Saturday, September 24, 2005

'Here, we have $30 in fifty, twenty and ten cent pieces. Please proceed to count it, I wish to make you suffer because I need optus credit.'
Yeah, the title is a reference to 4 people who showed up to the newsagency. I hadn't had a customer in half an hour and thought 'what the hell, why not' and was down to the last two dollars when 5 people showed up and wanted things.

I wish I had a camera, it was a helluva lot of shrapnel. Turns out that the guy worked at a barber shop or something and it was his share of the tip jar.

Fun fun fun.

lol, it actually was pretty funny. He hefted it up onto the counter is his hat.

Oh, in about a week's time, I will be wearing the equivalent of an PSP, and a game/accessories on my face.

How so, I hear you ask?

Let me explain. You see, I've been wearing my contacts more often than my glasses because my glasses aren't strong enough. Because of 3 13-16hour days each week, this is causing my contacts to deteriorate rather rapidly, not a good thing. This meant I needed to find the time to have my eyes tested.

I did that today, and thought 'hooray! New glasses! Must get some that accentuate my hotness/masculinity/ability to be accepted!'

I had $150 left on MBF and lots [see: all] optical places and optometrists are having $100 off glasses and lenses packages. I [see: foolishly] thought this was great, and proceeded to browse around with Lauren at the glasses available. We managed to find only one pair that were truly hot, and were different too.

Unfortunately they are $299, but take away $100 for the sale and $150 for MBF, that only leaves a $49 gap to pay, right?

Oh wait, don't forget the lenses.

Oops.

Turns out that my eyes have decided that they dislike being able to see past my nose. One eye is now even more short sighted while my other is losing its love for the great outdoors. I've also developed stigmatism [see: an optometrist, I've no idea].

Basically, to put this numerically and make it easier for y'all:

Glasses: 299
-100
-150
= $49

Lenses [constructed of the finest non-reflective polycarbonate]

= +$279

Total [for Liam to pay]

=$328

Ow.

I guess I should be grateful for MBF, but all the same, my wallet hurts. A lot.

x.x;

Ah well. I'm working 29 hours next week [week off uni] instead of studying full time, and that will cover the cost entirely. I only have $228 left to pay [when I pick them up] because I had to pay a $100 deposit on them.

Thank goodness I'm a good boy with my money and have been saving hard. I will still have enough to pay my $250 or so of car rego in November, it just means that I'll be set back a few weeks for my car insurance in January.

Lets not forget christmas, but I'll work enough after uni to find some grease for those wheels.

Anyhow, the girl that assisted me [see: and how! ;p] did sum it all up rather nicely when she said, 'The extra cost will be worth it, cosmetically speaking. If you didn't have the micro thin polycarbonate lenses, you would have to have cokebottle lenses in your glasses. Which is, needless to say, not hot'

I'm a slave to making myself beautiful, baby.

lol

I'll get a photo when the glasses are done.

If you'll excuse me, I'm sleepy.

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Sunday, September 18, 2005

'Arr, come all ye scurvy sea dogs and ye earthy land-lubbers! Sit by Cap'n Liam's fire and he'll regale you a tale...



Arr! Today be the day of days, where scallywags and buccaneers alike walk the streets openly displayin' their love for the seas!

Ye ship or ye life ye bunch o' landlubbers!

Swear your fielty to none other an' Cap'n Liam will guard your back!

Arr, but if ye be traitorous dogs, then the cat 'o nine be taking the flesh off your bones until ye be jealous of the Jolly Roger's fine complexion!

Do I hear an aye aye cap'n?

Arr, that be more like it.

I be havin' a treat for you scurvy braggarts, and it be not like your good 'ole cap'n to be sharing sweeties amongst the crew, but today be a special day!

Yarr, it be my pleasure to be showin' ye a mixed work of both mine and the Lady A's work. We be workin' our fingers to the bone for ye lot, so ye better appreciate it, unless ye prefer Davy Jones for company!

No tales of me daring do and me adventures today, but they be coming. ['Tis a strange day where your good 'ole cap'n found a lady friend. Ye best remind me to regale that fine story to ye at a later date!]
~~~~

Rae felt the full impact of the situation hit her. Her entire world had just collapsed. Her entire family; Matt, Karen, all of them, were in so much danger. They could go to jail for war crimes, for using children soldiers. How could they even begin to fix this damage?

Liam felt her hands go cold.

He glanced at her sharply, noting the pallor of her cheeks and the slight tremble in her lips. He smiled and whispered in her ear, for all the world looking like a man who was totally in love with his fiancé. “Pull it together, Rae. It’s one hurdle at a time. Don’t think about that until we’ve gotten through this.”

She nodded, her face closed and tears shining in her eyes. Inwardly, Liam swore. No one would believe they were anything but about to die when she had a face like that. “And smile, dammit. Don’t lose your focus.”

He watched her try to pull it together for a long heartbeat. Two. Three.

He could tell that she was losing the battle. He squeezed her hand tightly, feeling her grip his fingers like he was on a deathbed.

Perhaps he was, he thought cynically.

He had to find something to distract her. For a second his mind drew a complete blank, and then he smiled.

“You know, considering how crap you were at marksmanship a couple of years ago, I have to say, you’ve surprised me…” – He had her attention now, he knew – “I honestly didn’t think you could get any worse.”

For a second she stared at him, stung, and then she let out a disbelieving laugh, and turned so that she was standing in front of him. “You know I could beat you to the floor right now. Don’t deny it,” she said, once again comfortable with this familiar banter. Liam smiled as her arrogance – something she said she’d picked up from him – came back.

“Oh?” He asked, taking in the formal black dress she was wearing. Tasteful, classy, but still young, it left her arms bear. No one would think that she was wearing Kevlar under that. “Let’s just see, shall we?”

Her arrogant smile disappeared. She still hadn’t forgotten how easily he’d thrown her into the elevator, still was disturbed by her absolute helplessness when it had happened. “No,” she whispered, stepping back. “No, no, Liam –” She let out a little squeal of real terror as he lunged forward and picked her up. It became a giggle of laughter when he twirled her around, keeping the appearance of the happy couple. She grinned at him. “Liam, put me down. You’re making a scene.”

He was. People had turned to look at Rae’s first little squeal, Natasha included. Now, they smiled and turned away politely, excusing the lovebirds for disrupting the peace. Natasha hadn’t.

Rae saw her in her peripheral vision, but pretended that she’d no clue Natasha was there. Liam set her down with a huge grin. Rae, faking a blush, buried her face in his neck. He smiled and stroked her hair, not realising, as Rae did, that Natasha had stormed out of the room.

Bradley and Zharra meandered up to them, with identical, broad grins on their faces. “You two do that too well.”

Rae sobered up instantly, then relaxed and faced them, her back to Liam’s chest. “Well, I am an actress at heart.”

Zharra looked at Bradley sarcastically, then back at Rae. “Yeah, that’s what it is.”

Rae lost her smile. “What else would it be, Zharra?” Her voice was deadly quite; the people surrounding them wouldn’t hear. Zharra knew the warning in Rae’s voice – she’d overstepped the limit.

Above everything, Rae was loyal. Sometimes that loyalty was misplaced, sometimes it got lost, but she would always stick by those she chose. The inference that Rae could be unfaithful to Callum – whether Zharra had forgotten or chose to ignore his existence – was an anathema to Rae. It was unacceptable.

“Hey, Rae,” said Liam softly, even though his voice was a little colder than usual. “We know you’re just playing a part. They’re teasing.”



Callum had received the same SMS as the others, and, as the leader of the techies, had made the decision that it was vital that the Alpha team have as much protection as possible. He gave the order to bring the ammunition in.

Under the premise of ‘example computers’ for the teams’ demonstration to the audience – Brunai’s elite --, the techies would bring in all the weaponry that Rae had stashed for the team. The computer towers were big enough to hide some ‘special weaponry’ – Sig machine pistols and 9mm Glocks. They hadn’t been able to smuggle in the MS1, however, it would be waiting just 200metres down the road, if it were really needed. Rae had primed it before they left, but the trigger hadn’t been activated yet.

He’d been there just in time to see Rae’s little performance, had watched as Natasha had left the room. The techies brought the example computers to the fore of the room, and nodded to Liam to begin the demonstration, his jaw clenched. As Liam stood up and begin the speech, a smile on his face, Eve and Ryan, who had been lounging against the wall straightened up as one and left the room.

Callum turned to Rae. “Can you help me with something?” His fists were clenched.

Smiling, puzzled, she nodded and left the room with him.

Rae followed him through the hallway until they found a clear room. It was a conference room, with a redwood table and a dividing panel, obviously breaking one huge room up into two large ones. She gave him an unsure-but-game smile and perched on the table. “What’s up?”

He clenched his jaw, again. “What was that in there?”

Her eyes widened. “What was what in there?”

“The little performance with Liam.”

“Oh.” She was silent for a second, weighing up what the best way to explain this would be. “Well, Natasha was here, and she already knew about Liam and me, and –”

“Liam and you?”

She gave a flustered laugh. “What I mean is that she’d already met Liam and me, and so we had to come up with an excuse for both of us being there without blowing our cover, and so we-” she hesitated.

“You what?” His voice was cold and deadly.

“We pretended we were engaged. That’s all. What you saw was Liam helping me. I – I’d just heard about the leak in Australia and he-he was helping me get control back.”

“Yeah. Sure, that was all it was.” He sounded flat. She didn’t know if he believed her or not.

She smiled at him slightly. He turned around and hit the wall, his fist denting – but not actually putting a hole in – it. Rae’s eyes widened. “Callum?”

“Do you know what happened the first time I saw you, Rae? I was with your brother, and I saw you and thought, Wow. You were so strong, so confident, but there was a hint of vulnerability in you that made me want to wrap you up and keep you safe. Your brother saw me and grinned. He said, with no little amount of pride, That’s my baby sister.” He glared at Rae. “Do you know what he said then? But if you want her, you’ll have to fight for her. I looked at you again, and I knew I could and would fight heaven and earth for you. Then I met you, and there was…something, Rae. You knew it and I knew it.

“When I met Liam, I thought I knew who it was I had to fight.” He gave a little laugh. “But you know what, Rae? I’ve just realised – I’m not fighting heaven, I’m not fighting earth, and I’m not fighting Liam for you. I’m fighting an enemy I can’t conquer. You.”

He opened his mouth to say something more, shook his head, and walked to the door. Just as he was about to leave, he turned around. “Why is it,” he asked quietly, “that girls always fall for the bastards?” He gave a short laugh. “I fought, Rae. Long and hard. But do you know what I realised just after I learnt who I was fighting? Someone who doesn’t love me isn’t worth fighting for.” He turned the door handle. “It’s over, Rae.”

He stepped out of the conference room, saying quietly, “Your back-up ‘friends’ are in the computers.”

The door clicked shut. Rae stood up shakily. She had to – to focus on – on the mission. She couldn’t let herself be distracted. The mission was everything. It was vital, and…and…

Rae fell apart.



Liam already had three of the computers running while on the overhead projector (“one for every community centre!”) he demonstrated the positive uses that these new machines could be put to. He demonstrated how much faster the new broadband connection was by opening the same website on a ADSL connected machine and a dial-up machine, drawing polite laughter as he said, “I think we might want to give this one a head start, shall we?”

He was going to open up a web stream of BBC World News, but owing to current events, it didn’t seem like too brilliant an idea. Instead he downloaded music and compared rates, achieving more applause when he complimented the Sultan on his generosity for his people. He played a bit of a Seinfeld DVD and music, showing the brilliant colour displays (“just like the real thing, folks!”) and various educational games that would be donated to schools.

This was Liam’s field of specialty. He would have quite happily ripped the cover off the nearest computer and gushed over the latest and greatest pieces inside of it. Unfortunately, he had a job to do and play time had to finish soon. He wound down the presentation to a finish and invited the crowd to inspect the machines, opening up Google in the browser and promising that they could find anything in this window to the world. He received a smattering of applause and stepped down from the stage, face flushed from the momentary escape from reality.

Bradley and Zharra greeted him, Bradley complimenting him on his performance. Zharra looked alert, but not suspiciously so. Liam had no doubt in his mind that somewhere, deep down, a little scrap of panic was struggling to be free of Zharra’s unshakeable determination. He’d never say it out loud, however, or he’d risk meeting her fierce retribution.

“Eve and Ryan took after Natasha,” Zharra said simply, “she left while you were busy feeling up your fiancé. She didn’t look too happy while she was leaving, either.”

Liam ignored her comment, he knew it was a swift jibe only taken because Rae wasn’t present. But where was Rae?

Bradley read his mind as he said, “speaking of your girl, she went with the delivery boy, had to sign for all the equipment you were showing off just then. She should be right back.” Bradley caught Liam’s eye. “…or you could just go out that doorway and find them. She went left. There’s probably something you have to sign for too. Er.”

Liam had already started moving at a brisk pace and had almost reached the door when a slender arm shot out and blocked his exit.

“Going somewhere?” A stern, German voice asked.

“Yes, actually. Do you mind?” Liam said brightly, turning to face Natasha’s roommate.

She narrowed her eyes at him. “You know, when Natasha dragged you home, I was thinking, “this could be good boy for her,” but it turns out you are a poison.”

Liam’s expression didn’t change, he really didn’t have time for this.

“But karma does work in favour of her, you be cheating on Natasha for another girl, and this girl be cheating on another boy with you.” The girl smirked, folding her arms. “She almost ran after him. You could say…wild horses not hold her back. He probably taking her, right now! Despite of this-” she gesticulated wildy “-wedding you supposedly have!” She smiled smugly and shifted her weight, looking straight into his eyes.

Liam smiled broadly, despite feeling like he was going to be sick, and patted her on the head. While doing so, he said happily “excellent power of deduction my dear! Here, have a floppy disk.”

With that, he handed her a blank disk and exited through the door.

As soon as the door shut with a faint click, Liam started a brisk walk, and brushed shoulders with Callum almost immediately. Callum looked indifferently at him, giving a shrug and stepping out of his way. Liam watched him go, and was surprised to find that he had the sudden urge to push him down a flight of stairs.

“I love you too, Callum!” He called out.

Callum stopped dead in his tracks and came walking back. In a few furious strides he was face to face with Liam, radiating hatred like an intense heat. In those few seconds of movement Liam truly appreciated Callum, not as a technician, but as an SYF agent. Callum stood defiant in front of him, forehead inches from his and with both his fists clenched and at his sides.

“You know what?” Callum said finally, after seething for a few seconds. “I don’t have time for this. But there’s one thing I’m going to say, Liam, and that’s that you completely screwed her over.”

“We’re engaged, isn’t that what I’m supposed to…oh, okay not a joking time?” Liam smiled slightly at the accusing finger that Callum had whipped up and pointed at his forehead.

“Always the cocky bastard, aren’t you?” Callum said, still pointing. “You’ll win though, your type always does. But when you’re done with her, I won’t pick up the pieces. She can sort that out for herself!” His last words were a shout, directed at an ajar door down the corridor.

“Steady on there, mate.” Liam said, eyeing him warily. “Are you forgetting where you are, or do I have to remind you where we are?”

Liam said these words through gritted teeth as he watched and waited for some late party comers to enter the hall. As soon as the door closed he lifted Callum up in one smooth movement and slammed his back against the wall.

“Right, now are we going to keep a happy tone in here for the people anxiously listening through the door, or am I going to have to help you keep your mouth shut?” Liam spat his words out in one steady line, not stopping to take a breath.

Callum didn’t reply, he just stared blankly at Liam, eyes slitted.

“Good enough.” Liam eased him carefully down to the ground. “You need to sober up right now, and remember exactly how much we’re screwed, okay? After you’ve done that, you need to go back to your crew and continue work like nothing ever happened, but they need to be armed, and ready. Okay?”

Callum straightened his jacket and said, stiffly, “they always are,” before stalking away.

“Just one more thing,” Liam called out. “If Rae is in the state I think she is, and I’ll know that you did it, you and I better never meet again. You hear me?”

Callum didn’t stop walking, and Liam watched him until he was out of sight before making his way to the open door. He slipped in, and closed the door behind him. He saw Rae, and instantly felt his insides squirm unpleasantly.

She was just sitting there, slumped on the ground with her back to him. He head was bent forward and her breathing told him that she was sobbing silently to herself. She was most certainly in her own world, sorting out the problems before her. Liam assembled what he knew, thinking of everything and everyone that she held dear that could and would be lost because of the dissolution of the SYF. Her entire family would be lost, and she could quite possibly never see them again.

Hiding in the world forever more, never being able to see her family or friends again and now she suddenly lost her boyfriend because of the mission. Sure, they could have avoided the whole “engaged” thing, but nothing else could have tied it all together in such a neat little package. Maybe he shouldn’t have been so forthright and believable in his affection…

Liam suddenly felt as though he really shouldn’t be in there. He backed out slowly, placing a hand on the door, ready to push it open. But what was he thinking? This was Rae, for crying out loud! She sorted out his issues time and time again, he should be able to return the favour.

“Please…don’t go.”

Rae’s whisper carried through the air, to his ears and instantly his anxiety ebbed away. Gallantry threw up a card, one that Liam knew very well. He walked over to her and grabbed her hands, gently pulling them up.

“Come on sweetheart, we’ve got to go.” He said, smiling slightly.

Rae didn’t move, but she looked at Liam, the full extent of her pain written on her face. Her eyes were red and two fine black lines traced down her face, mere memories of mascara. She was so pale that Liam almost started, she looked as though she was at death’s door, just waiting for her ticket to come up.

“Come on, Rae.” He said again, bobbing down to her level. “Look, if this about that time I borrowed your knife to shave, I’m sorry but it’s damn hard to find a razor some mornings.”

Rae didn’t reply, she simply stared straight through him with her cold, lifeless eyes.

Liam was unperturbed and simply gave a theatrical sigh. “Don’t worry about Callum. We’ll go to the pound tomorrow and pick up a new boyfriend for you. We can only pray that a car will send your old one where he belongs.”

Rae tilted her head, a single tear blossoming and rolling down her cheek. Liam caught her chin and brushed the tear away with his thumb. He looked at her, honest concern shining from his eyes.

“I’m sorry, Rae. We just don’t have time. I know you need it, but we have a mission to do. I love you Rae, but we have a job to do.” He whispered his words as he knelt and gathered her up in his arms, picking her up gently off the ground.

“Besides,” he added, “the last thing we want is Zharra and Bradley to walk in while we were totally making out.”

Liam didn’t look down, but he could tell that Rae was smiling slightly. She was going to be okay, but Liam knew he would have be there to pick up the pieces when she really had time to sort this through.

“Liam.” Her voice was whisper soft, and there was none of the vibrancy or love for life that normally shone through. “I don’t think I can do this.”

He looked down at her, looking so young and fragile in his arms; “You can Rae.” You have no choice “I know you can.”


Arr, if this not be drawin' out me Mimmi, I know not what will.
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Tuesday, September 6, 2005

'Pirate Juice: the ultimate refreshment' [Whiteninja shirt]



Hmm..the [EXPENSIVE!] t-shirt dilemma continues. Wondering what I'm talking about? Right, well I'm caught between for my love of the dead Men in Hats comic's shirt "The knowledge you exist is a burden on my soul," and the white ninja shirt that lends itself to today's quote [www.whiteninjacomics.com/merchandise.shtml].

That pinecone one also looks appetising.

However, they're expensive and I can only choose one. I'm leaning more towards the pirate one [Arr! Need it for Talk like a pirate day!] but the MiH one holds many memories. What shall I do?

Also, I had some time to kill. Please find a lengthy continuation of SYF right here:

“…a highlight of today’s major breaking news will be repeated at the special time of eight pm, after the Prime Minister’s address. Currently there has been no official reports coming from parliament or any of Australia’s security and defence forces. It is as though the entire government is strangely quiet on the issue. Is this silence more damning evidence-

The sound stopped and the female reporter continued talking, mouthing out sensational statements while the same grainy video footage played in the background. The SYF had been slow to move on this one. They had been expecting damage from the documents Adam leaked for some time, but nothing so destructive. Someone had wanted the SYF and the entire Australian government in total disarray, and they had got it.

The Commander sighed and flipped the folder open on his desk for the hundredth time. It was the report that one of their sources had filed only an hour ago, detailing what was happening and what they needed to do. It told them they had five minutes, but the SYF needed ten. So many major breaches in security had resulted in sheer anarchy.

No cover story could patch this damage, the only option was for the government to admit to it and detail exactly what the SYF had done to save its country. That was the Commander’s order, and currently every technician and clerk was busily endeavouring to shred any hard document or digital file that could possibly make this worse. The UN had already contacted the Prime Minister and informed him that the country was now under embargoes and sanctions, pending further investigation. In six hours there would be a special investigation team sent that would rip the intelligence department to pieces and find out exactly how many ‘illegal’ soldiers they had been ‘indoctrinating’ over the years.

The British Prime minister had only recently announced that they had no idea of the actions taken by their Commonwealth country, and would initiate investigations. Secretly he had suggested, through his own special agents, that it would be wise for them to erase any damning history and ‘damn well shatter the hard-drives it was saved on.’ There was yet to be a peep from the White house, and the Commander doubted there would be. As yet, no evidence implicated American involvement and it would most probably stay that way.

There was a knock at the door.

“Yes, come in.”

An agent of fifteen came into the office and saluted briskly. “Sir, emergency code Omega has been broadcasted to all 15’s currently in action. They will immediately discontinue any actions on behalf of the SYF, unless their lives are under immediate threat.”

The Commander allowed himself a wry smile. He seriously doubted that more than half of the active agents would obey that order, considering that they were following in the footsteps of Liam more and more each day. Why, even the teenager standing in front of him had been brought in for discipline issues recently, after disobeying a direct order. The mission had worked out better in the end, but it didn’t mean he should have gotten away with it.

“Thank you Agent Luke. That will be all.”

The shorn little soldier saluted briskly and left the room, closing the door behind himself.

“That’s the last of the active agents informed, sir.” Matt stepped forward with his clipboard, ticking a box. “A coded message has just been sent to our Alpha Paedagogus squad in Brunei. They will be the only team that has not been informed to stand down, unfortunately they are in a situation where they cannot be replaced and cannot be put on hold. If worse comes to worse, they can be explained away as ASIS agents on a field exercise.”

“What of Bradley?”

Matt handed over a file, “Bradley the nineteen year old, sir? He looks the age. It was only a matter of doctoring the documents a little.”

The Commander sighed. “From what I’ve heard on the news, they have indisputable copies of all of the original files. Anything you do now is just papering over the cracks.”

“Anything to help our legal team.” Matt sighed and sat down, “what are we going to do sir? Amnesty, Oxfam and other organisations have already started near-riots in the streets with their protesting, not to mention they have listed us as a country with third world policies. I mean, if you thought the common news was sensational, you should see some of the filth they’ve slapped together and called journalism!”

Matt’s voice had overtones of barely contained rage, but he managed to calm himself and continue. “Thus far, only one newspaper is telling it straight, impartially. And that’s only one article. Everything came out at the same time, and automatically started throwing it around!

“Can’t they see what we’ve done? What we had to do? Don’t they even remember Gryphon College?” Matt was shouting now, slamming his hand on the desk through sheer frustration.

The Commander coughed politely. “No, they can’t see. For the safety and integrity of hundreds of agents, we can only show a shadow of the truth. If the public takes it to the infinitely wrong, it means our major secrets are safe-

-SYF was the major secret! That’s what I’m trying to say-

The Commander held up his hand for silence, stopping another tirade. “I’m quite well aware of our situation, thank you very much. Now, if you found only one newspaper to be impartial and original, wouldn’t that be an indication to flag it under ‘important?’”

“Well, yes.”

“Who was the author?”

Matt fumbled with the clipboard and pulled out a newspaper clipping. “Arthur and David Brook, sir.”

A ripple of understanding washed through the two.

“Permission to send an advance security team to take in Mr Brook and Brook, sir?”

“Granted, but prepare them for a fire fight. We won’t be the only two in the world who put two and two together so quickly.” The Commander sighed and added darkly, “and I dare say that they may just find out exactly why the President has been so quiet.”

Matt nodded and stood, giving a sharp salute, something he had not done in a while. As he made for the door, the Commander called out to him.

“Matt?”

“Sir?”

“Make sure Colonel Pine is the head of that security team.”
“Yessir.”


Arthur and David were still sitting in the conference room, eyes glued expectantly to the television. The rest of the office had joined them, however, and were talking amongst themselves. Those that did not fully understand the gravity of the situation were talking excitedly, gleams of hope and words of “the big one” were shining from them. Others merely stood and watched, faces ashen while their minds ticked over exactly how much of this dirty news bomb had hit the fan.

Sarah was looking down at them from her position in the news room, looking calm and collected for someone who could feel her insides trying to escape from their position in her throat.

“Authorities have not yet been able to identify the names of the agents in the video footage, but the Prime Minister may yet reveal the names of these young soldiers in his address-”

“ -not bloody likely.” David said, eyes not straying from the screen. “We wiped all of the names. The last thing we want is to completely f-…sorry, completely screw over the lives of these guys. Hell, they know where we live, and if they don’t, they can find us!”

Arthur had lowered the warning finger. “Yeah, but the bloody news room only just blurred out the faces. After an hour of beaming them non-stop to Australian news rooms, it’s too late. The damage is already done. It’s like that bloody Janet Jackson breast all over again.”

The door to the room opened, Arthur ignored it. It had been opening and slamming shut ever since they sent the article to the printers. The sudden silence made him turn around, however.

“I’m looking for a Mr Arthur Brooks, is he here?”

Arthur let his eyes turn casually at the gentleman. He was dressed sharply in a black suit, and was far to casual in his attitude for his liking. Something wasn’t right.

“He is needed for questioning on how he came across this damning information.”

There was a red spot on his collar. Just a small one, on his collar. As he watched, Arthur could feel dread chilling his spine. There was blood on this man’s collar.

“Excuse me, but who are you?” One of the security guards that had wandered in to watch, was now approaching the man, switching on his radio.

“A federal agent, interested in escorting Mr Brooks to the station for some questioning, mate.”

It happened so quickly that Arthur almost missed it.

The man in the suit muttered quietly, “there’s no-one left to
hear you…”

And then the guard was dead, before he even had the question out of his mouth. There was a silenced pistol in his hand now, roving through the throng of shocked reporters and other staff.

“I could kill all of you, but I didn’t bring enough ammunition to do it quickly. I will proceed to snap each one of your necks until you surrender Mr Brooks to me.”

Someone was sobbing quietly now, the others were overcoming their shock and starting to regain their senses. Arthur, in his dream-like state, could hear the testosterone fuelling up several of the more stocky, rugby loving journalists. Some knuckles cracked somewhere and the man suddenly looked very small.

His confidence wasn’t shaken, but his gun was focused on the closest gentleman as he said, “I’m going to count to ten, unless Mr Brooks owns up, I will personally-UGH!’

And then he was gone. Arthur had watched, fascinated, as a large burly arm slowly reached out from behind the shooter’s head, and suddenly jerked him from sight. There was a sound of breaking bones and muffled punches. Then, a mountain of a man stepped into the room, adjusting his tie carefully.

“Sorry about that. I’m Colonel Pine of ASIO, I believe Arthur and David Brooks are in this room and requiring protection as of this instant.” He held his identification out for all to see, looking around the room. His eyes locked with Arthur’s, “Mr Brooks I presume. Please inform the others to quickly and quietly vacate the premises before any more attempts are made on their life. They should know that they are required to keep utter and total secrecy of this event and will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law as traitors if so much as one word is uttered from their lips about this incident. Understood?” His last words came out gruffly, harsh and memorised.

The rest of the news room filed out quickly, passing the rest of the ASIO security team with nary a word of protest. It was clear to them that the good guys had taken over.

“Mr Brooks, I would appreciate it if you and your brother would walk this way. We are on a tight schedule and I would really hate to leave here without you.”

Arthur looked at him blankly, but David beat him to it.

“Hell no!” He shouted. “Who the hell are you? I mean, what the-…damn! Who the-ng!’ Words failed David and he shouted something indiscernible, letting out a final, ‘damn!’

“I am Colonel Pine of the ASIO advance squad. I have been sent courtesy of the Australian government to relocate you to a more secure environment.” The Colonel remained impassive as he spoke, gesturing to the dead security guard, “unless you feel that your current security is quite adequate?”

“We’re not going anywhere.” Arthur said in a hollow voice. He was on the other side now. “Until I know you’re not just bluffing you way in here to kill us quietly somewhere else. You can stay and guard us here if you want, we aren’t going anywhere.”

Colonel Pine frowned and said, “I thought as much.” He reached into his pocket-David flinched-and pulled out a phone. “Speed dial. From the way you wrote your article Mr Brooks, he’ll be the only one you’ll believe right now.”



“Right, okay. So we’re clear now?” Liam said, playing with the new ring on his finger.

“Yes dear.” Rae said, smiling at him while playing with the one on hers.

Liam had just detailed to Rae and the others the conversation he had just had with Natasha, and had promptly ignored Zharra and Bradley’s triumphant looks. Zharra had given Rae her gold dress ring and Bradley had given Liam his, allowing them to have matching rings.

Now the farce was almost complete. There was one problem though.

“I still can’t do this.” No one was more surprised than Liam to find those words coming out of his mouth.

“What?” Rae hissed, pulling him away from the others. “It’s a perfect cover, we need this Liam!”

“’S still not right…” Liam said, almost like a sulky child.

Rae looked at him carefully, “remember when you told me off for leaping out of the Blackhawk?”

“Yes.”

“This is going to be your Blackhawk, and I’ll make sure of that unless you play along.”

Liam sighed, and let his old self smirk at her, “you’re just itching for that moment, aren’t you?”

Rae laughed, “yes, I’d love to have something to pin you with…finally.”

Liam took her hand in his and walked back to the others, whispering into her ear, “are you rough like that with Callum?”

Rae replied with a swift elbow to his side, and continued to smile sweetly at him.

“Liam, I’m only supposed to be your happy and protective fiancé for the next two hours, try to think what will happen to you after that.”

Liam smiled weakly and didn’t reply. Then Bradley’s phone started ringing, loudly. He coloured bright red as the people looked in his direction, but it soon drained away when he checked his phone. As Liam and Rae arrived, Bradley looked very sober. Eve and Ryan’s features hadn’t changed, and they continued chatting, but gave a polite interest in what was happening.

Bradley threw Rae and Liam his phone, saying, “check out the news back home.”

Thanks to quasi internet capabilities of the phones they were supplied, Liam was now looking at an article on the BBC World News website. An article that quoted and sourced another by Arthur and David Brooks. Liam remained calm and skimmed through it, giving it to Rae.

He turned carefully to Bradley and said, in a consoling voice just loud enough to be heard by others and yet just quiet enough to be unobtrusive, “I’m very sorry for you Bradley. Will you be going home straight away to see your father before the surgery?”

Bradley smiled weakly. “Did you read the message? He’s critical. There’s no way I can get back in time. He’s practically on the table right now. Mum wants me to focus on my work…”

Zharra put an arm around Bradley’s shoulders as though to comfort him, and whispered into his ear.

“Hey,” Rae said, nudging Liam with the phone. “Read the message.”

Liam took the phone from Rae and read the SMS, the note just before the hyperlink that took them to the BBC website.

“Omega-All hands. Active-Alpha”

Liam breathed in slowly, mind ticking over what he had just read. If he understood it correctly, every active unit, bar theirs, was now officially disbanded. From the article, he understood that everything about SYF had now been dragged out of the shadows and thrown naked into the limelight. His home country was in uproar, their mission could be even more critical now, even impossible. All because of one reporter he met in Singapore.

“I should have snapped his neck then and there.”

“Who’s?” Rae asked, confused.

Liam started to speak, but his phone started ringing. Callum was on the other end.

“Liam? Arthur Brooks to speak to you. We need to get him under protection ASAP, but he refuses to go until he speaks to you.”

Liam almost exploded.

“…Fine. Put him on.”



“Arthur? Liam’s connecting. Hold please.” Callum finished talking and the phone began ringing.

Arthur swallowed and stammered out a, “h-hello?”

The sudden burst of threats and profanity caused him to move the phone slightly away from his ear. He ended the call mid-insult and handed the phone back to the Colonel.

“Yes, that’s him all right. Exactly how I’d expect him to react.” He put out his hand for the Colonel to shake, “I’m sorry I didn’t believe you Colonel, but I read somewhere you had died, but you appear to be promoted.”

Colonel Pine smiled and said with a twinkle in his eye, “don’t believe everything you read. In our world, dying and getting promoted pretty much go hand in hand.”

Read it? Please comment. I long to sip from the frosted cup of your criticisms. [And possibly spit them out all over the place fo' rizzle.]

;p

Comments (4) | Permalink

Monday, September 5, 2005

'Hows about you and me get together and haul some keel?' [Pirate pick up line]



EDIT: Curses. I be having wages, but I know not which to spend them on! I have narrowed down the canditates to two luvverly shirts. The question is, which one?

Shall I go with the forever wanted Men In Hats Aram "The knowledge you exist is a burden on my soul," or the Whiteninja "Pirate Juice, the ultimate refreshment" [www.whiteninjacomics.com/merchandise.shtml] ?

Curses. I'm torn between the two. The white ninja one be more pretty [and relevant] but the MiH one is a sum of 3 years of highschool hilarity. Not to mention the comic is now over. Agh.

Help? [and soon!]

[Resume normal transmission]

Arr, it be nearing that time of the year again! There be a soft shivering of timbers and an irresistble urge to be lascivious and laudy!

That's right, this September the 19th is Talk like a Pirate Day

Prepare ye'selves for boarding? [Womenfolk that is] You'd better!

Yarr!

Anyhow, I've completed 4/5 of my midsemester tests, and my fifth is this evening. I should be studying but my brain is mush and I've been wanting to wax philosophical with ye landlubbers.

Ahem, sorry, a bit of the pirate sneaking back in.

I've been contemplating my spending of time and money and have discovered for myself what I've been taught for years. I've been taught that the most fulfilling thing in life is gaining of the eternal knowledge. You know, spiritual subjects as well as educational.

I mean, don't get me wrong, I'd rather spend my time reading, watching TV or playing a good video game, but I feel so much more enlightened when I stick to the first two. I feel so much better after unravelling the mysteries of the universe than after watching Star Gate.

Of course, I absolutely love that show and I'm ticked at where the season finished for this year, but I feel like I could have used that time better.

Confused?

You may well be. This line of babble makes sense to me and it most certainly may not be clear to you.

What I'm trying to say is, the pursuit of knowledge is starting to become more of a current thing for me. I start to feel a guilt, no. Wrong choice of word. I'm starting to feel a longing for my Book of Mormon or uni study notes after I watched tv or played a game on the computer.

I'm actually repulsed by the prospect of playing anything on my computer. I'm abhorring the very notion of wasting more than an hour of my time on mere video games.

..and yet I want to waste my next few paychecks on a PSP.

It's quite scary.

The Liam you know and love is being torn in half.

I'll still be a uni bum and verify this through laziness and computer games, but I'll wish I'd used that time better.

I long to have the mysteries of the modern and ancient worlds working happily in my mind. In fact, I delight in the simple process of mRNA translation ticking quietly over in my mind.

Am I prematurely aging, or am I simply being opened up early to the truth before my time?

More than anything, I have an unslakeable thirst to improve myself. It's been growing all year, but my personal [incredible] progress in physics has pushed me. Currently in the institute lounge we're studying the Parables that Jesus taught in his time on the earth and the one that has really stuck in my mind is the parable(s) of the ten talents.

You know the one where the lord gave the servants in his house one talent each, and all of them gave back to him more than they received, bar one?

I'm starting to wish to prove myself so that when the time comes and I stand before the Lord, I can say 'I improved myself. I inspired and entertained others through my literature, I helped heal people through the use of science and psychology. I devoted myself to others.'

I guess I just want to return with a profit of talents, but I also want to help others do the same.

I've been told I'd make a great doctor, but I'm only as good as my education. I've been lax in it last semester, but I've thrown myself in in this one.

Quite proud of myself.

More than anything [I've said that line before, yes, shut up], I want to go on my mission. I want to give my time and be sent to serve, to proselyte and to serve.

I don't care whether it's to Vladivostok or Sydney, I'd just be grateful to go. People come back different. They have a glow, a resolve you can bend a bar on. More than anything they come back with an incredible maturity within the gospel and without.

They seem so much older, older than they years. I've been told that I'm like that, Brie frequently told me how I was such an inspiration to her, that she couldn't understand how I could be so strong and fervent in my faith.

I'm not so sure now, after we broke up [badly, I might add], she dropped out of sight, completely. When I moved here I saw her at institute and she always seemed to be pernamently affixed to a different boy.

...and she always dragged me over.

Attempts to make me jealous or compensate, I don't know. In hindsight, she did seem to be living on my testimony of the gospel.

Now I've been told by one of her old friends [now a good friend of mine] that she's dropped out of church completely, and quote 'gone weird.'

*sigh* Once again I feel as though it was my rejection that led her down this path.

I'm sorry, I've left on a tangeant.

Right. Anyhow. Yes.

Also, I've made note to never go to another party involving my friends and alcohol. It's incredibly depressing.

Incredibly depressing.

I must have looked it too because people kept coming up and asking if I was okay. I mean, the first hour was fine, but then it just went downhill.

I don't like being there because I feel like an outcast. I'm definitely a concientious objector at the parties and I feel like an idiot. I don't like seeing my friends at their worst. My mere presence screams 'don't do that, you'll regret it,' and I've lost count of the amount of times I've stopped myself from warning against something or other.

Ugh. It's heartbreaking too. Absolutely heartbreaking. I shouldn't go. Several people had a pernament pained expression on them when they asked about me or apologising for this not being 'your kind of party.' People being sick seem to gravitate to me and apologise.

*sigh*

It's just a big mess and I'm not getting involved in it anymore. Seeing my friends again is an incredible rush, but seeing them drinking just kills me.

Right, that's out of me.

I ordered Dad's father's day present the other day [finally] and it should arrive 2 weeks late.

That's okay, it'll be worth the wait. It's the www.dieselsweeties.com t-shirt 'Chewy is my Co-pilot.' Dad saw it over my shoulder and couldn't stop laughing, so I decided to get it for him. I finally have a debit card so I now have a paypal account to do fun stuff with.

The Men-In-Hat's t-shirt shall be mine!

Ahem.

I finally managed to have a conversation with my Britty Kitty, and that's just made my day. It's been, what?, six months?

Anyhow, I need to end this before it gets too out of hand.
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Sunday, August 28, 2005

'Ahh! My 11th and 12th ribs are floating!'
Ah, examinations. They just love to test your knowledge, don't they? [Let's not forget that they like trying your patience]. Despite several weekends spent studying Biology, I had a few questions where I was confused as to which answer should have been chosen.

I am concerned about my results, but not overly so. I believe I will receive the mark I worked so very hard for.

If it's a failure, then I need to review where I went wrong.

Physics examination tomorrow, but I believe that I may be okay. The formulae are provided, and while we have studied a lot in these past few weeks, they are relatively simple subjects and I should be fine.

[Not an excuse to avoid studying the lecture PPT's and doing questions, however]

It's surprising though, this time last year I would have been quite content to say 'PHYSICS 5|_|Xx0r5!!' or nothing at all. It's quite amazing what changes a good lecture can wrought in a man.

I'm currently reading 'Demons of the Air,' by an author I cannot remember the name of. It's an Aztec fictional thriller, and quite entertaining. I'm currently halfway through, and I'm enjoying the history and effort the author has put in.

Quite good.

Also, I received a burst of inspiration, so here's an extra SYF bit. What perils doth the devil tempt in the hearts of man?


Liam shifted slightly in the leather seat, overcoming and inexplicable urge to start moving for cover. He adjusted his sunglasses and self-consciously adjusted his suit coat. He looked carefully around the five seater black Mercedes and out each of the windows, as though he was looking for something.

Nothing, just the rest of the Mercedes that held the other members of the team. They had picked them up at the international airport and were now driving directly to the University of Brunei Darussalam for a brief luncheon with the Dean. The plan was that the Dean would invite them to the graduation ceremony as his esteemed guests, giving a cover for their presence there if nothing extraordinary happened. The Dean knew exactly who they were and what they were doing and was apparently more than happy to have them there.

‘You alright?’ Rae asked, leaning towards him slightly.

‘Yeah…it’s just…’ He sighed, ‘I honestly think I’m going insane. I was just about dozing off there, and then I had a sudden attack of agoraphobia. Something’s going wrong somewhere…’

Rae scooted across to him, ‘from the way you’ve been frowning since Singapore, my guess is that it wasn’t just a sudden attack that makes you feel that way. You started frowning after we left the briefing, what’s wrong?’

‘You’re not going to believe me, but you know Natasha?’

Rae stiffened slightly at the name and pursed her lips, but nodded slowly, ‘yes Liam. That was about two hours ago.’

‘Yeah-well, I saw her.’ He removed his sunglasses and turned to her, voice serious. ‘During the briefing, Natasha’s photo flashed up at the end. Matt switched off the screen before I could read the file. Natasha is going to be there, I’m sure of it.

‘Rae, if she’s there when we walk in, I’m completely screwed. Utterly, and you know it.’

Rae sucked air in through her teeth. ‘You’re right,’ she said, sitting back and folding his arms. ‘You are insane. There’s no way she could be there, I did an extensive background check on her and it turned up nothing.’

Liam smiled slightly, ‘nice to know you do care, Rae. But tell me, when you did this check…did you actually look in the SYF database or did you go straight to an outside source?’

Rae was thinking hard now, she was certain she checked everywhere. ‘Yes I did. There was nothing, anywhere.’

Liam groaned and put his head in his hands. ‘You do realise what this means, don’t you? CIA job. There aren’t any records because none were taken.

‘I’m going to have to sneak around, and so are you. We’re going to have to get the others to take the reins on this one, at least until we verify if she’s there or not.’

Rae already had her phone in her hands, while it rung she looked pointedly at him and said, ‘Liam, we love you so I’ll let that one slide. We’re meant to work as a team. Technically we all hold the reins.’

‘Fine. Ryan and Eve though. They’ll suss it out while we wait-
-yes Ryan. Right, Liam feels that Natasha may be one of the students…right…so you reckon you saw her too? Ahuh…okay. Yes, we both feel that’s best. We’ll wait right here-…we can’t? That doesn’t make any-…oh…I see. Fine. We’ll wait in the Dean’s office.’

Rae hung up and put her phone away. ‘Ryan says that the cars won’t be able to park there, security reasons…and apparently the media is going to be there. With us donating a technological services…well, lets just say that no good deed goes unpunished. We’ll have to wait inside.’

‘Rae?’

‘Yes?’

‘Why are you smiling like that?’

Rae looked out the window as she spoke. ‘No reason, just thinking about Natasha-oh look, we’re here.’

Liam frowned at the back of her head and put his sunglasses back on as the car turned into the campus. He could see the cluster of photographers and a man with a microphone. As the car pulled to a stop he prayed that the man would be only able to speak Malay so that he could be brushed off with a plastic smile. The car stopped and Liam got out, walked around, and helped Rae out. She took his hand and they both walked past the throng of media people, careful to keep their faces angled so that the cameras wouldn’t have a full profile.

‘Keep walking, quickly now…’ Liam muttered to himself.

He waved at the cameras in such a way that, when the photographer developed his film, he would have a lovely shot of a waving hand, and his nondescript features. They passed the man speaking rapidly at the camera, and then they were in the doors and into the building.

Behind them, the others were getting out of the cars and pretty much taking the same approach to the photographers, and blatantly ignored the man with the camera. It didn’t matter; the reporter was too enraptured by the camera. As the last of the agents were inside, he looked at the building carefully and told his cameraman to pack up.

Liam approached the security desk and removed his sunglasses, placing his bag with exaggerated care onto the table.

‘Could you guys be careful with this? I’ve got a lot of hardware in here for my presentation, it’s pretty delicate and I don’t want it thrown through an X-ray machine and vaporised, okay?’

The man behind the counter stared blankly at Liam and opened the bag, rifling through its contents and having a good feel around. He pulled out a pen-light and lit the interior, searching carefully.

Liam’s heart was almost leapt out of this mouth when the security guard pulled out a U.V. flashlight and repeated the process. It would be easy for him now to see a hidden zipper through simply noting the build-up of grease from Liam’s fingers brushing the material as it was pulled open.

‘All in order sir.’ The guard said as he passed it through the barrier. ‘Next please.’

Liam thanked his lucky stars that it was a new bag, that he’d only opened the hidden pocket once, and that it wasn’t a trained professional sitting behind the desk. He walked through the metal detector and feigned surprise as it went off.

‘Please remove any loose metal items, such as your keys or loose change, and place them in the baskets.’ The security guard spat out the words in one breath, and eyed Liam with an incredibly unimpressed look as he indicated the baskets on opposite sides of the detector.

Liam grinned apologetically as he went back through the detector and began searching for his pockets. He pulled out his keys and wallet and put them in one basket, while placing his phone in the other. As he just finished unbuckling and removing his belt, his phone started playing the true tone version 007 theme song.

‘Sorry about that.’ He said, stepping through the barrier and picking up his phone. ‘Hello? Yes, we’re here. Okay…what? What’re you saying? Hold on, I can’t hear you…wait…’ As he spoke, Liam began walking further and further away from the barrier, one finger in his ear.

The others went through the barrier, each removing various metal items. As Bradley finally stepped through, Liam returned and claimed the rest of his items, apologising profusely for forgetting them in the first place.

He set his phone down, pressing the ‘call’ button as he reached for his belt. Just as he finished buckling it, the phone began to ring again. He quickly grabbed his keys and wallet, thanking the security guard that handed him his phone as he passed.

‘What? You just rang me? What is it now? …Ahuh…okay…’

Unbeknownst to the security detachment on duty, their fundamental key to security protection had just been reprogrammed, and then reprogrammed again. As Liam placed his keys down in one basket, and his phone in the other, a wireless interference began to be broadcasted by both the phone and the mini-maglite torch on his keychain. As soon as the metal detector’s programming had been reversed, that it would go off when metal wasn’t detected, Liam’s phone began to ring. As Liam answered it and walked away, the keychain continued to broadcast a signal, allowing him to more fully monitor the situation from his mobile phone. After the initial overwriting, it was a piece of cake to simply through the switch back to normal when the others had finished going through.

Had the security guards been blind as well, Liam could have walked through that barrier with any amount of armament he wanted.

Liam returned his phone to his pocket as he caught up with the others at the top of the stairs.

‘Don’t you just love the buzz this job gives you?’ He grinned, rubbing his hands together.

‘You could have chosen a more subtle ring tone,’ Zharra commented drily, ‘or do you like flirting with danger?’

‘Flirting with danger is fine. I mean, Bradley does it all the time.’ He looked pointedly at both of them as he spoke, ‘…and more, from what I’ve heard.’ He grinned cheekily at both of them as Zharra smirked back.

‘…you don’t know the half of it, boy.’ She said, running her tongue carefully over her teeth and stroking the side of Bradley’s face.

Bradley’s eyes had glazed over as he seemed to recall some special memory.

Liam grimaced, ‘whoa, okay. Stop there. You win, too much information-

Rae cleared her throat. ‘Are we quite finished? Or do I need to box your ears, Liam?’

‘She’s got you wrapped around your little finger, doesn’t she Liam?’ Natasha said loudly as she stalked closer, ‘how often does she let you off your leash now?’

Liam resisted the urge to stiffen. The others, under the quick-thinking Ryan’s direction, scurried through the door into the main reception hall under the pretence of getting drinks. Rae remained, appraising Natasha through slitted eyes.

‘Fancy meeting you here,’ Rae said viciously at Natasha, before looking up at Liam.

Natasha stopped in front of her, folding her arms carefully. ‘I’m as surprised as you are…I’m guessing you’re here for the thankyou ceremony for all the ‘amazing’ things you’ve done for the Sultan and his people?’ Natasha shifted her weight delicately from one foot to the other. ‘Funny, I didn’t know that ice queens could stand the heat of Brunei. Got Liam carrying a bucket for you in case you melt?’

Liam’s fixed grin slid off his face as he said limply, ‘if you’ll excuse me I think I’ll just go and kill myself quietly.’

As he turned to leave, Natasha caught his arm, ‘no wait, don’t go. I need to talk to you…privately.’ She said pointedly, giving Rae a dirty look.

Rae smiled sweetly and put her arms around Liam, eyes shooting daggers at Natasha as she kissed him on the cheek.

‘Five minutes, darling. Then I’ll have to come and have a chat with this charming woman myself.’ With a final dirty look at Natasha, Rae went through the doors and into the hall.

Liam was secretly wondering how much of Rae’s actions was actually acting. There was some definite hate shooting out of that mouth, almost perfectly covering her genuine alarm. Liam was suddenly very grateful that they had resolved their issues. If Rae kept shooting those dirty looks at him, he was certain that he’d simply wither away. If Chernobyl’s fallout and Rae’s expression had met, Chernobyl would apologise politely and ask which was the easiest way to take to Northern England and Wales thank-you-very-much.

‘What are you doing here?’ Liam asked in a semi-hushed tone.

‘It’s the final year of my business course, the Brunei government extends opportunities to students at the International University in Singapore.’ She shrugged as though it was unimportant. ‘If you’d had stayed overnight you’d have known that and you’d be here with me.’ She smiled, and Liam’s heart fluttered. ‘The night scene can be pretty wild here…a girl needs someone to watch her back in some of these nightclubs…’

Liam coughed and adjusted his bag strap.

‘So how long have you been engaged?’

Natasha’s question was out and hanging in the air so quickly that Liam’s mind clashed gears as it tried to come up with an answer. He had expected questions, but not this! He cursed Rae for letting her nursed anger at Natasha get in the way of the mission.

‘About a month.’ He said slowly. ‘I was getting cold feet and then the accident happened. We’re young, but it was a whirlwind romance…the fun had already started to bleed away for me and then that…accident completely severed the connection between us.’

Natasha nodded quietly to herself, looking at the ground.

Excellent, Liam thought, pay attention to your sorrow and the anger, ignore the blatantly suspicious happenings. Just focus on those emotions and resist the urge to kill Rae. Please.

‘What made you go back to her then?’ Natasha mumbled, still not looking up.

‘After she showed up, we had a row. The biggest and only we’ve ever really had.’ He sighed and fidgeted with the strap again. ‘We sorted it out and I realised how much I really do love her. We’ve had our problems before, but now we’ve sorted it out.’

Natasha looked up at him, eyes tearing. ‘Well then, I’m really glad I helped you rebuild your relationship, but you should know that that little whore is sleeping with a guy behind your back! I could smell his cheap cologne all over her, and it certainly wasn’t yours!’

With that, she turned and half ran down the corridor, pushing into the ladies restroom.

Liam’s heart was racing again, all of this was tearing him up inside.

He pushed open the door and shuffled through, calling out, ‘oh Rae! Darling? Where are you?’

Surprised? Comments? Criticism? Not enough Bismarck for you?
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Tuesday, August 23, 2005

'Want to come play Quidditch? We're playing double-blind indoor Australian rules...' [something to that affect MacHall comics]


Terribly, terribly sorry folks. I've been rather busy, and I haven't bothered to post here. Bad Liam. [he basically wears leather hot pants and carries a trident]

I have a job now, currently under a trial period, and I believe I'm doing well. I'm as yet to find out how much I earn, but I'm just grateful for the opportunity to work.

I finally managed to get a text book [just in time for the exam next monday...better late then never], though I haven't had the chance to properly study it.

My Monday and Tuesday schedules are killing me, but I'm performing better than I did in first semester, which is good.

My physics marks [brace yourselves] are quite high. I'm currently sitting on about 80% from what I've been graded on so far. I've had an exam and 3 pracs, all of which I did well on.

I have another exam next Tuesday, which I need to restudy some concepts for, but I should be right.

Human Anatomy is excellent. I'm learning heaps and I'm surprised at how much I retain when I do the practice prac exams.

Chemistry is an eyesore, but it's organic chem and study shall see me through.

I'm starting to slow up from mental and physical exhaustion, but spirits are high.

I'm quite pleased that I've managed to maintain a standard, however, despite my two 16 hout days.

Now that I'm employed, I'm keen on getting a debit card so I can buy some things online [t-shirts from favourite comics, etc]. The sooner I get, one the better.

Aaron Farber [MiH genius], has decided to stop creating the comic as he has lost his mojo for it. Old news according to the site, but new to me. This means that I may have lost my opportunity to purchase the Aram 'The knowledge you exist is a burden on my soul' shirt, but the store on it is still active.

Hopefully there will still be stock there when I finally get paid and have a debit [and Paypal] account.

The NOISE competition is due in on August 30, I've known for months now, but I completely forgot. So I now have 2 days to write three 3000 word stories and to post them to Canberra, and study for 5 examinations.

Through sheer absentmindedness, I've lost an opportunity to truly express myself and become an acclaimed and awarded young author like our dear Asphy.

SYF is on hiatus, possibly till christmas. Like Aaron, I've lost my mojo. I'm sorry, but all of my attempts to write updates have been flawed, so I'm not going to burden you with them until I have a clear head.

Yes yes, I know this is a rushed and breathless summary, but at least you have some love! from me ^_^

And Mimmi, I will post to you! Will!. I'm working on something fantastilogical just for you.

...well, sort of. It's half done and waiting for the rest.

I'd make a terrible surgeon.

*cough*

So yes, life is good. I have a mohawk, contacts, and a 30cm giant freddo frog.

I'm also terribly lonely in my downtime, which is an indication that I need to keep myself busy.

Right. Aaaand, done.
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Monday, August 1, 2005

'So our friendship is founded upon crunchy peanut butter and cordial?' [Burkey]


Ah yes, now that was a funny conversation I had. While our friendship may be founded upon the mighty base of crunchy peanut butter and cordial, there isn't strength enough for a mutual love of The Goon Show.

I personally quite enjoy the goon show. Go to www.thegoonshow.net to see what I mean. You can download their radio serials. Or, you could follow the links from there to the BBC radio site.

Or, you could get up at 4:30/5:30 on a Friday morning and listen to them on the ABC AM station.

In case you're confused, The Goon Show was a radio serial on the BBC during the 50's, performed by none other than Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and...someone else.

Blast!

Anyhow. I did go to a 40's themed ball on Friday night, and I did take a date. Also I believe I promised photos.



The incredible swing band that played on the night. So good that I wished I played the clarinet, just so I could wow people with some incredible music! [and thus avoid getting beaten for playing the clarinet]




Me, the lovely Camille [my date *swoon* ..lol], Aaron [the idiot], James, Lisa [the R.M], and Kendal [the talented]

It was an incredible evening, filled with hundreds of people in period costume. Including Gangsters, movie stars, but a majority of military uniforms. There were Australian Infantry, Australian Navy, RAAF, American Airforce, American Navy, and [a personal favourite] dress uniforms of the American Marines.

Interesting story about the marine uniform. One of the guys there had prepared in advance and had trawled the internet for exactly what he wanted. He bid for it on e-bay, and it arrived the morning of the ball. It was a full Marine sergeant's uniform, complete with white gloves and medals.

He bought it from some guy in the states, and it was a perfect fit. He even bothered to research the individual medals so he could really cosplay and tell remarkable stories about when and how he got each individual one.

Not surprisingly, he won best dressed.

Importantly, however, Camille enjoyed herself [and my company, hopefully] and I didn't crash the car on the 2hour journey back to Toowoomba.

I stumbled through the door at a bleary 3:15am, after dropping her [and her sister] home.

I know I should probably regret this, seeing as she left for Rocky [see: Rockhampton, not Sylvester Stallone] the same day, but I didn't kiss her goodbye. I wasn't that forward. But we did cling to one another like the world was about to end as we said our thanks and goodbyes.

That's got to count for something, right?

~_^
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Monday, July 25, 2005

'Your call has been placed in queue. Please press hash to continue' [Trust me. It's funnier when spoken by a robot with a Russian accent]


Trust me when I say I have one of the more unfortunate timetables around. I've been bored to tears by my chemistry lecturer, who insists on changing slides around, correcting himself, changing slides around, speaking in a monotone...augh.

After two hours [it's a three hour lecture], half of the students [that's about 300 people] had left and I wished I wasn't there.

Actually, I was wishing unfortunate things upon my lecturer because my weekend is now full of studying his lectures to make up for that abysmal lecture...and THEN studying for exams.

It wouldn't be as much of a problem if I had money, because then I could print out the ppt's and study them during the lecture. As such I missed out on anything important because I was rushing to take down the slide notes...WHICH HE KEPT CHANGING!

Hokay. Little bit upset about that. Not to mention that I'm depressed and lonely. That sort of bites. Currently my spare time is spent sitting around doing nothing because I'm absolutely sick of looking at my lecture notes. Study also sucks because I am, once again, without textbook goodness.

This may not sound like I have much to complain about, but when you've spent two weeks without having a conversation deeper than 'dinner's ready...What did you do today,' you start feeling depressed.

Currently I read my notes and listen to Triple J on the radio.

*le sigh*

Large empty hole.

Anyhow, current timetable [hours spent at university]

Monday: 8am-8pm, Tuesday: 8am-9pm, Wednesday: 8am-11pm, Thursday: 9am-3pm, Friday: Clear.

Hooray fridays off!

Boo two consecutive 12 hour days.
There's a 7hour break on tuesdays, but by the time it hits 4pm, I'm mentally, physically and spiritually bankrupt.

Ugh.

Terribly sorry about being so morose. I just needed to vent about not having a life in the hour break between my Physics lecture and my Anatomy Practical.

[Currently 5:11pm]

[So so melancholy..]
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Tuesday, July 12, 2005

'Whay-hey an' up she rises patent blocks o' diff'rent sizes!' [The Pirate Shanty]


Quick entry before I rush off to a Pharmacy interview. Will be back with SYF entry.

I passed all four of my subjects!

Woo!

And I have a great job lead, in an art store! Woo!

*runs*

EDIT: *runs back*

Terribly sorry, I am rather pumped. All I need to do now is find out how to swap out of physics. The guy who interviewed me for pharmacy was quite encouraging and more or less said that I'd enjoy pharmacy, and that I could make it easily. He was the one that actually suggested dropping physics for something else because 'there's no point doing a subject you don't like.'

I honestly didn't know I could swap subjects like that. He even said that he'd speak on my behalf to my course coordinator so that I could swap out of it. I need to email him and find out a few details...

Anyhow, I have completed a 3269 word SYF continuation, and I'm quite proud of it. Honestly, I think this is one of my most solid/goodest [take that, thesaurus!] updates, ever.

So, enjoy! ^_^

Arthur sat comfortably in an overstuffed armchair in a cosy corner of a book-selling coffee shop. He had several books strewn over his table, but they weren’t of much interest to him. A young barista-come-librarian had offered them to him in the hopes of making a sale. He had recognised Arthur from his little photo that always headed his articles, and had promptly given him several Tom Clancy novels. Arthur didn’t care for their government conspiracies, especially not when one was playing out in front of him.

The new laptop displayed the files in gorgeous colour, effortlessly accessing the little USB device. Normally he would copy the files to the hard drive, but he didn’t feel comfortable with moving these files around. The files! Never in his wildest dreams could he have hoped for them, not even in the one with the elephant eating his colleagues.

That had been a good dream. He could now face Monday mornings with a small knowing smile that tended to unnerve even the tallest poppy.

He had now closed the first folder, after having rifled through various psychology reports and recommendations. They warranted further investigation, but Arthur was keen to find something juicy, something that could potentially provide undisputable evidence. He had to keep to a deadline, whoever had given him this information wanted it to be released to the public by tomorrow, which was easier said than done. If he wanted the general public on his side, he needed something sensational. Today’s common man was easier to drag on side with a light show, rather than hard evidence.

Another folder opened, and Arthur edged forward on his seat. It now seemed that he had found both, in one neat little package. His media player opened up, and began to play.

'You think you are going to fight us tied to that chair?’
'No. I was going to get out of the chair first.’
‘And how do you plan to do that?'
‘Well I was thinking like this.’

Arthur sat back, one hand holding his face while the other gripped the arm of his chair. He winced as the teenager managed to completely decimate thugs that seemed to have him held hostage. The teen managed to break himself free from the chair that he was tied to, and then promptly smash everyone senseless with his bare hands.

‘Did you get all that? You can come and get me now, I'm getting bored with this scenery.’

The video finished as the teen- no, the agent- looked into the camera and presumably switched it off.

He knew that face. The teen was one of the ‘flat mates’ that was in the photo with Liam. A psychology report, complete with attached photos, told him that the teen’s name was just ‘Bradley,’ and that he was an astonishing sixteen years old. Amazing, all he needed now was to have the psychology reports verified as standard ASIO or ASIS material, and he would have a cornerstone for his exposé. There was more there, so much more, but he needed a team to back him up. If he was to get this done, he needed all the help he could get.

He finally found what he was looking for. A quick browse instantly caused his stomach to churn with anticipation, while his heart rate tripled from adrenaline. He saved his notes and quickly snapped his laptop shut, tossing a twenty at the young waiter before rushing out of the shop and to his car.

Twenty minutes later and he had called in a few favours over his phone and was parked back in his specially named parking space. Three people were lounging around the entrance to the building, laughing and chatting amongst themselves. As Arthur approached, the conversation died out, and they all grinned and looked at him expectantly. One of them, a tall gangly man in his early 20’s, gave a mock salute.

‘’s up my brutha from the same mutha?’ He said, grinning even wider. ‘Mum’s going to absolutely kill you when she finds out that you dragged me out of uni for one of your escapades.’

Arthur scratched the back of his head nervously. He had forgotten about Mum.

‘Er. Well…the way I see it is that she needn’t find out.’ Something clicked inside his head. ‘Hey! Wait a minute! You, David-me-boy, aren’t even at uni. You finished exams last week!’

David ruffled his older brother’s hair. ‘Yeah I know. I just like seeing your face ashen whenever I mention bringing Mum into the equation. So what’s the big story that required me to carpool and break several laws to get here?’

Arthur’s face became serious as he spoke, ‘I’ll tell you once we’re in the conference room. Jamie had it booked already, but she’s kindly obliged and allowed me to have it for the day.’

‘You keep forgetting, Arthur, that I have no idea who you’re talking about.’

Arthur shrugged and stepped towards the door, nodding to the other two twenty-somethings as he walked past, ‘Chris, Jeff.’

All three shuffled together and followed in his wake. Chris and Jeff were good mates of David’s, and they were self-proclaimed experts in their own fields. David had followed in his brother’s footsteps and was in his third and final year of his journalism bachelor. He was just as unorthodox as his brother, and had managed to achieve the same marks as his elder. Jeff was doing a double degree in business and journalism in preparation to take over his father’s media empire. With his scruffy appearance and down to earth attitude, he wasn’t easy to place as the offspring of a billion-dollar man.

Chris was also in his third year, with one to go, of his generic I.T. course. Like most of his classmates, he was talented with a keyboard, but kept quiet about his online activities. While others bragged about how they managed to hack into the campus computers and change the desktop backgrounds of every machine on campus, Chris spent his time trawling the internet, finding and selling information for clients that were quite happy to pay cash into an off-shore account. Naturally the government had contacted him and he had been through the courts twice on industrial espionage charges, but in both cases the charges had to be dropped as all evidence mysteriously disappeared. In both cases Chris had sued for damages on the grounds of defamation, and had won both cases.

Arthur had called in quite an arsenal. This was only the tip of it, however. Three of his friends from university were also waiting in the conference room. All three of them now worked for separate parts of the media industry, and were heavy hitters in their own right. Arthur smiled to himself, remembering their humble beginnings.

Several heads were popping up out of cubicles as they marched through the newsroom. Questions that would have been asked of the group, were simply deterred by the sheer level of grim determination that seemed to halo Arthur as he made his way to the conference room. He opened the heavy oak doors and ushered the others in, closing the doors behind him. Instantly the room was silent as the brilliantly soundproofed walls prevented the outside world from coming in. As a final precaution, Arthur flicked the small lock on the doorhandle.

At the tiny click, a sudden new hush descended on the group, an almost claustrophobic atmosphere took over the room.

Arthur calmly paced his way to the front, placing his laptop on the podium and plugged the overhead projector into the appropriate port on the back. He then opened up the media player and prepared the appropriate movies. Satisfied, he looked up from his laptop at his captivated audience and appraised them in the eerie half-light of the conference room.

‘Sarah, Brett, Kenny. Thank you for coming. I know you don’t work for this paper, and it was a huge risk for your careers to come here, but this news story needs to be broken simultaneously. If the government even catches a sniff of what I have here, we could be locked away for the next fifty years. Of course, we know we belong to a first world country and of course that would never happen, but with these new anti-terror laws, you never know.’ He smiled softly and adjusted the microphone in front of him.

‘If this were Hollywood, I would say to you now that you’re free to leave at any time, and that the door is right there for you to do so, but you all know that it is now locked.’ This caused a small ripple of laughter through the group. ‘Yes. Well, it may not be so funny after you see what I have to show you. This is the story of the year. Something that could potentially break the current government, something that could literally destroy the country, could potentially leave us with so many U.N. placed embargoes that we could end up permanently trapped in another era, just like Cuba.

‘I’m talking about blowing the lid well off the Griffin College incident. From the expression on your face Kenny, I know you’re remembering the role your video camera played in that piece of groundbreaking news. From rest of your expressions, I can tell you’re confused. First thing’s first, I, using Kenny’s camera, took that controversial footage of the terrorist attack on Griffin College. That was me. In fact, ever since then, I have been following that story, looking for more to support the allegations that our government, in alliance with the UK and USA, has been training child soldiers. Doing something that we have condemned third world countries, such as the Democratic Republic of Congo, for years.

‘Before any of you comment, let me just show you this evidence that has been recently put in my hands. If we were lawyers, we wouldn’t be able to take this to court, but because we’re journalists, we can take this to the public. If enough people are asking questions, the government will be forced to give some answers. Before you even start thinking that I’ve been fed a hoax, just have a look at these…’

Arthur pressed play and stepped back, out of the way of the screen. He carefully studied the faces of the media moguls that sat before him. As every minute, every second, washed over them, Arthur could see their countenances become all the more grave. Some of the footage Arthur hadn’t seen before, but that didn’t bother him. What appeared to be mission footage began to play. Beside himself, Arthur sat down and leaned forward in anticipation. Numbers in the bottom corner informed him that the footage was from three years ago.

Jet plane, conversation, camouflaged airport, ambush, rocket fire. More conversation, sarcastic remarks. Angry retorts and the camera turned to face two young women, both armed to the teeth and decked out in camouflage. An Hour passed and the grainy footage was starting to hurt his eyes, but so far no-one had left their seat. The footage was harrowing, there was no doubt that it was Liam’s camera they were looking through, and Arthur automatically recognised Rae from her photos.

Death…so much carnage and destruction. It was morbidly fascinating, no Hollywood budget could afford or produce this kind of movie without it coming to the attention of the general public. No doubt it was real. Arthur felt a wave of nausea rush through him again as his heart almost had palpitations. The sheer enormity of what he had now seemed to crush his spirit. The gunfire stopped blasting away through the speakers, allowing the low-quality sound to drop back from static.

Liam was now looking into a large room, and there was a lithe figure standing before him.

‘Sis…’ Liam breathed to himself, but the microphone picked it up.

Out of the corner of his eye, Arthur could see that the others were experiencing the same emotions as him. Chris had leant forward and had his head in his hands, David had leant forward to check on him, arm around his shoulders.

The camera’s angle skewed wildly as Liam seemingly charged his own sister. As the camera was on his chest, the fight was less spectacular than it would have been, but Arthur could feel every blow shake him, he sucked air through his teeth as he saw the blood on Liam’s leg.

‘fi-t…dirt-…’ Static washed most of the words away, but it was easy to guess what she said.

They all saw the small pistol appear in her hands, but Kenny was the only one to say what they were all thinking as he shouted, ‘you filthy slut!’ at the screen. The camera view changed crazily as Liam presumably dodged the shots.

There was more conversation, more clear than the last, and Arthur tensed right up again. He honestly couldn’t believe what he was hearing. Thirteen huge explosions destroyed the quality of the sound again, shattering it into static again. Everyone in the conference hall sagged into their seats as they saw Jess, bloodied and broken, fall to the ground. They saw Liam’s hand come up and cover the camera. The screen blacked out and the media player re-appeared, switching to another clip.

Arthur shakily got to his feet and exited the program. There was not a doubt in his body that he looked as sick as he felt. He was almost choked for words, but he managed to spit them out on his third try.

‘What…what we just saw was through the eyes of a sixteen year old.’ He paused and opened Liam’s file from that year. ‘You all know the spiels used by Amnesty and World Vision when they explain the lives of child soldiers, so you aren’t going to hear them from me…I personally haven’t seen this particular film before, and it honestly scared me…we need to get the word out about this- and quick.’ The nausea came back again. ‘If our government is willing enough to send a sixteen year old into the jungle somewhere, to kill countless numbers of soldiers, and then kill his own sister, then we can safely assume that they will not think twice to shut us up if they find a small leak.

‘We need to burst this dam, and we need to do it before tomorrow.’

David looked at him with a haunted expression, but smiled slightly and began to clap. Shakily, the others joined in. Chris just stared at him, looking as though he was going to be sick.

‘Sarah. I need you to call in all of your favours, I need you to go straight to work, now. It’s now two in the afternoon, you have the news at four on network Seven. I know I always ragged you for taking a commercial job over one at the ABC, but I’m grateful now that you made that decision. You’re slightly more likely to get this on air at a station that isn’t owned by the government. I honestly don’t care when you put this on the air. Just put it on as fast as you can. Use only a small group of people. Hell, I don’t know. Just get it out there!’ He quickly pulled out the DVD he was burning and gave it to her. ‘Go. Go now.’

Sarah nodded and took it from him, looking incredibly flustered. She smiled slightly at him and gave him a quick hug and a peck on the cheek before running to the door. She calmed herself, focused, and left smiling, using her news persona as she left the room. Arthur nodded to David, and he stood up, locking the door.

Already Arthur had another DVD burning, and the drive was making a quick job of the relatively small files. In five minutes the entire gigabyte of information on the USB would be on the disc.

‘Brett, I want you to take this one to your newsroom at the Herald. Just dump it straight onto the common drive and get cracking. This information needs to be out tomorrow, at the latest.’

Brett stood up and strode briskly to the podium. He watched the computer carefully, anxious that it was taking so long. The minutes remaining looked like hours, the sudden urgency almost causing him to lose his cool. Arthur looked at his brother and his two friends. David looked at him from the door, his face radiating a like grim determination.

‘Chris, Jeff. I need you to dump this video on every news site you can, but not just news sites. Amnesty, Oxfam, the U.N. even. I want this everywhere. Tomorrow I want the world to be wondering what is happening in Australia, and what its allies have had to do with it.’

Jeff and Chris nodded. Chris pulled out a laptop of his own and switched it on, plugging in his dedicated wireless internet access device. It was one of the most expensive ones available, and quite rare among university students. The company he had a plan with provided him a 1.5Mbps connection, and charged him by the megabyte for it. Chris new that he would cry at his bill next month, but right now he didn’t care.

Brett grabbed the DVD and put it in his pocket, nodding to Arthur before he too left the room. Arthur unplugged the USB and tossed it to Chris, who caught it and plugged it in, in one smooth movement.

David and Kenny now looked at him expectantly.

‘So…what do you have for me, brutha?’ David said, smiling slightly.

‘You’re going to help me write one of the most incredible articles in the history of the Australian newspaper. You’ll start it while I go and call in my wild card with the Editor. He took the card before, in Singapore, so there isn’t a doubt in my mind that he’ll give me the benefit of the doubt here.’

‘Okay, wait.’ Kenny had stood up and raised his hands. ‘I can understand why you asked the others here, but I write articles for the business section in Courier-Mail, for heaven’s sake! I’m at home with numbers, not’-he waved a hand vaguely at the screen- ‘this! What can I do?’

Arthur smiled and opened the only file that he had copied to his computer. It was an Adobe one; about four hundred pages long and obviously converted straight from a hardcopy document, like a cheap electronic photocopy. Kenny had walked over and was now looking up at the screen with a small worried smile.

Complete with a ‘MOST SECRET’ and ‘CLASSIFIED’ stamp, the first page of the document was quite impressive. There was a crest on the front, five arrows tied by a ribbon, with ‘SYF’ above it and ‘PAEDAGOGUS’ beneath.

Kenny chuckled, good humour returning. He read and re-read the title of the document. He honestly couldn’t believe that he was reading, it was like the gold at the end of a financial rainbow.

‘So…’ Kenny said, turning to Arthur. ‘I’m guessing this document is going to tell me exactly what happened to that $400 million that the Australian defence force apparently misplaced?’

Arthur smiled knowingly and walked over to Kenny, standing directly beneath the title.

‘I’m guessing that it’s going to tell you what happened to that money, right down to the nearest cent, and then some more. Namely what any other country has donated, or invested.’

Above the two of them, the words ‘SYF BUDGET REVIEW 1995-2005’ stood out defiantly against their white background.


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