by Barry Eisler
She got back on the Ducati. One last stop, also in Kanab. Sherrie Dobbs and her husband. And their month-old little girl.
They were in another house—modest, like the previous one, and rented with the proceeds from a nationwide GoFundMe campaign while the home Snake had plowed into was repaired. Their bakery had become something of a tourist attraction. Financially, at least, they were going to be okay.
Sherrie Dobbs cried when Livia came to the door. She hugged Livia tight, and it was all right, all right enough for Livia to hug her back. Then Sherrie took her hands and pulled her inside. The house smelled deliciously of fresh bread.
A man came from the bedroom, holding an infant girl in his arms. Livia recognized him from television—bald and a little chubby, with a wispy beard and the clearest, bluest eyes Livia had ever seen. Sherrie’s husband. A baker, Livia thought. Yeah, I can see that.
He gave Livia a radiant smile. “I’m Calder,” he said. “We spoke on the phone.” Then he turned to the baby. “Look who it is, hon. Do you want to say hello?”
The baby had her father’s startling blue eyes. But not, at the moment, his smile. She started to cry. “Oh, here we go,” Calder said, and handed her off to Sherrie.
Calder went to the kitchen and returned with a tray of croissants. They sat in the living room, and while Sherrie fed the baby, they talked about the case against Snake and Boomer, and what a relief it was that the interviews were starting to die down. Sherrie was having nightmares, but she said focusing on the baby helped. The croissants were the best Livia had ever tasted, and she could easily imagine where Calder’s extra pounds came from.
Her belly full, the baby had stopped crying. She seemed on the verge of sleep. Sherrie looked at Livia. “Do you want to hold her?”
Livia wasn’t sure. She hesitated, and Sherrie added, “You have before. You held her even before I did.”
Livia thought of Rick, and of how, when Livia had been a teenager, he’d told her about a little girl named Lucy he had rescued from nearly being beaten to death when Lucy was seven. Lucy had called Rick on her eighteenth birthday to tell him she was going to be a nurse. She said she would never forget him, would never forget that she wouldn’t be alive if it hadn’t been for Rick.
She looked at Sherrie. “Okay,” she said.
Sherrie got up and sat next to Livia. She handed her the baby. Livia looked into the little blue eyes and was surprised to feel herself smiling.
“What’s her name?” she said, realizing she had been remiss in not asking sooner.
Sherrie looked at Calder. For a moment, neither spoke. Then Calder said, “We named her Livia.”
Livia was so surprised, and felt so stupid for being surprised, that for a moment all she could do was shake her head.
“We want her to be a fighter,” Sherrie added. “Like you.”
Livia, overwhelmed, managed to say, “Like her mother.”
Calder beamed at his wife. “Like her mother, too.”
They asked her to keep in touch. To come back and stay with them anytime. Livia told them she would, but it was hard to imagine.
She went out, got on her helmet, fired up the Ducati, and rode off. Soon the small town was behind her, lost in a plume of dust, and it was just the sky again, and the road, and the endless, peaceful mesas. Carl had been right. It was beautiful country to ride in.
She thought of Rick again. Sometimes you get to really save someone, he had told her. Makes all the bullshit worthwhile.
Yeah, Livia thought. It really does.
Or at least it did sometimes. She wished sometimes could be enough.
NOTES
PROLOGUE
A brief history of the Salton Sea:
https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9bz5b7/i-went-to-californias-post-apocalyptic-beach-town-salton-sea
And some haunting photos, too. Careful of the Lost America site—it’ll suck you in.
https://www.katherinebelarmino.com/2016/07/photographing-salton-sea-ghost-towns.html
https://lostamerica.com/photo-items/the-salton-sea/
http://www.jimriche.com/salton-sea/
Great six-minute documentary film about the Salton Sea:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otIU6Py4K_A
And the 2002 Tony Gayton noir film The Salton Sea is wonderful and surprisingly not well known.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235737/
CHAPTER 1
Some tips on how cops interrogate suspects, and why the deck is stacked against you:
https://boingboing.net/2018/10/03/why-cops-beat-you-in-the-inter.html
If you doubt Livia’s backstory (told more fully in Livia Lone) in which her parents sold her and her little sister:
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2019/jan/14/indian-village-where-child-sexual-exploitation-is-the-norm-sagar-gram-jan-sahas
CHAPTER 4
Signal, the end-to-end encrypted calling and messaging app:
https://signal.org
CHAPTER 5
A photo history of the slow disintegration of Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, the former steel town where Stephen “Snake” Spencer had his childhood:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/in-sight/wp/2015/11/04/the-former-steel-town-that-dimmed-its-light-to-help-pittsburg-shine
The old-timer who taught Snake dirty boxing might have been Champ Thomas, who wrote Boxing’s Dirty Tricks and Outlaw Killer Punches.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/1559501472
CHAPTER 7
A CIA primer on disguise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JASUsVY5YJ8
The movie Snake is thinking of is Steve Barancik’s The Last Seduction. Came out in 1994 and hasn’t aged a bit.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110308/
Some thoughts on women’s self-defense that Livia would agree with, from a woman:
https://www.jiujitsutimes.com/self-defense-seminars-arent-preparing-women-violence
What Hope Jordan missed, you can be aware of—by reading Gavin de Becker’s excellent The Gift of Fear: And Other Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0440508835
CHAPTER 8
Shortcomings of ViCAP:
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2015/07/vicap-fbi-database/399986/
Racial disparities in media coverage of, and law enforcement resources devoted to, child abductions:
https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-happens-after-a-minor-goes-missing
More on “forced teaming”:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Gift_of_Fear
Names change; programs continue:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_Awareness_Office#Components_of_TIA_projects_that_continue_to_be_developed
CHAPTER 10
If you don’t think Livia could have taken out the fake cop with a knife before he could deploy his pistol, check out the Tueller drill. I’ve done it with Simunition, and it is eye-opening.
https://www.wideopenspaces.com/tueller-drill-need-train/
And a video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwHYRBNc9r8
Arguably the Vaari would be too much knife for everyday carry for someone like Livia. Still:
http://www.somico-knives.com/the--vaari-.html
CHAPTER 16
The relentless miniaturization of drones:
https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2018/05/17/the-worlds-lightest-wireless-flying-machine-lifts-off
“The US Army Is Equipping Soldiers with Pocket-Sized Recon Drones”:
https://futurism.com/the-byte/us-army-pocket-sized-recon-drones
Yes, the US government really does call assassinations “dispositions” (for when even “targeted killings” is just too gauche). When Kanezaki explained to Rain in Winner Take All—all the way back in 2004—that the government called its assassination list the “International Terrorist Threat Matrix,” he was pretty close to the actual, subsequently revealed “Disposition Ma
trix” terminology. To paraphrase H. L. Mencken, no one ever went broke underestimating the euphemisms of the US government.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/14/obama-secret-kill-list-disposition-matrix
Kanezaki would neither confirm nor deny the existence of insect-sized drones. But:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8cJv4O2zEOw
CHAPTER 18
The Ukrainian journalist who handled death threats by faking his own death:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jun/05/ukraine-president-petro-poroshenko-backs-faked-murder-of-russian-journalist
If you think six combat deployments is a lot, note that America’s forever wars can mean far more than that—here, fourteen total, in Afghanistan and Iraq:
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/45066961/ns/us_news-life/t/us-soldier-killed-th-deployment-war-zone
“Decorated Navy SEAL Is Accused of War Crimes in Iraq”:
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/11/15/us/navy-seal-edward-gallagher-isis.html
Shining a spotlight on rape in war:
https://www.economist.com/international/2018/10/13/the-nobel-committee-shines-a-spotlight-on-rape-in-conflict
CHAPTER 19
“Rules of Ranging”:
https://www.goarmy.com/ranger/about-the-rangers/rodgers-orders.html
CHAPTER 20
It’s not just Livia who’s rolled with Dave Camarillo and Rene Dreifuss—it’s her author as well. Two outstanding teachers and technicians:
http://www.guerrillajiujitsu.com/dave-camarillo
https://radicalmmanyc.com
CHAPTER 24
More on victimology, modus operandi, and signature aspects of serial crimes:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/take-all-prisoners/201003/catch-serial-criminal
“Justice was her vehicle, and hate was the fuel it ran on” is yet another aspect of Livia inspired by child advocate and novelist Andrew Vachss:
http://www.vachss.com/av_interviews/case_2004.html
CHAPTER 29
I didn’t get to visit Sherrie Dobbs’s and her husband’s bakery when I was in Kanab, but the Kanab Creek Bakery is one of the best I’ve ever been to.
https://kanabcreekbakery.com
“Rapists don’t stop raping on their own. They stop when someone stops them.”
https://case.edu/socialwork/about/news-publications/research-reveals-new-insights-into-rapist-behavior-assists-rape-investigations-and-prosecutions
CHAPTER 32
“When people were motivated to believe something, they were going to believe it no matter what. There was no bridge too far.”
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/sandy-hook-exposed/
CHAPTER 36
Sexual trophies:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-excess/201607/sexual-trophies-murder-and-addiction
More on trophies:
https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story
Humiliating a victim as both signature and disincentive for the victim to come forward:
https://medcraveonline.com/FRCIJ/FRCIJ-02-00077
Tormenting a victim by contacting her afterward. I wish I were inventing these things for the story. I’m not.
https://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article209917839.html
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2692829
Victims sometimes recant true allegations:
https://www.propublica.org/article/false-rape-accusations-an-unbelievable-story
“Today, a $3 million satellite that weighs less than 10 pounds can capture significantly sharper images than a $300 million, 900-pound satellite built in the late 1990s . . . What began with satellite cameras is rapidly expanding to infrared sensors that detect heat; ‘hyperspectral’ sensors that identify minerals, vegetation and other materials; and radar scanners that can build three-dimensional images of the landscape below.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/24/technology/satellites-artificial-intelligence.html
CHAPTER 38
More haunting photos of the Salton Sea, this time Bombay Beach on the northeast shore:
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/multimedia/Salton-Sea-San-Andreas-Fault-Earthquakes-California-504858882.html
And Charles Bukowski’s poem “Dinosauria, We,” which makes me think of the Salton Sea. Beware, it’s a little depressing
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDiLfQUBnyA
See also this haunting passage from H. G. Wells’s The Time Machine:
https://www.mun.ca/biology/scarr/Time_Machine.html
CHAPTER 40
This is just a fraction of the ways the government can monitor cellphones:
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/10/nsa-tracked-americans-cell-locations-two-years-senator-hints-theres-more
CHAPTER 44
It’s a good thing Livia has trained with Dave Camarillo, because that’s where she learned flying omoplata. For this and much more, see Dave’s excellent book Guerrilla Jiu-Jitsu: Revolutionizing Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a must for any serious grappler.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0977731588
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Thanks to the Legislative Drafting Institute for Child Protection—an organization that does work Livia would be proud of, and that deserves your support.
https://ldicp.org
And a particularly easy and effective way to support the LDICP is through AmazonSmile. It’s simple to sign up and have Amazon donate 0.5 percent of your purchases to the LDICP (or other charity of your choice).
http://barryeisler.blogspot.com/2018/11/if-you-buy-from-amazon-do-it-at.html
Thanks to former prosecutor Alice Vachss for Sex Crimes: My Years on the Front Lines Prosecuting Rapists and Confronting Their Collaborators, which I continue to draw on in researching this and the other Livia Lone stories.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01FTBDKJM
Thanks to child advocate and novelist Andrew Vachss for, among other things, compiling a comprehensive list of resources I have drawn on in researching this and the other Livia Lone stories.
http://www.vachss.com/help_text/index.html
Thanks to Daniel N. Hoffman, retired CIA clandestine-services officer and former chief of station (among other things), for his fascinating and helpful primers on intelligence work in war zones and on the exigencies of “strike to develop” and “develop to strike.”
Thanks to Mike Killman for sharing his knowledge about and experience with combat deployments and rotations home—information that Fallon then passed along to Livia and that was vital in her efforts to crack the case.
Thanks to thirty-three-year law-enforcement veteran Randy Sutton for his always-solid advice on all things cop—and for the critical work he does through the Wounded Blue foundation to bring attention to a nationwide lack of support for wounded police officers.
https://thewoundedblue.org
Thanks to Dan Levin for helping Livia and Little charter a plane safely, quickly—and accurately.
Thanks to Dr. Peter Zimetbaum and Nurse Practitioner Lindsay Harris for their steadfast reluctance to contact the authorities regarding my, shall we say, offbeat how-to and anatomy questions, which in Peter’s case go all the way back to “Hey, could you remotely short out a pacemaker?” in the very first book. Remember, they did it in Homeland and then–Vice President Cheney was worried about it in real life, too, but Rain got there first.
To the extent I get violence right in my fiction, I have many great instructors to thank, including Massad Ayoob, Tony Blauer, Alain Burrese, Loren Christensen, Wim Demeere, Dave Grossman, Tim Larkin, Marc MacYoung, Rory Miller, Clint Overland, Peyton Quinn, and Terry Trahan. I highly recommend their superb books and courses for anyone who wants to be safer in the world, or just to create more realistic violence on the page.
http://www.massadayoobgroup.com
https://blauerspear.com
http://yourwarriorsedge.com/about-alain-burrese
http://www.lorenchristense
n.com
http://www.wimsblog.com
http://www.killology.com
http://www.targetfocustraining.com
https://www.nononsenseselfdefense.com
https://www.chirontraining.com
https://conflictresearchgroupintl.com/clint-overland
https://conflictresearchgroupintl.com/terry-trahan
https://mastersofmayhem.info
Thanks as always to the extraordinarily eclectic group of “foodies with a violence problem” who hang out at Marc “Animal” MacYoung and Dianna Gordon MacYuong’s No Nonsense Self-Defense, for good humor, good fellowship, and a ton of insights, particularly regarding the real costs of violence.
Thanks to Phyllis DeBlanche, Wim Demeere, Grace Doyle, Alan Eisler, Montie Guthrie, Meredith Jacobson, Lori Kupfer, Laura Rennert, and Paige Terlip, for helpful comments on the manuscript. Apologies to Montie for the lack of a love scene in this story, because those are his favorites and never cause him any psychological damage whatsoever. Special thanks once again to Mike Killman for never letting me get lazy about creating action scenes that are both dramatic and tactically correct, and for his fascinating, discursive editorial comments generally. If you like the Bukowski and H. G. Wells notes for Chapter 38, Mike is the guy to thank.
Most of all, thanks to my wife and literary agent, Laura Rennert, for being such an amazing daily collaborator and otherwise doing so much to make these books better in every way. For anyone else grateful for the increased pace of my writing, Laura’s the one we owe it to. Thanks, babe, for everything.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Photo © Naomi Brookner
New York Times bestselling author Barry Eisler spent three years in a covert position with the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, then worked as a technology lawyer and startup executive in Silicon Valley and Japan, earning his black belt at the Kodokan Judo Institute along the way. Eisler’s award-winning thrillers have been included in numerous “Best Of” lists, have been translated into nearly twenty languages, and include the #1 bestsellers The Detachment, Livia Lone, The Night Trade, and The Killer Collective. Eisler lives in the San Francisco Bay Area and, when he’s not writing novels, blogs about national security and the media. www.barryeisler.com.
