Follett, Ken - On Wings of Eagles.txt

by On Wings of Eagles [lit]

  go through Sero. He, Rashid, would certainly need such a pass today, to

  take these six Americans through. He suggested the deputy and he should go

  into the school and draft a pass.

  The deputy agreed.

  1hey went into the library.

  Rashid found paper and pen and gave them to the deputy.

  "What should we write?" said Rashid. "Probably we should say, the person

  who carries this letter can take six Americans through Sero. No, say

  Barzagan or Sero, in case Sero is closed.

  The deputy wrote.

  "Maybe we should say, um, It is expected that all guards will give their

  best cooperation and assistance, they aft fully inspected and identified,

  and if necessary escort them."

  IMe deputy wrote it down.

  Then he signed his name.

  Rashid said: "Maybe we should put, Islamic Revolution Commandant

  Committee."

  IMe deputy did so.

  Rashid looked at the document. It seemed somehow inadequate, improvised. It

  needed something to make it look official. He found a rubber stamp and an

  inking pad, and stamped the letter. Then he read what the stamp said:

  "Library of the School of Religion, Rezaiyeh. Founded 1344."

  Rashid put the document in his pocket.

  "We should probably print six thousand of these, so they can just be

  signed," he said.

  ON wINGS OF EAGLES 345

  The deputy nodded.

  "We can talk some more about these arrangements tomorrow,

  Rashid went on. "I'd like to go to Sero now, to discuss the problem with the

  border officials there."

  "Okay. "

  Rashid walked away.

  Nothing was impossible.

  He got into the Range Rover. It was a good idea to go to the border, he

  decided: he could find out what the problems might be before making the

  trip with the Americans.

  On the outskirts of Rezaiyeh was a roadblock manned by teenage boys with

  rifles. They gave Rashid no trouble, but he worried about how they might

  react to six Americans: the kids were evidently itching to use their guns.

  After that the road was clear. It was a dirt road, but smooth enough, and

  he made good speed. He picked up a hitchhiker and asked him about crossing

  the border on horseback. No problem, said the hitchhiker. It could be done,

  and as it happened, his brother had horses ...

  Rashid did the forty-mile journey in a little over an hour. He pulled up at

  the border station in his Range Rover. The guards were suspicious of him.

  He showed them the pass written by the deputy leader. The guards called

  Rezaiyeh and-they said--spoke to the deputy, who vouched for Rashid.

  He stood looking across to Turkey. It was a pleasant sight. They had all

  been through a lot of anguish just to walk across there. For Paul and Bill

  it would mean freedom, home, and family. For all the EDS men it would be

  the end of a nightmare. For Rashid it meant something else: America.

  He understood the psychology of EDS executives. They had a strong sense of

  obligation. If you helped them, they liked to show their appreciation, to

  keep the books balanced . He knew he only had to ask, and they would take

  him with them to the land of his dreams.

  The border station was under the control of the village of Sero, just half

  a mile away down a mountain track. Rashid decided he would go and see the

  village chief, to establish a friendly relationship and smooth the way for

  later.

  He was about to turn away when two cars drove up on the Turldsh side. A

  tall black man in a leather coat got out of the first car and came to the

  chain on the edge of no-man's-land.

  Rashid's heart leaped. He knew that man! He started waving and yelled:

  "Ralph! Ralph Boulware! Hey, Ralph!"

  346 Ken Follett

  4

  Thursday morning found Glenn Jackson-hunter, Baptist, and Rocket Man-in the

  skies over Tehran in a chartered jet.

  Jackson had stayed in Kuwait after reporting on the possibility of Paul and

  Bill coming out of Iran that way. On Sunday, the day Paul and Bill got out

  of jail, Simons had sent orders, via Merv Stauffer, that Jackson was to go

  to Amman, Jordan, and there try to charter a plane to fly into Iran.

  Jackson had reached Amman on Monday and had gone to work straightaway. He

  knew that Perot had flown into Tehran from Amman on a chartered jet of Arab

  Wings. He also knew that the president of Arab Wings, Akel Biltaji, had

  been helpful, allowing Perot to go in with NBC's television tapes as a

  cover. Now Jackson contacted BiltaJi and asked for his help again.

  He told BiltaJi that EDS had two men in Iran who had to be brought out. He

  invented false names for Paul and Bill. Even though Tehran Airport was

  closed, Jackson wanted to fly in and try to land. Biltaji was willing to

  give it a try.

  However, on Wednesday Stauffer-on Simons's instructionschanged Jackson's

  orders. Now his mission was to check on the Clean Team: the Dirty Team was

  no longer in Tehran, as far as Dallas knew.

  On Thursday Jackson took off from Amman and headed east.

  As they came down toward the bowl in the mountains where Tehran nestled,

  two aircraft took off from the city.

  The planes came closer, and Jackson saw that they were fighter jets of the

  h-aman Air Force.

  He wondered what would happen next.

  His pilot's radio came to life with a burst of static. As the fighters

  circled, the pilot talked: Jackson could not understand the conversation,

  but he was glad the Iranians were talking rather than shooting.

  The discussion went on. The pilot seemed to be arguing. Eventually he

  turned to Jackson and said: "We have to go back. They won't let us land."

  "What will they do if we land anyway?"

  ON WINGS OF EAGLES 347

  "Shoot us down."

  "Okay," said Jackson. "We'll try again this afternoon.

  On Thursday morning in Istanbul, an English-language newspaper was delivered

  to Perot's suite at the Sheraton.

  He picked it up and eagerly read the front-page story about yesterday, s

  takeover of the American Embassy in Tehran. None of the Clean Team was

  mentioned, he was relieved to see. The only injury had been suffered by a

  marine sergeant, Kenneth Krause. However, Krause was not getting the

  medical attention he needed, according to the newspaper.

  Perot called John Carlen, the captain of the Boeing 707, and asked him to

  come to the suite. He showed Carlen the newspaper and said: "How would you

  feel about flying into Tehran tonight and picking up the wounded marine?"

  Carlen, a laid-back Californian with graying hair and a tan, was very cool.

  "We can do that," he said.

  Perot was surprised that Carlen did not even hesitate. He would have to fly

  through the mountains at night with no airtraffic control to help him, and

  land at a closed airport. "Don't you want to talk to the rest of the crew?"

  Perot asked.

  "No, they'll want to do it. The people who own the airplane will go

  bananas."

  "Don't tell them. I'll be responsible.-

  "I'll need to know exactly where that marine is going to be," Carlen went

  on. "The
Embassy will have to get him to the airport. I know a lot of

  people at that airport-I can talk my way in, bending the rules a little

  bit, and either talk my way out again or just take off."

  Perot thought: And the Clean Team will be the stretcher bearers.

  He called Dallas and reached Sally Walther, his secretary. He asked her to

  patch him through to General Wilson, commandant of the Marine Corps. He and

  Wilson were friends.

  Wilson came on the line.

  "I'm in Turkey on business ,, Perot told him. "I've just read about

  Sergeant Krause. I have a plane here. If the Embassy can get Krause to the

  airport, we will fly in tonight and pick him up and see he gets proper

  medical care."

  "All right," said Wilson. "If he's dying I want you to pick him up. If not,

  I won't risk your crew. I'll get back to you."

  Perot got Sally back on the line. There was more bad news. A

  348 Ken Follett

  press officer in the State Department's Iran Task Force had talked to Robert

  Dudney, Washington correspondent for the Dallas Times-Herald, and revealed

  that Paul and Bill were on their way out overland.

  Perot cursed the State Department yet again. If Dudney published the story,

  and the news reached Tehran, Dadgar would surely intensify border security.

  The seventh floor in Dallas blamed Perot for all this. He had leveled with

  the Consul, who had come to see him the night before, and they believed the

  leak started with the Consul. They were now frantically trying to get the

  story killed, but the newspaper was making no promises.

  General Wilson called back. Sergeant Krause was not dying: Perot's help was

  not required.

  Perot forgot about Krause and concentrated on Ins own problems.

  The Consul called him. He had tried his best, but he could not help Perot

  buy or rent a small aircraft. It was possible to charter a plane to go from

  one airport to another within Turkey, but that was all.

  Perot said nothing to him about the press leak.

  He called in Dick Douglas and Julian "Scratch" Kanauch, the two spare

  pilots he had brought specifically to fly small aircraft into Iran, and

  told them he had failed to find any such aircraft.

  "Don't worry," said Douglas. "We'll get an airplane."

  "How?"

  "Don't ask."

  :'No, I want to know how.

  'I've operated in eastern Turkey. I know where there are planes. If you

  need 'em, we'll steal 9em."

  :'Have you thought this through?" said Perot.

  'You think it through," Douglas said. "If we get shot down over Iran, what

  difference does it make that we stole the plane? If we don't get shot down,

  we can put the planes back where we got them. Even if they have a few holes

  in them, we'll be out of the area before anybody knows. What else is there

  to think about?"

  "That settles it," said Perot. "We're going."

  He sent John Carlen and Ron Davis to the airport to file a flight plan to

  Van, the nearest airport to the border.

  Davis called from the airport to say that the 707 could not land at Van: it

  was a Turkish-language-only airport, so no foreign

  ON WINGS OF EAGLES 349

  planes were allowed to land except U.S. military planes carrying

  interpreters.

  Perot called Mr. Fish and asked him to arrange to fly the team to Van. Mr.

  Fish called back a few minutes later to say it was all fixed. He would go

  with the team as guide. Perot was surprised: until now, Mr. Fish had been

  adamant that he would not go to eastern Turkey. Perhaps he had become

  infected by the spirit of adventure.

  However, Perot himself would have to stay behind. He was the hub of the

  wheel: he had to stay in telephone contact with the outside world, to

  receive reports from Boulware, from Dallas, from the Clean Team, and from

  the Dirty Team. If the 707 had been able to land at Van, Perot could have

  gone, for the plane's single-sideband radio enabled him to make phone calls

  all over the world; but without that radio he would be out of touch in

  eastern Turkey, and there would be no link between the fugitives in Iran

  and the people who were coming to meet them.

  So he sent Pat Sculley, Jim Schwebach, Ron Davis, Mr. Fish, and the pilots

  Dick Douglas and Julian Kanauch to Van; and he appointed Pat Sculley leader

  of the Turkish Rescue Team.

  When they had gone he was dead in the water again. They were just another

  bunch of his men off doing dangerous things in dangerous places. He could

  only sit and wait for news.

  He spent a lot of time thinking about John Carlen and the crew of the

  Boeing 707. He had only known them for a few days: they were ordinary

  Americans. Yet Carlen had been prepared to risk his life to fly into Tehran

  and pick up a wounded marine. As Simons would say: This is what Americans

  are supposed to do for one another. It made Perot feel pretty good, despite

  everything.

  The phone rang.

  He answered. "Ross Perot."

  "This is Ralph Boulware.-

  "Hi, Ralph, where are you?"

  "I'm at the border."

  "Good! -

  "I've just seen Rashid."

  Perot's heart leaped. "Great! What did he say?"

  . 'They're safe.

  "Thank God!"

  "They're in a hotel thirty or forty miles from the border. Rashid is just

  scouting the territory in advance. He's gone back now. He says they'll

  probably cross tomorrow, but that's just his

  350 Ken Follett

  idea, and Simons may think otherwise. If they're that close I don't see

  Simons waiting until morning."

  "Right. Now, Pat Sculley and Mr. Fish and the rest of the guys are on their

  way to you. They're flying to Van, then they'll rent a bus. Now, where will

  they find you?"

  "I'm based in a village called Yuksekova, closest place to the border, at

  a hotel. It's the only hotel in the district."

  "I'll tell Sculley."

  "Okay. 11

  Perot hung up. Oh, boy, he thought; at last things are beginning to go

  right!

  Pat Sculley's orders from Perot were to go to the border, ensure that the

  Dirty Team got across safely, and bring them to Istanbul. If the Dirty Team

  failed to reach the border, he was to go into Iran and find them, preferably

  in a plane stolen by Dick Douglas, or failing that, by road.

  Sculley and the Turkish Rescue Team took a scheduled flight from Istanbul

  to Ankara, where a chartered jet was waiting for them. (The charter plane

  would take them to Van and bring them back: it would not go anywhere they

  pleased. The only way of making the pilot take them into Iran would have

  been to hijack the plane.)

  The arrival of a jet seemed to be a big event in the town of Van. Getting

  off the plane, they were met by a contingent of policemen who looked ready

  to give them a hard time. But Mr. Fish went into a huddle with the police

  chief and came out smiling.

  "Now, listen," said Mr. Fish. "We're going to check into the best hotel in

  town, but I want you to know it's not the Sheraton, so please don't

  complain."

  They went off in two taxis.

  The hotel ha
d a high central hall with three floors of rooms reached via

  galleries, so that every room door could be seen from the hall. When the

  Americans walked in, the hall was full of Turks, drinking beer and watching

  a soccer match on a black-and-white TV, yelling and cheering. As the Turks

  noticed the strangers, the room quieted down until there was complete

  silence.

  They were assigned rooms. Each bedroom had two cots and a hole in the

  comer, screened by a shower curtain, for a toilet,. There were plank floors

  and whitewashed walls without windows.

  ON WINGS OF EAGLES 351

  The rooms were infested with cockroaches. On each floor was one bathroom.

  Sculley and Mr. Fish went to get a bus to take diem all to the border. A

  Mercedes picked them up outside the hotel and took them to what appeared to

  be an electrical appliance store with a few ancient TV sets in the window.

  The place was closed-4t was evening by now-but Mr. Fish banged on the iron

  grille protecting the windows, and someone came out.

  They went into the back and sat at a table under a single light bulb.

  Sculley understood none of the conversation, but by the end of it Mr. Fish

  had negotiated a bus and a driver. They returned to the hotel in the bus.

  The rest of the team were gathered in Sculley's room. Nobody wanted to sit

  on these beds, let alone sleep in diem. They all wanted to leave for the

  border immediately, but Mr. Fish was hesitant. "It's two o'clock in the

  morning," he said. "And the police are watching the hotel."

  "Does that matter?" said Sculley.

  "It means more questions, more trouble."

  "Let's give it a try."

  They all trooped downstairs. The manager appeared, looking anxious, and

  started to question Mr. Fish. Then, sure enough, two policemen came in from

  outside and joined in the discussion.

  Mr. Fish turned to Sculley and said: "They don't want us to go. 11

  -Why not?"

  "We look very suspicious, don't you realize that9-

  "Look, is it against the law for us to go?"

  "No, but-"

  "Then we're going. Just tell them."

  There was more argument in Turkish, but finally the policemen and the hotel

  manager appeared to give in, and the team boarded the bus.

  They left town. The temperature dropped rapidly as they drove up into the