Let's get down to business,

Let's talk.

Your selfishness has grown and grown,

To the point of no return.

See, you are the baby girl of the family,

Everyone caters to your every whim,

You think that you are the be all end all..

But let me stop you right th…

Apart from Ryle, the other thing that the captain (and, of course, he would not be the first to do so) would ask about was the shooting. And, since there was nothing but my own supposition, I was more than happy to tell him about marksmanship.

There are …

There was a camera - small, hidden - mounted on the hood of Trinity Keane's car, scanning forward in millimeter-wave, visible, and infrared. All of this transmitted itself to her bionic eye, in an offputting but, she had to admit, useful way - the visible…

He gazes up from his desk

At the pencil-slanted rain

A myriad little stories

Creeping down his window pane

As his hand fondles his pen

Potential from within

He wonders what to write

What they will think of him

Too many to catch

With his flimsy net

Ideas w…

The lantern swung indolently from its fixture, casting skulking shadows around the stone cell. The only sound was the steady drip, drip of water between the stonework, falling gently onto the figure strewn out on the cold lockup floor. The woman bore mark…

Forswear sesquipidalian garrulousness, communicating antidisestablishmentarian memoranda.

"So that's what that does," I said as the stars went out, "I'd always wondered."

The battery of sensors in the hood of the police car tracked the signal, the shining beacon of radio waves emanating from the van. It plotted the location onto a GPS map in the dashboard.

Meanwhile, a small army of police waited behind the barricade. Near…

(This was written under the influence of two bottles of wine and a complete disregard for grammar)

There is a belief that, if you look close enough at the bark of trees, you'll see yourself in the grooves.

You, who are made of flesh and blood and mushy…

Sadie straightened and cast around for Astarlane. She spotted her bracing against a rock a few dozen metres distant, getting to her feet.

In the distance, there was unmistakably orcish shouting. Sadie motioned for close formation and advanced slowly.

Gu…

The record turned, the sound of white noise held my attention more than the music. I wanted to drown in it, like waves of the ocean. Suddenly it was too overwhelming, the music, the ocean of static, my restlessness. I turned it off, the record needle gri…

Sadie dodged Tenever's second blow, instinctively returning a feinting hit that caught him in the side. He collapsed under the force of the strike, grabbing her shoulders instead.

"Sadie!"

She twisted her shoulders to throw him, reaching for her combat …

You wake to the shivers of dreaming, cold sweats and stifling, suffocating, scratching sheets.

Torn into reality like paper.

It leaks through the holes like static, influences and misdirects, reality as uncomfortable as the humidity soaking through st…

The old man wasn't the only person in the van. In the driver's compartment, Trinity Keane switched between police stations. The content was almost entirely banal - robberies, traffic, drug possession, et cetera - but now and then, the interesting happened…

The opening was busy but dull for Felicity. Her sisters passively told her she was in the way and eventually, instead of trying to help, she sat on the curb outside the shop. Sultana plopped down next to her on the scorched sidewalk.

"Heya. They knock ya …

Sadie sat in silence with four others while their up-armored civilian vehicle swerved through the afternoon traffic towards the hostage site. Every piece of equipment gleamed, new and fit-for-purpose - a stark contrast to her military days. In private mil…

The first police presence came in the form of a formation of drones, small and silver, hardly visible in the morning light. They flew from their base, along Hyacinth Street, and collectively pulled into a dive as they approached.

An unobtrusive antenna at…

"Son," he rasped, laying in his bed, sweating through the sheets.

"I'm here, Dad."

"Son, I need you to make the delivery."

"Dad, I'm not part of this family business! I made my life elsewhere!"

Coughing erupted from the old man and lasted for a full 30 se…

Of all the hazards Astarlane had dealt with in the past, psychotropics were by far the worst. Raiders, toxics, traps - those, she felt, were honest dangers.

But the psychotropics weren't like that. They used you - used your inner demons against you. It …

I had to go, I could not take him with me. I left him in his cage.

Something happened. It happened almost too fast to react to it. As I drive down the freeway, I think about him. I left Oscar in the care of a friend, even though I knew my friend was not …

The day of the Cow Rite had arrived, like a lover who had blacked out overnight and had finally come home from the pub. As the day dawned, a mauve haze like a spill of off-coloured milk on the dairy floor of the horizon, the fields blossomed with daffodil…

To understand why Mike Green had begun to scream, one must merely look at the events of a few seconds earlier.

Then, an old man had sat in a windowless van, ensconced in soundproofing, and raised a small radio to his lips. "Begin," he declared tonelessly,…

A friendship gone

Forever lost

Indiscretion

Brought the Frost

So much in common

Yet years apart

So many differences

Lies of the heart

Deception takes on

Many forms

Resulting in

Abandoned norms

Out of sight

Not out of mind

Ease of pain

A Difficult fin…

"So, I heard you were in town?"

He could practically hear Mike Green's intense grin over the phone. In college, she had been his best friend. Shortly thereafter, they had parted ways - Gonçalves to Freetalk, Green to some analytics firm bound by sheafs of…

Ryle was a powerful force, to say the least. He provided an impetus, an undeniable single-minded focus on the task at hand that defied setbacks, distractions and complications. He would have been a superb operator in any scenario.

What I brought to the p…