Follett, Ken - On Wings of Eagles.txt

by On Wings of Eagles [lit]

  'Nothing. "

  "Right. There is no agriculture here, no industry. How do you think these

  people make a living? They're all smugglers. "

  They returned to the Range Rover and drove back into Rezaiyeh. That evening

  Simons explained his plan to Coburn.

  Simons, Coburn, Poch6, Paul, and Bill would drive from Tehran to Rezaiyeh

  in the two Range Rovers. They would bring Majid and the professor with them

  as interpreters. In Rezaiyeh they would stay at the professor's house. The

  villa was ideal: no one else lived there, it was detached from other

  houses, and from there quiet roads led out of the city. Between Tehran and

  Rezaiyeh they would be unarmed: judging by what had happened at the

  roadblocks, guns would get them into trouble. However, at Rezaiyeh they

  would buy guns. Majid had made a contact in the city who would sell them

  Browning 12-gauge shotguns for six thousand dollars apiece. The same man

  could also get Llama pistols.

  ON WINGS OF EAGLES 239

  Coburn would cross the border legitimately in one of the Range Rovers and

  link up with Boulware, who would also have a car, on the Turkish side.

  Simons, Pbch6, Paul, and Bill would cross on horseback with the smugglers.

  (That was why they needed the guns: in case the smugglers should decide to

  "lose" them in the mountains.) On the other side they would meet Coburn and

  Boulware. They would all drive to the nearest American Consulate and get

  new passports for Paul and Bill. Then they would fly to Dallas.

  it was a good plan, Coburn thought; and he now saw that Simons was right to

  insist on Sero rather than Barzagan, for it would be difficult to sneak

  across the border in a more civilized, heavily populated area.

  They returned to Tehran the next day. They left late and did most of the

  journey by night, so as to be sure to arrive in the morning, after curfew

  was lifted. They took the southerly route, passing through the small town

  of Mahabad. The road was a singk-lane dirt track through the mountains, and

  they had the worst possible weather: snow, ice, and high winds.

  Nevertheless, the road was passable, and Simons determined to use this

  route, rather than the northerly one, for the escape itself.

  If it ever happened.

  3

  One evening Coburn went to the Hyatt and told Keane Taylor he needed

  twenty-five thousand dollars in Iranian rials by the following morning.

  He didn't say why.

  Taylor got twenty-five thousand dollars in hundreds from Gayden, then

  called a carpet dealer he knew in the south of the city and agreed on an

  exchange rate.

  Taylor's driver, Ali, was highly reluctant to take him downtown, especially

  after dark, but after some argument he agreed.

  They went to the shop. Taylor sat down and drank tea with the carpet

  dealer. Two more Iramans came in: one was introduced as the man who would

  exchange Taylor's money; the other was his bodyguard, and looked like a

  hoodlum.

  240 Ken Follett

  Since Taylor's phone call, the carpet dealer said, the exchange rate had

  changed rather dramatically-in the carpet dealer's favor.

  "I'm insulted!" Taylor said angrily. "I'm not going to do business with you

  people!"

  "This is the best exchange rate you can get," said the carpet man.

  "The hell it isl"

  "It's very dangerous for you to be in this part of the city, carrying all

  that money."

  I 'I'm not alone," Taylor said. "I've got six people outside waiting for

  me."

  He finished his tea and stood up. He walked slowly out of the shop and

  jumped into the car. "Ali, let's get out of here, fast."

  They drove north. Taylor directed Ali to another carpet dealer, an Iranian

  Jew with a shop near the palace. The man was just closing up when Taylor

  walked in.

  "I need to change some dollars for rials," Taylor said.

  "Come back tomorrow," said the man.

  "No, I need them tonight."

  "How much?"

  "Twenty-five thousand dollars."

  "I don't have anything like that much."

  "I've really got to have them tonight-,,

  -What's it for?"

  "It's to do with Paul and Bill."

  The carpet dealer nodded. He had done business with several EDS people and

  he knew that Paul and Bill were in jail. "I'll see what I can do. "

  He called his brother from the back of the shop and sent him out. Then he

  opened his safe and took out all his rials. He and Taylor stood there

  counting money: the dealer counted the dollars; and Taylor the rials. A few

  minutes later a kid came in with his hands full of rials and dumped them on

  the counter. He left without speaking. Taylor realized the carpet dealer

  was rounding up all the cash he could lay his hands on.

  A young man came up on a motor scooter, parked outside, and walked in with

  a bag full of rials. While he was in the shop someone stole his motor

  scooter. The young man dropped the bag of money and ran after the thief,

  yelling at the top of his voice.

  Taylor went on counting.

  Just another normal business day in revolutionary Tehran.

  ON WINGS OF EAGLES 241

  John Howell was changing. With each day that went by he became a little less

  the uptight American lawyer and a little more the devious Persian

  negotiator. In particular, he began to see bribery in a different light.

  Mehdi, an Iranian accountant who had done occasional work fbr EDS, had

  explained things to him like this: "In Iran many things are achieved by

  friendship. There are several ways to become Dadgar's friend. Me, I would

  sit outside his house every day until he talked to me. Another way for me

  to become his friend would be to give him two hundred thousand dollars. If

  you like, I could arrange something like this for you."

  Howell discussed this proposal with the other members of the negotiating

  team. They assumed that Mehdi was offering himself as a bribe intermediary,

  as Deep Throat had. But this time Howell was not so quick to reject the

  idea of a corrupt deal for Paul and Bill's freedom.

  They decided to play along with Mehdi. They might be able to expose the

  deal and discredit Dadgar. Alternatively, they might decide the arrangement

  was solid and pay up. Either way, they wanted a clear sign from Dadgar that

  he was bribable.

  Howell and Keane Taylor had a series of meetings with MehdiThe accountant

  was as jumpy as Deep Throat had been, and would not let the EDS people come

  to his office during normal working hours: he always met them early in the

  morning or late at night, or at his house or down back alleys. Howell kept

  pressing him for an unmistakable signal: Dadgar was to come to a meeting

  wearing odd socks, or with his tie on backward. Mehdi would propose

  ambiguous signals, such as Dadgar giving the Americans a hard time. On one

  occasion Dadgar did give them a hard time, as Mehdi had forecast, but that

  might have happened anyway.

  Dadgar was not the only one giving Howell a hard time. Howell was talking

  to Angela on the phone every four or five days, and she wanted to know when

  he was coming home. He did not k
now. Paul and Bill were naturally pressing

  him for hard news, but his progress was so slow and indefinite that he

  could not possibly give them deadlines. He found this frustrating, and when

  Angela started questioning him on the same point he had to suppress his

  irritation.

  The Mehdi initiative came to nothing. Mehdi introduced Howell to a lawyer

  who claimed to be close to Dadgar. The lawyer

  242 Ken Follett

  did not want a bribe-just normal legal fees. EDS retained him, but at the

  next meeting Dadgar said: "Nobody has any special relationship with me. If

  anybody tries to tell you differently, don't believe them."

  Howell was not sure what to make of all this. Had there been nothing in it

  right from the start? Or had EDS's caution frightened Dadgar into dropping

  a demand for a bribe? He would never know.

  On January 30 Dadgar told Howell he was interested in Abolfkth Mahvi, EDS's

  h-drdan partner. Howell began to prepare a dossier on EDS's dealings with

  Mahvi.

  Howell now believed that Paul and Bill were straightforward commercial

  hostages. Dadgar's investigation into corruption might be genuine, but he

  knew by now that Paul and Bill were innocent; therefore, he must be holding

  them on orders from above. 'Me Iranians had originally wanted either their

  promised computerized welfare system or their money back. Giving them their

  welfare system meant renegotiating the contract-but the new government was

  not interested in renegotiating and in any case was unlikely to stay in

  power long enough to consummate a deal.

  If Dadgar could not be bribed, convinced of Paul's and Bill's innocence, or

  ordered by his superiors to release them on the basis of a new contract

  between EDS and the Ministry, there remained to Howell only one option: pay

  the bail. Dr. Hournan's efforts to get the amount reduced had come to

  nothing. Howell now concentrated on ways of getting thirteen million

  dollars from Dallas to Tehran.

  He had learned, bit by bit, that there was an EDS rescue team in Tehran. He

  was astonished that the head of an American corporation would set in motion

  something like that. He was also reassured, for if he could only get Paul

  and Bill out of jail, somebody else was standing by to get them out of

  Iran.

  Liz Coburn was frantic with worry.

  She sat in the car with Toni Dvoranchik and Toni's husband, Bill. They were

  heading for the Royal Tokyo restaurant. It was on Greenville Avenue, not

  far from Recipes, the place where Liz and Toni had drunk Daiquiris with

  Mary Sculley and Mary had shattered Liz's world by saying, "They're all in

  Tehran, I guess. I I

  ON WINGS OF EAGLES 243

  Since that moment Liz had been living in constant, stark terror.

  Jay was everything to her. He was Captain America, he was Superman, he was

  her whole life. She did not see how she could live without him. The thought

  of losing him. scared her to death.

  She called Tehran constantly but never reached turn. She called Merv

  Stauffer every day, asking, "When is Jay coming home? Is he all right? Will

  he get out alive?" Merv tried to soothe her, but he would not give her any

  information, so she would demand to speak to Ross Perot, and Merv would teR

  her that was not possible. Then she would call her mother and burst into

  tears and pour out all her anxiety and fear and frustration over die phone.

  The Dvoranchiks were kind. They were trying to take her mind off her

  worries.

  "What did you do today?" Toni asked.

  "I went shopping,- Liz said.

  "Did you buy anything?"

  "Yes." Liz started to cry. "I bought a black dress. Because Jay isn't

  coming home."

  During those days of waiting, Jay Coburn learned a good deal about Simons.

  One day Merv Stauffer called from Dallas to say that Simons's son Harry had

  been on the phone, worried. Harry had called his father's house and spoken

  to Paul Walker, who was minding the farm. Walker had said he did not know

  where Simons was, and had advised- Harry to call Merv Stauffer at EDS.

  Harry was naturally worried, Stauffer said. Simons called Harry from Tehran

  and reassured him.

  Simons told Coburn that Harry had had some problems, but he was a good boy

  at heart. He spoke of his son with a kind of resigned affection. (He never

  mentioned Bruce, and it was not until much later that Coburn realized

  Simons had two sons.)

  Simons talked a lot about his late wife, Lucille, and how happy the two of

  them had been after Simons retired. They had been very close during the

  last few years, Coburn gathered, and Simons seemed to regret that it had

  taken him so long to realize how much he loved her. "Hold on to your mate,"

  he advised Coburn. "She's the most important person in your life."

  Paradoxically, Simons's advice had the opposite effect on Coburn. He envied

  the companionship Simons and Lucille had

  244 Ken Follett

  had, and he wanted that for himself, but he was so sure he could never

  achieve it with Liz that he wondered if someone else would be his true soul

  mate.

  One evening Simons laughed and said: "You know, I wouldn't do this for

  anyone else."

  It was a characteristically cryptic Simons remark. Sometimes, Coburn had

  learned, you got an explanation; sometimes you did not. This time Coburn

  got an explanation: Simons told him why he felt indebted to Ross Perot.

  The aftermath of the Son Tay Raid had been a bitter experience for Simons.

  Although the Raiders had not brought back any American POWs, it had been a

  brave try, and Simons expected the American public to see it that way.

  Indeed, he had argued, at a breakfast meeting with Defense Secretary Melvin

  Laird, in favor of releasing the news of the raid to the press. "This is a

  perfectly legitimate operation," he had told Laird. "These are American

  prisoners. This is something Americans traditionally do for Americans. For

  Christ's sake, what is it we're afraid of here?"

  He soon found out. The press and the public saw the raid as a failure and

  yet another intelligence foul-up. The banner headline on the front page of

  the next day's Washington Post read: u.s. RAm To RmcuE Pows FAiLs. When

  Senator Robert Dole introduced a resolution praising the raid and said:

  "Some of these men have been languishing in prison for five years," Senator

  Kennedy replied: "And they're still there!"

  Simons went to the White House to receive the Distinguished Service Cross

  for "extraordinary heroism" from President Nixon. The rest of the Raiders

  were to be decorated by Defense Secretary Laird. Simons was enraged to

  learn that over half of his men were to get nothing more than the Army

  Commendation Ribbon, only slightly better than a Good Conduct Ribbon, and

  known to soldiers as a "Green Weenie." Mad as hell, he picked up the phone

  and asked for the Army Chief of Staff, General Westmoreland. He got the

  Acting Chief, General Palmer. Simons told Palmer about the Green Weenies

  and said: "General, I don't want to embarrass the army, but one of my men

  is just likely to shove an Army Commendation Ribbon up Mr. Lai
rd's ass." He

  got his way: Land awarded four Distinguished Service Crosses, fifty Silver

  Stars, and no Green Weenies.

  The POWs got a huge monde boost from the Son Tay Raid (which they heard

  about from incoming prisoners). An important

  ON WINGS OF EAGLES 245

  side effect of the raid was that the POW camps-where many prisoners had been

  kept permanently in solitary confinement-were closed, and all the Americans

  were brought into two large prisons where there was not enough room to keep

  them apart. Nevertheless, the world branded the raid a failure, and Simons

  felt a grave injustice had been done to his men.

  The disappointment rankled with him for years-_itntil, one weekend, Ross

  Perot threw a mammoth party in San Francisco, persuaded the army to round

  up the Son Tay Raiders from all over the world, and introduced them to the

  prisoners they had tried to rescue. That weekend, Simons felt, his Raiders

  had at last got the thanks they deserved. And Ross Perot had been

  responsible.

  "That's why 1, in here," Simons told Coburn. "Sure as hell, I wouldn't do

  this for anyone else."

  Coburn, thinking of his son Scott, knew exactly what Simons meant.

  4-

  On January 22 hundreds of hornafars-young air force officersmutinied at

  bases in Dezful, Hamadan, Isfahan, and Mashad, and declared themselves loyal

  to the Ayatollah Khomeini.

  The significance of the event was not apparent to National Security Advisor

  Zbigniew Brzezinski, who still expected the Iranian military to crush the

  Islamic revolution; nor to Premier Shahpour Bakhtiar, who was talking about

  meeting the revolutionary challenge with a minimum of force; nor to the

  Shah, who instead of going to the United States was hanging on in Egypt,

  waiting to be summoned back to save his country in its hour of need.

  Among the people who did see its significance were Ambassador William

  Sullivan and General Abbas Gharabaghi, the Iranian Chief of Staff.

  Sullivan told Washington that the idea of a pro-Shah countercoup was

  moonshine, the revolution was going to succeed and the U.S. had better

  start thinking about how it would live with the new order. He received a

  harsh reply from the White House suggesting that he was disloyal to the