The Jeweler's Loupe Read online

PARTMENT - NIGHT

  Shazadi comes to the entrance to greet her husband as he enters the door. She embraces him but he pushes her away.

  SHAZADI

  I will heat up your supper for you. You look exhausted.

  OMAR

  I don’t care for any food. I have a lot of work to do before tomorrow and then I need to sleep. Today was horrific.

  SHAZADI

  I am sorry to hear that. If today was so bad, tomorrow must be better. Here is a gift I bought for you today that should make you feel better.

  Shazadi hands him the new pen she had bought for him.

  OMAR

  That is a very nice pen, and I am sure it was not inexpensive. Take it back at once. We can no longer afford such luxuries. The president has asked us all to take large salary cuts and mine is half. You should look for ways to economize. There will be none of your usual trips abroad this year. And the children may have to return to Syria to finish their studies. Our universities are perfectly good and there is no longer money to send outside the country. Soon that will become a loyalty test and I do not intend to lose my position because you and the children have an appetite for foreign delicacies. From now on we consume less and we consume exclusively Syrian. No more French clothes, Italian purses, Swiss watches, and German luxury cars. Do I make myself clear?

  SHAZADI

  You are perfectly clear. I will return the pen in the morning. I will look for schools here for the children to attend. I did not know it had become this serious.

  OMAR

  I have tried to shelter my family from the national crisis but it seems like the structure we have worked so long and hard to construct is being destroyed by forces directed by other nations, most of them our neighbors. But we will not give in. This is a struggle we will win and our enemies must lose. Now let me finish my work for the day.

  INT. JEWELERY SHOP SHOW ROOM - DAY

  The shutters are still down but Ibrahim is preparing the shop for the day. He takes trays from the safe to unload into the show windows while the cleaner sweeps the floors polishes the wood trim, and the glass cases.

  CLEANER

  That should be all for now, sir. Is there anything else you would like me to clean?

  IBRAHIM

  No, Abdul, it all looks fine, as usual. Thank you for your work today. Please return at lunch time to clean the exterior show window.

  CLEANER

  Yes, sir, I will do that.

  INT. BACK ROOM - DAY

  Ibrahim goes to the back door with Abdul and lets him out. Then he locks the back door and returns to the show room to load the displays.

  INT. JEWELERY SHOP SHOW ROOM - DAY

  The front door chime sounds. Ibrahim looks at the monitor then goes to open the door. Shazadi enters the showroom.

  SHAZADI

  Good morning, Ibrahim. You have not opened the shop yet and if I am disturbing you I will go but I need to see you just a moment.

  IBRAHIM

  No disturbance at all. Is Qamar with you? Please invite her in and we can review my diagram of her child’s gift. The tea should arrive in a few moments.

  SHAZADI

  No, Qamar did not come with me this morning. I just need to speak with you for a moment about the pen I took for my husband yesterday..

  IBRAHIM

  Please, do not rush away. I found another pendant in Nafisi’s stock which may be of interest to you. Tell your driver you will be a little longer. That is, if you do not think it will cause a problem.

  SHAZADI

  There is no problem about that. My position puts me above suspicion. I will tell my driver to wait.

  Shazadi goes out the front door and returns a minute later.

  SHAZADI

  He will put the car in a better position. I will ring him when I wish to leave.

  The door chime rings. Ibrahim checks the monitor, then opens the door to permit the waiter to bring in the tea which he places on the counter. Ibrahim nods and the waiter leaves. Ibrahim closes the door and escorts Shazadi to the tea room. He pours tea for both of them. They sit at the table.

  IBRAHIM

  Why do you want to bring the pen back? Would he prefer a different style or model?

  SHAZADI

  No, it is not the pen itself but a matter of reducing our expenses.

  IBRAHIM

  I don’t know who your husband is or what position he has. Does he work for the government?

  SHAZADI

  Yes, he is a government minister and they have all been asked to take large salary reductions to show solidarity with the public and to reduce the overall government expenditures.

  IBRAHIM

  I understand. There will be no problem. I will return to you the cost of the pen. So you are married to THAT Mr. Taja. How did you meet such an important man?

  SHAZADI

  He was in the circle of people I traveled in. My father was a diplomat. As I grew up we moved to a different capital of the Middle East every few years and I was lucky enough to have had a very good education. When I finished university it seemed natural to return to Damascus where my family lived. I had many friends who were already married and they introduced me to Omar who was a rising star in the government. He was very elegant and charming, like you.

  IBRAHIM

  Thank you but I could never think to rise to the exalted levels of your husband. My wife and I lived a very humble existence when my father was alive and operating the shop. I was more of an assistant but I loved the business and it was fortunate that when my father fell ill I was knowledgeable enough to assume the role of owner and operator. At that time my wife and I lived in the small apartment above the shop here but when both my father and my wife were dead I moved into the much larger family apartment with my mother.

  SHAZADI

  How did your wife die? In an accident?

  IBRAHIM

  No, it was not an accident. It was more negligent homicide driven by tribal envy. My wife had a difficult pregnancy as had her mother when my wife was born. There were a number of interventions when my wife was hospitalized for a week at a time but all this made her weaker. Then just as the baby was about to be born the complications became worse. At the time there were hostilities between the Palestinians and the Israelis, or the Zionists if you prefer the local term. When we went to the hospital for treatment we were told to wait. I said my wife was having serious difficulty breathing and needed immediate attention. I was ignored. By the time my wife was given treatment it was too late to save either her or the child.

  SHAZADI

  You are bitter?

  IBRAHIM

  Of course I am bitter! Not like I was at the time but it still brings me pain when I think about it or discuss it. Let’s talk about you instead. How did you come to be a collector of Middle Eastern jewelry?

  SHAZADI

  It is coincidental but it was a man very similar to you that introduced me to it. I met him in Lebanon when I was about twenty. He was an insurance salesman but he could sell anything. He would wear unusual rings and I asked him about them. He said he looked for unusual pieces of jewelry that were not of very high value because he feared having something valuable stolen. Although I don’t think he had to worry about being robbed. He had been in the military for a while and said he had traveled all over the world. He had a good command of Middle Eastern languages including Persian, Arabic, and Hebrew. And of course his English was good but most of us learn that when we are young so even if we have an accent, we can get along in most of the world. Then one day when I commented on a necklace he was wearing, a silver necklace it was, he took a loupe out of his pocket like the one I have. He showed me that you can have a much better idea of the skill of the artisan who made the piece by looking at it with a loupe. He said you could even tell what kind of tools he had used and examine the tolerances of inlays. From there he progressed over time to pendants with elaborate inlays. He did not own these. We would go to jewelry stores and shops in the mar
kets. Most of the dealers knew him because he liked to trade in both finished jewelry and raw stones. I think he said he was an insurance salesman because it made him sound more modern -- not like a ancient nomadic trader. Before we parted he gave me the loupe I use now.

  IBRAHIM

  Do you ever see him or contact him?

  SHAZADI

  You would think that now with the internet and search engines we would hear from each other, but I think we both realized that our destinies were moving in different directions so it was better not to have any future contacts. The last time I saw him was at the Beirut airport. After that, nothing.

  IBRAHIM

  Being an optimist myself, I would say that was probably for the best. That was another life, you were another person.

  SHAZADI

  I am sure you are right. I must be going. I will tell Qamar the design is ready and we will return in a day or two. And I apologize for returning the pen.

  IBRAHIM

  Like I said, I am an optimist. I will sell it to someone else for an even higher price.

  INT. INTERNAL SECURITY OFFICER’S OFFICE - DAY

  Khoury enters the office area leading a large, non-Arabic man. He stops next to the desks of Addem and Kuzbari.

  KHOURY

  Addem, Kuzbari: I told you I would try to get you some help with tracking these foreign connections. This is just the man to help you. Let me introduce Alexei Marinsky.. He will be here for at least six months. He has extensive experience in uncovering subversive elements. We’ll find him a desk in this area. Please show him around and help him get acquainted with the office and the other agents.

  All the men stand and shake hands. Addem goes to get tea for the three men while Kuzbari pulls a chair over to the side of their desks. The two men sit and wait until Addem returns with a tray with glasses and tea.

  KUZBARI

  Alexei, how are your language skills? Most of the people we deal with speak Arabic and a little English, but very little Russian except for the older men and the men who were in the military working with the Russians.

  ALEXEI

  When I was growing up the Soviet Union included so many different cultures, we were encouraged to learn foreign languages. One of the points considered for promotion in our work was command of foreign languages. It is not as important now since we work mainly with Russians but there are regions where Arabic is spoken. I speak reasonable Arabic and a little English. I also know some dialects but those probably won’t be of any use here.

  KUZBARI

  One of our problems now involves influence from Iran. It would be good if you knew Persian but we have specialists who can translate for us when we find Persian documents. Let me tell you about a case I think you can help us with. Alexei takes out a notebook and starts writing.

  1 HOUR LATER

  Alexei flips back through his notes and sighs.

  ALEXEI

  So it comes down to the guy you are sure was an Iranian agent is dead and this guy Al-Yamani probably picked up where Nafisi left off but you don’t have any hard evidence against him because he is so skillful in his deception.

  KUZBARI

  Yes, basically that is it. Do you have any ideas on how to nail Al-Yamani?

  ALEXEI

  Yes, I do. First, we have to get more evidence on him. You say he has a monitoring system in his shop?

  KUZBARI

  Yes, it looks like a pretty good system.

  ALEXEI

  That’s good. Then we will tap into that system and monitor what is going on in the shop. Plus we’ll put a couple of our own bugs in the shop in places that may be hidden from his system. Especially in his office and on his phone system. Then we put bugs into his home. I will make a list of what we need and we should have it on an Aeroflot flight within two days. We brought a logistics guy with us who will coordinate all our orders and keep track of everything. Temporarily he is working out of the Russian embassy but we will set up another depot for support of the police here. I will tell him to arrange that by the time the next shipment arrives. We will staff that ourselves since much of the documentation is in Russian. We have one technician that came in with us but I can see we will need at least one more. We also need to monitor his internet access. Give me his email address and our people will be able to look at not only what is happening with his email but what he is doing on his computers, both at his office and in his home. In a week or so we should have a very good capability in the technical area. As far an human intelligence, we are going to be pretty dependent on your people for a while.

  ADDEM

  How are we going to put all these bugs and monitoring equipment in place without arousing his suspicions?

  ALEXEI

  Have you had any electrical power disruptions lately?

  ADDEM

  Yes, due to a number of factors. When we have thunderstorms it usually knocks out the power in certain areas. Our electrical equipment is old, so there are outages due to that. More frequent than the government would like to admit. And recently the insurrection has caused damage to transformers and other equipment. They even set fire to a building with telephone switches last month and knocked out a whole area of the city. We are still trying to restore service to that area.

  ALEXEI

  That works in our favor. We will cut the service to that area for a few hours before we go in. We will have the media report it as being caused by actions of the insurrectionists. When we are ready to plant the bugs, we will cut the power to the buildings as we are about to enter them. There will be no uniformed police present, only men in electricity service coveralls.

  INT. JEWELERY SHOP SHOW ROOM - DAY

  Ibrahim hears the chime of the front door, checks the monitor and opens the front door with a smile.

  IBRAHIM

  Ladies, how pleasant to see you again. Please come to the tea room and I will show you the drawing I have designed.

  QAMAR

  Good morning, Ibrahim. Is all well with you?

  IBRAHIM

  Yes, except for intermittent power interruptions. I may need to buy a standby generator if this continues.

  SHAZADI

  Yes, Ibrahim, I saw a report on the news last night. They said it may be from the activities of the subversives trying to destabilize the government.

  INT. TEA ROOM - DAY

  The three people sit at the tea table with tea glasses before them. Ibrahim brings a tablet computer to the table and selects some display. He puts it on the table so the women can see the pictures.

  IBRAHIM

  Here are the different designs for the horse I have worked up.

  QARAM

  You are very proficient with that computer.

  IBRAHIM

  Thank you but I cannot take the credit for that. My nephew Amir has set up all my computer equipment. Eventually, I hope he will take over this business. Right now he works for me part time and is studying business at university. He has shown me how to use all these design programs. The horse is from the photo you gave me. Then we can add different jewels for the stars as I have shown here. I can transfer these images to a DVD and you can review them. Maybe your husband has some preferences. It will take a week or two to make the pendant once you decide. The price will vary a little with how many jewels you would like to have, but they are small diamonds for the stars and they will cost very little.

  INT. JEWELERY SHOP SHOW ROOM - DAY

  There is a ring on the door chime. Ibrahim looks at the monitor and sees two technicians in the uniforms of the security company. He opens the door for them.

  TECHNICIAN 1

  Mr. Al-Yamani, we are here to correct the problems your system has caused in making false alarms. We would like you be present while we are doing this work so there no questions about our doing anything wrong.

  IBRAHIM

  I understand. That is fine. How long to you expect it to take?

  TECHNICIAN 1

  Generally, we can cure these
problems in one to two hours. It is usually a lose wire due to the heat. You can conduct your business as usual. One of us will need to leave and then come back. We need to go to the switch box and check there as we make changes.

  IBRAHIM

  Fine, just ring the chime whenever you want to reenter. The technicians go to the back room to check the security system wiring. The Russian technician who speaks very little Arabic does the work while the Syrian police technician watches. They communicate with gestures and a few Arabic words.

  EXT. VAN IN STREET - DAY

  Alexei and Kuzbari sit in the back of the van with a portable radio to talk to the technician.

  ALEXEI

  I will tell you something that may amuse you. The bugs that we use are made by the Israelis. There is a seller of them in Vienna that sells them to our agent in the Czech Republic. The agent then removes all the Israeli markings and repackages them to appear to be from the Czech Republic. There are others available but they cost much more and are not as good. The Czech agent tells the Austrian they will be used for NATO installations. He has all the forged documents he needs to support his story.

  KUZBARI

  Interesting. How do I know that you aren’t a Zionist agent?

  ALEXEI

  (laughing)

  You don’t. It would make some sense for the Israelis to help Syria if they thought the Syrians were less of a threat than the Iranians. The same could be said for the Russians. I try not to think of these things, they give me a headache. I get paid the same either way.

  There is a squawk from radio Kuzbari is holding. He answers the radio.

  KUZBARI

  OK. We are ready to test the connections. Go to each room and I will tell you if we can see and hear you.

  Kuzbari watches the monitor and listens to the speaker as the technicians walk through the shop.

  KUZBARI

  (to radiophone)

  Good. There is a good signal from each point. You can come out now. Don’t leave any trash behind.

  ALEXEI

  Now we can keep an eye on our friend and know when he is in his shop. Tomorrow we will cut thepower to his apartment and send the men in there in electric service uniforms to plant the bugs.

  INT. JEWELERY SHOP SHOW ROOM - DAY

  The two technicians stand with their toolkits and a bag with the empty packages and remaining materials.

  TECHNICIAN 1

  That should take care of the problems, Mr. Al-Yamani. If we receive any more false alarms, we will notify you and return.

  IBRAHIM

  Thank you. You worked very quickly and cleaned up well after yourselves. You are good workers.

  TECHNICIAN 1

  Tell our boss that and maybe he will pay us more.

  IBRAHIM

  I will do that.

  INT. LARGE DETECTIVE OFFICE AREA - DAY

  Alexei walks up to the desks where Addem and Kuzbari are looking at reports.

  ALEXEI

  Good morning, gentlemen. It is a beautiful day outside. I think we should all take a walk to benefit from the sunlight. In Moscow this would be a rare day in the middle of August but here you have days like this the year round. It is a crime not to take advantage of it and none of us are criminals, are we?

  KUZBARI

  Yes, Alexei, it is a beautiful Damascus day but as you say we have many days like this. I assume you wish to talk about something other than our weather.

  ALEXEI

  That is correct. It may be that you do not wish your colleagues to know everything that you know, at least not before you have had time to consider your responses.

  ADDEM

  OK, Alexei. I don’t know about my partner but I need some fresh air. Let’s go.

  The three men walk towards the exit.

  EXT. SIDEWALK IN GOVERNMENT BUILDING AREA - DAY

  The men walk casually down the street, all smoking cigarettes.

  KUZBARI

  Are we far enough from the office for you to speak now?

  ALEXEI

  Yes, we are far enough but I would still like you to control your reactions to what I tell you as there may be surveillance cameras in this area recording our actions.

  ADDEM

  Enough of the suspense, Alexei. Just tell us what it is you know. I am sure it is something to do with the analysis of the taps on Al-Yamani’s computer contents and email messages.

  ALEXEI

  Yes, that is a large part of it but not all of it. My people have examined both his disk drives and his email. The disk drives contains little of surprise as we would expect since he offered to let you examine it. The emails are another matter. He has extensive contacts with people in Iran and other countries such as Turkey which while on the surface appear to be merely business dealings could very well be something much more threatening to your government. We believe there is sufficient evidence to bring him in for a thorough interrogation.

  KUZBARI

  Just how thorough are we talking about here?

  ALEXEI

  When you pick him up you should do it at his house before he leaves in the morning so he will not have opened the shop. Tell his mother that he will be back but it may not be for a few days. She should have someone else manage the business while he is gone.

  KUZBARI

  So you think a few days will be enough?

  ALEXEI

  No, but there is no point in raising too much of an alarm in her mind. If she has someone else come in to operate the shop, it will seem more temporary than I expect it to be.

  ADDEM

  So Al-Yamani has links to the same people in Persia that Nafisi had?

  ALEXEI

  Nafisi HAS, gentlemen, Nafisi HAS.

  Addem and Kuzbari both throw their cigarettes to the ground with shocked looks.

  KUZBARI

  What do you mean HAS? Nafisi has been dead for months!

  ALEXEI

  This is why I did not want to tell you in your office. Please remain calm. I am just telling you about the lovely weekend my Russian colleagues and I had in your beautiful country. Act normal. Yes, Nafisi has or could have. By any means Moscow has confirmed that Nafisi is alive. He is not well. Not after the interrogation your people put him through. He may live but he is an old man and that kind of torture does permanent damage. He should not be a threat to your country. We think he will be happy to spend his remaining days quietly with his family in Lebanon. The photos I saw show him in a wheelchair. He looks much older than the previous pictures of him.

  KUZBARI

  But how did he get to Lebanon?

  ALEXEI

  I am sure you will be able to obtain that information from the last of your people who dealt with him. I will leave that for you to learn. What we must do now is limit further damage by putting an end to Al-Yamani’s contacts. I would suggest you pull him in tomorrow morning and we begin our investigation.

  ADDEM

  Let’s get back to the office. There are some of our men I need to talk to.

  EXT. SIDEWALK IN GOVERNMENT BUILDING AREA - DAY

  Addem and an older policeman RIHAWI walk away from the police building to Addem’s parked car.

  ADDEM

  Let’s take a little ride so we can talk without everybody listening to us.

  The men get in the car. The car drives to an area where there is a large mosque. Addem stops the car. He takes out a pack of cigarettes and offers the pack to Rihawi.

  RIHAWI

  Thank you, sir. This is a luxury I can seldom afford anymore. My family is large. I have three daughters who are growing. The oldest is thinking about marriage. Plus I have a large family of brothers and sisters. Many of them have no work. They rely on me to buy them food. It is a very difficult time for us.

  ADDEM

  What did he offer you? Nafisi. What did Nafisi offer you?

  RIHAWI

  No, sir, it wasn’t like that at all, sir. It is just that I am not a killer, sir. I am a policeman. I want
to help people. Yes, I know sometime I will take a gift from someone I help, but that is how my family and I survive. Without these small gifts my family would have to go without food. Even now we are hungry much of the time. My old mother is very sick and we cannot afford the medicine to ease her pain. You must understand how it is for us at the bottom, sir. I have been a policeman for thirty years and I have not been able to save any money. Every month the costs grow higher and higher. What am I to do?

  ADDEM

  Everyone’s costs grow higher, Rihawi. If you want to have any kind of job to pay for your food you must tell me what happened after I told you and your partner to take Nafisi away so that I would never see him again.

  RIHAWI

  Yes, sir, that is exactly what we did, sir. We took him away so that you would never see him again.

  ADDEM

  Rihawi, you knew perfectly well what I meant. Tell me what you did with him.

  FLASHBACK TO

  EXT. OUTSIDE SYRIAN PRISON - NIGHT

  Two policemen come out of the gate of the prison leading a man in dirty pajamas. He has no shoes and wears handcuffs. He limps badly as they half carry him to a police car and put him in the back seat. He is very dirty and there are large bruises on his head and face. His lips are swollen as is one eye which is almost closed. The car starts. It drives through the city and away from the lights. There is little traffic this late at night so soon most of the lights of the city are gone.

  NAFISI

  Are you taking me home?

  There is no reply from either of the policemen.

  NAFISI

  I asked if you are taking me home. Or maybe you should take me to a hospital. I am injured and I need treatment. Yes, you should take me to a hospital before I go home.

  The policemen continue to ignore him.

  NAFISI

  The things I have done were to help many people. It is not my fault if some powerful people do not have as much wealth because the poor people need to be helped. You men are not rich. You surely understand that it is your government which keeps you poor. I was only trying to help people like you. You should be grateful for the things I have done to help the poor in this country.

  RIHAWI

  Shut up, Nafisi. We know you are a traitor. You talk about the poor people but what do you know about the poor people? You have been rich all your life. You and your jewels. One of your jewels would be enough to feed my family for years. Don’t talk to us about poor people. We are policemen but we are very poor people. If people like you did not steal from the people and sell the secrets of our country to countries like Iran, we would all live much better lives. Instead, we must fight for every piece of bread that you throw to us from your table, like crumbs one gives to the birds. But you do not even treat us as well as I do to the birds. We are treated like rodents. Even when you help us with a little money, there is a look of disgust on your faces. I have seen that look all my life. I am tired of seeing that look on the faces of the people of your kind.

  There is silence for a minute as the car drives farther into the country.

  NAFISI

  You have seen American western films, haven’t you? I am sure you have. Everyone has seen the American western films. Maybe you have seen the American western films that were not made in America but in Italy. With actors like Clint Eastwood and Henry Fonda and Charles Bronson. One of these was called Once Upon a Time in the West. It was not even American or Italian. It was made in a part of Spain that looked like the American west. But there are parts of Syria that look very much like the American west. A dry country with large mountains and wide deserts. In this film there is a rich man who is building a railroad that will cross the entire country. But he is crippled and lives in a luxurious railroad car. His enemies send men to hold him prisoner. He is crippled so he cannot easily escape so he has to get the men who are holding him prisoner to help him escape. He sits at a table in the train carriage and asks his captors if they would like to play cards with him. They say they will. They sit around the table. He tells them that they are going to play a game that they cannot lose. Then he takes a stack of hundred dollar bills and deals them to the men like he is handing out cards. Soon all the men have many hundred dollar bills in their hands. Do you understand? He is giving them a gift to help him escape from the bad man who is holding him prisoner. Now, officers, I would like you to play a similar game with me. It is a very simple game that you cannot lose unless you do not play. Then it will be not only you but your families who lose. Do you want your children to be hungry when they can have food? Do you want your mother to suffer because you do not have the money to buy her medicine? Play my game. There will be no losers. I do not ask you to steal money from anyone. It is my wealth that you will share. You will be taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Allah surely blesses a man for this.

  RIHAWI

  How do we play your game?

  NAFISI

  You know how the merchants do not have prices on many things they sell, especially expensive things like jewelry? They have a code written instead of a price. To the jeweler and his employees this code means a price. My wife and I both know about these codes. We have codes for other things, too. We both knew that at some time she or I might be in a position where we had to give up something for our liberty. We have some codes set aside for this. Do you understand me?

  RIHAWI

  Yes, we understand. What are you going to give us?

  NAFISI

  I will not give you American money. I will give you something even better: Diamonds. Not large diamonds that would be difficult to sell because they would arouse suspicion. Small diamonds but of very high quality. Each one should bring you at least 500 dollars. My wife will give you each 10 of them so you will have five thousand dollars each, but in a packet that will easily fit in your pocket.

  RIHAWI

  Let’s say we agree to play your game. How do we get these diamonds and what do we do with you?

  Nafisi sits up sharply and smiles.

  NAFISI

  Now you begin to see that this really is a game which you can win and without gambling. We will have to call my wife and I will tell her in code that she is to put 600 dollars and a small packet with 20 diamonds worth 500 dollars each in an envelope. We will tell her who you will send to pick up the envelope in the morning. That person must go and identify himself to my wife but it can be with any name we chose to use so it does not have to be a real name and the person does not have to show any identification. The person should take the envelope to one of your houses and open the envelope. The currency notes will obviously be worth what is written on them.

  RIHAWI

  How do we know the diamonds you give us are not pieces of glass?

  NAFISI

  Like this: To prove the value of the diamonds the person must carefully open the packet with the diamonds. They must take one diamond from the packet and put it in a piece of paper in a purse to protect it. You do not want the dealer that they show it to think that there is more than one diamond. They should go to more than one dealer and show them the diamond. Have them make up a story about receiving the stone as a wedding gift years ago and keeping it in the family until now. They should let the dealer know that they are going to ask other dealers for a price and will only sell it to the dealer who gives them the best price. When they have the best price, they should sell the diamond and take the money. This will prove it is not a trick. But none of this will happen unless you take me to a place where I will feel safe.

  RIHAWI

  I suppose that is Teheran?

  NAFISI

  You joke but I am not joking. I have many friends in this country. They will not help me if I bring the police. It must be in a souk in a village near Homs. You will not be comfortable there but I will look like another poor man beaten by the police. You give me enough money to make a telephone call and I will arrange for someone to come for me. When my friend arrives, I will have him call my wife a
nd she will call whoever you would like to come and get the envelope.

  RIHAWI

  How do we know you will not cheat us?

  NAFISI

  You know where my wife and my family are. If I were to cheat you, you could always go to them. You would tell your boss that when you let me relieve myself in the night I had escaped and it was too dark to find me even though you searched all night. That would be why you would go to my wife. Since I do not want my wife to be in trouble with you, I will not make trouble for you. I will disappear. I will leave the country and never be seen here again. All I need to tell my wife is to leave the country and she will know what to do. Remember this is not the first time we have fled from a regime that would not tolerate us.

  Rihawi turns to his partner and raises his eyebrows in question. The partner nods his approval of the plan.

  BACK TO PRESENT

  ADDEM

  You got the money and the diamonds?

  Rihawi nods his head.

  ADDEM

  But you would not take this risk for that little money. It must have been more.

  RIHAWI

  Yes, sir, a little more but I have many people in my family to feed. And I hurt no one.

  ADDEM

  OK, Rihawi, I will not tell anyone anything except that you took Nafisi to the desert and thought you had killed him but he must have somehow survived. Tell your partner that night that if he is questioned this is what the story must be. The fact that Nafisi and his family have left the country is the only thing that is saving you two. If he or his family were still here, you would be in a lot of trouble and might end up in the desert yourself. So don’t go getting any ideas about saving anyone else for a little gift. I don’t want any of the diamonds he gave you, but make sure you sell them very slowly so it does not raise suspicions. You must continue to be very poor but you will have enough money for medicine for your mother and for food to keep your family from starving. Don’t go buying any TV sets or cell phones for your children. You are a poor policeman, understood?

  RIHAWI

  Yes, sir, I understand very well and I will be very careful. If you need any assistance from me or my partner, you need only ask.

  ADDEM

  I will remember that. And I won’t call on you to make anyone else disappear.

  INT. LARGE DETECTIVE OFFICE AREA - DAY

  Addem walks to his desk and sits down as Kuzbari and Alexei look at him questioningly.

  ADDEM

  Let’s just leave it that Nafisi will never be seen alive in Syria. However many lives he may have in other countries is not my problem. He can live in France and spy for the British for all I care. If he interferes in Syrian politics -- which I do not think he is so stupid as to do at this point -- we will see to it that his previously assumed death becomes his proven death. I will have his head on my wall. And the next time we chose someone to act as an escort into the next world we must chose more carefully. Old street policemen with large families to support are not the most free thinkers. Their views do not extend much beyond the next large meal they have to provide.

  ALEXEI

  I assume from that statement and your long absence that you believe the message I got from Moscow.

  ADDEM

  I am not saying Moscow can predict the future but at least they seem to have a better knowledge of the recent past than our local people do. Not that any of this will quiet the unrest, but we know Nafisi has lots of friends in Syria. I think it is time to find out if Al-Yamani is one of those friends.

  INT. AL-YAMANI A