Satan's Spy (The Steve Church saga Book 2), André Gallo [ebook reader color screen .txt] 📗

“As I could have told him, his remarks are creating a minor firestorm here. There are three hundred thousand Baha’is in Iran. According to the Baha’i leadership, more than two hundred have been executed or killed since the 1979 revolution. Many have left and over thirty thousand have resettled in Canada. So the treatment of the Baha’is in Iran has become a relevant political issue in Ottawa. Our Baha’i community is continuously asking the Canadian authorities to ensure that their relatives and co-religionists are treated according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”

A man seated to Steve’s right, who he guessed had been the source of the prior interruption, said, “With all due respect, Mr. Ambassador, what’s the real bottom line?”

“The president lectured me at some length that Canada’s behavior itself was unacceptable, that Canada had breached the rules of diplomacy, and that there would be ‘consequences.’ I wouldn’t have called you here except that one of his options is to boot all Canadians out of the country, an all-inclusive persona non grata.”

The same man, heavy set with a beefy face and thinning black hair, said, “Well, my wife will be delighted. When do we leave?”

“Don’t pack your bags yet. I doubt that everyone will have to leave. It would be a first in the history of international relations. The president said he was seeking advice from his intelligence chief or, since he’s currently under arrest, Ali Mousavi, the security chief for the IRGC. Mousavi and the president seem to be allies.”

Another businessman said, “Kicking out foreign business may make him feel good, but it hurts Iran as much as us.”

“That is a point I made. Since the P.M. passed the baton to Mousavi, I suspect that the decision will not be made on economic grounds but on his perception of national security.”

“In what way?” Steve asked

“If any of you, or anyone on my staff, has been in touch with the Baha’i community here in Iran, Mousavi won’t think twice about taking action.”

Steve thought all this to be a waste of his time, that it had nothing to do with him and that the likely “PNG” candidates were either Ambassador Hill himself or one of his officers. On the other hand, being called in with other businessmen reinforced his cover and he resisted fidgeting.

The meeting was coming to a close when a matronly woman with reddish hair and a green dress opened the door to the room. She motioned to the ambassador and said, “You have a phone call.” Hill didn’t move and she added, “that you need to take.”

Hill motioned to everyone to wait then left the room.

He returned five minutes later with a somber mien. “The situation has moved faster than I thought. I am summoned again. They want to kick out Charley,” he nodded toward Mulcahy, “and you.” This time, he looked at Steve. “You’re both accused of having had unauthorized contacts with the Baha’i Community.”

18. Langley: Director’s Office

Deuel picked up his phone after Mary’s voice on his intercom informed him, “Aaron Glick is on.” Glick was the managing editor of the Washington Tribune, and Deuel had initiated the call.

“Aaron, your reporter David Bonifacio called our Public Affairs office to ask for comments on his article, the one about Iran. Why do I have this déjà-vu feeling? He gives us a short fuse deadline, one that he knows we can’t possibly meet so that he can say in his column, “The CIA was offered the opportunity to comment but declined.”

“Why, Walter. What a pleasure. It’s been too long.”

“No, not long enough.” He laughed. “You’re like my dentist, the less I see you, the better I feel.”

“You have to admit, Wally, I’m essential to the basic wellbeing of the Republic.”

Deuel’s father had encouraged Walter to follow in his footsteps, to be a foreign correspondent. “Be where the action is,” he said. Walter had worked for the Tribune one summer and decided that the newspaper business was just another business. He had no problems with the profit motive but not when it masqueraded as the soul of the nation and, self-elected, claimed the inalienable right to influence policy under the guise of informing the American people. He decided that he would rather support the elected government of the United States by stealing other countries’ secrets to enable policy makers to reach wise foreign policy decisions. That had always brought him to where the action was.

Dismissing Glick’s jocular tone, Deuel said, “What about Bonifacio’s article? You can’t possibly be serious about publishing it. The security of the Republic to which you claim to be essential will suffer. Your article will interfere with our mission to protect this Republic.”

“Are you now confirming the facts of the article? That the CIA has a deep cover officer in Iran working on the nuclear program?”

Deuel assumed that Glick was recording the conversation, or he had it on speaker phone with the paper’s General Counsel in the room taking notes, or both. He could imagine the editor gesturing and pointing at the phone! He got up and began pacing, the cordless phone in one hand and his dead cigar in the other.

“You know I’m not confirming anything of the sort. That we have deep cover operatives in various countries is well known. All spy services do. If all the ghost officers that your and other publications maintain that we have really existed, they could all link hands and circle the world and our budget would be higher than the national deficit. Have you thought of doing an article on the hostile operatives in this country? Now, that would help the Republic.”

Sounding disappointed, Glick said, “Walter, in the past, we have not been as aggressive as we should have. We could have prevented the Iraq War, a mistake of historical proportions, and the sad events at