Secret Mission To Bangkok

Colonel North #20: “Secret Mission To Bangkok” by Van Wick Mason. The plane from Hong Kong to Bangkok, Thailand, carried a variety of personages. Colonel North, of Army G-2 was interested in one man however, Hans Bracht who was traveling incognito as Harry Barrows. Bracht was a rocket scientist on America’s Project Galaxy program. His wife, the beautiful Tao Muong was missing, and suspected of being kidnapped by the Reds to get the scientist in their hands. North was there to see they didn’t. Someone on the plane may be the Red handing the kidnapping: Miss Lita Naline, a Hollywood star of mysterios background; Mr. Anton Carss, Hollywood producer; Mr. John Wallen, another Hollywood actor; Mr. Lex Ross, a Hollywood actor who once had been a Red agent; Millionaire Chu Hoong, a big shot businessman in Bangkok; M. Georges Marchet, a Frenchman now of South Vietnam, and drug addict; Fraulein Mary Hollberg of West Berlin; and Mr. Boris Salenkov of Moscow. It was up to Colonel North to protect Bracht, and unmask the Red agent. The story was a bit slow, as we’re introduced to all the suspects, and though things are happening, Colonel North doesn’t do too much until the climax. But it’s a slam-bang ending, with a air fight between plans when the Red agent tries to flee to North Vietnam with Bracht. There are actually two mysteries in the story, the second interfering with the first, mudding the waters for the G-2 operative.

Secret Mission: North Korea

Secret Mission #8: “North Korea” by Don Smith. Phillip Sherman, an American computer expert is in Japan to sell computers, is arrested in a bar when his drinking partner kills a girl that stole his wallet. Unknown to Sherman, the guy was employed by the CIA to take a boat into North Korean waters with a bomb on board. Now his old CIA buddy, Ross McCullough tells him he’ll take care of his arrest, but Sherman must take the ship now that the other man is facing trial for murder.  The mission fails as soon as they near North Korea, as a stowaway girl was a spy working for the North, and they were expected. But she didn’t know about the bomb, and when it goes off, Sherman and one of his men, accompanied by the girl, escape. They don’t get far, and are captured again by Pak Kuk Chung. He has a harem of Blonde Scandinavian women in a fortress guarded by well-armed Koreans.  He served the Japanese in WWII as Colonel Ozaki, a Japanese born in Korea,; he was known as Po Sung Chul during the Korean War. He forces Sherman to contact the CIA, requesting amnesty for his war crimes in turn for their release. In a coded reply, Sherman knows Ozaki will not receive amnesty, and they plan an escape from the stronghold. This was another good story featuring the non-CIA agent, who seems to be caught up in the agency’s secret missions. A fun read.