On Wings of Eagles (66 page)

    Michael, do you remember your daddy?"

    He sat next to Angie and put his arms around her. It was kind of awkward,

    on the bus seat, and Howell was normally too shy for public displays of

    affection, but he kept right on hugging her because it felt so good.

    Ralph Boulware was met by Mary and the girls, Stacy and Kecia. He picked

    Kecia up and said: "Happy birthday!" Everything was as it should be, he

    thought as he embraced them. He had done what he was supposed to do, and

    the family was here,

404 Ken Follett

where they were supposed to be. He felt as though he had proved something,

if only to himself. All those years in the air force, tinkering with

instrumentation or sitting in a plane watching bombs drop, he had never felt

his courage was being tested. His relations had medals for ground fighting,

but he had always had the uncomfortable feeling that he had an easy role,

like the guy in the war movies who slops out the food at breakfast time

before the real soldiers go off to fight. He had always wondered whether he

had the right stuff. Now he thought about Turkey, and getting stuck in

Adana, and driving through the blizzard in that dam '64 Chevy, and changing

the wheel in Blood Alley with the sons of Mr. Fish's cousin; and he thought

about Perot's toast, to the men who said what they were going to do, then

went out and did it; and he knew the answer. Oh, yes. He had the right

stuff.

    Paul's daughters, Karen and Ann Marie, were wearing matching plaid skirts.

    Ann Marie, the littlest, got to him first, and he swept her up in his arms

    and squeezed her tight. Karen was too big to be picked up, but he hugged

    her just as hard. Behind them was Ruthie, his biggest little girl, all

    dressed in shades of honey and crearn. He kissed her long and hard, then

    looked at her, smiling. He could not have stopped smiling if he had wanted

    to. He felt very mellow inside. It was the best feeling he had ever known.

    Emily was looking at Bill as if she did not believe he was really there.

    "Gosh," she said lamely, "it's good to see you again, sweetie."

    The bus went rather quiet as he kissed her. Rachel Schwebach began to cry.

    Bill kissed the girls, Vicki, Jackie, and Jenny, then he looked at his son.

    Chris was very grown up in a blue suit he had been given for Christmas.

    Bill had seen that suit before. He remembered a photograph of Chris,

    standing in front of the Christmas tree in his new suit: that photograph

    had been above Bill's bunk, in a prison cell, long ago and far away ...

    Emily kept touching him to make sure he was really there. "You look

    marvelous," she said.

    Bill knew he looked absolutely terrible. He said: "I love you. "

Ross Perot got on the bus and said: "Is everybody here?"

    "Not my dad!" said a plaintive small voice. It was Scan Sculley.

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 405

    "Don't worry," said Perot. "He'll be right out. He's our straight man. -

    Pat Sculley had been stopped by a customs agent and asked to open his

    suitcase. He was carrying all the money, and of course the agent had seen

    it. Several more agents were summoned, and Sculley was taken into an office

    to be interrogated.

    The agents got out some forms. Sculley began to explain, but they did not

    want to listen, they only wanted to fill out the form.

"Is the money yours?"

"No, it belongs to EDS."

"Did you have it when you left the States?"

"Most of it."

"When and how did you leave the States?"

"A week ago on a private 707.

"Where did you go?"

"To Istanbul, then to the Iranian border."

    Another man came into the office and said: "Are you Mr. Sculley?"

"Yes."

    "I'm terribly sorry you've been troubled like this. Mr. Perot is waiting

    for you outside." He turned to the agents. "You can tear up those forms."

    Sculley smiled and left. He was not in the Middle East anymore. This was

    Dallas, where Perot was Perot.

    Sculley got on the bus, and saw Mary, Sean, and Jennifer. He hugged and

    kissed them all, then said: "What's happening?"

"Ibere's a little reception for you," said Mary.

    The bus started to move, but it did not go far. It stopped again a few

    yards away at a different gate, and they were all ushered back into the

    airport and led to a - door marked "Concorde Room. I I

    As they walked in, a thousand people rose to their feet, cheering and

    clapping.

Someone had put up a huge banner reading:

JOHN HOWELL

NO. I

DADDY

    Jay Coburn was overwhelmed by the size of the crowd and their reaction.

    What a good idea the buses had been, to give the

406 Ken Folktt

men a chance to greet their families in private before coming in here. Who

had arranged that? Stauffer, of course.

    As he walked through the room toward the front, people in the crowd reached

    over to shake his hand, saying: Good to see you! Welcome back! He smiled

    and shook hands---there was David Behne, there was Dick Morrison, the faces

    bluffed and the words melted into one big warm hello.

    When Paul and Bill walked in with their wives and children, the cheering

    rose to a roar.

    Ross Perot, standing at the front, felt tears come to his eyes. He was more

    tired than he had ever been in his life, but immensely satisfied. He

    thought of all the luck and all the coincidences that had made the rescue

    possible: the fact that he knew Simons, that Simons had been willing to go,

    that EDS had hired Vietnam veterans, that they had been willing to go, that

    the seventh floor knew how to get things achieved around the world because

    of their experience with the POW campaign, that T.J. had been able to rent

    a plane, that the mob had stormed the Gasr Prison ...

    And he thought of all the things that might have gone wrong. He recalled

    the proverb: success has a thousand fathers, but failure is an orphan. In

    a few minutes he would stand up and tell these people a little of what had

    happened and how Paul and Bill were brought home. But it would be hard to

    put into words the risks that had been taken, the awful cost if the thing

    had gone badly and ended in the criminal courts or worse. He remembered the

    day he left Tehran, and how he had superstitiously thought of his luck as

    sand running through an hourglass. Suddenly he saw the hourglass again, and

    all the sand had run out. He grinned to himself, picked up the imaginary

    glass, and turned it upside down.

    Simons bent down and spoke in Perot's ear. "Remember you offered to pay

    me?"

    Perot would never forget it. When Simons gave you that icy look, you froze.

    "I sure do."

"See this?" said Simons, inclining his head.

    Paul was walking toward them, carrying Ann Marie in his arms, through the

    crowd of cheering friends. "I see it," said Perot.

Simons said: "I just got paid." He drew on his cigar.

    At last the room quieted down, and Perot began to speak. He called Rashid

    over and put his arm around the young' man9s

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 407

shoulders. "I want you to meet a key member of the rescue tearn," he said to

the crowd. "As Colonel Simons said, Rashid only weighs a hundred and forty

pounds, but he has five hundred pounds of courage."

    They all laughed and clapped again. Rashid looked around. Many times, many

    times he had thought about going to America; but in his wildest dreams he

    had never imagined that his welcome would be Re this!

    Perot began to tell the story. Listening, Paul felt oddly humble. He was

    not a hero. The others were the heroes. He was privileged. He belonged with

    just about the finest bunch of people in the whole world.

    Bill looked around the crowd and saw Ron Sperberg, a good friend and a

    colleague for years. Sperberg was wearing a great big cowboy hat. We're

    back in Texas, Bill thought. This is the heartland of the U.S.A., the

    safest place in the world; they can't reach us here. This time, the

    nightmare is really over. We're back. We're safe.

We're home.

    EpiLoGuE

Jay and Liz Coburn were divorced. Kristi, the second daughter, the emotional

one, chose to live with her father. Coburn was made Manager of Human

Resources for EDS Federal. In September 1982 he and Ross Perot, Jr., became

the fiM men to fly around the world in a helicopter. The aircraft they used

is now in the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. It is called

Spirit of Texas.

    Paul became Comptroller of EDS and Bill became Medicaid Marketing Director

    in the Health Care Division.

    Joe Poch6, Pat Sculley, Jim Schwebach, Ron Davis, and Rashid all continued

    to work for EDS in various parts of the world. Davis's wife, Marva, gave

    birth to a boy, Benjamin, on July 18, 1979.

    Keane Taylor was made Country Manager for EDS in the Netherlands, where he

    was joined by Glenn Jackson. Gayden continued to be head of EDS World, and

    therefore Taylor's boss.

    John Howell was made a full partner in Tom Luce's law firm, Hughes and

    Hill. Angela Howell had another baby, Sarah, on June 19, 1980.

    Rich Gallagher left EDS on July 1, 1979. An easterner, he had never quite

    felt one of the boys at EDS. Lloyd Briggs and Paul Bucha, two more

    easterners, left around the same time.

Ralph Boulware also parted company with EDS.

Lulu May Perot, Ross Perot's mother, died on April 3, 1979.

    Ross Perot, Jr., graduated from college and went to work for his father in

    the fall of 1981. A year later Nancy Perot did the same. Perot himself just

    went on making more and more money. His teal estate appreciated, his oil

    company found wells, and EDS won more and bigger contracts. EDS shares,

    priced around 408

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 409

eighteen dollars apiece when Paul and Bill were armsted, were worth six

times that four years later.

    Colonel Simons died on May 21, 1979, after a series of heart attacks. In

    the last few weeks of his life, his constant companion was Anita Melton,

    the zany stewardess from the Boeing 707. They had an odd, tragic

    relationship: they never became lovers in the physical sense, but they were

    in love. They lived together in the guest cottage at Perot's Dallas house.

    She taught him to cook, and he started her jogging, timing her with a

    stopwatch. They held hands a lot. After Simons died, his son Harry and

    Harry's wife, Shawn, had a baby boy. They named him Arthur Simons, Jr.

    On November 4, 1979, the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was once again overrun by

    militant Iranians. This time they took hostages. Fifty-two Americans were

    held prisoner for more than a year. A rescue mission mounted by President

    Carter came to an ignominious end in the deserts of central Iran.

But then, Carter did not have the help of Bull Simons.

EK

IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT FOR THE NORTHERN DISTRICT OF TEXAS,

DALLAS DIVISION

ELECTRONIC DATA SYSTEMS CORP. IRAN VS.

SOCIAL SECURITY ORGANIZATION OF THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAN, THE MINIMY OF HEALTH

AND WELFARE OF THE GOVERNMENT OF IRAN, THE GOVT. OF MAN

NO. CA3-79-218-F

(Extracts from the Findings of Fact)

Neither EDSCI nor anyone on its behalf procured the contract unlawfully. No

evidence showed bribery of any official or employee of Defendants in order

to secure the contract, nor did the evidence suggest the existence of fraud

or public corruption in the procurement of the contract ...

    The price of the contract was not exorbitant; rather, the evidence showed

    that the price was reasonable and in accordance with amounts charged by EDS

    to others for similar services. The price did not compare unfavorably with

    amounts charged by others in the health care industry for similar services

    . . .

    The failure by SSO and the Ministry to provide written notice of

    non-acceptance of unpaid invoices was inexcusable and therefore constituted

    a breach of the contract. The assignment of Dr. Towliati to SSO as Deputy

    Managing Director did not effect such an excuse. I do not find evidence

    that Dr. Towliati's services influenced the process of approval for

    invoices, nor do 1

    410

    ON WINGS OF EAGLES 411

find evidence that Dr. Towliati functioned improperly in his review of

performance under the contract. Rather, the evidence showed that the

Ministry and SSO had full and continuous opportunity to monitor EDSCI's

performance. Moreover, I do not find credible evidence of trickery or that

EDSCI conspired with anyone to gain wrongful approval for payment of its in-

voices or to deny the Defendants fair opportunity for their evaluation of