Awakening of The Golden Phoenix

Jim Murphy, the hero of The Methuselah Project, is abruptly brought out of semi-retirement in Costa Rica in 1986 to conduct one more dangerous mission. His Vietnamese National Police (NP) counterpart in1975, Colonel Bui-Hop, has been assassinated in Denver, Colorado. His only grandchild, Maui, had been kidnapped by the local Vietnamese mafia known as the Red Feather’s Gang. Bui-Hop’s daughter, Mia Ling Hue, tracked down Murphy in Costa Rica and pleaded for his help.

The Red Feather’s Gang was demanding one million in gold bullion they believed Bui-Hop hid in Da Nang Province at the time of Saigon’s collapse in April 1975. It was believed that 15 tons of gold were in the South Vietnamese National Bank at that time. If their demands weren’t met within 90 days, the child would be murdered.

This fast-paced drama takes Murphy into the heart of the Red Feather’s Gang territory in Denver. Murphy is shocked to find that the Gang is a local chapter of the Dai Cathy Brotherhood which had controlled all gambling, drugs, and vice in Vietnam in the 1970s. They helped the CIA covertly move drugs from the Golden Triangle via Air America to raise funds in support of the CIA Iran Contra covert operation.

When the Los Angeles-based Dai Cathy Brotherhood send their primary enforcer to Denver, things start to heat-up. It doesn’t take long before bodies start to pile-up! Murphy soon realizes that old acquaintances have become new enemies. Murphy can only find the truth with the help of new friends, detective ‘Flower’ Pham, and her partner, Frank Anderson, of the Denver PD Asian Gang Squad.

CIA assassination teams, Congressional influence, and Russian blackmail collide in this attempt to hide one of the most secret and corrupt covert operations ever encountered.

Murphy soon discovers that “no good deed goes unpunished.” Murphy is forced to return to Vietnam to help a friend whose family has been placed in serious jeopardy by the Brotherhood leader Trinh. Murphy figured that there was more to the story, that his friend’s family had become pawns as a way to force Murphy’s return to Vietnam; the gold was a means to an end—nothing more. Murphy and Pham do return to Vietnam, and with the help of the Nungs, corrupt customs visa officials, create an exciting alternative ending to this danger-filled situation.