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66 pages 2 hours read

David C. Mitchell

Cloud Atlas

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2004

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Chapter 9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 9 Summary: “Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery “

Luisa Rey is trapped in her car as it sinks in the water. She frees herself and swims to the surface, losing the Sixsmith report in the process. Elsewhere, Sachs scribbles in his notebook onboard a plane. He doesn’t know that a bomb has been placed under his seat with “enough C-4 to turn an airplane into a meteor” (408). The bomb explodes just as Sachs is thinking about Luisa. Everyone onboard is killed. Bill Smoke enters a room where Lloyd Hooks is telling a rude joke. He quietly signals to Hooks, indicating that Grimaldi, Sachs, and Luisa are all dead. He’s mistaken, however. Luisa is rescued from the water by Hester Van Zandt. Now, she plans to hide at her mother’s house while searching for the evidence contained in the Sixsmith report that she lost. Van Zandt asks Luisa’s friend Milton—whom she trusts “with [her] life” (412)—to drive Luisa to her apartment.

Milton calls Joe Napier and, in exchange for money, tells him that Luisa is still alive. Luisa returns home, where she finds Javier. He tells her that her Uncle Joe is visiting. Luisa doesn’t have an Uncle Joe. Napier appears and tries to assure Luisa that he didn’t try to kill her on the bridge.

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