Permanent Damage

Scott Sterling, 45, is an American detective, ex-CIA Beijing and Bangkok, and now lives over one of the bars in Bangkok frequented by American vets of various wars.

An American woman shows up at the bar; a woman who believes her father, a special forces team leader on highly classified missions into Laos, was murdered by a Thai woman in the early 70’s, and she wishes to clear his name and bring the Thai woman to justice. Scott reluctantly takes on the case and agrees to search for the woman not knowing he is being set up.

He tracks down and interviews surviving members of her father's special forces team. The special forces team members have their own reasons for stopping Scott's investigation, and once he ignores warnings from friends and strangers as well as ex-CIA colleagues, he understands the very real danger he is in. And the more he digs the more he realizes nothing is what it seems; then or now.

The special forces team members are themselves being hunted by the Vietnamese sons of the man they betrayed during the war. The Vietnamese sons are also hunting for the same mysterious Thai woman who, along with the American woman's father and his team members, betrayed their father during the Vietnam War; yet she seems to have vanished. When Scott gets too close to the truth, he suddenly finds himself in the middle of a decades-old vendetta, unable to trust anyone, and in the sights of a highly trained hunter-killer.

While working on this case, Scott receives a mysterious note from a Chinese woman he had fallen in love with in Beijing; until he learned that she worked for the Chinese government’s version of the CIA. His mistake caused him a great deal of anguish emotionally and much of what he had achieved professionally. Under very different and extremely dangerous circumstances, they will meet again.