In the '90s when Australia moved into East Timor to help the U.N. reestablish order, all kinds of hell broke loose — something one man knew better than most. Before the Twin Towers fell the world was a different place. But in that place, specifically the jungles of Timor, there was another bad man. A very bad man. He wore a black Stetson cowboy hat, carried a G3 battle rifle, and when he prowled the jungles with his men, he wore soccer shoes. Shoes with a unique tread pattern that let everyone know he was there. In a world of grass huts and bows and arrows, he had become a god. Or a ghost. And it was rumored that he lived in a concrete house with 13 people buried in the front garden as a reminder to all about what would happen if you crossed him. In 1999, as an Australian Infantry visual tracker, I was playing a game of cat-and-mouse with this man and his crew. |