On Wings of Eagles (6 page)

    role could appear irregular. However, it was easily explained. "In our

    contract we undertake to supply expert consultants to help the Ministry

    make the best use of the service we provide. Dr. Towliati is such a

    consultant. He has a dataprocessing background, and he is familiar with

    both Iranian and American business methods. He is paid by EDS, rather than

    by the Ministry, because Ministry salaries are too low to attract a

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 37

man of his caliber. However, the Ministry is obliged to reimburse us for his

salary, as laid down in the contract; so he is not really paid by us."

    Once again Dadgar wrote down very little. He could have got all this

    information from the files, Paul thoughiq. perhaps he has.

Dadgar asked: "But why does Dr. Towliati sign invoices?"

    "That's easy," Paul replied. "He does not, and never has. The closest he

    comes is this: he would inform the Minister that a certain task has been

    completed, where the specification of that task is too technical for

    verification by a layman." Paul smiled. "He takes his responsibility to the

    Ministry very seriously-4ie is easily our harshest critic, and he will

    characteristically ask a lot of tough questions before verifying completion

    of a task. I sometimes wish I did have him in my pocket."

    Mrs. Nourbash translated. Paul was thinking: What is Dadgar after? First he

    asks about the contract negotiations, which happened before my time; then

    about the Mahvi group and Dr. Towliati, as if they were sensationally

    important. Maybe Dadgar himself doesn't know what he's looking for-maybe

    he's just fishing, hoping to come up with evidence of something illegal.

How long can this farce go on?

Bill was outside in the corridor, wearing his topcoat to keep out the cold.

Someone had brought him a glass of tea, and he warmed his hands on it while

he sipped. The building was dark as well as cold.

    Dadgar had immediately struck Bill as being different from the average

    Iranian. He was cold, gruff, and inhospitable. The Embassy had said Dadgar

    was "favorably disposed" toward Bill and Paul, but that was not the

    impression Bill had.

    Bill wondered what game Dadgar was playing. Was he trying to intimidate

    them, or was he seriously considering arresting them? Either way, the

    meeting was not turning out the way the Embassy had anticipated. Their

    advice, to come without lawyers or Embassy representatives, now looked

    mistaken: perhaps they just did not want to get involved. Anyway, Paul and

    Bill were on their own now. It was not going to be a pleasant day. But at

    the end of it they would be able to go home.

    Looking out the window, Bill saw that there was some excitement down on

    Eisenhower Avenue. Some distance along the street, dissidents were stopping

    cars and putting Khomeini posters on the windshields. The soldiers guarding

    the Ministry Build-

    38 Ken Follett

ing were stopping the cars and tearing the posters up. As he watched, the

soldiers became more belligerent. They broke the headlight of a car, then

the windshield of another, as if to teach the drivers a lesson. Next they

pulled a driver out of a car and punched him around.

    The next car they picked on was a taxi, a Tehran orange cab. It went by

    without stopping, not surprisingly; but the soldiers seemed angered and

    chased it, firing their guns. Cab and pursuing soldiers disappeared from

    Bill's sight.

    After that the soldiers ended their grim game and returned to their posts

    inside the waited courtyard in front of the Ministry Building. The

    incident, with its queer mixture of childishness and brutality, seemed to

    sum up what was going on in Iran. The country was going down the drain. The

    Shah had lost control and the rebels were determined to drive him out or

    kill him. Bill felt sorry for the people in the cars, victims of

    circumstance who could do nothing but hope that things would get better. If

    Iranians are no longer safe, he thought, Americans must be in even more

    danger. We've got to get out of this country.

    Two Iranians were hanging about in the same corridor, watching the fracas

    on Eisenhower Avenue. They seemed as appalled as Bill at what they saw.

    Moming turned into afternoon. Bill got more tea and a sandwich for lunch.

    He wondered what was happening in the interrogation room. He was not

    surprised to be kept waiting: in Iran "an hour" meant nothing more precise

    than "later, maybe." But as the day wore on he became more uneasy. Was Paul

    in trouble in there?

    The two Iranians stayed in the corridor all afternoon, doing nothing. Bill

    wondered vaguely who they were. He did not speak to them.

    He wished the time would pass more quickly. He had a reservation on

    tomorrow's plane. Emily and the kids were in Washington, where both Emily's

    and Bill's parents lived. They had a big party planned for him on New

    Year's Eve. He could hardly wait to see them all again.

    He should have left Iran weeks ago, when the firebombing started. One of

    the people whose homes had been bombed was a girl with whom he had gone to

    high school in Washington. She was married to a diplomat at the U.S.

    Embassy. Bill had talked to them about the incident. Nobody had been hurt,

    luckily, but it

    oN WINGS OF EAGLES 39

had been very scary. I should have taken heed, and got out then, he thought.

    At last Abolhasan opened the door and called: "Bill! Come in, please-11

Bill looked at his watch. It was five o'clock. He went in.

"It's cold," he said as he sat down.

    "It's warm enough in this seat," Paul said with a smained smile. Bill

    looked at Paul's face: he seemed very uncomfortable.

    Dadgar drank a glass of tea and ate a sandwich before he began to question

    Bill. Watching him, Bill thought: look out--this guy is trying to trap us

    so he won't have to let us leave the country. . Tbe interview started. Bill

    gave his full name, date and place of birth, schools attended,

    qualifications, and experience. Dadgar's face was blank as he asked the

    questions and wrote down the answers: he was like a machine, Bill thought.

    He began to see why the interview with Paul had taken so long. Each

    question had to be translated from Farsi into English and each answer from

    English into Farsi. Mrs. Nourbash did the translation, Abolhasan

    interrupting with clarification and corrections.

    Dadgar questioned Bill about EDS's performance of the Ministry contract.

    Bill answered at length and in detail, although the subject was both

    complicated and highly technical, and he was pretty sure that Mrs. Nourbash

    could not really understand what he was saying. Anyway, no one could hope

    to grasp the complexities of the entire project by asking a handful of

    general questions. What kind of foolishness was this? Bill wondered. Why

    did Dadgar want to sit all day in a freezing cold room and ask stupid

    questions? It was some kind of Persian ritual, Bill decided. Dadgar needed

    to pad out his records, show that he had explored every avenue, and protect

    himself in advance against possible criticism for letting them go. At the

    absolute worst, he might detain them in Iran a while longer. Either way, it

    was just a matter of time.

    Both Dadgar and Mrs. Nourbash seemed hostile. The interview became more

    like a courtroom cross-examination. Dadgar said that EDS's progress reports

    to the Ministry had been false, and EDS had used them to make the Ministry

    pay for work that had not been done. Bill pointed out that Ministry

    officials, who were in a position to know, had never suggested that the

    reports were inaccurate. If EDS had fallen down on the job, where were the

    complaints? Dadgar could examine the Ministry's files.

Dadgar asked about Dr. Towliati, and when Bill explained Tow- 40 Ken Follett

liati's role, Mrs. Nourbash--6peaking before Dadgar had given her anything

to translater-replied that Bill's explanation was untrue.

    There were several miscellaneous questions, including a completely

    mystifying one: did EDS have any Greek employees? Bill said they did not,

    wondering what that had to do with anything. Dadgar seemed impatient.

    Perhaps he had hoped that Bill's answers would contradict Paul's; and now,

    disappointed, he was just going through the motions. His questioning became

    perfunctory and hurried; he did not follow up Bill's answers with further

    questions or requests for clarification; and he wound up the interview

    after an hour.

    Mrs. Nourbash said: "You will now please sip your names against each of the

    questions and answers in Mr. Dadgar's notebook. "

    "But they're in Farsi-we can't read a word of it!" Bin protested. It's a

    trick, he thought; we'll be signing a confession to murder or espionage or

    some other crime Dadgar has invented.

Abolhasan said: "I will look over his notes and check them."

    Paul and Bill waited while Abolhasan read through the notebook. it seemed

    a very cursory check. He put the book down on the desk. "I advise you to

    sign."

    Bill was sure he should not-but he had no choice. If he wanted to go home,

    he had to sign.

He looked at Paul. Paul shrugged. "I guess we'd better do it."

    They went through the notebook in turn, writing their names beside the

    incomprehensible squiggles of Farsi.

    When they finished, the atmosphere in the room was tense. Now, Bill

    thought, he has to tell us we can go home.

    Dadgar shuffled his papers into a neat stack while he talked to Abolhasan

    in Farsi for several minutes. Then he left the room. Abolhasan turned to

    Paul and Bill, his face grave.

"You are being arrested," he said.

    Bill's heart sank. No plane, no Washington, no Emily, no New Year's Eve

    party ...

    "Bail has been set at ninety million tomans, sixty for Paul and thirty for

    Bill. "

"Jesus!" Paul said. "Ninety million tomans is .

    Abolhasan worked it out on a scrap of paper. "A little under thirteen

    million dollars."

    "You're kidding!" Bill said. "Thirteen million? A murderer's bail is twenty

    thousand."

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 41

    Abolhasan said: "He asks whether you are ready to post the bail."

    Paul laughed. "Tell him I'm a little short now, I'm going to have to go to

    the bank."

Abolhasan said nothing.

"He can't be serious," Paul said.

"He's serious," said Abolhasan.

    Suddenly Bill was mad as hell-mad at Dadgar, mad at Lou Goelz, mad at the

    whole darnn world. It had been a sucker trap and they had fallen right into

    it. Why, they had walked in here of their own free will, to keep an

    appointment made by the U.S. Embassy. They had done nothing wrong and

    nobody had a shred of evidence against thern-yet they were going to jail,

    and worse, an Iranian jail!

Abolhasan said: "You are allowed one phone call each."

    Just like the cop shows on TV---one phone call then into the slammer.

    Paul picked up the phone and dialed. "Lloyd Briggs, please. This is Paul

    Chiapparone ... Lloyd? I can't make dinner tonight. I'm going to jail."

Bill thought: Paul doesn't really believe it yet.

    Paul listened for a moment, then said: "How about calling Gayden, for a

    start?" Bill Gayden, whose name was so similar to Bill Gaylord's, was

    president of EDS World and Paul's immediate boss. As soon as this news

    reaches Dallas, Bill thought, these Iranian jokers will see what happens

    when EDS really gets into gear.

    Paul hung up and Bill took his turn on the phone. He dialed the U.S.

    Embassy and asked for the Consul General.

    "Goelz? This is Bill Gaylord. We've just been arrested, and bail has been

    set at thirteen million dollars."

"How did that happen?"

    Bill was infuriated by Goelz's calm, measured voice. "You arranged this

    meeting and you told us we could leave afterward!"

"I'm sure, if you've done nothing wrong-"

"What do you mean ip. " Bill shouted.

    "I'll have someone down at the jail as soon as possible," Goelz said.

Bill hung up.

    The two Iranians who had been hanging about in the corridor 0 day came in.

    Bill noticed they were big and burly, and realized they must be

    plain-clothes policemen.

42 Ken FoUeu

    Abolhasan said: "Dadgar said it would not be necessary to handcuff YOU. 11

Paul said: "Gee, thanks."

    Bill suddenly recalled the stories he had heard about the torturing of

    prisoners in the Shah's jails. He tried not to think about it.

    Abolhasan said: "Do you want to give me your briefcases and wallets?"