Story so far
Bleeding out as he flies the children toward Hyperion—Pax having sealed his chest wound with resFlesh—Ephraim is hailed by the Queen herself, a noseless face of swirling locust-pixels crowned in ghostly black. He spits defiance at her; she reveals the Hornet was hers all along, seizes it by remote, and turns it back toward the Syndicate, coms and controls dead. Knowing capture means years of torture for him and worse for the children—and doom for Volga—Ephraim makes his last, worst choice: he downs three zoladone, drags himself to the weapons locker, clusters thermal grenades by the engines, straps the children into crash webbing, and blows the ship out of the sky.
Laughing bitterly, he sends the Hornet spiraling down into the ruined skeleton city of one of the Jackal's craters—'I knew this was gonna be a one-way ticket.'
Appearance
A slight man of forty-six with a swollen bloodied face, cheek torn and earlobe gone, a sealed chest wound leaking blood; going into shock, legs rubbery, sweat-soaked and laughing through the pain.
Role
POV protagonist; the dying thief who sacrifices himself, crashing the ship to deny the Queen the children.
Relationships
Queen — The Syndicate ruler who seizes his ship by remote, whom he defies by crashing it rather than surrender.
Pax — The boy who seals his wound and whom he straps in before the crash.
Electra — The girl he shields, ordering her strapped in for the fall.
Volga — His friend, whose fate weighs on his refusal to let the children be retaken.
Sources — 11 recorded facts, by chapter
Chapter 5
- Grief-numbed, drug-dulled master thief and ex-legionnaire, running heists across Luna's underworld.
Chapter 13
- Grief-hollowed ex-legionnaire thief, Trigg's widower, dragged from the brink into the Syndicate's grip.
Chapter 17
- Grief-hollowed master thief, coerced by the Syndicate into stealing 'the most valuable thing in all the worlds.'
Chapter 23
- Coerced master thief now planning the Syndicate's grand heist, running his crew ragged and arming up through Luna's underworld.
Chapter 30
- Grief-hollowed thief who, in the guise of 'Philippe,' cons the trusting Lyria into wearing a disguised Syndicate drone for the heist.
Chapter 38
- Grief-hollowed thief who pulls off the child-abduction heist—but cannot bring himself to execute Lyria, taking her instead as Dano dies.
Chapter 41
- Grief-sick thief who delivers the stolen children to the Duke, learns Cyra betrayed him, and is left alive with a job offer and a debt to avenge.
Chapter 50
- Hollowed and hunted, he drives Volga away, tries to flee Luna, and is cornered by Holiday and Lyria into leading a rescue for Volga's life.
Chapter 56
- Walks into the Syndicate's Endymion lair, tortures the Duke into opening the vault, and finds Pax and Electra caged among the treasure—two hours from any rescue.
Chapter 57
- Frees the caged children and fights them out with the Duke as a shield—but is shot through the chest by Gorgo and flies off dying as Pax forces him to the Citadel.
Chapter 63
- Dying at the controls, he defies the Syndicate Queen and blows the ship's engines to crash it rather than let her retake the children.