Main Dishes

PART 2 — FULL STORY I didn’t need to walk over. I didn’t need to say a word. From my porch, with the same coffee growing cool in my hand, I watched the county inspector smooth two surveys across a sawhorse, and I watched the world Tammy Hollister had built start to crack. June Whitfield’s…

“You do realize you have fully awakened the dragon right?” I just grinned back at her while looking up at our magnificent crooked creation. “Let her breathe all the fire she wants,” I said proudly. “We have a secret trap door.” I had absolutely no idea just how much fire was actually coming our way….

PART 2 The morning after I discovered the cyber attacks, I brewed a pot of strong coffee and sat down in my workshop. Most folks in Pine Shadows only knew me as the off-grid tech guy who didn’t want to join their neighborhood barbecues. They had no idea what I used to do for a…

PART 2  The phone call lasted less than ten minutes. I started with the Kentucky Heritage Office. I gave them the state registry number, 47-KHC-12. Then I emailed copies of the preservation easement, the survey map from the red box, photographs of the intact trail from the week before, and two hours of video showing…

PART 2 — FULL STORY The guard frequency crackled in my helmet. “Mayday! Mayday! Is anyone there? The pilots are dead — we are falling!” His name was Jonathan Reeves, a structural engineer from Portland who had never touched a flight yoke in his life. His voice was shredded by pure, undiluted terror. Through the…

PART 2 The first patrol vehicle arrived eighteen minutes later. Blue lights reflected off the polished hoods of luxury SUVs and the heavy steel gate stretching across Holloway Trace. Conversations stopped almost instantly. Sheriff Daniel Reeves climbed out of the lead vehicle with the slow, deliberate movements of someone who had learned long ago that…

PART 2 Rachel drafted the formal notice that very afternoon. We didn’t threaten a lawsuit, and we didn’t demand outrageous sums of money. We simply laid out the facts. The letter summarized the survey findings, noted the lack of a permanent recorded easement, and attached the expired temporary access agreement. We gave the Pine Harbor…

PART 2 — FULL STORY The stall warning was a solid, unbroken shriek. Two thousand feet. I felt the simulator pod shudder as the digital ground rushed up, the jagged granite of the mountains filling every pixel of the panoramic screen. Outside in the observation room, twelve elite pilots were holding their breath. They thought…

PART 2  The next afternoon, Lake Hollow was breaking power demand records. Daniel Ortiz stood beside the monitoring equipment we’d set up with Laura Bennett’s inspection team. Every few minutes, another reading climbed higher. “The cooling fans haven’t cycled once,” Daniel said. “They’re running at full capacity.” Laura looked toward the transformer we’d inspected the…

“What can I do for you, HOA Karen?” She opened a folder and pulled out a stack of papers. “This is your official notice of violation. You currently owe fifteen thousand dollars in accumulated fines for unauthorized construction.” “Fifteen thousand dollars?” I asked. ư”For what exactly?” One of the men in suits cleared his throat….