Hey Guys,

Dan decided to surprise us with a mid week posting, Chapter 10 is up!!

It was a good one and I think we will finally be getting some good answers soon!!!!

Enjoy!

Greg

Interesting chapter... I'm looking forward to the conclusion of this arc....

I agree. Interesting chapter. Wonder which part of the "government" the security firm works for, if any.

Thanks Dan for the mid week posting.. after that evil cliffhanger from the last chapter that was really nice of you Even though the puzzle is not really solved yet, who those guys really are and who is behind it... and how Worthington/Jamie and the others will get out of this trap. What did they learn from the fake soldiers memory ?
You definitely challenge CJames for the crown of the king of evil cliffhangers, don't you ?

I tried to warn all of you that this strings of chapters have a good amount of cliffhangers involved...

By the way, a good motivation for me to post the chapter was the level of discussion that was going on about the last few chapters. Don't take that to mean a lot of posts will get more chapters. Rather, the quality of the posts and the quality of the discussions made me want to provide you with a few answers by posting another chapter.

And a few questions. What have they learned from the captured mercenary that prompted Dechaun's expletive?

Great chapter, Dan.

That's exactly what I want to know! I ended the chapter thinking, hey! 'shoot' what?? grrr...

Personally, I think they're hired by the uncle. If they can pretend to be Army, they can also pretend to be FBI. Weird thing, though, that the attackers in Phx had dogtags on, right?

I was also thinking the Uncle Sinclair is somehow involved. If I recall correctly isn't he some sort of religious figure? If that's the case this group might be tied to the White House if the Uncle has gotten his hooks into them as their "Preacher".

Just a thought...

I'm glad so see a chapter out this quickly as this is turning out to be more of a "page turner" than the first book.

Can't wait for more... maybe this weekend Dan?

Steve

This doesn't sound like Uncle Sinclair to me. If he was behind it, why would the government mages be so week not only in power but in training? Some other doubts include:

1. Why would Uncle Sinclair not have used the device that interferes with mages to his own advantage already?
2. If the government mages where where working with Uncle Sinclair, why attack the first time they did when Worthington was already under attack by daemons?
3. The government mages are too clumsy and could not go undetected by the other mages for long, and any link back to Uncle Sinclair would cause every other mage who found out to eliminate him immediately(Worthington has been defensive so far for his own interests).
4. Uncle Sinclair is both Dark and Evil, he would not care for the children at the camp or have underestimated Worthington so easily.

I'm not sure if Dan is trying to mislead us a bit in the third to last paragraph. On the one hand we know the US government is the largest employer of the company the captured soldier works for. The soldier seems to think he's working on behalf of the government now. And yet we're not told directly exactly who he is working for.

So it's possible the uncle is the employer and the revelation of that would certainly cause Worthington and the others to react with shock. But why would it cause Dechaun to use an expletive? I don't recall him being aware of the problems between Worthington and his uncle.

And yet, if the uncle is the employer wouldn't he have access to mages that wouldn't set such crude controls and blocks? Wouldn't he want it to be a really professional job? It seemed too easy for Worthington to get into this soldier's mind.

Also, why would a mere soldier seem to have so much information hidden in him that it would be "staggering" to Worthington? I can certainly understand the mental blank spots. That could be as easy as the uncle not wanting the soldier to be aware of who he's working for. And yet that seems to contradict how much this seemingly unimportant solder has hidden in his mind. Although we don't yet know what that information is so it's too soon to reach any sort of conclusion.

One item that would favor the uncle being behind this is the uncle's got to know he can't take on Worthington, Jamie, Colin and the other mages by himself like he did with Worthington's family. That would tend to make him use other means.

The one thing that bothers me though is something others have wondered about. The lack of dogtags on this soldier. Is it possible the real Army was involved in the earlier incident? Possibly due to some sort of relationship between the uncle/evangelist and our current government which seems to be in love with these fundies? And then the Army pulled out when they discovered the uncle had been less than honest with them about Worthington and his intentions? At that point to try and make things look consistent he'd almost have to try to make it look like the government was still involved.

It still bugs me though that there appeared to be a legitimate bit of confusion between the various men Worthington talked to when he first met with them? It seemed like some were in the loop while others feel like they're (perhaps once again) being misled.

All in all this was another well written chapter Dan. I love it when you leave us with so many questions to ponder. They're not so much cliffhangers as they are mental challenges for us to speculate about. But if everyone wants to call them cliffhangers I certainly won't disagree.

Too many questions and so few answers...

Who is the soldier?
How does he have so much (supposedly) info on him?
Who is he actually working for?
Why are they after Worthington?
What does Worthington learn from the soldier's memories that causes Deuchan to gasp?
When will there be another sex scene? oops...scratch that...

Hmmm... I feel that the soldier is working for Uncle Sinclair and that this is our dear Uncle's one of many methods of getting to Worthington, hence explaining the crudeness. But then the question of why use such a pathetic (weak) way? And why care for the kids? Surely, Uncle dear didn't care for the party guests when he obliterated the Sinclair clan...

Maybe what Worthington learned from the soldier is what I had mentioned in the previous discussion. That the government is being controlled by a mage. Maybe the President is under some compulsion of a mage who is against Worthington.

This info would surely make Deuchan gasp, answering your question Gary. And would also shock Worthington the way it has. More so if that mage is dear Uncle Sinclair...

All in All, a nice treat, for us RB-hungry fans... Thanks Dan..

Can't wait for Saturday...

BeaStKid

Dechaun's language is peculiar. I mean, anyone can use a fecal expletive but does a preteen black dude ever address a white teen as "boss man"? Is that politically correct?

It's not politically correct...it's meant as a slight insult that Worthington either doesn't realize, or simply ignores.

I hadn't even considered that possibility BK. Still, that wouldn't explain the apparently legitimate confusion between the various agencies at the front gate of the camp. Also, wouldn't the uncle want to send the best government teams to deal with Worthington, et al? It's a good theory BK but it seems to have some holes in it. That adds to the suspense though so I think the holes are good things.



Despite Worthington's intelligence, education and money I don't think he's ever had any exposure to what might be considered other cultures. Certainly he wouldn't understand or appreciate the inherent insult in the way Dechaun addresses Worthington. I'd even go so far as to suggest Worthington considers it a compliment. Which would tie in well with what Dan stated about Worthington not realizing the implications of being referred to as "boss man".

Edit Reason: Spelling Error.

Given the less understood use of "government contractors," as the instigators and agents of the bad guys (invoking Halleburton and Blackwater in the vein of Jericho's Jennings and Rail and Ravenwood) I'm not quite ready to directly lay this at the feet of the Sinclair uncle.

From the last few paragraphs of the chapter, I get the impression that Uncle Sinclair might have initiated it at some level, but it seems other parties are afoot, since having this chain of events be solely the work of the uncle is too simple. I suspect that as each layer gets unpeeled, we'll see yet another manifestation of it ultimately being the uncle, but in the meantime we're going to see all sorts of intermediaries.

One more thing about Dechaun, maybe he meant it as an insult in the beginning, but now, well there's more respect there than before and Worthington knows that. Then again, it could just be Worthington doesn't understand the insult implications and no one around him ever bothered to let him know. Worthington's not perfect, and he's going to miss things, make mistakes, etc.

His whole defensive strategy is a part of his shortcomings...and yes it is intentional. It's a flaw in his character that he has to overcome eventually, and what's going to happen when he does? Will the pendulum swing too far in the other direction? Oh, and with the confusion amongst the government men...they're from different agencies. How often do government agencies really work well together?

I appreciate an author who's willing to reconsider things. I agree with you that Dechaun has more respect for Worthington now than he did at the beginning. Just look at the effect Worthington is having on Decahun in terms of teaching him the value of money! As for the others not bothering to let Worthington about the insult. Aren't they more or less in the same position as Worthington in terms of not having any real exposure to inner-city kids and what the true meaning of something like "boss man" really is?


Well his defensive strategy might be a shortcoming but at least it's kept the kids at the camp safe so far. If he's going to walk the line between Light and Dark this is a character trait I hope he never loses. There are always alternatives, he just needs to come up with a workable one.

I'm not sure what to say about the conflict between government agencies. I know in the real world you're quite right. But this isn't the real world and if the uncle is involved at some level you'd think he'd make sure to at least arrange things so that when confronting Worthington directly there's the semblance of a united front.

here is a thought...it's just the goverment this time

I mean....Has Uncle Sinclair had enough time to gather his forces? didn't it take him over a year to prepare for the birthday attack?

It seems to me that it is logical that the goverment would send some one to look into the reported terrorist attacks...especially if federal inteligence agencies didn't have anything in there files to indicate terrorist activities...then Worthington mucked up the minds of the two that were sent to look into things...that made somebody look bad

if that sombody were a low level dud trying to get some where in his world, he might have gotten some military goons to use before his boss found out about his failure...and failed again

so the boss finds out and brings in a "specialty" group to iliminate the problem(That might shock Dechauan) like they have done many times before(would explain both the memory gaps and Worthingtons shock)

Just a thought

Hugs,
Tom

What about the lack of dogtags and official uniforms during this current attempt, Tom? We know that a private company is at least partially involved in this current operation; and probably was in the second failure when Worthington rescued Colin. Would a low-level dud be able to supply the finances for such an operation? I don't know! I suppose it's possible if the uncle were somehow involved.

This could be a good reason as to why the uncle has nudged them Worthington's way... just to keep him busy while the uncle rebuilds his forces.

But I have a new theory! What if these mages are working with the demons??? With Worthington out of the way, they could retake Phx, right?

I don't know a whole lot about demons apart from what Dan's shared with us.

They did agree to leave the mages in the Phoenix area alone.

How much can they be trusted to keep their word?

You guys are so hung up on the fact that this company is a private company 'like blackwater' as you guys put it... FYI, blackwater is a contracter working for the US GOVT not just oil companies and diplomats. It would not surpise me one bit if this special department of the govt that we already know exists that is interested in mages just REALLY wants to get a hold of worthington. What I just don't understand is why Worthington doesn't use some other means to communicate with the outside world... AKA: Compel a squrrel to hitch a ride on a passing tractor trailer to Clareville and alert friends (Worthingtons magic would be more than enough to let people know there is trouble). He hasn't tried signaling DOWN... we know that the dwarfs LOVE the ground... We know that there were active communications going on right before this started, after a day or so with no response, someone's going to check into things a little more.

Another thought, which I kept screaming in my head while reading the story and while reading your responses on the forums that I'm finally going to explode and say it... HELLOOO Anyone here ever hear of wire tapping?? Patriot act anyone?!? Worthington has been sending emails with mage meeting schedules and stuff for months now... someones going to see that shit and while it might sound crazy to one department it might raise alarms in another.

I'm surprised no one thought "oh shit, the kid gasped because the private security firm ALREADY apprehended Jamie's family!!!" No one found it odd that the govt randomly found Worthington in the middle of no where? This would be something more to gasp about than anything else...

'Everyone associated with Worthington' the 'govt' guy said... That includes the entire Phoenix group...

AND... this crap about 'ooh i have lawyers, we'll trap them in the legal system' WTF is he thinking... quite obviously, these guys are operating a bit outside the regular realms of the law... This isn't something that would ever go to regular court... if even top secret court.

Worthington is in for some tough lessons in the days ahead, and while you guys might forsee him escaping this escipade... well... this IS a DK story, which means he's probably going to get deeper in shit than not before escaping... Theres always another shoe out there... AND DK does tend towards trying to keep things half way realistic... so some super powerful mage Worthington saving the day is probably out of the picture for the next few chapters... If he's going to get out of this situation with the shirt on his back and the skin too, he's going to get help from an outside source most likely...


Just my thoughts, maybe I'm wrong... But I've read enough of DK's stories enough times to see a few things coming before they get around... He's smarter than the average writer. or bear as my grandma always put it...

Brax

That is most certainly true. Though they are more subtle, his cliffhangers always leave us wanting more. Anyway, I finally caught upon on the story, and I am definitely hooked! Oh I do want to learn what they found out from the soldier. I think this shadowy government group is going to be a serious threat. And I happen to agree that Uncle Sinclair is a part of it. The puzzle, however, is still quite fuzzy. All I can say is, "I want more!"

All your questions arrive from evil Dan's subterfuge!

That's my way of saying I don't have a clue.

Conner