Union Atlantic (35 page)
“You coming with us or what?” Gunther called out to him. He’d been sent by the team’s leader to find their stray member. “Looks like the show’s just about started.”
To the north, a massive cloud of dust hung suspended above the roar of the advancing troops, artillery rounds starting to flash within it like lightning revealing the shape of a distant thunderhead. Soon would come the earsplitting shout of bombs.
Checking the holster of his flak jacket, Doug fingered the metal of his gun.
Under the rules established by the firm, none of them knew the identity of their client. They had been told only that it was not a government but a private entity, one that was paying top dollar. There were documents and a computer in the offices of the oil depot at Umm Qasr and someone wanted them secured.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Adam Haslett is the author of the short story collection
You Are Not a Stranger Here
, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award. He has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Fine Arts Work Center and is the recipient of a PEN/Malamud Award for accomplishment in short fiction. He lives in New York City.
This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, organizations, 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, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2009 by Adam Haslett
All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Nan A. Talese / Doubleday, a division of Random House, Inc., New York, and in Canada by Random House of Canada Limited, Toronto.
www.nanatalese.com
DOUBLEDAY is a registered trademark of Random House, Inc. Nan A. Talese and the colophon are trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Haslett, Adam.
Union Atlantic : a novel / Adam Haslett.—1st ed.
p. cm.
1. Bankers—Fiction. 2. Older women—Fiction. 3. High school students—
Fiction. 4. House construction—Fiction. 5. Social classes—Fiction.
6. Massachusetts—Fiction. I. Title.
PS3608.A85F57 2009
813′.6—dc22 2009011875
eISBN: 978-0-385-53261-7
v3.0
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
