Sins of the Son

By Joseph Y. Roberts

For the past two years, Jacob Vanderhoek has served in the Selous Scouts as a counter-insurgency operative in the ongoing bush war in Rhodesia. He has been injured many times and nearly killed twice, but has bounced back and fought on. But his resiliency faces it greatest challenge in 1978.

Jacob is embedded in the farming town of Betewo to infiltrate and locate a terrorist cell. Persuading people to trust him is central to the mission. But when his necessary betrayal of that trust has unintended consequences, Jacob is forced to re-examine his purpose in the war. Can he live with his choices?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Joseph Y. Roberts
• Release date: Jul 11, 2018
• ISBN: 9780463171615

Joseph Y. Roberts

Born in suburban Los Angeles, Joseph Y. Roberts describes himself as “a small town boy from a big city.” His interests are eclectic, like the subjects of his fiction, which reflect an ongoing fascination with the less-traveled places of the world and history. His goal is to bring the forgotten and ignored into the light with his tales, many being historic fiction with a literary spin. Joseph's favorite subjects include science fiction, military and ancient history, archeology, progressive rock, astronomy, and table-top role-playing games. His favorite bands are Hawkwind, U2, and Pink Floyd. Among his pursuits and occupations have been college radio DJ, actor, vacation resort sketch artist, and newspaper graphic artist. He still hopes to learn horseback riding, archery, and Kendo. Like a watermelon dropped from a great height, he's all over the map.

Book preview

Sins of the Son

by

Joseph Y. Roberts

Copyright © 2017 by Joseph Y. Roberts

All rights reserved.

This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the author except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

This story is a work of fiction. All characters, situations, and locations are products of the author's imagination and any resemblance to actual persons, living or deceased, is purely coincidental. Historic locations are used fictionally and are not meant to represent academic dissertation.

Smashwords Revised Edition: July 2018

Table of Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

About the Author

Deuteronomy 24:16 - The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: every man shall be put to death for his own sin.

Ezekiel 18:20 - The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall the father bear the iniquity of the son: the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him.

#

So the sins of the son are his alone to bear.

One

In early September of 1977, fresh from Rest and Recuperation meant to allow Jacob and Tannhauser to fully recover from injuries sustained during their last mission in Zambia, they received a pre-mission briefing from Lt. Simon Benford-Howe, the commanding officer of 57 Recon, a Section of the Selous Scouts. He sat with the four members of Echo Stick of 57 Recon in a briefing room at Inkomo Barracks in Salisbury, Rhodesia.

The five men sat around a heavy wood table, its surface covered with maps, checklists and other documents. Their Stick Leader, Sergeant Erik Tannhauser, sat beside the Lieutenant, Lance Corporal Jacob Vanderhoek on the opposite side of their CO, and medic L Cpl. Stephen City Boy Mombeshora, and machine gunner-heavy combat expert L Cpl. Tambo Ndese seated across the table.

Lt. Benford-Howe ran his finger along a large map. "This mission has been designated Operation Wormwood. Your area of pseudo-ops is the far western extents of Matabeleland North Province, near the Botswana border.

You will each infiltrate a separate community to ferret out any intelligence on ZIPRA cells operating as moles in the province. You are strictly to gather intel only. You are not to engage the enemy on your own. You will maintain radio silence. Radio contact is to occur only under the direst of circumstances, i.e. you are facing certain death without assistance. Any questions, gentlemen?

Jacob said, So we're to scatter to the four winds and play four-handed solitaire.

I couldn't have summed it up better myself, Vanderhoek. You are correct, said the Lieutenant.

Tannhauser said, What is our method of insertion?

"We're keeping it simple this time, overland by a single land rover until within foot travel distance for