Strong Cold Dead (45 page)
Authors: Jon Land
Caitlin had stopped checking her notes, was veering entirely from her intended remarks. Her mind waxed whimsically, applying the lessons she'd learned in her own life, with no way to gauge whether she was striking a chord with the graduating seniors of the Village School at all.
As her speech neared its close, Caitlin thought she caught a fleeting glimpse of her father and grandfather standing along the back of the seated graduates, where shadows and light merged. But today Earl and Jim Strong had been joined by William Ray and Steeldust Jack, their shadowy silhouettes lost to the wind before Caitlin could wave their way. She knew she didn't have to, because they'd been there with her yesterday and would be there again tomorrow. Texas Rangers for life and beyond.
“I hope you all learn lots of times what it feels like to win. And I hope, just as much, you learn how to lose,” Caitlin said, letting her gaze wander over the crowd, where a soaring red-tailed hawk dipped and darted about, having reclaimed the sky. “'Cause nobody wins all the time, but the thing is, that doesn't stop us from trying.”
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So I'm reading the
New York Times,
back on December 29, 2014, when I come across the front-page headline reading, “Where Oil, Corruption and Bodies Surface.” Turns out the article was about the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota. Being a thriller writer, though, I asked myself what if it were an Indian reservation in Texas? And what if it turns out not to be oil at the root of the evil at all, but something else?
At that point, I had no idea what that “something” was. I had a vague notion that one party would be after the secret for its potentially miraculous medicinal qualities, while somebody else would be after it for its potential as a weapon of mass destruction. And for the bad guys, how about ISIS coming to Texas to be taken on by Caitlin Strong and company?
Maybe a third into the book, I still didn't know what had actually been discovered on my fictional Texas Indian reservation. (The Comanche reservation depicted in this book exists only in my imagination.) Then my brilliant agent, Natalia Aponte, mentioned this substance called
cuitlacoche,
a corn fungus that's been turned into a kind of delicacy by Native Americans as well as ancient Indian tribes going all the way back to the Aztecs. In that moment,
boom!
I knew I had my book, grounded in just enough reality to make it credible, especially after my research confirmed the existence of so-called aroma bombs.
I took my share of technological liberties here, as I did with John D. Rockefeller. I believe I've portrayed him accurately and also credibly, except for the fact that his early years of oil exploration in building Standard Oil didn't include Texas. But, as I've quoted before from the brilliant film
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valence,
“When the legend becomes fact, print the legend.” And incorporating actual personalities into the historical subplots my Caitlin Strong books are known for is, well, a blast. Just a whole lot of fun.
And that's what these books are supposed to beâa whole lot of fun. Both for me to write and you to read. If this is your first visit to the world of Caitlin Strong, the good news is you've got some catching up to do. Either way, rest assured that Caitlin will be back, around the same time next year, in
Strong to the Bone
(tentative title). Just don't ask me what it's about yet, because I have no idea, other than to say we're both going to have a whole lot of fun with it again. A sacred promise from writer to reader.
So be well until then, and keep reading!
Providence, Rhode Island; January 6, 2016
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O
THER
B
OOKS BY
J
ON
L
AND
The Alpha Deception
*
Black Scorpion: The Tyrant Reborn
The Council of Ten
The Doomsday Spiral
The Eighth Trumpet
The Gamma Option
Labyrinth
The Lucifer Directive
The Ninth Dominion
The Omega Command
The Omicron Legion
Pandora's Temple
*
The Seven Sins: The Tyrant Ascending
*
Takedown (nonfiction)
The Tenth Circle
The Valhalla Testament
The Vengeance of the Tau
Vortex
*
Published by Forge Books
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JON LAND
is the
USA Today
bestselling author of thirty-nine novels, including
Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justice, Strong at the Break, Strong Vengeance, Strong Rain Falling
(winner of the 2014 International Book Award and 2013 USA Best Book Award for Mystery-Suspense), and
Strong Darkness
(finalist for the 2014 USA Books Best Book Award and winner of the 2015 International Book Award for Thrillers), and
Strong Light of Day
(winner of the 2015
BooksandAuthor.com
Award for Best Mystery Thriller and the 2016 Beverly Hills Book Award for Best Mystery). He's a 1979 graduate of Brown University, lives in Providence, Rhode Island, and can be found at
www.jonlandbooks.com
or on Twitter@JonDLand. Or sign up for email updates
here
.
    
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