Virgil drove back to town, mad at himself for letting Romo push his buttons, but not a bit sorry for shaming him for misleading Hawk. The kid deserved to understand the extent of the risk he was taking before he made the choice. And Romo knew a lot more than he was letting on.
Virgil’s burner phone beeped. He pulled into a medical plaza and parked in the back row under a shade tree.
He read the text message: Four attachments.
Virgil clicked on a photo and tapped the screen to enlarge it. It was a picture of a forty-something man and a young girl, perhaps fifteen or sixteen years old. The man was nice looking. Reminded him of the Ivy League type. Dark hair, just a tad long, dark suit, and glasses. The young girl was beautiful. Her dark hair covered her shoulders, her eyes were soft and innocent.
He clicked on the document and made it larger. It was something from Tehran, dated August 16, 2011. Probably written in Farsi. He scrolled to the bottom and saw the English translation. Some of the words had been redacted. Virgil scanned the document until he found something that made sense and didn’t have any text blacked out. It appeared to be taken from a news article.
Renowned nuclear physicist Dr. Dalir Parviz Kermani (46) and daughter Abrisham Kermani (16) were special guests at a banquet held Saturday night at Tehran’s elegant Parsian Esteghlal Hotel, honoring Kermani’s twenty years of service to the Iranian government and his recent promotion to a top-level position in the nuclear program.
Dr. Kermani has a master’s degree from Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, and a PhD in nuclear physics from the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. His vast knowledge of nuclear physics has made him a leader in the research and development of nuclear power plants in Iran.
Carolyn Morrison Kermani, Dr. Kermani’s late wife, was killed tragically in an automobile accident in February of this year while visiting relatives in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Dr. Kermani’s new position will require traveling extensively for the Iranian government as part of his involvement in advancing the use of nuclear power in Iran. His daughter Abrisham will continue her education at the Baumar International Girls School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.
Virgil looked at the picture again. If this was supposed to be Dr. Kermani, he didn’t look Middle Eastern.
Virgil googled “images of Iranian men,” and a screen came up showing dozens of images. None of their features resembled Dr. Kermani. Virgil remembered that Iranians are primarily of Persian descent. He googled “images of Persian men.” Some of them were fair skinned. Some had lighter hair. Many could be mistaken for Westerners. Dr. Kermani easily could. Virgil looked at the daughter. She was stunning. But he didn’t see any distinguishing ethnic feature. She could easily pass for a Westerner too. Then again, her mother was American.
So who were they? He tried to put seven years on the man, but no one came to mind. He put seven years on the daughter, but all he got was a twenty-three-year-old beauty. Ah, the age Kennedy Taylor claimed to be! Hawk had talked about how gorgeous she was. Could this be her?
He clicked on the third attachment. It appeared to be a bounty posting of some kind. The wording was French. He scrolled to the bottom for the translation. It was a classified document of the United States government, posted March 2017. Parts of it had been redacted. From what he could tell, someone was offering a $500,000 bounty for the arrest and/or return of Herbod Abbas Jalili, age thirty-nine, citizen of Iran and hired assassin working for the government of Iran and possibly others. Last known residence, Paris, France. Believed responsible for the assassinations of at least thirty government officials and family members across Europe and the Middle East. The contact name and information had been redacted.
He clicked on the fourth attachment, another photograph. A man about forty, dark hair, dark eyes, looked Middle Eastern. So was this guy Herbod Abbas Jalili the bounty hunter Romo told them about? The post referred to him as an assassin. With a bounty on his own head.
Virgil keyed in Mitch’s number and let it ring. Maybe a little explanation from Mitch would clear things up.
“Hey. Where are you?” Mitch said, his voice barely above a whisper.
“In my squad car. I was coming back from the FBI command center when I heard your text come in. I’m sitting here in a medical plaza parking lot, looking at the four attachments you sent, not sure if I’m right about who these people are. Can you talk?”
“For a couple minutes,” Mitch said. “Tell me what you’re thinking.”
“I’m thinking the first picture is of Dr. Kermani and his daughter Abrisham—goes with the article. Am I close?”
“Spot on.”
“I’m still trying to make sense of the bounty document and the second photograph. Romo said the Bureau is after the bounty hunter who is tracking Nameless, aka Kennedy Taylor, now positively identified as Abrisham Kermani.”
“That’s right.”
“But this document puts a bounty on an Iranian assassin,” Virgil said. “What am I missing?”
“Just that Romo’s reference to him as the bounty hunter sounds better than calling him an assassin, which would probably make Hawk think twice about getting involved. Look, I couldn’t send you everything I saw, but our intel from the CIA confirms this Jalili is on a mission for the Iranian government, who offered him five million dollars to take out someone.”
“Abrisham?”
“That’s my guess,” Mitch said.
“Why would they want to kill her? Man, this thing’s making my head spin.”
“Okay, here’s my two cents. I’m going to give it to you straight, and after this you’re on your own. It’s too risky for me to dig any further.”
“Okay, go,” Virgil said.
“This is only my theory. All right, say Dr. Kermani meets Carolyn Morrison, an American woman, while he’s going to school at MIT, and eventually marries her. They leave Cambridge and move to Tehran, and he works for the government’s nuclear power plant program. In 1994, they have a daughter, Abrisham. He continues working in research and development of nuclear power plants. But did you notice when Carolyn Morrison had her tragic accident? In February of 2011. In August of 2011, Dr. Kermani was honored for his twenty years of service to the Iranian government and his new top-level position in their nuclear program.”
“Are you saying they killed his wife to force him to get more deeply involved in the nuclear program?”
“Makes sense.”
“But why are they after his daughter?” Virgil said. “If he’s doing what they want?”
“Maybe he isn’t. If I were Dr. Kermani,” Mitch said, “and hated the Iranian government for killing my wife and forcing me to build a nuclear bomb, especially if I found it to be morally repugnant, I would turn in a heartbeat—and work with the US to stop Iran. He’s in a perfect position to work as a double agent. What better way for him to get back at the Iranian government. My guess is that Dr. Kermani got caught giving the US classified information on Iran’s nuclear program and went into hiding. He would’ve contacted the CIA and told them he’d been compromised and feared for his daughter’s life. They would have enlisted the FBI’s help to pick up the daughter and keep her under the radar.”
“Pick up the daughter?” Virgil said. “You’re suggesting the FBI might have used a drone to knock her out, and then whisked her away without a trace?”
“It’s not out of the realm of possibility.”
“So, is she under the radar,” Virgil said, “or is she dead, as Romo claims?”
“I can’t answer that. But if she is dead, they would definitely want to keep it under wraps because our intel indicates the assassin Jalili, whose picture is the fourth attachment, is actively tracking her down, and on his way to find Hawk. This guy’s wanted all over Europe and the Middle East. They’re not going to let him slip through their fingers.”
“No matter who they use to get him,” Virgil said.
Mitch sighed. “Sorry, buddy. I know that’s a lot to set on your shoulders when you don’t have the authority to do anything about it. But at least now you know.”
“Thanks, Mitch. I really had no right to ask you to divulge classified information.”
“What classified information?”
Virgil smiled. “Yeah. Right.”
“Don’t be a stranger.”
“I won’t. Take care.”
Virgil blew out a breath and rubbed his eyes. This was even more complicated than he’d imagined. No wonder Romo wanted him to back off. Hard to say what kind of pressure was being put on him to get this assassin. Still, it was wrong to lead Hawk to believe his safety was their utmost concern when actually it was their least.