Share your experience so others following will have some guidance and understanding what challenges and rewards are ahead of them.

Everyone wants definite boundaries in life. Fire burns, ice is cold, electricity runs our appliances, lights our world, etc. Sometimes things happen that can't be explained. And sometimes humans exceed their own limits, such as the daughter who lifted a BMW off her father after the jacks failed and the car fell with him under it. Who or what helped her lift the car or did she do it alone?

Dang, trying to find a lose ground when it's still in the split bolt inside the breaker box and isn't making contact is interesting.

Equipment malfunction has been with mankind since the invention of the wheel. Possibly before with the club, spear, bow and arrows. As science progresses and equipment is in-bedded deeper and deeper into our lives, the one constant is at some point failure will occur. Let's pray the whole tie rod steering mechanism doesn't fall out from under your vehicle while you're traveling down the road. Mine did and it wasn't a story of fiction. Obviously I survived.
This is a tale of one of those equipment failures and it is a story of fiction.

CHAPTER XI

It was less than ten minutes after Loran and Jeff made a visit to Comm Tech, Randy heard about the two agents and made a quick phone call to Washington. This was getting out of hand. These two bozos were about to screw everything up. He wanted to know who authorized this investigation. Randy didn't wait for a reply. He told his men every one of them were to be in the building by o six hundred and don't come naked.

This story is among others I lost on HDs going south. It was posted on Fictionmania and removed. Sometimes we writers push the envelope of decency. This is one of those. I strongly suggest skipping this one.

CHAPTER X

The prosecuting attorney told Karen he didn't believe they would get a conviction against the three men who allegedly raped her. It was her word against three men who had an alibi collaborated by the bartender. He told her to forget about it and let it drop. She should consider herself fortunate to be alive.

That there was a total look of disbelief on Randy's face would be an understatement. "Mother of Mary, that thing really thinks better than we do?"

He stooped over to see if he could find any answers under or behind the desk. Picking up the keypad he felt along the top of the desk.

"Please Mr. Shells, if you must call me something, I would prefer you call me the same thing Karen does. My name is Henry. Although 'thing' may be appropriate in your mind when you refer to the unknown, it does not endear you with me. I understand the nature of humans to do name calling when they’re mad, frustrated, and scared. It serves no useful purpose to do so at an inanimate object."

It had been several weeks since the initial attempt and now their plans were in place. "She usually leaves the building almost the same time everyday. Normally it is close to eight or there abouts when she walks out to the parking lot. She gets in that damn rocket of hers and drives home followed by the tail she picks up when she passes the gate."

He didn't like anything he was looking at. The gauges didn't show any signs of life when he flipped the switches. Everything was dead. This wasn't good. There was no noise from below to tell him the little diesel was even trying to start when he turned the switches on.

He dropped down into the galley where Karen was pumping water into the sink. "I don't have any batteries this morning. I think I forgot to turn off the radios last night and the mooring lights drained everything."

He opened the hatch leading into the engine room. Karen could hear him complaining about boats in general, as he tried to crank the diesel over by hand.

There wasn't one single company capable of matching the quality of work Karen and Henry were doing. Most of them tried to duplicate her work by ordering a model and disassembling it to find out how she accomplished it. Piece by piece, their lab technicians would dissect her models. At the end they experienced the same results as the medical research laboratories. Except for being polymer instead of skin and bone, it was an exact duplicate of the entire human anatomy. The programming she was running to complete one model had to be horrendous and yet she never made two models alike. The bytes of data Karen was using was incomprehensible to most model makers. They weren't programmers though, most of them were chemical engineers designing the plastics used in their manufacturing. Karen was a computer engineer who worked on the design of the models from a graphics equation perspective. Henry helped research the plastics used to build the models. Same problem to all the companies competing in the model market. Different approach by the engineers.

David must have caught her happiness. He whispered in her ear, "Ten thousand dollars was too cheap a bet. I should have bet a hundred thousand we would get in tonight."

The phone was ringing and Henry put it on speaker as he answered it. "Department Fifty Four, Karen Long speaking, may I help you?"

Boy, was he good. Karen thought he sounded just like her.

"Karen, this is Bill Chambers secretary. Mr. Chambers wants you in his office immediately. Do you understand?"

Henry hesitated as he contemplated telling her, no, he didn't understand. For a fact, he was tempted, except he was sure it would cause trouble for Karen.

Karen picked up the phone. "Yes Betty, I understand."

I am terribly sorry guys, but I had my preparations wrong so what I put here first was chapter ten. I have changed it now and apologise. Please if you read chapter nine before read this and then return to chapter ten, sorry sorry sorry. :( Monique.

An attractive brunette was standing in front of Bob's looking at the model Karen and Henry made that fateful night. Hanging back behind and looking everywhere was a teenage girl. She began tugging on her mother's purse.

"Mama, she's alive."

Her mother reached back and slapped her hand. "Would you stop that? She only looks real. She’s a dummy."

The day started off quietly enough. Karen awoke to find herself wondering if she dreamed it all. Looking in the mirror didn't help. Maybe she only thought about cutting her hair and fingernails last night before she went to bed? She was still looking at the model she and Henry designed two days ago. Be thankful for small favors, she decided. At least she didn't have to apply hardly any makeup. Everything was designed in. She couldn't change it now.

As chief executive officer for Commercial Technologies, Bill Chambers usually spent his day making internal memos and playing golf with executives from other companies. Every time an article made the news Bill always made sure he was mentioned as the driving force behind Commercial Technologies. He would pose for pictures with various dignitaries or company personnel when the public relations department was promoting the company or one of the departments. The day to day workings of Commercial Technologies, Bill left to the lesser personnel of the company. Karl Adder was one of those lesser personnel.

Slowly, the rest of what she had seen, but hadn't yet grasped, dawned on her. Looking down at her breasts, she held them as her mind raced in desperation searching for solid ground. Her reasoning and sanity were in doubt. A blizzard of questions and answers swirled in and out of her mind. Nothing was there she could comprehend. Questions screamed for proper answers. Her mind searched in a futile effort to snatch logic from a whirlpool of illogical, irrational denominators. There wasn’t a match anywhere.

CHAPTER I

"Blonde, I want the sexiest woman you can whip up for me." As he talked his cigar rolled around in the corner of his mouth. Karen wished he would choke on it. He called himself Bob Kincaid and he was from Bob's Intimates.

Did June mean she would kill both of them? His heart was racing along with his mind.

I didn’t bother undressing as I stepped into the shower, knelt down beside her, and lifted her head to look at her face. She was a mess of bruises, cuts, one eye swollen shut, busted lip. I shook my head as her one good eye opened to look at me. “Have fun?”

The very smallest trace of a smile touched her swollen and bleeding mouth.

Four men got out of a blue Chevy sedan in the parking lot and headed to the docks, wondering who all the people already there were? Standing at the steps Spencer met them at the edge of the dock. He held out his hand for them to stop. “Security, what’s your names?”

“Fuck you, you’re no security I’ve ever seen before. Get out of my way.” The big tall guy started up the steps.