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David Walker is a creative education consultant with Partnership for Learning based in Hattiesburg Mississippi where he worked as a public school teacher for twenty-eight years. He is a member of the South Mississippi Writing Project through the University of Southern Mississippi. He also holds a B.S. degree in Radio Television Film and a teaching license for English and Gifted Education.  He is currently a member SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators).  David has served as chief simulation designer for numerous educational programs and has co-authored a new science curriculum for the JBHM education group.  He enjoys vintage road racing with his ancient British sports car and hosting a monthly writers’coffeehouse. 

The Author's agent is WINcustomers - A marketing company with 200 clients including several authors.

  Traitors - Novel Short Summary

February 1945: The campaign is winding down for Hitler’s war machine, yet one more desperate weapon waits in his secret arsenal.  It is a weapon of such hideous and murderous potential that even among those hand picked to deliver it there are men who know such an act would never be forgiven. 

 Chris Clancey, an American O.S.S. agent recovering from torture and uncertain of the man he has become, is recruited to a mission to investigate the claims of a young German pilot who has made a mad escape to get the story out. 

 Plague Bombs.  A plague virus developed by Japanese scientists in Manchuria is being mated to German technology at a secret base where three special “New York” bombers—ME-264’s—are being prepared to take the disease on long strikes beyond the Reich.   “The Colonel” explains that the plague killed a third of Europe in the Middle Ages when there was almost no travel, but in a world of planes, trains, and shipping, the black death would have unimaginable reach.

 Clancey parachutes into the heart of Nazi Germany to connect with the small band of Germans held together in secret against the scrutiny of the S.S. and Gestapo.  From his first minutes on the ground, chaos erupts through a series of treacheries and betrayals as he desperately works to find the hidden base and make contact with the one bomber pilot determined not to fly the mission.  Through his rescue of the pilot’s young girlfriend (Reisa Konnings) on a raid on the Gestapo headquarters, he learns that the plague bombs are intended for Russian targets and not American cities.  When Clancey’s commander learns of this, Clancey is told to pull out.  Clancey must choose between his orders and Reisa’s faith.

THE GENESIS OF THE STORY AND VARIOUS ELEMENTS:

 As an educational simulation designer David indulged his passion for history through research for projects about famous battles.  This research first triggered his interest in the “New York Bomber” and the Japanese testing of biological warfare in Manchuria, which together formed the basis for the fictional weapon on which TRAITORS is centered. 

 That America kept Japanese scientists involved with such research in highly secret consulting positions after World War II is a strong indicator that one of the central themes of the story is relevant.

 While most details of the final ME264 cockpit and cabin allocations and dispositions are fictional, the actual potential of the plane is well within the anticipated range of bomb-load, speed, etc. In the on-going development phase of the actual program, many major changes were considered.  Some of these have been figured into the proposed planes featured in the story. The “New York Bomber” did indeed exist.

 O.S.S. devices such as Joan Eleanor are accurately portrayed in their use as well as the overlapping O.S.S. and British partnership in equipment, training, etc.  While dependence on the British was essential for O.S.S. operations, exclusive control of information and plans has always been a touchy issue in such unions.

 Himmler’s swelling power and authority towards the end of the war would indeed allow him to control an operation of this type and as Goring’s influence waned, so did Luftwaffe independence.  An official in the present day German government revealed that his father, a colonel in the Luftwaffe, had taken his own life when he came to realize the horror of what he had been a part of.  Hearing this on public radio intrigued me as to the degree to which common soldiers came to grasp the monstrous evil they had been party to and their individual responses to such guilt.  To view the Germans as intrinsically more prone to such activity is a bit of wishful thinking on the part of the “victors”. 

 The idea of “what if” always intrigues historians.  This story is of that line and poses the moral argument versus the practical expedient.  It could be argued that had the Russians been held in check long enough for the Allies to capture Germany, the profile of Europe and the cold war might have been quite different.  Honoring an ally of divergent political values begs the platitude: “Is the enemy of my enemy my friend?”  The concept behind Traitors is that anyone may be forced to choose between an ideal and loyalty.  What one is truly loyal to is the human question.  What value do we hold above all others?