Black Ops (Presidential Agent 5)

[FOUR]

"Oh, Charley, look! Isn't that sweet?" Svetlana exclaimed as they walked into a basement room of the house.

Marina was across the room, tugging as hard as she could on a woven twine rope, the other end of which was in her father's mouth.

Castillo took a quick double-take around the room. It held a rack of golf club bags. Next to that was a rack of cues for the billiards table that was in the center of the room. One side of the room was given over to a bar, at which stood Cedric Lee-Watson and ex-Polkovnik Dmitri Berezovsky of the SVR. They had drinks in their hands. Lora and Sof'ya Berezovsky were sitting on bar stools, drinking what looked like Coca-Cola.

Castillo snapped his head to look at Svetlana.

"Oh, I didn't tell you, did I, my Charley? We're going to have dinner with my brother Tom and his family at the Club House," Svetlana said as she crossed to the bar to kiss first Sof'ya and then her sister-in-law.

Castillo looked at her and then at Munz.

Munz smiled knowingly, which pushed Castillo even closer to losing his temper.

"Is this smart, for Christ's sake?" Castillo snapped.

"Sooner or later, Karl," Munz said in German, "Mr. Barlow and his family, including of course Susanna, are going to have to start living their new identities. Why wait? For what?"

Castillo didn't reply.

"And you did notice, didn't you, the security measures around here?" Munz went on.

"I did," Edgar Delchamps said. "This place is tighter than a drum."

He saw the look on Castillo's face and went on: "Smile, Ace, you've been had," and then he walked to the bar, with Davidson on his heels.

"I thought I'd find you near the liquor, Tom, old buddy," he said in Russian.

"My Russian is not so good," Berezovsky/Barlow said in English. "Would you mind if we speak English?"

"Not at all."

Castillo walked to the bar.

Tom Barlow set his drink on it and took two steps toward Castillo. He grabbed Castillo's upper arms.

"I can call you Charley, right?" he asked in accentless American English.

"Why not?"

"One of the reasons I accepted my sister's kind invitation to break bread with you tonight was that I'd hoped to have a private word with you about her."

"Really?"

"She's my little sister, Charley. You understand. I wanted to make sure I understood your intentions."

The Russian words for Go fuck yourself, Dmitri leapt to Castillo's lips.

At the last possible split instant, he bit them off.

"But when I saw how you looked at each other when you walked in, I realized that wouldn't be necessary."

"Good," Castillo said in English.

Barlow looked intently into Castillo's eyes, reminding Castillo of the first time Aleksandr Pevsner had done that to him.

"So I think we should both be very gra