Castillo grinned slightly.
Davidson! I don't know how you got down here, Jack, but am I glad to see you! When the monitor showed them inside the elevator, it also showed Davidson looking around for-and then spotting-the monitor camera lens.
Castillo looked at Torine and saw in his raised eyebrow that he had recognized Davidson, too. Torine saw that Castillo was watching him and raised his eyebrow even higher but didn't say anything.
Susanna Sieno opened the door for them.
Davidson, smiling, put his suitcase down and saluted Castillo.
"Good morning, Colonel," he said. "May the sergeant major offer his congratulations on your promotion?"
"The sergeant major may. But the colonel is surprised that the sergeant major doesn't know you're not supposed to salute when not in uniform," Castillo said.
"The sergeant major begs the colonel's pardon for his breach of military custom."
They looked at each other, then chuckled.
Castillo said, "I don't know what you're doing here, Jack, but-and I know I shouldn't tell you this-I'm damned glad you are."
"Oh, goody!" Davidson said and spread his arms wide as he approached Castillo, then wrapped him in a bear hug, crying, "It's good to see you, Charley!"
When he freed himself, Castillo turned to Bradley.
"I'm not so sure about you, Lester," he said. "I thought you were safely on ice at Mackall."
"That was not one of your brightest ideas," Davidson said. "Deadeye Dick stood out in Mackall like a whor-"
Davidson saw Susanna Sieno.
"Like a lady of dubious virtue in a place of worship?" she furnished, smiling.
"Yes, ma'am."
"Mr. Sieno, Sergeant Major Jack Davidson," Castillo said.
"You can call me Susanna," she said.
"Good to see you, Jack," Jake Torine said to Davidson. They shook hands.
The other introductions were made.
Alex Darby said, "Before this goes any further, I need a private word with you and Tony, Charley."
Castillo nodded.
"Okay if we go in there, Susanna?" Darby asked, gesturing toward a door.
"Of course," she replied. [THREE] Darby led them into a large marble-walled bathroom. The bathtub and the separate shower were stacked high with electronic equipment and there was more on a long, twin-basin washstand. The water closet was still functional, but there were racks of electronics rising almost to the ceiling on either side of it.
"We're watching the Cubans," Darby explained. "Not so much them as the people who go in and out of their embassy. And, of course, their communications. Sometimes, that's very interesting."
"Sieno told me."
Darby turned to face him.
"You've got me on a spot again, Charley," he said. "Ambassador Montvale called me and said I was to call him immediately-him personally, not through the agency-if you showed up here."
Castillo nodded and then asked, "If I showed up here, or when?"
"If," Darby said. "So what I've done-or didn't do-was not call him to let him know you had called from Recife. But now that you're here…you tell me what you want me to do."
"Call him and tell him I'm here. Better yet, call him and tell him I called you to tell you to call him and tell him I'm here and will call him as soon as I have a chance."
Darby considered that a moment.
Then he turned and picked up a heavily corded telephone sitting on top of the water reservoir of the toilet, then looked at Castillo.
"It's half past six in the morning in Washington," he said, making it a question.
"The ambassador said immediately, didn't he?"
Darby shrugged and put the telephone to his ear.
"This is Darby. Get me a secure line to the Langley switchboard," he ordered.
"Oh, the miracle of modern communications!" Castillo said. "How did the ambassador react to having his sleep disturbed?" Santini asked.
"He asked what else Charley had had to say."
"And when you told him I had had nothing else to say?" Castillo asked.
"And when I told him that, he said when you called to tell you to call him immediately."
"Okay. Give me until noon and then call him and tell him you have relayed his message to me."
Darby nodded again.
"What's the problem with you and Montvale, Charley?" Santini asked.
"He has a tendency to try to tell me what to do," Castillo said. "As in, 'Tell Castillo to call me immediately.'"
"Well, he is the director of National Intelligence," Santini said. "Maybe he feels that entitles him to order a lowly lieutenant colonel around."
"You heard about that, huh?"
"You got promoted, Charley?" Darby asked.
Castillo nodded.
"From both the director of National Intelligence and Corporal Bradley," Santini said. "Congratulations, Charley."
"Thank you. After what happened in Afghanistan, I was beginning to think I'd never get promoted."
"Based on my personal knowledge of what happened in Afghanistan," Darby said, "that was a reasonable conclusion to draw."
"The bottom line," Castillo said, "is that I made a deal with Montvale. In theory, I tell him what I'm doing and plan to do and he leaves me alone and helps me."
"Helps you how?"
"For example, getting to use the agency's air taxi services."
"Then why are you dodging him?"
"I told you, because he's still trying to tell me what to do. Tit for tat, I don't tell him any more about what I'm going to do than I have to."
Darby shook his head.
"Which leaves Tony and me between a rock and a hard place," Darby said. "Okay, so who's the old guy?"
"His name is Eric Kocian. He runs the Budapest Tages Zeitung. He's been looking into the oil-for-food scandal."
"That could be dangerous. How much has he found out?"
"Enough so there have been two attempts to kidnap him to see how much. The other Hungarian-his name is Sandor Tor-is an ex-cop who before that did a hitch in the French Foreign Legion. He kept the first attempt to kidnap/ whack Kocian from coming off. One of those guys-there were three; two got away-told the cops he was a vacationing housepainter from Dresden and had the papers to prove it."
"You don't think he was?" Santini asked, and then, when Castillo shook his head, asked, "So who were they?"
"I'm guessing ex-Stasi. But I don't know that. And I have no idea who they're working for. The second time they tried to kidnap and/or whack Kocian, there were two guys. They had Madsens and no identification. Like the people at the estancia."
"What's their story?" Santini asked.
"I had to take them down. So I don't know more than I told you."
"You had to take them down?" Darby asked, and then, after Castillo nodded, he shook his head and asked, "And how many waves did that make?"
"I hope none. Sandor took them away in their car."
Darby shook his head again.
"You can't keeping walking through the raindrops forever, Charley."
"That thought has occurred to me. I didn't have any choice, Alex."
"If they're ex-Stasi, who are they working for now?" Santini asked.
Castillo shrugged.
"That's what I'm hoping to find out. Kocian gave me everything he had. So did Ed Delchamps in Paris."
"Ed's a good man," Darby said. "So you put him on the spot with Montvale, too?"
"I suppose it's very unprofessional of Delchamps getting emotionally involved, but I have the feeling he's as pissed off at these people as I am. Or maybe with the agency for doing nothing with what he's been sending them."
"I guess that makes me unprofessional, too. Jack Masterson was a friend of mine," Darby said. "I'd really like to nail these bastards."
"What does that make, counting me?" Santini asked. "Four amateurs?"
"And I think Yung may have something in his files…and may not know it," Castillo said. "Speaking of him, where is he?"
"Odd that you should ask," Darby said. "I was just about to say, 'Speaking of coincidences.'"