2. Benjamin Franklin was indeed fascinated by the Laki eruption, which killed six million people and likely contributed to the factors that caused the French Revolution.
3. Meriwether Lewis (okay, he's not a Founding Father, but I'm putting him here because he was a friend of Jefferson's and a contemporary of the others). He was a soldier, spy, and scientist, so he would make a great Sigma Force member. He and Clark did indeed miss finding Yellowstone by a mere forty miles. Also, the quote from an early pioneer, hinting that the Indians were hiding something powerful inside Yellowstone, is a real quote. So, it's hard to believe Lewis's expedition never found Yellowstone... and so I wrote this story. It's also true that Lewis's death was considered a suicide, but mounting evidence now points to murder, most likely assassination. The burial site is as accurately described as I could make it.
The Great Seal. I already mentioned how the story of Chief Canasatego and the arrows is true. But so is the fact that the olive branch and bundle of arrows are the symbols representing Manasseh, one of the ten lost tribes of Israel. And it is this very tribe that the Book of Mormon suggests came to early America. Additionally, both Jefferson and Franklin had initially proposed that the Great Seal depict scenes of exiled Israelites. They lost that debate, but here are some thoughts to chew on. Could the symbols of the olive branch and arrows be a remnant of the two men's original proposals? If so, why were the Founding Fathers so obsessed with the lost tribes of Israel?
Science Tidbits. I try to be as accurate as possible in regard to the science in my novels, so most of the factoids are based on some manner of realistic data. I thought I'd signal a few here.
1. The Super-Kamiokande detector is a real facility doing subatomic particle research using a tank full of fifty thousand tons of ultrapure water. And yes, sixty billion neutrinos pass through your fingernail every second-and those particles still remain a mystery to modern physics.
2. The novel contains much information about volcanism . Most of it is true, including the fact that you should be careful about drilling into geothermal levels. Explosions and lava production have resulted.
3. On a minor note, the Underground Physics Research Laboratory at BYU is indeed buried underground north of its science building (sorry for blowing a hole in it).
4. Evidence of ancient nanotechnology does exist in Damascus steel, ancient medieval glass, and some hair dyes. As to modern nanotech, I went into that at length in the foreword: all true... and yes, that scary.
5. Weaponry in the book: Taser XREP shotguns, flashbangs, up-armor kits for Humvees, and one kick-ass cattle dog. All real.
Places. We're mostly in America, so it must be real.
1. There is a Serpent Indian Mound , but it's in Ohio, not Kentucky.
2. Sunset Crater does have lava tubes that hold ice all year round in the Arizona desert.
3. Wupatki does have a blowhole that opens into seven million cubic feet of cavern space and gusts of wind of up to thirty miles an hour do blow through it.
4. Crack-in-the-Rock Pueblo is a real place.
5. The Westman Islands south of Iceland do have the largest orca population (so, of course, they had to play a role). Ellirey Island can only be reached by rope and does have a small lodge on its top. Heimaey Island is indeed known as the Pompeii of the North.
6. Most of the landmarks in Yellowstone are accurate, including Fairyland Basin with its scatter of geyserite cones. And yes, since the 1990s, fewer than thirty people have visited that beautiful and strange little basin.
7. And yes , the Yellowstone caldera is due to erupt. It's late, in fact. The geological information that Chin gave regarding an impending eruption of the supervolcano and its aftermath is true . So it's not a matter of if that supervolcano will erupt, rather of when .
Other Books of Interest. While a long bibliography could be given here, I thought I'd share the books that are of the greatest relevance to this novel.
1. Solomon's Power Brokers by Christopher Knight and Alan Butler (specifically for information about the 'star families')
2. Jefferson and Science by Silvio A. Bedini
3. Southern Paiutes by LaVan Martineau
4. American Monster by Paul Semonin
5. Unearthing Ancient America by Frank Joseph
6. The First American by Christopher Hardaker
7. Founding Fathers, Secret Societies by Robert Hieronimus, Ph.D.
As this book has been two years in the making, the debt of gratitude I owe on it is long overdue. So let's get started. First, I mention this group in every book, and it's still not enough. They're my first readers, my first editors, and some of my best friends. I wanted to take this moment to acknowledge those folks who've been my bedrock over all of these past years: Penny Hill, Judy Prey, Dave Murray, Caroline Williams, Chris Crowe, Lee Garrett, Jane O'Riva, Sally Barnes, Denny Grayson, Leonard Little, Kathy L'Ecluse, J. M. Keese, and Scott Smith. And again I owe an extra big thanks to Steve Prey for all of his spectacular help with the maps and some crafty handiwork with the Great Seal of the United States. Beyond the group, Carolyn McCray and David Sylvian have kept me upright and moving through the best of times and the worst. Somewhere I probably owe fellow scribe Steve Berry for something (so consider yourself covered, Steve). And, of course, I do know what I owe everyone at HarperCollins: Michael Morrison, Liate Stehlik, Seale Ballenger, Danielle Bartlett, Josh Marwell, Lynn Grady, Adrienne Di Pietro, Richard Aquan, Tom Egner, Shawn Nicholls, Joyce Wong, and Ana Maria Allessi. Lastly, of course, a special acknowledgment to the four people instrumental to all levels of production: my editor, Lyssa Keusch, and her colleague Wendy Lee; and my agents, Russ Galen and Danny Baror. And as always, I must stress that any and all errors of fact or detail in this book fall squarely on my own shoulders.
About the Author New York Times bestselling author JAMES ROLLINS holds a doctorate in veterinary medicine and resides in the Sierra Nevada mountains. An avid spelunker and certified scuba enthusiast, he can often be found underground or underwater.
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This file was created with BookDesigner program bookdesigner@the-ebook.org 12.08.2012 
