Habib Nassour greeted Karim Golzar when he arrived at his office by shaking his hand and thumping him on his back. His man was selected for their boss’s mission. He couldn’t restrain his pride, but he manfully put on a solemn expression as he turned to Jehangir, Fathi and Radan.
‘You got your instructions?’ he asked them after receiving their salutes with a nod.
‘Yes, agha,’ Jehangir replied. ‘We are assigned to you.’
‘Do you have a team that you work with normally? Six or eight trusted men?’
‘I do, agha.’ The operative looked at the other killers who too nodded.
‘Good,’ Nassour went to his desk and returned with several copies of Parvin and Mahya’s photographs. ‘Memorize these faces. It’s highly likely they will be using disguises so get the facial recognition program to show you different looks.’
‘Who are these,’ Radan asked as he fingered the glossy pictures.
‘Mossad operatives. They are responsible for the Shahriar attack. Yes,’ he nodded grimly when they looked at him in shock. ‘They fired the missiles. They have some associates too. Here,’ he presented the sketch images the artist had created earlier in the day, after his and Golzar’s sitting. ‘At least four more operatives are with them, including that fat man,’ he jabbed a finger on one of the sketches.
‘They are dangerous,’ he warned. ‘Karim and I were with six men, his team. Those women and other Mossad operatives counter-attacked and escaped. We couldn’t even shoot at them; they were that good.’
‘No photographs for them?’ Fathi asked.
‘No, and other than that fat man and those twins, everyone was wearing masks.’
‘Masks?’
‘Scarves covering their faces,’ Nassour explained irritably. ‘Which is why those sketches are only of that fat man and a couple that we think was involved.’
‘Did you injure anyone?’
‘No,’ Golzar swore. ‘They threw furniture. That made it difficult for us to aim our weapons. One man,’ he rubbed his belly feelingly, ‘picked me up and threw me out, he was that strong. Another man kicked me. No,’ he shook his head at their questioning looks. ‘I don’t remember who they were. Those pictures and the sketches of those three others, that’s all we have.’
‘You know what to do?’ Nassour asked them sharply.
‘Yes, agha,’ Jehangir replied. ‘We’ll interview everyone who was in that restaurant. Find out how many joined the attack, get those witnesses to sit with our artist … we’ll flood the streets of Tehran with their images.’
‘I have something that will make it easy for you,’ the major smiled, though his eyes remained cold. ‘We have a network of snitches in the city. They are on the lookout for twin sisters—’
‘There won’t be many of that age, agha,’ Fathi said excitedly.
‘Yes. The switchboard here will relay all such calls to your phones. You work out the takedown. I want them alive.’
‘Yes, agha,’ the men chorused, saluted and left.
‘Come on,’ Nassour grabbed Golzar by the arm. ‘We are running late.’
‘Where are we going?’
‘To MUT, along with the boss.’
‘The university? Why there?’
‘You’ll see.’