Free Argo: How the CIA and Hollywood Pulled Off the Most Audacious Rescue in History by Matt Baglio, Antonio Mendez Page A

suddenly rushed back into the building. The ex–husband of one of the women was a policeman at the gate and he’d told her to get back inside. As they were hurrying back, the mob was already entering the compound.
    While she was reporting back to the others what she’d heard, Jimmy Lopez’s radio suddenly squawked to life: “They are coming over the walls!”
    It wasn’t long before the militants had converged on the consulate. A group rushed to the building’s back door and tried to smash it down. The door was made of bulletproof glass and was electronically sealed. It didn’t budge. Lopez watched as the militants fanned out. The consulate’s windows were protected by metal bars. Undeterred, the militants smashed through the glass and reached in, grabbing whatever they could off desks and out of file cabinets. Lopez hurried to the windows wielding his nightstick, trying to beat their arms back.
    He heard Morefield shout, “Everyone upstairs!”
    The staffers and Iranians quickly complied.
    Bob Anders was still in his office on the second floor when Morefield hurriedly popped his head in and told him to quickly lock up. The Iranian couple Anders had been helping stood to leave, but Anders reminded the woman that she hadn’t yet completed her immigrant visa application. He watched as she signed her name. Her hand shook the entire time.
    Everyone huddled on the second floor and waited. Cora wasreassured by the fact that none of the American staffers seemed overly worried, but she noted that the same couldn’t be said for the Iranians, who kept their heads down and kept quiet. Like the other Americans, Cora had heard about the February 14 attack and thought it would all be over quickly. She sat down near a Filipina woman who was employed as a secretary, and to pass the time they struck up a conversation. As it turned out, the woman had been working at the embassy during the Valentine’s Day attack, and recounted how several Iranians had been shot during that first assault. This immediately sobered Cora up.
    As they waited, they heard footsteps racing across the roof, followed by a loud pounding. “They’re trying to smash through the roof,” Cora heard someone say.
    Then the power was cut and the building was thrown into darkness. Some of the Iranians moaned, but for the most part everyone remained calm—something Cora found remarkable. A few minutes later, however, everyone straightened up when they heard glass breaking somewhere on the second floor. It sounded as if a window had just been shattered. Waiting in the hallway, Lopez raced to investigate. A bathroom on the second floor had a window that wasn’t secured, so he headed there. Before entering, he pulled out his pistol, popped the spoon on a tear gas canister, and threw open the door. Inside, he found a lone Iranian climbing through the broken window. Seeing the marine, the militant quickly jumped back out through the opening and Lopez threw the canister out after him. He then popped the spoon on a second canister and tossed it into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. There was no way to lock the door, so he used some coat hangers from a nearby storage closet to wire it shut.
    At that point, Morefield told everyone that he had just talked to Golacinski on the radio. The plan was for everyone to go out the back door and head over to the chancery as a group.
    Mark looked out the window to see what was happening outside. The grounds were swarming with militants. A group of Iranians had smashed open the commissary door with some steel bars and had begun ransacking the place. Going out into that mess didn’t seem like a good idea to him.
    As soon as they reached the back door, Morefield came to the same conclusion. By this time there was a ring of nearly a thousand militants surrounding the chancery screaming and cheering, and he realized the plan wasn’t going to work.
    Doubling back, Morefield called the chancery and conferred with Ann Swift on