Promo: The Absolution of Mars by T.F. Troy
Today, I'm delighted to welcome author T.F. Troy to Ruins & Reading. We're sharing an excerpt from his intriguing new novel, The Absolution of Mars. Make sure to read on!
The Absolution of Mars is currently on blog tour with The Coffee Pot Book Club. Find other tour stops with enticing excerpts HERE!
Stanton nods quickly once again, a lieutenant close by leads Jemm into the room, as soon as a general leaves to make enough room. Jemm feels a sense of pride at being allowed into a room, which is closed to most. He is at the absolute highest levels of government and is trusted. But still doesn’t understand why he is there.
The President lay, his head bandaged on his left side, the dried blood now turning brown and cracking. There is blood on the linens that has spilled over onto the floor that is also beginning to dry. The president’s right eye is swollen but oddly shut, just like Jemm had seen with Sam’s eye the night of his beating for simply reporting a crime. And the President’s mouth is cocked oddly to his right, like he’d been punched in the side of the head.
There are two physicians in the room, arguing quietly on how to extend the President’s life. The President draws long hard breaths, his chest heaving upward each time, but they grow fewer and fewer. Jemm sees his large strong arms, much larger than would seem possible for his tall lanky frame.
A rail splitter, Jemm thinks, and quite a wrestler.
A third physician, and obviously senior to the other two, shows up and concurs with one of the younger physicians that the wound is “absolutely mortal, and it is impossible for the President to recover.”
But Jemm decides to make his own cursory examination.
The ball was large enough in size to do extensive damage, but had not exited the cranial cavity, meaning that it was probably of a lower velocity. The bullet had entered through the occipital bone, about an inch to the left of the median line and just above the left lateral sinus, which it had opened judging from the blood that has dried when coming out of the President’s nose, down his mouth and onto his beard.
But the bleeding here has not been excessive, no major arteries have been destroyed. Judging from the President’s bulging right eye, the projectile has lodged somewhere underneath the right orbital, or perhaps coming to rest under the right corpus striatum.
The projectile has pierced the dura matter of the brain, and there would be some damage from bone fragments, but the wound is not “absolutely mortal.”
Had the projectile hit a major artery, the President would already be dead. A skilled surgeon could ascertain the projectile’s velocity and make an educated guess as to where it came to rest.
Then, using techniques that were perfected by the ancient Egyptians and still taught by Mauser’s work on brain surgery, remove the bullet from the other side, thus alleviating pressure on the brain caused by internal hemorrhaging within the cranial cavity. There would be no need to be continually poking fingers or probes into the President’s wound to alleviate the growing pressure within the cranial cavity. Of course, there was always the risk of hemorrhagic stroke...
The president could live but might wind up a vegetable. Still, where there’s breath, there’s always hope, Jemm thinks.
~~~
The Absolution of Mars by T. F. Troy is a masterful blend of historical fiction, human drama and moral exploration. Set against the backdrop of a racially fraught period in American history, the story does not back away from the harsh realities or racial biases of the day. 
Buy Links:
Comments
Post a Comment