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Cantata - finishing the story
It's short, this chapter. But what else is there to say? I know, I know. I could write tons more. What about Martin? What about Hamilton? What about Well's fish? What about... well, the story could go on and on.
It's done for now, though. The good guy wins, and continues to win. Heck, he might even get the girl in the end. Regardless, Herbert Wells does finally retire from my pages. The strings are tied up, and if the package leaks a bit here and there, it is simply because this is the rough draft of a character I carried in me for a long time. His life, like mine, isn't neat and tidy, and it is full of unresolved things.
I thank you, those of you who stuck with me on this lengthy process of birth. I especially thank my Lil Sis, Capi, who never failed to give me good commentary and tried her best to keep me true to the character of the story. Couldn't have done it without you, dear.
This story needed to be finished before I could move on. And so, without becoming even more verbose, I present the final chapter in the admittedly very rough draft of Cantata.
"Are you sure he was there?" Laura was watching the news as she spoke to her daughter on the phone.
"A special report from Catanzaro." A grim faced woman, dressed in a dark gray suit, sat behind a desk on the television, reading from a stack of papers. "An attempt on the life of the Pope was foiled today. While the Pope was attending a benefit concert in Catanzaro, a lone man was killed moments before he was to release deadly Sarin Gas into the performance hall of the Soverato hotel. So far, there have been no reports of injuries. We will bring you details as the become available."
"Good Lord!" Laura gasped. "Sarin Gas!"
"Sarin Gas?" Kaylee's voice echoed her mother's shock. "That would have killed every one in the hotel!"
"Is everyone all right?" Laura asked. "Are you all right?"
"Everyone is all right, Mamma," Kaylee reassured her mother. "With the exception of the killer, of course. It was a wonder he didn't fall though the ceiling when he was shot."
Kaylee's voice grew hushed. "Mamma... it was Besi. He was the assassin. I saw the body when they brought him down."
"Besi? Bleri's brother?" Laura's voice registered only a little shock. "I never did trust them, Kaylee. Still... Sarin Gas. Horrible, horrible."
"Yes," Kaylee agreed. "Horrible."
"And you say you saw Richard there?"
"Mamma, I couldn't be sure." Kaylee's voice shook while she spoke. "There was an older man standing in the balcony when it happened. The lights were in my eyes. It could have been him. When I got up to the balcony, I couldn't find him... the old man, I mean."
A soft chirp came from a locket that Laura wore around her neck. It was coming from a key, suspended from a golden chain. Laura pulled the key from under her blouse and looked at it, wonderingly.
"Wait just a moment, Kaylee." Laura put the telephone down and unclasped the necklace from around her neck. The key's head was flashing with a dim red light.
She went to the laptop on the coffee table and plugged the key into a USB port. The laptop's screen gained a new icon, a folder titled Removable Device.
Laura clicked on the yellow icon, opening the folder. There was only one item contained inside of it. A picture file. Hesitantly, Laura clicked on it.
It was the image of a chess piece. A knight, done in black and white. There was a caption on the picture, which read 'Knight takes Pawn'.
Laura picked up the telephone from where she had put it. "He was there, Kaylee. Your father was there."
Over the next few weeks, the attempt on the Pope's life would fade to the back pages of the newspapers. There was much speculation about who the assassin was and what radical group was connected to him. No group came forward to claim him. In the end Besi was declared a crazy man, just another in the long history of lone gunmen.
Kaylee never saw Bleri again. It was as if the young Goth girl had simply vanished. Kaylee started dating a young man who worked at the orphanage, much to the surprise and joy of her mother.
There was a small notice in the national news that a villa in Zagreb had exploded, under mysterious circumstances. The only fatality was an American military man, a retired general. There were rumors that he had turned a blind eye to many shady dealings on the black market in Croatia. His remains, such as they were, were shipped back to the United States without ceremony or recognition.
An anonymous donor contributed toys, money, and school supplies on a regular basis to the orphanage in Trieste. The only name on the card was 'Sarah'. The postmarks on the packages indicated they came from Paris, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Moscow. There was one package, however, that came with a letter.
"Laura and Kaylee. I wish you the very best in life and a long life at that. The world is broad, and our roads may cross again. I would like that, I think. Until that happens, know that I will always hold you in my head and my heart, and I will always remain my queen's knight." The letter was unsigned.
A post card with matching envelope was delivered to the Castle Estense in Ferrara, and the post card was addressed to Lauren Ciatti. The card was a picture of a serene ocean view, with fluffy white clouds and crystal blue sky. There were sail boats with their sails unfurled, lazing on the water and sea birds hung in the air like white eyebrows. There was a greeting written in bold yellow letters. "The More in lovely Zadar!"
Lauren looked at the post card curiously. She turned it over and read what was written there.
"I still owe you a dinner. Antonio will cover for you. Come take a chance. With high hopes, Richard."
The envelope contained an airplane ticket from Ferrara to Zadar. It was post-dated for the upcoming weekend.
A gasp escaped from Lauren's lips and the tickets fluttered to the desk as her hands flew to her mouth. Slowly a smile formed on her face and it continued to grow until she started laughing.
When she finished, and the laughter had bubbled down to a chuckle, she looked up to see Antonio standing in the doorway.
"Well," he said, smiling down at her knowingly, "do you want me to help you pack?"
The End.
I reckon I'll be finishing Sid - Ombudsman of Hell, next.
It's done for now, though. The good guy wins, and continues to win. Heck, he might even get the girl in the end. Regardless, Herbert Wells does finally retire from my pages. The strings are tied up, and if the package leaks a bit here and there, it is simply because this is the rough draft of a character I carried in me for a long time. His life, like mine, isn't neat and tidy, and it is full of unresolved things.
I thank you, those of you who stuck with me on this lengthy process of birth. I especially thank my Lil Sis, Capi, who never failed to give me good commentary and tried her best to keep me true to the character of the story. Couldn't have done it without you, dear.
This story needed to be finished before I could move on. And so, without becoming even more verbose, I present the final chapter in the admittedly very rough draft of Cantata.
"Are you sure he was there?" Laura was watching the news as she spoke to her daughter on the phone.
"A special report from Catanzaro." A grim faced woman, dressed in a dark gray suit, sat behind a desk on the television, reading from a stack of papers. "An attempt on the life of the Pope was foiled today. While the Pope was attending a benefit concert in Catanzaro, a lone man was killed moments before he was to release deadly Sarin Gas into the performance hall of the Soverato hotel. So far, there have been no reports of injuries. We will bring you details as the become available."
"Good Lord!" Laura gasped. "Sarin Gas!"
"Sarin Gas?" Kaylee's voice echoed her mother's shock. "That would have killed every one in the hotel!"
"Is everyone all right?" Laura asked. "Are you all right?"
"Everyone is all right, Mamma," Kaylee reassured her mother. "With the exception of the killer, of course. It was a wonder he didn't fall though the ceiling when he was shot."
Kaylee's voice grew hushed. "Mamma... it was Besi. He was the assassin. I saw the body when they brought him down."
"Besi? Bleri's brother?" Laura's voice registered only a little shock. "I never did trust them, Kaylee. Still... Sarin Gas. Horrible, horrible."
"Yes," Kaylee agreed. "Horrible."
"And you say you saw Richard there?"
"Mamma, I couldn't be sure." Kaylee's voice shook while she spoke. "There was an older man standing in the balcony when it happened. The lights were in my eyes. It could have been him. When I got up to the balcony, I couldn't find him... the old man, I mean."
A soft chirp came from a locket that Laura wore around her neck. It was coming from a key, suspended from a golden chain. Laura pulled the key from under her blouse and looked at it, wonderingly.
"Wait just a moment, Kaylee." Laura put the telephone down and unclasped the necklace from around her neck. The key's head was flashing with a dim red light.
She went to the laptop on the coffee table and plugged the key into a USB port. The laptop's screen gained a new icon, a folder titled Removable Device.
Laura clicked on the yellow icon, opening the folder. There was only one item contained inside of it. A picture file. Hesitantly, Laura clicked on it.
It was the image of a chess piece. A knight, done in black and white. There was a caption on the picture, which read 'Knight takes Pawn'.
Laura picked up the telephone from where she had put it. "He was there, Kaylee. Your father was there."
Over the next few weeks, the attempt on the Pope's life would fade to the back pages of the newspapers. There was much speculation about who the assassin was and what radical group was connected to him. No group came forward to claim him. In the end Besi was declared a crazy man, just another in the long history of lone gunmen.
Kaylee never saw Bleri again. It was as if the young Goth girl had simply vanished. Kaylee started dating a young man who worked at the orphanage, much to the surprise and joy of her mother.
There was a small notice in the national news that a villa in Zagreb had exploded, under mysterious circumstances. The only fatality was an American military man, a retired general. There were rumors that he had turned a blind eye to many shady dealings on the black market in Croatia. His remains, such as they were, were shipped back to the United States without ceremony or recognition.
An anonymous donor contributed toys, money, and school supplies on a regular basis to the orphanage in Trieste. The only name on the card was 'Sarah'. The postmarks on the packages indicated they came from Paris, Los Angeles, Hong Kong and Moscow. There was one package, however, that came with a letter.
"Laura and Kaylee. I wish you the very best in life and a long life at that. The world is broad, and our roads may cross again. I would like that, I think. Until that happens, know that I will always hold you in my head and my heart, and I will always remain my queen's knight." The letter was unsigned.
A post card with matching envelope was delivered to the Castle Estense in Ferrara, and the post card was addressed to Lauren Ciatti. The card was a picture of a serene ocean view, with fluffy white clouds and crystal blue sky. There were sail boats with their sails unfurled, lazing on the water and sea birds hung in the air like white eyebrows. There was a greeting written in bold yellow letters. "The More in lovely Zadar!"
Lauren looked at the post card curiously. She turned it over and read what was written there.
"I still owe you a dinner. Antonio will cover for you. Come take a chance. With high hopes, Richard."
The envelope contained an airplane ticket from Ferrara to Zadar. It was post-dated for the upcoming weekend.
A gasp escaped from Lauren's lips and the tickets fluttered to the desk as her hands flew to her mouth. Slowly a smile formed on her face and it continued to grow until she started laughing.
When she finished, and the laughter had bubbled down to a chuckle, she looked up to see Antonio standing in the doorway.
"Well," he said, smiling down at her knowingly, "do you want me to help you pack?"
The End.
I reckon I'll be finishing Sid - Ombudsman of Hell, next.
BEFORE i read this....
Strikes me that a pope would come with his own security team. Doesn't mean there wouldn't be others added on, but seems that he'd have his own team from day one, just part of the job. He wouldn't necessarily like it, but comes with the job, just like the vestments and sceptre and all that noise. The job is far too high profile not to have it, and he'd know it, and bow to it, whether he liked it or not. (this is ALL surmise on my part.) And... that team would know how to check out any and all buildings and routes where the pope would plan to be ahead of time, including attics and catwalks, including the buildings nearby, probably even including the sewers below. They would be thorough by habit. The pope is one of the loftiest positions in the entire world; his security folk would HAVE to be top notch. And utterly discrete.
What you want to do with that, i don't know, but that is what i think.
Another point about the Pope.... i expect assassins in his vicinity are not all that rare (from my own reading, i draw this conclusion), and many popes have made it a point to carry on as if nothing has happened once the assassin is removed from the scene because they are there to do God's work, and they refuse to allow anything to stop them. I was a bit shocked that your pope left the scene when he did; it was jarring and felt wrong, but i had to think about it. A *king* might do that, but i am not sure a pope would. True, he wasn't there necessarily to do God's work, but even so, a pope should never EVER show fear, for exactly the same reason.
Again, what you want to do with that is your call. You already wove that part of the story nicely, and i don't want to mess you all up, but i did want to point that out to you. (( hug ))
Now, reading and commenting as usual....
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It was the image of a chess piece. A knight, done in black and white. There was a caption on the picture, which read 'Knight takes Pawn'.
Ok, that just made me cry...... *sniff* *applause* WELL done, my friend!
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Awwwwwwwww..... *crying and clapping* Awwwwww!!! *still crying* Well done, lil' brother, well done!!! Where are the tissues????
Re: Now, reading and commenting as usual....
As for the Pope leaving as he did, I might agree with you. I'll have to research it.
Re: Now, reading and commenting as usual....
And Well's supposition... well, we were *counting* on super-brain Wells to have the right suppositions. He always does! *L* If he's wrong... well, this isn't clear enuf, is what.
((( hug ))) I know, you wanna put it away. Ok. I love you. That's really what matters anyway.
Re: Now, reading and commenting as usual....
Sooo.... Let me think about it. I have the ending. Wells disappears to Zadar. He sends the image to Laura to let them know he's not gone, just not there. He has also reached out to someone new, which is a big step for him.
So... let me clean up the middle. I just have to come up with a good device. Besi is the killer. I just have to figure out how.
This is my thinking.... Besi got to the hotel a full three days before Wells. Bleri .... I don't know where Bleri went. I really don't.
He scouted the hotel, and not finding a good place to hide, he climbed to the roof and kicked off the ceiling tiles.
Then when the roofer showed up to work, he disguised himself as one of them and sequestered himself away in the roof between the attic and the performance hall. He literally hid under the ceiling tiles.
Now, Most security details, even the Popes, will make a detailed check of the location and the perimeter. They will not, however, check under the ceiling tiles, though they might try.
Yes, it was a bit of an overkill for Besi to attempt to kill everyone. Hmmm.
Okay. We know Besi knows his poisons. So... rather than Sarin gas, perhaps a compressed air gun, It would look like every other pipe in the ceiling. And all he would need would be one dart, well aimed, with the same poison that he tried on Wells. Most assassins tend to stick with what they know works.
And he would have felt fairly confident, as he slipped through the roof to the space between the rafters and the plaster.
The security force would have had to climb up to look into that crawl space, where they would have seen and surprised Besi. That is where they would have found him, in that cramped space. He's big man, Besi is, so he would have been very cramped with very little room to move. He would have had to tear apart the roofing under the tile to have enough room to hang suspended where he was.
Okay... I think I have enough to re-write the broken parts of the ending.
And yes, the Pope did not need to leave. He would have stayed for the performance, so perhaps I'll do a bit of clean up on that section.
And again, thank you, Darling Capi, for being my reader, and my consciences and for keeping me true.
I love you
Re: Now, reading and commenting as usual....
I love you, too. Not the least reason being, you don't bite my head off when i point stuff out to you. Thanks. *grin*
Re: Now, reading and commenting as usual....