"About four years ago. Where did Charley find you?"
"He found me," Castillo said. "I was having my breakfast yesterday at Rucker when in he walked. I thought he was a Bible salesman until he demanded to know what I intended to do with his team."
"You're in on this operation with us, Colin?" Davidson asked.
Leverette nodded. "Somebody's going to have to keep Charley out of trouble, right?"
"Oddly enough, I was just talking to somebody else about that," Torine said. He looked at Castillo. "We need to talk about that, Charley."
"I also need a few minutes of your valuable time, Ace," Delchamps said.
Max walked to Torine and put out his paw.
"Can he have a doughnut?" Torine asked. "I'm not sure he's giving me his paw because he likes me."
"As long as it's not chocolate covered," Castillo said.
"The offer of a Sazerac is still on the table," Leverette said. "Any takers?"
"I thought you couldn't get one outside New Orleans," Delchamps said.
"Today, you can't get one in New Orleans. It's under water, as you may have heard." He reached into his jacket pocket and came out with a small paper-wrapped bottle about the size of a Tabasco bottle. "But here you can."
"What's that?" Yung asked.
"What's this, or what's a Sazerac?"
"Two-Gun has led a sheltered life, Colin," Delchamps said. "I accept your kind offer."
"'Two-Gun'?" Leverette parroted, and then said, "This, Two-Gun, is Peychaud's Bitters. I never leave home without it. It is the essential ingredient in a Sazerac cocktail, which I regard as New Orleans's greatest contribution to the general all-around happiness of mankind."
"There's the booze," Torine said, pointing to an array of bottles. "I know there's rye, bourbon, and Pernod. But you need powdered sugar, too, right?" When Leverette nodded, he added: "I saw some in the kitchen, thanks to the ever-efficient Corporal Bradley. I'll go get it." Torine started for the kitchen, then stopped and turned, and added: "About whom we also have to talk, Charley."
Leverette carried bottles of spirits to the table, then began to construct a cocktail shaker full of Sazerac with all the care and precision of a chemist dealing with deadly substances.
Torine returned from the kitchen with a box of confectioner's sugar, a lemon, and a paring knife in one hand, and five glasses in the other.
"Pay attention, Two-Gun," Davidson said. "You will see a master at work."
"It's not even lunchtime," Yung protested.
"They don't drink in the morning in the FBI, Colin," Delchamps said.
"How sad," Leverette said.
"Charley," Torine said. "Where's Jamie and his suitcase?"
"I left him in Rucker. Things went so smoothly down there that any second now the other shoe is sure to drop, and I want to be the first to know what's going wrong. I'm going to need another communicator right about now."
"Does it have to be a communicator?" Torine asked. He stopped, looked down, and saw that Max was again offering his paw. He reached into the Krispy Kreme box and handed Max another doughnut. Then he saw the look of confusion on Castillo's face and added: "I mean a Delta Force guy?"
"Where else would I get one?"
"Lester," Torine said. "He already knows how to work the satellite radio."
"He ask you?" Castillo said.
"No. This is what I wanted to talk to you about. What happened was he went to Davidson and asked him how he thought you would feel about sending him back to the Marine Corps."