City of Whispering Stone

by George C. Chesbro

  “But why should your father—” I broke off in mid-sentence; it isn’t polite to question the motives of the father of the man who’s just saved your life.

  Mehdi smiled wryly. “It’s true that my father is a very rich man; but even rich men sometimes have ideals. My father has always known that he’s a member of a very small minority. He loves our land and its people. He believes in Iran, and he believes that it can again be great—but only with a representative government. He’s one of the men who originally took from the land—as was Darius. Now my father is paying his debt. In short, my father believes in freedom and he taught me his lesson well.”

  “You didn’t know about the bug in my clothing.”

  “That’s right,” he said thickly. “My ignorance cost Darius his life.”

  Now things were dropping into place like tumblers in a combination lock. The pieces of the puzzle were finally coming together, in living color and right side up. I whistled softly, admiringly. “If I can still count right, you come out a triple agent. Ali and the members of the Confederation think you’re a student leader, the SAVAK thinks you’re one of them, while the bottom line is that you’re GEM. Obviously, you didn’t want to go back to the United States. You made sure you left a clear trail when you flew out, and it was Darius who tipped John Simpson on how to pick it up.”

  “Yes. We gambled on the possibility that Ali would hire a private detective if I didn’t return, so I left a letterhead and a plastic business card from Bannon’s company where a good investigator, working from an anonymous tip, could find them. There was also a note which looked like a reminder I’d written to myself about the plane reservation. As you’ve guessed, we wanted my role as a SAVAK agent to be exposed.”

  I thought about the letterhead and note. The papers that had led Simpson to Orrin Bannon’s operation—and brought Hassan Khordad down on his head—would have been destroyed by the water in the East River. “Then the whole idea from the beginning was to discredit you with the Confederation of Iranian Students so that you’d be forced to stay here. The problem was that Simpson was killed before he could tell Ali what he’d found out.”

  Zahedi nodded. “It looked as though I’d have to go back.”

  “Oh-oh. This sounds like where I came along.”

  “Right. But there’s no more time to talk. You have to go now. It’s almost dawn, and the desert will be hot.”

  I didn’t move. I was too close to all the answers to be in a hurry. “How long do you think your cover as a SAVAK agent is going to last?”

  “Indefinitely—assuming your cooperation. But a few weeks is all I need. Then the time for secrets will be past; the real fighting will begin.”

  “How did you fake cholera?”

  He laughed tightly, and I thought I saw him shudder. “There’s no way to fake cholera: I contracted it purposely. It was a gamble, but I was reasonably sure I’d live. We needed the time; I had to find a way to delay my return to the university. Firouz Maleki, as you know, occupied a very high post in our command structure. When he was captured we knew that the planning phase was over, and that my place was in Iran.”

  “And, of course, the SAVAK wanted to send you back to the United States because they assumed that was where the leadership was.”

  “Yes. With the private detective dead, Arsenjani considered it safe for me to return with some kind of cover story; he was quite insistent.” He paused, smiled. “Then you indeed came along. In a way, you represented GEM’s last hope for keeping me in Iran as a member of the army and the SAVAK. It was obvious that I couldn’t go back while there was even a possibility that you’d linked me to the SAVAK, and I argued—quite correctly, as it turned out—that you’d made such a connection when you killed Khordad. Then Arsenjani came up with the plan of luring you here and convincing you that Khordad, Bannon and I were GEM.” He frowned slightly, scratched his arm. “Frankly, I was surprised by his persistence in such a complicated plan. Now I believe he wanted something else from you.”

  “You heard him ask about a list of SAVAK agents. What was that all about?”

  He shrugged. “I don’t know. As I’ve told you, Arsenjani was extremely devious and trusted no one.” He paused, thought about it, let it go. “I understand the royal idiot spoke to you personally.”

  “Yeah. He had a simple solution to the whole problem; he wanted to buy me.”

  “You came down on the right side, Dr. Frederickson.”

  “It’s your war, not mine, Mehdi,” I said quietly. “I just couldn’t stand the thought of all that financial security. Who ever heard of a rich dwarf? People wouldn’t take me seriously.”

  He smiled thinly. “I think I understand.”

  “That was some improvisation you did up there on the mountain. And I think I know what it cost you. Unless dumdum bullets are standard army issue, I think I know how you felt when Darius was killed.”

  Zahedi said nothing. I hauled myself to my feet with a groan. I was still wobbly, but I knew I was going to make it. I didn’t know whether Garth could yet forgive me for Neptune’s death; but at least he was alive, and that was enough to put life into my legs.

  “You killed Maleki when you came to interrogate him, didn’t you?” I asked, looking up at the mountain.

  When he didn’t answer, I looked back at him; he seemed years older. He slowly nodded. “Firouz held out until I arrived. Shortly after that, I managed … to help him commit suicide.” His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. “He knew the risks from the beginning. When the time came, he was willing to pay the price of his commitment.”

  “You fellows play a rough game, Mehdi.”

  “There’s a lot at stake.”

  “And a tricky one, if you’ll allow an understatement.”

  “We’ve had centuries of practice,” he said wryly.

  “Ali Azad really doesn’t know anything at all about this, does he?”

  “No, and I can assure you that I’ll be a dead man if he finds out what I’m really doing. He must believe that I am what you thought me to be up until a few minutes ago—a SAVAK agent.”

  “Ali is an informer?”

  “Ali isn’t, but almost a quarter of the membership of the Confederation is, including the girl, Anna. That’s why it was so easy for the SAVAK and U.S. Military Intelligence to keep track of what you were doing and thinking.”

  “That surprises me,” I said, thinking of the beautiful, doe-eyed girl in the C.I.S. office.

  He shrugged. “Anna considers herself a patriot. In any case, Ali does have a tendency to talk too much; he talks to Anna, and she talks to the SAVAK. I’m asking you to help me carry out this charade because my life depends on it. I won’t ask you to give me a yes or no answer. You know the facts, and you’ve seen a part of what it is we’re trying to change.”

  “I’ll keep your secret,” I said quietly. “You wouldn’t have saved my life if you thought otherwise. How are you going to explain the dead soldier?”

  “Another one of Arsenjani’s mistakes, and all the more reason to place me at the head of the SAVAK.”

  “Good luck, Mehdi,” I said, starting to walk away. My legs felt like rubber, but they held me up; now all they had to do was carry me two miles.

  “Professor Frederickson!” Zahedi called after me. “I’m sorry I don’t have any water to give you.”

  I stopped, turned. “Don’t worry about it,” I called back. “Your nom de guerre is Mehdi Zahedi; mine’s Camel.” “You’re hurt, and you don’t have a compass. Can you make it?”

  When I looked up at the sky, I found my childhood friends still there; the brilliant North Star would guide me on the way to the end of the first leg of my journey home. It would be there for another half hour or so; after that I would have the sun, then Garth and our guide.

  “Hey, ever since I was turned down by the Boy Scouts as a kid I’ve always made it a point to know what direction I’m traveling in. I’ll make it to the camels; I’m more concerned about making it
on my camel.”

  “I hope we’ll meet again in better times.”

  I turned and headed up the side of the mountain.

  19

  He came at me from the east, out of the sun—a tall, most un-Arab-looking figure bouncing up and down on his camel like a yo-yo. He saw me running toward him and dug his heels into the beast, which promptly braked to a stop, hurling him over its head onto the sand. A moment later I was on him, pounding his chest, rolling around with him until we were both too exhausted to move.

  “You’re a few hours late, brother,” Garth wheezed.

  “Shit. You’re no one to talk about being late.”

  “I knew you were going to make it! I told her no one was going to kill my brother!”

  I sat up. “You told whom?”

  Garth rolled over onto his side and propped himself up on his elbow. He was thin and pale, eyes too bright, but I couldn’t remember ever seeing him look so happy. “Neptune!” he shouted. “Can you believe it? She’s alive, and she’s here!”

  “Where is she?”

  “We split up to look for you.”

  “Where’s our guide?”

  “Hey, this is no time to talk about it,” Garth said, starting to rise. “Let’s get out of here. Well hit a few East Side bars, get drunk for a week and swap stories. To tell you the truth, I’m a little tired of Iran.”

  I grabbed his shirt collar and pulled him back down to the ground. Behind him, over his shoulder, I could see a lone rider coming up on us, and I didn’t want Garth to know. “Let’s talk about it now. Where’s our guide?”

  He looked at me strangely, then shrugged. “He never showed up.”

  Instinctively I glanced back in the direction of Persepolis; I imagined I could hear a soft wind filled with ancient voices blowing from it. “But Neptune did.”

  The figure on the camel had seen us and was now coming up fast. Garth still hadn’t noticed. He was sitting up now, holding his head. “I’m still so damned … light-headed. I picked up one hell of a bug as soon as I got here. I remember … being taken to a hospital, out of my head with fever. And that’s the last I remember until a … few days ago when I came out of it. Neptune was there with me.”

  “Harry Stans told me you got a message from her family inviting you to come here for her funeral.”

  He shook his head. “I misunderstood. They don’t write English that well. She’d been tortured very badly, then left for dead. But somebody found her, and her family had her flown back here for treatment. It wasn’t until she’d recovered that she could tell them about me, and by then I was already here—in the hospital.”

  “Hello, Precious!” Neptune cried as she came up on her camel, stopped beside us. An expert rider, she sat easily in the saddle. She was wearing an Arab burnoose as protection against the desert heat; her face and its lovely crown of black-and-silver hair were hidden beneath its hood. In the shadow of the garment her eyes shone like twin moons. I wasn’t surprised when she didn’t dismount.

  “Hello, Neptune,” I said easily. “Surprised to see me?”

  “Surprised? Precious, I’m delighted to see you.”

  I strolled casually to where I’d dropped the automatic rifle Mehdi had given me. I picked it up, brought it back and firmly placed it in a bewildered Garth’s hands. Then I quickly stepped behind Neptune’s camel and anchored myself in position by gripping the animal’s tail.

  “Lady, you call me ‘precious’ one more time and I’ll pull your fucking camel out from under you.”

  “Mongo—”

  “What the hell’s the matter with you?” Garth growled, leaping to his feet. “You’re talking to Neptune!”

  “Your lady’s SAVAK, Garth,” I said. “One of the Chief Honcho’s private stock; she’s probably a relative.”

  “You’re out of your head, brother,” Garth said menacingly. “You’re talking about the woman I’m going to marry, and I want you to shut your mouth now!”

  Neptune said nothing. Her camel turned and I moved with it, keeping low under its rump and hoping it wouldn’t decide to start kicking. “The SAVAK put you in the hospital!” I shouted at Garth as I spat dust out of my mouth. “You were supposed to take my place as the bearer of tall tales, and incidentally—as I see it now—used to put a second top agent back into place. By the way, Neptune: Arsenjani’s dead. Sorry to have to break the news to you in such a harsh way.”

  “Mongo!” she cried. “Stop this foolishness! I want to help you get away from here!”

  “Oh, I’ll bet you do, sweetheart. What you really want is to find out how I happen to be here in the first place. You’re not going to find out.”

  “Mongo—”

  Garth started walking unsteadily toward me; I released one hand and pointed at him. “Garth, this is Mongo talking. You’ve known me a hell of a lot longer than Neptune, and the least you owe me is a good listen. Get your head clear; there’s a lot you don’t know, and you’re going to have to start putting it together fast if we’re going to get out of here alive. Now, this lady has a gun under her saddle blankets, so you’d damn well better get back to yours. You’re going to have to decide what to do with it.”

  “If Neptune’s SAVAK,” Garth growled, “why didn’t she just shoot us both when she rode up?”

  “Because she knows it had to be a GEM agent who helped me escape, and it’s her job to find out who it was. And coming out with you—with us—was still the smartest way for her to return to the United States. After all, if a question ever came up concerning her apparent death and resurrection, you’d be there to supply the answers. She was hoping she could still pull it off, even with me around. Now she knows it won’t work, and you’d damn well better believe that all she’s doing now is waiting for the right instant. If this camel kicks my ass, or you blink the wrong way, we’re dead men.”

  Garth and I looked at each other a long time before he slowly turned around and went back to the rifle he’d left on the sand. He didn’t pick it up … but he stayed close.

  “Garth!” Neptune gasped.

  “Keep talking, Mongo,” Garth said breathlessly. “And talk fast. If I don’t like what you have to say, we part company—here.”

  The camel moved again, quickly and sharply, this time in response to Neptune’s tug on the reins. I was pulled off my feet, but I managed to hang on to the tail and come up again while at the same time staying clear of the sharp hooves. “She had plenty of time to get out of Bannon’s building!” I shouted, gagging on the dust that had been thrown up. “I should have realized it at the time, but I was out of my head with guilt. Remember how interested she was in this case right from the beginning? Remember how much she wanted to help? Goddamn right she wanted to help, because she had a vital interest in finding out what was going on! She hung around the building after I told her to leave, then identified herself as a SAVAK agent to Khordad when he showed up! She had to find out what I knew and what I was up to!”

  “Garth,” Neptune sighed, “I love you.”

  “I met Neptune weeks before you got on the case,” Garth said in a hoarse, agonized voice. “How could she have been connected with it?”

  “She wasn’t connected, brother. Not then. At that time she was using you. She said it once in joking, but it was the truth; she knew that a simple burglary like the one she’d had in her apartment wasn’t going to get all that much attention from the N.Y.P.D., not unless she made certain someone took a special interest in the case. That’s why she made a play for the investigating detective—you, Garth.”

  Another sharp swerve; I managed to hang on. “Remember the papers I found in Khordad’s trunk?” I continued through clenched teeth. “Well, the SAVAK is really into false bottoms. Neptune didn’t care about her jewelry; it was the jewelry box she wanted back. She was one of Arsenjani’s supervisors. She was working on the GEM business independently, while at the same time checking on the SAVAK agents in the United States; Arsenjani was a sneaky bastard. Neptune actually had a lis
t of those agents in a false bottom in her jewelry box. She couldn’t make another move until she found out who had taken it—a common burglar, which she could have lived with, or GEM agents, which would be a catastrophe. That was when she latched on to you.”

  For the first time, Garth spoke directly to the woman he loved. “Neptune, you were interested in the box more than anything else.”

  “It was an heirloom, Garth,” she said tightly. “I explained that to you.”

  “She was scared!” I shouted. “With the loss of that list it was her head on the block until she got it back—or determined that it hadn’t been stolen by GEM agents who were on to her! It really made her nervous when Zahedi dropped out of sight, because his name was on that list. Then all hell started breaking loose. She didn’t know what was going on. Then I came onto the scene and she figured she could find out through me.”

  “If Neptune and Zahedi are both SAVAK,” Garth said tensely, “she’d have known why Zahedi left.”

  “Uh-uh. She was cut off. She’d cut herself off after losing the list. She couldn’t very well contact Arsenjani and ask him for information without admitting she’d made a very bad mistake.”

  “Why would she fake her own death?”

  “She’d played out her string, Garth. By that time she knew she had to go back and face Arsenjani no matter who had engineered the burglary. Besides, she assumed I was a dead man, and that posed a big risk. I’d picked her up at her apartment; a beautiful woman with a dwarf isn’t that common a sight to begin with, not even in New York—and people do know me. She was afraid that sooner or later you might connect us on that day, and she figured it was best to simply go back to Iran and regroup. By last week, with my death imminent and no other SAVAK agents blown, Arsenjani figured it was safe to put her back in place, with you as the vehicle. Garth, I’m betting that having GEM spring you was as big a surprise to her as it was to you; I’m betting that you contacted her after the arrangements were made. Am I right?”

  “It’s true,” Garth said in a voice I could barely hear above the snorts of Neptune’s camel.