"Cruise ships?" Darby said, incredulously.
Delchamps nodded, and continued, "Under maritime law, they're subject to seizure if the owners collude in their use to transport drugs."
"How are they going to prove the owners knew?" Darby asked.
"According to Weiss, they have that figured out," Castillo said.
"And they don't want our operation to free Timmons to fuck up that operation," Delchamps said.
"At first it made sort of sense, but then I found out that the agency doesn't know anything about this operation-for that matter, anything-going on down there that we could screw up getting Timmons back."
"You think the bastards in Langley would tell you?" Darby asked.
Delchamps answered with a question: "Alex, do you think an operation like that would or could escape the notice of either John Powell or A. Franklin Lammelle?"
Darby considered that for a moment.
"No. One or the other, probably both, would know about it. The potential for it blowing up…"
"The DCI told me he knew of no such operation."
"T
old you personally?"
"Yeah. And I believed him. Then he sent for Lammelle, and asked him, and Lammelle said he didn't know anything about it, either. And I believed him, too."
"So what do you think's going on?"
"I don't know. But when I thought about it, putting myself in the Asuncion station chief's shoes, if I had come up with an operation anything like what Weiss told us he's got going-and I'm not known for either modesty or my love for the Langley bastards-I'd want all the help I could get. Even if that meant taking it to Langley myself and waiting in the lobby or the guard shack to catch Lammelle or the DCI wherever I could find them."
"Again, Edgar, what do you think's going on?" Castillo asked.
"No goddamn idea, Ace, except that I know it's not what Weiss has been feeding us. But now that we have it on good authority that my fellow officers of the clandestine service want to whack me and the President's agent, I'm beginning to wonder if maybe they've changed sides."
"Jesus Christ," Jake Torine said softly.
"So what do we do?" Castillo said.
"I don't know that either. But I think-what I was saying before about Mullroney being useful-that you and he should go to the embassy in Asuncion and let him stumble around."
"Use him as a beard?" Castillo asked.
Delchamps nodded, then asked: "Can I use your 007 radio to make a couple of calls? Like maybe two hundred? There are some questions I can ask some people I know."
"You don't have to ask, for Christ's sake," Castillo said.
"That's the best I can do right now, Ace. I suggest you go to Asuncion with Mullroney, acting as if you don't think there's anything wrong, but it's your call. You don't have to be a rocket scientist to whack people."
"I want to talk to Pevsner before I go to Asuncion."
"They'll expect you two in Asuncion as soon as you can get there," Delchamps said simply.
"Let's make that choice after we hear what Duffy has to say," Castillo said.
"Okay. You need me in that meeting, or can I get on the horn?"
Before Castillo could open his mouth, Delchamps went on: "Sorry. We haven't heard your brilliant thought."