By Order of the President (Presidential Agent 1)

Pevsner picked up the bottle and poured three-quarters of an inch into one of the snifters, and then added more to his glass.

That’s a big snifter; there’s a lot of booze in that glass.

Castillo picked up the snifter and began to warm the bowl in his palm.

“We are now equipped to watch darkness fall over Vienna, ” Pevsner said. “But, as aviators know, darkness doesn’t fall, it rises. Isn’t that so?”

“That’s what I’m told,” Castillo said.

“Tell me what you think of the cognac,” Pevsner said.

Castillo held up a finger, indicating he wanted a moment, and then swirled the cognac around in the snifter for another twenty seconds. Then he took a sip.

“Very good,” he pronounced.

And very good cognac. Who said crime doesn’t pay?

“I’m pleased,” Pevsner said and smiled at him. “You seem like such a nice fellow,” Pevsner went on. “I am really pleased that it was not necessary to give you an Indian beauty mark.”

“Excuse me?”

With a sudden movement—so quick Castillo didn’t have time to jerk his head out of the way—Pevsner touched Castillo in the center of his forehead with his index finger.

What the hell is that all about?

Indian beauty mark?

Jesus Christ! He’s talking about a bullet hole in the center of my forehead!

Pevsner picked up his cognac snifter and carried it to the guard fence. He very carefully balanced the glass on the top railing of the fence, relit his Upmann with the Dunhill, and then leaned on the fence with his hands supporting him.

After a moment, Pevsner looked over his shoulder, then waved with his left hand for Castillo to join him.

Castillo walked to the fence.

Pevsner gestured at Vienna.

“There it is,” he said, “laid out before us. As it was for Emperor Franz Josef, and, before him, Napoleon. And you’re right on time. We will shortly begin to see darkness— as you well know—rise and gradually mask Vienna.”

“I suppose we will,” Charley said.

“So here we are. We are drinking rather decent cognac and smoking what I think are really good cigars, and when darkness has finished rising from the ground, and all we will be able to see is a sea of lights under us, I hope you will be my guest at dinner.”

“That’s very kind of you,” Castillo said.

Two inane responses in a row. Attaboy, Charley! Dazzle this guy with your quick mind and verbal agility.

“Under those circumstances, wouldn’t it be nice if we could be honest with one another? As we begin what could be—and, I hope, will be—a long and mutually profitable association? ”

What’s he going to do? Offer to put me on his payroll not to mention his name in print?

“That would be very nice, Herr Pevsner,” Castillo said.

That’s three in a row, Charley.

“I really hope you mean that, Major Castillo,” Pevsner said, in English.

Jesus H. Fucking Christ!