by Gareth Ward
Nimrod turned to face Sin, putting his hands on his shoulders. “I want to tell you about the Eugenesis Project. How we made you better than human. But all that can wait. What you really need to know, right now, is your mother would be proud of you, son.”
Sin’s heart leaped and the world came into precise focus, colours sharp and vivid, sounds crisp and clear.
“You’re my father?” he asked, not daring to believe it.
“The truth of the matter is that you were enhanced with the Super-Pangenes from various extramundane donors,” said Nimrod. “But in as much as the normal sense of the word can be applied to you, yes, I am your father.”
It was almost too much to take in. Sin pressed his fingertips against his temples, trying to make sense of it all. He had a father. A billionaire, genius father who was head of COG. The palace was his home, the candidates and staff his family. He belonged.
There was so much he still didn’t know, so much he didn’t understand. Was he normal? What Super-Pangenes did he have? But one question burned brightly in his mind ahead of all the others.
“What was my mother like?” he asked.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This has been an epic journey. Without the navigational prowess of a number of people I may have fallen into many traps on the way.
Thanks to Storylines, Tessa Duder and Walker Books for giving me this opportunity.
Thanks to my mentor, Alex Smith, for her guidance, and to Adele Broadbent and Phoebe Wilton-Stuart for scribbling all over my first draft, and to Jackie Rutherford and Anna Mackenzie for scribbling on subsequent drafts.
Thanks to my editor Mary Verney for her time, patience and expert advice.
Special thanks to Alex and Max for listening to all my stories over the years.
And most importantly, thanks to my wife Louise who when not walking beside me on this journey was carrying me through the difficult bits.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
GARETH WARD (aka The Great Wardini) is a magician, hypnotist, storyteller and bookseller. He has worked as a Royal Marines Commando, police officer, evil magician and zombie, and as a writer and compere of Napier City’s inaugural steampunk murder mystery evening. Born near Oxford in the UK, he currently lives in Hawke’s Bay, New Zealand, where he runs two independent bookshops with his wife Louise. His first novel The Traitor and the Thief, a rip-roaring steampunk adventure, won the 2016 Storylines Tessa Duder Award. You can learn more about the fantabulous world of Gareth Ward at garethwardauthor.com
The Traitor and the Thief is the winner of the Storylines Tessa Duder Award for Young Adult Fiction sponsored by Walker Books Australia.
Published in 2017
by Walker Books Australia Pty Ltd
Locked Bag 22, Newtown
NSW 2042 Australia
www.walkerbooks.com.au
This ebook edition published in 2017
The moral rights of the author have been asserted.
Text © 2017 Gareth Ward
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 written permission of the publisher.
National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry:
Ward, Gareth, 1968– author.
The traitor and the thief / Gareth Ward.
For children.
Subjects: Orphans – Juvenile fiction.
Spy stories.
NZ823.3
ISBN: 978-1-925381-73-3 (ePub/mobi)
ISBN: 978-1-925381-72-6 (ePDF)
COVER IMAGES: mechanisms © Agor2012/Shutterstock.com;
boy silhouettes © basel101658/Shutterstock.com;
adult silhouettes © alex74/Shutterstock.com
In memory of Lesley Ann Ward, who taught me the value of imagination.