The Christmas season is upon us, so it’s time to once again post an original bit of Nick Temple I composed while stationed in Berlin during the early 1980s. I wrote this bit while working in subsystem Echo at the Field Station’s intercept site on Teufelsberg. It’s one of about a dozen similar snippets that constitute the origin of the Nick Temple character.
To the left is a jpeg of A Nick Temple Christmas. I have the original printed document that is now more than 35 years old. The document is fading and getting a little tough to read, so I’ve transcribed it, warts and all, below. You’ll note that it’s more parody than anything else. It was fun to write and to share with my fellow intel types at the Field Station. I hope you enjoy it.
A Nick Temple Christmas
Nick Temple froze in place. Not a muscle of his finely tuned body twitched. There was some sort of noise coming from the top of the building. “A clumsy intruder,” Nick thought to himself. There had to be more than one of them. Nick checked to make certain that the P-38 hidden under his smoking jacket was fully loaded. He climbed the first set of stairs of his luxurious Chevy Chase home with the swiftness and ease that came of years of constant training. He walked undetected to the emergency exit that led out to the helipad that he had installed on the roof at the president’s request.
When he reached the snow covered roof he saw what he was up against. There were eight of them. With a quick reload, he could take them out before they knew what had hit them. He crouched low behind the central air conditioning intake duct and waited for his moment.
He leaped out, firing with his right hand, diving to his left. The clip was empty and six of them were dead. He reloaded in less than 2 seconds and he came up firing. Two more rounds was all it took.
Nick walked over to the scene of death. He recognized them from the file: Dasher, Dancer, Donner, Blitzen, Comet, Cupid, Prancer, Vixen. One was missing . . .
