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C James

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  1. C James
    Chapter 41: Disputed Authority In a culvert a few hundred yards northwest of Instinct’s ranch, Dimitri lay shivering in the icy waters of an irrigation ditch. He chanced a peek above the edge of the ditch every few minutes, seeing the flicker of a dozen flashlights as the biker’s search proceeded. He cursed both his bad luck and, his honesty compelled him to admit, an ill-prepared plan. He now understood that he’d been grossly negligent in his reconnaissance. The arme
  2. C James
    Chapter 40: Greylag Goose A crackling fire, a comfortable seat on the sofa, his boyfriend by his side. Under other circumstances Brandon would have been happy, but Günter was still missing, and the TV was swamped by non-stop reports of the horrendous carnage in Australia. With a sigh, he said to Chase, “It’s like a different world. Everything’s changed; a nuclear bomb, everyone afraid, and then there’s what happened to us and whatever’s happened to Günter – what do
  3. C James
    Chapter 39: Wheels within Wheels At Edwards Air Force Base, General Bradson stalked around the interior of the corrugated tin hanger, looking at the damaged Beechcraft jet from several angles as he waited for his crash investigator. The investigator, a young captain by the name of Vargas, drove hell-for-leather across the air base. Getting a direct order from a brigadier general was not an everyday occurrence for most captains and in Vargas’ case, it was a fir
  4. C James
    Chapter 38: Death Above and Death Below Aboard the crippled jet, a sense of desperation reigned. The reality of their situation was sinking in; the specter of Death becoming their unseen, though far from unfelt, companion. Helen’s call had been the first to get through. The operator had patched the call over to the first number that popped onto her screen, the Southern California – SoCal – Approach Control command center. Luck, for once, was on Instinct’s side
  5. C James
    Chapter 37: Fire in the Sky Less than a second after detonation, part of the double wave of photons reached an altitude of 10,900 miles, where a tiny fraction found itself captured by a wide-angle lens and directed to the heart of a very special orbiting camera called a Bhangmeter, one of which is on each of the constellation of over twenty-four orbiting NAVSTAR GPS satellites. The camera’s operating system analyzed the optical signature, matching it against p
  6. C James

    Prometheus

    C James posted new chapter in Let the Music Play

    Chapter 36: Prometheus “Crap, I drink again,” Jon complained as he lost another turn of beer-pong to Eric. The obligatory backstage after-concert party was in full-swing. After assuring herself that things didn’t seem too crazy, Helen broke away, finding the roadies hard at work tearing down the stage rigging. A brief inquiry informed her that Jerry could be found on the loading docks, so she hurried off to tell him about his son. A smile crept onto her lips; she’d enjoy
  7. C James
    Chapter 35: Don't Tequila the Eric Helen jumped back, avoiding most of the flying liquid. Snatching up a broom by the door, she yelled at Eric, “If you squirt me again, I’m going to jam this broom so far up your ass you’ll choke on it!” Flipping open her phone, she speed-dialed for Günter. As soon as he picked up, she said flatly, “Tequila. Get here and bring the guys. I’ve got Eric trapped in a utility room; just turn right when you exit the backstage area.”
  8. C James
    Chapter 34: When Worlds Collide Accompanied by a flurry of camera flashes, the members of Instinct made their way through the corridor that had been cleared through the gathered crowd. Eric flirted with several girls when they stopped to sign a few autographs. Though his heart wasn’t in it, Brandon followed suit. Chase too made a point of chatting with several gushing girls. Jon did his own share of flirting, but unlike Brandon and Chase, he enjoyed it. Günter knew
  9. C James

    Full Circle

    C James posted new chapter in Let the Music Play

    Chapter 33: Full Circle It was strange to be back, Brandon thought. The hotel and the adjoining studio hadn’t changed during the intervening months. For Brandon though, it seemed like a revisit to a former life; so much had changed for him. Sitting in Chase’s suite, Brandon looked around the room, taking in the familiar scene. The same suites Chase, Eric, and Jon had before the tour were theirs again. Brandon glanced out at the Jacuzzi on the balcony, remembering h
  10. C James

    Homegoing

    C James posted new chapter in Let the Music Play

    Appearing to accept the explanation with a nod and a smile, ‘Jerry’ sat back in his seat to consider. The story made some sense, and it matched with what Helen had told him, but why, then, were the boys snooping around, and then leading him back to the container? That part made no sense, unless... the miserable twerps thought he was purloining their gear himself? With a heartfelt sense of relief, driven in part by wishing it were so rather than the logic in which he so prided himself, Jerry chuc
  11. C James
    Rushing into his employer’s small office, Dimitri waited impatiently for The Scar to look up, and silently slid the laptop computer onto his desk. The Scar glanced down, his eyes opening wide as he gasped, “Those interfering bastards! They told me they were leaving, and I never saw them enter... Wait a minute, look here,” he pointed at a dark mass in the lower-right-hand corner of the first photo, “That’s the top of the road boss’s head; there is no way they could have been in the container betw
  12. C James
    “Dimitri, I fail to understand why I cannot have Internet access. I need to do some research to find a home for after our project is done.” The engineer knew from Dimitri’s reddening face that is was time to stop pushing, and nodded his acceptance, intending to press the matter another day. It was, he reasoned, one way of gauging Dimitri’s intentions. Somehow managing to keep a lid on his temper, Dimitri checked his watch and strode from the building, pausing for a moment to ensure that his
  13. C James

    Reunions

    C James posted new chapter in Let the Music Play

    The click of cameras surrounded them like a swarm of angry bees, much to Eric’s dismay, but this was business; their vacation was over. Single file, with the occasional wave to a fan, the members of Instinct strode through the lobby of their new hotel, the Intercontinental in Perth, on their way to a set of suites on the top floor. Once in the elevator, accompanied by the hotel’s manager, the four guys rode to the top floor and waited while Helen and Günter followed in the next elevator. Ba
  14. C James
    Their first concert in Melbourne had been a smash, and in a few hours they’d be on-stage again, but Eric and Jon had grown restless in their suites and had decided upon a quick visit to the hotel bar... without telling Helen, of course. Sneaking down the carpeted hallway past Helen’s room, they opened a glass door, emerging into the Hotel Victoria’s formal gardens. The hotel, small and exclusive, was laid out around the large central gardens, which included fountains, ponds, and a large bot
  15. C James
    Feeling the warm kiss of the tropical sun on his bare torso, Brandon walked side-by-side with Chase through a sinuous maze of paved pathways that wound their way through the tropical foliage. The couple exchanged an occasional grin, enjoying each other’s company, comfortable in their lack of need for words. After a walk of several hundred yards, they entered a square pavilion, bordered on one side by trees and on the other by a low, modern, flat-roofed building. Chase strode up to the ch
  16. C James

    Whitsundays

    C James posted new chapter in Let the Music Play

    The final two days at the Bunyip Beach Resort had been paradise for the members of Instinct and their friends. All too soon, though, their stay was over, and it was time to move on. The packed cases had been loaded into the resort’s mini-bus while they ate breakfast, and at last, it was time to leave the resort and head north to the Great Barrier Reef. * * * In the clean room at the Toowoomba facility, the engineer changed one set of tan plastic wire-ties for a green set. He then
  17. C James
    “Hi, Jerry!” Helen yelled from across the pool as The Scar got out of the Land Rover. She was glad to see him; she’d been concerned that he wouldn’t accept the invitation to unwind, and Jerry, in Helen’s opinion, was far too tense for his own good. Walking towards Helen and Barbra, who sat on loungers near the pool, The Scar fussed with his slacks and polo shirt as he assumed his character of ‘Jerry’, the amiable flamer. Helen nodded approvingly as she said, “I’m glad to see you’re dressed
  18. C James
    With a crunch of gravel, the mini-bus came to a halt outside the stucco-clad cottages. Eric, feeling on top of the world, bounced out, looking around for his band mates. He spotted them coming out of Brandon and Chase’s cottage, and yelled, “I got my cast off,” as he pointed to his bare leg. “I can see that, bro,” Jon replied, walking up to his brother. “Now you can have some fun with us. The beach is great.” “Not so fast,” Helen said, crossing her arms and adopting a stern expression,
  19. C James

    Revelations

    C James posted new chapter in Let the Music Play

    Staring out the window of the plane, squinting against the harsh light of dawn, Brandon sat mesmerized by the curling strings and loops of white set against varying azure and turquoise. Feeling Chase’s hand in his own, Brandon said, “I never knew coral reefs could look so spectacular. That must be part of the Great Barrier Reef. I can’t wait to see it up close.” Jerry, too, was peering out of a window, sitting in the seat in front of Brandon’s. He’d seen the sight many times, but it was a v
  20. C James
    Dimitri slammed the punctured tire down on the pavement, cursing his luck. The blowout had taken him unawares, nearly sending him crashing into a tree. Worse, he suspected the wheel nuts had been put on with an air-wrench, and he’d only managed to break them free after smashing the tire iron with a rock. He’d thought he’d left himself ample time for the drive, but now he knew, he was behind schedule and still had a long way to go, and the golden light of dawn to the east was a most unwelcome sig
  21. C James
    Dimitri drove with great care across the rough ground, fearful of jostling their home-made trailer any more than he had to. The trailer, consisting of little more than an old rear axle welded to the yard-square steel bomb case, was not the best design for the barely-drivable trail that led from their isolated compound in the outback. The implosion test device, identical to the planned nuclear devices in design except for the core, had been assembled in their Toowoomba facility before being truck
  22. C James
    Rushing off the stage after the third encore set, Brandon and his band mates turned and took a last peek through the curtains at the enormous and packed Stadio Olimpico. Brandon looked at the massive tiers bedecked with white marble statues, gleaming in the harsh klieg lighting. He could scarcely believe it; the tour’s last stop in Europe, playing to a sell-out crowd, in a stadium with a capacity of over eighty thousand. They’d done it; the tour was a hit, a success even beyond Helen’s high hope
  23. C James
    Sitting in the front room of Chase’s suite, Brandon smiled at his boyfriend. Taking a quick glance at the clock, he put his plan into motion. “I was checking out the hotel’s brochure; the pools here look really great. Want to go get some sun?” Commando and wearing just a pair of white cotton shorts, Chase leaned back, glancing out the sliding glass doors at the balcony of his suite. “I’d like to, but too many people know we’re staying here, we’d get mobbed. The balcony should be in full sun
  24. C James
    Three hours into the journey, as the buses neared Kingman, Brandon stared out the window, feeling on top of the world. Helen and Chase had fallen asleep, Chase no doubt tired from their activities the night before, leaving Brandon to his thoughts, until a soft tap on his shoulder interrupted his reverie. As soon as he had Brandon’s attention, Jon signaled with a nod for him to follow. Careful to avoid waking Chase or Helen, Brandon followed Jon back to the computer, where Eric stood waiting. Wit
  25. C James

    Encores

    C James posted new chapter in Let the Music Play

    Taking a single bow, arms strung across each other’s bare shoulders as they stood side-by-side after their second encore, the four members of Instinct reveled in the cheers, looking out into an amphitheater lit by hundreds of camera flashes, and the occasional light-stick-illuminated beach ball. Backing away, they turned, exiting to the side of the stage. As soon as they were out of the public eye, Brandon let out a whoop. “We did it... Nobody can tell me that crowd didn’t love us!” Jo
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