In the summer of 2018, the atmosphere in Iran was full of panic. The currency was crashing, and people were terrified of losing everything they had saved. To "fix" the problem, the regime started selling gold coins to the public, telling everyone it was a safe way to protect their money. But it turned out to be a trap. The regime used these sales to collect all the cash from the people, money they needed to keep their regional proxies and terrorist groups running. Once they had the money, they changed the rules. They started arresting people who had bought large amounts of gold, calling them "economic traitors" and even executing some of them. They basically sold the gold, took the cash, and then used the law to snatch the gold back. It was a strange, scary moment where doing exactly what the government told you to do could get you killed. That is the context in which my story begins.

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