Night of the Hawk

Night of the Hawk is a 1992 techno-thriller written by Dale Brown. It is the sequel to the events of the Flight of the Old Dog in which a crew member - Dr. David Luger - sacrifices himself to save the Old Dog crew. Plot The novel prologue retells part of the events of Flight of the Old Dog from the perspective of crew member David Luger, as he makes the decision to sacrifice himself in order to allow his crewmates to take off from a Soviet airbase and return home. He subsequently awakens in a Soviet military hospital, where Soviet KGB officers have begun plans to brainwash him and make use of his extensive technical knowledge. Five years later, a special operations mission to rescue a Lithuanian CIA agent/defector recovers a photo of Luger, now brainwashed into working for a Soviet aircraft design bureau under a false identity. USAF Col. Paul White, leader of the CIA extraction team, recognizes Luger, having formerly worked with both him and fellow Old Dog crew member Patrick McLanahan. After receiving no substantive response from the normal chain of command, White seeks out Lieutenant General Bradley Elliot, commander of the top-secret High-Technology Aerospace Weapons Center (HAWC) or Dreamland facility and former leader of the Old Dog mission. Elliot convinces his superiors to authorize a mission to rescue Luger, but is unconvinced that they will follow through, and so conspires with White to set up his own mission. Simultaneously, General Dominikas Palcikas, commander of the Lithuanian Self-Defense Forces, labors under the challenge of creating a post-Soviet identity for his forces while training them to defend against a possible invasion from neighboring Belarus and its power-hungry military commander, General Voschanka.