‘Excuse me,’ Duffield said quietly, ‘that wasn’t meant to sound like a moral judgment. Tam merely trying to get a proper fix on the situation.’
Ollinger cleared his throat and then nodded. ‘Yes, uh your analysis is quite correct. If possible, we’d like to do this without any media coverage. Lavander himself is a bit reclusive. Very private. I doubt that he would talk about it — that is, if we can get him out and—’
‘It’s not an “if’ situation. We’ll bring him in, if that’s what you want.’
‘We can’t afford to lose him.’
‘So, I repeat, you want him back, but you don’t want to spend two million dollars doing it. Is that a proper appraisal of the situation?’
Ollinger began to fidget. He flexed his shoulders as though he had a stiff neck. Drops of perspiration appeared along his hairline. The armpits of his shirt were black with sweat. Finally he said, ‘Yes, that’s accurate. Also, we’d like to, uh, think it won’t... you know, happen again.’
‘Perfectly understandable. How many people know about this?’
‘No more than seven or eight. The executives at the plant, the driver of the car, who was released after they grabbed Lavander, and the head of plant security.’
‘No Venezuelan cops?’
‘No.’
‘State department? CIA, FBI.
‘No, none of that.’
‘Excellent. Well, Mr Ollinger, I’d like to suggest you leave this matter in our hands. Inform Señor Domignon that he’ll be getting a call sometime within the next hour. I’ll need some basic information, names of executives, phone numbers, location of plant ... uh, we may need to slip some equipment into the country without having to deal with customs. But, basically, all you need to do is call Domignon and tell him I’ll be in touch. Then you can forget about it.’
Ollinger smiled hesitantly. ‘That’s wonderful, really. Now, about the price...’
‘The price will be three hundred thousand dollars. I’ll need it in cash before I leave. My briefcase is empty, you can put the money in there.’
Ollinger seemed shocked. ‘Three hundred thousand!’
Duffield smiled. ‘Look at it this way, Mr Ollinger: you’re investing three hundred thousand and saving one million seven. If there should be a repeat of the situation, we’ll handle it at no additional cost. Oh, and by the way, if the operation should fail for any reason, your money will be cheerfully refunded.’
‘Quill.’
‘Duffield here.’
‘What’s the situation?’
‘First of all, this Ollinger is a wimp. New on the job and very unhappy he has to handle this. Doesn’t want to get his hands dirty. Actually, he was so relieved when I told him to forget it and let us handle the thing, I thought he was going to jump across the desk and kiss me.’
‘Any danger he may violate security?’
‘No, he’s quite aware of the need for silence.’
‘What are the details?’
‘The Rafsaludi grabbed a consultant named Lavander in Caracas by mistake; they were after the manager, a man named Domignon. They want two mu by the day after tomorrow, eight-thirty AM., or they snuff the ho-stage, grab another and raise the ante to four mu.’
‘Fairly routine for them.’
‘Yes, very little imagination. The hook is that they lifted the wrong man. But it’s just a wrinkle, nothing that would affect the overall operation.’
‘Media? Police?’
‘No, so far it’s clean. A few executives and the driver of the car Lavander was taken from.’
‘Excellent. State department isn’t involved, or CIA?’
‘No, it’s under wraps. We have the contract and I’ve handled the funds in the usual manner. Three hundred thousand less my commission.’
‘Excellent, I’ll take it from here.. As usual, you did an excellent job, Mr Duffield. At the beep tone, please feed Master all names and contacts and any other information we’ll need.’
‘Thanks very much.’
‘Thank you for moving so quickly. Good day, sir.’
‘So long.’
‘This is Master Control.’
‘Clearance for selection.’
‘One moment, please.’ A few seconds later a recorded voice came on the line. ‘Clearance. Your ID?’
‘Quill. Z-l.’
‘Programming Z- 1. Voice check.’
‘Four score and seven years ago..
‘Voice check cleared. Your number?’
‘730-037-370.’
‘Your program?’
‘Selection.’
‘Programming selection.’ There was another pause and then:
‘This is Selection.’
‘Antiterrorism.’
‘Programmed.’
‘Assassination,’
‘Programmed.’
‘Kidnapping.’
‘Programmed.’
‘Language, Spanish.’
‘Programmed.’
‘Venezuela.’
‘Programmed.’
‘Route and intersect.’
‘Routing... intersection.., we have twelve candidates.’
‘File and reselect.’
‘Filed and reprogrammed.’
‘Availability.’
‘Programmed.’
‘Route and intersect.’
‘Routing ... intersection ... we have nine candidates.’ ‘File and reselect.’
‘Filed and reprogrammed.’
‘Team operation.’
‘Programmed.’
‘Previous team.’
‘Programmed.’
‘Assassination, non-political.’
‘Programmed.’
‘Caracas.’
‘Programmed.’
‘Tracking.’
‘Programmed.’
‘Route and intersect.’
‘Routing... intersection .. . we have one candidate.’ ‘Name.’
‘Hinge.’
‘Subfile and reselect.’
‘Subfiled and reprogrammed.’
‘Delete tracking.
‘Tracking deleted.’
‘Route and intersect.’
‘Routing ... intersection ... we have four candidates.’
‘Names.’
‘Falmouth, Gazinsky, Hinge, Kimoto.’
‘File and hold.’
‘Filed ... holding.’
A long pause, then Quill said, ‘Delete Kimoto.’
‘Kimoto deleted.’
‘Hold.’
‘Holding.’
Another pause. Then: ‘Readout ... Falmouth, team ops, A-level.’
‘Falmouth, Tony ... prefers solo ops . . . two previous team ops.. . maximum team size: three.. . commander: one ops... command effectiveness rating: A-plus. . . overall effectiveness rating: A-plus, A-plus.’
‘Delete readout.’
‘Readout deleted.’
‘Readout ... Gazinsky, team ops,. A-level.’
‘Gazinsky, Rado ... four previous teams ops ... commander: one ops ... command effectiveness rating: C .. . overall effectiveness rating: C, A-minus, B, B-plus.’
‘File overall effectiveness rating and delete.’
‘Information deleted... holding.
‘Readout... Hinge, team ops, A—level.’
‘Hinge, Raymond ... four previous team ops ... commander: two ops . . . command effectiveness rating: A, B-plus
overall effectiveness rating: A, B-plus, A, B-plus.’
‘Intersect overall effectiveness rating and score.’
‘Intersection ... scoring: Falmouth, A-plus ... Hinge, A-minus ... Gazinsky, B.’
Falmouth and Hinge were obviously the best men for the job.
As was his custom, Falmouth placed a long-distance call to a 404 area code at eleven o’clock. The telephone was in a small efficiency apartment on the Buford Highway in Atlanta. The apartment contained a small desk, a chair and a telephone with a Code-A-Phone 1400 answering machine. Falmouth paid the rent by the year. Since the phone was used only to collect incoming calls, the bill was fixed and was paid each month by money order. ft answered on the first ring and the recorded voice said: ‘Hello, this is the University Magazine Service. At the tone, please leave your name, number and the time you called. Thank you.’ A beep followed.
Falmouth held a small yellow plastic beeper to the mouthpiece of the phone and pressed the button on the side. A series of musical tones emitted from the beeper. Falmouth could hear the tape in the answering machine rewinding.