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1034. alistairconnor - 12/19/2010 7:25:22 PM New novel. Popped into my head this morning while we were walking about the artists' market by the Saône in the bright cold sun.
Unashamedly inspired by the Wikileaks/Leakywicks business. Sex, politics and danger.
As a starting point, I retain the universe from the vampire story, and "Alistair" as a central character (perhaps other characters too). Redrafting will iron out the superfluous autobiographical elements, but I think it's a useful device to get the juices flowing.
The plot : As the international financial clusterfuck has emerged over the past couple of years, a group of international economists/philosophers/left wing political activists has been analyzing it on a blog site. Alistair, though no financial wiz, is pals with these people, by virtue of the fact that he's been hanging around the internet for twenty years. The inner circle/secret cabal of the site become depositaries of a whistleblower's document dump : an insider gives graphic details of financial skulduggery that involves (laundry list of everything that's wrong with the international financial system). It's politically explosive stuff, and they decide to publish.
But they need to cover their tracks. They need a front man who's squeaky clean, and who can be relied on not to reveal their sources. They choose Alistair.
They come to Lyon to brief him. "They" are : let's see.
1) Pierrick, a brilliant young French banker, who has worked in the City and in Wall Street. Somewhat autistic (Asperger syndrome, if you will. Gets nasty if you disagree with him.)
2) Frank, cantankerous old New York Jew, former functionary of the Fed, retired in Madrid.
3) Jens, a Swedish rocker/hacker/drug abuser. Staunch but dangerous.
Alistair is delighted to be their pawn in this game, it'll be his fifteen minutes of fame, and in a good cause. He will hold press conferences and go on a world tour to meet whistleblowing activists. The timing is good, his beloved Halima has been sent on an overseas mission for three months.
They worry that Alistair is a loose cannon, he has a taste for off-the-wall provocation that may cause extra trouble. But they reason that he can't cause any real damage, he can only reveal things they brief him on, and any extra controversy he creates will serve as cover. 1035. alistairconnor - 12/19/2010 7:25:35 PM
I need to think about the specifics of the scandal. It has to be generic enough to be not linked to any real person or organisation (other than governments), yet plausible, and politically correct (from my point of view. This is not a story with a message, but the message is a necessary part of the background to the story). In any case, the finance/economics is recounted from Alistair's point of view, and he only half understands it, forgets names frequently, and is capable of getting vital points exactly backwards if he hasn't got a briefing paper in front of him.
The publication of the first batch of information causes a huge media kerfuffle, and also a run on the dollar and the rouble. Alistair enjoys the fuss, and being the centre of attention. Everyone wants to be his friend, but he has trouble distinguishing who his real friends are. The US government targets his organisation - but in reality, there is no organisation to target. Cyberwar against the web sites publishing the information - but every time a site is taken down, a dozen mirrors spring up, it's like fighting a hydra.
Lots of sex - some of it good clean fun, but there is bad behaviour. And a honey trap. How about this : Alistair has several sexual encounters, then learns that one of them was a honeytrap, and he has to find out which one...
At some point, someone tries to pop him (Americans? Russians? There are numerous possibilities), and he has to go underground. He scuttles around in several countries, having narrow escapes, visiting with friends of friends, being tracked relentlessly.
In the end, his beloved Halima rescues him. The proximate bad guys, the ones hunting him, are brought to justice. The real bad guys, the insiders, are not. But perhaps the affaire has advances the prospects of real reform of international finance... Whatever. 1036. judithathome - 12/19/2010 7:43:08 PM Sounds great...better hurry with it, though...tempting scenario that may occur to a few more aspiring scribes.
I suggest one attempt on his life be made through doctored wine...Alistair being an enthusiastic oenophile and all.
1037. vonKreedon - 6/23/2011 11:30:02 PM So, I've been back working at Microsoft for about 6 years now. I'm a Help writer for Office, Publisher in specific, and as part of that I've been writing an official Publisher blog for a little over six months now. As part of that I'm writing a series of Help topic parodies based on "What if famous authors wrote Help?"
Ok, I'm going to out RL self here, so I trust the Moties to not spread this farther than here, but I so love these blog posts.
Tom Clancy
Raymond Chandler
Gabriel Garcia Marquez
William Shakespeare 1038. arkymalarky - 6/24/2011 3:25:58 AM How cool! 1039. wabbit - 6/24/2011 4:52:29 PM Those are very cool! 1040. vonKreedon - 9/2/2011 11:09:53 PM Jane Austen - Publisher Help Writer 1041. alistairconnor - 10/29/2012 11:39:45 PM Dr Albu called the assembled participants to order. "I hope you have all had an enjoyable weekend..." As he said that, Sorin and Errin slipped into the room, late and trying to be unobrusive, which caused a stir of amusement.
"The subject of today's seminar will be 'How to kill a vampire'" -- a ripple of alarm went through his audience. "But before we begin I think it would be in order to formally introduce all those present, as we have some newcomers. You have probably all met individually, but it may be useful for me to outline succinctly the role of each of us.
"I am Dr Albu, formerly Professor at the faculty of medicine of Bucharest, Romania, now Director of the Institute of Vampirology at the World Health Organisation, here in Geneva.
"To my left we have Halima, from Morocco, our security specialist -- and a very important role it is, as you many of you know. I ask you all to obey her advice and instructions without discussion, particularly in any emergency situation that may arise.
"Beside her is Courtney, from New Zealand. Courtney is a vampire, specifically a Changer -- meaning that her cycle of wakefulness and, er, near-death state are desynchronised from the day/night cycle.
"Then we have Alistair -- also from New Zealand, but resident in France. Alistair is Halima's companion, and Courtney's slave. Make him stand up, Courtney."
Alistair jerked to his feet with a squawk. "Hey, I'm not a circus act! Let me go!" he said, and fell heavily into his seat. "Ow!"
Albu waited for the laughter to die down, and explained : "Courtney and Alistair's co-operation allow us to conduct a scientific study of the Imperative effect, by which vampires may control every act of their... subjects, or victims, by an act of will.
"Next to Alistair we have Dr Vassiliu, from Greece, currently leading a research team at CERN, the international nuclear physics facility. Beside Dr Vassiliu are our newest recruits : Milòs, from the Czech Republic, and Laslò, from Hungary, both vampires and Changers like Courtney. And here is Iancu, from California, also a Changer. And Dr Dumitra Nicolu, a medical doctor from Rumania, in fact a former student of mine, also a Changer.
"Then we have Dr Kronen, the world's leading specialist of the theoretical underpinnings and scientific basis of the... special powers of vampires, at the intersection of cellular biology and nuclear physics.
"And our latecomers : Dr Sorin Cascu, of Rumania, resident in France, also a former student of mine but nevertheless not a vampire" -- he paused for the laugh -- "and Dr Errin Davidson, future physics Nobel prize -- I say this confidently!" Drs Kronen and Vassiliu murmured approval.
"To complete the introductions : Sitting in on our seminar today is Dr Ayotunde, head of the 'Unorthodox Practices and Pathologies' section of the WHO which hosts our Institute, and, to be clear, my boss." 1042. alistairconnor - 10/29/2012 11:40:25 PM
Dr Ayotunde chuckled and said "If I may be allowed to clarify -- Dr Albu has my complete confidence, and total autonomy in the management of the Institute. My presence here in these early stages of the Institute's existence is partly a matter of intellectual curiosity, because of the extraordinary results already obtained, and partly a question of managing the interface between the Institute and the outside world. As you already know, everything that is said, everything that happens here or at CERN concerning vampirology must be considered confidential, and contacts with the exterior must be kept to a minimum. For the immediate future, you will be living in a closed community. I hope you all get along well..." There were murmurs and smiles, a few blushes. "In any case, the pizzas are on me." He got a round of applause for this. 1043. alistairconnor - 10/30/2012 12:26:47 AM "Before we start our scheduled topic, are there any questions?" Dr Albu said. "General, specific, logistical, organisational, scientific : the floor is open."
After a pause and a bit of muttering, Alistair raised his hand.
"There's one thing that I'm curious about", he said. "Here I am, surrounded by vampires..." He counted : "three, four, five. And none of them seem to be lusting after my blood." There were smiles from the vampires, nods from the others. "I mean, is the bloodsucking thing just some sort of racist slur -- like the blood libel against Jews, or something?"
Dr Albu said : "Excellent question. The folklore about the bloodlust of vampires does indeed have a strong historical basis. Perhaps one of the vampires present could suggest why this is no longer, in the general case, a problem?"
Hank raised his hand and suggested: "Celery?"
"I LOVE celery!" squeaked Courtney, and blushed as the others all laughed.
"Please go on, child" said Albu. "What can you tell us about celery?"
"Well... My mum always says I should eat celery at least three times a week. Preferably raw, but cooked is good too."
"And did she tell you why it is important?"
"No... No, I don't think she ever did."
Dr Albu went to the chalkboard and wrote a rather complicated chemical formulation. "This is an enzyme which is vital to the metabolism of all mammals. Fortunately, all animals can manufacture their own. Humans included; with the exception of vampires. Prolonged deprivation of this enzyme results in a pale complexion, followed by sweating and shivering, convulsions, and eventually, death".
Alistair suggested : "And this enzyme is found in celery?"
"Yes", said Albu. "In a fairly concentrated and stable form. This fact was discovered in the early twentieth century, and was central to the efforts to normalize and integrate the vampire population of central Europe."
"And the blood thing...?" prompted Alistair.
"Indeed. As I said, all other mammals, humans included, produce the enzyme themselves, and it is found in their blood, in trace amounts. Other than celery, blood is the only known naturally-occuring source of the enzyme. But it is very unstable, and must be consumed fresh. Or, to be more precise : warm."
A sort of shudder went around the room. Except for the vampires, who were all smiling broadly.
"Hey, it's OK, dudes" "You have nothing to fear from us. We all eat our celery, like good little vampires. Right, Hank?" he said with a grin.
"Oh, so you know about the celery refuseniks?" inquired Hank. "Only rumours man" said Laslò. "Only rumours. You were mixed up with them, weren't you?"
"Well, since we're all family here..." he began, almost sardonically. Dumitra's gaze locked with his for a second, and time stood still. Her expression was inscrutable. "Oh, you haven't told me about that", she said. "It sounds fascinating. Tell us about it. Tell us everything".
1044. alistairconnor - 11/3/2012 11:44:53 PM Hank stood up slowly.
"Take your time, Iancu", said Albu. "Our schedule is perfectly flexible. Would you like to come to the front? Use the chalkboard perhaps?"
Hank went to the front of the seminar room, then closed his eyes and waited for the sensation of vertigo to pass.
"Perhaps you are not accustomed to speaking to a group?" Albu asked kindly.
"No, no. On the contrary. It's just that... We are drilled from a very young age to be... discreet about our family circumstances. And downright secretive about the existence of our... community. And for this story to make any sense, I'm going to have to tell you all a whole bunch of stuff."
He seemed to find his resolve, and began : "I grew up in a gated community in the Bay Area. Gated communities are, I guess, the dirty little secret of California vampires. You've got a perimeter fence and security guards, and as long as you pay your taxes and don't cause any trouble, you're pretty much invisible. And that's what our people want.
"You've got to bear in mind that a majority of adult vampires have to ... sleep all day. This is an obstacle to social integration, to put it mildly. It doesn't seem to be hereditary - my mother is one, for example. Pretty much all vampire families have at least one. This means there is a strong advantage to sticking together. The others -- the Changers and the Perps -- have all the responsibility of interfacing with the outside world. Economically this means finding work for the... Coffers - that's not a word I like, but for want of a better word. There's a certain amount of cottage industry work within the gated communities themselves, but a surprising number of Coffers have outside jobs on the night shift. Factory work. Mail sorters. Nightclub barmen, and bouncers. Anything that doesn't require qualifications. That's the other problem Coffers have - oh OK, I'd better explain about education.
"As you probably know, the principal traits of vampirism emerge at puberty -- before that, we're pretty much like other children, and we go to local elementary schools. There are registered private schools within the gated communities : they all have a middle school, and there are four high schools.
"Ah, yeah. There are seven of the gated communities in the Bay Area. Historically, all the vampires of the West Coast have ended up drifting to San Francisco. Plus there's always been a steady trickle of immigration from Europe, usually via the East Coast communities." 1045. alistairconnor - 11/4/2012 1:12:18 AM "So, back to me. I started Middle school at my community, but when I turned out to be a Changer, they wanted to send me out to normal schools. I didn't want that -- most of my friends were Coffers, and I wanted to stay with them. We worked out a compromise - I went to school during the day, then I came home and went to school at night too.
"That turns out to be fairly uncommon - most adolescent Changers are happy to escape from their community as much as they can, and they despise the Coffers, or at best they just patronise them, look down on them. So I was pretty popular with the Coffers - I thought it was the least I could do, you know, give something back.
"I was pretty good at sports. At high school, I didn't like team sports, I went for athletics, climbing, orienteering, I was State champion in orienteering. And I organised stuff for the Coffers. Pretty soon it got beyond what we could do within the gated community, we organised outside activities. When I was 17, we would drive out to a forest at midnight, a vanload of us, and I'd organise an orienteering course. The kids loved that. They didn't get to go out much.
"I guess this is when the Organisation started getting interested in me. It was the only hope of advancement for most Coffers : of any higher education, and of an interesting job. The Organisation is actually two distinct organisations, on paper at least : it's a technology university, and it's a holding company of various enterprises. All 100% vampire.
"Well, they made me an offer. My academic results were good, and they proposed to sponsor me to Berkeley, to do an engineering degree. And nights, I would turn up and work for the Organisation. With the promise of a decent job in the company later on.
"It suited me. Especially since the work was mostly tutoring Coffers, and organising a sports program. 1046. alistairconnor - 11/4/2012 5:25:38 PM Alistair piped up : "Are we getting to the celery soon?". Half a dozen people shushed him, but Hank laughed and said, "We're nearly there."
"The different gated communities had varied approaches to the vampire heritage. Some of them have a more science-based approach - those are the ones who are closest to the Organisation. Others have maintained, or developed, more of a tradition-based approach.
"The problem with that is that they don't have all that much to go on. Written sources are pretty much absent, and oral tradition is pretty thin, and wildly variable. So the two or three hard-core traditionalist communities are reduced to reconstituting vanished traditions, probably even inventing things. When a European vampire turns up, they get quizzed about tradition. I guess you guys got the treatment?" he said, turning to Milòs and Laslò.
Laslò replied : "Yeah, they made us feel like movie stars or something. Trouble is, we didn't have that much to tell them : modern vampires in central Europe have lost a lot of tradition too. Sometimes I was tempted to make shit up to keep them happy."
"So. The celery thing. At least one of the communities has decided to go without celery. They claim it makes them more authentic vampires, you know, a sort of back-to-nature thing. I got invited to a barbecue there, I didn't know about the celery business.
"So there are like twenty people or so there, in a communal barbecue area in the community. We're all having a drink, beer, wine and stuff, and a couple of guys put on butcher's aprons, then they take a tarpaulin off these rabbit cages. One of the guys gets a rabbit out, and the second one has a knife and a bowl, and he cuts the rabbit's throat and bleeds it. Then a woman takes the bowl and a ladle, and the people all form a queue and they all drink a ladle full of warm rabbit's blood."
"Was there a ceremonial aspect?" asked Dr Ayotunde. "I guess so", said Hank. "I got the impression that it was sort of muted - maybe they toned it down because there were two or three vampires who were not from their community, like me. But nobody was cracking any jokes, it was very solemn. And the lady with the bowl was murmuring something under her breath, nothing I could understand, it wasn't in English I guess.
"So they got through four rabbits, making sure everyone got their share. Then they skinned the rabbits and barbecued them. The meat was pretty tough, it really needs to hang for a couple of days before you cook it." 1047. alistairconnor - 11/4/2012 8:22:18 PM "So that's it? That's the celery story?" said Alistair.
"Are you disappointed?" said Hank, almost playfully. "Well, a bit. It's pretty tame", said Alistair.
"But wait... there's more, isn't there Hank?", said Laslò, grinning. "From what I heard, anyway."
"So... what did you hear, exactly?" asked Alistair. "Well, the young vampires talked about hank in hushed tones... " said Laslò. "At least, the young women did." "The young men too", added Milòs, grinning. "At least, the ones I hung out with. Man, you're a legend!"
"Specifically", said Laslò, "I heard that Hank used to lead a bunch of feral vampires in hunting expeditions in the forest. Killing animals with your bare hands. That sort of stuff. Maybe exaggerated?"
"Well OK, I'd better set the record straight", said Hank, smiling wryly. "I guess it all happened the year before you two turned up for your internship at the Organisation", he said to Milòs and Laslò. "What it was : Among the Coffers I was tutoring, there was a group of hard-core traditionalists. Celery refuseniks, among other things. Coffers generally have pretty pale complexions, due to the obvious lack of sun..."
"Actually, there's a tanning salon on the Organisation's campus", interrupted Milòs. It's only used by a minority, though." "A visible minority!" laughed Laslò. "Your boyfriends didn't really fit the Coffer stereotype. Blonde, most of 'em. Tanned. Well-dressed too! Sorry to interrupt..."
"Yes, well, the refuseniks were really very pale, sweaty, shifty-looking. Well-groomed, and excessively polite -- obsequious, that's the word I guess -- these are the affectations that they claim as their heritage, as the true vampires."
"Yeah, well I heard that some of 'em fake it. Lay the white makeup on thick, and eat celery in secret" said Milòs.
"You think?" Hank smirked. "Anyway. I was ... approached. By one of the leaders of this clique." Keep it vague, he was saying to himself. Don't think about Leila. Too much unfinished business. "Most of the group had already been on orientation trips that I had organised. So what they wanted, I guess, was to use me as cover, to get out into a park somewhere and hunt game.
"I was happy to oblige, I guess. I went out to Point Reyes National Seashore."
"OK!" said Laslò. "I've been there. It's about an hour's drive out of Frisco."
Hank winced. "Don't call it Frisco. Yeah, it's a huge park and it's crawling with wildlife. I staked the place out, checked out the security, and prowled around checking out the wildlife. Various varieties of deer, and elk. Then I came back a few nights later for a more detailed visit, with the leader of the refuseniks."
Oh shit, he said to himself. I didn't have to tell them about that second trip. 1048. alistairconnor - 11/18/2012 6:00:25 PM Moving right along, he told himself.
"My first plan was that we could pick out an isolated fur seal on the beach. Must be plenty of blood in one of those. I mentioned this to the leader, and she sort of giggled - she says, you realise the guys want to do this without weapons? Bare hands, and, um, teeth? So we gave up on the seal idea. Imagine going for the jugular on one of those fat furry beasts.
"My second idea was to take advantage of geography. There's a point, a sort of a peninsula sticking out into the Pacific, with a fairly narrow neck. We could form a chain and beat any game towards the point, corner the animals and take our pick.
"There were three girls and six guys in the group. All sworn to secrecy and stuff. I set it up as an official orienteering expedition, borrowed the van from the social services department, and there we were, on a bright moonlit night in September. It was pretty warm.
"All vampires have pretty good night vision. But most of them had very little experience of using it : you grow up in the suburbs, when you're outside at night there's generally street lights and stuff. When I taught orienteering, I always started with acclimatization, letting the instincts come to the surface and all. These guys were really into that, in theory, but pretty unskilled in bushcraft, for want of practice. That's why using them as beaters was a better plan than letting them blunder around in the forest trying to catch something with their bare hands.
"Well, in the end, it worked pretty well, I suppose. We ended up shooing a couple of fairly large animals onto the peninsula. We ended up walking more or less abreast, pushing them out towards the point. It's fairly steep terrain, and ends more or less in a cliff, or steep bluff. When we forced the animals out into the moonlight, I saw we had an elk, which is a protected species, and one of the introduced varieties of deer. I ordered them to let the elk go, we opened our line and he got the hell out. Then the guy who thought of himself as the, er, meanest mother of the group, he decided he was going one on one with this deer. Well, someone had to do it I guess. So we held the line, just a few yards from the end of the point, and he goes in to wrestle this deer.
"And they go over the cliff together.
"He didn't do too badly, he used the deer to break his fall. The deer broke its neck or something. But our hero also broke his fucking leg. Quite badly, compound fracture. Nevertheless, by the time we've scrambled down the bluff onto the rocks where he is, he's got his teeth into the deer's neck and he's drinking its blood. Well OK, I concede he really is a pretty mean mother.
"So most of the tribe are lining up, in their internal pecking order I guess, to get a suck on this deer. This is a pretty big moment for them, some of them wanted to take pictures with their cellphones, I had to pull rank on them to avoid that." 1049. alistairconnor - 11/18/2012 6:04:32 PM "That left me and the leader to take care of the fallen comrade while the others are doing their vampire thing. Luckily she's done more first aid than me. We had to climb back up the bluff to get branches and stuff to rig up a rough stretcher, then we got him onto that and carried him from the slippery rocks we were on, below the high tide mark, onto the sand. I've got to admit, he was very stoical. We had no pain killers, well I gave him an aspirin, for what that's worth. Then I went to get the van."
"Didn't you call an ambulance or something?" asked Courtney.
"Hell no. Vampires don't do hospitals. You don't want some curious doctor doing blood work on you. There's a pretty good clinic on the Organisation's main campus. That's where we were heading.
"It was a complete bloodbath. The guys were all dripping with deer blood, and it was all over the van by the time we got the victim on board and crammed everyone else in. I tried to debrief them on the way back. Damage control. Get them to change into their spare clothes, wipe the van down, pass the whole thing off as an innocent orienteering accident. But they were in full-on manic mode. Maybe fresh blood does that to you. Plus, the mean mother broke down about halfway back to San Francisco, and he was really screaming by the time we made it home. That seemed to excite them even more. There was some pretty wild talk in the back of the van. Their blood was up, I guess. A couple of the guys wanted to stop on the way back to find some bum or junkie to roll."
That detail put an end to the mood of amused excitement in the seminar room. The atmosphere was suddenly very chilly.
"Well, as you can imagine, I'd had enough. I delivered the tough guy to the clinic, delivered the others home to their dormitories, then went and gave myself up to the Organisation's security. We got busted, and we got grounded. That was the end of bare-handed hunting. And of orienteering too."
Halima observed, "I suppose that put a brake on your progress within the Organisation?"
"Oh no, on the contrary", Hank replied. "That was when they recruited me into Security." 1050. alistairconnor - 11/18/2012 6:26:59 PM "So that", Hank concluded, "is the celery story."
There was scattered, respectful applause as he sat down. Dr Albu immediately declared a ten-minute coffee break, and retreated to his office.
Alistair and Halima cornered Sorin during the break, to grill him about the weekend. Sorin had a friend who had lent him an apartment in a ski resort on the French side of the border, and he had taken Errin there.
"So, how did the weekend go?" Alistair inquired innocently.
Sorin was radiant. "It was marvellous. Errin wasn't a complete beginner of course, however she had very little practical experience. But she made up for that in enthusiasm."
"And I imagine that with your expert guidance, she made rapid progress?" said Halima, grinning.
"Well, I don't claim to be an expert. But yes, pretty soon we were well past the beginner's stage and tackling some pretty challenging stuff. She really impressed me, she seems to have a gift for it. And she was tireless. Then on Sunday morning, she was very sore, of course, and I thought she might want to take it easy. But no, she wanted to get straight back into it. She's amazing", he said happily. "Why are you laughing?"
"And did you do any skiing while you were there?" asked Halima. 1051. alistairconnor - 11/18/2012 7:24:06 PM Still in intelligence-gathering mode, Halima moved on to Hank. He was momentarily separated from Dumitra, who had gone outside for a cigarette.
"I got the idea that there was more to your hunting story?" she prompted. "An aspect you didn't want to explore with the whole group? A romance? With the group leader, perhaps?"
"Damn. How do you do that?", said Hank, somewhat stunned. "Was it that obvious?"
"No, not obvious. Except possibly to Dumitra."
Hank suddenly felt the urge to unburden himself completely. "Well, if you promise not to tell anyone. Except Dumitra."
"Of course. Except Dumitra. So?"
Hank took a deep breath. "Well, I guess I need to explain a little about sexual politics in the Organisation. The young Coffers sleep in dorms. Well, tiny rooms, two to a room. The female dorms are off-limits to men, in theory. In practice, that means that Coffer guys can't get in. Changers, and the Lit, can generally manage it.
"That's the thing about Coffer girls - there is the sexual aspect added to their semi-slave status. I don't mean they are literally sex slaves. But they are easy prey. Their most cherished dream, for most of them, is to marry a Changer and start a family. But it really is a dream, it hardly ever happens.
"So, for most of the Changer men who work in the Organisation, the girl's dorm is their dirty little secret. Some of them at least go through the motions : charm, gallantry, nights on the town and all. Not all of them.
"As soon as I worked this out, I was pretty indignant. Nobody wanted to talk about it. Nobody. I was an idealist, I thought I could get something done by talking to the authorities. But I realised that not only did everyone know about it, it went all the way to the top. A number of the Directors had mistresses from the dorm.
"So, I decided I just had to steer clear of it myself. I did my best to create a distance with the Coffer girls when I was tutoring them. Not easy. Well, I guess you can imagine.
"Laila was different. She was older than me, for one thing. Is. Is older than me.
"She has an atypical family history. Her father was a scientist, a Changer, who travelled a lot, and met her mother in Egypt. Her mother's not a vampire. Leila was born in Europe, and grew up in various places, until adolescence, when she turned out to be a Coffer. Her father took them home to California, bought a house in one of the gated vampire communities, then left them there.
"When we met, Leila was a tutor, like me. When the hunting business happened, she'd just finished her batchelor's degree, which is as far as you can go within the Organisation's university. And she had been selected to do a Master's at the vampire university on the East Coast. It's easy enough for Changers to go there, but they have a very small quota for Coffers, they only take the best. And Leila was the best. 1052. alistairconnor - 11/18/2012 8:12:23 PM "I guess I agreed to the hunting thing for Leila. Because she asked me. She was an idealist in her way, fully into discovering her vampire roots. And she wasn't like the other Coffer girls. She wasn't going to take any shit. Not that I intended to give her any. I guess by that stage, I was already in love with her."
Hank and Halima were huddled over a table in a corner of the break room. The others gave them plenty of space, respecting their privacy. Hank closed his eyes and plunged into his narrative.
On the reconnaissance trip to Point Reyes, they had spent the hour's drive deep in conversation on a hundred different cerebral subjects. Hank delighted in Leila's casual cosmopolitanism and her erudition in all sorts of disciplines; she seemed surprised and pleased at his intellectual depth, having taken him as something of a jock. Once they were on site, Hank was in command; but she didn't slow him down. He was impressed with her fitness as they criss-crossed the broken terrain, and with her discretion too -- she was not as noiseless as he was, but her night vision seemed to be superior to his.
After three hours of exploration, they emerged from the forest onto the peninsula, as the full moon rose over the sea. Facing her at the cliff edge, he briefly outlined his plan, resisting the impulse to take her hands as he did so.
Then they picked their way down the bluff to the beach. This provided the opportunity for a certain amount of physical contact -- in particular, when Leila missed her footing on the last section and more or less fell on top of Hank. They held each other, panting; Hank had a strong urge to kiss her, but resisted it; then the moment passed.
It was about 3 a.m. They needed to be back before dawn, obviously, but there was no hurry -- they had an hour or so before they had to leave.
Leila had taken her shoes off, and walked down to the waterline to wet her feet. She smiled. "Why don't we have a swim?" Hank grinned : "Well, why the hell not?"
Leila shed her light jacket, tee-shirt, bra and jeans in a couple of lithe movements, and was naked in about five seconds. Hank was transfixed by the beauty of her dusky skin in the moonlight. Not to mention her wide hips and fabulous breasts. Then he realised it was probably rude to stand there staring. Also perhaps tactically unwise, because by the time he got naked himself, he was fully erect.
But Leila didn't seem to mind. Or pretended not to notice. She took his hand, and they ran together into the surf. 1053. alistairconnor - 11/18/2012 9:19:14 PM Neck-deep in the Pacific, rising and falling with the waves, they turned to face the shore. The spectacle of the moonlight on the craggy relief of the bluffs was breathtaking. They drank it in silently, then turned to face each other.
Hank remembered his responsibilities. "I see you're not an easy swimmer. The currents are probably dangerous here. We better move in a bit, we're a little bit out of your depth."
Laila responded, "You think so?", and wrapped her legs around his waist, trying to force herself onto him. "Hey wait a minute" said Hank, gently lifting her off him. "We haven't even kissed yet. And it's uh, not too great in the water, really. We'll be better on the beach. And I've got a, uh, a condom in my jeans."
They walked out of the water, holding hands again. Knee-deep, they turned to face each other, and kissed for the first time.
When they arrived on the sand, Leila spoke : "Let's just sit here for a while". Hank was glad to slow down the pace for a minute. He sat cross-legged, in the lotus position, on the sand. Leila made as if to sit beside him, then suddenly turned to face him, throwing a leg astride him, and grabbed his cock as she sat down, hard.
Hank felt her hymen resist, then tear. Leila kissed him, hard, and then it was over.
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