by David Nickle
“That’s not to say that every jazz man’s got that song, has the line. But we play—at least I play—in search of it. We listen for it. And that night in Stuttgart, helping out that fellow looking for his friend . . . I think we found it.” Ozzie leaned back in his chair—drawing another glare from the sound man. “We never did make it to Munich. We came straight here to Berlin. And we never did stop. Playing, I mean. Of course we did stay in Berlin for quite some time.”
“A very long time. Nine years.”
“Well you know . . . it’s a long song, Eddie. And we have a devoted audience.”
“I’ll say,” said Eddie. He looked to his sound man, who was tapping his watch. Eddie nodded. “Well after just a word from our sponsor, the beautiful melodies of Le Noir Qui Danse will finally be coming home, straight from the El Dorado Cabaret stage, here in Berlin, Germany. Stay tuned, America. In just a few minutes, Mr. Ozzie Hayward and his boys are going to change your world.”
“Just like we changed the rest of it,” said Ozzie, even as the sound man made a throat slashing motion that the take was finished and threw up his hands.
“Do you want to do that again, Mr. Murrow?” he said, and Eddie just shook his head.
“I don’t think we’re going to get any better than that,” he said.
THE END
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I’d never written a sequel until this one, and when I started on Volk, I thought it would be easy. I was wrong and I’m glad I was wrong; this was as challenging and sometimes vexing a project as any, and to the extent it succeeds, it does so with the love and help of many people.
First and ever foremost, my wife Madeline Ashby was a bedrock of support in research, writing, and of course life itself. Members of the Cecil Street Writers’ Workshop—Natalie Zina Walschots, Jairus Khan, Michael Skeet, Hugh A.D. Spencer, Madeline Ashby (again), Allan Weiss—let me know when I strayed and encouraged me when the story held true.
In the course of researching the book, I had a lot to learn and got some help in so doing. Michael Skeet guided me through aviation history—particularly World War I, but also early 20th-century commercial air travel, and pointed me to some excellent resources about early 20th-century Europe. Peter Watts helped me on the biology and parasitology in Eutopia, and continued to aid me in evolving the abominations of Volk. Years ago, Hugh Spencer provided me with a metaphor for improvisational jazz that wormed its way into the fabric of Volk. Steve Bevan provided me with the perfect name for a jazz man, and also stood by during a still-unfolding life crisis that intersected with the completion of Volk. I could not have done it all without him.
There are snippets of dialogue in languages which I do not speak—French and German, specifically—and Jerome Veith and Claude Lalumière helped me turn those into words that a native, and not Google Translate, might actually speak.
And further to that: thanks to ChiZine’s Sandra Kasturi, who edited Volk and made many more of those words better than they were; Gemma Files, who dove deep into the prose and brought out a shine that I only flatter myself thinking was there all the time Leigh Teetzel, who added the final polish in the proof-read; Jared Shapiro, who laid the text on the page just so, then made it beautiful; Erik Mohr, who made the astonishing cover that might well have persuaded you to pick this book up. . . .
And of course great thanks to my agent Monica Pacheco at Anne McDermid and Associates, who has represented Volk and my other books with such passionate and unwavering support.
About the Author
David Nickle is an award-winning Toronto-based author and journalist. He has written several novels and numerous short stories. Nickle’s most recent book is Volk: A Novel of Radiant Abomination (2017).
Do-Ming Lum/Tiger Mountain Creative Services
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © © 2017 by David Nickle
Cover design by Ian Koviak
ISBN: 978-1-5040-6427-9
This edition published in 2020 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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New York, NY 10038
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