The Hostage (Presidential Agent 2)

Castillo looked into the room and saw that it was prepared to treat someone just out of an operating room.

"I hope there's a john in there," Castillo said. "I really need to take a leak."

He saw on Corporal Lester Bradley's face that a visit to a toilet was high on his agenda, as well. Clearly uncomfortably, perhaps even painfully high.

"Corporal, there are two things that a warrior must always remember," Castillo said sternly. "The first is to void one's bladder at every opportunity, because one never knows when there will be another opportunity to do so."

"Yes, sir."

"The second is RHIP."

"Rank Has Its Privileges, yes, sir."

"Which in this case means I get to go in there before you do."

"Yes, sir."

"Just kidding. Go on, Bradley," Castillo said. "I can wait."

"You go ahead, sir."

"You have your orders, Corporal! This is your opportunity,maybe your only opportunity. Take it!"

"Yes, sir."

Britton chuckled. "Nice kid," he said, when Bradley had gone into the room.

"Yeah. And so was Sergeant Roger Markham," Castillo said, and then went on, bitterly, " 'The secretary of the Navy regrets to inform you that your son, Staff Sergeant Roger Markham, was killed in the line of duty. What he was doing was chauffeuring a Secret Service agent to a bar, where she was to meet her boyfriend.' "

"First I'll tell you about Markham," Britton said.

"Tell me about Markham?"

"The gunnery sergeant came looking for you-the guy in charge of the Marine guards?"

"I know who he is."

"He brought a casket for Markham's body, and a flag. They've got him in a cooler in the morgue here in the hospital, and they're going to take him out to Ezeiza first thing in the morning. He said that if he didn't get a chance to see you, to tell you thanks for making sure Markham had a Marine escort-there's two Marines in the morgue with the body-and for sending him home in a military aircraft, instead of like one more piece of luggage on Delta or American."

"Well, you know me, Jack. 'Charley Castillo, always looking out for his men. He's not very good at it, and some of them get blown away, but what the hell, Castillo means well.' "

"Oh, bullshit, Charley. That's the second thing I'm going to tell you: What happened to Markham and Betty is not your fault."

"I should have been in that car, Jack, and you know it."

"No. That's bullshit. If you had been in that car, one of two things would have happened. You'd either be in the cooler with Markham, or you'd be in a hospital bed like Betty."

"Maybe I could have gotten one of the bastards."

"More bullshit and you should know it. Face the facts, Charley."

"What are the facts?"

"I don't know how it is with the Secret Service, but I suspect it's just like on the cops."

"I don't follow you, Jack."

"On the cops, when something like this happens- your partner gets shot, or whacked-they won't let you near the investigation. You're too emotionally involved. I'm afraid if you keep up this 'it's all my fault' bullshit somebody important's going to hear you and they'll keep you off the investigation. And I wouldn't like that."