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Authors: Jon Evans

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Part 7
Coda

Shadbold, Jack
– inventor, billionaire, philanthropist. On 15 August 2005, after a long battle with cancer.

Born to a poor family in Durban, South Africa, in 1933, Jack Shadbold worked in the Kimberley diamond mines before emigrating to Australia in 1952, where he acquired a degree from the University of Adelaide's School of Electrical Engineering. His extraordinary technical gifts quickly became apparent, and after publishing several groundbreaking papers, in 1958 he moved to California to take up a position with Fairchild Semiconductor.

Shadbold did not stay long at Fairchild; his independent streak, called stubborn intransigence by some, led him to found his own laboratory, where he spent the next twenty years inventing and patenting numerous innovative tools and processes, mostly to do with semiconductor fabrication. The licensing of these patents by Intel and IBM soon brought Shadbold enormous wealth. He is also believed to have done a considerable amount of work over a period of several decades for the Department of Defense, and in particular its Advanced Research Projects Agency, but any such records have not yet been declassified.

Shadbold never married, had no children, and preferred to stay out of the public eye; he lived as off-the-record an existence as was possible for a man of his wealth and ability. His only recognizable hobby was sailing. He quietly bankrolled at least two America's Cup teams, and indulged in a series of increasingly grandiose yachts, culminating with the massive, entirely computer-controlled
Lazarus
. A superluxury yacht with decorations worthy of Versailles,
Lazarus
was the world's largest single-masted sailing vessel before, in a tragic and inexplicable accident, it was consumed by flames and sank off the Oregon coast, only weeks before Shadbold passed away.

Jack Shadbold was diagnosed with the throat cancer that would eventually take his life in 1995, and battled it bravely for almost a decade. It was this diagnosis that triggered Shadbold's career as a philanthropist. He privately funded hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of cancer-related research, the results of which have been posthumously published and donated patent-free to the world. While it is too early to judge the long-term repercussions, initial reaction from leading scientists indicates that Shadbold's research is likely to play a vitally important part in the war on cancer.

The bulk of Shadbold's estate was left to a foundation whose beneficiaries are the impoverished residents of areas of Third World nations where throat cancers are particularly prevalent, and in particular, the Kishkinda region of south India. The remainder will ensure all-expenses-paid treatment for all American throat cancer patients, for however long they need it. These great gifts add up to a stirring and suitable legacy for a man who will be long be remembered as a modern titan, a humble genius, and one of the great humanitarians of his age.

From the same author on Feedbooks

Beasts of New York: A children's book for grown-ups
(2007)
A violent, epic, action-packed urban quest full of very eccentric, often hilarious, extremely dangerous characters who also happen to be animals — the wildlife of New York City, to be exact.
A revised version of this book (also freely available on Feedbooks, as
Beasts of New York 2.0
) has been published by the prestigious literary press
The Porcupine's Quill
.
To learn more, visit the book's web site:
www.beastsofnewyork.com

About The Author
Jon Evans
is the award-winning author of the international thrillers DARK PLACES, BLOOD PRICE, INVISIBLE ARMIES and NIGHT OF KNIVES (which has also been released on Feedbooks), as well as the Vertigo Crime graphic novel THE EXECUTOR. His novels have won an Arthur Ellis Award, translation into several languages, and praise from
The Economist
,
The Times
, and
The Washington Post
. He can be found online at
www.rezendi.com
.
Night of Knives
(2010)
Veronica Kelly came to Africa to start her life over. Still reeling from her divorce, she is grateful when a handsome stranger invites her to join a tour to visit gorillas in Uganda's wild Impenetrable Forest — a trip that goes desperately wrong when their group is captured by brutal gunmen.
This is no random kidnapping: her abduction is only the first move in a deadly strategic game. Now she must embark on a wild journey across Africa, to unveil a malignant conspiracy before it consumes entire nations — and thousands of lives...

About The Author
Jon Evans is the author of the thrillers
Dark Places
,
Blood Price
, and
Invisible Armies
, and the graphic novel
The Executor
. His novels have won an Arthur Ellis Award, translation into several languages, and praise from
The Economist
,
The Times
, and
The Washington Post
. He can be found online at
www.rezendi.com
.

Reviews
:
"Evans's plots teem with well-drawn characters and terse, well-controlled dialogue. There are plenty of twists and turns and the non-stop action is guaranteed to leave readers breathless." —
Lancashire Evening Post
"The novel begins at speed ... by the time the page numbers reach double figures, the tourists' apparently Congolese captors are marching them towards the Uganda-Congo border, where the plan is to hold them to ransom. But the plot is more complicated than it seems..." —
Sydney Morning Herald
"Suspense aplenty keeps the pages turning." —
Gold Coast Bulletin
"A gripping and terrifying read." —
The York Press
"A vivid eye for detail ... a tale that yomps through the bush and across countries." —
Huddersfield Examiner
"Full of twists and turns, this high-concept, high-adrenalin thriller bests most of what has been produced out of Hollywood in recent years. A must read for action junkies everywhere." —
South Coast Register
Beasts Of New York 2.0
(2011)
A violent, epic, action-packed urban quest full of very eccentric, often hilarious, extremely dangerous characters who also happen to be animals — the wildlife of New York City, to be exact. Published by the prestigious literary press
The Porcupine's Quill
.
"
Fascinating ... humorous, horrifying ... artfully imagined and constructed ... gets at a lot of complex stuff without being heavy-handed.
" - ForeWord Reviews
To learn more, visit the book's web site:
www.beastsofnewyork.com

About The Author
Jon Evans
is the award-winning author of the international thrillers DARK PLACES, BLOOD PRICE, INVISIBLE ARMIES and NIGHT OF KNIVES, as well as the Vertigo Crime graphic novel THE EXECUTOR. His novels have won an Arthur Ellis Award, translation into several languages, and praise from The Economist, The Times, and The Washington Post. He can be found online at
www.rezendi.com
.
Swarm
(2012)
James Kowalski is having a bad week. First he found out his genius girlfriend Sophie has been hiding something important from him. Now the US government wants her to investigate a drug cartel's new weapon: unmanned drones. Drones that happen to look a whole lot like the ones his best friend Jesse uses to hunt treasure in the Caribbean—or so Jesse says.
Then a research trip goes violently wrong, and James finds himself stranded deep in the Colombian jungle, on the run from brutal drug lords.
But things don't get truly desperate until he stumbles upon what's
really
going on. Because that just might be the end of the world as we know it...

About the Author
Jon Evans's novels have been published around the world, translated into half a dozen languages, and praised by
The Economist, The Times of London
, and the
Washington Post
. His journalism has appeared in
Wired, Reader’s Digest, The Guardian, The Globe & Mail
, and
The Times of India
, and he writes a weekly column for TechCrunch. He can be found online at
www.rezendi.com
.