October 4, 2012

Excerpt From "Brain Freeze", by Vincent Mackay


   Last excerpt.  Launch tomorrow.  Can't wait!


  Two years ago, when Chief Hansen had come to Foster’s apartment to recruit him into the squad, Foster had just finished a series of conferences around the seven flying cities. He’d given his Poetry and Synapses lecture to the usual audiences of five frog-eyed academics and two weirdoes, in the standard ultra-light, ultra-polymer, ultra-hideous college auditoriums.
   He was drinking a well-deserved glass of wine at the oak table that was his only piece of furniture, wishing he had a view of the open sky from his place, when the doorbell rang. A man stood there, looking out of place in his black fatigues. A blunt form of energy emanated from him, like that of a pitbull, or a boulder rolling down a hill.
   “Chief Ule Hansen, head of the New Montreal Bomb Squad,” the man had said, extending a calloused hand.
    Foster was confused. Why was this boulder in his doorway? He shook the proffered hand. “Hi. Gerald Foster. I’m more of a pine tree than a boulder. Please come in.”
   Chief Hansen frowned. “Yeah, they warned me you were strange,” he said, and accepted the invitation nonetheless.

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