New Mexico | Michael C. Sahd

I have been beating my head against a wall trying to come up with a reasonable goal for my antagonist in the sequel to “Assassin Marked.” So much so that I’ve taken to Google and started researching lawyers, the mafia, etc.

“The power of the lawyer is in the uncertainty of the law.”
– Jeremy Bentham

Back during the prime of my adolescence in New Mexico, I spent a lot of time climbing the cliffs and hills. For me, navigating the dangerous rocky cliffs up high offered the most fun during these excursions. Consequently, shuffling up the slopes of scree that hemmed the base of the cliffs deceptively seemed like they would be the easiest part of the excursion; however, the climb, although more frightening, proved much easier once I gained the courage to ascend. The scree, like the walls of an antlion’s den, would send you sliding back down as far, or further than where you had started, until you got a handle on how to step up it. For the more cowardly, it was great fun to just struggle up scree and then go sliding down to the bottom, ignoring the great unreachable cliffs above.

Scree

These adventures in the mountains of New Mexico are much like a lawyer’s career. A good lawyer reaches the top of the mountain of integrity and justice, but they all start at the bottom, attached to a stereotype reserved to the most slimy and scuzzy of their ilk. We all think of lawyers as nasty, lying, cheating, money-grabbing individuals ready to make a buck by taking advantage of some poor schmuck, and the lawyers starting out in the career have a responsibility to break out of that mold, or to reach a peak, so to speak.

Some do not. Rather, they spend their entire career at the bottom, and I’m not saying they aren’t successful, but perhaps they are scared. Those who make it further up the mountain have further to fall, so rather than risk their livelihood on the constraints of morality, the majority stay at the bottom, enjoying the slide of deception and reaping all the benefits of a necessary profession.

But how can you tell the difference? Well, you can’t. Just like I can’t prove that I’ve climbed to the summit of most of those mountains.

Kirin Ichiban

*Spoiler* Kirin Ichiban fits right in with these deceivers, and perhaps may be the best of his kind. He has one of the most successful law firms on Penelope. As we all know (or should know, if you’ve read Assassin Marked), he also has strong ties to the crime syndicate. It’s clear that he is motivated to amass power, but what is his ultimate goal?
If you were a power-hungry lawyer with the ability to read minds, what would your goal be in the United States? Any thoughts?

~ Michael C. Sahd

In Cerrillos, the small town I grew up in, there stood a gnarled hill with two cliff faces that climbed up to the precipice. The front face, or at least what we considered the face, looked as though the Devil’s large, boar-like head burst up from the earth, his snout extending through the boulders piled around it. As children, we leaped from boulder to boulder until we climbed to the top of the snout. We shied away from climbing higher than the snout on the face of this hill, as it seemed crumbly, steep, and dangerous.

Devil’s Throne side

However, the other cliff face, although completely vertical, had solid grips and hand holds. This side of the hill had been cut away to allow the train tracks to run past. I had spent many hours climbing this cliff, but the most exhilarating moment happened when a friend and I crossed a ledge no more than four inches across and close to 100 ft in the air. The wind slapped our hair and clothes around us.

As I crossed this ledge, my heels and back tight against the rock, I could see the sheer drop below me, and I thought about going around; however, at the point I decided this, I would have had to shift my weight and start going that direction, and that was not happening. So, after ten or so feet, we crossed over to the unknown crevice, which fortunately had the hand holds to go the rest of the way up instead of back across the ledge.

This fits into one of those experiences that can make good stories. I may one day include some variation of this one.

Devil’s Throne front

I would love to hear some of your experiences such as this one!

~ Michael C. Sahd

The Beer Guy

Rock Climbing At Devil’s Throne