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Contents (188)
  1. THE
  2. IMMORTALITY THIEF
  3. Taran Hunt
  4. Contents
  5. CHAPTER ONE:
  6. The Nameless Ship and the Dying Star
  7. CHAPTER TWO:
  8. Three Convicts and a Generous Opportunity
  9. CHAPTER THREE:
  10. The Lost Language
  11. CHAPTER FOUR:
  12. Sean Wren and the Philosopher Stone
  13. CHAPTER FIVE:
  14. Leashed
  15. CHAPTER SIX:
  16. The Imp of the Perverse
  17. CHAPTER SEVEN:
  18. Lantern-Eyes and the Minister
  19. CHAPTER EIGHT:
  20. Indigo and Ultraviolet
  21. CHAPTER NINE:
  22. Three Lives and One
  23. CHAPTER TEN:
  24. Rot and Bone
  25. CHAPTER ELEVEN:
  26. Signs in the Dark
  27. CHAPTER TWELVE:
  28. Dead End
  29. CHAPTER THIRTEEN:
  30. A Way Out
  31. CHAPTER FOURTEEN:
  32. Missed Chances
  33. CHAPTER FIFTEEN:
  34. One and Two
  35. CHAPTER SIXTEEN:
  36. The Choice and the Hull
  37. CHAPTER SEVENTEEN:
  38. The Indigo Minister and I
  39. CHAPTER EIGHTEEN:
  40. The Minister and the Lieutenant
  41. CHAPTER NINETEEN:
  42. Lieutenant Lantern-Eyes
  43. CHAPTER TWENTY:
  44. Mara Zhu’s Experiment
  45. CHAPTER TWENTY ONE:
  46. Forty Locks
  47. CHAPTER TWENTY TWO:
  48. Oh, Shit!
  49. CHAPTER TWENTY THREE:
  50. Beta Version
  51. CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR:
  52. Some Really Angry Rocks
  53. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE:
  54. The Trap
  55. (Featuring: Sean Wren’s Inability to Use a Grenade)
  56. CHAPTER TWENTY SIX:
  57. Made of Man
  58. CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN:
  59. The Moment
  60. CHAPTER TWENTY EIGHT:
  61. Three Doors
  62. CHAPTER TWENTY NINE:
  63. The Roach
  64. CHAPTER THIRTY:
  65. Family Photo
  66. CHAPTER THIRTY ONE:
  67. The Last Words of Mara Zhu
  68. Part one
  69. CHAPTER THIRTY TWO:
  70. Sins of the Father
  71. CHAPTER THIRTY THREE:
  72. The Lieutenant
  73. (again)
  74. CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR:
  75. Field and Forest
  76. CHAPTER THIRTY FIVE:
  77. The Minister, the Lieutenant, and I
  78. CHAPTER THIRTY SIX:
  79. The Deer and the River
  80. CHAPTER THIRTY SEVEN:
  81. Some Fresh Bullshit
  82. CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT:
  83. Enemy of the Enemy
  84. CHAPTER THIRTY NINE:
  85. Impromptu Electrodynamics
  86. CHAPTER FORTY:
  87. Babel
  88. CHAPTER FORTY ONE:
  89. Three Strangers and a Desperate Offer
  90. CHAPTER FORTY TWO:
  91. Another Lengthy Détente with Some Stubborn Assholes
  92. CHAPTER FORTY THREE:
  93. The Worst Camping Trip of My Life
  94. CHAPTER FORTY FOUR:
  95. Sisters, State Secrets, and Just So Many Creepy Children
  96. CHAPTER FORTY FIVE:
  97. Nests?!
  98. CHAPTER FORTY SIX:
  99. My Mother’s Wardrobe
  100. CHAPTER FORTY SEVEN:
  101. I’m Susceptible to Bribes, But Only in the Form of Grammar
  102. CHAPTER FORTY EIGHT:
  103. The Center of It All
  104. CHAPTER FORTY NINE:
  105. God Damn Children
  106. CHAPTER FIFTY:
  107. The Bodies of the Past
  108. CHAPTER FIFTY ONE:
  109. Test Subjects
  110. CHAPTER FIFTY TWO:
  111. A Hot, Piping Cup of Coffee with a Side of Creepy Children
  112. CHAPTER FIFTY THREE:
  113. Sean Wren and the Incredible Hypoxia
  114. CHAPTER FIFTY FOUR:
  115. Trust Me
  116. PART ONE
  117. CHAPTER FIFTY FIVE:
  118. Trust Me
  119. PART TWO
  120. CHAPTER FIFTY SIX:
  121. Trust Me
  122. PART THREE
  123. CHAPTER FIFTY SEVEN:
  124. The Shedding of Blood
  125. CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT:
  126. Lab 17
  127. CHAPTER FIFTY NINE:
  128. Something in My Eye
  129. CHAPTER SIXTY:
  130. Eye for an Eye
  131. CHAPTER SIXTY ONE:
  132. What Must Be Seen
  133. CHAPTER SIXTY TWO:
  134. Third Eye
  135. CHAPTER SIXTY THREE:
  136. Hindsight
  137. CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR:
  138. Eye on the Prize
  139. CHAPTER SIXTY FIVE:
  140. The Last Words of Mara Zhu
  141. PART TWO
  142. CHAPTER SIXTY SIX:
  143. An Old Friend
  144. CHAPTER SIXTY SEVEN:
  145. The Wall
  146. CHAPTER SIXTY EIGHT:
  147. Sean Wren’s Special New Skill
  148. CHAPTER SIXTY NINE:
  149. Last One There Loses
  150. CHAPTER SEVENTY:
  151. Sympathy for the Devils
  152. CHAPTER SEVENTY ONE:
  153. A Frighteningly Efficient Kidnapping
  154. CHAPTER SEVENTY TWO:
  155. The Whole Truth
  156. CHAPTER SEVENTY THREE:
  157. The Breaking of the Fellowship
  158. CHAPTER SEVENTY FOUR:
  159. Perversion of Potential
  160. CHAPTER SEVENTY FIVE:
  161. Benny
  162. CHAPTER SEVENTY SIX:
  163. Sean Wren, Unkillable Machine Man
  164. CHAPTER SEVENTY SEVEN:
  165. The Republic
  166. CHAPTER SEVENTY EIGHT:
  167. Sister
  168. CHAPTER SEVENTY NINE:
  169. The Ministers
  170. CHAPTER EIGHTY:
  171. Number One
  172. CHAPTER EIGHTY ONE:
  173. Brother
  174. CHAPTER EIGHTY TWO:
  175. The Philosopher Stone
  176. CHAPTER EIGHTY THREE:
  177. Center of the Compass
  178. CHAPTER EIGHTY FOUR:
  179. Sean, Tamara, and Shay
  180. CHAPTER EIGHTY FIVE:
  181. Memory
  182. CHAPTER EIGHTY SIX:
  183. Improvisational Linguistics
  184. CHAPTER EIGHTY SEVEN:
  185. The Dreamer
  186. CHAPTER EIGHTY EIGHT:
  187. A Letter from the Dead
  188. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

“I don’t think it works that way.”

She tilted her head in acknowledgement. Again, not my sister’s mannerism; that one was stolen from the Indigo Minister. “But if you took it,” Brigid said, “then neither of the two people who killed me would get it.”

The sunlight was silver and misty. Like light through a filmy quartz.

“It still wouldn’t bring you back,” I said.

There was blood on her temple again. I was suddenly terrified I would watch her face crumple in, all her features shattered until they were unrecognizable, and it could’ve been any girl’s corpse on the floor there, nothing left of my Brigid. But the light around me was dimming, too, the dream starting to fade.

I spoke quickly, before it could. Just in case this wasn’t an AI’s dream in the minutes before I died, but real, and really Brigid. “You know I love you, right? You know I miss you every day?”

“You didn’t love me until after I died,” Brigid said, and the dream winked out.

CHAPTER SIXTY FOUR:

Eye on the Prize

By the time I woke for the—fifth? Sixth?—time, I was sick of the AI’s shit. Why couldn’t it just kill me outright, like everything else on this stupid ship? Why did it have to play with its food?

I opened my eyes this time, again, to see Indigo and Tamara bent over me, matching expressions of concern on their faces.

“Oh, come on,” I said. “This again?”

“Brain damage?” Tamara said to Indigo, worried. He nodded somberly.

I pointed at her. “Spot on.”

My head was aching something fierce. My eyes were gritty, and the implant was a nub of pain in the back of my skull.

“We should get him to a doctor,” Tamara said to Indigo, and the two of them got me under the arms and hauled me up.

“You’re not very imaginative, you know,” I told Tamara. “I mean, you’ve said the same thing in like three different dreams.”

“Okay, Sean,” said Tamara.

“And you know what,” I said, “I think you need to see a doctor, too. But a head doctor. All this counting bullets and making plans on top of plans on top of plans and freezing up when something changes? I don’t know if that’s you or if that’s, like, some sort of PTSD, but it’s definitely not a healthy thing.”

The two of them, together, were dragging me towards the little room, just like the past few dreams. Indigo patted my arm in what seemed to be reassurance.

“Don’t get me started on you,” I told him. “I can’t even tell what you want from me but I feel like you want to cry half the time.”

“It’s going to be okay, Sean,” Tamara reassured me, kindly. “Everything is going to be just fine. Here we go.”

We’d reached, as anticipated, the far door. Neatly marked LAB 17. There was one difference from the prior times we’d visited the LAB 17 door—this time, the inscription was written in Brigid’s sprawling pink pen. I laughed.