one of the men wearing a kookri, then Johnny holding up his severed head and howling like a banshee… I know now the kookri was Gueng’s. Johnny told me in Tehran.”
“Don’t say any more now. Leave it until tomorrow, leave the rest until tomorrow, my darling. Go to sleep, you’re safe now.”
“No. I’m afraid to sleep, even now in your arms, even with all the glorious news about Hakim, when I sleep I’m back in the village, back at Abu Mard and the mullah’s there, cursed of God, the kalandar’s there and butcher’s got his carving knife.”
“There’s no more village or mullah, I’ve been there. No more kalandar, nor butcher. Ahmed told me about the village, part of what had happened there.” “You went to the village?”
“Yes, this afternoon, when you were resting. I took a car and went there. It’s a heap of burned rubble. Just as well,” Erikki had said ominously. In the corridor Azadeh stopped a moment and held on to the wall until the fit of trembling passed. So much death and killing and horror. Yesterday when she had come out onto the steps of the palace and had seen Erikki in the cockpit, blood streaming down his face and into his stubbled beard, more dripping from his sleeve, Ahmed crumpled beside him, she had died and then, seeing him get out and stand tall and walk to her, her own legs useless, and catch her up into his arms, she had come to life again, all her terrors had poured out with her tears. “Oh, Erikki, oh, Erikki, I’ve been so afraid, so afraid…”
He had carried her into the Great Room and the doctor was there with Hakim, Robert Armstrong and Colonel Hashemi Fazir. A bullet had torn away part of Erikki’s left ear, another had scored his forearm. The doctor had cauterized the wounds and bound them up, injecting him with antitetanus serum and penicillin, more afraid of infection than of loss of blood: “Insha’ Allah, but there’s not much I can do, Captain, you’re strong, your pulse is good, a plastic surgeon can make your ear look better, your hearing’s not touched, praised be to God! Just beware of infection…”
“What happened, Erikki?” Hakim had asked.
“I flew them north into the mountains and Ahmed was careless - it wasn’t his fault, he got airsick - and before we knew what was happening Bayazid had a gun to his head, another tribesman had one to mine and Bayazid said, ‘Fly to the village, then you can leave.’
“‘You swore a holy oath you wouldn’t harm me!’ I said.
‘“I swore I wouldn’t harm you and I won’t, but my oath was mine, not of my men,’ Bayazid said, and the man with a gun to my head laughed and shouted, ‘Obey our Sheik or by God you will be so filled with pain you will beg for death.’”
“I should have thought of that,” Hakim said with a curse. “I should have bound them all with the oath. I should have thought of that.” “It wouldn’t have made any difference. Anyway it was all my fault; I’d brought them here and almost ruined everything. I can’t tell you how sorry I am but it was the only way to get back and I thought I’d find Abdollah Khan, I never thought that matyeryebyets Bayazid would use a grenade.” “We’re not hurt, through God’s will, Azadeh and I. How could you know Abdollah Khan was dead, or that half your ransom was paid? Go on with what happened,” Hakim had said and Azadeh noticed a strangeness under the voice. Hakim’s changed, she thought. I can’t understand what’s in his mind like I used to. Before he became Khan, really Khan, I could but not now. He’s still my darling brother but a stranger. So much has changed, so fast. I’ve changed. So has Erikki, my God how much! Johnny hasn’t changed….
In the Great Room, Erikki had continued: “Flying them away was the only way to get them out of the palace without further trouble or killing. If Bayazid hadn’t insisted, I would have offered - no other way’d’ve been safe for you and Azadeh. I had to gamble that somehow they’d obey the oath. But whatever happened, it was them or me, I knew it and so did they, for of course I was the only one who knew who they were and where they lived and a Khan’s vengeance is serious. Whatever I did, drop them off halfway or go to the village, they’d never let me go. How could they - it was the village or me and their One God would vote for their village along with them, whatever they’d agreed or sworn!” “That’s a question only God could answer.” “My gods, the ancient gods, don’t like to be used as an excuse, and they don’t like this swearing in their name. They disapprove of it greatly, in fact they forbid it.” Azadeh heard the bitterness and touched him gently. He had held her hand. “I’m fine now, Azadeh.”
“What happened next, Erikki?” Hakim asked. “I told Bayazid there wasn’t enough gasoline and tried to reason with him and he just said, ‘As God wants,’ stuck the gun into Ahmed’s shoulder and pulled the trigger. ‘Go to the village! The next bullet goes into his stomach.’ Ahmed passed out and Bayazid reached over him for the Sten gun that had slipped to the floor of the cockpit, half under the seat, but he couldn’t quite get it. I was strapped in, so was Ahmed, they weren’t, so I shifted her around the skies in ways I didn’t think a chopper could stand, then let her drop out and made a landing. It was a bad one; I thought I’d broken a skid but later I found it was only bent. As soon as we’d stopped I used the Sten and my knife and killed those who were conscious and hostile, disarmed the unconscious ones, and dumped them out of the cabin. Then, after a time, I came back.” “Just like that,” Armstrong had said. “Fourteen men.” “Five, and Bayazid. The others…” Azadeh had her arm on his shoulder and she felt the shrug and the following tremor. “I left them.”
“Where?” Hashemi Fazir had said. “Could you describe where, Captain?” Erikki had done so, accurately, and the colonel had sent men to find them. Erikki put his good hand into his pocket and brought out the ransom jewels and gave them to Hakim Khan. “Now I think I would like to talk to my wife, if it pleases you. I’ll tell you the rest later.” Then she and he had gone to their own rooms and he said nothing more, just held her gently in his great embrace. Her presence soothed away his anguish. Soon to sleep. She slept barely at all, at once back in the village to tear herself in panic from its suffocating grasp. She had stayed quiet for a time in his arms, then moved to a chair and half dozed, content to be with him. He had slept dreamlessly until it was dark, then awoke.
“First a bath and then a shave and then some vodka and then we will talk,” he had said, “I’ve never seen you more beautiful nor loved you more and I’m sorry, sorry I was jealous - no, Azadeh, don’t say anything yet. Then I want to know everything.”
In the dawn she had finished telling all there was to tell - as much as she would ever tell - and he his story. He had hidden nothing, not his jealousy, or the killing rage and the joy of battle or the tears he had shed on the mountainside, seeing the savagery of the mayhem he had dealt to the tribesmen. “They … they did treat me fairly in their village… and ransom is an ancient custom. If it hadn’t been for Abdollah murdering their messenger … that might have made the difference, perhaps, perhaps not. But that doesn’t forgive the killings. I feel I’m a monster, you married a madman, Azadeh. I’m dangerous.” “No, no, you’re not, of course you’re not.” “By all my gods, I’ve killed twenty or more men in half that number of days and yet I’ve never killed before except those assassins, those men who charged in here to murder your father before we were married. Outside of Iran I’ve never killed anyone, never hurt anyone - I’ve had plenty of fights with or without pukoh but never serious. Never. If that kalandar and the village had existed, I would have burned him and them without a second thought. I can understand your Johnny at the base; I thank all gods for bringing him to us to protect you and curse him for taking away my peace though I know I’m in his immortal debt. I can’t deal with the killings and I can’t deal with him. I can’t, I can’t, not yet.”
“It doesn’t matter, not now, Erikki. Now we’ve time. Now we’re safe, you’re safe and I’m safe and Hakim’s safe, we’re safe, my darling. Look at the dawn, isn’t it beautiful? Look, Erikki, it’s a new day now, so beautiful, a new life. We’re safe, Erikki.”
IN THE GREAT ROOM: 3:45 P.M. Hakim Khan was alone except for Hashemi Fazir. Half an hour ago Hashemi had arrived unbidden. He had apologized for the intrusion, handing him a telex. “I thought you’d better see this at once, Highness.”
The telex read: “URGENT. To Colonel Fazir, Inner Intelligence, Tabriz: Arrest Erikki Yokkonen, husband of Her Highness, Azadeh Gorgon, for crimes committed against the State, for complicity in air piracy, hijacking, and high treason. Put him in chains and send him at once to my Headquarters here. Director, SAVAMA, Tehran.”
Hakim Khan dismissed his guards. “I don’t understand, Colonel. Please explain.”
“The moment I’d decoded it, I phoned for further details, Highness. It seems last year S-G Helicopters sold a number of helicopters to IHC an - ” “I don’t understand.”
“Sorry, to Iran Helicopter Company, an Iranian company, Captain Yokkonen’s present employer. Among them were - are - ten 212s including his. Today the other nine, valued at perhaps $9 million, were stolen and illegally flown out of Iran by IHC pilots - SAVAMA presumes to one of the Gulf states.” Hakim Khan said coldly, “Even if they have, this doesn’t affect Erikki. He’s done nothing wrong.”
“We don’t know that for certain, Highness. SAVAMA says perhaps he knew of the conspiracy - it certainly had to have been planned for some time because three bases are involved - Lengeh, Bandar Delam, and Kowiss - as well as their Tehran Head Office. SAVAMA are very, very agitated because it’s also been reported that vast
