"Get in, Charley," Kennedy said.
The car started the moment Castillo had pulled the door closed.
"Gruss Gott," Castillo said, speaking the Viennese greeting in as thick an accent as he could muster.
"Gruss Gott, Herr Gossinger," Frederic replied from behind the wheel.
That's not a Viennese accent. Not even Czech. Good ol' Frederic's probably a Hungarian.
Why did I do that? Why do I care?
The Mercedes made the next left turn. They were moving through a residential area, looking much, Castillo thought, like one of the better neighborhoods of San Antonio, except that all the houses here were behind walls-some of them topped with razor wire-and almost all of them had bars on the windows.
Kennedy touched his arm and handed him something. It looked like a black velvet bag.
"What's this?"
"It's a velvet bag," Kennedy said. "It goes over your head."
Now I know why I felt menaced. They call it "intuition."
"You're kidding, right?"
"Not at all. You know my boss. He pays a good deal of consideration to his privacy."
"Fuck you, Howard, and fuck your boss!" Castillo said evenly. Then he raised his voice for the benefit of Frederic. "Stop the car!"
"Jesus Christ, Charley, there's nothing personal in this!"
"Stop the car before I have to hurt you, Howard."
"Take us back to the restaurant," Kennedy ordered in German, and then added, to Castillo, "You know he's not going to like this."
"Make sure you tell him I said, 'Go fuck yourself, Alex.' Now stop the goddamn car."
Kennedy hesitated a moment, then ordered Frederic to pull to the curb.
&nb
sp; Castillo got out, slammed the door, and started to walk toward Avenida Libertador. He heard the Mercedes drive off.
It was a three-block-long walk to Libertador, and he was half a block away when he saw the Mercedes. It was stopped at the curb, facing him, and Kennedy was standing on the sidewalk beside it. He was holding something in his left hand.
I don't think he's stupid enough to pull a gun and force me into the car, but there's no telling.
When Castillo got closer, he saw that what Kennedy had in his hand was a cell phone.
"You have a call, Herr Gossinger," Kennedy said jokingly. He was wearing an uncomfortable smile.
"If Frederic looks like he's even thinking of getting out of the car, you're going to either the hospital or the morgue," Castillo said.
Kennedy handed Castillo the telephone, and then took three steps backward and raised his open hands to show he had no intention of doing anything.
Castillo, maintaining eye contact, said into the phone, "Hello?"
"If Howard offended you in any way, my friend," Alex Pevsner said in Russian, "you have my apology."
"Howard was doing what you told him to do. And don't call me your friend," Castillo replied in Russian. "Where I come from, friends trust friends; friends don't ask friends to put bags over their heads."