Pray Hard

Synopsis Pray Hard

War hero Kim Pham and his sister Linh join the mass evacuation of Saigon City as the North Vietnamese Army consolidates its victory over the South. During their escape their bodyguard is shot by collaborators, though they are saved by the intervention of a mysterious American, Rusty McCandles
He accompanies them on a dangerous trek to the coast, during which time they are aided by a unit of the Girl’s Voluntary Defense Corps. They reach a coastal fishing village to find it swamped by refugees, and Rusty procures a boat. He also decides to take on board a Vietnamese woman and her two half-American children who, because of the North’s death edict concerning mixed marriages, need to escape.
After preparations, he leads his group on a perilous journey across the South China Sea.
They find themselves encountering storms, death boats, and then Indonesian pirates. Now Rusty has to again spring into action to save Linh and their new friend from terrible abuse. He single-handedly eliminates the pirates and then, after all they have survived together, Rusty and Linh finally submit to their strong, mutual attraction and their romance ignites.
Rusty seems to have powerful contacts and they rendezvous with ships of the Seventh Fleet, hove-to in international waters to take on escapees from Saigon, such as the mother and her two children. They replenish supplies before sailing on to the Philippines.
On Luzon Island they travel the infamous “Death Highway” to reach Clark AFB. It is here that Kim and Linh learn that Rusty is the maverick son of a self made billionaire and that a private plane is waiting to take them on to their joint destination of California.
Kim wrongly believes that only he and two others of his family know the whereabouts of twelve, individually unique, ancient Asian coins being held in a LA safety deposit box, but so do the NSA, members of the Chinese Heritage Committee and the Vietnamese “Snakes”, and, once in LA, Rusty’s father suffers trying to prevent Linh’s kidnap as ransom for the treasure.
Now Rusty has to come clean. He had known of the treasure all along and had deliberately attached himself to Kim and Linh. He’d been working undercover in Vietnam to infiltrate the Snakes. He calls in his NSA handlers to help rescue Linh and retrieve the treasure which the American government want as a bartering tool for the release of a number of their P.O.Ws in Vietnam.
The kidnap exchange complete, Rusty sees a flaw in the kidnappers’ plan. The bomb vest strapped to Linh is remotely controlled, and they are standing on Santa Monica pier. In a whirlwind, he snatches up Linh and takes them both crashing over the pier’s guard rails and kicks out for the seabed. Linh loses consciousness as Rusty manages to cut free the vest, then swim them both back to the surface.
Having retrieved the treasure, Rusty finally emerges from a stream of fire-engines, ambulances and SWAT with Linh in his arms. Then there comes ‘the twist’.
Six months later.
With the end of the Asian war, the Geneva Convention affords the release of all P.O.Ws and so the treasure is sold at auction for sixteen million dollars, the fortune going to a foundation for Vietnamese war orphans.
Linh and Rusty are building their own mansion on his father’s estate when Linh reveals she is carrying Rusty’s child.
End
Please note: in 1953 a single Hongwu coin was sold to Shanghai University for the equivalent of one million dollars.