Twice a Spy (44 page)

Bin Zayed, the chief benefactor of an international terrorist network, suspected that Charlie had learned the location of the second bomb from his father and might be persuaded to give it up to pay off his gambling debts.

The CIA had fed this information to bin Zayed through cutouts in Saudi Arabia.

In truth, Charlie’s betting and bourbon were just cover. Alice, waiting in Paris, understood. His real reason for being in Kentucky was to sell a washing machine.

Thank you to Phyllis Grann. Detailing her excellence as an editor would make this book too heavy to lift.

Richard Abate is the Albert Pujols of literary agents.

Novelist Chuck Hogan has been the Kevin Youkilis of writing advisers. Incidentally, Kevin Youkilis is the Chuck Hogan of hitters.

In the same league, on national security matters, are Elizabeth Bancroft, Fred Burton, and Fred Rustmann. I’m indebted to them as well as too many members of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers to mention (just as well as most would probably prefer going unmentioned).

Thank you to Roy Sekoff and the
Huffington Post
for allowing me to report on the intelligence community and learn, among other things, that the men and women of the clandestine services are our most underrated heroes.

I’m also grateful to the members of Doubleday’s incomparable marketing, publicity, and sales teams—notably, Rachel Lapal, Adrienne Sparks, and John Pitts—and to Doubleday’s Edward Kastenmeier, Sonny Mehta, Jackie Montalvo, Nora Reichard, Bill Thomas, Zack Wagman, and Michael Windsor.

Thank you also to friend and Internet guru John Felleman, who gives Web sites an added dimension.

Additional thanks to Rachel Adams, James Bamford, T. J. Beitelman, Tim Borella, Patrick Bownes, Glenny Brock, Cindy Calvert, Rachel Clevenger, Columbia Pictures, Jennifer Donegan, Peter Earnest, Linda Fairstein, David Flumenbaum, James Gregorio, Amy Hertz, Melissa
Kahn, Joan Kretschmer, Olaf Kutsch, Robert Lazar, Kate Lee, Donna Levine, Ray Paulick, Michael Perrizo, Christopher Reich, Jake Reiss, Hilary Reyl, Raya Rzeszut, Keck Shepard, Malcolm Thomson, Barbara Traweek, John Waddy, and Lawrence Wharton.

There would be no acknowledgments section, nor pages preceding it for that matter, if not for my wife, Karen Shepard, a swell wife with a sixth sense for story structure.

Finally, thanks to anyone else who has read this book to this point.

Please send any questions or comments to
[email protected]
.