Yakuza, Chapter XXI
Yakuza Chapter XXI Lauren, in front of his ‘amigos,’ hit the upper Lido deck cabin door running, changed course slightly with the way the bridge attached to the top of the stairs, and then went through the deck hatch at a dead sprint, his small but powerful compact...
Yakuza, Chapter XX
YAKUZA CHAPTER XX The ship glided across the small chop inside the reef. Lauren watched swimmers along the shallow waters of the pristine sandy beach take note. Shapiro pushed a button and a shrill howling began to wail forth from outside speakers. The ship continued...
Hard Rain, Reflection of Life
Hard Rain. Does it cleanse? Does it cause more damage than it takes care of by providing plants and animals with plenty of pure freshwater? Does it flood and cause disease, famine and even death? Water coming down from the sky is almost an allegory for life itself....
The Forest of Lost Reality, an Editorial
Forest of Lost Reality An Editorial from the Geneva Shore Report What has happened to explain this latest emotional iteration of social unrest that has been created by opinions about current circumstances rather than likely reality? I write about ‘likely reality’...
Yakuza, Chapter XIX
YAKUZA CHAPTER XIX The ship accelerated at a furious rate with the U.S. destroyer Chaffee falling in behind it, no doubt running at flank speed. Lauren eased his way and then inserted himself into the bolstered chair next to where Shapiro stood on his own. The...
Yakuza, Chapter XVIII
Yakuza Chapter XVIII The .410 bird shot load blasted out of the revolver barrel at a thousand feet per second, sending most of its tiny shotgun load into Ashton’s right foot. The man screamed before going down in a heap to the deck, both hands moving defensively to...
Yakuza, Chapter XVII
Yakuza Chapter XVII Lauren felt himself being trundled along through the bowels of the ship, carried by three men holding his ankles, his waist and one cradling his neck. The pain from the effects of the electric stun gun was excruciating, but his inability to get a...
The Dorchester Hotel and a Shave…
The Dorchester Hotel, London An Arch Patton Short Story This is the hotel I used in Europe as a sort of a hideaway, heal up joint, and spa to recover from missions. It is very expensive now and was even more so back when I was an active intelligence agent in the...
In The Name Of The Father..
In the name of the Father… a prayer. A prayer that is as endemic to the Catholic Church as the existence and continuance of the pope. “Give us this day our daily bread; and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us;” What...
Yakuza, Chapter XVI
YAKUZA CHAPTER XVI “Fuentes,” Lauren said the captain’s name, looking at the envelope of documents with the Letter of Marque on top, but making no move to take possession of it. He had the vague feeling he wasn’t supposed to actually possess it yet, or if ever,...
Yakuza, Chapter XV
YAKUZA Chapter XV Lauren surfaced in the rolling roiling and broken waters of the Molokai Express, the powerful vessel above him allowing only the bright glow of reflected light to appear along under it’s rising and falling twin hulls. Both ends of the vessel, rising...
YAKUZA, Chapter XIV
The Navatek ripped through the torn sea at high speed; its passengers isolated twenty feet above the wild close combat of ten-foot cross-swells fighting it out for dominance. The Molokai Express was actively at its most dangerous, as offshore winds were reaching...
Yakuza, Chapter XIII
YAKUZA Chapter XIII None of the men, sitting sprawled around the corner of the great cabin, said anything for almost a full minute following Ashton’s stunning comment and Yee’s accurate analysis of it. Lauren was the first to speak. He did so by whispering a...
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH NIGHT, THIRD PART, 30 Days Has September
My eyes snapped open, and I took in a quick deep breath. The sound that had awakened me was that of a fifty-caliber machine gun firing at close range. The crack of it, with following cracks and echoes, assured that I was downrange from the muzzle blasts and the...
Yakuza, Chapter XII
YAKUZA CHAPTER XII The Navatek hatch to the main deck was just off the top of the gangway. Lauren guided Shapiro through it and into a huge flat cabin that extended fifty feet wide by sixty feet in length. The single unsupported room took up more than half the deck...
TWENTY-SEVENTH NIGHT, SECOND PART, 30 Days Has September
The M-60s had opened up from in front of me, but I could not estimate the distance or the true direction the machine guns might be firing from, what with the sound of the nearby rushing river water and the incessant beat of the rain down upon my helmet. I knew all the...
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH NIGHT, 30 Days Has September
Wet muddy foxholes rapidly became repositories for almost everything the combat company Marines usually carried on their backs. There was nothing to effectively hide or cover the holes with when they were abandoned, as they’d been there so long that both sides of the...
Yakuza, Chapter XI
YAKUZA CHAPTER XI Lauren brought the twin-hulled Fool’s Gold down off plane, as he eased into the lee waters of the southernmost unnamed island just off the Lanakai coast of Oahu. He’d been to the three small islands years before but, since they lacked any source of...
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY, THIRD PART, 30 Days Has September
The Ontos blew a hole in the jungle where the NVA fifty caliber had opened up from. With the resupply chopper down, Hultzer pulled all the stops out, firing both flechette rounds and high explosives. Two of the Cobra gunships slowly approached the edge of the jungle,...
Yakuza, Chapter X
YAKUZA Chapter X Lauren tied the gently bobbing boat off using bow and stern cleats, throwing a couple of rubber bumpers over the side, making sure he didn’t damage the swim step extending two feet from the stern of the big yacht. The magnum revolver hung down a...
Yakuza, Chapter IX
YAKUZA Chapter IX The Zodiac headed toward the cliff face. The rough lava wall plunged twenty-five feet into the heaving sea. Further toward the shore, in the direction back toward Zippys, surfers rode breaking waves which expanded in size as the rollers were pushed...
Yakuza, Chapter VIII
YAKUZA CHAPTER VIII When he arrived to open at the usual appointed time the bar was somehow different. The place was full. Lauren hadn’t been there to either unlock anything or to serve any drinks, but the Honolulu Police contingent and their Yakuza...
Yakuza, Chapter VII
YAKUZA Chapter VII Lauren marveled over the awfulness of Hiyashi’s Karaoke singing, and the obvious fact that his drunken behavior had no effect in diminishing his stature with the men he was obviously in charge of. The Asian mentality was, in many ways, inscrutable...
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY, SECOND PART, 30 Days Has September
The Skyraiders broke the dawn, and everything else, apart, as they came in over the river at an altitude that had to be less than a hundred feet. First light was upon the valley, and the smoke coming up from the still-burning dried mud of the river bank could be seen,...
Yakuza, Chapter VI
YAKUZA Chapter VI Lauren was nervous, as he worked to finish the home-built suppressor for the Mannlicher. He had no doubts about testing the weapon and getting his ‘dope’ right for the shot. Sniping was ninety-percent preparation, equipment, and intellect. Taking...
Yakuza, Chapter V
YAKUZA Chapter Five True to his word, the sergeant’s truck showed up in the night to pack all the belongings they had. It didn’t take long and didn’t come anywhere near to filling up the storage area in the back of the truck. When they got to Shapiro’s place the kids...
THE TWENTY-SEVENTH DAY, 30 Days Has September
Picking out who was who or what was what from the cluster of men who hit the end of the bridge was impossible.. I worked the focus knob on the side of the Starlight scope to no avail. I couldn’t get a decent enough resolution to allow the green wispy moving creatures...
The Twenty-Sixth Night, Third Part, 30 Days Has September
The Ontos sat on the bridge, it’s dull presence barely visible across the distance, through the murk of the rainy night, with only the slight radiance of a full moon shining on clouds unseen above. I waited, as the battlefield in front of me across the fore drop of...
THE CAT, Chapter XIX
Cetan and Tama gathered leaves into the sunset, only stopping from making their runs back and forth to the fire in order to eat what fish the women had cooked. There were no meal times. They ate when they had food until they were full and then saved what they could to...
Yakuza, Chapter IV
YAKUZA Chapter IV Lauren opened the Apple computer and took half an hour of bar work time to figure out how he was going to access what he needed to access. He finally logged into the free Wi-Fi Zippys provided, and punched in “Yamashita.” The results surprised him....
The Twenty-Sixth Night, Second Part, 30 Days Has September
I crawled to the lip of the berm and fell straight into an empty hole that had to be six feet deep if it was an inch. Fusner cascaded down upon me with Nguyen slipping down next to him. The sound of the drums and the NVA fifty followed us right down into the bottom of...
The Twenty-Sixth Night, 30 Days Has September,
I moved across the surface of the mud, with what was left of my scout team just ahead. Fusner and Nguyen trailed just behind. We crawled low, the light of the day beginning to die and provide some sort of camouflage, if not cover. The Ontos lay ahead, sitting like a ...
Yakuza, Chapter III
YAKUZA Chapter III Lauren spent his single day-off doing damage control at home. His wife was a shattered wreck, having been told nothing by her employer except that her services were no longer needed. Lauren would not, could not, tell her what the DEA task force...
Yakuza, Chapter II, by James Strauss
YAKUZA Chapter II The altercation came after the end of his first week in his new job as bartender at Zippy’s. That he had lasted the week without complaint had earned him dinner every night, before his shift began. Ochuru called him in and gave him the...
Yakusa, Chapter I
YAKUZA, Chapter One By James Strauss The basin that has become known as Hawaii Kai was there thousands of years before Homo sapiens came along to reshape and remodel it. A man name Kaiser happened on the scene after World War II and using huge amounts of explosives...
Yakuza, a Short Story
YAKUZA By James Strauss The basin that has become known as Hawaii Kai was there thousands of years before Homo sapiens came along to reshape and remodel it. A man name Kaiser happened on the scene after World War II and using huge amounts of explosives his company...
Thoughts About Life after Radio Shack
The Demise of Radio Shack and… Dateline: Lake Geneva June 26, 2019 What did it, and does it, mean that Radio Shack went away? What do you suppose happened there that caused the ‘Mister Wizard’ store where you could get anything electronic or even...
THE TWENTY-SIXTH DAY, THIRD PART, 30 Days Has September
Fusner gently shook my shoulder. I inhaled sharply, suddenly realizing he’d been doing it for a while, but the depth of sleep I’d gone into would not allow me to think that I was in the A Shau Valley of South Vietnam commanding Marines in combat. I awoke slowly, no...
TWENTY-SIXTH DAY, SECOND PART, 30 Days Has September
The attack never came. We’d rushed back to our positions in the expectation that the NVA would understand that we’d left our rear area totally unprotected, but either the enemy had not figured that out, or there was another mystery that might never be explained. Even...
THE CAT, Chapter XVIII
The boy laid down to rest near the very back of the lean-to, gathering some leaves the two adult women had somehow strung together to act as a covering for sleep. There was no warmth in laying under the leaves, however, certainly nothing like luxuriating under a...
Vietnam Veterans Day, March 29, 2019…a Reflection
Yesterday was Vietnam Veterans Day…and I didn’t give a damn, really. How can the regular public be expected to understand or care about what we went through over in that god-forsaken country and war of the time? They can’t. I was in the Avant Coffee...
THE CAT, Chapter XVII.
The return to their encampment took much longer than the trip out. The body of the animal suspended between them was heavy and ungainly. They could not travel too fast across the forest floor because the hanging body would begin to swing to the point where they could...
THE TWENTY-SIXTH DAY, 30 Days Has September
A cacophony of open combat fire sent me as deep into the jungle floor as I could get. The sound was pure small arms fire, which at close range, with the Marines around me firing outward, didn’t sound so small. I crawled forward, eventually running into the feet, legs,...
THE TWENTY-FIFTH NIGHT, THIRD PART, 30 Days Has September
I had the place and the time but I could not sleep. The NVA had brought its .50 caliber equivalent heavy machine gun up on line. The gun laced our position up and down every twenty minutes or so. I couldn’t figure it out, laying curled up in my cleft. What was their...
THE TWENTY-FIFTH NIGHT, SECOND PART, 30 Days Has September
“The colors of the rainbow so pretty in the sky, are also on the faces of people going by. I see friends shaking hands saying how do you do, they’re really saying I love you…” The lyrics gently streamed from Fusner’s small radio, the last song of the day,...
THE TWENTY-FIFTH NIGHT, 30 Days Has September
Captain Carruthers settled into one side of my cleft, which wasn’t really wide enough to have two sides, but he wedged himself in anyway. There were clefts like my own up and down under the folded rock and he could, with his rank, have stayed in any one of them, but I...
THE CAT, Chapter XVI
Hasti sat next to the boy, his head at almost exactly the same height as the that of the standing human. He sat close, but not too close, knowing each and every nuance of the boy’s movement, breathing, and even facial expression. The cat could not see behind himself...
TWENTY-FIFTH DAY, THIRD PART, 30 Days Has September
My small cleft was filled with Marines by the time the day moved into late afternoon. I’d finished my letter home, once again extolling the virtues of the local fauna and flora and how the nearly continuous monsoon mist was such a relief from the harsh pounding of the...
Chickenman, Episodes 17 through 20
Well, I found a few more fabulous Chickenman Episodes to share with you. Enjoy the fun and please comment below and share your reactions to Chickenman Episode 17 finds our fearless fantastic fowl questioning Miss Helfinger about the validity of the...
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR, Short Story.
THE MIDNIGHT HOUR… The water beating on the cold lakeshore was incessant. Tom lay between the two dumpsters in the alley half a block from the lake, the water lapping along the edge if the nearby shore probably intended by God to be comforting, but it was not....
Island In The Sand, Book 2, Part XIII
ISLAND IN THE SAND Book II Part XIII The sand played out before her, and the mild wind ate away any moisture she’d carried through whatever device she’d traveled in, to the point where Star Black felt she might evaporate herself. The place she was in was inhospitable...
THE CAT, Chapter XV
The cat found a place near the bottom of the mildly inclined slope face. He settled in under the outward thrusting branches of a huge pine. The aroma, the deep bed of needles no insects could inhabit, and the gentle wind that wafted its way among the easy waving...
THE CAT, Chapter XIV
The hike down to the falls proved more difficult than either the boy or the warrior imagined. Attempting to stay inside the outside edge of the forest, in order to remain invisible from any observers that might be located up on the canyon rim, was difficult. The...
THE CAT, Chapter XIII
The cat rested through the day, occasionally looking out of half of one eye, toward where the new members of the pride passed back and forth, all of them making believe the cat wasn’t there. The cat passed semi-conscious moments reflecting on how easy it would be to...
Searching for Paradise, a Short Story by James Strauss
Searching for Paradise The fire was over but not long gone. The California Santa Ana kind of winds had blown through the town of Paradise with a blowtorch intensity, turning most homes to little more than cinder foundations and ash. I wasn’t coming home to Paradise in...Subscribe to FROM THE WILDERNESS
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