Chapter 52

Andie and her partner were on the move. Grace had taken over the driving duties so that Andie could focus on her phone conversation

with Isaac Underwood.

Andie knew Jack’s location, and they were heading up South Beach Road in that direction. But with SWAT in motion, showing

up on-site unannounced would have been dangerous to Jack and everyone else inside, not to mention deadly to her career. Andie’s

best bet was to find the mobile command center, appeal to the negotiating team, and get them to rein in the SWAT breach based

on “information on the ground.” Having the support of an assistant director in Washington couldn’t hurt.

“The decision to breach was made much higher than me,” said Isaac.

“Someone outside the FBI?” asked Andie.

“Higher than me,” he said, giving her nothing more.

“It appears that someone would rather see Nouri Asmoun dead than keep my husband alive. That’s unacceptable.”

“No one wants anyone hurt. We simply can’t risk Nouri going public with what he knows about Ava Bazzi.”

“What does Nouri know?”

“Andie, I can’t.”

“I deserve an answer, Isaac.”

“Even if I told you what I know, it wouldn’t fill in all the pieces of the puzzle.”

“I’ll settle for a corner piece.”

Humor, however lame, had gotten Andie and Isaac through many a tense situation in Seattle, and her effort seemed to bring

out a hint of the old Isaac, softening him a bit.

“The Iranians didn’t know what they had in Ava Bazzi,” he said.

“I already know about the text-message network. Ava kept text messages from women all over Iran about the opposition to the

government.”

Isaac paused, and Andie hoped that he would be more forthcoming now that he knew she was already deep into the secret life

of Ava Bazzi.

“What you need to understand is that Ava wasn’t collecting this information for a journalist or a human rights organization,”

he said. “She was feeding real-time information about the protests to the CIA through Nouri Asmoun, who then passed on that

information to Agent Guthrie. Ava was a key source of intelligence after the regime shut down the internet.”

“And the Iranians never found that out?”

“No. Farid found the thumb drives in their apartment after Ava was arrested.”

“He didn’t turn them over?”

“No. He destroyed them so they wouldn’t fall into the hands of the regime.”

“Farid was protecting Ava. Is that what you’re saying?”

“If he hadn’t, we would never have been able to buy her out of Evin Prison. Ava would have been tortured to give up the names

of hundreds of women with whom she communicated, and hundreds more would have been arrested. We bought her out of jail before

the Iranians learned any of that. Before they could torture her—and then probably execute her.”

“So when you say that the Iranians didn’t know what they had in Ava Bazzi, that means they still don’t know—”

“What they have in Agent Guthrie,” said Isaac, finishing her thought.

Andie fleshed it out completely. “If Nouri speaks, and the Iranians find out now, Agent Guthrie might also be slated for execution.”

Isaac’s silence said it all.

“What would you do if you were me, Isaac?”

“I’d keep my finger right on the pulse. I’d go to the mobile command center.”

“Where is it?”

“You didn’t hear it from me,” he said, and then he told her.

Andie thanked him and hung up. She was about to call her ASAC to let him know she was on her way, but she thought better of it. Tidwell might order her to stay away. She shot a quick text instead and gave Grace the directions.

It was a two-minute drive straight up South Beach Road to the FBI’s staging area outside the town hall. There were no streetlights

along the road, and the lights in the parking lot at the town hall were out—at the FBI’s direction, no doubt. The mobile command

center and SWAT van were parked in a forest of oak trees behind the building, under the cover of darkness. Tidwell stepped

out of the command center as the car pulled up. The SWAT van was empty, and the team was nowhere to be seen, which made Andie’s

heart race.

“Has SWAT breached the cottage already?” she asked.

“Not yet,” said Tidwell. “But they’re in position. Unless you’ve changed your mind about calling Jack and creating a diversion

for the breach, you shouldn’t be here.”

Andie rolled with it. “I’m considering it.”

Tidwell took her inside the command center. A tech agent and two hostage negotiators were in the electronics room. A video

feed from the SWAT unit was on the screen. It was Andie’s first look at the cottage. Her throat tightened at the thought of

Jack inside, surrounded by SWAT.

“We just received the latest audio,” said Tidwell.

It was no surprise to Andie that SWAT had planted eavesdropping devices to pick up conversations inside the cottage. The tech

agent played a recording of Jack’s exchange with Nouri—Jack’s repeated requests that Nouri put the gun away, Nouri’s refusal,

and his chilling words: Now I’m on my side .

Tidwell hit stop, and the recording ended.

“What does that mean—‘Now I’m on my side’?”

“It’s not clear,” said Tidwell. “We expect Nouri to make a new demand. Something for himself. When he calls, SWAT breaches.”

“This isn’t protocol,” said Andie. “Nouri hasn’t made an explicit threat to hurt Jack, Yasmin, or Zahra. You shouldn’t give

up on negotiation until he does. That’s hostage negotiation one-oh-one.”

“Headquarters sees things differently,” said Tidwell.

“On what basis?”

“Based on Nouri’s threat to reveal what he knows about Ava Bazzi.”

“That’s not a threat to any of the hostages.”

“Maybe not these hostages,” said Tidwell. “But it’s a threat on the life of a CIA agent who’s being held hostage in an Iranian prison. If Nouri

makes good on his threat to go public with what he knows about Ava Bazzi, Agent Guthrie is at risk of torture or worse at

the hands of the Iranians.”

All of a sudden the pressure Andie had been getting from the CIA and the State Department made sense. It sent her head spinning.

It wasn’t simply a matter of jeopardizing the US government’s negotiations for the release of an American hostage. It was

the danger of letting the Iranians discover the true value of the hostage they were holding—and the dire consequences he might

suffer.

“So, dealing with Nouri is no different than dealing with a hostage taker who has threatened to kill a hostage in the same

room with him,” said Andie, putting two and two together.

“That’s the way we see it,” said Tidwell. “Nouri has effectively threatened to kill Agent Guthrie, who’s at the mercy of the

Iranian regime in a Tehran prison cell. We have no choice.”

“You have to breach,” said Andie.

“We have to breach. There’s only one question: Are you in or are you out?”

He was asking her again to make the phone call to Jack—to act as the diversion for the SWAT breach. It was Andie’s calculation

that a breach was more likely to succeed with a diversion than without one, which left only one answer.

“Okay,” she said. “I’m in.”