When I got up, the house was cold. I thought at first, that the weather must have taken a really drastic turn for the worse.
The cats were not happy.
And neither was I when I realized the reason it was so cold is one of the electric heaters had stopped working. Great. No furnace and now the heaters are giving out. I finally had to take the one from my office and put it out in the living room because it was just far too cold.
So now it's really cold in my office. We tried to move me out there, but we can't find either the long cable or the wireless card we had for the computer.
I am really starting to get annoyed.
I didn't write a lot today. It's not only because of this. I also remembered that I needed to do the Sangre story update in Zette's Storybook Blog. There were 60 plus pages of story to edit and code to go up, so that took awhile. But it was fun and the story made me laugh.
So here is a bit of a snippet.
He rode with Cailin, feeling an uncomfortable surge of worry. He wasn't used to battles. He didn't like the feel of going in with all the others, with so many lives on the line at one time.
He hadn't much liked this case from the start, now that he thought about it. He had come looking for an enemy, or at worst, a small group of people, who were responsible for what happened.
Now he faced another assassin and a group of mercenaries.
"Almost there," Cailin said. She had been talking into the commlink and he really hadn't listened. Maybe he should have paid more attention and know what was going on.
He didn't think it would help. This was not his kind of battle.
He could see the hotels ahead, a line like gap-toothed teeth against a line of blue lake. It looked like a wonderful place for a vacation, but not the location where he wanted to fight a battle.
If he told Cailin this wasn't a good idea, he had no doubt she would pull back. It wasn't a good idea. He knew it -- and yet, he knew that it wasn't going to get better.
"Zerod?" she asked, looking into his face. "Go or not?"
"Go," he said. He regretted it immediately, even knowing the necessity. "Go. We won't have a second chance."
"Aircar lifting ahead," the pilot said, glancing back at them. "Someone has the ability to counter the computer lock down, just like you said."
She nodded and went to work, ordering her people. Three aircars forced the first of the enemy cars down, but by then two more were in the air.
Cailin's people knew exactly what to do. They forced the aircars back down, one after another, into the square before the hotels.
"I've got a prelim count of fourteen in those cars," Cailin said. "I think that's the largest of the groups. That's where we're heading."
"Royce?"
"Going after the group at the other hotel. They were slower to get to their aircars, and they went straight down to the street level. I have two groups going in through the roofs of the hotels. We're going to have to hope everyone takes the warning and stays out of the way. I can't get you to the lobby and the computer."
He nodded. She had drawn her laser. He did the same and then took a deep breath that returned a little calm to his thoughts. He was ready when they landed.
They had some cover. Laser fire already sent streaks of lightning through the air, leaving scorch marks across the wall where he and Cailin scrambled to get out of the way. Cailin was busy sending orders, and Zerod took it as his personal job to keep her covered. It helped; he had something specific to do, and he took the work seriously. When the first wave of mercenaries nearly broke through, he was the one who stood and took three out in quick succession, though that won him a very painful burn across this left arm.
Cailin grabbed him and pulled him back down.
"Are you crazy?" she demanded, pulling him back a full yard before she finally let go.
"I didn't want them any closer," he said. "How is it going out there?"
"We're about to get help," she said. "They're coming through the hotel and down to ground level. I suspect our friends out there have picked up on it, and that's why they're suddenly so keen on getting to us."
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