“P nodded to the cashier—a gray-haired, overweight man with teeth stained brown. A cigarette hung from his lips. The man was no ordinary small business owner. He had seen his share of Strikers. He kept his face expressionless. He knew that Klavarians could read minds, so he tried very hard to keep his mind free of any thoughts, but P had already picked it clean when he walked in.
The man’s name was Sully, and he was the owner of the establishment. P also knew that Sully possessed a sawed-off shotgun under the counter, strategically located within easy reach.
“Cad é an scéal, a chapaill?” What’s the story, horse?
The man was genuinely surprised to hear the Striker utter a popular, colloquial Irish phrase.”
~~~
They drove a few hundred feet up a gravel road, then turned off onto a dirt path before parking the car. P grabbed his backpack and the two headed into the woods on foot. After walking for five minutes, P sniffed the air and looked around. He didn’t detect any hikers or other people in the vicinity. P removed his backpack and pulled out the Klavarian weapon he’d purchased from the bodega basement armory. P made some adjustments to a setting on the gun. Sean heard two loud “clicks.”
“What is it?” asked Sean. He stared at the weapon and chuckled. It looked like a toy replica of the “Noisy Cricket” gun from Men in Black carried by Will Smith’s character, Agent J. The tiny weapon sported a small trigger guard big enough to accommodate a Klavarian claw. And instead of a barrel, the end culminated in a cup and a needle-like appendage that protruded approximately three inches.
“This, my friend, is a Klavarian Degen blaster …
~~~
“Just then, a little girl, perhaps four or five years old, ran up to the picnic table where Sean and P sat. She was mesmerized at the sight of the giant Panda. Twenty yards away, her mother, who was standing and talking to another person, looked around and spotted her daughter in the distance. She was horrified when she realized that the girl was headed straight for the alien killing machine.”
By 
I’ve been invite to read from my new novel “Panda in the Park” at the Dire Literary Series on March 7, 2024 at 7 PM on Zoom. 
All systems are “go” for a launch/release date for Panda in the Park in the mid- to late-March timeframe.