The Phantom's Song

Book excerpt: In 1968, Captain Robb Barker arrives at Nubat Royal Thai Air Force Base, ready to replace the men who, like him, left their families to travel halfway around the world to fight on unknown soil. As Barker slowly surveys his new environment, fear screams obscenities into the recesses of his mind. Captain Barker, a man who is battling intense personal demons, has no idea he is about to fly the most important mission of the Vietnam War. In a desolate forest on the Siberian steppes, Colonel Dmitriy Mihail Ruchinsky's life is crumbling around him. His career has been irreparably damaged the result of an unfortunate decision by a superior in a highly political environment. Even worse, he has just been informed that his son Nikolai, a bright young pilot in the Soviet Air Force serving in Vietnam, has been shot down by an American pilot. With his son dead and his career slowly plunging into a pit of failure, Colonel Ruchinsky has nothing to lose. As the lives of these two men converge in the jungles of Vietnam, Captain Barker must prevent an old colonel's act of revenge before the world is brought to the brink of nuclear conflict.