An excerpt from Down in the Fog-Shrouded City

It happens more often than I, as a representative of the Agency, would like to admit. Most often the cause is an amateurish mistake made by an operative with more vigor than sense, and most often the result is unconscionable suffering for everyone but the author of the mistake. I was in love with a woman. I spent time loving her. I began to see that a great many things that had once dominated my waking consciousness became insignificant next to the calling of loving her. In the clear light of this understanding I began to be able to rest.

Someone made a mistake, and the Agency took her from me, and I could not remember who she was.

"Well, like so many other things, this story is Franz Kafka's fault...." Alex Irvine

An exclusive interview with Alex Irvine

Alex Irvine was born in Ann Arbor, Michigan. He has lived lots of places and had lots of jobs. His novel A Scattering of Jades appeared from Tor in July 2002, and a chapbook of his stories was recently issued by Small Beer Press. His short fiction has appeared in The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Lady Churchill's Rosebud Wristlet, Vestal Review, Strange Horizons, and elsewhere. He lives in Portland, Maine, with his wife Beth and twins Emma and Ian and dog Gus.