James Pyles's Blog, page 181
November 5, 2017
The Search for Armageddon
“It’s just a camera. Where’s the special device you told me about?” “It’s quite special Mikiko, if you’ll allow me to explain.” Everyone called Desmond Llewelyn an “old curmudgeon,” but the Japanese agent found him endearing, sort of how she remembered Sofu. For the past year, he’d been outfitting her for missions assigned by their two governments. “It’s a sophisticated sensor […]
November 4, 2017
Restoring a Lost Eden (Expanded)
It was dark but they still had to be careful. Ever since the anti-Fascists took over the country, Germans were being rounded up, incarcerated, and brutally interrogated for information related to the Nazis. The woman looked to be thirty to thirty-five years old and about six months pregnant which was obvious even through the overcoat she was wearing. She […]
Eden Denied Her
“Senora, everyone else has fled. It is not safe for you here.” “A moment longer, Juan.” They stood by the car looking at the distant Eden Hotel. Then the ten-year-old boy emerged from the shadows. “I got it for you. He visited here once in disguise as did Herr Goebbels, Herr Eichmann and many others.” […]
November 3, 2017
The Deserter
“Son, your mother and I tried to talk you out of enlisting, remember?” “I do, Pa.” “Now things are a lot worse, Boy. I mean, where can you go? Just everyone hates you.” Reid hung his head down, the features of his handsome, boyish face sagging under the weight of guilt and remorse. “I…I don’t […]
Time is the Fire
Los Alamitos, California – Friday, 3 November 2017 – 8:01 a.m. He knew she had been terrified, desperate, but that was no excuse. Without balance the universe couldn’t exist, well except for that imbalance called entropy. The universe was moving slowly, inexorably from order to disorder, but Yama couldn’t let the breakers accelerate that process. […]
November 2, 2017
Woman in the Shadows
“So, just exactly what are her capabilities, Professor? The information will be necessary for my report.” Hiro Takeshi was the special liaison between the Project and the Prime Ministers of both Japan and the United Kingdom. He had already received periodic updates as to Mikiko Jahn’s progress for the past three years, but the world’s only […]
Saving Gremlin Town
“Ready, Landon?” “I guess.” Eight-year-old Landon and his friend and teacher Buddy, the small Ambrosial Dragon, were in the center of his bedroom. After the boy’s recent adventures with Gremlins, Buddy had determined that evil forces from other dimensions might be able to gain access to their world through the Gremlin’s realm. Buddy said he […]
Woman Under Repair
When they heard her laughing, they thought she might actually be hurt. It didn’t sound like real laughter. More like one of those novelty store laugh bags, mechanical laughing, maniacal laughing. Mikiko hadn’t owned her life for the past three years, ever since the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant, the one that had […]
November 1, 2017
Burn Victim
“She’s seizing again, Doctor.” “It’s a seizure alright, and it’s because she’s panicking. Can’t you bloody fools keep her sedated?” Professor Daniel Hunt had Ph.Ds in Cybernetics and Synthetic Biology, but not only was he no medical doctor, he had the bedside manner of a highly annoyed badger. “Thank you, Professor. We’ll handle it.” Dr. Tate […]
The Reconstructed Woman
Mikiko Jahn never forgot that she was no longer human, although the casual or even careful observer would hardly notice. She was what Professor Daniel Hunt once referred to as “the happy accident” (he hadn’t realized she was listening when he said it). The Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant disaster was a lot more severe […]
