Quest for Closure

David McKinney

Description

Lien Phan Birchfield is on a quest for closure about his missing father, who was designated by the U.S. Army in 1972 as "presumed killed in action…somewhere in Southeast Asia".Lien shocks his family and friends when he tells them his plan for uncovering the fate of Sgt. Birchfield more than twenty years after his disappearance. Lien''s college roommate dubbed the daring plan an "extreme road-trip misadventure".Lien takes leave from Bayou City College and embarks on what could be a real-life movie adventure with sequels, often the life-and-death type. Along the way, he is pursued by violent criminals whose continued existence in the underworld hinges on preventing Lien from returning to civilization.The chase is on.

Sujets

• Thriller

Informations

• Publié par: Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
• Date de parution: 30 octobre 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781528963954
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Quest for Closure
David B. McKinney
Austin Macauley Publishers
2019-10-30
Quest for Closure About the Author About the Book Copyright Information © Acknowledgments Part I The Quest Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 Chapter 14 Chapter 15 Chapter 16 Chapter 17 Part II Closure Chapter 18 Chapter 19 Chapter 20 Chapter 21 Chapter 22 Chapter 23 Chapter 24 Chapter 25 Chapter 26 Chapter 27 Chapter 28 Chapter 29 Chapter 30 Chapter 31 Chapter 32 Chapter 33 Chapter 34 Chapter 35 Chapter 36 Chapter 37 Chapter 38 Chapter 39 Chapter 40 Chapter 41 Chapter 42 Chapter 43 Chapter 44 Chapter 45 Chapter 46 Chapter 47 Chapter 48 Chapter 49 Chapter 50 Chapter 51 Chapter 52 Chapter 53 Chapter 54 Chapter 55 Chapter 56 Chapter 57 Chapter 58 Chapter 59 Chapter 60 Chapter 61 Chapter 62 Chapter 63 Chapter 64 Chapter 65
About the Author

David B. McKinney lives in the Houston, Texas, suburb of Spring. A former journalist, he retired after thirty-one years with a major oil company and taught communications part time at the University of Houston for more than a decade. McKinney is a contributor to four communications textbooks and author of The Invisible Four . He and his wife, Dana, are part-year residents of Flagstaff, Arizona. They have three adult children and eight grandchildren.
About the Book
Lien Phan Birchfield is on a quest for closure about his missing father, who was designated by the U.S. Army in 1972 as “presumed killed in action…somewhere in Southeast Asia”.
Lien shocks his family and friends when he tells them his plan for uncovering the fate of Sgt. Birchfield more than twenty years after his disappearance. Lien’s college roommate dubbed the daring plan an “extreme road-trip misadventure”.
Lien takes leave from Bayou City College and embarks on what could be a real-life movie adventure with sequels, often the life-and-death type. Along the way, he is pursued by violent criminals whose continued existence in the underworld hinges on preventing Lien from returning to civilization.
Copyright Information ©
David B. McKinney (2019)
The right of David B. McKinney to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with section 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publishers.
Any person who commits any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library.
ISBN 9781528963954 (ePub e-book)
www.austinmacauley.com
First Published (2019)
Austin Macauley Publishers Ltd
25 Canada Square
Canary Wharf
London
E14 5LQ
Acknowledgments
The author appreciates the interest and encouragement of his family, friends and readers everywhere. Special thanks to Col. Pat Neky, US Army (retired), a valued friend since childhood. Also to Cindy Davis, the Fiction Doctor, for her guidance. And a tip of the hat to fellow author Eugene Munger; you blazed the trail and I followed.

Lien was jarred awake when strong arms flipped him facedown and tied his hands securely. The throng of agitated men shouted for him to do something. Hell, he couldn’t understand the language let alone distinguish one screamer from another. But they were angry, no doubt about that.
He was yanked to his feet and pressed against a tree; the back of his head made a dull thud when it struck. The sky was dark and the flickering flashlights wielded by his captors eerily illuminated their faces. There was an outside chance that this was a terrible dream. Wishful thinking gave way to harsh reality when the young man’s throbbing head caused him to vomit. This was no dream.
Now blindfolded, he was grasped by each arm and pushed and pulled at a quick pace for what he figured was about 20 minutes. The sound of engines running was loud, but he still overheard a heated discussion as he was shoved into the back of what had to be a flatbed pickup truck. A vain attempt to loosen the rope by twisting his wrists got him a cuff across the face. He tasted blood.
Lien dispatched a silent prayer to whoever might be listening. All of those Sunday mornings he slept late while his mother went to church by herself haunted him as he jostled over the potholed road, afraid to move for fear of getting another smack.
He drifted in and out of consciousness, the oozing blood from his head dripped onto the ground by his feet. The men who rode with him in the open truck bed were quiet. Perhaps they’d fallen asleep. Might as well catch a few z’s as their captive wasn’t going anywhere.
They could have just killed him and gone about their business. He was of no value that he could imagine. Just a dumb-luck guy who was somewhere he didn’t belong. Call it trespassing in the first degree. How do you plead, young man? I’ll plead guilty to anything you want me to. I’m so sorry, can I go home now? He bounced when the flatbed hit an especially deep pothole, which caused the pain in his head to intensify.
The truck rolled on. He willed himself to fall asleep, however fitfully. There were no dreams, only violent images. He didn’t want to wake up, not all the way, because he feared that being fully awake was when the real nightmare would begin.
Part I

The Quest
Chapter 1
Wham! The sound was like a gun shot, but in this case it was the old cook hacking through some kind of white fish with a knife that resembled a machete more than a refined culinary device.
Lien Phan Birchfield’s face was just inches away from a generous bowl of Vietnamese noodle soup when the noise caused him to hesitate…briefly. Steam from the pho fogged his lightly tinted sunglasses as he struggled to slurp a long noodle into his mouth. A fat one was halfway home when he raised his eyes and caught the cook watching him, again, through the cut-out in the wall between the counter and kitchen. It was getting increasingly difficult for Lien to ignore this curious cook, who peered from behind a maze of hanging pots and pans.
Look all you want, Mr. Peepers. Just keep your distance.

Lien ate another spoonful and acknowledged that he probably gave off peculiar vibes, what with wearing the shades indoors and eating alone. He had picked out this particular eatery because the signage had an abundance of Vietnamese lettering and practically no English words, save for the name and address over the door. How could he not go into a place called Pho-Gedaboutit? Lien sensed that this establishment was the real deal, as close as he was going to get to Vietnam in this small neighborhood next to downtown Houston known as Little Saigon.
He finished his meal, left a small tip, pocketed an English-Vietnamese translation book and walked out of the restaurant without making further eye contact with the employees or patrons. Lien sensed that more than one person observed his departure.
I’ll be back, that you can count on. We’ll resume our ritual of you checking me out and me pretending like I couldn’t care less.
Lien strolled along Bellaire Boulevard and recalled what he’d read in the Houston Post about why this area in zip code 77072 was named Little Saigon, when it actually was multi-ethnic with a fair number of Koreans, Chinese, and Thais. No question, though, that the largest nationality of shopkeepers and residents was Vietnamese.
This mixture of Asians was comforting for Lien, considering he was the product of a Vietnamese mother and Caucasian father. He’d dealt with identity issues during much of his 21 years; the last 17 as an immigrant to Deer Park, Texas, with his mother, Tai Phan Birchfield. In 1993, shades of anger, resentment, patriotism, racism, and other emotions were just below the surface of an America slowly healing from the protracted and controversial Vietnam conflict.
The visual transformation was remarkable as Lien walked from Little Saigon toward his parked two-wheeler a few blocks away. He noted how the storefronts’ signage morphed from Asian to English, and the façades from turquoise, pink, and yellow to traditional red brick and earth tone colors. His trusty Blue Bomber, a high-mileage Honda motorbike, was wedged between a van and a pickup truck at the edge of Little Saigon. A traffic cop would be doing his duty to cite Lien for parking in a non-designated spot, but in this part of town, the odds of that happening were slim.
He got the Blue Bomber going after two kick-starts and sped away toward Starbucks at Bayou City College (BCC). If he rolled through a few stop signs and kept the motorbike revved, he could make the meeting with his two best buddies on time, give or take a few minutes. Then again, this was Houston traffic and there were no guarantees.
Finals week of their junior year was drawing to a close. The three friends had yet to share their plans for the summer. Lien wasn’t nervous to hear what Char and Toby would say about his schedule for the summer, but what he had in mind for the fall was a shocker and sure to generate a lively discussion.
Charlotte ‘Char’ Zimmerman and Toby Lawrence were already seated when Lien entered the coffee shop. Char gestured for Lien to hurry up and sit down while Toby flashed one of his familiar goofy grins. His dormitory roommate was always in a good mood.
As Lien slid onto a chair, Toby exclaimed, “What’s up my brother from another mother and father?”
“That’s not how the expression goes, Toby,” said Char. “It’s brother from another mother.”
“Well, I like my way better. Look at Lien… I’m twice his size. It’d take both another mother and father for us to be related, not to mention he’s half Asian.”
Char cut to the chase, which was no surprise