Chapter 2

2010-10-27T22:47:00.000-07:00

Daniel knew that if he just showed up for work almost two hours late he was likely to need new shorts by the end of the day. Sue had completely flipped the last time it had happened, and although she seemed to have gotten over it, Daniel wasn't even remotely close to being ready for a replay. So here he was driving on the turnpike, dodging slower traffic, with a kid in his car who only moments before had been the main suspect at an airport bombing. The police would be looking for him, his boss would be gunning for him, and some alien chick from who-knows-what planet with apparently mind-melting powers could be anywhere in the city, including his car's trunk for all he knew. Sometimes life just likes to play little jokes on you. But Daniel wasn't quite ready to start laughing just yet.

Chapter 1

2009-11-22T20:50:00.000-08:00

Daniel SanMarco was unsure why his secretary, Lindsay, was calling him at such an ungodly hour. She knew he had spent the last four days deep in the bowels of the Louisiana Bayou. She knew he hadn't slept beyond catnaps on the plane and once or twice when the fan-boat's rocking action had lulled him into the arms of Morpheus. She knew he had spent hours every day scanning the banks for the reported albino-monster-alligator, and hours more in the hospital getting stitches after he'd found it. She knew he had a four p.m. deadline on the story--a story which was at this moment sitting on his coffee table, disguised ingeniously as scribblings on a yellow legal pad. And more importantly, she knew that he was useless until he'd been able to eat, drain a Pepsi, and spend at least thirty minutes in meditative exercises. Yet the caller I.D. clearly showed his secretary's cell number. Daniel was tempted to just ignore the call and catch another two hours of sleep, but he knew Lindsay wouldn't call unless matters were desperate, so steeling himself, he grabbed the telephone handset.

Riter's Bloque

Chapter 2

Chapter 1