Up for auction: a still-warm vial of blood, a button clinging to a piece of fabric from a Confederate uniform, plus a pungent air sample fresh from the body-strewn Gettysburg battlefield. Ethan Spaulding, a struggling techno genius with an affinity for history, finally catches a break when the highest bidder for his artifacts offers a one-of-a-kind opportunity; a job that would allow him to put all of his talents to work extracting famous people from history and bringing them back to the year 2163.Spaulding is trained by attractive field agent Kathryn Phillips, and placed on a team with Darren Gilmore, the agent whose former dealings resulted in six months of incarceration for Ethan. The trio is one of several teams sponsored by the Institute to journey into the past on clandestine missions to kidnap historical figures before their demise. In exchange for a new beginning, the often-reluctant icons become part of the commune at the Institute, whose stated goal is to harness their collective knowledge to improve modern society.For Ethan, what begins as a dream come true starts to unravel when he discovers a more sinister intent for their time travel escapades.The Collectors is the first in a series of novels about the adventures of Ethan Spaulding.
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