Ika Sohar and Maor Kohn join forces in this remarkable book to weave a thrilling tale of suspense and espionage featuring Yael Lavie, the beloved character from Kohn’s novels.
ISA agent Yael Lavie arrives in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan under a false identity with her daughter Keren, who suffers from a fatal heart condition, to undergo a biological pacemaker transplant at the only hospital in the world capable of treating the girl. Keren’s condition deteriorated due to complications from carrying an extremely rare blood type—Bombay blood. The hospital, founded through the donation of a Turkmen billionaire known as ‘The Angel,’ who lost his own son, serves primarily the war survivors and refugees of the Middle East who require unique, expensive, and life-saving treatments. It has recruited the world’s finest specialists; discretion is absolute and the results are far-reaching. But by its very nature, the hospital also attracts questionable figures—wealthy individuals with connections to centers of power—who exploit their relationships with the president and with The Angel, and their resources, to secure devoted and discreet treatment that flies beneath the radar of those who would do them harm. And so, on the very first day, Yael, bearing a false Arab name, finds herself standing face to face with one of the world’s largest terrorist organizations’ leaders. Yael secretly reports this to her colleagues at the ISA and finds herself tasked with collaborating with CIA agent Imani Hakim, stationed in Ashgabat, to devise a plan that would strike at the terrorist. The plot thickens when it emerges that the same hospital has also admitted the U.S. Secretary of Energy, who together with his Turkmen partner closed cross-border gas deals with various entities in the Middle East, but whose heart failed from poisoning. Yael and Imani identify that a host of interested parties, spies and agents, and an array of terror organizations are beginning to appear around the hospital, and before long the two women find themselves fighting for their lives, for the Secretary of Energy survival, and for Keren’s extraction from the place.
ASHGABAT, TURKMENISTAN, MARCH 1992
In the newly independent Turkmenistan, wealthy businessman Bairam Rasolov lives with his wife Suray and their 12-year-old daughter Anya. Years earlier, Bairam had fathered an illegitimate son, Rasit, with an Azeri servant named Elmira. The boy was sent away with money but no love, growing up bitter and radicalized in a rural mosque alongside his friend Amanazar Talvi.
One night, Rasit and his gang break into Bairam’s home. They murder Suray, critically wound the guard Rahim, rape young Anya, and set the house ablaze. Bairam manages to save Anya by jumping from a second-floor window, but both are severely traumatized. Rasit escapes and becomes a terrorist leader, while Anya is left unable to bear children and scarred for life.
MARCH 2017, WINNIPEG TO ASHGABAT
Twenty-five years later, ISA agent Yael Lavie boards a private medical plane with her critically ill 13-year-old daughter Keren. Six years earlier, Yael’s husband Gidi was killed in a terrorist attack that also wounded Keren. The bullet that killed Gidi pierced Keren’s heart, and she required a rare blood transfusion – Bombay blood type, which saved her life temporarily. Since then, Keren’s condition has deteriorated. Scar tissue on her heart muscle is killing her, and no hospital in North America can help.
Yael and her brother Shay, head of the ISA’s cyber division, have prepared an elaborate cover: they’ve assumed the identities of deceased Palestinians from Gaza – Laila and Nadin Sharif. They’re traveling to the Baha’i Hospital in Ashgabat, known as “The Angel’s Hospital,” the only facility in the world capable of treating Keren’s condition through revolutionary stem cell technology.
On the same flight are Mahmud Djerjawi and his son Khalil from Jericho, also with a severe heart condition. At the hospital, Yael discovers other patients in adjacent rooms: Ali Al Afri (age 11) with his mother Nadia and uncle Ashraf Lufti, and in another secure wing, U.S. Secretary of Energy Andrew Wilson Jr., who has been mysteriously poisoned.
THE HOSPITAL AND ITS FOUNDERS
The Baha’i Hospital was established by Nazar Musayev (brother of Turkmenistan’s president) and his wife Dr. Jihan Musayev after their own son died in 2012 despite receiving the world’s best medical care. The hospital’s head surgeon is Dr. Tariq Marwan, a brilliant Lebanese-American doctor. Unknown to most, Nazar and Tariq are secret lovers in a country where homosexuality is punishable by death.
PARALLEL STORYLINES CONVERGE
The Gas Deal: Anya Rasolova, Bairam’s daughter, has grown into a powerful businesswoman. She’s the confidante of Andrew Wilson Jr. and has orchestrated a massive gas pipeline deal connecting Turkmenistan to Europe and America, bypassing Russian control. The Russians, led by aging FSB agent Anatoli Wagner, have hired Rasit’s gang to sabotage the deal by kidnapping Bairam.
The Terrorist Hunt: CIA agent Imani Haqim discovers that Ali Al Afri is the son of Ayman Al Afri, head of one of the Middle East’s most dangerous terrorist organizations. His uncle, Ashraf Lufti, is guarding them. Imani recruits Yael to help plant a tracking device in Ali’s body during surgery to eventually eliminate the entire terrorist leadership.
The Medical Crisis: Keren’s condition worsens. She undergoes emergency surgery. During this time, Mahmud’s son Khalil dies on the operating table from complications.
THE CONSPIRACY UNFOLDS
Wagner kidnaps Bairam and demands Anya sabotage the gas deal and poison Wilson. Anya is given a syringe containing Novichok nerve agent. At a Baku nightclub celebrating the deal, Wilson collapses. Anya arranges his transfer to the Angel’s Hospital, claiming it’s to save his life, but her true motives remain ambiguous.
Wilson’s bodyguard Louis Sonora investigates and discovers Wagner’s involvement. He attempts to capture Wagner but is killed in the confrontation. Imani successfully captures Wagner and interrogates him. Meanwhile, Rasit is shot during Bairam’s kidnapping and is brought to the same hospital, critically wounded.
THE ELABORATE PLAN
Yael, Imani, and Dr. Marwan devise a plan to save Ali from his terrorist family while using him to eliminate the organization’s leadership: Ali will undergo surgery and be declared dead, Khalil’s body will be given Ali’s identity, with an explosive tracking device implanted in the corpse. The real Ali will take Khalil’s identity and fly to America with Mahmud, Nadia will return to Iraq with “Ali’s” body for burial, where the entire terrorist leadership will gather.
Nadia agrees to this heartbreaking plan – saving her son by never seeing him again. Yael performs the gruesome task of implanting the tracking device in Khalil’s corpse.
TRAGIC CONSEQUENCES
Anya gives Lufti a Novichok syringe (originally meant for her by Wagner) to kill Rasit. Instead, as Lufti prepares to leave with the body, he injects Dr. Marwan, killing him in revenge for Ali’s “death.” The compassionate doctor who helped save Ali dies a brutal death.
In her hospital room, Anya discovers Rasit is still alive. Consumed by rage over childhood trauma and her father’s murder (she doesn’t know Bairam is already dead), she breaks into his room and savagely murders him with scissors, stabbing him repeatedly. She’s arrested and sentenced to death. Imani finds Bairam’s body in the underground tunnels – he was killed by Wagner during an escape attempt. Wagner is captured, interrogated, and ultimately executed by Imani.
The plane carrying Wilson, Ali (as Khalil), and Mahmud takes off for America. In Iraq, at Ali’s funeral in Tal Afar, over 300 people gather, including Ayman Al Afri, Ashraf Lufti, and the entire terrorist organization leadership. When the coffin is lowered into the grave, the tracking device detonates. The massive explosion kills Al Afri, Lufti, and dozens of top terrorist commanders. The organization is destroyed in a single strike. Nadia, watching from a distance, allows herself a small smile of relief.
The plane carrying Wilson, Ali, and Mahmud vanishes over the Pacific Ocean. All rescue attempts fail. The CIA suspects hijacking or mechanical failure.
The truth is far more tragic: Nazar Musayev, the “Angel” who built the hospital to heal and save lives, planted the bomb on his own plane. Destroyed by Marwan’s murder and the corruption of his idealistic vision, he chose revenge. The man who dedicated his life to saving children killed them all – including the innocent Ali he had helped save, Mahmud who had lost everything, and Wilson who was merely a pawn in larger games.
EPILOGUE
Keren survives and recovers. She and Yael return to Israel, attempting to rebuild their lives and family. Anya awaits execution in Turkmenistan, abandoned by the Americans. Imani calls Yael, proposing a rescue mission.
The Baha’i Hospital, once a beacon of hope and healing, withers and declines. The Angel has fallen, and with him, the dream that goodness alone could overcome the world’s evil.
