Habib Nassour introduced himself formally over their chai. He said he was a major in the Quds Force and was an aide to its commander.
‘We are travel journalists,’ Meghan told him. ‘We have our own blog and also contribute to several magazines.’ She showed him their website and the links to several of their articles, a backstory that they had put in place before the mission. ‘Our visit to Tehran is both official as well as personal. We will cover the city and our great country, and also discover it for ourselves.’
‘You must be very important,’ Beth said admiringly when the major had commented appreciatively on their writing. ‘For your boss to give you bodyguards.’
The major laughed self-deprecatingly. ‘I refused. I told him our soldiers need better work than follow me around, but he was insistent.’
‘He’s right,’ Meghan said firmly. ‘Our country needs Quds. Our way of life should be defended and you are doing a great job of it.’
‘Our country? What about your German citizenship?’
‘That’s all it is. We are Iranian,’ Meghan said proudly. ‘Mama and Papa raised us as such. Germany is where we live, that’s all. If we could earn as much in Tehran, we would move here in a second.’
‘Yes,’ Beth agreed. ‘It’s a shame how the West has treated Iran.’
A look crossed Nassour’s face. His lips parted as if to say something, but he held himself back.
What was it he was going to say? Meghan sent a look in Beth’s direction, a message that her twin read. They needed to up their game.
They dragged their chairs closer to the table and got the major to tell them stories of the Quds Forces. They hung onto his every word, batted their eyes and made him feel like the most important man in the world.
The second serving of tea arrived. Beth moved her chair closer, went off-balance for a moment. Her shoulder jammed into Meghan’s who was pouring chai for all of them. The elder sister lost her grip on the pot and the hot drink sloshed on the table. Several large drops landed on Nassour’s uniform, staining it immediately.
‘AGHA,’ Meghan clapped her hand to her mouth in horror. ‘I am so sorry. Why don’t you watch yourself?’ She turned on her sister angrily. ‘You—’
‘It’s alright, khanom,’ Nassour laughed. ‘It happens.’
‘She’s always like this,’ Meghan said bitterly. ‘She doesn’t watch herself—’
‘Parvin,’ the major took her name to draw her attention, ‘don’t worry about it.’
‘I am sorry, agha,’ Beth said in embarrassment. ‘You should mop it with water, otherwise the stains might be permanent.’
‘That’s a good idea,’ Nassour exclaimed. He got to his feet and headed to the restroom. His phone lay on the table, where he had placed it after taking a few calls.
The sisters waited till he was out of sight and then got to work. Meghan slipped on transparent, plastic gloves over her hands and removed the battery from her pocket. She took the phone and inspected it for a moment.
‘This isn’t the time to dawdle,’ Beth hissed at her.
‘Hold up.’ She removed a strip of adhesive tape from another pocket and carefully placed it over the phone’s fingerprint sensor. Extracted it, held it against the light and nodded in satisfaction at the whorls and swirls on it. ‘We’ve got his prints now. In case we need it.’
She removed the rear case, switched the battery and placed the phone back on the table, in its original position.
The gloves disappeared into her pockets and when Nassour returned she and Beth were gossiping quietly. They flashed smiles at him and resumed their charm offensive.
‘What you said earlier, khanom,’ the major said when they were leaving the restaurant, ‘about how Iran has been treated.’
‘Yes, I wish the glory days were back,’ Meghan said sadly. ‘Our civilization, our science, we were great. Everyone in the Islamic world looked to us.’
‘Those days will be back, khanom. And soon, very soon.’
Meghan and Beth gave him the full treatment. Half-parted lips, bated breath, wide eyes.
‘You mean Quds is working on something?’ the elder twin breathed.
‘You’ll see in just a few weeks or months,’ Nassour smiled. ‘I can’t say anything more.’
He escorted them out and flagged a taxi for them. He gave them his card and bent his head to the window when they got inside.
‘Perhaps we can do this again, khanom,’ he eyed Meghan. ‘I enjoyed our evening.’
‘We did, too, agha.’
She high-fived Beth when their ride sped away.
The battery they had inserted in Nassour’s phone wasn’t a dumb, charging device. It would release a software program into the phone’s operating system that would enable them to listen in on his calls, read his messages and capture his contacts and calendar.
If he syncs the phone to his laptop, it will spread to that device too. If Nassour replaced his cell, his computer would still have the virus which would spread to his new phone when he hooked the two devices. The software, designed by the NSA, was undetectable not only to commercial anti-virus programs but also to the most sophisticated ones used by various intelligence agencies.
The program kicked into action the moment Nassour made his first call.
It was to start disciplinary proceedings against his men and organize a new security team. His second call was to his wife with whom he spent long moments discussing his day. He didn’t mention his meeting the sisters.
By the time he had hung up, the twins had downloaded his phone’s contents to their screens.