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Sunday, December 14, 2003 Pillars of Fire Update A pillar of fire. Credit: Unknown Ian Steil has sent us an update to his ongoing novel, Pillars of Fire. The book, now 63 pages long, is in Microsoft Word form. Here's a snippet: There he lay, silent, motionless, waiting for his target to wander into the crosshairs. Waiting was his life, it had always been, always will be. He was born, and waited to walk, was a child, waited to grow up, went to school, waited to graduate. Waiting had become something so familiar to him, and something he became extremely good at. Finally, after 3 days, the moment had come. He was beginning to sense the need to sleep, the need to eat. If needed, he could last another week, maybe two, but maintenance was necessary for him. It was these feelings that kept him alive. Without a moment’s hesitation, he pulled the trigger. The CMR (Compressed Mercury Rifle) spat a sliver of considerably dense mercury through the target, a general, actually. Whether or not he died on the spot from the impact of the projectile, or later from subsequent mercury poisoning, really didn’t make a difference to Alim, all that mattered was that he could go back to his barrack and sleep. - posted by Alex @ 12:26 EST @ 12:26 EST