The Messenger (42 page)

Regis, Ed.
The Biology of Doom: The History of America’s Secret Germ Warfare Project
. New York: Henry Holt and Co., 1999.

For historical antecedents:

Barenblatt, Daniel.
A Plague upon Humanity: The Secret Genocide of Axis Japan’s Germ Warfare Operation
. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.

Coen, Bob, and Eric Nadler.
Dead Silence: Fear and Terror on the Anthrax Trail
. New York: Counterpoint, 2009. For more on Project Coast.

Koenig, Robert.
The Fourth Horseman: One Man’s Secret Campaign to Fight the Great War in America
. New York: Public Affairs, 2006.

On terror and terrorists:

Carr, Caleb.
The Lessons of Terror: A History of Warfare Against Civilians
. New York: Random House, 2003.

Cohen, Jared.
Children of Jihad: A Young American’s Travels among the Youth of the Middle East
. New York: Gotham, 2007.

Fidler, David P., and Lawrence O. Gostin.
Biosecurity in the Global Age: Biological Weapons, Public Health and the Rule of Law
. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2008.

LoCicero, Alice, and Samuel J. Sinclair.
Creating Young Martyrs: Conditions That Make Dying in a Terrorist Attack Seem Like a Good Idea
. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2008.

Even an old map can help get you where you want to go; mine was
American Map Road Atlas 2005
(Maspeth, NY: American Map Corporation). Cartography copyright by MapQuest, Inc. Plus thanks to Google Earth’s street view.

For more about the Ug99 fungus, see Brendan I. Koerner’s “Red Menace: Stop the Ug99 Fungus Before Its Spores Bring Starvation,” in
Wired
, March 2010. For more on antisense, see David E. Hoffman’s “Going Viral: The Pentagon Takes on a New Enemy: Swine Flu,” in
The New Yorker
, January 31, 2011, page 26.

My portrait of Brush Creek has been adjusted for dramatic effect, and everything about 3050 is fictional. Tony Rizzo’s series in the
Kansas City Star
was very helpful: “Murder Factory, Part 1: 64130, the ZIP Code of Notoriety in Missouri,” January 24, 2009; “Part 2: Decades of Blight Leave ZIP Code 64130 Reeling in Violence,” January 25, 2009; “Part 3: KC Needs to Fight Back and ‘Close’ the Factory,” January 26, 2009.

Sayyid Qutb did much of his writing in prison. His revulsion of North American culture includes lawn care, haircuts, greed, and narcissism, and he insisted that most of the world is in
jaljilla
, a pre-Islamic state of mind—so deluded you don’t know you’re deluded.
Milestones
(often titled
Signposts on the Way
) is considered his greatest work. Qutb is the subject of the BBC documentary
The
Power of Nightmares: The Rise of the Politics of Fear
, which discusses the philosophical mirror between Qutb and Leo Strauss, mentor of Irving Kristol and his son, William, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, et al.

My description of White Sands Missile Range was inspired by the eerie photographs by Richard Misrach in
Bravo 20: The Bombing of the American West
(with Myriam Weisang Misrach; Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990). The Bravo 20 site is in Nevada.

Everything in this book is fictional, and all mistakes are my fault or the fault of my characters. Many institutions, television programs, celebrities, political personalities, nations, businesses, networks, and locations are mentioned, but none should be confused with their real counterparts.
Klic!
magazine does not exist, and there is no business named Seyylol AG. Niv-L is fictional and so is his license plate. The shelter in Louisville is a fantasy. Daria is a fictional composite of attitudes and experiences, and her origins have been deliberately obscured so that she should not be perceived as representing any specific group or nationality.

While Sam Watterman’s career debacle is similar to that of Stephen Hatfill’s—the USAMRIID scientist who successfully sued the FBI after he was wrongly named as a person of interest in the Amerithrax investigations—Watterman is an entirely fictional character. For a good summary of the FBI’s anthrax investigation, see another
Wired
article, “The Strain,” by Noah Shachtman, April 2011, pp. 122-136.

A debt of thanks with accrued interest is owed my partner, Suzie Payne, for her support and insight all through the entire process. To my brother, the endlessly creative Richard Miller; to Kate Miciak, my astute editor at Random House; and to Denise Bukowski for being my lifeline to the business. I owe a great debt to my friend, filmmaker Daniel Conrad, for his close readings and advice regarding Sam Watterman, plus a free cram course in microbiology 101.

To my son, for helping me see many things that should be obvious, but aren’t. To Jason Rody, Noel Neeb, Lesleh Donaldson, and Denise Bukowski, for their help with New York locations.

Edda Onesti is captain of the ever-growing Italian squad: Francesco Belardetti, Alessandra Bava, Gina Bastone, Albarosa Simonetti, and Nina Vdb, with ambassadors B. J. Clayden, Jane Stokes, and Lesleh Donaldson. Many thanks to Susanne Schwager for ongoing German lessons.

Thanks to the staff of
Calhoun’s
, to the librarians at the University of British Columbia, and to a few people who may prefer not to be named. Also many thanks to Jim Prier, Suzanne and Miles Walker, Brenda Leadlay, Elaine Avila, David Petersen, Ty Haller, John and Carolyn Carter, the Drinking Club, and Andy Toth, for readings, references, corrections, ideas, coffee, opinions, inspiration, and encouragement.

A complete list of sources consulted for
The Messenger
is posted on
stephenmillerwriter.com

Finally … I have logged thousands of miles on Amtrak and consider myself a dedicated fan. I’ve had some wonderful continental voyages, and while I have sometimes been late, I have only had a few experiences with bored, snarky, or overworked staff in all those trips. It seems a small price to avoid flying.