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Dan and his younger twin brothers, Pat and Simon, live in a fairly ordinary Yorkshire village and enjoy a mostly quiet life. The only unusual thing about them is their strong affinity for water, which has something to do with the special cottage in which they grow up. The cottage just so happens to sit over a natural source of magic that saturates the three brothers and primes them to reach their true potential. All they need is a magical makeover and they'll have a chance to make a difference in the endless conflict between good and evil.
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Trios
by Terry Volkirch
Chapter 15: Battle at the River Thames
Dani flew low and straight towards her target, and she surprised both men and herself as she soon hovered over her selected position on the river. She actually had to call out to get their attention.
"Excuse me," she said as she powered up for her spell. "I believe you're looking for me."
Peter and Ray nearly suffered whiplash as they jerked their heads around to face the girl who hovered near them. Richard stopped walking and simply stared. He'd been lost in his own thoughts and completely missed her.
"No," the evil trio leader whispered after getting a good look at Dani's new face. "It can't be. I killed you." He couldn't help wondering if some dark magic had resurrected the dead trio, seeking to use them to replace his own trio. He collected his wits though, and immediately started looking for the other two girls, thinking that they'd be vulnerable if they were too far from their fetch.
The other two men also recognized Jenna's face and it rendered them speechless for several amusing seconds until Ray finally managed to blurt out, "Bloody hell!"
Dani suppressed a giggle and simply said, "Don't worry, you two. I choose life." She started her spell and an undulating wave began forming along the river. The wave grew in size until the water sloshed up and out of the channel, sweeping the two men into the river and underwater. Richard had stood too far back to be hit by the wave but Dani didn't worry about him. Without the rest of his trio, he'd be a lot less dangerous. Instead, she concentrated on the second part of her two part plan. With some chi magic that she kept in reserve, she transformed the two men into large, primitive fish called sturgeons. The two men swam as fast as they could up river, losing their humanity but keeping their lives.
Richard finally thought to take advantage of being out of range of Dani's spells. He temporarily gave up on his search for the two missing girls and shouted orders as he ran away from the river bank. "Get the girl! She's here!"
The man's shouts attracted the desired attention. Several trolls appeared on the far bank and opened fire with semi-automatic guns that they'd kept hidden in their trench coats. Bullets whizzed in Dani's direction but she didn't stay still. She cast a shield spell from her dwindling magic reserves and zigzagged back in the direction of her sisters.
Richard watched what he could of the battle as he ran. He saw the general direction she intended to go and worked out that she must have come from up river on the south bank of the river. He shouted more orders in between gasps for breath. "Get to… the south side… of London Bridge! The other girls should be… just down river... from there!"
He received a lot of confused looks but not much action.
"Bloody… useless…," he wheezed, getting too short of breath to shout at his minions. The man didn't get enough exercise sitting behind a desk all day. Still, he continued jogging at a fairly quick pace towards the north end of London Bridge.
Dani had enough magic to cast her shield spell but not much else. It was all she could do to remain in flight. She fought hard to avoid the bullets because she didn't trust the strength of her shield. When two griffins arrived to attack her from above, she nearly gave up. It was only a certain voice in the back of her mind that gave her hope. She listened to the voice and canceled her flying spell, replacing it with a water breathing spell as she dove head first into the river. She swam down into the murky water and let the current carry her away from all of her attackers. Luckily, there were no serpents waiting for her.
Ash had kept a close eye on the girl and saw her drop from the air into the river. He wanted to dive in after her but fire and water didn't mix well. He needed help.
"Dani needs help!" he cried. "Go help her!"
Pat and Simone froze, thinking that they just lost their sister and their only hope for defense. They couldn't imagine what to do next. Their plans didn't account for being separated for any length of time.
In desperation, Ash reached out to grab Pat's sleeve and burned it, causing a puff of pungent smoke that made the girl sneeze. It snapped her out of her funk.
"I don't know what to do, Ash. We can't fight without Dani. We'll be slaughtered!" It was all she could do not to cry.
"Run! Run away from river. Back away and down street. Find Dani. Now!"
"No, Ash. We shouldn't leave the river, not with all of its water magic."
"Please, Patty!"
The girl frowned at her nickname and steeled her resolve. "Our intuition is telling Simone and me to stay. But it's saying nothing about you. You'll have to listen to your own inner voice, whatever it might say. I'm sorry."
Simone reached out to hold her twin's hand in a show of support. The two of them meant to stay and accept whatever fate had in store for them. And with whatever time they had left, they'd brainstorm. They certainly weren't giving up. They just didn't know what else to do.
"Fine! Stay! Ash go. Save Dani!"
The human-looking salamander quickly ran up the gently sloping gangplank using his longer legs and soon disappeared from sight. The twins watched him go and once again heard some inner voice telling them to stay and wait. They bravely listened to that inner voice, though they did think to find cover to reduce their chance of being spotted by any suspicious members of the Dark Forces.
Richard just made it to the north end of London Bridge, breathing hard and bending over with his hands over his knees to rest. He very briefly looked across the river and thought he spotted someone running from the London Bridge City Pier. But whoever it was quickly moved out of sight.
"Probably… nothing…," he wheezed. "But…."
He went onto the walkway of the bridge, keeping close to the railing over the river so he could look for the girls. If he had to lead every single one of his minions by the nose, he'd do it. Or, if necessary, he'd kill the two girls himself. As a matter of fact, that thought began to appeal to him more and more as he walked. He'd been working himself up into a furious frenzy all day and he needed an outlet. If none of his minions happened to be nearby, he'd do the dirty deed himself and be done with it. No one made a fool of Richard P. Smythe.
By the time he got halfway across the bridge, he'd gotten his breath back. His pace quickened and he occasionally stopped to take a look along the south bank of the river.
"Still nothing," he said. "Except for the bloody police. It doesn't matter though. They won't find anything… as long as the bloody trolls stop shooting and activate their illusion rings."
He continued to walk and thought about the loss of his trio. Losing individuals never bothered him much before. Not even losing members of his trio bothered him. But that was because he'd always had backups ready to go. This time was different. He had no one to replace Peter and Ray. The two former men weren't very bright but they had decent power. Without them, he felt almost helpless. He could only perform what he considered to be parlor tricks unless he spent hours ramping up his power in some tedious ritual. A lot of power could be stored in magic items that way but he didn't have the time. Time was running out for him since he ruled by power that he no longer wielded. Deep inside his subconscious, he realized that his minions didn't respect him. They only feared him. And without his power, he couldn't maintain that fear. He needed a trio, and he needed one soon.
If he thought about it a little more, he might have realized that he would be better served to go back to the office and rebuild his trio. Instead, his anger provoked him into saving face by eliminating three girls who'd been an increasingly painful thorn in his side.
He kept walking and fuming.
After bullets stopped zipping through the water above her, Dani zoned out in the murky water, still breathing thanks to her last spell but not doing much else. She aimed her feet down river and kept her arms at her sides, barely kicking a little to keep from skimming along the bottom. The cold water slowly sapped her strength and left her feeling sluggish, both physically and mentally. What should she do now? She didn't get all three of the men. The leader would fill out his trio again and the evil madness would continue.
She couldn't give up, not after coming so far but she didn't know what else to do. The Dark Forces were too strong and she was too far from her sisters, moving farther all the time as the river carried her away.
Her sisters seemed to call out to her in her imagination, calling her home, calling for help. They were so vulnerable without her spells. She had to help them. She had to try.
The girl slowly turned perpendicular to the current and swung her open hands up and around to cup the water and move her towards the south bank of the river. The water was so cold and her arms felt so heavy but an inner voice spoke up, ever louder to encourage her. Three, four, five strokes and the light from above grew brighter as she moved closer to the surface. She leveled off before reaching the surface so she could remain concealed for as long as possible and continued on until her hands brushed soft mud in the shallows. She crawled out, muddy and exhausted, and expelled the water from her lungs to break the spell and breathe air once again.
No gunshots interrupted the quiet gurgle of the river or the splashing as she struggled to crawl completely out of the water. No one shouted at her or threatened her in any way. She briefly stopped to cough a couple times and look around. She saw that she wasn't all that far from where she dove into the river. Tower Bridge could still be seen.
The cold and tired girl slowly stood up and brushed away some of the larger clumps of mud. There wasn't enough magic left to properly clean and dry herself so she'd let the sun do some of the work and not worry about it. She had to find a way back to her sisters. She was back in the game.
Ash ran quickly down Tooley Street for several blocks until he tired and slowed to a jog. He wasn't in the best of shape, though his longer legs helped. The transformed salamander didn't complain. He just kept jogging, trying to ignore the sirens and police as they swarmed the area, looking for much larger "men" with guns.
He passed the Unicorn Theatre and briefly wondered what unicorns would be doing in London. Then he saw Potters Fields Park next to Tower Bridge and thought about cutting through the park to get easy access to the river. But a little voice in his head told him to not to. He started getting mystical advice just as Patty suggested he might. He listened to the inner voice and it seemed to guide him, urging him forward down the road, on to where it changed to Jamaica Road and gently curved to his left to follow the bend in the river. He kept going.
Several very large men dressed all in black eyed him suspiciously as he passed them but they didn't move to stop him. They were looking for three girls, not a desperate looking young man running down the street. Both Ash and the Dark Forces followed their own path in their search for Dani and her twin sisters.
The Dark Forces continued to follow their last orders to seek and kill the trio of girls that arrived in London that day. They all received magically produced photos of their targets and moved through the city at their own pace. Many of them did start to wonder about the lack of updates, but so far, their fear of the man who led them prevented them from doing anything other than do what they were told.
The normal citizens of London mostly went about their business, with little more than a sideways glance and nervous throat clearing. In true British tradition, they ignored the impossible sight of trolls, giants and griffins. And as long as no laws were broken, the police wisely left them alone. No one realized that the forces of good and evil waged a war for city and country right under their noses.
Ash neared another park and ignored it. He veered left around a large traffic circle and continued on Brunel Road. His inner voice told him he was getting close and he increased his pace.
Pat and Simone sat close together on the floor of the pier, using their magic bond to communicate wordlessly to each other. A series of images alternated in their two minds, quickly suggesting options and just as quickly dismissing them as unworkable. Their brainstorming session wasn't working out very well.
"I don't want to die," Simone suddenly whispered, startling her twin who hugged her and quietly shushed her. She almost responded with some whispered words of comfort when her inner voice interrupted.
Both girls perked up as directions for an unfamiliar spell formed inside their minds. They'd been exposed to a few spells so they recognized it as a magic thought form. Without hesitation, Simone gathered elemental water magic, passed it to Pat to concentrate it and then both sisters dipped into it, casting what they vaguely understood to be a type of summoning spell. They didn't know what they were summoning and they didn't care. The inner voice assured them that something would arrive to help as soon as she could. It wasn't clear if she would make it in time to save them but she'd certainly try her best, whoever or whatever she was.
The twins waited and tried to remember to breathe.
Richard cursed under his breath as he made it across the bridge. He walked along Tooley Street, checking out the buildings before finally hesitating near the London Bridge City Pier. His gut instinct told him they had to be on the pier since it had the easiest access to the river in the area.
He hesitated because it wasn't clear if the three girls were back together. He hadn't heard any gunfire for several minutes and wasn't sure exactly what that meant. Without his trio mates, he couldn't tap into his magic information network. If the feminine trio was together, he'd be completely at their mercy without magic of his own to counter theirs.
The leader decided to gather some of his forces to assist him just in case. He whipped out his mobile, speed dialed the first number that came up on his display and pressed his mobile hard against his left ear.
"Troll leader? This is your Supreme Commander. I'm on Tooley Street near the London Bridge City Pier. Send everyone you've got to this position immediately."
He hung up, not waiting for a reply and worked his way through all the numbers for his generals, giving them orders to send everyone his way. He didn't trust some of them to know where to go but he felt confident that at least half of them would show up and put an end to the little battle. The angry man wiped the sweat from his brow and paced, waiting for reinforcements.
Dani walked between two buildings to reach the nearest street. She made it half a block further before encountering a troll dressed in its usual gear of a long trench coat and dark sunglasses.
In spite of her unfamiliar face, the troll had enough intelligence to be suspicious of the muddy girl and hurried his pace to catch her. He didn't like the idea of hunting down three teenage girls. It wasn't so much that he cared. He just didn't respect the girls, thinking they'd be too easy to kill. Still, he had his orders and fear compelled him to carry them out.
The girl resisted the instinct to run when she saw the troll coming at her. She knew it was a troll even with the illusion that changed his appearance and still she held her ground, finding herself suddenly felt full of energy, and full of confidence. Before the troll got close enough to grab her, she went on the offensive.
"Excuse me," she said. "I magically changed my appearance but yes, I'm one of the girls you're looking for and I have one question for you. Who's your real enemy?"
Her words confused the troll. He knew magic could change one's appearance since he was doing it himself. That's not what confused him. It was the question that did it.
"You?" he said.
The girl shook her head. "Wrong answer. Do you know your Supreme Commander lost his two trio mates? Except for whatever magic items he might be carrying, he's powerless. Think about what you'd do if he couldn't threaten you with magic. Again, I ask you. Who's your real enemy?"
The troll rubbed the stiff black stubble on his chin. "How me know you tell truth?"
"You don't. But I did change the two men into fish and they swam away in the river. Perhaps you should check in and ask about that."
"Me don't wanna. Me…."
The troll suddenly stopped in mid sentence when he got a magical summons from the leader of the trolls. He was ordered to report to the Supreme Commander at London Bridge City Pier.
"Me go now to pier. Take you with."
The troll moved to grab Dani but she easily evade his grasp.
"Girl hold still!"
"I'll willingly go with you. Just don't grab me."
"You no keep up. Me special forces troll. Wear magic boots. Run fast. Me carry you."
"I can keep up. In fact, let's race. If you win, I'll let you carry me the last block to make you look good in front of your superiors."
"Hah! Girl not win."
"Hah, yourself."
Dani took off running at a magically enhanced pace. She had no idea how she managed it and didn't care to think about it. The blur of the scenery and rush of the wind through her hair made her giddy.
"Hey! Wait for me!" the troll bellowed as he trailed farther and farther behind. "Stupid girl!"
Ash knew he was very close to finding Dani. His inner voice insisted on it. He turned left onto Swan Road and made it to Rotherhithe Street and then something odd happened. He felt Dani's presence behind him on the road he'd crossed over from. She was running back on Brunel street the way he came, back to help her sisters, leaving him behind. His inner voice sadly informed him that there was no way he could keep up with the girl but also said that he had to continue after her. She needed him so he turned around and slowly jogged back towards London Bridge City Pier.
"Me no understand," he said. "This not part of plan."
The battle lasted well past any plans that the girls had made. It was expected that all three members of the evil trio would be eliminated and the Dark Forces would scatter in chaos and confusion. That's not what happened and now there were no plans. The poor, tired salamander faithfully chased after his beloved human and hoped to eventually be of some use.
Richard had stopped pacing and instead started checking his watch every five minutes. He wasn't known for his patience. Every minute that went by added to the punishment he had in mind for every single member of his dark army. Nothing angered him more than incompetence, and not even the rapidly diminishing police presence eased his anger.
When a single, magically disguised troll arrived, the leader assumed control, ordering the troll to stand ready and wait for more to arrive. After seeing the look on the man's face, he nervously leaned back against a metal lamp post and slightly bent it without noticing.
Richard noticed the troll's clumsiness and imagined sending a surge of electricity through the post to electrocute the troll. He couldn't do that though, and that angered him all the more.
Two more trolls came, both with uzis concealed in their trench coats. Then a third troll arrived along with a large salamander that he restrained by a titanium chain lead, followed by two orcs, a dark elf and several men. All of the trolls and orcs had activated their illusion rings so they appeared to be human with skin tight clothes that couldn't possibly hide any large weapons. That got them past the police so they could arrive to do their leader's dirty work.
The Supreme Commander decided that his little group would be enough. He told a man to stand by and direct all newcomers through to the pier and quietly issued orders to the rest.
"I believe the girls to be somewhere on the pier. The trolls will lead the way and immediately fire upon the girls on sight. If or when the trolls run out of ammunition and any of the girls are still alive, unleash the salamander and have it fry them with fire. Understood?"
Everyone nodded and the Supreme Commander ushered his small force ahead of him to hunt the girls.
The twin girls sat on the deck on the southeast part of the pier, watching every ripple, every eddy in the river, imagining something emerging from the water to help. As the minutes ticked by, they stopped imagining and started trying to will it to happen. Their intuition told them that they didn't have much time. So did their ears and eyes. They heard shuffling and looked behind them to see a troll coming down the gangplank. Its illusion didn't fool them. They moved back against the red wall and stayed low below the window to hide. They truly didn't have much time.
Pat first worried about innocents getting hurt until she looked around and noticed that there was no one else on the pier. She then thought about trying the summoning spell again but decided against it when she realized that her twin didn't share her idea. They fell out of sync again and they couldn't even communicate telepathically, not surprising given the stress of the situation. Both girls were understandably quite upset.
Casting the summoning spell would most likely attract attention as there had to be someone with magic detection capabilities. Trolls could smell magic. That was bad enough that any spell would get their attention. Still, Pat had to do something. Simone sat next to her, trembling with fear, leaving her ever so slightly older twin to be the girl of action.
There wasn't much that Pat could do, and whatever she did decide, if anything, would have to involve elemental water magic. It was a good thing that she thought to keep her vortex of water magic going after the summoning spell. She had the magic to work with. She just had to decide how to use it.
As the troll slowly and carefully edged closer to the girls, a second one joined him they both eventually made the decision for Pat. Their proximity and the semi-automatic guns that they carried reduced her options to one.
Pat clung to her sister and called a wave to wash over the pier directly towards the river bank. She made it about two-thirds as big as she possibly could and the results were impressive. The wave hit the trolls hard, causing them to let go of their weapons and washing them into the river. The wave continued across the pier and part way up the gangplank, catching the two orcs and a couple men off guard as well. The orcs fell back against the men and sent the group of them into the river. The nimble dark elf danced back away from the wave. That left the elf, two men and the one troll with the salamander.
Richard slapped his forehead as he watched from the river bank. He briefly looked up at the sky and back down again, screaming, "Get them! There's only two of them! They're on the southeast corner!"
The wave had forced the girls up against the wall so it couldn't wash them away, but Pat wasn't as careful the second time. She had just enough magic left to call up a second wave about half as large as the first, and she had it sweep in the direction of the river current, from west to east. The wave actually got the dark elf and the remaining men, and it got the girls too, washing them all off the pier. The troll and salamander were lucky enough to find something to cling to so they didn't join the rest in the cold river.
With water pooling in spots on the deck of the pier, the troll pulled the reluctant salamander to the railing. Every step of the salamander hissed with superheated water and steam rolled off its damp skin. By the time the steam and hissing stopped, the salamander stood at the rail but the girls were out of range of its fire. That left it up to the rest of the Dark Forces who were in the river with the girls. They swam towards the now powerless girls, intending to drown them if nothing else.
Richard anxiously watched the deadly swimming race and muttered obscene cheers in support of the side of evil. He didn't notice when a certain girl approached him from behind, though he did get that strange feeling of being watched.
"What did you do to my sisters?" Dani said with remarkable restraint. She startled the man, who turned and glared at her.
"I haven't done anything. But my minions are closing in for the kill. Care to watch with me?" He smirked at her, something that normally would've sent the girl into a full blown rage. She surprised both him and herself though.
"Yes. Let's do."
She felt a warm, calm feeling wash over her and she moved to stand beside him and turned her attention to the river. All of her senses easily extended to her sisters and beyond. She never felt so good, so alive. Something new and wonderful was happening to her, and she took none of it for granted. However, she did appreciate some of the benefits, like sensing a powerful water being rapidly approaching.
An ancient and very powerful undine, also known as a water elemental, had been summoned by the twins. She reached them first and pulled them under, granting them the ability to breath underwater. She also encased them in a shell of much warmer water to keep them from getting cold and kept them from moving with the river current. Then she dealt with the others in the water.
The heads of the evil swimmers disappeared one by one, starting with the one closest to the twins. When it was just the floundering dark elf left, he didn't get pulled under. Instead, he found himself flying through the air from a rogue wave. He splatted against a stone retaining wall and plopped into the shallow water at the base of the wall, groaning. He'd live. So would the others, but they had a little problem.
"What… what happened to my minions?!" Richard shouted.
Dani smiled. She knew exactly what happened. "They won't be surfacing again for awhile, not till they're far down river," she told the man.
"What?! They're dead?!"
"No. More like they can no longer breathe air… at least for the next hour or so. They'll have to breathe water until then. Interesting solution."
"That's… that's just… bollocks!"
"Will you please stop shouting? You're upsetting the salamander."
The troll and salamander had walked back up the gangplank to join their Supreme Commander. The salamander licked its lips and moved to the side, ready to breathe fire on the girl.
Richard noticed and quickly moved out of the way so his minion could act.
The salamander almost immediately breathed fire, which engulfed the girl. The fire lasted nearly twenty seconds before laughter could just be heard over the roar of the flames.
"Stop!" The man said. "Stop at once! Something's wrong."
The salamander stopped and Dani stood before them, untouched.
"That tickled," she said, giggling.
"How did you do that?" Richard said, his eyes bulging. "Your trio mates are gone. You shouldn't have any more magic than I do."
She shrugged. "You heard him, boys," she said, just as the special forces troll with the magic boots caught up to her. "He doesn't have any magic to control you. You're free to do what you want. That includes dealing with your impotent Supreme Commander."
The two trolls and salamander looked at each other and scowled. Then they slowly turned towards Richard, giving him an evil smile that sent shivers down his spine.
"Stay back! Back, you bloody…." He went quiet when he saw the angry determination in their eyes. He didn't want to aggravate them any more than he already had.
"Here now," said the special forces troll. "You want blood? We give you blood."
WIth that, the three minions lunged at their former leader, causing him to sprint away. The slower troll and salamander continued chasing him. They likely couldn't catch him but the special forces troll could with his magic boots. He stayed behind though, not to give the man a chance with a head start but to do something much better.
"Thanks, girl," he told her. "You good. Me like you."
"Please. Call me Dani."
"Me like Dani."
"And?"
"And me don't like Supreme Commander."
"He's not your commander any more. Always remember that." She paused to give him a big smile. "But I meant something else. What's your name?"
"Oh! Right. Me Spanner. Span for short. Me fix things."
"Nice name, Span. I…." Dani paused again, but she frowned when she detected a short range teleportation. Richard must have had a magic item with him to teleport himself out of danger. "Oh, bugger!"
The troll gasped at the vulgar language coming from a girl.
"Sorry, Span. I just sensed your former commander teleporting to the Chunnel station." She paused again, suddenly hearing the evil man's thoughts in her head. She didn't have time to be surprised though. She took it all in and relayed it to her new friend. "This is important, Span. Your former leader is planning on going to Paris to fill out his trio again. He didn't have enough power to make it all the way to Paris but he'll still manage to get there. And he means to eventually come back and punish you all."
"Oy!"
"But don't worry! I'm going to make sure he never harms anyone ever again."
"You kill him?" the troll asked her, giving her a sad, serious look.
"Not if I can help it. I don't like to kill. I don't want to kill. But I have to make sure he never harms you or anyone else and I'll do whatever it takes to stop him. The man is a menace to… everyone." She wanted to say good and evil but she saw the potential for good in the troll, just like she saw it in Wanda back home. Trolls were influenced as much by nurture as they were by nature.
"Me happy you not kill. Killing no fun for me too."
She smiled up at the kindly troll. "Go now. Tell everyone that they're free of that man. Go back to your families, the lives you had before he took over. I'll stop him and try to stop anyone who tries to take his place."
"Thanks again, Dani. Bye!" The fast troll ran off to his new life, leaving the girl with several loose ends.
'Pat? Simone?' she called telepathically. 'Can you hear me?'
'Dani!' both twins answered and continued speaking together. They were completely in sync once again. 'We hear you! What's happened? Are you okay?'
'I'm fine. Richard is on his way to Paris to form a new trio and I'm about to chase after him and prevent it from happening.'
'Oy!' the twins responded. 'Wait for us!'
'No! Please. It's still not exactly safe. There are a lot of Dark Forces around. Please stay with the undine. You summoned her. Now enjoy her hospitality and wait for me to return. I will return.'
'But what about magic? How will you cast any spells without us?'
'That won't be a problem. I'm not sure, actually, but I think the Goddess is looking after me. I don't know how else to explain all of the magic I've been performing without the two of you. I'll be fine. But something tells me I'll need Ash. Any idea where he is?'
'He chased after you. Didn't he find you?'
'Not so far…. Oh. Wait. I think I can feel him coming now. I've got to go. Be good for the nice undine now!'
'Ha ha,' was the sarcastic reply in stereo, followed by a sincere and loving, 'Blessed be!' They had faith in their sister. That and a reassuring little voice in their heads telling them that everything would be okay.
© 2013 by Terry Volkirch. This work may not be replicated in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the Author (copyright holder). All Rights Reserved. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental.
