The Temple Mount Code

45

Lourds hated the handcuffs pinning his hands behind his back. He tried to find a comfortable position for them and couldn’t. The fact that he couldn’t see through the blindfold bothered him tremendously as well. ‘I think the handcuffs are too tight. My hands are going numb.’

The two men in the front seats and the two men beside him in the back of the car didn’t say anything.

‘Did you hear me?’

‘Professor Lourds, you must be patient. If this ruse is to work, you must play your part.’

Lourds tried to focus on that. He was playing a part. He wasn’t really a prisoner. They were just faking it. But that fact kept rattling around in his head and wouldn’t leave him alone either.

‘How are you going to fake your way around the guards at the prison? They know the personnel there. There are checkpoints. Identifications.’

‘Let us worry about that.’

That was easy to say. Those men weren’t sitting in the backseat handcuffed and blindfolded. ‘No matter how good your forgeries are, they won’t be good enough.’

‘I think we should have gagged him as well.’ That was from the driver, but the other two men joined him in laughing.

The laughter didn’t sound quite right, though. It was thin and strained. Lourds thought back to all the James Bond films he’d seen. Every time 007 penetrated a villain’s secret base under false pretenses, he was always caught. Bond was a lethal secret agent, though, and the script was always written in his favor. Lourds’s blood felt like it was about to congeal in his veins.

‘Reza really didn’t have time to tell me much about you people when he introduced us. Shortly after that, you put me in handcuffs and the blindfold, and told me we were going to the prison.’

The car slowed.

‘Please be silent, Professor Lourds. You are supposed to be a prisoner. Prisoners are either scared silent or they whine incessantly about their innocence.’

‘I do not care for whining.’ That was the driver again.

The passenger snorted with laughter.

Lourds lifted an eyebrow and tried to peer under the blindfold. All he could make out was the car window, the darkness beyond, and the pool of light ahead.

A moment later, the car rolled to a gentle stop. Footsteps crunched on gravel, and the driver rolled his window down.

‘Sediq, back again?’ The greeting came from outside the car.

‘I am, Hamid. God was watching over us tonight. We found the professor Colonel Davari is searching for.’ That came from the driver.

A flashlight beam shone in Lourds’s face, and it was bright enough to hurt his blindfolded eyes. He closed them and felt all hope leaving his body. Reza had tricked him. Something must have happened, for Lourds had believed the young man about his lost love.

‘So this is the famous Professor Lourds.’

‘Yes.’

‘The colonel will be very glad to see him. You will probably get a bonus for this.’

‘I hope so.’

‘How did you find him?’

‘We were having dinner at a restaurant. This fool walked in tired and hungry and scared.’

‘Did you let him eat?’

‘No.’

‘Too bad. A condemned man should have a last meal.’

Lourds tried to swallow, but his mouth was dry. He’d been such a fool for trusting Reza. Then again, he couldn’t really blame the young man. He hadn’t asked for Lourds to dump the story on him. He’d only been protecting his best interests. If the roles had been reversed, Lourds didn’t know if he would have risked his neck to save someone viewed as a criminal in his country.

‘Proceed, Sediq, and if the colonel sees fit to bless you with a bonus, remember who your friends are.’

‘Always, Hamid.’

Metal shrieked, and Lourds imagined the big metal gates parting in front of the car. Then they drove through.

In the darkness beyond the security lights surrounding Evin Prison, Mufarrij lay on his stomach and watched the car entering the security gates. He trained his night-vision binoculars on the car’s occupants, missing Lourds in the backseat the first time because of the blindfold and the fact that the man wasn’t wearing his ugly hat.

But there was no doubt that it was the American professor.

Mufarrij tapped the radio’s transmit button on his bulletproof vest. ‘Be advised, the American is inside the prison. We will give them twenty minutes to put him away. Then we’re going in.’

His teams quickly checked in and confirmed the order.

Moving as gracefully as a leopard, Mufarrij rose to his feet. Staying hunkered over, he trotted to the back of the prison and joined the team at the rear corner. They’d taken out the perimeter guards to climb the outer wall, but that wouldn’t go unnoticed for long. Thankfully, it didn’t have to. God willing, Davari would detain Lourds in the same area as the woman.

He ran his hands over the AK-47 he carried, trailed them over the pistols he had belted at his waist and chest, and checked his watch once more.

The countdown was ticking down. He felt loose and ready, and he was going to kill as many of his enemies as he could.

Tonight, there would be no mercy.

‘Okay, time to go.’ The man to Lourds’s right caught his elbow and tugged.

Awkwardly, Lourds got out of the car and stood awaiting other orders. His mind raced, and he wondered what he was going to do. Living to see the morning seemed suddenly optimistic.

Then the man holding him removed the handcuffs. ‘I need you to keep playing the game, Professor. Do you understand?’

‘Yes.’

‘Do not talk. Just listen.’

‘You people are really guards here, aren’t you?’

The man slapped the back of Lourds’s head. ‘Shut up, or you will get us all killed. As for who we are, we are men who believe democracy is the only way for our country. We must get rid of the Ayatollah. Tonight, we are risking our lives because Reza tells us you can help make that happen.’

‘I will. Are you going to take off the blindfold, too?’

‘Shut up. The blindfold stays in place. You are supposed to be a prisoner. We are not supposed to be nice to you.’

‘Okay.’

The man sighed.

‘Sorry.’

‘I am putting a pistol in your waistband. Do you know how to use a pistol?’

‘I’m not really a gun guy.’

‘Would you prefer a knife?’

‘Not a knife guy either.’

‘Then what?’

‘Pick a language. I’ll conjugate any verb you want so fast it will make your head spin.’

‘You must be fun at parties.’

‘Ones where munitions aren’t involved? You bet.’

Something cold and hard and heavy slid into the back of Lourds’s pants. It was a decidedly uncomfortable feeling.

‘All right. We are taking you inside. We should be able to get you back to where your friend is.’

Lourds nodded.

‘Start walking.’

As he moved in step with the man, guided by the hand on his elbow, Lourds tried not to think of what these men had probably done while they’d been guards at the prison. They were Reza’s friends. They were helping him save Miriam.

Please let her still be alive and whole.

Lourds walked, sensing as the lights changed around him. He remained silent as his ‘captors’ filled out the necessary forms and passed through the checkpoints. He still didn’t know how the men hoped to get him and Miriam back out of the prison even though they were guards there. Doubtless Miriam was under lock and key, and Lourds would be as well.

He only hoped Lev’s book was still in the air duct at the hotel. Surely, the Revolutionary Guards would have sent someone to search the room after he’d left.

And he still had to get Namati’s al-Buraq figurine.

One thing at a time. Just stay alive, and you’ll figure out a way.

Only a short distance farther on, after passing though after a half dozen turns and two more electronic gates, the man next to Lourds removed the blindfold.

‘Be ready. And when you must, shoot to kill.’

‘When? Not if?’

The man didn’t reply. He took out his sidearm and drew back the action. Then he freed a knife with a curved blade.

Walking a bit farther, they paused at an office. One of the other men unfolded a sheaf of papers and handed them to a guard sitting at a desk, watching security monitors. ‘Your lucky night, I see. The colonel will be happy to see your prisoner, Foad.’ The man flipped one of the pages as Foad stepped behind him. A knife flashed briefly in Foad’s hand as he slit the security man’s throat.

Lourds stood there frozen, not believing the cold-blooded killing he’d just witnessed.

Foad grabbed the dying man’s hair and shoved his face into the desk, preventing him from standing and fighting in the small room. Crimson sprayed over the desk and the monitors.

‘Go, Adan!’

‘God be with you, Foad.’ The man holding Lourds’s arm tugged him into motion. They rounded another corner. A uniformed guard stood in front of a door. He looked over at them and yawned, then smiled and waved.

Without a word, Adan left Lourds and took a step toward the man and drove his knife up under the guard’s jaw. The blade slid through the soft palate and into the man’s brain. He died as he was falling.

Horrified, Lourds watched as Adan grabbed the dead man’s radio earbud and an electronic key from the dead man’s pocket. Adan shoved the key into the door’s reader and waited for the light to turn green before slipping the dead bolts free. He pushed the door open and motioned Lourds inside.

Heart beating rapidly, Lourds entered the room and spotted Miriam huddled in the corner. At first he thought she was dead. Then she stood and tried to approach him. Chains mounted on the wall kept her from taking more than a few steps.

‘Thomas …’ Her voice was hoarse and ragged. Bruises marred her face, and all she wore was a pair of red panties.

Lourds went to her, not knowing what to say or do. Instantly, she wrapped her arms around him and pressed her cold body up against his. Warm tears trickled down her swollen face. Anger and sadness swelled in a knot at the back of Lourds’s throat. He turned to the two men with him. ‘Can someone get these chains off her?’

Adan dragged his kill into the dark prison cell. The other man produced a picklock set, crossed to Miriam, and got to work on her cuffs.

In a few seconds, Miriam was free. ‘You came for me.’

‘I did.’

‘I knew if anyone did, it would be you.’

Before he could reply, the dull roars of several explosions filled the prison cell.