"you're perfectly right, meshang, and i bless you for thinking of me and my child, how wonderful you are and how fortunate that you're here to take
care of us," she said, back in control now. she continued to flatter, cajole, being penitent for her lack of manners, using all of her guile, allowing him no opening and turning their conversation to other things. then at the perfect time she said, "i know you must be very busy." she got up, smiling. "will you and zarah be home for dinner? cousin karim's coming if he can get away from the base, won't that be fun? i haven't seen him since..." she stopped herself in time. "for at least a week, but most important, meshang, cook is making your favorite horisht, just the way you like it."
"oh? he is? oh, well, yes, yes, we will but tell him not to use too much garlic now concerning your bush "
"oh that reminds me, darling meshang," she said, playing her last card for the moment. "i heard that zarah now has your permission to go on the women's march, the day after tomorrow, how sensitive of you." she saw the sudden flush and laughed to herself, knowing that zarah was as adamant about going as he was adamant against it. his fury soared. she listened patiently, her eyes guileless, nodding in agreement from time to perfect time.
"my husband agrees with you totally, darling meshang," she said with suitable fervor. "yes, totally, dearest brother, and i'll certainly remind zarah, if she asks me, about your feelings..." not that this will make the slightest difference to her, or to me, because on this protest march we will go. she kissed him lightly. "good-bye, my darling, try not to work too hard. i'll make sure about the horisht."
then she had gone at once to zarah and had warned her that meshang was still furious against the march: "ridiculous! all our friends will be there, sharazad. does he want us shamed before our friends?" together they had made a plan. by this time it was late afternoon and she had rushed home to command horisht, "just as the master likes it and if you use too much garlic and it's not perfect i'll... i'll get old ashabageh the soothsayer to put the evil eye on you! go to the market and buy the melon he adores!"
"but, mistress, there haven't been any melons for's "
"get one!" she had screeched and stamped her foot. "of course you can get one!"
then supervising jari tidying away all her clothes and tommy's clothes, shedding a tear now and then, not for the loss of their apartment that he had wanted and enjoyed more than she, but only from happiness to be home again. a rest, last prayer, and then a bath and now the massage.
"there, princess," jari said, her arms tired. "now you should dress for dinner. what would you like to wear?"
wearing the dress that would please meshang the most, the multicolored woolen skirt and blouse he admired. then once more checking on the horisht and the polo the golden-crusted, mouth- watering iranian way of cooking
rice and the other meshang specialty, the melon, sweet-smelling and juicy and perfectly sculptured.
waiting for her cousin karim peshadi to arrive loving him, remembering their lovely times growing up, their families always intermingled, summers on their caspian estates, swimming and sailing and, in the winter, skiing near tehran, nothing but parties and dances and laughter, karim tall like his father, the colonel commandant at kowiss, and as fine. always associating karim with that first september evening she had seen the strange tall foreigner with the blue-grey eyes eyes that had glowed with the heavenly fire the ancient poets wrote about, the instant he had seen her...
"highness, his excellency your cousin captain karim peshadi requests permission to see you."
joyfully running to greet him. he was staring out of a window in the smaller of the reception rooms, the walls all small mirrors and windows set into an artistic persian design, the only furniture the usual low, continuous sofa around the walls, a few inches off the close-sheared carpet, soft-padded and upholstered with the finest persian fabric like the backrest that was attached to the walls.
"darling karim, how wonder " she stopped. this was the first time she had seen him since the day, a week ago, when they had gone together to the riot of doshan tappeh, and now she was looking at a stranger stretched skin over the high cheekbones, the dreadful pallor, dark rings around his eyes, stubbled beard, untidy clothes when usually he was impeccably dressed and groomed. "oh, karim, what is it?"
his lips moved but no sound came out. he tried again. "father's dead, shot for crimes against islam, i'm suspect and suspended and may be arrested any moment," he said bitterly. "most of our friends are suspect, colonel jabani's vanished, accused of treason you remember him, the one who led the people against the immortals and had most of his hand blown off..."
numbed, she sat listening, watching him.
"... but there's worse to come, darling sharazad. uncle... uncle valik and annoush and little jalal and setarem are all dead, killed trying to escape to iraq in a civilian 212..."
her heart seemed to stop and doom began.
"... they were intercepted and shot down near the iraqi border. i was at hq today, waiting to answer our komiteh's questions when the telex came in from our base at abadan those komiteh sons of dogs can't read so they asked me to read it out, not knowing i had any connection with valik, that we were related. the telex was marked secret and it said the traitors general valik and a general seladi had been identified in the 21 2's wreckage from identity cards, along with others and... and a woman and two children... and asked us to check out the
chopper, supposedly one of tom's company that'd been hijacked, ep- hbc..."
she fainted.
when she came to, jari was patting her forehead with a cold towel, other servants anxiously grouped around, karim, white-faced and apologetic in the background. blankly she stared at him. then what he had said flooded back, what erikki had said flooded back, and tommy's strangeness. and once again the three mixed, another wave of terror started to engulf her. "has... has excellency meshang arrived yet?" she asked weakly.
"no, no, princess. let me help you to bed, you'll feel belt "
"i'm... no, thank you, jari, i'm... i'm fine. please leave us alone."
"but, prin "
"leave us alone!"
they obeyed. karim was filled with anguish. "please excuse me, darling sharazad, i shouldn't have worried you with all these problems, but i'm... i only discovered about... about father this morning, i'm so sorry, sharazad, it's not a woman's place to worry about wh "
"karim, listen to me, i beg you," she interrupted with growing desperation. "whatever you do, don't mention about uncle valik, don't mention to meshang about him and... and the others, not yet, please, not yet! don't mention about valik!',
"but why?"
"because... because..." oh god oh god what do i do? she was thinking, wanting to cry out, i'm sure tommy was flying hbc, oh god let me be wrong but i'm sure that's what erikki said when i asked him how long tommy'd be away. didn't erikki say: "don't worry, tommy's charter's to bandar delam hbc with spares that shouldn't take but a day or two." isn't bandar delam beside abadan that's beside the border? didn't uncle valik come to see tommy late at night, much too late unless the matter was very urgent, and then, after he'd left, wasn't tommy changed, in misery, staring into the fire? "family must look after family," wasn't that what he muttered? oh god help me...
"what is it, sharazad, what is it?"
i daren't tell you, karim, even though i'd trust you with my life, i've got to protect tommy... if meshang finds out about tommy that'll be the end of us, the end of everything! he'll denounce him, he won't risk any more trouble... or crimes against god! i can't oppose the family, meshang will make me divorce. god help me, what shall i do? without tommy i'll... i'll die, i know i will, i'll... what was it tommy said about taking a helicopter on a ferry? a ferry to al shargaz? was it there or to nigeria? i daren't tell you, karim, i daren't...
but when her eyes saw the enormity of his concern, her mouth opened, and
she blurted out everything that she had not dared to tell.
"but it's impossible," he stuttered, "impossible, the telex said there were no survivors, impossible he should be flying it."
"yes, but he was he was, i'm sure of it, i'm sure of it. oh, karim, what am i going to do? please help me, please, i beg you, please help meeeeee!" the tears were running down her cheeks and he held her, trying to comfort her. "please don't tell meshang, please help me, if my tommy... i'd die."
"but meshang's bound to find out! he's got to know."
"please help me. there must be something you can do, there must be som "
the door opened and meshang hurried in, zarah with him. "sharazad, my dear, jari said you fainted, what happened, are you all right? karim, how are you?" meshang stopped, astonished at karim's ill-kempt appearance and pallor. "what on earth's happened?"
in the silence sharazad put her hand to her mouth, petrified she would blurt everything out again. she saw karim hesitating. the silence worsened, then she heard him say in a rush, "i've terrible news. first... first about my... my father. he's been shot, shot for... for crimes against islam..."
meshang burst out. "that's not possible! the hero of dhofar? you must be mistaken!"
"excellency fared bakravan wasn't possible but he's dead and father's dead like him, and there's other news, all bad..."
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, mclver 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?"
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.