The Chameleon Conspiracy dg-3

by Haggai Harmon

  “What happened?” I asked as soon as I closed my room door.

  “We were riding shotgun. We placed a countersurveillance team in a building opposite the safe apartment to protect the rendezvous. They spotted suspicious activity. First a car that didn’t have any mechanical problem was made to look like it did.”

  “How could they tell?”

  “Simple. The driver stopped the car in the middle of the street, lifted the hood, and made himself appear as if he were fixing something. But he didn’t touch anything. His hands were clean when he went back behind the wheel, purportedly to wait for help. Ten minutes later, he just closed the hood, started the engine, and left. That happened right across from the safe apartment.”

  “I saw that car too,” I said, forgetting to mention that it looked odd to me, but didn’t rise to the level of a suspicion, when it should have. “Is that all?”

  “No. There was another car cruising the neighborhood repeatedly for no apparent reason. Then Benny reported he was spotted yesterday as he returned to his hotel.”

  “Is he still there?”

  “No. He checked out. Finally, Parviz Morad was discovered making a call from a pay phone in the men’s room of his hotel lobby.”

  “Was he unattended?” I was surprised at how that could have happened.

  “No. He was under Mossad’s supervision at all times, but during dinner he went to the men’s room, and the Mossad agent waited behind the outside door. When Parviz didn’t exit immediately, the agent entered and saw him on the phone. These hotels sometime install pay phones inside the bathrooms.”

  “Has Parviz been doubled?”

  “I don’t know. Mossad is interrogating him. I’ve just heard he swore that he only called his uncle in Hamburg, Germany. Parviz claimed the uncle was a known dissident of the Iranian government.”

  “What do we do now?”

  “We wait for the result of the investigation and see if these incidents are directed at us or connected to Parviz’s phone call. If he double-crossed us, we may have to conduct a thorough damage control. Anyway, you’re not returning to the Holiday Inn. I’ll go out and buy you some toiletries and overnight stuff,” he said.

  “Why don’t you just send someone to remove my luggage from the Holiday Inn?”

  “Because the hotel and your room are under our observation. I want to create the impression that you still live in that hotel. Maybe these guys will be stupid enough to go there and give us a better idea who they are. Anyway, I don’t think you should leave this room until we assess the situation. Order room service,” he said, reading my mind.

  An hour later John returned with a shopping bag. “There’s a change of underwear here”-he handed me the bag-“and shaving cream, disposable razors, a toothbrush, a comb, and toothpaste. That’ll keep you for a few days.” I looked at the bag; the underwear was oversized and looked ridiculous.

  “Thanks,” I said without sharing my thoughts on his taste in clothing.

  “Let’s continue with our original plan,” suggested John. “OK.”

  I sat on the bed, and John took a chair next to the small desk and dragged it to face me.

  “Let me go into the political structure of Iran.”

  My mind was elsewhere, trying to analyze the unexpected turn of events. But John ignored my hollow look and continued. I had to listen-I was his captive audience.

  “The Islamic Republic of Iran embodies Khomeini’s doctrine of Velayat-e Faqih, or ‘Islamic Rule.’ He advocated exporting revolution to extend his absolute authority over all Muslims. Central to the concept is the doctrine that all Muslims, wherever they are, belong to the Islamic nation, the Ummah -and therefore must obey the authority of the religious leader. It’s interesting to note that his followers attempted to broaden the definition of Islam. While most, if not all, Muslims consider Islam as their religion, while they belong to different nations, the Iranian doctrine tried to classify all Muslims as members of a nation.”

  “Because the Iranians aren’t Arabs, and in fact are a minority in Islam,” I said.

  “Exactly,” said John. “This is their sneaky way to install themselves as leaders of a group a billion people strong, rather than limiting their grip to only seventy million Iranians. They wrote a new constitution, which gives this immense power to one person to become the head of the faqih, the ruling council. Ayatollah Khomeini was the first head of the faqih. The supreme religious leader has almost unlimited powers. He appoints the chief judges of the judicial branch; the chief of staff of the armed forces; the commander of the Pasdaran; the personal representatives of the faqih to the Supreme Defense Council; and the commanders of the army, air force, and navy.”

  “Democracy is dead, long live theocracy.”

  “Obviously. The will of the individual has no meaning. For example, the faqih authorizes the candidates for presidential elections. If the supreme religious leader doesn’t approve, then a candidate cannot run. There’s no appeal.”

  “Did the Iranian people accept that?”

  “Many of them didn’t. Soon after the Islamic Revolution approximately fifty people were executed daily. On some days the number doubled. Many of the executions were public. We estimate that in two years the new regime executed seven to eight thousand people. Realizing that it would be only a question of time before a popular uprising would topple the new regime, they eased their grip a bit. But Iran continues to be a country where human rights-including women’s rights, the way we understand them- mean nothing.”

  John’s mobile phone rang. He exchanged a few sentences and flipped the phone’s cover.

  “OK. The number Parviz has called belongs to Mehrang Pahlbod, a sixty-year-old Iranian exile who has been a vocal opponent of the current Iranian regime. Parviz claimed that Mehrang Pahlbod is his uncle, and the pay-phone call he made was just to say hello.”

  “I don’t trust this guy, and even if he’s clean, and even if the relative checks out OK, his phone could be tapped by the opposition,” I said.

  “Right. We give zero weight to his explanation. But regardless, we had additional suspicious activities here that cannot be ignored. We’ll have to keep low for a while until we determine if these events are connected with our plan, or were just a part of their general monitoring of the activities of the Agency and Mossad personnel, without knowing what is brewing. Security says this hotel is unmonitored, so your curfew is partially over, and you may leave your room, but not the hotel.”

  The next day, I was having a hearty breakfast in the dining room when a young man came to my table.

  “Mr. Pour Laval?”

  It took me only a second to respond to my new name. After all these years of using assumed names, I wondered why I had never become confused. My only fear was that I could one day bump into someone I had met while on assignment and forget what name I’d used then. What would I do? Ask him, Excuse me, can you remind me of my name? As a worst-case scenario he might think I was demented and suggest that I ask the nurse when I return to the institution for the feeble-minded.

  “Casey asked that you please go out to a blue van parked near the service entrance.” He gave me the security password verifying the instructions that had come from Casey.

  I went outside through the back door and made sure, as much as I could, that nobody paid attention to the ten seconds it took me to get to the van. The driver drove me to a new safe apartment in a residential area in the outskirts of Vienna.

  “Please go to the second floor. Ring the doorbell of the Kraus family.”

  Casey Bauer was waiting for me inside the apartment with John and another person.

  “This is Tony DaSilva,” he said, pointing at a middle-aged man with a dark complexion. “Reuven reported that you successfully passed the test on the Iranian way of life.” Not a word about the sudden events of the past day.

  “Test? I never took any test,” I said instinctively.

  DaSilva smiled. “Well, you did. Not all tests are identifie
d by the person being tested. Think about your exchange with Reuven in retrospect, and you’ll see what we mean.” During the segments of my training when we were playing mock scenarios of me being confronted by Iranian security officers, I had suspected I was being videotaped and that my behavior was being analyzed by experts.

  “Do you also have it on video?”

  “Yes,” he confirmed. “But for instructional purposes only, to learn from our mistakes, if something goes wrong,” he answered unexpectedly.

  What a bureaucratic way of thinking, I thought. If I’m caught, they’ll need the video to cover their asses and show to any investigating commission that there was nothing wrong in my training or in the instructions they had given me.

  Knowing that the present meeting was probably also videotaped, I kept my notorious big mouth shut. For now.

  “Are you comfortable with the legend?” asked Tony.

  “I’ll tell you when I return alive. But from what I see now, I need to be convinced that Ian Pour Laval is a fail-safe identity. Can you confirm that?”

  “I think we can,” he said. “The passport you received is genuine. It was issued to Ian Pour Laval by Passport Canada, the government agency responsible for issuing Canadian passports. Canadian passports are valid for five years only, and a new passport must be obtained upon expiration. The one you’re getting is valid for two more years. In 2002 Passport Canada introduced new passports with enhanced security, but we decided to use a version that predated the change, although we made no changes to the passport.”

  “What do you mean no changes?”

  “The personal information page that carries the photo and signature is digitally printed and embedded in the page, and a thin security film displays an intricate pattern of images that are revealed as the page is moved.”

  “If no changes were made, then why did you mention that it had to be an old version?”

  “Officially and publicly, the Canadians are saying that these are the only added security measures, but there could be additional hidden safety features that they didn’t tell us about. Why take a chance? We simply used the available passport, which is an older version. Forgers need to worry about the new passports. You don’t, because it wasn’t forged or changed.”

  “Is there a real person by that name?”

  “Yes.”

  “And where is he?”

  “In the U.S.”

  I weighed the information. “People don’t know that? I mean his friends and family?”

  “No. In the last ten years everyone knew him under a different name. Prior to that he was a freelance journalist working in and out of Europe for European newspapers. That fits your new resume and legend. He now has a different identity. For all intents and purposes, you’re Ian Pour Laval.”

  “And what about the passport photo?”

  “You two look very much alike,” said DaSilva.

  I was a bit angry. “Look alike?” I asked bitterly. “Have you looked at the passport?”

  Tony didn’t lose his temper. “I’ve seen it and I’m looking at you. I see a resemblance. Anyway, the process we applied was more scientific. Ian’s photo was taken three years ago when the passport was issued. People change in three years. My ex-wife in particular,” he added with a smile. “Then we took your photo from that period, and a computer measured the similarities and the disparities.”

  “Such as what?”

  “Such as the distance between the eyes, or the skull structure.”

  “And the result?”

  “Satisfactory,” said Tony. “If a comparison is made by an expert at a lab, there could be a slight problem. But this isn’t the issue here. There are no biometric identifiers on the passport, so the passport photo will survive a visual comparison.”

  “For both purposes?” I asked.

  “What do you mean?”

  I told them about my concerns. I knew that biometrics is used for two distinct purposes. First, to verify that the passport I carry is indeed mine. This is a “one-to-one match or verification.” But the system can also identify or confirm my identity as it appears on the passport by searching a database of biometric records for a match. This is known as “one-to-many match or identification.”

  “We know for sure that the passport is clean and does not contain any additional information, such as biometrics, other than the printed personal data,” said Casey in an assuring tone.

  “How can you be so sure?”

  “Because they’d have had to mea sure your biometrics and record them. Ian has never undergone that procedure.” Their answers confirmed that Ian Laval was cooperating with the CIA, and that the passport wasn’t lost or stolen.

  “OK, let’s move on. Once we enter Iran safely, then what?” “Once at the hotel, Erikka should look for her incoming mail to contact the alumni who answered our ad I told you about.”

  He handed me a printed page of an ad the bank placed in local Tehran newspapers. “This is the English translation. Erikka already knows about it, after the bank agreed to sponsor the reunion she’s organizing. She knows it was the bank’s idea to make her visit more efficient and fruitful.”

  I looked at the page. Remember the good old times? The Iranian, Asian, and European students of the American School in Tehran have scheduled a reunion. Alumni, please send contact information to Erikka Buhler (’78) c/o Azadi Grand Hotel on Chamran, Evin Cross Road Expressway, Tehran 19837. And let your fellow alums know about the reunion!

  “Let Erikka communicate with those who respond. You can volunteer to help her find and meet her classmates, but don’t make it appear as if you’re in it as well. Deliberately miss one or two meetings she holds, and show only a passing interest in what she’s doing. The same rule applies to how interested you’ll appear to the alums. But watch, because they’re the principal targets. You’re going to increase how interested you are in Erikka’s activities, but first have her suggest that you get more involved. You’re her handler, but don’t make her feel pushed or controlled. She might get suspicious-or worse, others might.”

  “Right, so I’m just manipulating her.” It seemed so patently obvious, I wondered why it was being repeated.

  “I know you know this, but you know I need to repeat it so there’s no misunderstanding. The immediate goal is to identify and locate the names and whereabouts of all ethnic-Iranian males born between 1954 and 1962 who graduated from the American School in Tehran before it was shut down in 1979. The delimiters make them seventeen to twenty-five years old during the Islamic Revolution and their subsequent recruitment. Therefore, their current ages range between forty-two and fifty. From that list we will try to identify the members of Atashbon.”

  “Right.”

  “We, or rather Erikka, will ask each of the alumni she locates to fill out a short questionnaire with current contact information, year of graduation, current occupation, marital status, children, hobbies, and a short resume telling everyone what they have been doing since graduation. The pretext will be that the information is needed for a brochure that will be distributed to all participants, like a present-day yearbook.”

  I objected, “Isn’t it a bit simplistic to assume that alums in Iran right now weren’t Atashbon sleeper agents in the U.S.? They could have just returned to Iran.”

  He nodded. “We’ve got to account for all eighteen or so original members whose locations we don’t know. But in principle you’re right. We want to use the initially traced graduates as a conduit to identify and find the others. Anyway, even the ones who lived in the United States and came back will probably put that down on the biographical profile.”

  “How do we make the initial contact?” I asked.

  “I think you should encourage Erikka to set up individual meetings and manage the entire matter the way she sees fit. Don’t make her suspect you of having an ulterior motive. If she feels lost and asks for your advice, you can direct her subtly by asking questions.”

  “Such as, Are you preparin
g a questionnaire? ” I stopped for a moment to arrange my thoughts. “We could prepare a courtesy folder for all graduates who respond. Make it a fancy leather-bound folder-a calculator, a nice pen, whatever-all embossed with the bank’s logo.”

  “We can also include one or two brochures about the international services of the bank,” said John, warming to the idea.

  “And Erikka will tell everyone who contacts her that they’ll get a free gift,” I finished.

  “Good call,” said Casey. “I’ll get it going.”

  I still had some questions about the operational wisdom behind their planning. “What’s the reason for not sending Erikka by herself?”

  “We discussed that, but it was scrapped for several reasons. First and foremost, since Erikka doesn’t know the real reason for your and her visit, she’s likely to miss things that you’d never overlook as her controller. From the Iranians’ perspective, she’s your research assistant. She also has a side job of organizing the reunion. Besides, sending a blonde Western woman by herself to Iran isn’t a good idea. She’d be limited in her movements in a conservative society, which believes that the place of the woman is at home with her children, not in a five-star hotel talking to strange men.”

  “OK,” I said moving on. “Do I need an Iranian visa?”

  “Yes,” said Tony. “Your first option will be at the Iranian Embassy in Vienna.” He handed me a visa application form already filled out. “Please read it carefully, and if you’re interviewed, don’t make comments on the application form’s poor English or its spelling mistakes.”

  Had my bigmouthed reputation preceded me?

  “Let’s talk about formalities,” continued John. “You’ll arrive on a commercial airline. Lucky for you, Iran’s got a “Commercially Important Persons” clubroom that only costs $50. They meet you on the tarmac and drive you to a lounge while all the formalities are completed. Unluckily for you, you’re not using that service.”

  “Great. I love bureaucracy.”

  “Because it’d immediately identify you as a businessman or a VIP. We need you to pass as an ordinary tourist. Before you arrive in Tehran, the airline will give the passengers an immigration landing card, customs-clearance form, and foreign-currency declaration form to fill out. Here are the forms already filled in. Keep a carbon copy of the landing-card form and surrender it when leaving Iran. We’ll inspect your luggage before you leave, but at any rate don’t buy alcohol, or any magazines at the airport. They might contain pictures that the Iranians consider offensive. Don’t bring playing cards; gambling is forbidden. Make sure that the customs officers register your camera in your passport. When you leave, show them the camera, and insist that the record be deleted from your passport, as any tourist would.”