“Well, believe what you like, but I don’t know where they are.”
“Are they still in Iran?”
“I don’t know.”
“Have they been moved out of the country?”
“How many ways must I say it?” Nouri asked. “I… don’t… know.”
“Then how are they going to be used?”
“The Mahdi is going to fire them both at the Zionists.”
“Both of them?”
“Yes.”
“At Israel.”
“That’s what I said.”
“Not at the United States?”
“No.”
“Why not?”
“Because the Mahdi’s focus is on the Zionists.”
“The Little Satan?”
“If you say so,” Nouri said.
“It’s not my line; it’s the Mahdi’s,” David said.
Nouri remained silent.
“So you’re going to fire both of these warheads at Israel.”
“Yes.”
“For what purpose?”
“Why do you think? To wipe the Jews off the map.”
“So Darazi was serious when he said that?” David asked.
“Of course he was serious. Why would you think otherwise?”
“Because Darazi also said he was enriching uranium for peaceful purposes.”
“He lied,” Nouri said matter-of-factly and without any hint of irony or guilt.
“So you’re an admitted liar,” David said, taking the tone of a Manhattan prosecutor more than an interrogator.
“Not me,” Nouri replied. “But Darazi, yes.”
“And the Mahdi.”
“Never.”
“The Mahdi never lied?” David asked.
“No, Imam al-Mahdi never lied,” Nouri said, indignant. “He came to establish the Caliphate. He came to establish peace in the Middle East and around the world. He warned everyone — he explicitly warned your president and the Zionists, for that matter — that if the Caliphate were attacked, this would trigger the War of Annihilation. But none of you would listen. We didn’t attack first in this war. The Zionists did.”
“But you were about to launch a strike on the Israelis,” David argued.
“Says who?” Nouri asked. “Your president asked for a meeting with the Mahdi to discuss peace terms. The Mahdi agreed. How is that preparing for a first strike?”
“You’re actually going to sit here and deny that the Mahdi was preparing to launch a first strike against Israel?”
“Yes.”
“But you just admitted that Darazi was lying about the reason for enriching uranium,” David noted.
“Yes.”
“Well?”
“Well, what?”
“You just admitted that Iran was building nuclear weapons when Darazi said they weren’t, and the reason was to wipe Israel off the map.”
“No,” said Nouri, “I said Iran built nuclear weapons. I didn’t say they were intended for offensive purposes.”
“Of course you did.”
“No, we built them for defensive purposes — just in case a scenario like this developed,” Nouri insisted. “If the Jews hadn’t attacked us, we would not have attacked the Jews. But now it is clear; the Zionists are the aggressors. And in attacking us, they have triggered a fully justified, fully legal jihad, and this was a very foolish mistake. For now we are waging a holy war with holy weapons, and that cancerous tumor known as Israel will be wiped off the map, just as our Iranian president prophesied it would be.”
“You don’t really believe all that crap,” David said with disgust.
“I am speaking the truth,” Nouri said. “It is you who is bothered by it, not me.”
David was incensed, but mostly with himself. He had lost control of the conversation. Nouri’s fear was turning to defiance. He was talking in circles, but he had gotten inside David’s head, and David knew he had to turn the tables, to regain the initiative. But how?
28
“You’re absolutely certain?” Ayatollah Hosseini asked, unable to believe what he was hearing.
He pushed for more information. How long ago did it happen? How many were involved? Who was responsible? Were there any leads, any clues whatsoever? Hosseini asked a dozen more questions, but Ibrahim Asgari, commander of VEVAK, Iran’s secret police force, simply had no answers as of yet.
“Call me as soon as you know more, Commander,” Hosseini ordered and then hung up the phone, nervously looking about the war room. His hands trembled. All color had drained from his face.
“Where is the president?” he asked a young aide.
“I believe he stepped out to get something to eat,” the aide said.
“Get him, and bring him to me immediately,” the Ayatollah said. “I must speak to him on an urgent matter.”
“Yes, sir — right away, sir.” The aide scurried off.
The room began to grow blurry. Hosseini blinked several times and reached for a glass of water and drank it down quickly. This couldn’t be happening. Was it the Israelis? The Americans? Either way, they were getting far too close.
Moments later, Darazi rushed into the war room. “What is it? What happened?”
“Come in here,” Hosseini said, motioning his colleague to follow him into the recently cleaned conference room where Faridzadeh had been killed earlier. “Now, shut the door and have a seat.”
Darazi did as he was told. “What is it?” he asked again. “You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
“Javad Nouri has been kidnapped,” said Hosseini.
“That’s not possible,” Darazi countered.
“Nevertheless, it happened,” Hosseini replied. “So far Commander Asgari is reporting twelve dead, nine wounded.”
“How many attackers?”
“Best we can tell, it was a team of five commandos. But they had air support as well. They took out a police helicopter over the city, killing all three men on board.”
“Is that beyond the casualty numbers you just gave me?”
“No, that’s everybody that we know of right now.”
“Any leads?”
“None.”
“Asgari has absolutely no idea who is responsible?”
“He thinks it’s the Israelis.”
“He’s probably right,” said Darazi.
“Maybe yes, or maybe the Americans are here too,” Hosseini said.
“I thought the Americans were staying neutral in this war.”
“The fact is we have no idea. We’re flying blind here. But I’ll tell you one thing: whoever it is, they’re getting dangerously close to us. Think about it: if they have Javad and Javad starts talking, then they know where we are right now.”
“We need to move everything to the new facility at the mosque — tonight.”
“That’s my thought too,” Hosseini said. “But first, we need to talk to the Mahdi. Is he still up on the roof?”
“I’m afraid so.”
“What’s he doing?”
“Praying.”
“We need to get him down from there. It’s too dangerous to stay outside.”
“You want me to ask him?” Darazi asked.
“No,” Hosseini said. “I’d better go myself.”
David tried to seize control of the conversation once again.
“Listen, Javad, I’m only going to say it one more time. You’re making a mistake. Your sins are going to be exposed to the Mahdi within the hour unless you start cooperating.”
Nouri sat up straight in the chair, puffing out his chest and lifting his head.
“I am not afraid of you, Reza,” he replied.
“Maybe not,” David said. “But you are afraid of Imam al-Mahdi. You care what he thinks about you. And now you’re about to be exposed for the man you really are. We haven’t manufactured these photos and this video of you in Dubai at that bar with the women and the alcohol, Javad. That’s not cooked up. Those are decisions you made. And knowledge of those sins alone is going to infuriate the Mahdi. But as I told you, we’re going to throw fuel on the fire by implicating you as the mole in this operation, with a direct, working relationship with the CIA.”