Chapter 1

The following characters appear in the first few chapters:

Colonel Sheppard

Commanding Officer, 46th Special Forces Company, 5'-11" tall, 200 pounds, 46 years old, graying hair, hazel eyes.

Sergeant Major

SGM of 46th Special Forces Company, 5'-10" tall, 200 pounds, 42 years old, black hair, brown eyes.

Mike Barnett

Master Sergeant (MSG), Special Forces, 6'-3" tall, 220 pounds, 37 years old, brown hair, blue eyes.

Chanthra

Thai, Amulet teacher, 5'-2" tall, 108 pounds, 34C-22-32, 21 years old, Long lustrous black hair, brown eyes, very cute.

Introduction

Place: Office of the Commander, Headquarters, 46th Special Forces Company, Lop Buri, Thailand.

Time: 1600 hrs, 10 Feb 1966

"I tell you, sir, it was the worst auto accident that I have ever seen," the Sergeant Major told his boss, Colonel Sheppard.

"It looked from the tire tracks like the driver of the car that Barnett had rented swerved to miss something in the road, and obviously didn't see the bus that was coming out of the curve way too fast.

The road in that area has a lot of blind curves.

"The bus must have hit the rear of the car, at least that is how the burned-out wreckage looked. The car spun away from the bus, and the driver was thrown out and killed. The bus careened into a ditch and overturned.

"The car rolled down the embankment on the other side of the road and appears to have spun around a couple of times before coming to a stop upside-down. Somewhere in there the gas tank developed a serious leak, and the car was burning by the time it stopped moving. They must have had close to a full tank of gas because the back part of the car was nearly melted, it got so hot from the fire. There had been an explosion early in the fire also, I was told.

"There were no real remains left of Barnett, just a few charred bones, but not enough to identify. There were some burned and melted blobs of steel that could have been the two pistols that he went to Bangkok to pick up. Again though, nothing was really recognizable. That had to have been one hell of a fire," the Sergeant Major finished.

"Two questions, Sergeant Major," Colonel Sheppard said, when he had finished.

"First: Was anyone on the bus injured?"

"There were a lot of bumps and bruises when the bus tipped over. Some people had bandages on their heads, and there were several broken arms including the bus driver's. Luckily, the bus didn't catch fire. I've seen several bus wrecks on that road that did catch fire after an accident," the Sergeant Major told him.

"Second: What was this explosion that you mentioned? Do we know what caused it?"

"We believe that it was the black powder for the pistols going off, sir," the Sergeant Major told him.

"Wait! What black powder? What kind of pistols was Barnett picking up?" the Colonel asked, confused.

"They were cap and ball revolvers that he'd had made special in Italy, sir. He showed me the drawings that he had made some time ago. What he had done was to copy the Walker Colt pistol from 1847, but he had added a strap across the top of the frame like the Remington 1858 pistol had. He told me that it made for a much stronger construction.

"He also changed the lock for the loading mechanism to one like the later Colt pistols had. He gave it a removable pin that the cylinder rotated on, so the cylinder could be changed easily like those of the Remington, and he had two cylinders made for each pistol for a total of twenty-four shots before he needed to reload the cylinders.

"He had a mold made to cast the same bullet used in the .45 ACP. It's heavier than the round ball that the gun usually used. One other thing that he had made was a separate loading device so that the empty cylinders could be reloaded without taking a gun out of action.

"You know, sir, that the Colt Walker was the most powerful revolver in the world until the .357 Magnum was introduced," the Sergeant Major finished.

"No, I wasn't aware of that, Sergeant Major. You seem to know a lot about them, though," the Colonel said with a smile.

"I've always been interested in the old cap and ball revolvers, sir," the Sergeant Major told him with a grin.

"I didn't know Master Sergeant Barnett very well. He sounds like quite a fellow," the Colonel said.

"Yes sir, he tended to stay away from the flagpole, but he was a real soldier, a real tiger, sir. He and Sawyer are both legends here in Southeast Asia, but only Sawyer is left now!" the Sergeant Major told him, somewhat sadly.

I came to on an area of grass. It was very soft I noticed, and my weight had mashed it down considerably, as the grass around me was about ten inches tall. These were the first things I noticed on finally opening my eyes.

"What the hell am I doing here!!?" I thought, as I opened my eyes to bright sunlight. Then it hit me, and I remembered the driver swerving, and seeing a flash of orange as one of the big Mercedes buses came right at us. Things went blank after that.

"We must have been in one hell of an accident, but what am I doing here on the grass? Had someone pulled me from the wreck?" I wondered.

Speaking of the wreck, where was it? Where was the road even? There should be voices or some other sounds, not this total quiet, unless my hearing had been affected, but then I heard some birds fussing at me here in the grass. I needed to get up, and find out what was going on.

At least, I needed to try to get up. I didn't feel any pain, and presumed that I hadn't been hurt, unless I was paralyzed! Well, now was the best time to find out, I thought, and went to sit up.

I was a little stiff, and the world stopped going around and around after a few seconds, but other than that I seemed to be no worse for the wear of being in an accident. The first thing that I did notice on sitting up was the two wooden cases that held the two revolvers that I had picked up in Bangkok, and the third case that held the separate loading attachment and also held extra supplies for the revolvers. Those guns and the extra loader had cost me a pretty penny, but they were definitely worth it to me, as someone who appreciated fine black powder firearms.

Each pistol had been supplied in a case made of well figured mahogany and it had been lined with velvet. In addition to the pistol itself, the case held the spare cylinder for that pistol, a brass powder flask, a container of percussion caps, and loose bullets, all in separate compartments. There was also a cleaning rod with a jag and a bristle brush, a small metal bottle for oil, a custom bullet mold, an 'L' shaped wrench for disassembling the pistol and changing the nipples, plus an extra set of Stainless steel nipples for each cylinder.

The case containing the loading assembly was a little larger than the pistol cases. In addition to the cylinder loading device, it also contained an additional large powder flask, containers of percussion caps, another complete set of nipples for both revolvers, and a container of grease to seal the chambers to prevent crossfire in the cylinders, and to lubricate the bullets.

I was really glad to see them because of the considerable investment that they represented, and I was glad that they hadn't been lost in the accident. Speaking of which, I needed to find out where it was, and what had happened.

I got to my feet without any trouble, and looked around, but there was no accident in sight. There were no signs of the vehicle that I had been traveling in, or the large orange bus that apparently hit us, and a bus that size is very hard to hide. There was a road here, sort of, but it wasn't the road that I had been traveling on, not by a long ways.

This road wasn't more than a bare dirt track with narrow tracks in it made by wheels of the type used on wagons or carts by the Thais. It ran through the grass without any paving or any real grading that I could see, and it looked more like a well-worn track through a field than a road. There were also the deposits left behind by the animals pulling the wagons.

I needed to find the accident and see what had happened, but this track wasn't going to be much help. A part of it disappeared around a hill, and the other end disappeared into the distance with no indication that it intersected any other road, and certainly not the two lane blacktop road that I had been traveling on. There were also no signs of any vehicles, wrecked or not.

I turned around to see if there was anything in the other direction, and all that I saw were trees and some bushes in that direction in addition to the grass that I had been lying on, but there was no indication of any road there either.

What I did spy under one of the trees, however, was what appeared to be a backpack; a large backpack like those used for long range patrols to carry all of the needed items. I walked over to it, and discovered that it was in fact a large backpack, and not just any backpack, but my own extra-large one!!

"How the hell did this get here?" I wondered to myself, as I checked it out. I had left it at the Thai Army camp in Korat where I was advising the Thai Army Rangers. How could it have gotten here, and who had packed it, I wondered?

A closer examination revealed that it contained the following items in the main compartment: two complete camouflage uniforms, a spare Beret, some underwear(?), a mosquito net, my other pair of jungle boots, a camouflage poncho liner, and toiletries.

Strapped on one side was my knife with a ten inch blade. In pockets on the other side were my large first aid kit, Halazone tablets, and in the large pocket at the bottom was money - strange looking money. There were Baht notes, but they certainly weren't the kind that were in use now, and that I was used to. These were larger in size, and of completely different colors and patterns than the notes in use now.

Additionally there were a large number of coins made of brass, silver and gold - Gold!! Nobody used gold in transactions in this day and age. Plus where had these strange Baht notes and the gold come from? They were all a kind that I had never seen before.

"This just keeps getting curiouser and curiouser!" I thought to myself, as I lifted the pack to put it on. When I lifted the pack, the two holsters attached to the web belt of the LBE became visible. (LBE - load bearing equipment) These were the holsters that I had made for the two revolvers, but what the hell were they doing attached to the LBE of my pack, I wondered? Thankfully my two canteens were also attached to the web belt, and more importantly, they were full.

I moved everything over to where the pistol cases were, and considered loading one of the revolvers for a minute, but didn't. I was sure that I would find the wreck just around the hill, and wouldn't need a pistol. There was just room in the pack for the three cases, and I put them inside before closing the pack up. I then picked it back up, slipped into the straps, and adjusted things until the load rode comfortably.

As I started around the curve of the hill, I noticed that the ground fell away quickly from the base of the several hills that the trail followed. What I didn't see, however, was any sign of the wreck or even a road, just a continuation of the trail.