"How would you get it out here?" Pevsner asked.
The translation of that is, "Without anybody learning A. Pevsner, prominent Russian mafioso and international arms dealer, resides in the Buena Vista Country Club?"
"If I can't bring it myself, maybe you could have Janos meet me someplace."
"You just say when and where, Charley," Pevsner said, "and Janos will be there. Alek is really crazy for pancakes."
"Both of them are," Anna said.
"Or maybe Howard Kennedy can meet me," Castillo said. "He's in the Four Seasons, right? Where I'm staying?"
"Howard's not here right now," Pevsner said.
"Well, then, maybe Colonel Munz?"
"Didn't he tell you, Charley?" Anna said.
"Tell me what?"
"You're not going to believe this," she said, "and I know I shouldn't be smiling, but he is-or was-a policeman for all those years before he came to work for Alek. What he did, Charley, was shoot himself in the shoulder while he was cleaning his pistol."
"Is he all right?" Castillo asked, looking at Pevsner.
"He's fine," Pevsner said.
"And terribly embarrassed," Anna said.
"Well, give him my best regards," Castillo said. "Don't mention that you told me what happened. I can understand-sympathize with-his embarrassment." [FIVE] "If you'll excuse us, darling," Pevsner said over their second cups of tea and coffee, "Charley and I are going to have a look at the helicopter."
"And then I'll have to be getting back to Buenos Aires," Castillo said. "So thank you for the breakfast. You saved my life."
He stood up and Anna gave him her cheek to kiss.
Pevsner stood up, opened one of the French doors, and signaled for Charley to go ahead of him.
When they were halfway across the lawn toward where the helicopter was parked, Pevsner said, "When do you want to talk about what you're really out here for? Before you show me how that bastard cheated me on the avionics when I bought that helicopter? Or after?"
"After," Charley said, and then, after considering it, added: "Alek, I didn't say he cheated you. I just said you don't have the best equipment available. There's a difference."
"No there's not. I told him I wanted the best and I didn't get it. That's cheating."
"Cheating would be if he charged you for better avionics than you got. If he charged you fairly for what he sold you, that's not cheating."
Pevsner didn't argue but his face showed he had not accepted Charley's argument.
Christ, is he thinking of whacking the salesman?
"Alek, an aircraft salesman with a beauty mark in the center of his forehead would make people ask questions. You want as few questions raised as possible."
Pevsner nodded, not happily, but the nod was enough to make Castillo think: That argument may have gotten home. "So that's it, Alek," Castillo said after pointing out to Pevsner where the new avionics would goon the instrument panel and in the avionics compartment. "Installation is no big deal. The new stuff will fit right in where they'll take the old stuff out. Just make sure…just make sure your pilot watches the calibration."
"I'll be sure to do that," Pevsner said. "Thank you very much, Charley."
"Like I said, a small token of my appreciation for your courtesy."
"In anticipation of asking for another favor?"
"Not right now anyway."
"Looking the gift horse in the mouth, how much is that equipment worth?"
"Do you really care?"
"I care about who paid for it," Pevsner said.
"If you're really asking is there some kind of locator device-or something else clever in there-the answer is no. If your avionics guy is any good at all, he can check that for you."
"So who's paying for it?"
"Let's just say that your friend Charley recently came into a considerable sum of money and wanted to share his good fortune."
"So I understand."
"Excuse me?"
"I heard you came into a lot of money. Nearly sixteen million dollars."
"You do keep your ear to the ground, don't you?" Castillo asked, and then went on before Pevsner had a chance to reply: "So we are now in part two of our little chat, is that it?"
"You tell me, Charley."
"Let's talk about Budapest," Castillo said. "You're a Hungarian, right? Or at least have a Hungarian passport?"
Pevsner didn't reply.
"Well, as someone who knows Budapest and keeps his ear to the ground, I guess you know who Eric Kocian is."
"I've heard the name."
"He's a fine old gentleman," Castillo said. "More important, he's almost kin."
"Meaning?"
"Well, he was a friend of my grandfather and my mother."
"Oh, yes. The Gossinger connection," Pevsner said. "I forgot that."
"And Uncle Billy bounced me on his knee, so to speak, when I was a little boy." He paused. "So you will understand how upset I was when some unpleasant people tried to kidnap him on the Szabadsag hid and, when that failed, tried to kill him."
"Charley, sometimes people who put their noses in places they shouldn't be…"
"And how upset I was just the other day when the same people-I admit they were probably looking for my uncle Billy-came into my room in the Gellert and pointed Madsens at me. That so upset me that I actually lost control of myself."
"I'm really surprised to hear that," Pevsner said.
"I didn't think," Castillo said. "I just took them down. Which, of course, means I couldn't ask who sent them."
"You don't know who sent them?"
"No. But I strongly suspect the people who made me lose my temper were either Stasi or Allamvedelmi Hatosag."
"But there is no Stasi anymore. Or Allamvedelmi Hatosag."
"In the United States, the Marines say, 'Once a Marine, always a Marine.' And who else do you know who uses the garrote to take people out?"
"I don't know anyone who uses the garrote," Pevsner said. "And I can't imagine why you're telling me this."
"I'm about to tell you, Alek. You're right. My uncle Billy does have the unfortunate habit of putting his nose in places other people don't think he should. Like under rocks to see what slime the rock conceals. So I have this theory that whoever tried to kidnap my uncle Billy did so to see how many names he could assign to the maggots and other slimy creatures he's found under the rocks. Sound reasonable to you?"
"It could well be something like that, I suppose."
"The sad thing about all this is, these people were trying to close the barn door long after the cow got away."
"I'm not sure I know what you mean," Pevsner said.
"I mean that I know everything that Kocian learned and by now his files are in Washington. These people can't put the cow back in the barn, in a manner of speaking. The only thing that any further kidnappings or murders are going to accomplish is to draw even more attention to them and I don't think they want that. And if any further attempt is made to kill Kocian, or kidnap him, I will take that personally."
"As I said, I can't imagine why you're telling me this."
"Because I want you to get to these people and tell them what I just told you."
"What makes you think I even know who they are? Or if I did that I would go to them?"
"Oh, you know who they are, Alek. They're the people who told you about the sixteen million and…"
"Has it occurred to you that Munz may have told me?"
"He couldn't have, Alek. He didn't know about it," Castillo said. "And on the way down here, I read Kocian's files. Long lists of names. Some of them had data after their names. Some names, like Respin, Vasily, for example, and Pevsner, Aleksandr, had question marks after their names. Which meant they had come to Kocian's attention and, when he got around to it, he was going to see what he could come up with."
Pevsner, his eyes again icy, met Castillo's eyes but he said nothing.
"Your name-names-were also on a list that I got from the CIA station chief in Paris," Castillo said. "I didn't have a chance to ask the CIA in Budapest what they have on you. But I wouldn't be at all surprised if they have a file on you, would you?"