On Wings of Eagles (41 page)

    spoon and dosing him with it. This was exactly the same stuff. It eased his

    cough, but he had aheady done some damage to the muscles in his chest, and

    he suffered a sharp pain every time he breathed deeply.

    He had a letter from Ruthie that he read and reread. It was an ordinary,

    newsy kind of letter. Karen was in a new school, and having some trouble

    adjusting. This was normal: every time she changed schools, Karen would be

    sick to her stomach for the first couple of days. Ann Marie, Paul's younger

    daughter, was much more happy-go-lucky. Ruthie was still telling her mother

    that Paul would be home in a couple of weeks, but the story was becoming

    implausible, for that two-week deadline had now been stretched for two

    months. She was buying a house, and Tom Walter was helping her with the

    legal processes. Whatever emotions Ruthie was going through, she did not

    put them in the letter.

Keane Taylor was the most frequent visitor to the jail. Each

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 251

time he came, he would hand Paul a pack of cigarettes with fifty or a

hundred dollars folded inside. Paul and Bin could use the money in jail to

buy special privileges, such as a bath. During one visit the guard left the

room for a moment, and Taylor handed over four thousand dollars.

On another visit Taylor brought Father Williams.

    Williams was pastor of the Catholic Mission where, in happier times, Paul

    and Bill had met with the EDS Tehran Roman Catholic Sunday Brunch Poker

    School. Williams was eighty years old, and his superiors had given him

    permission to leave Tehran, because of the danger. He had preferred to stay

    at his post. This kind of thing was not new to hun, he told Paul and Bill:

    he had been a missionary in China during World War H, when the Japanese had

    invaded, and later, during the revolution that brought Mao Tse-tung to

    power. He himself had been imprisoned, so he understood what Paul and Bin

    were going through-

    Father Williams boosted their morale almost as much as Ross Perot had.

    Bill, who was more devout than Paul, felt deeply strengthened by the visit.

    It gave him the courage to face the unknown future. Father Williams granted

    them absolution for their sins before he left. Bill still did not know

    whether he would get out of the jail alive, but now he felt prepared to

    face death.

Iran exploded into revolution on Friday, February 9, 1979.

    in just over a week Khomeini had destroyed what was left of legitimate

    government. He had called on the military to mutiny and the members of

    Parliament to resign. He had appointed a "Provisional govemment" despite

    the fact that Bakhtiar was still officially Prime Minister. His supporters,

    organized into revolutionary commiam, had taken over responsibility for law

    and order and garbage collection, and had opened more than a hundred

    Islamic cooperative stores in Tehran. On February 8 a million people or

    more marched through the city in support of the Ayatollah. Street fighting

    went on continually between stray units of loyalist soldiers and gangs of

    Khomeini men.

    On February 9, at two Tehran air bases--Doshen Toppeh and

    Farahabad-formations of hoinafars and cadets gave a salute to Khomeini.

    This infuriated the Javadan Brigade, which had been the Shah's personal

    bodyguard, and they attacked both air bases. The homafars barricaded

    themselves in and repelled the loyalist

252 Ken Follen

troops, helped by crowds of armed revolutionaries mining around inside and

outside the bases.

    Units of both the Marxist Fedayeen and the Muslim MuJahedeen guerrillas

    rushed to Doshen Toppeb. The armory was broken open and weapons were

    distributed indiscriminately to soldiers, guerrillas, revolutionaries,

    demonstrators, and passersby.

    That night at eleven o'clock the Javadan Brigade returned in force.

    Khomeini supporters within the nulitary warned the Doshen Toppeh rebels

    that the Brigade was on its way, and the rebels counterattacked before the

    Brigade reached the base. Several senior officers among the loyalists were

    killed early in the battle. The fighting continued all night, and spread to

    a large area around the base.

    By noon on the following day, the battlefield had widened to include most

    of the city.

That day John Howell and Keane Taylor went downtown for a meeting.

    Howell was convinced they would get Paul and Bin released within hours.

    They were all set to pay the bail.

    Tom Walter had a Texas bank ready to issue a letter of credit for

    $12,750,000 to the New York branch of Bank Melli. The plan was that the

    Tehran branch of Bank Melli would then issue a bank guarantee to the

    Ministry of Justice, and Paul and Bill would be bailed out. It had not

    worked quite that way. The deputy managing director of Bank Melli,

    Sadr-Hashemi, had recognized-as had all the other banker"at Paul and Bill

    were commercial hostages, and that once they were out of jail EDS could

    argue in an American court that the money had been extorted and should not

    be paid. If that happened, Bank Mefli in New York would not be able to

    collect on the letter of creditbut Bank Melli in Tehran would still have to

    pay the money to the Iranian Ministry of Justice. Sadr-Hashemi said he

    would change his mind only if his New York lawyers told him there was no

    way EDS could block payment on the letter of credit. Howell knew perfectly

    well that no decent American attorney would issue such an opinion.

    Then Keane Taylor thought of Bank Orman. EDS had a contract to install an

    on-line computerized accounting system for Bank Omran, and Taylor's job in

    Tehran had been to supervise this contract, so he knew the bank's

    officials. He met with Farhad Bakhtiar, who was one of the top men there as

    well as

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 253

being a relative of Prime Minister Shahpour Bakhtiar. It was clear that the

Prime Minister was going to fall from power any day, and Farhad was planning

to leave the country. Perhaps that was why he was less concerned than

Sadr-Hasherrii about the possibility that the $12,750,000 would never be

paid. Anyway, for whatever reason, he had agreed to help.

    Bank Omran did not have a U.S. branch. How, then, could EDS pay the money?

    It was agreed that the Dallas bank would lodge its letter of credit with

    the Dubai branch of Bank Omran by a system called Tested Telex. Dubai would

    then call Tehran on the phone to confirm that the letter of credit had been

    received, and the Tehran branch of Bank 0mran would issue the guarantee to

    the Ministry of Justice.

    There were delays. Everything had to be approved by the board of directors

    of Bank Omran, and by the bank's lawyers. Everyone who looked at the deal

    suggested small changes in the language. The changes, in English and Farsi,

    had to be communicated to Dubai and to Dallas, then a new telex had to be

    sent from Dallas to Dubai, tested, and approved by phone with Tehran.

    Because the Iranian weekend was Thursday and Friday, there were only three

    days in the week when both banks were open; and because Tehran was nine and

    a half hours ahead of Dallas, there was never a time of day when both banks

    were open. Furthermore, the Iranian banks were on strike a good deal of the

    time. Consequently a two-word change could take a week to arrange.

    The last people who had to approve the deal were the Iranian central bank.

    Getting that approval was the task Howell and Taylor had set themselves for

    Saturday, February 10.

    The city was relatively quiet at eight-thirty in the morning when they

    drove to Bank Orman. They met with Farhad Bakhtiar. To their surprise, he

    said that the request for approval was ah-eady with the central bank.

    Howell was delighted-for once something was happening ahead of time in

    Iran! He left some documents with Farhad-including a signed letter of

    agreementand he and Taylor drove farther downtown to the central bank.

    The city was waking up now, the traffic even more nightmarish than usual,

    but dangerous driving was Taylor's specialty, and he tore through the

    streets, cutting across lanes of traffic, U-tuming in the middle of

    freeways, and generally beating the Iranian drivers at their own game.

At the central bank they had a long wait to see Mr. Farhang,

254 Ken Follett

who would give approval. Eventually he stuck his head out of his office door

and said the deal had already been approved and the approval notified to

Bank Omran.

This was good news!

    They got back into the car and headed for Bank Omran. Now they could tell

    that there was serious fighting in parts of the city. The noise of gunfire

    was continuous, and plumes of smoke rose from burning buildings. Bank Omran

    was opposite a hospital, and the dead and wounded were being brought in

    from the battle zones in cars, pickup trucks, and buses, all the vehicles

    having white cloths tied to their radio antennae to signify emergency, all

    hooting constantly. The street was jammed with people, some coniing to give

    blood, others to visit the sick, still others to identify corpses.

    They had resolved the bail problem not a moment too soon. Not only Paul and

    Bill, but now Howell and Taylor and all of diem, were in grave danger. They

    had to get out of Iran fast.

Howell and Taylor went into the bank and found Farhad.

"'Me central bank has approved the deal," Howell told him.

-1 know."

"Is the letter of agreement all right?"

"No problems."

    "Then, if you give us the bank guarantee, we can go to the Ministry of

    Justice with it right away."

"Not today."

"Why not?"

    "Our lawyer, Dr. Emami, has reviewed the credit document and wishes to make

    some small changes."

Taylor muttered: "Jesus Christ."

Farhad said: "I have to go to Geneva for five days."

Forever was more likely.

    "My colleagues will look after you, and if you have any problems just call

    me in Switzerland. "

    Howell suppressed his anger. Farhad knew perfectly well that things were

    not that simple: with him away, everything would be more difficult. But

    nothing would be accomplished by an emotional outburst, so Howell just

    said: "What are the changes?"

Farhad called in Dr. Emami.

    "I also need the signatures of two more directors of the bank," Farhad

    said. "I can get those at the board meeting tomorrow. And I need to check

    the references of the National Bank of Commerce in Dallas."

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 255

"And how long will that take?"

"Not long. My assistants will deal with it while I am away."

    Dr. Emarni showed Howell the changes he proposed in the language of the

    credit letter. Howell was happy to agree to them, but the rewritten letter

    would, have to go through the timeconsuming process of being transmitted

    from Dallas to Dubai by Tested Telex and from Dubai to Tehran by telephone.

    "Look," said Howell, "let's try to get all this done today., You could

    check the references of the Dallas bank now. We could find those other two

    bank directors, wherever in the city they are, and get their signatures

    this aftemoon. We could call Dallas, give them the language changes, and

    get them to send the telex now. Dubai could confirm to you this aftemoon.

    You could issue the bank guarantee-"

"There is a holiday in Dubai today," said Farhad.

"All right, Dubai can confirm tomorrow morning-"

    "There is a strike tomorrow. Nobody will be here at the bank. "

"Monday, then-"

    The conversation was interrupted by the sound of a siren. A secretary put

    her head around the door and said something in Farsi. "There is an early

    curfew," Farhad translated. "We must all leave now.'

    Howell and Taylor sat there looking at each other. Two minutes later they

    were alone in the office. They had failed yet again.

T

Mat evening Simons said to Coburn: "Tomorrow is the day."

Coburn thought he was full of shit.

    2

In the morning on Sunday, February 11, the negotiating team went as usual to

the EDS office they called "Bucharest." John Howell left, taking Abolhasan

with him, for an eleven o'clock meeting with Dadgar at the Ministry of

Health. The othersKeane Taylor, Bill Gayden, Bob Young, and Rich Gallagher-

went up on the roof to watch the city bum.

Bucharest was not a high building, but it was located on a

256 Ken Folleu

slope of the hills that rose to the north of Tehran, so from the roof they

could see the city laid out like a tableau. To the south and east, where