by Allen Steele
I turned up the collar of my overcoat and kept walking, making my long journey home through a city that no longer seemed quite so dark, a night no longer so deep.
Acknowledgments
MANY PEOPLE ASSISTED IN the development of this novel, most of them St. Louis residents I met during everyday life: police officers, firemen, city officials and bureaucrats, businesspeople, and not a few ordinary folks who just happened to be at the right place at the right time. Some were aware that they were being questioned by an author researching a novel and some were not, but all of them gave me invaluable insights and firsthand knowledge.
To these folks I give my most sincere thanks. This novel could not have been written without their help.
I’m also grateful to Steve Bolhafner, Liz Caplan, Sonny and Carol Denbow, John Furland, Ed Graham, Dot Hill, Frank and Joyce Jacobs, Chris Merseal, Frank M. Robinson, Mike Rosenfeld, Donna Schultz, Mark Tiedemann, Harry Turtledove, and Mark Zeising for encouragement, useful information, and many small favors rendered during the course of this work. As always, particular thanks go to my wife, Linda, who drove me around her hometown, suggested places I ought to visit, and told me when I was going wrong.
Most of all, I wish to thank my editors, Ginjer Buchanan and Susan Allison, and my agent, Martha Millard, for remaining faithful when the going got tough.
—St. Louis, Missouri
September 1991—February 1993
About the Author
Before becoming a science fiction writer, Allen Steele was a journalist for newspapers and magazines in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Missouri, and his home state of Tennessee. But science fiction was his first love, so he eventually ditched journalism and began producing that which had made him decide to become a writer in the first place.
Since then, Steele has published eighteen novels and nearly one hundred short stories. His work has received numerous accolades, including three Hugo Awards, and has been translated worldwide, mainly into languages he can’t read. He serves on the board of advisors for the Space Frontier Foundation and is a member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. He also belongs to Sigma, a group of science fiction writers who frequently serve as unpaid consultants on matters regarding technology and security.
Allen Steele is a lifelong space buff, and this interest has not only influenced his writing, it has taken him to some interesting places. He has witnessed numerous space shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center and has flown NASA’s shuttle cockpit simulator at the Johnson Space Center. In 2001, he testified before the US House of Representatives in hearings regarding the future of space exploration. He would like very much to go into orbit, and hopes that one day he’ll be able to afford to do so.
Steele lives in western Massachusetts with his wife, Linda, and a continual procession of adopted dogs. He collects vintage science fiction books and magazines, spacecraft model kits, and dreams.
Linda Steele
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 1994 by Allen M. Steele
Cover design by Michel Vrana
978-1-4804-3995-5
This edition published in 2013 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
345 Hudson Street
New York, NY 10014
www.openroadmedia.com
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