The Rebirths of Tao
Page 42
“That and we have no idea what we’re up against. From what I can tell, something bad is going down, but our lab boys can’t make heads or tails of what we found in that giant facility. Care to shed some light on it?”
Roen grimaced. “It’s part of a giant terraforming operation that will remake Earth into a new Quasing home world, except that process will kill all life on the planet. We’ve been trying to stop it. There’re a couple of these facilities hidden in the United States. We don’t know where they are exactly, but we can help you find them.”
Kallis sat across from him, looking stunned as he spoke. The blood had drained from her face and she sat very still, as if Medusa had turned her into stone. It took a while for his words to sink in. Finally, she coughed and cleared her throat. “That’s some deep shit. So assuming it’s all true, then I’d say our goals align. We both want humanity to continue breathing, so let’s do it together. As long as IXTF leads the operation, I’d like you on board. What do you say?”
For the past few years, the Prophus had been teetering on the brink. Still, this was probably the greatest opportunity they had of turning the tide against the Genjix. Otherwise, this recent victory might have bought them a few years, maybe even ten, but the writing had been on the wall now for a long time. The Prophus weren’t going to make it out of this century. By his estimation, the Earth wasn’t going to, unless something extreme and drastic happened. Maybe this was it.
He swiveled to his left and aimed his right arm at Kallis. “Deal.”
She shook his hand. “There’s one more thing, Rutherford.” She accentuated that name. “I need the truth from you.”
“My real name is Roen. Roen Tan.”
“That’s a start.” Kallis looked toward the mirror and then back at him. “But I need to know everything. If this is to work, let’s have a fresh start and be completely honest with each other.”
“There’s a lot to go through,” he said. “We could be here for a while.”
“I’ll have coffee and Chinese food delivered.”
“How about pizza?”
She smiled. “Pizza it is.”
She turned the camera back on and spoke in a clear voice. “Let’s get started. Timestamp: 0001. From the beginning, shall we?”
Roen made himself comfortable and looked directly at the camera. “My name is Roen Tan, and I am a Prophus operative. I used to be a host to a Quasing alien named Tao. ‘Used to’ because, well, let me start from the beginning. I first met Tao in Chicago…”
About the Author
Wesley Chu’s best friend is Michael Jordan, assuming that best friend status is earned by a shared television commercial. If not, then his best friend is his dog, Eva, who he can often be seen riding like a trusty steed through the windy streets of Chicago.
In 2014, Wesley Chu was shortlisted for the John W Campbell Best New Writer Award. Chu’s debut novel from Angry Robot Books, The Lives of Tao, earned him a Young Adult Library Services Association Alex Award and a Science Fiction Goodreads Choice Award Finalist slot. His other novels are The Deaths of Tao and the upcoming Time Salvager.
wesleychu.com
twitter.com/wes_chu
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Infinite lives
An Angry Robot paperback original 2015
Copyright © Wesley Chu 2015
Cover by Argh! Oxford
Set by Epub Services
Distributed in the United States by Random House, Inc., New York.
All rights reserved.
Angry Robot is a registered trademark and the Angry Robot icon a trademark of Watkins Media Ltd.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
UK ISBN 978 0 85766 429 7
US ISBN 978 0 85766 430 3
Ebook ISBN 978 0 85766 431 0