The Shooters (Presidential Agent 4)

"And how long have you been in country, Captain?" Castillo asked again, softly and politely.

Urquila did the math in his head before replying.

"A week, sir. I got here the morning of the fifth. My team was up when General McNab laid this on us. I appointed myself and my medic the advance party, and we were on the LAN Chile flight out of Miami that night."

"You've been here a week, Captain-correct me if I'm wrong-and today you went looking for Mrs. Sieno at the embassy?"

"That's right, sir."

"And-curiosity frankly overwhelms me, Captain-how have you passed the time since you arrived in beautiful Argentina?"

"I've been nosing around Asuncion, sir, looking for someplace where these people could be holding this DEA guy."

"You and your medic," Castillo said, his tone making it more a question than a statement.

"Just he and I at first, sir. But now my whole team is up there."

"And why did you do that?"

"General McNab briefed me on the problem, sir, and when I came to see Mrs. Sieno before…"

Is he saying he saw Susanna before?

Castillo looked at Susanna. She nodded.

"…right after I got here, and she said she didn't really know where you were, and to hang loose, I figured the best thing to do was start nosing around looking for this place."

"Tony's found something very interesting, Colonel," D'Elia offered.

"Really?" Castillo said. "And what would that be, Captain?"

"Well, there's a sort of hidden compound on the Paraguayan side of the river-right on the river-protected by some really heavy anti-intrusion stuff. Including Claymores. Now, I've never seen this Timmons guy, but these people have three guys chained together to a pole. Two of them are Latinos, wearing some kind of brown uniform. The third is in a suit; he's got light skin, and I'd say the odds are he's Timmons or whatever his name is."

Jesus Christ!

"You've penetrated this compound?" Castillo asked, suddenly very serious.

"Not me, sir. My intel sergeant. Master Sergeant Ludwicz-"

"Skinhead Ludwicz?" Castillo interrupted. "That Master Sergeant Ludwicz?"

"Yes, sir. He said you two had been around the block a couple times."

Maybe that's who Bustamante saw on his intrusion!

I'll be a sonofabitch!

"Indeed we have," Castillo said.

"Well, he's one hell of a penetrator, as you probably know, so he went in. Alone. I didn't want to take any more chances than I had to, until I knew what was coming down."

"And Skinhead says he saw two brown-uniformed Latinos and a gringo in a suit, all chained to a pole?"

"Yes, sir. Sir, he said they have two bowls. One with water, one with food. And that they…this is what Ludwicz said, sir…and that they looked stoned, sir."

"As if, for example, they had been injected with heroin?"

Captain Urquila shrugged.