User blog:Sydneygb/Major Bludd's Personal Journal - 23 December 2009

23 December 2009 It's been a nice time here in Cardiff. Dee and I took off from Cobra Island not long after that other Tele-Viper was killed. There's some kind of rogue group calling itself the "Right Red Hand" that's responsible for that mess. I never told Dee, but the girl who was killed was the same one who had come to me to tell me about this group's activities, mostly piggybacking chat on the main comm signal and talking about doing in some of the 'officers'. I didn't like that, and I like it even less now that they've apparently killed her.

No holiday of mine seems complete without the interference of someone. This time it was a pair of bounty hunters. Dee's radio prowess gave us a heads up, and we were ready for them. One was an abject coward. I sent him away before he soiled himself. The other seemed a decent bloke. Nothing personal, just business. He was in a bad way financially and couldn't resist the lure of "easy" cash. Someone didn't do their homework, apparently. I'm anything but easy cash. I handed him a Cerberus business card. [rough doodle in the margin of a three-headed dog in a shield shape, opposite a pasted-in business card with higher-quality art] It was one of the older ones, without the full name of the company on it. Stark's showed me the new ones now we're here at the encampment. They're nice. Bit of gold embossing and all. Slick. But maybe the second fellow will be of use to Stark. I'm hoping to come back to run my own company soon, but with what's up with Cobra lately, you never can tell. That's most of why I wanted Stark to take over. Well, I'm still the boss, but he runs the day-to-day. "Someday, my boy, all this will be yours!" Alright, now I'm just getting foolish. Anyway, he's been recruiting. There must be an extra eight or so blokes in the group now. The lot of us sat around the tables and stuffed ourselves silly. What a feast! There was turkey and lamb and the most excellent sweet potato casserole... just magnificent. We topped it off with a round of Christmas carols and of course some wiseguy who goes by the name of Daly came over with mistletoe. [rough sketch of a sprig of mistletoe in the margin] Daly, that clutz. I'll never forget the time he dropped an enormous file folder on my knee right after Carter'd mucked it up. I guess the rumour mill is going strong at Cerberus as well. I don't mind so much here, 'cos I'm the boss, and I like these fellows. They know I'm just another bloke. Unlike with Cobra, I don't have to be so guarded all the time, watching my back. It was great to relax with the lads.

Oh, I'd best remind Stark about the possibility of a Cobra operation in Sierra Leone. Yes, they want to reopen that can of worms... I suppose it's not so bad. But if DeBeers or someone in the diamond business calls on Cerberus, he's going to have to check with me first. He checks with me first anyway. But best to be sure he's got a heads-up.

We'll be heading back to Cardiff today, I expect, to spend Christmas Day at the bachelor pad with a mug of mulled cider. Funny how I've gotten used to the idea of cold weather for Christmas. Next year I'll have to take Dee to Sydney for Christmas, have an old-fashioned Australian holiday.