PASSION FOR TINION (WIP Novel 120,000 words)
© Cupideros, October 21, 2006
CHAPTER 15: QUOARDIAN VALLEY TRAGEDY
Jaine busied herself in the kitchen preparing a rare dinner for Qeng, her robotics engineer husband. Qeng chiefed ninety-percent dinner preparation because Jaine worked at the Palace most nights. Some event called her away during meals or her brief heaven-on-earth stays away from the madness of spy verses counter spy--often at unpredictable moments. She prepared her favorite meal tonight: steamed rice with soy sauce spiked with cinnamon and soaked by chicken and shrimp sautéed with broccoli, baby corn, carrot, bamboo shoots and red and green peppers.
As she brought the meal to Qeng, he started again shaking his head in, "No. No. No peppers. You like hot stuff, I don't." He laughed.
Jaine laughed and cursed him in Chinese. "You take this. It's rare I cook anything. Pluck the peppers if you must--"
Qeng joked further, "What about the fortune cookie, Ms. Kung Pao?" Qeng's favorite cooking name for his wife.
Jaine stared soft at Qeng as the news chatter began in the background. Her lower lip slipped lower into an exaggerated U shape. Her upper lip lengthened and the sides of her lips curved up leaving her Batman's arch villain jokeresqe smile and bright teeth. "I love to give you a fortune cookie later."
Qeng slapped his knee and pointed to her, "Bad girl!"
They laughed sitting on their charcoal extra-deep-and-wide couch pushed forks of rice and chickens and shrimp into their mouths when the news bulletin flashed on the screen.
Jaine snatched the remote, raised the volume.
A news reporter casts fast looks at the ground. He stood in the dark. A fiery light creep toward him in the background. "Mt. Aden’s sudden activation and eruption is causing an evacuation of the Quoardian Valley of Aden. Twenty-thousand Aden Valley lives are possibly at risk." He walked forward a little, "The eruption moves at one mile per hour--burning and scorching everything. Point the camera closer to the lava, he said to the camerawoman. "No consistency of lava flow like this has ever occurred. It's like--"
The camerawoman's disembodied voice said, "hot paint."
"Hot paint. Usually lava's thicker and slower. This density of lava gives trouble stopping. Unusual measures are required. The emergency systems activated. There. You begin to see the noisy rescue helicopters in the background; the silent helicopters of the military or Quo Security flying haven’t arrived yet. Queen Morah is aware of this situation. She's prepare to use the dykes, in this case coated with a newly form fire retardant. Quo’s aware and sending out a team to advise."
Jaine called Queen Morah. "Morah, I'm on my way."
The television blared in the background as Jaine got dressed. More voices shouted as people listened to rescue teams. “Five minutes to gather IDs, money and other immediate useful valuables and leave the area.”
The reporter continued, “The Hamburg resort town below, unnoticeably touched by the war, is sure to be devastated if the flow's not stopped. Scientists our news team contacted earlier said the greenhouse effect changed the lava composition."
"See you later, Qeng."
"Be safe, Jaine."
end chapter 15
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