Pandora's grave

The screen went dark. For a moment, Harry stood there, frozen in shock, then he activated his earpiece once more. “Stand down, FULLBACK. I repeat, stand down! That is an order.”

“Why?” Davood asked, his voice trembling as he stared into the muzzle of Hamid’s pistol.

“You have betrayed our brethren,” Hamid responded, ignoring the voice in his ear. “You have betrayed the holy jihad. And the penalty for such a betrayal is death.”

“I thought you were one of us.” The young agent shook his head.

Hamid spat on the floor, reaching forward to rip the microphone from Davood’s earlobe, crushing it beneath his foot. “Never. I have not forgotten the words of the prophets, as you have. It is not without reason that I am called BEHDIN, a man of pure religion.”

“EAGLE SIX to FULLBACK, I need you to put your gun down.”

“I thought you would have had agents in place to prevent him from turning on you,” Farshid Hossein observed coolly from the corner where he had been watching events unfold.

“Prevent what?” Harry demanded, turning on him in irritation.

The major took in the look on Harry’s face and blanched. “You really didn’t know, did you?”

Harry crossed the room in two strides, anger flashing in his eyes. “I don’t have time for riddles, blast you!”

Hossein never blinked. “The man you call FULLBACK is our sleeper agent. The man who betrayed your team in the foothills of the Alborz.”

“I never would have suspected,” Davood replied, stalling for time.

Hamid glared, circling, the gun still extended in his hand as he talked. “You don’t understand what all this means, do you? You pray at the masjid on Fridays and you dare to call it faith. My whole life has been dedicated to this cause. Ever since my family moved from Isfahan to Basra when I was twelve. I saw the American soldiers shoot their way through my village, and I could not cry. I was forced to live in the country I hated, to establish my cover. I joined that same cursed military at nineteen, because it was the quickest way to achieve my objectives-and Allah forgive me, I killed my fellow believers in the mountains of Afghanistan. All for this time, this moment. This holy mission, to prepare the way of the Expected One.”

Davood shook his head. “The Quran commands that ‘if they incline to peace, incline to it also’. This is not the way of Allah, my brother.”

“I am not your brother!” In that moment, Davood realized he had pushed it too far. He started to turn, to face the older agent.

The first bullet caught him in the side of the jawbone, fragmenting bone and pulverizing tissue…

Harry shook his head. “No, you must be mistaken.”

Yet even as he spoke, his words felt hollow, empty, lacking conviction. Could it be? That they had been wrong all along.

“I’m not,” Hossein replied, utter sincerity in his voice. “I tried to tell your director this, but he refused to listen.”

True enough. And then it all clicked into place-Thomas had been betrayed to the enemy, but Davood hadn’t known his location. Hamid had.

Harry stood there, still frozen in indecision. How long had he and Hamid worked together? How many times had they saved each other’s lives? The blood debt.

The door opened and Abdul Ali appeared, bearing both of the canisters. The Jordanian took a look around at the faces in the security center and asked, “What’s happened?”

Harry ignored him, turning to Tex. “I’m going in.”

“That was not the plan,” Abdul Ali protested, setting the canisters down by the door.

“The plan,” Harry retorted, “has gone out the window. We’ve got a rogue agent in the masjid and two canisters still in play. Tex, I need you to stay here and disarm the second container. Abdul Ali, you’re coming with me.”

“My orders,” the bodyguard replied stoutly, “are to keep you out of the masjid.”

“And my orders are to prevent your people from dying by the thousands.” Harry picked up the UMP-45 and slung it around his neck, buttoning his leather jacket over it. “I’ll leave you to reconcile the two.”

As the Jordanian stood in the door, undecided, Hossein spoke up. “Give me a gun and I’ll join you.”

Harry considered the request for a moment, then motioned to Tex. “Give him your back-up.”

Without a word, Texan pulled a.357 Magnum Ruger LCR from his ankle holster and handed it to the Iranian major, butt-first, along with a pair of speedloaders. Hossein spun the cylinder with a smile of satisfaction, shoving the gun into a trousers pocket.

Ali seemed still to be considering his decision and Harry moved toward the doorway, his face hard as a flint, his hand on his holstered pistol. In the chaos left by Hamid’s betrayal, he saw his mission clear.

For a moment, the two men stood face-to-face, staring into each other’s eyes. Then the Jordanian stepped aside with a sigh. “I have a duty to the Mufti, whom I have sworn before Allah to obey. And I have a duty to my own conscience. I will go with you.”