Template Masters takes place at a time on Earth when teleportation is in its earliest stages of development with outcomes less than certain and requiring formidably complex equipment at each end of the transmission. Curiously, the process produces substantial medical benefits, including restoration of perfect health as well as increased longevity, thereby prompting teleportation's use in the healthcare industry for its side effects rather than for its transportation advantages. This novel is set against a backdrop of conflict between two giant corporations, one American (Medi-Corp) and one Chinese (ATELCO), who battle to control the worldwide medical teleportation industry. Since China enjoys a virtual monopoly in the field through its ownership of the required systems, tensions escalate when Medi-Corp attempts to divest itself of ATELCO control. Tasked by his employer to investigate a European epidemic of deadly lung disease, Dr. Douglas Bennett, a high-ranking specialist in the medical teleportation field, discovers that his own practice might be affected, thereby dooming several of his patients, one of whom is his girlfriend. Haunted by guilt from his role in causing his first wife's death years earlier, Douglas searches frantically for a cure, while at the same time, the disease outbreak sets in motion a worldwide chain of events that leads to political intrigue, corporate espionage, sabotage, and murder. Dr. Ward S. De Witt received his undergraduate degree from Stanford University and his M.D. from the University of California. He then went on to become a specialist in Otorhinolaryngology and Head and Neck Surgery (Ear, Nose, and Throat) and has had one prior publication in the medical literature, entitled A New Method for Closing Nasoseptal Perforations. He is married with two children and lives with his wife of fifty plus years in Missoula, Montana. This is his first venture into creative writing.