Samuel asked Matt Fulton:

Hello Matt, in this day and age of contemporary spy/geopolitical fiction, the henchman gets a short shift. But in your stark, realistic geopolitical thriller devoid of Bond like trappings, you made an entire stand - out unit of henchmen for one of the characters, "Team Beowulf". How did they come about and what ideas did you throw around developing their characterization?

Matt Fulton Thanks for the question. That little company first came about primarily through necessity. I wanted Kazanoff to have his own men independent of al-Din's loyalists in Hezbollah, which naturally brought me to search Russian SOF and special services. Using a standing unit didn't quite fit the bill from from an OPSEC perspective, so I decided to have Kazanoff source his team from the GRU Spetsnaz units that have recently seen action in Ukraine, and even some of the militias loyal to the Chechen president (who, as you'll see in Part II, is a twisted fellow named Ramzan Umarov).

After I figured out where these guys might come from, I had to factor in what sort of person would serve an individual like Kazanoff and the influence he might have on them. You can clearly see that influence in Part I. Moving into Part II, I'll say it might be better to call them acolytes, rather than henchmen.

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