"Terry Harkness awoke from his slumber when he heard a slight sktch from the direction of the hotel room's closet. The former CIA operative with hair-trigger senses waited, as was his habit in these matters, a full five seconds; then he heard the slight noise again. Triangulating it with his keen ears, he deduced that it was being made by a shoe on the linoleum. Amateur, Harkness thought instinctively, you should've worn tennis sneakers. Going to full-awareness mode immediately, a useful talent he'd learnt during his undercover days--" Oh, good grief.
What? Now what?? You were beginning to really smoke there!
But it's so--so dang--convenient! Before you know it, I'll be turning him into Superman without the flying abilities.
Superman has X-Ray vision and near-invulnerable skin, among many other attributes.
Oh hush up. This is just like your original plan to make him wake up due to bad vibes.
You wanna compromise again?
Fire away.
Keep him sleepy but have a gun handy.
OK, I guess I can deal with that.
"Automatically lunging for the gun he always kept nearby, a habit he'd acquired during his undercover days, Harkness spun and shot at the intruder while still trying to shake the cobwebs of slumber from his eyes."
'Cobwebs of slumber', eh? Nice.
Thank you. I figured you'd appreciate that. Anway:
"Unfortunately, the other man--he could see it was a man in the pale moonlight that filtered through the Venetian blinds of the window--was not as complete an amateur as he'd have preferred, and had begun moving evasively as soon as he'd realized that he'd blown his cover. Nonetheless, the bullet grazed his arm; but held in his other arm, Harkness beheld a lethal-looking--"
Sword!
What??
Have the other guy waving a big sword! I'm getting some fantastic imagery here!
And I'm getting a fantastic headache. You want the assailant to be a ninja, right?
Well, I--
No. Absolutely not. I absolutely refuse to bring ninjas into this moment of the story.
Aww, c'mon, man!
Does Ludlum have his heroes attacked by ninjas in the first chapter? I don't think so. And thanks to you, my train of thought has been derailed, so I'm cutting this whole thing off at the pass.
Wait--
Until next time, this is MetFanMac, signing off!

TODAY'S BOOK: "A Room Made of Windows", by Eleanor Cameron ((c)1971)

TODAY'S MOVIE: "Sneakers", from Universal (1992)

WWWW2?: Christina Aguilera.

TODAY'S WEBSITE: http://members.allstream.net/~jacjud/freakazoid.html This is the best site I've found yet that deals with a relatively obscure but personally much-loved cartoon, WB's Freakazoid. One of the best animated TV shows to air in the 90's, Freakazoid was a no-holds-barred gag parade, starring possibly the most insane superhero ever (and with an equally insane supporting cast of friends and villains).

Labels: novel