dragon “The problem with meeting at Maxim’s in Paris is that I have no idea what Maxim’s looks like and it gets very turn of the century when I try to imagine it.” (sigh) “Don’t snort. It’s … “ Straker “Unladylike?” dragon (snort) “Very.” (giggle) Straker “Hmm. That probably explains a lt.” (looking around at the chandeliers, white table clothes and attentive, well dressed waiters) “The period suits you.” dragon…
WARNING: major character death! MIT Jack Harkness lounged at the back of the lecture room while the man he observed tried not to tear out his silken pale hair. Lt. Ed Straker scowled at the blackboard, which was actually a deep green, and erased about a page of arcane mathematical hieroglyphs to start his calculations over again from the point where they kept going wrong, as far as he could…
She looked up when a shadow moved through her peripheral vision. No business being there, the sightdogs all accounted for, no one else in the house. No one. Figment of her imagination that was. With a sigh she bent to her task again. It was hot, and humid, one of those summer days she did not much like. “What do you listen to there?” She was startled and her mood…
The letter waiting on her bed looked crumpled and grubby, yellowed with age. She switched on the bedside lamp, shrugged out of the heavy habit and hung it in the wardrobe. Clad only in her shift, she sat down with a sigh of relief, ruffled her short hair, then picked up the envelope and held it under the meagre light. Not a handwriting she was familiar with. Scrawled, immature letters…
Prologue November 2010 Moonlight in Moscow. So typical. The band, slightly out of tune, more than slightly drunk, and not caring in the slightest one way or another, thrashed out the ubiquitous melody, more for the sake of attracting any stray foreign tourist than any real love of the melody. The hotel he was staying in was too busy, too prominent for a meeting such as this. Any suspicious activity,…
The book was dog-eared and somewhat tatty round the edges, its fine leather cover battered and creased from having been stuffed into small cases. The dark material gave no clues to the secrets that might be contained within its pages. Unlined sheets of creamy paper, the odd one turned over at the corner. Just a book; unremarkable, unexceptional. And unnoticed. Until now. In silence the pages were turned. In silence…
I hadn’t stayed in a hotel quite like this before. Minimalist. The rooms are basic. Comfortable but .. basic. A large bed, bathroom ‘capsule’ I suppose they call it, a small niche to hang a couple of shirts. I hadn’t brought much in the way of luggage though. An overnight bag. That was all. Clean shirt, razor… that sort of thing. It was all I needed. This was a…
It was so cold that her breath whispered in the clear, night air and the snow crunched sharply under her feet. A big fat moon, skewered upon the spike of St. Basil’s Cathedral’s central core, vied for attention with the bright, modern lights the square lately had acquired. She walked briskly from St. Basil’s towards the red brick building of the State Historical Museum, less garishly lit and exhaling its…
Sometime in the late 70’s in Moscow. Fix me a drink, make it a strong one, Hey comrade, a drink, make it a long one, My hands are shaking and my feet are numb, My head is aching and the bar’s going round, And I’m so down, in this foreign town; Alec Freeman downed another double vodka shot, his smile never reaching his eyes but the drunken Russian…
The room was bland and white. Not the glaring white of fresh paint, but a tired, dulled white, as if it had been awake too long, and seen too much, to bother trying to be bright and alert any more. As if anyone really cared anyway. There was a table and two chairs in the middle. The floor was there. That was all you could say about it. It knew…