Professionals 2000 Gambit

Zine
Title:	Professionals 2000 Gambit
Publisher:	Nut Hatch
Editor:
Author(s):	Jane
Cover Artist(s):
Illustrator(s):
Date(s):	March 2000
Medium:	print
Size:
Genre:
Fandom:	Professionals
Language:	English
External Links:
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another version of the cover

Professionals 2000 Gambit is a slash 145-page Professionals novel by Jane of Australia.

Description

From the flyer:

The contemporary thriller by Jane.

The concept of the zine is that the whole CI5 scenario ... the war against terrorism, the "special" department ... has been lifted out of 1977 and transplanted into 2000. Bodie and Doyle are young men in their early thirties; the are at their peak, the best "in the field," but their war is not the same as that fought out in the late '70s. once. Super-computers, the Internet,Twenty-First Century high-tech -- all are the province of the modern "terrorist" army ... CI5 works hard to stay just one jump ahead. George Cowley's arch-rival in this world is a man called Roy Auel: self-made billionaire, self-styled revolutionary, visionary -- one of the world's least known and most dangerous men, and the head of his own cell. Is Roy Auel a terrorist, or the saviour of whatever future freedom Mankind has left? Harrison-Long Technologies, a company based in Austin, Texas -- the "Silicone Valley of the South-Eeast" -- has developed a new device, the Remote Chemical Sensor ... and this machine will change the faces of war, and of law enforcement, forever. It spells doom for "freedom fighter armies" which are known to so-called legitimate governments as "terrorists."

When the RCS is stolen from the Harrison-Long R&D labs in Austin, CI5 is immediately on alert, because the device is already on order. Its designers intended it to be used to sniff out explosives, weapons, narcotics. But the RCS could also be turned into a terrible weapon.

Bodie and Doyle find themselves in Texas, under fire and in deep trouble ... Murphy and his new partner, Rogan, are in Spain at a place called Monte San Angelo, where Auel's cell should have been and aren't ... Rebel computer "freak" John Quinn has created the utimate spy, an algorithithmic Artificial Intelligence that has the power to clone itself from one network to another ... from Atlantic Bell to Motorola to New Scotland Yard to CI5, at Roy Auel's command. And now the war is on, with a vengeance.

It's 2000, and George Cowley, age 54, has just been given the commission to float a new department. Not the police, not the army, but something more. It's brief is to counteract global terrorism in an age when many terrorist activities take place in cyberspace, in orbit, and when serious terrorists command a baffling technology. He recruits a bunch of athletic young men, among them, Bodie, age 31, and Doyle, age 32. Bodie is an ex-soldier and mercenary. He's been in the SAS and 2 Para, but before that fought in bushfire wars in Africa; and Doyle has been with the Metropolitan's Serious Crimes Division. They're young, they're hard, and they're sharp as broken glass ... they're heading for the year 2001, and they know it ... because many of their jobs involve space science, robotics, artificial intelligence, cold fusion, nuclear fuel, nanotechnology, genetic engineering ... new technlogy [sic] means a new breed of criminals, a new class of global terrorism.

Reactions and Reviews

Jane took the concept of the Professionals and dropped them into the 21 century, including cell phones, high end electronics, both good and bad, and all the social problems plaguing the world now. The boys are established lovers, with Cowley's knowledge. Throw in an arch-villian to challenge Cowley and his CI 5 and you have an engaging story. It bogs down from time to time when Jane give voice to certain social issues, but picks back up as the story's plot plunges from one dangerous encounter to another. It ends with the thought of other stories to follow in this world, though it's not an extreme cliffhanger.

I don't really remember Jane's work well enough to make any kind of meaningful comment on whether or not her style changes, but, as we've touched on elsewhere, I think we do seem to get more picky and more discerning as we read more Pros, so maybe it's us rather than her? I don't know. Having said that, one of her later stories, Professionals: Gambit 2000 (can't remember the exactly title) *is* quite different from her earlier stuff. And then you've got the division between her 'Hunting' period (where *I* think she shows a real gift for old-fashioned story telling) and the ci5 stuff. Thinking about the story mentioned here, there's something very appealing about the idea of Bodie in the Sudan, but if you swapped them for Bodie and a woman, or any male and female, I know I wouldn't touch it with a bargepole! Funny, really...

I've got a copy [of this zine], if you might be interested in swapping it for something else of Jane's you've got an extra copy of. Not exactly sure you'd like it, tho', given your preference for a tough, 'non-soppy' Doyle. :) Let me know by email if you're interested-email addy available through Dog Rose author contact info on The Circuit Archive.

"Gambit" is a much more "modern" work than her other zines, and contains a very interesting political statement on terrorism and the nature of the organizations that combat it. Overall, it has a sort of "La Femme Nikita" flavour. The disclaimer in front includes the statement: "In particular, please note that the politics expressed in this novel are not necessarily those of the editor, publisher, distributor-or even the author! Certain contentious political viewpoints have been credibly and realistically explored in order to make this book 'go'."

Not much canon Doyle or Bodie or even CI5 in it, and as the author explains in the one page "editorial" prefacing the zine, this is deliberate. As with many good original fiction writers, sticking to canon in fanfic seems to have become tedious, and she seems to long to strike out in new directions rather than just "going through the motions".