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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

The lieutenant’s lambent eyes were piercing. “Who sent you here?”

Answering that question honestly would mean my death and Benny’s, now or later, once the Senator realized we’d betrayed him. “If you think I’m a Minister spy,” I said, “why the hell did you rescue me from Indigo?”

Something slammed against the door, interrupting our stand-off. The forty locks bent, buckled, and when that something slammed into the door again, this time it gave way.

The forty locks on Lieutenant Lantern-Eyes’ door were enough to withstand most apocalypses, but apparently not a furious Minister. As soon as the door fell in I saw Indigo standing behind it, collar light glowing darkly and his human-inhuman face as expressionless as stone.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO:

Oh, Shit!

“Behind the radio!” Lantern-Eyes shouted, and ran at Indigo with her club. He moved, smooth as water, and blocked her blow with his long knife. The look he gave her terrified me, but the lieutenant only brought her club around to swing again.

“Behind the fucking radio!” she shouted, tripping back as Indigo moved forward, just in time to dodge the slash of his knife. I dropped to my knees beside the huge black box that was the radio and shoved it aside.

Hidden by its bulk was another little rat hole. It was smaller than the first one had been, barely big enough for me, and I couldn’t see to the other side.

“Sean, get in!” Lantern-Eyes shrieked, and reached blindly behind herself to grab one of her explosive canisters and launch it at Indigo. He knocked it aside with his sword, splitting it, and the air began to fill with thick white smoke again.

Indigo looked from the smoke to Lantern-Eyes, a dark expression taking shape on his usually impassive face. I made a split-second decision, reached up to the lieutenant’s wall of alphabetized murder weapons, and blindly grabbed for the same smoke/light bombs she’d just used. I caught four of them in my spread fingers, and I didn’t dare linger to get more, not with Indigo’s expression like that. Stuffing the bombs in my pocket, I got on my knees and crawled into the rat hole in the wall. Something crashed behind me.

I scrambled forward, scraping my palms on the uneven floor. The walls pressed in on me. I reached the end of the rat hole like a man surfacing from underwater and moved as far from the narrow passage as I dared, panting hard. My fingers dug into my side but the touch was only faint comfort, holding myself together on the floor.

I was out. I was out now, and who knew what was following me from the lieutenant’s safe room, but at least I was no longer trapped in a coffin-like tunnel. I took a less desperate breath and started to push myself up—whatever came out of that tunnel, Lantern-Eyes or Indigo, I would have to be prepared.

It was only then that I realized I was not alone.