Federal agent Theron T. Jackson has been working undercover so long he's started forgetting little things - like what his name is, and to bring spare mags. But when he's cordially working on a little drug thing in a deserted hangar with some edgy Hondurans, he finds that when the jig is up... the only thing you can do is start pulling out guns with both hands.
This short story, from the author of the acclaimed thrillers The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, takes the reader on a 3,000-word thrill ride through the unsettling world of a undercover narcotics agent teetering on the brink. Tension, suspense, betrayal, two-fisted gunplay, and enormous explosions are major themes. But so are more subtle and unsettling issues: the quiet capitulation of a solitary young man getting a long way off from his last decent relationship; the meaning of identity, and the meaning of meaning, in an empty and Godless cosmos; and the truth about our real and implied commitments to other people, especially when things begin to fall apart.
Also included in the short story collection, Don't Shoot Me In The Ass, And Other Stories.
Praise for Michael Stephen Fuchs
"Just what a technothriller should be: taut, violent, smart, and very, very technical. As if The Da Vinci Code were written by someone who wasn't an idiot." - Cory Doctorow
"Guns, blackmail, computers, unfathomable corruption, angry young Taoists, and a bloody quest for a mysterious manuscript. Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt, put in a firefight.'" - Kirkus Reviews
"Once the guns come out, it switches gear into a dream-like actioner where characters discuss favourite automatic rifles, perform startling feats of derring-do, and bust caps in various asses. Definitely worth a look." - Dr. Ian Hocking, author of Deja Vu
"Some writers leave you thinking they know things we ordinary mortals don't have access to. Fuchs is stupendously talented." - Creme de la Crime
Genre: Mystery
This short story, from the author of the acclaimed thrillers The Manuscript and Pandora's Sisters, takes the reader on a 3,000-word thrill ride through the unsettling world of a undercover narcotics agent teetering on the brink. Tension, suspense, betrayal, two-fisted gunplay, and enormous explosions are major themes. But so are more subtle and unsettling issues: the quiet capitulation of a solitary young man getting a long way off from his last decent relationship; the meaning of identity, and the meaning of meaning, in an empty and Godless cosmos; and the truth about our real and implied commitments to other people, especially when things begin to fall apart.
Also included in the short story collection, Don't Shoot Me In The Ass, And Other Stories.
Praise for Michael Stephen Fuchs
"Just what a technothriller should be: taut, violent, smart, and very, very technical. As if The Da Vinci Code were written by someone who wasn't an idiot." - Cory Doctorow
"Guns, blackmail, computers, unfathomable corruption, angry young Taoists, and a bloody quest for a mysterious manuscript. Fuchs seems to operate on the narrative principle of 'when in doubt, put in a firefight.'" - Kirkus Reviews
"Once the guns come out, it switches gear into a dream-like actioner where characters discuss favourite automatic rifles, perform startling feats of derring-do, and bust caps in various asses. Definitely worth a look." - Dr. Ian Hocking, author of Deja Vu
"Some writers leave you thinking they know things we ordinary mortals don't have access to. Fuchs is stupendously talented." - Creme de la Crime
Genre: Mystery
Used availability for Michael Stephen Fuchs's Keep Pulling Out Guns