Black Ops (Presidential Agent 5)

"For us?"

"Evgeny knew the rules."

"Excuse me?"

"He knew them, and I know them, and you know them. I prayed to God to excuse us from them, my Carlos."

What the hell is she talking about?

"Saint Matthew," she went on as if reading his mind. "When the Romans came to arrest Jesus Christ, Simon Peter drew his sword to protect him. Our Lord told him to put it away. 'For all those who take up the sword perish by the sword.' You never heard that?"

"Now that you mention it . . ."

"I prayed to God that he will excuse you and me from that, my darling. It might not hurt if you did the same thing."

She kissed him quickly on the lips, then gently pushed away from him. She announced, "I'm going to have a shower. You want to go first, or after? Or . . . ?"

"Or," he said, and followed her into the bathroom, shedding his West Point bathrobe en route.

[SEVEN]

2130 12 January 2006

"Major Miller for Colonel Castillo," Sexy Susan announced.

Castillo looked up at the monitors from the playing cards he held. The countdown timer read 53:05:50, and there was a flashing lightning bolt above a picture of the house in Ale

xandria.

He looked across the table at Dmitri Berezovsky and Aloysius Casey, then back at his hand: two aces, two sevens, and a nine.

"I think you're bluffing, Aloysius," he said, picking up chips and tossing them in the pile at the center of the table. "Your two dollars and two more." Then a little more loudly and officially he said, "C. G. Castillo."

Sexy Susan said, "I have Colonel Castillo for you, Major Miller."

"How they hanging, Gimpy?"

"Montvale's looking for you, Charley."

"So, what else is new?"

"He just called here on the White House secure phone. He asked me if I knew where you were."

"To which you responded?"

"That you were at the moment out of touch. And then he said, 'Where is he, and don't tell me you don't know,' to which I cleverly responded, 'I'm afraid I'm going to have to say exactly that, Mr. Ambassador, sir.' "

"Why do I think that didn't end your little chat?"

"He said it was urgent that he speak to you, and please have you call him; he has to talk to you about Vienna."

"If I call him, since the sonofabitch owns the wiretappers in Fort Meade, he will know where I am. Let me think about it, Dick. I'll call you back."

"Figure something out, Charley. Or he will change that 'locate but do not detain' on you to 'put the bastard in chains.'"

"How do we know he already hasn't?"

"As of three minutes ago--according to Inspector Doherty; I called him before I called you--they haven't. Doherty said this was probably because they need something called a warrant before they can throw you on the ground and slap on the handcuffs."