"Not in a long time."
"That's between you and God. My father never prayed either. He said that God knew his mind, so it was pointless. God was going to do with his life whatever God wanted to do."
"I'm something like that," Castillo said. "And if God is reading my mind, He knows how I feel about you."
"So there is a tentative scenario we can run. We just put all the reasons we shall most likely not grow old together from our minds and pretend that we will be together forever."
She raised her eyebrows questioningly.
"Deal," he said.
"You mean that?"
"I mean that."
"Good. Then I will go with you to Buenos Aires and you will give me a computer just like yours."
"I've just been taken," Castillo said.
She nodded happily in agreement.
"Can I ask a question?"
"Anything, just so long as it's not about money."
"Actually, it is. How much money is in the accounts, the ones you memorized?"
"So that's it. You're a gigolo? After my money?"
"A lot more, I would guess, than the eight million you were willing to spend to throw the dogs a bad scent."
"If I told you forty, fifty times that, would that make you happy? You want me to give you money, my Charley? Just ask."
"I'm not in that league, but I'm not going to have to sell Max anytime soon to pay the rent. What I've been wondering about is that two million you asked for on the train."
"Two reasons. You needed to hear a reason--right then--why we were willing to defect, a reason you would believe. And if you thought we needed money, you probably wouldn't start looking for any that we might have."
"One more question?"
"One."
"Do you have any idea what it does to me when you rub your breast on my chest that way?"
She blushed, but then confessed: "Oh, I was hoping that would work!"
[FIVE]
The Great Room
La Casa en Bosque
San Carlos de Bariloche
Rio Negro Province, Argentina
0915 1 January 2006
Charley had learned the night before that there were two celebrations marking the New Year. First was the family celebration, an enormous meal--there had been two roast geese on the enormous table, plus a suckling pig--starting at half past ten.