On Wings Of Eagles (1990)

The plane took off. Dick Douglas and Scratch Kanauch immediately curled up and went to sleep. Perot tried to follow their example: he had sixteen hours of nothing to do in front of him. As the plane headed out across the Atlantic Ocean, he wondered again whether he was doing the right thing.

He might, after all, have left Paul and Bill to take their chances in Tehran. Nobody would have blamed him: it was the government's job to rescue them. Indeed, the Embassy might even now be able to get them out unharmed.

On the other hand, Dadgar might pick them up and throw them in jail for twenty years--and the Embassy, on past performance, might not protect them. And what would the revolutionaries do if they got hold of Paul and Bill? Lynch them?

No, Perot could not leave his men to take then chances--it was not his way. Paul and Bill were his responsibility--he did not need his mother to tell him that. The trouble was that he was now putting more men at risk. Instead of having two people hiding in Tehran, he would now have eleven employees on the run in the wilds of northwest Iran, and another four, plus two pilots, searching for them. If things went wrong--if someone got killed--the world would see this whole thing as a foolhardy adventure by a man who thought he was still living in the Wild West. He could imagine the newspaper headlines: MILLIONAIRE TEXAN'S IRAN RESCUE BID ENDS IN DEATH ...

Suppose we lose Coburn, he thought; what would I tell his wife? Liz might find it hard to understand why I staked the lives of seventeen men to gain the freedom of two.

He had never broken the law in his life, and now he was involved in so many major illegal activities he could not count them.

He put all that out of his mind. The decision was made. If you go through life thinking about all the bad things that can happen, you soon talk yourself into doing nothing at all. Concentrate on the problems that can be solved. The chips are on the table and the wheel is in spin. The last game has begun.

4______

On Tuesday the U.S. Embassy announced that evacuation flights for all Americans in Tehran would leave during the coming weekend.

Simons got Coburn and Poche in one of the bedrooms of the Dvoranchik place and closed the door. "This solves some of our problems," he said. "I want to split them up at this point in the game. Some can take the Embassy evacuation flight, leaving a manageable group for the overland trip."

Coburn and Poche agreed.

"Obviously, Paul and Bill have to go overland," Simons said. "Two of us three have to go with them: one to escort them across the mountains and the other to cross the border legitimately and meet up with Boulware. We'll need an Iranian driver for each of the two Range Rovers. That leaves us two spare seats. Who takes them? Not Cathy--she'll be much better off on the Embassy flight."

"Rich will want to go with her," said Coburn.

"And that fucking dog," Simons added.

Buffy's life is saved, Coburn thought. He was rather glad.

Simons said: "There's Keane Taylor, John Howell, Bob Young, and Bill Gayden. Here's the problem: Dadgar might pick people up at the airport, and we'll end up back where we started--with EDS men in jail. Who is at most risk?"

"Gayden," said Coburn. "He's president of EDS World. As a hostage, he'd be better than Paul and Bill. In fact, when Dadgar arrested Bill Gaylord, we wondered whether it was a mistake, and he really wanted Bill Gayden, but got confused because of the similarity of the names."

"Gayden comes out overland with Paul and Bill, then."

"John Howell is not even employed by EDS. And he's a lawyer. He should be all right."

"Howell goes out by air."

"Bob Young is employed by EDS in Kuwait, not Iran. If Dadgar has a list of EDS names, Young won't be on it."

"Young flies. Taylor drives. Now, one of us has to go on the evacuation flight with the Clean Team. Joe, that's you. You've kept a lower profile than Jay. He's been on the streets, at meetings at the Hyatt--whereas nobody knows you're here."

"Okay," said Poche.

"So the Clean Team is the Gallaghers, Bob Young, and John Howell, led by Joe. The Dirty Team is me, Jay, Keane Taylor, Bill Gayden, Paul, Bill, and two Iranian drivers. Let's go tell 'em."

They went into the living room and everyone sat down. As Simons talked, Coburn admired how he announced his decision in such a way that they all thought they were being asked for their opinions rather than being told what to do.

There was some discussion of who should be in which team--both John Howell and Bob Young would have preferred to be in the Dirty Team, feeling themselves vulnerable to arrest by Dadgar--but in the end they all reached the decision Simons had already made.

The Clean Team might as well move into the Embassy compound as soon as possible, Simons said. Gayden and Joe Poche went off to find Lou Goelz, the Consul General, and talk to him about it.

The Dirty Team would leave tomorrow morning.