"here." he offered her some water from his water bottle. she accepted it gratefully but avoided his eyes. he glanced at gueng and read his mind. "azadeh, do you mind if we put the light out now that we see where we are then we can pull the curtain back and keep watch and hear better. i've a flash if we need it."
"oh, oh, yes... yes, of course." she turned back to the candle. "i... oh, just a minute, sorry..." there was a mirror on the shelf he had not noticed. she picked it up and peered at herself, hated what she saw, the streaks of sweat and puffy eyes. hastily she brushed away some smudges, picked up the comb and tidied herself as best she could. a final check in the mirror and she blew out the candle. "sorry," she said.
gueng moved the curtain away and went through the rock and stood there listening. more gunfire from the city. a few buildings burning beyond the single runway of the airfield below and to the right. no lights there and very few on in the city itself. a few car headlights in the streets. the palace still
dark and silent and he could sense no danger. he came back and told ross what he had seen, speaking gurkhali, and added, "better i stay outside, safer, there's not much time, sahib."
"yes." ross had heard disquiet in his voice but did not comment. he knew the reason. "you all right, azadeh?" he asked softly.
"yes. yes i am now. it's better in the dark sorry i looked such a mess. yes, i'm better now."
"what's this all about and where's your husband?" he used the word deliberately and heard her move in the darkness.
"just after you left last night, cimtarga and a guard came and told erikki he had to dress at once and leave this man cimtarga said he was sorry but there'd been a change of plan and he wanted to leave at once. and i, i was summoned to see my father. at once. before i went into his room i overheard him giving orders for you both to be captured and disarmed, just after dawn." there was a catch to her voice. "he was planning to send for you both to discuss your departure tomorrow, but you would be led into ambush near the farmhouses and bound up and put into a truck and sent north at once."
"where north?"
"tbilisi." nervously she hurried onward: "i didn't know what to do, there was no way to warn you i'm watched as closely as you and kept away from the others. when i saw my father, he said erikki wouldn't be back for a few days, that today he, my father, he was going on a business trip to tbilisi and that... that i would be going with him. he... he said we would be away two or three days and by that time erikki would be finished and then we would go back to tehran." she was almost in tears. "i'm so frightened. i'm so frightened something's happened to erikki."
"erikki will be all right," he said, not understanding about tbilisi, trying to decide about the khan. always back to vien: "trust abdollah with your life and don't believe the lies about him." and yet here was azadeh saying the opposite. he looked across at her, unable to see her, hating the darkness, wanting to see her face, her eyes, thinking that perhaps he could read something from them. wish to christ she'd told me all this the other side of the bloody wall or at the hut, he thought, his nervousness increasing. christ, the guard! "azadeh, the guard, do you know what happened to him?"
"oh, yes, i... i bribed him, johnny, i bribed him to be away for half an hour. it was the only way i could get... it was the only way."
"god almighty," he muttered. "can you trust him?"
"oh, yes. all is... he's been with father for years. i've known him since i was seven and i gave him a pishkesh of some jewelry, enough for him and his family for years. but, johnny, about erikki... i'm so worried."
"no need to worry, azadeh. didn't erikki say they might send him near to
turkey?" he said encouraging her, anxious to get her back safely. "i can't thank you enough for warning us. come on, first we'd better get you back an "
"oh, no, i can't," she burst out. "don't you understand? father'll take me north and i'll never get away, never my father hates me and he'll leave me with mzytryk, i know he will, i know he will."
"but what about erikki?" he said shocked. "you can't just run away!"
"oh, yes, i have to, johnny, i have to. i daren't wait, i daren't go to tbilisi, it's much safer for erikki that i run away now. much safer."
"what're you talking about? you can't run away just like that! that's madness! say erikki comes back tonight and finds you gone? wh "
"i left him a note we made an arrangement that in an emergency i'd leave a note in a secret place in our room. we had no way of telling what father would do while he was away. erikki'll know. there's something else. father's going to the airport today, around noon. he has to meet a plane, someone from tehran, i don't know who or what about but i thought perhaps you could... you could persuade them to take us back to tehran or we could sneak aboard or you... you could force them to take us."
"you're crazy," he said angrily. "this's all crazy, azadeh. it's madness to run off and leave erikki how do you know it's not just as your father says, for god's sake? you say the khan hates you my god, if you run off like this, whether he does or doesn't he'll blow a gasket. either way you put erikki into more danger."
"how can you be so blind? don't you see? so long as i'm here erikki has no chance, none. if i'm not here he has to think only of himself. if he knows i'm in tbilisi he'll go there and be lost forever. don't you see? i'm the bait. in the name of god, johnny, open your eyes! please help me!"
he heard her crying now, softly but still crying, and this only increased his fury. christ almighty, we can't take her along. there's no way i could do that. that'd be murder if what she says about the khan's true the dragnet'll be out for us in a couple of hours and we'll be lucky if we see sunset the dragnet's already out for god's sake, think clearly! bloody nonsense about running away! "you have to go back. it's better," he said.
the crying stopped. "insha'allah," she said in a different voice. "whatever you say, johnny. it's better you leave quickly. you've not much time. which way will you go?"
"i i don't know." he was glad for the darkness that hid his face from her. my god, why must it be azadeh? "come on, i'll see you safely back."
"there's no need. i'll... i'll stay here for a while."
he heard the falsehood and his nerves jangled even more. "you're going to go back. you've got to."
"no," she said defiantly. "i can never go back. i'm staying here. he won't
find me, i've hidden here before. once i was here two days. i'm safe here. don't worry about me. i'll be all right. you go on. that's what you've got to do."
exasperated, he managed to control his urge to drag her to her feet, and instead sat back against the wall of the cave. i can't leave her, can't carry her back against her will, can't take her. can't leave her, can't take her. oh you can take her with you but for how long and then, when she's captured, she's mixed up with saboteurs and christ only knows what else they'd accuse her of and they stone women for that. "when we're found missing if you are too the khan'll know you tipped us off. if you stay here, eventually you'll be found and anyway the khan'll know you gave us the tip and that'll make it worse than ever for you, and worse for your husband. you must go back."
"no, johnny. i'm in the hands of god and not afraid."
"for god's sake, azadeh, use your head!"
"i am. i'm in god's hands, you know that. didn't we talk about that in our high country a dozen times? i'm not afraid. just leave me a grenade like the one you gave to erikki. i'm safe in god's hands. please go now."
in the other time they had talked about god often. on a swiss mountaintop it was easy and ordinary and nothing to be shy about not with your beloved who knew the koran and could read arabic and felt very close to the infinite and believed in islam absolutely. here in the darkness of the small cave it was not the same. nothing was the same.
"insha'allah it is," he said and decided. "we'll go back, you and i, and i'll send gueng on." he got up.
"wait." he heard her get up too and felt her breath and nearness. her hand touched his arm. "no, my darling," she said, her voice as it used to be. "no, my darling, that would destroy my erikki and you and your soldier. don't you see, i'm the lodestone to destroy erikki. remove the lodestone and he has a chance. outside my father's walls, you too have a chance. when you see erikki, tell him... tell him."
what should i tell him? he was asking himself. in the darkness he took her hand in his and, feeling its warmth, was back in time again in the darkness together in the great bed, a vast summer storm lashing the windows, the two of them counting the seconds between the lightning flashes and the thunder that bounced off the sides of the high valley sometimes only one or two seconds, oh, johnny it must be almost overhead, insha'allah if it hits us, never mind we're together holding hands together just like this. but not like this, he thought sadly. he put her hand to his lips and kissed it. "you can tell him yourself," he said. "we'll give it a go together. ready?"
"you mean go on together?"
"yes."
after a pause she said, "first ask gueng."
"he does what i say."
"yes, of course. but please ask him. another favor. please?"
he went to the neck of the cleft. gueng was leaning against the rocks outside. before he could say anything gueng said softly in gurkhali, "no danger yet, sahib. outside."
"ah, you heard?"
"yes, sahib."
"what do you think?"
gueng smiled. "what i think, sahib, has no weight, affects nothing. karma is karma. i do what you say."
at tabriz airport: 12:40 p.m. abdollah khan stood beside his bulletproof rolls on the snow-covered concrete apron near the airport terminal. he was flushed with rage, watching the 125 turn onto final, praying it would crash. yesterday a telex relayed through police hq had been brought by his nephew, colonel mazardi, the chief of police. "please meet jet g-etll, eta 1240 tomorrow tuesday. [signed] colonel hashemi fazir." the name had sent an immediate shudder through him and everyone else who had access to the message. inner intelligence had always been above the law and colonel hashemi fazir its grand inquisitor, a man whose ruthlessness was legend even in iran where ruthlessness was expected and admired.
"what does he want here, highness?" mazardi had asked, very afraid.
"to discuss azerbaijan," he had said, hiding his dread and seething at the curtness of the telex, completely thrown by this unexpected and unwanted arrival. "of course to ask how he can assist me he's been a secret friend for years," he added, lying automatically.
"i'll order an honor guard and welcoming komiteh and ma "
"don't be a fool! colonel fazir likes secrecy. do nothing, don't go near the airport, just make sure the streets are quiet and... ah, yes, increase pressure on the tudeh. in fact, implement khomeini's orders to crush them. burn their headquarters tonight and arrest their known leaders." that will be a perfect pishkesh should i need one, he had thought, delighted with his cleverness. isn't fazir fanatically anti-tudeh? god be thanked that petr oleg gave his approval.
then he had sent mazardi away and cursed everyone near him and sent them away too. now what does that son of a dog fazir want with me?
over the years they had met several times and had exchanged information, to their mutual advantage. but colonel hashemi fazir was one of those who believed that iran's only protection lay in absolute centralised government,
ruled from tehran, and that tribal chieftains were archaic and a danger to the state and also fazir was a tehrani with the power to uncover too many secrets, secrets that could be used against him. god curse all tehranis and send them to hell. and azadeh, and her god-cursed husband!
azadeh! did i truly sire that demon? it's not possible! someone must have... god forgive me that i suspect my beloved napthala! azadeh's satanpossessed. but she won't escape, oh no, i swear i'll take her to tbilisi and i'll let petr use her...
blood began roaring in his ears again and the clawing started in his chest again, a grasping pain. stop it, he told himself desperately, calm yourself. put her aside, you'll get your revenge later. stop it or you'll kill yourself! stop it and put her aside and think of fazir, you'll need all your cunning to deal with him. she can't escape.
when, just after dawn, petrified guards had rushed in to tell him the two prisoners had vanished and, almost at the same time she was also discovered missing, his violence had known no bounds. at once he had sent men to search her hiding place in the rocks that he had known about for years and ordered them not to come back without her or the saboteurs. he had had the nose of the night guard cut off, the rest of the guards flogged and shoved into jail, charged with conspiracy, her maids whipped. at length he had stormed off to the airport, leaving a pall of terror over the whole palace.
god curse them all, he thought, making a great effort to calm himself, his eyes never leaving the jet. the sky was patchy blue with ominous clouds and a bad wind that swept the snow-covered runway. he wore an astrakhan hat and fur-collared winter coat and fur-lined boots, the cold misting his glasses. in his pocket was a small revolver. behind him, the small terminal building was empty but for his men who had secured it and the access road beyond. above, on the roof, he had put a sniper into ambush with instructions to shoot fazir if he took out a white handkerchief and blew his nose. i've done all i can, he thought, now it is up to god. crash, you son of a burnt father!