It was just before lunchtime on June 4, 1991, one of those insolent late spring days that loiter along the sandy banks of North Carolina's Cape Fear. The night before, a brief but violent rain had pushed through, cleansing the air, banishing, if only for a while, that all too sweet and cloying wildflower perfume that always seems to cling to the coast. The rain had left behind a few muddy puddles on the dirt road that led from Fort Fisher to Davis Beach, and now they, as noon approached, caught the sun and glinted like shards of glass.

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At first, no one paid much attention to the old man who hurried up the road that day. At that time of year, the locals were used to seeing strangers, fishermen, tourists, and like the old man many of them had a kind of air about them, a kind of military bearing. Of course, that was not surprising. Fort Fisher, after all, was only a short hop from Fort Bragg, home of the U.S. Army Special Forces, the celebrated Green Berets. The Cape Fear region, with its lush riverbanks and its secluded tidal coves, had always been a favorite fishing spot for the guys from Fort Bragg. To be sure the active duty guys didn't always have a lot of time for fishing. But the thing about Special Forces was that once you were in, it seemed, you were in for life, and even after the soldiers retired, they tended to set up housekeeping in and around the Fort Bragg area, so military retirees were a common sight along Cape Fear. And most of them had that kind of rigid bearing and coiled confidence that marks Special Forces men.

Few, though, had honed their military demeanor as thoroughly as George Marecek had. In 36 years in the Special Forces, Marecek had survived two wars, and in the process became one of the most highly decorated soldiers in Special Forces history. By dint of his brains, his courage, and his skills he worked his way up in a hard bitten, hard driving Green Berets, rising from a private to the level of colonel. He was, by every definition, a heroic figure, a man who could kill with his bare hands while, at the same time, he remained a man who was willing to deploy every art and skill he knew to protect his own men in combat. There had even been rumors that in the years immediately after his retirement, he had done a bit of work for the CIA, an agency that was impressed both by Marecek's stellar credentials, as well as fascinated by his deep roots and connections in his former homeland of Czechoslovakia.

In short, Marecek was a man who no one ever would expect to see crumble.

But on that day, according to witnesses, he did.