On Wings Of Eagles (1990)

Could that be it? An overenthusiastic prosecutor trying to impress his superiors--or perhaps the revolutionaries--with his anti-American diligence?

"Dadgar's office is very powerful," Houman went on. "But in this case he is out on a limb. He did not have cause to arrest you, and the bail is exorbitant."

Paul began to feel good about Houman. He seemed knowledgeable and confident. "So what are you going to do?"

"My strategy will be to get the bail reduced."

"How?"

"First I will talk to Dadgar. I hope I will be able to make him see how outrageous the bail is. But if he remains intransigent, I will go to his superiors in the Ministry of Justice and persuade them to order him to reduce the bail."

"And how long do you expect that to take?"

"Perhaps a week."

It was taking more than a week, but Houman had made progress. He had come back to the jail to report that Dadgar's superiors at the Ministry of Justice had agreed to force Dadgar to back down and reduce the bail to a sum EDS could pay easily and swiftly out of funds currently in Iran. Exuding contempt for Dadgar and confidence in himself, he announced triumphantly that everything would be finalized at a second meeting between Paul and Bill and Dadgar on January 11.

Sure enough, that day Dadgar came to the jail in the afternoon. He wanted to see Paul alone first, as he had before. Paul was in fine spirits as the guard walked him across the courtyard. Dadgar was just an overenthusiastic prosecutor, he thought, and now he had been slapped down by his superiors and would have to eat humble pie.

Dadgar was waiting, with the same woman translator beside him. He nodded curtly, and Paul sat down, thinking: he doesn't look very humble.

Dadgar spoke in Farsi, and Mrs. Nourbash translated: "We are here to discuss the amount of your bail."

"Good," said Paul.

"Mr. Dadgar has received a letter on this subject from officials at the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare."

She began to translate the letter.

The Ministry officials were demanding that bail for the two Americans should be increased to twenty-three million dollars--almost double--to compensate for the Ministry's losses since EDS had switched off the computers.

It dawned on Paul that he was not going to be released today.

The letter was a put-up job. Dadgar had neatly outmaneuvered Dr. Houman. This meeting was nothing but a charade.

It made him mad.

To hell with being polite to this bastard, he thought.

When the letter had been read he said: "Now I have something to say, and I want you to translate every word. Is that clear?"

"Of course," said Mrs. Nourbash.

Paul spoke slowly and clearly. "You have now held me in jail for fourteen days. I have not been taken before a court. No charges have been brought against me. You have yet to produce a single piece of evidence implicating me in any crime whatsoever. You have not even specified what crime I might be accused of. Are you proud of Iranian justice?"

To Paul's surprise, the appeal seemed to melt Dadgar's icy gaze a little. "I am sorry," Dadgar said, "that you have to be the one to pay for the things your company has done wrong."

"No, no, no," Paul said. "I am the company. I am the person responsible. If the company had done wrong, I should be the one to suffer. But we have done nothing wrong. In fact, we have done far in excess of what we were committed to do. EDS got this contract because we are the only company in the world capable of doing this job--creating a fully automated welfare system in an underdeveloped country of thirty million subsistence farmers. And we have succeeded. Our data-processing system issues social-security cards. It keeps a register of deposits at the bank in the Ministry's account. Every morning it produces a summary of the welfare claims made the previous day. It prints the payroll for the entire Ministry of Health and Social Welfare. It produces weekly and monthly financial status reports for the Ministry. Why don't you go to the Ministry and look at the printouts? No, wait a minute," he said as Dadgar began to speak, "I haven't finished."

Dadgar shrugged.