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Praetorium Honoris

Sunday, June 2, 2024

Who Are Those Guys?¹

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Those of you who have been following along in my latest story, Uprising, have occasionally noted that there is a lot going on in the story and it is rather convoluted and not that easy to follow. Okay, guilty, I did that and it was intentional.

Life is complicated, there is a cast of thousands (billions to be more technically accurate, but no one interacts with billions in the course of their lives), and while Uprising isn't that big in scope, there is a lot going on. Wheels within wheels if you will.

One thing to keep in mind while reading the story is that you don't have to remember all of the characters. Many of them make only a brief appearance and that's it. But I like to name all of the characters in my stories, no matter how brief their part. If a character has a name, you might care about him/her. No name and they might easily be ignored. It's just the way I like to write.

Now the story itself, what is it all about?

Now if you remember, back in late April the story started in a dark alleyway. A group of men had been ambushed. Murdock, who we started the story with, was badly wounded. Most of his team were apparently dead out in the alley. Two more men from his team were nearby, one of them, Jefferson, was only lightly wounded, a man who Jefferson had dragged to cover, fellow by the name of Wilson, was dead.

Next we meet two of the main characters in the story: Jack Morgan and Ephraim Johansen. More on them in a bit.

We also meet Captain Harry DuPont, in the story Murdock and his SWAT team ostensibly work for him, as part of the National Park Service. But I threw some doubt in there as to who DuPont really belongs to. He has a meeting with someone I refer to as "the Director" where we learn that with a phone call and a simple coded phrase, DuPont can obtain a warrant to examine CCTV  network recordings in Washington DC and the surrounding area.

He has another team which he accompanies to an abandoned farmhouse where it seems they find evidence of the people who ambushed Murdock's team. Many of whom, bad guys, die in an explosion, a booby trap set by Johansen.

We know that those men, the fall guys, had lost their way after separating from the military. Johansen used them. We also learn that DuPont saw service in Afghanistan at some point. But with who? We don't know that yet.

We're with DuPont when the character of Beth Chapman is introduced. We know that she works for Homeland Security and was medically retired from the Navy due to injuries sustained in a helicopter crash in the Persian Gulf. She knows Morgan from that time, they had had an affair when they were deployed. Morgan seemingly lost interest in her after her crash.

Now Morgan is something of a sociopath, he acts impulsively. It's something that prevented him from rising in the Navy. He got out as a lieutenant, an O-3. He has a professional relationship with Albert Rossi with whom he served in the Navy, though the relationship was rather rocky. Rossi didn't fully trust Morgan and there had been an incident aboard ship where they nearly came to blows.

Along the way we meet three more civilians, veterans, Wilt Thompson and his two associates, Willy Batchelor, a retired Army Ranger, and Leroy Beardsley, a retired Marine Gunnery Sergeant. They are part of a militia unit operating in the Eastern Shores area of Virginia. Johansen and Rossi meet with them concerning a shipment of arms/explosives, Rossi thinks that the objective of the group is to spark an armed rebellion against the United States government as a reaction to an overreaction by the government regarding the Second Amendment to the Constitution.

Now the Secretary of the Interior, John Nakagawa, is in the story, why? Remains to be seen but I envision him as a major force in the tale. But on whose side? Don't know yet. He represents elements close to civilian power in the United States.

There's also a Navy vice admiral, a peripheral character so far, and a Captain Choe who has been selected for promotion to Rear Admiral (lower half) who is involved in the story. Choe works in the E Ring at the Pentagon, he is very near the heart of military power in the United States.

Nakagawa and Choe both will play important parts in the events to come.

Now the heart of the story is a plot to cause devastation and chaos which will force the government to react. But who is trying to force this? Is it an armed militia group? Is it shadowy elements within the government itself, a "false flag" operation if you will?

We don't know yet, it could even be a combination of "all of the above."

My goal in telling this story is primarily to entertain, but it's also a cautionary tale. Actions trigger reactions, which might trigger more reactions, a chain of events which might spark things which could take on a life of their own. Beyond anyone's control. Something we all need to be wary of.

Sarajevo in 1914 went from the assassination of an Austrian Archduke and his wife to a war which killed millions, which led to a second war which killed millions more. A small spark can cause a holocaust.

It's happened before, it could happen again.


Now this post is an offshoot of a conversation I had with Tuna (yes, that Tuna) on Friday. He was having trouble getting his head around everything that was going on in Uprising. I get that, it's easy for me, I'm at the heart of things. While I can't say that I know where this story is going, the way I write is rather frenetic and an idea I have one day might twist and lead to something entirely different by the next day. It makes writing fun for me, but sometimes it's hard to keep up.

I liken my writing style to painting a floor, where I intentionally (or sometimes unintentionally) paint myself into a corner just to figure out a plot twist to get me (and the characters) out of that corner.

As long as you all stay entertained (and not too confused), then I'm doing my job. Feel free to ask questions (like Tuna did) and I might answer them. If you see disconnects in the story, feel free to point them out, sometimes I don't realize that I've painted myself into a corner and I've gone ahead and walked over the freshly painted surface without realizing it!

Bottom line, it's a work of fiction (I hope) and meant to entertain.

I just hope it's working.




¹ From the 1969 film, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. "Those guys" are a posse relentlessly tracking Butch and Sundance in response to the many bank robberies Butch and Sundance, and their Hole in the Wall gang, have committed. There is a long sequence in the film following the pursuit of the duo, during which Butch and Sundance will occasionally stop and look back at their pursuers, who are still in the distance but gradually gaining ground, Butch will then pose that question. The opening photo is a screen shot of one of those moments.

38 comments:

  1. Thanks for the character list, it's helpful having them all on one page.

    I like your style of writing, it has a 'real" feel to it. Life itself is complicated and convoluted, with unexpected twists. Heck, the other day I was going to use some leftover beans for breakfast to make a kind of southwest shakshuka, well that means we need biscuits. Hmmm...biscuits need gravy, but biscuits and gravy need sausage. And suddenly instead of a bowl of southwest baked beans and eggs, we ended up with sausage, biscuits, gravy, scrambled eggs, and coffee (coffee is a given every day). Then the next day I mixed the beans with the leftover gravy, added cheese, and poured that over the leftover biscuits.

    And you manage to achieve what many writers can't - a visceral connection with your readers, as evidenced by the spirited comradely discussion that can erupt in the comments.

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    1. Though seemingly easy enough to prepare, Shakshuka somehow remains on my mealtime bucket list. But do frequently break-the-fast with 40-weight, biscuit and potatoes. Next time you have leftover beans & rice I suggest the following. Tacu-Tacu is basically a Peruvian breakfast (desayuno) "invent" using leftover beans & rice. Invention becomes creation when leftover steak or fried pork chunks and a tamale are added. Top with a traditional relish of sliced red onion and tomato. Adventuresome eaters may even opt for a few slices of blood sausage - morcilla. It's very rich so a bit goes a long way. A good mid-watch brew of coffee and you leap tall buildings in a single bound.

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    2. Oh my! And Thank You! https://www.seriouseats.com/tacu-tacu-peruvian-rice-and-beans-cake-recipe-7229046
      That sounds wonderful. Also sounds like it would scorch in a heartbeat.

      I cheat for my Shakshuka. I start with a jarred pasta sauce. Well, I start with sautéing onions, garlic, and peppers in some oil and then adding the jarred sauce, maybe an Arrabbiata Sauce. It's fun to play with. Peperonata also makes a good base. Television chefs get all esoteric about it, but, good lord, it's a red sauce that you poach eggs in. It's not all that complicated.

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  2. A talent indeed to keep all those threads or should I say balls in the air.

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    1. I'm reminded of the guy on the (old guy alert) Ed Sullivan Show (I'm sure there were others) who got all those plates spinning on those long sticks without any smashing to the ground. It feels like that on some days. (And honestly, a couple of plates in this story have probably fallen to the ground, I just haven't noticed yet!)

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  3. An adroit use of that sequence from the movie showing the..... ah.....concern Butch and Sundance had for their pursuers Sarge. Your story reminds me of the Russian nesting dolls........ :)

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  4. Sgt, when you mentioned actions trigger reactions ... I immediately thought of Sarajevo in 1914.
    When you mentioned that you sometimes intentionally paint yourself into corner to rest your ability, I knew exactly how that feels.
    So yes, I do feel 'onboard' with your style.

    My caution is to noty design so difficult a task that you have to rewrite starting from pages - and pages! - back in order to clear the mess.
    Or, the whole thing goes to the back burner in the recesses of your mind. It's fun to challenge yourself. Yet too it can become a thing to cause you to wonder why you do such things. I know only too well.

    If course the easy way is hardly satisfying. Indeed, feels like failure.

    (Any grammar tctl errors in the above are due to the demonic software in my phone.)

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    1. Ah yes, the dreaded spellcheck, coming from an application with a very small vocabulary.

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    2. For me it's a combination of Otto and thick fingers on a small keyboard. Odd that Otto will "correct" what is correct, but often ingor misspellings.

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  5. Ahem
    For an Eng Lit collage class I wrote a paper using Kafka's Metamorphosis and Kubler-Ross' treatise on death and dying as sources.
    Talk about a challenge!

    It wasn't an assignment. It was entirely of my own making. The great and kindly professor gave to me an extension, the entire summer, for completing the Magnus opus of my difficult mind.
    I did finish but did not hand it in. The result of my effeminate fork was so disappointing that I chose to not share the greatly embarrassing tome.

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    1. It is possible to set one's sights too high. I'm amazed you got through it!

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    2. Arrggh
      See what I mean! How the software changed efforts into effeminate fork is beyond me

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    3. I'm still chortling over that one, I needed the good belly laugh!

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    4. The metaphysical and the literal are strewn throughout the works of both Kafka and Jupiter Ross.

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    5. Yes, I laughed too. Thankfully it is only a blog comment and not, say a CV one hands to a prospective employer. Quite literally I have seen such marvels. Try story.

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    6. Rick #1 - Must be hard to keep track of!

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    7. Rick #2 - After I posted my comment, I forgot the term I like to use, "Autocorrupt."

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  6. I remember a science show back in vhs / cable days. They explored how dust storms start. The wind picked up little bits that fell and kicked up other little bits that fell and kicked up other little bits.... Much like neutrons released in a reaction. That was the picture in my mind. There comes a time when folks quit putting up with stupid... Whatever their definition of stupid is, then the reaction starts....

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    1. We shall see, we might be at that point. Hopefully someone is smart enough to take a recent court case to the Supremes.

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  7. Autocorrupt, v. Refers to the actions of programs that in attempting to correct putative spelling errors, create much larger errors. Usually the program cannot be turned off, and sometimes acts only while the text is being sent. Related to wordo, where the writer types a word they did not intend.

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  8. Thanks for the Personae Dramatis listing, Sarge. It is helpful.

    To your point about Sarajevo 1914, it is not necessarily that things progressively got worse in the space of a month or so that led to World War I. It is also that everyone was bound by treaties and commitments and things they had to do and even if they had really wanted to pull back, the Powers felt that they could not (in theory Germany could have refused to support Austria-Hungary or Russia could have refused to support Serbia, but neither did. Commitments, honor, that sort of thing).

    And, I suppose, there was a sense that given the past decade or so of wars, it would likely be over quickly anyway...

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    1. Oh no, Europe was a powder keg awaiting the spark. The assassination of the Archduke provided the spark. No doubt something else would have sufficed as well.

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  9. Thanks for the list. Makes it a bit easier to keep up with the story. Also, I swear my phone does not speak English. And it keeps talking about ducks....

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    1. Heh, ducks. Probably wants them all in a row.

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  10. sort of an offhand comment (sorta not related to anything in particular)
    My wife is a brilliant woman (fortunately/unfortunately)
    She is unable to enjoy The Hobbit (too many characters to follow who have too many names/nicknames) though she can easily follow dozens in a legal action - She's been a lawyer's (mainly health and casualty) PA (literally his right hand for many years; if he weren't gay, I might be worried).
    Your muse's name might be περίπλοκη, intricacy. Your story is not as it might appear at first, a writhing nest of snakes, but more Ouroborosian in nature, a single serpent leading back to ....
    Continue, please! damn the torpedos (the people who have to be led by the nose from point A to A*) and full speed ahead (do watch out for the mines - those trip wires can be invisible). Super enjoyable story in an alternate? universe in highly readable American English with minimum usage of unnecessary bad (foul) language and pornography (sex, totally unrelated to the story line).

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    1. My characters will use profanity, it's something veterans do, not all, but a lot.

      Adding in sex? Meh, I've seen too many good stories ruined for the sake of a lurid sex scene.

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    2. I must have worked with/been around too many Mormons (veterans all); I found they do not appreciate the use of "intemperate" language and were not at all shy about letting me know when/if I transgressed; not my usual nature or name.
      Amazing to watch the jaw muscles pop when something didn't go as planned, rather than letting out the more common "Aw, shoot" or "Gol Darn".

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    3. Ah, Mormons. Yes, they're different.

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  11. Happily being entertained, with only moderate confusion, and eagerly standing by for future installments. Yeah, lots of names, and I quickly forget them, but not essential to waste limited brain cells on trivial details of entertainment, so I continue onward.
    Thanks for the story, and the explanation.
    JB

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    1. I'm not into leaving some clue which comes back later so those who were laboring over the details can say, "Ah ha!" Besides which, I'd probably forget to follow up on that. I like to think of myself as smart enough, clever escapes me.

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  12. Thanks for the clarification. I was starting to get a brain freeze with effeminate fork.

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  13. Thank you for the post. I can usually figure it out after subsequent posts, but each chapter seemed to make it more raveled in my brain. I did understand though that it was dealing with corrupted feds doing evil to supposedly save us, much of how we're seeing efforts to "save democracy" these days. However confused I might get, I am really enjoying the story since it's similar to other things I read and have to pay for! haha.

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Just be polite... that's all I ask. (For Buck)
Can't be nice, go somewhere else...

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