The Godhead

THE GODHEAD begins in 1953, with the assignment of two unlikely heroes to investigate an accusation made by the French governors of Indo-China that an American agency had been shipping arms to the anti-French guerrillas. But the investigation transcends into a quest that includes a foundation for all religious thought and a basis for all human action. The erratic investigation expands across three continents and touches on two separate wars over a period of four years, unraveling a CIA-NSC debacle, which in many ways is reminiscent of the Iran-Contra situation, except on a hugely more pivotal scale. The plot outlines the opposition of the United States to the re-establishment of the French colonial empire, and the results lead to some rather wild questions about our early activities in that part of the world. G-2 does not really intend for these men to discover anything, but they pick the wrong people for this purpose. Sergeant Marion Ramirez Apollo, ex-street fighter and the product of a one-night romance between a married Scottish physics professor and a Mexican-American waitress, is assigned because of his familiarity with the Kumsong region of Korea, where the investigation begins. The lieutenant who accompanies him is the sergeant's opposite: Kim Chau Dao comes from the landlord class in Indo-China and goes along because his father, the Defense Minister under the emperor Bao Dai, is the official who required the investigation. The underlying quest arises from the teachings of Chau's sister, Dao My Linh, a student priest of a Taoist/Buddhist sect of Southeast Asia, the Cao. When assaults by the arms dealers and pressure from the Army begin, this philosophy, the love that develops between her and the Apollo, and the fatal sacrifice of Dao himself, all force Apollo toward a possibly fatal decision. He must stand by himself, even against those who command him, based on this new concept of purpose and sacrifice.