"You've been here a week, Captain-correct me if I'm wrong-and today you went looking for Mrs. Sieno at the embassy?"
"That's right, sir."
"And-curiosity frankly overwhelms me, Captain-how have you passed the time since you arrived in beautiful Argentina?"
"I've been nosing around Asuncion, sir, looking for someplace where these people could be holding this DEA guy."
"You and your medic," Castillo said, his tone making it more a question than a statement.
"Just he and I at first, sir. But now my whole team is up there."
"And why did you do that?"
"General McNab briefed me on the problem, sir, and when I came to see Mrs. Sieno before…"
Is he saying he saw Susanna before?
Castillo looked at Susanna. She nodded.
"…right after I got here, and she said she didn't really know where you were, and to hang loose, I figured the best thing to do was start nosing around looking for this place."
"Tony's found something very interesting, Colonel," D'Elia offered.
"Really?" Castillo said. "And what would that be, Captain?"
"Well, there's a sort of hidden compound on the Paraguayan side of the river-right on the river-protected by some really heavy anti-intrusion stuff. Including Claymores. Now, I've never seen this Timmons guy, but these people have three guys chained together to a pole. Two of them are Latinos, wearing some kind of brown uniform. The third is in a suit; he's got light skin, and I'd say the odds are he's Timmons or whatever his name is."
Jesus Christ!
"You've penetrated this compound?" Castillo asked, suddenly very serious.
"Not me, sir. My intel sergeant. Master Sergeant Ludwicz-"
"Skinhead Ludwicz?" Castillo interrupted. "That Master Sergeant Ludwicz?"
"Yes, sir. He said you two had been around the block a couple times."
Maybe that's who Bustamante saw on his intrusion!
I'll be a sonofabitch!
"Indeed we have," Castillo said.
"Well, he's one hell of a penetrator, as you probably know, so he went in. Alone. I didn't want to take any more chances than I had to, until I knew what was coming down."
"And Skinhead says he saw two brown-uniformed Latinos and a gringo in a suit, all chained to a pole?"
"Yes, sir. Sir, he said they have two bowls. One with water, one with food. And that they…this is what Ludwicz said, sir…and that they looked stoned, sir."
"As if, for example, they had been injected with heroin?"
Captain Urquila shrugged.
"Personally, sir, I don't know that I'd recognize the signs of someone on heroin, what they'd look like. And Ludwicz didn't say anything about seeing a needle, sir. Just that they looked stoned."
"Put the composite on the monitor, Jack," Castillo ordered.
"Why don't you have a look at this, Comandante?" Castillo said.
The composite appeared a second later.
Duffy's eyes widened.
"What is that?" he asked.
"Your compound look anything like this, Captain?" Castillo asked.
Urquila examined the composite very carefully and shook his head.
"That's not it?" Castillo asked, incredulously.
"Oh, that's it," Urquila said. "I should have known you'd be way ahead of me. Colonel, I hope I haven't fucked anything up by sending Ludwicz in there…"
"Come here, Captain," Castillo said, gesturing with his hands for Urquila to move in very close. When he had, Castillo grabbed both of Urquila's ears and kissed him wetly on the forehead.
"Captain Urquila, I love you. I love Skinhead Ludwicz and I love you!"
Captain Urquila and Comandante Duffy both looked somewhat dazed.
"Corporal Bradley!" Castillo called.
"Sir?"
"There is a bottle of Famous Grouse single-malt in my room. I have been saving it for a special occasion. This is it! Go get it!"
"Aye, aye, sir."
Bradley and the Famous Grouse single-malt appeared three minutes later. But Bradley was not alone. Edgar Delchamps and David Yung followed him into the quincho.
"You really should let people know when you come home, Daddy," Delchamps greeted him. "Otherwise, Two-Gun and me will start to think you don't love us."
"Sorry, Ed. I just wanted to see what the satellite-"
"Is that why you're celebrating?" Delchamps asked, and crossed the room so that he could look at the monitors.
He moved quickly, but not as quickly as Sergeant Major Davidson's fingers on his laptop keyboard.
All four monitors now displayed images of provocatively posed naked young females.
Delchamps gave Davidson the finger.
"Me, too, Jack," Susanna Sieno said, disgustedly. "Really!"
Davidson hit more keys and the composite came back up on the center screen.
"What are we looking at?" Delchamps asked.
"That's where these people have Timmons and two gendarmes chained to a pole," Castillo said. "It's a couple of miles south of Asuncion. In Paraguay."
"Believed to be the location," Delchamps asked, "or confirmed to be?"
"We have a visual from a very good man," Castillo said. "Master Sergeant Ludwicz, who is Captain Urquila's intel sergeant." He pointed to Urquila. "First name Tony, right?"
Urquila nodded. "Yes, sir."
"This is Ed Delchamps, known as The Dinosaur, and Two-Gun Yung of the Federal Bureau of Ignorance."
The men nodded at each other.
"For real, Urquila?" Delchamps asked. "You got a man into this place and got an eyes-on?"
Castillo said, "What Ludwicz saw was two guys in brown uniforms and a gringo in a suit. Chained to a pole, and probably doped up. That's what we're going on."
"I asked him, Ace, but okay. That's enough really good news to start pouring the sauce, Lester, my boy, but the colonel don't get none."
"Might I dare to inquire why not?" Castillo responded.
"There are several obvious reasons," Delchamps said. "But primarily because you're about to fly Two-Gun and me to Montevideo. And I have this perhaps foolish aversion to being flown about by a sauced-up pilot."
"Curiosity overwhelms me. Why am I flying you and Two-Gun to Montevideo? Why can't you go commercial? And what are the other obvious reasons to which you allude?"
"Well, Ace, if you insist-about three inches, please, Lester, two ice cubes and no water-for one thing, Ordonez wants to see you before Ambassador Lorimer arrives, which will be about seven P.M. if Miller is to be believed. And what is The Gimp doing flying that airplane? I am wondering. For another, before you slip into your armor and gallop off on your white horse to do battle with the forces of evil, we have to have a long chat about what the CIA is up to in Asuncion, and I want you to be sober for that."
"And what evil is the CIA up to in Asuncion?"
Castillo was having trouble restraining a smile. Captain Urquila had absolutely no idea what was going on, and it showed on his face.
"When I explain that to you, Ace, I'm sure you will have cause to shamefully remember what you said about Two-Gun being a member of the Federal Bureau of Ignorance."
"Oh, I doubt that!"
"That's because I haven't told you what splendid service Inspector John J. Doherty has rendered to our noble cause."
"Which is?"
"I will tell you on the way to Montevideo, on which journey will we embark immediately after Brother Davidson has explained to me the computer game he is playing. And, of course, after I finish this drink and probably another. I always need a little liquid courage in order to fly with you at the wheel."
He turned a chair around and sat in it backward, facing the monitor.
"You may proceed, Brother Davidson," Delchamps said. "And speak slowly and use itsy-bitsy words, as Two-Gun will also be watching, and I don't want to have to explain everything all over again to him."
XIV
[ONE]
Jet-Stream Aviation
Jorge Newbery International Airport
Buenos Aires, Argentina 1735 12 September 2005 Corporal Lester Bradley was in the copilot seat of the Aero Commander, holding Castillo's laptop, with which Castillo was going to navigate their route to Montevideo. Edgar Delchamps and David Yung sat behind them, trying with little success to get Max to move to the area behind their seats.