Written in Blood by Diane Fanning

and Vietnam.

    New American Library published The Immortal Dragon, a 527-page paperback, under their Signet imprint in July 1983. Mike dedicated the book to his wife Patty and his two sons, 9-year-old Clayton and 7-year-old Todd.
    The novel traced the love and lust of three generations against the backdrop of the power struggle between France and Vietnam. Treachery abounded in the corrupt ruling court and the traders were bent on exploitation while priests labored to save the heathens’ souls.
    Sex played a major role—from the bliss of the marital bed to the rampant promiscuity of a sorceress, from the homosexual advances of powerful men to the humiliation and degradation of women. It was a thread that bound the book together. It was a challenging and monumental project for a first-time author. Michael handled it well, producing a cohesive and captivating tale.
    George and Liz Ratliff were thrilled by Michael’s book. A decorated war hero and a novelist? They thumbed through the pages looking for themselves—and they found characters who were loosely based on them.
    Michael Peterson was borrowing from reality when he wrote of the birth of a child in The Immortal Dragon. The infant appeared to be dead and did not respond to normal stimuli. The grandmother “ … held it by the feet and plunged it into a tub of cold water. She brought it out, then plunged it in again, and when she yanked it out the second time, the baby sucked in, filling its lungs. Then it screamed.”

    This tale was a re-enactment of the birth of Michael’s mother. The woman who’d plunged her into water was Michael’s Italian grandmother.
    Michael Peterson’s writing career was born, but it would be seven long years before his hands again held a new book bearing his name.

ELIZABETH McKEE RATLIFF
    â€œA Book of Verses underneath the Bough,
A Jug of Wine, a Loaf of Bread–and Thou
Beside me singing in the Wilderness—
Oh, Wilderness were Paradise enow!”
    â€”Edward FitzGerald
The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam

16
    Captain George Ratliff’s new squadron was nicknamed “the Berlin for Lunch Bunch” because of their frequent flights to Templehof Air Force Base in Berlin, where they would have lunch and fly back. It was assumed that they flew to other locations as well—but no one knew where.
    They departed from Frankfurt and returned seldom spending the night away. They were not hauling cargo, but no one outside of the squadron knew what they were doing. Their C-130s were segregated from the rest—kept in a locked and heavily guarded hangar.
    The men were assigned to a secret mission in October of 1983. Liz did not know where her husband was going. At first, she was comforted knowing that their friend, Bruce Berner, would be going, too. But when his wife Amybeth was rushed to the hospital with complications from her pregnancy, Bruce’s plans changed. He was excused from participation and stayed in Germany.
    According to rumor, George went to Panama, but no one outside of the squadron really knows—that information was still classified in 2004. It was oftrepeated that his group was part of Operation Urgent Fury, preparing to participate in the invasion of Grenada,
but that rumor was groundless. Regardless of where George was stationed on this mission, something went wrong.
    George lived in comfortable quarters with his roommate, Captain Kent Klein. The main living space had a kitchenette and a sitting area with a television. A moveable partition marked off the sleeping area with its two single beds and a bath.
    George and Kent went jogging early in the day. That night, Kent went to bed early, since he had a flight at dawn the next morning. George stayed up, popped open a beer and plopped down on the sofa. He started to write a letter to his friend, Randy Durham, who was now stationed at Scott Air Force Base and attending Airlift Operations School. Like a true Aggie, the salutation