Chapter Fifty-Seven Middle of December

President Mahmoud ends his phone conversation, hangs up and turns to Atwan first. “Jibril, good to see you again.”

“And you, sir,” answers Atwan.

“It is important for us to lay out some definite plans, now that our efforts are beginning to bear fruit, reaching the point that we can move into phase two as it were,” says the president.

“Mahmoud, we are nine months away from our target date,” says Atwan. “In seven more months we’ll have enough materials to load twelve of our Shahab-3s with nuclear warheads. In two more weeks we expect the twelve containers we purchased to be arriving in Tehran. We will then be able to say that we have nuclear cruise missile capability.”

“Excellent, excellent,” Khasanjani exclaims, clearly pleased. “Now we must think ahead so we can achieve the end of phase two on time. Phase two must get us to the point of initiating our strikes. Our strikes are phase three – the final agenda,” he adds, the final three words as quiet as any he has spoken so far in this meeting. Both Atwan and Ahmajid are struck by the meaning of these words.

“Fadil,” Khasanjani says after several moments’ silence, “what are you planning to happen in phase two?”