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    Jolly Roger
    Jolly Roger
    Jolly Roger
    Ebook46 pages39 minutes

    Jolly Roger

    By Gary Alan Ruse

    ()

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    About this ebook

    Two time-traveling special agents and a feisty young lady pirate captain join forces to prevent the course of history from being changed.

    Zane Kirby and Gus McAbee travel back from the future to the Bahamas of 1717, where pirates rule the waves and Spanish gold is the prize that attracts them. The two agents of the Federal Bureau of Temporal Regulation must find a renegade from their own day--Roger Turnbuckle--before the modern weapons he has smuggled back through time to the pirates of the past can upset the balance of power in the Caribbean and change history.

    This science fiction adventure comedy adds a new twist to pirate lore, by the author of “The Pluck of O’Reilly,” “The Cross of St. Anne,” “Murder in Deer Park” and “Mysteries at Midnight.”

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherGary Alan Ruse
    Release dateMay 8, 2012
    ISBN9781476419169
    Jolly Roger
    Author

    Gary Alan Ruse

    Have been a professional writer of science fiction, mysteries and "techno-thrillers" since the 70's, and served as an Army reporter in Vietnam. I have five previous novels published, "Houndstooth" and "A Game of Titans" in hardcovers by Prentice-Hall with foreign editions in Great Britain and Japan, and "The Gods of Cerus Major" in hardcover by Doubleday, and original paperbacks "Morlac: The Quest of the Green Magician" and "Death Hunt on a Dying Planet" by Signet/New American Library. Also a number of stories published in magazines and anthologies, and more than 1200 newspaper articles in Community Newspapers.

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      Book preview

      Jolly Roger - Gary Alan Ruse

      JOLLY ROGER

      A Science Fiction comedy

      By Gary Alan Ruse

      Smashwords Edition

      Copyright © 2012 by Gary Alan Ruse

      * * * * * * * * *

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      * * * * * * * * *

      A different version of this novelette originally appeared in Analog SF Magazine in September 1981. All rights for this story and the cover art are reserved by the author.

      * * * * * * * * *

      Chapter 1

      Washington, D.C., June 2062

      It’s a conspiracy! Gus McAbee said hotly. An ever-lovin’, bleep-freeping conspiracy!

      You’re overreacting, his partner said soothingly. Zane Kirby was good at soothing reassurances. He needed to be. You should consider it an honor, really. They always try to pick the best man for the job, and you can’t deny you’ve demonstrated a remarkable talent for adapting to new host forms on our previous assignments.

      "Bilgeblather! I haven’t done anything you couldn’t do, given the chance. The truth of the matter is, the Commissioners don’t like me. They’ve never liked me. I’m too much of a nonconformist to suit their bureaucratic sense of taste, and this is their way of punishing me."

      Let’s not get paranoid, now. Kirby gave him a comradely pat on the back, but in his private thoughts he had to admit there was a certain element of truth in what his partner said.

      Gus McAbee was a nonconformist, at least in the eyes of their superiors at the Federal Bureau of Temporal Regulation. In contrast to Zane Kirby’s sleek-as-always appearance, McAbee’s orange tweed zip-suit was rumpled and dowdy, and his auburn hair, no matter how often combed, always looked as if he’d just awakened from a restless night’s sleep. And as for the way he followed procedural guidelines set forth by the Bureau--? Well....

      It was only his astonishingly good record of success as a trans-temporal agent that kept him on with the FBTR. That, and the fact that he and Kirby made a heckuva good team.

      A conspiracy, McAbee was still muttering as the two agents made their way down the tenth floor hall of the Bureau’s national headquarters. "They always hit me with the freak jobs. Just once, I’d like to go on an assignment in my own skin."

      Now, now. I’m sure you’re to play a vital role in this mission.

      Billydiddle! They haven’t even told us what the freeping assignment is, yet. All they said was to report for preparation.

      Kirby sighed inwardly as they reached the two doors that would separate them momentarily. To the left was his door, leading to the costume, artifact and old currency section. To the right was McAbee’s destination, the biological storeroom and mind-transference chambers.

      McAbee gave a slight shudder of anticipation at

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