The final chapter of /sectionb … or is it?


 Posted on January 31st, 2025 –

To answer the titular question: yes and no.

Chapter 7 will be the end of the first book and I think that once you’ve read it to completion you’ll understand why. Although I’m taking great pains to explain things, people, and events, one big question mark will be left purposefully hanging over the narrative because it was always intended to be a two-parter. More on this later.

In the meantime, it’s my sincere hope that at the end of the first half everything will be as clear as it should be, but there are a few things I don’t go into outright so I’ll outline them here.

For starters, the name “/sectionb” is notably different from how the group refers to itself — namely, “Section B”. Other than the obvious terminal command described at the end of chapter 6, the slashed-and-condensed version of the name also refers to the end part of the URL where the novel currently resides. It may also be noted that with the slash prepended, the name provides a visual cue regarding the divided or “sectional” nature of the small cadre of agents (hint: there are more).

Moreover, there are sub-divisions of the book’s chapters into parts, presently numbered at 35. This was a decision I made at the outset to (hopefully) make the story a bit more readable. /sectionb is what I refer to as a shitter book, the kind of reading you can take with you as you head for the crapper, there to enjoy in small installments (hopefully) long enough for single sessions. For this reason I’ve tried to limit each part to somewhere between 2000 to 3000 words which, in my estimation, is about long enough for a comfortable deposit to the Bank of Porcelain.

Beyond the book’s structure, it may be of interest to note that most of the characters’ names aren’t just random choices. While the origin of the name Brock Medic is admittedly obscure, and Elvis is a guy I knew personally, other names have a more open and distinct lineage. For example, at one point Mirabelle directly explains her own suspicions about her family’s patronymic whereas Rebekah’s dad’s name bears a purposeful resemblance to another historical Heinrich. The moniker Dominic Di Venona is similarly inspired by preexisting nomenclature, as is Dmitri’s. Within a wider scope, I like to think that this thematic mixing of names is apropos given the mixed themes of the story.

I’ve tried to follow a similar convention in the naming of the story’s parts. As an example, in the latest installment the German word “kryptowährung” translates directly to cryptocurrency which may refer to the cryptic “coin” hint for the terminal’s terminal password attempt, the (mostly) indecipherable meaning behind the firm of “Schatz, Liebling, & Tochter”, or to Rebekah’s concealed stashes of cash. There are similar subtexts and multi-entendres sprinkled liberally throughout the novel(s) which, although not integral to the story, may inspire the reader to do a bit more digging.

Above all, I sincerely hope that at the most surface level /sectionb is an interesting, entertaining, and somewhat unique if not quirky story. With over 40 pages of background notes supporting the first novel (not including the dossier), I feel like there’s ample opportunity to develop the book into a lengthy series. Other than the follow-up, I’ve been percolating over some ideas and I think that they’d be neat stories to tell. In any event and whichever direction this project ends up going, rest assured that the story is far from over.

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