The Shuttle Deus and His Machina

Henry Kissinger took time last week to inspect the temples at Philae near Aswan, where he had been conferring with President Anwar Sadat. "I really love ancient Egyptians," said Kissinger, as a guide droned on about Isis, the goddess of fertility to whom the largest Philae temple is dedicated.

In fact, reports TIME'S Diplomatic Editor Jerrold L. Schecter, a veteran of three previous shuttles, there is little time for relaxation on the airborne Middle East shuttle. "What I need is a fur-lined straitjacket," sighed the Secretary of State as he climbed aboard his Air Force 707 after a hard day's negotiating, and unbent in the correspondents' aft cabin, which newsmen have christened "the torture chamber."

There are 62 people aboard the plane, referred to as "Nine Seventy" after its registration number, 8970. They include 25 State Department employees, ranging from Undersecretary of State Joseph J. Sisco down to secretaries, cryptographers and Secret Service men, whose hand baggage includes Israeli-made Uzi submachine guns. There are also 15 newsmen and an Air Force crew of twelve, headed by Major Douglas Glime, 37, a former combat pilot who logged 100 missions over North Viet Nam, and who sometimes startles his passengers by putting the big blue-and-white Boeing into tight fighter turns.

After each round of negotiations, Kissinger conducts a press briefing. He reveals no details, stressing instead the mood of the talks. He shifts from on to off the record, or becomes the unspecified "senior official" who by now is a familiar passenger. When it suits his purpose, he obfuscates. "You must accept the fact," Kissinger will say, "that many problems you want to clear up as newsmen are those which as a diplomat it is in my interest to confuse."

Kissinger occasionally catnaps on one of two bunks in the green stateroom he is sharing on this shuttle with Wife Nancy. From time to time he consults a fat blue looseleaf notebook crammed with constantly updated bargaining positions, options and alternatives, or studies the flood of incoming "Tosec" or outgoing "Secto" cables (550 in the first week of the latest shuttle) that pass in code between his Air Force jet and Washington. Kissinger steadfastly refuses to use a telephone. "I won't talk on the phone," he barked at an aide who suggested an airborne call. "I don't want 600 intelligence organizations listening to my conversation."

Even at moments of seeming relaxation, Kissinger manages to maintain an aura of mystery and tension. Last week the Secretary, dressed in blue shorts and a white terry-cloth beach jacket, was sunning himself beside the pool of the New Cataract Hotel in Aswan when an aide rushed up with a secret message. Kissinger walked away from attentive newsmen to read the missive. "Can we do that?" he asked. "Yes," replied the aide. Kissinger returned to talk with the reporters, but did not tell them until they boarded the plane that they were to make an unscheduled flight to Ankara.

On two of the most familiar legs of the tour--Damascus and Aswan--arrivals and departures have by now become routine. In Jerusalem, on the other hand, Kissinger delights in the flock of excited American tourists who gather in the King David Hotel lobby to applaud and snap his picture. He has become such an attraction there that before the latest shuttle, the hotel's management wrote a pleading letter asking him not to carry out "an act of aggression against the King David" by switching to the newer Jerusalem Hilton. With enough aggression to deal with already, Kissinger acceded.

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