The Immortality Thief
Contents ( 188)
- THE
- IMMORTALITY THIEF
- Taran Hunt
- Contents
- CHAPTER ONE:
- The Nameless Ship and the Dying Star
- CHAPTER TWO:
- Three Convicts and a Generous Opportunity
- CHAPTER THREE:
- The Lost Language
- CHAPTER FOUR:
- Sean Wren and the Philosopher Stone
- CHAPTER FIVE:
- Leashed
- CHAPTER SIX:
- The Imp of the Perverse
- CHAPTER SEVEN:
- Lantern-Eyes and the Minister
- CHAPTER EIGHT:
- Indigo and Ultraviolet
- CHAPTER NINE:
- Three Lives and One
- CHAPTER TEN:
- Rot and Bone
- CHAPTER ELEVEN:
- Signs in the Dark
- CHAPTER TWELVE:
- Dead End
- CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
- A Way Out
- CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
- Missed Chances
- CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
- One and Two
- CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
- The Choice and the Hull
- CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
- The Indigo Minister and I
- CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
- The Minister and the Lieutenant
- CHAPTER NINETEEN:
- Lieutenant Lantern-Eyes
- CHAPTER TWENTY:
- Mara Zhu’s Experiment
- CHAPTER TWENTY ONE:
- Forty Locks
- CHAPTER TWENTY TWO:
- Oh, Shit!
- CHAPTER TWENTY THREE:
- Beta Version
- CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR:
- Some Really Angry Rocks
- CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE:
- The Trap
- (Featuring: Sean Wren’s Inability to Use a Grenade)
- CHAPTER TWENTY SIX:
- Made of Man
- CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN:
- The Moment
- CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT:
- Three Doors
- CHAPTER TWENTY NINE:
- The Roach
- CHAPTER THIRTY:
- Family Photo
- CHAPTER THIRTY ONE:
- The Last Words of Mara Zhu
- Part one
- CHAPTER THIRTY TWO:
- Sins of the Father
- CHAPTER THIRTY THREE:
- The Lieutenant
- (again)
- CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR:
- Field and Forest
- CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE:
- The Minister, the Lieutenant, and I
- CHAPTER THIRTY SIX:
- The Deer and the River
- CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN:
- Some Fresh Bullshit
- CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT:
- Enemy of the Enemy
- CHAPTER THIRTY NINE:
- Impromptu Electrodynamics
- CHAPTER FORTY:
- Babel
- CHAPTER FORTY ONE:
- Three Strangers and a Desperate Offer
- CHAPTER FORTY TWO:
- Another Lengthy Détente with Some Stubborn Assholes
- CHAPTER FORTY THREE:
- The Worst Camping Trip of My Life
- CHAPTER FORTY FOUR:
- Sisters, State Secrets, and Just So Many Creepy Children
- CHAPTER FORTY FIVE:
- Nests?!
- CHAPTER FORTY SIX:
- My Mother’s Wardrobe
- CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN:
- I’m Susceptible to Bribes, But Only in the Form of Grammar
- CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT:
- The Center of It All
- CHAPTER FORTY NINE:
- God Damn Children
- CHAPTER FIFTY:
- The Bodies of the Past
- CHAPTER FIFTY ONE:
- Test Subjects
- CHAPTER FIFTY TWO:
- A Hot, Piping Cup of Coffee with a Side of Creepy Children
- CHAPTER FIFTY THREE:
- Sean Wren and the Incredible Hypoxia
- CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR:
- Trust Me
- PART ONE
- CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE:
- Trust Me
- PART TWO
- CHAPTER FIFTY SIX:
- Trust Me
- PART THREE
- CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN:
- The Shedding of Blood
- CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT:
- Lab 17
- CHAPTER FIFTY NINE:
- Something in My Eye
- CHAPTER SIXTY:
- Eye for an Eye
- CHAPTER SIXTY ONE:
- What Must Be Seen
- CHAPTER SIXTY TWO:
- Third Eye
- CHAPTER SIXTY THREE:
- Hindsight
- CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR:
- Eye on the Prize
- CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE:
- The Last Words of Mara Zhu
- PART TWO
- CHAPTER SIXTY SIX:
- An Old Friend
- CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN:
- The Wall
- CHAPTER SIXTY EIGHT:
- Sean Wren’s Special New Skill
- CHAPTER SIXTY NINE:
- Last One There Loses
- CHAPTER SEVENTY:
- Sympathy for the Devils
- CHAPTER SEVENTY ONE:
- A Frighteningly Efficient Kidnapping
- CHAPTER SEVENTY TWO:
- The Whole Truth
- CHAPTER SEVENTY THREE:
- The Breaking of the Fellowship
- CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR:
- Perversion of Potential
- CHAPTER SEVENTY FIVE:
- Benny
- CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX:
- Sean Wren, Unkillable Machine Man
- CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN:
- The Republic
- CHAPTER SEVENTY EIGHT:
- Sister
- CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE:
- The Ministers
- CHAPTER EIGHTY:
- Number One
- CHAPTER EIGHTY ONE:
- Brother
- CHAPTER EIGHTY TWO:
- The Philosopher Stone
- CHAPTER EIGHTY THREE:
- Center of the Compass
- CHAPTER EIGHTY FOUR:
- Sean, Tamara, and Shay
- CHAPTER EIGHTY FIVE:
- Memory
- CHAPTER EIGHTY SIX:
- Improvisational Linguistics
- CHAPTER EIGHTY SEVEN:
- The Dreamer
- CHAPTER EIGHTY EIGHT:
- A Letter from the Dead
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THE
IMMORTALITY
THIEF
Taran Hunt
First published 2022 by Solaris
an imprint of Rebellion Publishing Ltd,
Riverside House, Osney Mead,
Oxford, OX2 0ES, UK
www.solarisbooks.com
ISBN: 978-1-78618-514-3
Copyright © 2022 Taran Hunt
The right of the author to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owners.
This is a work of fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely coincidental.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
eBook production
by Oxford eBooks Ltd.
www.oxford-ebooks.com
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Acknowledgements
CHAPTER ONE:
The Nameless Ship and the Dying Star
The nothing-place between leaving and arriving during faster-than-light travel isn’t really Hell. Hell is the absence of God, or the absence of other people, or something like that. FTL engines just… I don’t know, grabbed space and yanked it forward, rippling like a bedsheet tugged out of place, and our ship caught up in the folds.
But it sure as Hell felt like Hell. In the moment between the kick to faster-than-light speeds, and before the drop out, space narrowed. In the pilot’s cradle, alone, I blinked away afterimages from the brilliant flash that preceded hyperspeed, like the universe warning me STOP in the seconds before I broke the speed limit. When I blinked those ghosts away, there was nothing through the window except black.
Not for the first time, I wished Benny had chosen a ship with a little more elbow room for the pilot. There was no space in the cockpit for anyone except me. I couldn’t see the others; couldn’t even turn around to look, because then I might miss the drop-out point; I couldn’t call out to them or talk, because then I might lose my concentration, and overshoot our stop.