Vendetta

Jim Dunn

"Exactly on schedule, the entire, northeast side of the church erupted in fire, smoke, and a roar that rose and broke like crashing surf. The bomber grinned sharkishly, while analytically watching debris and shards of stained glass fly across the parking lot like mad hornets out of a vandalized nest. The airborne missiles scythed down two latecomers, who were hurrying toward the back entrance, tearing them apart like paper dolls. Their ear-splitting screams died away as quickly as they materialized. Then came the bodies and pieces of bodies. Some smashed against cars in the parking lot with a sickening, loud thud and others hit the pavement, spinning crazily, like morbid tops. The broken bodies of the children were hurled the farthest. The terrorist had never noticed that before, during previous attacks, and watched them with a benign curiosity ..." Vendetta is a graphic novel about terrorism and is not recommended for young readers. Although the frightening plot of this novel is fiction, its backdrop is factually and historically accurate, including the motivations and methodologies of terrorists, worldwide; as are the historical references to the horrors of World War II in the Pacific. A ruthless Japanese terrorist group - the Gashin-shotan (which in Japanese means to suffer great hardship, while taking revenge) - systematically stalks and attacks prominent Americans and their institutions. Particularly targeted are famous military commanders of the WW II Pacific campaign against the Japanese, still living, and their descendants. The terrorists strike targets having the greatest emotional impact on Americans. They avoid major cities, where police departments and anti-terrorist units are better prepared for their mayhem. Instead, they choose softer targets … like an elementary school in the geographical center of the United States … Lebanon, Kansas. The terrorist leader, Juzo Hyakutake, is far from an ordinary thug. He is a calculating, brilliant man with a photographic memory, an IQ of 183 and a Ph.D. in physical chemistry. Hyakutake seethes with hatred for Americans, as in his mind they murdered over three million of his Japanese countrymen during World War II, including atomic bomb attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki that killed 226,000 people; firebombing Tokyo, incinerating 105,000 civilians; murdering, to the last man, tens of thousands of Japanese soldiers defending remote, Pacific islands; imprisoning 120,000 Japanese in American concentration camps for years; and changing Japan's way of life, forever. The humiliation of Japan's 1945 surrender to America was more than Dr. Hyakutake could bear and he vowed that America would pay dearly for this travesty. The sadistic attacks of the Gashin-shotan raged through decades, unabated. They were involved in the assassinations of President Kennedy and his brother, installing faulty parts, leading to the destruction of the Space Shuttles Challenger and Columbia, training two of the Saudi pilots who flew planes into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on 9-11, securing the explosives used by the Tsarnaev brothers in the 2013, Boston Marathon bombing, and dozens of others. In consort with laboratories in China and Iran, they seek to manufacture more virulent strains of COVID-20, 21, and 22, Eboli, smallpox and anthrax, for release into the American population. As the Gashin-shotan plan to attack a reunion of WW II veterans one December 7th, attended by thousands of guests and dignitaries, they encounter Major Michael Wade, an Air Force Reservist, who just completed a military exercise, near the reunion site … 'Vendetta' is a prequel to its follow-on novel, 'Shadows of Lightning', to be released in 2021.

719 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 5, 2020