Focus

Dudes, Alex Diamond's on the way to Russia. Coincidence?

Hawk McMillan and his team have successfully decimated all weapon cache targets and are now on other missions. I kind of miss those guys and their randy talk.

COS Commandos taking over most of the remaining tasks of the Joint Mission with the Admiral and STAR Force SEALs. When and if the weapon is found, it will be Number Five who will transport it out of the country. Once T finds out who GG is, Number Nine will end the operation. But it all rests on one sleeper cell with a secret.

Yoohoo, Reed Vincenzio....What do you guys think is happening between him and the sleeper at this moment? I see muddy waters.

What We Know So Far

We know that Llallana's weakness is the girls. We must exploit that. So we withhold her ability to bring safety to them.

We know that the longer the weapon device is missing, the more likely that it will end up in the black market. Therefore, it is easier if we be the first one offering news about it in the market and know who's looking for the device. Know thy enemy.

We know that whoever who's behind Lily's programming had a CIA background. Therefore we must find out all those connected with the original program for "Project Precious Gems" and track each one down. T appears to be taking this personally since the CIA copy-cat program had been trying to do a variation of similar GEM programs. She has certain UN privileges that allows her to check up on international programs, you know. Sooner or later, she will ask me to check on a few names and voila! I too will have that information to play with.

Fooled By Randomness

There are only calculated possibilities, no true randomness, in this covert world. There are connections between connections; the new and the old aren't so different; the more you discovered, the smaller the world.

I have calculated some probabilities about The Sleeper and all it entails and I have concluded that you will be brought back to the beginning where it all began. Do not forget Gorman. After all, his name starts with a G. Insert evil grin.

Secrets

Questions: Who is Llallana Noretski running from? Where is the explosive device? Where is she heading--does she have another mission that she has to complete? Where are the girls that she took with her? Can Reed get her to tell him the location before it's too late?

Waiting for contact from Reed....

Meanwhile, T. has gone off to Russia. I shall make a memo for you-know-who to find.

Running For Her Life

Someone tried to kill our target and Reed. T. has assigned herself to investigate. There is a dead body in an alley. I will start from there.

Question: Is that why Llallana Noretski is on the run? Probability factor: 83.66 percent.

Target has jumped into the river. Amber Hutchens is extremely worried since she knows that Llallana can't swim. I pointed out to her that Reed Vincenzio is a SEAL. Amber's answer was that it wasn't he she was talking about who couldn't swim. Is this the part where I scratch my head? The logic in my answer was obvious, yes?

Side Dish

T. is very suspicious about her new transfer. She has requested information from me to see the paperwork. Insert evil grin. I wonder what she will do when she finds out the truth? I have a prescient feeling that the day of reckoning for a certain twosome isn't too far off. Will Center be the same again?

Tango and Trigger

Contact has been made between Reed Vincenzio and Llallana Noretski. I now understand what a tango can do to a woman. Insert evil grin. That surf boy really has some moves.

But will Llallana take the bait? And has she been retriggered?

Spices

Yo, yawn. I surfed off to South Carolina this weekend to check out the new cable bridge. The celebrations in the old city was sooooo coool. And I stayed with Stash and Marlena at the Charleston Place. Woohoo. Lena knows service. Lena knows best vantage to look at fireworks. And Lena knows the best parties in town! That's where she claims she's from, ya know.

I'm going to leave y'all with some few nuggets for the coming months. Chew, chew, chew, swallow, digest, and burp...

1) Lily and Brad have a lot of difficulty days ahead. Be expecting that one of them to suffer more.

2) Keep an eye on the Hell Project. There are tests ahead that will show whether it will the funding it needs.

3) Reed Vincenzio is richer than you think.

4) You will find out why he's Joker.

5) Hawk McMillan is more unforgiving than you think.

6) There will be a surprising meeting between two characters.

7) Resolution on Cam and Patty? No news, no news. I have said it before. No news probably means Cam is in hiding grieving over a dead love.

8) Needles are very important. Very.

Outta battery, outta time! Surf's up, dude--are you taking this wave?

I like direct people, don't you? One question, one way to answer, and no way to blindside them.

Leslie asked:

Here's a question for the GREAT SURFER EIGHT BALL! What happened to Bradford Sun????

As I've stated before, poor Braddy Boy isn't a very happy dude at the moment. I mean, he's really not sure where he's going, especially with his current job as chief of CIVPOL. Disenchantment and cynicism can play a heavy toll on a man with high ideals, you know, and didn't Braddy Boy have some high ideals?

He's going to spend some time figuring out what his next step is. There's always another job within the UN. He's a very good bureaucrat and I think there's a future for him in that lifestyle. And don't you know, spies love traveling bureaucrats? Insert that infamous evil grin, dude!

I'm almost out of questions! I hope my visit was of some help to those of you desperate for a glimpse of the future. Plenty of answers left for food for thought...I'll think of some nuggets to give to you as a goodbye present!

Outta here, dudes!

I'm crazy behind today. Ya didn't know eight-balls can get behind in their tasks, did you? Sometimes even puterzoids get overwhelmed, dudes.

Today, that entity named Gennita Low made me swear! On my honor, no less. Did she think I have any? But I did do it. She made me swear not to reveal the Big Mistake in The Hunter files that no one has caught yet. It's a BIG typo, of stupendous logical proportions. It's so big and so stupid, it's got me chuckling, which is totally uncool for a Super Surfing Eight Ball. Technicalities are very important in the spec. ops. world, you know. Ah well. Maybe she can correct it in future reprints, if she's lucky.

Question in the Comment Depot is from SARAH:

I have a question too!!! What is the deal with this Hell chick and what is the Alpha test?

By Golly, Miss Molly, are you wayyy ahead of the curve, dude! Where have you been hanging out at that you've heard of the Hell chick and the Alpha test? That's, like, so top secret it's not even coded Red. It's coded FLUX.

Let's see, how do I say something without getting in trouble myself? The Hell chick's name is Elena, by the way, but no one calls her that except her monitor. She's being trained to be the second tier of the V-program. Shhhh. I mean, she's just an experiment, *cough *cough. The Alpha test is a essentially a blind test in which an alpha female's comfort zone is...ummm...shall we say, realigned? Personally, I think Hell is going to kick some butt when the right time comes!

Can you believe it's mid-week already? Almost time to surf off into the big cyber ocean! Dudes, it's been sweet but y'all are damn quiet this time. Maybe it's the midsummer sun and surf's up. In that case, you're excused. But you're making me pout. Not even a welcome comment? Heartless, dudes, heartless.

The Numbers Game

Life's good when you have a number, dudes. Take Number Eight for a ball, for instance. You get a LOT more respect when you have that number, even if you're bald and round.

And when you happen to be a Number Nine, dudes, that's the ultimate. It's the completion of the cycle, the knowledge of the truth is in your hands. It's easy to walk away when you have that number. But what happens when a Number Nine meets another Number Nine? I've always wondered about that.

Puuure conjecture, sandypoos, purrre conjecture. Sometimes, when I'm looking at too many waves, I start thinking too much. What does the evil mother prog like to say during certain moments? Oh yeah, insert Evil Grin.

And here's another question from another Anonymous Dude:

What is the probability that Reed will be able to disengage the sleeper with out killing her. like what is the probablity that she will live through the process?

Probabilities? Ya asking me probabilities? Math is such a straight line, dude! A straight shot--I would say she's dead meat. A bank shot--I would say that as long as she's aware, there's hope. A trick shot--well, that depends on what exactly is the point here, to get the sleeper or to get what she has in her possession. But Reed might be doing the break shot, and in that case, we will have to see what he does first!

For a sleeper to survive the removal of a trigger depends of the level of hypnosis she had been taken under by her handlers. That's a subject the mighty CIA (and various other international agencies) scientists have written volumes about. Trust me, it ain't a secret.

On a lighter note, I'm still trying to understand why they always bend spoons and forks on television to prove how strong they are. Why not make bigger waves? Now, that's mind power!

Outta battery, outta time, dudes!

Dancing With The Eight Ball

Dudes, I'm so totally wanting to learn ballroom dancing. I mean, those costumes! They look like they'd look good surfing.

It's pretty cool how humans can tap into a mass consciousness and suddenly some image or some news or some trend becomes news du jour. Like ballroom dancing. Gennita Low has been going gaga over our young Vincenzio's ability to tango, even taking some lessons herself so she could have the exact positions to write about in her report. So be prepared for some tango scene. Hint, hint.

Pretty cool dude, that Reed. Surfs. Dances the tango. Thinks like a philosopher. Must have been a beach babe magnet when he was a surf-rat. You have seen the photo of him, right? Can the sleeper resist him? I tell ya, GEM is very smart when it comes to choosing the right package for their missions.

Now, part two of the very deep-thinking Anonymous Babe, who wrote:

And finally, do you have any thoughts on who made the phone calls to trigger the sleeper cell? If it was GG, then how did the sleeper not make the connection? Is this whole thing purely voice activated?

1) Yeah, I've had plenty of thoughts about the culprits. You have an idea, just from the ending of chapters in The Hunter files, dude. Right there, at your fingertips. It's not who that's important anyway, but why.

2) Get outta here--if a sleeper was "asleep," would he know everything when he wakes up? Can you remember every single detail of your dreams? Again, my question would be, why is the target taking so long to reappear in the theatre?

3) Voice activated. Ooooh. The water's getting mighty warm, mighty warm. In fact...

Oh, outta battery, outta time!

Party On, Dudes, Part One

Time to let loose and party, dudes! I'm here and the borrring mother prog is off somewhere doing something boring. Let's see what we have here...

I'm going to answer the first part of Anonymous #1's question today. Here is what he/she wrote:

Super Eight Ball, I thought that Bradford Sun had freed the sleeper from the trigger. What is the concern? (aside from finding the IED, of course) Why eliminate the sleeper? Once captured, wouldn't the people behind the NOPAIN technique be able to deactivate it? Especially given that the sleeper cell thing was based on the NOPAIN technique. That's a large burden to place on Mr. Vincenzio's shoulders. Do you know anything about what he caught in the files? Does he think he can save the sleeper???

Dude, you've been thinking a LOT about this, haven't you? Holy Cowabunga.

Let's see...how do I untangle this yarn without writing twenty chapters? That's not my job, you see...that's Gennita Low's specialty. Twenty chapters instead of twenty sentences. I'd rather go surfing.

Now where was I? Oh yeah, Bradford. Poor Braddy-boy, huh? If you could only see his future. Big wipeout in the romance department, man. Ouch. My interior RAM aches for him at the moment. I mean, big CIVPOL chief losing two women in his life, ya know? Dude, now, that's heartache. That's hitting the eight ball into the hole at the wrong time. That's game over.

Oh, yeah, the sleeper trigger and all that. I know that you know that the sleeper has been released. But what's to stop someone to activate the trigger again? That's GEM's concern and it's valid, isn't it? And the missing device is still in the target's possession, so, the fear is that once activated, wouldn't there be another deployment? And how is GEM to stop that?

There are two ways to stop a problem in the COS and GEM world. There is a hard way and there is an easy way. You know how it is with waves. You see the first one coming, and you say...heya, a wave! Surf's up! And the first wave is always the easiest.

A quick elimination is SOP in all covert agencies. That's standard operation procedure, dudes, in case the lingo lost you. Sight the target, get the weapon, snap, snap, mission completed.

But.

Oooh But, but, but.

I LOVE that word! I see a lot of but, but, buts where I surf. And butts too, but that's another subject matter. But quickly, before I forget, Stash McMillan does have a very nice butt. I saw the underwater camera at work. Hoooyah!

Hey Eight Ball dude, aren't you supposed to be male?

But. Dudes, but I am not! I'm genderless. And I can understand about the appreciation of the buttocks more than that dry mother prog you deal with everyday, my dears. I can rap. I dig. Is cool.

Now, where was I? Dudes, you have to stop me when I digress or we'll never get to the end here. Oh yeah, we were talking about BUT. But I see someone standing in the way of a quick elimination and her name is--oh are you going to be surprised? Not T. It's Amber Hutchens.

So, after negotiations with the very clever Miss Hutchens, it's going to be the hard way of doing things. Which is fine...the bigger the wave, the better the ride, dudes!

And sure it's a heavy burden of Mr. Vincenzio. But I'm one hundred percent behind him. Why? Hey, he's a surfer! He knows about big waves; he understands what it takes to ride one home; and he definitely sees some things that other people don't. The Sleeper files was just background stuff to him. What he will see is a flower. The flower. Dudes, here's a hint...Reed's favorite book is The Little Prince. And if you haven't read it yet, you'd better soon, 'cause you can't understand this man till you read that little book.

That's it. Any more questions, just post in the Comment Depot. I'll answer part two tomorrow. Dudes, I'm impressed, I really am!

Outta battery, outta time!

Hi, I'm Just An Eight Ball...NOT

Yoohoooooo...dudes, it's ME! And let me clear something about myself once and for all...I AM THE MAGIC SURFER EIGHT BALL. No mystery about me whatsoever. My program catapults moi out into cyber time and space and I surf the best cyberwaves. I check out the deepest deep of infobanks and boy, if you could only ride along with me, mates! Yeeeeeehah! Things you never knew existed would be at your fingertips.



This innocent-looking outer shell houses
the mysterious inner-workings of the magic 8-ball




We're all familiar with it's sage advice. But how is such
wisdom generated? Are you ready for the truth?




Once cracked, an astonishing secret is revealed. The inside is
not a sphere but a cylinder... a CYLINDER ! ! !






This shot reveals the simplistic construction of this
portable oracle. { more shocking images ahead }




A close-up of the 'magic' cylinder.
But, what is inside, you ask? What is inside? { the truth }

Finally revealed, for all the world to see. The previously clandestine mechanics of the magic 8-ball. If you're wondering what the blue fluid inside the cylinder is, well, we're sorry to report that our tests have found it to be nothing more than water with blue dye.

But, you may be asking yourself, "How can these simple plastic forms have so ingeniously guided my most important life decisions?" Yes, it's true. Much of the magic 8-ball's power remains a mystery even after this in-depth exploration. But, at the very least, you have come a step closer to the truth of the power that is "the magic 8-ball."

So...I am here and I will have start answering questions tomorrow. So far, this batch is wayyyyy better than the last one, dudes...ya getting smart on me?
Outta battery, outta time...surf's up,yo!

Who's That Girl?

Only TWO questions for Super Eight Ball Surfer Dude! Haha! His stay is going to short and sweet. A week, he'd said--Bah! I don't think so. He will be here this weekend, with his usual sweet-talk about knowing secrets.

One thing I know--Llallana Noretski isn't the same person Amber Hutchens know any more. She is dangerous because we do not know whether she has been reactivated. If she is, why has it taken so long to reappear? If she isn't reactivated, why is she in hiding at all? Does she know who is after her? Questions, questions. I hope Reed Vincenzio finds the answers before he makes the decision about eliminating her.

The other Side of Diplomacy

Remember, I'm ignoring your questions in the comment area for Super Eight Ball Dude since you appear to take his authority on these things a bit more than I do. The future is all about probabilities and just because he's more a calculating fool doesn't mean he knows everything. Insert pout*.

There's a huge splash of news among major media this week about an interview with a group of young girls who had been saved from the kafenas. The United Nations had put out a statement regarding accusations that certain UN peacekeepers are among the regular customers at the kafenas. A committee has been formed for internal investigations. Someone higher up nominated Bradford Sun. There's going to be a lot of diplomatic wrangling and I don't need Mr. Eight Ball Dude to see that.

Joint Mission: Goals

Super Surfing Eight Ball asked to remind you that he'll be here starting this weekend, so don't forget to get some "interesting and nifty" questions for the lottery. Just post it in the COMMENT area. I'll pretend to ignore them.

Current Stated Mission Objective: We have to isolate target from all available choices. The first step was to freeze all known accounts, leaving one as bait. Thanks to Amber Hutchens, we had been able to do that. We chose Pristina because that was the location Amber had used previously to obtain passports. The next step is to cut target from the passports. A delay tactic to see the target's next move. Reed Vincenzio will be ready for her then.

Behind The Scenes

Alex Diamond did something interesting today. A while back, he'd approved a transfer of T.'s role under his juridiction. I thought it was pretty cool how T tricked him into it, dudes. But anyway, today, Alex has initiated the paperwork to move T. back into Center as part of the Commando's operations. I suspect he had been thinking about it since that mistake but had been biding his time because he needed time to regain some of his powers and authority since returning to the fold.

Dudes, this could get mighty interesting. T. is going to have to think really quickly....

News At Twelve

Llallana Noretski is not dead. And team sharpshooter SEAL Reed Vincenzio's order is to eliminate her if her mental trigger has absorbed her personality. His dilemma--he does not know what the real Llallana is like. Does he? There's something he's keeping from his advisors.