Tim Stevens > Quotes

“His world turned on its head for the second time at precisely ten eighteen p.m. He’d been taken into custody a little under ninety minutes earlier, but that had nothing to do with it. They did the job efficiently, boxing him in, two in front and two behind. Four men, swift and grim, clearly plainclothes law enforcement officers. One of the men in front of him stepped close, said something. He shook his head. ‘Non parlo Croato. Solo Italiano.’ The man nodded as if unsurprised, tipped his head: come with us. He followed the front pair to the unmarked saloon parked up on the kerb ahead. Before he got in the back he glimpsed the glitter of light off the restless water of the bay, the masts of the boats shifting in the embrace of the marina at the bottom of the hill. He glanced at his watch. Five past nine. Fifty-five minutes to go. * The room was a cliché: ivory linoleum curling at the edges, dusty fluorescent lighting strips with one bulb flickering like an eyelid with a tic, cheap wooden tabletop with metal legs bolted to the floor. The smell was of tobacco and sour sweat. He sat facing the door, alone. After seventeen minutes, at nine forty-four by the clock on the wall, the door opened. A woman came in, dark-haired, with glasses like an owl’s eyes. Two of the men who had picked him up followed her in. One seated himself in the chair. The other leaned against the wall, arms folded. She stood across the table from him, his passport grasped loosely between her fingertips like a soiled rag. Without introduction she said, her Italian accented but fluent, ‘Alberto Manta, of Lugano, Switzerland. Arrived in Zagreb on September second. Checked in at Hotel Neboder here in Rijeka the same day.”
― Tim Stevens, Ratcatcher

“Wordlessly, Infante handed the cell phone across the desk to her. Rosetti took it, hefted its weight. Then she hurled it at Infante’s head. He ducked, but too late. The phone caught his forehead with a crack and he yelled and stumbled back.”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“The guy across the bar was a slab of raw beef with a nose like a potato and ears like cauliflowers. A walking dinner. Maybe he bled gravy.”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“taking”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“something the Jacobin had missed?”
― Tim Stevens, Ratcatcher

“his arousal huge and nudging between her legs.”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“She was sixty, squat, and hairy as a yak. Royle”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“Her father had been a mean, vicious asshole. Her mother had been a meaner, nastier asshole still.”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“He viewed the male obsession with the motor vehicle, particularly here in the United States, as profoundly unhealthy. And possibly suggestive of an underlying sexual perversion. Now,”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“had”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“Venn.”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“Bleecker,”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“fore”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“hours”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“stopped”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“Clark felt pain of an order he’d never before experienced, never even conceived of, exploding in his ear as the teeth sunk into the cartilage.”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“Gunfire in this Upper West Side neighborhood wasn’t common, nor did cars tend to explode.”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“that”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“And felt an awful, excruciating, tearing sensation as his ear ripped free from the side of his head. Clark”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“the sickening wet pulpiness of mutilated flesh touching his fingers. It”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog

“Bar,”
― Tim Stevens, Omega Dog