Black Ops (Presidential Agent 5)

"May I continue?" Berezovsky said.

She made a face but motioned for him to go on.

"But, I am sure that Carlos would agree with me that there can be only one man in charge, so I will consider myself at his orders and defer to his judgment."

Castillo looked him in the eyes a long moment as he considered that, then nodded once. "Thank you."

Berezovsky looked at Leverette.

"As you so colorfully put it, Uncle Remus, 'Everybody else seems to be crazy, so why not me?' "

"That's very kind, Tom," Leverette said. "But let the record show that Uncle Remus would vote, if asked, to whack this guy while we have the opportunity."

"I second the motion," Delchamps said. "Ace, if we don't deal with this guy now, then sooner or later it's going to come around and viciously bite us on the ass."

"I didn't say I wasn't going to deal with him; I said I didn't want him whacked," Castillo said. "Speaking of everybody being crazy, hasn't it occurred to anyone but me that the enemy you know is less dangerous than the one you don't?"

"Meaning?"

"That if we take out Evgeny--"

Jesus, I'm talking about the husband of my lover!

That's one helluva strange feeling--not to mention dangerous ground!

"--they'll just send someone else, who may be more dangerous than Evgeny."

"So how are you going to deal with the one we have?" Delchamps said.

"Sic Liam on him for now," Castillo said, "while hoping I can keep him from whacking him on general purposes." He turned to Alfredo Munz. "How safe is Aleksandr's house in Bariloche from somebody like this guy?"

"There's only one road leading to the house," Munz said. "It's patrolled and secure. The only other way to get there is by air, which is impossible to do quietly, and by boat, which you've seen yourself."

Castillo nodded. "Worst-case scenario: How would the Pevsners and the Berezovskys get out if Evgeny showed up with a platoon of Ninjas?"

"Platoon of what?" Berezovsky asked.

"The ex-Stasi or ex-AVH--Allamvedelmi Hatosag--or whatever the hell they were--the only one we ever identified was the Cuban who eliminated Dr. Jean-Paul Lorimer at his estancia. They were dressed up in black and wearing balaclava masks like characters in a bad movie--or a comic book. We called them 'the Ninjas.' "

"I doubt if anything like that is likely," Berezovsky argued. "They were sent--they were Hungarian, by the way--to deal with that particular problem. You dealt with them. Sending in another team to replace them just in case they might be needed would be difficult and dangerous. Just keeping a half-dozen people like that around and out of sight . . ."

"With respect, Dmitri, it would appear that Evgeny's been sent, as you say, 'to deal with this particular problem,' " Castillo said. "So indulge me." He turned to Munz. "Alfredo?"

"There is Alek's Bell helicopter. If anything like you suggest did happen, they could quickly leave on it and go anywhere, including Chile, on short notice."

Castillo looked at Berezovsky.

"Then you would say, Alfredo, that Mrs. Berezovsky and Sof'ya would be safe in Bariloche? Maybe even safer than where they are now? While we're off to I-don't-know-where or for how long?"

"Yes, I would."

"You're talking about Africa?" Berezovsky said.

"No. Or at least not yet. I have the gut feeling we should get out of the Buenos Aires area. I just haven't figured out where to go."

"That's a no-brainer, Ace," Delchamps said. "Shangri-La."

Uncle Remus made a thumbs-up gesture.