106 A gunfight and a snippety exchange
The vibration of my phone wrenches me back to my bed. It's a breathless Alaia, with street noise behind her. "Hi, it's me," she says, all action. "I'm near Downstairs. Lucan's just been shot at from a car. The bullet missed him. The rumour is, it was an assassin from a gang in Red Bank who are trying to get rid of him, to grab his business."
"You sound just like a news reporter. 'Our woman on the front line, bringing hard news from the mean streets of—'"
"Look, there was nearly an assassination here. A gangland execution. Didn't you hear the gunfire?"
"No."
"Good thing we don't have to rely on you for world news."
"I've been gathering news about the worlds in people's heads," I reply. "Much more important. I always found gunfights a bit of a snooze."
"Jaymi, the implication of this particular gunfight is perhaps that it suggests the waxworks were just part of a plot to destabilise Lucan's business here, and therefore they weren't sculpted by anyone in Asbury Park after all."
"Oh, I see—you mean this'll finally get Shigem off the hook of Lucan's blame?"
"Hallo! Yes, I do." I can hear her raising her eyes.
"You're right, that's very important." I glance at the bedside clock. "Shigem's only got an hour left in this town before he leaves for the airport, but that is still time to bump him off. I take my hat off to you, one needs a certain sort of mind to grasp the implications of gun battles—"
"One needs a mind, Jaymi ... and sometimes a bit of bold action. Bye."
The line goes dead. "Bye."
Well! Snippety-snip.
Bold action?...
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For some nice reviews and interviews about The Imagination Thief, in The Guardian and elsewhere, see http://www.rohanquine.com/press-media/the-imagination-thief-reviews-media/
For a quick synopsis of it, see http://www.rohanquine.com/home-the-imagination-thief-novel/synopsis-and-characters-list-the-imagination-thief/
For the 12 Films in The Imagination Thief, see http://www.rohanquine.com/video-books-films/12-films/
For the Audio-book version and the Video-book version of each of its 120 mini-chapters, see http://www.rohanquine.com/home-the-imagination-thief-novel/audiobook-tumblr-wattpad/
For links to the retailers, see http://www.rohanquine.com/buy/the-imagination-thief-novel-ebook/ and http://www.rohanquine.com/buy/the-imagination-thief-novel-paperback/
And for its Amazon pages, see http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Imagination-Thief/dp/0992754909 and http://www.amazon.com/The-Imagination-Thief/dp/0992754909
The Imagination Thief is about a web of secrets, triggered by the stealing and copying of people's imaginations and memories. It's about the magic that can be conjured up by images of people, in imagination or on film; the split between beauty and happiness in the world; and the allure of various kinds of power. It celebrates some of the most extreme possibilities of human imagination, personality and language, exploring the darkest and brightest flavours of beauty living in our minds.