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DukeReg
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 Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:49 am Post subject: |
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Ok, so its a tie. I am going to wait until after Christmas, and if no-one else has voted, I will cast my own vote to break the tie.
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JezSharp
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| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:57 am Post subject: |
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| Tie broken for the dark and stormy night.
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DukeReg
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| Posted: Thu Dec 21, 2006 6:57 pm Post subject: |
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Ok, writing of the new chapter will now commence. Thanks for sticking this story out guys!
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Masterweaver
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| Posted: Fri Dec 22, 2006 7:26 am Post subject: |
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Aww, I wanted to have him rob a bank...
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dinranwen
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| Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2007 2:43 pm Post subject: |
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| Glad to see this back on track Duke! I look forward to your new chapter.
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DukeReg
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| Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 8:55 pm Post subject: |
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"Rescuing hostage from rival organisation (on a dark and stormy night, why not?)" won chapter 3.
Tempting Fate: Chapter 4
May contain mild coarse language, violence and tall stories.
Leaving the pub, Willace wondered if he had let Jake drink too much. Jake certainly didn't look like he had only had a couple, and he was infamous for drinking people under the table. Then Willace realised that the drinks hadn't affected him. He was still almost shaking from nerves. The first time took different people in different ways. The pouring rain, of all things, seemed to settle Jake down more than the drinks.
When they arrived at their destination, Willace explained to Jake:
"You will be with Parker. Do as he says."
"Hey, I thought I'd be with you! How come you took me here if-"
"You ask too many questions, you know that? The people we are dealing with are resourceful, and rely on intelligence. We have more luck and balls than intelligence, so we can afford to mix things up when dealing with them. Parker's waiting in the van over there."
Jake bit his lip and walked over to the van, thinking about what he had been told about Robert Parker earlier. He couldn't help suspecting that Willace had arranged this just to emphasise his earlier warnings.
When Jake entered the van, letting in a gust of wind and rain in with him, Robert didn't look up. Robert merely held out an envelope and said "Here are the details of the operation. There are "hostages" and there are "hostiles", don't get the two confused."
Jake snatched the envelope and opened it, annoyed that the other man was being so patronising.
Apart from a terse description of the goals of the mission and how they would enter, there was 2 photographs. One was a police photograph of a woman exactly 1.7 meters tall with a cold stare, a tatoo of a knife over a scar on one side of her face, and a tight lipped expression. The other was an amateur snapshot of a smiling middle aged man holding a beer in one hand and a pleasant looking woman of similar age in the other. The woman was struck through with a red texta to avoid confusion about who was of interest in the photo.
Jake was surprised to find that the woman in the first photograph was labelled "hostage: safety is 1st priority" and the family man was labelled as "hostile: use deadly force on sight". He might have overreacted to the earlier comment, he realised.
Jake finished reading and asked: "So when are we going to be starting?"
"The moment they give us the 'go go go'. Thats what 'await go on receipt' means on your orders there."
"Ok, thanks. And thanks for before." Jake said, slightly self consciously.
"Pardon?"
"Thanks for warning me not to judge the people in the photos based on appearance."
"No problem. I almost took a bullet making a similar mistake my first time."
Jake paused. Robert's tone and expression hadn't changed, but that was unmistakably conversation for the sake of conversation. Maybe it was his accident that caused his voice to be so clipped.
"So what's Willace's deal? He's obviously not in charge, since I'm the only one he orders around, but not even Rawson seems to tell him what's what."
"I take it you aren't fond of him."
Jake blinked and replied hurriedly: "No... I mean I like the man well enough, but... well... he's very blasé about it all, and he can be a bit of a hard act to follow."
"He's the best. We just accept that he is going to do things his way. So far the benefits of keeping him have outweighed the paperwork caused by the trail of injured people who have crossed him outside of agency operations. He's also the most experienced in the entire agency, and he often does things against orders that turn out to save the day. An operation like ours needs someone like him. Besides, he has been through a lot. Its only human to cut him some slack."
"Is he married?" Jake asked, after a pause.
Robert looked at him a moment before replying.
"I guess you will hear about it eventually, so I can afford to gossip. From what my parents said, he was married, but she left him suddenly when she fell pregnant, supposedly because he wouldn't quit the agency, and she didn't want the child growing up around that kind of lifestyle. After a few years of stubbornly refusing to check up on her, he overcame his pride and went looking for her, because he still loved her, but found out that she had died in an accident years before. His daughter had been fostered and finally adopted out of country."
"Did he find her?"
"No. They lost the records. Willace didn't find out how it happened, but he had had a run of good luck over those years, and was pretty sure of why it happened."
"Fate."
"I guess so. Anyway, I wouldn't go talking to him about it offhand. He was pretty torn up about losing his wife and child. He even tried to kill himself over it."
"What?"
"Did you ever hear that urban legend about that guy who tied a noose around his neck to the guardrail at the top of a cliff, took poison, doused himself in petrol, lit himself on fire and jumped off the cliff while shooting himself in the head with a pistol?"
"I think so... something like the bullet missed his head and parted the rope, he hit the water which put the fire out, and the shock of swallowing cold sea water made him vomit up the poison. Hey wait, are you trying to tell me-"
Jake was interrupted by an electronically distorted voice saying "All units, GO GO GO!".
---
Thirteen minutes into the operation, as Willace bundled the hostage out the door and into a waiting vehicle, Robert's voice cut off abruptly in the middle of reporting that the hostile objective has been spotted. Cut off with the sound of gunfire and a cry of pain.
Willace ran back into the building to the last known location of Robert and Jake. After cautiously checking for hostiles in the immediate area, Willace checked for a pulse on Robert Parker's body and swore when he found none. Where the hell was Jake? They had been chasing the secondary objective, the hostile, George Callaway. That was a dangerous proposition in pairs, never mind on your own.
Willace silently made his way into a hallway, stomping heavily on the neck of a body lying nearby. Willace was sick of people playing dead, it looked like that was what got Parker. The old tricks were the best ones. He heard muted gunfire over the sound of rain hammering down on the roof and thunder, and followed it towards a back exit.
Willace cautiously opened the door a crack. The wind whistled through the opening and the pouring rain and thunder became suddenly loud. Through flashes of lightning, Willace saw that to his right there was a staircase dug straight down into the ground, probably leading towards a basement door. There were bushes, a parked car, a low wall and a pile of garbage bins that could serve as cover. No hostiles were visible, and no gunfire could be heard. Willace stepped out, crouching low just in case.
Muzzle flashes and the roar of gunfire from several concealed gunmen coincided with three solid thumps on Willace's body armour and an agonising pain in his left shoulder. He half dived, half ran down into the stairway for cover, but a bullet hit his leg just before another rang off his helmet. Willace swore violently and fell down, rolling to the bottom of the short stairwell in a heap. His head rang, and he could taste blood in his mouth. He must have bitten his lip.
A shape loomed nearby with the butt of a gun poised to slam into Willace's head, but Willace couldn't do more than try to hunch his shoulders and wriggle out of the way.
The figure froze, and lowered the gun.
"Oh my god, Willace, are you alright?" came Jake's shaky voice.
"What the hell do you think Summers?" snapped Willace, pushing himself into a sitting position where he could cover the stairway with his gun.
"There's no door here. It's all bricked up. They sent someone to go get some grenades or something. There weren't supposed to be so many of them. Where did they all come from?" Jake's voice was near hysterical.
"Calm down Summers! We have backup waiting as a last resort, remember?" snapped Willace. He spoke tersely into the radio, detailing the situation, and heard the response, "Backup is on its way".
"Rawson is going to have a fit." muttered Willace, trying to stop his head spinning, "Why the hell didn't you ask for backup?".
"I didn't know about all these guys waiting! By the time I got down here I didn't know what to do, and..."
"Alright, shut up! I thought I told you to calm down." Willace growled wearily.
Jake took a few deep breaths and composed himself.
"We're going to die if we don't do something." he muttered.
"Backup is on its way. Cover the stairs and try to throw any grenades out again. You never know, they might be that stupid."
"Yeah, as if."
"Oh well, if they aren't, its just bad luck for us isn't it?" Willace said, already sick of Jake's new-found pessimism.
Jake hesitated for a moment and gave a short bark of a laugh. "You know what? That's bullshit. Dying in this kind of situation can never be down to luck, can it? It's bound to happen. There's no room for luck. But, if we survived... now that would be lucky..."
Jake trailed off. He began to get to his feet to go up and face Callaway and his men.
"Dammit Summers, get down, that's an order!" yelled Willace, trying to get hold of Jake to pull him back down. Jake shrugged him off, the order falling on deaf ears.
Willace didn't know what warped logic was guiding Jake at the moment, but he was powerless to do anything with his injuries. He had already lost a lot of blood. He'd be fine if the backup arrived before the hostiles rushed in, but that wasn't going to happen with Jake out of action.
"Good luck, kid." Willace muttered, before blacking out.
How should Jake tempt fate, saving himself and Willace from being killed? Make this a big one... this is the last DP!
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| Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 11:34 pm Post subject: |
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Another new chapter at last!
NO idea on how to get out of this one at the moment. I will have to think on it.
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LordoftheNight
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| Posted: Mon Feb 19, 2007 2:56 am Post subject: |
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He could just try running the gauntlet, somehow dodging bullets while shooting back with pinpoint accuracy.
Of course, whenever someon tries to throw a grenade, he could shoot it out of their hands. That'd be pretty lucky.
It's not particularly original, but what can you do.
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DukeReg
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| Posted: Tue Feb 20, 2007 5:04 am Post subject: |
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| lordofthenight wrote: | | Of course, whenever someon tries to throw a grenade, he could shoot it out of their hands. That'd be pretty lucky. |
It sure would. I'd like to see the gunmen get out of that one! 
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DukeReg
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 4:18 pm Post subject: |
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I've still only had one suggestion... I'd like another one before going to poll. Someone? Anyone!
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| Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 5:35 pm Post subject: |
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Well, it's pretty weak, but maybe the floorboards could give way, allowing him access to an underground tunnel network?
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DukeReg
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| Posted: Thu Mar 08, 2007 7:09 pm Post subject: |
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Poll is up.
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Masterweaver
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| Posted: Sat Apr 21, 2007 7:03 pm Post subject: |
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What? Only two options?
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| Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 8:47 pm Post subject: |
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"Ground gives way into forgotten tunnels - they escape." won the Chapter 4 poll.
Tempting Fate: Chapter 5
Jake took a running step onto the short staircase, which had been made slippery by the rain. His leading foot immediately slid off the stair it had landed on. Just as his head rose over the level of the staircase, and before he began to fall back down, he heard a thunder of gunfire, and bullets whistling past his head. Then gravity smashed him back into the ground at the bottom of a staircase with a restounding and slightly hollow thump. There was also a splintering sound. Jake was just starting to recover from being winded when he felt the ground shift, along with another splintering noise, and finally give way. This time Jake managed to slide feet first down into the dark space below. He noticed Willace slide past and slump to the ground, in the way only a ragdoll or someone completely relaxed can slump.
"Dammit, dammit, dammit, dammit, ..." Jake swore repeatedly as he looked around. He was feeling close to hysteria. He took a deep breath and switched on his flashlight. He found a single opening in the dark room. It was not so much a doorway, as a collapsed section of brick wall. Jake grabbed Willace under the arms and with effort began to drag him towards the opening.
Once on the other side, Jake noticed piles of crates and boxes that didn't appear to be very old. He ignored them and strained to lift Willace over the bricks. He finally managed to get Willace across to a stairwell, before slumping in exhaustion.
"... Dammit. Dammit. Willace will you wake up already? God-freaking-dammit." He finally subsided, his adrenaline rush wearing off.
After a moment he could hear voices shouting back where they had fallen through the floor. He groaned and started to drag Willace up the stairs. He tried the handle of the door and found to his surprise that the door opened easily. He noticed too late the gun barrels pointing at him.
"You are lucky we happened to be passing, Summers. Damned lucky."
---
"You have no idea where he would have gone?" demanded Rawson, arms crossed in front of her chest.
"None. I've been in hospital, how am I supposed to have kept in contact with him? Telepathy?" Willace snorted.
"Don't get snappy with me. If he want's to leave that's fine by me. He's going to become a liability very quickly. But we need to know that he understands that he can't go talking about us to any pretty face or whoever is buying the next round at his local!"
"We'll have to track him down the usual way."
"We've tried. He's better at avoiding detection than I thought he would be."
Willace looked at her for a while, before saying, "Then I don't think we need to worry about him doing anything that might bring our attention to him. Including blabbing to pretty faces in pubs."
It was Rawson's turn to stare at Willace. Finally, she threw up her hands and said "We'll just have to leave it to fate then."
She nodded in satisfaction when Willace flinched, before leaving the hospital ward.
Willace lay awake. Where the hell was Jake? And had he learned anything from the experience?
Tempting Fate: Epilogue
The faint sound of footsteps intruded on Willace's recollections. He turned to see a young woman looking at him nervously. Willace recognised her as the woman who had been asking something of the people in front of the burning hotel earlier. There was something else familiar about her that Willace couldn't put his finger on.
The woman spoke.
"Are you Henry Willace? The one that was staying at the hotel earlier?"
"Can I help you?"
The woman gave an uncertain half-smile and then took a deep breath.
"I'm Mrs Jessica Johnson, nee Willace. I've been searching for the past five years or so for my biological father. I know it was a one in a million chance, but when I heard by coincidence that someone by the correct name and an accent from the right area of England was staying here, I thought I should take the opportunity just to check whether..."
She trailed off as she saw that he was staring at her as though he was seeing something he had never imagined he would see. She had been right. The family resemblance was clear now that she looked at him closely, and it was obvious that he knew it to be true as well. She couldn't believe that after so many years of bad luck, she had found him by chance. It must have been fate.
Thanks to those of you who stuck this storygame out. Hopefully if I ever start another storygame, I will have enough enthusiasm to keep it going beyond a few chapters. If the last few chapters seem rushed, it is because I found myself more and more reluctant to write for this story, and I felt it would be best if I wrapped it up rather than just letting it die in mid-story. I hope you enjoyed what I did write, and look forward to someday trying again.
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| Posted: Sun May 06, 2007 10:11 pm Post subject: |
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Well, at least you wrapped this one up Duke and didn't leave it to die a sad and lonely death.
Sorry to see it end abruptly, but well done anyway!
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