On Wings Of Eagles (1990)

They all sat down on dilapidated metal chairs. Tea was served. Dadgar began to speak in Farsi. His voice was soft but rather deep, and his expression was blank. Paul studied him as he waited for the translation. Dadgar was a short, stocky man in his fifties, and for some reason he made Paul think of Archie Bunker. His complexion was dark and his hair was combed forward, as if to hide the fact that it was receding. He had a mustache and glasses, and he wore a sober suit.

Dadgar finished speaking, and Abolhasan said: "He warns you that he has the power to arrest you if he finds your answers to his questions unsatisfactory. In case you did not realize this, he says you may postpone the interview to give your lawyers time to arrange bail."

Paul was surprised by this development, but he evaluated it fast, just like any other business decision. Okay, he thought, the worst thing that can happen is that he won't believe us and he will arrest us--but we're not murderers, we'll be out on bail in twenty-four hours. Then we might be confined to the country, and we would have to meet with our attorneys and try to work things out ... which is no worse than the situation we're in now.

He looked at Bill. "What do you think?"

Bill shrugged. "Goelz says this meeting is routine. The stuff about bail sounds like a formality--like reading you your rights."

Paul nodded. "And the last thing we want is a postponement."

"Then let's get it over with."

Paul turned to Mrs. Nourbash. "Please tell Mr. Dadgar that neither of us has committed a crime, and neither of us has any knowledge of anyone else committing a crime, so we are confident that no charges will be made against us, and we would like to get this finished up today so that we can go home."

Mrs. Nourbash translated.

Dadgar said he wanted first to interview Paul alone. Bill should come back in an hour.

Bill left.

Bill went up to his office on the seventh floor. He picked up the phone, called Bucharest, and reached Lloyd Briggs. Briggs was Number 3 in the hierarchy after Paul and Bill.

"Dadgar says he has the power to arrest us," Bill told Briggs. "We might need to put up bail. Call the Iranian attorneys and find out what that means."

"Sure," Briggs said. "Where are you?"

"In my office here at the Ministry."

"I'll get back to you."

Bill hung up and waited. The idea of his being arrested was kind of ridiculous--despite the widespread corruption of modem Iran, EDS had never paid bribes to get contracts. But even if bribes had been paid, Bill would not have paid them: his job was to deliver the product, not win the order.

Briggs called back within a few minutes. "You've got nothing to worry about," he said. "Just last week a man accused of murder had his bail set at a million and a half rials."

Bill did a quick calculation: That was twenty thousand dollars. EDS could probably pay that in cash. For some weeks they had been keeping large amounts of cash, both because of the bank strikes and for use during the evacuation. "How much do we have in the office safe?"

"Around seven million rials, plus fifty thousand dollars."

So, Bill thought, even if we are arrested, we'll be able to post bail immediately. "Thanks," he said. "That makes me feel a lot better."

Downstairs, Dadgar had written down Paul's full name, date and place of birth, schools attended, experience in computers, and qualifications; and he had carefully examined the document that officially named Paul as Country Manager for Electronic Data Systems Corporation Iran. Now he asked Paul to give an account of how EDS had secured its contract with the Ministry of Health.

Paul took a deep breath. "First, I would like to point out that I was not working in Iran at the time the contract was negotiated and signed, so I do not have firsthand knowledge of this. However, I will tell you what I understand the procedure to have been."

Mrs. Nourbash translated and Dadgar nodded.

Paul continued, speaking slowly and rather formally to help the translator. "In 1975 an EDS executive, Paul Bucha, learned that the Ministry was looking for a data-processing company experienced in health insurance and social-security work. He came to Tehran, had meetings with Ministry officials, and determined the nature and scale of the work the Ministry wanted done. He was told that the Ministry had already received proposals for the project from Louis Berger and Company, Marsh & McClennan, ISIRAN, and UNI-VAC, and that a fifth proposal was on its way from Cap Gemini Sogeti. He said that EDS was the leading data-processing company in the United States and that our company specialized in exactly this kind of health-care work. He offered the Ministry a free preliminary study. The offer was accepted."