Picture courtesy of Knotty Monkey/More Bad Advice
Riker dashed through the ballroom, earning incredulous stares from the revelers. A mustachioed waiter teetered on his feet and nearly dropped a tray of champagne flutes as he passed.
He ran through the kitchen, pushing his way past an enormous bouncer and an angry chef until he reached the staircase. He descended twelve steps in two enormous strides, aware that the bouncer was close behind. He had no time to explain himself.
At the bottom he came to a wine cellar, slamming the door behind him to slow his pursuer. For good measure, he pulled down a heavy oak hutch, sending bottles and stemware to the floor. Glass shattered and wood splintered, but Riker didn’t pause further before leaping over the mess and racing out the door.
He found himself in a courtyard, running past drunken party-goers waiting to toast to the new year. Had to be less than five minutes left. Ahead stood a small bandstand surrounded by stone bench seating. Several people sat there, conversing or mingling. To the left and right were narrow corridors leading to outbuildings.
Midway down one corridor stood a woman in a torn flamenco dress. Though she was standing upright, she seemed to be struggling with something close to the ground, perhaps trying to pull a heavy rope. And that’s when he realized that he’d found it.
As he ran down the corridor the bouncer finally extricated himself from the mess in the wine cellar and led a small security entourage into the courtyard. Riker saw that the woman was chained by her ankle to a metal drainage grating. She pulled furiously on her bonds. Through the grating he could see the blinking red light. He had less than two minutes.
In her native tongue, he told her to relax, that he would take care of everything. He could see vivid impressions of the links on her hands once she let go of the chain. Riker crouched close to the floor and activated the cuff link on his right arm. The red beam burned through the grating, liquefying the metal in seconds.
She stared, eyes agape, as he reached through the metal and withdrew a small metal device. The red light blinked insistently.
Security came charging down the corridor. He took her by the hand. “Ven conmigo si quieres vivir.”
Nearby, the revelers chanted a countdown. As Riker activated the cuff link on his left arm a cable flew from his arm, a tiny hook embedding itself near the top of the stone wall. Without so much as a pithy comeback in the direction of the security guards, he retracted the cable and he and his attractive companion rose. When they reached the top of the wall the countdown reached zero, and he hurled the device as hard as he could. The explosion was all but camouflaged by the fireworks.
They raced along the precipice to the pier, where his boat waited. “Feliz ano nuevo”, he said as they made their escape. (499/500)
Behind the Scenes
Although this week’s Flash Fiction Friday prompt was posted on Sunday, I didn’t check it until Thursday. Fortunately, despite a very busy week (and a very busy Thursday in particular) I quickly came up with what I hope is a suitable story for the prompt.
The challenge included not only the prompt photo, but a larger-than-expected 500-word limit, and the key phrase “New Year” or “New Year’s”. In addition, participants were offered extra credit for including a phrase in a foreign language. Technically speaking I didn’t include the key phrase; according to Advizor54‘s rules, it was to have been capitalized, i.e. “Happy New Year”. However, I fudged it a bit by having Riker say it in Spanish at the end of the story.
My other Spanish-language phrase (“Come with me if you want to live”) was taken from James Cameron’s 1984 and 1991 films The Terminator and Terminator 2: Judgment Day. The name of the protagonist was not deliberately borrowed from Jonathan Frakes’ character in Star Trek: The Next Generation; I’d initially planned on not revealing the character’s name, but when the ambiguity hindered the story – you can only use pronouns so many times without confusing the reader – I chose the first name that came to mind.
Although 500 words is a lot for a flash fiction story, I find that I tend to reach the limit quickly. Were I a leaner, more efficient writer, I might have been better able to flesh out such details as who Riker is, the identity and significance of the woman chained to the grating (as well as why she apparently abandons her home country to escape with her savior) and the identity of the villain who placed the bomb. But as it stands I like the idea that we’ve been given a snapshot into a much larger story.
The title, “Resolve”, refers to Riker’s determination to find the bomb, while simultaneously referring to the practice of making a New Year’s resolution.
Deleted Scenes
The original plan was to have the corridor flood, thus drowning the young woman. But given that she’s chained to a grating, I assumed that drowning wouldn’t be the most efficient method of disposal.
In looking for a Spanish-language version of “Auld Lang Syne” (see Soundtrack section), I came across a Spanish tradition wherein people eat a dozen grapes at midnight on New Year’s Day in order to ensure a year of good luck. Given that the story possibly takes place in Spain, as opposed to another Spanish-speaking country, I thought it would be nice to include reference to this tradition. I simply couldn’t make it fit.
In my rough outline for this story, I noted that there is no sex in this story. I planned to include an interlude between Riker and the young woman once they’ve escaped. The final line would have been the young woman screaming, “¡Me viene!” (“I’m cumming!”)
Soundtrack
This one’s a no-brainer: Johnny Rivers’ “Secret Agent Man”, segueing into Guy Lombardo’s “Auld Lang Syne” as Riker throws the bomb. (I wanted to include a Spanish-language version of “Auld Lang Syne”, as it would seem more fitting, but it appears that no such thing exists.) As he and his companion escape in the speedboat, how about Monty Norman’s “James Bond Theme” as heard in Dr. No?
Programming Note
This will likely be our final Flash Fiction Friday post for a few weeks, as we will be taking a blogging hiatus at the end of the year.
Okay, I love the James Bond, secret agent guy theme. Well done. Yes, the story deserves to be longer. 🙂
As for the grape/champagne tradition… yes. Did it for three years in a row when I lived there. 🙂
Love the music too… I have Secret Agent man on my mp3 list.
Great scene from a dynamic movie! You must be screenwriters … extraordinaire screenwriters.
Thanks for your kind comment on my story.
great gams!
Heh… Riker… I kept waiting for them to get beamed up! Great suspense! Have a great break!