Shovel Ready: A Spademan Novel by Adam Sternbergh

Author:Adam Sternbergh [Sternbergh, Adam]
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Tags: Dystopian, Mystery & Detective, Hard-Boiled, Fiction, Thrillers, General
ISBN: 9780385349000
Google: AUgmAAAAQBAJ
Amazon: B00E2RYUAS
Publisher: Broadway Books
Published: 2014-01-14T00:00:00+00:00

We fought that morning, like many mornings, like most. I was back from my leave, back at work but not really, and not often. And she was just starting to realize that Broadway was a lot more crowded than a high-school stage in Jersey.

Still, she went to her classes, and to her auditions, and failed, then came home and we went to bed, and failed at that too.

So the rest of the time we fought.

At least that we were good at.

Times Square closed for cleaning and never reopened. They kept telling us the radiation wasn’t that bad. You can easily endure small exposures, they said. No worse than a few X-rays at the dentist.

The city issued handheld Geiger counters for free. Became a bit of a hip accessory for a time. Cool young kids clickety-clicking their way through the city, counters slung around their necks like tourists’ cameras. Even turned into a popular pickup line. Approach a young woman. Hold up your Geiger counter.

Whoa, I think I’ve found a hot spot.

Crafty vendors pitched card tables on sidewalks around the city, swapped out I Love New York t-shirts for I Survived Times Square. Set out rows of little plastic glow-in-the-dark Empire State Buildings and Statues of Liberty, a tiny toxic skyline. Funny idea, sick but funny, but there were no tourists around to buy them. And no native wanted an I Survived Times Square shirt when you couldn’t really be sure yet that you had.

The mayor preached calm. As a stunt, he sat down for dinner in the middle of empty Times Square, ate a five-course meal with his wife. Silverware, candlesticks, white-coated waiters, white linen tablecloth, violinist, the whole thing. Dabbed his mouth with a napkin, turned to the TV cameras, proudly declared: Tell the world.

New York is open for business.

Didn’t matter. The tourists never returned. That’s a hard sell, even with three-for-one specials on hotel suites. All the businesses failed. They were built on selling M&M’s and I Love New York shirts to visitors. Problem was, no one was hungry for candy and no one loved New York anymore.

The violinist came down with a rare sarcoma and died the following Easter. The mayor sent an aide to the funeral.

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