Believers – Marc Grossman John Limbert (1)

“It’s no se- cret that Iran has been a policy disaster for us. We understand almost nothing of the new reality there. We now have a key source in Tehran, and the information it provides is crucial to our interests in the region. I can’t, and I won’t tell you more until you agree to help us. I can say we will need you to go to Iran to help protect our source.

It will be dangerous. It may also be the most important thing you do in your career and you can do it now.” With a smile, Porter added, “And, you won’t have to mis- lead your parents. You will work for me.” Ruzbeh recognized an order when he heard one. Porter had appealed to his patriotism, his sense of adventure, and his curiosity about what had become, or was becoming, of his fa- ther’s homeland. He left the office after a few more minutes’ conversation. Porter immediately called George Blessey.

“He’s our man. Get him ready and then let’s get him there.” Over a cup of bland coffee in the State Department’s first- floor cafeteria, Ruzbeh considered what Porter was asking him to do. The CIA had firmly kept him away from anything Ira- nian. He understood but still deeply resented the unspoken message: we are suspicious of your mixed heritage, your loy- alty to America, and the fact that you might know too much. Something had caused this unfounded, and to Ruzbeh in- sulting, prejudice to change, at least for now, at least in this case.

Porter must be so desperate to protect his Tehran source that he had persuaded CIA to abandon its fears. Whatever the reasons, Ruzbeh had his orders. He knew working in Iran could get him killed, but he felt that, for the first time in his career, he would be doing work for which he was uniquely qualified.

And he would show any doubters that he was an American patriot. Phillipe Tehrani, the newly appointed Iran stringer for Agence France-Presse, tried to control his breathing as he presented his Ruzbeh Iranian passport to the sullen and suspicious border control agent at Mehrabad Airport. As Ruzbeh Parvizi, he had prac- ticed this entry a hundred times, his CIA and French DGSE coaches alternately criticizing and encouraging his evolving tradecraft. He carried an Iranian passport because Tehrani’s story was that his father was Iranian and mother French, and the laws of Iran mandated that he could be only Iranian.

Porter and his colleagues also hoped that this Iranian nationality would appease Nilufar, who had insisted that no “foreigner” could come help her. He explained to the immigration officer, in fluent and re- hearsed Persian, that he had come to cover events in Iran for the French news agency. His father was Iranian, mother French.

Raaz-e-sar-basteh-ye-maa bin, keh be dastaan goftand Har zamaan baa daf o nei, bar sar-e-baazaar-e-diger. See our deepest secrets, now told by storytellers, With flute and tambourine, from morning till PSneN at the gate of yet another bazaar —Hafez This is a work of fiction. All names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the authors’ imagination or are used fictionally and are not to be constructed as real.

Any resemblance to past or current events or locales, or to persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental. BELIEVERS Love and Death in Tehran A NOVEL Marc Grossman and John Limbert [dfs uly Lit 328] Mazda Publishers 2020 Publication of this book was made possible in part by a grant from The A.

K. Jabbari Family Trust Mazda Publishers, Inc. Academic publishers since 1980 P.O. Box 2603, Costa Mesa, California 92628 U.S.A. www.mazdapublishers.com A. K. Jabbari, Publisher Copyright © 2020 by Mazda Publishers, Inc. Text copyright © 2020 by Mare Grossman and John Limbert. All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted by any form or by any means without written permission from the copyright holder except in the case of brief quota- tions embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Grossman, Marc, 1951- author. | Limbert, John W., 1943- author. Title: Believers : Love and Death in Tehran : a novel / by Mare Grossman and John Limbert. Description: Costa Mesa : Mazda Publishers, Inc., 2020. Identifiers: LCCN 2020013893 | ISBN 9781568593807 (paperback) Subjects: LCSH: Women spies—Iran—Fiction.

| Espionage, American—Iran—Fiction. | IranPolitics and government—Fiction. | GSAFD: Spy fiction | Suspense fiction. Classification: LCC PS3607.R6725 B45 2020 | DDC 813/.6—de23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020013893 Cover design: Nosrat Tarighi, DC Multimedia Productions, (www.dcmulti.media). Original calligraphy: Sharif Sharifi Shahrivar. Model:Stefanie Vale. We dedicate this book to our colleagues, the men and women of the U.S. Foreign Service. Along with their coworkers in the civil service, the intelligence community, and the military, they proudly serve the people of the United States of America.

This is a short excerpt from the opening of “” by Unknown, quoted for review and introduction purposes. All rights belong to the copyright holders.

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