Aggressors - The new hero pulp

The Penetrator is Mark Hardin, an orphan who later discovered that he is part Cheyenne. Like many of his fellow Aggressors Hardin served in Vietnam, working deep penetration missions into enemy territory (hence the Penetrator name) and in intellegence.

After his return from Vietnam he joined Professor Willard Haskins and David Red Eagle in their war on crime. Red Eagle is a Cheyenne Medicine man and taught Hardin various Cheyenne fighting and spiritual techniques, such as the Cheyenne Martial Art of Orenda Keowa and the mental and spiritual powers of Sho-tu-ca.

The novel opens with Red Eagle instructing Hardin, about how hatred drains his spirit and clouds his mind. Hardin then goes off and investigates the activites of Nobert Briscoe, a wheeler-dealer who has fleeced thousands and now lives in Costa Rico, unable to be extradited.

But as The Penetrator discovers Norbert has a plan to return to the United States, he's going to take over the Panama Canal and raise the price of going through the Canal. The raised prices of goods will force the politicans to pardon Briscoe and Briscoe will the return control of the Canal to the American Government.

After discovering this plot (and surviving an assissination attempt) posing as Manny Czonka, a disgraced union organiser from Briscoe's old neighbourhood, Hardin heads to Panama to see the situation there.

Hardin discovers that there is a second plot to take over the Canal by the Cuban government, with 3000 troops in conjunction with the local communist rebels. Hardin inflitrates the Cuban camp and then leads Panamanian troops to the Cubans.

Always busy, Hardin then returns to Costa Rico and manages to get Norbert Briscoe to give up his plot to take over the Panama Canal and lead him with incriminating documents into the arms of agents from the Justice Department.

The Penetrator is a good read and well worth picking up

Lionel Derrick was actually a house name shared by Mark Kelly Roberts (odd books) and Chet Cunningham (even books).