Black Ops (Presidential Agent 5)

"You think maybe they're sorry, have gone to confession, received absolution, and ain't gonna do nothing like that never no more?" Santini pursued.

"Where're you headed, Tony?" Castillo asked.

"Hold that thought, Ace," Delchamps said, and gestured to Britton.

"Colonel," Britton asked, "did you ever wonder who was really behind the stolen 727 headed for your beloved Liberty Bell, and why whoever it was had involved the African-American Lunatics in Philadelphia, only a very few of whom can walk and chew gum at the same time?"

Castillo held up both hands in a helpless gesture.

"Same question," Castillo said. "Where're--"

"Same response," Delchamps said. "Hold that thought."

"Okay." Castillo leaned back and slowly sipped his coffee.

"Have you considered the possibility that our Russian friends were already en route to Vienna to defect when you were dumped in their lap?" Delchamps asked.

"Yeah, I have," Castillo said. "What's been bothering me is how they knew that I'm Gossinger--"

"They know who you are, Ace, because Berezovsky is very good and because he runs their show in Germany."

"--and how they knew I was going to be at the Friedler funeral."

"That one's even easier to explain, Ace. It was in the Tages Zeitung newspapers, on the front page. 'Tages Zeitung Publisher to Attend Final Rites' or something to that effect."

"Are you going to give me a scenario, or keep me guessing?"

"Berezovsky is in Marburg to supervise the taking out of Otto Gorner, following which he will go to Vienna to meet the people with the wax statue of Whatsisname?"

"Peter the First," Castillo furnished.

"Following which, he and Little Red Riding Hood will defect. Hold that thought, too."

"Get on with the scenario, Edgar," Castillo ordered.

"The day before, maybe still in Berlin, maybe in Marburg, he hears that the Kuhls got eliminated. That scares the hell out of him. He didn't know about that.

"Conjecture: Kuhl didn't go to him to try to turn him. Berezovsky went to Kuhl; they knew who he was. Who they were.

"Are they onto them? What to do?"

"Keep doing what he was supposed to do, take out Otto Gorner. And then he hears that you and Kocian are going to be at Friedler's funeral. . . .

"Now, going off at a tangent: Why was Friedler terminated? Because he was getting too close to what? German involvement in this African chemical factory maybe?

"Then, after Berezovsky orders that you and Billy get taken out, he has a second thought. Or maybe--even probably--Little Red Riding Hood does. She's as smart--"

"Little Red Under Britches," Castillo corrected him without thinking, then had a mental flash of her coming out of the bath sans any britches.

"What the hell is your fascination with her underwear all about?"

"Not now," Castillo said. "Keep going."

"Little Miss Red Underpants is as smart as Big Bad Wolf is. She says, 'If they're onto us, maybe Gossinger/Castillo can be useful. If he's alive, of course. He has an airplane. If SVR is onto us, they're onto Kuhl and the CIA station chief in Vienna, but not onto him.'

"So Berezovsky warns you that you're going to be hit. That makes him a good guy in your eyes. And then he'll find you in Vienna. . . ."

"Instead, we get on the same train," Castillo said.