Two months after his father’s death, Vincent sets in motion his plan for vengeance. And the first step is going among mad people. Continue reading
Vincent mourns the loss of his father and begins to think of methods of vengeance. Continue reading
February 2044
Vincent tightened his one handed grip on the wheel as the other fumbled to get a cigarette out of its pack and into his mouth. That task done, he dropped the pack off to the side and pulled out his lighter.
As smoke started to waft into the cabin, Callahan cleared his throat and fidgeted futilely in the close confines between Vincent and Roland. “Do you have to smoke that in here?” He grimaced.
“Helps me think.” came the clipped reply.
“I thought we got all the thinking done before we left campus.” Callahan scowled. “If we’re still thinking now, we’re in serious trouble, Vince. More trouble than we are already.”
“We’re not in trouble yet.” Vincent took a long drag off his cigarette and returned his eyes to the road. “There’s no law against stealing your own property.”
“It’s your father’s property.” Callahan corrected.
“Same difference. You think my daddy’s gonna press charges?”
“I’m thinking the U.S. Army is going to once we take all those guns.” Callahan chewed his lip and glanced around the cramped cabin like a caged animal.
“Well we haven’t taken them yet. Besides, if all goes according to plan, none of this … Continue reading
February 2044
Rain was coming down in sheets that made everything further out than a few feet run together into vague, looming blobs. It collected on the brick walks of the Dayspring campus and gathered into fast moving runnels wherever a slope led downhill even in the slightest.
From the porch of Hathaway House, the world was an ice blue moving curtain with only the hedges planted along the railing visible beyond the rain eschewing protection of the roof. The rain was coming straight down, barely spattering through the three open walls.
Two dark shapes suddenly loomed out of the obscuring rain and in a few steps resolved into young men carrying umbrellas. They surged over the threshold between the deluge and the dry haven and stood a moment shaking themselves and their umbrellas dry.
Vincent Liedecker glared out at the downpour as if he resented it for daring to get him wet. “You know another reason I’m gonna be glad to tour the Mid-East?” He asked rhetorically, “It’s dry.”
“You’ll miss this water when you get over there.” Callahan scowled, “All the water they got, it’s all being tilled into the ground. My Ecology professor’s one of the guys … Continue reading
September 2043
John C. Liedecker wasn’t one of the founders of Dayspring College. The place had been a small friendly four year college that fit its name and not much up for twenty years before John Liedecker moved from Memphis to Mayfield to be near his holdings.
It was Liedecker, however, that jumpstarted the tidal wave of funding that made Dayspring into a large, serious college with nationally competitive programs and transformed Mayfield from a town with a college to a college town.
A favorite anecdote was that Liedecker’s first donation, the one that paid for the construction and furnishing of the D. Hong Center for Robotics in full, was made on the same day his first child was born.
Another favorite was that despite donating an average of a residence building a year, not a single building on campus was named for him because he didn’t stand on such things.
Both were true. What it boiled down to was that when John Liedecker talked about investing in his children’s future, he meant it in the most literal sense. The only favor he received for his generosity was a significant reduction in cost when his first born decided to attend … Continue reading
