Almost ninety-thousand men disappeared into thin air between World War Two and the Vietnam War. Most were surely lost to the exigencies of combat or vaporized by the engines of war. Just as surely others were not. What of these men?
Douglas Mallory was a military officer, an intelligence operative doing the Intelligence Community’s bidding. He was officially listed as being killed in an air accident in the Alps in 1969. His remains were buried, his file closed. Thirty years later, Michael Howell appears, claiming to be the long-deceased Mallory.
Howell narrates his remarkable story to Alistair Burton, his attorney and editor of this narrative.
Mallory’s death in the Alps was fabricated. He was betrayed, abducted and delivered to a mysterious international Committee. He was physically altered, restrained from freedom, and employed as an instrument of change.
Until now.
Mallory detaches from ‘the Committee’, and comes hunting for his betrayers.
How many more Mallory’s are there?
"Dead men are among us. Men killed and buried decades ago are at our elbows, living, breathing, watching, and sometimes secretly influencing events. Some wait quietly in shadows. They walk and function, not in the shadows, but in plain sight. These men are neither ghosts nor spirits. They are real, tangible beings – yet they are not. They are here but are unrecognizable to us, or to any who once knew them.
Their former lives and identities were wrenched from them. Their past and present were excised, their futures – foreclosed. Each of these men were separated from their personal, familiar world and placed into a completely alien reality – a reality manufactured specifically for them by others. Their former personas, amputated and howling in despair long ago, tumbled slowly into the black abyss of lost memories, until each disappeared and was replaced by a surrealism. Their future, if any, unknown, unpredictable, and completely out of their hands. These men were given a choice, only one. They could resurrect with their new personas, or die with their old."
***
"In the rare or extremely unlikely event one of these men might slip his bonds, it would be virtually impossible for him to reclaim his former identity, or revisit any portion of his former life. Safeguards have been established to prevent such servile rebellion. They are of such severity, and are so effective that the only alternative open to the shadow men – is death. That is why there has been no known incident of escape from this form of servitude; nor has there ever been as much as one public disclosure of any aspect of this phalanx of shadow men.
Until now.
One man recently took steps to free himself after thirty years of suffrage as a soldier in this army of living dead. The first and only one of them all. That man is my client. "
Excerpt
Some things are more important than 'self', and some things are worse than death. There are times ncircumstances when preserving one's own life is the least optimal alternative. When a person reaches a certain emotional plateau, threats upon his own life are meaningless . . .
Professional Reviews
Yahuti tantalizes, tempts and torments,
Yahuti tantalizes, tempts and torments, March 9, 2004
Reviewer: A reader from Jefferson, MD United States
From the initial prickling Dedication, "to Joe, who disappeared into the mists...." to the Prologue's ending "What of the missing? Where are they? ...there is no accountability for them...we have been here all along - among you - against you," I am at a standstill with the balance of life's responsibility until I turn the final page and discover what happened to Douglas Mallory, who is this 'committee', what events did they force upon Mallory that compels him to say, "Something's are more important than self; some are worse than death."?
As a post-Vietnam war raised child I know little of the real events that surrounded my upbringing. Yahuti not only brings tormenting possibility to light, but comforts suspicion that yes, "the little man who was not there" may have indeed wrecked havoc on our world.
The website, www.yahuti.com, provides terrific visual reinforcement for the book, and background information on the author Gary Brosch
