"I'm breathless with anticipation," Torine said.
"We're just spinning our wheels if we can't get the choppers off the Reagan and refuel them at Shangri-La. And the key to making that happen is Chief Inspector Jose Ordonez. If you can't get Ordonez to look the other way, we're fucked. And you don't know how much damage your new pal Duffy has done with him."
Castillo considered that a moment. "You're right," he said. "I don't suppose you had a solution to go along with your insight?"
"The obvious one: Go see him."
"Me? Or Alfredo? Or both? You remember the last time we saw Ordonez he said, 'So long, and don't come back'?"
"Why don't you ask Munz?"
"Jake and I had just about decided that he'd drop off Yung and Leverette in Montevideo on his way to the States," Castillo said. "No reason he couldn't take Munz with him. Or both of us."
He stepped into the quincho doorway and motioned for Alfredo Munz to come out. Then he raised his voice and announced to the others, "Something's come up that we have to deal with right away. Just sit tight."
Munz waited for Castillo to speak.
"Two questions, Alfredo: How much damage did Liam Duffy do to us with Ordonez?"
"I was about to suggest that we go see him," Munz said. "Until we do that, we won't know how much damage he's caused, and it's important that we know."
"Aren't we liable to cause more damage if I go? I just reminded Delchamps that the last time I saw him, he said, 'Good-bye, and don't come back.'"
"He knows you're planning an operation in either Argentina or Paraguay. That's none of his business. What he doesn't want-and will work very hard to prevent-is another operation in Uruguay."
"We're not planning anything in Uruguay," Castillo said, "except the refueling. And done right, that shouldn't take much more than a couple of hours." He paused, then added, "Well, let's go off on another tangent. Probably the best way to get the Hueys ashore is to launch them one at a time from the Reagan, one every forty-five minutes or an hour. And have them fly into and out of Shangri-La on different courses."
He looked at Torine for any input.
"You're the expert, Charley," Torine said.
"Four Hueys, or even two, flying overhead is going to attract more attention than just one," Castillo said.
"True," Torine agreed.
"Whatever you decide to do, Karl," Munz said, "Ordonez would be more assured if he heard it from you than from me. Like me, Jose believes you can tell if a man is lying by looking into his eyes."
"I've got to ask this," Castillo said. "Would a little gift-hell, a great big gift-make any difference?"
"The very offer would probably kill any chance at all of him being willing to look the other way," Munz said. "What you're going to have to do, Karl, is convince him that his permitting your helicopters to enter-even secretly-Uruguayan airspace and using Shangri-La as a refueling place is in the best interests of Uruguay. That it won't cause any problems for Uruguay."
"Okay. So we go to Uruguay," Castillo said. "And right now."
He gestured for the others to follow him back into the quincho.
"Comandante Duffy's going to be annoyed when he finds out we've left here," Castillo explained. "But I will deal with that later when I call him from Montevideo. What I don't want to do is have any friction with him as we leave that might cause trouble about us going to Montevideo.
"I regard his threat to have us kicked out of the country-or arrested-as valid. But I think he's very interested in what he calls our assets, and I don't think he's going to blow that whistle until I tell him no, or until I do something suspicious.
"I am also convinced that the arrogant bastard thinks he's got me really scared. Which, as a matter of fact, he does. So we're going to go with exactly that-I'm scared and I'm leaving.
"What we're going to do is load in the van everybody who's going to Uruguay-that's Yung, Leverette, Sparkman, Munz, Torine, Bradley, and me-and have Neidermeyer drive us out to Ezeiza, where we will file a flight plan to Montevideo, then clear immigration and customs, and leave."
Castillo glanced at the others, who would remain at the safe house. Alex Darby, D'Elia, the Sienos, and Lieutenant Lorimer showed no signs of having any problem with that. But Castillo thought he saw questions in Sergeant Mullroney's eyes.
Questions, Castillo thought, that he's learned not to ask, thanks no doubt to our little incident in the mountains outside Vegas.
Maybe he's not completely stupid…