by Marko Kloos
“We can be in the Falls by nine and get some decent breakfast at the chief’s,” I say to Halley as we walk down the main concourse toward the Bravo gates.
“My thoughts exactly,” she says, and I feel content for the first time since we got off New Svalbard by the skin of our teeth.
On the shuttle down to Earth, Halley leans against me and kisses me on the cheek as I watch Gateway and the massive docked Ottawa recede in the distance above us.
“If you want to resign, I’ll do the same.”
“If you really want to stay, I’ll stay in with you,” I counter.
She punches me on my biceps.
“That’s not how it works. You’re supposed to let me be gracious and appreciate the offer of sacrifice.”
Halley puts her head against my shoulder and closes her eyes with a sigh.
“We can figure all of that out later. But first I want a good cup of coffee and a long hike in clean air.”
“I’m with you all the way on that,” I say.
“Never doubted it,” Halley replies. “Never will.”
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
After writing dedications for six Frontlines novels, I always feel like I’m saying the same things every time, and yet I know that I invariably forget to thank someone.
As always, thanks are due to my awesome 47North crew—Adrienne, Jason, and Kristin—who take care of me and tolerate my habitual deadline offenses. Thanks also to Britt, who moved on to Kindle Worlds from 47North.
Thank you to my agent Evan Gregory, who keeps on being awesome and keeps me on the right track as far as long-term career plans go.
I’d like to thank my developmental editor, Andrea Hurst, for helping me, once again, make the novel better and cut out all the stuff that people tend to skip.
Thank you to all my writer friends and colleagues, my Viable Paradise posse, and George R. R. Martin and the Wild Cards rogues. Professional validation is nice, but friendships are better. (Both put together are best, of course, and I get to have “best” in spades these days.)
Thank you to the Royal Manticoran Navy for welcoming me at MantiCon and HonorCon, inviting me back year after year, and voting for me so I could take home the Rampant Manticore for Best Military SF Novel and the H. Beam Piper Memorial Award last October at HonorCon in Raleigh. You’re a great crew, and I’ll have Shockfrosts with you anytime and anywhere.
Thank you to my wife Robin for doing all the household heavy lifting and making it possible for me to retreat to my office so I can put on the magic no-noise headphones whenever I need to. There’s no way I could do what I am doing without you.
And lastly, thank you to all my readers. You make it possible for me to do this full-time, and it’s the best job on the planet, as far as I am concerned.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marko Kloos was born and raised in Germany, in and around the city of Münster. In the past, he was a soldier, bookseller, freight dockworker, and corporate IT administrator before he decided he wasn’t cut out for anything other than making stuff up for a living.
Marko writes primarily science fiction and fantasy—his first genre love ever since his youth, when he spent his allowance mostly on SF pulp serials. He’s the author of the bestselling Frontlines series of military science fiction and is a member of George R.R. Martin’s Wild Cards consortium.
Marko resides at Castle Frostbite in New Hampshire with his wife, two children, and a roving pack of vicious dachshunds. His official website is www.markokloos.com. He can be reached at [email protected] and found on Twitter (where he spends way too much time) @markokloos.