Virga Joy (or the Adventures of El Colonel De Corona)

US Marine Captain Colin Campbell is developing the first black pepper plantation in the West Indies. His days are spent clearing jungle, planting and fighting vipers. His nights are spent playing jazz piano at a local bar and enjoying the company of the local ladies. He meets Dr. Alan Greene at a jazz festival in Limon. Greene, a Canadian PhD botanist, is marooned in Costa Rica, abandoned when his biotech employer curtailed his mission. The two men develop an abiding friendship while navigating life as ex-pats in Central America. Colin, a drug interdiction specialist (experience gained while stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Medellin) is recalled into the Marine Corps just as Alan faces deportation because of an altercation with a local El Capo strongman over a woman. Captain Campbell was selected by the Commanding General in Afghanistan to lead the U.S. effort to take on the resurgent Afghan opium problem. To address Alan’s immediate problem in Costa Rica, Colin convinces the service to take Alan along to Afghanistan. With the help of the US State Department, Alan is placed within the Karsai administration to oversee the corrupt and UN funded fiscal fiasco called the Alternative Crop Program (ACP). In Kabul, though both friends reside within the inner 'Ring of Steel' within the protected Green Zone, their missions place them on quite different trajectories. They begin a secret collaboration. Alan, through his local and ACP connections, develops intelligence sources that prove predictive in determining the areas of accumulation by the Thai and Chinese opium cartels. He shares this information with Colin. As Colin enjoys successive anti-opium victories, the cartels and the Taliban ally and rally. This unexpected alliance further ratchets up the chaos in war torn Kabul. This all comes as political support for the surge strategy erodes in Washington. Alan’s intelligence sources feel the intense pressure, flee the country, and seek asylum elsewhere. As Colin’s intelligence flow is about to end, he launches a major interdiction operation. Believing that Alan’s mission may be compromised, the U.S. State Department arranges for his quick removal from Kabul. Colin remains behind in Kabul, depleted after suffering from a local ailment called the Kabul crud. Just as the new Secretary of Defense arrives at Camp Eggers in Kabul to announce the newest exit strategy, Colin collapses on the tarmac.