Jack O'Donnell [At a CIA briefing]
The six of them went out a back exit. Brits turned them away, Kiwis turned them away, Canadians took them in. Traffic calls them the 'Houseguests'; they haven't left the Canadian ambassador's house since it happened.
Why didn't we get them ten weeks ago?
O'Donnell Too dangerous. You've got Revolutionary Guards going door to door like Jehovah's Witnesses. Half of them think Khomeini's been too lenient on the ones in the embassy.
What about the White House?
O'Donnell Carter's shitting enough bricks to build the pyramids. The Canadians are done; they say they're bearing too much risk. Their foreign secretary corners Vance in Brussels and told him she wants the six of them out.
O'Donnell Just the families. Meanwhile, some genius in our embassy was keeping a mug book on everybody who worked there.
O'Donnell We think it got shredded before they got in. But now the bastards are using sweatshop kids to reassemble the shreds, and once they reassemble that book, they'll know six Americans got out and they'll know what they look like. Standing room only for beheadings in the square.
O'Donnell State is coordinating in house.
State? They don't do exfils.
O'Donnell They do now. They want to run it by us, strictly as consultants. Engell says its a lose-lose. These people die, they die badly. Publicly. State wants the blame, we'll give it to them.
What does he want me here for?
O'Donnell So he can tell State he ran it by his best exfil guy.
RP Robert Pender
[The CIA starts talking about extraction options for the six US Embassy employees]
What we like for this now are bicycles. We've identified back roads from the Shemiran district — a couple of rat lines through the mountains to the crossing at Tabriz. Cars are off the table because of the roadblocks.
JB Jon Bates
We wait until the weather clears up then deliver the six bikes, provide them with maps to the Turkish border.
AE Adam Engell
We have intelligence they can ride bicycles or we’re prepared to send in somebody to teach them.
Or you could just send in training wheels and meet them at the border with Gatorade. It's 300 miles to the Turkish crossings. They'd need a support crew behind them with a tire pump.
E Engell
We've only been asked to sharpshoot this, State's handling the op.
Jack O'Donnell Tony's an exfil spesh. He got a lot of the Shah's people out after the fall.
Sir, if these people can read or add, pretty soon they're gonna figure out they're six short of a full deck. It's winter. You can't wait around until spring when it's nice enough to take a bike ride. The only way out of that city is the airport. You build new cover identities for them, you send in a Moses, he takes them out on a commercial flight.
B Bates
We've explored those options.
E Engell
They're never going to get past airport control. Komiteh own the place.
B Bates
They could pose as reporters. The government issued seventy-something visas for American journalists.
MM Mario Malinov
Seventy-four. And the Revolutionary Guards keep them on 74 leashes.
If they're caught with fake journalist creds, it's Peter Jennings' head in a noose in an hour. [...] Sir, exfils are like abortions. You don't want to need one, but when you do, you don't do it yourself.
ST Stansfield Turner
You're telling me there's a movie office in Hollywood right now that's funded by the CIA.
CV Cyrus Vance
What's wrong with the bikes again?
Jack O'Donnell We tried to get the message upstairs.
T Turner
You think... You think this is more plausible than teachers?
O'Donnell Yes we do. One, there are no more foreign teachers in Iran.
And, we think everybody knows Hollywood people. And everybody knows they would shoot in Stalingrad with Pol Pot directing if it'd sell tickets. There are only bad options. It's about finding the best one.
T Turner
You don't have a better bad idea than this?
O'Donnell This is the best bad idea we have, sir. By far.
T Turner
[short pause]
The United States government just sanctioned your science fiction movie.
