On Wings of Eagles (50 page)

got home. He was not sure that he was going to spend the rest of his life

with Liz; and after this episode, maybe she would begin to feel the same

way. I suppose we were in love, once upon a time, he thought. Where did all

that go?

    He heard footsteps. A short, curly-headed figure was walking along the

    sidewalk toward him, shoulders hunched against the cold.

"Rashid!" hissed Coburn.

.1 JayT I

    "Boy, am I glad to see you."' Coburn took Rashid's arm. "Let's go inside."

    They went into the living room. Rashid said hello to everyone, smiling and

    blinking: he blinked a lot, especially in moments of excitement, and he had

    a nervous cough. Simons sat him down and explained the plan to him. Rashid

    blinked faster.

    When he understood what was being asked of him, he became a little

    self-important. "I will help you on one condition," he said, and coughed.

    "I know this country and I know this culture. You are all important people

    in EDS, but this is not EDS. If I lead you to the border, you must agree

    always to do everything I say, without question. "

Coburn held his breath. Nobody talked like this to Simons.

But Simons grinned. "Anything you say, Rashid."

    A few minutes later Coburn got Simons in a corner and said quietly:

    "Colonel, did you mean that about Rashid being in charge?"

    "Sure," said Simons. "He's in charge as long as he's doing what I want."

    Coburn knew, better than Simons, how hard it was to control Rashid even

    when Rashid was supposed to be obeying orders. On the other hand, Simons

    was the most skilled leader of small groups Coburn had ever met. Then

    again, this was Rashid's country, and Simons did not speak Farsi.... The

    last thing they needed on this trip was a power struggle between Simons and

    Rashid.

    Coburn got on the phone to Dallas and spoke to Merv Stauffer. Paul had

    encoded a description of the Dirty Team's proposed route to the border, and

    Coburn now gave Stauffer the coded message.

    Then they discussed how they would communicate en route. It would probably

    be impossible to call Dallas from countryside pay phones, so they decided

    they would pass messages through

304 Ken Folleu

an EDS employee in Tehran, Gholam. Gholam was not to know he was being used

this way. Coburn would call Gholarn once a day. If all was well he would

say: "I have a message for Jim Nyfeler: We are okay." Once the team reached

Rezaiyeh he would add: "We are at the staging area." Stauffer, in his turn,

would simply call Gholam and ask whether there were any messages. So long as

all went well, Gholam would be kept in the dark. If things went wrong, the

pretense would be abandoned: Coburn would level with Gholam, tell him what

the trouble was, and ask him to call Dallas.

    Stauffer and Coburn had become so familiar with the code that they could

    hold a discussion, using mostly ordinary English mixed with a few letter

    groups and key code words, and be sure that anyone listening in on a

    wiretap would be unable to figure out what they meant.

    Merv explained that Perot had contingency plans to fly into northwest Iran

    from Turkey to pick up the Dirty Team if necessary. Perot wanted the Range

    Rovers to be clearly identifiable from the air, so he proposed that each of

    them should have a large -X- on its roof, either painted or made of black

    electrician's tape. If a vehicle had to be abandoned-because it broke down,

    or ran out of gas, or for any other reason-4he "X" should be changed to an

    "A."

    There was another message from Perot. He had talked with Admiral Moorer,

    who had said that things were going to get worse and the team should get

    out of there. Coburn told Simons this. Simons said: "Tell Admiral Moorer

    that the only water here is in the kitchen sink-I look out the window and

    I see no ships." Coburn laughed, and told Stauffer: "We understand the

    message. "

    It was almost five A.m. There was no more time to talk. Stauffer said:

    "Take care of yourself, Jay." He sounded choked up. "Keep your head down,

    y'hear?"

"I sure will."

"Good luck."

"Bye, Merv."

Coburn hung up-

    As dawn broke, Rashid went out in one of the Range Rovers to reconnoiter

    the streets. He was to find a route out of the city avoiding roadblocks. If

    the fighting was heavy, the tem would consider postponing their departure

    another twenty-four hours.

At the same time, Coburn left in the second Range Rover to

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 305

meet with Gholam. He gave Gholarn cash to cover the next payday at

Bucharest, and said nothing about using Gholarn to pass messages to Dallas.

The object of the exercise was a pretense of normality, so that it would be

a few days before the remaining Iranian employees began to suspect that

their American bosses had left town.

    When he got back to the Dvoranchik place, the team discussed who should go

    in which car. Rashid should drive the lead car, obviously. His passengers

    would be Simons, Bill, and Keane Taylor. In the second car would be Coburn,

    Paul, and Gayden.

    Simons said: "Coburn, you're not to let Paul out of your sight until you're

    in Dallas. Taylor, the same goes for you and Bill."

Rashid came back and said the streets were remarkably quiet.

"All right," said Simons. "Let's get this show on the road."

    Keane Taylor and Bill went out to fill the gas tanks of the Range Rovers

    from the fifty-five-gallon drum. The fuel had to be siphoned into the cars,

    and the only way to start the flow was to suck the fuel through: Taylor

    swallowed so much gasoline that he went back into the house and vomited,

    and for once nobody laughed at him.

    Coburn had some pep pills that he had bought, on Simons's instructions, at

    a Tehran drugstore. He and Simons had had no sleep for twenty-four hours

    straight, and now they each took a pill to keep them awake.

    Paul emptied the kitchen of every kind of food that would keep: crackers,

    cupcakes, canned puddings, and cheese. It was not very nutritious, but it

    would fill them.

    Coburn whispered to Paul: "Make sure we get the cassette tapes, so we can

    have some music in our car."

Bill loaded the cars with blankets, flashlights, and can openers.

They were ready.

They all went outside.

    As they were getting into the cars, Rashid said: "Paul, you drive the

    second car, please. You are dark enough to pass for Iranian if you don't

    speak."

    Paul glanced at Simons. Simons gave a slight nod. Paul got behind the

    wheel.

They drove out of the courtyard and into the street.

    ELEvEN

As the Dirty Team drove out of the Dvoranchik place, Ralph Boulware was at

Istanbul Airport, waiting for Ross Perot.

    Boulware had mixed feelings about Perot. Boulware had been a technician

    when he joined EDS. Now he was a manager. He had a fine big house in a

    white Dallas suburb, and an income few black Americans could ever hope for.

    He owed it all to EDS, and to Perot's policy of promoting talent. They

    didn't give you all this stuff for nothing, of course: they gave it for

    brains and hard work and good business judgment. But what they did give you

    for nothing was the chance to show your stuff.

    On the other hand, Boulware suspected Perot wanted to own his men body and

    soul. That was why ex-military people got on well at EDS: they were

    comfortable with discipline and used to a twenty-four-hour-a-day job.

    Boulware was afraid that one day he might have to decide whether he was his

    own man or Perot's.

    He admired Perot for going to Iran. For a man as rich and comfortable and

    protected as that to put his ass on the line the way he had ... that took

    some balls. Ilere was probably not one other chairman of the board of an

    American corporation who would conceive the rescue plan, let alone

    participate in it.

    And then again, Boulware wondered-all his life he would wonder-whether he

    could ever really trust a white man.

    Perot's leased 707 touched down at Six A.M. Boulware went on board. He took

    in the lush decor at a glance and then forgot about it: he was in a hurry.

    He sat down with Perot. "I'm catching a plane at six-thirty so I got to

    make this fast," he said. "You can't buy a helicopter and you can't buy a

    light plane."

"Why not?"

    306

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 307

    "It's against the law. You can charter a plane, but it won't take you just

    anywhere you want to go-you charter for a specified trip."

    saysT

    "The law. Also, chartering is so unusual that you'll have the government

    all over you asking questions, and you might not want that. Now-"

    "Just a minute, Ralph, not so fast," said Perot. He had that I'm-the-boss

    look in his eye. "What if we get a helicopter from another country and

    bring it in?"

    "I have been here a month and I have looked into all this thoroughly, and

    you can't rent a helicopter and you can't rent a plane, and I have to leave

    now to meet Simons at the border."

Perot backed off. "Okay. How are you going to get there?"

    "Mr. Fish got us a bus to go to the border. It's on its way already-1 was

    going with it, then I had to stay behind to brief you. I'm going to fly to

    Adan"at's about halfway--and catch up with the bus there. I got lisman with

    me, he's the secret service guy, and another guy to translate. What time do

    the fellows expect to reach the border?"

"Two o'clock tomorrow afternoon," said Perot.

"It's going to be tight. I'll see you guys later."

He ran back to the terminal building and just made his flight.

    Ilsman, the fat secret policeman, and the interpreter-Boulware did not know

    his name so he called him Charlie Brown-were on board. They took off at

    six-thirty.

    They flew east to Ankara, where they waited several hours for their

    connection. At midday they reached Adana, near the biblical city of Tarsus

    in south central Turkey.

The bus was not there.

They waited an hour.

Boulware decided the bus was not going to come.

    With Dsman and Charlie Brown, he went to the information desk and asked

    about flights from Adana to Van, a town about a hundred miles from the

    border crossing.

There were no flights to Van from anywhere.

"Ask where we can charter a plane," Boulware told Charlie.

Charlie asked.

"There are no planes for charter here."

"Can we buy a car?"

"Cars are very scarce in this part of the country."

"Are there no car dealers in town?"

308 Ken Folleu

"If there are, they won't have any cars to sell."

"Is there any way to get to Van from here?"

"No. "

    It was like the joke about the tourist who asks a fanner for directions to

    London, and the fanner replies: "if I was going to London, I wouldn't start

    from here."

    They wandered out of the terminal and stood beside the dusty road. There

    was no sidewalk: this was really the sticks. Boulware was frustrated. So

    far he had had it easier than most of the rescue tearn-he had not even been

    to Tehran. Now that it was his turn to achieve something, it looked as

    though he would fad. Boulware hated to fail.

    He saw a car approaching with some kind of markings in Turkish on its side.

    "Hey," he said, "is that a cab?"

"Yes," said Charlie.

"Hell, let's get a cab!"

    Charlie hailed the cab and they got in. Boulware said: "Tell him we want to

    go to Van."

Charlie translated.

The driver pulled away.

    After a few seconds the dnver asked a question. Charlie translated: "Van,

    where?"

"Tell him Van, Turkey."

The driver stopped the car.

Charlie said: "He says: 'Do you know how far it isT

    Boulware was not sure, but he knew it was halfway across Turkey. "Tell him

    yes."

After another exchange Charlie said: "He won't take us."

"Does he know anyone who will?"

    'Me driver shrugged elaborately as he replied. Charlie said: "He's going to

    take us to the cabstand so we can ask around." Good. "

    They drove into the town. The cabstand was just another dusty piece of road

    with a few cars parked, none of them new. Ilsman started talking to the

    drivers. Boulware and Charlie found a little shop and bought a bag of

    hard-boiled eggs.

    When they came out, Ilsman had found a driver and negotiated a price. The

    driver proudly pointed out his car. Boulware looked at it in dismay. It was

    a Chevrolet, around fifteen years old, and it looked as if it still had the

    original tim.

'He says we'll need some food," Charlie said.