Book Eleven

Last Call

2031

A photograph of five young men in silhouette on a rocky desert summit at sunrise, four standing and one sitting on the rock holding on, the sun coming up over far mountains above a wide city still lit in grids, and far down the trail a small figure running up towards them. Crown on the Potomac Last Call Book Eleven 2031

August 2031. It is Theo Hartigan's eighteenth birthday, and the Household has booked the King to open a water treatment works in Phoenix on it, in 108 degrees, with a plaque. Frederick promised Theo the best eighteenth in history. So at half past seven he walks out of a reception at the Arizona Biltmore and onto a city bus, which Theo, a bus driver's son, knows how to ride and nobody else does.

Last Call follows one night in the Valley of the Sun: a King with no ID, an Emperor on lemonade, a boyfriend from Gloucestershire, the wrong bus to Ahwatukee, trivia, the Wheel of Booze, a protection officer a bar behind all night and another one up from Tucson, and five young men on the top of Camelback Mountain at sunrise, phoning in.

Each chapter opens with a short extract from the Universal Register, the encyclopedia of the world the book is set in. The extracts are quoted from the Register as it stands; the chapters show what happened in the rooms it was not in.

Begin reading: Prologue → Characters

Part One: The Opening (Tuesday 19 August 2031, the day)

  1. Prologue Frederick. 9 min.
  2. 1 The Plaque Frederick. 15 min.
  3. 2 Eighteen Theo. 14 min.
  4. 3 The Number on the Front Frederick. 14 min.

Part Two: Last Call (Tuesday 19 to Wednesday 20 August 2031, the night)

  1. 4 Asleep Kimura. 9 min.
  2. 5 Castaways Theo. 18 min.
  3. 6 The Wrong Bus Frederick. 16 min.
  4. 7 Boondocks Theo. 16 min.
  5. 8 The Joint Hunt Kimura. 10 min.
  6. 9 DJ's Frederick. 17 min.
  7. 10 Coach House Theo. 16 min.
  8. 11 Old Town Frederick. 13 min.
  9. 12 A Bar Behind Kimura. 10 min.
  10. 13 The Wheel Theo. 13 min.
  11. 14 The Whisky Wall Frederick. 10 min.
  12. 15 Closing Time Jack. 14 min.

Part Three: Sunrise (Wednesday 20 August 2031)

  1. 16 Echo Canyon Frederick. 13 min.
  2. 17 The Call Kimura. 9 min.
  3. 18 Last Call Theo. 11 min.