The Shooters (Presidential Agent 4)

"She asked, as a personal request, not as the secretary of State, that we do whatever we could for Ambassador Lorimer and his wife." He paused. "The President thought that was amusing."

"Amusing?"

"He said the lady may have gone to see the ambassador as a private citizen, but that inasmuch as she is the secretary of State, your American eagle was sitting on her shoulder."

"I'll tell you what I know, Jose," Castillo said. "She likes Ambassador Lorimer. I don't even know how she knows him, but she likes him. She doesn't want him down here, she told him that personally, and she sent me to Mississippi-where he and his wife were staying with Masterson's widow and her father-to talk him out of coming. I couldn't. My only connection with this was to send my airplane, the Gulfstream, to bring them here. That would at least spare them the hassle of going through airports.

"So, what I'm saying is that your ambassador got what he saw, a very nice lady worried about a nice old man. She had no other agenda."

"And what are you going to tell this nice old man about your plans for Estancia Shangri-La? Have you considered that?"

"He knows," Castillo said.

"He knows?" Ordonez asked, incredulously.

"That was my hole card in trying to talk him out of coming. I played it. And it didn't work."

"Well, let me tell you how this very nice lady's concern for a nice old man is going to complicate things for you, Castillo. The President-not my chief, the interior minister, and not the foreign minister, but my president-pointed a finger at me and told me I was now responsible for the comfort and safety of Ambassador Lorimer and his wife as long as they are in Uruguay. If I don't believe I can adequately protect them with any of our police agencies, it can be arranged for a company of our infantry to conduct routine maneuvers near Estancia Shangri-La for as long as necessary.

"To spare the ambassador and his wife the long ride by car from here to the estancia-and to preclude any chance of a mishap on the road-I am to suggest to them that they accept the President's offer of his personal helicopter"-he pointed at the Aerospatiale Dauphin-"to transport them to the estancia.

"By the time the helicopter would have reached Shangri-La-this was the interior minister's 'suggestion'-I would have ensured that the estancia had been visited by appropriate police officials under my command to make sure there were no security problems."

He paused.

Castillo thought, He's actually out of breath!

"You sound as if there's some reason you can't do that," Castillo said.

"Can't do what?"

"Take the Lorimers to the estancia in the President's helicopter."

"How are you going to take them there in the dark?" Ordonez said, gesturing.

"Speaking hypothetically, of course, I think that would pose no problem. What you do is fly there, and when people on the estancia, who are expecting you, hear you overhead, they turn on the headlights of their cars, which have been positioned to light the field near the house. And then you land."

"How are you going to find Shangri-La?"

"GPS."

"The Aerospatiale doesn't have it. I asked."

"I do," Castillo said. "Lester, show the chief inspector the laptop."

"You would trust this to get you there?" Ordonez asked several minutes later, when Bradley had finished his demonstration. "Is it safe?"

"Absolutely and absolutely," Castillo said, "and what small risk it might involve is far less, I submit, than the alternatives, which are either to drive the Lorimers and everybody else all the way up there, or-even worse-to put them in a hotel overnight, which carries with it the risk that the secretary of state, not having heard from me that the Lorimers are safely at the estancia, might telephone Ambassador McGrory and enlist him in her cause, whereupon he can be counted upon to start making a lot of noise we don't need."

"I was worried about that," Ordonez said. "If perhaps she hasn't already called the ambassador. If she had, I think we'd know."

"I think so. Let's keep him out of this, if possible."

Ordonez nodded, then said, "We'd have to make two trips, right? We can't get everybody in the Aerospatiale."

"Is the pilot of the Aerospatiale any good?"

"Of course they're good. They're the presidential pilots."