"Yes, sir, I did notice that."
"And, as I am sure you know, while some lieutenant colonels sometimes make mistakes, and some Special Forces officers sometimes make mistakes, when a Special Forces lieutenant colonel makes a mistake, it is truly a cold day in hell."
"So I have been led to believe, sir."
"That being understood between us, there is sometimes an exception to the rule just cited."
"I find that difficult to accept, sir."
"Nevertheless, I think perhaps-as difficult as this may be for you to accept-I made a mistake about you."
"Yes, sir?"
"Frankly, Lieutenant, when you approached Mullroney and me with stealth worthy of the finest Comanche, I really had no idea how to deal with the sonofabitch."
"With respect, Colonel, sir, I believe his name is Asshole. And I think the asshole is now under control, sir."
"The knife at his throat when you rolled him over, Lieutenant-don't let this go to your head-was masterful. I would not be surprised to learn that Sergeant Mullroney soiled his undies."
"I would be disappointed to learn that he didn't, Colonel."
"The problem of a police officer being embedded with us having been solved-I devoutly hope-let us now turn our attention to the big picture. How do we get your friend back?"
"Yeah," Lorimer said, and exhaled audibly. "How the hell do we do that?"
"To get him back, we have to know a lot of things, starting with who has him. And where. Your thoughts, please?"
"May I infer from the colonel's question that I am now regarded as part of the team, so to speak?"
"From this moment on, you may regard yourself as the psychological warfare officer of the team. You seem to have some skill in that area."
"I am humbled by that responsibility, sir, and will try very hard to justify your confidence in me."
"Where do these bastards have him, Eddie?"
"Well, he could be in Asuncion, but I don't
think so. If I had to bet, they've got him in the boonies somewhere. Either in Paraguay or across the river in Argentina."
"Bearing in mind that you're betting with a man's life, why?"
"That's boonieland up there, Argentina and Paraguay. You can raid a house in a city a lot easier than you can in the boonies."
"Meaning that if you're holding somebody in a remote farmhouse, you can see the good guys coming?"
"If there's only one road going someplace, they know you're coming long before you get there. You've got somebody in the bag, you just march him off into the woods, and look innocent when somebody shows up at the door."
"So what we have to do is not only find where he is-I'll get back to that in a minute-but come up with some way to get enough people in there with the element of surprise."
"Yeah," Lorimer said. "And that won't be easy."
"I'm going off at a tangent here, Eddie."
"Yes, sir?"
"Something was said about Timmons's driver being taken out by these people. I want to make sure I heard it right. Tell me about that."
"They found the embassy car parked against the fence of the airport. It's called the Silvio Pettirossi International Airport-you want all the details like that?"