“The hell I won’t. Nobody tells me what to write or what to say on the tube.”
“Wrong. I can, and in this case I have to. Edgar, is Porky there?”
“Sitting right across from Roscoe,” Delchamps replied.
“Roscoe, if I told you that your going on The Straight Scoop tonight would probably get Colonel Ferris killed, would this change your mind?”
“I can’t believe you’re serious,” Danton replied.
“Two-Gun, you have the CIA’s Whiz Bang Super Duper air pistol?” Castillo asked.
Yung went into his attaché case and came out with what looked like a Glock semiautomatic pistol, except that the slide was perhaps twice as large.
“Got it,” Yung said.
“You’re not actually going to threaten me with that gun,” Danton said.
“Two-Gun, shoot Porky,” Castillo ordered.
Yung raised the pistol and squeezed the trigger.
There was a pfffffft sound.
John David Parker suddenly screamed: “Ouch! Shit!”
He looked down at his shirtfront. A plastic thumb-size dart had penetrated the shirt pocket and then his skin. The dart’s feathers hung limply on his chest.
“Sorry, Porky,” Castillo said. “Don’t worry. You’ll wake up in about fifteen minutes. I had to make the point to Roscoe that I am abo
ut as serious as I ever get, and I just don’t have the time to get into an esoteric philosophical argument about journalistic ethics with him.”
John David Parker, now with a dazed look on his face, suddenly slumped forward, his upper torso landing on the kitchen table with a thump.
Two-Gun Yung bent over Porky and removed a slice of pizza from under Parker’s forehead.
“We’re not playing games here, Roscoe,” Castillo said evenly. “Am I getting through to you on that?”
“Jesus Christ, Castillo!”
“Do you understand what you’re to do when either the attorney general, or Clendennen’s press agent, or maybe Clendennen himself calls?”
“Yeah, I understand.”
“Good. Now, back to my original question: Who told you about Abrego getting moved by the attorney general? It’s important that I know.”
“And if I refuse to reveal my source?”
“Then I will be very disappointed in you, and you will wake up in the basement of Lorimer Manor, where Edgar will sooner or later get you to tell us. I need the name.”
Danton didn’t immediately reply.
“I presume, Two-Gun, that you’re locked and cocked?” Castillo said. It was more an order than a question.
“Two-Gun,” Delchamps put in helpfully, “wait until I move the rest of the pizza out of the way.”
Danton’s eyes widened considerably.
“Willy the Lion Leon,” he said quickly.