So after a three month hiatus, I’ve finally returned to writing this damn chapter. Complain all you like in the comments, and jog your memory in case you’ve forgotten what’s been happening in this story.

Austin State Hospital, Austin, TX, United States of America
10:11 – 19 February 2021

“Come back! Come back!” yelled Justin while frantically waving his arms at the departing helicopter.

“I don’t think that chopper’s coming back,” informed Lawrence as he checked the scattered guns on the floor for ammunition and a working laser sight.

“Oh, fancy meeting you here,” cried a mysterious voice from the door leading to the roof. The pair looked at the source to see two women in the doorway. The taller one wielded two assault rifles akimbo, while the smaller one carried a minigun that looked far too large and heavy for her.

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So here are chapters 7 and 8 in non-encrypted form along with chapter 9.

Chapter 7

Volkner Pharmaceuticals, Potsdamer Platz, Berlin, Germany
01:23 – 18 February 2021

A year with Rajan had made Jason grown accustomed to having the fairly useless and cowardly handler by his side, and he did feel slightly naked without the annoying voice of Rajan in his ear as he entered the ventilation shaft.

But Rajan was still too much of a liability on this mission. After being denied again an interview with Nicole Volkner, Jason had staked out the Volkner offices since the morning. He’d gotten Madeline to keep Rajan busy, and while Jason didn’t know the exact details, Rajan’s job had involved one of Madeline’s fencing rivals. Jason was certain he’d heard the name of the rival before, but he couldn’t place it.

Anyway, now was not the time for idle thoughts. Jason once again unscrewed the tar-flavoured cola bottle and got out another tar-flavoured toffee, then combined the two on top of a padlocked chain. In seconds the unusual mix of ingredients ate away the chain, leaving Jason free to crawl out of the vent into one of the pharmaceutical labs.

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In PDF form, but can you get to it?

Don’t forget to expand the images.

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Max-Schmeling-Halle, Berlin, Germany
14:03 – 16 February 2021

Originally built as a gym for Germany’s bid for the 2000 Olympics, the Max-Schmeling-Halle has become a multi-functional gym and arena. While typically used to hold boxing and European handball events, today the arena was holding a much more thrilling, dangerous and somewhat sexy sport.

When the ability to generate ‘antigravitons’ (or more specifically, gravitons able to neutralise the Earth’s graviton emissions) was finalised in 2019, many people attempted to combine zero-gravity situations to normal everyday sports. Zero gravity basketball did not catch on, as it was impossible for players to dribble continuously in the arena. Zero gravity polo only resulted in a lot of sick horses. Zero gravity wrestling negated many of the signature smackdown moves of wrestlers.

Eventually the list was whittled down to a few sports. Zero gravity woman’s volleyball was unusually popular, despite the many flaws of that sport. Zero gravity rhythmic gymnastics lifted the artistic sport into new realms. Zero gravity table tennis became a new staple on the television.

And zero gravity fencing became the new combat sport of champions.

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As one should expect on this special day, I have prepared a romance story. I have strived to make it fairly cliched, but also fairly interesting; an almost oxymoronical task. I hope you puke enjoy reading it.

Even in the remote basement science rooms of the school did the mellow light of the setting autumn sun fill the room with orange shades. The old periodic table on the wall looked even more decrepit and brown, shadows highlighting the creases like the wrinkles on an aging grandfather. But there was no glassware for the light to play on, all of it being packed away in the various cupboards and cabinets that surrounded the room, flanking the only two students seated upon the wooden stools.

Damien carefully placed the various scientific apparatuses on the black tabletop, making sure none of the liquid spilled out of the porcelain basin atop the steel tripod. With a somewhat furtive glance he looked at his unwanted partner as she placed the Bunsen beneath the fragile basin, worryingly with a thud rather than a soft patter on the table. They stood up, and his partner took a match out of the matchbox. Damien prepared to turn on the gas, but was surprised when the lever was stuck. He looked worryingly at it, and as soon as he confirmed that the gas was on dived towards his partner, who was on the verge of lighting the match.

“Vo!” he cried as they fell to the floor, in the very instant a fireball erupted above them. Flames scorched Damien’s back, and tongues of flame licked at his arms, before his head collided with an errant table leg, and darkness followed. Unsurprisingly.

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Express Cargo Flight XX, HKG-BER
18:43 – 15 February 2021

“Why couldn’t we just take a normal flight?” asked Rajan as he awkwardly sat on a strapped-down bundle of average sized metal cargo boxes.

“I already told you, General Cheung will be monitoring all traffic from Hong Kong,” replied Jason for the umpteenth time.

The pair had managed to sneak through airport security, reached this large plane on the runway and snuck aboard. Officially they were stowaways, but the crew were well paid to take no heed of them.

“Man, when I signed up for this I didn’t think I’d be running from the damn US Army,” complained Rajan as he took a bite out of his freeze dried dinner packet. Thankfully after the incident eight months ago the quartermaster had ordered a large number of vegetarian rations. When they were equipping themselves for the trip the quartermaster had looked warily at Jason and rubbed his buttock unconsciously.

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The following account is a copy of a papyrus found within a keratin obelisk inside the innermost chamber of Castle Mean, recovered in the second expedition to the castle commissioned by the Druid-Farjar Falik Morgamad the Fifth. The obelisk was unsealed following a month of studying and removing the fifteen seals placed upon it, whereupon the papyrus was recovered alongside a plague scarred skeleton. Following the papyrus’ instructions the original was destroyed after this copy was made.

With an unsteady hand does my quill write my own experiences of the unnatural beings that inhabit the periphery of this mundane world, of our own eyes. The abyssal regions doth seep through the burning horizon, and their machinations upon this very land have begun. We of the Holy Order of Venerable Regent Jalal have from the earliest ages of papered history fought back against the aghast creatures that covet the lands of Brudder.

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Stanley Prison, Stanley, HK (AFR I)
00:00 – February 15, 2021

Using the tracker implanted into every UN employee for situations not unlike this one, Jason and Rajan managed to track Stephanie to the maximum security Stanley Prison. This was unsurprising to Jason, as General Cheung had always been a bit predictable. However this did not make his task any easier.

Four years previous, the Correctional Services Department approached Waiyin Security (a subsidiary of Waiyin Miltary) and asked them to futurise the prison after the embarrassing escape of the infamous British smuggler only known to the public as Mr Cheap. After two years of renovations Stanley Prison became virtually impregnable. Surrounding the prison was a cordon of three steel fences: two steel plate fences with one electrified mesh fence in between. Between the fences was an overlapping grid of heat sensors and a number of pressure pads. At each of the perimeter guard towers were four mounted guns capable of automatically firing forty tranquiliser darts per minute with frightening accuracy. Just outside the prison was a building which housed ten Unmanned Aerial Rotorcraft with a full arsenal of ‘Physihack’ weapons, which could short out the electronics or crash the internal computers of any vehicle they hit. Underground a team of autonomous robots, called ‘Moles’, roamed a series of small tunnels, ready to alert security at the slightest hint of a vibration.

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Waiyin Dynamic Research and Development, Floor 58, Sin Central Plaza, HK (AFR I)
20:02 – February 14, 2021

Despite being the scene of the crime, the offices of Waiyin Dynamic were devoid of the usual police tape and plastic tags indicating evidence. That was because the offices did not officially exist, and attempts by the Hong Kong police to find the scene of the crime were met with frustration and blueprints of floor 58 being tossed at hapless police trainees.

However it was not spared the stylish gaze of Hans Gurber, who in the short time between the meeting and Jason’s entrance into the office had put up some patriotic bunting around the place. Namely, Germanic bunting. The coat of arms of Germany, a proud eagle, looked proudly down on Jason and Rajan. It was a far cry from the Gundams and Nerdoroids that the deceased Hans had placed on shelves around the office walls.

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The following post was mostly written last year at the end of October. As such some of it does not accurately reflect my current state of mind. Namely, my urge to write has been curbed a bit. But no so much that there will be a long lull between mah stories.

I suddenly have an urge to write. Why do I write what I write? What I write in the following post is the ramblings of a person who feels constrained. Why? That is an excellent point addressed in what shall be written henceforth.

I write to express. That is pretty much the whole reason why I write. I need to get my emotions, my opinions and mostly these stories I formulate all too often into a extramental (pardon the fake word, but I mean out of mind, though there is probably a better word for it) form.

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