Duffy ignored that.
"What is it you wish to say, Colonel?" he said impatiently after taking a sip of water. "You said we should 'start talking about how we can help each other.'"
As Castillo began making himself another sandwich, he said, "Pegleg, why don't you tell Comandante Duffy what you told us about where you think these people are holding Special Agent Timmons? And the problems of extracting him?"
"'Pegleg'?" Duffy said without thinking.
"Show the comandante your leg, Pegleg," Castillo ordered.
"Yes, sir," Lorimer said, and hoisted his trouser leg.
"The knee is fully articulated," he said. "And it's titanium, so light I hardly know it's on there." Then, without breaking his cadence, he went on: "They're more than likely holding Timmons at a remote farm, most likely in Paraguay, but possibly in Argentina. Another possibility is that he's being held on a watercraft of some sort on the Rio Paraguay. Wherever it is-"
"Then you don't know where he's being held, I gather?" Duffy interrupted sarcastically.
"Not yet," Castillo answered for Lorimer. "Let him finish, Comandante."
"Wherever Timmons is being held, it will be difficult to approach without being detected. The moment they suspect that there will be visitors, they will take Timmons into the bush or put him in a small boat and hide it along the shore of the river. A variation of this scenario-a likely one because of their changed modus operandi-is that they've got Timmons at a plant where they refine the paste into cocaine hydrochloride. That sort of place would also be difficult to approach without detection-"
"Difficult? Impossible!" Duffy snorted.
"-as it will almost certainly be approachable over only one road. In this latter scenario, furthermore, there would probably be additional, better-armed and more-skilled guards, better communication, and a generator, or generators, to provide the electricity necessary for the refining operation in case the local power grid goes down. The availability of electricity would probably allow them to have motion-sensing and other intrusion-detecting devices."
"May I ask a question, Colonel?" Duffy said.
Castillo gestured that he could.
Duffy looked at Lorimer and said, "Where did you acquire this information, senor…? I didn't get your name."
"I didn't give it," Lorimer said. He looked at Castillo, and when Castillo just perceptibly nodded, Lorimer went on, "Special Agent Timmons and I were close in Asuncion. We talked."
"I was not aware that you were friends," Duffy said. "So were we."
"If that's so," Castillo put in, "then perhaps you might consider devoting more of your effort to the problem of getting Timmons and your two men back, instead of planning for the massacre of those who took them."
Duffy gave him a dirty look but didn't respond directly.
"How would you deal with the problems you see?" he asked Lorimer. "Starting with locating precisely where Timmons and my men are, presuming they're together?"
Castillo answered for him: "We're working on that as we speak."
"I'll let that pass for the moment," Duffy said to Castillo, then turned back to Lorimer. "How would you go about rescuing Timmons and my men?"
Lorimer looked to Castillo again for permission. Castillo nodded, and Lorimer replied, "A simple helicopter assault operation."
"Like the one staged at Estancia Shangri-La?" Duffy said, more than a little sarcastically.
"Not quite," Castillo said. "Shangri-La was supposed to be a passenger pickup, not an assault. We were really surprised when those people shot at us. We'll go into this one expecting resistance. And act accordingly."
"How many helicopters do you think you can borrow from Pevsner, Colonel? How many does he have? Enough for even a 'simple helicopter assault operation'?"
"Excuse me?"
"Isn't that why you're going to Bariloche?" Duffy asked, almost triumphantly. "To borrow a helicopter again from that Russian criminal Aleksandr Pevsner?"
"No, that's not why I'm going to Bariloche, not that that is any of your business. The helicopters involved in this operation will begin to arrive somewhere around midnight on the eighteenth of September. In one week, plus one day, plus however many hours between now and midnight. This is tentative; I haven't had much time to plan. And, frankly, I need your help with the planning."
Castillo noticed that that got Duffy's attention.
"Between now and then-this is where you come in, Comandante-we are going to have to set up refueling stations for the helos, a landing field between where I plan to initially land the aircraft-which is on the playing fields of the Polo Association in Pilar-and then somewhere near Asuncion. The landing field will need to be big enough for a JP-4 fuel cache for each helo every three hundred kilometers. And be an isolated field, of course. And we need a base of operations in Argentina, also isolated, where we can conceal the helicopters from anyone flying over, and from which we can operate into Paraguay."
Duffy considered all of this a moment.
"How many helicopters will you have?"
"Four, at least."
"And you think you'll be able to fly four U.S. Army helicopters across a thousand-fifteen hundred-kilometers of Argentina and get away with it? Undetected?"
"U.S. Army helicopters? No. But I don't think one or two Argentine Army helicopters flying anywhere-across the pampas or up the Rio de la Plata or the Rio Paraguay-are going to attract attention from anybody."
"Your helicopters will be painted like ours," Duffy replied, "is that what you're saying?"
Castillo nodded, and thought, Now I really have his attention.
I just have to sink the hook.
"Except maybe other Argentine Army helicopters?" Duffy pursued. "Their pilots might say, 'I wonder who that is?'"
"Mine will be flying nap of the earth, very low-"
"I know what nap of the earth means," Duffy protested.
"-and will have radar on board, which will permit my pilots to take evasive action should they detect any other aircraft in the vicinity."
"Like a sudden turn of course which will take them right over an airfield, or a city?"
"They're equipped with satellite navigation systems to keep that from happening," Castillo said. "And the pilots do this sort of thing for a living."
"You seem very sure of yourself, Colonel."
"This is what I do for a living, Comandante," Castillo said evenly. "Now, would you like to hear our very preliminary plans for the actual assault? I really need your input on this."
Duffy nodded without hesitation.
Got him!
Castillo glanced at Munz, who nodded just perceptibly. Castillo then motioned at D'Elia.
"This is Captain D'Elia, Comandante," Castillo said. "He will be in charge of the actual assault."
Duffy offered his hand.
"Mucho gusto, mi comandante," D'Elia said, then glanced at Castillo. "With your permission, mi coronel?"
"Go ahead," Castillo said.
"Generally speaking," D'Elia began, "as I understand we not only intend to rescue our men but plan to take prisoners-and if we determine our people are being held at a refinery, or transfer point, to either seize or destroy both the drugs and the plant itself-"
"You are an Argentine, Capitan?" Duffy interrupted.
"No. But thank you, mi comandante, for your error. I have worked hard on the Porteno accent."
"Well, you could have fooled me," Duffy said.
We all fooled you, Duffy, Castillo thought.
And thank God for that!
I don't know what the hell I would have done if you had stormed out of here in a rage right after you came in.
"If I may continue?" D'Elia asked politely, then went on: "If we are to take prisoners and seize drugs, etcetera, the fact that Lieutenant Lorimer has told us these places are accessible only by one road works in our favor."
Duffy's face was expressionless.
"If there's only one way in," D'Elia explained, "there's only one way out."
Duffy nodded knowingly.