The steaming pile filled the air that not only smelled of excrement, rubbish and braken but left a taste in one’s mouth that was foul just by standing near it.

The policeman who stood next to me could barely keep is dour face straight. To open his mouth to speak to me was to gag.

I was here to see the bloated shape that lay below us the body look humanoid, the large head and obviously webbed hands & feet saw to that.

A creature of fiction lay there…in reality. The proximity to my flat worried me intensely…they knew me…

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If you want to hear this tale read and then vote for it: head over to the 100 Word Challenge.

I came up with this subject for the 100 word challenge after I won. The live version featured the talented Kim doing the outraged blogger bits.

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“Fecal matter?” Gasped the senstive 100 word writer, “what the hell is that Andrew playing at?”

“Well fecal matter is another name for shit, or rather crap which is, of course, the name of the host-blog.” Replied her friend on IM.

“But fecal matter what kind of crap theme’s that?”

“Exactly…”

“No!” replied the exasperated writer, “I have my reputation. What would my readers think of such a tale?”

“That you are a good sport? Happy to take the subjects whatever they might be?”

“After all Andrew has to deal with the lame subjects you come up with.” He replied.

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There is still time to vote for this tale in the challenge so if you like what you read and hear please give us a nod.

Update: Speaking of fecal matter…why not vote for the worst song of the 70s…reward Don McClean for torturing us all those years.

NB: If you would prefer to hear me read the tale in a Welsh accent its part of this week’s Dodging Reality podcast.

All Hallows Eve was a special time in the little Hamlet not far north of St Davids, Pembrokeshire. Despite protestations from some in the area; Halloween was not an American invention but part of the heritage of all those who were Welsh from way back. Even the costumes were part of the ritual of the night when the spirits of the dead walked among those of the living. It was not a night to be feared despite what the local Christian chapel maintained. The night was one to celebrate the past and ones ancestors. It was a time to reestablish the chain of history from beginning to now.

Head over Dodging Reality page or just shove this into your iTunes (itpc://rss.mac.com/lagwolf/iWeb/Dodging%20Reality/Podcast/rss.xml).

This week we have a few tales: one from Laurence read by Kim and one by me read by me, a love song (of sorts) from Growing Old Disgracefully and a few other things.

Chapter 27

Friday noon and Kiara was in charge. She crouched with David and Rob beside her. This was a new situation for all of them. Rob and David were used to Michaela’s command. And Kiara had a lot of experience as a first lieutenant under Michaela but she was not used to being the boss. Michaela tried to smooth the way for all three in her patient counseling during the project planning. In fact, Michaela was more worried about chain of command and communications that she was about the excellent plan itself.
Derek’s professional driving made the trip to Slough as an uneventful as could be expected, traffic jams, notwithstanding and the team arrived just at the time prescribed. They all had a chance to gather their personal forces during the drive.Travelling out of London on a Friday afternoon until cars were once and for all banned. Just how they could carry out this type of operation under those circumstances was too difficult a question to contemplate at that time.

Chapter 25

Rob sat in Mrs Davies’ room with a plate of biscuits and a cup of tea. She insisted that he be properly provisioned for his important tasks. He ate and drank his tea as he manually cruised some of the more nefarious sites. This activity was interrupted from time to time by one of his buddies calling him to tell him the status of their searches. Rob and several of his on-line friends had developed an information co-operative. When one or other needed some info on one subject or other, the rest would tuck in and help. It was a sort of a mid 21st century version of an Amish barn raising. The pub Rob frequented in the net was built quickly and painlessly by several hundred coop coders. These very independent types banded together in response for mutual protection when Pius took over as Chief of Union Security some three years earlier.Rob feared that he was rapidly approaching a point where he was abusing the co-operative. When he did need their help, the task was broad and complicated. His latest request was to locate, identify, and suss out a neo-luddite puritan terrorist organisation whose purpose was to wipe out technology in the Union. Then, to find the exact location of their headquarters.
Their very fanaticism that would be their undoing. alt.conspiracies.union.luddite was buzzing as soon as Rob called out his virtual posse. Rob was convinced someone, probably one of the nerds who inhabited the fringes would have heard something. They peddled info to anyone who could give them the money to support their tech habit. Still, their paranoia was working here and Rob would get all the information he needed with some help.

Chapter 21

Jess was well onto her third cup of coffee by the time she figured out what was actually bothering her. “of course she cried!” Her cry was audible, but for fortunately only the elderly and very proper couple sitting nearby. They pretended to ignore her outburst, or was it that they just didn’t hear her. Jess reached into her pocket for the Eurodex card and phone number as she move quickly over to the telephone.
Clive, Andrew and TM spent most of the morning and into the afternoon chatting about events, recent and past. TM and Andrew were careful to let Clive lead the discussion so as not to upset him. Since Jess left he had seemed particularily concerned, about what, only he knew.

Chapter 17

Jervis sat by his piece of odious technology watching it in disgust as usual. “I hate the bloody thing but is an absolute necessity,” he would say to himself in justification. “It is the only way to keep track of what is going on in the world.” The small transistor radio that sat beside the vid unused, would have done the same job but without the visual impact.
The ex-Vicar was waiting to hear of the success of his men’s latest foray against his enemies. If they followed his instructions to the letter, there would be no doubt of their actions being ignored. The destruction and their name would appear in the news all over Europe. Jervis would triumphantly inform the world of the birth of a new terrorist group. He would finally have his revenge! There was a good chance that many of his followers would die in the attack, but Jervis thought, “Martyrs are always useful to the cause.”
Somewhere in Finsbury sat Clive unaware that his little band was about to come to an abrupt and violent end. Clive, Wentworth, and the rest of the members of The Supreme Military Council of the British Army of StateHood were in a long and drawn out process of reinventing (again) their organisation. The existence of another group claiming to be their own was putting them into danger. The fact that they were altogether nastier than their predecessors was even more a cause for concern. Clive confided in Wentworth that he felt a sense of foreboding. The most troubling of all was that neither Clive nor any other member of the Council had any idea who was behind the “other” BASH. The planned bombing of the Cliff Richard Memorial Concert at the Birmingham UEC and his subsequent internal turmoil about whether or not to tell the pols, caused the entire group to reconsider their position and purpose. To Clive’s surprise no one on the Council questioned his decision to report the threat to security officials.

Chapter 13

Kiara spoke to Rob in a forceful tone not like her normal manner with him, “Rob, I think it’s time we went home. Since it looks like the riot will not spread across the Thames, I think it is safe enough for us to get back to our place.”
For once Rob twigged immediately and went to get their coats.
“Rob, thank you very much for the info you got me. It was very helpful.”
“I am really sorry I couldn’t find any more, Michaela. That was really hard to find. There is not much out there on the subject, I am afraid. I may have a bit more for you in a few days. A buddy of mine is doing a search for me. He is a professional one man search engine, separates the good from the chaff and sends you the results. Fortunately, he won’t charge me. His services cost a bloody fortune.”
“What is this information you two have been so secretive about, anyway? Michaela is not convinced of some impending disaster is she? What is it now World War III, another Sino-Japanese war, perhaps?
“No, David. I will let her tell you. There is nothing for you to worry about, I assure you…funny you should mention a new Sino-Japanese upheaval. There is a great deal of activity and speculation on the Japan Sea…”
Kiara grabbed Rob’s arm and dragged him towards the door almost knocking him off his feet. “Come on Rob, it is time to go. You and David can discuss your conspiracy theories tomorrow, providing you don’t have a hangover.”
“Bye. I will be in touch.” The door closed behind them.
Michaela by this time was already getting some tea. As Michaela returned from the kitchen, she spoke to the vid, “Vid off.” David got up to head for the bedroom when he saw Michaela with the tea tray. “I thought you were suggesting in your subtle way that it was time we went to bed.”

Chapter 10

“Damn it!” swore the former Vicar. “How the hell did the pols get know about fucking Birmingham. We have a bloody leak. I knew it!” The vid, a device that Jervis loathed was solemnly announcing the sucess of the Euro-pols in thwarting this latest threat to Union tranquility. The vid turned on the news automatically whenever there was a new item. The group’s new electronics/explosive expert installed a make shift device so Jervis could keep track of what was going on in the Union.
Jervis never intended to blow up the Cliff Richard Memorial Concert, but he was intending to make it look as though he was planning to. A threat. The disruption caused by a few hoax calls would have been better than any bomb. But with the reimforces presence of pols, his team would have no chance of getting away with it. “Still, we have got them worried enough to have seconded every available pol and Army reservist for 100 miles the UEC. A perfect terrorist target.” The Vicar sighed. “We are not in a position to take advantage of it…bugger.”
The babbling of the vid finally got to Jervis and he shut the thing off very gently as he forced himself to avoid destroying the thing with one blow.
Michaela and David sat watching their vid screen in their flat. They were at once worried and amazed by the pace of recent events. David, a confirmed news junkie before this, barely ever left the sight of the vid. When he was not within vid range, he listened to it on his internal system. For the first time in a long time, David had not listened to his music for almost a week. With the help of the vid, he was collecting hours and hours of taped bits of his favourite music channel. By this time, David had all buy forgotten the stock of music chips that Rob brought over last time he visited. Michaela was surprised at David’s attention to details in the media. It always had been her job to worry about the world around and let David wallow in his own protected (by her) world. On the other side of the picture, David was very worried about his wife. Michaela’s lack of interest in the unfolding events on the screen was very unusual. The revolution she had long predicted was coming to fruition and she seemed remote from it.

Chapter 8

President Heath was having a very bad day or rather he was still having a bad night that stretched into the next day. He was kept up all night by the insistent questions of the world’s press. What annoyed him most was that almost every question from the world’s media revolved around the death of the IOD and the miraculous escape of the American Ambassador’s father. Hollywood was already in full bidding war to buy the rights to the story. Head of Public Relations for the Union, Sherle Tonebee, was handling the calls with great finesse. She secured Wembley for the potential winning bidder to make the film on the attack. Variety asked Heath who he would like to play him, a question he could not answer. Ms Tonebee finally confirmed to the world’s press that there would be two movies made of the disaster.

Chapter 6

There was a hushed silence in the room as the evening’s moderator ushered in the two speakers and showed them to their seats at the table facing the audience. The mostly elderly crowd came to attention as the moderator, also quite elderly, started speaking.
“Ladies and Gentleman, although neither of our guests this evening requires an introduction, politeness dictates that I say a few words to present our honored guests to you.
Each of our guests sits on the side of podium that befits his previous position within his party. On my right, sits the man who led the Conservative Party and Unionist Party to their biggest defeat for well over a century. He introduced major reforms to the Labour Party. He and his trusted advisor, Peter Mandelson, swept aside the party’s “old” socialist dogma and turned the party into a modern social democratic party. The British public believed that the old left was finally buried gave him a 175 seat majority. It was not to last.”
Not far away, another audience sat in anticipation of nostalgia for a time gone past. The quartet tuned their instruments. The audience finished off their tea and coffee and sweets. Waiters rushed around collecting the remains and offering an aperitif. David opted for a vintage port. Michaela ordered a Grand Marnier. She knew that this would be her last drink for quite a while so she felt that she deserved the best. Fortunately, Michaela enjoyed her own little extravagance. As she lacked appreciation of a venerable port, she was spared the knowledge of its cost when David ordered his own aperitif.
The pianist turned to the audience and spoke tersely into his microphone. “We shall begin the evening with a selection from Gotterdamerung by Wagner.” As the first notes filled the crypt, the flicker of matches sparkled in the soft darkness, followed by a the gentle scent of curls of cigar and cigarette smoke. As David began to puff on his large cigar, Michaela grabbed his free hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. He smiled and took a sip from his second port.

Previous bits: Intro, Chapter 1 and Chapter 2 &3

Chapter 4

It was an odd feeling for David when his vid went back on-line. He was not accustomed to being out of touch, ever. Michaela felt a awkward as well. A tech dealer and a cyborg, children of the age of technology. Lost without it. Rob had been in the dog house for the same amount of time. He was always tinkering with David’s vid. He would try out some new kit on his home vid and get roundly scolded by Kiara for it. She seemed to be convinced that he would end up burning their flat and the entire building down with his vid rigging. So, off he would go to beta test on David’s machine.
“It is about time Rob,” said David remembering the chaos of the last few days.

Chapter 2

Rob and David stepped out of their prepaid cab in front of the tailor on Rochester Row, just outside of Pimlico. On the way over, David had suggested that the taxi wait, but Rob was adamant that the fitting would take easily three hours. David started thinking that he had no clue how long a fitting would last. Rob’s suggestion that they retire later to a local hostelry for dinner and a few drinks sold David on the idea. It was an age-old clich but since David married Michaela and his business had become more constant but less face to face, he found that he went out very infrequently. The fact that he and Michaela were on the Euro-pols most wanted list for some time before their marriage certainly added to their proclivity for eating in. At the time of their marriage, Rob gave the couple a very odd but welcome wedding present. He arranged for their names to be purged from the central data-base in Brussels. This combined with the fact that most of their enemies, at least those in the Union hierarchy, were dead or in jail had made married life pleasant and quiet. Not bad for a couple who started out as the illegal tech dealer and his body guard.
As David and his friends life got simpler and more, importantly quieter, the world around them had become all the more dangerous and unpredictable. David had not let on to Michaela that he was convinced that BASH, the Union’s England based foe was about to return with a vengeance. An internal power struggle followed the death of their main leader and instigator, Cromwell. With Cromwell out of it and the subsequent revelation that his second in command had helped the notorious arms dealer Pius in Cromwell’s assassination made the leadership transition rocky. When the Union news broke the story that the heir to throne of a neo-puritan organisation was having a gay-love affair with both Cromwell and Pius, Wentworth could have foretold his own execution by hanging. It was rumoured and reported avidly in the press that the poor soul had also been drawn and quartered on Hampstead Heath.

Chapter 1

“Aren’t you the slightest bit worried about that idiot Sarkis running around London linked to you. I know you disarmed the bloke but he sticks out like a sore thumb, and seems like the type to turn you in if his shit were in the fan.”
“Don’t worry Kiara, I plan to know exactly where he is from now until the time he leaves Perfidious Albion.”
“How? Did I miss something here?”
“You remember I gave him a hug when he left? Well I was not doing it out of any sense of remorse or camraderie. I put one of Rob’s tracers on the bugger. The vid will track his every move. That bastard will not be able to go to the loo without my knowing it. Fortunately for us there is no visual link to the thing. Actually, I think he will leave London very quickly. He is not stupid. If not, he would have snuffed it a hell of a long time ago in the company he keeps.”
“I’ll take your word for it. That bastard gave me the creeps. How could you work with someone like that?”
“Look, he’s actually not that bad. I bit rough around the edges but a damn good soldier and very loyal. I honestly think that he thought he had a chance of getting me to go to Liberia. He was being genuine. The trouble with him is the company he keeps.”
“Can we come out now? We’ve got your drinks ready, liquid Prozac all around,” a male voice spoke from the kitchen.
“OK, but only if you behave. Rob how do you get the vid to track that tracer you gave me.”
Rob emerged with a large pot of coffee, the sugar bowl and a pitcher of milk. ” I set the code a few days ago, it should be a simple command to get it moving. Just for giggles see if you can do the command verbally. I hope the thing works. It cost me a few bob and a bit of arm twisting.”
David carried the cups and saucers in his hands, trying to avoid dropping them in front of Michaela. His mother-in-law would have killed him if he even chipped any of her wedding present.

Prologue

Michaela was definitely surprised and not pleased when David told her that Sarkis Nash had called, and more so that he would appear there at 7p.m.
“What? When did he call?”
“There was a message left on the vid this morning, neither of us was up so the vid took his message. Before you ask, he didn’t leave a number. The vid traced the call to a pay phone in Paris. Nash must be taking an early afternoon flight out of Orly”
“I haven’t talked to that berk for at least five years. He was one of the team that I set up in Zurich, about the time I was trying to recruit Kiara. Last I heard he was a “security consultant” kicking around in South America or in Africa. I heard he worked for Executive Decisions ‘till he went solo and set up his own company.”
“So he’s a merc right, a fellow soldier of fortune?
“Actually, he’s a dog of war. Not happy unless there is a full scale war going on and he’s one without an ounce of scruples as well.”
“You mean mercs have scruples? I thought the only thing that mattered was the colour of the money…” Michaela’s eyes were now firmly focused on her husband. “Uh ha, I mean present company excluded of course!”
“That’s better. But on the whole that’s pretty accurate. Most of the men I’ve met were ejectees from the various armies round the world. The U.S. Marine Corps seemed to be the largest source back in my day. Thick arms and chest with an IQ to match. I had to kill a few of them. They can be more of a liability than an asset. Oh yes and another thing, not known for being all that keen on female COs either, especially one that could kick ass, theirs in particular. One of the guys I killed challenged me to a fight after I fired him for the rape and assault of a young girl. It was a shame I actually had to kill him to prevent him from hurting anyone else. My preference would have been to see the bastard executed by firing squad, after his trial.”
As usual, when his wife began to wax poetic about her previous life as a merc, David was shocked. Married for a year and living together for three, Michaela never ceased to amaze him. In truth, much of David’s amazement was mixed with a certain degree of fear and trepidation.

I am sitting in deepest darkest Wales. But I should be in my place in West London.

I live in London… like most people. I am a supernatural. I am not a vampire. You remember “American werewolf from London?” We dont attack humans. I live a normal life. Occasionally, I go off and take a rabbit or something. Why would I want to attack a human?

We are not like vampires. The vampires all go to LA and Las Vegas. Put the teeth in, lots of blood et al. One thing about London is you can get into the boonies pretty easily.

Being the werewolf that I am, I came back from an event, and there was nothing going on. That is a problem. And then… I was attacked by a group of men.

One is trained, being in this profession…being a werewolf. I let it happen. But then one of these gentlemen kicked me in the balls. I admit I shouldnt have. I got angry. And the way I got angry is I tore his arm off and started to beat him with it. The rest…ahh… ran away.

Im eighteen years old, in college, and I lead a fairly normal life. I have all the normal teenager problems. I am continuously falling in and out of love. I worry about my grades, and I try to be accepted. As far as everyone else is concerned Im just a student at Colby College. My roommates think Im a little strange at times but thats normal, too. They have figured out that I act odd during certain phases of the moon, but thats as far as it goes, I think. The fact that I dont leave the dorm at night for periods of time, and that happens to coincide with a certain phase of the moon, which just happens to be the full moon is not part of their line of thought.

In the winter, I have a bigger problem. There are a great many clear snow white nights. I try to watch TV or read where I can’t see the moon, but this ploy doesnt always work. The moon has an immense pull on me, and its hard to control. I think Ive not been out for a year or so, but I am not sure. There are certain nights when I cannot remember what I did