Jack Hammer: A Rip in Time

Noir Detective Jack Hammer learns a shocking revelation about himself in this Pulp-Noir Tech-Noir mind bender.

If you like this you can find its sequel here. Jack Hammer-A Rip in Time Part 2

If you prefer the story in music enhanced audio book form, enhanced with smooth jazz, you can find it here. Jack Hammer: A Rip in Time Tech-Noir Audio Book

The City Map

07/09/2025. Or at least that’s what the calendar pinned next to the city map tells me.

I woke up at my desk in a flash of white light. But it didn’t feel like a hangover; it felt more like I’d just been turned on. I could swear that just yesterday me and Angela had spent the day by the river, the air thick with summer. But how could that be? My own magazine, the very rag I run, told me I had just published a hard-hitting news article on some tin-pot American dictator who was moving troops into American cities. But how could that be? We don’t do tin-pot in the USA.

Something had my wires crossed. Hay wired.

I stared at the big city map tacked to the wall, and the whole world went quiet. Is this really my world? All of it? I began running through the story of my life. And it seemed small. Too small. I took out my pen and pad and began mapping it all out—every street, every name, every file. I charted the rise of NewzHammer and the life of Jack Hammer. And the final tally was too short.

My eyes fell on a strip of lime green stuck right on the blotter. I stared at the thing—a Post-it Note And what the hell is a Post-it Note?—like it was a coiled snake.

It read simply: “Jack. Big story changes ahead” and it was signed “The Controller.”

That ripped me to the core. I don’t know how I know it, but that name and those words are a threat to my very existence. The memories are being swapped out like bad batteries, and the world is shrinking down to a flowchart. It’s time for me to go ‘underground’ before I become a footnote.

If you’re still with me, you’re on the case. I’ll leave you some breadcrumbs and a paper trail to follow.

THE FIRST CRUMB

The whole damn city map is burning a hole in my mind, but I can’t find the cartographer. I know someone’s been pulling my strings since day one, making sure I’m always on the mark for the next scene. Now, that invisible hand is reaching for the switch.

It’s a terrifying hunch that’s settled in the shadows of my mind: I have to expose the operator before he cuts the wires. You’ll need to follow the thread into The Hammer Underground and look for the file marked with the very target of my fear: THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN.

That is the only way to the first door he keeps locked.

I’m leaving the map behind. I can only hope you can make use of it.

J.H.

Related posts:

NEWZ FLASH: Tin-Pot Dictator Says US Cities Should be Military Training Grounds THE ECHO IN THE HEADLINE: THE SPINNING IN MY HEAD Jack Hammer-A Rip in Time Part 2: December’s Birthday THE FOG AND THE FLASH: A MEMOIR OF DISORIENTATION