The King’s Gambit: Chapter 1 (The Immigrant)

Ref Rafique #: 27

[Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs is the HQ for the USAF Space Command. It is where the NORAD commander sits. I think he reports directly to the President of the USA, and the Prime Minister of Canada. I had the opportunity to visit Peterson, once.

Cheyenne Mountain Air Station contains the systems which monitor everything flying in space, including Santa Claus. I am assuming the mountain acts as a nuclear shelter.]

Cheyenne Mountain, the location of NORAD, IS in Colorado Springs. The local high school near NORAD is named Cheyenne Mountain High.

I tried getting into NORAD on a tour; that was when I was told that they don`t have tours anymore. It is a common mistake to think that Cheyenne Mountain is in Wyoming since the city Cheyenne is in Wyoming.

From watching History Channel, you would find out that NORAD has been carved inside the mountain; the road into the caves can accommodate huge trucks (2-way traffic!); the doors sealing the entrance can withstand a direct nuclear attack; that the entire NORAD sits inside a humongous structure on huge springs that absorb the ground shock of a nuclear attack; etc.

Rafique - thankyou for the list. I have a vague feeling I might have read the last one and watched it on TV also (Timothy Dalton and am not hallucinating either) - but I`ll know soon on my next trip to the bookstore : ) You maybe right on the terrorist scenarios - but I hope they do justice to it or else will be too puke`y to bear !!

aicha

Reply RSaxena # 33

Rafique

``Ludlum took me a while to get used to. I started off with Forsyth and then moved to Ken Follet. I am now following Clancy. Clancy`s writings are not easy to follow, because they are quite dry in comparison to the other writers. But his technical details of military equipment are beyond comparison. I don`t know how he learnt all that as an insurance salesman.``

....what about clive cussler?...read any of his works?...

re: Zafar

{Saxena, I blame you. We are now both poor AND stupid. One was more than enough, but no, you had to encourage him...}

...we`ll be happy despite being poor and stupid as long as he`s not a part of our country...which, despite his claims, he is thankfully not...

{btw, is it true what he says about you - air conditioned and all? Obviously hanging out with too many Scandies.}

...nah, unfortunately am far from scandy right now...but not far from your neighborhood...singapore...

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re: AAmir

{Can you guess my neighbourhood???}

Dog Kennel #2

Eunuch Road

Pakistan

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Urstruly 29; Your critiqe is actually quite welcomed. One of the purposes of placing this piece on a public website is to get everyone`s views on it. And to get new ideas on the storyline. I am interested in finding out about your assumption of the Gambit. And whom you consider to be the King.

Rest assured this will not be 125 chapters long. I don`t have the time, the interactors won`t have the stamina, and Chowk may not have the disk space to accomodate that much. These chapters are actually abridged versions of the original. They are somewhere in between an abstract and the actual chapter. Due to this, they lose much of the original feel and details. I am assuming Chowk will publish them, as long as the interactors find them interesting. So that factor will decide the length of this abridged version of this novel.

hamirau 34; Thanks for the information on NORAD. I always thought the mountains were in Wyoming. I drove through Wyoming last year, and spent a half an hour looking for them. No wonder I couldn`t find them.

The US military is the biggest employer of individuals with higher education, in the the USA. It also probably has the highest budget to purchase hi-tech equipment, also. It would be interesting to see the internals of the US Space Command.

aicha 35; I think the future of Thrillers is terrorism and the Internet. I have yet to read a really good fictional Thriller with detailed technical commentary about the Internet. There is a book titled, ``The Cuckoo`s Egg,`` by Ciff Stoll. It is a true story of how a professor caught a group of criminals over the Internet. Very interesting for techies.

semipreciousme 37; I have not read Clive Cussler. I am still stuck on Clancy. Sometimes I think Clancy goes into so much technical detail just to make his books longer. He just wrote one on the Net, which I will start reading soon. What does Cussler write about?

Aamir 39; You either live close to the Penobscot River in Maine or in the USSR, if you are refering to the locations depicted in the movie. If you are refering to the actual filiming locations, then my guess in Maryland, California or London.

P.S. I have still not read a better Thriller writer than Ishtiaq Ahmad. I used to be hooked on his Inspector Jamshed and Inspector Kamran Mirza Urdu stories, as a kid. Not to mention Imran Series by Ibn-e-Safi.

Have anyone read any of these Urdu stories?

Aamir #39 ```Hunt For Red october` Thomas Clancy...was filmed near my home .Can you guess my neighbourhood???``

The ocean floor??

Aamir 39 - ah-hah i see all possiblities have been covered. But didnt you say you were in Utah??

aicha

Forget fiction, stick to software. Even pulp fiction requires a modicum of talent

rsax

Are you in Singapore? Lucky duck!

Rafique 44 - will def get hold of that too - thks ! Must add your earnestness has made this board taht much nicer to come to.

Take care,

aicha

re: retard

{{Singapore was like Kashmir part of a bigger muslim Majority Malayi(Malaysia) before it was let go by Muslim to separate as Chinese Minority Majority City /Country of Singapore.}}

dude, shut up...lazy, incompetent malays are a curse on their own society, let alone singapore...obsessed with religion while the chinese and tamils contribute all the progress...malaysia and indonesia are the banana republics in that part of the world...