Don Brown
The Malacca Conspiracy
© 2010
This novel is dedicated to my three fabulous children:
Mary Claire Brown, born August 2, 1988,
at Mercy Hospital, San Diego, CA
Caroline Mitchell Brown, born March 6, 1992,
at Bethesda Naval Hospital, Bethesda, MD
Graham Hardison Brown, born January 8, 1996,
at Presbyterian Hospital, Matthews, NC
Special thanks to
US Army veteran Jack Miller of La Mesa, California and
Maydelé Jorge of Charlotte, North Carolina,
for their superb editorial assistance
He who controls the seas controls the world.
Sir Walter Raleigh
Preface
The Strait of Malacca is located between the long, Indonesian island of Sumatra and the west coast of the Malaysian Peninsula.
At its northwestern entrance, the shorelines of Indonesia and Thailand are separated by two hundred miles of open water.
Five hundred twenty miles to the southeast, near the city-state of Singapore, the strait narrows into the shape of a funnel. At its narrowest point, eight miles of water separate Indonesia and Malaysia. The strait ends at Singapore, where it flows into the Singapore Strait.
The Singapore Strait, 3.2 miles wide at its narrowest point, begins at Singapore, the busiest port city in the world. Stretching sixty-five miles to the northeast, it empties into the South China Sea, and from there, the Pacific.
The linked Straits of Malacca and Singapore form the shortest sea route between the Indian and Pacific Oceans.