CONTROVERSY AND CONFLICT

Although the Mahdi Army’s vigilantism is excused by some as a necessary evil, it has also come in for a lot of criticism. In addition to its well-publicized attacks on muggers, burglars, drug dealers, prostitutes, blasphemers, and homosexuals, the Army is accused of targeting innocent Sunnis who wander onto the Army’s “turf.”

The Mahdi Army has also clashed repeatedly with the Baghdad police force. The police have often come off the worse in these encounters, with the result that patrolmen are now said to be reluctant to enter Sadr City and other Mahdi Army strongholds without large amounts of backup. Al Sadr’s spokesman insists that such animosity is not the Army’s fault: “We don’t hate all cops, just the bad ones. Unfortunately, finding a good cop in Baghdad is rather like finding a righteous man in Sodom.”

The Mahdi Army is also believed to be involved in a recent rash of assaults on members of the Baath Labor Union. Although Baath has long been implicated in the corruption afflicting Sadr City, there is speculation that the real motive for the attacks is a personal vendetta against Baath Union President Saddam Hussein, who some suspect of having ordered the murder of Muqtada al Sadr’s father. Whatever the truth, Baathists and their allies give Sadr City an even wider berth than the police do . . .

Mustafa called his cousin Iyad.

Iyad was the son of Fayyad, the uncle who treated God like one of his creditors. Partly in reaction to his father’s impiety, Iyad had been intensely religious as a young man, even studying for a time to become a Shia cleric. Ultimately more like his dad than he liked to admit, he’d dropped out of seminary without completing a degree and gone to work driving a cab. He stayed on good terms with his old classmates, though, and when the Mahdi Army took over Sadr City, Iyad became one of a select group of Baghdad cabbies allowed to operate in the district. A few Army big shots kept him on speed dial, and once or twice—so he claimed—he’d even given the Ayatollah’s son a ride.

Iyad did other jobs for the Mahdis as well. A few years back he’d been arrested for vandalizing a betting parlor that had opened shop too close to Sadr City. Mustafa had intervened with the police on that occasion and was able to get Iyad released with no charge and no penalty other than the beating he’d already received.

So Iyad owed him, and Iyad was family, but even so Mustafa knew better than to tell him what he wanted over the phone. Instead he had Iyad come by the apartment while Abu Mustafa was out and explained the favor in person, trying to make it sound like it was no big deal.

Iyad wasn’t buying it. “You want me to help you rip off the Mahdis for Saddam?” He cocked his head to stare at the stitches on Mustafa’s neck. “I heard you’d been injured, cousin, but I didn’t know there was brain damage.”

“I’m not looking to rip anyone off,” Mustafa said patiently. “I want to strike a bargain with the Mahdis.”

“For something Saddam wants. You think you can bribe them into overlooking their blood feud?”

Mustafa did think that, actually, but saw no point in saying so. “I’ll be bargaining on behalf of Homeland Security. The Mahdis’ vendetta against Saddam doesn’t come into it.”

“The Mahdis may not agree,” Iyad said. He frowned. “I’m not even sure I do. What about your own oath to put that monster in prison? And now you’re working as his errand boy?”

“I’m no one’s errand boy,” Mustafa said. “But I have a mission, and Saddam has information I need. This is a one-time deal.”

Iyad looked skeptical—and reproachful. “So what is it anyway, this stolen property of Saddam’s? Drugs? A weapon of some kind?”

“An antique battery,” Mustafa said.

“A what? You mean like for an old car?”

“More antique than that. It’s from an archaeological site, near Al Hillah. Saddam didn’t have any pictures, but I was able to find a sketch of a similar artifact on the Library of Alexandria.”

Mustafa showed him the printout. “That’s a battery?” Iyad said. “It looks like a vase.”

“It’s a clay jar, about fifteen centimeters tall. There’s a cap with an iron rod attached to it, and a copper cylinder that goes around that, and you fill the jar with acid—vinegar or grape juice—and the iron and copper generate a current.”

“And then what? You attach it to the headlamps on your war chariot?”

Mustafa shrugged. “The Library said something about electroplating. Or maybe Nebuchadnezzar’s court magicians used it to do tricks, who knows?”

“What sort of tricks does Saddam want to do with it?”

“He claims he wants it for his private art collection. My own guess is he means to sell it on the black market.”

“Which black market?” Iyad sniffed. “Grape juice . . . It’s probably full of heroin.”

“If it is, we’re dumping it in the Tigris,” Mustafa said. “I already promised Saddam as much, and I’ll promise you too. But if it’s just a stolen antiquity, I’m willing to let Saddam have it in exchange for his cooperation. We can always confiscate it later.”

“You really want this thing? Let me put a bomb inside. Then I’ll get it for you gift-wrapped.”

“Sorry, no bombs . . . Now are you going to help me, or not?”

Iyad sighed. “I suppose I can make some calls, see which faction of the Army has this thing. But if it’s possible to get it at all, it’s going to be expensive.”

“I can get money.”

“You’ll need a good cover story, too. And a better front man wouldn’t hurt.”

“What do you mean?”

“The Mahdis don’t trust feds any more than they do the Baghdad PD. I’ll vouch for you of course, but if they get the notion that cutting off your head might ruin Saddam Hussein’s day, well . . .”

“Ah,” said Mustafa. “I would like to avoid that.”

Iyad looked at the stitches again. “I hope that’s true, cousin, for both our sakes . . . In any event, I think it would be safer to have someone else play the buyer. Do you know anybody with a public grudge against Saddam?”

“I believe I can find someone who fits that description,” Mustafa said.

Several nights later Iyad picked the three of them up outside headquarters. Mustafa and Samir wore matching suits, while Amal had gone full ninja, donning an abaya and niqab she’d acquired some years ago for a Bureau assignment in Medina. Something about Amal’s costume—maybe just the self-possessed way she moved in it—caused it to have the opposite effect it was supposed to. As she approached the taxi, several men passing on the sidewalk turned to look at her.

“Nice hijab,” Iyad said archly. But then he chuckled and held up the copy of the Baghdad Gazette he’d been reading. “Nice PR stunt, too.” The front page of the paper had a picture of Amal’s face, unveiled, under the headline SENATOR’S DAUGHTER RECOGNIZED FOR HEROISM IN ANTI-TERROR FIGHT. After her mother pinned a medal on her, Amal had spoken movingly about how her late father’s stand against evil had inspired her own career; it was this invoking of Shamal, the Gazette speculated, that had motivated a mysterious assailant crying “Saddam! Saddam!” to take a shot at her as she left the stage.

“So who’s the mystery shooter?” asked Iyad.

“Abdullah al Hashemi,” Mustafa said. “A colleague. We were just going to have him throw a shoe at Amal, but he decided a cap pistol would be more dramatic.” The senator’s security detail, overplaying their own part in the charade, had dislocated one of Abdullah’s shoulders in the course of subduing him. “It got a little out of hand.”

“Well, the Mahdis ate it up,” Iyad said. “You could get a meeting with Muqtada al Sadr himself now, if you wanted to . . . Although for the guys we’re actually going to see, it was probably overkill.”