The Ghost in the Heart of Tarven is a science fiction corporate espionage novella with a Midcentury Americana vibe and more than a dash of fantasy and office banter. Ludeng Corporation has done the improbable. They have developed a device inserted just below the heart that makes people live three times longer. But the Heart of Tarven is more a miracle than a scientific breakthrough. The source of its power and the mechanism by which it operates are a mystery. Not even the brightest minds in the Shilloan Empire have been able to reverse-engineer the technology. What makes the Heart of Tarven beat? That is the question that drives Dian Corporation to send Birik Lev, a failed scientist and disappointing son of privilege, to infiltrate Ludeng in a desperate attempt to rescue its falling stock price. His only source inside is a fellow new employee, Adiri Roni, a failed entrepreneur falling back on a corporate career, who is fascinated by the Lost Gods, the once deities of the Shilloan Empire who left Their people millennia ago. Birik finds the laboratory that birthed the Heart holds more than machinery and test tubes. He finds lies, love, consequences, and an Old Power all but forgotten.