True Lies - Redux Ch. 04

Setting the stage for Jim and Rachel's confrontation.

******************

Jim -

Entering Iran was easy. No drama.

There were 8 of us total in two old Toyota pick-ups. Our two Kurdish-Iranian drivers were indeed legal Iranian citizens with quite valid NID documents. They were also legal Iraqis. Well, sort of.

The Iranian Jew, Adel, also had his own documents and seemed quite "legal". The rest of us were definitely "Agency" and we had our own impressive looking - aged just right - NID cards as well. This National ID card was required for just about any legal transaction in Iran, from banking to renting a hotel room. They would certainly pass any casual inspection and (I was sure) even a further cursory computer look-up as verification. Habib Ebrahimi was my Iranian name - and my picture looked good - the basic ID mugshot look.

Our tactical leader was Farid Gul. He seemed to be in his mid-forties and quite confident in his leadership. I got the impression he had already spent quite a bit of time in Tehran and had some personal contacts already established. Our safehouse was an apartment south of the downtown area and the poorer part of the city. The more upscale areas were north.

We arrived right at noon, and unloaded our large rucksacks without anyone else apparently noticing. Mostly what we carried in were our weapons - AK-74's and old Czech manufactured Tokarev 9mm automatics. I also had an 11" bladed Pesh-kabz Perso-Afghan knife which was just beautiful and I hoped I could keep it as a souvenir - if I actually got out alive, of course. I had requested a "large local type knife" but expected nothing like one of this quality. A knife never runs out of bullets and a LOT of Muslim males worldwide were really afraid of knives themselves - but one reason they liked that whole "cut their heads off" gory showmanship video terrorism. We also had about 4 pounds of Semtex-H, also of Czech origin. We also each had a couple of changes of clothes, including at least one business casual or actual business suit outfit, since we might have to go into Jennifer's upscale 4-star hotel undercover.

Tehran was actually a very "Westernized" city and had all the advantages for us of a large metropolitan area - public transportation including cab service and the anonymity offered of "just faces in the crowd." We all fit in with our natural camouflage - how we looked, talked, and acted. Even me. Our drivers had their own business to attend to but left us one truck "just in case" and promised to be back with the other truck by 6PM that evening.

Jennifer and Grayson were in an upper floor suite (undoubtedly) room 1009 at the Ferdowsi Grand Hotel, pretty much downtown and not too far from our place - maybe ten minutes away with standard traffic.

I talked to Farid and he agreed we could reconnoiter the area a tad around the hotel. Everyone else decided to do the same, in pairs. We'd all grab some food while we were out as well. No one went armed just in case we were stopped by the police or the roving "Sharia morality patrol" Basij militia for any reason. Our dumb looks and documentation were more than enough cover. Four of us were actually Shi'ite Muslims and both Adel and I had studied and memorized enough of the Qu'ran to get by quite well.

It was no problem at all. We just walked around, always looking like we were kind of in a hurry and knowing where we were going. We spotted an alley behind the hotel and noticed several doors and a loading dock entrance for the hotel off that alley, including one loading dock into a basement area.

Everyone got back by 5:30PM and so did our drivers - except instead of the pickup truck they had a panel van.

"We traded up. Thought this might be handier for smuggling people out. Might not make it all the way on the dirt roads, but it might! And we've still got the one 4 wheel drive Toyota."

Then Adel mentioned, "You know, I've stayed in that hotel myself a couple of times. Maybe I could get a room there and just be that much closer and in place when it happens."

Well, I was rather worried that "call for help" might happen at any time and us maybe being 10 minutes or longer away wasn't acceptable.

"See if you can get a room for two." I immediately replied.

"Let me make a call," Adel replied.

Farid said, "That might be real good. We can also park the van someplace much closer with two guys in there. Also maybe have two guys hanging around the lobby. People are always hanging around hotel lobbies."

Adel came back into the room from making his private call.

"I talked to my people and it's done. I've got a 5th floor room for two, guaranteed late arrival tonight with my name and NID number and credit card info they already had on file. Whoever checks in with me will present their NID card then."

"That will probably be me." I stated that pretty forcefully, actually. My spidey-sense was starting to tingle that something might be wrong. Or maybe I was just becoming a worry-wart as I got older. Well, Jennifer meant a lot to me - more than just a colleague.

I also figured that "Adel's people" weren't exactly the same as "my people."

"Let me call my people and touch bases if we've heard anything else. Also, Adel - what's security like at that hotel?"

"Pretty much like any 4 star hotel worldwide, now. Cameras on every public area and the elevators, exterior and interior, their own private security folks but tied in pretty closely with the Ministry of Intelligence. And a monitor room with everything recorded. There might also be a little more than normal undercover VAJA agents hanging around, and some uniformed full-automatic armed police/militia always close by."

"So, if we have to snatch her, someone might see us in realtime and the alarm go out immediately?"

"It's quite possible. And they'll have our pictures after the fact, for city or nationwide APB's..."

"How good are you at disguises..."

Adel really laughed. "Oh, I'm covered just fine. How about you?"

"I've got a kit. Colored contacts and I can dump my glasses. Fake facial hair. And some interesting cosmetics that can alter my "facial recognition points" just enough to screw up everything but NSA's best in-house facial recognition software. Let me make that call."

I called Elaine.

"Hey, any more info?"

"Not from Jennifer. And her phone is off and dark. That just happened this morning. We were tracking it, of course. It's either destroyed or locked in a Faraday cage right now. Even if the main battery had been pulled, the little built-in and disguised secondary battery would have kept powering a unique VHF pulse - every 30 seconds - signal for a day."

"Her Bluetooth stuff?"

"Don't know, nothing has been activated, yet. It's all really RF dark technology until activated. But we have had some luck with NSA electronic intercepts. There was a call to one of the Darius Salmondi phones we've been monitoring specifically from a Colonel Masdani, who just happens to be VAJA. And Darius called the Colonel "Uncle Jafar". Jafar Masdani is definitely a player in the "special operations" department of VAJA. Part of their mandate is Nuclear research protection and development. The gist of the call was that Darius's sister Yasmin, who was niece Yasmin to Jafar, had disappeared from Jafar's home. So, Darius, have you talked with her recently? Darius said that he had, just one week ago - and that Yasmin sounded very happy and was 'in love' and might be getting married, but also for Darius not to worry if he didn't hear from Yasmin for a while.

"Jafar then told Darius he needed to come to Tehran and Jafar was ordering one of his men to pick him up and bring him in, that his sister may have done a very foolish thing but it would all work out once she was located. Don't try and call her or anything until Jafar could be right there with him to make the call. That was pretty much it. Both phones have GPS built-in and NSA is tracking both Darius's and Jafar's phone in realtime now. We think Iran just got some Stingray knock-off technology from Russia. He may be planning on using that, hoping Yasmin is still in Tehran and can locate her exact location if she answers Darius's call."

"I'll keep you appraised of Darius's location via secure text. Getting Jennifer out right now is your primary mission. We can try later for Darius and Yasmin later if it just doesn't work safely for all this time. Is that clear?

"Yes, Mom - clear as a bell. I just like to work as efficiently as possible..."

"Just be careful and make sure you complete the primary goal. Now, we have also gotten some interesting info from Grayson's phone calls. He has also been talking with Jafar about Yasmin missing - but Jafar is REALLY upset about not receiving some "special items" that have been promised for several months, now. Grayson is swearing that it's all but a done deal - it just needs his final personal touch with his key suppliers in California and Paris, France. Hopefully Jennifer has some more info on exactly what this is about. If it relates to Iran's nuclear weapons development, we need to know it. Good luck, Jim - and be careful."

"Sure. Later."

I told Adel and Farid pretty much everything I had just learned. Even the possible nuclear stuff. I knew Mossad had an interest in and concerns about that. And it re-emphasized how important getting Jennifer back alive really was. It was decided we would walk a block away, get a cab to the hotel and check-in by 8:30pm. For comms with one another it was just going to have to be the ubiquitous cellphones, that most everyone now had in Tehran and indeed, worldwide.

Those damn cameras everywhere worried me. Adel told me not to sweat it. He had a really large suitcase while mine was more travel-business sized. We checked in and went upstairs to our room.

We both started unpacking what we thought we might need and for quick access to essentials. Most likely the suitcases and most of our clothes would be left behind. We only brought the Tokarev handguns and my beautiful knife, but I had also carried that little .22 magnum NAA mini-revolver all the way from California on "USAF Airlines - no waiting in security lines!" Adel had quite a few women's clothes actually - including chadors and even what looked like burkas. For Jennifer, of course. Smart.

After a few minutes he dug out a package of quarter sized diameter really clear looking gelatin balls. He palmed one and said, "Let's take a walk down for some good coffee. We're going to appear to have a pretty vocal argument until we get to the elevators, just follow my lead."

As we exited the room and walked down the hallway he got very excited and started talking loudly in Farsi. I replied the same way. When we got to where the camera in the ceiling was covering the door to our room, he stopped me and faced me while verbally berating me and waving his arms around. That little ball flew up and hit the camera and broke, covering the little dome plastic camera protector with a clear liquid. Then we walked on to the elevators and our argument was apparently over. Adel had a grin.

"Anyone actually paying attention to that particular camera view would hardly have noticed the clear ball hitting, and the current state of that liquid hardly interferes with the view - just maybe looking a little out of focus right now. But in two hours that camera will be effectively blind with just shadowy images - and no one can see exactly who leaves or enters our room."

We entered the little 24 hour cafe off the lobby and got some coffee and food. I also received an interesting text while we were just finishing up. "J and D both now show at your location."

Jafar and Darius were both in this hotel? Visiting Grayson in his room? Maybe...

*************

Jennifer -

Well, things were certainly getting interesting starting yesterday, Tuesday evening. This was now Wednesday about noon, after yet another and still more intensive little BDSM sex with me this morning. I ended up nude and handcuffed while "forced" to fellate Grayson to completion as soon as he woke up. He merely left me chained and said "I'll bring you some breakfast shortly."

His attentions to me had steadily been ever more degrading - but I had suffered at the hands of some real sadists in the past and so far everything Grayson did to me was pretty tame. I had no problems both pretending to be suffering and yet "orgasming" at times during his ministrations.

Perhaps leaving me tied up for now was just part of his fun and games. Or perhaps he was preparing to hand me off to someone else a little earlier than I had thought. Or just possibly I had messed up in my acting somehow and he was getting suspicious. It really is not all that easy acting always dumber than one actually is for a week or longer. Those who think themselves always "the smartest in the room" will always overlook the little appearances of "intelligence" in the "bimbos" around them - but after a couple of times (or more) some questions might also arise.

Grayson had let me hear some key things as he received calls and conducted his business here while playing with my body. I certainly acted as if nothing he said or did with anyone else was of the slightest interest to me - only that it interfered with him giving me all his attention. This seemed to reinforce his opinion of me OR that it just didn't matter because something was going to happen to me that did not include return to America anytime soon.

I heard the names Yasmin and Darius via overhearing Grayson's phone call while I was on my knees working on his wang-chung Monday morning, still pretty early. He had managed to bring quite a stash of his recreational drugs of choice and alcohol plus the ever more needed little blue pills, as his libido seemed to be a lot stronger than his body actually was. We both partook Sunday night after checking in, and it was a pretty long night for me. Later Monday Grayson was out quite a bit and I was left alone in the hotel room. Grayson warned me not to leave the hotel as it would be quite dangerous for me, as a Western and non-Muslim woman and actually illegal for foreigners to wander around without an official "guide", but that I could use the spa or swimming pool or shop or eat in any of the restaurants in the building, or just use room service and he would be back early afternoon, probably. I did wander around the hotel a tad and used a desk phone to call that local contact number I had and leave a message for my own "op center" people.

Grayson did not get back with his personal bodyguard until 6PM Monday evening and looked worried. I tried to interrogate him with simple "bimbo" questions but he didn't bite. We had an OK room service dinner, then had some more alcohol and drug fueled sex again - a little heavier BDSM shit. Mostly Grayson just got off on "total control" scenarios. That's how he treated Rachel, I had observed - and I also knew just having me, one woman only, was a bit of a letdown to his psyche. He was trapped on that Catch-22 and slippery slope of hedonism - the law of diminishing returns. Poor fool, I almost felt sorry for him. Nah.

But it did make my job of keeping him happy and satisfied for as long as possible more difficult.

Tuesday was about the same. He left again right after a kind of sullen mood breakfast - and this time he warned me not to leave the room. That gave me a chance to carefully look through all his stuff - but I didn't learn a thing. Tuesday evening about 7PM after another just OK room service dinner he had his first visitor. I was sent into the bedroom of our suite and he told me to "put on something really sexy".

I put on my pair of dark thigh high 1940's look stockings and 5 inch heels and "covered" myself with a transparent gauzy robe - and checked myself out in the full length mirror. I still looked pretty damn good, I thought. I am 5'9" tall out of my shoes and I am a natural redhead with green eyes. I have curly hair, top and bottom - long on top and pretty short down below - just long enough to still be curly, and thin enough it didn't hide any of my real charms like my luscious lips down there as well as on my pretty face. I had that "girl next door" pretty face that seemed to be pretty enough for any man. My shoulders are a tad wider than normal, and my breasts are large though wide spaced. They stick out quite prominently and are capped with quite suckable nipples. One of my former French admirers called them "grand tetons" quite happily - and I was quite happy as he nursed away on them. My stomach is hard and flat. That little red hair I keep down there really accentuates my Delta of Venus - the mons veneris fatty deposit that covers my pubic bone above my pudendum - and dressed as I was standing in my heels with my back arched just a tad to balance and support my large breasts, my center was thrust forward and commanded attention and looked SO inviting. I could not help thinking, "Yep. I'd do me." And so I waited.

After about an hour Grayson came and got me. "Will this do?" I asked him.

He smirked. "You look just great, slut. Just be sure to keep your mouth shut unless directly asked to respond and otherwise do exactly what I command quickly and completely obediently. My visitor thinks he is an important man and it's important to reinforce that, for now."

"Are you going to share me with him? I was kind of hoping I was special to you..."

"You are special, slut. You are my special toy - and I don't share my toys, until I am through with them and maybe just give them away. Or maybe just break them so no one else can enjoy them. But I don't mind other boys looking at my toys, now be quiet and remember what I just told you."

He tried to project command but I could smell just a whiff of fear. Interesting.

He then pulled out his stash of white powder and sniffed two lines. Pharmaceutical courage?

I followed Grayson into the other room. Actually I strutted in as I can really rock high heels with my long and strong legs. I was not introduced to the man standing there but I looked at him, neutrally. He was just kind of an average looking Iranian man - about 5'10", thin with black hair and dark eyes, and with a black mustache. He ogled me with great interest. He certainly could ogle well. I was pretty sure I gave him instant blue balls.

"Well, what do you think, Colonel? Will she do?"

The Colonel was trying to play it cool - when I could tell by his eyes he would sell his soul to possess me.

"She is...interesting. But look how she stands, too brazen, too proud. This is not appealing to me all that much."

"Of course you prefer her on her knees and with her head bowed, worshipping. Come here, whore - on your knees and worship me."

He unzipped himself and I did as he commanded. As I worked it deep in my warm and wet mouth I tried to catch the Colonel's eyes. He did not want to watch another man, especially one who I suspected had a rather larger manhood, but he could not NOT watch me - and I saw his greed and envious lust as I "worshipped" away.

Grayson taunted him. "This could be you Colonel. The question is: are you merely man enough to bend her to your will? It can be done as I have done...see how easy it is? Alright, that's enough slut, get up and give our guest some affectionate attention. Merely sit close to him and let him touch you as he wishes, for now. You and I will proceed later."

And he zipped himself back up while I tried to act passively sexy with dear Colonel, who looked like he was about to blow a gasket. I sat next to him on the sofa and merely laid one of my hands on his leg that my leg was now against. I left my legs parted in invitation. I was sure he could feel my body heat through his own clothes and smell my wet sex mingled with my musk based perfume.

Grayson was talking. "Now, Colonel, let's wrap all this unfortunate unpleasantness up and put it behind us, and really start working together again toward our common goals. I see where your hand is that Jennifer here is quite acceptable to you."