Act of Revenge

Data sheet

Louis Messina — scientist and entrepreneur, proprietor of Smart Metal, deeply religious; lost his hand and his wife in a car accident as a young man; never remarried

Chelsea Goodman — project engineer at Smart Metal; genius at math, young, petite, creative

Johnny Givens — young, athletic FBI agent on Jenkins’s task force

Yuri Johansen — veteran CIA officer, in charge of a covert antiterror action group primarily operating overseas

Ghadab min Allah — nom de terror of Samir Abdubin, roughly, “God’s wrath.” More demon than man, with a fetish for knives, especially ornate khanjars, which he uses to slit victims’ throats

Shadaa — Ghadab’s paramour

Boston & suburbs — birthplace of freedom, hardscrabble values, great Italian food, and the best baseball team in the world

Palmyra, Syria — city in Syria occupied by ISIS/Daesh, used as sanctuary by Ghadab

Bot — Smart Metal slang for robot that can function to some degree on its own, in contrast to mechs and industrial robots designed for specific, stationary tasks such as welding or chip making. Smart Metal constructs all types

Mech — Smart Metal slang for robots that are preprogrammed for specific tasks but retain more flexibility than industrial robots

Autonomy — ability of bot or other entity to “think” or make decisions without direct commands from operator

UAV — unmanned aerial vehicle, commonly referred to as a “drone”; Smart Metal UAVs can operate without direct human guidance