Free On Wings of Eagles by Ken Follett

thousand dollars."
    "Twelve million?"
    "That's right. -
    "Now how the devil has this happened?"
        "Ross, I've been on the phone with Lloyd Briggs for half an hour, trying to
        understand it, and the fact is that Lloyd doesn't understand it either. -
        Perot paused. EDS executives were supposed to give him answers, not
        questions. Gayden knew better than to call without briefing himself as
        thoroughly as possible. Perot was not going to get any more out of him
        right now; Gayden just didn't have the information.
        "Get Tom Luce into the office," Perot said. "Call the State Department in
        Washington. This takes priority over everything else. I don't want them to
        stay in that *1 another damn minute!
    50 Ken Folleu
     
    Margot pricked up her ears when she heard Ross say damn: it was most unusual
    for him to curse, especially in front of the children. He came in from the
    kitchen with his face set. His eyes were as blue as the Arctic Ocean, and as
    cold. She knew that look. It was not just anger: he was not the kind of man
    to dissipate his energy in a display of bad temper. It was a look of
    inflexible determination. It meant he had decided to do sornething and he
    would move heaven and earth to get it done. She had seen that determination,
    that strength, in him when she had first met him, at the Naval Academy in
    Annapolis ... could it really be twenty-five years ago? It was the quality
    that cut him out from the herd, made him different from the mass of men. Oh,
    he had other qualities-he was smart, he was funny, he could charm the birds
    out of the trees-but what made him excepdonal was his strength of will. When
    he got that look in his eyes you could no more stop him than you could stop
    a railway train on a downhill gradient.
    "The Iranians put Paul and Bill in jail," he said.
        Margot's thoughts flew at once to their wives. She had known them both for
        years. Ruthie Chiapparone was a small, placid, smiling girl with a shock of
        fair hair. She had a vulnerable look: men wanted to protect her. She would
        take it hard. Emily Gaylord was tougher, at least on the surface. A thin
        blond woman, Emily was vivacious and spirited: she would want to get on a
        plane and go spring Bill from jail herself. The difference in the two women
        showed in their clothes: Ruthie chose soft fabrics and gentle outlines;
        Emily went in for smart tailoring and bright colors. Emily would suffer on
        the inside.
    -I'm going back to Dallas," Ross said.
        "Mere's a blizzard out there," said Margot, looking out at the snowflakes
        swirling down the mountainside. She knew she was wasting her breath: snow
        and ice would not stop him now. She thought ahead: Ross would not be able
        to sit behind a desk in Dallas for very long while two of his men were in
        an Iranian jail. He's not going to Dallas, she thought; he's going to Iran.
        - I'll take the four-wheel drive," he said. "I can catch a plane in Denver.
        11
        Margot suppressed her fears and smiled brightly. "Drive carefully, won't
        you," she said.
     
    Perot sat hunched over the wheel of the GM Suburban, driving carefully. The
    road was icy. Snow built up along the bottom
        ON WINGS OF EAGLES 51
     
    edge of the windshield, shortening the travel of the wipers. He peered at
    the road ahead. Denver was 106 miles from Vail. It gave him time to think.
    He was still furious.
        It was not just that Paul and Bill were in jail. They were in jail because
        they had gone to Iran, and they had gone to Iran because Perot had sent
        them there.
        He had been worried about Iran for months. One day, after lying awake at
        night thinking about it, he had gone into the office and said: "Let's
        evacuate. If we're wrong, all we've lost is the price of three or