The Shooters (Presidential Agent 4)

"Did Miller tell you I went t

o see General McNab?"

Delchamps nodded. "But he didn't say why."

"We're going to send two A-Teams-one of them Colin's-to Argentina, a couple of shooters at a time. Then we're going to put four H-model Hueys into Argentina black. Can you guess where we're going to refuel them after they fly off the USS Ronald Reagan a hundred miles off the Uruguayan coast before they fly on to I-don't-yet-know-where Argentina?"

"Boy, you have been the busy special operator, haven't you?" Delchamps said. "Does Montvale know about this?"

"No. Not about the Ronald Reagan. That idea came from a bird colonel who works for McNab…Kingston?"

Delchamps shook his head. Torine and Davidson nodded.

"Tom Kingston," Torine said. "Good guy, Edgar."

"Amen," Leverette said.

"And McNab said he would set that up. If it's possible."

"It's possible," Torine said. "After some admiral tells him not only no, but hell no, he will be told to ask the secretary of the Navy, who will tell him that he's been told by the secretary of Defense that the President told him you're to have whatever you think you need. They call that the chain of command."

Castillo chuckled.

"With that in mind," Castillo said, "and since I couldn't talk him out of going down there, I confided in the ambassador what we want to do with his estancia. He's on board. Good guy. That raised the question of an advance party at Shangri-La, which we damn sure need. One that might have a chance of escaping the attention of Chief Inspector Ordonez."

"How are you going to handle that? With Two-Gun?" Delchamps asked.

"What Two-Gun is going to do is show up at the embassy in Montevideo and introduce Ambassador Lorimer's butler…"

"I wondered what that Colin-the-Butler business was all about," Torine said, smiling and shaking his head.

"…to Ambassador McGrory," Castillo went on. "Explaining that Colin came down to see what has to be done to Shangri-La before Ambassador and Mrs. Lorimer can use it-which he has decided against advice to do-because his home in New Orleans was destroyed by Hurricane Katrina."

"That just might work, Charley," Torine said.

"Edgar?"

"Why not?" Delchamps said.

"David?" Castillo asked.

"McGrory, like most stupid men in positions of power, is dangerous," Yung said.

"I agree with that, too," Delchamps interjected. "I presume he's to be kept in the dark?"

Castillo nodded. "As is Secretary Cohen, who certainly is not stupid. But there are people around her who might find out, and might tip off McGrory. That's what I meant about having to lie to her. I'm going to tell her Lorimer's going, period."

"She's liable to cable or telephone McGrory and tell him to take care of Lorimer," Yung said.

"I thought about asking her to do just that," Castillo said. "But since I'm not going to tell her about Colin, that would really be lying to her, deceiving her. And I don't want to do that."

"And you're not going to tell Montvale either?" Yung asked.

"More smoke and mirrors, David," Castillo said. "I'm going to tell him that two A-Teams and the Hueys are being sent-but no other details-and that as soon as I firm up the operation, I'll tell him all about it."

The reaction of just about everybody to that was almost identical: Their faces wrinkled in thought, and then there were shrugs.

"Speaking of the director of National Intelligence," Torine said, "or at least his Number Two, I had an interesting chat yesterday with Truman Ellsworth. He even bought me a drink."