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Are P2P File Sharing Networks Dead?

2012-05-07

Are peer to peer file sharing networks dead or are they about to evolve into something else?

To declare the peer to peer file sharing networks to be anything other than thriving is ludicrous. In the last few months, peer to peer file sharing networks have gained considerable notoriety in the more general media. This is mostly due to increased levels of resistance they are receiving from governments, lobby groups and international trade agreements. Despite the great push to prevent these platforms through the guise of counter-piracy, these measures are ultimately fruitless. To understand why, it's important to understand how peer to peer file sharing has evolved, how it operates as a complex independent supply chain, and how limiting its use would require restrictions and laws that are arguably worse than the problem of piracy itself. Essentially, to understand the future it's most helpful to analyse the past.

The first generation flagships of peer to peer sharing (also known as P2P), Napster and Kazaa have long been shut down. As ABC News (2001) pointed out, it wasn't even clear at the time if services like Napster were infringing on intellectual property, noting "Napster argued that personal copying of music is protected by federal law". These services still exist today as legitimate online stores for music and other multimedia, not dissimilar to Apple's iTunes service. While they were shut down permanently after relatively little time, these services pioneered the paradigm of sharing files over the internet.

The main reason that Napster (and other services like it) failed was due to the centralised system that bundled the unfiltered search engine with the software that uploaded and downloaded the data. This made it easy to prosecute Napster for the intentional and willing loss of revenue to the recording industries. Unlike the networks of today, there was little chance for the owners of Napster to claim it was merely a legitimate service with negative consequences.

The second generation of P2P was mostly centred on the wildly popular Gnutella network. This protocol gained traction after the death of Napster and rose very quickly to nearly two million active users in 2005. By late 2007, the Gnutella network - with Limewire as its software client poster child - had over 40% of the file sharing "market".

Originally an open-source project, Limewire had many forks (i.e. groups branching an existing code-base to make a new, similar program) that spawned other sharing clients operating within the same Gnutella network. This method of de-cetralisation was the key to preventing an immediate closure from the legal threats of the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). While the search engine was still relatively integrated and centralised, the open-source nature of the project coupled with the large number of alternative clients and shadow backups of the Gnutella index meant that the eventual death of Limewire wasn't the end.

Limewire was officially shut down in October 2010. While the Gnutella network is no longer the de-facto protocol for P2P, it is still widely used today, due to many of the open source clients it spawned. There is even a "Limewire Pirate Edition" that was made freely and publicly available within a month of Limewire's demise, complete with all of Limewire's features. It's difficult to attribute the significant drop in usage of the Gnutella network to the take-down of Limewire, or the rise of the superior torrent system. While P2P has taken many forms since its inception, by far the most common and powerful today is the Bittorrent network.

The Bittorrent network is a heavily versatile protocol that offers many advantages, standing on the shoulders of what fell before it. On its own, the software client is completely legal and has no inherent infringement on copyright. This means that torrent clients can be easily distributed publicly on the internet without any fear of prosecution. Some are open-source, some are free (but ad-supported), and some (similar to Limewire) even charge money for "pro" features (such as µTorrent Pro).

Some torrent clients have search functionality, but the results are taken from third-party websites. Because of this, torrent clients can claim complete immunity for any infringement that takes place with their software because of their independent structure. This is the same way that Microsoft isn't liable if people use Windows Media Player to view pirated movies, or Google isn't liable if their search engine is used to find tutorials on how to create a home-made bomb. This freedom from the law means that it can actually be easier and faster to install the software required to use the full power of the Bittorrent network, than a web browser.

Since there is no centralised search engine, third party websites are needed to host torrent files. These files are de-centralised from the content themselves in that they only contain meta-data about the location of the content. Since the torrent files only contain online location addresses and other descriptive information and not the content themselves, torrent files are usually quite small and manageable to store in large volumes. There is significant ambiguity over whether torrent files themselves are illegal if they contain links to copyrighted material. Many countries are yet to make a definitive ruling. Most torrent files are around 100KB in size (About.com). On modern internet connections, this would take less than one second to download.

In short, sharing files using the Bittorrent network is done with four parties. The host servers (such as zoink or torrentz) store torrent files that point to trackers (starting points for finding connections). The search engines (such as The Pirate Bay, Isohunt, or a custom search in Google) allow users to find these torrent files based on keywords. The Bittorrent client (such as Vuse, µTorrent or Transmission) uses the information in the torrent file to connect the user to trackers, and then peers and seeds to download parts of the files where available. Finally, the seeders (which are other users that connect to the internet like the average consumer) keep stored copies of the requested files on their hard drives and upload (also known as seeding) to people who request it. Users who have downloaded the finished files (or even incomplete files) are able to become seeders themselves, giving back by uploading (sharing) what they have almost immediately. To get this intricate system in place, a lot of technology, programming, evolution and construction have gone into developing the Bittorrent network to be as resilient, de-centralised, and easy as possible.

Due to the nature of how sharing operates on the Bittorrent network, there is no single server, location, company, group or person that can be removed from the network to shut it down. There is no centralised leader or bottleneck in the Bittorrent network, and this makes it difficult, if not impossible, to adequately regulate or police. Generally the weakest link, both legally and physically in the supply chain of the Bittorrent network is the series of independent, but centralised, servers that host the torrent files. This is because they host incredibly large volumes of torrent files that are tagged with names (which in many cases show that the files are intended to contain intellectual property). These servers often contain login information for users that upload torrent files, and can possibly store IP address logs for visiting traffic. As such; they are usually the best targets of any legal action.

Prominent torrent search engine The Pirate Bay has been raided multiple times and had its servers seized (only to be restored to full operation less than a week later). Isohunt was forced to modify its search algorithm to be more of a general search engine (like Google) for US users (though still remains a functional torrent search engine depending on the IP address of the user). Mininova, arguably the most popular torrent site at the time, was shut down in 2009 in a similar manner to Isohunt. The Pirate Bay is blocked (in some form) in over 13 countries, including the UK, and people affiliated with the creation and management of the site have been found guilty in the Swedish courts of breaching intellectual property on a mass scale. Despite the attention, The Pirate Bay remains open and fully-functional with the slogan "The galaxy's most resilient Bittorrent site".

Piracy is getting increasing attention from legislators as lobby groups like the MPAA and RIAA push for increased censorship provisions to fight sharing on the internet. These measures have all failed to reduce the activity of file sharing networks. In the month that the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was to be voted upon - a piece of US legislation that was deemed so destructive that many major websites including Wikipedia blacked-out in protest - the Bittorrent network boasted over 150 million users. This is a 400% increase from the level of activity in 2008. There are an estimated quarter of a billion monthly active users, with consistently high rates of growth.

With the boost in usage on the Bittorrent network, lobby groups supporting SOPA argued that there have been multiple studies into the revenue loss to the economy as a result of piracy. While piracy is clearly a concern for the revenue streams of multimedia companies, there is evidence to suggest there is a gross exaggeration. According to IT World (Fogarty 2012), the figures quoted are usually around $250 billion loss of revenue and 750,000 jobs lost per year. After Julian Sanchez challenged the validity (and existence) of these studies, the MPAA eventually dropped their estimate of global revenue loss to $6.1 billion, based on another study that couldn't be found. A Government Accountability Office Report (GOA, 2010) sided with Sanchez in estimating that at least 80% of pirated content wouldn't have been purchased if the price wasn't essentially free. This pushes the estimated figure well below a billion. Regardless of which amount is closer to the truth, there is extreme support behind the closure of torrent sites to prevent revenue loss from piracy.

Despite the incredible pressure facing torrent sites, there is a way to decentralise the distribution of torrent files even further to remove the large legal target. Magnet links are a type of protocol over a decade old, but have only relatively recently become widely used for P2P sharing. A magnet link is a type of hyperlink that lets a user download a torrent file from the peers and seeds. The magnet link is a 32-bit string that represents the SHA-1 hash of the torrent file. Given this, modern torrent clients can connect to the swarm and retrieve the torrent file without going through a centralised server.

Notorious torrent site The Pirate Bay has pioneered a shift in the way Bittorrent operates. Beginning March 2012, the website stopped hosting torrent files. All downloads from the site are processed using magnet links. This means the entire database (millions of different torrent files that take up millions of gigabytes of files) can be compressed into a 90MB file. This has already led to many mirror sites (as opposed to proxy servers) giving access to The Pirate Bay's database to those in countries where it's otherwise unavailable. The transition for all torrent sites and clients to move to magnet-only configurations won't be quick, but once completed, will ensure that the Bittorrent network will become even more difficult - and theoretically impossible - to control. Future legislation such as the Protect Intellectual Property Act (PIPA), and trade agreements like the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) could restrict the widespread nature of file sharing, but restricting P2P without damaging the mainstream internet will be a challenge that governments worldwide will need to address.

Peer to peer file sharing has evolved from basic, legally-oblivious beginnings to an underworld sub-culture hiding under the radar, to one of the largest public ecosystems on the internet. It's continually evolving and as recently as this month, taking significant steps to become the ultimate source of decentralized information. The extreme growth in popularity of the Bittorrent network shows that as long as P2P is plausible, it will be popular. Despite the legal and lobbyist attention that has exploded in the last few years toward the piracy behind file sharing, no reasonable measures have dented the flow of data. With the recent steps being led by sites such as The Pirate Bay, it is clear that unless the world's governments mutually agree to police the internet and its people to an Orwellian extreme; the only way to kill peer to peer file sharing is to destroy the internet itself.

To Catch a Spy - Part 5/5

2012-03-31

The below story is fictional and has not been modified in any way through the editorial process. Any similarities with persons living or dead is purely coincidental. The content below may contain explicit material not suitable for children.

I did not travel in the same social or business circles as Gaynor, Billings, Baxter or Stemper so I had no idea how they were fairing as far as wives and fiances were concerned, but my lawyer informed me that their lawyers had been in contact with him. Gaynor and Baxter were denying everything and said they would go to court and take their chances. Billings and Stemper offered to settle out of court and I told my attorney to go ahead and settle. I didn't want a prolonged court fight; I just wanted to hurt the bastards.

I sent a note to Baxter and told him that while I had seen to it that his wife knew what he'd been doing with mine I had not yet shared that information with his employer, but that could change at any time. Two days later he offered to settle. That left Gaynor. He was the man who had pulled the strings. Mandy's pimp as it were, and he was the one I really wanted to hurt. But all I had on him was some taped conversations and the video of him sitting at our kitchen table passing Mandy an envelope and receiving a disc from her. To get him I was going to need a lot more and there was only one place I could get it.

The next time that Mandy called I took the call.

"Hello?"

"Rob, it's Mandy."

"Yes?"

"How are you?"

"I've been better, but not recently."

"I'd like to talk to you Rob."

"About what?"

"About the mess we are in."

"What mess would that be Amanda? I've separated myself from the mess you made of my life."

"Please Rob, I love you. I need to explain what was happening. It wasn't what you think it was. Please Rob; please let me talk to you."

I gave her about five seconds of silence and then said, "All right Amanda. The house at seven tonight, but I will have some questions and I had better get honest answers. The first time I even think you are not being honest with me you are out the door and there will not be a next time. You get one shot and tonight is it. Do you understand?"

"Yes. I won't lie to you Rob, I promise."

"Would that be anything like the promise you made me when we got married? You know, the one where you promised to be faithful to me?"

"I'm sorry Rob. I guess I deserved that, but there will be no untruths. I'll see you tonight. Goodbye."

She was parked out in front of the house at twenty to seven. I don't know if she sat there trying to work up the courage to face me or if she felt that since I said seven she had better follow my instructions to the "T" and didn't want to be even a minute late. What I do know is that watching her walk up to the house hurt. She was as beautiful as ever and it killed me to be apart from her.

She rang the doorbell at seven exactly and I let her in and told her we would use the kitchen. When we got there I pointed at a chair and said:

"You sit there and I'll sit over here where Gaynor sat when you gave him the recording and he gave you the envelope full of money."

I saw the look on her face when I said that and I said, "You weren't the only one with hidden cameras in the house. That should tell you that I know a whole lot more than you think I do. I do have a way to know if you try to sneak a lie by me."

"I told you Rob, no untruths and I meant it."

I placed a tape recorder on the table in front of me and hit the record button and said, "Okay Amanda, you called this meeting."

She looked at me and was silent for a moment and then said, "I need you to know one thing Rob, I need you to know that I love you. I love you with all my heart and soul and I would give anything if I could just go back in time and change some things. I do love you Rob and nothing that happened was because of anything you did or didn't do. I didn't do what I did because I stopped loving you; I did it because I love you so much that I couldn't bear the thought of losing you."

I just sat there and listened as I silently looked at her."

"What I did Rob, I did because I was blackmailed into doing it."

She saw I was getting ready to open my mouth and she held up a hand and said:

Please let me get it out Rob. This is the hardest thing I've ever had to do, so please let me get it all out before you say anything. When I'm done I'll answer any questions that you have, but please let me get it all out first."

She looked at me for a second and then asked, "Could I have a glass of wine? It will help steady my nerves. I opened a bottle of white wine and set it and a glass down in front of her and then sat down and waited. She poured some wine in her glass, took a sip and then told me the story.

It had happened during my swing shift turn almost two years ago. The company she was working for had a cocktail party for their clients and since I was working Mandy's boss asked her if she would act as hostess. Since I wouldn't be home until after mid-night Mandy said she would do it. In addition to one of the large halls at the Hyatt Regency her company had also arranged for a hospitality suite. The first couple of hours went by without incident and then Mandy had started feeling funny. She felt a little disoriented and woozy and her boss told her to go on up to the hospitality suite and lie down. She didn't remember the next part, but she knew it had happened because she was shown the video.

Phil, her boss, had gone up to check on her and when he bent down to ask if she was all right she had grabbed his tie and pulled him down on the bed. She had rolled on top of him and kissed him and then she had unzipped his fly and had gone down on him.

I knew Phil and I liked him. I knew him well enough to know that he would never hit on Mandy, but I also knew that he wouldn't fight her off if she was the aggressor. Anyway, she sucked his cock, pulled his pants off and mounted him. He came, she sucked him hard and he fucked her again. She tried to go down on him and get him up a third time, but he pushed her away and said he needed to see to his guests. Phil was no sooner out the door than Baxter came in and after Baxter there were three men she didn't know. By the time Baxter was doing her for the second time she was becoming aware of what was happening, but she couldn't stop it and by the time the other three came back for seconds she was an eager participant.

"That was the night Phil called you and told you that the company put me up in a room because they felt I'd had too much to drink."

Baxter and the three men had taken turns on her until about two in the morning and then they left. The next morning Amanda woke up with a hurting head, a very sore pussy and her body ached all over. She cleaned herself up and went into work. She hadn't seen the video yet so she didn't know about Phil and she had wondered why he had avoided her all day. She did know that she had been fucked by four men who she didn't know and when she came home from work that night she was determined to tell me what had happened, but as soon as she saw me she lost her nerve.

She had gone into work the next morning determined to build up the courage to face me when she got home that night, but at eleven-thirty Phil had called her into his office and John Gaynor was there. She knew that Gaynor did a lot of business with the company, but she didn't realize how important he was until Phil said:

"John needs to talk with you about something. Why don't you take a long lunch."

She couldn't figure out what Gaynor wanted to talk with her about, but it all became clear when they got to the restaurant. He slid a half dozen photographs across the table to her and casually asked her what I might think if I was to receive copies or maybe even get a copy of the video.

"I could not let you see those pictures and if there was a video it could only be ten times worse than the pictures. Even to me it looked like I was loving it and I KNEW that I hadn't done it on purpose."

She found out later that Baxter had commented to Gaynor that he would love to fuck Mandy and Gaynor had asked what it would be worth to be able to do it. Baxter had said that for something as nice as Mandy he would give all of his business to Maxxim instead of just a portion. Gaynor had said, "Deal!"

Gaynor had slipped Mandy a "date rape cocktail," apparently it was something that he did often and he always had some in his car, his briefcase or his pocket. When Phil told Mandy to go up to the hospitality suite Gaynor said he was on his way up to his room and he offered to walk Mandy the room and make sure that she got there okay.

He got Mandy on the bed and then hurried up to room he had already rented. He had planned on setting up a buyer from another company with a hooker and taping it. He hurried to the room, got the camera and took it back to the hospitality suite. He hid the camera, turned it on and went to get Baxter. By the time he got back to the room Mandy and Phil were already at it. The deal was simple. Gaynor needed a favour and if Mandy would do it he would give her the photos and the video. The favour was an afternoon with one of his customers. She had, just had, to get those pictures and the video that went with them and given what she had already been through what was one more? One more and she would be out from under the hammer. She would still tell me what happened, but she would tone it down some - like maybe confine it to Baxter - but the big thing was that I would never see the pictures and the video.

She agreed to do the one time favour, spent the afternoon in a hotel room with his customer and Gaynor gave her the photos and the video from the cocktail party. She destroyed them and then started to work up the courage to face me and tell me about the cocktail party and what had happened. I had worked overtime that night so her confession was going to have to wait until the next day. The next day Gaynor called her and told her that he needed another favour. He had another customer who needed to be taken care of. She had laughed at him and told him no way and to forget it. He had no hold over her now that she had the photos and video. Then Gaynor told her that yes, she did have the originals, but he had copies and he also had the tape that he had made of her when she took care of his customer the previous afternoon.

From then on she had been Gaynor's whore. To forestall any attempt she might later make against him by going to the authorities over his blackmailing her he started paying her a commission on sales that happened after she took care of one of his 'friends' and he did it in his rented apartment so he had her on tape taking the money and putting it in her purse.

The setup in our house had a dual purpose. One, to tape her meetings at the house and two, Gaynor wanted to keep an eye on me to see if I ever got suspicious and started checking up on Mandy. He had a good thing going with her, especially with guys like Baxter and Billings who kept coming back for more, and he didn't want to lose it so he kept an eye on me so he could adapt if I began to suspect something.

Mandy finally woke up to the fact that if he could use the tapes against her she could use them against him and she started making two copies of everything she took off of the receiving unit. She kept one set for herself and when the time came she was going to tell Gaynor "no more" and when he threatened her with showing me the tapes she would tell him if he did she would blow the whistle on him to every guy he'd had her do.

"And when was that going to happen?"

"As soon as I had a hundred thousand dollars. I was going to tell you what I had done and I wanted to have enough money to fall back on if you threw me out."

"If I threw you out? You thought that maybe I wouldn't?"

"I had hopes that you might love me as much as I love you and you would understand why I did what I did. I didn't want to lose you Rob and I couldn't see any way that I wouldn't if you ever saw that video tape. I had no choice Rob. I didn't dare gamble that you would stay with me after seeing the video. I was uncertain over the outcome if I just confessed to the cocktail party, but without the video I thought I might just have a chance. There was no chance at all if you had seen me with Baxter and those others."

"How many times did you have to do Phil to get him to give you all that time off to go play in hotels?"

"The only time I did anything with Phil was the night of the party. He let me have time off, with pay, anytime Gaynor said he needed me. He didn't really want to, but Gaynor had shown him pictures of Phil and me doing it and had hinted that it would sure be a shame if Phil's wife were to get a set."

"I suppose Phil will let you go now that I've blown the whistle on everyone."

"No. Phil and I have talked about things and we are both holding our breath to see what Gaynor might do. He can't hurt me anymore and he has no reason to hurt Phil, but who can tell? Phil knows I wasn't myself that night so we have been able to get back to a good relationship."

"Is that it? Anything else before you leave?"

She hesitated for a few seconds and then said. "I was hoping that I could convince you to give me the money that you took from my closet. Now that you have kicked me out I could use it."

"Sorry, but you are just going to have to consider that as the price you paid for stabbing me in the back. I might consider giving you some of it if you agree to testify against him if I end up taking him to court."

"Of course I will and I'll do it for nothing."

"I'll let you know" and I stood up to signal that as far as I was concerned her visit was over.

She looked up at me. "Is there no chance Rob? Isn't there any chance at all that we can work through this and stay together? I love you Rob; God knows that I do."

"I can't see how Amanda. There might have been a chance if you had told me about the cocktail party right after it happened, but now, all these months and all these men later? I don't see how."

She had tears in her eyes as I walked her to the door and there were tears in mine as I watched her drive away.

The next day I went to Maxxim's in-town office complex and made my way to Gaynor's office. I walked right past his secretary who jumped up and told me that I couldn't go in. I smiled at her and said:

"It's okay sweetie, he is expecting me."

He was sitting at his desk and reading some papers when I walked in. He looked up and I saw recognition register on his face.

"Mr Gaynor I believe" I said, "I'm Mandy's husband, but I expect that you already know that."

He started to stand up and I said, "No need to get up, I won't be here that long."

I dropped an envelope on his desk and said, "You weren't the only one with hidden cameras in my house. You will find four things in that envelope. One is a copy of the video of you giving my about to be ex-wife an envelope full of money in exchange for a recording of her evening with Billings. The second item is a copy of that evening with Billings. That's just there to let you know that Amanda made herself a copy of everything that you had her do in our house so your hidden cameras could record it. Item number three is excerpts from a tape that Amanda made for me last night and those excerpts will let you know she has agreed to testify against you if things end up in court which is exactly where things will end up if you do not make use of the fourth item which is a card with my attorney's phone number on it. I would strongly suggest that you call him and let him know that you are going to settle the lawsuit I have against you. If you do not make that call I will drop everything that I have on the District Attorney's desk this coming Friday."

I turned to leave the office and when I reached the door I turned back to him and said, "Hey; you have a fine day now" and then I left.

The next day I got a call from my attorney telling me that Gaynor had called him and agreed to settle out of court. I waited until all the checks had cleared and the dust had settled and then I made six copies of everything I had and sent one set to the president and CEO of Maxxim and one copy each to the five man board of directors. Three days later I got a phone call from a very pissed off (and, as it turned out, a recently unemployed) John Gaynor.

"You mother fucking bastard! You said if I settled you wouldn't do anything."

"No, that is not what I said. I said if you settled I would not give it to the District Attorney so he could file criminal charges against you. I didn't say anything about not telling your boss. And just so you know; it is all about revenge. You fucked me and I got even."

I hung up the phone and Mandy asked, "Who was that?"

"Your ex-pimp. He is upset because somehow his boss found out what he was doing and it upset him so much that he fired Gaynor."

Yes, Mandy is back in the house. Not back in my good graces, but back in the house. She is sleeping in the spare bedroom until we can see if we can put things back together. I'm not at all sure that we can. I do love her and I do believe she loves me so I'm willing to give it a try, but I don't know if that love will be enough. There are issues that have to be addressed, trust being one of them. One of the others is that Mandy was right when she said she thought we might have a chance as long as I never saw the video of her taken at that cocktail party. I never did see that video, but I watched every one of the other videos that she had hidden in her closet and the images of Mandy with those other men are burned into my brain and every time I look at Mandy they start playing in my head.

I told her I would try and I will. I will try really hard. But I'm not making any promises.

Secret Meeting

2012-03-28

It was a warm morning, the sun up in the sky smiled at the land as it caressed it with its gentle rays. John had woken up at nine; he was ready for his meeting at the group he had joined two months ago.

He got his usual gear, which consisted of a mobile phone, a wrist watch, a wallet with a single ID, in this case, a driver's license, a case for a pair of contact lenses that he had already put on, and a lighter; and got out of his house.

He lived on a rather peaceful part of the city; the regular situations one had to deal with were stray dogs running amok or a group of kids playing on the street with a ball they seemed to be unable to control.

John got into his car, a blue Malibu, turned the engine on and got on his way. He was supposed to arrive at half past nine at a very important meeting, and he did not want to be late.

As soon as he got on the more crowded roads, he sensed something, a familiar feeling: his subconscious mind was picking up on a certain detail that his conscious mind was not yet aware of. He started sweating and looked around, trying to find the reason for his mind's unrest.

He looked into the rear-view mirror and confirmed his fear: A white SUV was following him. "A rather sloppy way of tailing someone" he thought; and, after this idea came up, he had another just as alarming as the first one: "Maybe I'm supposed to notice them, maybe they are not following me to see where I go, maybe it is a hit squad, maybe they are hoping I'll lose the SUV so they can follow me calmly with a different car." He decided to put his theories to the test as he accelerated at a dangerous speed, the SUV stayed behind, thus confirming that last suspicion. He took a deep breath and surveyed his surroundings, looking for that second car following him.

Another car a few meters behind him looked odd enough to be deemed dangerous: A red Mustang with a group of teenagers inside; the driver, a blonde male with sunglasses, sped up and slowed down constantly, as if he were testing John's resolution to stay away from them.

That was the perfect cover, John knew that hit men usually don't take out their victims themselves; they hire someone else if they can. Those teenagers were probably waiting for the right opportunity to complete their assignment.

"Could the group have leaked my information and marked me for death? Probably, but why?" John's mind wandered off with a thousand new theories: The woman he talked to after his last meeting could've been a spy checking in on him. Maybe someone else was onto him for a completely different reason. Whatever the case, he hated himself for not having been paying the usual attention to his surroundings lately, all because he was too busy with his work. "That is no excuse" he thought, "The nature of your job compels you to pay attention". He decided to keep his examination for another time and focused on his present situation.

He had twenty more minutes before his meeting started, which meant he had to shake off the red Mustang and keep an eye out for the SUV and other vehicles that might be following him.

He drove past his usual exit and decided he would double back later. John stopped at a convenience store; the security cameras, parked cars and customers should be enough for his pursuers to feel discouraged and change tactics, this would give John enough time to come up with a couple of his own.

He parked the car and what he saw made his blood freeze: The red mustang parked directly beside him, one of the boys opened the door and got out of the car, the others remained there, with the engine running. That was it! He was going to kill him and then quickly get back into the car; they would drive off, and any witnesses nearby would be too busy ignoring the incident or attending his wounds to care about the perpetrators. John hated himself for not having asked for a gun permit when he had the chance.

He looked at the teenager, who got out of the car, and at the others waiting for him; they were just talking and laughing; "Very professional for an improvised hit squad, they don't let their intentions to be apparent", he thought. The one who had left the car entered the store and a brief moment later was coming out with two six packs of beer. He entered the car and they drove off.

The perfect alibi, and also, a clear message for him: "We will let you go this time, but, we are close". John stayed parked for a while. He still had ten more minutes to get to his meeting. He drove back to the road slowly, his subconscious was warning him to be cautious. He looked around quickly and noticed that the SUV that he had left behind was now waiting for a red light to change; conveniently, the SUV was the same distance away as the Mustang was before.

John drove off quickly before the light changed, hoping to gain a few seconds to get lost in traffic, and he did so successfully, the SUV went straight ahead, unaware that John had just made a forbidden turn to the right that almost caused him to crash, but it got the job done.

He still had five minutes to arrive to his meeting so he decided to park his car a few blocks away and walk to the building. He approached a street vendor and bought a single cigarette, took out his lighter and lit it. John did not particularly enjoyed smoking, but in this case he was just doing it as a clever tactic to check his surroundings without raising any suspicion in anyone who could be observing him. This same tactic had helped him get out of tough spots many times in the past, and had proved to be useful once again: a man was staring at him from across the street.

An adrenaline rush filled his body as he approached that man; this time he was not going to run, this time he was going to confront him and demand answers.

-What the fuck are you doing? -he asked, acknowledging his lack of touch gave his target the perfect excuse to cover up his intent.

-Relax man, I don't want trouble -the man replied.

-You've got it anyway -He said as he threw a punch, hitting the man's face.

John took a defensive stance as the man answered his attack with one of his own, it was evident he was well trained as he dodged his attacks and was able to knock him down, something not many were able to accomplish.

A third man joined the fight, but he defused the situation.

-Let it go man, it's not worth it -said the third guy.

John's opponent left as he stood up, it was obvious that whoever was after him, did not want him dead, that morning John had been careless enough to give them enough opportunities to kill him, that had just been one of them.

He continued walking as he thought about his encounters with those resourceful opponents. "If they don't want to kill me, what do they want?" As he got closer to the building and asked himself that question, the answer popped up in his mind: Of course! The group! Those men were not trying to kill him, they were looking for information on those meetings, and who better to give them that information about what goes on inside than someone already involved in them.

He then knew he would be seeing the SUV again, the only question was: would he cooperate? Or would he decline the offer to become a spy for whoever wanted the information?

John brushed off these thoughts as he entered the building, his meeting was about to commence and it was advised he paid attention to nothing else for the duration of it.

He walked towards the front desk and greeted the receptionist, before continuing on his way. He cleared his mind as he entered the elevator and pressed the button that would take him to the third floor, where his meeting was already starting.

Next to the elevator, a poster in blue letters read:

"PARANOIDS ANONYMOUS SUPPORT GROUP ON THIRD FLOOR.

COACH: JOHN M.

DON'T WORRY, WE CAN HELP"

To Catch a Spy - Part 4/5

2012-03-20

She wasn't at the door when I came home that night, but she did wake up and reach for my cock when I got in bed. I told her I was too weary to have sex and she told me not to worry, that she would do all the work. She slid down, took me in her mouth and sucked me off. Sometimes she swallowed and sometimes she didn't, but that night she did and then she moved up, snuggled in against me, whispered "I love you" and went back to sleep.

I lay there, staring up at the ceiling, and trying to make it all add up. Everything she said to me and did to me was what a loving wife would do and say, but how could she when she was doing what she was doing? It just did not equate!

The next days audio was the John guy calling to make sure that everything was a go for the evening and then a call from Mandy to John telling him that Billings had just left and that everything had gone well. The video was almost a rerun of the last time; a starter hum job on the couch, a move to the bedroom, a fuck followed by a sixty-nine, another fuck and then a suck job in an attempt to get him up one more time (which failed and that pleased me no end) and then she saw him out. She showered, made the bed and then got in bed and starting reading a book and at that point I stopped watching.

There was an interesting bit of dialog that took place. She spread her legs and waited for him and while he undressed he said:

"Tell me again."

"Tell you what?"

"You know damned well what baby."

"Does it make you especially hard to know that my husband soaked his cock in your cum?"

"You'll see just how hard in a few seconds."

"He pushed his cock in my pussy and it just slid all the way in with no resistance at all. I didn't give him a chance to ask me why I was so wet. I moaned and said, "Oh God baby, I'm so horny. I've been thinking of this all day. I told him that I had been so hot thinking about fucking him that I'd gone to the bathroom twice to get myself off and even that wasn't enough. I told him I used my hairbrush when I got home." She giggled and said, "I threw in the hairbrush in case he got to thinking about how loose I was.

"You fucking slut" he moaned as he got on the bed.

"There is one thing that I didn't tell you earlier in your hotel room. He wanted to eat me before he fucked me, but I didn't dare let him. He isn't stupid. He's eaten me hundreds of times and he knows my taste. He would have noticed the difference. Does that turn you on lover? Does knowing that I really wanted to let him taste you make you excited?"

By then he was pushing his cock into her and her legs had come up to clamp him. "You would like that wouldn't you? You love the thought of my husband slurping up your juices don't you?"

"You slut!" he cried as he drove himself into her and she laughed and moaned. "Fuck me lover, fuck me hard."

It was my first day off so I was home when Mandy got home from work. I had dinner ready and she told me that she wanted to take a quick shower before eating.

"I was in a smoke filled conference room most of the day and I've got it in my hair and on my clothes and I stink!"

That told me that she probably spent part of the afternoon with Billings or some other guy and needed to wash the smell of him off of her before I noticed. Probably wanted to flush some of him out of her while she was at it. That thought brought out a bit of the mean streak in me and I started up to the bathroom shedding clothes as I went. She was already in the shower with the water running when I got there. Her panties were lying on the floor and I glanced down at them and saw that the crotch was soaked.

Her back was to me and her legs were spread wide as she worked on her cunt with a rag. She apparently didn't hear me push the shower curtain aside, get in and slide the curtain closed. The first she knew I was there was when I grabbed her hips, leaned forward so my knees would keep her legs from closing and then I pushed my cock at her pussy. By pure luck my aim was good and the head of my cock entered her and then one good push and I slid in as far as I could go. She was slick and slippery and Billings was getting his wish -- my cock was soaking in his juices (at least I assumed it was Billings). I remembered what she had told Billings, that I had "slid in with no resistance at all" and I wondered if she remembered that conversation as I slid so easily into her.

Once I was fucking her Mandy leaned forward, put her hands against the wall and spread her legs even farther apart. She started moaning and crying out and I wondered if she was thinking of what kind of story she could tell me to cover how slippery her cunt was.

I fucked her hard and steady until I came and then I pulled out and told her to hand me the wash rag.

"I'll do your back for you while I'm here."

While I scrubbed her back I wondered if that was the first time I'd slid my cock into someone else's soup or if she had douched every time before coming to me. We finished showering together and then I told her I was going to wash my hair while I was in the shower (I noticed that she hadn't washed hers which was why she was going to shower in the first place -- to get the cigarette smoke out of her hair -- and I wondered if she would realize that at some point during the evening).

My real reason for letting her get out first was to give her a chance to hide her panties and sure enough when I got out of the shower they were gone. I also wondered if she was getting so used to cheating that she was getting sloppy in her actions. Why hadn't she showered and cleaned up in Billings' hotel room? If she knew she was going to meet him why not a spare pair of clean panties in her purse? Why take a chance coming home freshly fucked when she knew I'd be home when she got there? Granted, I rarely jumped her bones when she first got home, but I did it occasionally so why take the chance?"

Over dinner Mandy asked, "What got into you tonight?"

"I thought you might like it. You were ready last night and I didn't take care of you." "Yes you did. You held me and snuggled with me and I needed that."

"Still, you got me off and I didn't reciprocate."

"You know I like taking you in my mouth and making you feel good. There shouldn't be any "you have to do me because I do you." I love you baby, and I like to make you feel good."

I made no mention of how slick and slippery she was when I fucked her in the shower and not surprisingly, she didn't mention it either.

We made it through my days off without me letting anything show that I was onto her. For her part she was as attentive and loving as always. Once, when she thought I was napping on the couch she came over, bent down and kissed me lightly on the forehead, whispered "I love you" and then went out into the kitchen. I didn't doubt that she meant it because she thought I was asleep so she wouldn't have been putting on an act, but how could she love me and do what she was doing? It didn't matter how often I looked at it or from what angle, it still did not compute.

Twice I almost brought it out into the open, but both times I stopped because it would mean my giving up on my plan to find out about all the men she had been seeing and getting even. Taking my revenge was paramount and if Mandy knew that I knew she would no doubt let the John guy know and I would lose the element of surprise. I did not want them to see it coming.

The only video Monday was of Mandy checking the receiver before she went to bed, but there was audio from the phone tap.

"Hello?"

"It's me."

"You have anything for me?"

"Just what happened her Thursday evening."

"I'll pick it up Monday. Meet me for lunch at Augustino's and you can give it to me then. Are you ready for Wednesday?"

"As I'll ever be."

"You don't sound enthused sweetie."

"Am I supposed to?"

"I certainly hope you show your dates more enthusiasm than I'm hearing right now."

"Have you had any complaints so far?"

"No, and I don't want to get any."

"I'm tired. I'm going to bed" and she hung up on him.

I called Glen and gave him the information that Mandy would be doing something on Wednesday and he gave me the run down on what he had found out about Samuel Billings. Thirty-eight years old, married to Carol for fifteen years and the father of Ralph (13) and Kathy (10). He was Chief Procurement Officer for Apollo Industries, a company that made something fairly secret for the U.S. Department of Defence.

Glen had been outside my house waiting when John left following his meeting with Mandy and he had followed John. He was still digging, but he was able to tell me that John's full name was John David Gaynor and that he was the Vice President of Sales and Marketing for the Maxxim Corporation, a company that was heavy into engineering and manufacturing. Glen hoped to have more for me in a couple of days. I mentioned that it appeared that Gaynor was collecting stuff he could use to blackmail or coerce the men Mandy was fucking and that the other names I'd given him probably had something to do with buying from or selling to Maxxim and that could possibly be a starting point in finding out who they were.

Wednesday and again on Thursday Mandy entertained a man in our bedroom. She called him Frank and there was a Frank Stemper written on one of her hidden CDs. It was more suck and fuck and wasn't anything different than what she had done with Billings.

I reviewed the tapes every morning and most of what I got out of it was Gaynor calling to make sure everything went all right the night before and arranging to meet Mandy for lunch so she could give him what the receiver recorded. On Friday morning the phone tap gave me something that I gave to Glen. It was the usual stuff up to the point where Gaynor said:

"Is Sunday set?"

"Yes. I'll leave to meet him as soon as my husband goes to work."

My days off passed quickly and on Monday morning Glen told me that Mandy had left the house fifteen minutes after I had left for work and had driven to the Motel 6 on Ferguson. She had knocked on the door of room 118, the door had opened and she had stepped inside. A small bribe had gotten him the information that the room was registered to a Rhett Baxter. Baxter was also one of the names on Mandy's secret tapes. Mandy was in room 118 until eleven o'clock at which time she left the room and drove home.

I discovered that I was not the patient man I'd always thought I was. My original intent was to find out who all seven of the men were who had been fucking Mandy and then find a way to get payback, but at the end of four weeks I only had Gaynor, Stemper, Billings and Baxter. I was sick of listening to audio and watching video of my wife betraying me and I wanted it over. I decided that it was time to end it.

I saw an attorney and got the paper work for the divorce moving. I used my computer to burn copies of Mandy's secret CDs and then waited until my attorney told me that everything was in place. On Thursday, May 5th at eleven-ten a man approached Mandy at her place of work and asked her if she was Amanda Haight and when she said yes he handed her an envelope and said:

"You have been served."

When Mandy opened her envelope she found that in addition to being sued for divorce on the grounds of infidelity she was also under a restraining order keeping her at least 500 feet from me and the house. The only way she would be allowed in the house was if she arranged for a court supervised visit to pick up her things. I also enclosed a note telling her she could call and leave a message on the answering machine telling me what she would like to have placed in garbage bags and set out 500 feet from the house. I also told her not to bother trying to call me on the home phone or my cell as I had absolutely no interest in talking to her. That was a lie of course. I wanted to know just what the hell had been going on, but I wanted her to sweat for a while before we sat down to talk.

At the same time that Mandy was being served, give or take five minutes, Gaynor, Billings, Baxter and Stemper were being served papers informing them that they were being sued for Alienation of Affections. Also at the same time special messengers were delivering packages to the wives of Gaynor, Billings, Stemper and the fianc%uFFFDe of Baxter.

The morning all the paperwork was being served was a busy one for me. I had given Hal and Glen all the surveillance gear that Mandy and Gaynor had placed in the house and they were busy removing it. A locksmith was there changing all the locks on the house and the man from Terminex was there spreading ant bait around the perimeter of the house. And of course Mandy ignored my note and my cell started beeping every four or five minutes and between those calls the house phone rang and I heard the answering machine pick up.

"Rob? Are you there? Rob? Pick up the phone Rob. Come on Rob; we need to talk."

I ignored both phones.

Even though Hal and Glen had removed all of the devices that Mandy and Gaynor had put in the house I had them leave what they had put in. I ignored Mandy's attempts to get in touch with me and waited for what I knew would happen next. I knew Mandy would ignore the restraining order just as she had ignored my note telling her not to bother calling me.

Sure enough, when I came home from work Sunday night and checked the video tapes the kitchen camera showed Mandy coming into the kitchen through the door that led to the basement. The bedroom camera showed her going into her closet and then coming out with a look on her face that could kill. Probably upset that her CDs and her seventy-four thousand dollars weren't there. The attic camera showed her sticking her head up through the hatch and seeing that the Hallman XK116 digital recorder was gone. I walked down to the basement and saw that one of the windows was broken out and I called the police and reported the break in. I gave them copies of the tapes from my "security system" and told them I was missing three credit cards, one thousand dollars in cash and my Smith and Wesson .38 Special. Lies of course, but I wanted to make things as difficult for Mandy as I could.

I casually commented on the fact that I couldn't understand why she took the revolver and then I suddenly said, "Oh shit!" and one of the detectives asked "What?"

"She isn't all that happy about our divorce. You don't think that she...? No, she wouldn't. At least I don't think she would. You think maybe I should buy a bulletproof vest?"

I told them where she worked and at nine in the morning they arrested her while her fellow employees looked on. She was charged with breaking and entering, theft and as a separate count of theft - theft of a firearm - and violation of a restraining order. Her father put up her bail and when I got home from work that night there was a message from Mandy on the answering machine. Short and to the point, "You bastard!" I smiled as I deleted it.

I had intended to take what I had and go see the President and CEO of Maxxim and ask him if he was aware of Gaynor's activities, but then decided not to. I was suing Gaynor and costing him his job would mean a loss of income for him so I decided to wait until the suit was settled before doing that.

I was getting two and three phone calls a day from Mandy, but I didn't take any of them. She sent me letters and I returned them to her unopened. She sat on the hood of my car in the parking lot at the hanger and waited for me to get off so I took the employee bus over to the terminal and took a taxi home from there.

Over the next month I heard from everyone on both sides of the family telling me that I wasn't being fair in not talking to Mandy and I told them all the same thing. She had cheated on me with seven different men, had gotten caught and we had nothing to talk about. By cheating on me she had forfeited any right to be able to communicate with me. I would sit down with her and let her talk, but it would be at a time of my choosing, not hers.

Quite frankly, I wanted her to suffer. The fact that I was suffering too didn't much matter to me. The problem was that I loved her. Even knowing what she had done I loved her. The problem was compounded by the fact that I really believed that she loved me. What I could not get my head around was how could she love me and do what she had done? Going by the hidden CDs she'd had been sexually intimate with AT LEAST seven different men over the last year and a half. Men she fucked and then came home to me with their stink still on her. Oh I know she probably showered before she came to me, but their hands had been on her and their cocks had been in her and showering couldn't remove that. She had to be thinking of those hands and those cocks as she snuggled up next to me even if it was only to think that she was glad to be snuggling with me instead of lying under them. They HAD to be on her mind when she was with me.

To Catch a Spy - Part 3/5

2012-03-18

Tuesday morning after Mandy had left for work I reviewed the audio and video from Monday. There was nothing of interest on the video, but the audio tap had something.

"Hi. Just checking in. Is it still a go for tomorrow night?"

"As of two hours ago. I don't really expect that it will be cancelled. You sure that everything is cool on your end?"

"Should be no problems."

"There had better not be any problems. We are not paying you to have problems."

"And you won't have any!" Mandy snapped at him

They said their goodbyes, hung up and left me with something else to think about. Mandy was being paid? Did it have something to do with her job?

Wednesday morning at 8:13 is when my marriage ended. It turned out that we didn't need Glen to find out what Mandy was up to. Just the stuff that Hal planted in the house did the trick.

As soon as Mandy had left for work and I'd eaten breakfast I went to check the audio and video from Tuesday. The attic video showed Mandy downloading the receiver in what looked like a portable CD player. The camera in the living room captured Mandy coming into the room with a man I didn't recognize and they went over and sat on the couch. The man took Mandy in his arms and kissed her and then he asked her how much time he had. She told him that he needed to be gone by eleven and he said that he didn't think that would give him enough time. She giggled and said:

"You mean you still have something left after four hours in your hotel room?"

"I can never get enough of you and you know it."

"I just don't understand why you insist on making love to me here in my home and on my bed."

"Of course you do Mandy. You're mine and the best way to prove it is to have you here in your home, on your bed, your kitchen table, the washer and dryer, whatever."

"My husband just might have something to say about who I belong to."

"Fuck him! If he was strong enough to hold onto you I wouldn't be here."

"Would you like something to drink why I try and get you ready?"

"Scotch if you have it."

"Of course I have it sweetie. I knew you would be here so I made sure that I'd have your brand of scotch on hand."

"You knew I would be here?"

"Of course I did lover. I know what kind of man you are and I knew that sooner or later you would want me here. And don't give me any of that "I want you on your own bed" nonsense. You want me in my husband's house and on my husband's bed. You want to leave your smell in his house; take his wife in his own territory and don't you even try to deny it. Spread out and get comfy while I get you your scotch."

Mandy left the room and the man stood up, took off his trousers and briefs and then sat back down. He was stroking his cock when Mandy came back and handed him his drink. As he took a sip of his scotch Mandy went to her knees in front of him, leaned her head down and kissed the head of his cock. Then she licked the head and the shaft and took him in her mouth. She worked on him for several minutes and then he said:

"We need to take this to the bedroom baby."

"Your wish is my command lover."

Mandy got up and headed for the bedroom. By that time I had tears in my eyes. I loved that woman. Mandy had been my life from the day I first met her and I had spent the years following thinking that she felt the same about me. "Your wish is my command?" I was crushed. I forced myself to watch what took place in the bedroom. I was going to need some steel in my backbone for what was to come and the more I watched her betray me the harder that steel would become.

I watched as she lay back, smiled up at him and spread her legs wide. I listened as she moaned when he pushed his cock into her. I heard the cries and sounds that I thought I had been the only one to ever hear. I saw him finish, pull out and then move into a sixty-nine. I watched them lick and suck each other and then I watched him fuck Mandy a second time. I heard her tell him he had to leave.

"But why? He doesn't get off until eleven-thirty and he won't get home until after twelve. We have time."

"No we don't. I need to get these sheets off the bed and clean ones on and then I need to shower and douche before he gets home."

"Don't douche. I want to think of him feeling my cum on his dick."

"Oh sure, and what do I tell him when he asks why my pussy feels like a swamp? "Oh that? It's nothing. Just what my lover left in me." I don't think so."

"Just tell him that you are hot and wet because you got horny waiting for him to get home."

"You really want me to do that?"

"Absolutely!"

She was silent for a bit and then said, "Okay, but if it goes bad you may have to support me when he throws me out."

"You will do it?"

"Anything for you lover, you know that."

"If he catches on and splits you know my standing offer. I'll put you up in your own condo."

"That's sweet lover, but you do need to go, but be ready for my call if he doesn't like the feel of you."

I thought back to the previous night. Mandy met me when I came in the door. She was wearing a black lace nightgown, high heels and her make-up had been freshly done.

"I need you baby. I'm as horny as a goat and I need you. Come on baby, hurry to bed."

She hadn't felt any different from the other times I'd made love to her, but not knowing how long she had been fucking around on me I had no way of knowing that I wasn't the second man of the day every time we had gone to bed together. I remembered her comment about "four hours in your hotel room and I wondered how many times a week she met someone in a hotel room when she was supposed to be working. That prompted another thought. She was supposed to be at work so how did she get out of it? Did her boss know what she was doing? Was he involved somehow? All things that I would have to ask Glen to find out.

After watching the video I listened to the telephone tap.

"Hello?

"He's gone."

"Everything go okay?"

"He still wants to set me up as his mistress."

"Too bad we can't make it happen. It would sure make things better."

"Well it can't happen and if you know what is good for you, you will make sure that it doesn't happen."

"I don't think that I like the tone of your voice."

"Tough shit! I know you and it would be just your style to let my husband find out so he would kick me out and I'd be free to be Sam's mistress."

"I would never do something like that."

"Yes you would and the only thing stopping you is the sure and certain knowledge that I would blow the whistle on you and every one of the half dozen or so men you have made me take care of. You destroy my marriage and I'll destroy you and don't you forget it!"

"I won't forget it. I'll see you tomorrow evening" and he hung up.

Now I had even more to think about. It sounded like Mandy was doing what she was doing under protest, but that meant nothing to me. The fact is that she was doing it and that is all that counted to me. The man she had taken care of the previous evening was bad enough, but by her own words there were also "a half dozen or so" others. How long had it been going on and why hadn't I ever gotten an inkling?

I called Glen and brought him up to date and told him to concentrate on the man Mandy had spent the afternoon with. He'd already known about the man since he had been on Mandy since I started swing shift. He told me that the man, Samuel Billings according to the hotel register, had taken Mandy to lunch and then back to his hotel room for a little over four hours and then he had followed them to my house. I told him that Mandy was going to see the man who was behind things that night and I told him that I wanted everything on Samuel Billings that he could get me. I intended to find out who the "half dozen or so" were, who it was who was having Mandy do what she was doing and then I was going to ruin them all.

Mandy was waiting up for me again when I got home that night. We had sex twice (not "made love" but had sex) before she cuddled up next to me and went to sleep. I lay there staring at the ceiling and thinking back over the last couple of years. There had been no change in Mandy's attitude toward me that I could see. She was affectionate and loving (or was a superb actress) and our sex life was as good as ever. I could not for the life of me point to something and say:

"There - right there! That's when whatever she is doing started."

When I finally fell asleep it was with a head full of questions that I had no answers for.

I waited an hour after Mandy left for work before I checked the audio and video. I gave her the hour in case she had forgotten something and came back to get it. There was nothing on the phone tap and the only video came from the camera that Glen had suggested we put in the kitchen and from the camera in our bedroom.

Mandy and a man walked into the kitchen and Mandy asked the man if he would like a drink and he said a beer would be fine if she had one. She got him a beer and herself a Diet Coke and then she sat down at the table with him.

"Do you have it?" he asked.

She took what looked like a CD from her pocket and slid it across the table to him. He opened his briefcase, took out an envelope and pushed it to her. She pushed it aside, leaned forward and said:

"Now what?"

"He's in town till Saturday. He has that dinner to go to tonight, but he wants to see you the rest of the nights he is here."

"Won't happen. Rob's days off while he is on swings are Friday and Saturday so those two nights are out."

"Couldn't you have a girl's night out with some friends or pretend to have an Avon party to go to?"

"I could, but I won't. I'm not giving up my time with Rob."

"It is only for this weekend. You will have all the rest for your husband."

"No John, I won't do it so leave it be."

It was a conversation that I could not get my head around. She is cheating on me, but won't give up our time together? It didn't make sense. He shrugged and got up and Mandy walked him to the door. After he left the bedroom camera showed Mandy going into her closet with the envelope she had been given and she came out without it. So, on my list of things to do as soon as I was done reviewing the audio and video was to take a look in Mandy's closet.

The closet in our bedroom is actually two closets. It runs the entire length of the long side of our 14 x 20 foot bedroom. Inside, at the mid-point, there is a wall that divides the closet into equal halves. One side is my walk-in closet and the other side is Mandy's. I usually have no need or reason to go into Mandy's half and in fact I couldn't remember the last time I was in there.

I started my search just inside the door and worked my way toward the back. I didn't find anything until I got to the very back. There were a dozen shoe and hat boxes and three medium sized moving boxes that had "Mother's things" written on the sides with a Magic Marker. Mandy's mother had passed away three years before and the boxes contained the things of her mom's that she just couldn't bear to part with. There wasn't anything in the shoe or hat boxes, but I hit pay-dirt when I opened the top box that said, "Mother's things."

There were eighteen CDs with names and dates written on them and fourteen envelopes like the one the John guy had pushed across the table to her the previous evening. I opened one and found it stuffed with hundreds, fifties and twenties. I counted it and found that the envelope had six thousand dollars in it. In the next box I found her douche bag and a collection of "come fuck me" high heels and lingerie that I had never seen her wear. I also found condoms, a diaphragm and a bottle of "morning after" pills. All good things for Mandy to have since I was sterile because of something that I'd had as a kid; mumps, chicken pox, diphtheria or something like that (and yes, I made sure that Mandy knew before we got married). The third box did have her mother's things in it.

I went and got a pen and a piece of paper and wrote down the names that were on the CDs and then I went and called Glen and gave him what I had. When I hung up from talking to Glen I went back to Mandy's closet and counted the money in the envelopes. The largest amount was twelve thousand and the smallest was three thousand. The total was seventy-four thousand dollars. I made a note of the brand of CDs and then I took three of them and went downstairs and put them in the CD player. It was pretty much the same as what she had done with Billings. She sucked and fucked all three men several times before telling them that they needed to leave before I got home.

I took the three back upstairs and put everything back the way I'd found it. I'd never lifted a hand to woman in my life, but had Mandy walked in just then I couldn't swear that I wouldn't have hurt her.

I managed to get myself under control and by the time I left for work I had the rough outline of a plan in my mind. To make it work meant that I would have to control myself and pretend that everything was fine. I could not do anything that would make Mandy suspect that I was in the least bit suspicious. The problem was that I didn't know if I could do it.

To Catch a Spy - Part 2/5

2012-03-15

Work was a bitch that night. All I thought about were mini-cams, the tap on our telephone and the receiver in the attic and what they all meant. I wondered about what I would find when I got home. The receiver in the attic could only be checked when I wasn't at home and during grave turn I was around all the time except when I was at work. That meant that the only time it could be checked was after ten forty-five when I left for work and before I got home at eight. That meant that unless someone was sneaking into the house after Mandy left for work and before I got home the checker had to be Mandy - or someone Mandy let in after I was gone. Hal's theory was that if it was me being watched they would be checking the receiver almost every day.

The first thing I did when I got home was go up into the attic. The mini-cam that Hal had installed fed into a compact VCR that he had hidden under the attic insulation. I got the tape out of it, put a fresh one in, and then headed down into the basement. There was a spy cam watching my workshop area, but nothing in the rest of the basement so Hal had rigged up a small TV, VCR and audio cassette player back behind the stored Christmas decorations.

I pushed the tape into the VCR and hit 'play'. There was about two seconds of black and then the screen showed the hatch into the attic being pushed up and moved to the side. The time stamp said 10:58 PM which was just a little time after I left for work. Then Mandy's head came up through the hatch. Until then, even though I knew it highly unlikely, I had hoped that whatever was going on that Mandy wasn't part of it. But there she was!

I watched as she walked over to the receiving unit and pushed buttons. She watched and listened to what was on the machine for about ten minutes and then left the attic. I checked the phone tap that Hal had put in. It was a voice activated cassette recorder and the counter read 217 so I popped out the tape and put a fresh one in and reset the counter. I was using headphones in case the spy cam in my workshop was sensitive enough to pick out other sounds in the basement so I put them on and rewound the tape and then hit the 'play' button. A man's voice said:

"Yes?"

"Good morning."

"Good morning to you. Everything normal at your end?"

"Everything seems normal. Nothing out of the ordinary"

"That's good. We don't need any complications. You know the plan for the day?"

"Of course."

"Just checking. Never hurts to check."

"It will get done. He reminded me last night so I need to make sure that you don't forget. He is off grave shift in two weeks and will be on afternoons for four months."

"That will of course be a big help and it can't happen soon enough."

"Have you figured out yet how you are going to work around it when he does his day shift turn?"

"No, not yet, but I'm sure that we will come up with something workable. Call me this afternoon."

"It won't be until after four."

"Doesn't matter; just be sure and call me and let me know how it went. Goodbye."

"Bye."

I sat there staring at the tape player and thinking, "What the hell is going on? What are you doing Mandy?"

Hal wasn't surprised when I told him that it was Mandy who checked on the receiver in the attic. Unlike me he wasn't in denial and he had known all along who it had to be. He listened to the phone conversation and shook his head.

"I said it already Rob, but this sounds bad. At the very least she is doing something that they do not want you to know about and it has got to be some heavy shit if they are using over thirty grand just to keep an eye on you. I think you need some professional help on this Rob."

"You said that once before. What do you mean by "professional" help?"

"I mean that you need a private detective to look into what Mandy is up to."

"I can't afford the kind of money that it would take to do something like that."

"Not necessarily true. You may be able to make it happen without money."

"How?"

"This guy I'm thinking of has a private plane. I think he said it was a Beechcraft Bonanza. Maybe you could work on his plane in exchange for him checking up on Mandy. He doesn't really need the money anyway. Being a private detective is more like a hobby with him."

"A hobby?"

"Yeah. He used to be a stockbroker or some other kind of financial whiz and he either made or came into a bunch of bucks and he retired and started a detective agency because he'd always had a fantasy about being a private eye. Turns out that he had a feel for it and has done well at it. But I would wait two weeks if I were you."

"Why?"

"Because you will be off midnights and on afternoons. Right now whatever she is doing has to be done during the day while she is at work, or supposed to be at work. When you go on swings she will have the evenings as well as the days to work with. It will give Glen a better shot at quickly finding out what is going on."

"I don't know if I can hold it in that long."

"Only you can be the judge of that. I'll call Glen today and ask him if he would be willing to do a deal with you."

"I'm going to get one of those prepaid cell phones today and not let Mandy know. I'll call you with the number when I get it. I don't want to use my regular cell. As high tech as all this stuff they are using is I don't want to gamble that my cell phone isn't bugged."

"Good thinking. I should have thought of that myself."

I called Hal at four and gave him the number of the pre-paid phone and he told me he had called his private eye friend and that the friend was interested in working out a deal and he gave me the man's name and phone number. I called Glen Hawthorne as soon as I disconnected from Hal and made an appointment to see him the next morning at eleven.

That evening I pretended that everything was fine and as far as I could tell Mandy accepted it. The next morning when I got home from work I didn't bother to check the attic cam since it had already shown me what I had needed to find out - who was checking the remote receiver - and I went right to the telephone tap.

"Good morning."

"Good morning. Everything okay?"

"He's been a little moody lately, but that isn't uncommon. He usually gets that way around the end of his grave shift turn."

"Did you get the message yesterday afternoon?"

"About being cancelled? Yes, I heard."

"Friday is still a go so check in with me tomorrow. Goodbye."

"Bye."

At eleven I walked in the door to the offices of the Hawthorne Investigative Agency and met Glen Hawthorne, owner and only employee. He already knew some of the story from Hal and I handed him the cassettes from the phone tap. He listened and raised an eye brow.

"They don't tell you anything that you can use, but they speak volumes as far as letting you know that something very sneaky is going on. Just what is it you want?"

"I want to know just what the hell is going on."

We struck a deal. He would do his detecting and I would do his one hundred hour and annual inspections on his Beechcraft until I had worked off his fee. In addition to the inspections I would do all the maintenance, but he would have to pay for the parts.

I gave him all the information on Mandy - her schedule (as I knew it) and where she worked, her cell number and the information on the car she drove. I told him about Hal's idea of waiting until I started on swing shift and he agreed that it was a good idea. He did want to do one thing as soon as possible though. He wanted a spy cam in my kitchen.

"That's where most people end up. They sit, talk, have coffee or a drink and they have a flat surface between them to write or draw on."

I made arrangements for him to have it done the next day.

I wasn't at all surprised when Hal showed up the next day to place the spy cam in the kitchen. He told me that he did all the electronic surveillance for Glen. I played that mornings tape for him. It was basically the same as the ones from the two previous days. A "Good morning" and an "Is everything okay on your end" and the information that nothing was scheduled for that day.

Mandy brought some work home with her that night so I went down into my basement workshop and worked on the bookcase I was making. In a way it was a relief because I didn't have to face her. If I didn't face her she wouldn't see that I was bothered by something. The last thing I needed right then was to make her worry and think she needed to be even more careful about what she was doing.

On Friday morning the man on the other end of the line said, "Have a nice weekend" and that told me that whatever Mandy was involved in was a Monday through Friday thing only. Trying to figure out what was going on was driving me nuts. Mandy's behaviour towards me was the same as it had been since we started dating. She was loving, affectionate and our love life was great. We hadn't had an argument in years. I could not spot anything wrong in our relationship. What the hell could she be doing that she and whoever she was doing it with had to be so afraid of letting me find out? Well I'd start to maybe get some answers on Monday when I started working afternoons and Glen got to work on the problem.

I think I managed to get through the weekend without tipping Mandy off that all was not well. She didn't get a morning phone call because for the next four months I would be home in the mornings. She would either need to talk to the man on the phone in her office, on her cell or after I had gone to work. I made a mental note to ask Hal if we could put a voice activated tape recorder in her car like the one she had put into mine.

A charming woman with a hundred surprises

2012-03-15

Vivian silently walked across the street. It was an especially dark night; as she walked she kept replaying her plan on her head. She knew it was not going to be easy, but she made a pact with herself that she would try to make it as simple as she could.

Her arms and legs were warmed up, thanks to the workout session she engaged in two hours ago: Pull-ups, push-ups, bench pressing, interval training and, as a way to strengthen her muscles even more, she ended with a complex but short cross fit circuit, a pleasure she only indulged in before an important assignment.

Despite her apparent addiction to working out, Vivian's body remained that of a normal woman. She was tall and athletic built, but not too muscular, although she did have a flat and strong abdomen she was almost as proud of as her breast size, which was enough to keep men alternating looks between it and her eyes, something she always found useful; after all, someone who struggles to look at someone's face will not be able to remember it. Her arms and legs were slightly toned, however, what they lacked in muscle mass, they compensated with great strength and flexibility.

A small brooch concealing picklocks tightened her blonde hair enough to keep her smooth face clear of locks of it that could block her field of vision.

That night she was wearing a black chiffon blouse under a satin sleeveless blazer, combined with a short skirt, all in the same color.

Vivian's plan was looking fuzzy and dangerous in her mind. Working alone proved to be an advantage in her profession.

Ten minutes went by as she walked towards the Stargazer Hotel, a five star palace-like building, with an ancient Greek finish on the outside and contemporary furnishings on the inside. It had the friendliest reception ever devised by modern man: As soon as you stepped inside, they offered you cocktails and escorted you to the table reserved in advance while awaiting your arrival. There, you were greeted with expensive hors d'oeuvre, which varied from elegantly presented crudit�s, to the finest varieties of caviar. Once you were enjoying the delicacies, an impeccably dressed man approached you and confirmed the information they had from your reservation. Finally, as you were signing the paperwork, a waiter approached your table with a bottle of champagne, and asked you if you'd like to order something from an exquisite menu. This proved to be a great strategy, since people who don't read the fine print of anything are easily distracted by champagne, and the dinner they offer is on the house. Needless to say, most people feel unnecessary to take on such a gift as they prefer to move on to their room, for which they just paid about fifty thousand pounds. Unfortunately for Vivian, she was not going to enjoy this royal treatment.

She got past the front desk as the manager gave her a cold look, which she brushed off. Vivian was counting on that glare, in a sense, she welcomed it. The lack of action from the manager let her know that both her attire and attitude had paid off. After all, in a hotel full of rich men, it is not unusual for someone to request some evening entertainment, the manager was well aware of this, and knew enough not to interfere with women like her.

On the 14th floor of the Stargazer Hotel there were no rooms, just a series of doors that lead to a beautiful example of the modern art imprinted on the rest of the walls, except for one, which lead to an office. The entrance to it was the door that in every other floor indicated the beginning of one of the most expensive suites available in the hotel.

Mr. Litt was not only the owner of the hotel; he also used it as a front for his less attention-worthy activities. He was tall and bald, but he still managed to grow a black moustache. His complexion was deceiving, he looked strong, but what people often thought of as muscles, were only several well-masked layers of fat.

He was sitting at his desk, looking at a screen on the left side of the room. The office was extremely spacious, although it lacked a lot of furniture: it only had two couches, two chairs for visitors, placed in front of the desk, and the most comfortable and elegant chair in the room was, of course where Mr. Litt sat.

-We need to find that son of a bitch -said Mr. Litt out loud, but to himself in an aggravated tone as he turned off the screen.
He put a cigar in his mouth and took out a small pack of wooden matches and lit it. Using wooden matches was not the best option to light a cigar, the chemicals that allow combustion damage the flavor, yet, Mr. Litt had discovered that, at least for his palate, a cigar lit with a wooden match or with an odorless flame had the same taste.

Suddenly, a noise broke his concentration: There was someone in the waiting room, outside his office. Mr. Litt placed a finger on a small button underneath his desk, which, when activated, would fire a shot towards the door, eliminating any threat within seconds.

The door opened slowly and Mr. Litt stayed still.

-Who's there? -He then asked in a commanding tone.

There was no response.

The door kept opening and Mr. Litt saw a male figure, holding a gun. He pressed the button and a single bullet flew across the room and hit the man's stomach. The man grunted but kept walking.

"Bulletproof vest" thought Mr. Litt, and pressed the button again.
A second bullet hit the man a few inches below where the first bullet hit. The man closed his eyes and his face changed into a mask of pain, still, he kept walking.

Mr. Litt decided to employ his last bullet to neutralize the intruder; he pressed the button once more.

A third bullet traveled across the room, whistling as it did so, and hit the man on the groin. He fell down on the floor, at first grunting and then, quiet and motionless.

As the man fell, a second one was revealed to be behind him. Mr. Litt tried to control the sudden instinct to scream for help, that button was his only defense and it was now useless.

The second man was instructed to approach the desk by a female voice; he obeyed as he stared at his boss with fearful eyes.

At the door, a beautiful woman appeared, she was holding a gun with her right hand, and her purse with the other. Mr. Litt observed her as she walked towards the desk.

-I have a deal for you -she said.

-You come in here, like this, and expect me to listen to you? Why should I? -said Mr. Litt, slightly raising his voice.
-You are right; you should not listen to a word I have to say until I prove myself worthy -said Vivian, smiling-. Let's play a game: if I win, you listen to me; if not, well, it won't matter; I'm going to shoot a single bullet to your man here, if I kill him, I win and you listen to me, if I fail, then your man gets a chance to shoot me, point blank; if I survive, you hear what I have to say, if I don't, well, just call the concierge -Vivian's eyes expressed a terrifying seriousness.

-What if I don't agree to play your "game"? -asked Litt.

-In that case -the woman sighed-. I will have to kill you both and go to your competitors; maybe they'll reward me for my effort.

-Fine, I accept -said the man, concerned.

Vivian pointed the gun at the guard and fired a single shot. The bullet went past the man, who instinctively ducked trying to avoid being hurt, and hit the window; a small crack appeared on the bulletproof film.

-You missed, it's his turn now -said Litt, regaining his composure.

-Yes, it's his turn -she gave up the gun to the guard-. Go ahead; shoot me whenever you are ready.

-Wait, Josh -said Mr. Litt-. She might be wearing Kevlar.

-In that case, put the gun close to my face and shoot -said Vivian in a playful way, teasing him.

Josh looked at his boss and then at Vivian, he held the gun up and pressed it against her forehead. A cold look waved over his face, taking control of his expression, he then pulled the trigger.

The sound of the shot filled the room and a loud scream followed it. Mr. Litt was frozen at the scene: Josh had fired the gun, and, as he did, it exploded in his hand, turning it into a mess of blood and charred skin, the bullet backfired and embedded itself in his collarbone, causing him to bleed profusely.

Vivan took a single step back and was not harmed by the explosion; she looked at Litt with seductive eyes and said:

-Now, let's talk about our business.

Mr. Litt was speechless; he kept looking intermittently at her, and at a bloody Josh.

-I understand you have a problem with one of your employees, someone who took something very precious to you. I can see why you demand loyalty and are cautious about whom you make business with, but, with your own people betraying you, it's hard to keep track of who is trustworthy.

-What do you know about that man? -asked Mr. Litt, as his eyes filled up with rage.

-Enough to find him; you see, I am not a bad person, just like you. I hate violence and will never take a life. That, of course, is something we don't have in common -Vivian sat down on one of the chairs in front of the man-. You have killed people, but, I reckon those people had it coming anyway, so, if you look at it from a businessman's perspective, those were just ways to close the deal.

-What do you want?

-One of your men did not play along as usual; he went too far and stepped outside the business, just to get to you. Maybe he was not being paid enough, or was being bossed around too much, who knows? The point is; he did something, a despicable act: He kidnapped your daughter.

-How do you know about Lisa? -said the man, as tears rolled down his enraged cheeks.

-I heard about it as I was investigating something, indulging in a hobby of mine. One of your guys told me you were looking for that man, for he not only betrayed you and took your daughter; he also demanded a ransom which you delivered, but he did not give you back your loved one.

-Where do you fit in all this? Why shouldn't I just give the order to eliminate you? How do I know you are not working with him, twisting the knife?

-Well, sure, you shouldn't trust me, nevertheless, if I wanted to harm you, I could just do it -she took out a lipstick with a golden finish and she pointed it at the man; a short whistling sound was heard and Mr. Litt felt a sharp pain on his chest, he looked down and saw a large amount of blood-. Like this... -Vivian put the lipstick away.

Mr. Litt was breathing heavily, the pain increased and he was looking at Vivian with terror. He could not believe that a woman got close enough to kill him, after giving him a chance to liquidate her first.

-Now that you are giving me those looks and I have your complete attention, let's proceed. I won't kill you, I despise taking a life. Although, like I said before, I understand why you do it. That's beside the point, though; I'm here because the son of a bitch who has your daughter did not give her back when you delivered the money, and he took her in the first place. The way I see it, you need someone you can trust, with enough talent to bring you your daughter, and I need someone with money. I know you gave up five million pounds to save her, and believe it was a small price. So, let me find that scum and bring your daughter back. In exchange I only ask for two things: Let me keep the money and give me an extra amount, just so I know we are in business.

-You just shot me and you expect me to hire you? Not to mention you made me kill one of my guards?

-Well, if you agree to my terms, I will even fix you up, that way you can send Josh to a hospital while you wait for me to get back, as for the other guard, I'm sure you can find a decent excuse.

-Alright, I accept your terms, just, get me to a doctor so we can get this over with -he pressed his hand against the wound.

-No, first we make the transfer; I understand it is possible to make it from this computer. Do it quick and I'll apply my thorough knowledge of medicine to heal you up to a point where it will seem like it never happened.

-How much more do you want?

-Just two million quid -she said nonchalantly.

Mr. Litt sent the money to the account number that Vivian gave him, he felt like he was about to faint, but struggled to keep his senses long enough for her to bring his daughter back.

-Now that I have the first part of my money, it's time I go collect the rest, goodbye.

-Wait! No, you said... -Mr. Litt yelled at her as she walked away.

-Yes, I did tell you I would use my medical knowledge to help you, but you might also want to know that I have a deep understanding of chemistry. What I shot you with was not a regular bullet; it was a small plastic pellet with two things inside: blood and a minuscule needle. The needle injected you with a pain-inducer, that gave you the impression you were badly wounded, while you were not in any real danger whatsoever. The blood inside the pellet serves a rather fascinating psychological objective: If you manage to convince someone that they are in danger, it only takes a little physical response and a bit of blood for the mind to start feeling the actual effects of the fake wound, in your case: A gunshot. Don't worry, the effect will pass in about thirty more seconds, I just needed you desperate enough to skip the formalities and trust tests.

-You tricked me?

-In a way, but look at it as a needed sacrifice to get your daughter back. I'll return before the week ends.

-Will you get her safely? -asked Litt, a ray of hope illuminated his face.

-I will bring her back myself, just see that I get access, I'd hate to have to sneak around your hotel just to conclude our deal. I also suggest you take Josh to a doctor, that little device I placed inside the gun worked a little too well.

Vivian left the room, walking slowly and gracefully, she closed the door behind her and left the hotel. The good thing about being a woman in that kind of environment, and that kind of a mission, is that nobody looks twice at someone they believe to be an escort, also, they are not paying that much attention to a face when a pair of legs are visible.

The following night, Mr. Litt received a visit, this time there were no blood or bullets involved. This time, Vivian was wearing a green strapless dress, with green heels and eyeshadow to match, on her left hand, a dark green purse gave the perfect finish to her tasteful look. On her right hand, a teenage girl named Lisa, who had spent two months away from home, she was alright and happy to be back with his father, safe.

-This concludes our deal, keep her safe, I don't want to do the same job again -said Vivian, as she delivered the girl to her father.

-Thank you! -said Litt as he wrapped his arms around Lisa and started crying.

-When you get the chance, go by the alley behind your hotel, I'll be waiting there.

After Mr. Litt and Lisa talked for a bit, a physician was sent to check on her. Meanwhile, Mr. Litt joined Vivian at the alley, she was there with a man hanging from a pipe which came out of the building.

-I thought you'd want a word with him -said Vivian.

-Definitely, I've been waiting to ask him a few questions, even if his answers are now meaningless -he said with a vengeful smile.

-He is in pretty bad shape.

-Something tells me he will get better, before he gets worse, much worse.

-Very well, I shall leave you to it; I do not fancy walking around with all that money.

-I'll deal with him later; first, I would like to invite you a drink, after all, the end of every good deal should be celebrated. By the way: What happened to him? -he pointed at the man with his eyes.

-Someone beat him up; apparently your daughter was not his first victim; although she is the first one he did not kill. Did you know he had done that same thing ten times already? He asked for five million each time and just this once he returned his victim, by force of course. It is your choice how you deal with this, but someone else already did the math.

-What does that mean? -asked Litt, confused.

-Ten girls, for each one he got five million; that means he got fifty million in total, which means two broken bones for every girl, and one more for every million. There's a reason why he is not begging for mercy.

-I like those numbers, even if they don't cover his full debt, I will make the necessary adjustments.

-We should get that drink now, I'm sure you'd prefer to spend some time with Lisa first.

They both came back to the 14th floor and toasted with brandy, Lisa talked to Vivian for a while.

After two glasses, Vivian left the hotel; she now had enough money to carry out her plan and was not going to waste more time with his latest client. There were arrangements to be made, and she wished to set the wheels in motion as soon as possible.

As she was leaving the building, Lisa asked her father:

-Will we see her again dad? I liked her.

-Maybe, but don't concern yourself with that, sweetie, you've been through a lot and need to rest.

-Who is she? -the girl kept staring at the door Vivian had just walked through.

-A charming woman with a hundred surprises -replied her father.

Goldeneye 007 Review

2012-03-10

Goldeneye 007
First Person Shooter's Magnum Opus

Platform: Nintendo 64
Developer: Rare
Publisher: Nintendo
Release Date: Aug. 25th, 1997
Reviewed by: The Director, The Gaming Monolith

What's Hot:
Vibrant Graphics
LOTS of Cool Weapons
Variety of Levels
Brutal Death Animations
Classic Multiplayer
The Sniper Rifle's Beginning
Cheats

What's Not:
High Level of Fog
Relatively Bloodless
Doesn't Last Long Enough
It Ends
Doesn't Have an HD Remake Yet

To a normal, everyday person, when someone says Goldeneye, they probably think of the moderately successful James Bond film, or Pierce Brosnan, either or but if you say it to a gamer, you know what they think? Well that was one of the best ###damn shooters ever made, right? Yes, yes it was.

Goldeneye 007 for the Nintendo 64 is the epitome of first person shooting. I find it kind of weird that it was based on a James Bond film but that doesn't matter and this review is really just for nostalgic value because I don't think anyone doubts the level that this game reached and surpassed over the years. Of course, as shooters got more advanced with more options and better shooting mechanics, the level of fun went down but it is not the fault of this game at all, it's just because games will always get better as years go by and as technology gets better.

I'll tell you what is amazing though, Goldeneye 007 was released in 1997, that's fifteen years ago and it is still a lot of fun and that is something that is hard to do. Developer Rare, recognized as geniuses today, didn't set out to make the best FPS ever, at least I don't think they did and the reason I think that is because of the way the game turned out. If someone sets out to make the best thing ever then it definitely won't be the best thing ever but all they wanted to do is make a really fun first person shooter and they accomplished that in spades. Goldeneye 007 is probably the biggest innovator in terms of gameplay in the shooter genre and is, arguably, the best first person shooter ever made.

Story
The story of the game follows the one in the film very closely, with a few changes because, after all, they were making a game, not a movie and for the most part, it works. This was back in 1997 when story wasn't considered a huge thing in games and the limited graphical capabilities of the N64 made moving lips and actual voice actors and impossibility so if you look at it with today's standards, it sucks, but if you look at it back then, it wasn't a half bad recreation.

Graphics
I thought the graphics in Goldeneye 007 were fantastic back then. The levels are very vibrant with a lot of colors and details like snow, bolts, different lighting and such. The character models were nicely shaped and detailed and the faces for most of the main characters were pretty spot on as well.
When you fired the weapons, the flash was very pronounced and there were even shell casings and stuff which went a long way into bringing the player into the game. However, there were a couple of drawbacks but looking at them today, they weren't surprising and they could have been a lot worse. You could even shatter windows...WINDOWS!!!

For one, some of the levels had an extreme amount of fog in them. For those who remember the Jungle level, holy s###, I remember using the auto aim to great effect in that level, hell, the fog was so bad in that level that the sniper rifle barely helped you out and that's saying something.

Another downside is the T rating and relatively bloodless violence in the game. Granted, no Bond film had been rated R up to that point and that might have had something to do with it and it could be just a personal preference but I prefer shooters that are realistic when it comes to the blood and gore and I also think that it makes the game more intense overall. If the damage you're inflicting is minimal, you don't really feel like a badass. On the flip side to that coin however, the death animations were f###ing brutal.

Guards would fall to their knees and clutch their throats as they died. They would go limp and fall straight down, fall to the their knees and then their face, drop to the ground and start clutching the leg you just shot, they were pretty intense by themselves and that diluted the fact that there wasn't much blood to begin with.

Gameplay
To those who don't know the gameplay of this game, shame on you. Goldeneye 007 was an amazing achievement in first person shooting, it's not even funny. Now, this game didn't have a lean function, no squad commands or cover system, no regenerating health system or two weapon limit, none of that. It was good ol' fashioned shootin'...YEE HAW!

I can't remember the exact number of weapons it had but it was a s###load and they were ALL fun to use and you could dual wield every single one of them. So, if you felt like tearing some ass up with two M16s, go ahead, how 'bout a couple of shotguns aimed at someone's face, yup, you could do that too. There were pistols, shotguns, smgs, grenade launchers, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, grenades, mines, assault rifles, lasers...LASERS!!!!

The arsenal also included some of the iconic Bond weapons like the Golden Gun, which killed anything with one shot. It also took that concept an applied it to some of the normal weapons, like the Silver PPK, which could fire through certain objects...which was hilarious.

This was also the first game, or at least one of the first games to feature a sniper rifle that you could actually snipe with and it was silenced on top of that. Granted, when you zoomed in, it looked like you were looking through a jar full of soup but the point is that you could see far off and SHOOT people who were there, which was grand. Also, the sniper rifle itself looked awesome and weird, like it had a water bottle attached too it.

Billy Mays here for the Shoot and Sip. Have you ever been thirsty while murdering b####es, well no more, with the Shoot and Sip, you can shoot people and quench your thirst at the SAME TIME! That's right folks, so call now and for fifty easy payments of $99,999.95, you can have your very own rifle with a bottle taped to it but wait%u2026THERE'S MORE! Call now and we'll throw a second Shoot and Sip in at no extra charge and a box of ammo for the times when that soup gets too thick and you can't see s###. How could you pass this deal up. Call now!

Anyway, the sniper rifle was awesome just because it was a new concept but my personal favorite was probably the P90, I forgot what they were called it in the game, but these things held 80 bullets per clip and fired quicker that the wind from a duck's ass, name that movie, and whoever was standing in front of you wouldn't stay that way for long, they were awesome. The Magnum was another favorite, it packed a wallop, whew.

Another awesome aspect was the variety in the levels. Throughout the course of the game, you'd play through a dam, a bunker, a secret weapons facility, a missile silo, an underground cavern, a large antenna, a snow covered plain, and even an ancient Egyptian temple, there might have been a Chuck E Cheese in there as well, I can't really remember. Some of the levels were copied but when that happened, they always had something different about them, be it night instead of day or whatever and all the levels were extremely fun to play around in and there were a ton of objectives to complete as well.

It wasn't like, ok mr. Bond, we want you to walk from here to there and shoot everybody in between, got it? Um...yup. I almost forgot about the security cameras and buttons too. If you weren't careful with the killin', a camera might spot you and sound an alarm and when that happened, an infinite amount of guards would come to attack and they were armed to the teeth, Arnold would go S###! and I always thought that was a nice little touch. It made you consider doing some tactics and things so you wouldn't get caught, or you could just blow the camera away, your choice.

Another cool aspect I remember were the cheats. Of course, it had your standard ones like invincibility and all weapons but Rare had a sense of humor as well and added in some humorous ones, like paintball mode, which is just what it sounds like. Instead of bullets leaving holes everywhere, they left bright splatters of colorful paint and after a couple dozen rounds, that bunker started looking like something Da Vinci painted...MUAH! Magnifique.

Another hilarious cheat was big head mode, which is also just what it sounds like. When you flipped this baby on, every character in the game caught a sudden and serious case of Donkey Kong Noggin (Side Note: If that isn't an actual disease, it should be because that would be an awesome name for a disease, but anyway). This cheat was about as useful as the paintball mode, unless you were a horrible shot with the normal heads and then you just turn this cheat on and make like Dirty Harry at a Bad Guy Convention.

This was also one of the first popular multiplayer games and I'll tell you, when you had a couple of friends over and you all had one too many apple juices, playing 4 player deathmatch tipsy on juice was a fantastically hilarious experience, there was just nothing like it.

For whatever options Goldeneye 007 lacked it made up for in sheer awesomeness and fun. There were so many weapons and levels to play around with that you could literally play through it fifty times and never do the same thing twice. With an unheard number of weapons and radically different levels, all with tons of objectives to complete, this game just kept going and going, like that demonic bunny with that blasted drum from the battery commercials...it's not real, it's not real. *sucks on thumb*

Sound
Even the sound of this game was top notch. All the weapons sounded ferocious when fired. There were different sounds for whatever you were firing at, like wood, metal, or glass, which was a nice detail. Also, each level had it's own tune to hum too, there were no two alike and that just added to the freshness of the game. I already mentioned the lack of voice acting, all the spoken parts were just text but it didn't matter, you were having too much fun to notice.

Final Score

Story - 8.0
Rare recreated the storyline from the film almost perfectly considering the tools they had at their disposal. I was expecting a lot less from a simple shooter.

Graphics - 9.5
Vibrant and colorful with a unique look for each level and a ton of levels and weapons. Environmental effects like shattering glass never got old and each weapon had its own, nicely detailed model. Yes, there was a lot of fog and the lack of blood was a letdown, however, some brutal death animations made up for this, the game just looked awesome.

Gameplay - 10
Tons of weapons, tons of levels, tons of objectives, you could play around in this game for days and always be doing something different. The first true sniper rifle made long range shots a reality and on top of that, it gave you plenty of cheats to mend the gameplay and increase the variety even further. Goldeneye 007 is still a blast to play today and that is definitely saying something.

Sound - 9.0
All the weapons in the game sound meaty and powerful, especially the magnum and shotgun and each level has it's own musical tune to it, which is a very nice detail. Voice actors were non-existent but so, who really cared?

Overall - 9.75
Goldeneye 007 was considered a classic not long after it came out and that status has only grown over the years. It was a revolutionary step for the genre and it's easy to see why. This game still remains one of the best, most enjoyable games ever made. That's a neat trick.

Revenge in Spades

2012-03-09

It was the cliche of all cliches. The husband coming home much earlier than expected and finding his wife in bed with another man and not just any other man', but his best friend. It wasn't supposed to happen to me. How could it? Dorothy and I loved each other. Or so I had thought.

The day had started on a positive note. The project that I had been working on for almost six months had come to a successful conclusion. The client had signed on the dotted line and suddenly I was the star. I had single handed increased the company's revenue by two hundred per cent and the morning had been filled with people stopping by my office to congratulate me. I had cleaned up the paper work and at ten-thirty I had placed the finished package on my boss's desk. After promises of promotion and a large bonus he had given me the rest of the week off.

"Go home and chase Dolores around the house" was how he had put it. I had to smile at that; I liked chasing Dolores around the house. I especially liked what happened when she caught me. As I drove home with my head full of images of my sexy wife I contemplated on how full and rich my life was. A beautiful and sexy wife who loved me as much as I loved her, three lovely daughters that I adored and a job that I really liked getting up in the morning and going to. Life was just so damned good.

Dan's station wagon was parked in my drive when I got home. Dan had been my best buddy since the sixth grade. He had been the best man at my wedding and I had been his when he married Mellisa. Mellisa and Dolores had become good friends and were always going shopping and to Avon type parties together and at least once a month the two of them would get together for a 'girls night out'. Mellisa and Dolores must have had something planned that day and I saw my plan to chase Dolores around the house fade away.

But it wasn't Mellisa who had something planned with Dolores as I found as soon as I walked in the front door. Before I could shout out, "Honey, I'm home" I heard Dolores cry out, "Oh God yes Dan, like that, just like that. Deep lover, push it in deep."

Dan's "God, but I do so love your pussy" froze me in place and Dolores destroyed me when she said, "It's yours lover, it has always been yours."

I have always been, at least in my own mind, a calm and rational person. For me, storming upstairs and barging in on the two of them was not an option. I had been betrayed by the woman I loved and who I thought had loved me and my best friend had also betrayed me. A shouting match and a couple of punches would not be enough to satisfy me. I turned and left the house with, "It's yours lover, it has always been yours" ringing inside my head. I had no idea what form my revenge would take, but when I took it they would never see it coming.

Once away from the house I pulled the car over and parked at the curb and sat there and thought about how I could best get back at the two of them and I finally decided that I needed more information. Three that afternoon found me sitting in the office of Sam Heinz who was a private investigator. I told him my story, signed a form giving him permission to enter my house in the course of his investigation, paid him a retainer and then left his office.

Next I went to a jewellery store where I purchased a diamond pendant that I hoped Dolores would never see. It was important to me that Dolores not know that I knew about her and Dan or that she even suspect that I might be suspicious. The diamond would be in my pocket on the off chance that my boss might have called the house with a question on the deal I had just closed. If he had and Dolores asked where I had been I would haul out the stone and tell her I'd spent several hours visiting jewellery stores looking for just the right pendant for her. A suspicious husband wouldn't be giving her a three-carat diamond as a gift, right? After getting the saleswoman's assurance that I could return the pendant if my wife didn't like it I paid for it and headed home.

Going home to Dolores and acting as if everything was fine was one of the hardest things that I had ever done. Acting normal was a chore; I had a hard time putting strength into my hugs and steam into my kisses, but curiously, I had no problem getting erections. I found it somewhat strangely exciting to know I was fucking a whore. That was another curious thing. Our sex life had always been good and there had been no slackening in it that would indicate that she was getting sex elsewhere. I found myself wondering just how long I had been the recipient of sloppy seconds from Dolores. Sloppy seconds was just a figure of speech of course since Dolores obviously cleaned herself out after her trysts with Dan, but I did wonder how many times I had followed him into my wife. The answer to that question was shocking when I got it.

It was three weeks after discovering that my wife was a faithless whore that I got the report from the private detective.

"It would appear that the affair has been fairly long standing. From available information it has been going on for at least eight years. I must warn you ahead of time that the content of the audio and videotapes will shake you to your core. My advice to you is that you destroy the tapes without looking at then or listening to them. Take my written report to your lawyer. It should be enough to get you favourable terms in a divorce action. I can't stop you from viewing the tapes since you did pay for them, but I heartily suggest that you don't."

Human nature being what it is there was no way I was not going to look at those tapes after hearing the detective strongly suggest that I take a pass. In retrospect it would have been much, much better all-around if I had taken his advice.

There were taped phone conversations full of I love you's, I miss you's and I wish you were here with me now's and the arranging of the next meeting. The videotapes were, at least for the most part, nothing more than shoddy porn tapes. Dolores and Dan kissed, made out and sucked and fucked. They did it all including one or two things that Dolores never did with me like anal and oral sex.

No, that isn't totally true. Dolores did suck a mean cock and she never refused to go down on me, but she never let me cum in her mouth. She would get me to the point of ejaculation and then she would finish me by hand. Not so with Dan, she swallowed every drop and then licked his cock clean. That upset me more than the anal part. Dolores and I had tried anal when we were first married and after about six months Dolores finally told me that she didn't like it.

"It hurts me too much baby. I'll do it if you really, really want to, but I would prefer not to."

Regular sex with Dolores was fantastic so it was no big deal to give up anal sex. Now here she was taking it up the Hershey Highway with enthusiasm. Several times she even asked for it.

I had watched about twelve hours of video before I got to the one that Heinz knew I wouldn't be able to handle. It was the tape that had the first night of my last business trip on it. It started out like most of the others with Dolores sucking Dan's cock to get him hard enough to fuck her and then climbing on him and riding him until Dan came. Next they went sixty-nine until Dan was up again and then they fucked in the missionary position. Another blow job and they did doggie style for a while and after about five minutes of taking it from behind she asked Dan to fuck her in her ass. He slid his cock in her and she moaned out, "Yes, oh god damned yes baby. So good, so damned good."

It took him several more minutes to cum and then they were lying on the bed breathing hard and Dolores asked Dan if he was staying the night since I was out of town and he said that he was planning on it.

"How do you cover it with Mellisa?"

"I just start an argument with her and sooner or later she will say something that I pretend pisses me off and then I stomp out of the house. The next day when I go home I tell her I went to my office and slept on the couch I have there."

"She never checks up on you?"

"Of course she does, but I tell her that I don't answer the phone after business hours and besides, if I wanted to talk to her I would have stayed home instead of storming out. It is all part of the plan for when it is time for the divorce."

"How does that work toward a divorce?"

"When we are ready I'll just start another argument, tell her I'm tired of all the bullshit and that I'm leaving her. It won't be a problem. No kids so there won't be any child support. She makes more at her job than I do at mine so there won't be any alimony. I'll let her have the house since I'll be living here with you. Have you decided yet when you want to do it?"

"I wanted to wait a bit, let the girls get a little older."

"You realize the longer we wait the harder it will be on them when we tell them that I'm their real father."

"I have been thinking on that. Maybe we shouldn't tell them. Maybe we should wait a while and then file papers so you can legally adopt them."

"Damn it Dolores, they are my kids and I want to acknowledge them as such."

"If we tell them that you are their real father it will get back to Robert and then we will end up in a big fight over child support."

"Why?"

"You can't honestly believe that he will want to pay to support them if he knows that they aren't his."

"If he brings it up you just tell him that it was something we told the kids to make it easier on them when we move in together."

"What if he demands a DNA test? It will show that they are yours and given Veronica's age that will tell him how long we have been stabbing him in the back and he will probably get a lawyer and create more problems than we need. Just let it be Dan. You will be here with them doing the job of dad and in time they will come to see you as their father."

"I still don't like it."

"It will be all right baby. Oh look" she said as she reached for his erection, "He wants me again."

I sat there stunned into immobility as what I'd just heard registered. My three girls were really Dan's? Knowing that told me how long that Dolores and Dan had been hanging horns on me. Veronica was three weeks short of her tenth birthday and allowing nine months for the pregnancy that meant the two of them had been cuckolding me for at eleven years of my twelve year marriage.

How in the name of God could they have been doing that? How could they have been doing that and I not notice something? Had my love for the unfaithful whore been so great that I was blinded to what she had been doing? Well, I wasn't blind anymore and it was a damned good thing the neither of them were close enough for me to get my hands on them or I would have surely been on my way to jail for murder. The murderous rage would be gone by the time I saw Dolores and I would have myself under control. I was a patient man and in time I would have my revenge on both Dan and Dolores and it would be harsh.

I did none of the things that you read about. I cancelled no credit cards, closed out no accounts and hid no assets. I did absolutely nothing that would tell Dolores that things were not right between us, but I did begin to think on what form my revenge would take. I knew one thing for certain - it would be a cold fucking day in Hell before Dan ever lived in my house!

The first thing I did was make copies of all that I had gotten from the detective and then I rented a safe deposit box to store them in. After several days of thinking about it I finally decided on what I was going to do. The first step was to push Dolores into making a move. Knowing that she always went through the pockets of everything that went into the washing machine I put the receipt for the diamond pendant in the pocket of one of my shirts and dropped it in the laundry basket. Dolores did the laundry on Saturday, but I didn't expect her to say anything right away. She would find the receipt and think it was a gift for her and she would wait for me to give it to her.

The next step was to start staying out late on nights that I normally wouldn't. I stopped at a drug store and bought some perfume and lipstick different from what Dolores used and put just a trace of each on the collar of my suit coat. The object was to make Dolores think I was out fooling around on her and have her confront me. I wanted her to confront me and then I would bring out her affair. She would know that I knew and had done nothing about it and that would give her a false sense of security and that is what I wanted to happen. She had to think that she had nothing to fear from me.

It took five weeks, but confront me she did. I came home late one night and found her waiting up for me.

"Hi sweetie, I thought you would be in bed."

"I waited up for you Robert because we need to talk."

"Can't it wait until the morning? I'm pretty beat and I need to get to bed."

"No, it can't wait. There are some things that I want explained. Your late nights, strange perfume on your clothes, a lipstick colour that I don't use on your shirt collar and this" and she pushed the receipt for the pendant across the table to me.

I picked it up and looked at it and said, "Where did you get this?"

"I found it in a shirt pocket while I was doing the laundry."

I put the receipt in my pocket, "That was careless of me."

"Careless? That's all you have to say, that you were careless?"

"What do you expect me to say?"

"Damn it Robert, I want to know what is going on. Are you seeing another woman?"

"As a matter of fact I am."

"You miserable rotten bastard! How could you do that to me?"

"Whoa up there lady. Let's not be hypocritical here. You have been fucking someone else for a couple of years now and the bottom line is that if you can cheat so can I."

"Are you accusing me of cheating?"

"No Dolores, just stating a fact. I came home early one day and I was not even all the way in the door before I heard the two of you going at it. You're lucky I was in a good mood that day. If I had been in a bad mood I would have climbed the stairs and killed you both. But I was in a good mood so I just decided that if our marriage didn't mean anything to you, why should it mean anything to me and so I just turned and left. Shortly after that I got myself a girlfriend. I figured that I could get my quality time from her and just let you keep on whoring since going that route was cheaper than divorcing your sorry ass."

I got up to leave and started to leave the room. "Wait just a minute Robert, we might as well get this over with right now."

I turned and looked at her and she said, "The truth is Robert that I like you a lot, but I don't love you. I did once and I don't know what happened, but I don't love you now. I have been in love with Dan for several years now and he has been after me to leave you and marry him.

"Dan? My best friend Dan?"

"Yes. I have been putting this off waiting for a better time or an easier way to do it, but I now realize that there is no easier way and there is no such thing as a better time. I'm going to divorce you. I haven't seen an attorney yet, but when I do I intend to ask for the house, and custody of the girls with appropriate child support. Since I don't work and don't have any of the skills that would get me a job paying me enough to support me I'll also be asking for alimony. I want two-thirds of your savings - one third for me and one third for the girl's college fund and I want half of what you have in certificates of deposit. I'll also want a share of your pension and 401k when you retire."

"That's it? That's all you want?'

"I'm sure that the lawyer may have some ideas."

"I'll just bet he will. Have you told your parents yet?"

"No, why?"

"There anniversary party is this Friday, remember? I think you need to keep this to yourself until after the party."

"Yes, I suppose you are right."

"Now that everything is out in the open you will need to move your things into the spare bedroom. As long as I'm still paying the bills I'm claiming the master bedroom" and I turned and walked away from her.

For the next two days Dolores and I stayed out of each other's way. On Friday, just before I left for work, I told her I would be home early and to be ready to go to her parents party by six. At one that afternoon I met Mellisa for lunch and I told her what I had discovered and how long it had been going on. I gave her a copy of everything I had gotten from the private detective and then I asked her to sit on it until the next day.

"I'm going after Dolores tonight and I don't want that sleaze bag of a husband of yours letting her know it is coming. After you break the news to him tell him to start running because I will be coming after him next."

At six, after giving the babysitter the information she needed to get in touch with us if need be, Dolores and I got in the car to leave for the party and I saw her looking at me funny.

"What?"

"Nothing really, I just never saw you put on your seat belt before. I thought you didn't believe in them."

"I don't, but Tom Baxter got pulled over for having a broken tail light and when they saw he didn't have his seat belt on they wrote him a ticket for that too. The light ticket cost him $25, but the seat belt ticket cost him $125 and the insurance company raised his rates when they ran a Motor Vehicle Records check and saw the ticket. I don't believe in them, but I can't afford those kinds of costs."

"Well I certainly hope that you don't expect me to wear one. It would wrinkle this dress."

"God knows we wouldn't want that to happen."

Dolores gave me a nasty look as I pulled out of the driveway and then we rode in silence until I pulled out onto the Express Way and accelerated to the one hundred and ten kilometres an hour speed limit. Five minutes passed in silence and then Dolores said, "The other night I told you what I wanted and I was surprised that you accepted it so calmly. You didn't tell me what you wanted."

"I have what I want Dolores."

"Oh? What is that?"

"I have my seat belt on and I have the air bag," I said as I turned the wheel and sent the car toward the concrete bridge abutment at one hundred and ten kilometres an hour. In the instant before we hit I saw the look on her face as she glanced at the dash and saw the indicator light that said "Passenger air bag off."

Burnout 3: Takedown Review

2012-03-08

Burnout 3: Takedown
Very Fast and Awesomely Furious.

Platform: Xbox
Developer: Criterion Games
Publisher: Electronic Arts
Release Date: Sep. 7th, 2004
Reviewed by: The Director, The Gaming Monolith

Racers have always been kind of a disappointing aspect of video games for me throughout the years. Being a huge shooter fan, racers were never really intense enough to feed that adrenaline rush. After playing games like Gran Turismo 3 A-Spec, I pretty much lost all hope for a racer like this. GT 3 was a massive game, providing a ton of realistically looking cars with tune up capabilities and enough tracks to keep Nascar fans busy for decades and all that is good and all but let me be frank...oh my god, was it a slow racer, two hundred miles an hour felt like fifteen. I expected crossing guards to pop up every lap telling me to wait for the children to cross, it was ridiculous.

That all changed in November of 2001 with the release of a game called Burnout. No longer did you toy with meaningless upgrades and closed race tracks, no, Burnout was about speed and destruction. Closed tracks were no more and, instead, they threw you out on the open streets of a city and gave you points for doing dangerous, hair-raising, things like drive into oncoming traffic and coming VERY close to hitting another car and all of this was done with a sensational sense of speed. You could barely notice what was coming next and when you did, a narrow escape was as insane as anything. Unfortunately, the cat reflexes that I have, and cherish, didn't always kick in on time and that oncoming mini van was turned into a disfigured Hot Wheels with three tires, no doors, and a battery.

The crashes in Burnout were absolutely stunning, breaking glass, bending metal, tires flying every which way. This game filled a void that no other racer had done up to that point. Be honest, how many times were sitting in the car with mommy or daddy, sucking on a lollipop, wondering how awesome it would be if your nice parents floored into that oncoming tanker truck. Burnout gave you the answer and I am extremely grateful for it.

The next entry in the series refined everything that was about the first and made it more destructible, intense, and awesome and I had hoped that Criterion would continue this trend and remembering how awesome these two were and taking into account the rule of three, the third entry in the series, I suspected, would pull out all the stops and deliver a racing experience that would not be forgotten for a very long time, and I was right.

Burnout 3: Takedown further refined everything awesome about the series while at the same time, adding some truly magnificent features awesome graphics, and the most insane sense of speed ever realized in the video game world. Finally, after waiting countless years and pushing more disappointments than anything, the racing genre's swan song had arrived and, to this date, still has not been eclipsed by anything.

Story
The only thing resembling a story in this game is the fact that you travel the world, winning a bunch of races and an EXTREMELY annoying DJ that announces some crap. I would advise you to quickly head to the options menu and flip him to off, unless you enjoy pulling your hair out and inserting rusty nails covered in AIDS into your ears...now then, moving on.

Graphics
Oh, the graphics in this game are, beautiful. Criterion decided to leave, for the most part, the walled commercial districts of past games and give you a decent amount of wide open vistas to gawk at. Mountain ranges, cityscapes, large canyons, it's all here and it's all rendered in exceptional detail. If those damn station weren't honking their horns and trying desperately to ruin your mayhem, you'd actually want to stop and look at them. Regardless, they're an amazing sight to behold, when you actually notice them, more on that later.

The cars you choose have all been made particularly shiny and sleek. The way they zoom through the environment, you'd think they were so aerodynamic that if you flew past a couple of flowers, all they would say is What was that noise? Unfortunately, the cars aren't actual, real world, cars, they're just generic ones, probably because EA is cheap and didn't want to fork over the money for the rights to use actual ones, or the car makers themselves would rather not see they're beautifully designed babies getting torn to shreds, either or, it's still disappointing, however, unlike the GT series, the cars are not why you're here so it's easy to forgive once you get going.

Finally, let's talk sense of speed, wait, no, this game really doesn't have a sense of speed, it's more like Yep, I'm driving on the wrong s...HOLY S###, LOOK OUT FOR THE F###ING TRUCK...WHEW, THAT WAS CL...#$^%%^%$!!!!! !@@#$$@!!!!! $^^&%

Know what I mean? The sense of speed in this game is utterly insane and even overwhelming at times. Not only will you feel that you're going what your speedometer says you're going, you might actually think you're going FASTER than it says your going. Everything in the environments gets stretched and distorted when you get up in speed and a nice blur effect makes sure you feel like your in the driver seat. You might want to sit rather close because the only thing giving the oncoming traffic away is either headlights, sun glare, or their tire through your windshield, you want that last one to be avoidable but yeah, the game has the most intense sense of speed in a racer to date and it is absolutely mind boggling.

Gameplay
Well, it has no story and it has good graphics so please tell us what's so good about this game? This is a question I'm sure many of you are asking and here's the main reason why this game is fun. If you take just five minutes in playing the game, you might miss it actually. It has your standard racing fare like Time Trial, Elimination, and Standard Lap races and all of these are great fun but it's only when you jump into Burnout's unique gameplay options that the fun really gets going, there are mainly two modes I'm talking about and the first I'll mention is called Crash mode.

Remember that story I mentioned about the demon child wanting to smash into the tanker but couldn't because of these ridiculous laws against that sort of thing. Well, Crash mode let's you do just that. Each level has the option of giving you a bronze, silver, or gold medal and these are represented in dollar amounts...DAMAGE dollar amounts, that's right folks, the more damage you do, the better medal you will receive. How do you do this? Do you make like Tom Clancy and blow s### up with missiles, no. Here's the tools you have at your disposal: a car, a ramp, several bonus icons, and your wits...that's all you need.

Each Crash level starts off with an overhead shot of the vehicles layout you'll be smashing into and before you ask, yes, they are moving, this isn't dominos, most of the time, it'll be a normal city street with buses and women drinking their coffee, men shaving, you know, normal people...kind of.

Your objective is to activate some puzzle solving skills and from this quick overhead shot, plan out how you're going to cause as much devastation as humanly possible with your car. The bigger the vehicles, the more money you get for hitting them and some of them even explode...like tankers (NICCCEEEE!!!!!).

Don't think that you're all alone in your car either. If you happen upon a lonely interaction that's devoid of tankers or buses, you'll find little bonuses sprinkled about the environment and they do a number of things. Sometimes, they give a quick boost to your speed or multiply your dollar amount at the end. However, the most useful one is probably the explosion, which basically turns your car into one of those tankers the second you hit the little marker and blows everything to smithereens.

Explosions have shockwaves too so don't think the immediate area of the detonation is all you get, quite the opposite in fact. Criterion, being the devious minds that they are, has added an option to sheer your heaping pile of junk after you actually crash. Dubbed Aftertouch, after you crash, or explode, or both, a slow motion, bullet time like, effect will take over and you can steer your burning car into the bus that you would otherwise miss entirely. In Crash mode, this is essential for getting some of the dollar amounts in the harder levels and it can also be used to get the most fulfilling thing in the whole game, which brings to the second of the two modes I mentioned, the subtitle of the game, and the best ###damned design to come into the racing genre, like...ever.

The second awesome mode that this game has to offer is called Road Rage and it's pretty simple really. You face off against a number of AI opponents (or friends over XBL) and the only goal is smash into them, run them off the road, and make them die in the most horrible, yet amazing looking, crash ever.

What is this little action you ask? A Takedown. That's right, that's where the takedown in Burnout 3: Takedown comes in. The act of running your opponent off the road and causing him to crash and this very simple addition is quite glorious and is the MAIN reason why this game is so freaking fun.

There are a thousand ways to get a takedown on your opponent. You can run them into walls or an oncoming RV. Drift into them and send them over a cliff and, of course, if they happen to nab a takedown on you, you can go into Aftertouch and give them some awesome payback. Every time you get a takedown, the camera will cut back to the destruction you just caused and show it in amazing slow motion. Unfortunately, once you get rather good at pulling takedowns off, which isn't terribly hard by any means, you'll quickly grow tired of the screen cutting back every couple of seconds and eventually turn the option off but at first, it's a pretty cool feature.

Back to the mode, the objective of Road Rage is to get as many takedowns as possible before your cars takes to much damage, that's it. Simple yet effective, you'll have a damage critical thing pop up when your close to the edge and when that happens, know that the end is nigh but all that before your demise is a certain kind of fun that is not easily described.

Take my word for it, it doesn't matter how many takedowns you get in your lifetime with this game, they will NEVER get old. In fact, everyone will be like the first because they're just that awesome. Think about it, how many times have you been playing racers of the past and as soon as one of your son of a b#### opponents passed you and all you could do was slightly bump into them, just like a love tap. Not in Burnout 3, now you can take your revenge on EVERY SINGLE one of those bastards who has scorned you in the past and do it with the utmost destruction *insert evil laugh here*

All joking aside, Burnout 3's unique modes and options are the reason why it's so much fun to play and I strongly suggest that you play it regardless of what kind of racing game or what type of games you like in general, I guarantee you won't be disappointed.

Sound
As if the game couldn't get any better, the sound design is fantastic. The actual sounds in the world will wow you time and time again, from your roaring engine, to the wind, to the zip sound you get every time you come too close to hitting something, to the magnificent crunch of metal and glass every time one of those glorious crashes happen. The attention to detail is stunning to say the least.

As if good environmental sound effects weren't enough, the soundtrack in the game is actually quite good. It is filled with a little too much underground punk and screamo, emo bands but a lot of the songs just kind of...fit in. Crazy game calls for crazy music and a couple of popular hits are thrown in for good measure, from here on out, every time you here I Wanna Be Sedated by The Ramones, your foot might actually slam the gas to the floor and you'll start hallucinating that there's little explosive bonuses in front of that bank your looking at...whoops.

Overall

Story - 0
There isn't one really at all but this is not surprising for a racing game so don't look at the story score and think it's a punch in the face because it isn't, however, you might have a punches in the face saved up for the unending annoyance that is the DJ...TURN HIM OFF...QUICKLY.

Graphics - 9.5
Astounding is one word that comes to mind, beautiful is another. Insane is yet another. The attention to detail is fantastic and the vistas are amazing to look at. The sense of speed may not give you much to look at though because you're here and then you're there in about half a blink. The only hitch in the graphics is the oncoming cars can look a little blocky and some minor clipping issues but all is forgiven the first time you smash into a city bus.

Gameplay - 9.75
The most fun you'll ever have in a racing game. Crash mode is a sensational adrenaline rush by itself, fulfilling childhood What would happen if? dreams of mine and Road Rage is best mode I've ever played in a racer, bar none. Takedowns are always fun to pull off and you'll keep wanting to do more and more of them, addicting as hell. The only qualm is that the other modes, while extremely fun, don't really measure up to these two BUT, it won't matter because you'll be too busy playing these modes, duh.

Sound - 9.0
Environment sound effects are spot on and amazing, the whoosh of wind, the blast of boost, and the oncoming van that just sheered a little piece of paint off will have your ears in bliss the entire time. The soundtrack is another plus, offering many songs that fit the gameplay almost perfectly, with a couple of classics thrown in to boot. The only problems are the lack of variety in the soundtrack, it's mostly underground emo songs and that stupid DJ that you wish would just fall down a well.

Overall - 9.75
Superbly designed, beautiful to look at, and awesomely addicting in every sense. Burnout 3: Takedown drove head on into the mold and smashed it to itty bitty bits, creating the, all around, best racing games to date and one that I will still be playing for years to come. Oh, pink Mini Cooper, what a perfect time for you to come into my life...VROOM! SMASH! CRUNCH! LAUGH!