Thank you judybear, brambled13, Marilyn KC, Brintravlr, Lady Novesia, and Kit Kat for your continuing support. I miss my other people who seem to have disappeared sometime around chapter 10. Some of my old faithful friends have not said anything for ages. Either this fic did not appeal to them or they are just being shy or busy. I did get a little more philosophical, and added more historical trivia to this one, perhaps they did not care for it. I did speed it up for the last few chapters don't you think?

Chapter 37.

While the train bearing Erik, Raoul, Jean Paul and Severine was approaching Paris, and Christine and Firmin were finishing lunch, Nadir was responding to a message from Amir to meet him at the Persian Embassy. Nadir was grateful that Erik had so generously set up telephone service between him and all of his friends, so he was able to call and alert Julien to meet them at the station in his stead. Nadir was uneasy about going to the Persian Embassy. It was not so long ago that he and Erik had taken great measures to keep their presence in Paris hidden from the Shah and his minions. Both men had a price on their head, and the Shah would have been eager to remove both of theirs. But strange circumstances invite odd alliances to form, and the Shah was now their ally.

Nadir knew that the Shah would not dare harm them. Erik was now a very prominent member of French society and was one of the wealthiest individuals in the world. The Shah needed Erik to help modernize his country, so that it would not suffer the same fate that so many other countries had succumbed to, European colonization. In the past few years the European countries had seized many lands surrounding Persia and Russia was ever expanding southward, resting right across the Caspian Sea, not too far from his former home in Mazandaran. Nadir had known Amir many years. Amir was one of his assistants when he was the Daroga. He was one of the few trustworthy men in the Shah's Court. He did not succumb to the politics surrounding the Shah and Khanum but was very professional, probably because he was of humble origins and had no hope of advancing to high office.

Nadir entered the Embassy where he was immediately ushered into Amir's office. There was a veiled woman sitting in a chair, her father, a distinguished looking man of good family, was seated beside her.

Amir gave Nadir a friendly smile "Salaam doostam, it has been too long since I have last seen you. Would you care for a cup of tea or coffee? I have the finest tea from our homeland."

"Yes thank you doostam. Could you do me the honor of introducing me to your guests?"

"But of course this is Mohammed Hassan Amin-od-Dowleh and his daughter Yasmine.

Mr. Amin is the cultural attaché to our embassy in London. Mr. Amin-od-Dowleh this is Nadir Khan the former Daroga of Mazandaran and a cousin to his Highness the Shah."

The introductions were made and tea and Persian pastries were served. Nadir savored each sip. "The French pride themselves on their culinary skills but you cannot get a good mint tea or baklava anywhere in the city. Not like this."

Amir gave Nadir a satisfied grin "No doostam you cannot, we are all far from our beautiful sunny home, and in the land of the kaafar. I have been stationed here in Paris for many years. I do not get home very often anymore."

Nadir sighed "Neither do I. Until recently I would have been executed if I stepped foot in this building." He continued impatiently "Our mutual friend is on his way to Paris as we speak. He fears that his wife has decided to seek out Yousef Qajar and reason with him. She mentioned a desire to do so several days ago and now she is missing."

They heard a gasp from the veiled woman. She looked over to them.

"She will fail." Yasmin said "She has put herself in grave danger. Yousef is obsessed with destroying her husband, and will let nothing get in his way."

Nadir looked at her and asked "How do you know?"

Her hazel eyes winced in pain "Because I loved him and I thought that he loved me, but he is incapable of anything but hate."

Her father looked over to Nadir "He ruined my daughter's life. I used to be the cultural attaché here in Paris, where she met Yousef. She was engaged to a great man, a Shahzadeh, with very close ties to the Shah. The sag, Yousef, came to the female quarters of my house and stole her away. She was missing for two days and then she came back of her own volition. In the meantime the Shahzadeh found out what had happened and broke the engagement. He considered her to be soiled although she swore that she was pure. She tried to harm herself but her mother found her and would not let her do it. I would kill this man with my bare hands if I could find him. Honor dictates that his life is forfeit to me but he has been very elusive and I have never found him."

Nadir looked at him "He has been hiding in plain view, masquerading as a Frenchman who is twice his real age. He was one of the managers of the Opera Populaire. Apparently he took the job when he suspected that the Phantom of the Opera was his nemesis from Persia. He has been plotting to destroy Erik ever since."

Yasmine spoke up tentatively "Yes, he has never stopped hunting for the man that he called the Asto Vidatu. He insisted that he was a real man and that he lived here in Paris. He spent much time trying to find him. When I was with him, for those two days, he heard a description of someone or something haunting the Palais Garnier. He was convinced that that it was this Asto Vidatu. Before he heard about this man, the Phantom of the Opera, he was ready to give up his quest for 'justice' as he called it, and marry me. But once he knew he sent me back to my father's house and told me to marry the Shahzadeh." Her voice quivered "I begged him to let it go, but he just became angry at me and slapped me in the face for daring to question him. He was like a different man. That was ten years ago when we were both so young, still in our late teens. I have not seen him since but I know that he must have only grown angrier since then."

"Did he give you any clues as to where he lived and what his alias might be?" Nadir asked.

The woman nodded "He had several, but he mostly used a certain one. I have seen the name in the newspapers. Especially seven years ago. He had become one of the managers of the Opera Populaire."

Nadir snapped to attention at that news "So it is true, Monsieur Andre is Youssef?"

The woman looked at him confused "No that was not the name that he used, it was the other manager, Richard Firmin; that was his name."

Nadir questioned gently "Are you sure?"

She nodded her head "I am positive of it Daroga."

Her father stood up and glowered at his daughter. He slapped her in the face, knocking off the veil, revealing a beautiful raven-haired girl.

"Why did you keep this information from me Jendeh?" he shouted "I would have killed the sag and spared all of us this grief."

Nadir turned to the father "Don't you see Mr. Amin, love is blind. She clearly still has feelings for the man and kept his secret to protect him from you."

He turned to her "What has changed that you tell us this now?"

She replied "Your friend's wife, if it is true and she is with him, then she is in danger. Yousef is a gentleman, and would not wish to harm her, but his emotions override everything and he will set his scruples aside to get what he has wanted for all of these years. Remember he was only a child when he saw his father killed and his mother died soon after. He has never forgiven either your friend or the Shah for what they did."

Nadir bowed to them "I must go and meet my friend at the Palais Garnier; he will start to look for her there. He is looking for the wrong man. He believed it to be Monsieur Andre not Firmin."

She put her hand on his arm and told him firmly "I am going with you."

Her father glowered "You will do no such thing daughter, you have done enough."

"I am going father. She replied "If anyone can reach him, it would be me. He would not listen to me years ago but if I could somehow reach the part of him that loved me, maybe he will at least not hurt your friend's wife. I have to go father."

"You are a brave girl, Yasmine." Nadir told her.

"I am coming too." insisted her father. "Honor dictates that I deal with the sag once and for all."

Nadir nodded "I understand that. I would feel the same way if he ruined my daughter's life but alas I have no daughter. He is responsible for my nephew's death and I would like to avenge him."

"Let's go then, all of us." Mr. Amin told him.

Amir looked at them and said "I might as well go too. This involves Persian subjects and as a representative of the Shah's government I must insist on looking after his interests."

Nadir looked at his old friend "As a representative of this Shah can I trust you not to kill the wrong party?"

Amir reassured him "The Shah no longer wishes you harm. Mr. Muhlheim could have killed me years ago. I owe him a debt of honor. I am coming both as a representative of the Shah and for my own sake. I want to help Mr. Muhlheim. I already have. It is the reason that I convinced the Shah to Pardon Erik. I have sent him many dispatches detailing how important the man is here in France. At first he was angry that I did not perform my duty that he assigned me to kill you both; but then he realized that Mr. Muhlheim was more important to him alive than dead."

Nadir replied "Fine, but let us go before something happens to the wrong man."

They all left the embassy and headed towards the Palais Garnier.

In the meantime Erik and his group arrived at the same place and immediately sought out Andre. They spotted Antoinette Giry in the lobby as they entered.

She looked at them in surprise "Erik, Comte and Comtesse I thought that you were in Normandy what are you doing here?"

Raoul replied "Have you seen Christine here or has she contacted you?"

Antoinette replied "No, of course not she should be with you Erik in Normandy."

Erik looked at her and hissed "Well as you can see she is not with me and no one seems to know where she has disappeared to. I fear that she has gone on a fool's errand which could prove to be quite dangerous."

Raoul asked her gently "Have you seen Monsieur Andre? She may have gone to see him."

Madame Giry replied "He has been in Baden Baden for the past few days, he just returned here several minutes ago, alone. Why would she seek him out?"

Erik replied hurriedly "We have no time to explain. Let's go to his office quickly and see what he has done to her. Maybe he has taken her hostage."

The ballet mistress looked at him quizzically "What are you talking about? I will come with you. Why would he take Christine hostage?

Erik replied "Because he is not who he said that he was."

They all headed to the still deserted offices where they found the unfortunate Monsieur Andre seated at his desk. He looked up and gave them each a smile. Erik was enraged at his seemingly nonchalant attitude and lunged at him. He grabbed him by the throat and began to choke him.

He asked him in Farsi "What have you done with my wife Yousef? I know that you have her. If she is hurt you are a dead man."

Andre, of course, not knowing a word of Farsi, was petrified. It had taken years for him to relax in the presence of the former Phantom, and here he had seemingly returned in all of his magic apparently trying to kill him, and no one was stopping him, not even the Comte. Andre could feel his airways being choked. Surely the Phantom was a raving madman as he was speaking some gibberish language to him.

Raoul turned to Erik and gently touched his shoulder telling him calmly "Erik, you will not get the man to tell you anything if you kill him. Release him at once and speak to him in French. He is clearly terrified."

Erik relaxed his grip and in an instant his rage was gone. Both men were out of breath clearly drained from the experience. When they had both recovered Raoul asked "Andre, we have received information that you are a Persian Prince by the name of Yousef Qajar who was a partner of both my brother and the late Bertrand Buquet."

Andre looked at all of them and replied "Is this a joke, gentlemen? Where did you receive such duplicitous disinformation? Is that why the Phan- Monsieur Muhlheim just attacked me completely unprovoked? You could have killed me you fiend. I have a mind to call the gendarmes and have them haul you away, as I should have done years ago."

Raoul replied smoothly "Well we will have none of that. Erik is just a little emotional because Christine is missing. We are worried that she is in danger and are trying to get to the bottom of it. Erik, the man appears to be terrified. Perhaps my brother was lying all along about Yousef."

Erik agreed "Perhaps, but I am not convinced. The real Yousef is a comsumate liar. Our friend Andre here could be just spewing more lies to deceive us." He turned to Andre and gave him an evil leer.

"Perhaps I should use some of my old techniques from my days at the Court of the Shah in Persia. We had ways of persuading people to tell the truth." Erik purred threateningly.

"I shall give you one last chance to tell me where you took Christine, and to release her unharmed. You will find me to be very reasonable if you comply."

A voice sounded in the doorway "You will not find out anything from him doostam. Andre is not the man who we seek. He is not an imposter. It is Richard Firmin who is Yousef, not him."

Erik turned to his old friend. "How can you be so sure Nadir?"

Nadir's associates all stepped forward a woman in a black chador veil stepped forward and told him in Farsi "Because I know Yousef. I was in love with him. I was there when he donned his disguise as Richard Firmin."

Erik turned to Nadir "Who is this woman? And the man standing next to her? Do you trust them to be telling the truth?"

Amir answered "This is Mohammed Hassan Amin-od-Dowleh; he is from an old Persian noble family and our cultural attaché in London. This woman is his daughter Yasmine who lives with him in London. They are here because we were able to ascertain from various sources in Persia, and here in Paris, that she had a relationship with Yousef Qajar approximately ten years ago when her father was stationed here in Paris."

Erik searched Amir's eyes for any sign of deceit "If she was in love with Yousef, how do we know that she is being truthful now?"

Her father growled "Are you impugning my daughter's honor, my family's honor?" He put his hand on the hilt of his scimitar "Would you like to challenge me Frenchman?"

Erik replied smoothly "My apologies agha Amin-od-Dowleh, I did not mean to offend you. It is only that I am having difficulties digesting this new bit of information. I was lead to believe that the gentleman over there who is currently cowering in the corner was Yousef Qajar."

The older Persian nobleman laughed contemptuously "That sag, why he is too cowardly to carry the royal blood of Persia. How could you believe that he could be such a man?"

Erik rolled his eyes "His associate, Firmin, is just as bad and he is Yousef. In fact he might be worse. At least this man helped me rescue the Comte over there from where he had been trapped in debris from an explosion. Firmin did little, but cower. The truth be told, it is shocking to believe that either man is Yousef but it appears that the man is a most gifted actor.'

Raoul turned to Erik impatiently "You seem to be having a very serious discussion about some matter in Persian. For a moment it looked as if that man was going to disembowel you with that nasty looking sword. Would you please continue your discussion in French so that we might all understand what you are saying?"

Erik replied "Very well Raoul. This man and his daughter are attached to the Persian Embassy in London. Apparently the woman was once romantically attached to Yousef and knows his current identity. She has confirmed that Andre is who he represents himself to be and that it is Firmin who is the actual culprit. It would seem that your brother is a liar after all."

Erik turned to Andre and offered him his hand in apology "I am sorry good Monsieur. It would appear that I have once again allowed my fairly volatile temper to get the best of me. I hope that this will not interfere in our future relationship. You have come a long way towards being a tolerable manager of this theatre and I would hate to have us continue our relationship on bad terms."

The manager stared at him and reluctantly took his hand. "I have no idea of what is going on here. I have spent the last few days in Baden Baden taking the waters with my dear wife. I am afraid that all of the good effects of my treatment have been wiped away by your actions today, but you have been a good patron of the theatre lately and I do not want to lose your support."

Erik gave him a slight bow "As penitence I will grant any wish that you ask of me provided that it is in my power to do so and make a fine donation to the operating fund. Do I have your pardon now Monsieur?"

"Yes of course." Andre replied. "But what is it that you are saying about Richard? Who is this Persian Prince that you are all concerned with?"

"It is a long story Andre; One which we will tell you, at a later time, once we ascertain Christine's safety." He turned to his expanding group of associates. "Let us look in Firmin's office to see if he is here."

They all agreed. They left Andre's office and walked down the hall to Firmin's. They stepped inside and Erik immediately spotted Christine's handbag.

"She was here." He said with concern. "He has clearly taken her but where?"

"Let's search the office to see if she has left us more clues." Nadir said.

Severine spotted something glimmering near a bare wall.

"Look at this." She told them. "It looks like her ring, but why would it be here by this wall?"

"She is leaving me a clue like you did when you were kidnapped; something to show me where she went. She knows that I know every crevice of this theatre including the fact that there is a door right there to one of my passageways." Erik replied his hand touching a hidden part of a doorway that only he could see.

He smiled triumphantly when he opened the door "I still know my way around here. A ghost needed ways of getting around without exciting the management."

Raoul looked at Erik wondrously "You never cease to amaze me Erik. When you lived here you had this entire Opera house at your disposal. No wonder we could never catch you."

Erik laughed "My eyes and ears were everywhere in this place. One of these days I will have to show you how I could hear conversations throughout the theatre but before I reveal all, we need to find Yousef and my wife. Let's step out of the theatre and enter on the Rue Scribe entrance. It will be an easier path and we will not have to take my gondola which might be in dilapidated condition." He turned to Andre "Please use the telephone that I installed and phone the gendarmes; while we are getting to be a fairly large group it would be nice to have their presence as well. We might have to conduct an extensive search of the catacombs."