"In Belgrano," Sieno replied, chuckling. "Fifteen-sixty-eight Arribenos."
Belgrano was one of Buenos Aires's upscale neighborhoods.
"What's there?"
"My apartment, Major," Sieno said. "Sixteenth floor."
"Your apartment?"
"The Cuban embassy is on the next corner. We use the apartment to take pictures of people going into the embassy and to grab their radio transmissions. Not exactly a safe house, but there's a steel door and TV monitors, and Alex Darby figured it will do until you decide what you really need."
"He's a colonel now," Solez called from the backseat, and added for Castillo, "Dona Alicia sent me an e-mail."
"You and Dona Alicia have big mouths," Castillo said and then asked Sieno, "Where is Alex Darby?"
"I'm hoping he'll be at the apartment when we get there."
"And Tony Santini?"
"Your Major Miller called Darby, Maj-Colonel-and asked him to have somebody meet the seven twenty-five American Airlines flight from Miami. Tony said he'd do it. I overheard enough of the conversation to think that the corporal-from the Marine guard detachment at the embassy-you took to the States and some other military type, a replacement for the guy you lost, will be on it."
I wonder what the hell that's all about? Castillo thought, and then said it: "What's that about?"
"I don't have any idea, but Alex should be at the apartment when we get there and he'll know."
"Paul, can you get out of the habit of calling me Colonel? My name is Charley."
"Sure."
"And you, Ricardo, get in the habit of keeping your mouth shut."
"You going to tell Abuela that, Colonel Gringo?" Fernando asked, coming to Ricardo's aid.
Castillo ignored him and asked, "Where's Sergeant Kensington?"
"All alone-except for his radio, of course-in that luxury suite of yours in the Four Seasons," Solez said.
"Darby decided keeping him there, and the radio linkup, was more important than worrying about what that's costing," Sieno said. "At least until he heard from you."
"I am often known as the last of the big spenders," Castillo said.
He had a sudden flash of memory: Betty Schneider in his arms in the enormous bed in the master bedroom of the El Presidente de la Rua suite at the Four Seasons Hotel.
And then these bastards shot her.
And I didn't-as promised-go to see her before I started this round of the Grand Tour of Europe and South America.
I'm either a dedicated professional who allows nothing to get in the way of carrying out the mission or a four-star, world-class prick.
And if Betty believes the latter, who can blame her?
Well, I'll get on my knees, apologize, and beg for forgiveness when I see her. [TWO] The apartment building at 1568 Avenida Arribenos was on the corner of Avenida Jose Hernandez, a block off Avenida Libertador. The lobby, behind walls of plate glass, was brightly lit, and Castillo wondered if the Cubans-tit for tat-might be keeping it under surveillance.
Rule 17: Always give the bad guys more credit for smarts than they probably deserve. If Darby is working on their embassy, they almost certainly know it. They may not be able to do anything to stop the snooping, but they certainly can take pictures of everybody going into the apartment building and pass them around.
He felt a sense of relief when the Traffik turned off Avenida Arribenos, crossed the sidewalk, and almost immediately disappeared from sight down a steep ramp into a basement garage.
Castillo spotted surveillance cameras in the garage and another in the elevator, and still another when the elevator opened onto a foyer on the sixteenth floor. He had just decided that the cameras in the basement and elevator were connected with the apartment building's security system but that the one in the foyer might not be when he spotted a third lens hidden in the tack of a prancing-stallion wall decoration.
That one goes to a monitor inside the apartment.
The door from the foyer was steel. Sieno unlocked it by punching in a series of numbers on a small numerical keyboard. When Sieno pulled the door open, Castillo was surprised to see another steel door behind it, and even more surprised when that door opened inward, revealing a trim, pale, freckled redhead in a white blouse and blue jeans who smiled and said, "Welcome!"
Everyone filed inside.
"Gentlemen, this is my wife, Susanna," Sieno said, and then, pointing, "Susanna, this is Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith, Mr. Smith, and, of course, you know Ricardo."
"I'm very pleased to meet you all," she said. "How are you, Ricardo?"
Sieno smiled and said, "I was hoping the boss would be here before we got here, so he could make the introductions."
"I'm a little surprised that your wife is here," Castillo said, not very pleasantly.
"Well, she both lives here and works here," Sieno said. "Another reason I was hoping the boss would get here before we did, so he could explain that."
"Why don't I get us all some coffee while we're waiting?" Mr. Sieno said.
"Paul, why would I not be surprised to learn your charming wife has a security clearance-clearances-not normally given to diplomats' wives?" Castillo said.
"Actually, she has several. Some with names."
"Issued here? Or?"
"In Virginia, as a matter of fact," Mr. Sieno said.
"I've heard of husband-and-wife teams," Castillo said. "But this is the first one I've ever actually met."
"We're double-dippers," Susanna Sieno said. "The rule is that both can get paid only if both were field officers before they marched down the aisle."
Castillo smiled at her and then said, "Okay. Let me make if official. Anything that you hear here or see here, Mr. Sieno, is classified Top Secret Presidential."
"I understand."
Castillo thought: Only a Langley chairwarmer who's never been in the field would be naive enough to think that Sieno hasn't told her-she's not only his wife but a working spook-everything that's happened from the moment Mr. Masterson was grabbed.
Including that a hotshot named Castillo showed up down here and started giving everybody, including the station chief, orders.
That's why she told me she was a double-dipper, a spook herself, not just married to one.
"That being understood between us, I'm Charley Castillo. This is Colonel Jake Torine, my cousin Fernando Lopez, Sandor Tor, and Eric Kocian."
"And that is Max," Billy Kocian said in English as he walked to her and-some what startling her-took and kissed the hand she extended to him. "It is my great pleasure, madam."
There was the sound of door chimes playing a melody as if one chime didn't work.
"That's probably the boss," Susanna Sieno said. "The chimes go off when somebody pushes the clicker for the garage door."
She turned and opened what looked like a closet door. Behind the door was a bank of monitors. One showed a Jeep Cherokee waiting for the door to the basement garage to open. Others showed the garage, the elevator, the foyer outside, the lobby, the sidewalks outside, and several antennae on the roof.
Eric Kocian's eyebrows rose but he said nothing.
One of the monitors showed the Jeep Cherokee pulling into a slot in the garage. Alex Darby got out. A monitor showed him unloading a large duffel bag that looked like it contained heavy metal objects-like guns-and walking toward the elevator.
Mr. Sieno opened the door to the foyer before the elevator got there. Darby walked into the apartment, set the heavy bag down, and put out his hand to Castillo.
Castillo took it and said, "Good to see you, Alex."
Darby had just put out his hand to Torine when the chimes with one missing note sounded again. Everyone looked at the monitors. There was now a Volkswagen Passat station wagon waiting for the door to completely open.
Other monitors showed the Passat parking and Tony Santini, a Secret Service agent, getting out and going to the back of the vehicle and raising the rear hatch. Sergeant Major Jack Davidson, USA, and Corporal Lester Bradley, USMC, both in civilian clothing, got out and joined Santini at the back of the station wagon.