"The Image of the Enemy" by Polina Dashkova, summary

Written in 1999, the novel is a detective story with elements of a spy thriller, where the intrigues of shadowy oligarchs and the operations of global intelligence agencies are closely intertwined with the private drama of a single mother. Behind-the-scenes manipulations surrounding the Middle East peace process and the oil market collide with the fates of ordinary people forced to fight for survival.

The oligarch’s plan and the kidnapping in the desert

In December 1997, influential Moscow financier Gennady Ilyich Podosinsky met with the influential Chechen leader Azamat Mirzoyev. Podosinsky intended to destabilize the Middle East in order to disrupt the peace process and profit from fluctuations in oil prices. To carry out his plan, he needed a neutral agent with a world-renowned reputation — international terrorist Karl Meinhoff. Through Nazi intermediaries, Karl received an order: to kidnap biochemist Nathan Brenner, who had created cutting-edge biological weapons, from an Israeli laboratory in Be’er Sheva.

In January 1998, Karl orchestrated a bombing of a police station in Be’er Sheva as a diversion, infiltrated a secret sanitary and epidemiological station, and captured Professor Brenner. Along with his accomplice, Inga Zimmer, and a group of Arab militants, the terrorist hid the elderly scientist in a Bedouin camp in the Negev Desert, awaiting the signal to transport him to Europe.

Meeting in Eilat and pursuit

At the same time, Moscow architect Alisa Vorotyntseva is vacationing in the resort town of Eilat with her ten-year-old son, Maxim. At a roadside café, Alisa accidentally spots a blond man with a familiar gaze and fearfully recognizes him as Karl Meinhoff, whom she had thought dead three years ago. Panicked, she secretly photographs him. Karl notices her surveillance, intercepts the film in the photo lab, and realizes that he is looking at his old lover from Moscow.

At the hotel, a bored guest, Dennis Sherwood, befriends Alisa and Maxim. Dennis is actually a career CIA operative who has been tracking Meinhoff for years. Sherwood notices Alisa’s panic and tries to get closer to her and discover her connection to the terrorist. Meanwhile, Israeli intelligence operatives, the Mossad, are monitoring the situation.

Moscow intrigues and the origins of the past

In Moscow, the head of security at the Shans concern, retired state security colonel Valery Kharitonov, is on orders from his superiors to gather information about Podosinsky’s plans. Through his agent at the shopping mall, Kharitonov learns of Mirzoyev’s meeting with Avangard Citrus, the leader of the dwarf neo-Nazi party "Russian Victory." It turns out that Citrus was the one who traveled to Switzerland as Meinhoff’s liaison.

Kharitonov orchestrates a covert interrogation of Citrus using barbiturates and hypnosis. Under the influence of the drugs, Citrus reveals details of the operation and mentions a certain Alisa from Moscow, whom Karl had loved many years earlier.

Kharitonov remembers this story well. In 1983, Karl, a graduate student at MGIMO and an agent for East German intelligence, the Stasi, met a twenty-year-old student, Alisa, at a youth camp in Sochi. Major Kharitonov recruited the girl through blackmail, threatening to imprison her father, surgeon Yuri Vorotyntsev. For four years, Alisa led a double life, until in 1986, Meinhoff proposed a sham marriage and an exile to Germany. Alisa flatly refused to abandon her ailing father, and a violent altercation ensued, after which Karl went into hiding. In August 1987, Alisa gave birth to Karl’s son, Maxim, but her father tragically died of a heart attack on the day of his daughter’s birth.

The death of an agent and his escape from Israel

In Israel, Alisa, her son, and Dennis drive to Jerusalem. That evening, in the Arab quarter of the Old City, they are attacked by a group of aggressive teenagers. Dennis fights off his companions with hand-to-hand combat, a gunshot rings out, and the attackers flee. At the hotel, a shocked Alisa confesses to Dennis that Meinhoff is alive and is Maxim’s biological father.

On a morning boat cruise, Dennis eats breakfast. An elderly Arab man on a nearby bench accidentally spills coins, distracting the tourists. After a while, Dennis dives underwater, where he suddenly suffers terrible convulsions and dies. Doctors diagnose acute heart failure, but Alice realizes the American was poisoned by a disguised terrorist.

Dennis’s handler from the US Embassy, William Barrett, comes to Alisa, demanding the truth about Meinhoff. Alisa urgently changes her tickets and leaves for Tel Aviv in a rented car with her son. On the highway, a highway patrolman stops her and attempts to detain her for allegedly speeding. At Ben Gurion Airport, she is interrogated by Mossad officer Arkady Kantor. A stroke of luck saves the situation: Maxim recalls the name of Professor Brenner’s son, Sergei, with whom Alisa grew up in the same Moscow communal apartment. Realizing they are not dealing with an agent, the Israelis allow mother and son to board their flight to Moscow.

Scandal in Switzerland and the rescue of Brenner

Meanwhile, in the Gaza port, Meinhoff’s group loads Professor Brenner onto the yacht Victoria and sails to Cyprus. There, Podosinsky comes on board. The oligarch changes his plan: instead of Russia, he will be taken to Switzerland to expose Israel’s biological weapons program to the press. Swiss intelligence services are to arrest Meinhoff for his assistance.

Feeling betrayed, Karl secretly leaves Cyprus and flies to Moscow, hoping to find Alice and his son. Inga Zimmer, who remained on the yacht, flies into a furious rage, jealous of her Russian rival. Along with Arab fighters, she transports Brenner to Switzerland in a minibus.

In the foothills of the Alps, the Stern special forces unit blockades a minibus. The Arabs are captured, but Inga shoots the group’s leader, takes a special forces soldier hostage, and threatens to detonate a metal container containing deadly blastomycosis strains stolen in Beersheba. The terrorist manages to escape into the mountains on skis.

The freed Professor Brener makes a repentant appearance on international television, exposing the dangerous research in Israel. Realizing that returning to his homeland is impossible, Nathan Efimovich requests political asylum in Russia. A representative of the Russian consulate hands the professor a diplomatic passport. Soon, at the Simplon Pass, special forces find an empty tin can with false labeling: Inga didn’t have a second container; she was only bluffing.

Interchange in Moscow

Returning to Moscow, Alisa discovers evidence of a covert search and eavesdropping equipment in her apartment. Trying to protect the ailing Maxim, she decides to hide at a friend’s dacha, but Kharitonov intercepts her in the garage. The colonel forces her to return home and await a call from Meinhoff. He knows of the boy’s relationship with the terrorist and wants to take Karl alive.

In the morning, Karl calls Alice. The woman hints that there’s an ambush in the house. Despite the warning, Meinhoff enters the apartment through the attic. Kharitonov takes aim at the ailing Maxim, ordering Karl to drop his weapon. When the boy loses consciousness from fear and fever, Meinhoff instantly grabs his spare pistol and kills the colonel outright.

Maxim comes to. Karl admits his paternity, and the boy declares that he will wait for his father, even if he goes to prison. A minute later, Podosinsky’s team silently enters the apartment. The oligarch takes Meinhoff, Kharitonov’s body is secretly removed, and the evidence of the shootout is carefully eliminated.

Festive finale

In May 1998, Nathan Brener is strolling along festive Tverskaya Street and meets Alisa and Maxim. A neo-Nazi march led by Avantgarde Citrus is taking place near Mayakovsky Square. Brener suddenly spots Inga Zimmer, her hair cut and dyed, in the crowd. The terrorist tracks Alisa down and grabs a pistol, but an unknown young man pushes her in the back, surreptitiously stabbing her with a poisoned needle. Inga falls dead, and the pistol disappears into the crowd.

That night, in a luxury limousine, Podosinsky and Mirzoyev celebrate the conclusion of their Middle Eastern scheme. The oligarch informs his ally of preparations for a new, daring operation in Germany to kidnap a dangerous crime boss. Karl Meinhoff has once again been appointed the executor: now Podosinsky has absolute leverage over the terrorist — his son, Maxim.