Saving Sophie

Saving Sophie is a novel featuring attorney Catherine Lockhart and private investigator Liam Taggart.

At Chicago's O'Hare Airport, attorney Jack Sommers executes a careful disappearance. He tricks a student into using his first-class boarding pass to Rio de Janeiro, then flies to Honolulu under the identity of Eugene Wilson, his deceased brother-in-law. At a rundown motel, he places a photograph of his daughter Sophie on the nightstand and waits for word on a plan to rescue her.

In downtown Chicago, Walter Jenkins, managing partner of the law firm Jenkins & Fairchild (J&F), celebrates closing Leland Industries' acquisition of Kelsen Manufacturing Company with his client, Victor Kelsen, who expects $96 million in proceeds. But neither man can locate his key operative: Jack, J&F's lead transactional attorney, or Dennis Harrington, Kelsen's chief financial officer. Junior partner Gil Roberts discovers that $88 million in escrow funds were wired to a bogus shell company and transferred to a bank in Panama. Harrington's body is later found with a bullet wound to his temple, confirming foul play.

In Hebron, an ancient city south of Jerusalem in the West Bank, six-year-old Sophie Sommers lives under the control of her maternal grandfather, Dr. Arif al-Zahani, a wealthy Palestinian physician. Sophie resists attending the local madrasa, or Islamic school, cannot speak Arabic, and clings to a stuffed bear named Sweetness. Al-Zahani kidnapped Sophie during a monthly weekend visit Jack had voluntarily granted the grandparents after winning a custody battle, spiriting her from a Chicago hotel to Hebron. He tells Sophie her father abandoned her and proves it by having her call Jack's disconnected phone and former law firm. Sophie is devastated but refuses to believe her father left willingly.

Al-Zahani is far more than a grieving grandfather. In a Hebron bakery's back room, he meets regularly with nine other men calling themselves the Sons of Canaan, a terrorist cell led by the elderly Fa'iz Talib. Al-Zahani has developed a biological weapon in a laboratory on his compound: a genetically modified, antibiotic-resistant bacterium injected into IV bags designed to mimic those of a legitimate medical supply company. Once administered to patients, the contaminated bags cause slow-onset hemorrhagic infection and organ failure. He calls the plan "Canaan's One-State Solution" and intends to deploy 2,000 poisoned IV bags across Jerusalem hospitals on Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israel's Independence Day.

In Chicago, Jenkins hires Liam Taggart to find the stolen money. Catherine Lockhart, Liam's fiancée, reluctantly agrees to represent J&F despite having been fired by Jenkins during a previous case. Liam investigates Jack's background and uncovers a tragic history: Jack met his wife Alina, a Palestinian musician, at the American embassy in Amman, Jordan, where she performed with a classical trio. They married against al-Zahani's wishes and settled in Chicago, but Alina contracted a mysterious infection during a visit to her parents in Hebron and died shortly after returning.

The case draws US intelligence. FBI agent Jeff Miller introduces Liam and Catherine to Harry Foster, a CIA liaison, and Kayla Cummings, who identifies herself as a State Department adviser monitoring al-Zahani's group. Kayla believes the embezzled money may fund terrorism and traces the al-Zahani family's violent extremism back ninety years. Foster proposes that Liam use his PI cover to infiltrate al-Zahani's network, and Liam agrees.

In Hawaii, Jack reconnects with Marcy Grant, a photographer and old friend of Alina's living on Oahu's North Shore. Over time Jack reveals everything: A wealthy Russian named Dmitri promised to ransom Sophie using Middle Eastern contacts in exchange for Jack's help diverting the escrow funds to Panama. But Dmitri has gone silent, and other conspirators are dead. A romantic bond develops between Jack and Marcy, and she volunteers as his intermediary.

Liam travels to Israel with Kayla. In Jerusalem's Old City, elderly shopkeeper Jamal Abu Hammad, who knew the al-Zahani family for decades, reports no evidence of any ransom arrangement but agrees to inquire. In Hebron, Kayla plants a listening device in the bakery while Liam creates a distraction posing as a clueless tourist. They observe Sophie being walked home from school under guard.

Through Jack's sister, Deborah Wilson, Liam arranges contact, and Marcy meets him in Santa Monica, confirming Dmitri never contacted al-Zahani. Liam deduces Jack is in Hawaii and tracks him to the North Shore. Before they can secure Jack's cooperation, police arrest him as a suspect in the murder of his motel clerk, killed by Dmitri's operatives. At the jail, a Russian inmate stabs Jack three times on Dmitri's orders. Jack survives but is critically injured, and a fake news story reports his death for protection.

Catherine deposes Kelsen and strategically drops the names of Dmitri, Kelsen's Russian associate Evgeniy, and Darius McCord, a college basketball player Kelsen has been paying to shave points. Kelsen panics. Realizing Dmitri plans to eliminate him as the last witness, Kelsen appears at Catherine's door seeking a deal: He reveals the money is in the Cayman Islands and provides a full confession in exchange for witness protection. Dmitri Borsinov is apprehended attempting to flee the country on his private jet.

Through Abu Hammad, Liam negotiates a ransom exchange at al-Zahani's compound. Kayla reveals her true identity: She is an agent of Shabak, Israel's internal security agency, not a State Department adviser. Her husband was killed in a terrorist shooting at a Hebron wedding described early in the novel, and her sister was the bride, later poisoned by al-Zahani with the same engineered bacteria that killed Alina, who had the "temerity to fall in love outside his ordained parameters" (384). Al-Zahani murdered his own daughter.

When the Sons of Canaan discover Kayla's listening device, they accelerate the attack. A delivery driver swaps approximately 2,000 contaminated IV bags into hospital inventory across Jerusalem. Catherine flies to Israel, and Liam proposes to her in the arrivals hall of Ben Gurion International Airport; she accepts.

The rescue proceeds. Liam, Kayla disguised as a nurse, and Jack in a wheelchair enter al-Zahani's compound with a briefcase of counterfeit euros. Hidden weapons in their modified van jam, leaving them unarmed. In al-Zahani's library, Sophie screams for her father but is held back. When al-Zahani orders his manservant Bashir to take the visitors outside to be killed, Kayla confronts him with the truth about Alina's murder. Al-Zahani's wife Lubannah is horrified. Bashir, who loved Alina, lowers his weapon and refuses to obey. Sophie breaks free and runs to Jack. Al-Zahani grabs a syringe of toxin and threatens Sophie, but Kayla seizes his wrist and Bashir stabs him. As al-Zahani falls, he drives the syringe into Kayla's neck. Soldiers from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) storm the compound and secure the laboratory.

Kayla and Liam pursue Fa'iz, who has fatally wounded himself; Kayla shoots him. Under pressure from the IDF, the baker Fakhir reveals the delivery routes, and emergency alerts reach Jerusalem's hospitals in time to pull most contaminated IV bags, though some patients have already been infected.

Kelsen's cooperation eliminates the embezzlement case: Because he participated in the theft, there is no victim, and the lawsuit against J&F is dropped. The money is recovered from the Cayman Islands, and the Israeli government credits Jack with helping foil the attack. The US Attorney declines to prosecute him. In a Tel Aviv hospital, the group gathers around Kayla, who is cautiously recovering thanks to a new antibiotic. Sophie, reunited with her father and her bear Sweetness, asks if her friend Jamila from Hebron can someday visit. Liam tells her it will happen when her generation is in charge. The novel closes with a panoramic view of Jerusalem at dawn: prayers at the Western Wall, mass at the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, the call to prayer from al-Aqsa Mosque, and shopkeepers opening their doors, the city safe from yesterday's threats and vigilant for today.