Category Archives: Uncategorized

Backtracking a little bit, Will and Diana are en route to the ranch.

A little relationship time, you might say….

************************

Diana leaned forward to examine the canyon walls as they threaded through the narrow chasm. According to the map on view in her tablet, they hadn’t yet crossed the boundary of the ranch yet. This was Third Force repossessed land, and it didn’t look as bad as the ranch did. Here, she could see dried grasses on the creek bottoms under the tall pines and some bushes still had dried leaves clinging here and there.

“When are you going up?” she asked Will, instead of answering his question right away.

“Crystal Creek drainage,” he said.

“Good.” That would give her an opportunity to look at the creek bottom on her father’s ranch. “We can eyeball any changes between this Third Force land and Dad’s land.”

“We’re going slow enough to release a data bot.”

“Do you have one ready?”

“I programmed several for on-the-fly release on the way up from Portland for just this sort of contingency.” Will’s gaze darted sideways, briefly, one brow raised.

“Oh yes, Will. Let’s do it. Do I have to get up?”

Will shook his head. “Loaded in an outside compartment. You tell me when and where to release. I loaded three.”

“Oh God, William Parker Landreth, I love you to death. That will be perfect. Saves us time.” Diana blew Will a kiss.

A grin flitted across Will’s face, and his hands relaxed slightly on the yoke. “I thought it was best to be prepared for any contingency.”

“And I love you for it. I was planning on having to take time to do this once we got to the ranch. Now I can do other things.” Diana checked her map. “Can I program release coordinates?”

“Protocol 9-47,” Will answered.

“Got it.” Diana pulled up the protocol and quickly inserted the autorelease settings into the three bots’ programming. All that was left was the pilot’s confirmation of release settings. “Back to you. I’ve set the autoreleases.”

Will nodded, scanning his displays. He clucked a setting into place. “Autoreleases confirmed.”

The bright blue blossom for RELEASE GO flashed in triplicate across her tablet.

With a father-in-law like Parker Landreth, who needs enemies?

************************

What. The. Hell? Will wouldn’t have set up a solo meeting with the Coalition if he thought his father was involved. Diana glanced about. No sign of Landreth Technologies Security.

“Let me check with Residence Security to ensure the conference space is secure and your Security is assured it’s clear.” She tapped her alert code into her wrist sensor, acutely aware that Parker’s eyes followed her fingers.

Damn. He’s even more alert to possible sensors than Will is.

“I came without Security,” Parker said.

Her glass confirmed it when she blinked the inquiry. “I’m surprised.”

Parker smiled but the smile didn’t touch his lizard-like eyes. “Let’s just say that I saw an opportunity to get to know my son’s wife a bit better.”

Diana tagged another code to alert Residence Security. “I guess I’m flattered. How long has it been since Will and I got married–five years? I’d have thought curiosity would have sparked an interest in me sooner.”

Parker offered his left arm to Diana. “Then it’s even more important that we talk.”

She’d have to give him her right arm. With her wrist sensors. Not a good idea.

Diana let her bag slide off of her left shoulder. “Darn bag,” she muttered, catching it with her right hand and swinging it over her right shoulder. “Sorry.” She offered Parker her right arm, the arm without sensors. “My bag’s more stable on this side.”

A brief scowl tightened Parker’s lips before his face went expressionless. Without comment, he delicately twined his right arm with her left, bringing his left hand over hers to keep Diana from feeling for his sensors.

Diana stifled the absolutely inappropriate giggle. God, Parker’s everything Will said he was. But she couldn’t keep the corners of her mouth from turning up.

“Something amuses you?”

Was that irritation in his voice? Almost too easy to provoke him if that was the case.

“Just the delicate dance there,” she murmured, glancing sideways at him with faked demureness.

“My son taught you well.”

Was that a hint of admiration?

“Don’t assume I learned everything I know from Will,” she snapped. They reached the house.

To Diana’s surprise, Brenda, her personal head of Security, opened the door. She’s not supposed to be here until Conclave.

It didn’t matter. Brenda was here, and a welcome sight with Parker Landreth on her arm.

“Brenda, could you please escort Mr. Landreth to the conference room?” Diana deftly untangled herself from Parker. “Please give me a moment to freshen up,” she said to Parker.

“I came here without Security,” he growled, glaring at Brenda. “That implies a level of trust.”

“I understand.” Diana exchanged a glance with Brenda. “Please make Mr. Landreth comfortable, then return to stations, Brenda.”

Brenda nodded twice curtly, acknowledging the phrase stations, their code for remain out of sight but be ready to move. “We just got here ourselves,” she said. “I believe we’ve got fresh coffee made, brought the beans with us from Brazil.”

Fresh coffee. Code phrase for urgent summons in this context, brought the beans identifying Will as the one issuing the call. Cold prickles danced down Diana’s spine. Something set Will off. But why didn’t he say anything about it last night?

“Fresh coffee from Brazil?” Parker’s voice was noticeably much more cheerful. “I definitely can’t pass that up.”

“Right this way,” Brenda said, guiding Landreth toward the kitchen.

Diana hurried into her bedroom and grabbed her tablet. A message from Will came up. Forgot to tell you last night. Too much. Sent for Brenda and Tony. Should be there by midmorning. Something about this ranch situation doesn’t feel right.

Diana snorted. “I’ll say,” she said out loud. A second, urgent message flashed on the tablet, from Will.

What’s going on? MESSAGE ME.

Had she sent him her schedule this morning? She’d been in such a hurry to meet Joaquin that she couldn’t remember if she had done that or not. And she hadn’t sent an explanation with Joaquin’s file. Met with old friend Joaquin who’s the tribal contact, she typed. He’s the source of the file I just sent. Brenda and Tony are here. So is your father, claiming to be the rep for the Coalition for Environmental Responsibility. What the hell is going on?!

She slid out of her riding clothes and popped into the shower for a quick cleanup, then pulled on the formal suit she’d brought for meetings like this. After dressing and scowling at her lanky form in the mirror, she picked up her tablet again.

Dad’s had many interests over the years but this is new to me, Will had texted back.  Confirms my suspicions about CER, but I’m not certain of all the linkages. He could be drifting in the same direction as your mother. Damn glad I got Brenda and Tony there. You be careful. I’m on my way.

“Now what the hell does that mean?” Diana whispered, staring at her tablet.

Whose game am I playing?

A different kind of romantic story….but isn’t that what you expect from the Netwalk Sequence?

Diana Andrews wasn’t expecting trouble when she came home on winter vacation from a difficult bioremediation assignment. But the imprisonment in a hostile country of her lover, Will Landreth, puts not just Diana and Will at risk but possibly her business and her family as well. Can Diana find the help she needs to rescue Will while protecting him from those–including his father–who would see Will silenced?

Live on Amazon, Kobo, and Nook.

Enjoy…Happy Valentine’s Day!

With added Joyce view.

Seriously, what I realized (DUH!) was that I could get a better picture of the hoof by reversing the screen on the iPhone.

So yeah.

The good news is that Mocha is still willing to be cautious with the new shoe. She’s not offering to move out of a walk, so I think she doesn’t want to put pressure on the foot. She’s been off of Bute since last Wednesday, but she’s not showing any signs of distress or pain, which means I’m not really willing to medicate her. At this point in time, she needs to be able to get the feedback to keep her from squirreling around or wanting to get more active than she should with this shoe.

That doesn’t mean she’s not active!

I’ve been ground driving her, and that baleful glare is because I’m taking pictures and not putting her to work (any time I putz around before we get started, I get the stink eye). She’s not as fond of ground driving as she is of working under a rider; she understands rider work much better. I’ve been ending our session with a short bareback ride. Last night, I extended it and I think I’ll start alternating bareback only sessions with ground driving followed by bareback sessions.

The Girl will like that. She was grinding her teeth last night during the ground driving. Granted, I was increasing the challenge for her, working closer and calling for more precision, and developing more specific whip cues. She got frustrated a couple of times, especially when I asked for lateral work in a different form from what she’s accustomed to doing on the long reins (zigzag in the middle and on/off the rail instead of straightforward two-track along the rail).

The tooth grinding lessened when I rode her, though she was still grouchy because I’m asking her to carry herself a bit more on her hind end rather than putz around on a long rein. So I think alternating ground driving and riding will be a good thing. It’s going to be pretty much daily for a while, because I have to attack that open part of her hoof with a wire brush to ensure that it stays free from any further white line incursions, followed with an antifungal.

The joys of horse management. And so, we continue onwards….

For some reason I’ve been focusing on housework and household organization lately. Maybe it’s preparation for some impending changes (well, yes, some is just that). More likely, it’s just as much about the sudden realization that we’ve been in this house ten years and, y’know, after ten years some stuff needs to be dealt with. Additionally, for some reason I’m really stiff and sore after the past week and I just couldn’t deal with a lot of sitting time.

Plus with the cold temps (for PDX), there’s certain household maintenance tasks that have to be followed up on–a heater in the basement, letting faucets drip, towels across the bottoms of outside doors and other things.

Most of today was about doing those maintenance tasks–changing out seasonal decorations, sorting through basement stuff, putting up the Christmas tree, taking a walk in the cold and sunny weather, and going to a funeral.

I’d hoped to get some writing done but besides all that there were other chores.

That said, tomorrow I should be able to write, see Mocha, then go to an InDesign class.

Busy days.

This Thanksgiving furlough has been busier than I even dreamed, between working out the process in developing an illustrated short story ebook using Scrivener (it, um, seems to kinda sorta work) and pictures I’ve taken and a lot of other stuff.

I haven’t gotten anywhere near as much writing down as I had wanted. But I think I needed a break. I worked on putting together Dahlia: A Netwalk Sequence Illustrated Short Story   (which will go up tomorrow) for most of the week, taking my time, thinking about the process. If I can ever get the dang phone to reliably link up to Dropbox (which is pretty easy, I just need to not be lazy about it), I can even check the flow there.

It’s been easy to get out in the weather. Lovely and cool and clear. I took some shots I’ve been wanting to get for some time now. Whether it was Mocha ear cam shots:

or various architectural shots while out walking around Portland:

I’ve been doing stuff. Baked bread and pumpkin pie; cooked up a pumpkin soup with ham, did other domestic stuff.

And riding time. And just–unwinding.

But now it’s time to get rewound to face three more weeks.

Onward.