From the Author
One of the greatest fears any husband has is the fear of losing his wife. I know that in my own case, I certainly hope my wife Sue outlives me. The thought of living without her is almost unbearable. I get to experience this once in a while, when she travels for her business, and I spend a week or so alone at home with the dog and the cat. The first couple days, it's okay. But after that, it gets boring, and I start counting the days till she's home. (I also have to carefully plan out my housekeeping chores, to make sure they're all done when she arrives, but that's another story.)
On those occasions, I know she'll be returning home, and things will get back to normal. But suppose she wasn't coming home? I've known men who have lost their wives to an unexpected illness or accident, and the grief they go through is something I would hope never to experience. I think the only thing that could be worse is the death of a child, and we probably all know people who have been through that. The most we can do in that case is offer whatever comfort and support we can, and somewhere inside us is a voice that is saying, "It's a terrible thing, but I'm certainly glad I'm not the one going through this."
Suppose, though, that your wife, the most important person in your world, is taken from you not by disease or random accident, but by violence? Worse yet, if she is kidnaped?
Abductions, even here in the United States, are a lot more prevalent than we might think. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children says that about 800,000 Americans are reported missing every year. About five percent are under the age of 18, leaving over three-quarters of a million adults as victims of abduction. Certainly a significant percentage of these are people who are married.
As the owner of a travel agency, my wife frequently is on the go, and oftentimes these travels take her outside the United States. I worry about her, of course--although I don't worry as much as I used to, before she started martial arts training several years ago. It's one of those things you have to force yourself not to think about, like the times your teenage son or daughter are out of the house.
Any man whose wife or child is kidnaped is going to feel many emotions: fear, rage, sorrow, and more. Since the great majority of us don't have the training or resources to do anything about it, we have to trust in the police to do something, and quickly, to find our loved one and return her to us, hopefully unharmed. But what if you're one of those rare men who does have skills and resources that can be employed in such a crisis? Would you be content to sit next to the phone, waiting for somebody else to do something?
As I contemplated the next adventure for the Hayes brothers after introducing them in Quest for Honor, my wife happened to be on a trip overseas, and although the place she was visiting was considered relatively safe, there's always the chance something could happen. Most likely it would be a crime of opportunity: someone sees a chance for a quick payday and decides to take a shot at it. Suppose, though, that the criminal is not just a random hood, but someone who has skills and resources himself, and worse yet, has been waiting for such an opportunity to strike a blow against someone he considers to be his enemy? Then, you'd be in real trouble.
One of the first things I learned in martial arts training was the most important rule of self-defense: don't be there. But we should be able to walk safely down any street in America, shouldn't we? And in Italy, too, for that matter. I have visited Italy several times and always enjoyed it. I never once felt unsafe anywhere, whether we were in a big city like Rome or exploring the countryside of Tuscany. But we were smart about it; we didn't go very far from our hotel after dark, and we stayed away from places too far off the beaten path. It's just common sense to avoid places where the likelihood of trouble is higher than it might be somewhere else.
But you can take all the precautions that can reasonably be taken, and bad things could still happen, especially if someone has put a target on your back. That's the position Mark Hayes is in as we begin Questfor Vengeance, although he doesn't know it yet. Pretty soon, Mark has to make a decision no husband should ever have to make. I truly hope it's one I never have to make, either.
About the Author
David Tindell was born in Germany and raised in Wisconsin, where he now lives on a lake with his wife Sue, a Yorkie and a Siamese. His longtime studies of Korean, Russian and Okinawan martial arts inspired him to write the Quest and White Vixen thriller series.
