Once again I’ve been blessed to have the help of a remarkable group of friends and experts in writing this book.
I continue to owe a debt of gratitude to Judith Greber (aka Gillian Roberts) for her marvelous plotting and editing suggestions and for her friendship. I would not be writing without her. And to Brian Washington and David Arnold, whose expert advice about everything from tattoos and bodybuilding to guns and VW hubcaps made this a better book than it started out to be.
To Eldon Dallas of Arizona and Robert Levin of New Mexico, my thanks for the use of their names and so much more.
And special thanks to Dr. Jane McFarlane for her insight on the science of telematic services such as those I describe at the fictional HandsOn company. She provided the real technology. I twisted it to serve my own purposes here.
To Philip Spitzer and Lukas Ortiz at the Philip G. Spitzer Literary Agency: you two keep my heart afloat. And to Andrew Martin, Michael Homier, and the whole crew at St. Martin’s Press: my thanks for your enthusiasm and belief in me.