The Disciple

CHAPTER SIX

When I left the embassy the following evening, I picked up a tail. Actually, two of them, working as a team. I made no attempt to lose them; I went to my hotel.

Before I do

I put on my ru

I began jogging, warming up, working up a sweat. No matter how many times you have been followed, every time it happens your mind starts racing. These guys tried to follow me by ru

And why today? Why right after Jake Grafton talked to Professor Azari?

The problem with the spy business is that nothing can be taken at face value.

I ran six miles and ended up back at the hotel. After a short walk to cool down, I went in, got a shower and headed for the dining room.

The next day I again talked to Grafton on the encrypted satellite telephone. “Rostram and Azari have exchanged e-mails,” he said. “Azari advised him to cooperate. He didn’t tell him to-he advised him. Don’t know if that nuance is important, but it implies volumes.”

“Okay.”

“Be careful, Tommy!”

“Right.”

That evening no one followed me when I ran. Go figure.

Just in case, I ran to the central bazaar and ducked into one of the myriad of alleys lined by booths. Three turns later, I came out the south side of the bazaar amid a nice crowd. As soon as I could, I began jogging again.

Now you may think I am some kind of exercise nut, but there was method in my madness. The faster the rabbit, the more difficult he is to follow. Sure, every now and then the security apparatus could mount a major effort to keep me under surveillance, but I had been ru

Of course, there was always last night. Why last night, and not tonight?

What game were they playing?

If I stayed in this business long enough, I was going to wind up a jibbering idiot.

William Wilkins took Jake Grafton with him when he went to the White House to brief the president and National Security Adviser Jurgen Schulz. Sal Molina met the two CIA officers and escorted them to the Oval Office, where the president and Schulz were deep in conversation. Molina closed the door behind him and dropped into a chair near the door.

After everyone shook hands and found a chair, Wilkins got right to it. He briefed them on the incident in the Strait of Hormuz and let them read the Op Immediate message from the task force commander.

“So we lost an F/A-18 and pilot?”

“Yes.”

“A provocation,” the president said softly. “Or an attempt to make the Americans turn on their ALQ-199s,” Jake Grafton said.

“Did they?”

“The admiral was instructed to report it if they did. He didn’t mention it.”

Wilkins removed some satellite photos from his briefcase and spread them on the president’s desk. “Iran is pla

“They’ve tested missiles before,” Schulz remarked.

The president picked up a photo, looked at it, then passed it to Schulz and reached for another. “When?”

“Soon. Within days, we think. They have at least one long-range missile on a launcher, a thing they call the Shahab-3. There are also four intermediate-range missiles, Shahab-2s, and four short-range ones, Shahab-1s. As Dr. Schulz noted, they have shot missiles before, but never nine at once.”

“President Ahmadinejad has a trip pla

“How accurate are the missiles?” the president asked.

“These things are derivations of the old Soviet Scud missiles. The Scuds were short range and wildly inaccurate, but an adequate delivery vehicle for a nuclear warhead. With conventional explosives in the warheads, the Syrians were lucky to hit Israel with the things. From Iran…”

“Have the Iranians updated the guidance systems?” Schulz asked pointedly.

“Probably,” Wilkins said, “but we have no hard evidence.”

“Another guess,” Schulz said, his disgust evident.

“Dr. Schulz-” Wilkins began, but the president cut him off with a gesture.

“What is the range of the Shahab-3?” the president said.

“About twelve hundred miles. Yes, it will reach Israel. And Iraq, and the oil facilities throughout the region, and our air bases in Arabia. It will even reach our bases in Turkey.”

“Terrific,” the president muttered.

“The Patriot system that we have supplied to Israel is designed to knock these things down,” Jurgen Schulz noted.

Wilkins glanced at Jake. “Admiral?”

“A nuclear warhead can be designed to detonate if the delivery missile changes course and speed unexpectedly, which would happen if it is hit by a Patriot missile,” Jake said. “It can also be designed to be ejected from the delivery vehicle so that it free-falls to a preset altitude before it detonates, thereby maximizing damage to surface installations. Destroy the buildings, kill all the people, and so on. And let’s not kid ourselves-the Patriot system is designed for close-in missile defense. Patriot is a last-ditch defense weapon, and it is not perfect-no weapons system is. Some percentage of Patriot’s targets will always escape destruction.”

The silence that followed that statement was broken when the president said to Schulz, “We better start talking to the Israelis.”

“We are talking to them.”

“Talk harder.”

“Do you intend to brief the congressional leadership about this?” Molina asked.

The president mulled it over. “Jurgen, why don’t you go over to the Hill today and see the chairman of the House and Senate committees? I don’t want to blindside them on this.”

Schulz frowned. “Congressman Luvara has been stating publicly that he can’t see why we should worry about Iran getting the bomb when the Israelis have it.”

“If he makes a crack like that to you,” the president said, “suggest that he plan to spend his next vacation in Tel Aviv. Maybe when he’s sitting on Ahmadinejad’s bull’s-eye he’ll see the problem.”

“What he’s really questioning is our commitment to Israel,” Schulz shot back.

“I know that,” the president said. He leaned back in his chair and rubbed his forehead. “The issue is larger than that, though. Will we honor our commitments to all our allies-Britain, France, Germany, Japan, Australia, Saudi Arabia and Israel?”

“Taiwan,” Sal Molina interjected.

“And South Korea,” the president said heavily. “Well, Luvara is a problem for another day.”

He leaned forward, folded his forearms on his desk and scrutinized the faces of the men before him. “The hell of it is that Ahmadinejad knows beyond a shadow of a doubt that the United States will not let him wipe Israel off the face of the earth and get away with it.”