Author’s afterword:When I wrote this story, the concepts of nanotechnology had been familiar for some time to those who specialize in such matters, but it was fairly new to the general public. Fiction about nanotech usually came in one of two sorts: The result of nanotech, either mysteriously constructing something large, complex, and impressive, or a very tight focus on the nanotech, using an omniscient viewpoint to show events on the nanotech level for the story. I wanted to combine the two and came up with a way for Dodd to work with the nanotech in a way that was not quite a virtual reality system, but similar.
I suppose the scenario for the attempted assassination isn’t likely in real life. After all, there are many simpler ways to kill someone, even for a death that appears to be na
