On Wings of Eagles (61 page)

    As the plane taxied and took off, Paul felt as elated as if it were his

    first plane trip. He recalled how, in jail in Tehran, he had longed to do

    that most ordinary thing, get on a plane and fly away. Soaring up into the

    clouds now gave him a feeling he had not experienced for a long time: the

    feeling of freedom.

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 375

    3

According to the peculiar rules of Turkish air travel, the charter plane

could not go where a scheduled flight was available; so they could not fly

directly to Istanbul where Perot was waiting, but had to change planes in

Ankara.

    While they were waiting for their connection, they solved a couple of

    problems.

    Simons, Sculley, Paul, and Bill got into a taxi and asked for the American

    Embassy.

    It was a long drive through the city. The air was brownish and had a strong

    smell. "The air's bad here," said Bill.

    "High-sulfur coal," said Simons, who had lived in Turkey in the fifties.

    "They've never heard of pollution controls."

    The cab pulled up at the U.S. Embassy. Bill looked out the window and his

    heart leaped: there stood a young, handsome marine guard in an immaculate

    uniform.

This was the U.S.A.

They paid off the cab.

    As they went in, Simons said to the marine: "Is there a motor pool here,

    soldier?"

"Yes, sir," said the marine, and gave him directions.

    Paul and Bill went into the passport office. In their pockets they had

    passport-sized photographs of themselves that Boulware had brought from the

    States. They went up to the desk, and Paul said: "We've lost our passports.

    We left Tehran in kind of a hurry. "

"Oh, yes," said the clerk, as if he had been expecting diem.

    They had to fill in forms. One of the officials took them into a private

    office and told them he wanted some advice. The U.S. Consulate in Tabriz,

    Iran, was under attack by revolutionaries, and the staff there might have

    to escape as Paul and Bin had. They told him the route they had taken and

    what problems they had encountered.

    A few minutes later they walked out of there, each holding a sixty-day U.S.

    passport. Paul looked at his and said: "Did you ever see anything so

    beautiful in your whole damn life?"

376 Ken Folleu

Simons emptied the oil from the can and shook out the money in the weighted

plastic bags. There was a hell of a mess: some of the bags had broken and

there was oil all over the banknotes. Sculley started cleaning off the oil

and piling the money up in ten-thousand-dollar stacks: there was sixty-five

thousand dollars plus about the same again in Iranian rials.

    While he was doing this, a marine walked in. Seeing two disheveled,

    unshaven men kneeling on the floor counting out a small fortune in

    hundred-dollar bills, he did a double take.

    Sculley said to Simons: "Do you think I ought to tell him, Colonel?"

    Simons growled: "Your buddy at the gate knows about this, soldier. "

The marine saluted and went out.

it was eleven P.m. when they were called to board their flight to Istanbul.

    Ilwy went through the final security check one by one. Sculley was just

    ahead of Simons. Looking back, he saw that the guard had asked to see

    inside the envelope Simons was carrying.

The envelope contained all the money from the fuel can.

Sculley said: "Oh, shit."

    The soldier looked in the envelope and saw the sixty-five thousand dollars

    and four million rials; and all hell broke loose.

    Several soldiers drew their guns, one of them called out, and officers came

    running.

    Sculley saw Taylor, who had fifty thousand dollars in a little black bag,

    pushing his way through the crowd around Simons, saying: "Excuse me ,

    excuse me please, excuse me . "

    Ahead of Sculley, Paul had already been cleared ti~ough the checkpoint.

    Sculley thrust his thirty thousand dollars into Paul's hands, then turned

    and went back through the checkpoint.

    The soldiers were taking Simons away to be interrogated. Sculley followed

    with Mr. Fish, Ilsman, Boulware, and Jim Schwebach. Simons was led into a

    little room. One of the officers turned, saw five people following, and

    said in English: -%rho are you?"

"We're all together," Sculley said.

    They sat down and Mr. Fish talked to the officers. After a while he said:

    "They want to see the papers that prove you brought this money into the

    country."

`VVhat papers?"

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 377

"You have to declare all the foreign currency you bring in."

"Hell, nobody asked us!"

    Boulware said: "Mr. Fish, explain to these clowns that we entered Turkey at

    a tiny little border station where the guards probably don't know enough to

    read forms and they didn't ask us to fill in any forms but we're happy to

    do it now."

    Mr. Fish argued some more with the officers. Eventually Simons was allowed

    to leave, with the money; but the soldiers took down his name, passport

    number, and description, and the moment they landed in Istanbul, Simons was

    arrested.

At th1W A.M. on Saturday, February 17, 1979, Paul and Bill walked into Ross

Perot's suite at the Istanbul Sheraton.

It was the greatest moment in Perot's life.

    Emotion welled up inside him as he embraced them both. Here they were,

    alive and well, after all this time, all those weeks of waiting, the

    impossible decisions and the awful risks. He looked at their beaming faces.

    The nightmare was over.

    The rest of the team crowded in after them. Ron Davis was clowning, as

    usual. He had borrowed Perot's cold-weather clothes, and Perot had

    pretended to be anxious to get them back: now Davis stripped off his hat,

    coat, and gloves, and threw them on the floor dramatically, saying: "Here

    you are, Perot, here's your damned stuff!"

    Then Sculley walked in and said: "Simons got arrested at the airport. "

Perot's jubilation evaporated. "Why?" he exclaimed in dismay.

    "He was carrying a lot of money in a paper envelope and they just happened

    to search him. "

Perot said angrily: "Dam it, Pat, why was he carrying money?"

"It was the money from the fuel can. See--

    Perot interrupted: "After all Simons has done, why in the world did you let

    him take a completely unnecessary risk? Now see here. I'm taking off at

    noon, and if Simons isn't out of jail by then, you are going to stay in

    frigging Istanbul until he is!"

Sculley and Boulware sat down with Mr. Fish. Boulware said: "We need to get

Colonel Simons out of jail."

"Well," said Mr. Fish, "it will take around ten days-"

    "Bullshit," said Boulware. "Perot will not buy that. I want him out of jail

    now. "

"It's five o'clock in the morning!" Mr. Fish protested.

378 Ken Folleu

"How much?" said Boulware.

    "I don't know. Too many people know about this, in Ankara as well as

    Istanbul. "

"How about five thousand dollars?"

::For that, they would sell their mothers.

    Fine," said Boulware. I-Let,s get it on.-

    Mr. Fish made a phone call, then said: "My lawyer will meet us at the jail

    near the airport.-

    Boulware and Mr. Fish got into Mr. Fish's battered old car, leaving Sculley

    to pay the hotel bill.

    They drove to the jail and met the lawyer. The lawyer got into Mr. Fish's

    car and said: "I have a judge on the way. I've already talked to the

    police. Where's the money?"

Boulware said: "The prisoner has it."

"What do you mean?"

    Boulware said: "You go in there and bring the prisoner out, and he will

    give you the five thousand dollars."

    It was crazy, but the lawyer did it. He went into the jail and came out a

    few minutes later with Simons. They got into the car.

    -we I re n going to pay these clowns," said Simons. "I'll wait it out.

    ey'll just talk themselves to death and let me go in a few days."

    Boulware said: "Bull, please don't fight the program. Give me the

    envelope."

    Simons handed over the envelope. Boulware took out five thousand dollars

    and gave it to the lawyer, saying: "Here's the money. Make it happen. -

The lawyer made it happen.

    Half an hour later, Boulware, Simons, and Mr. Fish were driven to the

    airport in a police car. A policeman took their passports and walked them

    through passport control and customs. When they came out on the tarmac, the

    police car was there to take them to the Boeing 707 waiting on the runway.

    They bearded the plane. Simons looked around at the velvet curtains, the

    plush upholstery, the TV sets, and the bars, and said: "What the fuck is

    this?"

    The crew were on board, waiting. A stewardess came up to Boulware and said:

    "Would you like a chink?"

Boulware smiled.

The phone rang in Perot's hotel suite, and Paul happened to answer it.

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 379

A voice said: "Hello?"

Paul said: "Hello?"

The voice said: "Who is this?"

Paul, suspicious, said: "N"o is this?"

"Hey, Paul?"

Paul recognized the voice of Merv Stauffer. "Hello, Merv!"

"Paul, I got somebody here wants to talk to you."

There was a pause, then a woman's voice said: "Paul?"

It was Ruthie.

"Hello, Ruthie!"

"Oh, Paul!"

"Hi! What are you doing?"

    "What do you mean, what am I doing?" Ruthie said tearfully. "I'm waiting

    for you!"

The phone rang. Before Emily got to it, someone picked up the extension in

the children's room.

    A moment later she heard a little girl scream: "It's Dad! It's IDW! I I

She rushed into the room.

    All the children were jumping up and down and fighting over the phone.

    Emily restrained herself for a couple of minutes, then took the phone away

    from them.

"Bill?"

"Hello, Emily."

    "Gee you sound good. I didn't expect you to sound ... Oh, Bill, you sound

    so good."

In Dallas, Merv began to take down a message from Perot in code.

Take ... the ...

    He was now so familiar with the code that he could transcribe as he went

    along.

... code ... and ...

    He was puzzled, because for the last three days Perot had been giving him

    a hard time about the code. Perot did not have the patience to use it, and

    Stauffer had had to insist, saying: "Ross, this is the way Simons wants it.

    - Now that the danger was past, why had Perot suddenly started to use the

    code?

... stick ... it ... where ...

Stauffer guessed what was coming, and burst out laughing.

380 Ken Folleu

Ron Davis called room service and ordered bacon and eggs for everyone.

    While they were eating, Dallas called again. It was Stauffer. He asked for

    Perot.

"Ross, we just got the Dallas Times-Herald."

Was this to be another joke?

    Stauffer went on: "The headline on the front page says: 'Perot men

    reportedly on way out. Overland exit route from Iran indicated. ' "

    Perot felt his blood start to boil. "I thought we were getting that story

    killed!"

    "Boy, Ross, we tried! The people who own or manage the paperjust don't seem

    to be able to control the editor."

    Tom Luce came on the line, mad as hell. "Ross, those bastards are willing

    to get the rescue team killed and destroy EDS and see you jailed just to be

    the first to print the story, We've explained the consequences to them and

    it just doesn't matter. Boy, when this is over we should sue them, no

    matter how long it takes or how much it costs---

    "Maybe," said Perot. "Be careful about picking a fight with people who buy

    ink by the barrel and paper by the ton. Now, wdit are the chances of this

    news reaching Tehran?"

    "We don't know. There are plenty of Iranians in Texas, and most of them

    will hear about this. It's still very hard to get a phone line to Tehran,

    but we've managed it a couple of times, so they could, too."

"And if they do .

    "Then, of course, Dadgar finds out that Paul and Bill have slipped through

    his grasp--

    "And he could decide to take alternative hostages," Perot said coldly. He

    was disgusted with the State Department for leaking the story, furious with

    the Dallas Times-Herald for printing it, and maddened that there was

    nothing he could do about it. "And the Clean Team is still in Tehran," he

    said.

The nightmare was not over yet.

    FoURTEEN

At midday on Friday, February 16, Lou Goelz called Joe PocW and told him to

bring the EDS people to the U.S. Embassy that afternoon at five o'clock.