“ By late afternoon, the sky starts to cloud over. The sun shines behind the fluffy clouds, gilding the edges and showing a Jacob's-ladder of rays streaming through the gaps...very pretty. Gradually the clouds shift into a new configuration: you realize with awe-struck, preternatural clarity that the clouds form a map of a coast-line that you know, against the blue sky as ocean: surely it's a Sign! Suddenly, the golden beams coalesce into one long ray that strikes across the blue. A star-like gleam flashes under the ray: perhaps it is an island? But the charts show no island there...who would want to hide an island? Who could do it?”
“ The Langdon Ballistics company has a short and muddled past of producing shoddy and cheap weapons. Stocks are made of orange plastic with black paint coverings, and metal components of the weapons they make are typically low cost alloys. Their most famous weapon is the L-12 Scatter Rifle, a fairly high power large bore shotgun. It is easily recognized by its orange stock and pronounced ammo clip.”