57: Chapter 54 Two Telegrams

September 20, 1978, Ahvaz Governors Mansion.

The two telegrams arrived almost back-to-back, less than twenty minutes apart.

The first to arrive was good news, sent by Karimi from Tehran. The content stated that the third person on Shapour's list—Lieutenant Colonel Mohammadi, the deputy brigade commander of the 2nd Armored Brigade—had proactively found someone to contact Karimi's liaison point in Tehran, saying he wanted to meet the "His Highness of Khuzestan," with the reason being "there are some things I cannot sleep at night without saying clearly."

Reza remembered the name Mohammadi. Shapour's original comment on this person was: A career soldier, not greedy, has a sense of honor, shows obvious weariness toward the current political environment, but shows no signs of proactively crossing the line; requires an external trigger.

The fact that he reached out proactively meant the external trigger had been completed. The source of the trigger was Black Friday—the gunfire at Jaleh Square. For a soldier with a sense of honor, watching his own comrades aim their guns at civilians was a lever strong enough to completely collapse the inner balance of certain people.

Reza wrote four words on this telegram: "Arrange it, as soon as possible."

The second to arrive was bad news, delivered by Najjari himself. It wasn't a telegram; he had sent a plainclothes runner to bring a folded note to the guard at the Governors Mansion, asking them to hand it to Reza personally.

There was only one line of text on the note, in Persian, in Najjari's handwriting:

"Tehran headquarters has decided to send a special investigation team to Khuzestan. The person in charge is Deputy Director Mousavi. He is expected to arrive in Ahvaz within three days to investigate recent social dynamics in the province and the activities of related personnel. Please be informed, Your Highness."

Reza read the note twice, then lit it in the ashtray. He watched it burn to ash before opening his mouth to call Hassan in.

"Mousavi, do you know this person?"

Hassan shook his head.

"He is a Deputy Director at the Tehran headquarters of SAVAK, in charge of internal audits," Reza said. "This man has a nickname, 'The Scalpel.' It's not because he moves fast, but because he is precise. Every time he comes down, he only cuts one point, but after the cut, that point becomes completely necrotic." He paused. "He is coming to Khuzestan not to investigate the chaos in the province, but specifically to investigate me."

Hassan's expression didn't change, but his standing posture tightened slightly without him realizing it.

"How should we handle this?"

Reza didn't answer immediately; he paced the room twice.

The timing of Mousavi's arrival was very delicate—after Black Friday, the situation in Tehran continued to heat up. Logically, headquarters should be focusing its energy on stabilizing the core cities. Sending someone specifically down to investigate the governor of a remote province at this time indicated that someone at headquarters had upgraded their judgment of him from "keep an occasional eye on" to "needs to be dealt with immediately."

Behind this, there was a high probability of Miller's push. That letter regarding the oil accounts was originally designed to divert Miller's attention, but a truly seasoned intelligence officer would not put all his attention on the bait. He would push multiple lines simultaneously, one of which was accelerating the audit of Reza through internal SAVAK channels.

Reza had underestimated Miller's reaction speed, or rather, overestimated the confusing effect of that letter.

This judgment error needed to be acknowledged and then adjusted quickly.

"Mousavi coming to investigate has several layers," Reza sat back down, his mind starting to quickly dismantle the problem. "The first layer, what is he coming to investigate—it definitely isn't just the distribution of supplies; that matter is too small to be worth a Deputy Director coming out in person. He wants to investigate the source of the funds behind me, my contact with worker representatives, and the informal relationship networks I have established in the province. The second layer, what does he have in his hands now—he has that internal bulletin from headquarters and the assessment provided by Miller's side, but these are all observations, not substantive evidence. Otherwise, he wouldn't be coming to investigate; he would be coming to make arrests. The third layer, what can I do after he arrives."

"And the third layer?" Hassan asked.

"The third layer," Reza said, "is that I want him to find nothing after he arrives, and after he finishes investigating, take back a judgment that is favorable to me."

Hassan was silent for a moment: "Doing these two things at the same time is difficult."

"Difficult, but not impossible," Reza said. "Finding nothing relies on clearing the field, and taking back a favorable judgment relies on acting. These are two sets of actions, handled separately."

He picked up a piece of paper and began to list items.

The clearing field part: Regarding the workshop, Fatima should immediately pause all operations involving physical goods. All blueprints and technical files should be transferred to backup storage points. The camouflage facilities on the ground should be checked to ensure there are no omissions. Karimi's liaison point in Tehran should lower its activity frequency and not accept any new visitors within the next two weeks. Regarding Hemmati and Ghazali, pause all direct contact. If there is an emergency, use a three-layer relay.

The acting part: Reza thought for a moment and wrote a few words in his notebook: "Be a governor that Mousavi finds agreeable."

Specifically: The day before Mousavi arrives, arrange a routine administrative meeting of the provincial government. The agenda should be all trivial livelihood matters: grain reserves, road repairs, autumn taxes. Disguise the Governors Mansion as a normal institution that only cares about local administrative affairs. After Mousavi arrives, I will cooperate fully, with no defenses and no evasions. I will proactively provide all the public information he wants, while intentionally or unintentionally showing the fatigue of a peripheral royal family member regarding political ambition during casual conversation—'I'm just here to drift through life; those things in Tehran have nothing to do with me.'

This performance was not the first time he had done it, but this time the audience was harder to fool than Miller.

"This person, Mousavi," Reza said to Hassan, "has one characteristic: he doesn't believe anything anyone proactively shows him. He believes in the things that leak out through the details. So this performance cannot be too full; I need to leave gaps, let him find the answers he wants to find in those gaps, and that answer must be one I have pre-designed."

Hassan thought for a moment and asked: "What do you want him to find?"

"Let him find that I am buying people's hearts in the province," Reza said, "but the motive is to return to Tehran in the future to compete for a position within the royal family, not to start a revolution. A prince who wants to climb up in royal politics and a revolutionary who wants to overthrow the existing order are two completely different levels of danger. The former has a hundred conventional ways for SAVAK to handle it; the latter is what needs to be cut off immediately."

"Let Mousavi classify you as the former."

"Exactly."