Geoffrey’s Secret

david's train

PHOTO PROMPT © David Stewart

The female attendant politely asked to verify Geoffrey’s identification. Something was wrong.

Of course, something was wrong. He was traveling under false documents on the Beijing to Xi’an bullet train at 350 kph. If he was discovered, there would be no jumping off like in some fanciful old spy movie.

His synthetic biology let him pass most scanners, though a detailed exam would reveal his true nature and the nuclear device. His detonation would kill 10 million and be blamed on the isolationists. However, his true objective was to eliminate their AI industry. No one must compete with his masters.

It’s Wednesday and once again time to participate in Rochelle Wisoff-Fields’ 6 June 2025 edition of Friday Fictioneers. The idea is to use the image above as the prompt for crafting a poem or short story no more than 100 words long. My word count is exactly 100.

Once I discovered that David’s train was a Chinese bullet train, I focused on the Beijing to Xi’an run. I got some basic information from this travel site (see item 10) and found out more about Xi’an at Wikipedia.

train interior

Found on Tripadvisor courtesy of icpress.cn

In addition to Xi’an’s rich cultural history and being a popular tourist destination, they have a thriving aerospace and software industry. I decided to leverage today’s concerns about AIs for my story. I named my antagonist after the late actor Geoffrey Palmer who was born on this date in 1927.

The “jumping off the train in an old spy movie” is a reference to a scene in the James Bond film From Russia With Love (1963). Trains are great places for intrigue.

moggie noir 3

Cover art for “Dames, Derringers and Detectives: Moggie Noir”

To read more stories based on the prompt, visit inlinkz.

My crime noir short story “Last Wish of a Dead Man” is now available in the Raconteur Press anthology Dames, Derringers and Detectives: Moggie Noir. The story requirements included a hard-boiled detective, a murder, and especially a cat. The third in my “Margie Potter: Haunted Detective” series made the cut.

Also, my horror short story “Haunting Chloe” is now available in the ghost story anthology Haunted Places (universal link) by Blackbird Publishing. Pick up a copy of each, give them a read, and don’t forget to leave honest reviews at Amazon and Goodreads.

28 thoughts on “Geoffrey’s Secret”

  5. I really liked all of your little connections, with the modern AI stuff, Palmer name, and even before I read the note about the Bond movie, I could feel a spy action thriller when I read that in your story – how there would be NO jumping off this train. Also, it was nice to learn that this train was a Chinese bullet train, which sure looked modern and clean.

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  13. This used to be pure science fiction but it might be getting closer to reality. True, you wouldn’t want to jump off a bullet train, even if you could figure out how to get outside.

    -David

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