When we first tackled this project, it was still a siege on the

heels of a shootout. With no great intelligent foresight, we authors

blindly stumbled on what we now--with hindsight--believe was

the perfect approach.

In the uncertain days following the shootout on ~,

1993, as we began planning how to tackle this subject, we realized

that there was absolutely no way on earth that we could plan for

it. No way in the worldmnot and do a good job.

If, as we began our planning on Day Three, we had decided to

focus on current aspects--the siege, the players in the Now,

tactics---well, fine.., but what if Dave had come out on Day 5?

It would have been wonderful news, much better news than

we all ultimately gotmbut a book? Five Whole Days of Purest

Heck, with photos? We realized that the siege alone was by no

means the whole story, that its roots and "reasons" lay farther

back along the time line; at least as far back as the 1920s,

demonstrably as far back as 1833, arguably as far back as about 90

AD to John the Divine, and thence to be the Christian Year 1 and

the birth of Jesus----of whom Koresh claimed to the Second Edition.

And then, philosophically, if not from the standpoint of narrative,

all the way back to the first human ever to hear his name being

called by the wind.

So, do we therefore bury our noses in the history? But... what

if the siege itself began to take on a life of its own, motives of its

own, pressures of its own, passions of its own---and all of it

suddenly boiled over into an unforeseeable outcome of its own?

And we were just caught sitting there with our noses covered in

History Dust when it happened?

After about five minutes of sheer panic, we decided to cover

our bets. It fell thusly: Darden would totally immerse himself in

Davidian Past, a subject with which he was already well acquainted,

and do it with no distractions from the present. And then he

would write it.

Just in case the siege petered on out to die with a whimper.

Bailey would totally immerse himself in the Present, a subject

which couldn t completely elude even him, especially with no

distractions from the past. And then he would write it.

Just in case the siege became overheated enough to die

with a bang.

As it turns out, both were the right ways to go.

With most publications, dual authorship can be taken to mean,

"two writers sat down and wrote one book."