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CALL TO DUTY by Richard Herman

CALL TO DUTY

by Richard Herman

Pub Date: Jan. 15th, 1993
ISBN: 0-688-11438-5
Publisher: Morrow/HarperCollins

Herman, whose Firebreak (1991) showed with considerable accuracy what a Middle Eastern war could be like, pits Southeast Asian pirates (they really do exist) against the best of America's Delta Force. There's a lot going on here. Sailing through the Indian Ocean with her rock-rich chums, Heather Courtland—the wanton, drug-gulping daughter of a slimeball US senator—is captured by pirates who turn her over to the most powerful druglord in Asia, who makes her his number-one mistress while using her as a shield for his evil operations. American President Zack Pontowski, whose WW II heroics and romances are interwoven with the present-day storyline, reluctantly sends his most capable Delta Force Special Operations team to Thailand to retrieve the girl and her largely worthless companions before his senatorial archrival, Heather's father, can make political hay of the situation. Senator Courtland makes Joe McCarthy look sweet. He's perfectly willing, maybe even eager, to sacrifice his embarrassing daughter to the pirates if it will enhance his presidential chances, and now does everything he can to queer the rescue operation and make the President look inept. Fortunately for Heather—who had been rather enjoying her imprisonment until she was made a party favor—the Delta Force team and their British commando consultant are as clever as they come, and their daring plan to rescue the spoiled darlings may prove successful, even though the bad guys greatly outnumber them. Violently entertaining look at the kind of mess we may see more and more of as the New World order reveals itself. World War II looks cozy by comparison.