He looked at Görner and asked again, “How did you hear about that?”
“The American embassy called. A man who said he was the assistant consul general said he had reason to believe Lieutenant Colonel Castillo would be coming here and, if you did, would I be good enough to ask you to call?”
“We have a name and a number?”
Görner nodded, lifted the leather cover of a lined tablet on his desk, and then flipped through several pages. By the time Frau Schröder had walked to the desk, he had found what he was looking for and had his finger on it.
She punched in numbers on one of the three telephones on Görner’s desk.
A moment later, she said in almost accentless English, “I have Colonel Castillo for you, Mr. Almsbury. Will you hold, please?”
She handed the handset to Castillo.
He spoke into it:
“My name is Castillo, Mr. Almsbury. I’m returning your call.
“My father’s name was Jorge Alejandro Castillo.
“Who’s it from?
“The sender is classified?
“Well, how do I get to see this message?
“And if I can’t come to Berlin, then what?
“Well, then, I guess I just won’t get to see it.
“Yes, I’ll take your assurance that the sender is a very important person. But I still can’t come to Berlin and I won’t be here long enough for you to come deliver the message.
“I’d rather not share that with you, Mr. Almsbury. What I suggest you do is send a message to the sender that you couldn’t get the message to me and that if the message is important that they try to send it to me through my office.
“Yes, I’m sure they know how to get in contact with my office.
“Yeah, I’m sure that this is the way I wish to handle this. Thank you very much, Mr. Almsbury. Good-bye.”
He hung up.
“That sonofabitch,” he said, shaking his head.
“I don’t suppose you’re going to tell us what that was all about, Karl?” Görner asked.
Castillo looked between them and then said, “A couple of years ago—maybe longer—somebody said—maybe wrote a book—saying, ‘The medium is the message.’”
“I don’t understand,” Görner confessed.
“For the first time, I understand what that means,” Castillo said.
“You’re talking in tongues, Karl.”
“Mr. Almsbury, who is more than likely the CIA station chief in Berlin, has a message for me. For a number of reasons, I think that message is from Ambassador Charles Montvale. You know who he is?”
Görner nodded.
Frau Schröder said, “Your new chief of intelligence?”
“Close,” Castillo replied. “He’s the new director of National Intelligence.”