67: Chapter 64 The Voice from Paris

January 8, 1979, Tehran.

The day after meeting Farrokhzad, Bakhtiar arrived.

It was not at Reza's invitation; Bakhtiar had taken the initiative to contact Karimi's communication channel, saying he had something to say and requesting a meeting as soon as possible.

This initiative indicated that there had been a response from Paris.

The meeting was still in Tehran, but the location had changed to an apartment in an ordinary residential area. Karimi had rented it in advance; it was usually unoccupied and kept just for such purposes.

When Bakhtiar entered, Reza noticed he seemed more spirited than last time. There was a sense of certainty in his eyes—not the mixture of excitement and heaviness from before, but pure certainty. He was here with a clear mission, not to grope in the dark.

He took an envelope from his bag, placed it on the table, pushed it toward Reza, and said: "The Mentor asked me to bring this to you. Please open it personally, Your Highness."

Reza picked up the envelope but didn't open it immediately. He asked: "Did the Mentor have any verbal message?"

"The Mentor said," Bakhtiar paused for a moment, as if ensuring his wording was precise, "he welcomes anyone who truly cares for Iran to step forward at this moment. This land is vast enough to accommodate different people, each fulfilling their own responsibilities."

Translated into Reza's understanding, this meant: Ayatollah Khomeini had neither refused nor promised anything. He was saying something that sounded tolerant but actually left a great deal of room for maneuver—'fulfilling their own responsibilities' meant he believed his duties and Reza's should be different, but he hadn't defined exactly what that 'different' was. That blank space left there was room for negotiation, but also room for a trap.

Reza opened the envelope. Inside was a handwritten letter in Arabic, written by Ayatollah Khomeini himself. The handwriting was neater than Reza had imagined. The content was not long—just three paragraphs—but every paragraph had been carefully considered.

The first paragraph discussed the oil resources on the land of Persia, stating that this was a blessing bestowed by Allah upon the people of this land and should not be plundered by any foreign forces.

The second paragraph discussed the goals of the revolution, stating that the revolution was not about swapping one oppressor for another, but about allowing the people of Iran to take control of their own destiny.

The third paragraph contained only one sentence: "If the opportunity arises, I look forward to speaking with Your Highness, Reza, in person."

Reza read the letter twice, folded it back into the envelope, and said to Bakhtiar: "Please tell the Mentor that I look forward to this opportunity. When he returns to the land of Iran, I will pay him a personal visit."

Bakhtiar noted the response, then asked a question Reza had not expected: "Your Highness, if the revolution succeeds, do you have a clear idea of your personal position in the future Iran?"

The fact that this question came from Bakhtiar indicated that this was the real bottom line Ayatollah Khomeini wanted to probe.

Reza thought for a moment and said: "I believe what a country needs most is someone to truly govern it well, not someone sitting in the highest position looking sacred. I have no interest in that position; I am interested in whether this country can truly become strong."

This sentence also left room for interpretation—it didn't say what he wanted, nor what he didn't want. It simply framed his focus on 'ability and results' rather than 'position and titles,' making it impossible for the other party to extract directly threatening information. Yet, at the same time, it conveyed a clear signal: I am not here to demand a position; I am here to discuss practical matters.

Bakhtiar listened to the answer, nodded, and said: "I will convey this accurately."

The two men did not discuss anything further, and the meeting ended there.

After Bakhtiar left, Hassan picked up the letter, glanced at it, and said: "Ayatollah Khomeini writing this letter and taking the initiative to suggest a meeting shows that he has truly started to view you as a pawn that needs to be taken seriously."

"Not a pawn," Reza said, "he is trying to determine if I am a threat. If I am a threat, he will eliminate me at the most opportune moment; if I am not a threat, he will place me into his system, give me a position he deems appropriate, and then use the logic of that system to keep me in check."

"Then is our goal to make him judge that you are not a threat?"

"No," Reza said, "our goal is to leave him with no way to eliminate me, and also no way to keep me in check."

Hassan paused and said: "For both of these to be true at the same time, the conditions required are very harsh."

"Yes," Reza said, "so before meeting him, I need to have all those conditions prepared."

He took out his notebook and listed the gains from this trip to Tehran: Mohammadi, basically usable; Farrokhzad, contact successful, still needs time; Ayatollah Khomeini's side, communication channel open, has the willingness to meet; Najjari, internal choice completed; Workshop, mass production progress proceeding according to plan.

Then he wrote a line below: "Gaps: funding and transport routes, religious endorsement for the Khuzestan declaration document, and one concrete thing that will allow everyone to see my position within the first week after the revolution is completed."

Regarding this last point, Reza thought for a long time before writing a few words on the side: "Wait for Pahlavi to leave, wait for Ayatollah Khomeini to return, then act."

On the afternoon of January 10, Reza and Hassan prepared to leave Tehran and return to Ahvaz.

Just that morning, news came from Karimi regarding Miller's movements—the CIA Tehran station had held an emergency internal meeting. The agenda was 'Assessing the potential duration of the Bakhtiar cabinet and the protection plan for US strategic assets in Iran.' The conclusion of the meeting was: the cabinet's survival time is estimated to be no more than three months; the US needs to begin identifying and cultivating potential contact points with the new regime.

After reading this, Reza made a simple judgment in his mind: all of Miller's energy had now shifted entirely to 'intelligence layout for the post-Pahlavi era.' The prince in Khuzestan had already dropped to a position on his priority list that required no active attention.

This was not a victory, just a window of opportunity.

But a window of opportunity is still a window of opportunity; even one minute is money.

Before getting into the car, Reza sent a short message to Fatima, only six words: "Mass production, January eighteenth."

Two days ahead of the original plan.

The car left Tehran and headed along the southern highway toward Khuzestan. Reza leaned against the car window, not sleeping, watching the wilderness that stretched to the horizon outside. Beneath that land lay the richest oil reserves in the entire Middle East, which was also the lever he would use to pry open the entire chessboard.

In history, this land was bombed to ruins during the Iran-Iraq War, fought over repeatedly by both sides, with massive oil facilities destroyed and tens of thousands of people dying here. It took nearly a decade to recover after the war ended.

In this lifetime, Reza did not intend to let that happen.

Not because of the cost of war, but because Saddam Hussein's war had to be consumed elsewhere; it could not be in Khuzestan.

He closed his eyes and went over the key nodes before the outbreak of the Iran-Iraq War in his mind once more. Then he opened his eyes, picked up his notebook, and wrote a line on the newest page—not a plan, not an analysis, but a sentence he never said to anyone: "The land of Persia, the blood of the Persians, cannot be spilled in vain on a chessboard drawn by others."

After writing it, he closed the notebook, stuffed it into his bag, closed his eyes, and fell asleep.

The car drove on the highway for nearly six hours before re-entering the territory of Khuzestan.