A man who serves two masters is a man of doubtful honour.South Vietnam, 1966A patrol of Australian soldiers accompanying a doctor, Capt Michael Tarrant, disappears. Within hours Tarrant is captured and all but one of the patrol killed. Within days the Army and Government become embroiled in controversy; a reason, and a scapegoat were required. A hero would also be handy.Flt Lt Hunter searches for the patrol and locates the survivor. But Hunter's aircraft is damaged by fire from a large force of North Vietnamese. He lands his plane at a disused airfield and awaits rescue.On his return Hunter organises a rescue mission for the survivor. The survivor, WO O'Connor, is not alone. An NVA officer, Colonel Nguyen, a Catholic, greatly troubled by the murder of unarmed villagers and now doubting the morality of his cause, has defected during the confusion caused by Hunter's low-flying aircraft. On the day the patrol was ambushed, a young woman gave birth to a son in Sydney. The boy's father, Cpl McCarthy, would soon be accused of falling asleep while on sentry duty leading to the annihilation of the patrol. The next day, the wife of Tarrant's brother Anthony, also gives birth to a son.Anthony Tarrant, a senior member of the Australian Labor Party recognises the scandal surrounding the patrol as an ideal opportunity to stir up trouble for the Government. Through his contacts at the Soviet Consulate Tarrant tasks the GRU to find his brother. After his capture Tarrant is taken north to a village and interrogated by a Soviet officer, Lt Col Bubka. Beneath the village there is another with a crude medical facility. Tarrant is asked to assist in surgery. Torn between the distaste of working for the enemy and the horror of watching people suffer in the terrible conditions he realises he does not have a choice.His time in the gloom ends when he is forced to continue his journey. During his journey Tarrant passes an old Soviet bulldozer and is puzzled to find he understands some of the Cyrillic script written along its side. His journey ends at a secret POW camp in North Vietnam. On a visit to Sydney Bubka meets Anthony Tarrant and they discuss his missing brother. Bubka recalls an Australian doctor he met in a village on the Ho Chi Minh Trail and agrees to look for him. Bubka searches but fails to find any trace of Tarrant until he happens across the secret camp. He immediately transfers Tarrant to the Soviet Union.Tarrant arrives in Moscow to be met by his brother who tells him their family history and in particular how his parents migrated to Australia from the USSR during the Depression. They were long-term sleeper agents for the GRU. Michael's depression deepens as he learns Anthony had been trained as an agent and for a career in the ALP. But worse was to come.The GRU made it clear he had no choice but to join the GRU. He would work in the USSR for a few years and be trained as a proper GRU agent, then return to a POW camp where he would escape and return to Australia as a hero, and a spy. After a concert tour of Vietnam Hunter's fiancée Mandy falls ill with cancer. Hunter leaves the RAAF to look after her until her death on Anzac Day in 1968. He drifts back to SE Asia as a pilot for hire and soon begins flying covert missions for the CIA. After three years in the USSR Michael Tarrant is back in North Vietnam as a POW. Nguyen, who had returned to the NVA as an American agent, visits the camp.He plans a covert attack on the camp to rescue the prisoners. With Hunter leading the insertion of special forces troops the attack succeeds and all of the prisoners are evacuated.Following his rescue Tarrant is kept in isolation by the Australian authorities. When asked, he repeats the lie about the patrol fed to him by his brother in Moscow. He confirms the theory that McCarthy was responsible. During his transfer from a Saigon hospital to the airport and his repatriation home, his ambulance crashes.
Paul F Carr was born in Sydney, Australia and now lives on the idyllic Central Coast of New South Wales. He has a deep interest in Australian Military history from the Boer War through to the War on Terror. He is a regular contributor to The Australia Times. This is his second novel.
