A related book by the authors, Is New York Burning?, examines the same scenario, but set in 2005, with George W. Bush and Osama bin Laden replacing the depicted President and Muammar Gaddafi.

A disguised Laila delivers a written threat from Gaddafi to the White House, with instructions on how to retrieve technical designs for the bomb from an airport locker.

The President of the United States (unnamed, but heavily based on Jimmy Carter) and his advisors monitor the situation and learn from the Department of Energy that it is a three megaton hydrogen bomb.

They learn New York City's civil defense capabilities are extremely lacking, that a citywide evacuation has been denied by Gaddafi and would not work anyway, and that up to eight million people would be killed by the explosion and ensuing chaos, with the rest of New England receiving the fallout.

As the Israeli crisis intensifies, the President briefs the U.S. military's Rapid Deployment Force with options to invade the West Bank, but his advisors manage to reassure him that Israel is a crucial ally.

As she speeds up to evade them, her vehicle loses control on black ice and crashes, and she burns to death in the wreckage, wrapping up the final loose end of the terrorist plot.

[3] According to Korda, Charles Bluhdorn, founder of Gulf + Western which at the time was the parent company over Simon & Schuster and Paramount, became obsessed with the possibilities of the realities in the book.

The Israeli crisis is concluded with the President inviting both Gaddafi and Begin to Camp David in secret, to seek an effective solution to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

The final scene of the French version shows Rocchia being quietly informed of this, and he remarks on the absurdity of risking the lives of millions of people for this to happen.