On Wings of Eagles (63 page)

But what will he do next?

    He'll come aboard this damn plane himself, and walk down the aisle, looking

    at everyone. He won't know Rich, or Cathy, or Joe PocK but he'll know Bob

    Young.

And he'll know me best of all.

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 387

In Dallas, T. J. Marquez got a call from Mark Ginsberg, the White House aide

who had been trying to help with the problem of Paul and Bill. Ginsberg was

in Washington, monitoring the situation in Tehran. He said: "Five of your

people are on a plane standing on the runway at Tehran Airport."

"Good!" said T.J.

    "It's not good. The Iranians are searching for Chiapparone and Gaylord, and

    they won't let the plane take off until they find the guys."

"Oh, hell."

    "There's no air traffic control over Iran, so the plane has to take off

    before nightfall. We aren't sure what's going to happen, but there's not

    much time left. Your people may be taken off the plane. "

"You can't let them do that!"

"I'll keep you in touch."

    T.J. hung up. After all that Paul and Bill and the Dirty Team had been

    through, would EDS now end up with more of its people in a Tehran jail? It

    did not bear thinking about.

The time was six-thirty A.M. in Dallas, four P.m. in Tehran.

They had two hours of daylight left.

T.J. picked up the phone. "Get me Perot."

"Ladies and gentlemen," said the pilot, "Paul John and William Deming have

not been located. The man in charge on the ground will now do another

passport check."

The passengers groaned.

Howell wondered who was the man in charge on the ground.

Dadgar?

    It might be one of Dadgar's staff. Some of them knew Howell, some did not.

He peered along the aisle.

    Someone came aboard. Howell stared. It was a man in a Pan Am uniform.

Howell relaxed.

    The man went slowly down the plane, checking each of five hundred

    passports, doing a face-to-picture identification, then examining the

    photographs and seals to see whether they had been tampered with.

    "Ladies and gentlemen, Captain speaking again. They have decided to check

    the baggage as it is loaded. If you hear your clainicheck number called,

    would you please identify yourself. "

388 Ken Follett

    Cathy had all the claim checks in her handbag. As the first numbers were

    called, Howell saw her sorting through the checks. He tried to attract her

    attention, to signal her not to identify herself. it might be a trick.

    More numbers were called, but nobody got up. Howell guessed everyone had

    decided they would rather lose their baggage than risk getting off this

    plane.

    "Ladies and gentlemen, please identify yourselves when these numbers are

    called. You will not have to get off the plane, just hand over your keys so

    the bags can be opened for searching."

    Howell was not reassured. He watched Cathy, still trying to catch her eye.

    More numbers were called, but she did not get up.

    "Ladies and gentlemen, some good news. We have checked with Pan Am's

    European headquarters, and have been given permission to take off with an

    overload of passengers."

There was a ragged cheer.

    Howell looked over at Joe Poch6. Pochd had his passport on his chest and he

    was sitting back with his eyes closed, apparently asleep. Joe must have ice

    in his veins, Howell thought.

    There was sure to be a lot of pressure on Dadgar as the sun went down. It

    had to be obvious that Paul and Bill were not on the plane. If a thousand

    people were deplaned and escorted back to the Embassy, the revolutionary

    authorities would have to go through the whole rigmarole again tomorrow-and

    somebody up there was bound to say "No way!" to that.

    Howell knew that he and the rest of the Clean Team were certainly guilty of

    crimes now. They had connived at the escape of Paul and Bill, and whether

    the Iranians called that conspiracy, or being an accessory after the fact,

    or some other name, it had to be against the law. He went over in his mind

    the story they had all agreed to tell if they were arrested. They had left

    the Hyatt on Monday morning, they would say, and had gone to Keane Taylor's

    house. (Howell had wanted to tell the truth, and say the Dvoranchik place,

    but the others had pointed out that this might bring down trouble on the

    head of Dvoranchik's landlady, whereas Taylor's landlord did not live on

    the premises.) They had spent Monday and Tuesday at Taylor's then had gone

    to Lou Goe1z's house on Tuesday afternoon. From then on, they would tell

    the truth.

    The story would not protect the Clean Team: Howell knew all too well that

    Dadgar did not care whether his hostages were guilty or innocent.

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 389

    At six o'clock the captain said: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have permission

    to take off. -

    The doors were slammed and the plane was moving within seconds. The

    passengers without seats were told by stewardesses to sit on the floor. As

    they taxied, Howell thought: surely we wouldn't stop now, even if we were

    ordered to ...

The 747 gathered speed along the runway and took off.

    They were still in Iranian airspace. The Iranians could send up fighter

    jets ...

    A little later the captain said: "Ladies and gentlemen, we have now

    departed Iranian airspace. -

The passengers gave a weary cheer.

We made it, Howell thought.

He picked up his paperback thriller.

Joe PocM left his seat and went to find the chief steward.

    "Is there any way the pilot could get a message through to the States?" he

    asked.

    "I don't know," the steward said. "Write your message, and I'll ask him."

    Poch6 returned to his seat and got out paper and a pen. He wrote: To Merv

    Stauffer, 7171 Forest Lane, Dallas, Texas.

    He thought for a minute about what his message should be. He recalled EDS's

    recruiting motto: "Eagles don't flock-you have to find them one at a time."

    He wrote:

The eagles have flown their nest.

    2

Ross Perot wanted to meet up with the Clean Team before returning to the

States: he was keen to get everyone together, so that he could gee and touch

them all and be absolutely sure they were safe and well. However, on Friday

in Istanbul he could not confirm the destination of the evacuation flight

that would bring the Clean Team out of Tehran. John Carlen, the laid-back

pilot of the leased Boeing 707, had the answer to that problem. "Those

evacuation planes must fly up over Istanbul," he said. "We'll just sit on

the runway until they pass overhead, then call them on the radio and ask

them. - In the end that was not

390 Ken Folkn

necessary: Stauffer called on Saturday morning and told Perot the Clean Team

would be on the Frankfurt plane.

    Perot and the others checked out of the Sheraton at midday and went to the

    airport to join Boulware and Simons on the plane. They took off late in the

    afternoon.

    When they were in the air Perot called Dallas: with the plane's

    single-sideband radio it was as easy as calling from New York. He reached

    Merv Stauffer.

"What's happening with the Clean Team?" Perot asked.

    "I got a message," said Stauffer. "It came from the European headquarters

    of Pan Am. It just says: 'The eagles have flown their nest.' "

Perot smiled. All safe.

    Perot left the flight deck and returned to the passenger cabin. Ills heroes

    looked washed out. At Istanbul Airport he had sent Taylor into the

    duty-free shop to buy cigarettes, snacks, and liquor, and Taylor had spent

    over a thousand dollars. They all had a drink to celebrate the escape of

    the Clean Team, but nobody was in the mood, and ten minutes later they were

    all sitting around on the plush upholstery with their glasses still full.

    Someone started a poker game, but it petered out.

    The crew of the 707 included two pretty stewardesses. Perot got them to put

    their arms around Taylor, then took a photograph. He threatened to show the

    photo to Taylor's wife, Mary, if Taylor ever gave him a hard time.

    Most of them were too fired to sleep, but Gayden went back to the luxurious

    bedroom and lay down on the king-size bed. Perot was a little miffed: be

    thought Simons, who was older and looked completely drained, should have

    had the bed.

    But Simons was talking to one of the stewardesses, Anita Melton. She was a

    vivacious blond Swedish girl in her twenties, with a zany sense of humor,

    a wild imagination, and a penchant fbr the outlandish. She was fun. Simons

    recognized a kindred soul, someone who did not care too much about what

    other people thought, an individual. He liked her. He realized that it was

    the first time since the death of Lucille that he had felt attracted to a

    woman.

He really had come back to life.

    Ron Davis began to feel sleepy. The king-size bed was big enough for two,

    he thought; so he went into the bedroom and lay down beside Gayden.

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 391

    Gayden opened his eyes. "Davis?" he said incredulously. "What the hell are

    you doing in bed with meT ,

    "Don't sweat it," said Davis. "Now you can tell all your friends you slept

    with a nigger." He closed his eyes.

    As the plane approached Frankfurt, Simons recalled that he was still

    responsible for Paid and Bill, and his mind went back to work,

    extrapolating possibilities for enemy action. He asked Perot: "Does Germany

    have an extradition treaty with Iran?"

"I don't know," said Perot.

He got The Simons Look.

"I'll find out," he added.

    He called Dallas and asked for Tom Luce, the lawyer. "Tom, does Germany

    have an extradition treaty with Iran?"

Luce said: "I'm ninety-nine percent sure they do not."

Perot told Simons.

    Simons said: "I've seen men Mlled because they were ninety-nine percent

    sure they were safe."

    Perot said to Luce: "Let's get a hundred percent sure. I'll call you again

    in a few minutes. "

    They landed at Frankfurt and checked into a hotel within the abport

    complex. The German desk clerk seemed curious, and carefully noted all

    their passport numbers. This increased Simons's unease.

    They gathered in Perot's room, and Perot called Dallas again. This dine he

    spoke to T. J. Marquez.

    T.J. said: "I called an international lawyer in Washington, and he thinks

    there is an extradition treaty between Iran and Germany. Also, he said the

    Germans are kind of legalistic about stuff like this, and if they got a

    request to pick up Paul and Bill, hell, they'd probably go right ahead and

    do it."

Perot repeated all of that to Simons.

    "Okay," said Simons. "We're not going to take any chances at this point in

    the game. There , s a movie house with three screens down at the basement

    level in this airport. Paul and Bill can hide in them ... where's Bill?"

"Gone to buy toothpaste," someone said.

. ~Jay, go find him."

Coburn went out.

    Simons said: "Paul goes into one theater, with Jay. Bill goes into another,

    with Keane. Pat Sculley stands guard outside. He has a ticket, so he can go

    in and check on the others."

It was interesting, Perot thought, to see the switches turn and

392 Ken FoUett

the wheels start rolling as Simons changed from an old man relaxing on a

plane to a commando leader again.

    Simons said: "The entrance to the train station is down in the basement,

    near the movies. If there's any sign of trouble Sculley gets the four men

    out of the movies and they all take a subway downtown. They rent a car and

    drive to England. If nothing happens, we get them out of the movies when

    we're about to board the plane. All right, let's do it."

    Bill was down in the shopping precinct. He had changed some money and

    bought toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a comb. He decided that a fresh new

    shut would make him feel human again, so he went to change some more money.

    He was standing in line at the currency-exchange booth when Coburn tapped

    turn on the shoulder.

"Ross wants to see you in the hotel," Coburn said.

11.197

    Vhat for?"

"I can't talk about it now, you need to come on back."

"You've got to be kidding!"

.IWIs go. 11

    They went to Perot's room, and Perot explained to Bill what was happening.

    Bill could hardly believe it. He had thought for sure he was safe in modem,

    civilized Germany. Would he ever be safe? he wondered. Would Dadgar pursue

    hun to the ends of the earth, never resting until Bill was returned to Iran