Helplessly Sharazad began to cry, Zarah put her arms around her, and Karim’s heart went out to her and he buried Valik and his wife and children for others to bring forth.
“Insha’Allah,” he said, loathing the excuse that he could no longer accept for blasphemous crimes committed by men in the Name of God that such men would never know. The Ayatollah’s truly a gift from God. We need only to follow him to cleanse Islam of these foul blasphemers, he thought. God will punish them after death as we, the living, must punish them into death. “My news is all bad, I’m suspect, most of my friends, the air force’s being put on trial. Foolishly I told Sharazad… I wanted you to know, Meshang, but foolishly I told her and that was the reason she… she fainted. Please excuse me, I’m so sorry, I won’t stay, I can’t, I’ve got to… got to get back. I just came to tell you about… I had to tell someone…”
AT MCIVER’S OFFICE: 10:20 P.M. McIver was alone in the penthouse offices, sitting in his creaking chair, feet comfortably on his desk, reading - the light good and the room warm thanks to their generator. The telex was on, and the HF. It was late but there was no point in going home yet where it was cold and damp and no Genny. He looked up. Footsteps were hurrying up the outside stairs. The knock was nervous. “Who is it?”
“Captain McIver? It’s me, Captain Peshadi, Karim Peshadi.” Astonished, McIver unlocked the door, knowing the young man quite well, both as a helicopter student and favored cousin of Sharazad. He stuck out his hand, covering his further surprise at the youth’s appearance. “Come in, Karim, what can I do for you? I was terribly sorry to hear about your father’s arrest.”
“He was shot two days ago.”
“Oh, Christ!”
“Yes. Sorry, none of this is going to be pleasant.” Hurriedly Karim closed the door and dropped his voice. “Sorry, but I’ve got to hurry, I’m already hours overdue but I’ve just come from Sharazad - I went to your apartment but Captain Pettikin said you were here. Tonight I read a secret telex from our base in Abadan.” He told him what it said.
McIver was appalled and tried to cover it. “Did you tell Captain Pettikin?” “No, no, I thought I should tell only you.”
“Far as we know HBC was hijacked. None of our pilots were invol - ” “I’m not here officially, I just came to tell you because Tom’s not here. I didn’t know what else to do. I saw Sharazad tonight and found out, also quite by chance, about Tom.” He repeated what Sharazad had told him. “How could Tom be alive and them all dead?”
McIver felt the hurt in his chest begin again. “She’s mistaken.” “In the Name of God, tell me the truth! You must know! Tom must’ve told you, you can trust me,” the young man exploded, beside himself with worry. “You’ve got to trust me. Perhaps I can help. Tom’s in terrible danger, so’s Sharazad and all our families! You’ve got to trust me! How did Tom get out?”
629 McIver felt the knot tightening around them all - Lochart, Pettikin, him. Don’t lose your wits, he ordered himself, be careful. You daren’t admit anything. Don’t admit anything. “Far as I know Tom was nowhere near HBC.” “Liar!” the young man said enraged and spilled out what he had concluded all the way here, walking, fighting on a bus, walking again, snow falling and cold and desperate - the komiteh still to appear before. “You must’ve signed the clearance, you or Pettikin, and Tom’s name’s got to be on the clearance - I know you all too well, you and your hammering into us about flying by the book, signing forms, always have a form signed. You did, didn’t you? Didn’t you?” he shouted.
“I think you’d better go, Captain,” McIver said curtly.
“You’re as involved as Tom, don’t you see? You’re in trouble as mu - ” “I think you’d better leave it. I know you’re overwrought and it’s terrible about your father,” he said kindly. “I’m truly, terribly sorry.” There was no sound but the gentle hum of the HF and the generator that was above on the roof. McIver waited. Karim waited. Then the young man half nodded. “You’re right,” he said crestfallen, “why should you trust me? Trust’s gone away from us. Our world’s become hell on earth and all because of the Shah. We trusted him but he failed us, gave us false allies, muzzled our generals, ran away and left us in the pit, shamed, left us to false mullahs. I swear by God you can trust me but what difference does that make to you or anyone? Trust’s gone from us.” His face twisted. “Perhaps God’s gone from us.” The HF in the other room crackled gently, static from an electrical storm somewhere. “Can you get Zagros? Sharazad said Tom went back this morning.”
“I tried earlier but can’t raise them,” McIver said truthfully. “This time of the year it’s almost impossible but I heard they arrived safely. Our base in Kowiss relayed a report just after noon.”
“You’d… you’d better tell Tom, tell him what I told you. Tell him to get out.” Karim’s voice was dulled. “You’re all blessed, you can all go home.” Then his despair burst and tears spilled down his cheeks. “Oh, laddie…” Compassionately McIver put an arm around his shoulders and gentled him, the youth of an age with his own son safe in England, safely born English, safe on the ground, a doctor and nothing to do with flying, safe… God in heaven, who the hell is ever safe?
In a little while he felt the heaving of the youth’s chest lessen. To save Karim’s face, he backed off and turned and looked at the kitchenette. “I was just going to have some tea, will you join me?”
“I’ll…just have some water and then, then I’ll go, thank you.” At once McIver went to fetch some. Poor lad, he was thinking, how terrible about his father - such a wonderful fellow, tough, hard-line but straight and loyal and never a fiddle on the side. Terrible. God Almighty, if they’ll shoot him, they’ll shoot anyone. We’ll all be dead soon, one way or another. “Here,” he said, sickened, giving Karim the glass.
The youth accepted it, embarrassed that he had lost control in front of a foreigner. “Thank you. Good night.” He saw McIver staring at him strangely. “What is it?”
“Just a sudden idea, Karim. Could you get access to Doshan Tappeh Tower?” “I don’t know. Why?”
“If you could, without anyone knowing what you wanted, maybe you could get HBC’s clearance - it’s got to be in the takeoff book, if they were using one that day. Then we could see, couldn’t we, who was flying her. Eh?” “Yes, but what good would that do?” Karim watched the pale eyes set in the craggy face. “They’d have the automatic tape recorders on.” “Maybe, maybe not. There’d been fighting there - maybe they were not so efficient. Far as we know, whoever took HBC didn’t have verbal clearance to or from the tower. He just took off. Maybe in all the excitement they didn’t even record any clearance.” McIver’s hope grew as he developed his thought. “Only the book’d tell, the takeoff clearance book. Wouldn’t it?” Karim tried to see where McIver was leading him. “And what if it says Tom Lochart?”
“I don’t see how it could, because then it’d have my signature on it, and then it’d, er, it’d have to be a forgery.” McIver loathed the falsehoods, his hastily made-up story sounding weaker every minute. “The only clearance I signed was for Nogger Lane to take some spares to Bandar Delam but canceled it and him before he could go. The spares were unimportant and what with one thing and another, by that time HBC’d been hijacked.” “The clearance’s the only proof?”
“Only God knows that for certain. If the clearance says Tom Lochart and it’s signed by me, it’s a forgery. A forgery like that
could cause lots of troubles. As such it shouldn’t exist. Should it?” Slowly Karim shook his head, his mind already taking him to the tower, past the guards - would there be guards? - finding the book and the right page and seeing… seeing the Green Band in the doorway but killing him, taking the book and hurrying away, as silently and secretly as he had entered, going to the Ayatollah, telling him about the monstrous crime committed against his father, the Ayatollah wise and listening and not like the dogs who abused the Word, at once ordering revenge in the Name of the One God. Then going to Meshang and telling him the family was saved, but more important, knowing the Sharazad he loved to distraction and wanted to distraction but never possible in this life - first cousin and against Koranic law - was also saved.