This book is dedicated to my family, especially to my wife, who endured a great deal as I wrote it. I love you, and I thank you from the bottom of my heart.
And to Robert Gottlieb, who has been a driving force for this project from the very beginning, I can’t thank you enough for your support, creativity, and help.
Thanks to Robert Gottlieb at Trident Media Group, LLC and all the terrific agents who work with him at Trident Media Group. Thanks also to all the librarians who helped me find obscure material on ancient artifacts, the travel agents who verified that transit was possible in the far corners of the globe, and to my friends in law enforcement who took me out to the shooting range and demonstrated the many weapons I describe in this book. I’d also like to thank my editor, Bob Gleason, and Linda Quinton from Tor for their terrific input on and help with this book.