The Judas Strain

Was this a dream, a memory…or something more?

She inhaled the salt air. A beautiful day.

She crossed to the ship’s rail and stared out at the blue expanse. Green islands dotted the distance. A few clouds drifted. She heard the tread of feet on the stairs leading up from the cabin.

As she turned, he climbed into view, pulling up with his arms, dressed in shorts and an Ocean Pacific T-shirt. He spotted her, with a startled expression.

Then he smiled. “Oh, there you are.”

Susan rushed to Gregg, wrapping her arms around her husband.

Downstairs, Oscar barked. A grumpy voice yelled back at the old dog.

Susan snugged against her husband, listening to the beat of his heart.

He hugged her back. “What is it, Susan?”

She stared up into Gregg’s face, raised a finger to the three-day stubble on his chin. Then tipped up on her toes to reach his lips.

He bent down to meet her.

And she knew she was home.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

Once again, thanks for accompanying me on this journey! As usual, I thought I’d use these last pages to perform a postmortem on the novel, to separate fact from fiction. I’ve divided the postmortem by general topics:

MARCO POLO: The forward to this novel raised the central mystery concerning the fate of Polo’s fleet during his return trip to Venice. What happened to the ships and men still remains a mystery. As to Marco’s potential love affair with Princess Kokejin, rumors persist, especially as he died with the princess’s headpiece in his possession. As to Marco’s body after his death, it did indeed vanish out of the Church of San Lorenzo, its whereabouts still unknown.

ANGELIC SCRIPT AND OTHER LANGUAGE ISSUES: Angelic script was first developed by Joha

PLAGUES: Eyam, a village in England, did indeed have an unusual survival rate during the Black Plague, a result of a genetic abnormality in half its populace. Strange but true. As to anthrax, the only difference between the deadly form of this bacterium and its peaceful garden-dwelling cousin are two rings of genetic code called plasmids. Which begs the question, where did those plasmids come from?

FAUNA: Christmas Island red land crabs do indeed have a spectacular migration each year, during which millions of the large crabs journey to the sea. Their claws have also been known to puncture tires. Moving on to those pesky liver flukes, the descriptions of their strange and disturbing life cycles are accurate. As to our predatory squids, I based them on the species Taningia danae, which grow to six feet in length, hunt in packs, have brilliant light displays, and bear claws on their suckers. Definitely tough calamari.

CANNIBALS AND PIRATES: Indonesian piracy is still a booming growth industry. Pick up applications at the back of the room. As to ca

ANGKOR: All the details of the ruins — from the Churning of the Milk mythology to the two hundred stone bodhisattva faces — are accurate, including how the temples were laid out to mimic star patterns, specifically the constellation of Draco. For more details on this, check out Heaven’s Mirror by Graham Hancock and Santha Faiia.

ALL THINGS BACTERIA: There are indeed milky seas of glowing algae that bloom up periodically. And according to a series of disturbing articles in the Los Angeles Times, our seas are increasingly threatened with the resurgence of ancient slimes, poisonous jellyfish, burning seaweeds, and toxic clouds bursting from algal blooms. As to the strangest claim in the novel: that only 10 percent of the cells in our body are human (and the rest are bacteria and parasites). This is true! There is a wonderful book exploring this topic that is as horrific as it is humorous, Human Wildlife by Dr. Robert Buckman. Just don’t read it before you eat.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Too many people, not enough space.

First, to everyone at HarperCollins, I owe you all a long-overdue acknowledgment for the past decade of guidance, hard work, and expertise:

To the big guns, Michael Morrison and Lisa Gallagher, thanks for all the support and confidence. Past, present, and future.

To the art directors, Richard Aquan and Thomas Egner, thanks for making the books stand out so handsomely. I could not be prouder.

To the marketing directors, Adrie

To the best PR team in the world, Pam Spengler-Jaffee and Buzzy Porter, thanks for not making me jump out of a bush plane in Alaska.

To a trio of women who put me on the map and in bookstores — Ly

To the indomitable force behind national sales and accounts — Carla Parker, Brian Grogan, Brian McSharry, and Mark Gustafson — thanks for all your extra efforts and energies to elbow the novels into stores and onto shelves.

To Mike Spradlin, thanks for both sales and zombies (in no particular order).

And to the hundred and one others whom I’ve failed to mention, but whom I appreciate no less — THANKS!

Moving closer to home, I must acknowledge my dark cabal who tear apart each chapter and reconstruct it into something better: Pe

And once again, to the four people instrumental at all levels of production: my fantastic editor, Lyssa Keusch, and her stalwart colleague May Chen, and my indomitable agents, Russ Galen and Da

And lastly, I must stress any and all errors of fact or detail fall squarely on my own shoulders.

About the Author

JAMES ROLLINS is the bestselling author of eight previous novels: Subterranean, Excavation, Deep Fathom, Amazonia, Ice Hunt, Sandstorm, Map of Bones, and Black Order. He has a doctorate in veterinary medicine and his own practice in Sacramento, California. An amateur spelunker and a certified scuba enthusiast, you’ll often find him either underground or underwater.