MY TELEPROMPTER IS DEADLY
Iowahawk
has some excerpts from the new novel by David Burge:
bq.
MY TELEPROMPTER IS DEADLY
It was a slow September night in Manhattan. The kind of sweaty summer night where the mean streets of Gotham run wild with the shadowy scum of the Republican National Convention. The kind of night where mysteries are born. The kind of night I live for.
bq. My name is Rather. And I’m a dick.
bq. I stabbed out a Lucky into my Watergate Hotel ashtray, a sentimental little souvenir I picked up after my first big scoop (Dan Rather #1 - the Case of the Phantom CREEPs), and peered through the Venetian blinds of my 53rd Street office. I polished the lens on my camera.
bq. It had been over a year since my last big investigation, a nasty little blackmail plot against an eccentric Baghdad Hills tycoon (Dan Rather #24: The Tikrit Orchid), and rent was overdue. I needed a scoop, and I needed one fast. My rabbit foot was working, because a scoop soon came waltzing through the door. In silk stockings.
bq. “Gotta light, handsome?” asked the 32-30-41 silhoutte leaning on the frame.
bq. Mapes. I hadn’t seen her since Dan Rather #27 - The Secret of Abu Ghraib. She was a dangerous dame with dangerous gams – and a nose for Republican plots.
bq. “Hello, Mary,” I sneered, pushing back the rim of my fedora with a Sony microphone.
bq. “’Smatter, Daniel? I thought you’d happy to see me,” she purred, filing her nails.
bq. “Happy ain’t the word, doll. You’re lucky I didn’t drop you like a bad habit after you burned me on the Lynndie England caper. You gotta case for me, or is this strictly a…. social call?”
bq. “All of the above, Danny Boy. Got time for a little gossip?”
bq. “Depends on the gossip-ee, I suppose.”
bq. “Suppose I told you it concerned a little mumble-mouth guy from Texas.”
bq. “I’m all ears.”
bq. “Do the words ‘Texas Air National Guard’ ring a bell?”
bq. “You know my fee, doll. Twenty-five grand a broadcast, plus expenses.”
bq. I poured a hot cup of muddy joe into my CBS News logo cup. It was going to be a long night.
It gets better
Heh...
Posted by DaveH at September 22, 2004 9:00 PM