The Immortalists

The Immortalists Plot Summary

Introduction

The syringe trembled in Burt Seeger's weathered hands as he stared down at eight-year-old Susie Draman. Her body, ravaged by progeria, bore the cruel marks of accelerated aging—wrinkled skin stretched over fragile bones, a heart that struggled with each beat. Outside their hidden RV, somewhere in the Kansas plains, forces beyond imagination hunted them through the darkness. The vial contained either salvation or death, and Richard Draman's voice crackled through the phone with desperate certainty: inject it all. This is the story of a father's impossible choice, where the discovery of immortality becomes humanity's most dangerous secret. When brilliant biologist Richard Draman stumbles upon August Mason's revolutionary anti-aging serum, he unleashes a shadow war between those who would hoard eternal life and those who would die protecting it. The stakes aren't just one dying child—they're the very future of human evolution, controlled by a cabal of the wealthy and powerful who believe only they deserve to live forever.

Chapter 1: The Desperate Scientist's Discovery

The Baltimore police station reeked of coffee and desperation as Richard Draman sat handcuffed, watching his world collapse. Detective Sands leaned back with predatory satisfaction, explaining how industrial espionage charges would destroy everything Richard had built. The Progeria Project—his life's work to cure the disease killing his daughter Susie—would die with his reputation. But the real nightmare had begun days earlier when Troy Chevalier appeared at Richard's lab, hollow-eyed and trembling. His wife Annette, a brilliant researcher, had been found hanging in their home office. The police called it suicide, but Troy knew better. He pressed a thumb drive into Richard's hands, his voice breaking as he explained: Annette had discovered something extraordinary, something worth killing for. The data on that drive revealed Annette's revolutionary approach to reading genetic code—a potential breakthrough that could cure not just progeria, but unlock the fundamental secrets of aging itself. Richard's excitement turned to ice when Chris Graden, his closest friend and financial backer, appeared at the police station with suspicious speed. Chris's charm felt rehearsed, his rescue too convenient. That same night, death came for Susie. A figure materialized in her bedroom window, syringe gleaming in the darkness. Richard's desperate tackle saved his daughter's life, but as he watched the intruder flee into the night, one terrible truth crystallized: someone wanted Annette's research buried forever, and they'd murder a child to ensure it. The syringe Richard had driven into the assassin's leg disappeared before police arrived, along with Detective Sands' credibility. When Sands threatened Richard's family while destroying evidence, Richard finally understood—the corruption ran deeper than he'd imagined, and nowhere was safe.

Chapter 2: Hunted by The Immortalists

Seeger's military instincts screamed danger as assault-rifle-wielding figures surrounded his gingerbread house. The retired soldier had offered sanctuary to Richard's family, but his guest room now stood empty except for a small robot he'd programmed with a warning: "If I ever see you again, you'd better kill me. Because if you don't, I'll cut your head off and put it on your mother's fence post." The Dramans had vanished into America's underground, their deaths reported on Chris Graden's private jet—a lie that bought them precious time. But their hunter, a man named Oleg Nazarov, commanded resources beyond comprehension. His network reached into police departments, government agencies, and multinational corporations, all serving a shadow organization with unlimited funding. Richard's investigation into Chris revealed the horrifying scope of their enemy. His trusted friend hadn't just betrayed them—he'd spent years systematically destroying similar research worldwide. Ray Blane's promising genetics work, terminated by Chris's "generous" grant with impossible conditions. Annette Chevalier's corporate superiors, suddenly hostile to her breakthrough theories. A pattern of brilliant minds silenced or redirected, their discoveries stolen or buried. The truth emerged through fragments: August Mason, the legendary biologist who'd vanished decades ago, had achieved the impossible. He'd cracked the code of aging itself, developed a treatment that could reverse the fundamental decay of human cells. But instead of sharing his discovery with the world, Mason had disappeared into the shadows, his breakthrough becoming the ultimate prize for those wealthy and powerful enough to claim it. Two college students died in a Florida swamp, their only crime helping the Dramans escape. Their bodies joined a growing list of casualties in a war the public would never know existed. Each death hammered home the same message: nobody who threatened The Immortalists' secret would survive.

Chapter 3: Uncovering the Fountain of Youth

The compound in Argentina shimmered with heat and menace as Carly Draman approached the fence. Her husband waited in the forest behind her, sick with worry, while she volunteered for the most dangerous reconnaissance of their lives. The property stretched for thousands of acres, owned by shell companies within shell companies, all leading nowhere. Then she saw him. The man appeared through the trees like something from a fever dream—silver hair flowing from a face decades younger than it should be, bandages wrapping each fingertip where prints had been surgically altered. When he spoke, demanding to know her identity, Carly's blood turned to ice. She'd heard that voice before, in decades-old lecture videos. August Mason stood before her, no longer the elderly academic who'd vanished into obscurity. The brilliant scientist who'd revolutionized biology in the 1980s now appeared to be barely forty, his weathered features replaced by smooth skin and vibrant eyes. The man who should have been approaching his centennial had somehow stolen decades back from time itself. Carly's camera captured the impossible moment before Mason's security forces mobilized. Two men in an open jeep pursued her across the pampas as she sprinted toward Richard's position, their vehicle bearing down like mechanical death. Only a drainage ditch and Richard's desperate rescue saved her from being run down. As they fled Argentina in a smuggler's boat, the full implications crystallized. Mason hadn't just discovered how to slow aging—he'd learned to reverse it completely. Somewhere in his stolen decades lay the key to Susie's salvation, but it remained locked in the hands of men who viewed immortality as their exclusive birthright. The old world died that night in the South Atlantic swells. Behind them lay conventional medicine's limitations; ahead stretched a new reality where death itself had become optional, if you knew the right people and paid the right price.

Chapter 4: A Father's Ultimate Gamble

The glass vial felt impossibly fragile in Richard's palm as he stood in Xander's sterile laboratory, surrounded by equipment worth millions. Old Andreas Xander, confined to his wheelchair but burning with desperate ambition, had tracked down Mason's operation through sheer force of wealth and will. Now the most ruthless billionaire in America commanded Richard to unlock immortality's secrets. But Richard carried a darker burden. The serum's potency was already failing, its biological components dying with each passing hour. In a week, maybe less, the most valuable substance on Earth would become worthless liquid. His daughter Susie lay dying while he played laboratory games with her only hope of survival. The deception required every ounce of Richard's training. He poisoned himself to escape Xander's surveillance, stumbling from the compound while security rushed him toward medical help. By a roadside mile marker, as fake convulsions wracked his body, Richard hid the real serum beneath a thorny bush. The substitute he'd prepared—harmless saline solution—would buy him time, but not much. Burt Seeger's voice carried across static-filled phone lines from their mobile sanctuary. Susie's fever had spiked to dangerous levels, her small body wracked by chills as the experimental serum waged war on her cellular structure. The old soldier who'd become their protector demanded answers Richard couldn't give: Would she live? Would she die? What had they done to this innocent child? "Inject it all," Richard commanded, his voice hollow with the weight of ultimate responsibility. He was gambling with his daughter's life based on theories and desperate hope, authorizing an experiment that could kill her as easily as cure her. Somewhere in the American heartland, a weathered soldier prepared a syringe while an eight-year-old girl burned with fever and the future hung in the balance. The die was cast. Science, love, and mortal terror converged in one irreversible moment.

Chapter 5: The Bittersweet Price of Extended Life

Hair. Susie Draman had hair. Burt Seeger's weathered fingers trembled as they traced the downy fuzz sprouting from his granddaughter's scalp, tears streaming down his face despite forty years of military discipline. The impossible had happened—the progeria that had aged her ancient face and withered her tiny frame was reversing itself. But victory tasted bitter when mixed with fear. Andreas Xander's condition deteriorated daily despite receiving Richard's fake serum. The billionaire's rage grew proportional to his weakness, his threats increasingly desperate as death closed in around him. Security tightened into a stranglehold around the compound while Richard maintained his elaborate deception, pretending to study immortality's secrets while watching his enemy waste away. The real immortals moved through the shadows like cancer through healthy tissue. Karl, August Mason's handler, appeared at Xander's compound with the casual confidence of a man who'd lived multiple lifetimes. His revelation chilled the room: he'd been eighty-nine when he first took Mason's treatment, now possessing the physical perfection of engineered youth while retaining decades of accumulated cunning. Their philosophy poisoned every word. Immortality couldn't be democratized, they insisted—imagine welfare mothers breeding endlessly while living forever, criminals serving thousand-year sentences, mediocre minds entrenched in positions of power for centuries. Only the elite possessed the intelligence and resources to handle eternal life responsibly. Everyone else would simply have to die on schedule. Carly Draman listened to their justifications with growing revulsion. These weren't visionaries but monsters, hoarding the ultimate gift while deciding who deserved to live and who must perish. When Xander's gun pressed against her temple, she faced their logic with defiant contempt: "What about Mother Teresa? Or Picasso? Why do you get to choose?" The answer came wrapped in cold calculation: "Someone has to."

Chapter 6: Faustian Bargains and Final Reckonings

The acid hit Xander's security force like a psychedelic tsunami. Richard had learned from his youthful indiscretions that LSD's delayed onset and unpredictable effects would neutralize armed guards more effectively than any tranquilizer. Men trained to kill found themselves cowering from imaginary threats while their colleagues battled shadows and demons only they could see. Through the chaos of Xander's disintegrating compound, Richard and Carly walked like ghosts. Grown soldiers wept in corners, attack dogs chased their own tails, and snipers fired at hallucinations while the Dramans simply stepped over the madness and out into freedom. But their escape came at a price—one guard's terror-driven leap from an upper window left his skull shattered on the driveway below. Karl's appearance had changed everything. The immortal's casual revelation that all of Mason's early subjects were dying of cancer made Xander's desperation complete. The treatment that promised eternal youth carried a hidden curse—aggressive malignancies that eventually consumed their hosts. Even August Mason, the therapy's creator, had succumbed to pancreatic cancer within months of his diagnosis. Years passed in the remote mountains of Laos, where the Draman family found sanctuary among people who asked no questions about the past. Richard practiced medicine in villages that had never seen a doctor, paid in chickens and handwoven silk while his daughter grew strong and beautiful. Susie's hair darkened to chestnut brown, her ancient features softening into normal adolescence as the progeria's damage slowly reversed itself. But immortality's shadow never truly lifted. Xander found them eventually, cancer-ravaged and dying but still possessed by his obsession. His final offer carried the weight of prophecy: Susie would eventually develop the same malignancies that had killed Mason's other subjects. Only Richard's genius could solve the cancer problem, using all of Mason's data to perfect the flawed treatment. The choice was stark: work for a dying monster, or watch his daughter eventually suffer the same fate as every other immortal.

Summary

In the end, Richard Draman chose love over justice, accepting Xander's devil's bargain to save his daughter's life. The old billionaire died within months, but his legacy lived on through the Cancer Venture—a research empire built on stolen immortality technology, funded by blood money, directed by a brilliant father who'd sacrificed his principles for his child's future. Susie's battle with cancer came at eighteen, just as Xander had predicted, but she survived where Mason's subjects had failed. She lived, loved, and ultimately died at twenty-two—not from cellular immortality's curse, but from the same leukemia that might have claimed any young woman. Twenty-five years later, Richard sits in his Munich office, controlling billions in research funding while his wife grows old beside him. They chose mortality over monstrosity, accepting wrinkled skin and failing bodies rather than the hollow perfection of engineered youth. Susie's brief, brilliant life had shown them immortality's true price: not just the cancer that devoured Mason's subjects, but the loss of humanity that came from believing yourself above the natural order. In refusing eternal life, they'd found something infinitely more valuable—the knowledge that love, even temporary love, was worth any sacrifice. The immortalists had achieved their dreams and become nightmares; the Dramans had lost their gamble and won their souls.

About Author

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Kyle Mills

Mills connects his unique upbringing to his prolific writing career, synthesizing a childhood spent in a law enforcement environment with his later life experiences. Born to an FBI agent, Mills absorbed extensive knowledge about the intelligence community from a young age. This background, while unusual, paved the way for his career as a writer of political thrillers. His novels often delve into themes of espionage and government intrigue, presenting readers with a gripping exploration of moral ambiguity and the complexities of international affairs.\n\nDespite initially pursuing a conventional corporate path, Mills found his calling in writing, thanks to inspiration drawn from the vibrant and adventurous community in Wyoming. His wife’s suggestion to write a novel led him to overcome his skepticism and embrace creativity. This change in direction resulted in his first book, "Rising Phoenix," marking the beginning of his successful career. Mills’ method of incorporating real-world intelligence practices and insider knowledge gives his work an authenticity that resonates with readers who appreciate detailed and realistic portrayals of espionage.\n\nReaders of Mills' books benefit from his deep understanding of the intelligence field, which enriches his storytelling with genuine insights and nuanced character development. His works, including contributions to series like the Mitch Rapp novels, offer a thrilling blend of action and strategic depth, engaging audiences who are fascinated by the intersections of power, politics, and human behavior. This bio reflects Mills' journey from a finance major avoiding English courses to becoming a #1 New York Times bestselling author, illustrating the unexpected paths that passion and creativity can forge.

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