This has been a long week.
I did, finally, get somewhat into the swing of things today. I wrote 5k, and even got the DAZ newsletter finished. Finding the right pattern to doing things so that it fills up time is difficult. But here it is at 2 am, and I am finally getting the last of the work done and preparing to upload things for the night and go to bed.
Writing the Working for the Guild book is taking odd turns. I have a nice little outline still, but I keep thinking of things that I should write about farther back in the novel. I'm not doing it, though. I want to get this one to 50k and let it sit for a while, because I can see that there is a lot of interesting side material to explore. Instead, I'm just tacking all these notes on to the end of the work.
The other book, Gift, has been very helpful. I can write on it and feel like I'm making some progress. It's a light little story, unlike Guild, and easy to push ahead. I need that right now.
So here is a little snippet:
Cailin stepped forward and put a hand on the woman's shoulder, steadying her. Kenzie couldn't speak. Her body trembled.
She looked up again, this time at Zerod. "I couldn't think straight. I couldn't do anything but move along with the others, fearing that they'd learn it was my fault. And then you arrived, and I thought you were just another one of the group. They were still contacting me, demanding payment. I couldn't. I couldn't give them anything before, and less so now. I wanted them to kill me. I wanted it over with. Instead, they said they would make an example of Felisa Corporation so that the others would know better than to try and back out on them."
She reached into her pocket and held out a small chit. Her hand trembled so much that Cailin had to catch hold of it to take the chit, and she held on afterwards, when it was apparent that Kenzie was slipping faster toward collapse.
"That-- that's a copy of the chit I gave to the IWC woman. It's everything. I've even added the last few conversations that came. . . . afterwards. I just -- I --"
Cailin grabbed hold of her as she collapsed. Collins had arrived and obviously heard enough to understand what was going on. He had an injector in hand and pressed it to her neck. She seemed to relax a little.
"Come with me Kenzie," Collin said softly. "Come with me and you can rest for a while."
"Rest," she repeated. The word was dull, lacking all sign of emotion. Zerod didn't think it came from the drug either. "Yes, rest."
He took her arm and led her away, back through the door. Outside, some of the people still in the compound looked on with obvious shock to see Kenzie in this state. Zerod thought her condition even brought a little more panic to them; it was as if their last pillar of strength had given way. He'd never considered how Kenzie's ability to look strong in the midst of this disaster had helped others to survive.
"Damn," Royce whispered looking toward the door where she had gone. "I never thought it would be anything like this. What do we do now?"
"Broadcast whatever she has on the chit," Zerod said. He hadn't thought he could shock them now, but all three looked at him with a mixture of disbelief and distrust. "She was trying to do the right thing and get the news out to someone else. We haven't the (something) to try and do it quietly. Send the information on the chit to Vidline News."
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