The Outlaws (Presidential Agent 6)

Thirty-two seconds after the President had slammed the handset into its cradle, a blue light-emitting diode on the cradle began to flash.

The President grabbed the handset and began the conversation by asking, “Why the hell did you fire this Dillworth woman?”

Then he pushed the LOUDSPEAKER button on the cradle, so that Parker could hear the conversation.

“You’re speaking of Eleanor Dillworth, Mr. President?” the DCI asked.

“The one with twenty-nine years in the Clandestine Service. Used to be our head spy in Vienna. That one.”

“She wasn’t fired, Mr. President.”

“That’s not what she told C. Harry Whelan, Jr. She also told him that our friend Castillo stole the Russians from under her nose. Unless I can somehow talk him out of it, Whelan’s going to publish that in I don’t know how goddamn many hundred newspapers and chat about it on Wolf News. That’s going to make her and the CIA look pretty foolish, wouldn’t you say?”

“Mr. President, Miss Dillworth has not been fired. What happened was that it was decided—after they found the dead Russian in a taxicab outside our embassy ...”

“And when the CIA looks pretty foolish, this administration looks pretty foolish, wouldn’t you say?”

“. . . the decision was made to get Miss Dillworth out of Vienna to avoid undue press attention there.”

“The last I heard, Austrians can’t vote in our elections. Who the hell cares about Viennese newspapers?”

“Perhaps that decision was ill-advised, Mr. President.”

“Who made it? Ambassador Stupid? You’ve heard about that? Ambassador Stupid is in that town with the funny name at the bottom of Argentina looking for this guy Darby, who is in Alexandria.”

“Yes, Mr. President, that has been brought to my attention.”

“I asked you who made the decision to fire this female.”

“I did, Mr. President. At the time—”

“At the time, it was a stupid decision. Well, how are we going to shut this woman up?”

“Mr. President, I just don’t see how that’s possible.”

“So, what do we do?”

“Mr. President, there is some good news. Actually, I was just about to call you when you called me.”

“Let’s have the good news. God knows we need some.”

“I just got off the phone with Frank Lammelle, sir. He said that General Naylor has sent General McNab to find Castillo.”

“Where did he send him? Nome, Alaska? I don’t think we’ve looked there yet. Or in Timbuktu.”

“I believe General McNab went to South America, sir.”

“Haven’t we already looked there?”

“Sir, Colonel Castillo spent most of his career working for General McNab. They have a close personal relationship. It’s possible that Castillo would turn over the Russians to McNab.”

“That raises a presumption and a question: We’re presuming that McNab can find Castillo. And if he does, what if Castillo tells him to go fuck himself? He already told Ambassador Stupid and the colonel Naylor sent down there with him to do that.”

“As far as presuming that General McNab can find Castillo, sir, I think we can safely do that. People with knowledge of Castillo’s location who would not tell anyone else would tell General McNab. Because of their close relationship.”

“I wonder.”

“And after General McNab locates Castillo, there is a Plan B in case Castillo remains intractable.”