A Legacy of Chains

For decades after the Vietnam War, the rumors persisted: some American prisoners- of-war were never brought home. In public, both Washington and Hanoi denied it. In private, Hanoi insisted on receiving war reparations before they would release the hundreds of prisoners still in chains. Washington refused; the men never came back.

Now it is the year 2010. American diplomat Paul Klippen is summoned to Spain's south coast on a strange mission: a boat with nine Americans in their seventies has been towed ashore by the Spanish Coast Guard. They turn out to be P.O.W.s fleeing Vietnam. Klippen works to repatriate the men, but quickly discovers that many in Washington are not happy to see those long-ago denials refuted. Set against the dreamy countryside of Spain and political revolt in America, this novella examines the initial cracks in the social contract between rulers and ruled.

The other six short stories in this collection range from the personal to the political, from the comic to the dramatic. In "Alan the Newsboy", a cocaine dealer clashes with the fifteen-year-old who delivers his newspaper. In "Shoccer," ten guys in a Minnesota bar list ideas to make soccer an interesting sport. In "The Rainmaker," a psyops specialist sits in on the final meeting before the raid on Osama bin Laden's house in Pakistan and explains to the assembled espionage chiefs how to present the raid to the public in case bin Laden turns out not to be there. Which looks a lot like how it was presented.