to straighten, to admire. In time, every sculpture, every painting, every bit of art in every gallery eventually got her attention, her care, and her admiration. She didn't think about what she was doing or why she was doing it...
2024-01-21 13:31:31 +0000 UTC
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"I still think there's a connection."
Matt shrugged his reply and sniffed at the wine in his glass. The Air France jet transporting them from Saint Petersburg to Paris had fabulous accommodations, including a fantastic wine selection. Matt's father had rebuilt him with the keenest senses av...
2024-01-20 07:09:13 +0000 UTC
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Ophilia sat at Micah's old, worn desk. She focused on the smells that permeated the room, the smell of leather, of paper, of varnished wood. The faintest hint of his cologne drifted through the air. The room smelled of him, and she reveled in it. It comforted her, made her feel at home. She felt ...
2024-01-20 06:56:46 +0000 UTC
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Micah walked down the long, winding alleyway that led to Sammy's nightclub. Less than four blocks from City Hall, yet few mortals even knew it existed. The city’s club scene crowd talked about it in hushed whispers. Some even claimed to have been there. Since cell phones with GPS tracking becam...
2024-01-19 04:16:57 +0000 UTC
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The most recent version of book two of Artifice
2024-01-18 03:15:31 +0000 UTC
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Tee drifted through the museum, a ghost in faded coveralls, trailed by a utility cart that rolled along the hardwood on silent wheels. In every room she policed the floor and all the crevices for litter, swept the wood for dust, dirt, and debris, then emptied any rubbish bins before she got to he...
2024-01-18 03:11:51 +0000 UTC
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Micah and Ophilia lay entwined on the couch in his office. Her fingernails trailed idly across his chest. They didn't leave any welts behind. She sighed in relief, then frowned when she caught sight of one of her blackened silver studs. She spoke before she could fall prey to her melancholy again...
2024-01-18 03:11:03 +0000 UTC
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Protect the Art, Protect the Art, Protect the Art, Protect the Art...
Micah leaned back into his chair, his eyes sliding closed. A sigh escaped him. It wasn't like him to be this indecisive. Ordinarily, the Words in his head let him know when there was danger. It hurt, but it never...
2024-01-18 03:09:58 +0000 UTC
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Michaela really had to tell Matt about the smell she'd picked up in the last gallery they visited, but the case distracted him, and he had all he could following her. Then again, his words from earlier echoed through her head, sending a pleasant thrill down her spine. He would follow her swaying ...
2024-01-18 03:08:36 +0000 UTC
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"What is it with you, Frank?"
Matt looked down at the diminutive figure of his wife striding alongside him, and despite himself he smiled. Her old nickname for him, based as much on his size and resemblance to Frankenstein's monster as his last name always made him smile a little, if only i...
2024-01-18 03:06:21 +0000 UTC
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On a beach on the opposite side of the globe, a solitary figure sat quietly staring at the sea. The old man was still, his face set in a peaceful smile as he watched the faintly lapping waves. His skin was the color of mahogany, and the only clothing he wore a simple clout. The sand behind him ha...
2024-01-18 03:05:41 +0000 UTC
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Tee felt like her life was coming to an end. She watched, desperately trying to control her emotions, as her mentor packed his things. He’d already donated most of his possessions to local charities. All that remained were keepsakes, clothing, and a few items he treated with a reverence approac...
2024-01-18 03:04:26 +0000 UTC
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Michaela looked across the old palace armory to where Matt moved around an empty armor stand with exaggerated care. Even after so long, it still surprised her that such a big man could move so delicately. He pulled a sample tube from his inner jacket pocket. It looked tiny in his big paws. When h...
2024-01-18 03:03:49 +0000 UTC
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Deep in the darkness of eternal nightmare stood a chair. Vines occasionally tried to grow up its legs, giving it the appearance of having roots. The vines, long since dead, had turned hard as stone and black as sin. The color matched the material of the chair itself, which gleamed with the soft r...
2024-01-18 03:03:11 +0000 UTC
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Micah stared across his desk, trying desperately to remember what the man sitting across from him just said. It was no use. The Words in his head drowned it out entirely. There was nothing for it but to bite the bullet and ask.
"I'm sorry, Mister Daughtry, but could you say that again? I di...
2024-01-18 03:02:10 +0000 UTC
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The bridge of a starship isn’t the only place a Captain can command from; my memories from Captain DeLann showed me that. As Echidna slipped from her pocket into real space, I dropped our last remaining pocket beacon on our emergence point and began a spiraling arc away from it. Above me in the...
2024-01-16 06:40:09 +0000 UTC
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