"Okay. That means you can take the radio with you. Colin'll need communication, but not a communicator, right, butler?"
Leverette replied with a thumbs-up gesture.
"I don't see any need for you to drive all the way out there and then back, do you, Bob?"
Howell shook his head.
"Ordonez is going to chopper us to the international bridge at-what's the name of that place, Alfredo?"
"Gualeguaychu," Munz furnished, making it sound like Wally-wha-chew.
"Where someone-one of us-will meet us and drive us into Buenos Aires."
"Not to the safe house?"
"I'm going to the Four Seasons, where I will entertain Comandante Duffy at breakfast. But on the way to…wherever the international bridge is."
"Gualeguaychu," Munz repeated.
"How do you spell it?"
Munz spelled Gualeguaychu.
"No wonder I can't pronounce it," Castillo said. "On the way to Wally-wha-chew I'm going to suggest to Ordonez that he go home by way of the estancia. A couple of words from him to the local cops who are sitting on the place will make Colin's job easier and get them accustomed to helicopters dropping in unannounced."
Yung nodded.
"You seem to be in pretty good spirits, Charley."
"Compared to this morning, you mean?"
Yung nodded.
"This morning, after meeting with the Evil Leprechaun, I thought this operation had no chance at all of succeeding. Now I think the odds are one in, say, eight or ten that we can carry it off. That's a hell of an improvement, wouldn't you say?"
XI
[ONE]
Presidente de la Rua Suite
The Four Seasons Hotel
Cerrito 1433
Buenos Aires, Argentina 0700 10 September 2005 "Fuck it," Castillo said, more or less to himself. "We can either carry this off or we can't. And I don't think the Evil Leprechaun would be dazzled by uniforms. Yours or mine or both of ours. So it's civvies, Pegleg. Go change back."
Wrapped in a plush, ankle-length, terry-cloth robe with the Four Seasons logo embroidered on the chest, Castillo was in the large sitting room, standing by the plateglass windows that offered a view of the Retiro railway station and, at a distance, the River Plate.
First Lieutenant Eddie Lorimer, wearing a Class A uniform complete to green beret and ribbon decorations-and there was an impressive display of ribbons-stood between Castillo and the others in the room, the latter seated on couches and chairs and at the dining table.
Edgar Delchamps, reclined in one of the armchairs with his legs stretched straight before him, cleared his throat.
"For what it's worth, Ace," he began, "I agree with you. But that leaves unanswered the question of how do we dazzle the bastard?"
"Looking at the beautiful Mrs. Sieno just now, I realized how," Castillo said, and gestured at Susanna Sieno, who was sitting at the dining table. Her husband was on one of the couches, seated beside Tony Santini.
"Why do I think I'm not going to like this?" Susanna Sieno asked.
"Females are masters of deception," Castillo said. "They're born with the ability, which is why they run the world."
Mrs. Sieno gave Lieutenant Colonel Castillo an unladylike gesture, extending her center finger from her balled fist in an upward motion.
Castillo gestured dramatically toward her.
"Exactly! Right there the lady proves my point. Complete control. And how do they do that? They wing it, that's how. And that's what we're going to do."
When there was no response, save for several raised eyebrows, Castillo went on: "Think about it, lady and gentlemen. What we have in here are spooks, cops, soldiers, and, of course, a Marine."
He smiled at Corporal Lester Bradley, USMC, who was sitting at a small desk on which sat an AFC Corporation communications console. Bradley wore a dark gray Brooks Brothers suit-one of two identical garments, the first suits he had ever owned. Dick Miller told Castillo that he had taken Lester to Brooks Brothers in Washington as a morale booster after the Secret Service agents at the house kept treating him like an errand boy. Max, lying at Bradley's feet, had one paw on his highly polished black leather loafers. Due to the peso exchange rate, Bradley had acquired them for next to nothing-"Thirty bucks U.S.," he'd told Castillo, "for what would've run me more than a hundred back home-at one of the luxury leather-goods stores in downtown Buenos Aires.
"None of us are actors," Castillo went on in explanation. "And even if we were, we don't have time before Comandante Duffy shows up to write a script and memorize our lines. And even if we did that, sure as God made little apples we'd either forget them or blow them trying to deliver them. And it would look rehearsed. So…we'll wing it."
There was some nodding of understanding around the room.
"What we should do, I think," Castillo then said, "is make sure we're all on the same page, so herewith a recap: We've got the helicopters as far as Estancia Shangri-La, presuming of course there's no tropical storm off Montevideo to keep them from flying, and the Navy doesn't push them over the side or sail too far from the coast to cover their buttocks.
"One of the reasons Ordonez came through for us on that is because Duffy lied to him. I don't know about what, but he lied to Ordonez and that pissed Ordonez off. Right, Alfredo?"
El Coronel Alfredo Munz, who was sitting in the armchair facing Delchamps with his legs also stretched out, nodded.
Castillo continued: "We should keep Duffy's lying in mind. Then the question of what to do with the choppers-how to get them near Asuncion, how to refuel them en route, etcetera-comes up. We need Duffy to do all those things for us plus, of course, reassure any authorities who might spot the choppers that Argentina is not being invaded by the gringos.
"Then we get to the snatch-and-grab itself. We need Duffy not only to help but to do it our way. I want this op to go down as quietly as possible, which means I'm going to have to dissuade him from leaving bodies all over the place. I'll figure out how to do that later. Right now, getting him under control is the thing." He paused. "I can't think of anything else. Anyone…?"
He looked around the room to see if someone had a better idea. No one did.
"Okay, then," Castillo said. "Edgar, how about you sitting out the confrontation in my bedroom? What I'm thinking is that if we've done something stupid and are about to blow it, you can come in. That would surprise Duffy, take his mind off what we did wrong. And if you pick up on how we screwed up, you'll probably have a fix."
Delchamps nodded his agreement.
"Okay, Eddie and I will go change clothes. While we're gone, Alfredo, will you check on the Aero Commander? We may not need it if we screw this up, but if we don't, the sooner we get to Bariloche the better."
"It'll be waiting for us at Jorge Newbery, Karl," Munz said. "The owner owes me several large favors."
"Susanna, if you realize we're screwing up, you might consider flashing some thigh at him."
Susanna smiled, shook her head, and gave him the finger again.
The door chime bonged discreetly fifteen minutes later.
Castillo, now wearing a business suit and sitting on the couch as he sipped at a cup of coffee, signaled first with his right index finger for Eddie Lorimer to open the door and then, his eyebrows raised, signaled to all by holding up his right hand with the index and middle fingers crossed.
Everyone in the large sitting room took his meaning: Hope like hell we get away with this!
Lorimer pulled the door open. Comandante Liam Duffy of the Gendarmeria Nacional, in civilian clothing, looked somewhat disapprovingly at Lorimer and then at the others in the room.
Tony Santini and Manuel D'Elia were sitting at the dining table, on which a room service waiter was arranging tableware around chrome-dome-covered plates. Alfredo Munz was standing at the plateglass windows, drinking a cup of coffee.