The Reluctant Fundamentalist Page #8

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Good to see you, Mr. Khan.

And you, Professor Rainier.

We've experienced an exodus

of foreign professors

from Lahore in the past

several months.

I need an answer quickly.

So two months ago,

I was sitting in my office

on the 53rd floor of a

Manhattan skyscraper.

I was living my dream...

the American dream.

So now I'm back.

What I'd like your help with is,

is there a Pakistani dream?

One that doesn't involve emigrating.

It seems we...

we put out our begging bowl

to other countries.

We do exactly

what they tell us to do,

and then we despise them for it.

After a while, we start

to despise ourselves for it.

I know I did.

If we wish to be self-reliant...

We need to talk about taxes.

So you were talking

about options.

What are the options

for Pakistan right now?

Would you like to join us

at one of our meetings?

If you look at the stats,

we don't actually tax

our population.

So let's start

on the national level,

and we'll break it down to personal.

The only way the government...

- Khan.

I'd like to introduce Mustafa Fazil.

This is Professor Changez Khan.

Talk to me, Bobby.

What's going on?

It's called progress.

It takes time.

Time's up, pal.

I've got to get you out of here.

I don't need a second American

kidnapped today.

Students, cooperate

with the police or else!

Free the students!

Out, America, out!

- Sir, are you all right?

- Yeah...

The students are fired up.

It's explosive.

If you come busting in here now,

you're gonna blow everything.

He's gonna lead us to Fazil.

I know it.

If you don't have a location

on Rainier,

we're wasting time;

I'm coming in.

I need you to go out there

and keep them calm for me.

They don't listen to me.

And your family is really

worried about you.

Tell them I'm fine.

Phone them.

Stay low.

Cooper, no.

Coop?

We're going in!

Everything okay?

What's going on?

It's okay.

We need to talk...

Alone.

Are the police cooperating?

Don't count on it.

Go! Go!

Go!

Go, go, go!

We need to talk about Anse Rainier.

Okay, let's talk about him.

Have you seen all the rumors

in the newspapers?

Do you know what the students

are saying about him?

Look, Changez,

an extraction team

is on their way here.

If you don't give me something...

Call it off!

Bobby, what do you think

is going to happen

when they get here?

Do you think all these young men

are just gonna stand idly by?

all:
Out, police, out!

Out, police, out!

Huh?

You need to ask yourself

if you think

all those lives are worth

risking to save one.

Who is Anse Rainier?

He's an academic.

He teaches English to orphans

on his day off.

The guy doesn't have

a violent bone in his body.

He read my galleys

for the Massoud book.

He's a friend, a mentor,

like Jim Cross was to you.

If that's true, Bobby,

you should think very carefully

about who your friends are.

The only way the government...

Salaam.

So you were in America when

they attacked Afghanistan.

Yes.

How did you feel

when you saw the bombs dropping

on your brothers and sisters?

I felt angry.

Yeah, Americans speak of equality,

then take 100 Muslim lives

to avenge 1 life of their own.

They speak of democracy,

then support kings and dictators.

Changez...

You have an office

in the faculty building.

Yes, I do.

Changez...

Many Muslims can

sympathize passively.

A mujahid acts.

There are items,

tools of resistance,

that we would like to store

in your office.

Yeah.

A wise and effective mujahid

appears to the enemy

as a negotiable man.

He hides behind masks.

Wear this mask for us, Changez.

I'm asking you

to join the fight.

I was his for the taking.

I had seen firsthand

the arrogant America

he described,

the blindness,

the hypocrisy, the xenophobia.

My anger had congealed,

hardened by injustice

and disappointment.

Of course I would fight.

Of course I would bleed the enemy.

But then he used that word...

Our only hope as a people

are the fundamental truths

given to us in the Q'uran.

We do that by focusing

on the fundamentals.

With due respect...

These young men were engaged

in their own valuation,

just like Underwood Samson,

moving human beings in and out

of binary columns:

worker, liability, American, Pakistani,

martyr, infidel, alive, dead.

I was tired of the reduction.

I was tired of deciding

from a distant perch

the fate of people

I did not know.

Yes, I'm a Pakistani.

Yes, I'm a Muslim.

Yes, I'm an opponent of

your country's assault on mine.

But that's not all I am.

We're both more

than these things, Bobby.

And I've never taken up arms,

and I never will,

so please, tell them

to leave my family alone.

Hey!

Hand me those petrol bombs!

Wait a minute.

What's going on?

Where are you going?

Rainier's fate is not in my hands.

Stop all this!

Changez.

Hey, Changez!

Wait!

Police dogs!

Servants of America!

- Listen!

- I've said all I had to say.

I heard you back there.

I did.

I'm tired of taking sides too.

I just want to bring

my friend home.

When you picked a side

after 9/11,

you said they came to you.

So who invited you

to join the fight?

It was your friend, wasn't it?

Professor Rainier

was in Afghanistan in 2001.

I remember him talking about it.

Just tell me the truth!

You know the truth!

Rainier brought me in.

He was a case officer.

No, wait!

Wait, Changez.

Wait.

We can stop this right now,

you and me.

If that extraction team

comes in here,

all hell's gonna break loose,

and you know it.

Do you have any idea

what it means

for me to help the CIA

in my own country?

Please, Changez.

Try to see the man.

He has a wife... her name's Alissa...

and two small girls,

Sophie and Molly.

Let me call them, please.

Let me call them and tell them

that he's safe.

I can't.

I can't.

Sir, the cops are roughing up

the students.

Only you can control them!

I'll be right there.

I'm coming!

Then do it for your students,

for their future,

because you and I both agree

they deserve one.

There's a butcher's shop

near Sheranwala Gate.

I've heard a student

talk about it.

There's a back room.

You can only get to it

through the freezer.

I heard Asal Mujahideen

sometimes use it.

Now call them off.

Thank you.

You did the right thing.

I'm calling it in.

Don't move.

Get out!

The police!

Stay calm!

No one go outside!

Junaid, calm them down.

Don't worry, sir.

Sameer, go outside.

Calm them.

Amreh, hello?

Amreh, I know where Rainier is.

You're cutting out.

What?

Bobby, can you hear me?

At Sheranwala... hello?

Bobby, can you...

Police have been warned

and will assist.

At Sheran... hello?

F***.

Brothers, listen to me, please!

Everything's okay.

Sit down.

Did you call them off?

Who were you texting?

My sister.

Show me your phone, Changez.

What?

Show me your phone.

Why?

Put your hands on the counter.

What are you doing?

He has a gun!

He has a gun!

What a f***er!

Move!

Get it?

What are you doing?

Put your f***ing hands

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