Mosheni’s face grew flushed. He kept his mouth closed and refused to speak. His discomfort and embarrassment was obvious.

“Has the radioactive fallout been contained?” Najar asked.

“Yes.”

“The rest of the facility?”

“The equipment can be salvaged, but it will have to be moved to a different location.”

“Natanz?” Najar asked.

“That would be my recommendation.”

Najar swiveled his head to look at Amatullah. “I seem to remember you advocating Isfahan to be the main nuclear site over Natanz. Something do to with the fact that the Americans would never attack a site in the middle of a city. “

The head of the Guardian Council was referring to the country’s two main nuclear sites. Natanz was buried in a mountain hundreds of miles away from Isfahan in a remote location. There had been a heated debate years earlier over where to put the most crucial parts of the program. Isfahan was pushed by Amatullah for the reason already stated and because the country’s scientists lobbied hard for the site. They did not want to have to relocate their families to the remote region of Natanz.

Amatullah bought time with one of his sly grins. “I did no such thing. I merely passed along the recommendations of others.” The president glanced at the vice president for atomic energy.

“I seem to remember you guaranteeing this council that Isfahan could survive anything the Americans could throw at it?”

“If I made such a guarantee it was based on the advice of those who know about such things.”

“You made the guarantee. I remember it very well.”

Amatullah exhaled in frustration. “Experts who do not work for me stated that the facility could withstand anything short of a nuclear strike. Obviously, the Americans have come up with a new weapon. I am a politician, not a scientist, my friend. I am not a military expert nor am I an oracle who can see the future.”

“Maybe we will have to be less trusting of your word from now on.”

Amatullah looked deeply offended. “If you want to blame me for what happened today, I am truly insulted. I did not come here to discuss the past. I am here because I want to know how we are going to make the Jews and Americans pay for this.” The president took a moment to glance around the room and make eye contact with each man. “It is understandable that some of us are upset, but we must put that anger aside and focus on striking back at our enemies. Who in this room was not behind our nuclear program?”

“We will strike back at our enemies,” Najar said in a measured tone, “but there must be accountability. Not everyone on this council was as behind this program as you were. Several of us feared this was exactly where we would end up. Pouring countless treasure into a program that would one day be destroyed by our enemies. If I had known that you were going to speak so freely to the press about our right to develop nuclear weapons and your desire to see Israel wiped off the face of the map, I would have never supported this.”

“I…” Amatullah started to speak.

“Do not interrupt me,” Najar said sharply. “I think you should be removed from office.” The cleric paused to let Amatullah know just how serious he was. “But unfortunately, we can’t do that right now. Do you know why?”

Amatullah shook his head.

“We can’t do it because the Jews would be dancing in the street. It would be a dual victory for them. Whether I like it or not, you are exactly who we need to galvanize our people and get them focused on the retribution that must be meted out.”

Amatullah’s face transformed from worry to pride and then elation. “The people will be behind us, I can promise you that. We will strike back at the Jews and the Americans like never before, and I know exactly where to hit them. We will make them pay for their arrogance. We will destroy them.”

Rapp approached the president’s office door and knocked. He waited a second and then entered. Alexander was behind his desk, and Kennedy was sitting across from him in a chair. Rapp closed the door and sat on the arm of the couch immediately to his right.

Kennedy looked at him and said, “We’re discussing what I should say to Azad.”

Rapp thought of the Iranian intelligence minister and shrugged his shoulders. “I heard about your little accident. I’d like to say sorry, but the truth is we’ve been quietly hoping the Israelis would take care of this for some time.”

“I don’t think that will work.”

“It’s the truth.”

“What did you find out?” the president asked.

“The Israelis aren’t talking to anyone. From the top down to the mid-level guys, no one is answering their phones.”

“Your assessment?”

“They did it,” Rapp said plainly.

“You’re sure?”

“One Hundred Percent.”

“Mitch,” Kennedy said cautiously, “you can’t give that kind of guarantee.”

“All right…ninety-nine point nine, nine, nine.”

“Explain.” The president leaned back and crossed his legs.

“The Israelis are very insular. They can close ranks like no other outfit I’ve ever worked with. They’re trying to get their story straight. Figure out if they can weather this and lie to the world that they had no involvement in it.”

“But why wouldn’t they have given us some signal that this was coming?” Alexander asked.

“Easier to ask for forgiveness than permission,” Kennedy answered.

“Exactly,” said Rapp.

The president thought about it for second and then asked, “What if it was an accident?”

“This was no accident, sir. Israel was behind it, and their silence is all the proof we need. If they honestly had nothing to do with this they would be calling us asking why we didn’t give them a heads-up. My guess is that this was a very tight operation run by a very limited team within Mossad, possibly including a few people from the military, the prime minister, and one or two cabinet ministers. I don’t know how they did it, but they caught the Iranians flatfooted. The analysts back at Langley reviewed the satellite footage, and there is absolutely no sign of any activity prior to the place collapsing. No response from the guard barracks on site, no rush of people fleeing any of the buildings. No sign of anything unusual.”

“And why is that significant?”

“There were no gunshots. If this thing were a full-blown commando raid, you would have seen a reaction from the base security. This is part of why the Iranians think it was an air strike. No one alerted them that anything was wrong. One minute the place was there, the next minute it wasn’t. The logical assumption for them is that it was stealth bombers even though to the best of my knowledge we’ve never conducted a daylight bombing run with ours.”

The president looked over at Kennedy. “I know I’ve asked this, but is it possible that the Israelis have developed their own stealth plane?”

“Highly unlikely.”

“But possible.”

Rapp waved his hands in front of him, signifying not to go down that road. “The Israelis don’t have the money to develop a plane like that, and even if they did, there’s still one other piece of evidence that points to an inside job. When you get back to Washington, Secretary England is going to give you a bomb damage assessment report from the Pentagon. I haven’t seen it, but I know what it’s going to say.”

“How?”

“Because I’ve been there. I’ve been in the field marking targets for these flyboys when they drop their bunker-busters. I’ve crawled down into a few of those command and control centers after they’ve been hit, and they don’t look like the satellite photos we’ve seen of this place. Holes are made, parts of floors and ceilings collapse, and everything inside is charred, but it doesn’t look like the earth opened up and swallowed the whole damn building.”