And then, though it felt far from familiar, I quietly said a prayer. I thanked God for rescuing me, for giving me another chance. I asked him to take care of Yael, to bring her back to me safely. And then I wiped my eyes and closed them and thought about those fighter jets at our side, keeping us safe.
I reached over and inched up the shade. Just a crack. Just to be sure.
The fighter escort was still there.
And no sight had ever looked as good.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Joel C. Rosenberg is a New York Times bestselling author with more than three million copies sold among his nine novels (including The Last Jihad, Damascus Countdown, and The Auschwitz Escape), four nonfiction books (including Epicenter and Inside the Revolution), and a digital short (Israel at War). A front-page Sunday New York Times profile called him a “force in the capital.” He has also been profiled by the Washington Times and the Jerusalem Post and has been interviewed on ABC’s Nightline, CNN Headline News, FOX News Channel, The History Channel, MSNBC, The Rush Limbaugh Show, and The Sean Hannity Show.
You can follow him at www.joelrosenberg.com or on Twitter @joelcrosenberg.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Over the years, I’ve been incredibly fortunate to work with an amazing team for whom I could not be more grateful. They are consummate professionals, love what they do, and approach every detail with creativity and excellence.
Scott Miller, my literary agent, and his team at Trident Media Group are the best in the business.
Mark Taylor, Jeff Johnson, Ron Beers, and Karen Watson at Tyndale House Publishers are a great team, and it has been a true pleasure to work with them over the years. They truly get what I’m trying to do and are always helping me do it better. Their colleagues are absolutely outstanding: Jan Stob, Cheryl Kerwin, Todd Starowitz, Dean Renninger, the entire sales forces, and all the others that make the Tyndale engine hum. And I don’t know what I’d do without Jeremy Taylor, my editor extraordinaire.
June Meyers and Nancy Pierce on my November Communications, Inc. team always give 100 percent, and I’m so grateful for their hard work, attention to detail, kind and gentle spirits, and faithfulness in prayer.
I’m so deeply blessed by my family. They have all been so encouraging, patient, and helpful on this adventure from the beginning, and I would never want to do it without them.
Thanks so much to:
My wife, Lynn, with whom I just celebrated twenty-five amazing years of marriage and can’t wait for a million more!
Our four wonderful sons—Caleb, Jacob, Jonah, and Noah—who are true gifts from our Father in heaven to Lynn and me, and whom we cherish more than they will ever know.
My parents, Len and Mary Rosenberg, who have encouraged me as a writer since I was just eight years old and haven’t given up on me yet. They just celebrated their fiftieth wedding anniversary in the summer of 2015 and have set a great example for our whole family of a marriage rooted in Christ.
The Meyers, Rebeiz, Scoma, and Rosenberg families, who fill our lives with so much love and laughter.
Lastly, but most importantly, I want to say thank you to the fans of these books in the U.S., in Israel, and all over the world. I am so grateful for your e-mails, Facebook messages, tweets, and letters. I only wish I could write these books as fast as you all read them. Thank you so much. I just hope The First Hostage manages to live up to your incredibly high (and growing) expectations.
FROM NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR
JOEL C. ROSENBERG
“IF THERE WERE A FORBES 400 LIST OF GREAT CURRENT NOVELISTS, JOEL ROSENBERG WOULD BE AMONG THE TOP TEN. HIS NOVELS ARE UN-PUT-DOWNABLE.”
STEVE FORBES, EDITOR IN CHIEF, FORBES MAGAZINE
FICTION
J. B. COLLINS NOVELS
THE THIRD TARGET
THE FIRST HOSTAGE
THE TWELFTH IMAM COLLECTION
THE TWELFTH IMAM
THE TEHRAN INITIATIVE
DAMASCUS COUNTDOWN
THE LAST JIHAD COLLECTION
THE LAST JIHAD
THE LAST DAYS
THE EZEKIEL OPTION
THE COPPER SCROLL
DEAD HEAT
THE AUSCHWITZ ESCAPE
NONFICTION
ISRAEL AT WAR
IMPLOSION
THE INVESTED LIFE
INSIDE THE REVOLUTION
INSIDE THE REVIVAL
EPICENTER
The First Hostage: A J. B. Collins Novel Page 34
