The Firefly

Acknowledgments

I want to thank Don, Penny, and Laurie for their help with some of the technical aspects of this book, and my editor, George Witte, for his careful editing job. I also made extensive use of the public information Web sites of the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security and am grateful for the efforts put forth by these agencies, one of which is now part of the other, to help civilians understand what they do. I wish to also thank Dr. Marc A. Branham, Ph.D., creator of the Web site The Firefly Files, for letting me excerpt (loosely, from a technical standpoint) some of his fascinating material. That said, this book is entirely a work of fiction. Where real government agencies are depicted, the reader should understand that they are portrayed creatively and not necessarily in a factual manner. Any resemblance of the characters or incidents contained herein to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.