MANDALAY, MYANMAR
The little room was so hot that Leila tried not to
move inside her clothing. She’d chosen the plain tan shirt with the piping on
the pocket because bureaucrats are swayed by even the smallest impression of
martial authority. Ditto the shiny black shoes. But the lady who took in
Leila’s laundry had really gone to town on the shirt, and the result was like a
suit of armor made from paper bags. Leila could feel a line of sweat trickle
south down her back. A large beetle somehow injured buzzed and rattled in a corner
of the stifling room.
It had been nearly two hours since one of Colonel
Zeya’s underlings had instructed her to wait here, someone will come for you!
You please must not leave this room!
Fine, she’d thought then. Leila Majnoun could wait.
She wasn’t going to fall for that
make-the-Westerner-sit-until-she-is-undone-by-her-own impatience trick. She
pulled out her notebook. She favored Gregg-ruled steno pads; went through them
at a rapid clip. She wrote in a swift and flattened cursive that was nearly
illegible to anyone but herself and maybe her big sister, Roxana. She wrote
mostly in English, but she also used Pashto, and some stenoglyphs that she’d
invented along the way. Leila was no Luddite, but she trusted her paper notebook
over any of her electronics. They usually let you keep a notebook even when
they took your passport and pocket computer. Though in a secure airport
interview room once, they’d taken Leila’s notebook from her hands. That’s as
dicey as it had ever gotten for her. Soon after that, she’d done a job that put
her in proximity to commando-type soldiers, and one of those guys had his
instructions in a sort of sheet protector Velcroed to his inner wrist. The
commando wrist slate—that’s the kind of personal organizer she could use.
Exciting
news: HBO is to adapt Whiskey Tango Foxtrot as Comedy Series from Plan B (Brad
Pitt’s production company). More information here:
About the Book:
David Shafer's acclaimed Whiskey Tango Foxtrot: A
brilliant, visionary and deeply human cyber-thriller
Deep in the forest near Burma's border with China,
a young woman sees something she wasn't supposed to see. In Portland, Oregon, a troubled young man crashes
his bicycle on his way to work - and then gets fired. In New York, a famous self-help author goes on
daytime TV - and suddenly conceives 'a book that would take him beyond talk
shows'.
What connects these three people - though they
don't know it yet - is that they have come to the attention of the Committee, a
global cabal that seeks to privatize all information. And each of them will, in
their different ways, come to take part in the secret resistance struggle
spearheaded by a scarily clever hacktivist collective - a struggle built on
radical politics, classic spycraft and eye-popping technology. Along the way,
they are forced to confront their own demons, reconsider their values, and
contemplate the meaning of love, family, friendship and community. Whiskey
Tango Foxtrot is at once a page-turning thriller, a deeply absorbing
psychological novel, and a visionary exploration of the possibilities and
hazards of our online lives.
Out now in paperback and e-book
About the Author:
David Shafer is a graduate of Harvard and the
Columbia Journalism School. He has lived in Argentina and Dublin, and worked as
a journalist, a carpenter and a taxi driver. He lives in Portland, Oregon, with
his wife and children. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot is his first book. You can find him on Twitter @jaycreal
Interested in a copy of Whiskey Tango Foxtrot? Then there is a copy up for grabs. To get your hands on it please send your name, email address and postal address to shotscomp@yahoo.co.uk. Don't forget to put Whiskey, Foxtrot Tango Competition in the subject line. UK and Ireland only. Closing date is Friday 12 June 2015.
Tomorrow the Bleach House Library blog will host the second extract.
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