He was also officially one of Naylor's officers. The manning chart of Cent-Corn showed under the J-5, the Special Activities Section, and under the SAS, the Special Assignments Section, a list of names of officers and enlisted men on special assignments. One of them read
CASTILLO, C.G., MAJ.
"J-5" stood for "Joint Staff Division 5, Special Operations." The Special Activities Section of J-5 had to do with things known only to a very few people, and the Special Assignments Section was sort of the holding tank-they had to appear on the manning chart somewhere.
General Naylor had had nothing to do with Major Castillo's assignment to what was colloquially known as "Jay-Five Sassas," although many people-including, he suspected, his wife and sons-suspected he did. Castillo had been assigned there routinely when he came back from Afghanistan. It was an assignment appropriate for someone of his rank and experience.
General Naylor, however, had had everything to do with Major Castillo's present Jay-Five Sassas assignment.
General Naylor was personally acquainted with Secretary of Homeland Security Matt Hall. They had met in Vietnam when Naylor had been a captain and Hall a sergeant and had stayed in touch and become close friends over the years as Naylor had risen in the Army hierarchy and Hall had become first a congressman and then governor of North Carolina and then secretary of homeland security.
Hall, over a beer in the bar of the Army-Navy Club in Washington, had asked Naylor, "Allan, you don't just happen to know of a hell of a good linguist with all the proper security clearances, do you?"
"How do you define 'good,' Matt?"
"Preferably, male and single-I need somebody around all the time and that's awkward with a female-or a married person of either gender."
Major C. G. Castillo was the next day placed on Indefinite Temporary Duty with the Office of the Secretary of Homeland Security, with the understanding between the general and the secretary being that if he wasn't what Hall needed, or they didn't get along, Castillo would be returned to MacDill.
Two weeks after Castillo had gone to Washington, Hall had telephoned Naylor about Castillo.
"How's Castillo doing?" Naylor had asked.
"Until about an hour ago, I thought he was just what the doctor ordered," Hall said.
"What happened an hour ago?"
"I found out he's living in the Mayflower. How does he afford that on a major's pay?"
"Didn't I mention that? He doesn't have to live on his major's pay."
"No, you didn't," Hall said. "Why not?"
"I didn't think it was important. Is it?"
"Yeah. Washington is an expensive place to live. Now I won't have to worry about him having to go to Household Finance to make ends meet. Can I keep him, Allan?"
"For as long as you need him."
"Would you have any objection if I put him in civilian clothing most of the time and called him my executive assistant or something like that?"
"He'll be doing more than translating?"
"Uh-huh. Any problem with that?"
"He's yours, Matt. I'm glad it's worked out."
General Naylor clicked on the read button without thinking about it. The laptop screen filled up almost instantly.
WE JUST GOT THIS FROM LANGLEY
There were several things wrong with Charley's message, which caused Naylor to frown thoughtfully, and which, in turn, caused half a dozen of the people at the conference table to wonder what had come over that goddamned IBB to cause the commanding general to frown thoughtfully.
For one thing, I don't know if this is from Charley or Hall. Charley said, "We just got this message." Does "we" mean the Department of Homeland Security, or Matt and Charley, or just Charley using the regal "we"? Or what?
Was Matt standing there when the message arrived and said, "Why don't we ask Naylor?" Or words to that effect?
Or is this message a "What do you think of this, Uncle Allan?"-type message? Expressing idle curiosity? Or wanting to know what I think in case Matt asks him later?
Damn it!
The commanding general of Central Command rapped his water glass with a pencil and gained the attention of all the conferees.
"Gentlemen," he said. "For several reasons, high among them that I think we're all a little groggy after being at this so long, I hereby adjourn this conference until tomorrow morning, place and time to be announced by Sergeant Major Suggins.
"The second reason is that it has just come to my attention that an airliner has allegedly been stolen in Luanda, Angola, and I would like to know what, if anything, anyone here knows about it."
He looked at Mr. Lawrence P. Fremont as he spoke. Mr. Fremont was the liaison officer between Central Command and the Central Intelligence Agency. It was obvious that Mr. Fremont had absolutely no idea what Naylor was talking about.
Neither, to judge from the looks on their faces, did Vice-Admiral Louis J.
Warley, USN, Central Command's J-2 (Intelligence Officer); nor Lieutenant General George H. Potter, USA, the CentCom J-5; nor Mr. Brian Willis, who was the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Resident Special Agent in Charge, known as the SAC.
I didn't expect all of them to be on top of this, but none of them? Jesus H. Christ!
"I'd like Mr. Fremont, Admiral Warley, Mr. Willis, and General Potter to stay behind a moment, please. The rest of you gentlemen may go, with my thanks for your devoted attention during a long and grueling session," General Naylor said.
Everybody but the four people he had named filed out of the conference room.
Naylor looked at the four men standing by the conference table.
"If it would be convenient, gentlemen, I'd like to see you all in my office in twenty minutes, together with what you can find out about:" He dropped his eyes to the laptop, and read, ": CIA Satburst 01, Luanda, 23 May, in that time." He looked up at Potter, and added, "Larry, see if you can find out who the CIA man is in Luanda. I'd like to know who sent this message."
"I think I know, sir," General Potter said.
Naylor looked at him.
General Potter, aware that General Naylor believed that no information is better than wrong information, said, "I'm not sure, sir. I'll check."
"Yeah," General Naylor said.
He looked at the door and saw Sergeant Major Suggins.
"Suggins, would you ask General McFadden if he's free to come to my office in twenty minutes?"
General Albert McFadden, U.S. Air Force, was the CentCom deputy commander.
"Yes, sir."
General Naylor then turned his attention to the IBB, pushed the REPLY key, and typed:
WORKING ON IT. I'LL GET BACK TO YOU. REGARDS, NAYLOR.
When he looked up, he saw that General Potter was standing just inside the door.
Potter was a tall, thin, ascetic-looking man who didn't look much like what comes to mind when "Special Forces" is said. Naylor knew that he had been, in his day, one hell of a Green Beanie, a contemporary of the legendary Scotty McNab. And that he was anything but ascetic. He was a gourmet cook, especially seafood.