Kevin Anderson - Resurrection, Inc.

Around him appeared those other spirits again, nameless, formless just behind his ability to perceive them—and yet he did know them, not their names, not their features, but them . Ahead, they pushed him gently along toward a great starburst of dazzling light, waxing pure and brilliant. The bright light welcomed him, pulsed, opened wider, sentient but like a pool of incandescent emotion. He began to remember, finally… this had happened before, and then—

And then the last great impenetrable wall rose up in front of him, blocking him off. The black barrier mocked him, unyielding, irresistible—reinforced by the paradox that burned through his brain, far away in his own body. But unlike when Gregor showed him how to view his death flashbacks by choice, Danal had no way to turn back now. No reality lay behind him, and he could go no farther forward.

He pounded on the barrier, shouting with all his spirit, begging, then angry, then in despair. He knew that on the other side of the impenetrable barrier lay either an escape back to reality or… beyond. He had to break through, or he would be trapped in this hellish limbo for all eternity, whether it lasted an instant or a century in objective time. He had to go back and live, or go forward to Death, but he could not move one way or another.

The guardian spirits had dropped back to the edges of the tunnel, almost out of his perception. They would not help him. All things were bound by their own rules, their own power.

Then Danal knew, and he spoke his phrase with an evenness that belied his eagerness, “Command: Let me pass.”

The wall began to fold and crumble and dissolve.

Danal blinked. Even turning his head slightly seemed an infinite effort; all his muscles had locked, petrified. He wondered blankly how long he had been away.

“Gregor!” Rikki cried. “He’s coming back!”

The images finally made sense in front of his eyes, and Danal saw he had not moved. He still sat cross-legged on the floor of the altar platform, staring down at the pentacle. But everything else had changed. The other Wakers had gone, and only Rikki remained by him.

Gregor came running up the aisle, running , with a look of boyish excitement that made Danal want to laugh. He saw Laina coming, too, and even Jones wore an expression of relief.

“How long?” he asked. His own voice sounded like a madman’s shout in his ears.

“More than an hour,” Rikki answered, looking delighted. “All the neo-Satanists are awake now. Jones had to stun a couple of them again, but most are just dazed. All the fight’s run out of them. See, it hasn’t hit them yet—they don’t seem to realize what they almost did to themselves. And the sad part is, most of them honestly think they’ve missed their big chance at salvation.”

“Danal!” Gregor exclaimed and clapped both hands around the other Servant’s shoulders. Danal felt several of his locked muscles pop free from their stiffness.

“Gregor…” he said breathlessly, “I broke through. The last barrier. I saw all my Death memories.”

This took the big Waker completely by surprise, but he reoriented himself. “And? What did you see?” Gregor clutched his own hands, and then a look of fear came across his face, as if he wasn’t ready for the answers just yet.

“It was like… you know how we can never really describe the first death flashbacks? Because we just don’t have any words? This was more than that, because I was surrounded by things that even my mind couldn’t…” He struggled to express himself, “I had no framework for the perceptions. I don’t remember any of it now, but I know I saw it.”

He paused for a moment as an even greater wonder grew on his face. “And I think—I think I saw Julia there. I’m not sure.” Danal clenched his fist in exasperation. “I can’t remember. The barrier’s gone now, but I simply couldn’t retain any of the experience. Not even while I was there.”

He smiled, though, with a look of blithe amazement that surprised the others around him. “You’ll find something there, too, Gregor. You’ll know what I mean.”

Rikki fidgeted, impatient and not showing much interest in Gregor’s fascination. “But did it work?”

Danal looked at him blankly for a moment, wondering what he meant.

Exasperated, Rikki crossed his arms and snapped, “Danal! Command: Slap your face!”

Smiling, Danal reached forward instead to pat the boy Waker on both cheeks.

Kevin J. Anderson is the author of nearly 100 novels, 48 of which have appeared on national or international bestseller lists; he has over 20million books in print in thirty languages. He has won or been nominated for the Nebula Award, Bram Stoker Award, the SFX Reader’s Choice Award, and New York Times Notable Book.

Anderson has co-authored eleven books in the DUNE saga with Brian Herbert. Anderson’s popular epic SF series, The Saga of Seven Suns, is his most ambitious work, and he is currently at work on a sweeping fantasy trilogy, Terra Incognita, about sailing ships, sea monsters, and the crusades. As an innovative companion project to Terra Incognita, Anderson co-wrote (with wife Rebecca Moesta) the lyrics for two ambitious rock CDs based on the novels. Performed by the supergroup Roswell Six for ProgRock Records, the two CDs feature performances by rock legends from Kansas, Dream Theater, Asia, Saga, Rocket Scientists, Shadow Gallery, and others.

His novel Enemies & Allies chronicles the first meeting of Batman and Superman in the 1950s; Anderson also wrote The Last Days of Krypton . He has written numerous STAR WARS projects, including the Jedi Academy trilogy, the Young Jedi Knights series (with Moesta), and Tales of the Jedi comics from Dark Horse. Fans might also know him from his X-FILES novels or Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein: Prodigal Son .

His Web site is www.wordfire.com.

They were prisoners, exiles, pawns of a corrupt government. Now they are Dr. Rachel Dycek’s adin , surgically transformed beings who can survive new lives on the surface of Mars. But they are still exiles, unable ever again to breathe Earth’s air. And they are still pawns.

For the adin exist to terraform Mars for human colonists, not for themselves. Creating a new Earth, they will destroy their world, killed by their own success. Desperate, adin leader Boris Tiban launches a suicide campaign to sabotage the Mars Project, knowing his people will perish in a glorious, doomed campaign of mayhem—unless embattled, bitter Rachel Dycek can find a miracle to save both the Mars Project and the race she created.

Atlas is a struggling colony on an untamable world, a fragile society held together by the Truthsayers. Parentless, trained from birth as the sole users of Veritas, a telepathy virus that lets them read the souls of the guilty. Truthsayers are Justice—infallible, beyond appeal.

But sometimes they are wrong.

Falsely accused of murder, Troy Boren trusts the young Truthsayer Kalliana…until, impossibly, she convicts him. Still shaken from a previous reading, Kalliana doesn’t realize her power is fading. But soon the evidence becomes impossible to ignore. The Truthsayers’ Veritas has been diluted and someone in the colony is selling smuggled telepathy. Justice isn’t blind—it’s been blinded .

From an immortal’s orbital prison to the buried secrets of a regal fortress, Kalliana and Troy seek the conspiracy that threatens to destroy their world from within. For without truth and justice, Atlas will certainly fall…