R. E. Dinlocker
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Fact: In the 1970's the world's largest gold mining operation was begun on Irian Jaya.
Fact: In the 1970's the son of a rich entrepreneur was lost and presumed dead on Irian Jaya.
Fact: In the 1970's the Vatican Bank Scandal had the Holy See in debt for over US$800 million.
In the 1970's Angie Benedetto, a smart-mouthed Brooklyn girl who’s neighborhood customs chafe her as much as her plaid-flannel Catholic school uniform, desperately wants to fly. Angie dreams of flying airplanes, traveling to exotic places and finding a guy who doesn't think high-roll collars and a duck's ass hairstyle mark the height of sophistication.
After Angie’s mother allows her to fly for her ‘Uncle Anthony’ as a missionary pilot, Angie reports the murder of Asmat natives. She becomes a tool for her ‘Uncle’s’ plans to gain control of a gold mine and the quarry of mercenaries who protect the new owner’s possession of the same mine.
Charles Abbott Aldridge is a proper New Englander who wants to study primitive tribes, help his father, and be left alone to live his life. Charles, lost and presumed dead for half-a-dozen years, is the only man who can help Angie. Smart-mouthed Angie needs proper New Englander Charles to escape from those people looking to kill her and Charles needs Angie to help his father. Angie’s Uncle Anthony must deal with Angie’s mother alone.
In 1974, the author left New York City to sell his paintings on the West Coast of the United States. In 1976, with a Pong championship to his credit, he accepted a job in Iran where he met his wife.
After the Revolution, the author, his wife and the Shah all left Iran for Egypt. Two of them got jobs...the other one died.
The author has since lived in and written about Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Haiti and Shanghai. His novels are ‘The Missionary Position’, about Angela Benedetto’s adventures in Irian Jaya, ‘My Enemy, My Friend’, about a love affair during the Iranian Revolution ‘Shanghai’d’ about a Chinese/Israeli plot originating in 1930's Shanghai, ‘Maiden Shanghai’, about Shanghai’s Green Gang’s covert aid to China’s Xinjiang Seperatists and Something Came Up about a young man's search for self. He has written published articles for Channel East Magazine, West-East Magazine, Media Magazine, Asian Hotel and Catering Magazine, www.zingasia.com, www.chinaOnline.com and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel.
He now writes while out-dodging drivers who don’t signal and waiting on telephone trees when he wants to communicate.
CHAPTER 1
Jayawijaya Mountains, Irian Jaya 1977
"What the hell is that?" Angie grumbled as an updraft jolted her Cessna. She grabbed her binoculars from her knapsack and stripped the newspapers off her windscreen.
Fighting to control the plane and focus at the same time, she cursed as she shook her dark hair from her eyes. 'I gotta get this cut one of these days,' she lied to herself again. Angie knew how the men watched her and she knew what turned them on. It had been that way since high school. She'd liked it then, too. ‘But sometimes being a woman’s a real pain,' she sighed. 'Like now.' She swept her hair back again, cursed her vanity and concentrated on the stone peaks bursting from the forest floor. Cradling a creamy white glacier in the their rocky palm, the mountains held an ocean of ice and snow high above the tropical island's dense jungle. She scanned the surface, glowing white gold in the rising sun, as the shadow of her Cessna slid across its undulations.
Naked brown natives were running across the glacier in obvious fear. As Angie wheeled her plane around for another pass, she saw armed soldiers cresting the ridge of ice. Dressed in black fatigues, combat boots, black cowls and berets, the soldiers kneeled and took aim at the scrambling natives. They raised their rifles. Her airplane's engine drowned out the noise, but Angie saw the white flashes burst from their barrels. She swung her gaze back to the natives. Three men staggered and fell. Angie circled the scene again. The natives struggled to rise from the blotchy red snow. They lurched and staggered along the glacier till they finally fell and lay motionless. The advancing soldiers fired point blank into the twitching bodies.
Angie watched in horror. One soldier pointed up at her plane. Her eyes widened. The killers raised their rifles. She stared, mesmerized. They prepared to fire. Angie saw the muzzle flashes. She snapped out of her shock and hauled back on the yoke. The Cessna wheeled away. She banked southeast toward the mission at Dekai. She had to reach Father Frank. Tell him what she'd seen. Frank had lived with the Asmat for ten years now. He'd be royally pissed when he found out the government was hunting his people again.
