“What do you mean you can’t find him?”
The more Eva Fischer heard from the watch commander at the safe house, the more furious she became. “How do you lose the most important defector in a generation?”
There was nothing the commander could say that could possibly calm her down. So she cut him off and told him exactly what to do. “Call Fairfax County police. Get them his name and photo and tell them he’s wanted by federal authorities. Don’t tell them he’s a defector or that he’s an Iranian national. Got that?”
“Yes, ma’am.”
“Get the neighborhood sealed off. No one goes in or out without a full search. He can’t have gotten far. He’s never been to the US. He’s obviously not familiar with the area, he’s on foot, and he’s not dangerous. He’s not a threat to the neighbors. But he is smart, and he has had at least a forty-five-minute head start. So have the cops put checkpoints up at every major intersection for ten miles in every direction. And you’d better catch him fast, Commander, or your career is finished.”
Allen continued his case to the prime minister.
“We’re doing everything we can to investigate what happened in Manhattan, Asher. But at this moment we don’t know exactly who was responsible, and the stakes are too high for guessing. We can’t slide or drift or lurch our way into war with Iran or with the Twelfth Imam based on guesses and hunches, and neither can you.”
“You’re kidding, right?”
“What do you mean?”
“Roger, please tell me you’re kidding.”
“I’m not.”
“You think I need to know who tried to kill me to take the State of Israel to war? That would merely be the proverbial straw. Please tell me you’re not forgetting the nuclear weapons test in Hamadan. Please tell me you’re not forgetting the Twelfth Imam’s assertion in Mecca that Iran has nuclear weapons, and that command and control of those weapons are being transferred to his authority. Please tell me you didn’t miss the Mahdi’s press conference in Beirut in which he told the BBC, ‘The Zionist regime is heading toward annihilation’ whether I’m dead or not.”
“The president called me on my way to see you,” Allen said.
“How is he?”
“About the same as you, as it turns out.”
“I’d like to call him and tell him I’ve asked all the people of Israel to pray for his speedy recovery.”
“That’s very kind. I’ll let him know. In the meantime, he wanted me to pass on to you a very specific message, in person, face-to-face.”
“I’m listening.”
“You know the people of Israel have no greater friend than the American government.”
“But…?”
“But under no circumstances can the president tolerate an Israeli first strike against Iran.”
The words just hung in the air, as incendiary as they were direct.
“I don’t want a war with Iran, Roger. I thought I had made that clear.”
“You don’t want one, Mr. Prime Minister, but you might be tempted to order one anyway. I am here as a personal representative of the president of the United States to make it unequivocally clear that our government wholly, completely, and utterly opposes a preemptive strike by the State of Israel on the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
“Under any circumstances?”
“The president opposes a preemptive strike under any circumstances.”
“He wants to dictate to a sovereign nation how to defend her people and prevent a second Holocaust?”
“The president is ready to make it worth your while.”
“Meaning what?”
Allen pulled out of his suit pocket a page of handwritten notes with a deal dictated by the president over the phone less than ninety minutes earlier. He offered it to Naphtali, but the PM couldn’t hold it in his hands, so Allen read it from beginning to end. It was an extraordinary deal, the most sweeping and lucrative ever offered by the US.
1. $250 billion in advanced new fighter jets, missile defense systems, and two Los Angeles — class submarines to help Israel maintain her “qualitative edge” over her enemies
2. A pledge of aggressive US support for Israel to join NATO as a full member in the next six months
3. A pledge for the US to sign a full alliance treaty with Israel should the NATO deal stall or be denied, promising to go to war alongside Israel if the Jewish State were ever attacked by Iran
4. A pledge for the US to build a new American embassy in Jerusalem within eighteen months of acceptance of this deal, and for the president to publicly declare Jerusalem the “eternal, undivided capital of the Jewish State of Israel”
There was, of course, a price: Israel had to forswear any preemptive strike against the Islamic Republic of Iran for at least the next five years.
“It is a very generous offer,” the prime minister said, “but it doesn’t solve the problem. Iran already has several nuclear warheads. Next month, it will have more. The month after that, it will have even more. This growing arsenal of annihilation is controlled by madmen who have specifically and repeatedly and publicly threatened to attack us — and you, I might add. Now the president is asking us to accept this American largesse on the hope — some in my government would say the false hope — that Iran or the Mahdi can be deterred or contained over the next five years. I’m not certain this is possible.”
“Well, that’s the president’s offer,” Allen said. “I’m afraid it’s not open for negotiation.”
“And if we decline?” Naphtali asked.
Allen had hoped he wouldn’t be asked. He was not comfortable with the answer, but he served at the pleasure of the president.
“Asher, as a friend, I cannot stress how strongly the president opposes an Israeli first strike.”
“I understand,” Naphtali replied. “But if we find ourselves with no other choice?”
“There is always another choice.”
“But if we get to a point where we don’t see it that way, what happens then?”
“Please don’t ask me that.”
“Roger, there’s an ultimatum here. I can feel it. Just tell me what it is.”
Allen looked away and took a deep breath, then looked back in his friend’s eyes. “Should the government of the State of Israel defy the wishes of the president and thereby endanger American national security and the security of the entire region by launching a preemptive strike or series of strikes against Iran, then my government would have no choice but to halt and rescind all foreign military assistance indefinitely.”
26
David landed in Tehran late Tuesday night, local time.
He powered up his phone and found a rare e-mail from his brother Azad.
Hey, David — not sure where you are right now but thought you’d like to know you’re an uncle. Nora delivered a beautiful, healthy, strapping baby boy this morning. We’ve named him Peter Alexander Shirazi, after Nora’s grandfather. He’s seven pounds, six ounces, with thin little wisps of black hair. Nora’s labor was difficult, but overall she’s doing well. I’ll take her home tomorrow. Her mom came in from Ohio last night and will be here for as long as we need her to help out. I just talked to Dad to tell him the good news. I’m sure he’s glad to be a grandpa, but I don’t think he can focus so much right now. He said Mom’s condition seems to be worsening, and the doctors aren’t sure there is anything else they can do for her. Thought you’d want to know I’m driving up there tonight to be with him and to see Mom and bring them some pictures before coming back for Nora in the morning. Anyway, call me when you can. Thanks.