The Increment: A Novel - By David Ignatius Page 0,113
Harry felt sorry for him, suddenly. He was an addict; he wasn’t in control of himself.
“They’re very good on the ground,” Harry continued. “Much better than anything anyone else has. And the kid trusts them. They got him across the border once, so they can do it again.”
“Adrian’s team will need local help from the Turkmen, I should think,” said Atwan. “Mashad is in their neighborhood. I would be very pleased to assist.”
“With your own people, or with the baschi? I don’t want to widen this circle any more than we have to.”
“My dear, in these matters, they are all my people. National boundaries are impermanent. Personal loyalties are not.”
“What could you do?”
“To get to Mashad, you would be wise to cross the border from Saraghs, in the eastern portion of this mercifully unpopulated nation. I have friends who can make arrangements for transport.”
“And crossing the frontier?”
“Well, guards are guards, aren’t they? A border is not an impermeable wall, but a collection of very permeable individuals. That is my specialty, I think.”
“I need all the help I can get, Mr. Atwan. I threw the sextant overboard a while ago. When we do the operational scrub tomorrow morning, you sit in with me and Adrian. We’ll make the pieces fit.”
Atwan sat back in his chair, but not magisterially. He looked uncomfortable for a moment, and Harry wasn’t certain why. This was a man who seemed supremely at ease in just about any situation. But there was something that was nagging at his conscience, if that was the right word. Eventually he took a long pull on his whiskey and spoke up.
“Your Iranian friend, the young scientist, do you plan on getting him out again?”
“Yes,” said Harry. “Absolutely. That’s a requirement.”
Atwan measured Harry, at the same time weighing a question of his own.
“But that will be quite difficult, won’t it? It will be hard enough to get him back into Iran, but it can be done. It will be hard to get him access to Mashad, but it can be done. Yet surely, my friend, at some point the alarm bells will go off. A nuclear scientist goes missing. Foreign spies running about the country on secret missions. I am sorry, but at some point the music stops.”
“They don’t know Dr. Molavi is missing yet. They think he went home sick, and it’s still the weekend. By the time they’ve gone looking for him, it will be too late. He will have done his dirty work in Mashad, and he’ll be out.”
“But the Iranian investigators are already suspicious of him. Didn’t you tell me that? He has been called in for talks. People know about him.”
Harry looked at Atwan curiously. He was sure he hadn’t discussed anything Molavi had said about interrogation during the debriefing that morning. Atwan could see the suspicion in his eyes, and he eased back in his tone.
“Never mind. But my point is, wouldn’t it be more prudent to plan on the likelihood that this young man will be caught. That way, if it happens, you won’t bring the whole operation crashing down on you if he falls.”
“No,” said Harry. There was a surprising passion in his voice. “I hate sending this boy in. We will do everything to get him out alive. He is not expendable. He has put his life in our hands—in my hands—and I am not going to let him down. I feel about him as if…as if it were a personal commitment. I will not compromise on that.”
“I see,” said Atwan. Nobody spoke for a while. It was late, and they needed to begin briefing Jackie and Jeremy and the team on what would begin to unfold the next day.
As Harry stood to leave, Atwan took his hand and pulled him toward him in something like a hug. It wasn’t easy, for Harry was such a big man, and Atwan was small and refined. But he took Harry in his arms, and held him for a long while before he let him go.
“It is a pleasure to work with you, Mr. Pappas,” said the Lebanese, using Harry’s real name for the first time. “And I am very sorry about the loss of your son in Iraq.”
When Harry returned to the safe house late that night, he asked Jeremy, the SIS duty officer, to call Jackie’s room. He wanted to talk with her, but he didn’t want to knock on her door and risk finding Adrian there, humping his warrior goddess on the antique