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SNAIR

by John Laing

133 pages; quality trade paperback (softcover); catalogue #02-0197; ISBN 1-55369-384-1; US$17.50, C$19.95, EUR14.50, £10.50

Action adventure with a modern twist. Activists find romance while forcing change via the internet.

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about the book      about the author      sample excerpt      catalogue info

About the Book The novelty in this fast developing yarn of international political protest is in the internet centered killing methods. The main protagonists are complex individuals with strong social convictions, not always shared by society. Humor spices the violence and the romance of wooers whom the world can still love despite their unconventional courtship. For more information about the book please visit www.snair.info.

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About the Author His youthful poaching experiences in Aberdeenshire, Scotland taught John Laing to accord to authority the respect it deserves. He has made Burlington, Ontario his home for the past 35 years which have been spent teaching, collecting antique postcards, sailing, Scottish country dancing, dog walking, and enjoying his family.

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Sample Excerpt - Chapter 26

BULLY FOR YOU

Sebastian Zarref was noted for owning more head of cattle than anyone else in Brazil. He had been raised a caballero on the family's private ranch, and loved to participate in rodeos, roping, and riding with the best of the cowboys.

As he matured in years, however, and took over the family business interests, he found it convenient for pleasure and business interests to move to Brazilia. By selling beef abroad for harder currency than the Real he moved into retail plazas and pioneered the use of feedlots in his country. In Brazilia the Zarref building was a famous landmark and in order to indulge in his macho swashbuckling ways Sebastian had a nightclub established on the ground floor at the rear of the building. It became the in place to go. The Ranchero had drinking, gambling, topless dancers, but Sebastian's favourite decadence was to challenge all and sundry to ride the mechanical bull.

Sebastian grossly underpaid all the meatpackers and caballeros who worked for him, but he was generous to the Ranchero staff and caroused till 2 am most nights, posing as a man of the people and reveling in winning bets for outstaying challengers on the mechanical bull. Through natural talent and long practice he beat most takers, but was genuinely pleased and full of bonhomie when beaten.

Dimaggio was happy in Brazil. He had retrieved his One Million Sterling and, following detailed advice from NetMaiden, as he now realized she was, he had taken steps to establish a new identity. The offer of another million surprised him, but when he heard how little he had to do for it, he agreed.

On the designated evening he made his way to the Ranchero and began to bait Sebastian by belittling his achievements on "Oxo," the bull.

"Maybe you like to put your money and your butt where your mouth is, you Scottish joke," sneered Sebastian, "but fortunately for you, I only ride for wagers greater than a thousand Real."

"I need a few drinks first," said Dimaggio, who would never be able to disguise his Scottish brogue. "It'll be too easy if I'm sober. How's about ten thousand of your worthless Real as a bet? We ride at midnight. You can go first since you're the expert and it's my first time."

"Good on you, Jock," laughed Sebastian, "I don't mind taking your money, and it's OK by me if you need Dutch courage." This was the sport he craved, -the customers loved it too, another sucker Inglesi was about to be humiliated and for a relatively high bet worth about five thousand US. After taking the money, Sebastian would surely call for a round on the house.

"To show you what a sport I am you can drink all the Scotch you want on the house and I will drink with you - excuse me if I prefer brandy."

For over an hour, they sat at Sebastian's table in front of the dancers, but after the first two drinks the attention they paid the dancers was as scant as the dancers costumes as they got into a heated argument about the merits of Aberdeen Angus beef as opposed to the Santa Gertrudis crossbreeds favoured by Sebastian.

Dimaggio simply enjoyed to argue and kept his good humour because he had some inkling of what was in store.

Sebastian soon realized that Dimaggio knew next to nothing about the meat trade, but played along with being a sporting companion and kept his good humour in spite of Dimaggio's abusive and extremely insulting language. He loved to make a few easy Real at a greenhorn's expense, while providing exciting and free entertainment for his paying customers and fawning admirers. It reminded him of an enterprise which had impressed him even more than the ranches on his one trip to the US West. A fish restaurateur charged people to fish for their supper in his fishpond and had coin operated machines for children and others to obtain food to feed the fish. Sebastian appreciated the economics of the set up and privately compared it with his entertainment being paid for courtesy the Ranchero's clientele.

Precisely at midnight they stood and turned to the machine directly behind their table and in the middle of the room. Dimaggio counted out his money on to the padded rail around the contraption, which looked like a cross between an Argentine Criollo and a Texas Longhorn. At Sebastian's nod a large sized barman brought his stake and stayed there as a deterrent to anyone looking to snatch the twenty thousand Real.

The crowd thickened around the machine for word had spread quickly.

Sebastian checked that the level was set at professional, as agreed and Dimaggio assented to one of the dancers acting as timer although he chose which one.

Dimaggio had used a Palm Pilot to alert NetMaiden that things were going as planned. He was not looking forward to his turn on the contraption, but a million was a million. Another day another dollar he thought to keep up his fortitude. He had been warned to expect the unexpected and to get out quickly if something unusual happened.

Sebastian handed his evening jacket to a beautiful girl in a dress reminiscent of 18th Century fashions, whispering something in her ear which made her blush, then mounted the bull and nodded to the dancer who pushed the start with her left thumb and the stop watch with her right. The huge stop-watch dial, on the wall facing the rider, ticked off three seconds.

The first second the bull juddered backwards, Sebastian beamed a smile and waved his right hand to the crowd. The next second the bull gave a short upward motion, Sebastian gave a mocking salute to Dimaggio and came down gracefully balanced, upright on the saddle.The third second the bull made an explosively violent vertical throw which sent Sebastian upward where his crushed cranium pierced the roof and left his corpse dangling by the neck from the hardboard's jagged edges.

Dimaggio realised his jaw was hanging open in surprise, but being partly forewarned, recovered before anyone else and fled the club, shouting, "Ambulance, ambulance," as he ran down the street to be swallowed by the darkness.

When the mechanic who fitted the airplane ejection seat mechanism into the bull discovered how wealthy the victim had been, he tried, but failed, in his attempt to get more money from NetMaiden.

 

Chapter 25 - GOOD SAMARITANS

Moira Herschel busied herself at the spotlessly clean kitchen after they agreed they had time to wait for scones to be made to go with the coffee. She started to explain that she could not use the electric stove and that it was a good job she had a wood stove, but could not finish for tears came to her eyes as she spoke.

"She's worried over paying the telephone bill," confided Morris Herschel nodding to the official envelope on the only table. "It's our contact with the outer world. Well we don't have money to pay for it and the hydro is already cut off which is why the scones are in the wood stove oven."

"I'm sure we can pay you enough rent for your barn to cover the telephone," put in Beatrice.

"Won't matter by the end of next month we'll lose the farm anyhow," sniffed Moira.

"Moira!" expostulated her husband.

"Well you told them we couldn't pay the phone and every one will know we've lost the farm soon anyway."

Gentle questioning discovered that while he drove trucks for a lumber company Morris had begun to buy the farm by means of a mortgage held by the company. The company had been acquired by a large, impersonal, financial group which really didn't want anyone living in the area because they could economise by not providing services, but Moira and Morris had refused to sell back the farm - the home they had lived in for the past fifteen years.

"We were comfortable here," explained Morris. "We keep a cow, grow vegetables, and Moira sells her ceramics at the local co-op tourist market, because my pension is kinda small. I was sometimes unem-ployed so our savings always got used up and this isn't really a profitable farm, but more like a subsistence farm, where you grow enough to live on food wise. Moira's ceramics is what really pays the mortgage since I had to retire, and there's only five years to pay now."

"Sounds like you do just fine then," encouraged Jack.

"Not really. To try to get us to move they cut off our power, even though we were paid up to date, and we can't afford a lawyer to force them to turn it back on. We blew our last savings on a used generator, so as to keep Moira's electric kiln going, but now it's quit and we're at the end of our rope. It's an older model and I can't find parts out here, even if I could pay for them."

Beatrice made a pretence of dickering with Moira and cheered her up by agreeing to pay $200 for a week's use of the barn.

"Less than a national park and more private," she announced in mock triumph.

Soon Jack and Morris checked out the parts numbers needed for the generator and Jack amazed Morris by successfully searching the net for the parts. Jack found the parts, but also found an ex-army, older, but unused, water powered generator for about the same price. They arranged to buy it using the Visa number of one of Beatrice's shell companies. Beatrice took some of Moira's ceramics (which were truly works of art) in exchange.

The generator was delivered in three days which left sufficient time for Moira to fulfill her order and earn the mortgage payment. It was a happy foursome who enjoyed venison stew for supper that first evening. They were even happier by bedtime for Jack showed Morris how to place the ceramic items for sale on internet auctions, such as eBay. The auctions were scheduled to end in three days but they had already received bids on the items, which were far in excess of the wholesale prices Moira got at the co-operative. Before they left Jack made Morris a present of the laptop and a small digital camera, which would enable him to utilize the internet auctions. In spite of Beatrice's best efforts Moira refused to attempt the computer saying,

"No, no, I'll stick to ceramics and Morris can do the typing or else I would be stuck doing everything."

Jack also assisted Morris position the new water powered generator in a waterproof shed on a sluice, which they dug from the swift flowing mountain stream, using the old tractor's backhoe and a crude but effective wooden sluice gate.

Morris said when they were done, "The best of it is I no longer have the damnable expense, the heavy lifting, the confounded din, or the cancerous stink of diesel to put up with."

On the final evening there they had a meal cooked on the convenient electric stove, by electric light, and followed by an hour or two watching television.

After the news, when it was reported that police now believed reports of Jack the Hacker and NetMaiden being seen in the district were mistaken or hoaxes, Morris slyly put in that he had better not take their photographs with the digital camera as he wouldn't want the police to look bad.

Moira and Morris were still laughing as the other couple made their slightly shaken way out to the barn.

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Catalogue Information

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