The Last Run

CHAPTER TEN

Shirazi stared at the flickering image on the video monitor, the live feed of the hallway outside the apartment, watched as the woman made her way carefully along the hall, her pace measured as she passed each door in turn. If he didn't know what he was looking at, he could believe she was simply lost and trying to find her way.

Then she saw the chalk marks, turning away from the camera, to look at the door to the apartment opposite where Shirazi and Zahabzeh now sat, and she knocked, and Hossein answered. She had him muzzled and inside so quickly, Shirazi was certain that if he had dared to blink, he would have missed it.

He motioned to the technician to his right, showed him two fingers, and there was the softest click of a button, and the image on the screen flickered and changed, now showing the interior of Hossein's apartment. On his left, he heard Zahabzeh inhale slowly through his nose, struggling against his desire to speak. Shirazi turned his head from the monitor, saw that Zahabzeh was looking at him, the question clear in his expression.

Shirazi shook his head, and Zahabzeh's mouth twitched, fighting off a frown.

Both men turned their attention back to the monitor.

The woman hadn't moved at all, still holding Hossein silent against the wall, so still that Shirazi could imagine the video was malfunctioning, that the image was no longer live but frozen, a moment trapped in time. The angle for this camera was such that he couldn't see her face, and the lack of appropriate illumination washed all color into shadow. Even if it hadn't, the maqna'e she wore concealed her hair.

It didn't matter. Shirazi knew who she was, and it took all of his self-control to keep from displaying the relief he felt at seeing Tara Chace, at knowing she was less than ten meters away from him. SIS had cut it close, had cut it very close. Another day and Hossein's absence would have been noted. A day more, it would have been inexplicable. Even now, Shirazi knew there wasn't much time left to him.

On the screen, the woman moved her hand from Hossein's mouth, speaking. Zahabzeh reached for the headphones running from the monitor, but Shirazi put his hand out, stopping him. There was no need, and despite knowing better, he feared that listening in might somehow, someway, reveal an unintended noise of their own.

Now the woman stepped back, and Hossein moved quickly down the hall, into the little room that served as the apartment's main living space. Shirazi showed the technician three fingers, but it was unnecessary, and even before he had done so the camera changed to the one placed on the far wall of Hossein's apartment, the one that granted the best view of the room. The woman had followed Hossein at a distance, staying in the mouth of the hallway, and Shirazi thought that was smart of her, that she was blocking the only exit, in case her defector suddenly tried to run.

But Hossein wouldn't run, not after waiting a week to prove his innocence to Shirazi, and by extension, to his uncle. He had already gathered up his meager belongings, one small satchel, and now the woman came forward and took him by the elbow. For a moment light and lens united, and Shirazi could see her face clearly, the look of concentration and focus, the restless eyes sweeping past the hidden camera. Despite himself, he smiled.

Then she was guiding Hossein back down the hallway, to the door, still holding him by the elbow, and the camera flickered, changed back once more to the very first position, and there she was, emerging with Hossein. They moved briskly to the stairs, then out of shot, and Shirazi wondered at how quickly she had taken control of Hossein. Even if Hossein hadn't been told to go with her, to do what she said, Shirazi doubted he would've been able to resist. Her presence had commanded him from the moment she had entered his apartment and taken his voice, and Shirazi had to wonder how long it would last.

Zahabzeh started to open his mouth, but Shirazi shook his head again, then carefully got out of his seat and moved to the window that overlooked the alley. With two fingers, he pulled the curtain back enough to look down, just in time to see the woman load Hossein into the Samand parked there. She moved to the driver's door, took one last, quick look around to all sides, and Shirazi let the curtains close before she could look up, as she had done when she'd first arrived. The glare from the light below had spared him there, and the move on her part had surprised him. In his experience, most people forgot to look up.

He listened for the sound of the car starting, waited until it pulled away, and only then was he willing to speak.

"Very well done," Shirazi said, aware that the others in the room, Zahabzeh and the technician and another one of the guards, would think he was praising them. "Farzan, get Javed."

Zahabzeh nodded and all but ran from the room.

"Break it down," Shirazi told the others. "We're done here. Leave no signs in either apartment."

Murmurs of assent, and Shirazi watched to make certain the two men were absorbed in their task, quickly disassembling the surveillance equipment, before he allowed his body to relax. Just for a moment, just for an instant, while nobody was watching; a moment of peace, a breath of relief.

Still far to go before this would be over, Shirazi knew. But now, at least, all the pieces were on the board, on his board, and that meant they were under his control, even if some of them did not yet know it.

Zahabzeh returned, Javed following close behind.

"It's placed?" Shirazi asked.

"Yes, sir," Javed said. "After she rounded the corner, I fixed one device to the rear bumper, as directed, and placed a second inside the car, beneath the driver's seat, just to be sure."

"Check them," Shirazi said, only to see that Zahabzeh was already doing so, the small GPS tracker in his hand.

"Good signal on one," Zahabzeh told him. He twisted the dial on the side, pressed the black button at the center of the unit. "And good signal on two."

"And Hossein's?"

"Still reading strong. If she takes him anywhere from here to Delhi, we'll know about it and be able to find them."

"I doubt she'll take him that far. Which direction is she heading?"

"North." Zahabzeh paused. "Not very quickly."

"Traffic. She's using the traffic to make certain they're not being followed, and that is why we use this method instead, Farzan, you see?"

"Yes, sir."

Shirazi rolled his shoulders, attempting to work some of the stiffness and tension that had settled in them free. "We have some time now. Come, let's get a cup of tea while the others clean up." In the coffeehouse, the same coffeehouse where Hossein had met the thin British tourist who hadn't been a tourist at all, Shirazi and Zahabzeh sipped their cups of chay. Caleb Lewis had surprised him, Shirazi had to admit. Of all the new members of the British mission in Iran who had come in replacement of the old, he had been ready to dismiss Lewis as a possible replacement for Ricks. If it hadn't been for the constant surveillance on Hossein, it was likely Lewis would have remained unidentified as SIS for months to come.

"I do not understand why we didn't take her in the apartment," Zahabzeh said.

"You don't close the snare when the rabbit has only put his nose in, Farzan." Shirazi allowed himself a smile. "You wait until his whole head is in the noose."

"But we have identified at least one other, Lewis, from the embassy. Surely if we were to arrest either of them, we would get everything we could want to know from their interrogation."

"Perhaps, yes. But if this new agent can lead us to the larger network, if she can reveal all of their spies to us without ever meaning to, is that not better? There must be a plan to get Hossein out of the country, Farzan. We do not know how many people are involved, how much help she has."

"I just worry that we'll miss our opportunity."

"A concern I share, believe me. But we must balance what we have with what we may gain. The more we uncover of their network, the better."

"Yes. Yes, I agree." Zahabzeh looked into his empty cup, then up at Shirazi. "So now we follow them?"

"Until they have revealed all of their secrets," Shirazi confirmed.