He stood on the brake.
The car screeched to a halt. Paul had already stopped, right by the gas station. Rashid backed up and jumped out.
The two men pointed their rifles at him.
Here we go again, he thought.
He went into his routine, but they weren't interested. One of them got into each car. Rashid climbed back into the driving seat.
'Drive on,' he was told.
A minute later they were at the foot of the hill leading to the border. They could see the lights of the frontier station up above. Rashid's captor said: 'Turn right.'
'No,' said Rashid. 'We've been cleared to the border and--'
The man raised his rifle and thumbed the safety.
Rashid stopped the car. 'Listen, I came to your village this afternoon and got permission to pass--'
'Go down there.'
They were less than half a mile from Turkey and freedom. There were seven of the Dirty Team against two guards. It was tempting...
A jeep came tearing down the hill from the border station and skidded to a stop in front of the Range Rover. An excited young man jumped out, carrying a pistol, and ran over to Rashid's window.
Rashid wound down the window and said: 'I'm under orders from the Islamic Revolution Commandant Committee--'
The excited young man pointed his pistol at Rashid's head. 'Go down the track!' he screamed.
Rashid gave in.
They drove along the track. It was even narrower than the last. The village was less than a mile away. When they arrived, Rashid jumped out of the car, saying: 'Stay here--I'll deal with this.'
Several men came out of the huts to see what was going on. They looked even more like bandits than the inhabitants of the last village. Rashid said loudly: 'Where is the head man?'
'Not here,' someone replied.
'Then fetch him. I spoke to him this afternoon--I am a friend of his--I have permission from him to cross the border with these Americans.'
'Why are you with Americans?' someone asked.
'I am under orders from the Islamic Revolution Commandant Committee--'
Suddenly, out of nowhere, appeared the head man of the village, to whom Rashid had spoken in the afternoon. He came up and kissed Rashid on both cheeks.
In the second Range Rover, Gayden said: 'Hey, it's looking good!'
'Thank God for that,' said Coburn. 'I couldn't drink any more tea to save my life.'
The man who had kissed Rashid came over. He was wearing a heavy Afghan coat. He leaned through the car window and shook hands with everyone.
Rashid and the two guards got back into the cars.
A few minutes later they were climbing the hill to the frontier station.
Paul, driving the second car, suddenly thought about Dadgar again. Four hours ago, in Rezaiyeh, it had seemed sensible to abandon the idea of crossing the border on horseback, avoiding the road and the station. Now he was not so sure. Dadgar might have sent pictures of Paul and Bill to every airport, seaport, and border crossing. Even if there were no government people here, the photographs might be stuck up on a wall somewhere. The Iranians seemed to be glad of any excuse to detain Americans and question them. All along EDS had underestimated Dadgar...
The frontier station was brightly lit by high neon lamps. The two cars drove slowly along, past the buildings, and stopped where a chain across the road marked the limit of Iranian territory.
Rashid got out.
He spoke to the guards at the station, then came back and said: 'They don't have a key to unloosen the chain.'
They all got out.
Simons said to Rashid: 'Go over to the Turkish side and see if Boulware's there.'
Rashid disappeared.
Simons lifted the chain. It would not go high enough to let a Range Rover pass underneath.
Somebody found a few planks and leaned them on the chain, to see whether the cars could be driven over the chain on the planks. Simons shook his head: it was not going to work.
He turned to Coburn. 'Is there a hacksaw in the tool kit?'
Coburn went back to the car.
Paul and Gayden lit cigarettes. Gayden said: 'You need to decide what you want to do with that passport.'
'What do you mean?'
'Under American law there's a ten-thousand-dollar fine and a jail term for using a false passport. I'll pay the fine, but you'll have to serve the jail term.'
Paul considered. So far he had broken no laws. He had shown his false passport, but only to bandits and revolutionaries, who had no real right to demand passports anyway. It would be kind of nice to stay on the right side of the law.
'That's right,' said Simons. 'Once we're out of this goddam country we break no laws. I don't want to have to get you out of a Turkish jail.'
Paul gave the passport to Gayden. Bill did the same. Gayden gave the passports to Taylor, who put them down the sides of his cowboy boots.
Coburn came back with a hacksaw. Simons took it from him and started sawing the chain.
The Iranian guards rushed over and started yelling at him.
Simons stopped.
Rashid came back from the Turkish side, trailing a couple of guards and an officer. He spoke to the Iranians, then told Simons: 'You can't cut the chain. They say we must wait until morning. Also, the Turks don't want us to cross tonight.'
Simons muttered to Paul: 'You may be about to get sick.'
'What do you mean?'
'If I tell you so, just get sick, okay?'
Paul saw what Simons was thinking: the Turkish guards wanted to sleep, not spend the night with a crowd of Americans, but if one of the Americans was in urgent need of hospital treatment they could hardly turn him away.
The Turks went back over to their own side.
'What do we do now?' Coburn said.
'Wait,' said Simons.
All but two of the Iranian guards went into their guardhouse : it was bitterly cold.
'Make like we're prepared to wait all night,' said Simons.
The other two guards drifted off.
'Gayden, Taylor,' Simons said. 'Go in there and offer the guards money to take care of our cars.'
'Take care of them?' Taylor said incredulously. 'They'll just steal them.'
'That's right,' said Simons. 'They'll be able to steal them--if they let us go.'
Taylor and Gayden went into the guardhouse.
'This is it,' said Simons. 'Coburn, get Paul and Bill and just walk across there.'
'Let's go, you guys,' said Coburn.
Paul and Bill stepped over the chain and started walking. Coburn stayed close behind them. 'Just keep walking, regardless of anything else that might happen,' Coburn said. 'If you hear yelling, or gunfire, you run, but under no circumstances do we stop or go back.'
Simons came up behind them. 'Walk faster,' he said. 'I don't want you two getting shot out here in the bloody middle of nowhere.'
