On Wings of Eagles (28 page)

    the President's Men, in which nervous informants talked to the newspaper

    reporters in improvised code. Bunny began by saying: "D'you know who this

    is?"

"I think so," Gallagher said.

"You've been told about me."

"Yes. I I

    EDS's phones were bugged and the conversations were being taped, she

    explained. The reason she had called was to say that there was a strong

    chance Dadgar would arrest more EDS executives. She recommended they either

    leave the country or move into a hotel where there were lots of newspaper

    reporters. Lloyd Briggs, who as Paul's deputy seemed the likeliest target

    for Dadgar, had left the country-he needed to return to the States to brief

    EDS's lawyers anyway. The others, Gallagher and Keane Taylor, had moved

    into the Hyatt.

Dadgar had not arrested any more EDS people-yet.

    Howell needed no more convincing. He was going to stay out of Dadgar's way

    until he was sure of the ground rules.

Then, at eight-thirty this morning, Dadgar had raided Bucharest.

    He had turned up with half a dozen investigators and demanded to see EDS's

    files. Howell, hiding in an office on another floor, had called Houman.

    After a quick discussion he had advised all EDS personnel to cooperate with

    Dadgar.

    Dadgar had wanted to see Paul Chiapparone's files. The filing cabinet in

    Paul's secretary's office was locked and nobody could find the key. Of

    course that made Dadgar all the more keen to see the files. Keane Taylor

    had solved the problem in characteristi-

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 173

cally direct fashion: he had got a crowbar and broken the cabinet open.

    Meanwhile, Howell snuck out of the building, met Dr. Hournan, and went to

    the Ministry of Justice.

    That, too, had been scary, for he had been obliged to fight his way through

    an unnily crowd that was demonstrating, outside the Ministry, against the

    holding of political prisoners.

    Howell and Hournan had an appointment with Dr. Kian, Dadgar's superior.

    Howell told Kian that EDS was a reputable company that had done nothing

    wrong, and it was eager to cooperate in any investigation in order to clear

    its name, but it wanted to get its employees out of jail.

    Kian said he had asked one of his assistants to ask Dadgar to review the

    case.

That sounded to Howell like nothing at all.

He told Kian he wanted to talk about a reduction in the bail.

    The conversation took place in Farsi, with Hournan translating. Houman said

    that Kian was not inflexibly opposed to a reduction in the bail. In

    Houman's opinion they might expect it to be halved.

    Kian gave Howell a note authorizing him to visit Paul and Bill in jail.

    The meeting had been just about fruitless, Howell thought afterward, but at

    least Kian had not arrested him.

    When he returned to Bucharest he found that Dadgar had not arrested anyone

    either.

    His lawyer's instinct still told him not to see Dadgar; but now that

    instinct struggled with another side of his personality: impatience. There

    were times when Howell wearied of research, preparation, foresight,

    planning---times when he wanted to move on a problem instead of thinking

    about it. He liked to take the initiative, to have the opposition reacting

    to him rather than the other way around. This inclination was reinforced by

    the presence in Tehran of Ross Perot, always up first in the morning,

    asking people what they had achieved yesterday and what tasks they intended

    to accomplish today, always on everyone's back. So impatience got the

    better of caution, and Howell decided to confront Dadgar.

This was why he was scared.

If he was unhappy, his wife was more so.

Angela Howell had not seen much of her husband in the last

174 Ken Folleu

two months. He had spent most of November and December in Tehran, tying to

persuade the Ministry to pay EDS's bill. Since getting back to the States he

had been staying at EDS headquarters until all hours of the night, working

on the Paul and Bill problem, when he was not dashing off to New York for

meetings with Iranian lawyers there. On December 31 Howell had arrived home

at breakfast time, after working all night at EDS, to find Angela and baby

Michael, nine months old, huddled in front of a wood fire in a cold, dark

house: the ice storm had caused a power failure. He had moved them into his

sister's apartment and gone off to New York again.

    Angela had had about as much as she could take, and when he announced he

    was going to Tehran again she had been upset. "You know what's going on

    over there," she had said. "Why do you have to go back?"

    The trouble was, he did not have a simple answer to that question. It was

    not clear just what he was going to do in Tehran. He was going to work on

    the problem, but he did not know how. If he had been able to say, "Look,

    this is what has to be done, and it's my responsibility, and I'm the only

    one who can do it," she might have understood.

    "John, we're a family. I need your help to take care of all this," she had

    said, meaning the ice storm, the blackouts, and the baby.

    "I'm sorry. Just do the best you can. I'll try to stay in touch," Howell

    had said.

    They were not the kind of married couple to express their feelings by

    yelling at each other. On the frequent occasions when he upset her by

    working late, leaving her to sit alone and eat the dinner she bad fixed for

    him, a certain coolness was the closest they came to fighting. But this was

    worse than missing supper. he was abandoning her and the baby just when

    they needed him.

    They had a long talk that evening. At the end of it Angela was no happier,

    but she was at least resigned.

    He had called her several times since, from London and from Tehran. She was

    watching the nots on the TV news and worrying about him. She would have

    been even more worried if she had known what he was about to do now.

    He pushed domestic concerns to the back of his mind and went to find

    Abolhasan.

    Abolhasan was EDS's senior Iranian employee. When Lloyd Briggs had left for

    New York, Abolhasan had been in charge of

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 175

EDS in Iran. (Rich Gallagher, the only American still there, was not a

manager.) Then Keane Taylor had returned and assumed overall charge, and

Abolhasan had been offended. Taylor was no diplomat. (Bill Gayden, the

genial president of EDS World, had coined the sarcastic phrase "Keane's

Marine Corps sensitivity training.") There had been friction. But Howell got

on fine with Abolhasan, who could translate not just the Farsi language but

also Persian customs and methods for his American employers.

    Dadgar knew Abolhasan's father, a distinguished lawyer, and had met

    Abolhasan lumself at the interrogation of Paul and Bill; so this morning

    Abolhasan had been appointed liaison man with Dadgar's investigators, and

    had been instructed to make sure they had everything they asked for.

    Howell said to Abolhasan: "I've decided I should meet with Dadgar. What do

    you think?"

    "Sure," Abolhasan said. He had an American wffe and spoke English with an

    American accent. "I don't think that'll be a problem."

    Okay. Let's go."

    Abolhasan led Howell to Paul Chiapparone's conference room. Dadgar and his

    assistants were sitting around the big table, going throtigh EDS's

    financial records. Abolhasan asked Dadgar to step into the adjoining room,

    Paul's office; then he introduced Howell.

Dadgar gave a businesslike handshake.

    They sat around the table in the comer of the office. Dadgar did not look

    to Howell like a monster: just a rather weary middle-aged man who was

    losing his hair.

    Howell began by repeating to Dadgar what he had said to Dr. Kian: "EDS is

    a reputable company that has done nothing wrong, and we are willing to

    cooperate with your investigation. However, we cannot tolerate having two

    senior executives in jail."

    Dadgar's answer--traiislated by Abolhasan---surprised him. "If you have

    done nothing wrong, why have you not paid the bail?"

    "There's no connection between the two," Howell said. "Bail is a guarantee

    that someone will appear for trial, not a sum to be forfeited if he is

    guilty. Bail is repaid as soon as the accused

appears in court, regardless of the verdict." While Abolhasan translated,

Howell wondered whether "bail" was the correct English translation of

whatever Farsi word Dadgar was using to

176 Ken Follett

describe the $12,750,000 he was demanding. And now Howell recalled something

else that might be significant. On the day Paul and Bill were arrested, he

had talked on the phone with Abolhasan, who reported that the $12,750,000

was, according to Dadgar, the total amount EDS had been paid to date by the

Ministry of Health; and Dadgar's argument had been that if the contract had

been cormptly awarded, then EDS was not entitled to that money. (Abolhasan

had not translated this remark to Paul and Bill at the time.)

    In fact, EDS had been paid a good deal more than thirteen million dollm, so

    the remark had not made much sense, and Howell had discounted it. Perhaps

    that had been a mistake: it might just be that Dadgar's arithmetic was

    wrong.

    Abolhasan was translating Dadgar's reply. "If the men are innocent, there

    is no reason why they should not appear for trial, so you would risk

    nothing by paying the bail. "

    "An American corporation can't do that," Howell said. He was not lying, but

    he was being deliberately deceitfid. "EDS is a publicly traded company, and

    under American securities laws it can only use its money for the benefit of

    its sharehoMm. Paul and Bill are free individuals: the company cannot

    guarantee that they will show up fbr trial. Consequently we cannot spend

    the company's money this way. 11

    This was the initial negotiating position Howell had previously formulated,

    but, as Abolhasan translated, he could see it was making little impression

    on Dadgar.

    "T'heir families have to put up the bail," he went on. "Right now they are

    raising money in the States, but thirteen million dollars is out of the

    question. Now, if the bail were lowered to a more reasonable figure, they

    might be able to pay it." Tlus was all lies, of course: Ross Perot was

    going to pay the bail, if he had to, and if Tom Walter could find a way to

    get the money into Iran.

    It was Dadgar's turn to be surprised. "Is it true that you could not force

    your men to appear for trial?"

    "Sure it's true," Howell said. "What are we going to do, lock them in

    chains? We're not a police force. You see, you're holding individuals in

    jail for alleged crimes of a corporation."

    Dadgar's reply was: "No, they are in jail for what they have done pemnally.

"Which is?"

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 177

    "They obtained money from the Ministry of Health by means of false progress

    reports."

    "This obviously cannot apply to Bill Gaylord, because the Ministry has paid

    none of the bills presented since he arrived in Tehran-6o what is he

    accused of?"

    -He falsified reports, and I will not be cross-examined by you, Mr.

    Howell."

    Howell suddenly remembered that Dadgar could put lurn in jail.

    Dadgar went on: "I am conducting an investigation. When it is complete, I

    will either release your clients or prosecute them. "

    Howell said: "We're willing to cooperate with your investigation. In the

    nomfime, what can we do to get Paul and Bill released?"

"Pay the bail."

    "And if they am released on bail, will they be pertnitted to leave Iran?"

"No. 11

    2

jay Coburn walked through the double sliding glass doors into the lobby of

the Sheraton. On his right was the long registration desk. To his left were

the hotel shops. In the center of the lobby was a couch.

    In accordance with his instructions, he bought a copy of Newsweek magazine

    at the newsstand. He sat on the couch, facing the doors so that he could

    see everyone who came in, and pretended to read the magazine.

He felt like a character in a spy movie.

    The rescue plan was in a holding pattern while Majid researched the colonel

    in charge of the jail. Meanwhile, Coburn was doing a job for Perot.

    He had an assignation with a man nicknamed Deep Tbroat (after the secretive

    chamter who gave "deep hwicground" to reporter Bob Woodward in AU the

    President's Men. ) This Deep 17hroat was an American management consultarat

    who gave seminars to foreign corporate executives on how to do business