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Storey

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Stnylan – Hard to tell what Krafft is going to do. He knows the big boys are not happy with his performance so he might be more worried about what he’s going to tell them to possibly save his ass.

Hmm… what is Vetterman going to do? ;)

Coz1 – Yep Krafft wasn’t getting the job done and I don’t think the German high command is known for its patience. :eek:

Wolfgang has blundered but I’m sure he didn’t elaborate on that in his reports. Still I think Felix knows Wolfgang’s limitations.

Unfortunately our gang is preoccupied with their internal problems right now and don’t know what’s about to hit them.

J. Passepartout – I think we can safely say Wolfgang really, really didn’t like Krafft. :D Krafft kept stopping him from having fun. Felix knows how to use Wolfgang and will use him I promise you.

Hmm I wonder what Vetterman is going to do? ;)


jwolf – Most of the characters were clear in my head when I started writing but Felix is more vague. I see him as more amoral than evil. He didn’t ‘enjoy’ impaling Krafft’s hand with his knife. He just wanted to get his attention and let him know that there wasn’t going to be a discussion about it. Felix really dislikes people wasting his time. :D He looks at Wolfgang as just tool to be used to do a job. Wolfgang would enjoy pulling the wings off a fly, while Felix might find it interesting but that’s all.

Draco Rexus – Yes the gloves are coming off. Don’t write Vetterman off. He can be very persuasive when he wants to be. The only question is whom is he going to side with?

As to my siding all I can say is fall is here and winter is barking at its heels. I’ve done two-thirds of one side and I don’t see the rest being done anytime too soon. This is as I see it a two-year project. I should be a real pro by the time it’s done. :cool: :(



Nil-The-Frogg – Felix is confident because he doesn’t fail when given a task. If he can take on all of our heroes is the question. I fear that all our friends aren’t going to make it out of this. :(




I’m off tomorrow to visit my in-laws who live in that great state (well maybe not quite great) of Illinois. The land where cornfields and sunflowers fields form checkerboards that are sprinkled with towns, farms and an occasional oasis of civilization, Chicago! That broad shouldered city that still beats with the blues, stock exchange and money. Where women still wear minks and the men smoke cigars. Where on Michigan Avenue you can spend a fortune on a pair of shoes, crosswalk with a crowd and eat a ‘real’ pastrami sandwich in a café full of cops. Where the train runs above your head and the river runs backward. Where the golden pig is worshiped and the bull is king. That city that taught sin a few new tricks. Should be fun. I’ll be seeing you in around 10 days gentlemen. Until then read, write and carry on.

Joe
 

unmerged(28944)

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Ah, Chicago... now that's a city with atmosphere AND attitude! Enjoy Joe!
 

Storey

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jwolf said:
Enjoy Chicago, Joe. I hope you have a chance to take in some nice sights or museums as we have a lot here. Best wishes for a good trip and a productive AAR session when you return. ;)

Thanks. I'll be in Springfield for a week and then two days in Chicago. But most of my time will be spent visiting relatives. ‘She who will not be denied’ has a large family but then what would you expect from an Irish Catholic clan. :D Still I always make time for the Art Institute of Chicago! :cool:

Joe
 

unmerged(37565)

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Huh, its really dangerous for our heros!

This Felix guy is nasty somehow. He should be careful that he does not get in trouble himself.

Enjoy the visit of your wifes family!
 

coz1

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OK, Joe - you've had plenty of time home from the Windy City. I know the siding is taking it's toll on you (and pressing since the winter threatens) but it's high time to see what our favorite searchers are up to. Yes, please! :D
 

Storey

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coz1 said:
OK, Joe - you've had plenty of time home from the Windy City. I know the siding is taking it's toll on you (and pressing since the winter threatens) but it's high time to see what our favorite searchers are up to. Yes, please! :D

Oh I’m still around and kicking coz. I’m just fighting an attack of malaise right now. I don’t know if it’s a symptom of the general entropy that is dooming the universe and everything that’s in it or if I just have a head cold. It hard to tell the difference you know. It also didn’t help to come back to the PNW and find it cold and wet. Just saw the seven day forecast and it calls for highs around 47 degrees and… I know you’d never guess but yes… rain. It didn’t help that it was sunny and warm in Illinois before coming back to moss-land.

I had one major disappointment in Springfield this trip. I was planning on sitting on my wife’s sister’s back porch and smoking a cigar, sipping some spirited elixir potent enough to impair my judgment but not enough to cause a hangover and listen to the corn grow but the bastards had already harvested it. How was a city guy to know when corn gets harvested? There was little solace that the seed corn was still there. I mean how excited can a man get with dead dried out corn in long rows of shredded brown stalks a mere hint of their former green glory? Well anyway I did play golf almost every day and that cheered me up.

I have to admit that I’d forgotten how different people are in the mid-west. There are just little things that they do that are different enough to give a person double vision. Like when the family got together for breakfast and started cooking several pounds of bacon and half a ham. Everything was going all right when Molly (a niece) turned to me and asked for help. She claimed that she always broke the eggs so she wanted me to fry them. Yea right. I looked around for something to fry them in and she said just use the pan that the bacon was fried in. Well the sucker had about half an inch of bacon grease swirling in it so I hesitated and looked at her and she looked back at me and I had an epiphany. I realized the moment of truth was at hand. I knew it was a test of some sort and I knew that this Rubicon of grease had to be crossed. A sense of partaking in an ageless ritual of mid-west Americana emboldened me and I reached out and took up the spatula. The family sat there watching me like in a Fellini movie (I think the first beers were being consumed by now) as I cracked their shells and dropped the eggs in one by one. They floated in the eddies of hot grease like… well eggs in grease. What would you expect? I could feel my arteries hardening just from the flumes but I persevered. Well I didn’t break a single egg yoke and with many a pat on the back served the eggs and sat down and ate breakfast. I do admit they tasted damn good.




The next part of Rowe’s story will follow when my batteries are recharged and will involved a revelation followed by a surprise and then of course someone’s gruesome death.





PS A moment of silence will be observed. John Fowles just died after a long illness. His book the Magus still has a place in my bookcase even after these 30 years. A great writer.
 
Last edited:

Stuyvesant

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Felix is a nasty piece of work and he's turned Wolfie loose too! I am hoping Aurturo will be able to discipline that lumbering brute with his special walking-stick-dagger thingymajig again. Preferably terminally this time.

Felix' arrival seems to signal, not so much a change of direction but certainly a quickening of the pace of the story. Looking forward to your next move, maestro. :)

Oh, and on a side note: your idyllic descriptions of Chicago, watching the corn fields of Springfield and drowning eggs in bacon grease were highly entertaining, as always. You make me want to have some eggs for breakfast. At nine o'clock in the evening. :p

Glad to see you back from Chicago and writing again (hey! Those travelogues count as writing in my book!). I'll try not to let more than a month lapse between now and my next comment.
 

coz1

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I hope the trip back from the hospital after those eggs was pleasant. ;)

Sorry to hear the weather is so gloomy. At least you got some decent Illinois weather. I was not expecting that - not in October.
 

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The weather's just been wild. Here in New England it's been mid-60s to low-70s for a few days now. Normal high is low-50s. People are walking around in their shirt sleeves, and not the thick fleece you might find on some overly determined lumberjack, no...dress shirt sleeves. For early November it's just bizarre.

Next week I'll be whining about 18 inches of snow. :)

Glad you enjoyed yourself (kinda) Storey! Did you still enjoy your cigar while watching the seed corn uh...not grow? :) And yes, I found the bacon/ham thing in Virginia too. I think it's a plot by cardiologists to stay in business.
 

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Well Joe, if you think that is bad you need to take a trip to Scotland. Take a look at this menu, particularly the item at the bottom of the 'Traditional' Menu. Looking forward to the gruesome death. ;)
 

Storey

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Stuyvesant - I’m afraid Felix is indeed going to be a “nasty piece of work”. Should be fun! One of the treats of living in a country this big is that different parts of the country are different enough to make you think you’ve entered a strange and perplexing world. Just different enough to keep you on your toes wondering when the next simular but odd events is going to take place. When I’m on vacation I never hold back and play it safe. Hell I’m on ‘vacation so I can do anything I want even if it’s looking death in the face and eating eggs impregnated with grease.

Coz1 - My last trip to Springfield was in September and I sweated like a pig in a sauna. I swore that wasn’t going to happen again. It was quite peasant the entire time there.

CatKnight - I had the pleasure of smoking the best damn $1.79 cigar I’ve ever smoked. I should be so lucky to find one that cheap and good where I live. I love that fact that you can do so many things that are bad for you and do it so cheaply in the mid-west.

Stnylan - We have that here. I think they freeze the candy bar and then dip it in batter and flash fry it. I’ve never had to nerve to try it. I’ve got one better, have you ever heard of a deep fried twinkie?

Oh my God is that really “Puddings-White/Black/Haggis” for real?

And now gentlemen back to work.
 

Storey

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“How long have you been in Mr. Simmons employ?”

I could hear Philippa’s gulp from clear across the room. Elspeth’s on the other hand just clinched her jaw forming her mouth into a straight line of disapproval. When she spoke it was in a no-nonsense tone normally reserved for misbehaving boys but would prove to be equally effective with one over bearing middle-aged man.

“That’s enough of that Mr. Higgins. We haven’t time for games so I ask you to refrain from these flights of fancy of yours. Philippa and I are what we appear to be, nothing less nothing more. Unless I’m wrong this wild theory about chance is simply your way of saying you don’t know what is going on!”

Higgins opened in mouth, which was filled with a retort that would curl Elspeth’s hair but she didn’t give him an opening as she continued non-stop.

“Now it seems to me that we need to get back on track. First we need to protect Mr. ben David. Second we need to know where Mr. Krafft is and what he’s doing. I don’t think we want another surprise visit from any on his men. Then as soon as Mr. ben David has decipher the last of the manuscript we have to see him safely home and decided how we are going to evade Mr. Krafft and company as we collect this artifact. Have I missed any thing?”

Higgins opened his mouth but Shara beat him to it.

“Will your friends at headquarters be able to help us Elspeth?”

“Apparently not as much as I first thought. I think we are going to have to assume that the Huns have hired locals to help them. Still I don’t think they will make their move until we leave Palestine. That is if we leave Palestine.”

Shara looked over to Ezra who returned her stare. He sat his pen down and folded his hands on the table.

“As much as I’d like to give you an answer I’m afraid right now I don’t know. Perhaps we can call this meeting to an end so that I can have a little peace and quiet to concentrate on your problem.”

“Do you mind if I help?”

Ezra turned to look at me and slowly nodded his head. He was about to answer when three quick knocks on the hotel room door stopped him. From the corner of my eye I caught Arturo’s hand reach into his coat pocket and emerge with a handgun. From the several slight sounds of movement I heard he wasn’t the only one reaching for the comfort their gun. Elspeth’s voice filled the subdued room.

“Mr. Rowe would you be so kind to answer the door. Oh and please step to the side when you do. Line of fire and all that you understand.”

Her voice was so cheerful and calm that I hesitated for a second looking at her to see if she was kidding. One quick look and I knew she wasn’t and decided that I’d better get moving. Higgins stood off to the side clearly not liking the situation but he had to acknowledge that Elspeth was making sense so he merely gave a slight nod of concurrence. I stood and took the few steps to the door managing to suddenly remember that I had a gun in my pocket. I took a deep breath and quickly pulled the door open but before I could step to the side I stopped and stared at the figure before me. He stood there with his white fedora in his hands smiling.
 

unmerged(28944)

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Not that I'm a bettin' man (well, at least not that much of one), but I'm gonna put up a five note that it's Vetterman trying to to do his duty as outlined by Herr Felix!
 

coz1

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I'd go with Vetterman as well, unless for some crazy reason it's Krafft. Vetterman makes more sense, and he had put on his hat last time we checked. ;)

And it seems Higgins has met his much, to a point. Not much use being the wit of the world if one does not get the chance to use it.
 

Stuyvesant

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Yay! A new addition to the group. Vetterman's arrival should make for some entertaining multilateral talks, as Higgins, Aurturo and Elspeth continue to vie for dominance in the group. And poor Vetterman will have to convince all three of them that he is sincerely switching sides. I look forward to his attempts to curry favor with all the individual members of the party while at the same time trying not to antagonize anyone of them. Can he square the circle? Can he agree with Higgins that it's all nothing but coincidence, while at the same time acknowledging Aurturo's feeling that there's more to this quest than meets the eyes? Oh, and can he win over Elspeth, who seems to have very little love for Germans in general (referring to them as "Huns" if I remember correctly)? Should be fun. :)