Rogue Element

Acknowledgements

This novel is a work of fiction, written to sound like fact, the line between the two blurred so that you don’t twig to where one stops and the other begins. Of course, whether I’ve succeeded in that is up to you, the reader, to decide.

I’m not a social scientist, a historian or a military specialist. Much of the material contained in this story was found in the public domain. That said, I did call on the services of a number of experts where the available information was either inadequate or when good old-fashioned experience was required. I would very much like to thank those people publicly, because they only get two rewards in this business. One is the satisfaction of knowing that, where their specialty is concerned, at least accuracy has been maintained. Two is acknowledgement that they’d probably rather be out playing golf than sitting on the phone to me, or correcting the manuscript yet again.

And so… Thank you Andy Bates for taking me on the wildest 747 ride ever. Thank you ‘Woody’, former USAF F-16 fighter pilot, for your patience and enthusiasm. Thank you Gideon Marshall for showing me one end of an M16 from the other. Thank you Neville Farley, SASR veteran, for making sure I wasn’t completely off the planet. Thank you Chris Sherwood for the ins and outs on the Black Hawk. Thank you Mr Yuwono for the guided tour of Sulawesi. And thank you Bob Buick, Vietnam veteran and Military Medal winner, for your contacts and for your astonishing bravery under fire.

Also, thank you Patricia Rollins (me mum) for your tireless editing, suggestions and encouragement.