50: Chapter 47 The First Domino

June 29, 1978, Tehran.

Reza stayed in Tehran for only two days.

He completed three tasks on the morning of the second day and set off back to Ahvaz in the afternoon.

The first task was to meet two people in Tehran on Shapour's list—one was Brigadier General Naseri, commander of the 3rd Armored Division, and the other was Colonel Mahdavi, head of the Army Logistics Department.

Both meetings were arranged in private settings: one in a teahouse, the other in a corridor after prayers at a mosque. The time was very short; Reza's main job was to make them remember his face while also observing their true attitudes toward the current situation.

Brigadier General Naseri did not speak much, but there was an irrepressible weariness in his eyes—the kind of look only found in someone who has been holding on for too long in a decaying system.

When Reza said the words "Military Professionalization," he paused, not responding, but that pause itself was an answer.

Colonel Mahdavi was talkative but cautious, beating around the bush with a lot of empty talk. It took Reza less than ten minutes to judge that this man was essentially a fence-sitter—until the wind direction was clear, he would not give any substantive commitments.

But that didn't matter; Reza didn't need him to take a stand now, he only needed a record of contact. When the day came for the wind to clear, such people would run faster than anyone.

The second task was, before leaving Tehran, to have Karimi handle a small, inconspicuous matter: at a small printing shop near the University of Tehran, print a batch of leaflets.

The content was a fiercely worded political essay titled "Who Is Selling Out Persia's Land," condemning the Pahlavi Government's oil agreements for allowing foreign capital to plunder national wealth. The writing was sharp, the data detailed, and it was signed "An Angry Persian."

Reza wrote this article in half an hour. The data in it was all real, pulled from his memory, accurate to the point of listing the difference between the actual profit margins of American oil companies in Iran and the nominal terms of the signed contracts.

"Distribute these leaflets on the night of July 14th, the day before the demonstration, at the entrance of the University of Tehran dormitories." Reza instructed Karimi, "Do not use our own people directly. Find a middleman who has absolutely no connection to us, give him money, and have him find students to distribute them."

"How should we handle this middleman after the distribution?"

"Pay the remaining balance and have him go to stay with relatives in Tabriz for a month, doing nothing." Reza said, "He doesn't know who he is working for, and that is enough."

The third task was a letter.

Using a name that did not belong to him, Reza wrote a very formally worded letter in Persian, put it in an ordinary envelope, and gave it to Karimi, instructing him to have it delivered to an address in Najaf after three transfers.

That address was the residence of an external contact for Ayatollah Khomeini.

The content of the letter consisted of only one paragraph, the gist of which was: "There is a group of patriots in Khuzestan Province who believe that the revival of Islamic Sharia and national liberation are not opposing causes. They are willing to provide material support within their capacity for the anti-imperialist revolution at the appropriate time, but they hope that after the revolution succeeds, Iran's military and industrial sovereignty can be held by the Iranians themselves, free from the influence of any foreign powers, including the Soviet Union."

The purpose of this letter was not to truly contact Ayatollah Khomeini, but to test the waters and plant an impression of "the existence of independent patriotic forces in Khuzestan" within Ayatollah Khomeini's intelligence network. When the situation eventually reached a critical node, this impression would become a trump card.

After finishing these three tasks, Reza boarded the car back to Ahvaz in the evening.

Hassan had not spoken in the passenger seat. Only after leaving the urban area of Tehran and getting onto the highway heading south did he speak:

"You stayed in Tehran for two days, met the King, met Miller from the CIA, met the Speaker, met two generals, and also arranged the leaflets and that letter." He paused, "I counted, the image you left in other people's eyes over these two days has at least five versions, and each one is real to different people."

"So what?"

"No 'so what'," Hassan said, "I was just expressing my thoughts."

Reza leaned back against the seat and closed his eyes.

"Hassan, do you know what the best camouflage is?"

"I don't know."

"It's not pretending to be another person," Reza said, "but letting everyone who has seen you think they have seen your true face, and that they have seen the exclusive side that no one else knows. Miller thinks he saw a hedonistic, wasteful prince; Sharif-Emami thinks he saw a somewhat profound but still too young advisor; Naseri thinks he saw a royal family member with military vision. Each of them thinks their judgment is accurate, and each of them is right—but each of them only saw the side I wanted them to see."

Hassan was silent for a while.

"Then what about me?" He said, "Which side do I see?"

Reza did not answer immediately, remaining silent for nearly half a minute.

"You see the side that is closest to the truth." Reza said, "But it is still just close, not the whole thing. No one can see the whole of another person, including you."

Hassan did not speak again, focusing on driving.

July 15, 1978, the demonstration at the University of Tehran broke out as scheduled.

The news was sent by telegram back to Ahvaz by Karimi that afternoon. Reza received the telegram in the study of the Governors Mansion, opened it, and saw only a few lines:

"Today, university students demonstrated, about eight thousand people, with slogans mainly against corruption and the United States. SAVAK has been dispatched, and the situation is currently deadlocked. Also: a leaflet was circulated last night, with content involving data on oil agreements, which has spread widely among the student body. Several newspaper reporters are already on the scene collecting information."

Eight thousand people—smaller than the scale in original history by nearly twenty percent, but it was enough.

Reza wrote a four-character annotation on that telegram and had it sent back to Karimi:

"Follow the plan."

Then he folded the telegram paper and put it in the drawer, continuing to look at the technical report on missile testing on his desk.

It was sent by Fatima three days ago, the results of the second live-fire test of the Persian-1 Type B. The test was conducted on an uninhabited salt flat in southern Khuzestan. At 3:00 AM, one was launched, flight time 183 seconds, impact deviation 261 meters.

261 meters, nearly 20 meters less than the previous 280 meters.

Reza drew a circle next to that number and wrote a line: "Continue to optimize guidance, target within 150 meters. At the same time, start designing a mobile launch platform, using a modified truck chassis, requiring a road speed of no less than 70 kilometers per hour."

He sealed this annotation in an envelope and sent it to the workshop.