Hostage One

the long version

In 1990, Col. Qadaffi plots to kidnap President Bush in delayed revenge for Reagan's attack on Libya. Ex-Marine flying ace and now Gulf Coast drug- smuggler Gee Hardy takes the job to suit his own purposes, and sets up a series of baffles to confuse the Feds and the Libyans. "Operation Dallas" involves, among others, a Syrian jet pilot, anti-Castro Cubans, a Japanese assassin, a 707, a jet fighter, a DC-3 and various hiding places in Los Angeles, San Francisco and the Everglades. Mossad agent David Melnik and FBI man Charlie Werther are teamed up to cut through the intrigue and avert what they think is an assassination attempt. But Hardy's devious moves keep Melnik and Werther, and readers, in the dark until the climactic moment of Air Force One's "destruction''.