Meghan was in a nurse’s uniform bearing the name of a hospital near IICC. She clutched her bag and hurried to the venue’s entrance. Showed her ticket for the day to the guards. ‘I am here for the Nursing Exhibition,’ she told them and surrendered her bag to be searched.
Beth, in a business executive garb, entered the conference center through another venue.
Both of them looked to be in their forties. No resemblance to each other. They entered the venue and went to their respective halls where they browsed for an hour.
‘I’ve had enough of this,’ the younger twin said grumpily. ‘Chloe, where are you?’
‘Ten minutes out.’
‘Get that partner of yours to stomp on the gas. He was complaining you both were spectators yesterday. He’s got his chance now.’
‘As a driver?’ Bear scoffed. ‘You both have the fun parts while Chloe and I are delivering stuff to you.’
‘Look on the bright side. You get to see the city. That fits your cover.’
‘Sis, I’m heading out,’ she informed Meghan when Bear made a rude sound and ended the call. She bought a juice from a stand, donned her shades and exited the venue. Wandered aimlessly, talking to no-one on her phone.
Reached a green expanse and followed it to the side of the large venue and settled in the shade of a tree. A high wall behind her, running around the conference center. Behind it, the sound of traffic as vehicles went about their business on Chamran Highway.
‘Found you on GPS,’ Chloe confirmed. ‘Bear’s slowing down to find a turn-out … there, that’s one ahead.’
‘Yeah,’ the male operative replied. ‘There are a couple of trucks there. Those will give us good cover.’
Beth looked up at the approaching footsteps. Meghan, who gave her a polite smile, sat a distance away and brought out a thick book.
‘Launching,’ Chloe announced.
Beth looked around discreetly. There were several conference attendees who had the same idea as the twins and were gathered on the lawn. However, none of them were close enough.
‘Watch out for the cameras,’ she warned.
‘Yeah. Werner will ping us.’
The younger twin got to her feet and stretched and used her body to cover the drone that drifted down.
‘You’re clear,’ Meghan, in her earpiece. ‘No one’s watching.’
Beth nodded and sat down. Removed the duplicate control screen that Chloe had taped to its bottom, looked up to see her sister’s thumbs-up and launched the craft in the air.
‘Got it on my phone,’ Meghan told her. ‘You fly, I’ll watch out.’
The elderly looking man leaned on his stick and mopped his face with a scarf as his servant paid the cab and carried his suitcases to the pavement.
‘You’re loving this aren’t you?’ Broker griped as he limped to the curb. Zeb, who was in the guise of his assistant, helped his friend mount it.
‘You are old,’ Chloe sniggered from a distance away. She and Bear were still in their Dutch disguises. All four of them at Imam Khomeini International Airport, the Borgers driving to the airport after their delivery to the twins at the conference venue.
Zeb shepherded Broker to a line of passengers outside the terminal and discreetly checked for the Borgers. They were at another entrance.
Security guards inspected their tickets and passports, checked them against their faces.
‘My uncle,’ he told the sentry when the man sized both of them. ‘We’re going to London for an operation on his leg.’
The armed soldier didn’t say a word. He scanned and checked their luggage and waved them through.
‘We’re in, too,’ Bear confirmed.
Zeb joined another line at an airline counter while Broker sat heavily in a row of seats. Chloe drifted over and scanned the electronic departure boards.
‘Standard security set up,’ she murmured. ‘Iran Air’s got several counters.’
‘They don’t fly to DC,’ Zeb smiled as he presented his and Broker’s credentials to the counter clerk and placed their luggage on the belt.
Their disguises were good, the passports were excellent forgeries. They presented no problem.
He thanked her when they were checked in and slipped their boarding passes inside his jacket pocket. Joined Broker who had risen and was examining the board as well.
‘He’ll take some Middle-Eastern airline that flies to DC,’ he guessed. ‘He will pose as a business man. That’s the least suspicious cover to have.’
He drew a bottle of water from his shoulder bag and handed it to Broker, uncapped another one and drank deeply as he scanned the airport.
Which flight Golzar takes isn’t important. We’ve got to get him before he boards.
‘What if he flies business or first class?’ Bear approached them and joined Chloe.
‘He could,’ Zeb admitted, ‘but I doubt it. Mostofi won’t spend unnecessarily. Besides, someone traveling premium attracts more attention not less. No one gives a second glance to those in coach.’
He got Broker moving as they split up from the Borgers. There was a method to their aimless wandering.
Foot traffic. Locations of the fixed-post guards, security cameras, they took everything in, surveying the concourse looking for blind spots.
‘You got the same ideas as we?’ Bear’s lips moved imperceptibly when Zeb entered the book store he was in.
‘Yeah. The restroom. For the disabled.’
It was set some distance away from the main bathrooms. Probably to afford some privacy to women, Zeb thought as he walked past it.
‘I’ll take Broker to it.’
‘Good to know I’m of some use,’ the elder operative snorted.
Zeb replaced the book he was flicking through, took his uncle’s elbow and escorted him to the rest room.
It was single person use, large on the inside, brightly lit.
‘No cameras,’ Broker announced.
‘I am not surprised,’ Zeb grinned. ‘Imagine the clerics’ outrage if they found women were being spied on in here.’
‘This is it?’
‘Yeah,’ his smile faded.
It’s the closest Golzar will get to his flight.
He pictured it in his mind.
He would approach the Quds killer, beaming. He would greet him with a shout and hug him like a long-lost friend. Any observer would think they knew each other.
Golzar would smile back. Natural reaction. He would be alert as well, but Zeb would give him no time to react. He would inject the man’s neck as he held him close. A fast-acting drug that would render the Quds man semi-conscious.
I’ll draw back. Look at him in alarm and cry out.
His friends would rush over to help. Chloe will say she’s a doctor. That will prevent other travelers from coming over.
He would hustle Golzar to the restroom where Broker would be standing, making sure it was empty.
He brought Broker out and led him to a row of seats. Drank from his bottle of water and wiped his lips as he ran through the sequence in his mind again.
There would be no practice runs. They had to get it right the first time without raising suspicion. There were soldiers, cops, security guards. All of them armed and trained.
‘We’ve pulled it off,’ Chloe sensed his thoughts. ‘In a similar country.’
‘Saudi Arabia,’ Zeb nodded. ‘That Pakistani terrorist. I remember.’
‘Iraq, too.’ Broker reminded them.
‘What if Nassour enters the concourse?’ Bear rubbed his jaw as he handed over a cup of coffee to Marlien Borger.
They had agreed that Mostofi’s aide would bring him to the airport. That’s how I would play it. Zeb tossed his water bottle in a trash can. Make sure the package reached the start of the transit.
‘That’s a possibility,’ Broker mused. ‘He could fast-track the check-in process. He might even go with Golzar to security and bypass that.’
‘We take him out too,’ Zeb stated. ‘We split into two teams. One handles him, I go after Golzar.’
‘He might have guards with him.’
‘He won’t.’ Zeb was sure of that. ‘I don’t think he’ll come inside. He’s a high-profile figure himself. He’ll have enemies. There could be Mossad agents in the airport. Other hostile agencies. No, he won’t be here. What Nassour will do is have someone at the airline counter and the security people to fast- track Golzar—’
He stopped abruptly, his eyes narrowing. ‘We’ll have to take him out after his check-in. Otherwise Nassour’s person might inform him about the no-show.’
‘Great,’ Bear said. ‘I have two questions. How do we make sure we don’t get infected? And, who’ll travel in Golzar’s place?’