Killer Instinct

Acknowledgments

The fictional Entronics Corporation was built out of the bits and pieces of the giant electronics companies I visited and researched, but none was as helpful and as hospitable and interesting as NEC. Its Visual Display division is one of the largest providers of plasma screens in the world, and a great and innovative company besides. Ron Gillies, formerly the senior vice president and general manager (and now at Iomega), was enormously helpful and patient in answering my most outrageous, most dimwitted questions and in allowing me to talk to a whole range of people there, both in sales and in the more technical end of things. He, and his terrific, charismatic successor, Pierre Richer, were a pleasure to get to know. Thanks as well to Keith Yanke, product manager, Plasma Displays; Patrick Malone, district sales manager; Ken Nishimura, general manager; Bill Whiteside, inside sales; Tim Dreyer, public relations manager; and especially Jenna Held. I did not meet a Gordy there, nor a Dick Hardy, nor a Festino, nor a Trevor, nor a Rifkin. Elsewhere, yes. Not at NEC. And if I got any of my facts grotesquely wrong-well, that’s why they call it fiction, right?

Other excellent sources in the world of high-tech sales who gave me a feeling for the culture, the stakes, and the challenges included: Bob Scordino, area manager, the EMC Corporation; Bill Scannell, senior vice president, the Americas, EMC Corporation; and Larry Roberts of PlanView. All were witty, personable, and generous with their time.

Professor Vladimir Bulovic of MIT shared with me some details of his remarkable breakthroughs in OLED flat-screen technology. I’ve taken some liberties with it, of course.

The best bad guys often require the best sources, and for Kurt Semko, I was fortunate to have my own Special Forces A-Team, including Sergeant Major (Ret.) Bill Combs of the William F. Buckley Memorial Chapter of the Special Forces Association, who introduced me around; Master Sergeant (Ret.) Rick Parziale, former team sergeant of ODA 2033; and most of all Kevin “Hognose” O’Brien, Sergeant First Class, who served with the 20th Special Forces Group in Afghanistan. It’s obvious to them, but I should declare it publicly: Kurt Semko by no means represents the dedicated and brave and genial Special Forces officers I’ve come to know. On the circumstances of Kurt’s court-martial, two of my military-justice sources on High Crimes helped immensely: David Sheldon and Charles Gittens. Jim Dallas of Dallas Security passed along his tips on how to track down concealed military records. Linda Robinson’s excellent book, Masters of Chaos, provided much valuable insight into the Special Forces.

In matters of corporate security, I’m particularly indebted to Roland Cloutier, director of Information Security at EMC; and Gary Palefsky, director of Global Security at EMC. Jon Chorey of Fidelity was also quite helpful. Jeff Dingle of Lockmasters Security Institute provided great details on building security.

On the financial shenanigans at Entronics, I received a great deal of guidance from the redoubtable Eric Klein of Katten Muchin Rosenman in L.A., an expert in mergers and acquisitions. Once again, my old friend Giles McNamee, of McNamee Lawrence & Co. in Boston, helped devise some of my more intricate schemes with his customary creativity. Darrell K. Rigby of Bain & Company in Boston helped me understand integration-management teams. And my good friend Bill Teuber, CFO of the EMC Corporation, helped in all kinds of ways.

Matthew Baldacci, vice president and marketing director of St. Martin’s Press, really belongs in two places in these acknowledgments. Not only has he been a steadfast supporter in a key role at my publisher, but he was also, on this book, an important adviser on baseball and softball. Thanks as well to Matt Dellinger of The New Yorker, who, among other things, manages the staff softball team. And special thanks to my friend Kurt Cerulli, softball coach and baseball junkie, for suggesting numerous softball stratagems and making sure I got them right. Daniel A. Russell, Ph.D., of Kettering University’s Science and Mathematics Department, advised me on the tricks (and physics) of bat-doctoring. Dan Tolentino of Easton Sports explained the construction of composite softball bats.

Gregory Vigilante of the U.S. Army Armament Research, Development and Engineering Command, helped me to understand Liquid Metal Embrittlement. Toby Gloekler, of Collision Reconstruction Engineers, Inc., helped me finally devise, by a feat of forensic reverse-engineering, an almost-undetectable auto accident. Thanks, too, to the accident investigator Robert W. Burns; Sgt. Stephen J. Walsh of the Massachusetts State Police Collision Analysis and Reconstruction Section (the CARS unit); Trooper Mike Banks of the Massachusetts State Police; and Sgt. Mike Hill of the Framingham, Massachusetts, Police Department. Retired detective Kenneth Kooistra, formerly of the Grand Rapids Police, again helped me on certain homicide details.

On pregnancy and placenta previa, my thanks to Dr. Alan DeCherney, professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the David Geffen School of Medicine, UCLA; and to Mary Pat Lowe, an E.R. nurse at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

My gratitude, as ever, to some of my long-term sources and all-around utility players, particularly Harry “Skip” Brandon, of Smith Brandon, in D.C., and my indispensable weapons expert, Jack McGeorge of the Public Safety Group in Woodbridge, Virginia. My former researcher, Kevin Biehl, stepped up to the plate again (as it were) with some crucial last-minute research assistance.

I’d like to thank, once again, everyone at my publisher, St. Martin’s Press. They continue to believe in me and to push so hard to get my books out there, with an enthusiasm that’s almost unheard of, and which I never take for granted. At the risk of leaving important people out, let me mention in particular: President and Publisher Sally Richardson; John Sargent, CEO of Holtzbrinck USA; Matthew Shear, vice president and publisher of SMP’s paperback divisions; Marketing Director Matt Baldacci; Ronni Stolzenberg of Marketing; Publicity Director (and olive-loaf aficionado) John Murphy; Gregg Sullivan and Elizabeth Coxe in Publicity; Brian Heller in paperback sales; George Witte; Christina Harcar; Nancy Trypuc; Alison Lazarus; Jeff Capshew; Andy LeCount; Ken Holland; Tom Siino; Rob Renzler; Jennifer Enderlin; Bob Williams; Sofrina Hinton; Anne Marie Tallberg; Mike Rohrig (now of Scholastic); and Gregory Gestner; and at Audio Renaissance, Mary Beth Roche, Joe McNeely, and Laura Wilson.

Keith Kahla, my editor, deserves his own set of acknowledgments. Thank you, friend, for everything you’ve done. You’re truly the best.

My agent, Molly Friedrich of the Aaron Priest Agency, was great as ever, as supporter and protector and incisive reader. Thanks, too, to Paul Cirone at the agency.

My wife, Michele Souda, was a valuable reader and editor of the manuscript. Not only did our daughter, Emma, have to put up with an almost-absentee father during the last months of the writing of Killer Instinct, but her baseball obsession inspired a key part of this book.

And finally, my brother, Henry Finder, editorial director of The New Yorker: you had my back, as they say (but you never would). From the genesis of the story to the final edits, you were invaluable. I can’t thank you enough.