in the corridor azadeh stopped a moment and held on to the wall until the fit of trembling passed. so much death and killing and horror. yesterday when she had come out onto the steps of the palace and had seen erikki in the cockpit, blood streaming down his face and into his stubbled beard, more dripping from his sleeve, ahmed crumpled beside him, she had died and then, seeing him
get out and stand tall and walk to her, her own legs useless, and catch her up into his arms, she had come to life again, all her terrors had poured out with her tears. "oh, erikki, oh, erikki, i've been so afraid, so afraid..."
he had carried her into the great room and the doctor was there with hakim, robert armstrong and colonel hashemi fazir. a bullet had torn away part of erikki's left ear, another had scored his forearm. the doctor had cauterized the wounds and bound them up, injecting him with antitetanus serum and penicillin, more afraid of infection than of loss of blood: "insha'allah, but there's not much i can do, captain, you're strong, your pulse is good, a plastic surgeon can make your ear look better, your hearing's not touched, praised be to god! just beware of infection..."
"what happened, erikki?" hakim had asked.
"i flew them north into the mountains and ahmed was careless it wasn't his fault, he got airsick and before we knew what was happening bayazid had a gun to his head, another tribesman had one to mine and bayazid said, 'fly to the village, then you can leave."
"'you swore a holy oath you wouldn't harm me!' i said.
"'i swore i wouldn't harm you and i won't, but my oath was mine, not of my men,' bayazid said, and the man with a gun to my head laughed and shouted, 'obey our sheik or by god you will be so filled with pain you will beg for death."'
"i should have thought of that," hakim said with a curse. "i should have bound them all with the oath. i should have thought of that."
"it wouldn't have made any difference. anyway it was all my fault; i'd brought them here and almost ruined everything. i can't tell you how sorry i am but it was the only way to get back and i thought i'd find abdollah khan, i never thought that matyeryebyets bayazid would use a grenade."
"we're not hurt, through god's will, azadeh and i. how could you know abdollah khan was dead, or that half your ransom was paid? go on with what happened," hakim had said and azadeh noticed a strangeness under the voice. hakim's changed, she thought. i can't understand what's in his mind like i used to. before he became khan, really khan, i could but not now. he's still my darling brother but a stranger. so much has changed, so fast. i've changed. so has erikki, my god how much! johnny hasn't changed...
in the great room, erikki had continued: "flying them away was the only way to get them out of the palace without further trouble or killing. if bayazid hadn't insisted, i would have offered no other way'dtve been safe for you and azadeh. i had to gamble that somehow they'd obey the oath. but whatever happened, it was them or me, i knew it and so did they, for of course i was the only one who knew who they were and where they lived and a khan's vengeance is serious. whatever i did, drop them off halfway or go to the
village, they'd never let me go. how could they it was the village or me and their one god would vote for their village along with them, whatever they'd agreed or sworn!"
"that's a question only god could answer."
"my gods, the ancient gods, don't like to be used as an excuse, and they don't like this swearing in their name. they disapprove of it greatly, in fact they forbid it." azadeh heard the bitterness and touched him gently. he had held her hand. "i'm fine now, azadeh."
"what happened next, erikki?" hakim asked.
"i told bayazid there wasn't enough gasoline and tried to reason with him and he just said, 'as god wants,' stuck the gun into ahmed's shoulder and pulled the trigger. 'go to the village! the next bullet goes into his stomach.' ahmed passed out and bayazid reached over him for the sten gun that had slipped to the floor of the cockpit, half under the seat, but he couldn't quite get it. i was strapped in, so was ahmed, they weren't, so i shifted her around the skies in ways i didn't think a chopper could stand, then let her drop out and made a landing. it was a bad one; i thought i'd broken a skid but later i found it was only bent. as soon as we'd stopped i used the sten and my knife and killed those who were conscious and hostile, disarmed the unconscious ones, and dumped them out of the cabin. then, after a time, i came back."
"just like that," armstrong had said. "fourteen men."
"five, and bayazid. the others..." azadeh had her arm on his shoulder and she felt the shrug and the following tremor. "i left them."
"where?" hashemi fazir had said. "could you describe where, captain?" erikki had done so, accurately, and the colonel had sent men to find them.
erikki put his good hand into his pocket and brought out the ransom jewels and gave them to hakim khan. "now i think i would like to talk to my wife, if it pleases you. i'll tell you the rest later." then she and he had gone to their own rooms and he said nothing more, just held her gently in his great embrace. her presence soothed away his anguish. soon to sleep. she slept barely at all, at once back in the village to tear herself in panic from its suffocating grasp. she had stayed quiet for a time in his arms, then moved to a chair and half dozed, content to be with him. he had slept dreamlessly until it was dark, then awoke.
"first a bath and then a shave and then some vodka and then we will talk," he had said, "i've never seen you more beautiful nor loved you more and i'm sorry, sorry i was jealous no, azadeh, don't say anything yet. then i want to know everything."
in the dawn she had finished telling all there was to tell as much as she would ever tell and he his story. he had hidden nothing, not his jealousy, or the killing rage and the joy of battle or the tears he had shed on the mountainside,
seeing the savagery of the mayhem he had dealt to the tribesmen. "they... they did treat me fairly in their village... and ransom is an ancient custom. if it hadn't been for abdollah murdering their messenger... that might have made the difference, perhaps, perhaps not. but that doesn't forgive the killings. i feel i'm a monster, you married a madman, azadeh. i'm dangerous."
"no, no, you're not, of course you're not."
"by all my gods, i've killed twenty or more men in half that number of days and yet i've never killed before except those assassins, those men who charged in here to murder your father before we were married. outside of iran i've never killed anyone, never hurt anyone i've had plenty of fights with or without pukoh but never serious. never. if that kalandar and the village had existed, i would have burned him and them without a second thought. i can understand your johnny at the base; i thank all gods for bringing him to us to protect you and curse him for taking away my peace though i know i'm in his immortal debt. i can't deal with the killings and i can't deal with him. i can't, i can't, not yet."
"it doesn't matter, not now, erikki. now we've time. now we're safe, you're safe and i'm safe and hakim's safe, we're safe, my darling. look at the dawn, isn't it beautiful? look, erikki, it's a new day now, so beautiful, a new life. we're safe, erikki."
in the great room: 3:45 p.m. hakim khan was alone except for hashemi fazir. half an hour ago hashemi had arrived unbidden. he had apologized for the intrusion, handing him a telex. "i thought you'd better see this at once, highness."
the telex read: "urgent. to colonel fazir, inner intelligence, tabriz: arrest erikki yokkonen, husband of her highness, azadeh gorgon, for crimes committed against the state, for complicity in air piracy, hijacking, and high treason. put him in chains and send him at once to my headquarters here. director, savama, tehran."
hakim khan dismissed his guards. "i don't understand, colonel. please explain."
"the moment i'd decoded it, i phoned for further details, highness. it seems last year s-g helicopters sold a number of helicopters to ihc an "
"i don't understand."
"sorry, to iran helicopter company, an iranian company, captain yokkonen's present employer. among them were are ten 212s including his. today the other nine, valued at perhaps $9 million, were stolen and illegally flown out of iran by ihc pilots savama presumes to one of the gulf states."
hakim khan said coldly, "even if they have, this doesn't affect erikki. he's done nothing wrong."
"we don't know that for certain, highness. savama says perhaps he knew of the conspiracy it certainly had to have been planned for some time because three bases are involved lengeh, bandar delam, and kowiss as well as their tehran head office. savama are very, very agitated because it's also been reported that vast quantities of valuable iranian spares have been whisked away. no mo "
"reported by whom?"
"the ihc managing director, siamaki. even more serious, all ihc foreign personnel, pilots and mechanics and of rice staff, have vanished as well. everyone, so of course it was a conspiracy. it seems that yesterday there were perhaps twenty of them all over iran, last week forty, today none. there are no s-g, or more correctly ihc foreigners left in all iran. except captain yokkonen."
at once the implication of erikki's importance leaped into hakim's mind and he cursed himself for allowing his face to give him away when hashemi said blithely, "ah, yes, of course you see it too! savama told me that even if the captain is innocent of complicity in the conspiracy, he's the essential means to persuade the ringleaders and criminals, gavallan and mciver and certainly the british government which must have been party to the treason to return our airplanes, our spares, to pay an indemnity of very serious proportions, to return to iran and stand trial for crimes against islam."
hakim khan shifted uneasily on his cushions, the pain in his back surfacing, and wanted to shout with rage because all the pain and anguish had been unnecessary, and now, hardly able to stand without pain, he might be permanently injured. put that aside for later, he told himself grimly, and deal with this dangerous son of a dog who sits there patiently like an accomplished salesman of precious carpets who has laid out his wares and now waits for the negotiation to begin. if i want to buy.
to buy erikki out of the trap i shall have to give this dog a personal pishkesh, of value to him not savama, god curse them by any name. what? petr oleg mzytryk at least. i could pass him over to hashemi without a belch, if he comes, when he comes. he'll come. yesterday ahmed sent for him in my name i wonder how ahmed is, did his operation go well? i hope the fool doesn't die; i could use his knowledge for a while more. fool to be caught off guard, fool! yes he's a fool but this dog isn't. with the gift of mzytryk and more help in azerbaijan, and a promise of future friendship, i can buy erikki out of the trap. why should i?
because azadeh loves him? unfortunately she is sister to the khan of all the gorgons and this is a khan's problem, not a brother's problem.
erikki's a hazard to me and to her. he's a dangerous man with blood on his
hands. the tribesmen, be they kurds or not, will seek vengeance probably. he's always been a bad match though he brought her great joy, still brings her happiness but no children and now he cannot stay in iran. impossible. no way for him to stay. i couldn't buy him two years of protection and azadeh's sworn by god to stay here at least two years how cunning my father was to give me power over her. if i buy erikki out of the trap she can't go with him. in two years many estrangements could happen by themselves. but if he's no good for her, why buy him out? why not let them take erikki to checkmate a treason? it's treason to steal our property.
"this is too serious a matter to answer at once," he said.
"there is nothing for you to answer, highness. only captain yokkonen. i understand he's still here."
"the doctor ordered him to rest."
"perhaps you would send for him, highness."
"of course. but a man of your importance and learning would understand there are rules of honor and hospitality in azerbaijan, and in my tribe. he is my brother-in-law and even savama understands family honor." both men knew this was just an opening gambit in a delicate negotiation delicate because neither wanted savama's wrath on their heads, neither knew yet how far to go, or even if a private deal was wanted. "i presume many know of this... this treason?"
"only me, here in tabriz, highness. at the moment," hashemi said at once, conveniently forgetting armstrong to whom he had suggested this phony telex this morning: "there's no way that son of a dog, hakim, can expose it as a hoax, robert," he had said, delighted with his own brilliance. "he's got to barter. we barter the finn for mzytryk at no cost to ourselves. that bloodthirsty maniac finn can fly off into the sunset when we get what we want until then we bottle him up."
"say hakim khan won't agree, won't or can't deliver mzytryk?"
"if he doesn't want to barter, we seize erikki anyway. whirlwind's bound to leak soon and i can use erikki for all sorts of concessions he's hostage at least for $15 million worth of planes... or perhaps i barter him to the tribesmen as a peace offering... the fact that he's a finn helps. i could link him closely with rakoczy and the kgb and cause the soviets all sorts of mischief, equally the cia, eh? even mi6, oh?"
