In the Lap of the Gods

by Tony Criddle

  A bit over forty minutes later they saw the Elburz Range playing hide and seek with off-white, towering cumulus in the far distance. Nick knew the upper slopes were perpetually covered in snow, but that far the whole mountain range was a steely blue-grey against the lighter azure of the sky. Ragged wisps of white cloud straggled down-wind from the sharp peaks, the vivid white streamers flirting with the other cold, impersonal mountain peaks, but even below the snow line the huge range threw back the same hazy colours. It took another thirty minutes to reach the outskirts of Tehran.

  As they neared the city centre the traffic thickened and the roads widened to six lanes. It should have made driving easier, but it didn’t. Accumulating driving skills wasn’t high on the list of things to do in Tehran, and some residents ignored traffic lights altogether, while others expected blinkers to help them turn corners, not let someone know they were about to. By the time they reached the eastern ring-road Nick was damp with sweat. They dropped Amini and headed for the centre of town.

  The warm glow of sandstone and a neutral, tinted glass made the British Embassy look exotic and ancient, although elegantly understated. Somehow it resembled a desert castle, complete with battlements, slitted windows and a pseudo keep at its centre. Pristine, sheltered lawns lay dotted around its edges, and the sealed car park out front was already half filled with expensive looking sedans. Crazed marble steps rose from its ornamented centre towards a pair of finely etched glass main doors, and inevitably flashed the English lion and unicorn coat of arms.

  Nick and Sinclair leaned on the wide, high desk while an insistent pager summoned Gerry Hawkins. It took only minutes for him to arrive and apart from a swift handshake there was no preamble. Hawkins grilled them in a side room before passing on an update that had recently come in, but in the end, nothing had changed. It was almost impossible to get people out and those two wouldn’t be amongst them.

  Hawkins fixed up day passes for the Christmas party then made his excuses and dashed off to change. Nick and Sinclair loaded cases of booze and several cans of specialty foods before drifting out to the gardens.

  Inevitably, the extensive, exotic grounds were elegant too. The whitewashed perimeter walls were largely screened by stands of stately willow and plane trees, and although they were bare for the winter, that year’s growth did show up as thin, lighter shades of grey sprigs. Older, contorted limbs spiralled upwards, reminiscent of outof-control fishing line, while healthy stands of native bushes hemmed in the thickened trunks. Disciplined clumps of reeds had been allowed to cluster around several of the impressive water features, and a pale, washy sky and the exuberant vegetation reflected starkly in still, dark ponds strategically sunk around the gardens.

  The party was already underway. It had been set up on a cool and friendly grassed area, cleverly shaded by taller evergreens, and was already half filled with laughing, colourful women, and slightly more serious males. It was also getting noisy and frivolous as people sipped enthusiastically from mock crystal glasses.

  As parties go it was top drawer, more resplendent and refined than most, though like so many such functions it was also stereotypical. Acres of finger food got washed down by a copious variety of colourful drinks, and as the booze flowed the English voices got plumier and the laughter grew louder. It didn’t happen that often and people were there to relax, but on that day the conversation inevitably drifted from the banal to the more serious without much prompting.

  Nick and Jock circulated casually, saying a few hellos, offering a few opinions, and cracking a few jokes, but neither heart was in it. Both couldn’t stop looking at their watches as if they had a train to catch. A couple of hours were all they could take. Their goodbyes were brief.

  Chapter Twenty

  Sinclair was at the wheel when they cruised into Ewin twenty minutes later. Nick punched the door-bell inside a bricked porchway while Jock parked around the side of the house. The solid, carved door was swung open by a strikingly handsome woman even before the second ring had stopped echoing. Her finely chiselled features, a hint of grey in her shining midnight hair and soft, shining skin put her anywhere between forty and sixty. She cracked a light smile and held out a beautifully manicured hand.

  “Hi, I’m Minu.”

  She knew who they were and used their names freely as she ushered them through the arched red brick portal. She offered a glass of tea as the professor made a sweeping gesture towards chairs around a solid wood dining table. Amini did the introductions.

  “The news isn’t all that great Nick. I’d better let Abdul explain.”

  “Welcome Nick. It’s a bit complicated, but maybe not as bad as it could be. We’ll have to do something while things are still a bit chaotic though if we can.” Abdul dragged up a chair. “Farhad told me that you know what I do.” Nick nodded.

  “Okay. First of all the campus is huge. It’s got a teaching university, a large hospital, laboratories, a medical research centre and even a school of medical law. I’m on the board and operate three days a week at the hospital, but I’m also in charge of a small specialised facility in the research centre. In there we teach highly specialised surgery to qualified surgeons, using cadavers from the city morgue before they get cremated. Also we use the ward to study patients with unusual conditions, or when they’ve got something we’re not sure about. It’s not advertised, but it’s quite a normal set-up for a lot of unis or teaching hospitals. Several days ago the government took over the facility so that some of the people from the American Embassy could be treated quietly. As head of the faculty I had to do the arranging.”

  Nick wasn’t slow on the uptake. “So that’s where Laleh is now?”

  Abdul nodded. “Currently there’s a male Iranian and three females in the ward, along with an American administrator with a broken leg, and a Marine corporal in an induced coma. He got clobbered with a tyre lever. The administrator fell or was pushed down an outer staircase, and the marine was tossing around tear-gas grenades. The locals are all ambulatory but ended up with some dislocations, or cuts and abrasions that needed stitching and antibiotics. No-one is considered combative or dangerous though, so there’s only one guard on per shift”

  “You think we might be able to lift her then, Professor?”

  “Abdul please Nick, Abdul. And it may be easier than you think. The faculty complex is on the ground floor along one side of the medical research building, and the floors above it are used for accommodation. The block joins onto the uni at one end of the main building, but it’s totally autonomous and isolated. We do need to get on with it though.”

  “So we’re looking at night time and fairly soon Abdul. What staff can we expect?”

  “That’s why I think we can pull it off Nick. Another reason for the government using it is the small numbers involved. Even with me doing a shift, there are only three doctors and a half a dozen nurses staffing it. Occasionally we get in a few nurses from the main hospital but only if the ward is full. Minu picked up Laleh from the embassy and took her home, but then I was told to open the facility. Shall I say she needed some woman stuff sorted out, and I could do it better there. I volunteered to do a stint so that I could keep an eye on her, not because of any misplaced loyalty. We’d been careful, and very few here know she was actually staying with us, and with the way things were going it was best if she disappears from Tehran completely.”

  Nick didn’t comment. Amini leapt to his feet, unable to contain himself. This was his sister they were talking about.

  “Abdul volunteered to do the overnight shift because he’s tied up with some departmental stuff in the uni during the day Nick. There isn’t much actual doctoring going on in there, and there’s a small room in the hospital with a cot for doctors to put their heads down if they aren’t busy. He’s using that.”

  “Okay, but how the hell do we go about it? You know the place Abdul. Any ideas?”

  Abdul leaned forward, single minded intensity flashing from his dark eyes. “I’ve been think
ing about that ever since Farhad arrived.”

  He ripped a sheet of paper from a note book lying on the table and drew for several minutes.

  “Okay. This is the basic layout.” He turned the sheet towards Nick and pointed with a pencil.

  “The main entrance is a sliding glass door that opens onto a lounge area with a divan, armchairs and a table and magazine rack. A reception area and a room for files and records takes up the other side.” He pointed to the rear of the block. “The only other entrance is a fire exit door at the rear here. It’s kept shut, but it’s got a crash bar on the inside like a cinema door. There isn’t any access to the accommodation above us.”

  Abdul used his pencil again. “The corridor is quite wide with a medical store on one side and the cleaner’s room opposite can be restocked from the rear, and towards the front there’s a locker room and staff toilet with a patient’s toilet beside it. The ward is opposite that, and between the ward and lounge there’s the doctors’ bunk room and a ready room for the staff. The theatre is on the other side, and the entrance lounge is about four metres beyond that.” He stopped while Nick picked the sheet up and studied it.

  Amini was impatient. “What do you think Nick, can we do it?”

  Nick ignored him. Farhad reluctantly gave him space.

  “Well, I’ve done a commando course and operated with the marines, and you were in the navy Farhad, but that’s a long way from us being assault troops. It might be possible with only one guard, but it’s one hell of a risk if she isn’t in any real danger.”

  Abdul stretched a hand to cover Nick’s forearm. “I might have given you the wrong impression Nick. We’re pretty sure the regime is behind some executions still going on up here and they all seem to be the former shah’s people. It’s a bit confusing right now, but if payback really gets underway Laleh would be better off out of Tehran.”

  “Shit. So what you’re saying is we need to do it now?”

  Abdul nodded, and Farhad’s eyes glittered without blinking.

  Nick looked pensive. “Okay guys, first things first. Where will everybody be at say three in the morning?”

  Abdul looked skywards thinking. “One nurse will be in a small office in the ward, the other at the reception desk. I’d be in the small bunk room and the guard would be on a settee in the lounge with the lights turned down. Change over isn’t until eight the next morning so everyone would probably be dozing by then.”

  “How would he be armed?”

  “I’ve only ever seen him with one of those banana rifle things in the week we’ve been doing this.”

  “That’s an AK47 semi-automatic assault rifle Abdul. What about side-arms?”

  “He wears a belt with a bayonet scabbard, but no holster or jacket, so I don’t think so.”

  “If he’s armed it’s still a problem though. We haven’t got any weapons ourselves.”

  Amini cleared his throat a bit embarrassed. “I’m sorry Nick, but I didn’t know what to expect up here. I brought the automatic with me.”

  Nick’s face initially flooded with anger, but almost immediately he backed off.

  “Not the wisest thing you’ve done Fred, but I would have talked you out of it if I had known so maybe it’s not a bad thing. Have you got anything else we can use as a weapon Abdul?”

  “Sorry Nick no guns, I’m in the healing game. We’ve got some large kitchen knives if that would help.”

  Nick shook his head, smiling slightly. “Knife fighting’s a bit of an art form, Abdul. An old marine sergeant once told me never to take a knife to a gun fight.”

  Just then Minu came swishing towards the table with glasses of tea on a tray. She had heard the last exchange and put the tray down before sitting beside her husband. “Would a lead club be any use Nick?” she asked. Abdul looked at her in amazement, Nick looked surprised. “That would be much better than a knife if we could get hold of one Minu.”

  “We changed over some old lead water pipes for copper ones in the garden and we’ve got some lead pipe in the shed we could cut up,” Minu smiled at her husband. “Abdul never throws anything away.”

  Jock Sinclair was prompted to speak up. “What about coordinating it Nick? Without radios that could be a problem and we don’t want Abdul or the nurses to look as if they were part of it.”

  “I’ve been thinking about that too Jock. We can’t do anything for the Americans either so we need it to look like a local thing. So, Farhad’s the only one who speaks and always in Farsi. It mustn’t look as if Americans are involved at all. We’ll have to rough you up a bit as well Abdul.”

  “You get Laleh away and that’s the least of my worries.”

  Nick looked through the notes he’d scribbled alongside the diagram again. “Right, I reckon we’re nearly there guys. What about the car park itself Abdul. Any evening traffic, and is it wide open or landscaped?”

  “The complexes are huge Nick. There are cars and taxis coming and going most of the night, and a lot of student’s cars will be parked there. There’s also a narrow one along the rear of the block because there’s a back entrance to the accommodation about eighty metres up from our fire exit. All those sections are planted with heaps of trees and bushes for summer shade, and that includes the car park behind us. There’s a standard road between that and the fire exit, but that’s all.

  “Any random security patrols?”

  “A bloke from college security checks the front door at about midnight if we’re using it, then nothing until between six and seven the next morning. It’s vast so he’ll be mostly roving in a vehicle.”

  “Right. Well the only other thing I can think of is a local disguise. You’d be okay in your Paki gear Fred, but Jock and I need something too.”

  Minu interrupted again. “I’ve got some dish-dashas in a cupboard upstairs that our boys used to wear Nick.”

  “What on earth is that Minu?”

  “Men’s full length white robes. We haven’t got any turbans, but I’ve got several beanies we use when we go skiing. I can roll down the rims and cut eye holes in them, or I’ve got some nylon stockings. When do you want them by?”

  Nick took his time thinking. “Well it doesn’t sound too complicated guys, and it could all change suddenly. Stuff it. We’ll do it tonight and be back home by dawn.

  A fine, persistent drizzle ahead of a slow-moving warm front was drifting over the Ellsberg’s from the Caspian that night. They had to expect that, it was winter. And even though it was close to midnight Daneshjou Boulevard was still awash with car headlights that flared unexpectedly as bright beams were distorted by water droplets. The soft squeal of the wipers was mesmerising, but the three in the ‘Cherokee’ weren’t even close to drowsy.

  As they approached the north-western outskirts the area opened into vast car parks and tall buildings. Stretches of tarmac were illuminated by the pin-pricks of disjointed, hazy glows from lampposts, the shimmering cones further distorted by gently waving branches. Tall buildings serviced by them soared high enough to pierce the low, unseen cloud bases, and neon tubes shone from a number of windows. Several of the entrances also blazed with a defused light.

  Sinclair’s attention re-focused as the left winker on the Mercedes just forty metres ahead blinked insistently. He slowed automatically and flicked on his own.

  “I’m bloody glad Abdul led us here Nick, it would have been a pain in the arse picking the right building on a night like this.”

  “Roger that Jock, but we’ve got to leave it until after two before we do it. It’ll still mean a couple of hours in the truck.”

  Amini picked up on the concern, and by then was getting embarrassed at the risks he was pushing his mate into. He tried to atone. “The weather should help though Nick, and there should be plenty of cars in the car park.”

  Nick smiled, but it was ironic. “We’ll know soon enough Fred. The sign says Kudakyar Street, so we’re nearly there.”

  The Mercedes slowed but didn’t stop in front of the dark, gla
ss-fronted edifice ahead, instead turning into an access road that looped around the southern confine. Light blazed from a number of the windows on that wing, and both cars were forced to stop at a pedestrian crossing. A group of giggling students, their heads bowed against the rain, disappeared through glass doors into the accommodation. After that a shaken Abdul took off slowly, pointing vigorously left only a hundred metres or so further on. The Cherokee was close enough for the occupants to see his frantic gestures in their headlights.

  There were no windows on the ground floor here, only what looked like a double steel door embedded in graphitised brick work. Jock flashed his lights and took the next right turn into the car park. Abdul disappeared around the corner.

  And the car park Jock turned into wasn’t all that small either. Two double rows of parking slots joined both the big car park out front and ran into another behind the research centre’s buildings, and like the larger parks it sported its share of vegetation. Sinclair turned into a slot almost opposite the emergency exit comfortably shielded by healthy flora. His was now just another one of several cars parked in nearby billets. He switched off with a relieved sigh.

  Nick turned to Amini in the back seat, his voice tight. “Put the balaclavas and Laleh’s chador handy on the back seat Fred, and hand me the roll of duct tape. I’ll go over it all again because I’ve just thought of a couple of small extras.” He cut off several strips of tape with a pen-knife.

  “Okay guys. Abdul will open the crash bars when he does his ward rounds, but we’ve got to give everybody time to settle down again before we move, so we’re still going to wait until after two. What we can do though is put some duct-tape over the car door micro-switches. We don’t want internal lights coming on every time a door is opened. Pull the doors half closed after, don’t slam them either. Right, do that first guys.” Amini was on his way even before Nick had finished. It didn’t take long before they were out of the rain again.

  “When Fred and I go for the back door I want you out of the jeep with us Jock. Stay on this side of the road amongst the bushes, but if anything does happen, that extra couple of seconds might make a difference. Start us up as soon as we come through the exit later. You okay with that?”