James Pyles's Blog, page 179

Refuge Lake

Marco felt creepy whenever he made a delivery to the resort in the Sierra Nevada’s. Scenery changed from alpines and mountains to high desert and a salty lake. He got a bonus for doing the run every month. He never knew what he was hauling. Once he arrived, he was paid to get drunk and […]

Five Years On

Mikiko Jahn and Brigit Monroe stepped out of the ruins as the older couple drove away. They’d placed flowers on the foundation of what used to be their home across the street. “I had dinner with them every weekend. I’d just introduced my fiance’ Ichioka the Sunday before the accident.” Brigit, Mikiko’s psychologist, touched her forearm […]

Sanctuary and the Death of Kate Steinle

I’m writing this as a companion piece to Jury Finds Garcia Zarate Not Guilty In Steinle Murder Trial: My Initial Reaction which I wrote and published rather impulsively yesterday. Okay, I’ve done some reading since then. The New York Times makes a case for about 60 percent of the unauthorized population has been here for […]

Jury Finds Garcia Zarate Not Guilty In Steinle Murder Trial: My Initial Reaction

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF & AP) — Jurors Thursday afternoon acquitted the illegal immigrant accused of killing Kate Steinle as she walked with her father on a crowded San Francisco pier of all charges except for felony possession of a firearm. A spokesperson for the Superior Court of California made the announcement that the jury […]

Eira

It had finally come, the first real snow of winter. Robert Jeffries knew she would come with it, as she had ever since they’d met ten years ago. He had only been fifteen then. He’d gotten into another argument with Mom and stormed out the door and into the snow. He wasn’t thinking and he […]

Ghost Dance

“You gotta get up off that grey line…I’ll guarantee they’ll fall in line…” A federal agency says a leak in TransCanada Corp.’s Keystone oil pipeline in South Dakota likely was caused by damage during construction in 2008. The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued a corrective action report Tuesday on the estimated 5,000 barrels […]

Elusive

  “Got the DNA evidence from SFPD in 2007, and it leads here, April.” Two temporal investigators closed in on the Zodiac Killer at an abandoned farm’s outbuilding. “Go in here, H.G. I’ll circle around.” The young 19th century man waited and then entered the cinder block building. “H.G! Hurry!” He rushed inside and saw her […]

Diminished: The Expanded Story

Sean McNeal adjusted the field intensity setting on his virtual console by another two degrees. “That should do it,” he muttered absent-mindedly. The thirty-eight year old research physicist had been working in his small home lab for the past week, but the problem he was trying to solve had been plaguing him ever since he […]

Diminished

Everyone told me shrinking an object or a person while maintaining that object’s original properties is impossible and they’re right. Planck’s constant prevents it. That means no Ant-Man, Atom, and no little subs like in Fantastic Voyage. Surprise. I’m only six-inches tall. This grasshopper doesn’t know I’m standing in front of it because I’m not. […]

The Most Dangerous Predator

Mikiko heard and smelled them coming. The contact wasn’t with them but she’d been told they would arrive about now. When the door was kicked open and half a dozen heavily armed agents burst into the room, Sienna jumped halfway off of Fleming just as his hand emerged from the underside of a chair holding […]