Since this is the “acknowledgments” page, I guess I should acknowledge that I came close to biting off more than I could chew with this plot. It sounded fairly simple at first—explore the possible state sponsorship of the tragedy of 9/11, and have the group attempt to duplicate a spectacular attack in the modern day, on the fifteenth anniversary. I picked the ports within our waters because it is a unique vulnerability that’s never really been exploited, but the more research I did, the harder it became to thread the needle between the attacks and the Taskforce’s assets. It was almost unmanageable in scope, and I found myself wanting to kick my own ass on more than one occasion during the writing process for creating the plot. Which leads to a thank-you for my wife and family for putting up with my cranky self for the past six months.
I’m indebted to some anonymous folks for letting me pick their brains on the port infrastructure, and for pointing the way to further research into the esoteric laws and security considerations surrounding the international shipping industry. It’s safe to say that the ports of the United States are vulnerable to all manner of exploitation, from human trafficking to drugs to terrorism, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that attacking one wasn’t nearly as easy as I thought it would be. We have a strong wall of infrastructure in place to defeat such attempts, and while it isn’t perfect—and never will be—it’s a hell of a lot better than I thought it was. This caused some sleepless nights and significantly amped-up research to make such an attack realistic.
Tariq is based on a real person from Saudi Arabia who did indeed flee Florida just before 9/11 and had some nefarious potential ties to some of the 9/11 hijackers. A special thanks to Dan Christensen, the editor of the Florida Bulldog, for providing me with a copy of one of the FBI reports into the investigation, which they obtained through a FOIA request. The Florida Bulldog (formerly the Broward Bulldog, now FloridaBulldog.org) did an enormous amount of work on the potential link between the family and the attacks, which was picked up by news agencies all over the world. It’s worth a Google search to read their investigative report, because there certainly is an enormous amount of smoke—especially given the now-unclassified pages from the intelligence committee reports on potential Saudi complicity.
The Panama Papers are, of course, real, and are also worth a little reading, if just to see the machinations of the sordid world of offshore banking. The revelations have already brought down at least one political leader (the prime minister of Iceland) and caused an investigation into a host of others, but of course, my use of them was complete literary license.
A special thanks to Mint Tea Tours, a Morocco tour company who created a custom tour package to facilitate my research. When I told them what I wanted to do and why, they accommodated my every whim, traveling at a blistering pace to conduct research in all of the cities I needed to hit, traversing the breadth of the country. Along with the simple mechanics of travel, they also provided some interesting insights into the different perspectives of Islam in their own country. A lot of the conversations in this manuscript were real. Morocco itself is a beautiful country and—contrary to what would be conventional wisdom to most in the United States—is completely safe and well worth the visit. The only strange occurrence was getting questioned as I left the ferry in Tangier. I’d put down “writer” on my immigration paperwork, and the official—after not caring what I said—ran me down off the ferry, wanting to know if I was a reporter for a newspaper or magazine. I got the impression someone had talked to him, and they wanted to control whatever came out in the press. He was satisfied when I told him I wrote books (of course, in no way did I tell them what kind of books, or what I was researching . . .).
Gibraltar was a “Jennifer” stop. Since we were driving all over Spain and on our way to the port of Algeciras, my wife said, “We’re already here. Let’s go check it out.” We did, and on a cable car to the top of the Rock, playing tourist, I asked the guy running the car what the giant dock was down below. He said it was the biggest dry dock repair facility in the Med, and the one place that could repair the giant tankers and container ships that plied the sea. At that point, the stop became integral to the plot and is a prime example of what on-the-ground research gets me, as I usually stumble into something without even looking. That and the cool monkeys at the top of the Rock, of course.
A special thanks to my daughter’s boyfriend, Ben, for showing me the ins and outs of Pokémon Go. Originally, I was just going to use the zero-day vulnerability the app has when signing in with Gmail, but after learning how it worked, and reading some ridiculous stories of mishaps while playing the game, I decided to use it for real. Yes, I downloaded it, then went about my neighborhood with my daughter looking for a gym . . .
The commercial drone attacks in this plot have thankfully not happened as of yet, but it’s only a matter of time, and something about which the Department of Defense is keenly aware. The proliferation of small UAVs and the exponential growth in technology has created a poor-man’s targeting system that is very real, and because of it, has sparked a cottage industry of anti-drone technology companies. Some are good, and others are just hype, but rest assured, we’re going to see an attack using a “toy” drone sooner rather than later. When that happens, defense systems will get serious in a hurry.
As always, a huge thanks to my agent, John Talbot, and the entire Dutton Taskforce crew. Ben, Jess, Liza, and Elina—this one took a little longer, but your efforts to sharpen the edges paid off (in more ways than one—as fate would have it, both Jess and Liza went to Granada at the same time I was writing this manuscript, and while I spent some time there, it was in a regular hotel. If you want to know how I found out about the “cave apartments,” thank Liza. Team effort!). Thanks for all that you do!