Deadly Games Page 25

  “Works for me. I wanted you beyond reason two years ago. Now I have a million reasons to love you.” He lifted his head to look at her. “We have a lot to talk about…” Looking into her velvety eyes, he saw they were filled with love and promises. “We’ve never discussed kids, but I’d like four—”

  Her eyebrows went up, and her eyes sparkled. “Two,” she said firmly, her fingers combing through his damp hair.

  Ah, man. Did he know her, or what? Two was, “Perfect.” God, he loved this woman. “I want to grow old with you. What do you say?” Not giving her a chance to answer, he kissed her long and slowly, only letting her up for air when she shoved at his shoulder.

  “Was there a question buried in there somewhere?”

  Sebastian gathered her beneath him, the healing sun on his back and the woman he loved in his arms. With a shout of laughter, he rolled her off the dock. They landed with a splash in the sensually warm water. With a shriek, Michaela took off, arms and legs slicing through the crystalline water as she swam to shore.

  With lazy strokes, Sebastian tagged behind her, knowing she’d allow him to chase her until she caught him.

  # # #

  Chameleon Personal Guide

  (Includes Spoilers!)

  Main Characters: Sebastian Tremayne and Dr. Michaela Giese

  Tango: Tongpan

  Setting: Arctic Circle

  Dossier Sebastian Tremayne

  Code Name: Chameleon

  Previous Mission: Edge Of Danger

  Height: 6’ 4”

  Hair: Shaggy, Too long, Blue-black.

  Eyes: Piercing, Pale blue.

  Looks: Tall, dark, brooding good looks, light blue eyes, dimples, hands like ham hocks, very expressive eyebrows.

  Body: Broad hairy chest, narrow hips, rock solid abs, sexy dimpled smile, enormous hands, smile that can knock a woman senseless at 50 paces.

  Dress: Hand knit, gray sweater and charcoal jeans.

  Voice: Rich, Low, Sexy.

  Marital Status: Dating Michaela Giese.

  Employment: T-FLAC Operative (Not part of the psi unit), A trained counterterrorist operative with a directive.

  Skills: Teleportation, Excellent night vision, A supernatural freak of nature. He is considered a power chameleon, can absorb powers from wizards by direct physical contact. But no real powers of his own. Knows his way around women.

  Training: 15 years of T-FLAC training & experience.

  Personality & Attitude: A disciplined man. Fierce concentration, Ferociously competitive.

  Background: No life outside of T-FLAC, Godfather to Cole’s daughter, Has a reputation at T-FLAC Headquarters for being a hotshot, not just in the field but in the sack as well. Wants 4 kids. *Now has wizard powers of his own but no one knows…. Drives a low-slung black Lamborghini Murcielage.

  Gabriel taught him sword fighting/fencing very well.

  Michaela Giese

  Mission: CHAMELEON

  Hair: Glossy, chestnut-colored, shoulder- length,.

  Eyes: Velvety brown,.

  Body: Fit, strong, slender, creamy skin,

  Dress: Bulky brown sweater and too long black pants rolled at the bottom.

  Voice: Husky, Contralto.

  Employment: A lab specialist for T-FLAC, A nuclear physicist previously on T-FLAC’s payroll.

  Skills: An experienced pilot., Excellent hearing.

  Training: Extensive T-FLAC training (including combat training).

  Personality & Attitude: Smart, Funny, Vibrant, Clever, Brilliant, A realist, Pragmatist, An experimentalist.

  Quirks & Habits: A snuggler.

  Likes & Dislikes: Wants 2 kids.

  Background: Declared dead 2 years ago when bits and pieces of her Cessna were discovered on the shores of the tiny island of Diomede in the middle of the Bering Strait. Her pseudo funeral was held on June 28 when all thought she died in the plane crash. Responsible for building a nuclear bomb. Previously engaged to T-FLAC operative, Cole Summers,. Abruptly called off the engagement a month after their engagement party, when she realized they were comfortable, no more than friends with benefits, Cole didn’t rock her world. Kidnapped for 23 months. Beaten, starved, threatened, and tortured by Tongpan after he kidnapped her. Had row of scars on her biceps and raised scars around her rib cage from Gangjon’s nails. All scars gone now that he is dead.

  Supporting Characters Chameleon

  AFANASEI POPOV: Russian, Bald head, Meaty fists, 300 pounds, Massive chest

  ANATOLY COHEN (DECEASED): A wizard Shot in the head, T-FLAC Operative, A technopath; power is the ability to control technology, Can use mind control to jam signals and rewire whatever touching the item. Has to speak the language of the original components to get them to respond (made in China, must speak Chinese to the components).

  BINGWEN LING (DECEASED): Sarcastic, Barely 5’ tall, A sick S.O.B., A Neurotic sadist, Short man syndrome, Michaela killed him (shot him in the head), Intolerant of the smallest perceived infraction, Specialized in martial art torture techniques that cause immobilizing pain without leaving a mark.

  COLE SUMMERS: Happily married, T-FLAC Operative, Teleportation ability, Sebastian Tremayne’s best friend, Previously engaged to Michaela Giese, A father to a delightful little girl and a baby on the way.

  DR. RICHARD ACKART: Tall, Older man, Painfully skinny, Horse-like features, Bottle thick glasses, Non-confrontational, Nose like a strawberry, Afraid of his own shadow, Thinning gray hair pasted to his shiny scalp, Kidnapped by Gangjon & Tongpan.

  GERALD MALARD (DECEASED): Thin lips, British physicist, Pretentious Dickhead, Large, bad British teeth, Sebastian broke his neck and killed him, Usually unobtrusive except when being a mean & spiteful snake.

  KANG GANGJON (DR.): Amoral, Soulless, Ruthless, Dark eyes, Vile-tempered, Hollywood handsome, Impossibly perfect face, Sadistic megalomaniac, Ash-blonde hair combed back. His security men were combat trained in Russia or China practically from birth.

  SERGEI GROMYKO: Frail, Late 80’s, Thin gray hair, Non-confrontational, Prominent strawberry-like red nose, Kidnapped by Gangjon & Tongpan

  TONGPAN (DECEASED): Head honcho, Rock solid chest, Deep-set black eyes, Dandelion fluff hair, Teleportation ability, Propensity for violence, Terrifying & Sonorous voice, Sebastian fried him to a crisp, Long, white, cotton candy fine hair, A wizard with untold powers.

  T-FLAC Facts: Bombardier Challenger jet is outfitted with thermo plasma weapons, Insulated boots with no-sound tread is a T-FLAC patent, Operatives personal feelings are unimportant and also forbidden, LockOut suit is T-FLAC patent that automatically contracts to the body, making size a non-issue. Instructors rigorously drill self hypnosis skills/training into their ops to keep away night terrors caused by their line of work.

  Storyboard Images Chameleon

  Research For Chameleon

  RESEARCH SUBS

  http://oceanexplorer.noaa.gov/technology/subs/pisces/pisces.html - Great site! Lots of info.

  NOAA Ocean Explore – GREAT SITE-many examples of small subs

  http://www.howstuffworks.com/submarine.htm

  How a submarine works

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DSV_Alvin

  Alvin 3man research sub wikipedia

  Info on Alvin

  http://www.ceoe.udel.edu/

  http://www.whoi.edu/oceanus/viewArticle.do?id=5599§ionid=1000

  Alvin in the Artic

  http://seagrant.uaf.edu/news/02ASJ/08.12.02science-sub.html

  http://seagrant.uaf.edu/news/01ASJ/10.05.01seamounts.html

  Mir

  http://www.deepoceanexpeditions.com/Gakkel_Expedition_General_web.pdf

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Midget_submarine

  midget submartine-wikipedia

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wet_sub

  wet subs wikipedia

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Submarine

  Submarine-Wikipedia

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Electronics_Laboratory#Arctic_submarine_explorati
on Arctic sub exploration

  Arctic Submarine Laboratory was a research facility of the U.S. Navy

  http://www.navy.mil/navydata/cno/n87/usw/issue_20/eggshell.htm

  Behind the Writing of Chameleon

  My Initial Concept and Research

  Michaela Giese

  Sebastian Tremayne

  Dr. Michaela Giese

  Gromyko

  Ackart, he’d run. Neither man was this confrontational.

  Ling, Jones or Malard would rape, then kill her.

  If this was Gangjon he’d kill her

  Tongpam - wizard

  Setting in Artic Circle, former Soviet Union submarine ice base.

  Wizards can teleport them straight to the base. Ice prisons with bars of thick ice. Kind of based off of the ice hotel.

  Conflict: Nuclear bomb hidden in old Russian sub base within ice pack at arctic set to go off, bomb will instantly liquefy ice pack raising ocean levels enough to wipe out most of the coastal cities all over the world.

  • Two man team goes in, one wizard, one Sebastian. Wizard gives him the ability to be invisible for short spans of time. Wizard partner dies. He needs to get the wizard energy from another wizard. He can mimic/absorb. We can’t get out of here. Security bad guy is a wizard and touching him, he can assume his powers as a karmic chameleon. Can display those powers for an hour at a time. Partner goes walking through electrical grid and it fries him dead from electrocution.

  • Some submarines to transfer supplies there, etc.

  • Michaela is there as double operative.

  • Plan is to buy up land all along new coastal lines. Plan to raise the sea level and own all new coasts.

  • She’s in deep undercover and known she can only communicate once. She’s resistant of him taking over the op because she’s been working on it for five years as deep undercover and he’s just flown in and she’s not about to share the glory.

  • T-FLAC sends him in because they haven’t heard from her in such a long time (three years) they think that perhaps she’s dead or been turned. They’ve been getting reports from other sources that something’s going down at the base and they’ve sent him in to recover the information she might have left.

  • She knows the whole scoop. She wasn’t on an op, she was just taken as a scientist. In her head she sees herself as deep undercover.

  • Invisible guard – at meeting with top terrorists, but they couldn’t see him

  • She’s science and doesn’t believe/like the whole wizard crap. She’s heard about Sebastian and he’s a fucking hot shot. He wants the big, explosions, the high profile, high stakes ops.

  • Do you have a clue? I know what’s going on. She plans on stealing a sub to escape and he just looks at her and says You little miss B cup, I don’t think so.

  • He’s going to teleport in thinking he’s going to reconnoiter then get a team. Then he finds out a T-FLAC operative is there and appoints himself as her body guard.

  • He went to her funeral. She was dating his best friend. He had thing for her, but she was engaged to his best friend so he kept it to himself. Best friend was killed in line of duty about six months after she was kidnapped because he was broken, distracted, thinking she was dead

  • She had a secret yen for him, but now feels a little bit guilty about her attraction.

  • Mistrusts her. He could suspect that she might be under influence of Stockholm Syndrome (in love with captors). That’s a hell of a learning curve if you’re planning on learning nuclear physics between now and three am.

  • In her mind she’s going to call T-FLAC in six hours and going to tell them that she’s going to disable the device, knowing there’s a good chance that they are going to find her and kill her. She knows deep down she’s never going to get out of there. She knows in her practical, scientific way that there’s too many variables and not enough time.

  • She’s on the brink of disabling the nuclear device, and his arrival screws up her effort

  • She’s got key cards to access all areas of the complex.

  • He’s sleeping in her room (with single bed). She tosses pillow on the floor for him. Knock yourself out.

  • How in the hell did you know to come today? Anniversary of best friend’s death. It’s a surprised when she asks him how is her former fiancé/Sebastian’s best friend. He’s dead. He died today, two ½ years ago.

  • They want to capture him, so they plan to use her as bait to get to him.

  • She wiped out detonation code and replaced it with dead best friend’s name. They plan to torture her to get the information and draw invisible hero out.

  • She knows the sub base in and out. Long dock with the subs on it where she exercises.

  • They program two man sub to leave. Big chase under the blue water around ice flows and underwater icebergs. Bad guy security wizard teleports them out of the sub back to base because she still has all the detonation codes. Sebastian realizes bad guy is a wizard and base is about to collapse. He fights with bad guy security wizard hand to hand combat and absorbs his powers (including ability to teleport). Sebastian teleports them back to Montana as the base implodes burying all the bad guys.

  1. Her walking into her quarters and he’s sitting there on the bed. He’s followed her while invisible and has walked through the wall while she’s unlocking the door. “You sure as hell look good, for a dead woman.”

  2. Today is the day she’s going to disable the nuclear device. He says tell me where it is and I can blow it sky high. Are you fucking insane. It’s a nuclear device that could melt down the whole polar ice cap in six hours flat. We can’t just blow it up. Here’s the deal. I know when the guards are here, here and here. I’ve been going down there checking on the device. This is on her watch and that’s when she’s planning to do this. Tells him to go off and do whatever he’s supposed while he’s there. She knows she’s got a two percent chance of making out alive so it’s a what-the-hell bout of sex with Sebastian before she dies.

  3. She goes down to change the code. He’s invisible as he follows her, unknown to her. The appears by her side as she’s programming in the changed detonation codes. Someone in security see him appear next to her on a surveillance camera. Now bad guys are after two people, one of whom is invisible.

  4. Running chasing inside base, through a sub, out again. They manage to shoot her, wings her in the arm. She goes down. They capture her and plan to torture the changed detonation codes out of her. Sebastian knows he has to save her.

  This is about how I came up with T-FLAC

  Q: T-FLAC is a favorite series among your readers. I know it’s one of my favorites. How did the idea for T-FLAC come about?

  Cherry: I came up with the idea for T-FLAC on a verrrrry long flight home from a wonderful trip in Italy. I’d written 17 books- none of which sold, although I had a lot of bites, and had no intention of writing on the plane. But things conspired against me.

  First, I ran out of books several days before the flight. Only a fellow book-a-holic knows the panicky, freaked out feeling of being bookless – for an hour, let alone a dozen! I ended up buying a thick book at the airport by an author I loved, for $80.00! Of course I’d already read it, but I tried to make it last once buckled into my seat.

  In those days everyone still smoked on planes. I smoked, too, so I didn’t give it much thought. . .But OMG I was on a plane full of Europeans – and they LOVED to smoke, and talk, and gather in large, boisterous groups right near my seat! I finished the book in an hour, and was faced with eleven, long, boring, noisy, smoky hours to go without a lethal weapon or even a parachute… lol!

  In desperation, I started writing longhand in my notebook. Since I was feeling quite homicidal at that time, and since my subjects were within arm’s reach, I decided to kill them all on paper (less possibility of going to jail that way). And since I didn’t want to write about a serial killer, I had to come up with a way to kill a lot of people legally… lol!

&n
bsp; So I started with who the Bad Guys would be (eyes left – all those freaking men standing in a large group, the entire freaking flight, chain smoking, drinking, talking and getting on my last nerve). Check.

  I loved Italy. LOVED IT! So of course my story had to take place there. At that time, publishers weren’t buying books set outside the USA. (Can you see a pattern here?) But I didn’t care. This book was being written as a means of preventing my incarceration into a mental institution. (Killing the smokers + nothing to read = Murder/Insanity!)

  And T-FLAC was born. (And I gave up smoking cold turkey… lol!)I typed the book when I got home (my handwriting is almost completely illegible) and sent it in. The editor bought in within two weeks. WooHoo. That wrenched flight was so worth it .

  TERRORIST FORCE LOGISTIC ASSAULT COMMAND

  Vitute et Armis Fide Mea Semper Frater

  By courage and by arms. On my word of honor. Always brothers.

  As the Cold War fell to bits of rubble, top level government officials and those in the private sector saw a new breed of organization gain momentum. The major threats no longer hinged on the posturing of super powers. An even more dangerous enemy emerged – small, well-funded guerilla groups began to drive fear into the lives of people all over the world. They were rich, connected, quiet, determined and often preferred killing to make their point.

  Governments paralyzed by the rule of law and international treaties and conventions required months to react. Because of this, a new industry was born – private anti-terrorist organizations. Premier among them is T-FLAC.

  Geoffrey Wright, Lucas Sullivan, and Katrina DeGlaure founded T-FLAC utilizing their connections – political, military and scientific. Headquartered at a sprawling complex in Montana, they recruited and trained the first operatives in the 1980s. T-FLAC specialized in difficult, sticky situations, often hired quietly by officials whose hands were otherwise tied.