The Outlaws (Presidential Agent 6)

“If you’re going to be difficult, Roscoe, not a problem,” Yung said. “We’ll just leave and go find C. Harry Whelan, Jr. We know he also wants to meet Colonel Castillo. We’d rather have you, but only if you want to go along. We’re not going to drug you, or anything like that, and take you against your will.”

“Take me where?”

“I’ll tell you what we have in mind if you let me call you Roscoe. If you do, in turn you may call me Two-Gun.”

I’m smiling. I have every right to be royally pissed.

And maybe I should even be frightened—was there an implied threat in that “We’re not going to drug you”?

But what I’m doing is smiling.

“Two-Gun”? They call him “Two-Gun”?

“You may call me Roscoe, Two-Gun.”

“Thank you. Now, Roscoe, presuming you are willing, you are going to drive you and me to BWI. You have a first-class ticket on the Aero-Mexico ten-forty-five flight to Mexico City. Once I see your plane take off, I will drive your car back here and turn it over to Gerry’s capable hands. You will be met at the airport in Mexico City and taken to meet Colonel Castillo.”

“And the Russians?”

“Actually, one of the Russians has expressed an interest in meeting you, Roscoe.”

“Where is Castillo, Two-Gun?”

“You will learn that later.”

“And if I say no?”

“Then we shall regretfully have to stuff you in the trunk of your car. And by the time Gerry hears your piteous cries for help—and finally figures out where they’re coming from—Alex and I will have folded our tent and disappeared.”

Goddamn it! I’m smiling again.

“Okay. Give me ten minutes to throw some things in a bag and grab my laptop.”

“No. If we’re going, it has to be right now.”

“Why?”

“There’s about one chance in ten that Alex and I were not as successful as we believe we were in eluding the Secret Service guys surveilling our house, which raises the possibility that there may be some of them outside.”

“What makes you think they won’t see, follow, stop, whatever, us when you and I leave?”

“Because just before we leave, Alex is going to leave the garage as if Satan himself is in hot pursuit. If there are no Secret Service agents waiting for him outside, fine. If there are, Alex will lead them on a tour of the scenic spots of our nation’s capital while you and I make our leisurely way to BaltimoreWashington International.”

“And Harry Whelan won’t be involved, right?”

“I was afraid you would ask that.”

“Meaning he will be?”

“Meaning he will be offered the same opportunity.”

“Can I cut his throat?”

“When you come back, you can do anything you want to.”

“I haven’t a clue why I’m going along with this,” Roscoe J. Danton said as he put the key in the car door.

[ONE]