On Wings of Eagles (5 page)

    Bill had a flat, round face and very white skin: nobody would take him for

    anything but an Anglo.

    They had a lot in common. Both were Roman Catholic, although Bill was more

    devout. They loved good food. Both had trained as systems engineers and

    joined EDS in the n-dd-sixties, Bill in 1965 and Paul in 1966. Both had had

    splendid careers with EDS, but although Paul had joined a year later he was

    now senior to Bill. Bill knew the health-care business inside out, and he

    was a first-class "people manager," but he was not as pushy and dynamic as

    Paul. Bill was a deep thinker and a careful organizer. Paul would never

    have to worry about Bill making an important presentation: Bill would have

    prepared every word.

    They worked together well. When Paul was hasty, Bill would make him pause

    and reflect. When Bill wanted to plan his way around every bump in the

    road, Paul would tell him just to get in and drive.

    They had been acquainted in the States but had got to know one another well

    in the last nine months. When Bill had arrived in Tehran, last March, he

    had lived at the Chiapparones' house until his wife, Emily, and the

    children came over. Paul felt almost protective toward him: it was a shame

    that Bill had had nothing but problems here in Iran.

32 Ken Follett

    Bill was much more worried by the rioting and the shooting than most of the

    others-perhaps because he had not been here long, perhaps because he was

    more of a worrier by nature. He also took the passport problem more

    seriously than Paul. At one time he had even suggested that the two of them

    take a train to the northeast of Iran and cross the border into Russia, on

    the grounds that nobody would expect American businessmen to escape via the

    Soviet Union.

    Bill also missed Emily and the children badly, and Paul felt somewhat

    responsible, because he had asked Bill to come to Iran.

    Still, it was almost over. Today they would see Mr. Dadgar and get their

    passports back. Bill had a reservation on a plane out tomorrow. Emily was

    planning a welcome-home party for him on New Year's Eve. Soon all this

    would seem like a bad dream.

Paul smiled at Bill. "Ready to go?"

"Any time."

    "Let's get Abolhasan." Paul picked up the phone. Abolhasan was the most

    senior Iranian employee, and advised Paul on Iranian business methods. The

    son of a distinguished lawyer, he was married to an American woman, and

    spoke very good English. One of his jobs was translating EDS's contracts

    into Farsi. Today he would translate for Paul and Bill at their meeting

    with Dadgar.

    He came immediately to Paul's office and the three men left. They did not

    take a lawyer with them. According to the Embassy this meeting would be

    routine, the questioning informal. To take lawyers along would not only be

    pointless, but might antagonize Mr. Dadgar and lead him to suspect that

    Paul and Bill had something to hide. Paul would have liked to have a member

    of the Embassy staff present, but this idea also had been turned down by

    Lou Goelz: it was not normal procedure to send Embassy representatives to

    a meeting such as this. However, Goelz had advised Paul and Bill to take

    with them documents establishing when they had come to Iran, what their

    official positions were, and the scope of their responsibilities.

    As the car negotiated its way through the usual insane Tehran traffic, Paul

    felt depressed. He was glad to be going home, but he hated to admit

    failure. He had come to Iran to build up EDS's business here, and he found

    himself dismantling it. Whatever way you looked at it the company's first

    overseas venture had been a failure. It was not Paul's fault that the

    government of Iran

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 33

had run out of money, but that was small consolation: excuses did not make

profits.

    They drove down the treelined Eisenhower Avenue, as -wide and straight as

    any American highway, and pulled into the courtyard of a square, ten-story

    building set back from the stieet and guarded by soldiers with automatic

    rifles. This was the Social Security Organization of the Ministry of Health

    and Social Welfare. It was to have been the powerhouse of the new Iranian

    welfare state: here, side by side, the Iranian government and EDS had

    worked to build a social-security system. EDS occupied the entire seventh

    floor-Bill's office was there.

    Paid, Bill, and Abolhasan showed their passes and went in. The corridors

    were duty and poorly decorated, and the building was cold: the heat was off

    again. They were directed to the office Mr. Dadgar was using.

    They found him in a small room with dirty walls, sitting behind an old gray

    steel desk. In front of him on the desk were a notebook and a pen. Through

    the window Paul could see the data center EDS was building next door.

    Abolhasan introduced everyone. There was an Iranian woman sitting on a

    chair beside Dadgar's desk: her name was Mrs. Nourbash, and she was

    Dadgar's interpreter.

    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

34 Ken FoIkU

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 bad

    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 crune, 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-4espite the widespread corruption of modem Iran, EDS had never

    paid bribes to get contacts. 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

    arnounts 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

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 35

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 Irari 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 deteriiiined 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 UNIVAC, 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."

    When he paused for translation, Paul noticed, Mrs. Nourbash seemed to say

    less than he had said; and what Dadgar wrote down was shorter still. He

    began to speak more slowly and to pause more often. "The Ministry obviously

    liked EDS's proposals, because they then asked us to perform a detailed

    study for two hundred thousand dollars. The results of our study were pre-

    sented in October 1975. The Ministry accepted our proposal and began

    contract negotiations. By August 1976 the contract was agreed upon."

    "Was everything above board?" Dadgar asked through Mrs. Nourbash.

    "Absolutely," Paul said. "It took another three months to go through the

    lengthy process of getting all the necessary approvals

36 Ken Folktt

from many government departments, including the Shah's court. None of these

steps was omitted. The contract went into effect at the end of the year."

"Was the contract price exorbitant?"

    "It showed a maximum expected pretax profit of twenty percent, which is in

    line with other contracts of this magnitude, both here and in other

    countries. "

"And has EDS fulfilled its obligations under the contract?"

    This was something on which Paul did have firsthand knowledge. "Yes, we

    have."

"Could you produce evidence?"

    "Certainly. The contract specifies that I should meet with Ministry

    officials at certain intervals to review progress: those meetings have

    taken place and the Ministry has the minutes of the meetings on file. The

    contract lays down a complaints procedure for the Ministry to use if EDS

    fails to fulfill its obligations: that procedure has never been used. "

    Mrs. Nourbash translated, but Dadgar did not write anything down. He must

    know all this anyway, Paul thought.

    He added: "Look out the window. There is our data center. Go and see it.

    There are computers in it. Touch them. They work. They produce information.

    Read the printouts. They are being used."

    Dadgar made a brief note. Paul wondered what he was really after.

    The next question was: "What is your relationship with the Mahvi group?"

    "When we first came to Iran we were told that we had to have Iranian

    partners in order to do business here. The Mahvi group are our partners.

    However, their main role is to supply us with Iranian staff. We meet with

    them periodically, but they have liWe to do with the running of our

    business."

    Dadgar asked why Dr. Towliati, a Ministry official, was on the EDS payroll.

    Was this not a conflict of interest?

    Here at last was a question that made sense. Paul could see how Towliati's