"you're sure it's his handwriting?" gavallan asked.
"azadeh's sure, and she also knew the messenger." erikki added, "the messenger told us nothing else, only that there's lots of fighting going on there."
"by road's out of the question." mciver turned to gavallan. "maybe our mullah tehrani'd give erikki a clearance? according to nogger, he was like a dog-eating wallah after his joyride this morning. we could fit charlie's 206
with long-range tanks, and erikki could take her, maybe with nogger or one of the others to bring her right back?"
gavallan said, "erikki, you know the risk you're taking?"
"yes." erikki had not yet told them about the killings.
"you've thought it through everything? rakoczy, the roadblock, azadeh herself? we could send azadeh back alone and you could get on the 125 and we'd put her on saturday's flight."
"come on, boss, you'd never do that and neither will i i couldn't leave her."
"of course, but it had to be said. all right. erikki, you take care of the long-range tanks, we'll try for the clearance. i'd suggest you both come back to tehran as quickly as possible and take the 125 on saturday. both of you. it might be wise for you to transfer and do a tour somewhere else australia, singapore, perhaps or aberdeen, but that might be too cold for azadeh, you let me know." gavallan cheerfully stuck out his hand. "happy tabriz, eh?"
"thanks." erikki hesitated. "any news of tom lochart?"
"no, not yet still can't raise kowiss or bandar delam. why? sharazad's getting anxious?"
"more than that. her father's in evin jail an "
"jesuschrist," mclver exploded, gavallan equally shocked, knowing the rumors of arrests and firing squads. "what for?"
"for questioning by a komiteh no one knows what for or how long he'll be held."
gavallan said uneasily, "well, if it's only for questioning... what happened, erikki?"
"sharazad came home half an hour or so ago in tears. when she went back last night after dinner to her parents' house all hell had broken loose. apparently some green bands went into the bazaar, grabbed emir paknouri you remember, her ex-husband for 'crimes against islam' and ordered bakravan to appear at dawn for questioning for what reason no one knows." erikki took a breath. "they went with him to the prison this morning, she, her mother, sisters, and brother. they got there just after dawn and waited and waited and would be still waiting if they hadn't been told to clear off around 2:00 pm. by green bands on guard there."
there was a stunned silence.
erikki broke it. "mae, try kowiss. get them to contact bandar delam tom should know about sharazad's father." he noticed the look between the two men. "what's going on with tom?"
"he's on a charter to bandar delam."
"yes, you told me that. mac's told me that and so has sharazad. tom told her he'd be back in a few days." erikki waited. gavallan just looked back at
him. "well," he said, "you must have good reasons."
"i think so," gavallan said. both he and mciver were convinced that tom lochart would not willingly have gone on to kuwait, whatever bribe valik offered him both equally afraid that he had been forced.
"all right you're the boss. well, i'll be off. sorry for bringing bad news but i thought you'd better know." erikki forced a smile. "sharazad wasn't in good shape. see you in al shargaz!"
"sooner the better, erikki."
mciver said, "if you bump into gen don't mention about sharazad's father, eh?"
"of course."
after erikki had left, mciver said, "bakravan's a pretty important bazaar) to summarily arrest."
"i agree." after a pause gavallan said, "hope to god erikki's not going into a trap. that message bit's very smelly, very sm "
the telex chattering made them both jump. they read the telex, line by line, as it came through. gavallan began cursing and continued to curse until the machine stopped. "god curse imperial helicopters to hell!" he ripped the telex out, mac sent their call sign back and
"standby one." gavallan reread it.
again it was from liz chen: "dear boss, we've tried you every hour on the hour since we heard from johnny hogg you stayed in tehran. sorry to bring bad tidings but early monday morning imperial air and imperial helicopters jointly announced 'new financial arrangements to revitalise their competitive position in the north sea. ih have been allowed to write off 17.1 million sterling of taxpayers' money and have capitalised another 48 million of their 68 million debt by issuing paper to the head company in lieu of the debt.' we've just heard secretly that 18 of our 19 north sea contracts due to be renewed by various companies have been awarded to ih under real cost. thurston dell of extex urgently needs to talk to you. our ops in nigeria urgently need 3 repeat 3 212s can you provide from iran redundancies? presume you will go to al shargaz or dubai with john hogg today. please advise! mac if himself has already left, please advise. love to genny."
"we're buggered!" gavallan said. "it's highway bloody robbery with taxpayers' money."
"then, then take them to court," mciver said nervously, shocked at gavallan's colon
"unfair competition!"
"i can't, for god's sake," then even louder and more angry, "unless the government screams there's bugger all i can do! without having to service their legitimate debt they can bid way under even our cost! dew neh loh mob on callaghan and all his pinkos!"
"come on, andy, they're not all pinkos!"
"i know that, for god's sake," gavallan roared, "but it sounds right!" then his good nature overcame his fury and he laughed though his heart was still working hard. "bloody government," he added sourly, "they don't know their arse from a hole in the ground."
mclver could feel his own hands shaking. "christ, andy, i thought you were going to bust a blood vessel." he was well aware of the implications of the telex. all his own nest egg was in s-g stocks and shares. "eighteen contracts out of nineteen, that dents our whole north sea ops!"
"it dents us everywhere. with those amounts of write-offs ih can undercut us worldwide. and thurston wanting me to call urgently? that's got to mean extex'll back out, the very least renegotiate, because of a new 'adjusted' ih bid and i've signed the contract for our x63s." gavallan took out his handkerchief and mopped his brow. then he saw nogger lane gaping from the doorway. "what the hell do you want?"
"er, er, nothing, sir, i thought the place was on fire..." nogger lane hurriedly closed the door.
"andy," mclver said softly when it was safe, "struan's. won't they pick up the slack for you?"
"struan's could, though not easily this year but linbar won't." gavallan kept his voice down equally. "when he hears about all this he'll dance a bloody jig. the timing couldn't be more perfect for him." he smiled wryly, thinking about ian dunross's call and his warnings. he had not told mclver about them mclver was not part of struan's though an old friend of lan's too. where the devil does ian get his information?
he smoothed out the telex. this was the culmination of a number of problems with imperial helicopters. six months ago ih had deliberately headbunted one of his senior executives who had taken with him many s-g secrets. only last month gavallan had lost a very important north sea board of trade tender to ih after a year of work and huge investment. the board of trade specifications were to develop electronic equipment for a helicopter air-sea rescue operation in all weather conditions, day or night, so that choppers could safely go out a hundred miles over the north sea, hover, pick eight men out of the sea, and return safely in zero-zero conditions and gale-force winds fast. in winter months, even with a sea survival suit, about an hour was maximum life expectancy and endurance in those seas.
with fan dunross's private enthusiasm: "don't forget, andy, such knowledge and equipment would also fit perfectly into our projected china seas endeavors," gavallan had committed half a million pounds and a year of work developing the electronics and guidance systems with an electronics company. then, on the great day, the official test pilot had found he couldn't work the equipment, even though six of s- g's line pilots, including tom lochart and
rudi lutz, later had had no trouble. even so, s-g could not get the necessary certification in time. "the unfairness of the whole rotten business," he had written mciver, "is that ih's got the contract using a guerney 661 with noncertificated danish equipment aboard. we get the runaround and they get dispensations. it's a bastard by the way, of course i can't prove it, but i'd bet real money the test pilot was got at he's been sent 'on a long rest.' oh, we'll get the money back and the contract in a year or so because our equipment's better, safer, and british built. meanwhile imperial's operating at safety levels, i think, that can be improved."
that's what really counts, he thought, rereading the telex, safety safety first and safety last. "mae, would you send liz a reply for me: 'leaving for al shargaz now and will phone on arrival.' telex thurston and ask what deal he would offer if i double the number of x63s presently on order. s "
"eh?"
"well, it costs nothing to ask; ih's bound to hear about our problems here and i'm not going to let those buggers start giving us the finger better to keep them off-balance. in any event we could use two x63s here to service all the guerney contracts if things were different. finish the telex, see you soon."
"okay."
gavallan sat back in the easy chair and let his mind drift, collecting his strength. i'm going to have to be very strong. and very clever. this is the one that can bury me and s-g and give linbar everything he needs this and iran together. yes, and it was stupid to lose your temper like that. what you need is kathy's shrieking tree... ah, kathy, kathy.
the shrieking tree was an old clan custom, a special tree chosen by the oldest of the clan, somewhere nearby, that you could go out to, alone, when the deevil as old granny dunross, kathy's grandmother, called it "when the deevil was upon you and there you could curse and rant and rave and curse some more until there were no more curses left. then there would always be peace in the home and never a need to really curse a husband or wife or lover or child. aye, just a wee tree, for a tree can bear all the curses even the deevil himself invented."
the first time he had used kathy's shrieking tree was in hong kong. there it was a jacaranda in the garden of the great house, the residence of the taipan of struan's. kathy's brother, ian, was taipan then. gavallan knew the date exactly: it was wednesday, august 21, 1963, the night she told him.
poor kathy, my kathy, he thought, loving her still kathy, born under an ill-set star. swept off your feet by one of the few john selkirk, flight lieutenant, dfc, raf married at once, not yet eighteen, widowed at once, not yet three months older, him torched out of the skies and vanished. rotten war
years and more tragedy, two beloved brothers killed in action one your twin. meeting you in hong kong in '46, at once in love with you, hoping with all my heart that i could make up for some of the unlock. i know melinda and scot did they've turned out wonderfully, so grand. and then, in '63, before your thirty-eighth birthday, the multiple sclerosis.
going home to scotland as you'd always wanted me to put ian's plans into effect, you to regain your health. but that part not to be. watching you die. watching the sweet smile you used to cover the hell inside, so brave and gentle and wise and loving, but going, plateau by plateau. so slowly, yet so fast, so inexorably. by '68 in a wheelchair, mind still crystal, voice clear, the rest a shell, out of control and shaking. then it was '70.
that christmas they were at castle avisyard. and on the second day of the new year when the others had gone and melinda and scot were skiing in switzerland, she had said, "andy, my darling, i cannot endure another year, another month, or another day."
"yes," he said simply.
"sorry, but i'll need help. i need to go and i... i'm ever so sorry that it's been so long... but i need to go now, andy. i have to do it myself but i'll need help. yes?"
"yes, my darling."
they had spent a day and a night talking, talking about good things and good times and what he should do for melinda and scot, and that she wanted him to marry again, and she told him how wonderful life had been with him and they laughed, one with another, and his tears did not spill till later. he held her palsied hand with the sleeping pills and held her shaking head against his chest, helped her with the glass of water a little whisky in it for luck and never let her go until the shaking had stopped.
the doctor had said kindly, "i don't blame her if i'd been her i would have done it years ago, poor lady."
going then to the shrieking tree. but shrieking no words, nothing only tears.
"andy?"
"yes, kathy?"
gavallan looked up and he saw it was genny, mclver by the door, both of them watching him. "oh, hello, genny, sorry, i was a million miles away." he got up. "it i think it was the avisyard that set me thinking."
