The Shooters (Presidential Agent 4)

"Aside from all that money we're paying you, and the bullet you took for us?"

Torine, Darby, and Delchamps chuckled.

"You know what I mean, Karl," Munz pursued.

"Straight answer?"

Munz nodded.

"There are some people I intuitively know I can trust. You're one of them. That may not be professional or even smart, but-the proof being I'm not pushing up daisies-so far it's worked."

"Thank you," Munz said softly, on the edge of emotion. "I had the same feeling about you."

Their eyes met for a moment.

"Hurriedly changing the subject," Castillo said, "pay close attention. Your leader has just had one of his brilliant-if somewhat off at a tangent-thoughts."

"Can you hold it a minute, Ace?" Delchamps asked.

"Sure."

"When I talked about Mullroney being useful in Paraguay, I meant it. Not only for the reasons I gave."

"Okay?"

"Did you pick up on what Duffy said about him being worried about your health?"

Castillo nodded.

Delchamps said, "Somebody-Weiss, probably-has sent the CIA guy in Asuncion a heads-up. 'Watch out for Castillo.'"

"I sort of thought he would," Castillo said.

"And did you sort of think his reaction would be 'whack Castillo'? and/or 'whack him and everybody with him'?"

"Who's Weiss?" Darby asked.

Delchamps held up his hand, palm outward, as a sign to Darby to wait a minute.

Castillo shook his head.

"No. I didn't," Castillo said, simply.

"What's your take on the threat, Alfredo?" Delchamps asked. "A little theater on Duffy's part?"

"No. I think he believes there was a threat."

"Which would mean he has somebody in the embassy, or at least somebody in Asuncion, who he trusts and who fed him that," Delchamps said.

Munz nodded his agreement.

Delchamps turned to Darby.

"Maybe you know him, Alex," he said. "Company old-timer. Milton Weiss?"

"I don't know him. I've seen him around."

"Weiss first came to me, then to Castillo, and told us (a) that the station chief in Asuncion is a lot smarter than he wants people to think he is, and (b) that they've got an operation going where they're going to grab a cruise ship, maybe ships-"