Tehran, Iran – May 28, 2018
“Is this Kasem Ismaili?”
“Yes,” he said as he groggily rubbed his eyes. “Who is this?”
“It’s Nurah Bahar. Do you remember me?”
Kasem sat up abruptly and frowned. “Yes, of course. You’re that friend of Lila’s. Is everything all right?”
“I have a message from her.”
Kasem’s heart started to race. “What is it?”
“We can’t talk about this over the phone. Can you meet me in an hour?”
He reached over to his bedside table to grab his digital alarm clock. He blinked twice in astonishment at the bright red numerals that read 2:04. “In an hour? You mean meet you at three in the morning? Are you crazy?”
“You’re both in danger. Do you want to hear the message or not?”
“Yes, of course! But I have to get to work in a few hours.”
“I’m already breaking the rules by trying to get this message to you. It will all be irrelevant in twenty-four hours.”
“Oh, come on! You have to give me more than that to go on. How do I even know that you’ve spoken to Lila?”
“I have the locket that Lila wore. Will it be proof enough?”
“The locket?” he said and took a deep breath. Lila said that would be the signal. His thoughts began to run toward dark places. “I guess another sleepless night won’t do me any harm,” he finally conceded. “Where should I meet you?”
“The place where we first met. I’ll see you in an hour. Don’t be late.”
The line went dead. Where we first met? It’ll take almost an entire hour to drive there. Kasem groaned as he fumbled around the room to get dressed.
He was en route to his car when he remembered that his friend Jamal was huddled on the couch after locking himself out of his apartment down the hall. He just had to forget his keys tonight. He pulled out his cell phone and typed a hurried text message while stopped at a traffic light.
“Running urgent errand for L on other side of town. See you in few hours.”
Forty minutes later, Kasem pulled up in front of the empty lot where he and Lila had parked the last time they visited this flat on the other side of the city. Choosing the safety of the garage next door instead, he parked his car and walked over to the building.
It was eerily quiet at close to three in the morning. Cars passing by on the nearby highway were few and far between. Kasem shuddered. This had better be an emergency. His thoughts drifted back to Lila and he could feel his stomach tying in knots. He tried to push his mind away from the worst-case scenario to no avail and shuddered once again.
Kasem entered the lobby quietly and walked toward the elevator, which still had a large worn-out sign on it written in Farsi that read, “Elevator out of order.” He pushed open the door to the stairwell and rushed up to the third floor.
He knocked softly when he reached the apartment door. A few moments later, Nurah opened the door a crack.
“Did you come alone?”
“Are you fucking kidding me? Who would I bring with me? It’s three in the morning!”
“I had to be sure. Come in,” she said while opening the door to let him inside the dimly lit apartment.
He stepped past her into the living room and felt something sharp jab him in the neck. “What the h—?” he cried out.
Kasem’s eyes widened as he fought to maintain his vision. In his peripheral vision, he could see two burly men appear from the shadows of the dark room and grab his arms. He tried to lash out, but his muscles refused to respond. His legs started to sway and the room grew even hazier. “Nurah, what are you doing? Who are these men?” He tried to shout, but he could barely hear the whisper that escaped from his throat.
His legs buckled and he fell, first to his knees and then over onto his right side, landing hard on the side of the small couch near the entryway. Without realizing it, his phone slipped out of his pocket.
“I’m so sorry, Kasem. They already knew everything. I have to protect my family.”
In the back of his mind, he could hear the echo of Nurah’s voice.
The room faded as they thrust a dark sack over his head. “Where are you taking me? What do you want with me?” he tried once again to shout.
Then everything went black.
**********
Ahriman: The Spirit of Destruction Description:
“Like Grisham and Clancy… this title shines among the genre.” -The US Review of Books
Amazon Bestseller and finalist in the Druid Contest for Book of the Year.
The Day of the Jackal meets Syriana in the near future.
When the CIA intercepts intelligence on a terrorist attack in Kuwait, Petra Shirazi, a former field agent, comes face to face with the Ahriman, one of Iran’s deadliest assassins.
