Lauffer waved his hand at him to stand at ease.
"If I'd known there was a telephone in here, I would have had it removed," Mart¡n said, turning his back to Clete as he closed the door. He turned and asked: "Who were you talking to?"
Clete-just in time-bit off the "none of your goddamned business" reply that came to his lips.
For one thing, who I talk to is his business, and for another, he has enough to worry about without getting into a verbal duel with me.
"My... fianc‚e," Clete said.
"Oh. You didn't happen to tell her where you were, did you?"
"No. Nor where I've been. She was curious about that, too."
Lauffer smiled.
"What was the subject of your conversation?" Mart¡n asked, and Clete saw a faint smile on his face too, before he added, "or is that too intimate a question for a gentleman such as myself to ask?"
"The Very Reverend Matthew Cashley-Price, of the Anglican Cathedral," Clete said, and had to smile, "is apparently greatly annoyed that I have been un-able to fit him and his premarital counseling into my busy schedule. And con-sequently, so is the lady."
"Shame on you," Mart¡n said, now smiling wickedly. "Before taking a se-rious step, like marriage, one should have all sorts of counseling. How did the conversation end?"
"She hung up on me when I said she had no choice but to trust me," Clete said.
Lauffer chuckled.
"It would appear that your charming fianc‚e and I have the same problem," Mart¡n said. "We both have no choice but to trust you. As we both do, I'm sure. The question is not if we trust you, really, but how far, isn't it?"
Clete felt his temper start to simmer.
I'm here, aren't I? With the airplane?
"You have no reason not to trust me, Coronel," Clete said.
No longer smiling, Mart¡n looked at him for a long moment.
"I inform you now, Mayor Frade," he announced formally, "that you are a prisoner of the armed forces of the Provisional Government of Argentina, and ask you now, Mayor Frade, if, as an officer and a gentleman, you will offer your parole to me?"
Clete's temper began to boil over.
"A prisoner? What the hell is that all about?"
"A record will be made of your arrest," Mart¡n said. "And of the seizure by the Provisional Government of your aircraft. In the event events do not go as planned, those records will come into the possession of the Castillo govern-ment. Possibly, they may-"
"Oh, come on, Mart¡n!" Clete interrupted. "If you can't pull Outline Blue off, and we all get arrested, Castillo's people will look at my, quote, arrest, un-quote, and the, quote, seizure, unquote, of the Lockheed and see it for what it is, a transparent attempt to get me off the hook. Christ, they know damned well my father started the whole goddamned thing!"
"What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that when I landed that airplane here, I knew what I was get-ting myself into."
"That's what General Rawson thought you would say," Lauffer said emo-tionally, "as your father's son, as the great-grandson of General Pueyrred¢n. That you would join us!"
"Don't get carried away, Roberto," Clete said. "I'll fly the airplane, if it comes down to that, but I'm not enlisting in your army."
"Actually, the subject of a temporary commission did come up," Mart¡n said. "Would you be willing-"
"I already have a Marine Corps commission," Clete said.
"This would be a temporary commission," Mart¡n said. "It would solve a lot of problems...."