The Alcestis Nemesis

Maria and Tamara, wife and daughter of José Carlos D’Amato, President of the United States of America and the first of Spanish descent, are kidnapped on their visit to Cape Town. Since it is policy of the United States of America not to negotiate with terrorists, can an American President be blackmailed?
Rian Schröder is ordered by the Minister of Police to find Maria and Tamara. He comes up against a pertinacious Secret Service Agent, Kane Koretz when he locks down the hotel. The situation is exacerbated by the arrival of retired FBI Special Agent Martinez Corzo, Maria’s first love, sent by President José with specific orders to save their Maria like ‘Heracles saved Alcestis’; Special Agent Carter Langfitt, FBI Legats at the US Embassy; and Bill Kiekbusch of Homeland Security who demands that he take charge.
Can a local cop face up to three powerful American federal agencies and gangsters?
Rian discovers that Maria disappeared out of her hotel suite and Tamara out of a shack in a black township after attending a prayer meeting, and realises he is dealing with two independant kidnappings that took place simultaneously. In order to accomplish this there had to have been a leak among the Secret Service agents in Maria’s party. The implication for Rian is that he now faces hostility on two fronts.
Who is behind the kidnappings? José is a billionaire who can afford to pay $10 million yet none of the federal agents are prepared to tell Rian what the demands are for Maria’s safe return. As a person who believes in stoking the fire, with the help of Martinez’s satellite phone he calls President D’Amato personally and is told that Maria will only be released if José resigns. Who will benefit most? The Vice President. So Rian calls Tiziana Gutierrez. She is furious that a hick from never-land should hint at her implication.
When Rian rescues Tamara from gangsters on the Cape Flats he discovers she was abducted in order to create a diversion for Maria to be furtively flown out of the country. Concern for Maria’s life induces Rian to keep mum about Tamara and conceals her in Cape Town’s 350-year old Castle.
Maria’s spoor evanesced as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean to the United States. Rian knows a visa will not be granted and to follow Maria’s spoor he must slip out of Cape Town and find a way into the United States without the federal agencies knowing. He is further restricted by the NSA that is using ‘sigint’, its electronic eavesdropping devices to listen in on every move and call he makes. For help Rian calls on Larisa Kovrizhkna, Ukrainian head of an international crime syndicate who is on the FBI Most Wanted List. She undertakes to arrange everything and with her executive jet flies him and Martinez incognito to America.
In Texas the three of them are ambushed with the intention to frame Rian for murder. In the shoot-out with a federal agent they do not come out of it unscathed. To their surprise they discover soldiers of the Mob were involved. On the run, and with federal agents and soldiers of the Mob on the look-out for them, but in the belief that Maria is being held in Washington D.C., they travel to Annapolis from where they have access to the nearby the capital.
Martinez meanwhile calls on two former protégés, FBI Special Agents Carlease Deeth and Adiles Esposito for support. Responding to Rian’s initiatives, through these two the full resources of the FBI are utilised to establish who is holding Maria and why.
Following up a lead, Rian and company fly to New York where Rian comes face-to-face with the Godfather of one of New York’s most powerful modern-day La Cosa Nostro families.
Since kidnapping is the jurisdiction of the FBI, the FBI director asserts that rescuing Maria is their responsibility. He orders that Rian and Larisa who are illegally in the country be arrested, that she be incarcerated and he deported forthwith. The Hostage Rescue Team is then ordered to move in and rescue the First Lady.