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Thursday 15 January 2025 10:10:45 PM CST

Thursday 15 January 2025 10:22:54 AM CST

This one is only from 2007 or so and not that classic compared to the 1983 set. That was the one where Greg Lake filled in for John Wetton who was having some health problems at the time. It was broadcast on MTV (that was when MTV did music instead of the trash that prevailed from the early 1990s. I imagine there was no Asia on MTV long before that and that the song that it launched with was the Buggles song and Geoff Downes as a member was a creator. For those that don't know Geoff is best known for his lengthy career with Asia and some projects with Asia bandmate John Wetton.
The one disappointment for me is that this doesn't include one or the thoroughly awesome peformance of Open Your Eyes while the 1983 set does. I have quite a few vids of Asia - dunno how many were official releases with OYE. Like to crank that one and it's probably the most crankable Asia song. Both do have The Heat Goes On and there's just about always a drum solo. Sometimes he'd do it on Wildest Dreams but I don't seem to remember a lot of those.

Those who know this stuff know Greg and Carl Palmer were in Emerson, Lake and Palmer and Steve Howe was in Yes. Carl was in Atomic Rooster but probably not many people know what that was. I seem to remember the Rooster was a three-piece at the beginning with an organ and guitar and drums so similar to ELP not so much in style though. I'm only familiar with their first two albums as a feller I knew back in the day had them and played them a lot. He did a lot of drugs and drank a lot and was a little off upstairs to begin with - high IQ and in the elite class with me through high school but there was always a little something wrong and there got to be more and more of it as time went by. Certainly the chemicals didn't improve him and eventually he was locked up and administered some heavy-duty chemicals and died at thirty-six and change.

Here as in a lot of their shows they do some ELP and King Crimson and Buggles stuff. Here it's the MTV song and the title track from In The Court of the Crimson King ELP's Copland cover. John and Greg performed the Buggles' Elstree on one show I got and I prefer it to the other. It's a more mature take on showbiz but of course most of the critics didn't get it. They rarely do.

Been there done that and got the cheap T-shirt on the chemicals anyway. How getting my kidneys wrecked by doctor screwup and then locked up near-comatose in an alleged hospital with a another crazy doctor pumping crazy people drugs into me that is. Kidneys recovered but the rest of me was a wreck for a long time.

Whiskey of the day is Ancient Age. I buy it in fifths so I don't have to handle the plastic bottle and be reminded of the insult done to innocent whiskey. Wickedpedia tells me it's produced at Buffalo Trace where a bunch of others are made including Charter. They say it aged three years and that seems about right but dunno if it was always that way. It was a fish-fry jug in my youth when I's a young pup with older bankers and havin' them pretty regular. Couple old guys would take a jug by the handle with their thumb and tilt it up and slug some down. One of them was had been a Marine and kinda bombastic but he was one of the few that didn't drink and drive. I'd go somewhere with one or the other of the others and most would hit the likker store as soon as business was concluded and drink a while and get back after the bank closed and most everbody was gone. He'd married a rich widow and he died sometime in his sixties and she married again. Other guy just recently died somewhere in his eighties.

Been likin' the Drew Estate sticks lately, the little ones in tins of ten. Being down to one a day and sometimes none it take a while to go through a shipment but colder weather I out more. Get disapproving looks sometimes from my favorite people and I like them too much to have them worryin' about me.

The winter panels are in the screen rooms on both decks and they comfortable in even the coldest weather with a 50K or so patio heater so smokin' completely outdoors or just kinda is possible.

I never featured the first Executioner book before. The Destroyer either for that matter. They the origin stories as they say in the comics. Read both on the school bus back in the day so it was before 1972 when I got my driver's license. It came out in 1969 so that about right. Somebody at school had it like most the trash I read. My copy is not from first printing (as the astute reader will deduce) and I've seen pics of the first run but never a live copy. Interestingly there is a website with body counts for body counts and lists of peoples killed in such trash and the premiere entry in the Mack Bolan universe has a healthy 141 but about half were NVA and VC he popped in 'Namtwo of whom are of the female variety but that is Mack's mother and sister. His dad kilt them and hisself because he was the victim of Mafia loansharks and went nuts. How many women Mack punch tickets for later on? Good question - pretty sure there were some but none come to mind just now.

Since this is where we get the ball rolling it starts with Mack (a celebrated sniper in Viet Nam) coming home because of the aforementioned massacre. His younger brother survived and will show up occasionally in later tales. Anyhow upon learning of the circumstances Mack decides to kill all the Mafia. He initially infiltrates - after smoking several low-level employees - and applies for a job as a replacement for one.

Well, they figure out soon enough who he is and he has to kill quite a few more. Now they out to get him and they got a big reward for his head and he got to disappear for a while and figure on how to kill all the rest. That'll take a couple hundred books.

I guess forty-two years is old enough to be classic. That was how long ago Dirty Harry returned for the penultimate and probably best of the series. Sittin' in the theatre you could hear when he come walking into the courthouse at the beginning people sayin 'he looks old'. Seems he figured he was getting a little old for it as well and was probably glad the next and last one was so bad so they wouldn't ask him to do any more.

Along with the iconic 'do you feel lucky' Sudden Impact gives us the equal iconic 'go ahead, make my day'. Both are good but the latter used by Ronaldus Magnus in a speech. The first movie and Sudden Impact had two of the best psychos and while the first one was pretty crazy this one was just mean. Seeing him get it was especially fun.

Sondra Locke joins him again for this one - I didn't care much for Bronco Billy and the Every Which Way... movies but The Gauntlet was real good and of course The Outlaw Josey Wales was as much fun as any Dirty Harry flick.

They were living together about this time and the relationship hadn't gone south yet and her performance is probably as good as in The Gauntlet but somehow I liked her better in The Gauntlet

Weird snack of the day

Alex crawled deeper into the area under the big cedars, glad he had never trimmed them as he had occasionlly considered. The lower branches were on the ground, and in the summer nothing could be seen even by someone standing a few feet away. The ground was covered with a layer of the tiny needles. He was glad it was dry.

Where's Cassandra? Close, but I can't see her. She can't speak, how can she let me know?

"Cass," he called softly, "if you can hear me make your way over here."

She had to be close. He waited.

Eyes adjusted to the low light, he looked around. The trunks of the trees were only a foot or so thick. He looked left and right, waited.

Like to be closer to the outside, but then they might see us. Eventually they'll get the idea we got away from the house, start beating the bushes out here.

They might hide for quite a while, but eventually they'd be found.

A nearby branch moved. Cassandra crawled from under it.

There you are. Now where are we?

The trees covered a small area near the edge of the cliff, but an area about a hundred yards wide had been cleared there. The house was about that far from the trees. They might cross the clear space and climb down.

His commlink buzzed. He looked at the screen.

Finally. Scotty.

He keyed the mike.

"Hey man, you got our twenty?"

"Hang on," Scott replied.

Alex turned the speaker volume down. Looked over at Cassandra. She was close enough to hear the conversation. And so might anyone near the trees.

"Gotcha." Scott said. "You under those trees?"

"Yeah. How's it look from up there?"

"Lemme zoom in."

Balance of Power (2022)

Some day I won't even dignify these with a comment but today is not that day. Even their own people admit there is zilch on Donald Trump and what there is - if anything serious ever gets exposed - will be mostly Dims and their allies.

Some of President Trump's supporters got upset when he invited the commie mayor-elect to visit and treated him politely and made some jokes and stuff. How they don't know by now that it was exactly the way to handle it - let the guy come in this convicted criminal and this convicted criminal will be part of his administration.

What, Chris?

Yeah, he might want to make sure the rapper is still alive come January. Didha see that mayor in Minneapolis talkin' in Somali lingo and eatin' Somali food. Looked like he about to get sick and trying to avoid eating any more? One of what I guess was a Somilian beside and just behind him grinnin' like...

What, Chris?

Wasn't gonna say it. Figured you'd bail me out.

As someone observed -it is the fucking aroundest of times, it is the finding outest of times. A lot of these people are professionals and for whatever reason they don't stop. Federal agents of any kind are not obligated to allow themselves to be injured and when you create a chaotic situation the chaos affects the flight of projectiles. ~~ Does it matter that President Trump is declassifying architects as professionals? According to some - wait for it.... diversity. I notice that most are Medical Industry types and with what they get paid they should be able to get their loans paid off pretty quick. There some others but accountants and engineers should do all right. Weren't for the abuse of the student loans we wouldn't be in this fix. As someone said the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil. ~~ Still some question as to whether he said "pigggy" or the name of the alleged journalist. I admit it sounded a bit like piggy but there some room for doubt. In any case this is about a woman who took a two-day bus to protest President Trump for the seventy-second time. Seems they were wearing piggy noses and Handmaid's Tale capes. All about the usual stuff. ~~ Ozone layer been here and there for long before it became yet another reason for various foolishness. Which is to say it been gettin' bitter and smaller for as long as people been watching it. ~~ I confess to having read one of those porn paperbacks back in the day. Kid at school had it and I got bored a few pages in. The kinda stuff some schools taking out of their libraries or restricting to older students is about that level. ~~ Surprised there any Ukrainian men capable of running that haven't done so. If the Biden regime hadn't taken over the government with their puppet and tried to put it into NATO along with all the drugs/arms/human-trafficking going on there Putin wouldn't have attacked them. ~~ People that never had a problem with Jerry Mandering when it allowed blue states to freeze out Republicans don't like it now that the red states can do the same. ~~ I wonder if fake meat ever gets to be a big thing it will being included in the hoofprint? Pretty sure not. ~~ The reasons given range from medical deserts to cuts in Medicaid and stuff like that.

Not ready for the kind they been trying to put in. Most of us will take a Maggie Thatcher if one becomes available. I thought at one time that the present govern of Arkansas might be good to slip in by running her with DeSantis after the second Vance term. Now it looks like if we get a two-term Vance that Rubio might be in line for the top spot on the next ticket. That would make her and Desantis a little old. Not that I'm impressed by her beyond her decent political skills. Knows how to say the right things at right time and not too much wrong things.

With the border closed we'll have a lot less of that. Canada doesn't seem to learn or just doesn't want to deal with reality. They still doing all the bad stuff people here was and some worse. I remember when Kevorkian was controversial. He was one creepy dude for sure. Don't have any statistics for it here but it seems to be fairly unusual no more than I hear about it. So with people in Canada reportedly being pressured into being done in or even euthanized in some cases it seems kinda creepy. Like Kevokian.

I heard too many guys that was there say their indig assistants weren't that trustworthy and quite a few accounts of them turning on the Americans to not believe that some of those made it over here. In fact I'd be surprised if many didn't. But whether this guy got worse after he got here and who helped him to so hardly matters. Noem shouldn't have said so in any case - she not the bimbo that Bondi is but not much better. Both need a minder to prevent this stuff. Bondi needs to be given a script and told to stick to it and even then the way she talks...

What, Chris?

Yeah. Enough politics anyway. Wanna do some Memphis next?

The usual suspects still claiming the xAI facilities makin' them sick. The methane generators they don't like don't even run unless there a power failre. Not that those are uncommon in Memphis. Nor is bad air quality:

While Shelby County has recorded the dirtiest air in Tennessee for many years -- half the state's admissions for childhood asthma come from there — local residents say the arrival of Colossus has made things worse.

New York Times

Many years bein' as long as I been alive. What I don't get is why it so dirty when about all the industry has left.

This is about that cop that kilt a dude and done it while he was on the clock. The one where he got the victim in his police car and shot him dead and dumped his body in the river. Believe that was one of two items I mentioned a while a back about bodies being found in bodies of water.

What, Chris?

No, it the Wolf River. It runs into the Mississippi though. Seems the I-240 loop crosses it somewhere that I used to drive over it going to. I guess if somebody heaved a body into the big river it'd be gone downstream pretty quick and if nobody saw it happen. Had a couple of people jumped off bridges lately. Guessing they was both on the I-40 but not sure - that'd be the easier one.

This is an update as well - finally having the trial. There a couple of dodgy doctors here in NEA about that time - one in Forrest City and it seems the other in Left Memphis. Neither was the one doing naughty stuff in the office and making videos of him doing naughty stuff in the office. All happened to him was he lost his license.

Twelve in-custody deaths works out to pretty close to one a month. Averaging of course - seems there was a month or two they had more than one. That was said to be in a calendar year. Couple of suicides and some drugs but a couple of cardiovasclar illness types. Sayin' somebody 'passed due to suicide' seems kinda strange but I guess they was looking for something other than 'committed suicide' and that was the best they could manage.

"OK," Scott said after a couple of minutes, "they're milling around the house, must be a hundred. Or more. Looks like they may be about to break in, start a search. They don't know you're not in there?"

"Apparently not. What's the area between here and the house look like."

"Most of the vehicles are parked in front, along the drive. They're still moving some of them, parking them and getting out, going to join the others in front. There's a cordon about a hundred feet out, maybe a little more."

"Is the drive clear?"

"Affirmative."

"All the way to the edge of the cliff?"

"Affirmative."

"What are our chances of getting to one of the cars?"

"Hang on, lemme see."

"You OK?" Alex asked Cassandra.

She gave him an OK sign.

"Hang loose," he said. "We're gonna have to improvise. Again."

Smile. Never shows any fear. Trusts me, and I keep gettin' us in jams.

But her fear nerve had done dead before she met me.

"OK," Scott said, "they're all surrounding the house. I don't see any near you. There are several at the gate."

"What are our chances of getting to one of those cars?"

"Wait a sec...

"If you stay low you might get to them, if no one happens to look your way at a bad time. The nearest ones are a couple hundred feet from the trees."

"No danger of them seeing your eye?"

"Nah, it's pretty high. But they may have some of their own up, probably do in fact."

"How about the end of the drive, where it ends at the edge of the cliff?"

"No one there. What are you thinking?"

"Probably something you won't like."

Balance of Power (2022)

These people are probably acquainted with the facts - that the rich pay (depending on the cutoff) anywhere from 70-90% of taxes while half the population pays nothing and a lot of that gets "refunds" which are also paid for by those rich people. So what do you call someone who knows the facts and denies them. I am about 94% certain that if President Trump had not prevailed in the last election the plan to deprive Elon Musk of all his assets and put him in prison. I recently re-read Taylor Caldwell's The Devil's Advocate and that description of the infrastructure (among other things) is pretty close to where we would be in a few years. This book and Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged suffer from not being as polished as some works but accurately depict the future if the left again acquires power at the national level.

As usual Branco needs no words.

I don't know what the current condition of HK is but this kind of stuff didn't happen under the previous management. ~~ Hope the new antivenoms they come up with don't kill the victim quicker than the bite. ~~ That bull looks like the statue on Wall Street only not black. Wonder if the little girl is still there. What about Argentina? The entire country benefits. ~~ I doubt the CDC could go lower than it was under the previous regime. ~~ Only black borrowers? I believe I may know the cause. Good idea and should have been done long ago. ~~ If we can have sane government for ten years or so we could be close to that. But they don't mean nuclear - the cleanest there is. ~~ Maybe he should resign and let someone else do it.

Not much info on this. Being a federal investigation if it isn't terrorism of child porn I would guess money. Cities get money from the federal government to do stuff like parks and recreation and all. City government - whatever they know or don't know - can just say they can't comment on an ongoing investigation. NEA Report had a lot more with pics of (FBI?) vehicles and stuff. No pics of them toting out computers but may well have happened. Here's the KJNB link.

Jerry Haynes tapped a quick series of Ctrl-Ws and Ctrl-Qs to close the windows and a couple of Ctrl-Ds to close the terminal. Click the shutdown button and select restart. Pull the USB stick when the bios message appears. He dropped the stick into a pocket and went to the door.

"Hello, Jerry. Long time no see."

It had indeed been a while since he had seen Special Agent Al Speer. His first name was Alfred and always made Jerry think of the Nazi war criminal which was a good reason for him not to use it. But a lot of Alfreds and Alberts went by Al. Still between FBI agents these days and Nazis there wasn't a good choice to associate them with.

Balance of Power - 2022

Luckily the really sick people don't think to protect their computers and phones that way. How dumb can you be to keep all that stuff where it's so easy to find? I wouldn't be that kind of criminal or any other but if I was up to stuff that might get me put in prison any computers that could be taken away from me would be diskless and run from a USB stick or external drive. If very many criminals were smart we'd be in a lot of trouble.

Don't reckon I ever heerd of Golden Chick. Anyway they gettin' one in Jonestown. Of course they don't telly you much except it sells chicken. Cooked chicken parts . Looks tasty enough but I don't eat in public places much or anything that tastes good on account of wanting to keep my weight down. Psychopharmaceuticals mess up a lot of stuff including your metabolism and I can go for a couple of days without eating or losing any weight.

Speaking of KJNB they like KAIT put national news on the front page. Seems what they sayin' is a lot of people in the EU afraid there gonna be a war with Russia afore long. Between some of them governments wanting it and continuing to keep Ukraine afloat it may happen. If the Biden regime hadn't installed a puppet to turn Ukraine into an interntional crime headquarters AND try to put a NATO state on Russia's front porch that wouldn't have happened. And if Trump hadn't got elected again we might well be in it with them.

Believe this was in the news a while back, or the cause anyway for the investigation. I believe Earle is where the mayor is the very young man who was the youngest elected mayor or the youngest elected black mayor in the U.S.A. but don't remember which. Chris probably don't know and would have to google it.

Wynne Progress don't report much crime but dunno whether there is a lot or not. This dude should be in a lot of trouble but a lot of things should be. Lessee, Simultaneous possession of drugs and firearms Possession of a Schedule IV or V controlled substance with the purpose to deliver, Possession of Schedule I or II controlled substance with purpose to deliver, Possession of methamphetamine or cocaine with purpose to deliver, Possession of a Schedule III controlled substance with the purpose to deliver, Criminal use of property, Possession of drug paraphernalia, Resisting arrest, Obstructing governmental operations, Proximity enhancement, Failure to register, Fictitious license plate sticker, No turn signal. Wonder if the turn signal was what got him stopped?

"Got a feeling I aready don't," Scott said. "Hang on for a few minutes. Carol is trying to raise someone at the Freehold. It'll take a while for them to figure out you're not in the house."

"You know it's a kill order. They even see us, the only way we leave here is in bags."

"I know. Give me a few minutes."

"We're about to make a move. Catch you in about ten."

"Wait, Alex. Give me...."

Alex killed the connection. He'd been on too long already, and they might already have a fix on him.

"Ready?" he asked Cassandra.

She nodded.

Together they crawled to the edge of their cover and surveyed the area.

As Scott had said, it was about two hundred feet to the nearest police cars. He knew the keys would be in them.

"If we can get a car," he said, "and get back to where the drive circles around in front of the house, we've got over a quarter mile to the edge of the cliff. The cliff hangs out far enough that if you go straight down you'll just hit the edge of the water. It gets deep quickly as you go out. Sound good?"

She nodded.

Okey-dokey. Let's do it.

Cassandra adjusted her rig, the twin Beretta 96A1s snug against her sides, the double magazine carriers on the belt.

Hope there's no shooting, but if there is we'll take a few of them with us.

He checked his own identical rig. Scanned the area. No one around the cars.

They moved out, bent slightly to stay hidden behind the vehicles. As they reached the nearest one Alex opened the door and got in, Cassandra got in on the other side. Alex turned the key, looked at the instrument panel.

Three quarters fuel. No problem there.

He'd have to do a fast study once they were moving. If the drive was clear it would be a simple matter of driving around the loop and once going straight, towards the cliff's edge, firewall the throttle and hang on.

"Buckle up," he said. "And keep your head down. If all they see is a man in a cop car they might not pay attention. And lose your weapons, you can't swim with them."

He unfastened his own rig and shrugged it off, laying one of the Berettas on the seat where he could reach it if necessary.

He lowered the windows. They probably wouldn't be able to open the doors with the car floating, better to climb out before it flooded.

He started the engine and drove off the grass onto the driveway. It was clear all the way to the house and to the cliff. The drive circled an area about a hundred feet in diameter. He could be going twenty to thirty miles per hour, and had had another quarter mile to accelerate.

A couple of cops looked at him as he entered the circular section, but none indicated alarm. He completed the circle and accelerated down the straight section. He looked in the mirror and saw a few people moving.

Too late now suckers.

He looked at the speedometer. Eighty and climbing fast. He glanced over at Cassandra.

Calm as always. Don't let me get us killed.

Balance of Power (2022)

Trump has brought more smaller government than Reagan did. And the "vaccines" not only didn't work but apparently killed a lot of people but don't let reality intrude. Who condoned pedophilia? I know a lot of Dims and their allies do, along with sexual mutilation of children and that stuff. Probably a reference to the Epstein stuff and Trump is so far from that (execpt in the demented minds of people like this) you gotta wonder what is's like in those heads. Not that I wanna know.

As usual Branco sez a thousand words with a pic.

Where are all these hungry people? Only ones I know of are the derelicts who are too stoned or otherwise addled to eat. Get them off the streets and clean'em up and feed'em if you can but is you can to that I don't know what you do. In any case it has nothing to do with "Trump's policies'. ~~ Viruses do that.~~ With the "Somali coummuity" 80% on welfare and ripping off billions to send to Somalia they need to be singled out. And removed. ~~ Duh! ~~ Kinda useless without the U.S. being there to give it credibility ~~ If someone can explain Democrat brains I'm listening. But they also tell lies all the time so there's that. ~~ He does have a way with words. ~~ That was the disastrous flight from Afghanistan. We shoulda never been there but at least President Trump had a plan for leaving. ~~ Another attempted perversion of a word.

xxxx@MyndCryme

Xxxxx Xxxxxxx (2022)

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Where's Cassandra? Close, but I can't see her. She can't speak, how can she let me know?

"Cass," he called softly, "if you can hear me make your way over here."

She had to be close. He waited.

Eyes adjusted to the low light, he looked around. The trunks of the trees were only a foot or so thick. He looked left and right, waited.

Like to be closer to the outside, but then they might see us. Eventually they'll get the idea we got away from the house, start beating the bushes out here.

They might hide for quite a while, but eventually they'd be found.

A nearby branch moved. Cassandra crawled from under it.

There you are. Now where are we?

His commlink buzzed. He looked at the screen.

Finally. Scotty.

He keyed the mike.

"Hey man, you got our twenty?"

"Hang on," Scott replied.

Alex turned the speaker volume down. Looked over at Cassandra. She was close enough to hear the conversation. And so might anyone near the trees.

"Gotcha." Scott said. "You under those trees?"

"Yeah. How's it look from up there?"

"Lemme zoom in."

Balance of Power (2022)

"Apparently not. What's the area between here and the house look like."

"Is the drive clear?"

"Affirmative."

"All the way to the edge of the cliff?"

"Affirmative."

"What are our chances of getting to one of the cars?"

"Hang on, lemme see."

"You OK?" Alex asked Cassandra.

She gave him an OK sign.

"Hang loose," he said. "We're gonna have to improvise. Again."

Smile. Never shows any fear. Trusts me, and I keep gettin' us in jams.

But her fear nerve had done dead before she met me.

"OK," Scott said, "they're all surrounding the house. I don't see any near you. There are several at the gate."

"What are our chances of getting to one of those cars?"

"Wait a sec...

"If you stay low you might get to them, if no one happens to look your way at a bad time. The nearest ones are a couple hundred feet from the trees."

"No danger of them seeing your eye?"

"Nah, it's pretty high. But they may have some of their own up, probably do in fact."

"How about the end of the drive, where it ends at the edge of the cliff?"

"No one there. What are you thinking?"

"Probably something you won't like."

Balance of Power (2022)

"Got a feeling I aready don't," Scott said. "Hang on for a few minutes. Carol is trying to raise someone at the Freehold. It'll take a while for them to figure out you're not in the house."

"You know it's a kill order. They even see us, the only way we leave here is in bags."

"I know. Give me a few minutes."

"We're about to make a move. Catch you in about ten."

"Wait, Alex. Give me...."

Alex killed the connection. He'd been on too long already, and they might already have a fix on him.

"Ready?" he asked Cassandra.

She nodded.

Together they crawled to the edge of their cover and surveyed the area.

As Scott had said, it was about two hundred feet to the nearest police cars. He knew the keys would be in them.

She nodded.

Okey-dokey. Let's do it.

Cassandra adjusted her rig, the twin Beretta 96A1s snug against her sides, the double magazine carriers on the belt.

Hope there's no shooting, but if there is we'll take a few of them with us.

He checked his own identical rig. Scanned the area. No one around the cars.

Three quarters fuel. No problem there.

"Buckle up," he said. "And keep your head down. If all they see is a man in a cop car they might not pay attention. And lose your weapons, you can't swim with them."

He unfastened his own rig and shrugged it off, laying one of the Berettas on the seat where he could reach it if necessary.

He lowered the windows. They probably wouldn't be able to open the doors with the car floating, better to climb out before it flooded.

Too late now suckers.

He looked at the speedometer. Eighty and climbing fast. He glanced over at Cassandra.

Calm as always. Don't let me get us killed.

Balance of Power (2022)

The barrier of cables and posts was flimsy. He had connected individual lengths of cable to the posts, each was only about twenty feet long. All he had was miss the posts.

There was no perceptible resistance when the car hit the cable. They they were in the air, over two hundred feet above the water. He hoped the fall wasn't far enough for the car to go completely vertical.

It didn't. They hit hard, but not enough to shake them up much.

Quick, unbuckle and climb out.

Cassandra was free and climbing out. Alex exited and waited, kicking away from the car and treading water as the it sank. They faced against across a few yards of water.

"Away from the car!" Alex called. He didn't know if the vortex could pull them under, but didn't want to find out.

Cassandra backstroked away and Alex did the same.

They watched the car go under.

"That way," he said, pointing over her shoulder. "Get ashore and into the woods there. And hope the commlink isn't dead."

It was over a hundred yards to the shore, and Alex was glad to be out of the water. They crossed the narrow strip of sand and entered the trees. Alex took out the commlink and opened the case. It should work even after being immersed for a while, but Alex didn't breathe easy until it was powered on and showed good signal strength. He tapped Scott's channel.

"Where'd you go man?" Scott asked.

"We're out, alive but wet. There's about to be the mother of all manhunts down here."

"Damn, what'd you do? Nevermind. I think I know. Let me get a squad in there, we've got some guys close. Stay on the line, you're not out of the woods yet."

Alex looked at the trees.

"That's for sure."

He looked at Cassandra. She smiled, gave him a thumbs up.

Kid's easily impressed.

Balance of Power (2022)