By Order of the President (Presidential Agent 1)

The Air Force major came down the stairs, looking a little pale. He walked quickly to Generals Naylor and McFadden and softly told them, “There are four bodies on the airplane!”

“Sir,” Castillo said, “may I respectfully suggest that you get Colonel Torine’s after-action report first? I don’t believe I will have anything to add to that, sir, and I really need thirty or forty minutes in the Black Hawk right now.”

“What for, Charley?” Matt Hall asked.

“I don’t think you want to know, sir,” Castillo said.

“Yes, I do,” Hall said.

“There’s a few details I have to clean up, sir . . .”

“Those bodies?” Hall asked.

“Matt, I don’t think you want that question answered,” General Naylor said. “Colonel Torine, if you’ll come with us, Major Castillo will join us just as soon as he can.”

He gestured toward an Air Force Dodge Caravan.

“Major,” General McFadden said to the Air Police officer, “I’m sure you were mistaken when you thought you saw bodies on the aircraft.”

“Hey, Charley,” the pilot of the 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment Black Hawk said after the helo was loaded and its wheels left the ground, “where we going?”

“Sightseeing, Tom,” Castillo said. “How about someplace along Alligator Alley where I could see some really hungry gators? The more, the better.”

“I know just the place,” the pilot said and banked the bird southeast toward the Everglades.

[FIVE]

Room 14B Transient Field Grade Officers’ Quarters MacDill Air Force Base Tampa, Florida 2005 10 June 2005

“Hello,” Fernando Lopez said when he picked up the telephone.

“Major Carlos Castillo, please, the president is calling.”

“He’s in the shower.”

“Did you understand what I said before? The president is calling.”

“That won’t get him out of the shower anytime soon.”

“I will call again in five minutes. Please have Major Castillo prepared to speak to the president.”

“I’ll see what I can do.”

“Thank you very much.”

Charley came out of the bathroom two minutes later with a towel wrapped around his waist.

“Anything happen? Who was on the phone?”

“The first was Elaine Naylor. We were expected for dinner five minutes ago. All is apparently forgiven by Uncle Allan. So get dressed.”

“And the second?”

“That was Isaacson, to tell us he’s on his way here to pick us up.”

“That’s all?”

“There was one more,” Fernando said. “Let me think. Oh yeah. It was the president. I said you were in the shower.”