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FACT:

All artwork, literature, science, and historical references in this novel are real

“The Consortiuanization with offices in seven countries Its naed for considerations of security and privacy

Inferno is the underworld as described in Dante Alighieri’s epic poem The Divine Comedy, which portrays hell as an elaborately structured realm populated by entities known as “shades”—bodiless souls trapped between life and death

PROLOGUE

I am the Shade

Through the dolent city, I flee

Through the eternal woe, I take flight

Along the banks of the river Arno, I scra left onto Via dei Castellani,in the shadows of the Uffizi

And still they pursue me

Their footsteps grow louder now as they hunt with relentless determination

For years they have pursued round … forcedbeneath the earth like a chthonic monster

I am the Shade

Here aboveground, I raise my eyes to the north, but I am unable to find a direct path to salvation … for the Apennine Mountains are blotting out the first light of dawn

I pass behind the palazzo with its crenellated tower and one-handed clock … snaking through the early- vendors in Piazza di San Firenze with their hoarse voices s before the Bargello, I cut west toward the spire of the Badia and coate at the base of the stairs

Here all hesitation must be left behind

I turn the handle and step into the passage fros up the narrow staircase … spiraling skyward on soft marble treads, pitted and worn

The voices echo fro

They are behindin

They do not understand what is co … nor what I have done for them!

Ungrateful land!

As I cli in fiery rain, the gluttonous souls floating in excrerasp

I cli near dead into the dah the slits Far below is the blessed city that I have made my sanctuary from those who exiled me

The voices call out, arriving close behind me “What you’ve done is madness!”

Madness breeds madness

“For the love of God,” they shout, “tell us where you’ve hidden it!”

For precisely the love of God, I will not

I stand now, cornered, reen eyes, and their expressions darken, no longer cajoling, but threatening “You knoe have our methods We can force you to tell us where it is”

For that reason, I have climbed halfway to heaven