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Eagles Don't Die, by Ronald L. Chisté. Author
House Publisher. 202 Pages. ISBN: 978-1-4343-1005-7.
This is a novel. Repeat: This is a novel. All characters are
fictional. The author, Ron Chisté of Easton, makes that
clear, allowing that it is based on a true incident that took
place in 1971 at a U.S. Army installation in Germany. The events
in the story are fiction.
The part that raises the hair on the back of your neck is that
some of the actions in the plot have eerie counterparts in more
recent events - terrorist attacks in this country and abroad.
Truth, it turns out, can be stranger than fiction.
Tom Lasino is a Clark Kent kind of hero. Recommended by an older
mentor at the college where he teaches, Tom becomes a reluctant
player in a super-secret government plan to avert a dangerous
breach of national security.
He receives a mysterious phone call at his college office. The
caller is a woman whose voice, Tom thinks, is like that of a
fellow student he met in graduate school after his Army service.
It couldn't be, he decides. After they both got their doctorates,
she left teaching to be married and take a job at the CIA The
cryptic message tells him only that on the next day he'll have
a visitor with an explanation.
Tom is too depressed to be more than mildly curious. He's still
grieving over the death of his wife two years ago in a car bombing
in Jerusalem. As promised, a courier arrives at his office the
next day with a letter that says he's needed for a matter of
national security, a letter that may not be copied or notes taken,
and the courier must burn it before he leaves.
Tom is invited to Black Walnut Point on Tilghman Island to learn
more.
Over a long weekend, Tom discovers his hunch was correct: the
woman caller is his grad-school friend, and her husband was killed
in an American Embassy bombing in Africa. Can you sniff the odor
of romance?
Tom finds that he's been selected to foil a threat from a man
who passionately hates the United States. The man is Kurt, a
prisoner nearing the end of a 30-year sentence at Leavenworth
Prison. He's a hardened criminal with Army experience in nuclear
weapons. His prison sentence was the result of his side job in
the Army: he dealt in drugs on a large scale and killed the officer
who turned him in.
A loner behind bars, the convict turned to Islam when he read
a pamphlet a fellow con left behind. Kurt's rage against the
military and the whole government has festered in prison. Security
people in the CIA are certain he plans revenge when he's released.
In a nutshell, Tom is recruited to change his appearance, be
sent to Leavenworth and fake contempt for the United States in
a ruse to get close to the sullen prisoner. Because Tom's Army
stint was also in assembly and disassembly of nuclear warheads,
it could be a common bond.
During his first week in prison, a fight breaks out in the mess
hall. Tom joins the fray and defends Kurt, which earns grudging
respect from the standoffish prisoner, and they talk nukes.
Kurt says he has a job for Tom when he's released a few weeks
hence. "I'll find you in Washington," Kurt says, revealing
no more. His parting gift to Tom is a prison-made knife.
Once back on the streets in D.C., Tom keeps a low profile, frequenting
a dingy bar near Union Station. Kurt finds him and pays him to
buy a motorcycle to ride to Post Offices around the area and
pick up packages. Kurt seems to have endless cash while four
unsolved murders are reported in the press. Each victim is a
man of Middle Eastern origin who died with a prison shiv in his
heart.
Kurt is not stupid. He's a wily adversary who keeps the plot
as taut as the tension will bear. Tom's reward for his role in
the high-stakes caper earns him a droll pay-off after the breathtaking
conclusion.
Chisté's fast-moving story is a psychological thriller.
The portrait of a man deranged by fury is vividly contrasted
with the gentle scholar who becomes the hunter in a dangerous
game.
The result is a morality tale that will frighten the reader half
out of his wits. Horrified at the realization that it could happen
here, I couldn't put it down until the last page.
Highly recommended.
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