by Adam LeBor
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www.headofzeus.com
For my brother, Jason LeBor
With the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head
THE SONG OF DEBORAH
which recounts the story of Yael, Judges 5:26
Prologue
Astara, Iran-Azerbaijan border
Ramzan Hilawi forced himself not to stare at the gray metal door.
It was tall, narrow, and pockmarked with rust. It creaked when it opened and hung suspended in its frame for a few seconds before it closed, tantalizing those waiting to walk through it. At 7:00 a.m. the queue already reached back to the end of the customs shed. The walls of the building were khaki colored, the floor rough concrete, dotted with the husks of pumpkin and sunflower seeds. Three large signs each showed a packet of cigarettes, a mobile phone, and a camera, all struck through with red lines. The damp air smelled of sweat and tobacco. The crowd was subdued, anxiety hanging over them like a fog.
Hilawi glanced through the window, set high in the wall so passersby could not see inside. There was no heating and he shivered in his shirt and thin denim jacket. A baby cried, an old man coughed, the phlegm bouncing and rattling in his chest. Hilawi did not look around. His face was set in the expression of studied blankness adopted instinctively by those waiting to leave the Islamic Republic of Iran. A tattered poster, its colors bleached from the sun, advertised Iran Air’s fleet of Boeing 727s. Hilawi imagined himself on an airplane, speeding through the atmosphere over mountains and seas, border guards and customs controls.
The door creaked and swung open again, then slammed shut. Hilawi had an almost overwhelming urge to sprint forward, barge the travelers in front of him out of the way, shove the border guards and customs officials to the side, and leap through the doorway into Azerbaijan. He might even make it, although it would be a very brief visit before he was bundled back to Iran. And it would certainly be his last.
Instead he flicked through his passport, stopping at the page with his personal details and his photograph. Black hair, brown eyes, a neatly trimmed moustache; regular, even features. A pleasant, but forgettable, face. His name was Ramzan Hilawi. He breathed slowly and regularly through his nose. Ramzan. Hilawi.
If questioned, he would be polite but not meek, courteous but not cowed. He had every right to cross the border here, indeed anywhere he chose. He was a postgraduate engineering student, traveling to visit his aunt in Baku. His rucksack held three T-shirts, socks, underwear, a Farsi-language newsmagazine, a bottle of water, an acrylic sweater, a packet of dried figs, and a bottle of perfume, a gift. He was born in Tabriz, Iran, in 1980. Tabriz. 1980. His widowed mother worked part-time as a secretary at a state publishing house. His father was dead, killed in the Iran–Iraq War. He was the son of a martyr and so should be treated with respect. This part, at least, was true. There was nothing different about this trip, he told himself. His passport was filled with Iranian exit stamps and Azerbaijani entrance ones. The fear was an unpleasant but familiar companion.
The baby was crying louder now, a stuttering howl, ignoring its mother’s anxious attempts to calm it. A slim man stepped out of a side room. His eyes were a startling shade of blue-gray, his skin the color of cappuccino. He was bald with a carefully trimmed salt-and-pepper beard. He wore a gray suit jacket with a pale thin stripe and a white collarless shirt with no tie. It was illegal to sell neckties in Iran, although wearing one was permitted. But the regime’s ultra-loyalists would not even put on a shirt with a collar. The man looked the crowd up and down, effortlessly processing the scene. There was only one Iranian agency whose plainclothes officials could wander unhindered at an international border. Conversations stopped. The waiting travelers became intensely interested in their feet. The man walked over to the young mother. Her face turned fearful and she held on tightly to her baby. The man in the gray jacket smiled, patted her baby on the head, handed her a tangerine, and ushered her forward, to the head of the queue.
The customs officials waved her on. As she stepped through the narrow door, Hilawi could see the taxi across the dusty square, parked outside the Hotel Caspian. The car was a Soviet-era relic, a red Lada covered in a film of fine brown dirt. Its windows were greasy, the side door was dented, and the front and rear bumpers were missing: standard-issue local transportation. The driver was unfamiliar, but security demanded that they use a different person every time Hilawi crossed over. This one was a heavyset man with short gray hair. He sat on the hood, smoking and cracking sunflower seeds. He seemed to be staring at Hilawi. He cracked another sunflower seed with his teeth, and spat the husk on the ground. A half smile flitted across his lips. Then Hilawi saw the sign—a wire coat hanger was jammed into the radio aerial socket in the shape of a letter L. The door clanged shut again.
The queue crept forward. Hilawi was now third in line. A couple in their early twenties stood in front of him. Neither wore a ring but they kept glancing at each other, their eyes alive with excitement. It was difficult and dangerous for young unmarried lovers to be alone together in Iran. But Azerbaijan wore its Islam lightly—very lightly—and had no such restrictions. Their destination, Hilawi guessed, was the Hotel Caspian across the square, where rooms were available for the afternoon.
An elderly man with silver hair carrying a string bag waited at the head of the queue. He handed his passport to the Iranian border guard. The guard was skinny, in his early twenties, a wisp of a beard on his chin. He barely filled his camouflage uniform, but his stern expression showed that he was determined to properly discharge his duties as a protector of the Islamic Republic’s frontier. He carefully looked at the photograph, back at the elderly man, checking his features, decided he posed no threat, and waved him through.
The young couple stepped forward. The hairs rose on the back of Hilawi’s neck. He forced himself to not look around. His mobile telephone was loose in his trouser pocket. Hiding in plain sight, they called it. Everyone carries a mobile; it would be strange if you did not, they had told him at the safe house in Tehran. There was no reason for the border guards to take out the SIM card and examine it. None at all.
Hilawi felt the eyes of the man in the gray jacket on him. Not hostile, but certainly interested. Hilawi’s heart sped up again. Acid rose up the back of his throat. This was not a place to spark the interest of the authorities. He closed his eyes for a second and steadied himself. The phone felt hot and heavy against his leg. The border guard looked through the passport of the young man and handed it back. He examined the young woman’s documents with considerably more interest, looking down at the photograph, up at her, and back at the photograph, as if imagining how she would look without her hijab, possibly without other items of clothing. Her companion, waiting next to her, began to get angry.
The man in the suit jacket walked over. He wore fine black leather gloves. He waved his right hand impatiently, ushering the young couple forward, as though brushing away a fly. The border guard instantly handed their passports back. The young couple walked forward into Azerbaijan, their relief almost tangible.
Hilawi forced himself to think about the Lada. The Lada, just a few yards away, over there, through the rusting door. He had never sat in that particular car, but had traveled in hundreds like it. All he needed to do was imagine the car and he would soon be sitting inside, he told himself. He could almost smell the cigarette-reek of the interior, hear the creaking seat, feel the hard springs pushing into the flesh of his legs and backside when he sat down. What delicious discomfort, what sweet relief it would be. He could even visual
ize what would happen next. The driver would throw that day’s newspaper onto the backseat; the months-old pine air-freshener and blue glass talisman against the evil eye dangling from the mirror would rock back and forth as the car lurched away from the uneven sidewalk, down the potholed road.
What Hilawi would not think about was the state of his brother’s body after his remains had been returned to their mother from Evin Prison, in Tehran. Hilawi wondered instead about his contact. They were due to meet in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan. Hilawi had been promised a suite in one of the new five-star hotels, overlooking the Caspian Sea. Last night, at the briefing, Hilawi had seen a photograph of his contact. She would fly from New York to meet him. She looked very pretty in the picture and he kept sneaking glances at it during the briefing.
Then he had done something very stupid. He liked her so much that when nobody was looking he had taken a photograph of her photograph with his mobile phone. Hilawi swallowed, trying to moisten his dry mouth. He had meant to delete the file when he awoke this morning, long before he arrived at Astara, but had forgotten. As soon as he crossed the border he would erase her picture.
Hilawi’s turn was next. His heart thumped so loudly he was sure it was audible. He handed his passport to the border guard. The guard barely glanced at it and gave it to the man in the gray jacket. He looked at Hilawi, taking in his face, his clothes, his bag, then examined his passport. His manner was thoughtful, almost delicate. He stood so close Hilawi could smell his breath, a sweet mix of fruit and peppermints.
“Wait here please,” he said to Hilawi. He walked away, into the room at the back of the customs hall.
A snake writhed inside Hilawi’s stomach. His skin prickled with a cold, clammy sweat.
Two minutes passed, then three and another five. The queue behind him was growing restless. Why did they have to be delayed because of this troublemaker? The sentiment was unvoiced, but it hung in the air. A spy—arrest him! Hilawi felt the walls of the customhouse close in on him. His legs wobbled. He thought he might faint.
The man in the gray jacket finally reappeared, talking on his mobile telephone. He looked at Hilawi and nodded.
Hilawi’s fear suddenly vanished, to be replaced by a dull resignation. He would not shout or make a spectacle of himself. He would go with dignity. He looked at the door. It had not closed properly behind the young couple. It rocked back and forth, just an inch or two.
“Here is your passport, Mr. Hilawi,” said the man in the gray jacket. “Enjoy your visit to Azerbaijan.”
He handed Hilawi his passport back and held out his arm. Hilawi shook his hand. His grip was strong and firm. The leather glove was soft and cool against Hilawi’s skin.
Hilawi walked forward. His hand was shaking and he struggled to open the rusty door. It sprang open and Hilawi stepped through.
Azerbaijan.
The smell of coffee, exhaust fumes, grilled meat. The sound of Turkish techno music. Women with their heads uncovered. The sun hard and bright against a turquoise sky.
Hilawi wanted to dance. Instead he walked a few yards to the Azerbaijani border post, which operated out of an old bus. He handed in his passport. The border guard glanced at the first couple of pages and stamped it immediately. The customs officers sat on an aluminum table nearby, smoking and drinking coffee. He looked at them but they ignored him.
Hilawi stepped away and stood still for a moment, breathing in the dusty air. He placed his hand on his chest, his palm tingling, hot and wet with sweat. His heart slowed down. Hilawi looked at the Lada driver and began to walk across the square.
The Lada driver put his newspaper down and nodded at Hilawi. He cracked and spat out a final seed and opened the door. Hilawi smiled with pleasure, the relief still coursing through him as he clambered into the car. The Lada was just as he had imagined. The springs poked the underside of his thighs. The inside smelled of tobacco and the last remnants of a fading air-freshener. There was even a newspaper on the backseat, that day’s issue of Respublika, an Azeri daily.
The driver put the car in gear and it lurched forward, bumping down the road. Hilawi sat back, picked up the newspaper, and scanned the headlines. Astara sped by, a blur of dun-colored buildings, hooting cars, children selling sweets and chewing gum. He read for a while but the letters began to shimmer and a roaring sound filled his ears.
Hilawi blinked several times and tried to focus.
The world spun and turned black.
Part 1
Washington, DC, and New York
1
Yael Azoulay walked briskly across the Prometheus Group’s lobby to the welcome desk, kitten heels clicking on the polished floor.
Tall vases of fresh orchids stood at either end of a long, curved slab of black granite, scenting the air with their heavy fragrance. A Gaggia coffee machine hissed and gurgled in the corner, wisps of steam curling around its burnished steel fittings. Yael was the only visitor. The receptionist, a sleek, well-preserved brunette in her midfifties, looked up from her computer screen. She regarded Yael with indignation, as though she was disturbing the sanctity of a cathedral.
Yael paused for a moment, and glanced swiftly at her watch before she spoke. “Please pass my apologies to Mr. Clairborne,” she said, her voice polite and regretful, the hint of annoyance barely detectable.
The receptionist’s face fell for a moment before she quickly fixed her professional smile in place. In all her fifteen years at the company nobody had ever walked away from an appointment with the chairman and CEO of the Prometheus Group. And it would be on her head.
“Ma’am, I can only apologize again. Mr. Clairborne certainly knows you are here and is expecting you,” she said, her voice emollient. She reached for the telephone. “Can I offer you a coffee, some water?”
“Thank you, but I have just received an urgent e-mail. I have to travel back to New York immediately. We’ll try again, next time,” said Yael as she started walking toward the door.
It was now 11:27 a.m. Her appointment had been for 11:00 a.m. She had arrived twenty minutes early. After reading that day’s editions of the Washington Post, the Daily Beast, and Gawker.com, it was time to put her iPad away and throw a grenade into the mix. Yael looked back to see the receptionist speaking on the telephone, her body hunched, her voice low and urgent.
Yael had almost reached the entrance when she heard someone call her name. She turned around to see a young woman striding quickly across the foyer toward her. Her blond hair was gathered into a tight bun and her bleached teeth gleamed under the artificial lighting.
“I’m so sorry for keeping you waiting; it’s been such a crazy morning,” she exclaimed. “Welcome to the Prometheus Group, Ms. Azoulay. I’m Samantha, Mr. Clairborne’s executive personal assistant. Mr. Clairborne is really looking forward to meeting you. Please let me know if I can do anything to make your experience here more comfortable or productive. Mr. Clairborne is ready for you now.”
Yael shook Samantha’s hand. It was cool and dry, her grip firm but not aggressive. She sensed Samantha instantly assessing the cut, season, and cost of her clothes. Samantha wore a fitted black Dior jacket with a cream trim and a matching skirt that showed off her shapely figure and Manolo Blahnik shoes. Yael had seen the Dior outfit in last month’s Vogue. She knew the shoes were Manolo Blahniks, because she had looked longingly at an identical pair in a shop window, but reluctantly decided that the $700 they cost would better be invested in her savings account, even though she had no idea what she was saving up for.
Yael let the empty words wash over her. Fareed Hussein’s many requests over the last few months for a meeting with Clarence Clairborne had been studiously ignored. One had even been leaked to the Daily Beast. “UN Secretary-General Pleads for Prometheus Face Time. Again,” the headline had read. As a last resort the SG had personally called an acquaintance who sat on the Prometheus board, asking him to intervene. Such a personal plea was a major admission of weakness, which indicated that Hussein’s p
osition, and office, counted for little. Clairborne had softened, barely. He still refused to meet the SG, but had grudgingly agreed to see Yael for fifteen minutes. The website had run another story this morning on the SG. “Fareed Hussein Denies Claims of Ill-Health, Aims to Serve Full Term.” The article, which Yael had read on the train from New York, was an especially skillful construct. Most of the piece was taken up with speculation about Hussein looking increasingly tired, reports that he was suffering from blackouts, and two quotes from unnamed “Western diplomatic sources” expressing concern about his apparent ill-health. The denial, from Hussein’s spokesman, was buried at the bottom.
Yael suddenly felt dowdy in her Zara black trouser suit and white fitted shirt, both bought two summers ago. A loose button fell off her cuff and rolled across the floor. She reached down to pick it up and a jagged pain shot down her left side. She breathed in sharply and stood up. The button rolled away.
Samantha instantly leapt forward. Yael used the moment to quickly check that the small blue enamel UN brooch pinned on the lapel of her jacket was securely in place.
Samantha bounced back and handed the errant button to Yael. “Are you OK?” she asked. Her voice was full of concern but a triumphant half smile played on her lips.
“Thank you, I’m fine. Too much tennis,” said Yael, briskly.
The pain in her side faded but Yael’s unease grew. Clairborne had a legion of former cabinet members and corporate heavy hitters on his board, the best lawyers in the United States, and a virtually unlimited pot of money to keep them all loyal.
She had a single sheet of photocopied paper.
In Washington terms, the Prometheus Group was a curious hybrid. Its headquarters took up much of a block on K Street, the only address that counted when it came to the capital’s legion of lobbyists. The Prometheus Group was a lobbying firm, like its neighbors. It was renowned for its excellent connections to the Pentagon and the United States’ numerous intelligence agencies. But it was also a private equity company, specializing in asset management in the Middle East, Asia, and the developing world. Its new security division, providing corporate security and intelligence, was open only to select clients who were guaranteed anonymity. Their names were the subject of much fevered speculation in DC’s clubs and bars.