Fourteen
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At midday on Friday, February 16, Lou Goelz called Joe Poche and told him to bring the EDS people to the U.S. Embassy that afternoon at five o'clock. Ticketing and baggage check-in would be done at the Embassy overnight, and they could leave on a Pan Am evacuation flight on Saturday morning.
John Howell was nervous. He knew, from Abolhasan, that Dadgar was still active. He did not know what had happened to the Dirty Team. If Dadgar were to find out that Paul and Bill had gone, or if he were simply to give up on them and take a couple more hostages, the Clean Team would be arrested. And where better to make the arrests than at the airport, where everyone had to identify himself by showing his passport?
He wondered whether it was wise for them to take the first available flight: there would be a series of flights, according to Goelz. Maybe they should wait, and see what happened to the first batch of evacuees, whether there was any kind of search for EDS personnel. At least then they would know in advance what the procedures were.
But so would the Iranians. The advantage of taking the first flight was that everything would probably be confused, and the confusion might help Howell and the Clean Team slip out unnoticed.
In the end he decided the first flight was best, but he remained uneasy. Bob Young felt the same way. Although Young no longer worked for EDS in Iran--he was based in Kuwait--he had been here when the Ministry contract was first negotiated, he had met Dadgar face-to-face, and his name might be on some list in Dadgar's files.
Joe Poche also favored the first flight, although he did not say much about it--he did not say much at all: Howell found him uncommunicative.
Rich and Cathy Gallagher were not sure they wanted to leave Iran. They told Poche quite firmly that, regardless of what Colonel Simons had said, Poche was not 'in charge' of them, and they had the right to make their own decision. Poche agreed, but pointed out that if they decided to take their chances here with the Iranians, they should not rely on Perot sending another rescue team in for them if they got thrown in jail. In the end the Gallaghers also decided to go on the first flight.
That afternoon they all went through their documents and destroyed everything that referred to Paul and Bill.
Poche gave each of them two thousand dollars, put five hundred dollars in his own pocket, and hid the rest of the money in his shoes, ten thousand dollars in each. He was wearing shoes borrowed from Gayden, a size too large, to accommodate the money. He also had in his pocket a million rials, which he planned to give to Lou Goelz for Abolhasan, who would use the money to pay the remaining Iranian EDS employees their last wages.
A few minutes before five, they were saying goodbye to Goelz's houseman when the phone rang.
Poche took the call. It was Tom Walter. He said: 'We have the people. Do you understand? We have
'I understand,' Poche said.
They all got into the car, Cathy carrying her poodle, Buffy. Poche drove. He did not tell the others about his cryptic message from Tom Walter.
They parked in a side street near the Embassy, and left the car: it would stay there until somebody decided to steal it.
There was no relief of tension for Howell as he walked into the Embassy compound. There were at least a thousand Americans milling about, but there were also scores of armed revolutionary guards. The Embassy was supposed to be American soil, inviolate; but clearly the Iranian revolutionaries did not take any notice of such diplomatic niceties.
The Clean Team was herded into a queue.
They spent most of the night waiting in line.
They queued to fill in forms, they queued to hand in their passports, and they queued for baggage checks. All the bags were put in a huge hall; then the evacuees had to find their own bags and put the claim checks on. Then they queued to open their bags so the revolutionaries could search them: every single piece was opened.
Howell learned that there would be two planes, both Pan Am 747s. One would go to Frankfurt, the other to Athens. The evacuees were organized by company, but the EDS people were included with Embassy personnel who were leaving. They would be on the Frankfurt flight.
At seven o'clock on Saturday morning they were boarded on buses to go to the airport.
It was a hell of a ride.
Two or three armed revolutionaries got on each bus. As they drove out of the Embassy gates, they saw a crowd of reporters and television crews: the Iranians had decided that the flight of the humiliated Americans would be a world television event.
The bus bumped along the road to the airport. Close to Poche was a guard about fifteen years old. He stood in the aisle, swaying with the motion of the bus, his finger on the trigger of his rifle. Poche noticed that the safety catch was off.
If he stumbled ...
The streets were full of people and traffic. Everyone seemed to know that these buses contained Americans, and their hatred was palpable. They yelled and shook their fists. A truck pulled alongside, and the driver leaned out of his window and spat on the bus.
The convoy was stopped several times. Different areas of the city seemed to be under the control of different revolutionary groups, and each group had to demonstrate its authority by stopping the buses and then giving them permission to proceed.
It took two hours to drive the six miles to the airport.
The scene there was chaotic. There were more television cameras and reporters, plus hundreds of armed men running around, some wearing scraps of uniform, some directing traffic, all of them in charge, all having a different opinion on where the buses should go.
The Americans finally got inside the terminal at nine-thirty.
Embassy personnel started distributing the passports they had collected during the night. Five were missing: those of Howell, Poche, Young, and the Gallaghers.
After Paul and Bill had given their passports to the Embassy for safekeeping back in November, the Embassy had refused to return them without informing the police. Would they pull the same trick now?
Suddenly Poche came pushing through the crowd with five passports in his hand: 'I found them on a shelf behind a counter,' he said. 'I guess they got put there by accident.'
Bob Young saw two Americans holding photographs and scanning the crowd. To his horror, they started to approach the EDS people. They walked up to Rich and Cathy Gallagher.
Surely Dadgar would not take
The people smiled and said they had some of the Gallaghers' luggage.
Young relaxed.
Friends of the Gallaghers had salvaged some of the bags from the Hyatt, and had asked these two Americans to bring them to the airport and try to give them to the Gallaghers. The people had agreed, but they did not know the Gallaghers--hence, the photographs.
It had been a false alarm, but if anything, it increased their anxiety.
Joe Poche decided to see what he could find out. He went off and located a Pan Am ticket agent. 'I work for EDS,' Poche told the agent. 'Are the Iranians looking for anyone?'
'Yes, they're looking pretty hard for two people,' said the agent.
'Anybody else?'
'No. And the stop list is several weeks old.'
'Thanks.'
Poche went back and told the others.
The evacuees were starting to go from the check-in concourse through to the departure lounge.
Poche said: 'I suggest we split up. That way we won't look like a group, and if one or two of you get into
