C James

GREAT post, Wildone!!! Okay, most of that I cannot comment on, for fear of irking our anti-spoiler Echidna. I can address the refueling, though. The C-130 does have that capability in military service. However, the ones they are using would most likly have the refueling portal (located atop the fuselage) welded shut. It would be easy enough to make it serviceable, but the there are two very large constraints for the General's team; one is training. Only the General would likely have the experience at in-flight refueling, and he might not be qualified at it in the C-130. In flight refueling takes an enormous amount of skill. It takes a great deal of skill, plus a great deal of specialized equipment, on behalf of the tanker aircraft. They'd need a refeuling probe, control mounts, special fuel pumps, and a host of other gear. They'd also need highly trained crew. So, while air-to-air refueling would be very useful on the mission, they are not set up to do it, and the General decided to eschew that option. What they are planning on (it's in the text, Graeme, so no spines!!) is landing Flight Two in Oman, right at the northern tip, near the straits of Hormuz, and Flight Three plans on joining them there on the ground to refuel. In chapter 22, it said,

The next chapter title hasn't been released yet, so perhaps I'd best not mention that its "Confrontations." I'd certainly better not mention that the chapter after it, 25, is titled "Satan's Own Thunder".

Us goats do like to travel.

Thought y'all might find this interesting. And for the record, I've never been to Nigeria, so it isn't me! http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090123/ap_on_.../odd_goat_thief

Well, Dreams and Clipped Wings would have been somewhat affected, due to the loss of its central protagonist. But, you are quite right, by having Cody enter the LTMP world, it would have saved us, and Cody, from the dizzying, terrifying cliffhangers of DnCW. Thank you Jan!

Well, I *did* offer to let that San Francisco encounter continue, and have Cody join Instinct on tour as he and Eric get into a relationship. But, a certain Shadowyness declined. Cody would have had such fun with Eric... he'd have even gotten to fly on a private jet in chapter 37 of LTMP. CJ

"Nice wet chapter" I enjoyed writing the part where Helen informs Jansen and Keith what they have done: Tequilad the Eric. So, we have an erupting volcano, a tequilad Eric... what could possibly go wrong? Will Jansen and Keith decide to throw Eric in the volcano, or will they decide to throw themselves in instead? Okay, any guesses what the mercenary's real mission is? There are clues to it in the chapters. I'll give a hint; it's The Scar who tells use what we need to know to figure out exactly what he's after, though a little technical knowledge might be needed. Any guesses as to how the plotlines (Eric's and The General's) come back together? Thanks!!! CJ

Steve, take care of your health before all else. Actually, ceasing nicotine can TEMPORARILY impact concentration. Give it time, and hang in there! We're pulling for you!!!

Glad to see things are looking up! But, ummm, why would Graeme come after ME for your spoiler?!?!!? umm, speaking of which, Graeme, SPOILER!!! BTW, love the lyrics. They fit.

Hi AJ!! Thank you, and welcome to the forums!!! Chapter 23 will be out soon, (something less than ten minutes form now, unless the final check turns up problems).

Posting note: Chapter 23, Unseen Eyes, will be online withing the hour. I'm just double-checking some details.

CHANGE TO CHAPTER 22!!! I mixed up flights two and three in that one reference! Fixed now!! THANK YOU for pointing it out. That's the kind of small goof that can have major negative effects: it made it utterly confusing, and worse, contradictory. I am so glad you caught that. Okay, let me try and clarify. The planes were named in order of planned launch. Flight one, the old wreck, goes first. It has seven pallets plus garage door openers installed in its cargo bay, plus the lemons, plus the corpses. Flight two, the one containing just fuel, goes second. Flight Three is the mission aircraft, and also has pallets loaded. The pallets either contain grenade jars, or chemical jars, 500 to a pallet, for 8000 total. (5000 grenade, 3000 chemical). There is one exception; there will be one pallet, the 7th on flight one, that contains something else entirely. Flight one therefor contains 3000 mayonnaise jars, while Flight Three contains 5000. One of the two loads is a mix of different kinds of jars (chemical or grenade). And yes, I'm being vague about which plane carries what. The JATO packs are mounted to the sides of Flight Three, in standard configuration (pointing aft and slightly down, with a thrust vector through the aircrafts' center of gravity). They won't be used for launching the jars. The Sudan is the Scar's main base. We haven't seen it in the story yet, but he has an airfieild there. Think of it as a distribution hum for his arms biusness. (And the source of some of the weaponry, such as the grenades, etc) The package mentioned from Malta, that came via sudan, is the one from the Bill to the General. it contained the laptop computers, garage door openers, etc. CJ

Some great speculation upthread. BTW, sorry to do this, but it is looking like we will likely have a posting delay of a day or two. I have been horribly late, again, and also I need to mesh parts of the chapter with some scenes I haven't written yet. I need to make sure everything matches up. Well, at least we are in a nice, restful spot in the story in which to relax and enjouy this very brief pause. Oh, BTW, the name of the chapter is Unseen Eyes.

I'm glad everyone had fun. And I doubled over laughing when I saw the name of the venue! Wish I could have been there... One of these day's I'll make it to one of these things, but events have conspired to keep me away from the prior ones, and this one too.

A belated Happy Birthday, Robbie!! Have fun.

ROFL!!! Yes, I have been to La Palma. Trouble is, I was very young at the time and barely remember it. It was just a day excursion from a neighboring island, and I vaugely remember visiting the water tunnels in the north of La Palma. I have no idea if I was in the area of that resort, and if I was, it was likly before it was built. I don't think I've been on that beach. But ROFL, I never noticed that there was a photo posted by "Benji"! And I had looked at that photo before, too.

Cliffhangers?!?!!? What cliffhangers?!?!? So I had some dancing at a wedding (last line of the chapter). That's normal, right? The package from Malta is the one from Bill (The General's friend in the NSA, he's in some early chapters). Bill sent it to Malta, where the Scar sent the Herc to pick it up. Here's the bit that describes most of the contents,

I just wanted to let y'all know, that the first chapters of Jake should be in Beta any day now. As one might guess from reading the short story (which will serve as the novel's prologue) Jake is a bit difficult to write. It a more "mainstream" gay fiction, I think, and less action-adventure than my prior novels. Ok, now for something many won't be happy about, but I have to do. "Jake" will be appearing in GA's Premium Contentsection. I have to do this; the Premium Content services are how we are raising money to keep GA open. I have to help, and so I made the decision that I'd post Jake there. I will by no means be abandoning my free site! Changing Lanes will continue. I'll also begin a new novel when Changing Lanes finishes. (I won't say what, because I haven't made up my mind yet). Please do consider joining Premium Content. We are doing this in order to keep GA open. CJ

ROFL!! Yes, I have once again proven that I cannot count. Five plus three is not, in fact, five. But, as you mention, counting on hooves is most difficult when one exceeds four, so that's my excuse, and I'm sticking to it. I couldn't use peanut butter jars. They wouldn't fit the grenades.

Have fun in the Poconos! Hope you enjoy the chapter. I think its a good one for a relaxing read. BTW, a special note of thanks: Due to the holidays and some real-world events, I was horrendously late in completing the draft of this chapter. That's why I mentioned in the last thread that it would likely be late. It is only due to a stellar performance by every member of my team that it is online today. They did a fantastic job.

I truly hate doing this, especially because it was a very careless slip on my part, but I've changed chapter 14 of Changing lanes. Previously, the Scar mentioned that the General had requested 5000 empty mayonnaise jars. The chapter has been changes so that the number is now eight thousand. I apologize for this. I can't get into too many details (Why this is important will be evident soon enough) but the slip was my own stupid fault; five thousand plus three thousand does not equal 5000! Anyway, the change has been made. Sorry about that. CJ

Just a note on views... those include non-members, who cannot post. Sorry James, just saw this thread now.

Wildone!!! You link the post, but you ignore what it says!! Yes, I did actually admit that, due to influences beyond my control, there was a cliffhanger in one of my chapters. So, ya see, the real culprit here is that I, agaionst my will, was thrust into Shadowgod's cliffhanging throne, and it is giving me vertigo! It teeters on the very edge of the malevolent precipices, and it pushes me to create cliffhangers! It's totally unatural for me, as I, as we all know, would never willingly use a cliffhanger. Isn't it time that Shadowgod was restored to his rightful place? Or perhaps the royal sceptre should be passed to Graeme or some other worthy recipient. But not me... I'm scared of heights! So, there ya have it... my public admission that, yes, under the influence of the dark one's throne, I did succumb to its siren song and write.. a cliffhanger. Please, please, free me from the influence of that throne, so that I may return to my normal, natural, non-cliffhanger writing... Please???

That's the idea, but the concept of block-voting is to decide early between Shadowyness and Graeme, and then all vote for one of the two, in order to get them their award and crown. So, who shall it be, Graeme or Shadowgod? I'll throw my support behind whichever of the two y'all pick.