"I will be damned!"
"I admit it often causes some confusion, sir. But as I was saying, sir, Colonel Torine will arrive on the Reagan probably within a matter of hours, and he'll tell you what he can about what is being required of you. In the meantime, sir, I would be grateful if you could do several things."
"Such as?"
"Sir, please permit the major to establish communication with us using the equipment he has with him. That is so much simpler for us than going through the White House switchboard."
"Well, I can't see any reason why that can't be done."
"And, Admiral, the sooner you have the helicopters moved to the hangar deck and the paint stripping started, the better."
"I don't know anything about any paint stripping, Colonel. What's that all-"
"Colonel Torine will explain what has to be done, sir, when he comes aboard." He paused, crossed his fingers, and went on: "Sir, with respect, I suspect you're having trouble accepting all this. May I ask, sir, that you immediately communicate with the secretary of Defense to get his assurance?"
There was a moment's silence, and then Admiral Jacoby said, "I think we can hold off, Colonel, until your deputy comes aboard. But in the meantime, I'll have the aircraft moved to the hangar deck and the paint stripping started."
"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir. Break it down, White House."
Admiral Jacoby just had time to say "shit" before a hissing announced the connection was gone.
"How'd I do, Dick?"
"I think you ruined the admiral's day."
"He was about to ruin mine. You know what to tell Jake, right?"
"He just took off from MacDill. That's next."
"Thanks a hell of a lot, Dick," Castillo said, then signaled to Lester to break the connection.
Castillo looked at Pevsner.
"Now that that's done, you want to tell me about the pistol?" Castillo said.
"People are trying to kill you, friend Charley."
"You mean right here and now? Or can we go finish our dinner?"
"We will talk after dinner," Pevsner said.
Castillo picked up the Argentine.45, slipped it into the waistband at the small of his back, and gestured for Pevsner to precede him out of the room.
XII
[ONE]
The Llao Llao Resort Hotel
San Carlos de Bariloche
Rio Negro Province, Argentina 2035 10 September 2005 They all crowded into the elevator and rode to the lobby floor. When the door opened, Pevsner touched Castillo's arm and motioned everyone else out.
"I need a moment with my friend Charley," he announced, waving toward the dining room. "The rest of you go in."
Everyone obeyed but Max, who simply sat down and looked to Castillo for instructions. The others made their way around him, and when they all had left the car, Pevsner pushed one of the upper-floor buttons. The door closed and the elevator started to rise.
Pevsner somehow managed to stop the elevator as it ascended; Castillo wondered if an alarm bell was about to go off.
"I don't want to scare Anna and the children," Pevsner said, "so don't say anything at the table."
"What's going on, Alek?"
Pevsner didn't respond directly.
"I will arrange for your baggage to be taken to the boat," he said. "You can spend the night at the house. Among other things, that'll give us the opportunity to talk."
"I can't get far from the communicator," Castillo said, thinking aloud.
"And the boy who operates it?"
Castillo nodded, then said, "He's the communicator, and he's young, Alek, but don't think of him as a boy."
Again, Pevsner didn't respond directly. After a moment, he said, "All right, everybody goes. That'll take a little longer to arrange." He smiled. "That's probably better anyway. A gun battle would disturb the guests."
"There's a possibility of that?"
Pevsner nodded.
"What's going on, Alek?"
"About an hour and a half ago," Pevsner said, "Gellini called and said you were back in Argentina-"
"Gellini?" Castillo wondered aloud, then made the connection: "The SIDE guy?"
Pevsner nodded.
"The man who replaced Alfredo when he was relieved," he confirmed.
"And who now works for you?" Castillo asked.
Pevsner seemed unable to answer that directly, too.
"He admires you, friend Charley. The way you stood up for Alfredo when he was relieved."
Alfredo Munz had been chief of SIDE when J. Winslow Masterson was murdered. He had been retired-in fact, fired-in order to be the Argentine government's scapegoat. Castillo, who had found Munz not only unusually competent and dedicated, thought that the Argentine government's action was inexcusable and had told his replacement, Coronel Alejandro Gellini, so much in less than tactful terms.
"Alfredo was screwed, Alek, and you know it. I told Gellini what I thought of it. And him."
"Gellini could not protect Alfredo from the foreign minister, and neither could I. But there was a silver lining to that cloud: Alfredo now works for you, and Gellini admires you."
"And what did my admirer have to say besides telling you that I was back down here?"
"That people are trying to kill you."
"A lot of people have been telling me that lately. He didn't happen to say who?"
"This is serious business, friend Charley," Pevsner said, smiling and shaking his head in exasperation.
"Gellini didn't happen to say who?" Castillo asked again.
"What is that word you use? 'Bounty'? Gellini said there is a bounty on you."
"I think he probably meant 'contract,'" Castillo said. "Meaning: whoever would whack me would get paid."
Pevsner nodded. "What is a 'bounty'?"
"A price the good guys put on the head of a bad guy," Castillo explained. "Or on some bad guy who jumps bail. Who put out the contract on me?"
"Gellini knows only that the gangsters know about the contract; he didn't know who issued it. It could be something the FSB has done in addition to their own plans for you, but I don't know. They usually like to do that sort of thing themselves."
"What're the FSB's plans for me?"
"What do you think, friend Charley? First you took out the Cuban, Vincenzo-"
"Major Vincenzo was shooting at me at the time."
"-and then Komogorov of the FSB."
"Colonel Komogorov was shooting at you at the time. And I didn't take him out, Lester did."
Pevsner shook his head in exasperation again.
"As you well know, when something like that happens, what the FSB wants to hear-what Putin himself wants to hear-is not some excuse or explanation. They want confirmation that whoever has killed one of them has himself been killed."
"I know an Argentine cop who has much the same philosophy of life."
Pevsner looked at him curiously.
"I don't understand," he said, finally.
"It's too long a story to be told in an elevator. It will have to wait until after dinner."
This time Pevsner expressed his exasperation by exhaling audibly. He pushed a button on the control panel and the elevator began to descend.
[TWO] The dinner was first class, which did not surprise Castillo. But he was surprised at how hungry he was and how much he ate, including all of an enormous slice of cheesecake topped with a strawberry sauce he thought was probably a hundred calories a spoonful.
Afterward, Pevsner led the group back to the elevator bank and they filled both elevators. This time, the elevators went down and the doors opened on a corridor in the basement.
At the end of the corridor, a door opened to the outside, where a Peugeot van and three men-obviously armed-waited for them. They climbed into the van and were driven maybe a kilometer to a wharf on the lakeshore.
This has to be Lake Moreno, Castillo decided.
Munz said, "Pevsner's place is on the other side of the lake-Moreno."
Floodlights came on as they stepped onto the wharf. Castillo saw a cabin cruiser, what looked like a thirty-five-or forty-foot Bertram sportfisherman tied to the pier, and had a mental image of the boat being hauled along some narrow provincial road on a trailer, dazzling the natives.