Acts of War

With recent headlines about feuding Kurdish groups in Iraq, this latest techno-thriller by Clancy and Pieczenik is not far off the mark. In the latest in this series about Paul Hood and his U.S. intelligence force, the Op-Center team must use all of their resources in an attempt to save colleagues who have been taken hostage in Turkey by Kurdish terrorists. Equally troubling, they were captured with the latest intelligence technology, a mobile spy vehicle called a Regional Op-Center. Because the ROC is so powerful, if Op-Center's military arm can't rescue it, it will have to be destroyed regardless of who may be killed along with it. As usual, Clancy and Pieczenik rely on a mixture of technology, military muscle, diplomacy and espionage to save hostages and keep peace in the Middle East. But what makes this, like all Clancy novels, so much fun are the details from the quasi-military technobabble to the settings to the gadgets --evidence of the authors' excellent grasp of both world politics and modern technology. Fans have yet another treat. (Mar.)