On Wings Of Eagles (1990)

Coburn dialed Rashid's number.

He was at home!

'This is Jay Coburn. I need your help.'

'Sure.'

Coburn did not want to give the address of the hideout over the phone, in case the line was wiretapped. He recalled that Bill Dvoranchik had a slight squint. He said: 'You remember the guy with the funny eye?'

'With a funny eye? Oh, yeah--'

'Don't say his name. Remember where he used to live?'

'Sure--'

'Don't say it. That's where I am. I need you here.'

'Jay, I live miles from there and I don't know how I'm going to get across the city--'

'Just try,' Coburn said. He knew how resourceful Rashid was. Give him a task and he just hated to fail. 'You'll get here.'

'Okay.'

'Thanks.' Coburn hung up.

It was midnight.

Paul and Bill had each picked a passport from the ones Gayden had brought from the States, and Simons had made them learn the names, dates of birth, personal details, and all the visas and country stamps. The photograph in Paul's passport looked more or less like Paul, but Bill's was a problem. None of them was right, and he ended up with the passport of Larry Humphreys, a blond, rather Nordic type who really did not look like Bill.

The tension mounted as the six men discussed details of the journey they would begin within the next few hours. There was fighting in Tabriz, according to Rich Gallagher's military contacts; so they would stick to the plan of taking the low road, south of Lake Rezaiyeh, passing through Mahabad. The story they would tell, if questioned, would be as close to the truth as possible--always Simons's preference when lying. They would say they were businessmen who wanted to get home to their families, the airport was closed, and they were driving to Turkey.

In support of that story, they would carry no weapons. It was a difficult decision--they knew they might regret being unarmed and helpless in the middle of a revolution--but Simons and Coburn had found, on the reconnaissance trip, that the revolutionaries at the roadblocks always searched for weapons. Simons's instinct told him they would be better off talking their way out of trouble than trying to shoot their way out.

They also decided to leave behind the fifty-five-gallon fuel drum, on the grounds that they made the team look too professional, too organized, for businessmen quietly driving home.

They would, however, take a lot of money. Joe Poche and the Clean Team had gone off with fifty thousand dollars, but Simons's crew still had around a quarter of a million dollars, some of it in Iranian rials, deutsche marks, sterling, and gold. They packed fifty thousand dollars into kitchen Baggies, weighted the bags with shot, and put them in a gas can. They hid some in a Kleenex box and more in the battery hold of a flashlight. They passed the rest out for each to conceal about his person.

At one o'clock Rashid still had not arrived. Simons sent Coburn to stand at the street gate and watch for him.

Coburn stood in the darkness, shivering, hoping Rashid would show up. They would leave tomorrow, with or without him, but without him they might not get far. The villagers in the countryside would probably detain Americans just on general principles. Rashid would be the ideal guide, despite Simons's worries: the kid had a silver tongue.

Coburn's thoughts turned to home. Liz was mad at him, that he knew. She had been giving Merv Stauffer a hard time, calling every day and asking where her husband was and what he was doing and when he was coming home.

Coburn knew he would have to make some decisions when he got home. He was not sure that he was going to spend the rest of his life with Liz; and after this episode, maybe she would begin to feel the same way. I suppose we were in love, once upon a time, he thought. Where did all that go?

He heard footsteps. A short, curly-headed figure was walking along the sidewalk toward him, shoulders hunched against the cold.

'Rashid!' hissed Coburn.

'Jay?'

'Boy, am I glad to see you!' Coburn took Rashid's arm. 'Let's go inside.'

They went into the living room. Rashid said hello to everyone, smiling and blinking: he blinked a lot, especially in moments of excitement, and he had a nervous cough. Simons sat him down and explained the plan to him. Rashid blinked faster.

When he understood what was being asked of him, he became a little self-important. 'I will help you on one condition,' he said, and coughed. 'I know this country and I know this culture. You are all important people in EDS, but this is not EDS. If I lead you to the border, you must agree always to do everything I say, without question.'

Coburn held his breath. Nobody talked like this to Simons.

But Simons grinned. 'Anything you say, Rashid.'

A few minutes later Coburn got Simons in a corner and said quietly: 'Colonel, did you mean that about Rashid being in charge?'

'Sure,' said Simons. 'He's in charge as long as he's doing what I want.'

Coburn knew, better than Simons, how hard it was to control Rashid even when Rashid was supposed to be obeying orders. On the other hand, Simons was the most skilled leader of small groups Coburn had ever met. Then again, this was Rashid's country, and Simons did not speak Farsi.... The last thing they needed on this trip was a power struggle between Simons and Rashid.

Coburn got on the phone to Dallas and spoke to Merv Stauffer. Paul had encoded a description of the Dirty Team's proposed route to the border, and Coburn now gave Stauffer the coded message.

Then they discussed how they would communicate en route. It would probably be impossible to call Dallas from countryside pay phones, so they decided they would pass messages through an EDS employee in Tehran, Gholam. Gholam was not to know he was being used this way. Coburn would call Gholam once a day. If all was well he would say: 'I have a message for Jim Nyfeler: We are okay.' Once the team reached Rezaiyeh he would add: 'We are at the staging area.' Stauffer, in his turn, would simply call Gholam and ask whether there were any messages. So long as all went well, Gholam would be kept in the dark. If things went wrong, the pretense would be abandoned: Coburn would level with Gholam, tell him what the trouble was, and ask him to call Dallas.

Stauffer and Coburn had become so familiar with the code that they could hold a discussion, using mostly ordinary English mixed with a few letter groups and key code words, and be sure that anyone listening in on a wiretap would be unable to figure out what they meant.

Merv explained that Perot had contingency plans to fly into northwest Iran from Turkey to pick up the Dirty Team if necessary. Perot wanted the Range Rovers to be clearly identifiable from the air, so he proposed that each of them should have a large 'X' on its roof, either painted or made of black electrician's tape. If a vehicle had to be abandoned--because it broke down, or ran out of gas, or for any other reason--the 'X' should be changed to an 'A.'

There was another message from Perot. He had talked with Admiral Moorer, who had said that things were going to get worse and the team should get out of there. Coburn told Simons this. Simons said: 'Tell Admiral Moorer that the only water here is in the kitchen sink--I look out the window and I see no ships.' Coburn laughed, and told Stauffer: 'We understand the message.'

It was almost five A.M. There was no more time to talk. Stauffer said: 'Take care of yourself, Jay.' He sounded choked up. 'Keep your head down, y'hear?'

'I sure will.'

'Good luck.'

'Bye, Merv.'

Coburn hung up.

As dawn broke, Rashid went out in one of the Range Rovers to reconnoiter the streets. He was to find a route out of the city avoiding roadblocks. If the fighting was heavy, the team would consider postponing their