The Copernicus Option

The time is July 2068. U.S. President LaTonya Kendrick is the first chief of state to travel into space, to a conference at an international lunar base called Copernicus City. En route to a landing, Space Force One collides with another spacecraft on a routine supply run to the joint Chinese/Russian base on the Far Side. The lander crashes and all are killed but the President’s body is never found.
The collision was no accident, as U.S. authorities learn a day later, when a terrorist group called SQ claims responsibility, adding that they have President Kendrick in custody.
Now a frantic manhunt and rescue effort on two worlds begins, headed by Secret Service agent Frank Craft. There is a deadline and ransom demands. SQ is outwardly an Arab organization headed by Muhammad Hamoud al-Rashid, a self-styled Islamic ‘messiah’ or Mahdi. But the terrorists are a front, behind which is a concerted effort by the Russians to distract America from their own ambitious agenda, on the Earth and the Moon. Beset by seizures, al-Rashid sought treatment years ago from the Russians. An AI device called a neurolific was implanted in his brain, which, in addition to controlling the seizures, also allows the Russians to send signals which al-Rashid interprets as visions and the voice of God, but which allow his handlers to communicate ‘suggestions’ and ‘ideas’ to the Mahdi.
Racing against a deadline and Russian efforts to conceal their own involvement, Craft’s investigation and rescue efforts lead him and the rescue task force from the Moon to Athens, Greece, from Washington to Moscow, from Saudi Arabia to Madagascar and the Seychelles Islands.
It’s a disgruntled terrorist at the heart of SQ who unwittingly gives the Americans a clue as to the President’s whereabouts. The final efforts to locate and rescue the President before the deadline expires, sends Craft into low earth orbit in a heart-pounding chase against time and the laws of physics. The Mahdi has promised a spectacular in the skies over Mecca as proof of his ‘coming.’
Frank Craft’s job is to prevent that from happening.