And so you, you will mediate the space between what is sanctioned and what is not. And to do that, part of you must belong to what is not. That is the sacrifice you must make. You must be half-darkness while not serving darkness.

Gregg Hurwitz has gotten into the generous habit of providing Orphan X novellas once a year, to give us a little hit in between the great feasts of the novels. The novella The Damage Man was just released, and I tore through it like a Doberman on a Beggin’ Strip.

Evan Smoak, our lone wolf hero, is not summoned by a call on his high-tech phone this time around. He happens upon a middle-aged man, Rusty, who is being threatened by a loan shark’s collector in an alley. The collector is telling Rusty that his son Blake will get no delay; he has to pay up or he’ll be hurt. Evan intervenes, and when the collector pulls a gun, Evan puts him in the hospital. Then he asks Rusty about Blake’s problem, and informs him he’s going to take care of it. Because that’s what Evan does.

He learns that Ray and Blake are alienated. Ray abandoned his family when Blake was young, and Blake has never forgiven him. Though the two men have to hide out together temporarily, they can barely keep from coming to blows. Ray is desperately remorseful, but Blake’s anger runs deep. They are two inarticulate men, needing each other but unable to make contact.

This brings Evan’s own absentee father to his mind. He found the man once, discovering him to be a wholly superficial and contemptible human being, who only warmed to him when he lent him money. This operation involves phone conversations with Joey, the girl hacker who Evan has sort of adopted, and she’s intuitive enough to do a search for Evan’s father. She discovers that he’s dying.

Now Evan is faced with somethig he fears more than any number of terrorists or gangsters – the risk of reaching out again to his father.

Nobody matches Gregg Hurwitz when it comes to writing stories that not only excite you but probe your heart like a catheter. If you find yourself a little misty-eyed when you’re finished with The Damage Man, I can tell you (from a friend) that you’re not alone.