Freedom's Ransom

In putting together the details required for a book, the author is some-times thrown out of his/her depth and seeks the help of experts in particular fields for advice and information.

In this fourth of the Catteni/Freedom series, I required more knowledge of dentistry than my experience or memory could give me. Dr. Les Latner, DMS, Los Angeles, and A. M. Price, DMD, were generous with their help in answering my somewhat rambling re-quests for information.

Thanks to my loyal friend, Lea Day, I was put in touch with Tony Diorio of Dariene Coffee, Babylon, New York, who gave me infor-mation about the transport of coffee beans from their various loca-tions and how it is handled. Wendy Gilbert (aka Hishin) surfed the Web and friends and found out more about coffee plantations in Kenya, for which I am indebted.

Bobbie Parker (aka Short Wave, aka Jake) improved my under-standing of satellites beyond the information I found on the Net at various locations. He put me wise to certain minor space difficulties and even designed the KDM ships that transported my heroic crew on their space adventures. It's not so much gaining information as interpreting it correctly for my needs that is my major problem. Therefore, all mistakes are mine!

My son, Todd J. McCaffrey, a licensed private pilot, was once again on the spot with accurate landing-type protocols.

I also wish to let it be known that I am grateful for the encour-agement and help I received from chat line participants on my Web site. They were wonderfully generous with their time, thoughts, and en-couragements. They even let me use some of their real names and not just their on-line nicknames. As I have met very few of them, I hope I did not offend in my portrayals from just a name and chats on-line.

My collaborator, Margaret Ball, found me more information about the Masai and their tribal system.

And finally, my thanks to my daughter, Georgeanne Kennedy, for her careful editing and comments. My deepest gratitude to Susan Allison at Putnam Berkley for her continued encouragement and es-pecially for her patience.

This book is respectfully dedicated to the people I've met on my chat line: here-with listed in their on-line nicknames. I apologize in advance if I have forgot-ten anyone, and this list is current even to newbies as of June 19, 2001.

Many of you gave me your time, encouragement, and often explicit help throughout this book. I am pleased to have met all of you listed below. Ciao.