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of
        Archie Bunker. His complexion was dark and his hair was combed forward, as
        if to hide the fact that it was receding. He had a mustache and glasses,
        and he wore a sober suit.
        Dadgar finished speaking, and Abolhasan said: "He warns you that he has the
        power to arrest you if he finds your answers to his questions
        unsatisfactory. In case you did not realize this, he says you may postpone
        the interview to give your lawyers time to arrange bail
        Paul was surprised by this development, but he evaluated it fast, just like
        any other business decision. Okay, he thought, the worst thing that can
        happen is that he won't believe us and he will arrest us-but we're not
        murderers, we'll be out on bail in twenty-four hours. Then we might be
        confined to the country, and we would have to meet with our attorneys and
        try to work
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    things out ... which is no worse than the situation we're in now.
    He looked at Bill. "What do you think?"
        Bill shrugged. "Goelz says this meeting is routine. The stuff about bad
        sounds like a formality--like reading you your rights. "
    Paul nodded. "And the last thing we want is a postponement."
    "Then let's get it over with."
        Paul turned to Mrs. Nourbash. "Please tell Mr. Dadgar that neither of us
        has committed a crune, and neither of us has any knowledge of anyone else
        committing a crime, so we are confident that no charges will be made
        against us, and we would like to get this finished up today so that we can
        go home.
    Mrs. Nourbash translated.
        Dadgar said he wanted first to interview Paul alone. Bill should come back
        in an hour.
    Bill left.
     
    Bill went up to his office on the seventh floor. He picked up the phone,
    called Bucharest, and reached Lloyd Briggs. Briggs was Number 3 in the
    hierarchy after Paul and Bill.
        "Dadgar says he has the power to arrest us," Bill told Briggs. "We might
        need to put up bail. Call the Iranian attorneys and find out what that
        means."
    "Sure," Briggs said. "Where are you?"
    "In my office here at the Ministry."
    "I'll get back to you."
        Bill hung up and waited. The idea of his being arrested was kind of
        ridiculous-4espite the widespread corruption of modem Iran, EDS had never
        paid bribes to get contacts. But even if bribes had been paid, Bill would
        not have paid them: his job was to deliver the product, not win the order.
        Briggs called back within a few minutes. "You've got nothing to worry
        about," he said. "Just last week a man accused of murder had his bail set
        at a million and a half rials. "
        Bill did a quick calculation: That was twenty thousand dollars. EDS could
        probably pay that in cash. For some weeks they had been keeping large
        arnounts of cash, both because of the bank strikes and for use during the
        evacuation. "How much do we have in the office safe?"
    "Around seven million rials, plus fifty thousand dollars."
    So, Bill thought, even if we are arrested, we'll be able to
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    post bail immediately. "Thanks," he said. "That makes me feel a lot better."
     
    Downstairs, Dadgar had written down Paul's full name, date and place of
    birth, schools attended, experience in computers, and qualifications; and he
    had carefully examined the document that officially named Paul as Country
    Manager for Electronic Data Systems Corporation Iran. Now he asked Paul to
    give an account of how EDS had secured its contract with the Ministry of
    Health.
        Paul took a deep breath. "First, I would like to point out that I was not
        working in Irari at the time the contract was negotiated and signed, so I
        do not have firsthand knowledge of this. However, I will tell you what I
        understand the