[1] After the success of his novel, The Wild Geese (1977) (originally titled The Thin White Line), Carney was asked by producer Euan Lloyd to write a follow-up.
Lloyd had already turned The Thin White Line into the hit movie The Wild Geese, and was constantly being asked to make a sequel.
Member Kathy Lakas suggests they organise the rescue of Rudolf Hess, then being held for nearly 40 years since the end of the Second World War.
Haddad accepts the offer in part and travels to West Berlin, in the heart of East Germany, to conduct a reconnaissance into the feasibility of the operation.
Kathy strongly objects to their plan and decides to fund the rescue with her brother personally by selling a valuable family heirloom.