Page 134 of Grave Danger

“You’rethe one who wanted to keep Ava from becoming an issue in the Hague proceeding.”

“Not just me,” said Nouri.

“But you, more than anyone, wanted to shut down any public discussion of whether Ava Bazzi is alive or dead.”

“I,as much asanyone. But not more.”

“When you say ‘anyone,’ do you mean the Iranian government? Or the US government?”

“Isn’t it obvious to you, Swyteck?Both.”

“Then who are you protecting?”

Nouri didn’t answer.

Jack pressed. “Whose side are you on, Nouri?”

His eyes narrowed, but it seemed more like resolve than anger. “I’m on Zahra’s side,” he said. “And Ava’s.”

Zahra entered the room. Yasmin was half asleep in her arms, and Zahra was struggling to support the deadweight of a seven-year-old girl.

“Yasmin doesn’t want to speak to Farid,” she said. “Do you, darling?”

Yasmin buried her face in the crook of Zahra’s neck.

“That’s fine,” said Nouri. “That ship has sailed.”

Zahra looked at Jack with a mixture of concern and disappointment in her eyes—a little too much disappointment, Jack thought.

“So, Farid is gone?”

“Yes,” said Jack. “That opportunity is lost.”

“It was never an opportunity to begin with,” said Nouri.

“Then what’s left?” asked Zahra. “You keep saying that we have to keep the pressure on, Nouri. But what chance do we have against the entire United States government?”

“They’ll give us what we want,” said Nouri. “Just as soon as that video works its way up the chain of command and lands on the right desk.”

“You’re fooling yourself,” said Jack. “The video shows Ava was alive when she left Evin Prison. That’s what the Iranian government has said all along, and the US government has never said otherwise. That’s not a pressure point to make them accept Zahra’s terms of surrender.”

“That video is the tip of the iceberg,” Nouri said.

Jack studied his expression. Nouri didn’t appear to be bluffing.

“What else do you have?” Jack asked.

“Do you remember the end of the video? The car waiting in the parking lot?”

“Yes,” said Jack.

Nouri’s expression was very serious. “I know who was driving it.”

Chapter 50

Andie refused to leave Jupiter Island.

The Miami ASAC had walled her off from any official role in the negotiations with Jack, but the fact remained that it was her husband in that cottage. Andie and her partner stayed in the car, still parked in the lot at the nature preserve. They were less than a minute away if Jack called for help. Or even if he didn’t call.