Ethan sighed again, knowing he could hardly pressure Lopez when he was barely over Joanna himself. Lopez and Tyrell hadn’t, as far as he knew, been an item, but they’d been partners and sometimes that bond could be just as strong. Ethan had experienced just such camaraderie in the Marine Corps: men who had faced death together tended to face life together as well, a brotherhood forged in shared hardship that felt as though it could last for an eternity.
‘Okay,’ he agreed finally. ‘I just don’t want to be wearing dentures before I know I can rely on you.’
Lopez smiled brightly.
‘Maybe we should have saved some of that elixir for your wrinkled old ass.’
‘Like hell,’ Ethan shot back as he started the car’s engine. ‘Every crease has been earned.’
He sat for a moment, thinking about Saffron Oppenheimer, and then looked across at Lopez again.
Lopez stared out to the south, toward the shimmering mountains and the hard blue skies, and then back at Ethan.
‘I want to go home,’ she said. ‘North.’
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Once again I owe an enormous debt of gratitude to my brilliant literary agent Luigi Bonomi, who upon our first ever meeting suggested that I should pen a story based upon the search for immortality. He felt that nobody had ever attempted to concoct a potentially viable method by which eternal youth could be achieved. If he’s still representing authors in the year 2176 we’ll know he had an ulterior motive. My heartfelt thanks go to my editors Maxine Hitchcock, Emma Lowth and the team at Simon & Schuster, who never fail to impress me and whom I count myself lucky to work with, and to everyone at LBA. I’d also like to thank so many of my friends who have been incredibly supportive and enthusiastic since the launch of my debut novel Covenant — you all know who you are. Finally, as ever I owe my parents Terry and Carolyn everything, for without them I would not have such a love of the written word nor such an example in life to live up to.
About the Author
Dean Crawford began writing after his dream of becoming a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force was curtailed when he failed their stringent sight tests. Fusing his interest in science with a love of fast-paced revelatory thrillers, he soon found a career that he could pursue with as much passion as flying a fighter jet. Now a full-time author, he lives with his partner and daughter in Surrey.