“I demand to know who is in charge here!” David bellowed. “What kind of moron is running this operation? He should be shot! This is treasonous!”
Six heavily armed Syrian border guards stepped out of the shadows and surrounded him, their AK-47s pointed at his head.
“Who is in charge here?” David shouted again, then pointed at a twenty-three- or twenty-four-year-old who appeared to be the unit commander. “You? Is it you? Come here. I demand to talk to you.”
The commander cursed at him and told him to get down on his face, spread-eagle, and prepare to be searched. David ignored him and kept shouting, his face beet-red and veins bulging from his forehead.
“Search me? Do you have any idea who you’re talking to? General Hamdi and General Jazini are waiting for me and my men. They’re waiting for us at Al-Mazzah right now. But where am I? Stuck in a traffic jam nearly a kilometer long. In case you didn’t notice, we’re in the middle of a war here. Now clear out this traffic, and get me and my men across this border, or heads are going to roll, soldier, starting with yours.”
Out of the corner of his eye, David could see another half-dozen heavily armed border guards emerging from a nearby but previously unnoticed bunker and taking up positions around him. He was not exactly following Omid Jazini’s script. But there was hardly time for business as usual.
The commander began screaming back at him to get down on the ground and prepare to be searched. But David marched toward him, telling him to pull out his daily operations sheet and verify this number—941996656. David stopped only when a soldier to his left looked like he was getting a little twitchy in his trigger finger. But David didn’t stop shouting.
“That’s right! That’s the number. Now you want the authorization code? You want me to answer the challenge questions? Then put the guns down and start showing some respect to agents of Imam al-Mahdi.”
Suddenly everything grew quiet. Those last words seemed to defuse the hostility in a way that stunned all of them, including David. The commander stopped screaming at him and put up his hand, telling his men to remain silent.
“You are servants of Imam al-Mahdi?” the commander asked quietly and with respect, even reverence for the name.
“Of course,” David insisted, maintaining his arrogant swagger. “We work directly for General Jazini, and we are on a mission for Imam al-Mahdi. That is what I’ve been trying to tell you fools. Now clear out this traffic, and let us get moving.”
The commander told his men to lower their weapons, then walked over to David and asked if he had a letter of directive from General Jazini. David pulled a piece of paper from his pocket and handed it over in disgust. In this case, it wasn’t a replica. It was an actual letter that had been sitting on Omid’s desk, bearing the authentic signature of Omid’s father. Not surprisingly, then, the letter was convincing. The commander asked David a few more questions, which David answered from memory according to the protocol in Omid’s memo, and then the commander got down on his knees and bowed his head to the ground.
“Forgive me, sir,” he pleaded. “My men and I meant no disrespect to you, your father, or Imam al-Mahdi.”
“Make your men clear a path for my car,” David ordered, seizing control of the moment.
“Yes, of course,” the young commander replied, furiously motioning his men to comply.
Was it a trap? David wondered. How could things go this smoothly? Had the Mahdi’s forces really not yet discovered Omid’s body and realized what had happened?
David didn’t have time to mull such imponderables. If they died, they died, but he couldn’t afford to delay. He pulled out Omid’s walkie-talkie and radioed Torres to move quickly and come to the head of the line. Less than a minute later, Torres pulled up to the front. David was pleased to see that Fox was now sitting in the front passenger seat and that his men had made a seat available in the rear of the SUV for David. That was certainly the proper protocol for any VIP clearing an international border, and David was grateful for his men’s careful attention to detail.
With the commander and his men still in the dust groveling for forgiveness, David got into the backseat and was about to order Torres to get them out of there as quickly as possible when he had an idea. He turned back to the commander and ordered him to make available a van and a tractor trailer truck to “assist with a mission related to the Mahdi.” Not surprisingly, the young commander looked startled, but he didn’t question the order and ran off to get the necessary vehicles.
“Now, which one of you is best at driving a semi?” David asked his men.
“I am,” Crenshaw said.
“Fine,” said David. “Go get in the one they give you and follow us.” Then he turned to Fox. “Steve, you get in the van and follow Nick,” David explained. “Marco and I will hash out a plan of attack, and we’ll let you know. Now let’s move it. We’re pushing our luck as it is.”
“You’re certain that we’re alone?”
It was a risk, Birjandi knew, but he felt oddly compelled to take it anyway.
“Yes,” Zandi said. “It doesn’t happen often in my line of work. But yes, we’re actually alone for a moment.”
“Good,” said Birjandi. “Then I have a question for you.”
“Of course, Dr. Birjandi. It is a great honor to speak with you.”
“I am not the man you think I am,” Birjandi replied.
“What do you mean?” Zandi asked.
Birjandi had no idea how long they would be alone, so he wasted no time getting to his point.
“I have renounced Islam,” he told the young nuclear scientist. “I was enslaved by it for many years, but I am free now. Jesus Christ set me free. Christ opened my eyes to the truth that he, not the Mahdi, is the Messiah. Jesus said, ‘I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.’ Jesus said, ‘I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.’ It was Jesus who said, ‘For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.’”
“Why are you telling me this?” Zandi asked nervously. “You’re going to get us both killed.”
“I realize I’m taking a great risk to tell you this, Jalal, but Christ told me to speak to you,” Birjandi replied. “Jesus told me to tell you that he loves you. He wants to forgive you of all your sins. He wants you to spend eternity with him in heaven, not burning in the lake of fire forever with no way of escape. You don’t realize this, my young friend. But your life and mine are measured in hours, not days or years. God is going to bring a terrible judgment upon this city, Damascus, and upon these leaders. None of us will survive. And the minute we breathe our last breath on this earth, each of us will go either to heaven or to hell, forever. And Jesus wants me to tell you that he wants you to come to heaven. But you can only do so if you cry out to him and repent of your sins.”
“You’re a crazy, blind old fool,” Zandi answered, backing his chair away. “Don’t say anything else. I’m warning you.”
“Actually, it is I who warn you,” Birjandi replied in a calm and gentle manner that surprised even him, given the peril he was putting them both in. “The prophets of the Bible spoke of a day when Damascus would be utterly destroyed. They wrote of a day when Damascus would be judged by the God of Israel. That day is today. I can’t tell you exactly how or when this judgment will come, but personally I suspect the Israelis know what we are doing here and are going to attack us with everything they have. We shall see, but one thing I know for certain: every minute judgment draws closer. And I can tell you with absolute assurance that neither of us will make it through the day. So please, my young friend, I am pleading with you, imploring you — give your life to Christ before it is too late. The Scriptures promise that ‘if you declare with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you profess your faith and are saved…. “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.”’”