The Levine Affair: Angels Flight

Horrifying news reports from Nigeria about Boko Haram’s slaughter of Christian villagers have stunned the world. A barbaric gang of thugs has kidnapped of hundreds of schoolgirls. They have slaughtered young boys and men and have burned countless worshippers alive in their churches. They’ve raped and forcibly married Christian women to Muslim men.

And now….

An American missionary has been kidnapped in by Boko Haram.

A young Nigerian mother is sentenced to death by stoning.

A Texas oilman has disappeared in Nigeria’s oil-rich delta.

No government in the world will touch these politically charged cases.

Acquisitions editor Karen Burke works for the small, L.A. based “faith and inspiration” imprint of a venerable New York publishing company. She arrives at work one Monday morning to find a book proposal on her desk. “See if this story has legs,” her boss writes. “If you have to do a site visit, do it. This could be huge!”

The book proposal was written by an American, Nate Gregory, recounting his shocking recollections of being held hostage by Muslim radicals in Nigeria. His story is gripping, and although Nate was simply doing construction work on a short-term missionary assignment, he turns out to be a surprisingly talented writer.

Karen is troubled, however, with his description of his Muslim captors, his seemingly “colonial” view of the Christian community in Africa, and his eloquent but relentless deprecation of “Sharia law,” the Islamic religious system under which he was held captive. He also makes incredible claims about brutal amputations as sentencing for crimes, crude violations of women’s rights, and the burning alive of Christians in their churches.

Talented or not, is Nate Gregory just another Islamophobic religious fanatic who hates Muslims?

Meanwhile, David Levine, an Israeli philanthropist based in London, has put an elite paramilitary team together. Levine is deeply concerned about the global threat of Islamic jihadists like Boko Haram, and their ferocious tactics in trying to impose Shari’a law around the world.

Since neither the US, NATO nor any other government wants to get involved in politically incorrect religious politics, Levine has formed an elite team of former Special Forces commandoes. He sees it as his own little army – fighting jihadis, one deadly attack at a time.

Unbeknownst to Nate Gregory – who’s been led astray by a Southern California preacher who claims to have miraculously saved him from his captors - Levine’s team, commanded by Joe Brac a retired Green Beret, was actually responsible for his release from captivity.

Now Levine has tasked Brac with another rescue – this time to liberate Jumoke Akabakar, the 18-year-old Nigerian girl who has been sentenced to death by stoning for adultery.

The story unfolds as Karen Burke, in order to confirm the facts in Nate’s book proposal, travels to Nigeria to meet up with him. The two of them get along better than they might have imagined. But what seems to be a simple fact-finding mission soon gets increasingly ugly.

While Karen and Nate are in Nigeria, they learn that an American oilman has been kidnapped and beheaded in the Niger River delta. At about the same time, the corrupt governor of the local Nigerian state is assassinated. Worst of all, an urgent warning reaches them that a mob of jihadis has targeted the church compound where they are staying. The Boko Haram terrorists are heavily armed and raging with hatred.

All at once Karen and Nate find themselves in the crosshairs of bloodthirsty radicals. They have unexpectedly been left on their own and aren’t at all sure that help is one the way. They have no choice but to run for their lives.

Joe Brac’s small team of Special Operators rescue has been working night and day to develop of plan to liberate Jumoke. That was their key mission, well conceived and meticulously planned.

But now, unexpectedly, they have two more victims in grave danger.

Will they find a way to rescue Nate and Karen, too?

Lela Gilbert is an award-winning writer who has authored or co-authored more than sixty books. A Christian who has resided in Israel since 2006, her most recently published non-fiction work is the critically acclaimed Saturday People, Sunday People: Israel through the Eyes of a Christian Sojourner (Encounter Books, 2012) which, although authored by a Christian, was listed as one of the 20 best non-fiction Jewish books of 2012 by J.G. Myers in Jewish Ideas Daily.

Gilbert also co-authored Persecuted: The Global Assault on Christians with Nina Shea and Paul Marshall (Thomas Nelson, 2013). Lela Gilbert is a contributor to Fox News, National Review Online, Weekly Standard Online, Lapidomedia (UK), Jerusalem Post, Huffington Post, Ricochet and other publications.

She is a Fellow at Hudson Institute, a public speaker and is frequently interviewed on television and radio. She is also active on Facebook and Twitter.

Jack Buckner was Deputy Commander, Combined Joint Special Operations Task Force - Afghanistan (CJSOTF-A): Deputy Commander of all Special Operations in theater. He served as the principal adviser to the Commander in all matters pertaining to the training, organizing, supplying, and deployment of all CJSOTF-A assets, to include over 1500 U.S. and Coalition Special Operation Forces Personnel, and in the absence of the Commander served on numerous occasions as the overall CJOSOTF-A Commander. He was deployed to many remote fire bases, under often times hostile conditions, to personally assess the combat and environmental conditions facing the combat soldiers on the ground. Served as the CJSOTF-A Program Manager and successfully managed and executed a SOF Command Operating Budget of over 5 million dollars.