"You are relieved as chief, Office of Organizational Analysis. You will go someplace where no one can find you, and you will not surface until your retirement parade. Understood?"
Loud and clear, sir.
And so the other shoe finally fucking drops. . . .
It took Castillo a moment to find his voice. "Yes, sir."
"After your retirement, I hope that you will fall off the face of the earth and no one will ever see you or hear from you again. Understood?"
"Yes, sir. I've been thinking of learning how to play polo. Or golf."
"The same applies to everyone in the Office of Organizational Analysis. Understood?"
"Yes, sir."
"I don't know how much of that sixty million dollars you had is left, but it should be enough to provide reasonably adequate severance pay to everyone. If it isn't, get word to me and we'll work something out."
"Yes, sir."
"Since we understand each other, Colonel, before you disappear, I think you have the right to hear this."
"Hear what, sir?"
"Mr. Secretary of Defense, you are ordered to take whatever steps are necessary to get Colonel Hamilton's samples from where Colonel Castillo will tell you they are to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute at Fort Dietrich as quickly as possible."
"Mr. President," Cohen interjected, "you can't just fly warplanes--"
"I'll get to you in a moment, Madame Secretary. Right now I'm giving orders, not seeking advice."
She started to say something but didn't.
"I think we are in this mess because I've listened to too much well-meaning advice," the President went on. "In addition, Mr. Secretary of Defense, you will immediately prepare plans to utterly destroy this hellhole in the jungle."
"Sir, Colonel Torine has prepared some proposed op orders," Castillo said.
"Give them to the secretary, please," the President said. "I'm sure he will find them valuable in preparing the plan, or plans, I want presented to me yesterday."
Cohen again tried to reason: "Mr. President, you're not thinking of actually--"
"And what you are going to do, Madame Secretary," the President interrupted her, "is return to Washington, where you will summon the ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to your office. You will tell him (a) that you are sorry to have to tell him that without the knowledge or permission of his government this--what did Hamilton call it?"
" 'An abomination before God,' sir," Castillo offered, earning him dirty looks from the others.
"That this abomination before God has been erected on his soil, but (b) not to worry, because his friend the United States of America is about to destroy it and no one will be the wiser.
"If he gives you any trouble about our airplanes overflying his country--or anything else--tell him his option is that we will destroy this abomination and then take it to the goddamned United Nations.
"Natalie, say, 'Yes, Mr. President,' or I will with great reluctance have to accept your resignation, then have the bastard appear in the Oval Office tomorrow and tell him myself. They knew goddamn well it was there. Palms were greased."
After a long moment, the secretary of State said, "Yes, Mr. President."
The President turned to Castillo.
"I hope this eases the pain of getting the boot a little, Charley."
"It eases it a great deal, sir. Thank you."
"For what? For defending the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic? That's what I was hired to do."