Exo: A Novel (Jumper) Read online

  His hand’s darted out and I said, “Don’t open it! I promised it would arrive uncontaminated.”

  “I know.” He held the package up and tilted it, watching through two layers of plastic and the thick glass as the fine, dark gray sand slid and shifted.

  He looked back at me, his mouth parted. “You said you could,” he said finally. “How did the Tyvek work?”

  “Good. A little dust made it onto the surface of the radiation layer and the tiniest bit onto the Nomex coveralls, but I didn’t see anything on the MCP suit, and I used a magnifier.”

  “You were warm enough?”

  “Mostly. We’re going to need better boots—my toes were getting numb by the time I left. The overgloves were good, though.”

  He looked back at the jar. “I was expecting reddish brown.”

  “Basaltic sands from the dunes in the Melas Chasma. I’ve got pictures. The bluffs north of there are astonishing.”

  He set the jar down carefully. “So,” he said. “Mars.”

  I nodded, “Mars.”

  So that’s one thing off the list.

  Acknowledgments

  Special thanks to Cory Matoska of Lubbock, Texas, whose generous contribution to the Con-or-Bust charity (http://con-or-bust.org/) won him the right to be a named character in this book. That this character’s first name also matches my good friend Cory Doctorow’s, that part is only a fortuitous coincidence. Really.

  More thanks are due to my family. I have Frankensteined my daughters for parts of Cent, and Millie owes a great deal to my loving wife, Laura J. Mixon.

  Tor Books by Steven Gould

  Jumper

  Wildside

  Helm

  Blind Waves

  Reflex

  Jumper: Griffin’s Story

  Impulse

  Exo

  About the Author

  STEVEN GOULD is the author of Jumper, Wildside, Helm, Blind Waves, Reflex, and Impulse, as well as many short stories. He is the recipient of the Hal Clement Young Adult Award for Science Fiction and has been on the Hugo ballot twice and the Nebula ballot once for his short fiction, but his favorite distinction was being on the American Library Association’s Top 100 Banned Books list 1900–1999. “Jumper was right there at number 94, between Stephen King’s Christine and a nonfiction book on sex education.” Steve lives in New Mexico with writer Laura J. Mixon and their two daughters. As he is somewhere between birth and death, he considers himself to be middle-aged.

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  EXO

  Copyright © 2014 by Steven Gould

  All rights reserved.

  Cover photographs by Getty Images

  A Tor Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates, LLC

  175 Fifth Avenue

  New York, NY 10010

  www.tor-forge.com

  Tor® is a registered trademark of Tom Doherty Associates, LLC.

  eBooks may be purchased for business or promotional use. For information on bulk purchases, please contact Macmillan Corporate and Premium Sales Department by writing to [email protected].

  The Library of Congress has cataloged the print edition as follows:

  Gould, Steven.

  Exo / Steven Gould. — 1st ed.

  p. cm.

  “A Tom Doherty Associates Book”

  ISBN 978-0-7653-3654-5 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-46682848-3 (e-book)

  1. Teleportation—Fiction. 2. Science fiction. I. Title.

  PS3557.O8947 E96 2014

  813’.54—dc23

  2014015849

  e-ISBN 9781466828483

  First Edition: September 2014