321's Hostelstarts to really unwind for the reading, opening up the fuller picture of things and they are vast in scope and interest.
We find out that Emily is really seeing everything on her lone travel.
Rebecca is being 'recruited' for her hypnotic abilities by Alice. Somehow I don't think that decision is being left to her free will, even though Rebecca may think it is.
The huge scope of Alice's operation begins to take shape. She is an entrepreneur of the highest order, her slimy, greedy tentacles slithering out into so many people and venues.
And both Rebecca and Emily get introduced to 'acquaintances' of Alice, someone each has never 'met' before and find out they have doppelgangers of a sort for their best friends. Same names! Damn, what are the odds of that? That is a GREAT SCENE.
And..............we learn Rebecca hypnotized Emily back in college. Hmmmmm....somehow I don't think that was a flashback thrown in there just to fill the story with some words.
Mordred's Paperback continues on its exceptional course. Hot as hell mind control, gorgeous agents, intrigue, plot twists it has it all. And the lovely twinned double narrative making it two stories for the price of one!
Two chapter this week and lots going on. Stella is sent on a mission, one that directly conflicts with what her father did, as her dead mentor points out. But her control is so deep it matters not. Great stuff throwing that conflict in there. Stella and Laura come under suspicion because Stella did not clean up a bit of a mess as she should have, this time she listens to her old mentor. So some good remains in her.
Had to laugh at the narrator spending obscene money, he is filthy rich at that point, to find an old pilot of a show based on the book. Of course I have spent some pretty good money buying up old videos of MC shows and if I had his money there are some not on the market I would do the same thing for. Mordred once again so adeptly inside the head of an MC junkie.
That description of the girl who played Stella in the pilot, gorgeous but no actress, lol, yep, could be used to describe any of the pretty girls in those shows, such as Charlies Angels, which also gets a very apropos shout out in this chapter.
At the end, Stella is given another mission by Laura, a horrific one targeted right at her boss, the man trying to protect the world and his agents!! Cliffhanger.
In the next chapter, the last one of the story, sadly, Stella and Laura go to the Directors yacht to accomplish her programmed mission. And boy, what a surprise awaits her....and the reader! Never saw that one coming. Great job Mordred! And right when it looks like something really bad is about to happen, Stella's old mentor appears! Not really dead after all???
Also the narrator clues us in on his health not being so well. Why is this? What happened with him?
On the yacht some things happen that I admit surprise me. I didn't expect that story to go the way it did for reasons I had. I have to say I was very surprised in a good way at the bend PaperBack took.
Now the thing is this, it not only took a surprise turn for me in the comic, but also with the narrator, what he is, what has become of him, the price he paid to do so.
This story is not a gentle MC story in the end. It is all adult and can be viewed as the steep cost of doing MC business, both for the victims and the one doing the controlling. Playing with people's minds is a dark, evil path and the story reflects that both in comic and the narrator. Ones as great as this one are rare and so very special.
Thanks Mordred for doing this story, for all the reasons you know. You did it to perfection in saying what you intended all the while taking the reader on a wild, smashing ride.
I wish it could have gone on ten more chapters.
