He turned to look at Silvio.
"You, sir, are authorized to tell Mr. Lowery anything you think he should know."
"I understand," the ambassador said, simply.
"And I still need a moment alone with you, sir."
Silvio waved toward the swinging door. "Thank you for that, Charley," Silvio said when they were in the far corner of the kitchen. "Lowery is a good man." He smiled, and added: "He would be hurt to be told his male member had been measured and found wanting."
"I'm not sure it was the right thing to do," Castillo said. "But I'm not thinking too clearly."
"You look exhausted," Silvio said.
"I am, and that's dangerous. That's why I'm grateful you could see me…"
"Secretary Cohen made it clear-if obliquely-that you are calling all the shots."
"…because I need your advice."
"Anything I can do to help, Charley."
"I want to say this before we get started. I don't want to drag you down with me if this whole thing blows up in my face…"
Silvio made a deprecating gesture.
"…which seems more likely every minute," Castillo finished. "So I give you my word that I will swear on a stack of Bibles that I told you little-virtually nothing-about what's happened and what I'm doing or trying to do."
"I very much appreciate that, but why don't we cross that bridge when we get to it? And why do you think it's going to blow up in your face? Everyone else, including me, seems to have a good deal of confidence in you."
"I've got too many balls in the air and I'm not that good a juggler," Castillo said. "So what I'm going to do-with my word that I will deny having ever told you-is tell you what they are and ask for your suggestions."
"Before we get into that, may I ask about Mr. Masterson and the children? Where are they? How are they?"
"They're fine. They're with Mr. Masterson's family on their plantation in Mississippi. Until now, they've had some Delta Force shooters protecting them. Today, or maybe tomorrow, the shooters will be replaced by some retired Special Forces types who are pretty good. I think-and, God, I hope I'm right-that the threat to them has been drastically reduced by Lorimer's death. They no longer need Mr. Masterson to point them to Lorimer."
"That makes sense," Silvio said. "And Special Agent Schneider? How is she?"
"She's in a hospital in Philadelphia with her jaws wired shut. Almost certainly wondering why I haven't been to see her as promised."
Silvio shook his head sympathetically.
"I'm sure she'll understand," he said.
"I hope you're right, sir," Castillo said.
After a long moment, Silvio said, "Tell me what you think I should know, Charley, please."
Castillo took a moment to organize his thoughts and then began, "Just before I came down here the first time to see what I could find out about Mr. Masterson's kidnapping, I called Otto Gorner, the general director of the Tages Zeitung newspapers in Germany, to tell him I was coming down here…"
He saw the question on Silvio's face, stopped, then explained, "I have an alter ego as Karl Gossinger, the Washington correspondent of the Tages Zeitung newspapers. I decided the best way to come down here as the President's fly on the wall was to come as Karl Gossinger."
Castillo stopped again when he saw more unspoken questions on Silvio's face.
"The Tages Zeitung newspapers are owned by Gossinger Beteiligungsgesellschaft, G.m.b.H. My mother's maiden name was Gossinger."
Silvio's eyebrows rose but he didn't respond directly. Instead, he asked, "And this man knows what you really do for a living?"
"Then, he suspected. Now he knows," Castillo said. "Anyway, I asked him-primarily, so I would have an excuse for being here as Gossinger-if there was anything I should look into for him while I was here. He told me a rich man from Hamburg is planning to raise the Graf Spee from Montevideo harbor…"
Silvio's eyebrows rose again and he said, "That's the first I've heard of that."
"And then, reluctantly, he told me that the newspapers were working on a story that some Germans were sending Iraqi oil-for-food money down here, to hide it, the way the Nazis did in World War Two. Then he said he was sorry that he'd brought the subject up, that people looking into it had been killed, and that I was to leave it alone.
"And then I came down here and things started happening and I forgot what Gorner had said about oil-for-food money while I was getting the Mastersons out of Argentina. And then the President issued the Finding.
"I had absolutely no idea where to start looking for the people who murdered Masterson except that there very probably was a connection between Masterson and his brother-in-law, the missing UN diplomat, so I started there."
Silvio nodded his understanding.
"So I went to Paris. A source told me that Lorimer was the bagman for the oil-for-food-"
"A source?" Silvio interrupted.
"Howard Kennedy, a former FBI hotshot who changed sides and now works for Alek Pevsner."
"I know that name," Silvio said. "Why would Pevsner tell you? I presume Kennedy wouldn't have done that without Pevsner's permission, or, more likely, at Pevsner's orders?"
"Wouldn't you prefer to know as little about Pevsner and/or Kennedy as possible?"
"I presume your offer to deny telling me anything is still open?"
"It is. It will stay open," Castillo said. "Okay. Pevsner has struck a deal with the President. He makes himself useful-I found the missing 727 with his help and I don't think I could have otherwise-and the President orders the FBI, so long as Pevsner doesn't violate any U.S. laws, to stop looking for him-and for Kennedy-and orders the CIA to stop trying to arrange Pevsner's arrest by any other government."
"That's very interesting," Silvio said. "Who else knows about that?"
"Secretary Hall, Secretary Cohen, and Ambassador Montvale know about the deal. The director of the FBI and the DCI know they've been ordered to lay off Pevsner. I don't know how much, if anything, they know about the deal."
Silvio nodded thoughtfully.
Castillo went on: "What Kennedy told me about Lorimer was confirmed by the CIA station chief in Paris, who told me he was sure that Lorimer was now in little pieces in the Seine or the Danube. From Paris, I went to Fulda-to Gorner at the Tages Zeitung-and told him that I needed to have all the information he had about the oil-for-food payoffs. He gave me what he had, on condition I not make it available to the CIA or the FBI or anyone else, and told me that Eric Kocian, the publisher of the Budapester Tages Zeitung, had more information.
"So I went to Budapest and Kocian reluctantly, and with the same caveat that I couldn't share anything with the FBI or the CIA, gave me what he had. Kocian also believed that Lorimer had already been eliminated.
"Then I came back here-actually, to Montevideo-to see what Yung might have in his files about any of it. He had a file on Jean-Paul Bertrand, a Lebanese national and a dealer in antiquities-who was, of course, Lorimer, and who was alive on his estancia. So I set up the operation to grab Lorimer/Bertrand and repatriate him.
"And you know what happened at the estancia. We were bushwhacked. Lorimer and one of my men were killed and Colonel Munz wounded."
"Doesn't 'bushwhacked' imply you walked into a trap?" Silvio asked.
"I've thought about that. It's possible, but I think it was more likely just a coincidence. The people Lorimer was running from-and they're good-found him, and they got to the estancia right after we did."
"There's no one who could have told them about your operation? Where did you get the helicopter?"
"I got the chopper from Pevsner."
"Pevsner's here?" Silvio asked, surprised. "In Argentina?"
"If I don't answer that question, you can swear both that you don't know where Pevsner is and that I refused to tell you where he is."
Silvio nodded. "Consider the question withdrawn."
"I had to threaten Pevsner with the withdrawal of his presidential protection to get the chopper. He doesn't want to lose that. The CIA really would like some other-any other-government to catch him, and either bury him in a prison for the rest of his life or take him out."