The Third Adventure By Jim and Meg Norris In her faded Levis and a light blue tee, Linda Anderson was hardly outstanding among the business women rushing to and fro in the passenger concourse; at least in terms of wardrobe. Her bright green eyes and flaming locks were enchanting. With no makeup but lip gloss, her gentle beauty radiated warmth. Within moments of finishing the action/adventure novel Linda felt the creep of incipient boredom. Tired also of endlessly listening to the ten cassettes that she carried, she clicked the walkman off. Linda slipped her paperback and walkman into her backpack. Noting that the departure board still announced delay, she set out for the lounge. Not particularly interested in rebuffing pickups, Linda steered for a table where several women drank boisterously. She fit right in with the Marines who were swapping stories. Linda loved their "There I was..." yarns. She drank several rounds with the service bitches before her turn to regale them with wicked tales of bobbing and weaving as a consultant. Linda sported a nice glow when her flight was announced. She quickly swapped sounds with the corporals before heading for her plane. The boarding crew apologized for the lousy weather that prevailed along the eastern seaboard. They didn't apologize for the sardine-can conditions in the little airliner. Apparently most of Linda's ninety-some fellow passengers suffered from advanced B.O. Disembarking in Atlanta occurred not a moment too soon. Although she'd missed the flight to Los Angeles, her mixed luck held. She was accommodated on another L.A. flight that had been delayed by a squall line. Linda sat at a midships port-side window in the TriStar. The air conditioning, which was effective for nearly four hundred sweating bodies, overwhelmed the mere handful of travelers seated within Linda's sight. Linda set her chess computer aside, marveling that the manufacturer had the guts to rate it at 2100. Diversions finally exhausted, she prepared to consider her pressing problems. Pretending to sleep would keep her meditation undisturbed while the music on the tape rolled. She fumed at the gall of the advisory committee. She would not be allowed to complete her grad work at Miskatonic University if she elected to take leave and study under a shaman. The head battle-axe raised the specter of full employment for ghostbusters. To add insult to injury, they pointedly suggested that she work out her conflicted loyalties during Halloween break. Her coven, which had arranged her acceptance at Miskatonic U, expected her to complete her studies there. Even so, she wondered if the High Priestess would support her thesis on eigenstate measurement/selection. Linda didn't want to kindle the arguments between the old wicca and the young reality hackers. Richard Alison, her working partner, and she were to take on another layer of interface metaphor. The first layer, which supported her status as an adept, had been installed under hypnosis years earlier. The manual documented the keyphrase 'will, skill, tools' which defined and invoked the effect. Linda's only upgrade, 'improvise, adapt, overcome', was barely a year old. >From her reading of the manual on the new upgrade, 'simplicity, sincerity, serenity', Linda wondered if a serious mistake had been made. The documentation had no information relating to how the upgrade would be personally useful. Although the coven approved the change of emphasis from individual goals to universal goals, Linda bristled. Her upcoming Samhain initiation, dependent on the new upgrade, seemed to emphasize commitment and service. Linda had met Mark Featherstone while doing field work in southern New Mexico. They were both collecting mescal, but for different reasons. Featherstone proved expert at locating and identifying many specimens of the spineless globe-shaped cactus for her. Linda found that his suggestions about which buttonlike tubercles to collect were based on extensive pharmacologic scholarship. Although the white woman and Amerind shaman were worlds apart, a mutual respect developed and matured over the years. As the only person that she knew outside the Miskatonic clique with parallel knowledge, his perspective was important to Linda. His offer to clarify some baffling aspects of her studies was uncharacteristily forthcoming and invaluable. Linda slept through dinner service. She felt the landing gear drop and was fully awakened by the flap extention during the final approach over Inglewood. Richard Alison listened to the interminable recording about the white zone as he waited curb-side at the terminal. The sidelong glances from the parking patrol didn't bother Richard; he knew Linda as a prudent air traveler. He counted on her practice of toting only carry-on luggage. Linda brightened when she saw Richard waiting for her in the ugly beige heartbeat of America. Although she ascribed his phenomenol ability to meet her to his precise divination, a simple telephone call to the airline sufficed on this occassion. Following a warm hug and a quick kiss, Richard swung into traffic. He had avoided eating to have dinner with Linda. When the subject came up, he was prepared, "Beef fajitas with jalapeno cornbread or Tom Yum Goong?" Without hesitation, Linda proposed the hot and sour shrimp soup. The marvelous combination of tender shrimp floating in a rich broth, liberally spiced with chillies and tangy with lemon grass, lime juice and citrus leaves was Linda's favorite, as Richard well knew. Richard showed Linda around the walkup above the misnamed five- and-dime which was only minutes from the airport. "It's mostly an excuse for the BBS", he admitted. Sitting on the top shelf in a closet was a computer, a hard disk, and two modems. Linda noted the lack of a monitor and keyboard, assuming that Richard used a laptop on one of the serial ports to do his sysop thing. The remainder of the closet was stuffed with earthquake supplies. The motion sensors and the demon dialer enhanced the functional, yet unlived-in quality common to safe houses. Linda relaxed in the small living room following Richard's tour of the flat. The expectant look on her face prompted Richard to proffer the package that he'd picked up on his way to the airport. Linda opened the pharmacy sack and extracted the bronchial inhaler. The asthma prescription appeared genuine, but she knew better. The mouthpiece in place, Linda pressed the canister into the base. She inhaled deeply as the fine spray was discharged. Linda's initial suspicion that she hadn't gotten a hit was dispelled by a coughing fit. Richard declined her motioned offer. Thoroughly stoned, Linda rested the inhaler on the empty coffee table. Unwilling to succumb to lethargy, Linda arose and made for the kitchen. Richard had all the materials on hand for either meal, even the seemingly hard-to-find fresh lemon grass. The sixers of Singha and Dosxx in the fridge brightened Linda further. They quickly agreed on the division of labor and began preparing dinner. Richard juiced two small limes as Linda laid out vegetables from the crisper. She cut zest from the rind when he was through. Waiting for her to open up about their predicament, he heated a small amount of oil in a saucepan. "It's an issue of choice to me", Linda began. Richard accepted the emphasis she applied, chopping lemon grass to one inch lengths. "How somebody else could know what's best for me boggles my mind. To coerce me into obedience is one thing, but the most unkind cut of all is to be expected to agree and like it." Richard dropped shrimp shells into the hot oil, watching for them to turn pink, listening to Linda continue. "Who should determine what I learn?", she asked while vigorously chopping several green onions. "Me!", she concluded, looking to Richard who was slivering green and red chillies. "You accepted their role in your development", Richard reminded her as he stirred the mixture of chicken stock, salt, lemon grass, citrus leaves, lime rind, and green chillies in the saucepan. "Their guidance has been good. Perhaps the older, wiser heads do have a good reason", he suggested. Linda watched Richard cover and set the saucepan to simmer after bringing it to a boil. "If they do have a good reason, and it's wrong for me, it's no skin off their asses", she observed. "Where else are you going to study the _Necronomicon_?". "I don't know Richard, but I draw the line at dogmatic conformity. 'What is good, Phaedrus, and what is not good - need we ask anyone to tell us these things", Linda quoted. "Excuse me. I'm going to get a shower". After luxuriating under the hot fingers of the shower massage, Linda rejoined Richard, who was busy straining the soup through a sieve. "What about you Richard", she asked, approaching him. "What do you want to do?" Richard returned the mix to the saucepan and brought it to a boil. "My path is not dictated by another, nor is it dependent", he said as he added the shrimp and cooked them for several minutes in the stock. "The university administration suffers from an inherent flaw of Authority: 'The company takes what the company wants and nothing's as precious as a hole in the ground'. This isn't even personal. It's just rules." After reducing the heat, Richard added fish sauce and lime juice to the simmering soup. He stirred it and immediately removed it from the heat. "Our thesis is a collaboration", Linda reminded him. "What'll you do?", she asked as Richard retrieved their beers from the fridge. Linda poured the soup in a tureen. Richard sprinkled it with red chillies, coriander leaves, and green onions as he replied. "I've held back some work on multidimensionality. Maybe that and some fresh ideas on chaos. Perhaps the attenuation of magic. I'm not sure, but it's not a problem. I wonder if the University of California has room for a magician in its Interrelation of Conceptual Structures program?" Linda carried the tureen to the table, serving the soup piping hot. Richard lit the candle and they seated themselves. By long convention the two observed a companionable silence as they dined. After dinner Richard revealed the dessert that he'd gotten while at the Thai market. Sticky rice, coconut milk, and banana strips were wrapped within banana leaves. Instead of steaming the delights, Richard 'waved them while he and Linda carried the dishes from the small dining area to the sink. Richard considered how to breach the subject of the impending upgrade to their interface metaphors as the fragrant Khaw Tom Pud cooled. Linda had benefited greatly from personal control of her cognitive faculties as if they were software. She was naturally reluctant to share that control; even with the people who had made it possible. "Are you ready for the shrink shop?" asked Richard jocularly. He wasn't fond of the unbecoming appelation for the wetware techs, but aimed to draw Linda out. "No. I'm really uncertain about it. It doesn't sound like such a good idea to me." "What's the hangup?" "Their hands on my reins." "Does loyalty influence you? Have they given you reason for mistrust?" Linda quoted Thomas Paine. "Let them call me rebel and welcome, I feel no concern from it; but I should suffer the misery of devils, were I to make a whore of my soul..." "It's not like you haven't been through this before." "Can we be sure that after this upgrade we'll be inclined toward the same selfish perspective in considering future upgrades?" "Have you considered favorable aspects?" Richard asked. "Frankly, no. Maybe Cindy and Cia can fill that area in." Richard dropped the subject and concentrated on washing the dishes and tidying the kitchen while Linda got stoned and watched headline news. Linda and Richard, according to a fond habit, read in bed until sleepy. Richard set his engineering manual aside in mere minutes. He rested undisturbed as Linda turned and twisted her way through the thriller that gripped her attention. Linda dropped the novel to the floor and extinguished the dim headboard lamp. She spooned in behind Richard, pressing herself into him and resting her head on the pillow beside his. She shared his warmth, feeling his slow and even breathing beside her. Unable to find sleep through ordinary methods, Linda let herself drift, recalling among other things her association with Richard. She and Richard had first crossed paths in their final year of high school. In a case that had elicited support from the ACLU, the school administration had suppressed a news story in the school newspaper. Linda's investigation of corruption in an alderman's office was explosive. Her story was backed up by Richard's second-story work which gained solid evidence. The cabal didn't care that the school won; it exploited the opportunity by awarding Linda and Richard college scholarships. The cabal extended a Segretti Fellowship to Richard for altering the circuitry of E-Meters at the Church of Scientology during black-bag snoops. His discoveries in the Guardian's Office had been the springboard to Linda's research into the methods utilized to penetrate and manipulate the FBI. Linda found the large cash payment for that particular report to be very useful. Linda's reminiscences turned to the Pirate Fucking Radio project. The cabal had needed volume cost reductions on zeppelin production. Richard presented the proposal and Linda presented the plan. Fidel Castro jumped at the chance to broadcast The Voice of Jose Marti into the American west coast radio/television market. The cost of replacing the unmanned broadcast zeppelins which were destroyed by federal forces was well below revenues. Lack of regulation and taxes did the rest. Richard and Linda had received credit for recouping in spades the autonomous aircraft's development cost. Linda slipped lightly from bed and shouldered her backpack which she always kept bedside. She adjourned to living room where she could consult her cards. Linda spread a large silk scarf on the floor and sat cross- legged before it. She first selected the Major Arcana from her Wonderland Ciaot deck. She set the remaining cards aside on the scarf. Images and bits of her concern floated and whirled without direction as she shuffled the twenty-two trumps. She laid out ten cards in a standard cross pattern and sat for several minutes considering the meanings conveyed by the reading. The Fool, in the position to indicate forthcoming influences, was the image of a spirit totally free, courageously leaping into some new phase of life. Death, placed to indicate her present situation, signified a time of change. The Sun, as a final outcome, described happiness and a great sense of the beauty of life. Linda took these cards to mean that the successful transition, far from being in question, was in progress. The Hermit, positioned to indicate her previous influences, bespoke her recent withdrawal for intense study. The High Priestess, in a position to reveal how other people viewed Linda, showed that they accepted her inner wisdom and strong intuition. The Hanged Man, as a measure of her hopes and fears, addressed Linda's antipathy to loosing her educational investment. Linda accepted these cards as confirming the context of her inquiry. The Magician, describing what Linda was experiencing, illustrated the creator in the act of creation, and additionally a shaman or shamanism. The Devil, positioned to indicate the obstacles that crossed the Magician, adequately described Linda's feeling of being chained to controlling obsessions. Together, these cards defined the conflict for Linda. The Hierophant, in position to indicate what was really behind the surface situation, represented education in general, and her own inner sense of direction. The Empress, positioned to express what was in plain sight, puzzled Linda. The usual meaning of a mother figure didn't seem to fit. The card depicted the knitting Sheep gliding along in a little boat. Linda recalled the episode from _Through The Looking Glass_. The Sheep was the proprietress of an odd shop with all manner of curious things. When Alice became confused by the vast array of wares, the Sheep's shop transformed. Alice found herself in the boat with the Sheep, rowing with knitting needles on the queer water. The Sheep finally urged Alice to make up her mind after indulging Alice's curiosity at length. The egg that Alice eventually bought from the Sheep became Humpty Dumpty. It was Humpty Dumpty who was poised atop the wall in The Sun, a card of satisfaction, accomplishment, and success - the card which in this case indicated the culmination and results of all the influences revealed by the other cards. Linda wrapped her cards within the scarf and stowed them within the little pouch in her backpack. With her mind at ease, she slipped back to bed. Richard absentmindedly put an arm around her, drawing her close. Linda subvocalized a post-hypnotic suggestion to arise relaxed and refreshed, before drifting off to a sound and restful sleep. Linda was still sleeping when Richard awoke to the early morning light with a woody. The exquisite shape of her tits was neither diminished by reclining, nor obscured by her T-shirt. Richard considered her flat belly and shapely legs concealed by the sheet. Inspired, and knowing how Linda appreciated a wake-up fuck, he proceeded to slowly arose her. Richard tenderly cupped a pert breast and kissed Linda's neck. The low moan was encouraging. He gently manipulated the firm flesh. Once the nip came up he rolled it between thumb and forefinger. With a final squeeze, Richard released Linda's breast and rested his hand on her pubic mound. He softly rubbed her downy pubes through the bikini. Linda rolled her hips slightly and murmured approval. Slipping beneath the elastic band, Richard rubbed her thickening pad with his fingernails. At the merest touch to her sparsely furred puffy lips, Linda eased her legs apart. Richard's hardon throbbed as he massaged Linda's pussy through the dampening fabric. When he pushed the crotch aside and lay his fingers along her slit, he was met with a little shudder and a more insistent moan. With a finger along either side of the long hood, Richard felt the hard clit within. His gentle manipulations were met by the little smacking sounds of a well-lubed cunt. Repositioning himself, Richard tugged at Linda's panties as she daintily raised her hips to help him remove them. Linda held the sheet up with one hand so that Richard could breath and with the other she pushed his face into her crotch. Richard's beard stubble chaffed her thighs as she gently crossed her ankles, completing the loose scissor lock on his willing head. Supported by his elbows, Richard massaged Linda's engorged outer lips with his forefingers. He nibbled and tugged her fleshy inner lips before getting down to serious licking. Richard ran his tongue the length of Linda's slit, occasionally pushing deep into her hole or tickling her extended clitty. Linda's rhythmically gyrating hips and inarticulate moans coaxed him onward. He probed her drenched vagina with one thumb and rubbed her asshole with the other as his tongue variously flicked or rubbed her turgid clitoris. Linda approached orgasm several times, but Richard would change his stimulation to deny her. When she could stand it no more, she squeezed his head playfully between her thighs. Richard increased the tempo of his licking, concentrating on her clit. With pushing and screwing motions, he massaged the roughly textured walls of her cunt with an index finger. Richard synchronized his efforts as Linda's breathing became rapid and shallow. Linda arched her back and came with a tremble, clenching Richard's finger repeatedly with diminishing force. Linda took only an an instant to select a position. She wanted to be ballsy in the upcoming discussions. Being on top would encourage a more active role, a sense of superiority, a feeling of free movement, and a sense of doing whatever she wished. Richard was a real bonus for face-to-face fucking; he would read her face and express, he had beautiful brown eyes, and he could kiss. Best of all, he had the cock discipline for lap fucking. "May I sit in your lap, love?" she asked. Richard sat facing Linda with his legs apart, enthusiasm evident from his smile and throbbing penis. His answer was eagerly outstretched arms. Linda snuggled in close to Richard, with her legs over his and behind him. She insured that they were both comfortable, without undue stress on their limbs. With her nose alongside Richard's, Linda looked deeply into his eyes as they embraced. The warmth that she saw said 'friend' and more. She was excited by her musk on his mouth while their skillful tongues wrestled playfully. The warm and creamy feeling intensified with Richard's hot cock against her belly and his lightly haired chest pressing her tits. Linda eased back and grasped the base of Richard's dick. Moisture glistened on the head before she began rubbing her pussy with it. She moved closer, angling her hips up. With each stroke of his dick along her wet slit, Linda would tantalize Richard by squeezing the head lightly with her snatch, then rub him up and around her extended clit. Richard stifled his desire to push into Linda, awaiting the delicious torture of her ultra-slow entry. Instead, he hugged her warmly, one arm around her waist and lower back, the other just below her shoulders. Linda tightly clenched her vagina as she rested more and more of her weight on Richard's cock. With only the slightest relaxation she gradually slid down Richard's meaty pole, accompanied by something between a sigh and a moan. Once she was filled with Richard's hot hardness, Linda hungrily joined with him in a deep and passionate kiss that was destined to occupy them for the duration. Linda pulled herself taut to afford Richard maximum stimulation with only slight movement. She used calculated pelvic movements of yaw, pitch, and roll to accentuate her motion along the length of his shaft. Linda built their excitement to all-encompassing and nearly explosive before easing slightly, relaxing briefly with Richard's dick buried in her to the hilt. Linda eased back a little, raising herself and locking his bulbous dick head against her G-spot. She began a serpentine massage of his penis with her vaginal muscles, deliciously stimulating their most erogenous flesh. Linda felt Richard's impending orgasm as his balls Richard tight in the palm of her hand and his breathing became insistent. She brought herself to the edge and kicked off the simultaneous explosion. Richard forcefully pumped his load deep into Linda's quivering cunt. Linda's orgasm expelled a copious fluid discharge which mixed with Richard's semen and drained over his softening cock, drenching the bed. Linda broke the deep kiss and snuggled against Richard, pulling herself to him, nestling her head against his neck. Their frantic heartbeats and ragged breathing normalized during their long embrace. The cooling wet spot under them encouraged an effort to dry off with a fluffy towel which Richard had thoughtfully provided. Following a brief shower, Linda and Richard breakfasted on heuvos rancheros at a nearby taquiera. It was on the walk back that Richard excused himself until late afternoon to pursue personal business. Linda welcomed the opportunity to relax. Unused to the slack time in her study schedule, she made the best of it; loafing about, reading a novel that Richard had left on his nightstand. By mid-afternoon Linda was eager for something more active. It struck her as an ideal time to practice her exercises. Linda's pulse quickened as she considered the upcoming delight. She stepped lightly, considering Fizzlebot's purple egg. As far as it was from being a simple stone, it was no closer to being a jewel. Linda had worked briefly with the independent inventor to develop an aerogel from sand which the coven provided. The wispy, nearly transparent solid was extremely porous, with only three or four times the density of dry air. Fizzlebot nicknamed the high- strength, ultralight stuff 'purple fuzzle'. His guess that the fuzzle was used to stabilize fusion fuels under laser blast inspired his fruitless experiments with the surplus aerogel. He presented Linda with a brilliant violet ovoid as a souvenir. Linda undressed, tossing her clothes in a pile next to her backpack on the bedroom floor. She sat on the edge of the bed, legs apart, with her feet flat on the floor. Linda's fingertips barely touched the skin around her nipples as she gently rotated them very slowly in outward circular motions. Shortly, she responded to the invigorating stimulation, playing with the firm fluid movement of her breasts. Warmth spread throughout her genitals, puffing her mound and lightly-haired outer lips. Linda kneaded the softness of her pussy while she maintained the gentle manipulation of her breasts, occasionally twisting or tweaking a sensitive nip. Her wattled inner labia were dusky pink, striated with tan. As her sexual energy built, they felt more flush and moist, and looked redder. Linda smeared the abundant juices forming at her hole over the fleshy lips. Linda began a rhythmic pressure against the hood of her clit with a single fingertip. Fully engorged, it poked from beneath the hood. She directed the concentration and flow of her developing sexual energy, bringing it to a shuddering orgasm and an instant of transcendence. Linda withRichard the egg from a pouch in her backpack. Eugene Fizzlebot couldn't explain why it radiated warmth. As for the pleasure of contact with it, Fizzlebot mumbled something about piezoelectricity, but didn't even seem very convinced about it himself. She stood and assumed the practice stance; her feet shoulders' width apart and firmly grounded, ankles and knees bent, groin folded, spine and neck in alignment. She splayed her succulent lips with the fingers of one hand and eased the egg into her vagina, wider end first. By isolating and contracting her external vaginal orifice tightly, she grasped the egg and relished the pleasant feelings from the it before beginning to move it with her internal musculature. The movement up and down her vagina was, as always, the easiest. Linda clenched, raising the egg slightly, then holding it for a moment, before relaxing enough to allow the egg to descend to the original position. She completed half a dozen slow repetitions of the exercise, regulating the squeezing to her inhalations. Linda Richard the egg up in front of her cervix and held it there before beginning the more challenging lateral exercises. She moved the egg from side to side several times as well as tilting it from top to bottom. After half a dozen full movement repetitions of the exercise, she relaxed and allowed the egg to descend. Satisfied with herself, Linda expelled the egg from her cunt and wiped it clean before replacing it within its pouch. She rested briefly with the palm of her hand on her warm snatch, drawing strength from her workout.