In 1691, the Warlock was taken captive in Boston by the witch-hunter Giles Redferne. He was sentenced to death for his activities, but before he could be killed, a mysterious figure appeared, propelling both the Warlock and the witch-hunter forward in time to 20th century Los Angeles.

Pursuit

Vonnegut	In 1968, imprisoned on a flying saucer from the Planet Tralfamadore, the German-American Kurt Vonnegut recalled a passage from the Bible - 'The Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstome and fire from the Lord out of Heaven and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and in the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.'
Lot's wife was told not to look back, but she did and was turned into a pillar of salt. Vonnegut himself had pledged not to. He considered his book Slaughter-House-Five a failure, written by a pillar of salt. However, he was yet to arrive on the Planet Tralfamadore. Soon, he would realise that the fire-bombing of Dresden was - like Sodom and Gomorrrah - only one half of the story.

Dannat

In 2007, Chief of the Imperial General Staff and the professional head of the British Army General Sir Francis Richard Dannatt, KCB, CBE, MC delivered a status report to the British Parliament on surge in military activities in Baghdad. Recent public opinion polls had revealed that the British public did not trust the upcoming report by the Army's top commander on the progress of the war and even if they did, it would not change their mind. This view had persisted since a a 1920 newspaper article written by Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence who wrote that "The people of England have been led in Mesopotamia into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information."

George Wallace	In 1976, in the White House, 37th US President George Wallace experiences an overly vivid dream. Even in his unconscious state he sees the connection with “Roots: The Saga of an American Family” which he censored on August 17th. On-board The Lord Ligonier he watches his Lieutenant, Curtis LeMay attending to a slave whipping. “My name is Alex, Alex Haley and I am a free man from the year 1976” gasps the author, refusing his slave name. “It is not, in this year of our Lord 1767” said Captain George Wallace in his dream, “ your name is Tobey and you are mine”. Wallace was confused about every aspect of the dream bar one, he had been standing up for America, just as he was now.

In 1915, Anton Dilger set up of a secret laboratory in Baltimore. The bio-terrorist was born in Front Royal, Virginia, to German parents, and moved to Germany when he was nine years old. He attended Gymnasium in Bensheim and trained as a physician in Heidelberg and Munich, later working for the Heidelberg University surgical clinic while researching for his doctoral dissertation. By the time World War One began, Dilger was in Germany, but he returned to the United States in 1915 with cultures of anthrax and glanders to unleash biological sabotage on behalf of the German government. The bio-terrorist strike that devastated America is described in The Fourth Horseman: One Man's Secret Campaign to Fight the Great War in America.	Fourth Horseman

Richard Nixon	In 1969, the Chicago 8 trial opens; the defendants were charged with conspiracy, inciting to riot, and other charges related to violent protests that took place on the occasion of the 1968 Democratic National Convention. Ugly scenes of massive demonstrations too place over the Kennedy's escalation of the Vietnam War. Bobby received the nomination, but lost the Presidency. By the time the trial opened, his challenger had already put into place the secret plan he described during the election. By a twist of fate, anti-war protestors had put in office Richard Nixon, that most aggressive of Vice Presidents in American history, and incredibly, he had delivered.

In 1818, border demarcation markers were formally installed for Moresnet, a tiny European territory of about 3.5 km² that existed from 1816 to 1919. Its two large neighbours (The Netherlands and Prussia) could not agree on who should own it, deciding therefore to make it a neutral territory where both would share control equally. Dr. Wilhelm Molly proposed in 1908 making Neutral Moresnet the world's first Esperanto-speaking state, named Amikejo or "place of friendship". Neutral Morsenet was chosen as the Capital City of the new Esperanto-speaking European State which rose from the collapse of the European monarchies during World War 1.	Three Country Point

In 1999, Patrick Danville languished in the basement of a house on Route 5. He has been held captive for some time, his tongue ripped out. A monster had been feeding on Patrick's emotions for sustenance. Introduced as a child in Insomnia, Danville was a budding artist who was destined to die saving the lives of two men, one of whom must not die - Stephen King and Richard Bachman.

Patrick Danville

© Stephen King, 1999.

In 2007, New Zealand cricket Captain Daniel Vettori apologised for his bitter words following his team's exit from the World Twenty20 tournament - "We were quite sloppy with our extras .. and let yourselves down like that it hurts you. We have to watch a couple of games and we will be supporting South Africa against India and India against England.", referring to the English who had only recently had their pariah status withdrawn. That unhappy state had existed since the UK's expulsion from the Commonwealth in 1956 over the Suez Crisis.

Lou Vincent

© Stephen King, 1999.