Precipice: V Plague Book 9 (29 page)

It is always
hard to kill off characters that have come to feel like friends.  All of
them that died in this book were amalgamations of some pretty amazing people
I’ve known over the years, and in a strange way it almost felt like I was
betraying them.  But just as in real life, not everyone survives contact
with the enemy.  So a shot of tequila and a heartfelt Rest In Peace to
Colonel Jack Crawford, USA, Captain Jennifer Martinez, USAF and Technical
Sergeant Zach Scott, USAF.  You will be missed!

Unfortunately,
the brutality and subsequent fear within the ranks of the Russian army is not
fiction.  Both under Soviet rule, and to a slightly lesser degree today,
things as depicted in Precipice do happen.  Can you even imagine living
like that?

In my humble
opinion I’ve done a pretty good job of making the Russians the very bad guys in
this series.  They really aren’t bad people, just have a history of
governments that are both tyrannical and very, very dangerous.  I was a
bit of a student of Russian history and politics during the cold war, and like
everyone else I kind of forgot about them when the Soviet Union broke up.

But to
discount a nation of fiercely proud people who have a history of wanting strong
leaders was a mistake.  Events are occurring in the world today that 30
years ago would have been at the top of every news cycle.  Russian bombers
flying patrol patterns 50 miles off the California, Washington and Alaskan
coasts.  Russian subs sneaking into Swedish territorial waters. 
Russian warships playing chicken with US warships, who thankfully are skippered
by men who know enough to not allow themselves to be goaded into a fight. 
Russian state sponsored hackers attacking any and every DOD system there is, as
well as many critical infrastructures such as utilities, banking and
transportation.

We don’t
happen to live in a safe world.  I guess we never have, but the more
technology advances, the more dangerous it gets.  Only yesterday I read an
article from a retired US Air Force Major General who is absolutely frightened
to death by a new tactical nuclear weapon the Russians have developed.  It
can supposedly deliver a small yield bomb so accurately that the massive city
killers we were all afraid of during the cold war are no longer needed. 

The danger
here is that with precision delivery and a smaller yield, these weapons could
theoretically be deployed without creating the “nuclear winter” scenario. 
That means that someone, somewhere is already rationalizing the justification
for use of one or more of them.  Don’t know if that scares you, but it
frightens the living shit out of me. 

Forgive my
rambling.  I have strived from the first book to incorporate an element of
reality into the story.  No reanimated corpses here, just a megalomaniacal
leader who set the world on fire.  Perhaps I’ve spent too much time
digging into what’s really going on in the world and ignoring the constant
barrage of who Miley kissed or how big Kim’s ass is or…. Well, you get the
idea.

Thank you
very much for reading.  You can always correspond with me via email at
[email protected]
and on the internet at
www.voodooplague.com
and follow me on Twitter @DirkPatton and if you’re on Facebook, please
like my page at
www.facebook.com/FearThePlague
  I enjoy interacting with my
fans and I answer all of my email… eventually.

Thanks again
for reading!

Dirk Patton

August 2015