The Outlaws (Presidential Agent 6)

“Copyright, Billy Waugh,” Leverette said.

Castillo, Torine, and Peg-Leg Lorimer chuckled or smiled or both.

“Excuse me?” Barlow said.

“The first guy to do that was Billy Waugh, a friend of ours,” Leverette explained.

Castillo said, “Okay, back to the question of now that Spetsnaz has six beer barrels full of Congo-X, what do they do with it?”

“They would have to truck it out,” Barlow said. “But since—using Uncle Remus’s ninety-five percent destruction factor—there would be no trucks, at least not as many as would be needed, left at the Fish Farm, I don’t know how they could have done that.”

“They leave the Fish Farm area and steal some trucks,” Castillo said. “And then truck it out. But where to?”

“Any field where a Tupolev Tu-934A can get in,” Jake Torine said. “And that wouldn’t have to be much of a field.”

“You know about the Tu-934, Jake?” Tom asked.

“I’ve never seen one but, oh yeah, I know about it,” Torine said.

“I don’t,” Castillo said.

“Ugly bird,” Torine said. “Can carry about as much as a Caribou. Cruises at about Mach point nine. Helluva range, midair refuelable, and it’s state-of-the-Russian-art stealth. And it can land and take off from a polo field. The story I get is that the agency will pay a hundred twenty-five million for one of them.”

“You do know about it,” Barlow said, raising his drink in a toast, demonstrating he was clearly impressed.

Torine returned the gesture, and they both sipped their Sazeracs.

“Okay, picking up the scenario,” Castillo said. “The Spetsnaz load their six barrels of Congo-X onto their stolen trucks and drive it to some dirt runway in the middle of Africa, and then load it and themselves onto this ... what was it?”

“Tupolev Tu-934A,” Torine furnished.

“..

. which then takes off and flies at Mach point nine to where? To Russia?” Castillo pursued.

“No. They don’t want Congo-X in Russia. They know how dangerous it is,” Svetlana said. “They remember Chernobyl. That’s why the Fish Farm was in the Congo.”

“Could this airplane make it across the Atlantic?”

“Sure. With an en-route refueling, it could fly anywhere,” Torine said.

“Where’s anywhere? Cuba? Mexico?”

“Distance-wise, sure,” Barlow said. “But politically ...”

“They’d spot it on radar, right?” Castillo said.

“Charley, it has stealth technology,” Torine said. “And even if it didn’t, it could fly under the radar.”

“So why not Cuba, Tom?” Castillo asked.

“The Castro brothers would be too expensive,” Barlow said. “Both in terms of cash and letting them in on the secret. More the latter. Sirinov doesn’t like to be obligated to anybody.”

“Then right into Mexico,” Edgar Delchamps said. “Getting it across the border into the States would be easy.”

“I think we could say getting it across the border was easy,” Castillo said. “But I have a gut feeling Mexico is not—was not—the final stop.”

Alex Darby then said, “Drop off the Congo-X and enough people to get two barrels of this stuff into the States via Mexico, then fly the rest of it on to ... where?”