Black Ops (Presidential Agent 5)

He let that sink in a moment, then went on: "If I put Billy on the phone, can you leave out the mutilation?"

"That wouldn't work, Karl, and you know it. No matter what I tell him, he's going to look into it himself. And just as soon as he gets off the phone with me, he'll be on the phone himself. And he has a lot of contacts."

Shit, Castillo thought, he's right!

When Castillo didn't reply, Gorner added, "And it's already all over the front pages of the Frankfurt newspapers, the Allgemeine Zeitung and the Rundschau. And Berlin and Munich won't be far behind. And as soon as Billy gets to reading his newspapers online, he's going to find out. You can bet your ass on that."

He paused again, then gave what he thought would be the headline: " 'Tages Zeitung Reporter Murdered. Police Suspect Gay Lovers Spat.' Merry Christmas, Frau Friedler and family."

Castillo was ashamed of the irreverent thought that popped into his mind--Is there no honor among journalists?--which immediately was replaced by another disturbing thought, which he said aloud: "Billy will want to go to the funeral."

"Oh, God! I didn't even think about that!"

"Right now, he's surrounded by Secret Service agents. How am I going to protect him in Fulda?"

"Wetzlar," Gorner corrected automatically. "He lived in Wetzlar. He's from Wetzlar." Another brief pause. "You can't keep him there?"

Castillo didn't reply.

In as many seconds as it takes Otto to hear what he just said, he will realize that the only way to keep Billy Kocian from doing whatever he wants to do is convince him he really doesn't want to do it, and that's not going to happen.

A moment later, Gorner thought aloud: "Let me know what flight he'll be on and I'll have some of our security people waiting at the gate. Better yet--I have some friends--send me the flight number and I will get agents of the Bundeskriminalamt to take him off the airplane before it gets to the gate."

"I'll bring him in the Gulfstream," Castillo said. "For one thing, he won't leave the dogs, and I don't want--"

"I thought you went out of your way not to attract attention," Gorner interrupted.

"Here's a headline for you, Otto: 'Tages Zeitung Publisher Returns from America for Friedler Last Rites.' "

"Okay," Gorner said after a moment. "But don't bring anybody from the CIA to mourn with you."

Castillo looked at Delchamps and smiled.

He would no more have gone to Germany without Delchamps than he would have gone without shoes, but this was not the time to argue with Gorner about that, or even tell

him.

As a practical matter, before this came up, they had been planning to go to Europe, taking Billy Kocian with them, and not only because they knew Kocian was out of patience with living in the Mayflower Hotel and spending his days searching his copious memory to fill in the blanks of the investigation.

Delchamps and FBI Inspector John J. Doherty--another at-first-very-reluctant recruit to OOA--were agreed that the time had come to move the investigation out of the bubble at Langley and onto the ground.

They would start in Budapest, Doherty had suggested--and Delchamps had agreed--then move almost certainly to Vienna, then to Berlin and Paris and wherever else the trail led, preceded by a message from either--or both--Secretary of State Natalie Cohen and Director of National Intelligence Charles M. Montvale ordering the ambassadors and CIA station chiefs to provide the people from OOA whatever support they requested, specifically including access to all their intelligence.

All that this latest development had changed was that they first would go to Hesse in Germany--seeing Otto Gorner in Fulda had been on the original agenda--rather than to Budapest, and that they would go as soon as possible, rather than "right after the first of the year."

"If you think you have your emotions under control, Otto," Castillo said, "I'll go get Billy."

Gorner got his emotions under control to the point where he was able to say, in a reasonably civil voice, "Thank you."

Delchamps followed Castillo through the office door, touched his arm, and softly said, "I presume you know, Ace, that cutting out someone's eye is Middle East speak--and, come to think of it, Sicilian--for This is what happens to people who get caught looking at things they shouldn't."

Castillo nodded, then said, "But setting up something like this to look as if it's a homosexual love affair gone wrong isn't Middle East speak, is it?"

"That may have been a message to your Onkel Otto," Delchamps said. "You keep sending people to look at things they shouldn't be looking at, and the way we take them out will humiliate their families and the Tages Zeitung."

Castillo considered that a moment, then nodded.

"Billy, can I see you a moment?" he said, and mimed holding a telephone to his ear.