Meghan cranked up the volume on her laptop and placed it on a center table.
‘From Nassour’s phone,’ she said.
‘Agha,’ the major’s voice. ‘I’ve got a lead on Shahriar Garrison. I know at least two of the attackers.’
‘Know? How do you know that?’ Mostofi’s voice was unmistakable.
‘A passing truck driver on Inanlu Boulevard saw one of the missiles fire. He slowed his vehicle down and took several pictures. He responded to the call we put out for information.’
‘Who are they?’
‘Two women, agha. And get this,’ his voice dropped in anger. ‘I think they were following me. I was in the Grand Bazaar the other day and noticed two identical looking women follow me. I didn’t think much of it at that time—’
‘Did they match this trucker’s photographs?’
‘Of course not, agha. Mossad operatives are too smart. But how many female twins are there in Tehran of that age? And is it a coincidence?’
‘Find them,’ Mostofi said grimly. ‘And interrogate them.’
‘I will, agha.’
Meghan turned off the recording when the call ended.
‘He hasn’t said anything about spending time with you,’ Bear observed.
‘He wouldn’t,’ Zeb said absently, thinking furiously. ‘It would look bad on him. He seems to be held in high regard by Mostofi. He wouldn’t do anything to damage that relationship.’
He looked up at the expectant faces and grinned.
‘He’ll call you,’ he told the twins.
‘Yeah,’ Beth nodded. ‘That’s how I see it play.’
The call came when they were finishing dinner.
‘Parvin,’ Nassour said cheerfully, unaware that his voice was booming in the charity’s office on Meghan’s speaker. ‘How are you?’
‘Tired, agha,’ she replied warmly. ‘We had a long day, shooting several parts of Tehran. The photographs are good. Mahya is writing the blog article now. You should be able to read it tomorrow.’
‘I am sure it will be great.’
‘How was your day, agha?’
‘Tiring as well. I had to go to a university, meet several academics.’
‘For recruitment, agha?’
‘You know I can’t tell you that, khanom,’ Nassour laughed. ‘Shall we meet tomorrow?’
‘We’re looking forward to it.’
‘Excellent. Let’s meet at the same restaurant in the Grand Bazaar. At six pm.’
‘We’ll see you there, agha.’
Meghan hung up, began to speak and held back when Zeb pulled out his phone. He held a finger up to silence them and put the device on speaker.
‘Avichai, I need your help.’
‘Zeb Carter needs my help?’ the Mossad Director’s chuckle filled the room. ‘Wonders will never cease.’
‘Sir,’ Beth interrupted. ‘This is serious.’
Zeb suppressed a smile. They call him by his first name. By saying sir, she’s cutting through the jokes.
Levin recognized her voice, sensed what she was conveying and turned serious instantly. ‘What can I do?’
‘You spread the rumors that the Shahriar attack was by Mossad,’ Zeb reminded him.
‘Yes.’
‘I need you to do more. You need to leak that two of the kidon involved were twins.’
The ramsad caught on immediately. ‘Someone spotted Beth and Meg?’
‘They were in disguise, but yeah.’
‘Consider it done.’
‘Just like that?’ Broker asked in surprise.
Levin laughed. ‘A low-level clerk in my office, he’s Iranian. Planted there by Mostofi about a year ago. He thinks we don’t know who he is, but we found out about him almost immediately. We have been using him to spread disinformation every now and then.’
‘Won’t Mostofi suspect when a clerk comes across a kidon’s identity?’
‘Leave it to me. I will handle it.’
He will, Zeb mouthed at his friends. There’s no one better than Levin at such clandestine tactics.
‘What are you planning?’ The ramsad broke into his thoughts.
‘Have you heard of Habib Nassour?’
‘Mostofi’s aide? Yes. Be careful. Beneath that smiling, handsome exterior, there’s a cold-blooded killer. He’s as bad as his boss.’
Zeb nodded in acknowledgment. ‘We know. We’re going to receive him warmly.’
‘We are going to capture him, right?’ Bwana asked when the call had ended.
‘Nope. That would show our hand to Mostofi. We need to know what attack he is planning—’ he stopped abruptly.
‘What?’ Roger asked impatiently.
‘We got a file from his laptop, didn’t we?’
‘Karim Golzar. An elite operative,’ Beth confirmed. ‘A killer.’
‘Heck, yeah, I forgot about that,’ Broker reached for his phone and flicked through several photographs and presented them to his friends. ‘There were more files in his bedroom.’
Meghan zoomed the images with her thumb and forefinger. ‘Ali Fathi, Firdos Radan, Reza Jehangir,’ she read aloud. ‘We’ll go through these.’
‘Looks like Mostofi’s gathering his best killers, forming a team,’ Beth frowned, speedreading the text on the photographs.
‘Or, looking to select one man,’ Zeb said.
‘Won’t we know if we capture Nassour and ask him?’ Bwana said hopefully.
Bear sighed. ‘Bwana, we all know how eager you are to kick some ass—’
‘Bust some heads too. Haven’t done any of that since we came to the country. Look how much weight I have put on.’
All eyes turned on Bwana. Inspected his biceps bulging against the Tee’s sleeves, the way the fabric stretched tight over his chest and weight.
‘Yeah,’ Meghan said witheringly, ‘we can almost see the lard fall off you. Lifting Nassour isn’t what we want. If we do that, Mostofi will go to ground and we might never find out what he’s up to. We want to find out his movements. We might be able to work out something from that. The best way to do that is tag Nassour and hope he’s as close to the Quds boss as we suspect. And, listen in on his call recordings. Got it?’
She turned to Zeb when Bwana nodded ruefully. ‘We’ll get onto these files. Maybe these men have some specialty which might give us a clue. For tomorrow, Nassour … we let him get away?’
‘Yeah. No gun play unless we are fired on. We don’t want civilian injuries,’ he replied. ‘You will get your chance tomorrow, however,’ he told Bwana. ‘Nassour won’t come alone. He will have several men. He will be looking to capture Beth and Meg.’
He grinned at the beatific expression on his friend’s face.
Nassour doesn’t know who he’s tangled with.