To my beloved wife and best friend, Colette: What a blessing you are to me. Your support and encouragement continue to inspire me. I thank God for that day you walked up the driveway and I said you had the wrong house and you told me to shut up… and we’ve been in love ever since. Though, all things considered, I have by far gotten the better end of the deal.
To my Pentebrood—Andrew, Aryn, Jordan, John, and Jessi: You have subtly transformed my passion for writing into a necessity. But I wouldn’t change a thing. You’ll never know how much I love you until you have children of your own someday.
To my agent, Les Stobbe: Thank you for all your prayers, counsel, and efforts on my behalf.
To Dan and Dr. Rachael Romain: Thank you for the enthusiastic support and for lending your expert scientific consultation to this endeavor. And especially for cool-sounding terms like oxidative phosphorylation.
To the great team at Tyndale:
Stephanie Broene—thank you for your continued input, patience, and encouragement. It was a long and arduous road but hopefully a worthwhile one.
Sarah Mason—once again it was a distinct pleasure working with you on this project. Thank you for all the spackling, sanding, painting, varnishing, and polishing that this book needed. You should have your own editorial reality show.
Dean Renninger—thank you for your inspired work on the cover design. Once again you’ve captured the mood of the book perfectly and hit the three c’s: cool, creepy, and compelling.
Babette Rea, Andrea Martin, and the whole sales and marketing team—thank you for all your ongoing efforts to make this project successful.
And last but not least, to Jerry Jenkins and your excellent staff at the Christian Writers Guild: May God continue to bless your service for Him.