The Shooters (Presidential Agent 4)

An enormous gendarme with a sleeve full of chevrons appeared, came to attention before Duffy, and announced that he was at his orders.

"Form the men!" Duffy ordered, loudly.

The gendarme bellowed something not quite intelligible but what apparently was the gendarme command to come to attention.

All the gendarmes popped to their feet, stamped their feet in the British manner, and stood rigidly at attention.

Comandante Duffy grandly gestured for Castillo to precede him to the speaker's platform: the cargo bay of yet another confiscated vehicle pressed into service.

More than a few of the Americans in the room-two dozen Delta Force shooters and the crews of the Hueys-obviously found this military precision amusing. Perhaps even ludicrous.

Shit, the last thing I need is for the gendarmes to think the gringos are laughing at them.

But it's too late now for the speech about respecting the customs of your brothers-in-arms.

Castillo started to walk toward the pickup truck.

Chief Warrant Officer Five Colin Leverette put his hand on Lieutenant Colonel C. G. Castillo's arm, stopping him.

Leverette then screamed or shouted or bellowed, "On your feet, you candy-asses!"

This caught the attention of the Americans.

But no one moved.

Leverette then announced, at equal volume: "I will personally castrate any one of you candy-asses not standing tall by the time I get to the tr

uck!"

Then, politely, he said to Castillo, "With your permission, sir?" and marched erectly toward the pickup truck, loudly and rapidly repeating "Up! Up! Up!" until he got there.

By then the Americans understood what was going on and had gotten to their feet.

Leverette jumped nimbly into the bed of the pickup, popped to rigid attention, and bellowed, "Assault force, atten-hut!"

The shooters and the fliers stood at rigid attention.

"Sir!" Leverette bellowed as he saluted. "Your assault force is formed!"

By then even the assault force commander understood what was going on.

Lieutenant Colonel Castillo marched across the Cathedral to the truck, jumped nimbly into the cargo area, put his hands on his hips, and examined his force as if he didn't like what he saw.

He turned to Leverette, who was still holding his salute.

"Very well," he said, quite loudly. "Carry on, Mr. Leverette."

"Yes, sir!" Leverette bellowed, then ordered the men, "At-ease!"

Leverette turned back to face Castillo. Neither the assault force nor the gendarmes could see his face. And they could not hear him as he softly said, "And to think you didn't want me to come…"

"I've never thought pep talks did much good," Castillo said loudly to the assault force and gendarmes. "So I'm not going to give one. And if there's anybody out there who doesn't know what he's supposed to do and when he's supposed to do it, he's out of luck. There's no time for that now.

"The only things I am going to say, and I'm sure Comandante Duffy agrees with me, is that the priority of this mission-above all else-is to get our people back from these hijos de puta. And to do that, we have to follow the schedule.

"This is one of those situations where one man, acting a minute too soon or a minute too late, can screw up the whole operation. Don't jump the gun! That'll get people-almost certainly the people we're going after, but members of the assault team as well-killed.

"And when your time comes to take action, don't hesitate. Hesitation will get people killed, too!