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was puzzled, as well as anxious, when Gallagher reported all this. He
        had not been involved in a road accident, had not witnessed a crime, had no
        connections with the CIA ... Who or what was being investigated? EDS? Or
        was the investigation just an excuse for keeping Paul and Bill in Iran so
        that they would continue to run the social-security system's computers?
    The police had made one concession. Ali Jordan had argued
    28 Ken Follett
     
    that the police were entitled to confiscate the residence permits, which
    were the property of the Iranian government, but not the passports, which
    were U.S. government property. General Biglari had conceded this.
        The next day Gallagher and Ali Jordan went to the police station to hand
        the documents over to Biglari. On the way Gallagher asked Jordan whether he
        thought there was a chance Paul and Bill would be accused of wrongdoing.
    "I doubt that very much," said Jordan.
        At the police station the general warned Jordan that the Embassy would be
        held responsible if Paul and Bill left the country by any mean&-such as a
        U.S. military aircraft.
        The following day-December 8, the day of the evacuationLou Goetz called
        EDS. He had found out, through a "source" at the Iranian Ministry of
        Justice, that the investigation in which Paul and Bill were supposed to be
        material witnesses was an investigation into corruption charges against the
        jailed Minister of Health, Dr. Sheikholeslamizadeh-
        It was something of a relief to Paul to know, at last, what the whole thing
        was about. He could happily tell the investigators the truth: EDS had paid
        no bribes. He doubted whether anyone had bribed the Minister. Iranian
        bureaucrats were notoriously corrupt, but Dr. Sheik-as Paul called him for
        short--seemed to come from a different mold. An orthopedic surgeon by
        training, he had a perceptive mind and an impressive ability to master
        detail. In the Ministry of Health he had surrounded himself with a group of
        progressive young technocrats who found ways to cut through red tape and
        get things done. The EDS project was only part of his ambitious plan to
        bring Iranian health and welfare services up to American standards. Paul
        did not think Dr. Sheik was lining his own pockets at the same time.
        Paul had nothing to fear-if Goetz's "source" was telling the truth. But was
        he? Dr. Sheik had been arrested three months Ago. Was it a coincidence that
        the Iranians had suddenly realized that Paul and Bill were material
        witnesses when Paul told them that EDS would leave Iran unless the Ministry
        paid its bills?
        After the evacuation the remaining EDS men moved into two houses and stayed
        there, playing poker, during December 10 and 11, the holy days of Ashura.
        There was a high-stakes house and a low-stakes house. Both Paul and Coburn
        were at the high-stakes house. For protection they invited Coburn's
        "spooks"--his two contacts in military intelligence.---who carried guns. No
        weapons
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    were allowed at the poker table, so the spooks had to leave their firearms
    in the hall.
        Contrary to expectations, Ashura passed relatively peacefully: millions of
        Iranians attended anti-Shah demonstrations all over the country, but there
        was little violence.
        After Ashura, Paul and Bill again considered skipping the country, but they
        were in for a shock. As a preliminary they asked Lou Goelz at the Embassy
        to give them back their passports. Goelz said that if he did that he would
        be obliged to inform General Biglari. That would amount to a warning to the
        police that Paul and Bill were trying to sneak out.
        Goelz