That got the chuckles he expected.
"Let me trace the events from the moment Max found Lieutenant Lorimer sneaking through our shrubbery…"
Castillo had gotten as far into his recapitulation of what had happened since they had hurriedly left Argentina as the Chicago meeting of Special Agent Timmons's family-and the mayor-when Jake Torine appeared in the door of the quincho.
Castillo made a T with his hands, signaling Time out, and walked to the quincho door.
"Sorry to interrupt, Colonel," Torine announced, "but I really need a moment of your time."
Castillo gestured for Torine to follow him outside.
"I called Rucker," Torine said once they were alone. "Major Ward told me they're going to fly to Jacksonville Naval Air Station tomorrow, and then, the day after tomorrow, fly out to the Ronald Reagan."
"Why?"
"Jacksonville, Florida," Torine explained. "East Coast, almost at the Georgia border."
"I know where Jacksonville is, Jake. But why not go to Jacksonville the day after tomorrow, take on fuel, and then fly onto the Reagan? Their sitting around Jacksonville for a day will cause questions to be asked."
"Ward says the Navy wants to make sure they're not going to sink the aircraft carrier trying to land on it."
"That's bullshit, Jake. The pilots in the 160th are the best in the Army, the most experienced. And landing a Huey on a carrier is a hell of a lot easier than making an arrested landing with a fighter."
"That's what I told Truman Ellsworth," Torine said. He waited until he saw Castillo's reaction to that, then smiled and nodded.
"I called him," Torine went on, "and reminded him that he had suggested I call him if you had done something impulsive. And then I told him you had arranged to send choppers to South America aboard the Ronald Reagan, and I was afraid that the Navy didn't like it-proof being the 'orientation' they were insisting on-and was going to cause trouble."
He paused.
"I was good, Charley. I didn't know I had it in me."
"Maybe because you don't like Ellsworth any more than I do."
"That's a real possibility. My conscience didn't bother me at all."
"And what did our mutual friend have to say?"
"He said he'd call me right back. Five minutes later, Montvale called me. First thing, he asked where you were. I told him you were somewhere between Buenos Aires and Asuncion. Which is true. So then he said he would have to deal with this himself. He said it was a pity I wasn't in the States, because what he really would like to do is send me aboard the Reagan to keep an eye on things."
"And?"
"I told him I would be in the States tomorrow."
"And?"
"And he said, 'Don't plan on unpacking your bags when you get to Washington, Colonel, you're going for a little voyage.' To which I replied, 'What will I tell Castillo?' To which he replied, "I'll deal with Lieutenant Colonel Castillo, Colonel Torine. You don't have to worry about that.'"
"So the thing to do," Castillo said, "is get you back to the States as soon as possible. Which opens a new can of worms. For one thing, you just got here; you're tired, you don't want to-shouldn't-fly right back. The flip side of that is: What is the Evil Leprechaun going to say when I call him? He may consider the Gulfstream as one of the assets he wants me to share with him. So getting it out of here as soon as possible is probably smart."
"What about me taking Dave Yung and Colin Leverette to Montevideo?" Torine suggested. "Right now, I mean. Sparkman and I could crash in Two-Gun's apartment for a while-five, six hours, anyway-then leave for the States later today, tonight, or first thing in the morning."
"That'd work. But the worm that pops up there is: How do we get the airplane back here? Ambassador Lorimer, his wife, and the two guys from China Post will be on board."
"I can get another Gulfstream pilot from the Presidential Flight Detachment."
Castillo, visibly thinking, didn't reply.
"Isn't that what you meant?" Torine pursued.
Castillo didn't have time to reply. Edgar Delchamps was walking toward them from the house. Max decided Delchamps had come out to play, intercepted him, and dropped a tennis ball at his feet. Delchamps picked up the ball and threw it as far across the yard as he could, then walked up to Castillo and Torine.
"I just had a brilliant insight of my own," Delchamps announced. "Anybody interested?"
"I'm breathless with anticipation," Torine said.
"We're just spinning our wheels if we can't get the choppers off the Reagan and refuel them at Shangri-La. And the key to making that happen is Chief Inspector Jose Ordonez. If you can't get Ordonez to look the other way, we're fucked. And you don't know how much damage your new pal Duffy has done with him."
Castillo considered that a moment. "You're right," he said. "I don't suppose you had a solution to go along with your insight?"
"The obvious one: Go see him."
"Me? Or Alfredo? Or both? You remember the last time we saw Ordonez he said, 'So long, and don't come back'?"
"Why don't you ask Munz?"
"Jake and I had just about decided that he'd drop off Yung and Leverette in Montevideo on his way to the States," Castillo said. "No reason he couldn't take Munz with him. Or both of us."
He stepped into the quincho doorway and motioned for Alfredo Munz to come out. Then he raised his voice and announced to the others, "Something's come up that we have to deal with right away. Just sit tight."
Munz waited for Castillo to speak.
"Two questions, Alfredo: How much damage did Liam Duffy do to us with Ordonez?"
"I was about to suggest that we go see him," Munz said. "Until we do that, we won't know how much damage he's caused, and it's important that we know."
"Aren't we liable to cause more damage if I go? I just reminded Delchamps that the last time I saw him, he said, 'Good-bye, and don't come back.'"
"He knows you're planning an operation in either Argentina or Paraguay. That's none of his business. What he doesn't want-and will work very hard to prevent-is another operation in Uruguay."
"We're not planning anything in Uruguay," Castillo said, "except the refueling. And done right, that shouldn't take much more than a couple of hours." He paused, then added, "Well, let's go off on another tangent. Probably the best way to get the Hueys ashore is to launch them one at a time from the Reagan, one every forty-five minutes or an hour. And have them fly into and out of Shangri-La on different courses."
He looked at Torine for any input.
"You're the expert, Charley," Torine said.
"Four Hueys, or even two, flying overhead is going to attract more attention than just one," Castillo said.
"True," Torine agreed.
"Whatever you decide to do, Karl," Munz said, "Ordonez would be more assured if he heard it from you than from me. Like me, Jose believes you can tell if a man is lying by looking into his eyes."
"I've got to ask this," Castillo said. "Would a little gift-hell, a great big gift-make any difference?"
"The very offer would probably kill any chance at all of him being willing to look the other way," Munz said. "What you're going to have to do, Karl, is convince him that his permitting your helicopters to enter-even secretly-Uruguayan airspace and using Shangri-La as a refueling place is in the best interests of Uruguay. That it won't cause any problems for Uruguay."
"Okay. So we go to Uruguay," Castillo said. "And right now."
He gestured for the others to follow him back into the quincho.
"Comandante Duffy's going to be annoyed when he finds out we've left here," Castillo explained. "But I will deal with that later when I call him from Montevideo. What I don't want to do is have any friction with him as we leave that might cause trouble about us going to Montevideo.
"I regard his threat to have us kicked out of the country-or arrested-as valid. But I think he's very interested in what he calls our assets, and I don't think he's going to blow that whistle until I tell him no, or until I do something suspicious.