Target Lock

There ain’t no such thing as a totally original plot or character. Any author who claims to have produced one is fooling either you or himself. The best a writer can ever hope to do is to use some of the threads spun by those storytellers who came before him to weave a different and interesting pattern for his reader.

Having confessed this, I would like to dedicate this book to the diverse group of authors, artists, and creations that have both given me great pleasure over the years and lent inspiration to the world of Amanda Garrett:

Ian Fleming and James Bond

Peter O’Donnel and Modesty Blaise

James H. Schmitz and Trigger Argee

Norman Reilly Raine and Tugboat Annie Brennan

Shoji Kawamori, Haruhiko Mikimoto, and Misa Hayase

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you.