The Hunters (Presidential Agent 3)

[THREE]

Darby led them into a large marble-walled bathroom. The bathtub and the separate shower were stacked high with electronic equipment and there was more on a long, twin-basin washstand. The water closet was still functional, but there were racks of electronics rising almost to the ceiling on either side of it.

“We’re watching the Cubans,” Darby explained. “Not so much them as the people who go in and out of their embassy. And, of course, their communications. Sometimes, that’s very interesting.”

“Sieno told me.”

Darby turned to face him.

“You’ve got me on a spot again, Charley,” he said. “Ambassador Montvale called me and said I was to call him immediately—him personally, not through the agency—if you showed up here.”

Castillo nodded and then asked, “If I showed up here, or when?”

“If,” Darby said. “So what I’ve done—or didn’t do—was not call him to let him know you had called from Recife. But now that you’re here…you tell me what you want me to do.”

“Call him and tell him I’m here. Better yet, call him and tell him I called you to tell you to call him and tell him I’m here and will call him as soon as I have a chance.”

Darby considered that a moment.

Then he turned and picked up a heavily corded telephone sitting on top of the water reservoir of the toilet, then looked at Castillo.

“It’s half past six in the morning in Washington,” he said, making it a question.

“The ambassador said immediately, didn’t he?”

Darby shrugged and put the telephone to his ear.

“This is Darby. Get me a secure line to the Langley switchboard,” he ordered.

“Oh, the miracle of modern communications!” Castillo said.

“How did the ambassador react to having his sleep disturbed?” Santini asked.

“He asked what else Charley had had to say.”

“And when you told him I had had nothing else to say?” Castillo asked.

“And when I told him that, he said when you called to tell you to call him immediately.”

“Okay. Give me until noon and then call him and tell him you have relayed his message to me.”

Darby nodded again.

“What’s the problem with you and Montvale, Charley?” Santini asked.

“He has a tendency to try to tell me what to do,” Castillo said. “As in, ‘Tell Castillo to call me immediately.’”

“Well, he is the director of National Intelligence,” Santini said. “Maybe he feels that entitles him to order a lowly lieutenant colonel around.”

“You heard about that, huh?”

“You got promoted, Charley?” Darby asked.

Castillo nodded.

“From both the director of National Intelligence and Corporal Bradley,” Santini said. “Congratulations, Charley.”

“Thank you. After what happened in Afghanistan, I was beginning to think I’d never get promoted.”