Spitz held up his hand. "Now don't blow a gasket, T.C., but I want to point out, finding Schubatis's body at the crash site doesn't prove anything."
Bogner looked at Packer. "What the hell is this, Pack? What's going on here?"
Packer got up, refilled his cup, and ignored Spitz. "Late last evening, CNN got a call. Want to guess who it was from?"
Bogner was tired of playing games. Parts of his body hurtparts that he had other plans forand he wanted to get a long way away from there so he could do a little healing. "All right, I'll play your game. Who made the call?"
"Quan."
Bogner's head snapped up. "Why?"
"He's taking credit for blowing that Tupolev out of the sky yesterday afternoon. And he assures us that General Han Xuhiu was aboard that Tupolev when it went down.''
"More than that," Spitz continued, "according to Quan, the aircraft that knocked that Tupolev out of the sky yesterday was the Su-39. He said we could relay a message to some of his Russian friends for him: 'The armament package has been installed on the Covert and it's working just fine.'"
"He's bluffing," Bogner said.
"Is he?" Spitz asked.
Bogner lapsed into silence. He still hadn't responded when he heard the phone ring. Miller picked it up. He listened for a moment, then handed it to Bogner. "It's for you," he said.
"Heard you were back in town," Joy said. "In the mood to buy a gal dinner?"
Bogner managed a laugh. "Think we can find a dark café somewhere? Some place with low-level lightingwhere black eyes and crooked noses aren't all that apparent?"
"I know just the place," she said. "Ill pick you up at six."
Bogner hung up and looked around the room.
"What do you want me to tell Colchin?" Spitz asked.
"Tell him I saw Schubatis's Covert lying at the bottom of one of the Anxi atolls. That it wasn't busted up enough to discourage a salvage effort and that I blew the damn thing to kingdom come. Tell him Schubatis is dead and Colonel Quan is dangerous.
"Tell him Harry Driver is dead. And tell him how I know: because I'm the one who fired the shot that killed him.
"Finally, tell him I have a date tonight and I don't want to be disturbed — not even by the President of the United States."