Carson Jeffers is a CEO of Man-Tech, Inc.
That is described as a privately owned multi-national company that "was openly regarded in business circles as the 'solution source' for import-export questions. Once a problem was identified, ManTech went to work quantifying a rational approach for turning a business problem into an economic opportunity." To say that Jeffers was the man in charge in an understatement for in addition to being the Chief Executive, he was also the Chairman of the Board and the sole shareholder. Since the company was so successful, that made Jeffers a very wealthy and influential man.
None of which helps Jeffers, a sandy-haired 48 years old man, handle the unpleasant situation he is dealing with when we first meet him - a growing distance between he and his teenage son, Kelly, caused because neither the son nor the father "understood how to broach the topic of the death of a caring mother or a loving wife", said lady having passed three years prior. The two are returning from a skiing vacation meant to help breach the gap but sadly failing to do much.
While Jeffers is given sole title credit on this entry, Nicole Lewis had come very close to sharing that position for she plays a major role in both the adventures. Lewis is a very popular and attractive flight attendant for Omega Airlines, recently divorced from a short union that could not survive her frequent absences caused by her vocation. She had known that saving her marriage meant giving up her job but she loved her work and "after twelve years she didn't want to start all over again, especially at age thirty-four."
Jeffers and Lewis are thrown together, literally, when a terrorist on the ground near the airport fired a hand-held rocket at the plane holding over 200 people including the Jeffers' pair and Lewis just as the plane left the runway. There would be only a couple dozen survivors from the horrendous crash that followed. Carson Jeffers and Nichole Lewis were two of those. Young Kelly would not be.
That act of horror would change the direction of both Jeffers and Lewis forever as both would become involved in the hunt for those responsible, a South American ultra-leftist fringe group out to destroy the capitalist governments of the world and who best to target but its northern hated neighbor, the United States.