Tell Me a Story – Part XXXIV

January 10, 2013 By 8 Comments

Last week, we left Kate unconscious, and you all had to choose where she woke up.

Oddly enough, the most popular choice was “in her bed”.

So, I ran with it. But I took a little creative license.

 

~~~

I rolled on to my side, hugging a blanket to my chest. I took a deep breath in, eyes still closed tightly, smelling rosemary and mint. I thought for a moment, remembering the day I spilled one of Meera’s oils on my favorite fleece blanket. No matter how many times I washed that blanket, it still smelled of rosemary and mint, which just made me love it more.

I breathed in again and sighed, comforted by the familiar item.

Was I home?

The firmness of the pillow beneath my head was exactly as it always was. The low hum around me not unlike the white noise machine I kept next to the bed to drown out Red’s late night typing. It was all the comforts of my own bed.

Except it wasn’t my bed.

As I threw my arm to one side, I found myself at the edge. My bed was larger. My eyes flew open and struggled to adjust to the dimness of the room.

I sat up, my head aching as I did, a pain in my side suddenly making itself known. I looked down at the bed, definitely smaller, and pressed against a wall to my right.

A wall with small oval windows, nothing but darkness outside.

I was in the air.

Throwing my legs over the side I stood up, a bit too quickly, and swayed before crashing to the ground. I groaned as my knees made contact with the floor, the pain of fresh bruises being smacked making me nauseous.

jetbed_Snapseed“Are you alright, Kate? Let me help.”

I felt an arm on my back and looked up to see Eli crouched beside me. He had a scratch on his forehead, but didn’t look nearly as battered as I felt.

He helped me to my feet and over to the bed. I sat down, watching as he walked to the back of the cabin, returning with a bottle of water.

“Here. Take this.” He handed the bottle over, along with two small pills.

I shook my head. “I’m not taking anything.”

“It’s just painkillers.”

I stared at him, uncertain, but sore. I popped the pills in my mouth and took a gulp of water.

“So, where are we?”

 ~~~

Answer Kate’s question.  :)

 

A big thank you to all my readers who’ve supported the release of The Ruth Valley Missing. The FREE promotion was amazing. I made it to #13 in Women’s Fiction and #1 in Comic Fiction.

The book now has 18 fabulous reviews on Amazon, and yesterday it was on the same ranking page in Comic Fiction as Sophie Kinsella. I could spit on her. (Not that I would. We were just that close.)

So, again, thank you. Keep spreading the word!

 

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Tell Me a Story – Part XXX

November 15, 2012 By 5 Comments

Last week, Eli and Kate were making their way out of the building, looking like their mission was a success. But someone was waiting for them outside the elevator. You all had the choice to make that person hinder or help – and you all said hinder.

So here we go with the hindering…

~~~

Hello, Meera.

“What are you doing here?”

Meera stood in front of the elevator, frowning. “Keeping you out of trouble. Come on.”

She reached for my arm, guiding me out of the elevator, but Eli stepped in front of me.

“What are you really doing here, Meera?” Eli asked.

“Eli, come on,” I protested.

He shook his head and continued to stare at Meera. “The least you can do is be honest with Kate. You owe her that much.”

Meera put one hand on her hip and sighed. “I’m trying to help. This isn’t going to go well for her if she is here when the buyers arrive.”

“So you’re just here to send us on our way?”

“I said ‘Kate’. You’ll have to be dealt with.”

“What is the deal with people talking like I’m not here lately?” I stepped past Eli and looked at Meera, my hands clenched into fists. “Meera, tell me you aren’t part of all this.”

“Part? I’m more than just part.” I could feel my eyes burn. This couldn’t be true. “Oh, Kate, come one. I’m sure Eli’s explained to you the value of what we have here. This is just business.”

“Business? Are you serious? Since when did killing people become ‘just business’?”

Meera smiled and shook her head. It was the same look she had the first time she saw me drinking wine from a box, the look of someone who knew better.

Or at least thought they did.

“I’m merely selling a tool, Kate. What people do with it is on their heads. And to answer your rather naïve question, it’s always been a business. Pharmaceuticals get approved despite tests that show they could have dangerous long term affects, food gets produced using methods that strip it from all its beneficial nutrients, forests are destroyed, toxins are produced; every day decisions are made based on profit that will, at some point, destroy life. It’s what we all do. You’re either a producer or consumer. I choose to produce.”

“How can you be like this? Is this what David taught you?”

This time she laughed. “Oh, come on, you know me better than that. I come by my decisions on my own, thank you.”

My hands, already balled into fists, were shaking. I squeezed tighter, willing them to stop. “You won’t get away with this.”

“Don’t be so cliché.” Meera looked off to her side and gave a nod. Two armed men came into view, taking their place on either side of her. “Looks like we’ll be taking both of them with us.”

I looked up at Eli and he gave me a slow nod. How could he be so calm? And why wasn’t he saying anything? I hoped it meant he had a plan. He had to have a plan.

We walked through a long corridor, Meera ahead of us, the two men behind. I looked over at Eli as we walked and caught him glancing at the ceiling a few times.

When we reached the end of the hall, Meera nodded to one of the men, who walked over to unlock a door.

Eli softly cleared his throat.

Immediately, the lights around us shut down. The inner corridor was dark, with even the emergency lights refusing to light up. A second later, the fire sprinklers turned on. I could hear a grunt and the sound of someone hitting the floor as water poured down my face.

A hand grabbed mine tightly and pulled, forcing me to run to keep up. I hoped it was Eli’s.

 

~~~

 Is it Eli leading her through the dark corridor? If your answer is no, give your ideas on who and why in the comments. If it’s yes, then when do you think their next move is?

 

AND, time for shameless self-promotion!

Tomorrow is the official release of my novel, The Ruth Valley Missing. But, it is available today – so feel free to head over to Amazon, check it out, and feel free to spread the word!

A big thank you to all of my Tell Me a Story readers!

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Tell Me a Story – Part XXVIII

November 1, 2012 By 14 Comments

It’s that time again! After last week’s dinner with David and Meera, Eli sets a plan in motion to get him into the building where the mysterious video game is being created. Your assignment? Come up with an obstacle.

A couple of you liked the idea of them being mistaken for someone else, which would actually work in their favor, and several of you liked the idea of Red making her way back into the story.

So, you get a little bit of both. Sort of.

 

~~~~~

“You’ve got your badge, right?”

Eli looked at me as we walked up to the building and rolled his eyes. “As you Americans would say, ‘this ain’t my first rodeo’.”

“Uh, I’m pretty sure no one around here says that, so you should probably keep that gem to yourself.”

“Yes, I have my badge. Are you ready?”

I tugged at my scarf and tried to look confident. “Of course I am.”

“Until we walk through those doors, you can still back out.”

“Not happening.”

“Well then,” Eli grabbed the handle to the building entrance and pulled it open, “after you.”

We stepped into the foyer and walked up to security, a bald man looming over the card reader in front of an elevator door. Eli stepped forward, giving the guard a nod as he ran his badge through the reader.

Anton was able to hack into the personnel system and give us each a unique ID, but with David’s unique signature to give us his level of access. I was amazed as I watched Anton go to work. I watched in silence as he worked the night before, wondering how I could be friends with someone for so long and now know he was capable of all this.

I let a small sigh escape as I watched the light on the reader turn green. Eli waited as I did the same, the guard giving us a nod as we entered the elevator.

The doors closed and I counted to five before turning to Eli. “So, are we…?”

He held up a finger as the elevator stopped earlier than expected. The doors opened and a young man entered in red skinny jeans and thick tortoise shell framed glasses. He held a portfolio in his arms and looked me up and down.

“I thought most of the programmers were taking the day today.”

I looked down at my outfit, dark jeans, a fitted Doctor Who shirt and a navy blue blazer and smiled. “Yeah, most of us are. I wanted to get a few things done while it’s quiet.”

The guy snorted. “’Cause you all are a really social bunch?”

“No, but that many people talking to themselves all at once is kind of distracting.”

“True that.”

“Yes,” I replied, slowly adding, “true that.”

He turned his attention towards Eli and asked, “Corporate?”

Eli nodded, not saying a word.

The elevator halted and the hipster nodded as we stepped out. “Have a good one.”

Eli smiled as we made our way down the hall. “Who would have guessed your nerdiness would come in handy so quickly?”

“Oh, shut up.”

He slid his card through the reader for the door at the end of the hallway and we walked in.

It was quiet, eerily so.

“David did say that the games were ready for release. I guess everyone really is taking the day.”

Eli frowned. “ Doesn’t that seem odd to you? Everyone?”

I shrugged. “A bit. But odd is pretty much the norm for me currently.”

A corner of Eli’s mouth turned up for a moment. “Yeah. Sorry about that.”

“Alright, well, go. I’ll keep an eye out here.”

Eli took off for the server room while I wandered around the office space reserved for programmers. There were a few cubes, complete with dual monitors and fancy looking computer systems, then random playthings strewn about; air hockey tables, foosball, even some old school arcade consoles.

“Can you hear me?”

I winced as Eli’s voice rang in my ear, the earpiece Anton gave me working just fine and louder than expected. Proper spy stuff, Eli had said.

“Uh, yeah.  Can you hear me?”

“Affirmative. My card isn’t working for the server room. I have to find another way in.”

“What? That’s impossible. David’s creds should get you in anywhere.”

“We can figure that out later. Right now, I have to find another way. Stay put. I may be unreachable for a bit.”

“Unreachable?”

No answer.

Great, I thought, as I sat down at one of the desks. I stared at stacks of paper, indiscernible chicken scratch covering most of the wrinkled sheets. I stopped when I got to a few glossy looking sheets in the bunch. Colorful graphics, mock-ups of the new release packaging, or so I assumed.

I leaned back in the chair, then stopped as something underneath the stack caught my eye. It was another glossy paper, this one with a bold spot of red. I pulled it out to find an image of a sword, a drop of blood dripping from it onto the tip of a sparkly red shoe.

One of a pair of red slippers.

I dug in the pocket of my blazer and dialed Red’s number.

“Yes?”

“Red. I don’t have a lot of time, but I need to know something. Does the Wizard of Oz mean anything to you?”

  ~~~~~~

Looks like Kate and Eli got in okay, but they still need to get out, not to mention they need to find whatever it is they are looking for. Time for another obstacle!

 

 

 

 

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Tell Me a Story – Part XXVII

October 25, 2012 By 12 Comments

As you all know, things have been a bit crazy here, what with surgeries, pneumonia, jobs starting and ending, but still, I apologize for the unplanned hiatus.

One of you lovely readers was kind enough to make their suggestion for this week “anything I want”, so given that things are still pretty crazy here, I took the easy way out and went with it.

If you need to refresh on the last installment before jumping in here, head on back. It’s a short one.

~~~~~~~

“I thought we were just meeting them here for dinner, not eating here?”

Eli shrugged as we stood in the kitchen, watching as David chopped vegetables and stirred something on the stove.

Meera appeared with a bottle of wine from the cellar. “I hope you don’t mind the change in plans. David’s just been so busy with work lately, we just thought dinner here would be more relaxing.”

I nodded towards David. “You sure it’s not too much work?”

David turned from the stove and smiled. “Not at all. I find cooking to be cathartic. Plus, now I don’t have to worry about incompetent staff trying to poison me.”

I glanced at Eli in the corner of my eye and caught the corner of his mouth turning upward for just a second. “Well, it smells delicious, David. Quite the man of the world you are. Powerful executive by day, talented chef by night.”

Meera laughed as she handed Eli and me a glass of wine. I paused to admire the fancy stemware, remembering the days when Meera made me stop drinking box wine from my orange juice glasses. In all the madness lately, we spent little time together. I missed her. Maybe a relaxed dinner in wasn’t such a bad idea.

“Why don’t you all have a seat? Everything is just about ready to go. Meera can help me here.”

Eli and I obeyed, taking a seat in the dining room. I watched as Eli nonchalantly scanned our surroundings. I would have thought nothing of it before, but after spending so much time with him, and knowing who he really was, I knew there was something going on. A plan being formed.

I sat down at the table, placing the linen napkin on my lap, trying to remember what fork I was supposed to use. Without looking my direction, Eli murmured, “Outside in.”

“Excuse me?”

“Start with the fork on the outside, work your way in with each change in course.”

“I knew that.”

Eli turned towards me and sat. “Of course you did.”

“So?”

He sipped his wine and raised an eyebrow.

“What’s the plan?”

“Don’t worry about that just now. Just act as you would if you were dining with friends.”

“I am dining with my friend.”

“You know what I mean.”

David and Meera entered the room, carrying two bowls each, setting them in front of us and then at their own places at the table.

“Spiced carrot and ginger with crème fraiche,” Meera said, watching me stare at the shallow bowl of something that looked suspiciously like it came from a baby food jar.

“Delicious,” Eli replied as he finished his first spoonful.

I took a bite and conceded. “It is good.”

“It’s nice to see Eli has been a good influence on you,” David replied. “Or at least your palette.”

I forced a polite smile. “How did you find the time to cook for us? Aren’t you super busy with work right now?”

“It has been hectic. I don’t know what we were thinking trying to get two games ready for release in the same week, but it’s paid off. We’ll be meeting the release dates as planned. With two totally different games releasing at the same time, we are covering multiple demographics. Should be our most profitable release date ever.”

“What games are they?” I asked, taking a sip of wine.

“Well, I can’t tell you everything. Part of building the buzz on these is we’ve told the public very little. One is a new sports title, the other a kind of dystopian fantasy, combining a puzzle element with first person shooter. Both are designed to work with the interactive game systems. It’s a full experience, if the player wants it to be.”

Meera pat David’s hand. “Let’s not bore our guests with work chat. Is everyone ready for salads?”

I looked down at my bowl, surprised how near empty it was after just a few spoonfuls, and nodded.

“Things must still be pretty crazy at the office, though, what with marketing and all that.” Eli was searching for something. What, I wasn’t sure.

“Well, yes, but not at the office here. They are strictly development and testing. Now they have a little downtime before they really buckle down on the next project. Some of these guys haven’t had a vacation in years.”

“That must be nice for you as well. A well-deserved break.”

David nodded. “Yes. Although I wish things were slower for Meera. I was hoping to pop down to my place on the coast for a bit, but I can’t tear her away from work just now.”

“Are you boys talking about me?” Meera stepped into the room, holding four plates of green and set them on the table. “Not that I’m not flattered, but there must be something else to talk about.”

“I was just telling them about how busy work is for you right now.”

Meera rolled her eyes. “Yes, well, that’s even duller conversation than the one you were having when I left. I’m more interested in how things are going with you two.”

The few times Meera and I spoke since our dinner together she insisted that there was something more going on between Eli and me than work. I denied it, but Meera was persistent, as if insisting that we were together would make it so.

Eli looked over at me and grinned, then back at Meera. “Things are going well.”

Meera opened her mouth but was interrupted by a buzzing sound. Eli fished in his pocket, apologizing. “I know this is terribly rude but I must take this. Would you excuse me?”

“Of course,” David answered. “We know how that goes.”

Eli left the room and Meera beamed. “So, things are going well, are they?”

Too busy wondering what Eli’s call was really about, I shrugged. “We get along and he’s a great guy.”

David shook his head. “That’s a bit of an understatement. Given your dating history, I would think you’d be a bit more excited.”

“Maybe I should set you up with him, then.”

David sighed. “Meera, it never ceases to amaze me that you two ended up friends.”

Meera watched me push the yard clippings around on my plate, chewing on my lip. “Kate, you know David is just giving you a hard time. He likes to push buttons. Right, David?”

He rolled his eyes. “Of course. For the most part.”

Meera shot him a warning look and turned back towards me. “I’m glad that you finally met a guy that is worthy of you.”

“Thank you, Meera.”

Eli walked into the room, his face flushed, our coats hanging over his arm. “I feel absolutely horrid, but that call was a bit of an emergency and I have to go.”

Meera stood. “Is everything ok?”

He nodded. “It will be. Kate, I’m so sorry we have to cut the evening short.”

I hopped up, glad that whatever excuse he was using to make an exit included me. David and Meera walked us to the door as we slid on our coats. I turned to give Meera a quick hug. “Thank you so much for the soup.”

“We’ll do it again,” David said as he hung back, avoiding any germ-ridden embraces as he always did. “Maybe next time at the house on the coast.”

“That would be lovely.” Eli replied over his shoulder, rushing me out to the car.

As we pulled out of the driveway, Eli dug in his coat pocket while I asked about the call.

“I told Anton to call. I needed an excuse to get away from the table.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out David’s work ID. “It’s one of those magnetic badges you use to get in and out of the building and offices.”

“How’d you find that so quickly?”

“Anton gave me one of his toys. Detects magnetic signatures. Worked like a charm.”

“Are we…”

“About to do something illegal? Yes. If you want out, say the word.”

I shook my head. “I’m in.”

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, it’s apparent that Kate and Eli will be doing some breaking and entering. But I can’t imagine that it will be quick and easy. Come up with an obstacle. 

 

 

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