The Tehran Initiative (53 page)

Could be I know you for years,

As if You have been with me for centuries,

For Your strong presence,

Your now and then smiles,

Your gentle Heart,

Your sweet Voice,

Yet are touchable for me!
1

The Persian words were so evocative and fascinating. The land of Iran intrigued her, and her thoughts turned to David, as they had a thousand times that day. Was he okay? When would she hear from him again? How would he react when she told him what she knew? Would the Lord help her heart loosen its grip on thoughts of him? Marseille prayed for David as she had for years, that he would search for God and that Jesus would reveal Himself, that her old friend would open his heart to the Savior, and that Jesus would be at home in the heart of David Shirazi.

Epilogue

Ahmed Darazi brought tea to his colleagues in the command center.

The lighting was dim, the air was thick with cigarette smoke, and the atmosphere was solemn. This wasn’t going as planned, and Darazi was at a loss to know why. How many times had the Twelfth Imam promised that the Zionists would be annihilated? How many times had he said the destruction of the Jews and Christians was imminent? How many times had Darazi himself repeated those words? Why wasn’t it happening? What had gone wrong? What was more, why weren’t all the prophecies coming true? What about all the questions that Alireza Birjandi had raised? Who had the answers?

Part of Darazi felt terrified even to think such thoughts in the presence of the Mahdi, yet he couldn’t help it. His doubts were rising, though he dared not voice them. He wanted to live. It was as simple as that. Perhaps the answers would come in due course. For now, he decided, it was best to remain silent and play the servant.

That said, Hosseini was as angry as Darazi had ever seen him. The man wasn’t going off in tirades or even raising his voice at all. But he paced the room constantly, demanding more information from Defense Minister Faridzadeh and the generals around him, all of whom sat behind a bank of computers and video monitors, working the phones and gathering intelligence from the field.

The Zionists’ attack had caught them all completely by surprise, Darazi chief among them. He had been absolutely convinced that the Americans would be able to keep the Israelis in check. He had fully bought the lie on Thursday morning about Naphtali preparing to leave for the US on Friday. So had Hosseini, and Darazi guessed this largely fueled his anger.

The counterstrike was in motion, at least. They were pushing the enemy back on its heels. The Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps was firing four to six ballistic missiles at Israel every hour. The Zionists’ Arrow and Patriot systems were downing 75 to 80 percent of them, but those that were getting through were causing heavy damage in Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Ashkelon, though none had hit Jerusalem—at least not yet.

Hezbollah, meanwhile, was launching twenty to thirty rockets out of Lebanon every hour. A half dozen had hit the northern suburbs of Tel Aviv. Most were hitting Haifa, Tiberias, Nazareth, Karmiel, and Kiryat Shmona. Fires were raging in each of those cities and towns, but with so many rockets raining down on Israel’s northern tier, it was extremely difficult for fire trucks and ambulances to respond quickly, if at all.

At the same time, Hamas terrorists in Gaza were launching forty to fifty rocket and mortar attacks an hour against the Jews living along the southern tier in places like Ashdod, Ashkelon, Beersheva, and Sderot. Even the community of Rehovot, south of Tel Aviv, had been hit by several Iranian-made Grad missiles.

But Darazi could see it was not nearly enough for the Twelfth Imam, meditating alone in the corner, quiet and contemplative. The Mahdi had not said anything for several hours. Nor had Darazi seen him eat or drink anything in more than two days. It was fitting, Darazi guessed, for the Promised One to be consumed in prayer and fasting, but the silence was unnerving.

Suddenly, without warning, the Mahdi opened his eyes. “Jazini. Where is he?”

“He went to check on the status of the Intelligence Ministry,” Faridzadeh said. “He should be back in about an hour.”

“Call him now,” the Mahdi ordered. “He has news.”

“How can we, my Lord?” Faridzadeh asked. “We’re only using landlines right now, and as I said, he’s out in the city.”

“Get him by satellite phone,” the Mahdi insisted. “Just get him now.”

“My Lord, please do not be angry, but we’re concerned that those phones might be compromised after what happened when Javad met Reza Tabrizi.”

“Nonsense,” the Mahdi said. “I talked to Javad myself yesterday. He said Tabrizi saved his life. Now get me Jazini, and put him on speakerphone.”

Darazi watched as one of the defense minister’s aides connected Faridzadeh’s satphone to a line running up through the bunker to a satellite dish on the roof. A moment later, General Jazini was on the line for everyone in the command center to hear.

“I was praying, and your face came before me, Mohsen,” the Mahdi said. “Allah is with you, and you have news.”

“I do, my Lord,” Jazini said breathlessly. “I was going to wait and bring you the news in person, but is it okay to speak on this line?”

“Of course. Now speak, my son.”

“Yes, my Lord. I have good news—we have two more warheads.”

“Nuclear?”

“Yes, two have survived the attacks.”

“How?” the Mahdi asked. “Which ones?”

“The ones Tariq Khan was working on. The ones in Khorramabad.”

“What happened?”

“The moment Khan went missing, the head of security at the Khorramabad facility feared for the safety of the warheads,” Jazini said. “He feared Khan might be working for the Zionists. Since the warheads weren’t yet attached to the missiles, he decided to move them out of his facility and hide them elsewhere. I just spoke to him. He’s safe. The warheads are safe.”

The Mahdi stood and closed his eyes. “I thank you, Allah, for you have given us another chance to strike.”

Acknowledgments

It’s an honor to publish another book with such a great team of people, and I’m deeply thankful to Mark Taylor, Jeff Johnson, Ron Beers, Karen Watson, Jeremy Taylor, Jan Stob, Cheryl Kerwin, Dean Renninger, Beverly Rykerd, and the incredible team at Tyndale House Publishers.

Thanks to Scott Miller, my excellent agent and good friend at Trident Media Group.

Thanks to my loving family—my mom and dad, Len and Mary Jo Rosenberg; June “Bubbe” Meyers; the entire Meyers family; the Rebeizes; the Scomas; and the Urbanskis.

Thanks, too, to my dear friends Edward and Kailea Hunt, Tim and Carolyn Lugbill, Steve and Barb Klemke, Fred and Sue Schwien, Tom and Sue Yancy, John and Cheryl Moser, Jeremy and Angie Grafman, Nancy Pierce, Jeff and Naomi Cuozzo, Lance and Angie Emma, Lucas and Erin Edwards, Chung and Farah Woo, Dr. T. E. Koshy and family, and all our allies with The Joshua Fund and November Communications, Inc.

And thanks especially to my best friend and awesome wife, Lynn, and our four wonderful sons, Caleb, Jacob, Jonah, and Noah. I love you guys so much and I love the adventure the Lord has us all on together!

About the Author

Joel C. Rosenberg is the
New York Times
best-selling author of six novels—
The Last Jihad
,
The Last Days
,
The Ezekiel Option
,
The Copper Scroll
,
Dead Heat,
and
The Twelfth Imam
—and two nonfiction books,
Epicenter
and
Inside the Revolution
, with some 2 million total copies in print.
The Ezekiel Option
received the Gold Medallion award as the “Best Novel of 2006” from the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association. Joel is the producer of two documentary films based on his nonfiction books. He is also the founder of The Joshua Fund, a nonprofit educational and charitable organization to mobilize Christians to “bless Israel and her neighbors in the name of Jesus” with food, clothing, medical supplies, and other humanitarian relief.

As a communications advisor, Joel has worked with a number of U.S. and Israeli leaders, including Steve Forbes, Rush Limbaugh, Natan Sharansky, and Benjamin Netanyahu. As an author, he has been interviewed on hundreds of radio and TV programs, including ABC’s
Nightline
,
CNN Headline News
, FOX News Channel, The History Channel, MSNBC,
The Rush Limbaugh Show
,
The Sean Hannity Show
, and
Glenn Beck
. He has been profiled by the
New York Times
, the
Washington Times
, the
Jerusalem Post
, and
World
magazine. He has addressed audiences all over the world, including those in Israel, Iraq, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Russia, and the Philippines. He has also spoken at the White House, the Pentagon, and to members of Congress.

In 2008, Joel designed and hosted the first Epicenter Conference in Jerusalem. The event drew two thousand Christians who wanted to “learn, pray, give, and go” to the Lord’s work in Israel and the Middle East. Subsequent Epicenter Conferences have been held in San Diego (2009); Manila, Philippines (2010); and Philadelphia (2010). The live webcast of the Philadelphia conference drew some thirty-four thousand people from more than ninety countries to listen to speakers such as Israeli Vice Prime Minister Moshe Yaalon; pastors from the U.S., Israel, and Iran; Lt. General (ret.) Jerry Boykin; Kay Arthur; Janet Parshall; Tony Perkins; and Mosab Hassan Yousef, the son of one of the founders of Hamas who has renounced Islam and terrorism and become a follower of Jesus Christ and a friend of both Israelis and Palestinians.

The son of a Jewish father and a Gentile mother, Joel is an evangelical Christian with a passion to make disciples of all nations and teach Bible prophecy. A graduate of Syracuse University with a BFA in filmmaking, he is married, has four sons, and lives near Washington, DC.

To visit Joel’s weblog—or sign up for his free weekly “Flash Traffic” e-mails—please visit www.joelrosenberg.com.

Please also visit these other websites:

www.joshuafund.net

www.epicenterconference.com

and Joel’s “Epicenter Team” and the Joel C. Rosenberg public profile page on Facebook.