Theater of Spies

Acknowledgements

To Kier Salmon, longtime close friend and valued advisor. Whose help with things in Spanish and about Mexico—she lived there into adulthood—has been very, very helpful with this series, as well as her general advice to which I have always listened carefully. My mother grew up speaking Spanish too (in Lima, Peru), but alas she and my aunt used it as a secret code the children couldn’t understand, and Kier has been invaluable to fill in those lacunae, as well as being a fine editor (and promising writer) in her own right.

To Markus Baur, for help with the German language and as a first reader.

To Dave Drake, for help with the Latin bits and a deep knowledge of firearms acquired in several different ways. Also, collaborating with him taught me how to outline.

To Alyx Dellamonica, for advice, native-guide work, and just generally being cool. Her wife, Kelly Robson, is cool too and an extremely talented writer now winning implausible numbers of awards. An asteroid would have to strike Toronto to seriously dent the awesomeness of this pair. Soon Alyx will have another book out and it is great; I say this with smug certainty, since I got to read it in manuscript. Fortunately, writing is one of those fields where you have colleagues, not competitors.

To my first readers; Steve Brady, Pete Sartucci, Brenda Sutton, Lucienne Brown, Marcus Bauer, Ara Ogle, and Scott Palter.

To Patricia Finney (aka P. F. Chisholm), for friendship and her own wonderful books, starting with A Shadow of Gulls (which she wrote when she was in her teens, at which point I was still doing Edgar Rice Burroughs pastiche fanfic) and going on from there. One of the best historical novelists of our generation!

And to: Walter Jon Williams, Emily Mah, John Miller, Vic Milán (still present in spirit), Jan Stirling, Matt Reiten, Lauren Teffeau, S. E. Burr, Sarena Ulibarri, and Rebecca Roanhorse of Critical Mass, our writer’s group, for constant help and advice.

And to Joe’s Diner (joesdining.com) and Ecco Gelato & Expresso (eccogelato.com) here in Santa Fe, for putting up with my interminable presence and my habit of making faces and muttering dialogue as I write.

Dedication

To Victor Milán, good writer and good friend.
We’ll miss you, dammit, Vic.