Urban Flight by Jonathan Kirshner

Author:Jonathan Kirshner
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: fiction, New York City, helicopter pilot, guitarist, Blues music, political corruption, murder, TV news, traffic reports
ISBN: 978-1-56474-795-2
Publisher: SCB Distributors
Published: 2015-09-08T16:00:00+00:00

17

Down on the streets below, Adam was making his way to the Waldorf Astoria hotel, hoping, as always, to kill two birds with one stone. It was taking him a while to get there because he had become convinced that someone was following him. Not that he’d seen anybody in particular, but the feeling was overwhelming. So when he got off the train at 51st Street, instead of heading to Park Avenue he overshot and walked down Fifth, ducking in and out of St. Patrick’s Cathedral in a way that would cause problems for anyone who might be trying to shadow him inconspicuously. Then, in an inspired move, he hopped aboard a bus that was idling with its doors open, waiting for the traffic to clear. He dropped a token in the box and wandered about halfway back, working his way to the center pole. Three more people got on after him, but one was a little old lady, and she was probably okay. Adam watched the driver closely until he sensed that he was getting ready to close up, and popped out the side door just in time. No one else got out of the bus as it came to life and fought its way into the street. Probably nothing, but fifty cents wasn’t much of an investment for a little peace of mind.

Two avenue blocks later he was at the Waldorf, where there were scores of teenagers milling around. Some were camped out, and most were looking up, shading their eyes with their hands in a group salute—they could have been a scout troop led by Timothy Leary. Word must have leaked out, probably by the band’s press agent, that The Impossible were staying there. They had rented out the entire forty-second floor and invited the press to come by for a couple of hours. A pretty good police presence was half-watching the crowd, and they had set up a few blue sawhorse barriers to keep things contained. But the cops weren’t looking for trouble, and left it to hotel security to stop anyone who looked like they didn’t have a room. Adam had to show his press pass to get in.

The Impossible were being hyped as the next big thing, and they were kicking off their first arena tour as headliners, with three sold-out dates at the Garden. They weren’t that bad, but, even though they didn’t know it, they were staring at some pretty big hurdles. They’d made it big too fast, so their first huge tour was going to support their second album, which would probably have been a hurried and disappointing slice of vinyl under the best of circumstances. Worse, they desperately wanted to be the Rolling Stones, which not only suggested a serious lack of self-awareness, since musically speaking they were much closer to the Allman Brothers, but it also required expending tremendous energy to play the part, and begged for unflattering comparisons.

Adam stepped out of the elevator and found everything exactly as it would have been described in the hard rock handbook.

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