The Briefcase: New Age Research

Although The Briefcase is a work of fiction, I decided to incorporates many real locations and real entities that were practical and would not find me in a lawsuit.  When I started The Briefcase, I was living in Westchester County, NY.  For whatever reason, the only logical place I could think of for a person to find a briefcase floating in the water was the Florida Keys.  Why I did not choose nearby Long Island, the Hudson River or the New Jersey shore is beyond my comprehension.  I know all these places.  I have been to them hundreds of times.  The closest I have ever been to Bahia Honda Key is a technology conference boondoggle at The Breakers Resort in Palm Beach Florida.  The Briefcase action all begins in the most southwestern part of the Florida Keys just east of the city of Key West.  The only way I can do this is with the help of my research assistant:

Google

I used Google to search facts, places, view maps and verify some of the technology I used in the novel.  Readers of The Briefcase are forewarned that the fact that I could not verify some factual point did not alway prevent me from including it in the novel.  A case in point is that in The Briefcase the plot is enhanced with the use of an underwater drone or very small unmanned submarine. I needed this drone to be able to go very long distances that were beyond the range a battery powered engine.  I conveniently added a fuel cell system to propel the drone.  I am fairly certain such a system is not technically practical for a small drone.  Hopefully, this will slip by for most readers.  After all, it is not as fantastic as Scotty's Transporter needed to move those Star Trek episode along.

A place where I did use Google to make certain a critical prop in the novel was possible is the briefcase itself.  This is not a spoiler.  The promotional material for The Briefcase clearly states that the briefcase contains money, lots of money.  I envisioned the money in the briefcase to be $1,000 bills.  This was fine, until a friend of mine mentioned that although $1,000 bills are in circulation, they are now longer minted and are rare to find.  I now was faced with a choice.  If I switch the to $100 bills, how much money can I get into the briefcase.  If I change the amount, I have a gazillion other changes to make in the novel.  The novel also loses some of its punch with less money.  I got to use my four years of scientific and engineering higher education.  Although a normal executive attache case is not large enough, a briefcase used by an attorney or accountant is large enough.  So I leave in the briefcase and leave it up to the reader make their own mental picture of what the briefcase looks like.