On Wings Of Eagles (1990)

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."

They could hear some kind of argument beginning back on the Iranian side.

Coburn said: "Y'all don't turn round, just go."

Back on the Iranian side, Taylor was holding out a fistful of money to two guards who were glancing first at the four men walking across the border and then at the two Range Rovers, worth at least twenty thousand dollars each...

Rashid was saying: "We don't know when we'll be able to come back for these cars--it could be a long time--"

One of the guards said: "You were all to stay here until the morning--"

"The cars are really very valuable, and they must be looked after--"

The guards looked from the cars to the people walking across to Turkey, and back to the cars again, and they hesitated too long.

Paul and Bill reached the Turkish side and walked into the guard hut.

Bill looked at his wristwatch. It was eleven forty-five P.M. on Thursday, February 15, the day after Valentine's Day. On February 15, 1960, he had slipped an engagement ring on Emily's finger. The same day six years later Jackie had been born--today was her thirteenth birthday. Bill thought: Here's your present, Jackie--you still have a father.

Coburn followed them into the hut.

Paul put his arm around Coburn and said: "Jay, you just hit a home run."

Back on the Iranian side, the guards saw that half the Americans were already in Turkey, and they decided to quit while they were ahead and take the money and the cars.

Rashid, Gayden, and Taylor walked up to the chain.

At the chain Gayden stopped. "Go ahead," he said. "I want to be the last guy out of here."

And he was.

2_____

At the hotel in Yuksekova, they sat around a smoky pot-bellied stove: Ralph Boulware; Ilsman, the fat secret agent; Charlie Brown, the interpreter; and the two sons of Mr. Fish's cousin. They were waiting for a call from the border station. Dinner was served: some kind of meat, maybe lamb, wrapped in newspapers.

Ilsman said he had seen someone taking photographs of Rashid and Boulware at the border. With Charlie Brown translating, Ilsman said: "If you ever have a problem about those photographs, I can solve it."

Boulware wondered what he meant.

Charlie said: "He believes you are an honest man, and what you are doing is noble."

It was kind of a sinister offer, Boulware felt; like a Mafioso telling you that you are his friend.

By midnight there was still no word either from the Dirty Team or from Pat Sculley and Mr. Fish, who were supposed to be on their way here with a bus. Boulware decided to go to bed. He always drank water at bedtime. There was a pitcher of water on a table. Hell, he thought, I haven't died yet. He took a drink, and found himself swallowing something solid. Oh, God, he thought; what was that? He made himself forget about it.

He was just getting into bed when a boy called him to the phone.

It was Rashid.

"Hey, Ralph?"

"Yes."

"We're at the border!"

"I'll be right there."

He rounded up the others and paid the hotel bill. With the sons of Mr. Fish's cousin driving, they headed down the road where--as Ilsman kept saying--thirty-nine people had been killed by bandits the previous month. On the way they had yet another flat tire. The sons had to change the wheel in the dark, because the batteries in their flashlight had gone dead. Boulware did not know whether to be frightened, standing there in the road, waiting. Ilsman could still be a liar, a confidence trickster. On the other hand, his credentials had protected them all. If the Turkish secret service was like Turkish hotels, hell, Ilsman could be their answer to James Bond.

The wheel was changed and the cars moved off again.