Foreword
The gloomy pessimists are prone to say that the world is all wrong, but this isn't true. It's the people who live on it. And not all the people are wrong. Just a lunatic fringe that preys on the majority.
It seems to this writer than the beginning of recent-history terrorism could be pegged when skyjackings became the vogue of demented hoodlums, extortionists and cold-blooded murderers.
Since, bloody, heartless violations of people's rights and dignities have become wide-spread from the horror of blood-letting at the Olympic Games to the abduction of Miss Patty Hearst.
Small, special-interest groups have burgeoned around the world, intent on imposing their selfish wills on others. There have been countless political kidnappings of industrial executives in South and Central America, in Europe and even Africa.
Monetary ransoms have been demanded in some cases while others have been perpetrated to impose political tenets on an entire nation. Many of the victims have been murdered.
This, probably, is the most overt example of terrorist lunacy exercised to gain demands that otherwise would have been scorned.
More subtle aberrations have been resorted to in order to gain corrupt ends. There have been instances of race horses being doped. In years past, there has been a taint in sports of point-shaving—-bribery. In government, there have been cases of blackmail and illegal surveillance.
Not yet, to this writer's mind, has there been a case of kidnapping prominent sports figures to prevent their "show-up" in order to influence or control the outcome of an athletic event.
But it could happen. So, we have contrived a logical case in novel form to explore such despicable occurrences. We invented a character we called Jody, a rising, promising young tennis star, arid set out to follow her and chronicle her sordid misadventures.
Those who manipulated her kidnapping had no concern with what happened to her, as long as she was taken off the courts, their ends would be served. Human compassion is lost in the ruthless drives for power and wealth. And along the way, others are found who are just as vicious in their more earthy, lustful desires.
Some may pooh-pooh this account as incredible and impossible, but in the past season, at least one major league baseball player was zealously protected after receiving serious threats.
At least monthly newspaper accounts attest to the fact a person can be kidnapped. Two recent instances in California and that stunning incident in Dallas a few years ago, indicate that a person can be shot down on our streets. Thankfully, those two women didn't succeed in assassinating yet another American president.
So, let us admit that Jody's story could happen.
-THE PUBLISHER