Rosa Jardine realized her mouth was agape, watching the beautiful woman with long, straight blonde hair hop around the stage in a white jumpsuit on one leg to the disco music playing loudly across the smoky bar. One leg of the jumpsuit was empty, draping loosely from her torso. From the table in the middle of the bar, Sheriff Jebediah Haught rollicked with laughter, slapping the backs of the young officers in light grey uniforms at the table with him….
Leanna O’Regan pressed herself as far as she could to back away from the entrance of the orange, conical inflatable life boat. The raft was bouncing violently on the ocean surface as it was buffeted by the downdraft of the large black helicopter not far above it. A spotlight was beaming from the helicopter into the raft’s door, lighting up the interior with a harsh white light. Leanna shielded her eyes from the light, putting her bare arm across her…
Rosa Jardine tried not to stare at the cocky, handsome young man sitting across from her in the booth of the smoky, noisy bar. She would look quickly at Hanyo Soon, who was listening intently to Kenji Nobu sitting beside her, and she would then look away to Skoaler, the tall, burly man sitting to her other side, who was also listening carefully to Kenji. Every now and then their eyes would meet, and Hanyo would grin and wink slightly…
Dante Valderez sat rigid in the back of the large black helicopter speeding over the choppy ocean, the waves sparkling in the crescent moon’s dim light. He was barely visible in his black uniform, and with the side doors open on the helicopter, he tilted his scarred, bald head forward and held onto the respirator covering his mouth. Beside Dante was an officer in light grey armour, who was scanning the ocean below and shouting out over the whumping of…
Kenji Nobu looked at the line of motorcycles parked in front of the low road-side bar, and pointed out the police car at the end to Rosa, marked “Morongo Valley Police Department”, saying, “I see that Jebediah Haught is here tonight. I will do all the talking, and if anyone asks, you are a visiting relative from Japan. This lot won’t be able to know any different if you just stay calm and nod.” Rosa Jardine bowed her head slowly,…
Leanna O’Regan’s head bobbed as her eyelids started to close, jarring her awake and making her sit up straight on the shifting floor of the cone-shaped orange inflatable raft. In the dim light of the crescent moon in the clear starry night lighting the interior from the enclosed raft’s entrance and from it’s clear plastic windows, Leanna could see Lucretius across from her, fighting to stay awake as well. She shivered in the cool ocean breezes blowing in from the…
Dante Valderez looked through the picture slides from the slide tray, one-by-one, using the light of the single light bulb in the small, windowless concealed room. The sound of the klaaxons blaring in the halls outside the room stopped, and a voice announced, “Hull configuration complete!” Dante breathed steadily into the respirator covering the nose and mouth portion of his face, and he put down the slide tray next to one of the bars of gold in the opened suitcase…
Theodore Jardine ran around the back of the corrugated metal shack, followed by his loyal dog, Arfie, a white Husky with grey and black markings and bright blue eyes. The young boy whooped as he scrambled through the sand and bushes, turning orange with the setting sun. The light blue sky was now dark blue, with dots of white lights glittering from behind a veil of wispy peach-coloured clouds. Theo jumped on top of a boulder, and stood tall scanning…
Kenji Nobu delicately picked up with his tweezers the battle station plans printed on the extremely fine paper he had just carefully unfolded. He looked closely at the plans in the light of the setting sun, coming through the window of his corrugated metal shack. He called out to the young boy standing nearby, looking with interest at the unfolded paper, “Theo, could you grab that Proud Americans Brigade membership manual on the shelf over there? I need to flatten…
Leanna O’Regan ran her hands over her slicked over her scalp and squeezed the sea water out as she continued to run them through the length behind her head and back. With her arms up, she looked warily across the interior of the round, cone-shaped orange inflatable life raft at the young, thin blonde man sitting across from her. He was looking at her, with a slight smile on his face and shifting his sitting position with the waves that…