On Wings Of Eagles (1990)

refused admission because he was still carrying his rifle. He gave the gun away to the nearest youngster and came in.

While he was telling his story Coburn arrived, all set to go looking for Paul and Bill on Majid's motorcycle. He had a crash helmet with a visor that would hide his white face.

Rashid offered to take an EDS car and drive the route between the hotel and the prison, making one more sweep there and back before Coburn risked his neck in the mobs. Taylor gave him the keys to a car. Gayden got on the phone to tell Dallas the latest news. Rashid and Taylor left the suite and walked down the corridor.

Suddenly Rashid yelled: 'I thought you were dead!' and broke into a run.

Then Taylor saw Paul and Bill.

Rashid was hugging them both, screaming: 'I couldn't find you! I couldn't find you!'

Taylor ran up and embraced Paul and Bill. 'Thank God!' he said.

Rashid ran back into Gayden's suite, yelling: 'Paul and Bill are here! Paul and Bill are here!'

An instant later Paul and Bill walked in, and all hell broke loose.

Ten

1___

It was an unforgettable moment.

Everyone was yelling, no one was listening, and they all wanted to hug Paul and Bill at the same time.

Gayden was bellowing into the phone: 'We got the guys! We got the guys! Fantastic! They just walked in the door! Fantastic!'

Somebody yelled: 'We beat them! We beat those sonsabitches!'

'We did it!'

'In your ear, Dadgar!'

Buffy barked like a mad thing.

Paul looked around at his friends, and realized that they had stayed here in the middle of a revolution to help him, and he found he had difficulty speaking.

Gayden dropped the phone and came over to shake hands. Paul, with tears in his eyes, said: 'Gayden, I just saved you twelve and a half million dollars--I think you ought to buy me a drink.'

Gayden fixed him a stiff scotch.

Paul tasted his first alcoholic drink for six weeks.

Gayden said into the phone: 'I have somebody who would like to speak to you.' He handed the phone to Paul.

Paul said: 'Hello.'

He heard the syrupy voice of Tom Walter. 'Hi, there, buddy!'

'God almighty,' said Paul, out of general exhaustion and relief.

'We were wondering where you guys were!'

'So was I, for the last three hours.'

'How'd you get to the hotel, Paul?'

Paul did not have the energy to tell Walter the whole story. 'Fortunately Keane left me a lot of money one day.'

'Fantastic. Golly, Paul! Is Bill okay?'

'Yeah, he's a little shook up but he's all right.'

'We're all a little shook up. Oh, boy. Boy, it's good to hear you.'

Another voice came on the line. 'Paul? This is Mitch.' Mitch Hart was a former president of EDS. 'I figured that Italian street fighter would get out of there.'

'How's Ruthie?' said Paul.

Tom Walter answered. They must be using the telephone conference circuit, Paul guessed. 'Paul, she's great. I just talked to her a little while ago. Jean's calling her right now, she's on the other phone.'

'Kids doing all right?'

'Yeah, fine. Boy, she'll be glad to hear!'

'Okay, I'll let you talk to my other half.' Paul handed the phone to Bill.

While he had been speaking, an Iranian employee, Gholam, had arrived. He had heard about the jailbreak and had gone looking for Paul and Bill in the streets around the prison.

Jay Coburn was worried by the arrival of Gholam. For a few minutes there, Coburn had been too full of tearful joy to think of anything else, but now he reverted to his role as Simons's lieutenant. He quietly left the suite, found another open door, went into the room, and called the Dvoranchik apartment.

Simons answered the phone.

'It's Jay. They got here.'

'Good.'

'The security is all shot to hell here. They're using the names over the phone, everybody's wandering around, we have Iranian employees walking in...'

'Get a couple of rooms away from the others. We'll be right there.'

'Okay.' Coburn hung up.

He went down to the reception desk and asked for a two-bedroom suite on the twelfth floor. There was no problem: the hotel had hundreds of empty rooms. He gave a false name. He was not asked for his passport.

He returned to Gayden's suite.

A few minutes later Simons walked in and said: 'Hang up the goddam phone.'

Bob Young, who was holding the line open to Dallas, put down the phone.

Joe Poche walked in behind Simons and started closing the curtains.

It was incredible. Suddenly Simons was in charge. Gayden, the president of EDS World, was the senior man there; and an hour ago he had told Tom Walter that 'The Sunshine Boys'--Simons, Coburn, and Poche--seemed useless and ineffectual; yet now he deferred to Simons without even thinking about it.

'Take a look around, Joe,' Simons said to Poche. Coburn knew what this meant. The team had scouted the hotel and its grounds during their weeks of waiting, and Poche would now see whether there had been any changes.

The phone rang. John Howell answered it. 'It's Abolhasan,' he said to the others. He listened for a couple of minutes, then said: 'Hold on.' He covered the mouthpiece with his hand and spoke to Simons. 'This is an Iranian employee who translates for me at meetings with Dadgar. His father is a friend of Dadgar's. He's at his father's house, and just got a call from Dadgar.'

The room went very quiet.

'Dadgar said: 'Did you know the Americans are out of jail?' Abolhasan said: 'It's news to me.' Dadgar said: 'Get hold of EDS and tell them that if they find Chiapparone and Gaylord they are to turn them in, that I'm now willing to renegotiate the bail and it ought to be much more reasonable.' '

Gayden said: 'Fuck him.'

'All right,' Simons said. 'Tell Abolhasan to give Dadgar a message. Say we are searching for Paul and Bill, but meanwhile we hold Dadgar personally responsible for their safety.'

Howell smiled and nodded, and began speaking to Abolhasan.

Simons turned to Gayden. 'Call the American Embassy. Yell at them a little. They got Paul and Bill thrown in jail. Now the jail has been stormed and we don't know where Paul and Bill are, but we hold the Embassy responsible for their safety. Make it convincing. There must be Iranian spies at the Embassy--you can bet your ass Dadgar will have the text of the message in minutes.'

Gayden went to find a phone.

Simons, Coburn, and Poche, with Paul and Bill, moved to the new suite Coburn had taken on the floor above.

Coburn ordered two steak dinners for Paul and Bill. He told room service to send them to Gayden's suite: there was to be no unnecessary traffic in and out of the new rooms.

Paul took a hot bath. He had been longing for it. He had not had a bath for six weeks. He reveled in the clean