Sean Bunzick

Zero Trust in Zamboanga: a John Harwich Adventure Sean Bunzick

It's a wild-and-crazy idea. One that is dangerous and almost makes no sense. John Harwich, a Special Forces Vietnam vet living as an expat in Chiang Mai, Thailand, is now sailing the Chinese junk given to him in Singapore from that city-state to Zamboanga, the Muslim city that is the capital of Mindanao, an island in the Philippines. Harwich has been asked to use the junk to transport "Chinese antiquities" for a Hong Kong man, an individual he's only dealt with by speaking to on a phone via the woman that gave him the junk but Harwich gets the implication that the man is a Triad. Worse yet, despite being a Cape Codder himself, Harwich has no significant nautical background, nor do his friends from Chiang Mai and Bangkok who are sailing with him to a deadly destination. Still, it's just the sort of insane voyage that appeals to the adventurer in him so after agreeing to the price the man in Hong Kong has offered for his services, Harwich leaves Singapore. Along the way, Harwich and his friends must deal with a Jamaican arms dealer, foul weather that damages the junk, a questionable Irishman on Borneo, a Korean pirate and a group of Filipino Muslim terrorists in the Sulu Sea. Once in Zamboanga, the expats have to continue battle with the Muslims but also with a Filipino police officer who hates Westerners and a Japanese Yakuza big boss who wants a treasure his father left in the Philippines at the end of WW II. It will be a long journey that could result in Harwich and his friends only leaving Zamboanga in caskets.