The Doors of Death and Life by Brenda Clough

In How Like a God, Rob Lewis gave his friend Edwin Barbarossa the Pearl of Immortality that had once belonged to Gilgamesh. Seven years later, the space shuttle ferrying Edwin home from a stint on the new moon colony catches fire. Everyone dies except Edwin. First he's hailed as a hero. Then he disappears. It's up to Rob to rescue him from the man who will stop at nothing to take the secret of immortality for himself.Part political thriller, part fantasy, part near-future SF, part family drama, Doors of Death and Life is both exciting and thoughtful, a literate excursion into X-Files territory.