Secret Mission Tibet

Secret Mission #6: Tibet. America and Russia are both losing their orbiting satellites. Somewhere in Tibet the Chinese are using a laser weapon to burn out the instruments on board, leaving the satellites out of control. However, they haven’t pinpointed the exact location of the weapon, so an old friend, Richard Newton, a NASA scientist asks Phil Sherman to assist the CIA in locating and destroying the weapon. Sherman isn’t a CIA operative, though he does jobs for the CIA occasionally. He owns an import/export business in Paris. Of course, he agrees, and is flown in by George Hardy, a pilot with the CIA.  Sherman finds the weapon, but Chinese soldiers in an abandoned monastery protect it. Sherman contacts the CIA by radio, giving the location, but Hardy and his plane is shot out of the air and Sherman captured. Dr. Liu Chung-lin is in charge of the monastery, and working for him is a German, Otto Von Kruger and his daughter Suwary (Eurasian), and an American scientist named Bill Rogers. It doesn’t take long for him to plan an escape, taking everyone with him, and destroying the weapon in the process. But now they must escape across Tibet to Kashmir with the Chinese on their trail. This was another good entry in the series, but strangely ends as they reach Kashmir, with some of the story untold.  A fun read, though (spoiler alert) everyone but Sherman is killed by the end.

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.

China Coaster

China Coaster by Don Smith. Captain Michael O’Connor has lived most of his life on the China coast, working on ships in some capacity, until becoming the captain of a ship owned by a Shanghai company. When the communists move into China, foreigners lose their standings unless they become Red. Mike finds himself without a ship, and out of a job. Then it gets complicated. A Russian agent believes he is an American spy and tries to kidnap him and take him to Russia, but he escapes. A White Russian girl hides him, and he cares a lot for her, but she is murdered by the Russian agent, and his only chance now is with the help of a Chinese gangster. Obtaining passage on a ship, he finds out too late that it’s rigged for a pirate take over. His suitcase contains weapons he wasn’t aware of, and when the pirates take control of the ship, he is forced to steer it to their coordinates. With other American and British on board, he must obey or the passengers could be killed. The pirates loot the boat of Red China gold, and take it ashore at Bias Bay, where it is then secreted away in care of the Chinese gangster. Now the book takes on the plot of “Lost Horizons”, as he is taken to a mountain valley ruled over by the pirates, and headed by Pao Chu, a 25-year-old beautiful American girl. She had been shipwrecked as a child, and a Mandarin (the Chinese gangster) had raised her as his daughter. They fall in love and he wants to take her to San Francisco, and leave China waters, but first he wants to kill the Russian agent who had murdered the girl in Shanghai. He goes after the Russian, and while away, the Chinese gangster dies, and chaos reigns in Chingfoo, the Shangri-la-like village. Returning for his love, Pao Chu, he finds one of the pirates in charge, holding her a prisoner. Now they must escape this paradise and make their way to Hong Kong and America, if they don’t get killed first. This was an action-packed novel, and predates the author’s more popular Secret Mission spy series. The story is copyright 1952, but my copy is dated 1953. A good plot, and a fun read.