Operation Delilah by Ray Knowles

Author:Ray Knowles [Knowles, Ray]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * * * * *

Dealing with the Arani family, negotiating with Kamall and Hakim, and confronting the team at the safe house had left Brackett exhausted. He returned to his hotel and went to bed, but sleep eluded him. The idea that Hakim and Kamall might not cooperate long enough for the revolution to succeed kept haunting him.

With the first light of dawn, the telephone on Brackett’s nightstand rang.

“It’s Abdul Razi. We need to talk.”

Ordinarily, given the hour, Brackett would have asked, “Can’t it wait?” But Razi was an old friend from their university days. He answered groggily, “All right. I’ll meet you in the restaurant in thirty minutes.”

Abdul Razi was seated at a corner table when Brackett walked in. He stood up as Brackett approached. The two men smiled affectionately and embraced.

Brackett stepped back so he could examine his old friend from head to toe. Razi wore a closely trimmed salt-and-pepper beard.

“Your hair is gray and thinner,” he jokingly observed.

Razi laughed. “I have a lot to worry about.”

“And that suit. You’re an officer in the Iranian Intelligence Service. You’d look better in a uniform,” added Brackett.

Razi was wearing a cheap black suit, a white collarless shirt and no tie, the required dress of Iran’s diplomatic corps now that the ayatollahs were in-charge.

“This is my cover,” he explained, reddening with embarrassment. “I’m a third secretary at the embassy. And I’m lucky to have this. Hashemi got himself appointed counselor, and to maintain our difference in rank, he wanted me to come as a clerk. I pointed out that I needed diplomatic status to move around Cairo. He relented and let me come as a third secretary. That’s a notch above clerk.”

He gave a ‘what can I do?’ shrug and changed the subject. “But look at how you’re dressed. That suit looks tailor made. You should be ashamed of yourself.”

Brackett responded with mock remorse. “I am sorry. I have seven more of these, two TVs, a car, and a house in Cambridge. Satan likes to live well. But enough about me. How are things back home?”

“Pari has given me two sons,” Razi announced proudly.

“You were wise to marry her. She adores you.”

“Are you married?”

“How could I be?” replied Brackett.

“I’m sorry. It was a stupid question.”

“I’m used to it. So why the pre-dawn call? The team is ready to go. I’ll take them to Aswan and fly them out of Egypt afterward.”

“Fine, but we have a problem.”

Brackett groaned. “Not another one?”

Razi nodded. “Kamall insists on meeting Zephyr. After the Hakim debacle, he doesn’t trust us to hire his help. Hashemi thinks the man needs to be assured that Zephyr is no Hakim.”

“But Zephyr doesn’t know about Kamall. What do I tell him?” asked Brackett.

“What did Draper tell Zephyr when he recruited him?”

“For this operation, Draper is using an alias. He’s Paul Stevens to Zephyr. He told Zephyr the targets had to be assassinated because they were going to stop selling oil to the US.”

“Why did he make a political drama out

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