Book I: The Disappearance (The Fallen Race Trilogy). Colin Patrick Garvey

and now, it seems, they must recover some wayward evidence. For that, Moriah calls in a couple teams of “specialists” to handle the situation. Moriah gives them two names and they ensure him that it will soon be taken care of: Kaley and Rushmore will be pleading for a quick death when they are through with them. While the statement is haughty and a little over-the-top, this reassures Moriah that the evidence will soon be theirs, and the men will soon be a memory, bringing a brief, mischievous smile to his face.

       The Pentagon

      “…authorities say that a terrorist bombing…”

      “…speculation of Islamic fundamentalists…”

      “…the symbolism is heavy to strike at innocent Americans on Independence Day…”

      “…vows that the monsters responsible will be brought to justice…”

      “…several bombs were detonated to guarantee no survivors would make it out alive…”

      The group sits in a dark conference room where the only light is provided by the glow of a half-dozen television monitors and several dim overhead lights. They listen to the news reports that are broadcast over and over again, each one recycling what the previous report described. Their faces are sallow and drawn, displaying little emotion except one of utter disbelief. The majority of the men and women seated around the conference table look completely stunned, in a state of shock that this could happen again on American soil, knowing that each one of them has failed in one way or another. There are two men in this room, however, who know the truth of what happened tonight, and they make certain to appear as the others in the room.

      General Theodore Parker compulsively tugs at the corners of his salt-and-pepper mustache as he silently stares at the TV screens, studying the various scenes that unfold on each one. General Parker is a man like Colonel Fizer, men who believe in the strict rigidity of the military and an unwavering faith in the chain-of-command.

      Parker's father named his son after the great war hero and former president, Theodore Roosevelt, after reading a biography on the renowned “Rough Rider.” Parker's father greatly admired the bull-of-a-man for his courage, honor, cunning, and no-nonsense attitude, from his days as police commissioner of New York to his years spent in the Oval Office. Although not related, it seems that General Parker inherited some of the very same attributes from his namesake that his father so greatly appreciated.

      General Parker lived through three American wars and emerged from each one more highly decorated than the last. He caught the tail end of the Korean War in 1953 at the tender age of eighteen, earning a Bronze Star for bravery. In Vietnam, he remained in the midst of the war for almost the entire duration. He served three “official” tours of duty, was wounded four times by enemy fire and twice caught shrapnel from land mines. He arrived in Vietnam as most Americans first did in the early 1960s: strictly as a military advisor. At least, that was what the rest of the world was led to believe.

      General Parker was part of a small group of American soldiers, along with several CIA operatives, who were funded by both the South Vietnamese and United States governments to run special operations behind enemy lines. Their primary goal was to cause disruption and chaos, to try and weaken the people's faith in Ho Chi Minh and the tenets of communism he posited. No one can recall to this day whether the South Vietnamese requested the United States’ presence in their fight against the North, or America took it upon itself to volunteer in the crusade against communism, a nefarious ideology circling many nations around the globe at the time.

      Regardless, the Americans arrived in Vietnam in the early 1960s to help stop the spread of the evil empire, but it would take over a decade and the loss of 50,000 men before they realized that they had failed and their mission would not be achieved.

      It is known for certain that America's primary objective upon their arrival was to simply advise the South Vietnamese on military strategy and basic warfare principles. It turned into something more, however, something that perhaps the U.S. itself escalated.

      Parker was part of a group that included not only CIA operatives and military “advisors,” but also South Vienamese military and several guerilla factions opposed to Ho Chi Minh. The South Vietnamese were a motley bunch, a ragtag assortment of shady, untrustworthy characters with questionable interrogation techniques and oftentimes unreliable intelligence. The group committed unspeakable acts that could never be revealed to the American public or the international media. If any of the group's missions became known, the backlash it could have caused would have made the anti-war movement a hundred times stronger than it was. The doves would have had enough ammunition, so to speak, to nearly guarantee that American soldiers would not be stepping away from their own soil for a very long time.

      But that did not happen.

      Their missions remained top secret, even from them until it was absolutely necessary to disseminate the mission objectives. The group managed to cause major disruption in North Vietnam and there seemed to be a brief spell of outrage at the government from its citizens, but it was to be short-lived. A small blip on the radar screen of populist unrest in North Vietnam. The country's citizens were rural people who did not involve themselves in politics and warfare. It was only after the Americans arrived that the people felt they had been pushed into a war of survival.

      One night, four Americans were captured in the dark of night near Hanoi, the capital of North Vietnam. Their avarice had gotten the better of them as they attempted to strike where it would hurt most. General Parker had been on the mission, but he managed to escape, the only one lucky enough to do so.

      The four Americans were tortured and interrogated for days, which slowly turned into weeks and then months. The North Vietnamese press were given copies of signed confessions that the Americans had given, detailing secret missions financed by the South Vietnamese and the United States. The “signatures” were illegible, forgeries no doubt, but the damage would soon be done.

      The North Vietnamese were careful not to parade the captured Americans around in front of any television cameras, photographers, or journalists, Ho Chi Minh's reasoning being two-fold: first, by not flaunting their “prize” to the rest of the world, he knew the United States would claim that the North Vietnamese government was not, in fact, in possession of American captives. The United States would assert that the North Vietnamese had not captured American soldiers behind enemy lines because indeed, there were no Americans supposedly fighting behind enemy lines. U.S. soldiers were present acting only within the official capacity as military advisors. Therefore, the obvious effect Ho Chi Minh foresaw was that if the U.S. military was conducting operations in North Vietnam, they would cease immediately for fear of additional American soldiers being captured behind enemy lines. Perhaps weighted more heavily, it could lead to a very embarrassing situation for the United States on the diplomatic front and on the world stage for a war the Americans had no right to be involved in.

      The second and less obvious reason was that Ho Chi Minh saw no purpose in igniting the fury of the American public by putting on display four of their own, barely holding on to their lives and desperate to be rescued. This would certainly raise the level of sentiment and eagerness for war in the consciousness of the American people. Ho Chi Minh obviously did not want every American man within fighting age enlisting to go to war against his nation because he allowed his pride to get the better of him. Little could he know that in the years to come, many of these so-called “fighting age” men would burn their draft cards and flee to Canada to avoid fighting in the upcoming war, a fortunate and unforeseen variable that would benefit the North Vietnamese.

      In their response, the American government denied the existence of the captured men, secret missions behind enemy lines, or the signing of any confessions, but nevertheless, the North Vietnamese once again believed in the strength of Ho Chi Minh for staring down the United States.

      Soon after, a cryptic message was sent from Washington, D.C. to their “advisors and agents” in South Vietnam, demanding the termination of any unauthorized operations that were planned in North Vietnam.

      For Christ's sake, Parker thought at the time, all the missions were unauthorized as far as the U.S. government was concerned, especially