For everyone who was wondering what Ione was doing in Paris in the first place, the explanation is now out. Sorry for the delay, but it didn't fit in anywhere else. This is one of the reasons why Karen isn't from Ottawa. Chances are, if you live in Ottawa, you either are in the Public Service or know someone in it. You know what the different departments are, Karen isn't from Ottawa. She knows there are government departments, but doesn't grok the differences. To her, Ione's a government analyst. Amy, Ione's sister, knows better. Thus, I need Karen so that Ione has someone to explain things to.
Since The Devil You Know was written, there was a Federal election with the government in power then voted out. With the new government, some of the departments had their name and focus changed. Not all, though. Most of the ones I used, though, have. The RCMP is still the federal police department, but the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, or DFAIT, is now Global Affairs Canada, not known as GAC, and the Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) is now Fisheries and Oceans Canada*. Ione's department, CSEC, is the Communications Security Establishment Canada, though the last C is usually dropped. But that ruins the joke here. Karen is referring the the Mass Effect series of video games, where the Citadel Council has its own security force, Citadel Security, or C-Sec. Turians are a species in the setting, good at being soldiers and police.
Ione is not a spy. She's an analyst. She crunches numbers for a living. Her background suits someone who does that for a living, with a Bachelor's and Master's degree in mathematics from the University of Waterloo, a university known for its math grads. Ione maths for a living. She's also curious, so she digs a little deeper. I'm hoping I've set her character up so she seems believable. Believability will be important once the more outré elements start appearing.
Nine chapters and the baseline of the plot is now out there. That might have been longer than necessary, but I did try to get the idea that while Ione was done with her mission, the mission wasn't done with her. She tries to get out, but people keep pulling her back. Now she's off to find out why.
Friday, Ione's off to Paris again, in the The Devil You Know Chapter 10.
Also Friday, over at Psycho Drive-In, franchises versus adaptations.
Saturday, over at The Seventh Sanctum, hiatus, due to circumstances.
* Note that the URL still uses DFO. Changing a name is easy. Changing a web site's URL isn't.
No comments:
Post a Comment