Beckton was waving a pair of troopers up to a delivery van that was missing most of its roof when he saw Osterley leap out from behind it and hare off up the street.

"What's that girl doing, sir?"

"That girl is Agent Osterley, Private Grouse. With me,…

It was the smell of geraniums that called it to mind again after all these years. My kid had picked a handful for me. I got a whiff of them and the years peeled back.

I had to water the garden, and I loved the geraniums best. I sang to them, I read them…

A glint of dark light. A pitch-black night sky, if you will, crisscrossed by dark galaxies, stars, constellations, darker even than black...

Nick awakens with a full-body shudder, and the monitor starts beeping furiously. A moment later, the pain hits h…

Tom looked around, but did not see anyone.

The voice said "Tom, enter the building in front of you and walk upstairs and to apartment 509." Tom did so.

"There is a large cardboard box sitting right before the apartment door", continued the voice. "I wa…

"Eve?...if ya ask me, God set 'er up fer failure."

"...bless 'er heart, but Eve never loved me. Well, she loved me like a person loves another, 'specially since there was so few of us. I suspect she was...more of a fella', in the romance department."

"M…

"She'll call." My girlfriend patted my shoulder comfortingly.

"No, she won't. She's stubborn like that; Taurus and all." I stared down at the blank screen of my cell phone.

"Well if she doesn't, forget her."

"Forget her!? She was the only person who di…

He sat in his car, parked in front of a small white house in Podunk, Florida. He had never been here before but he had been assured by the clerk at the sole convenience store on the edge of town that this was the house occupied by the woman who had just w…

Osterley approached Newkirk as he placed a sheet of waxed canvas on the floor and unscrewed the cap from a small metal cylinder. She didn't say anything, but smoothed out her skirts and knelt down with him.

The wizard handed her the canister, which she …

The spell took them to a much larger, high-ceilinged room. Beckton could instantly see that they had travelled some distance - they had left a cloudless day for a blustery one, and the air was charged with a stormy potential.

Further along from the circl…

Newkirk understood all too well. Everyone who had any sort of relevant experience pre-war had become drawn into that grand project, just as he was now being drawn to this one. Any successful continuing insight into the enemy's strategic decision-making wo…

The wizard was shaken out of his reverie by Ellesmere, who led them into a large room filled with teleprinters. The rapid-fire rattle of inked metal on paper was everywhere, though it faded a little as they made their way over to a large map table further…

A round-faced man who might have looked more at home in a butcher's or a grocer's shouldered his way in to talk to Newkirk. No divination required; the wizard remembered him from the past. He was an Ultra liason.

"Broadview. How are things at Bletchley?"…

Without confidence, I judged that it was my second day on the stair, and I was running low on food and water. Many of my supplies were sinking somewhere down in the valley mires. I shuddered at the memory of my escape.

When the twilit grey dulled, I rest…

After the Shadowed Valley, at the foothills of Mount Piru, I first saw the Ten Thousand Stares.

That is the literal translation. It is in fact a staircase, older than memory. Starkly simple yet curiously elegant grey slabs of stone, with matching baniste…

I'm such a loser.

There are a million excuses for not doing what I know I should do. Still, I don't do it.

I avoid it until the guilt is so heavy on my heart that I have to alleviate the pain. I have to stop not doing it and face it and just do it.

I…

In another city, on the other side of the world and two weeks after Larry's unfortunate disappearance, CIA Special Agent Peter Irving put on his dropsuit. The dropsuit bore a striking resemblance to matte-black scuba gear, which was no accident - in fact,…

Sundown, NM - Authorities report that a 180 metric ton blue whale fell from the sky last night and crushed longtime resident Maggie Mae (89) as she slept.

Chief Mike Bartlett, of the Sundown Police Department, states that no credible explanation for the …

"The bargain is this," I began. "A truce. An end to this petty war that began with my ancestors, that has led to so much death."

"NEVER!" the god roared, cutting me off. "WE WILL HAVE OUR VENG--"

I held up my blade again and said nothing. The god's mout…

Jacqueline signaled the bartender for another mojito. “It's not obvious to me.”

“Since your attack on Isla Quiribi, F.A.C.E. has split and some enterprising splinters are exploring a kind of freedom that didn't exist under Dr. Whitman.”

“You need me to …

I took a long drag off my cigarette as we passed a sign saying "insert city" population "insert number."

At this point they all blended together.

I flicked the butt out the window at nothing in particular.

"Nothing in particular" could have been this t…

He could feel her tenuous caress across his skin, cool and teasing. He turned slowly but never saw her except perhaps as a brief flicker of motion in his peripheral vision. In the diffuse and dim light, shapes at the limits of his vision often turned out …

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…

Story is marked as mature

I drag a finger along a wall as I walk around the room. I can feel the grainy surface of drywall and paint. Approaching the corner, my fingertips lift off the surface slightly, pulling further away as I draw closer to the junction of the adjoining wall.

…

Shy child in tatters

Winter's ward

Too weak and cold

To lift her sword

How hast thou come here?

Stumble toward

My outstretched arms, dear waif!

.

Sweet sprite of whimsy!

Tumbling round

The fairy circles

On the ground,

Be'est fille or faery,

Thou hast foun…