The Peregrine Spy (64 page)

“Then why do you say
Savak
saved my life?”

“The others who were with him,
Savak
officials still loyal, I believe, to the Shah. They reasoned that killing Mr. Belinsky would fulfill the Hojatalislam’s aim of embarrassing Ayatollah Shariat-Madari. They saw no need to kill you, a man known to be close to the Shah.”

“I can’t believe I have reason to be grateful to
Savak,
” said Frank.

“You do,” said Munair. “But you must realize, sooner or later, perhaps much sooner, the
Savama
element within
Savak
will prevail. And the killing of Mr. Belinsky does not relieve you of the Hojatalislam’s
fatwa
. That sentence of death is still an obligation for all Muslims who accept his authority. It will be with you, not only here, but, if you survive that long, it will be with you in America.”

*   *   *

Frank had started to think of Rocky’s bubble as a plastic mausoleum where the dead could communicate without fear of being overheard. Someday vandals would overrun the cemetery and collapse the mausoleum around their heads. And the dead would stop communicating. But now, knowing how close he had come, he felt like one of the dead. And he had come to let Rocky know that he had also come close.

“I knew about that
fatwa
crap, but I guess I didn’t take it serious enough. I didn’t think we for real coulda got our asses blown off because one holy man wants to make another look bad.”

“Things like that happen when you stick your nose in other people’s business,” said Frank.

“We get paid to stick our nose in other people’s business,” said Rocky.

“I know,” said Frank. He shivered and looked at his hands. “And Belinsky paid a hell of a price.”

“I gotta give’m credit,” said Rocky. “He put himself on the line.”

“Again and again. All those trips to Qom. Taking me to the university to corner Lermontov. Setting up the GRU guy. I know he had his weaknesses, but it takes a lot to do what Chuck did.”

“Yeah, it does. And you’re right. He paid a hell of a price.” Rocky didn’t dwell on Belinsky’s virtues for long. “Your buddy Munair, he give up any names?”

Funeral’s over, thought Frank. Back to business. Munair had provided the names of the scheming clergyman and all four gunmen.

“He said the leader of the pack recognized you.”

“Eagle-4,” said Rocky, scanning the list. “Had a meet with’m just a couple weeks back. He was still talkin’ a pretty good pro-Shah line.”

“From what Munair said, maybe he is still pro-Shah. But another one was Chuck’s taxi driver. According to Munair, that guy wanted to blow away all three of us. Argument, all in whispers, got pretty hot. Munair thinks another minute they might’ve started blasting away at each other till Eagle-4 pumped a couple into Chuck and everybody else turned and did the same.”

“How’s Munair know all this shit?”

“He coordinates the work of the
komiteh
. All the
komiteh
. Including
Savama
.”

“Write it up,” said Rocky.

*   *   *

After a street-corner pickup, Lermontov had him driven to a safe house new to Frank. He served Stolichnaya, but no caviar.

“Your material on the takeover of the airport proved both timely and accurate. Moscow approved a modest bonus, also for your cable on the penetration of
Savak
.”

He handed Frank a letter-size envelope and poured them each a long draught of vodka. Frank hefted the envelope.

“A thousand?” he guessed.

“Correct,” said Lermontov. “You’re getting so used to your dirty pieces of silver, you don’t even have to count them anymore. That’s good.” They clinked glasses. Lermontov swallowed his vodka in a Russian gulp. Frank took a deep breath and did the same.

“You still aren’t a Russian,” said Lermontov, “but at least you try.”

*   *   *

Fearful of attracting attention anywhere in town, Frank and Munair met again at the navy’s all but deserted building on the grounds of Supreme Commander’s Headquarters.

“Representatives of the air force say they will meet with Ayatollah Khomeini after morning prayers at the Alawi Girls’ School within two days and pledge their allegiance to him,” Munair said. “If they go through with this, and I believe they will, representatives of the revolutionary
komiteh
in the army and navy will do the same.”

“How representative are the committees?”

“At this stage, all but totally.”

“There must be some who have doubts,” ventured Frank.

“Always there will be some who harbor doubts,” said Munair. “But fear will silence the doubters. Otherwise, the
komiteh
represent all. All but the most senior officers. And even some senior officers.”

“How did you hear this?”

“Of course, through my contacts with the
komiteh.
”

Frank thought of Anwar the Taller, the
Mojahedin,
and Anwar the Smarter, the doubter. Sorry, he thought. There’s two the Islamic
komiteh
don’t represent.

“Something else,” Munair hesitated, then added softly, “I have not been authorized by my contacts on the
komiteh
to tell you. But now that the danger has passed, I can speak. The head of the air force, Amir-Hossein Rabii, proposed to the other generals that the air force should shoot down the plane bringing the Imam home, or at least force it to land in a remote area where troops on the ground could safely arrest him.”

“Didn’t the generals realize what would happen if they tried anything that dumb?”

“Of course,” said Munair. “No one supported him. And the leaders of the military
komiteh
warned the Imam’s people in Paris. They were very clever. They invited over a hundred journalists from all over the world, including many Americans, to fly with the Imam aboard his plane. And they let the world know it. In any event, by that time, General Rabii could not have found enough air force personnel to carry out his craziness.”

“Thank God,” said Frank.

“Allah-o akbar,”
said Munair.

At their Jayface meeting General Merid told them that Ayatollah Khomeini, not more than an hour earlier, had named Mahdi Bazargan as head of the provisional Islamic government. Two weeks ago, Munair provided a tape on which Khomeini told religious leaders he would name Bazargan within days of his return. Now, four days after his jet set down at Meharabad, he had done so.

“I have no complaints about how soon you let me know what you know,” said Frank.

“Thank you,” said Munair.

“I only wish you would stay in touch after I leave.”

“You do not give up, do you?” said Munair.

“Do you?”

“I am a Muslim. We can never give up our faith.”

*   *   *

“How many of these places do you have?” asked Frank.

After another street-corner pickup, Lermontov had driven him to yet another safe house.

“An instructor in our training program once told a joke,” said Lermontov. “He said there are four things there’s no such thing as too many of. Too many mistresses for a Frenchman; too many drinks for an Irishman; too much money for a Jew; and too many safe houses for a KGB officer.”

Frank did not respond.

“Are you sensitive about the Irishman? Or the Jew?” Frank shrugged. “Myself,” said Lermontov, “I don’t like the part about the Jew. We Russians are far too casual about our history in that regard.”

“You aren’t alone,” said Frank.

*   *   *

Rocky and Frank sat opposite each other under the bubble. Rocky skimmed the material Lermontov had provided.

“Not much,” said Rocky.

“No,” agreed Frank. “Meeting every other day is more than we need to swap stories, but it could be less than we need if Lermontov suddenly gets the hook.”

“Anything cookin’ on that front?”

“Not since the GRU and Aeroflot guys got pulled out.”

“Good,” said Rocky. “At this point, no news may be the best news.”

“That include no news from Henry James on the mole?”

“Not a peep. But that’s his way. James expects everybody else to tell him everything they know. But he don’t tell nobody nothin’.”

“One other thing,” said Frank. He related what Munair had told him about the plans for the air force and probably other military units to make a public avowal of loyalty to Khomeini and the aborted proposal to shoot down Khomeini’s plane.

“Do a cable on the pledge of allegiance,” said Rocky, “for what it’s worth. The other’s old news. The generals used their ambassador in Washington to try to get U.S. approval from Brzezinski. You really got no need to know this, but the way I get it the basic answer was … what’s that guy in the Bible? Pontius Pilate, right? You wanna stage a coup? We wash our hands. You wanna shoot holy Khomeini’s plane outta the sky? Pass the soap.”

“Nothing I like better,” said Frank, “than peddling old news.”

“Don’t sweat it,” said Rocky, returning his attention to Lermontov’s thin material. “Your KGB buddy also asks if you checked out our new safe house.”

“Twice,” said Frank. “Tried the keys. Checked the rooms. Looks good. Except I worry about the neighborhood.”

“How come?”

“Well, it’s so American.” Frank had found the safe house on the same block as the U.S. Air Force guards’ bachelor quarters.

“Yeah, well, let’s face it. You’re not gonna be havin’ a whole lot of meets there. Maybe only one, and that one prob’ly after the shit hits the fan, so the less drivin’ through town you gotta do the better. ’Sides, I shouldn’t tell you this, ’cause the ambassador doesn’t want folks to panic, but we’ve got some emergency plans to get all the Americans together in protected compounds where we can round them up in a hurry in case we have to evacuate in a hurry. And you and Gus and a bunch of others from that part of town have reservations at a compound on that block. So when the shit hits the fan, which it will real soon, you’ll be livin’ on the same block as your safe house.”

“Sounds convenient for me,” said Frank. “But it’s a long way from Lermontov’s place.”

“Yeah, I know, but hell, he needs to get used to hangin’ out in an American neighborhood. You have any problems with the safe house, Steele’s in charge of it now. He’s also got keys.”

“Good,” said Frank.

“Your buddy also says, ‘If we can’t meet at my place some day, let’s try your new place for the next three days starting at four.’ He says he won’t be wired. But listen to this part. He says, ‘Do not forget. I am still not in America. But our penetration agent is. He may still do us harm.’”

“He’s right,” said Frank. “We bought some time, but until we get Lermontov to the States safe and sound, we aren’t out of the woods.”

“Fuck Lermontov,” said Rocky. “Until we get all of us back to the States, none of us are fucking safe.”

Not even then, thought Frank, remembering what Munair had told him about the
fatwa
that would follow him even to America.

*   *   *

Realizing they had little to discuss, General Merid had decided the Jayface team would not meet on Thursday as well as Friday. Unexpectedly, Munair showed up at Dowshan Tappeh late Thursday morning.

“You must forgive me for coming here.”

“Of course,” said Frank. He knew something important must have prompted such a breach of normal procedures. “Did you have trouble getting through the gates?”

“General Kasravi paved the way with a call to the commander of the air force. This is about the air force, you see.”

Stan Rushmore had abandoned his office to Frank on Munair’s arrival.

“Early this morning,” said Munair, “airmen in uniform demonstrated openly outside the Alawi Girls’ School in support of the Ayatollah and the Bazargan government. I came all this way to tell you because … their defiance … General Kasravi, of course, is very well informed. He contacted me through Admiral Hayati.”

“He expects trouble?”

“General Kasravi said the Bodyguard will not tolerate the defiance by the air force or by any other sector of the armed forces. He said he wanted you to know this and asked if I could contact you. I said I would try.”

“Thank you,” said Frank.

“We expect … we expect to see violence. Very soon. Military arsenals have been looted. The people, neighborhood
komiteh,
have sidearms. They have no training. But the
Mojahedin,
the
Feda’iyan,
they now have heavy weapons and they are well disciplined. And many defectors from the military now will defend the Islamic Republic.”

“Where do you expect trouble?” asked Gus.

“Here,” said Munair.

“Here?” echoed Frank.

“It could begin at the university. Bazargan speaks at the prayer meeting there tomorrow. It could be at Jaleh Square. It could be at any of the prisons or military installations. But we believe here. The
homafaran
are united, and they have won most of the air force to their side.”

“How soon?” said Frank.

Munair shrugged. “
Inshallah,
never. But perhaps much sooner.”

PART IV

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

FEBRUARY 9, 1979

Early winter dark had begun to settle in when they heard the first firing. “Is that the sound of shit hitting the fan?” said Gus, hunched over the IBM Selectric in Stan Rushmore’s office.

Heavy feet thudded down the hallway, echoing the gunfire. Frank hurried to the door in time to see Cantwell and Steele rushing outside. The treble of rockets and the bass of flares stretched the scale that accompanied the unseen battle.

Frank’s throat tightened. He took a deep breath and managed to say, “Let’s go watch.”

They stuffed papers and ribbons into the safe, locked it, and pulled on parkas and stocking caps. Outside in the frozen air, they could distinguish the crackle of automatic weapons from the thump of heavier equipment. Stuttering helicopter rotors drew their eyes to circling raptors that spat down rockets and heavy-caliber machine-gun fire. Whatever forces contended, the struggle crackled within the base’s Iranian section. Bill Steele had driven Frank through that section and out a back gate on their way to Anwar’s compound. It had seemed so tight, so disciplined, so secure then. Now chaos echoed from that quarter, and Frank wondered what direction the rebellion followed.