Breach of Power (29 page)

F
irst things first
, to my wife Debi, who always gets first read, who sits in the shadows while I revel in the limelight, and who didn't complain when I dragged her from cemetery to cemetery during the research phase of
Breach of Power.
Thanks for keeping me in line, on track, and for reeling me in when I needed it. Thank you for your ideas, your suggestions, and your criticism. Without your valued input, these books would always be lacking. Lastly, thank you for your patience and support, as the arduous task of cranking out stories must seem like a never-ending process. I love you with all my heart and soul.

W
ith each new
book I write, the list of acknowledgements grows. I am indebted to those who have graciously volunteered their time and energy to steer this author in the right direction. Perhaps it's their occupational expertise or a past experience that has provided me, through our interviews and discussions, a rudimentary foundation to write about things I know nothing about. To each of those listed below, you have my sincerest gratitude. Thank you for making
Breach of Power
my best book yet.

S
pecial thanks
to Mary Fisher for the best book cover yet!

T
hank
you to the following for providing me with the good
stuff
to include in this story: G. J. (Cos) Cosgrove, Tim Eyerman, Jack Heard, Sgt. Jon Hepler, Alan Marsh at the Andersonville National Historic Site, and Alyce Nierman.

T
hank
you to Tom Colgan for his editorial advice and to Cheryl Duttweiler for providing
shrink
services to my characters along with her proofreading skills.

S
ome authors call
them
test-readers.
Others call them
beta-readers.
Whatever the title, every author understands the value of extra eyes reading their material. Thanks to Bruce Evors, Scott Katzer, and Terrence Traut, along with authors Richard C. Hale and Dean K. Miller for your honest and unbiased, and unabashed input.

W
henever real people
get their names in fiction stories, they run the risk of being cast as good, bad, and sometimes downright evil. Thank you to the
real
mother and son team of Heidi and Scott Katzer for making such evil antagonists. I hope your characters met your expectations.

L
astly I want
to thank you, the reader, for buying this book. It is my genuine hope that you found this story entertaining and that those unexpected twists and turns left you smiling…or perhaps cussing…either way, it works for me.

W
RITER'S NOTE

R
esearch for
Breach of Power
took me from cemeteries in Nashville, Tennessee to glaciers in Alaska. From Fort Collins, Colorado to the Andersonville National Historic Site in Georgia. And from rural cemeteries in the North Georgia Mountains to Fernandina Beach, Florida. This story culminated from news articles that sparked my imagination to ask two simple questions: why & why not?

T
he first idea
came from a news clip I read from Austria where two hikers found the remains of a man who was believed to have fallen in a crevasse in a glacier over 55 years prior. That got me thinking, why? Was it an accident? Suicide? Stupidity? Was he thrown into the crevasse? Was he running from someone? Why not?

T
hen one morning
, my wife handed me a newspaper article about the mission called
Task Force Christman
and said, "This is pretty cool, maybe you can use it." A day or so later I read another article about stolen Nazi treasures that had recently been recovered. Why couldn't I draw a nexus between them all and call it fiction? Why not?

N
ow to separate
fact from fiction—Zugspitze is the highest peak in Germany and sits on the German/Austrian border. The Schneefernerhaus Hotel and Resort and all the details about it are real. The climb from Garmisch to the summit of Zugspitze via the Höllentalferner glacier was taken from several actual accounts from hikers who have made this trek. It is as accurate as I could make it without taking the journey myself.

W
ithin months
after the release of
The Toymaker,
I was made aware of further spy drone enhancements with nanotechnology. The details about the miniature mosquito spy drone, nicknamed
Skeeter
in the book
,
are correct. Actually obtaining
official
specifications about the drone and its capabilities ventured into the "I can neither confirm nor deny" realm. So draw your own conclusions. It's a good bet the description is closer to accurate than anyone is officially willing to admit.

M
ount Olivet
and Calgary cemeteries in Nashville, as well as all the cemeteries mentioned in
Breach of Power
are real and accurately depicted. That's where the facts end. The events that took place in the cemeteries are fictional. There is no
Katzer Funeral Home,
and certainly not one across the street from Mount Olivet, so don't try to Google it, nothing will show up.

A
s I briefly mentioned above
,
Task Force Christman
is a real mission mandated by Congress. I encourage you to look it up and read more about it as I just lightly touched on its details. Our soldiers did indeed work long midnight hours cataloging the entire Arlington National Cemetery.

A
nderson National Historic Site
: This place is amazing. I encourage each and every one of my readers to learn more about it. It is a part of this country's history that everyone should know existed. If you ever find yourself in West-Central Georgia, I strongly encourage you to take a day and explore the site.

T
he underwater town of Butler
, Tennessee is real. The facts about it are accurate. The town was relocated to higher ground by the Tennessee Valley Authority as mentioned in the book. Although nearly all of Old Butler was moved to the ridge where New Butler now sits, some structures were left behind and not destroyed. The two buildings mentioned in
Breach of Power
, including the old jail, and the bridge are still at the bottom of Watauga Lake. The proximity of the bridge to the buildings was adjusted for the purposes of the story. Scuba divers occasionally dive to the bottom of the lake and the water is indeed cold and murky.

G
randview Cemetery in Fort Collins
, Colorado is as depicted, and yes, deer nestle in the cemetery all year long. On my first visit, my son spotted several deer that had sought out the warm, dry ground beneath a large blue spruce tree where the February snowfall couldn't reach. During a separate visit, the mountains to the west of Fort Collins were under siege by raging wild fires. At night, if you looked to the west, you could see the amber glow of the flames as they consumed the forests. It was sad to see this devastation in such a beautiful part of our country.

W
e've
all heard of lost Nazi treasures. Hitler's Third Reich plundered banks and museums stealing anything they thought of value. Several priceless art pieces remain missing today, several of which were believed destroyed by the Nazis. Along with art, the Nazis stole large amounts of gold and silver. Some of these treasures were stored in salt mines. When it became evident the Third Reich was about to fall, many Nazi commanders fled Germany with their caches. Some of these officers even stored treasures in chests and sunk them to the bottom of some of Germany and Austria's mountain lakes with intentions of later returning to recover their cache. Others tried moving their hoards to Italy only to be captured in Austria. Much of this stolen Nazi treasure remains unaccounted for today.