Joel C. Rosenberg - The Tehran Initiative

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The Tehran Initiative

Copyright 2011 by Joel C. Rosenberg. All rights reserved.

Cover photograph copyright Tibor Bognar/Photononstop/Photolibrary. All rights reserved.

Author photograph copyright 2005 by Joel Rosenberg. All rights reserved.

Designed by Dean H. Renninger

Some Scripture quotations and words of Jesus are taken or adapted from the New American Standard Bible, copyright 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

This novel is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data to come]

Rosenberg, Joel C., date.

The Tehran initiative / Joel C. Rosenberg.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-4143-1935-3 (hc)

1. Intelligence officersUnited StatesFiction. 2. Nuclear warfarePreventionFiction.

3. International relationsFiction. 4. ProphecyIslamFiction. 5. IranFiction. 6. Middle EastFiction. I. Title.

PS3618.O832T44 2011

813'.6dc23 2011026051

ISBN 978-1-4143-6492-6 (International Trade Paper Edition)

To all our friends in Iran and the Middle East, yearning to be free.

Authors Note

Tehran, Iran, is one and a half hours ahead of Jerusalem and eight and a half hours ahead of New York and Washington, DC.

Cast of Characters

Americans

David Shirazi (aka Reza Tabrizi)field officer, Central Intelligence Agency

Marseille Harper childhood friend of David Shirazi; daughter of CIA operative Charlie Harper

Jack Zalinsky senior operative, Central Intelligence Agency

Eva Fischer field officer, Central Intelligence Agency

Roger Allen director, Central Intelligence Agency

Tom Murray deputy director for operations, Central Intelligence Agency

Dr. Mohammad Shirazi cardiologist, father of David Shirazi

Nasreen Shirazi mother of David Shirazi

William Jackson president of the United States

Mike Bruner Secret Service agent, assigned to President Jackson

Iranians

Dr. Alireza Birjandi preeminent scholar of Shia Islamic eschatology

Najjar Malik former physicist, Atomic Energy Organization of Iran

Javad Nouri senior governmental aide

Ayatollah Hamid Hosseini Supreme Leader

Ahmed Darazi president of Iran

Jalal Zandi nuclear physicist

Firouz Nouri leader of an Iranian terrorist cell

Rahim Yazidi member of Firouz Nouris cell

Navid Yazidi member of Firouz Nouris cell

Ali Faridzadeh minister of defense

Mohsen Jazini commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps

Dr. Mohammed Saddaji nuclear physicist (deceased)

Israelis

Asher Naphtali prime minister of Israel

Levi Shimon defense minister

Captain Avi Yaron commander, Israeli Air Force squadron

Captain Yossi Yaron commander, Israeli Air Force squadron

Others

Muhammad Ibn Hasan Ibn Ali the Twelfth Imam

Tariq Khan Pakistani nuclear physicist, working in Iran

Iskander Farooq president of Pakistan

Abdel Mohammad Ramzy president of Egypt

Preface

from The Twelfth Imam

Tehran, Iran

Tuesday, March 1

David Shirazi wondered if theyd even make it to the safe house in Karaj.

As he inched forward in Tehrans stop-and-go traffic toward Azadi Square, he saw the flashing lights of police cars ahead. Despite the roar of jumbo jets and cargo planes landing at Mehrabad International Airport, he could hear sirens approaching. Beside him sat Dr. Najjar Malik, the highest-ranking nuclear scientist in the Islamic Republic of Iran and the most valuable defector to the Central Intelligence Agency in a generation.

Theyre setting up a roadblock, David said.

Najjar stiffened. Then we need to get off this road.

David agreed. The problem was that every side street from here to the square was clogged with hundreds of other drivers trying to find their way around the logjam as well.

Were going to have to get rid of this car.

Why? What for?

The moment a police officer runs these license plates, hes going to come up with your name. We dont want to be in the car when that happens.

Without warning, David pulled the steering wheel hard to the right. He darted across two lanes of traffic, triggering a wave of angry honks.

Under no circumstances could he allow himself to get caught or implicated in the extraction of Najjar from the country. To do either would blow his cover and compromise all the work hed done. The Twelfth Imams inner circle would never use the new satellite phones hed just provided them. The MDS technical teams would be thrown out of the country. The CIAs multimillion-dollar effort to penetrate the Iranian regime would be ruined. And given that Iran now had the Bomb, the CIA needed every advantage it could possibly get.

David heard a siren behind them. He cursed as he glanced in his rearview mirror and saw flashing lights about ten cars back. He guessed that a police cruiser had spotted his rapid and reckless exit from Azadi Road and gotten suspicious. Najjar, cooler than David would have expected under the circumstances, bowed his head and began to pray. David admired his courage. The worse things got, the calmer the man became.

The siren and flashing lights were getting closer. David turned the wheel, jumped the curb, pulled Najjars car off the congested street and onto the sidewalk, and hit the accelerator. Pedestrians started screaming and diving out of the way as David plowed through trash cans. The police cruiser was left in the dust, and David let himself smile.

The escape, however, was momentary. By the time they reached Qalani Street and took a hard left, another police cruiser was waiting. David wove in and out of traffic, but despite blowing through one light after another, he was steadily losing ground. Najjar was not praying anymore. He was craning his neck to see what was happening behind them and urging David to go faster. The road ahead was coming to an end. David suggested Najjar grab the door handle and brace for impact.

Why? Najjar asked at the last moment. What are you going to do?

David never answered. Instead, he slammed on the brakes and turned the steering wheel hard to the right, sending the car screeching and spinning across four lanes of traffic.

They were hit twice. The first was by the police cruiser itself. The second was by a southbound delivery truck that never saw them coming. The air bags inside Najjars car exploded upon impact, saving their lives but filling the vehicle with smoke and fumes. But theirs was not the only collision. In less than six seconds, David had triggered a seventeen-car pileup on Azizi Boulevard, shutting down traffic in all directions.

David quickly unfastened his seat belt. You okay? he asked.

Are we still alive?

We are, David said, checking his new friend for serious injuries. We made it.

Are you insane?

We needed a diversion.

David couldnt get out his own door. It had been too badly mangled. So he climbed into the backseat, which was littered with shards of broken glass, and kicked out the back passenger-side door. He jumped out of the car and surveyed the scene. It was a terrible mess in both directions.