I Am Pilgrim

The narrative turns back to al-Nassouri during the time of Murdoch’s New York adventure, now a doctor preparing for his grand plans to change the world. He moves to a parking lot in Damascus, Syria, where he will live in the role of a devout, unhoused Muslim man. He resides just outside the Syrian Institute for Advanced Medicine, the place upon which his real plan depends.

Murdoch-as-narrator reflects that this was near perfect espionage and use of disguise. When the institute’s director died in grisly circumstances, no one could identify or remember details about the homeless man, despite his status as a prime suspect. Murdoch admits, “for an amateur without resources of training, it was remarkable” (141). His plan depends on kidnapping the institute’s deputy director, Bashar Tlass, a former member of the Syrian police who achieved notoriety as a torturer. Tlass is the target not for his seniority but for his size—as Hayes reveals later, the institute’s security depends on scanning individuals, including their mass, so al-Nassouri needs a captive with clearance who is of a similar build.

Tlass’s encounter with al-Nassouri takes place on the festival holiday of Eid al-Fitr because the security personnel will leave early. Al-Nassouri gives Tlass the holiday greeting and then wrestles him into a chokehold, injecting him with a paralyzing drug.

Al-Nassouri forces his captive into his car, binding him and working to restrict his movements with tape, focusing especially on his head. Al-Nassouri runs to his encampment for ice, a key ingredient for his macabre operation: He is preparing to remove the other man’s eyes.

He accomplishes his grisly task, carrying the eyeballs to the institute’s security door. He uses Tlass’s keycard and waits for the system to verify his size. He holds up Tlass’s undamaged eyes to the retinal scanner. The delay makes him anxious, but the door eventually opens just before he gives up and attempts to escape. He is daunted by the size of the building, uncertain whether he will find his goal before Tlass’s disappearance is noticed.

Tlass, alone and suffering, is cheered as he hears the streetlights click on. He imagines that his family will soon find him if only he can call his sons using the car’s phone system.

Meanwhile al-Nassouri continues his quest for a few vials: he needs to vaccinate himself against smallpox before he can safely work to engineer it as a bioweapon. Just before he gives up, he sees an aquarium containing clownfish, an animal his father had studied and loved, and takes this as a sign of divine favor. Murdoch reflects that the clownfish becomes a clue in his later quest to capture his adversary.

Just as Tlass reaches the steering wheel, al-Nassouri disconnects the call and turns off the car before Tlass can summon rescue, escaping just before the other man’s sons arrive.

Al-Nassouri drives to a remote area to kill his captive and destroy most evidence of his presence. He then prepares for a return bus trip to Lebanon. Murdoch posits that careful examination of his lunch would have revealed he injected himself with the smallpox vaccine around this time. US intelligence learns quickly about Tlass’s death but dismisses its import. Al-Nassouri, ill from vaccine side effects, returns to Lebanon just before a police investigation into the murder closes the border.