63: Chapter 60 Jalali is out

Abadan.

Jalali walked out on his own; he wasn't released. It was because the Abadan branch of SAVAK received instructions from the Tehran headquarters in late November, ordering all local branches to reduce their focus on general detainees under the current situation and concentrate resources on high-risk targets—the nationwide general strike and the continuous demonstrations in Tehran had already stretched the system's manpower to the breaking point. Locking up a worker for distributing cassette tapes was no longer high enough on the priority list at this moment.

When Jalali walked out of the branch gates, his wife, his eldest son, and Hemmati were waiting for him outside.

Hassan was also there, standing a little further away, holding a cloth bag containing things Reza had asked him to bring: some food, some changes of clothes, and an envelope filled with enough cash for his family to live on for three months. There were no strings attached, no paperwork, just given.

When Jalali came out and saw Hemmati, his first words were not thank you, but: "There are still six people inside."

Hemmati had someone relay this situation to Reza.

After reading it, Reza replied with four words: "Understood, wait."

Of those six people, three were released one after another in the following December for similar reasons. The other three stayed a bit longer, but all were released before the revolution broke out—not through Reza's maneuvering, but because, as the entire regime system accelerated its collapse, detainees of this level were naturally released or forgotten.

But at that moment, Jalali did not know this.

What he did know was that he had been locked up for nearly six weeks, and after coming out, his children had not gone hungry, his wife hadn't had to go out and borrow money, and neighbors told him that someone from the province had come to help, but left no name.

Hemmati later told Reza the details of this, saying that Jalali was sitting at home that evening, not speaking, just sitting there, and then asked Hemmati a question:

"Did His Excellency the Governor have this done?"

Hemmati said yes.

Jalali was silent for a long time, and finally said one sentence: "I owe him an explanation."

Hemmati relayed these words exactly as spoken. After hearing them, Reza added a character after Jalali's name in his notebook: "Usable."

This was the lowest tier in his highest category of personnel evaluation, meaning: this person's loyalty is currently in a usable state, but still requires further observation.

The tier above that, Reza had never used in his notebook. The highest rating he had given was for Hemmati: "Stable."

On Hassan's page, he had written two other characters, not in the evaluation system, just two words: "One of us."

In the first week of December, the situation in Tehran entered the final acceleration phase of Reza's predictions.

Pahlavi appointed a new cabinet headed by Shapour Bakhtiar. This appointment was in Reza's memory; it was a desperate move—Bakhtiar was a truly capable man, from the National Front, reputable and principled, but the timing of his taking this position was terrible, because at the moment he took office, the people on the streets no longer cared who was replaced; what they wanted was not a better cabinet, but the complete end of this system.

When Reza saw this news, he calculated the time, and then sent an instruction to Karimi:

"Accelerate the progress of the Bakhtiar line, arrange a meeting within next week, the location is Ahvaz, have him come."

Karimi wrote back asking: Ayatollah Khomeini's liaison Bakhtiar, or the new Prime Minister Bakhtiar appointed by Pahlavi?

The names of these two people were very similar, and Reza hadn't marked it clearly in his instruction, so he replied with one word:

"The former."

Ayatollah Khomeini's liaison Bakhtiar, that line planted back in early October, was now ready to be used.

On December 10th, Bakhtiar came to Ahvaz.

This time it wasn't through Karimi as an intermediary; he came by long-distance bus himself, with no companions. After entering the city, he found a regular hotel to stay in, and then met with Reza through the method Karimi had arranged in advance.

The location was a private room in a teahouse near the Governors Mansion. Reza went alone, without bringing Hassan.

When Bakhtiar entered, Reza looked him over again. During that meeting two months ago, he had impressed Reza as a mid-level executor skilled in organizational work; this time, something in his eyes was different, adding a kind of state that appears when people at lower levels, during the acceleration of a major situation, feel their own fate beginning to truly link with history—a state that was both excited and heavy.

"Your Excellency," he said directly after sitting down, "The Mentor has words for me to convey."

Reza nodded, didn't speak, and waited for him to continue.

"The Mentor says he knows about the oil workers' strike in Khuzestan and His Excellency the Governor's attitude during this strike," Bakhtiar said. "The Mentor says, for Persians to protect Persian resources is just."

The meaning of this sentence was: Ayatollah Khomeini approved of Reza's handling of the strike issue. This was a signal of gesture, indicating that the piece had begun to move.

"What else does the Mentor have to say?" Reza asked.

Bakhtiar paused, as if phrasing his words:

"The Mentor wishes to know what thoughts Your Excellency has regarding the future state structure of Iran."

This was a real probing—Ayatollah Khomeini was asking what role you intend to play in the new order.

Reza didn't answer immediately; he first poured tea for both of them, slowly put the teapot back, and then spoke:

"I believe that the future power structure of Iran must have a secular governing layer capable of speaking to the outside world, and at the same time, a spiritual authority layer representing religious tradition. These two layers should each perform their own duties and cannot replace each other." He paused. "I am interested in the former and have no covetous heart for the latter; the Mentor can rest assured on this point."

To put it bluntly, this meant: I want the power to govern; you take the religious authority, we divide the work.

This was not Reza's true long-term intention, but at the current juncture, it was the only statement that could make the Ayatollah Khomeini system feel that cooperation was possible—tell him you don't intend to touch his piece of the cake, and he will allow you to sit at the same table.

Bakhtiar listened carefully to this, paused for about five seconds, and then said:

"The Mentor needs time to consider."

"I know," Reza said, "No rush."

This "no rush" was genuine.

Because Reza had calculated very clearly that the time Ayatollah Khomeini needed to consider was exactly the time he needed most—to complete the start-up of mass production at the workshop, to let Mohammadi's position within the army move a step further, and to turn Najjari from a "waverer" into a "chooser."

Once all these were in place, he would sit down with Ayatollah Khomeini and truly talk.

By then, the cards in his hand would be enough to make that old man who had been in exile in Paris for over a decade take a serious look.

After Bakhtiar left, Reza sat alone in the private room for a few minutes and wrote two lines in his notebook about the result of the meeting:

"Ayatollah Khomeini has begun to take this piece seriously."

"Time: About forty-five days left."

Forty-five days later, Pahlavi would leave Iran.

That was the beginning of the endgame.