Black Ops (Presidential Agent 5)

"I was just about to ask, Carlos, if it would be safe for Svetlana to go into Midland."

Castillo looked at her. "Why do you want to, Svet?"

Dona Alicia answered for her. "I promised her I'd show her St. Agnes's, where you sang in the choir . . ."

"Before you grew up and became a heathen," Svetlana said.

". . . and she wants to buy some denims," Dona Alicia picked up.

"I became neither a heathen nor a Roman Catholic," Castillo said.

"He doesn't mean that the way it sounds, dear. He's a Protestant--"

"He's not a very good anything now," Svetlana said. "That I will change."

"And I was thinking if you could get what you need in Sam's . . ."

"Sam's and Radio Shack, probably."

". . . Svetlana could get the denims there. And if you're going to have to go to Radio Shack, that's right down the street from Western World. They have some very nice ready-to-wear boots, and blouses and things. That's if it's safe for her to go into town."

The odds are pretty slim that the local FBI people would spot this Interpol fugitive in Sam's or Western World, or riding around in a Yukon with a Double-Bar-C sign on the door.

"Whenever you're ready, ladies," Castillo said.

"Svetlana can ride with me. That would attract less attention," Dona Alicia said.

[EIGHT]

1745 8 January 2006

The Yukons returned to the Double-Bar-C each transporting two fifty-six-inch flat-screen liquid-crystal monitors, one strapped to each roof and one extending four feet out the rear door of each with a little flag flying from the boxes--Lester Bradley had said there was no reason not to avoid a conflict with the cops for having something hanging out the back of the truck.

Dona Alicia and Svetlana, carrying boxes of denim clothing and whatever the big box labeled WESTERN WORLD contained, disappeared into the house.

Ernesto--Estella's son--and Bradley and Castillo started off-loading the monitors. After they had carried the first one into the library--which was now a sea of electronic devices and parts there for--Davidson came out to help with the others.

"Miller called, Charley."

"And?"

"Colonel Hamilton and Phineas will arrive at Reagan at oh-nine-something. He'll take them to the Motel Monica. Tom McGuire has some Secret Service guys who'll sit on them tonight and tomorrow without asking any questions. He said there's nothing to connect them w

ith us anyway.

"And Delchamps is on the 2130 Lufthansa flight to Munich, and Darby on the 2150 American flight to Frankfurt, both out of Dulles. Miller gave them $9,900 apiece--a hundred under the law requiring anything over ten grand taken out of the country to be declared."

Castillo nodded. "What else?"

"He's got a Beechcraft King Air laid on from noon tomorrow to take Hamilton's stuff to Bragg. Actually to Fayetteville, where Vic will have somebody meet it. No jet was available, and he said it won't make any difference anyhow, as Torine can't leave without that stuff or the shooters, and Uncle Remus is not finished with the paperwork for the shooters."

"But he has them, right?"

"Uncle Remus said he's got eighteen coal-blacks, five a little lighter, and one he says they may have to leave in Tanzania he's so light."

"Okay. I guess that leaves us with nothing to do now but set up Casey's toys and wait."

"I have the feeling we'll be doing a lot of that, Charley. Waiting."