I wrote a new flash fiction for today’s post but made other plans for it. For those of you following this blog, you may need an explanation. I post these stories every Friday for your enjoyment. They are mostly writing exercises for me. I like to fool around with Point of View, or a new genre, for example Westerns or Ghost Stories, in addition to my favorite SciFi.
The problem is, if I post them here, they’re considered published. What’s that mean? It means that if I like a story and want to submit it to a print or e-magazine, it’s already been published. First publishing rights, is the official term. That means, they don’t want the story, won’t pay me anything for it.
Normally, not a problem. But the story I wrote for today is one I feel pretty good about. I want to get paid for writing it. So, no story. I’m having a number of other people critique it so I can polish it up and submit it to a magazine or e-zine.
But I hate leaving you all, who have been so kind as to follow my blog, story-less. Therefore, I’ve found a Chapter of my recently released book, Recall, that’s under 1000 words, to share with you.
If you’re intrigued with the chapter I’m posting, you can find the whole book both print and e-book, on Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com/Recall-Connie-Cockrell/dp/1484886224/ref=la_B009O6199C_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1371780926&sr=1-2) or on Smashwords.com (http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/320233). If you get the book and like it, a review would be nice.
Enjoy!
Chapter Sixteen
Dr. Jim Abernathy was in his office going over monthly budget reports. Ha, Alan’s team is under budget again this month. I don’t know why the other teams can’t do that. He initialed the bottom of the last page and dropped it in his out box. He looked up at a knock on his door.
His secretary Mrs. Townes opened the door. “Mr. Parker to see you sir.”
“Show him in.”
He put down his pen as Dwayne Parker came through the door. Dwayne was an ex-special forces officer. He wasn’t a huge man but if you looked, you could see he moved with cat-like grace and an economy of motion. As Bioline’s Director of Security, he was all business.
“Is there a problem, Dwayne?”
“A small one Dr. Abernathy. The computer security team has noticed a significant number of searches on the company and its records. We get those occasionally as people search the company on the web for employment info, drug information and so on. This particular batch of searches is by a local reporter.”
Abernathy sat back in his chair. “So? Maybe he’s doing research for a story about us.”
Dwayne nodded. “Could be. But he’s got a reputation for taking down companies and politicians who are dirty. Could be he’s writing an expose. He’s searching for dirt, the computer guys can tell by the keywords he’s searching on.”
Dwayne stood in front of Abernathy’s desk at parade rest while Abernathy thought.
“What’s he found so far?”
Dwayne pulled the folder he carried around in front of him and opened it. “He’s searched you, Dr. Briggs, the company financials, and previous problems the company has had with the FDA so far.” He closed the folder and went back to a parade rest position this time with his hands clasped in front of him.
Abernathy picked up his pen and turned it end over end on his desk. “Any other searches?”
Dwayne didn’t have to look again, “Information on Dr. Sparks.”
“Hmm, Dr. Sparks again.” He put his pen down. “Have the computer boys set up a false file on LeanderAll. I’ll send them the data to put in it.”
“Yes sir.”
“Oh, and set up a false file on Dr. Sparks. I’ll have some data for that one too.”
“Yes sir.” Dwayne nearly came to attention, turned and left the office.
Abernathy hit the intercom button for Mrs. Townes.
“Yes, Dr. Abernathy?”
“Get me the electronic files on Dr. Sparks and the files we submitted to the FDA on LeanderAll.”
“Yes sir. Is this urgent?
“Yes, as soon as possible.”
#
Angela was in her apartment on her computer. Since her job had cut her hours to just three days a week, she had plenty of time to work on her new project. She had the jewelry her mother recovered from Elaine’s apartment sitting next to the monitor. It glittered in the sunlight coming through the window. She couldn’t resist reaching out and letting the pieces run through her fingers, sending sharp flashes of light all over the living room.
She put them down and turned back to her computer screen. She dropped the dating sites and was now signing Elaine up on Escort sites. “She thinks she’s so smart, calling all of those magazines and dating sites and getting her name removed. This is better. She’ll be getting phone calls all day and night.”
“There,” she finished putting in Elaine’s statistics, “now I just need a picture.” She pulled up Photoshop and started modifying an old picture of Elaine she’d pulled out of her scrapbook. She and Elaine were at the beach, one of the few times they got together while they were still in college. Elaine was in a two piece suit, and Angela had caught her looking out over the water. Angela had called her name and snapped the picture just as she turned to face her. The sunlight had been good to her in that picture, she looked beautiful.
She loaded the picture into an electronic file and pulled it into Photoshop. She enhanced Elaine’s breasts, cleaned up the picture and uploaded it onto the Escort site. “There, let her get out of that one.” She laughed as she hit the save button; then went to the next Escort site.
Words: 718
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