Sunday, 28 October 2012

Working title - What You Ask For



Nanowrimo gets closer and the ideas are clumping together like stray sheep ahead of a storm on the moors, there's a lot of noise and the whole mass looks woolly  but the title - provisional so far - it may end up with something completely different - What You Ask For - comes from the old (Chinese) proverb Be careful what you ask for.
A Chinese friend helped me realise that the fun could be had when you actually do get it. Sometimes getting what you ask for is the last thing you really want!

The story goes something like...


Jessica and Josie had been out in Ten Acre Wood with the lads and came back coated with mud, and the hosing down was caught on a mobile phone and went viral on the net. Josie was PA to Bill Jardine and Jessica was Daddy’s girl and daddy was rich, opinionated and had more than a fair share of enemies, but that was business. She was his weak spot and he knew it, getting her would get to him. The first attempt fails, and the watchers are put on alert.

The girls were told to take a break, but it’s not easy to get lost, unless someone really want’s you out of the way and a second attempt succeeds. Lifted off an isolated beach and spirited away, the recovery instructions come in via YouTube, and the visual clues in the videos are analysed at the Grange and the results fed to the trackers.

Steel and Langhers are on the trail; aiming to get one step ahead. The instructions are for delivery men, but Langhers and Steel are collectors, and they’re out to get Jessica, find her and bring her back, and Jardine’s parting words as they leave The Grange, “if you need it call for back up!”

The trail takes them across the wild country astride the England/Scotland Border; into the forests of Keilder and the cold deathlike chill of a forest dawn. Where a hard cough on the still air could be a fox, or a silenced weapon finding its mark. Back up would be useful, but the clock ticks on, and the deadline may be closer than the reinforcements. 

Starts Thursday 1st November...in National Novel Writing Month.

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