This was book five of the year and was the first book I did for April's Camp NaNo. I finished it on the 13th of April, wrote a few short stories for a kind of "mental break" then started the next book in this series.
For a reminder: there are 13 books in this series. When I started writing this particular blog post it was May 24th and I finished book nine of this series about an hour prior. It's kinda, sorta, August now. Someone has to poke me to remind me to do these things, seriously. Anyway: no the series doesn't have a proper name. I haven't figured that out yet.
The books in order: Face Snatcher, Hangings, Dryer, Witches, Car Jacking, Hunter, Disease, Trust, Child, Bloody Christmas, Piece, Senses, and The Tattooed Man. I'm going to be summing up Disease:
Genre: Mystery/Thriller fiction
Word Count: 65,978
Prompt: I can't remember besides wanting the team to go to Las Vegas.
Main Characters: James Reeves, Mia Liu, Lucy McGregor, Michael Brown, Sable Abella (she became Female Main Character 3 in this one), and our killer.
Minor Characters of Note: Patterson, Miller, and a few famous people two of which I'll probably change the names for. The one I won't change the name for: Criss Angel. It's Las Vegas and Michael got the team into the Luxor. This was bound to happen.
Summation: Twelve people have died from a new form of flesh eating disease that only affects the face. The team is brought in as a consult to help find the killer.
High Points: James and Mia. Lucy and Sable meeting Criss Angel.
Low Points: What happens when they find the killer.
The World: Ours.
Memorable Lines:
"What the Hell is this?" Lucy questioned.
If Lucy didn't know what it was they were going to have one fuck of a hard time. Mia caught James looked at Lucy. Even Patterson raised an eyebrow.
"Pathology said some kind of burn." Patterson said.
"This isn't like any burn I've ever seen. It looks like a cross between necrotizing fasciitis and a chemical peel gone wrong. Normal burns, even chemical burns don't present with swelling or that much blackening of the skin." Lucy said.
Mia caught Patterson grinning. This is why they had been placed on the case. Mia watched as Lucy took the first picture and stared at it. She spotted the second picture then started at that one, looking confused and intrigued all at once.
"Look at the case file on the way. Brown, I'd suggest using your system to get all of you booked into a section together so you can study the file...Good luck." Patterson said.
Mia could do nothing but follow James as he stood. They were out in the hallway moments later surrounded by Lucy, Abella, and a twitchy Michael.
"Um, holy shit." Michael said.
"I can agree with that. Okay, we're going to have to head home to pack. I can only assume this might take a little while so we'll have to be close to somewhere that we can get laundry done. There's no way we can pack for months in one suitcase." James said.
"I don't even own luggage." Michael muttered.
"Really?" James questioned.
"Really." Michael said.
"I've got an extra one at my place. I'll bring it back with me." Mia told him.
"Thanks Bossette." Michael said.
"I've never been to Las Vegas before." Abella said.
"Neither have I." McGregor told her.
"I don't think any of us have." James said.
"I bussed it from my home town to Washington then was bussed from Washington to here. This is my first time on a fucking plane, never mind Las Vegas." Michael piped up.
(After being put in a private section in first class)
"I don't want to know how you managed this, do I?" James asked.
"Nope. Ya'll didn't even ask what hotel we're at." Michael said.
"What hotel?" James asked.
"The Luxor." Michael replied.
"That's the famous casino, how in the, no, I don't want to know how you managed." James said.
"Then you won't want to know how I managed two Tower Luxury Suites side-by-side for half price." Michael said.
One of the flight attendants nearly tripped over her own feet when she heard that. McGregor could feel the jealousy radiating off the woman when the flight attendant passed.
"You all right there twitchy?" Lucy asked (Michael).
"Nope. I don't like new places. My office is safe. Safe is good." Michael answered. (Aw)
"Okay, I don't want to move." Lucy said.
Mia looked to see her curled up on the couch. Lucy seemed ready to fall asleep right there and Mia couldn't blame her. In four hours they would have been up for 24 hours and that included a five hour flight.
"I'm sorry." James said.
"You're going to make me move, aren't you?" Lucy asked.
"Well, no. You can sleep there if you want but you're going to wake up cranky from stiff muscles. I'm apologizing because Michael's going to have his computer going still and you'll likely hear him all night." James said.
"Faku." Lucy muttered.
"Joder." Abella murmured.
"Huh?" Lucy asked.
"It's 'fuck' in Spanish." Abella told her.
"Ha, we've got multi-lingual swearing going on." Mia said.
"You should get one of those shirts that says you don't play well with others." Mia told her (Lucy).
"I have one and brought it with me." McGregor said. (I need one...hehe)
"We can help." Chief B suggested.
Brown gritted his teeth at that. The mere thought of him needing help was enough to make him want to jump out the really high level window behind him. He hadn't needed help in looking up stuff since he was ten.
"The unsub, the case, it's horrible. The unsub is giving the victims a chance to finally live like they'd been unable to because of low self-esteem then just rips it away."
The scene that makes Ms Anti-Social (Lucy) accept Sable Abella into the team first:
"Do you like The Walking Dead?" McGregor asked.
"Yeah, despite the fact that a zombie can't sneak up on people. I mean the stench alone would give them away." Abella said.
McGregor stared at her but she simply tilted a head to one side, curious. Criss Angel was one thing. The Walking Dead was an entirely different thing. Maybe...
"Game of Thrones?" McGregor questioned.
"Dany's dragons are awesome. And it really sucks that it takes Martin three years or more to write one book. I mean, I understand that it's hard and all but there are still two more books. That's too long to wait." Abella replied.
McGregor continued to stare. Abella looked normal. She shouldn't be into things that most people found odd or unusual. That was too weird.
"Huh." McGregor said.
"I also like Rammstein and am totally jealous that you got that shirt before they took it off their shop." Abella said.
McGregor couldn't help but smirk. Having Sable (YAY!) around was going to be better than she thought.
"If you say anything to Patterson about this I will go Michonne on your ass." McGregor said. (It's her favorite threat)
"Why would you go Michonne on Abella's ass? Is that some kind of sex thing?" Michael asked.
"No." McGregor said.
"Yeah, that answered question two. Where's the answer to question one?" Michael questioned.
"Nope. I'm not answering that." McGregor said.
"You forget my power, mortal." Michael said. (Hehe)
"Dragon-God is tired and hungry. Feed me." Michael said.
"I'll bring you something up, wait; you have room service right there" James said.
"I know but I can't think of what food to eat. I can't just call 'em up and be like "Yo, I heard you guys make food. Gimme some." They'd hang up." Michael said.
(a bit later in the conversation)
"Bring food or I'll eat your books." Michael said.
"There's no phone number." James said.
"Oh. OH! Yeah, that's my job. Hold on." Michael said.
The men looked at each other. They were both a good four inches taller than him (over 5'10") and twice his width in muscle. James briefly wondered if there was some kind of company that made these kids of stock body guards and rented them out for high prices.
"Well that's, I don't have an adjective." James said.
"Would you like to buy one?" McGregor offered.
"Sure." James said.
"It's worth your first born." McGregor said.
"Ah, I won't have a first born though." James said with a smirk.
"Yep. I've had my daily dose of creepy now. I was starting to get worried." Michael said.
"Michael doesn't talk about where he even came from. I've got a theory that he grew from a microscopic cell in an abandoned computer somewhere."
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