Love under Fire
by
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Prologue
The sounds of wrenching metal and shattering glass mingled with panic-filled screams and shouts. The Black woman fell to the floor, not from the force of the explosion outside but from a fear that buckled her knees. After what seemed an eternity, an announcement over the embassy’s public address system brought Sheila Dunbar cautiously to her feet. Despite instructions to stay away from windows in case of another blast, she moved gingerly toward the one adjacent to her desk. Very slowly, she pushed the drape back a fraction of an inch and peered out.
Down in the streets, there was pandemonium. The top of a Volkswagen had been blown off, and the car was engulfed in smoke and flame. The blast had hurled its roof over the high iron fence and onto the embassy’s rear parking lot. Curious office workers were leaning out of the building’s windows across the avenue. An excited crowd was converging on a young embassy guard squatting beside a prone figure.
Sheila thought, My God! Those weren’t empty threats. They’ve done it. They’ve really done it! She suddenly felt clammy all over as she thought of Kevin, her five-year-old son. A frantic pounding began in her right temple and spread to her chest as she fumbled for the telephone. The staff of the off-site kindergarten assured her that Kevin was fine. With an enormous sigh of relief, Sheila dropped onto a chair.
Her boss, Patrick Carmichael, walked into the office, his face pale and grim. To answer the question in Sheila’s eyes, he said, “A woman’s been hit in the neck, and some guy’s leg is gone. Looks like they mean business.”
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About the Book
This book is based on true events which occurred during the mid- to late 1980s in Colombia when terrorist elements were very active in their campaigns to derail U.S. and Colombian Government efforts to destroy the coca crop and, thus, stem drug exports from Colombia to points northward. Readers will get an inside look at how the U.S. Embassy functioned as well as profiles of certain key characters. The central theme is that true love comes under fire but ultimately triumphs although there is no “happily ever after” ending. The basic idea is that one’s trust must be placed in God, not in circumstances which can and do change from time to time.
About the Author
The author is a retired Foreign Service Corps Office Management Specialist who served for three years in Colombia during a critical period of violence by drug cartels and guerrilla groups, not only against U.S. diplomats and their families, but also U.S. corporations and missionary groups. Born in Boston and raised in East Texas and Houston, she served also in five other foreign posts. Ms. Odom holds B.A. and M.A. degrees in Spanish. She enjoys Bible studies, community service, piano (self-taught), singing gospel and praise songs, and Black, Native American, and Holocaust histories. She lives in a small mountain community east of Albuquerque, New Mexico.