America's Crown Jewels

About the Book

This story begins in a veteran's hospital with three Vietnam veterans who are confined to a mental ward after being used as guinea pigs by doctors without credentials.

With the help of a beautiful FBI undercover agent and their old war time buddies, they demolish the mental ward of the hospital and escape, taking two doctors and a nurse as hostages and heading for a small town in Georgia.

After discovering a few million dollars in the doctor's Cadillac, the old veteran known as 'V.C.' has one priority - to steal the money and complete the construction of the Golden Pig nightclub on the outskirts of Fargo, Georgia.

The federal government also has a priority and it is to find old V.C. or the senior citizens home that he'd promised to build with a 2 million dollar government grant.

V.C. has to keep one step ahead of the law and two steps ahead of the doctor's terrorist friends who want the money the veterans had taken from the doctor's Cadillac.

The deadly toxins implanted in his body while in the mental ward begin to cause V.C. to lose consciousness and he is rushed to a top secret lab in Ohio, which is operated by the FBI.

The doctors in this top secret lab have no knowledge of how to treat old V.C.'s illness and after 20 minutes of deliberation they agree to use a special medical technique on V.C. that had only been used on animals.

After 3 weeks of treatment of in FBI secret laboratory V.C. makes a miraculous recovery and is told never to reveal to the outside world what had happened in the lab: the doctors had unwittingly regressed his body 30 years.

He now has a new face, new body and a new outlook on life, but with one minor flaw. He has no memory of the present, on the memory he had as a 30-year-old hard drinking, woman-crazy sailor.

He is offered a job with the CIA and his first assignment is in the Philippines, to rescue an Army Special Operations Major that terrorists were holding for a five million-dollar ransom.

Upon his arrival in the Philippines, he learns that the small town of Olangapo is crawling with secret agents. All they need is a leader.

During his search of brothels and watering holes, agent Odom meets a Chinese woman by the name of Suzie who owns and operates a jewelery store with her evil cousin Oliver.

Agent Odom falls in love with Suzie instantly and when her evil cousin Oliver flies to Hong Kong on a business trip, Agent Odom tells Suzie of his love for her. To his dismay he learns that this could never be; Suzie is in love with the Special Ops. Major that her evil cousin Oliver is holding in a warehouse behind the jewelery store.

Suzie cries on agent Odom's shoulder and tells him about the Major having a wife back in the United States that he didn't love and asked his advice on the situation.

Secret Agent Odom has been trained by the military and is a specialist in the field of adultery and home-wrecking and knew instantly how to solve a problem of this nature.

He would agree to kill the Special Operations Major's wife when he returned to the United States if Suzie would release the Major to him before her evil cousin Oliver returned from Hong Kong. Suzie agreed and agent Odom had her and the Special Operations Major flown to the United States. When Secret Agent Odom returns to the United States to honor the agreement he'd made with Suzie, he finds a complex situation awaiting him.

About the Author

Virgil was born in 1936 in MS and lived on sharecropper farms until the age of 14, when his parents managed to buy their own farm. At the age of 18 he left the farm and travelled to Houston, Texas and enlisted in the Navy. Virgil knew he'd found a new home and after four years he re-enlisted and attended Naval Engineering school at Great Lakes, IL.

After completion of the engineering school he was assigned duty in the Philippines for 3 years. After a 'quick' one-year tour of Kodiak, Alaska, he was transferred and had duty on several navy destroyers and guided missile destroyers. Virgil did a tour of duty in Vietnam with the River Patrol Force and upon his return to the States he attended Navy Mine Warfare School. Then it was back to Vietnam on an Ocean Going Minesweeper (MSO). After approximately 2 years abour this ship he was transferred to shore duty in Mayport Florida and retired as Chief Engineman.

Virgil finally unpacked his 'sea-bag' and went to Fargo, GA, settling down and doing carpetry work.

Virgil's hobbies include woodwork and reading Tom Clancy novels.