"don't like that idea, mac. better let me do it. you don't know the place and those sand dunes are look-alikes for miles. i'd better take him."
"i've thought about that, but then i'd be flying one of the mecs without a license. i'd rather put kia at risk than them. besides, you might be tempted to keep on going back to tehran. all the way. eh?"
"better that i drop him off and meet you at the rendezvous. safer."
mciver shook his head, feeling rotten about putting his friend into a corner. "you'd go on, wouldn't you?"
after a strange pause, lochart said, "while i was waiting for you, if i could've gotten airborne i'd've put him aboard and gone." he smiled a twisted smile. "the airmen said no way, to wait. better watch them, mac, some of them speak english. what happened to you?"
"hussein just questioned me about kia and duke."
lochart stared at him. "duke? what about?"
"everything about him. when i asked hussain why, all he'd say was: 'just because he interests me."' mciver saw a tremor go through lochart.
"mae, i think it's best if i take kia. you might miss the rendezvous you can go in tandem with freddy. i'll get off first and wait for you."
"sorry, tom, can't risk that you'll keep on going. if i were you i'd do the same and the hell with the risk. but i can't let you go back. to go back now'd be a disaster. it'd be a disaster for you i'm sure of that, tom as well as for the rest of us. that's the truth."
"hell with the truth," lochart said bitterly. "all right, but by god, the moment we touch down at kuwait, i'm on the month's leave i'm owed, or
resigned from s-g, whichever you want from the very second."
"fair enough but it has to be from al shargaz. we'll have to refuel in kuwait and get out of there as fast as we can if we're lucky enough to get there and if they'll let us fly out."
"no. kuwait's the end of the line for me."
"please yourself," mciver said, hardening. "but i'll make sure you don't get a plane into tehran, abadan, or anywhere else in iran."
"you're a bastard," lochart said, sick that mciver had read his intentions so clearly. "goddamn you to hell!"
"yes, sorry. from al shargaz i'll help all i c " mciver stopped, seeing lochart mutter a curse. he turned around. kia and hussain were still conversing by the car. "what's the matter?"
"in the tower."
mciver looked up. then he noticed wazari, half-hidden by one of the boarded windows, beckoning them clearly. no way to pretend that they had not seen him. as they watched, wazari beckoned them again and moved back into cover.
"goddamn him," lochart was saying. "i checked the tower just after you'd left to make sure he hadn't slipped up there and he hadn't so i thought he'd made a run for it." his face flushed with rage. "come to think of it, i didn't go right up into the room so he could've hidden on the roof the sonofabitch must've been there all the time."
"chris/almighty! maybe he found the broken wire." mciver was rocked.
lochart's face closed. "you stay here. if he tries to give us any trouble i'll kill him." he stalked off.
"wait, i'll come too. freddy," he called out, "we'll be back in a moment."
as they passed hussain and kia, mciver said, "i'm just going to ask for clearance, minister. takeoff in five minutes?"
before kia could answer, the mullah said cryptically, "insha'allah."
kia said curtly to mciver, "captain, you haven't forgotten i told you i must be in tehran for an important meeting at 7:00 pm.? good," turned his back on them, again concentrating on hussain. "you were saying, excellency?"
the two pilots went into the office, seething at kia's rudeness, bypassed pavoud and the other staff, and headed for the tower staircase.
the tower was empty. then they saw the door to the roof ajar and heard wazari whisper, "over here." he was just outside, crouched by the wall.
wazari did not move. "i know what you're up to. there's no radio malfunction," he said, hardly able to contain his excitement. "four choppers have pushed off from bandar delam and vanished. your managing director siamaki's screaming like a stuck pig because he can't raise lengeh, us, or al shargaz and mr. gavallan there they're just sitting tight, that's it, isn't it? huh?"
"what's that got to do with us?" lochart said tautly.
"everything, of course everything, because it all fits. numir at bandar delam says all expats've gone, there's no one left at bandar. siamaki says the same about tehran, he even told numir your houseboy, captain mciver, your houseboy says most of your personal things and a captain pettikin's're out of the apartment."
mciver shrugged and went to switch on the vhf. "safety precautions while pettikin's on leave and i'm away. been lots of robberies."
"don't make a call yet. please. listen, for crissake, listen, i'm begging you... there's no way you can stop the truth. your 212s and guys have gone from bandar, lengeh's silent, so they're the same, tehran's closed down, the same, there's only here left and you're all set." wazari's voice was curious and they could not tell yet what was under it. "i'm not gonna give you away, i want to help you. i want to help. i swear i want to help you."
"help us do what?"
"get away."
"why should you do that, even if what you say's true?" lochart said angrily.
"you were right not to trust me before, captain, but i swear to god you can trust me now, i'm together now, earlier i wasn't but now i am and you're my only hope to get out. i'm up before the komiteh tomorrow and... and look at me, for crissake!" he burst out. "i'm a mess, and unless i can get to a proper doctor i'll be a mess forever and maybe even a dead man there's something pressing here, hurts like hell," wazari touched the top of his mashed nose. "since that bastard zataki beat me my head's been aching and i've been crazy, sure i have, i know it, but i can still help. i can cover you from here if you'll take me with you, just let me sneak aboard the last chopper i swear i'll help." tears filled his eyes. the two men stared at him.
mciver clicked on the vhf sender. "kowiss tower, ihc testing, testing."
a long pause, then in heavily accented english, "this the tower, ihc, you five by five."
"thank you. we seem to have cleared the fault. our 206 charter to tehran will leave in ten minutes, also our morning flight to rigs forty, abu sal, and gordy with spares."
"okay. report airborne. your bandar delam is been try to contact you."
mciver felt the sweat start. "thanks, tower. good day." he looked at lochart, then switched on the hf. at once they heard jahan's voice in farsi and lochart began interpreting: "jahan's saying the last sighting of their flight was northeast, inland from the coast... that zataki..." for a moment his voice faltered, "... that zataki had ordered the four choppers to service iran-toda and should be at iran-toda by now and is sure to call or send a message..." then mciver recognized siamaki. lochart was sweating. "siamaki's saying
he'll be off the air for half an hour to an hour but he'll call when he gets back and to keep trying to raise us and al shargaz... jahan says okay and he'll wait out and if he has any news he'll call."
static for a moment. then jahan's voice in english: "kowiss, this is bandar delam, do you read?"
lochart muttered, "if the tower's been picking all this up, why aren't we all in the slammer?"
"it's friday. no reason for them to monitor your company frequency." wazari wiped the tears away, back in control now. "friday crew's minimal and trainee no flying, nothing happening, the komiteh sacked all radar officers and five of the sergeants sent them to the stockade." he shuddered then hurried on: "maybe one of the guys picked up bandar delam once or twice. so bandar've lost contact with some of their choppers, so what, they're foreigners and it happens all the time. but, captain, if you don't close bandar and tehran down, they've gotta... someone's gotta get steamed up." he took out a grubby handkerchief and wiped a trickle of blood from his nose. "if you switch to your alternate channel you'll be safe enough, the tower don't have that."
mciver stared at him. "you're sure?"
"sure, listen why don't y " he stopped. footsteps were approaching. noiselessly he ducked back onto the roof into hiding. kia stomped halfway up the stairs.
"what's keeping you, captain?"
"i'm... i'm waiting for clearance to be confirmed, minister. sorry, i've been told to wait. nothing i can do."
"of course there is! we can take off and leave! now! i'm tired of wait "
"i'm tired too but i don't want my head blown off." mciver's temper snapped and he flared, "you'll wait! wait! understand? you bloody wait and if your bloody manners don't improve i'll cancel the whole trip and mention a pishkesh or two to the mullah hussain i happened to forget at the questioning. now get to hell out of here!"
for a moment they thought kia was going to explode, but he thought better of it and went away. mciver rubbed his chest, cursing himself for losing his temper. then he jerked a thumb at the roof and whispered, "tom, what about him?"
"we can't leave him behind. he could give us away in a minute." lochart looked around. wazari wet at the doorway.
"i swear i'll help," he whispered desperately. "listen, when you take off with kia, what d'you plan, to dump him, huh?" mciver did not answer, still unsure. "jesus, captain, you gotta trust me. look, call bandar on the alternate and chew numir out like you did that bastard'n tell him you ordered all the choppers here. that'll take the heat off for an hour or two."
mciver glanced at lochart.
lochart said excitedly, "why not? hell, that's a good idea, then you take off with kia and... and freddy can get going. i'll wait here and..." the words trailed off.
"then what, tom?" mciver said.
wazari came over and switched to the alternate channel, said quickly to lochart, "you stall for a while, cap, and when cap mciver's gone and ayre's out of the area, you tell numir you're sure his four choppers've just switched off their hf, no need to use it, and they're on vhf. that gives you the excuse to get airborne and wander around, then you rush off to the fuel cache." he saw their look. "jesus, cap, anyone's gotta know you can't make it in one across the gulf, no way, so you've gotta have stashed spare fuel somewheres. onshore, or on one of the rigs."
mciver took a deep breath and pressed the transmit. "bander delam, this is captain mciver at kowiss, do you read?"
"kowiss bandar delam, we've been trying to reach you for hours an "
"jahan, put agha numir on," mciver said curtly. a moment, then numir came on but before the iranoil manager could launch into a tirade, mciver cut in with his own. "where are my four helicopters? why haven't they reported in? what's going on down there? and why are you so inefficient that you don't know i ordered my helicopters and personnel here...?"
at al shargaz hq: "... and why don't you remember that crew replacements are due in bandar delam after the weekend?" mciver's voice was faint but clear over the loudspeaker, and gavallan, scot, and manuela were staring at it, aghast that mciver was still in place at kowiss did that mean lochart, ayre, and the others too?
"but we've been calling you all morning, captain," numir said, his voice fainter. "you ordered our copters to kowiss? but why? and why wasn't i informed? our copters were supposed to go to iran-toda this morning but never landed and have vanished! agha siamaki's also been trying to reach you."
"there's been a fault on our hf. now listen here, numir, i ordered my choppers to kowiss. i never approved an iran-toda contract, know nothing about an iran-toda contract, so that's the end to it. now stop creating a stink about nothing!"
"but they are our helicopters and everyone's left, everyone, mechanics and all pilots an "
"goddamnit, i ordered them all here pending an investigation. i repeat i am very dissatisfied with your operation. and will so report to iranoil! now stop calling!"
in the office they were all still in shock. that mciver was still in kowiss was a disaster. whirlwind was going badly awry. it was 10:42 a.m. and rudi and his three were overdue bahrain. "... but we don't know their actual headwind, dad," scot had said, "or how long they'll take to inflight refuel. they could be three quarters to an hour late and still be okay say an eta at bahrain of eleven to eleven-fifteen." but everyone knew that there could not safely be that amount of fuel on board.
nothing yet from scrag and his two but that's to be expected they don't have hf aboard, gavallan thought. their flight to al shargaz should take about an hour and a half. if they'd left at say seven-thirty and did the pickup and got out without incident, say at seven-forty-five, their eta's nine-fifteen whichever way you figure it. "no need to worry, manuela, you understand about headwinds," he had said, "and we don't actually know when they left."
