New Book Snippet

Hello!

Busy and busy and busy. What was I working on the last time I was here? Probably Touched by the Wild. The book is done, but the art work isn't. I'm afraid that just is going to have to wait. Too much to get done between now and NaNo, and then from NaNo until the end of the year. I think it's going to be a real busy, now that I think about it. Ack.

I am working on a new book -- well, the rewrite of an old one, actually. I'm enjoying it, too. Some of the parts have had drastic changes, some less so -- but the story. The title is Infiltration. It's an SF story. It has a two part story, worked together -- first, a team of Inner World Council Security Agents have a very dangerous assignment to infiltrate and take back command of a post that is devoted to creating very dangerous, experimental weapons.

They need someone with special skills for this one, and the person the head of the IWCS suggests is someone who may not be stable. A number of people have recently died who were connected to him -- members of another IWCS team, his family -- and there is a real question about why they died. Was it an accident? Did someone kill them? Is he responsible? The head of the IWCS doesn't think he's responsible. That doesn't mean he's safe to be around.

Kip is the head of the team. Allie, the other person in this scene, is a general PITA. Delphian is the guy with the problems.



Kip sealed the airlock door behind him and they waited while it cycled, neither of them speaking. When the inner door opened, they walked up the corridor, heading for the Delta's small lounge and kitchen. The hall curved a little and climbed on a slight incline heading past the two quarters -- the 'girls' on the right and his on the left... though now it was for him and Delphian. He wasn't used to that yet.

He noticed how the plain blue walls of the hall were beginning to show a bit of wear and the brown carpet had dirt spots. He needed to get her refitted soon and cleaned up a bit. Maybe after this case, if they got any down time. They hadn't had much of that lately.

"I'm really beginning to dislike this assignment," Kip admitted.

"That just hit you did it?" Allie said with a shake of her head. "I didn't like this assignment before we acquired Delphian."

"Then why are you going along?"

"You don't have to like an assignment to know it needs to be done." She shrugged and started heating water, waving him toward a chair. It was a small kitchen, and he'd just get in the way. "Hell, the ones you dislike the most are the ones that most need to be handled."

He agreed and sat back, wishing the others would get back to the ship soon. Allie brought him over a couple cookies and his favorite tea. She knew what he liked, just as he knew she was drinking coffee with extra sweetener. He knew what Estes and Gina liked... which made him wonder about Delphian. What were his tastes? What would make him feel more at home? They needed ease to work together, and as the head of the team, it was his job to find the ways that would make this as easy as possible. Besides, this little scout was large compared to the cramped quarters of the glider where they were going to live soon as they reached their destination and went to work. If they were not at ease with each other by then, it was going to be trouble on the mission.

"Kip?" Allie asked as she settled in the chair across from him.

"Just wondering how Delphian will fit in."

"He's competent, from what the reports say," she said. He'd known she had accessed them, of course. "He's even likeable, if you can over look the fact that a lot of people die around him."

"Those incidents where either years apart in time, or light years apart in distance. They're probably totally unrelated accidents."

"I hope to hell not!" she answered, startling him again. "I want someone to be responsible for those deaths, Kip. I'll even accept Delphian himself as the killer. I can watch for enemies, but if it's just fate that people die around him, then we don't stand a chance in hell of surviving!"