Follett, Ken - On Wings of Eagles.txt

by On Wings of Eagles [lit]

  doorway, and in the panic women and old men were getting trampled. Rashid

  had waited, thinking of what he would say to Paul and Bill when he saw

  them. After an hour the flood of people slowed to a trickle, and he

  concluded that most people were out. He started asking: "Have you seen any

  Americans?" Someone told him that A the foreigners had

  276 Ken Folleu

  been kept in Building Number 8. He went there and found it empty. He

  searched every building in the compound. He then returned to the Hyatt by

  the route Paul and Bill were most likely to take. Walking and hitching

  rides, he had looked for them all the way. At the Hyatt he had been refused

  admission because he was still carrying his rifle. He gave the gun away to

  the nearest youngster and came in.

  While he was telling his story Coburn arrived, all set to go looking for

  Paul and Bill on Majid's motorcycle. He had a crash helmet with a visor

  that would hide his white face.

  Rashid offered to take an EDS car and drive the route between the hotel and

  the prison, making one more sweep there and back before Coburn risked his

  neck in the mobs. Taylor gave him the keys to a car. Gayden got on the

  phone to tell Dallas the latest news. Rashid and Taylor left the suite and

  walked down the corridor.

  Suddenly Rashid yelled: "I thought you were dead!" and broke into a run.

  Then Taylor saw Paul and Bill.

  Rashid was hugging them both, screaming: "I couldn't find you! I couldn't

  find you!"

  Taylor ran up and embraced Paul and Bill. "Thank Godl- he said.

  Rashid ran back into Gayden's suite, yelling: "Paul and Bill are here! Paul

  and Bill are here!"

  An instant later Paul and Bill walked in, and all hell broke loose.

  TEN

  It was an unforgettable moment.

  Everyone was yelling, no one was listening, and they all wanted to hug Paul

  and Bill at the same time.

  Gayden was bellowing into the phone: "We got the guys! We got the guys!

  Fantastic! They just walked in the door! Fantastic! -

  Somebody yelled: "We beat them! We beat those sonsabitches! -

  "We did it!"

  "In your ear, Dadgar!"

  Buffy barked like a mad thing.

  Paul looked around at his friends, and realized that they had stayed here

  in the middle of a revolution to help him, and he found he had difficulty

  speaking.

  Gayden dropped the phone and came over to shake hands. Paul, with tears in

  his eyes, said: "Gayden, I just saved you twelve and a half million

  dollars-I think you ought to buy me a drink. I I

  Gayden fixed him a stiff scotch.

  Paul tasted his first alcoholic drink for six weeks.

  Gayden said into the phone: "I have somebody would like to speak to you."

  He handed the phone to Paul.

  Paul said: "Hello."

  He heard the syrupy voice of Tom Walter. "Hi, there, buddy!"

  "God almighty, - said Paul, out of general exhaustion and relief.

  "We were wondering where you guys were!"

  "So was 1, for the last three hours."

  "How'd you get to the hotel, Paul?"

  Paul did not have the energy to tell Walter the whole story. "Fortunately

  Keane left me a lot of money one day."

  277

  278 Ken Follett

  "Fantastic. Golly, Paul! Is Bill okay?"

  "Yeah, he's a little shook up but he's all right."

  "We're all a little shook up. Oh, boy. Boy, it's good to hear you. 11

  Another voice came on the line. "Paul? This is Mitch." Mitch Hart was a

  former president of EDS. "I figured that Italian street fighter would get

  out of there."

  "How's Ruthie?" said Paul.

  Tom Walter answered. They must be using the telephone conference circuit,

  Paul guessed. "Paul, she's great. I just talked to her a little while ago.

  Jean's calling her right now, she's on the other phone." .

  "Kids doing all right?"

  "Yeah, fine. Boy, she'll be glad to hear!"

  "Okay, I'll let you talk to my other half." Paul handed the phone to Bill.

  While he had been speaking, an Iranian employee, Gholam, had arrived. He

  had heard about the jailbreak and had gone looking for Paul and Bill in the

  streets around the prison.

  Jay Coburn was worried by the arrival of Gholam. For a few minutes there,

  Coburn had been too full of tearful joy to think of anything else, but now

  he reverted to his role as Simons's lieutenant. He quietly left the suite,

  found another open door, went into the room, and called the Dvoranchik

  apartment.

  Simons answered the phone.

  "It's Jay. They got here."

  "Good.-

  "The security is all shot to hell here. They're using the names over the

  phone, everybody's wandering around, we have Iranian employees walking in

  . . .-

  -Get a couple of rooms away from the others. We'll be right there. "

  "Okay." Coburn hung up.

  He went down to the reception desk and asked for a two-bedroom suite on the

  tweft floor. There was no problem: the hotel had hundreds of empty rooms.

  He gave a false name. He was not asked for his passport.

  He returned to Gayden's suite.

  A few minutes later Simons walked in and said: "Hang up the goddam phone."

  Bob Young, who was holding the line open to Dallas, put down the phone.

  ON WINGS OF EAGLES 279

  Joe Poch6 walked in behind Simons and started closing the curtains.

  It was incredible. Suddenly Simons was in charge. Gayden, the president of

  EDS World, was the senior man there; and an hour ago he had told Tom Walter

  that "The Sunshine Boys" -Simons, Coburn, and Poch6--seemed useless and

  ineffectual; yet now he deferred to Simons without even thinking about it.

  "Take a look around, Joe," Simons said to Poch6. Coburn knew what this

  meant. The team had scouted the hotel and its grounds during their weeks of

  waiting, and Poch6 would now see whether there had been any changes.

  T'he phone rang. John Howell answered it. "It's Abolhasan," he said to the

  others. He listened for a couple of minutes, then said: "Hold on." He

  covered the mouthpiece with his hand and spoke to Simons. "This is an

  Iranian employee who translates for me at meetings with Dadgar. His father

  is a friend of Dadgar's. He's at his father's house, and just got a call

  from Dadgar. 11

  The room went very quiet.

  "Dadgar said: 'Did you know the Americans are out of jail?' Abolhasan said:

  'It's news to me.' Dadgar said: 'Get hold of EDS and tell them that if they

  find Chiapparone and Gaylord they are to turn them in, that I'm now willing

  to renegotiate the bail and it ought to be much more reasonable.'

  Gayden said: "Fuck him."

  "All right," Simons said. "Tell Abolhasan to give Dadgar a message. Say we

  are searching for Paul and Bill, but meanwhile we hold Dadgar personally

  responsible for their safety."

  Howell smiled and nodded, and began speaking to Abolhasan.

  Simons turned to Gayden. "Call the American Embassy. Yell at them a little.

  They got Paul and Bill thrown in jail, now the jail has been stormed and we

  don't know where Paul and Bill are, but we hold the Embassy responsible for

  their saf
ety. Make it convincing. There must be Iranian spies at the

  Embassy-you can bet your ass Dadgar will have the text of the message in

  minutes. -

  Gayden went to find a phone.

  Simons, Coburn, and Pochd, with Paul and Bill, moved to the new suite

  Coburn had taken on the floor above.

  Coburn ordered two steak dinners for Paul and Bill. He told room service to

  send them to Gayden's suite: there was to be no unnecessary traffic in and

  out of the new rooms.

  280 Ken Follett

  Paul took a hot bath. He had been longing for it. He had not had a bath for

  six weeks. He reveled in the clean white bathroom, the piping hot water,

  the fresh cake of soap ... He would never take such things for granted

  again. He washed the Gasr Prison out of his hair. There were clean clothes

  waiting for him: someone had retrieved his suitcase from the Hilton, where

  he had been staying until he was arrested.

  Bill took a shower. His euphoria had gone. He had imagined that the

  nightmare was over when he walked into Gayden's suite, but gradually it had

  dawned on him that he was still in danger, there was no U.S. Air Force jet

  waiting to fly him home at twice the speed of sound. Dadgar's message via

  Abolhasan, the appearance of Simons, and the new security precaution"is

  suite, Poch6 closing the curtains, the shuttling of the food-all made him

  realize that the escape had only just begun.

  All the same, he enjoyed his steak dinner.

  Simons was still uneasy. The Hyatt was near the Evin Hotel where the U.S.

  military stayed, the Evin Prison, and an armory: all these were natural

  targets for the revolutionaries. Dadgar's phone call was also worrying.

  Plenty of Iranians knew that the EDS people were staying at the Hyatt:

  Dadgar could easily find out, and send men to search for Paul and Bill.

  While Simons, Coburn, and Bill were discussing this in the sitting room of

  the suite, the phone rang.

  Simons stared at it.

  It rdng again.

  "Who the fuck knows we're here?" Simons said.

  Coburn shrugged.

  Simons picked up the phone and said: "Hello?"

  There was a pause.

  "Hello?"

  He hung up. "Nobody there."

  At that moment Paul walked in in his pajamas. Simons said: "Change your

  clothes, we're going to leave."

  "Why?" Paul protested.

  Simons repeated: "Change your clothes, we're going to leave.

  Paul shrugged and went back into the bedroom.

  Bill found it hard to believe. On the run again already! Somehow Dadgar was

  staying in authority through all the violence and chaos of the revolution.

  But who was working for him? The guards had fled the jails, the police

  stations had been burned, the army had surrendered--who was left to carry

  out Dadgar's orders?

  ON WINGS OF EAGLES 281

  The devil and all his hordes, Bill thought.

  Simons went down to Gayden's suite while Paul was dressing. He got Gayden

  and Taylor in a comer. "Get all these turkeys out of here," he said in a

  low voice. "The story is, Paul and Bill are in bed for the night. You'll

  all come to our place tomorrow morning. Leave at seven o'clock, just as if

  you were going to the office. Don't pack any bags, don't check out, don't

  pay your hotel bill. Joe Poch6 will be waiting for you outside, and he'll

  have figured out a safe route to the house. I'm taking Paul and Bill there

  now-but don't tell the others that until the morning.

  "Okay," &6d Gayden.

  Simons went back upstairs. Paul and Bill were ready. Coburn and PocM were

  waiting. The five of them walked to the elevator.

  As they were going down, Simons said: "Now, let's just walk out of here

  like it was the normal thing to do."

  They reached the ground floor. They walked across the vast lobby and out

  into the forecourt. The two Range Rovers were parked there.

  As they crossed the forecourt a big dark car drew up, and four or five

  ragged men with machine guns jumped out.

  Coburn muttered: "Oh, shit."

  The five Americans kept walking.

  The revolutionaries ran over to the doorman.

  Poch6 threw open the doors of the first Range Rover. Paul and Bill jumped

  in. Pochd started the engine and pulled away fast. Simons and Coburn got

  into the second car and followed.

  The revolutionaries went into the hotel.

  Poch6 headed down the Vanak Highway, which passed both the Hyatt and the

  Hilton. They could hear constant machine-gun fire over the sound of the car

  engines. A mile up the road, at the intersection with Pahlavi Avenue near

  to the Hilton, they ran into a roadblock.

  Poch6 pulled up. Bill looked around. He and Paul had come through this

  intersection a few hours earlier, with the Iranian couple who had brought

  them to the Hyatt; but then there had been no roadblock, just one

  burned-out car. Now there were several burning cars, a barricade, and a

  crowd of revolutionaries armed with an assortment of military firearms.

  One of them approached the Range Rover, and Joe Poch6 rolled down the

  window.

  "Where are you going?" the revolutionary said in perfect English.

  282 Ken Follett

  "I'm going to my mother-in-law's house in Abbas Abad," Poch6 said.

  Bill thought: My God, what an idiotic story to tell.

  Paul was looking away, hiding his face.

  Another revolutionary came up and spoke in Farsi. The first man said: "Do

  you have any cigarettes?"

  "No, I don't smoke," said Poch6.

  "Okay, 90 ahead."

  Pochi drove on down the Shahanshahi Expressway.

  Coburn pulled the second car forward to where the revolutionaries stood.

  "Are you with diem?" he was asked.

  "Yes."

  "Do you have any cigarettes?"

  "Yes." Coburn took a pack out of his pocket and tried to shake out a

  cigarette. His hands were unsteady and he could not get one out.

  Simons said: "Jay."

  Yes. 0 v

  "Give him the fucking pack."

  Coburn gave the revolutionary the whole pack, and he waved them on.

  2

  Ruthie Chiapparone was in bed, but awake, at the Nyfelers' house in Dallas

  when the phone rang.

  She heard footsteps in the hall. The ringing stopped, and Jim Nyfeler's

  voice said: "Hello? ... Well, she's sleeping."

  "I'm awake," Ruthie caed. She got out of bed, slipped on a robe, and went

  into the hall.

  "It's Tom Walter's wife, Jean," said Jim, handing her the phone.

  Ruthic said: "Hi, Jean."

  "Ruth, I have good news for you. The guys are free. IMey got out of

  jail."

  "Oh, thank God!" said Ruthie.

  She had not yet begun to wonder how Paul would get out of Iran.

  ON WINGS OF EAGLES 283

  When Emily Gaylord got back from church, her mother said: "Tom Walter called

  from Dallas. I said you'd call back."

  Emily snatched up the phone, dialed EDS's number, and asked for Walter.

  "Hi, Em'ly," Walter drawled. "Paul and Bill got out of jail. "

  "Tom, that's wonderful!"

  "There was a jailbreak. They're safe, and they're in good hands. 9 t

  "When are they coming home?"


  "We're not sure yet, but we'll keep you posted."

  "Thank you, Tom," said Emily. "Thank you! I I

  Ross Perot was in bed with Margot. The phone woke them both. Perot reached

  out and picked it up. "Yes."

  "Ross, this is Tom Walter. Paul and Bill got out of jail."

  Suddenly Perot was wide awake. He sat up. "Thatts great!"

  Margot said sleepily: "They're out?"

  "Yes. 91

  She smiled. "Oh, good!"

  Tom Walter was saying: "The jail was overrun by the revolutionaries, and

  Paul and Bill walked out."

  Perot's mind was clicking into gear. "Where are they now?"

  "At the hotel.-

  "That's dangerous, Tom. Is Simons there?"

  "Uh, when I was talking to diem, he was not there."

  "Tell them to call him. Taylor knows the number. And get them out of that

  hotel!"

  "Yes, sir."

  "Call everyone into the office right away. I'll be there in a few minutes."

  ..Yes, Sir. 9,

  Perot hung up. He got out of bed, threw on some clothes, kissed Margot, and

  ran down the stairs. He went through the kitchen and out the back door. A

  security man, surprised to see him up so early, said: "Good morning, Mr.

  Perot."

  "Morning. " Perot decided to take Margo's Jaguar. He jumped in and raced

  down the driveway to the gate.

  For six weeks he had felt as if he were living inside a popcorn popper. He

  had been trying everything, and nothing had worked;

  294 Ken Folleu

  bad news had hit him from every direction, he had made no progress. Now, at

  last, things were moving.

  He tore along Forest Lane, running red lights and breaking the speed limit.

  Getting them out of jad was the easy part, he reflected, now we have to get

  them out of Iran. The hard part hasn't even started.

  In the next few minutes the whole team gathered at EDS headquarters on

  Forest Lane: Tom Walter, T. J. Marquez, Merv Stauffer, Perot's secretary

  Sally Walther, lawyer Tom Luce, and Mitch Hart, wh"ough he no longer worked

  at ED"ad been trying to use his connections in the Democratic party to help

  Paul and Bill.

  Until now, conummications with the negotiating team in Tehran had been

  organized from Bill Gayden's office on the fifth floor, while on the

  seventh floor Merv Stauffer was quietly handling support and communications