One Man's War. Lindsay McKenna

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      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Back Cover Text

       Title Page

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

       CHAPTER FOUR

       CHAPTER FIVE

       CHAPTER SIX

       CHAPTER SEVEN

       CHAPTER EIGHT

       CHAPTER NINE

       CHAPTER TEN

       CHAPTER ELEVEN

       CHAPTER TWELVE

       CHAPTER THIRTEEN

       EPILOGUE

       Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

      Da Nang, Vietnam

      April 1, 1965

      Hunting time! Captain Pete Mallory savored the thought as he drove the Marine Corps jeep down the heavily potholed red dirt road. Mentally, he rubbed his hands together as he savored his next target: Tess Ramsey, the younger sister of his commanding officer, Major Gib Ramsey.

      The village of Le My drew into view as the jeep bumped along. A huge patchwork quilt of rice paddies and dikes paralleled the road, with the village spreading out to his right. Pete ignored the hundred or so thatched huts and the Vietnamese families who lived in them. He was on a mission, his target a woman he’d never even seen. Of course, he had to remind himself, she was the sister of his CO, so he’d have to watch his step.

      He grinned. Hell, with a little fancy footwork, his famous smile and a few clever lines, he’d have Tess Ramsey in his arms—and bed—in no time. And that’s exactly where he wanted this mysterious woman whom he’d been hearing about off and on since he’d been assigned to Da Nang six months ago.

      He’d already tired of chasing the local Vietnamese women, who, in Pete’s opinion, were lovely but offered no satisfaction to his hunter’s instincts. He hungered for a challenge—a woman who was less willing, more of a moving target. And from what he’d heard about the independent Tess, who worked in the field as an agricultural advisor, she might be just what he was looking for. Pete braked the jeep in a cloud of reddish dust and got out. His black flight boots were covered with dirt, he noticed, scowling momentarily. When he got back to his barracks in Marble Mountain, he’d have to have the Vietnamese boy spit shine them all over again.

      Then, remembering his mission, he began to hum to himself. Thrusting his hands into the pockets of his one-piece green flight suit, his utility cap drawn so low that the bill nearly touched his nose, Pete sauntered into the village. He had the perfect excuse: Gib Ramsey had sent him to find Tess and bring her back to a small officers’ party at the Marine Air Group squadron’s headquarters, Marble Mountain, tonight.

      Pete had made it a point to learn enough Vietnamese to be able to swap and haggle with the natives. He entered the village, situated on a flat piece of real estate surrounded by trees and lush jungle growth that created a sort of protective wall. He stopped and scratched his head. Who to ask?

      Children, naked or wearing only tattered shorts, played throughout the village. Cooking pots hung over small, smoky fires here and there with mamasans, clothed in black and wearing pointed bamboo hats, laboring at them. The men were out in the rice paddies plowing behind their harnessed water buffalo. He didn’t see many young or middle-aged women. They must be in the rice paddies, too, he surmised.

      An old man, his face pinched and weathered, hobbled up to Pete and gazed at him with assessing brown eyes.

      Pete hadn’t gotten over СКАЧАТЬ