Christ, he's got us!
"Jose, there's a very strict rule that nothing surreptitious-especially using Special Forces-can take place in a country without the ambassador's knowledge and approval."
"Yes, I know," Ordonez said. "But let me go on. All of these questions were in my mind when I went to the English hospital during the autopsy procedures on Mr. Lorimer and the Ninjas. And then, looking at the Ninja who had been shot in the head, I had the strangest feeling that I had seen him before."
"Had you?"
"It took me thirty-six hours to remember when and where," Ordonez said. "And then I took out my photo album-and there it was. A photograph of Fidel Castro standing in front of the Belmont House Hotel with three familiar faces in the background. El Coronel Alfredo Munz, me, and Major Alejandro Vincenzo of the Cuban Direccion General de Inteligencia."
"Jesus H. Christ!" Yung blurted. "Are you sure?"
Ordonez nodded slowly. "We generally make a practice of getting fingerprints of people like that who visit our country. We have yours, for example. I checked the prints. Major Vincenzo of the Cuban DGI, who came here as Castro's security chief, was one of the Ninjas who died at Estancia Shangri-La of a Special Forces bullet in his brain."
"They were Cubans?"
"We could not match the prints of any of the others, but there is no question about Vincenzo." Ordonez stood up. "If I may, friend David, I will have another Famous Grouse while you decide what help you can offer me."
"What the hell was a Cuban doing at the estancia?" Yung blurted.
Ordonez laughed.
"You will forgive me if I say that your reaction is as transparent as was Ambassador McGrory's? You were genuinely surprised to hear that, weren't you, Senor Inscrutable?"
"Yeah, I was," Yung said.
"May I start asking questions?"
"I'll tell you what I can," Yung said.
He thought, Now I really wish I was Castillo. I'm in way over my head here.
"Let's start with the most important thing to me," Ordonez said from the bar. "Why are you protecting the Munz family? And from whom?"
"Munz is concerned for their safety."
"What concern of that is yours?"
"We owe him."
"Why?"
"I can't answer that."
"You will forgive me if I suspect it has something to do with his wound," Ordonez said. "Which poses more questions, including the original one: from whom?"
"We don't know. The people who murdered Masterson, probably."
"They would be the same people who sent the Ninjas to the estancia, do you think?"
"That sounds reasonable, but we don't know."
"And from the Russian mafioso, Pevsner?"
"Possibly, maybe even probably."
"Let me be honest with you, David. I am very relieved to find that Munz trusts you with the lives of his family. That means you can be counted among the good guys."
"I think we really are the good guys," Yung said.
"What are your plans to protect Senora Munz and the girls? Perhaps I can help."
"They're going to the States," Yung said. "Tomorrow."
"Alfredo will join them there?"
"No. He wouldn't go."
"If I didn't believe you were the good guys, I might suspect that his family were hostages to his good behavior."
"That's absolutely untrue," Yung snapped. "He's staying here to help us find out who these bastards are."
"Well, as step one, I will ensure that the Munz family is safe until they get on the plane with you and Lorimer's casket."
Oh, shit! And I have to tell him!
"They're not going with me," Yung said. "A private plane will come here sometime tomorrow. They'll go on that."
"A Learjet?"
He'll find out anyway.
"No. A Gulfstream."
"I thought Senor-or is it Major?-Castillo had a Learjet."
"Lieutenant Colonel Castillo has many airplanes."
"And you work for Lieutenant Colonel Castillo, do you, David?"
Why deny that? It's self-evident.
"I do now."
"And my cousin Julio?"
Yung nodded. "As of yesterday."
"And who does Lieutenant Colonel Castillo work for? The CIA?"
"No. He doesn't work for the CIA."
"Then whom?"
"That's another question I can't answer."
"When you worked here as an FBI agent, were you really working for the CIA?"
"No."
"What was-what is-your interest in Senor Lorimer?"
"Money laundering."
"That's all?"
"I thought he was a Lebanese named Bertrand and I was trying to find out where he got all those American dollars."
"Nearly sixteen million of them," Ordonez said. "And did you find out?"
Yung nodded.
"Are you going to tell me?"
"It's money from that Iraqi oil-for-food scheme. Lorimer was involved in that."
"You know, I never even thought about that? That answers some questions, doesn't it? And poses at least as many more. I'll have to give this a good deal of thought."
"I'm sure you will."
"And do you know where that money is now?"
"Next question."
Ordonez smiled. "You did a very good job of concealing tracks at the banks when you came back down here, David, but not a perfect one. I have learned that the receipts-or whatever they're called-for the money in Lorimer's accounts here were negotiated through the Riggs Bank in Washington. That makes me think they were in Lorimer's safe at the estancia and somehow taken to Washington. I would have been prone to think Senor Pevsner had something to do with that. But if that were so, why did you try to conceal the tracks?"
"That was a rhetorical question, right? You didn't expect an answer?"
"Right."
"Boy Scout's honor, Jose, I have never knowingly done anything that would in any way help Aleksandr Pevsner. From everything I know about the sonofabitch, he deserves to be behind bars. Or dead. I don't know-can't prove-that he's after the Munzes, but I believe it."
"So do I. The question is why? Can you put me in touch with Alfredo?"
"When I get to the States-that'll be tomorrow-I'll get word to Munz that you want to talk to him. And that you helped us get his family to the States."
"I would appreciate that. That leaves only two things for me to do."
"And what are they?"
"I'll make sure that no one gets close to the Belmont House tonight who shouldn't be there. And then you and I will walk down there and say hello to my cousin Julio and you will tell him that you and I are agreed that we are the good guys."
"Okay. I've got to give him a charger for his cellular, anyway."
"And one more thing," Ordonez said. He wrote something in a small notebook, tore out the page and handed it to Yung.
"What's this?"
"The address of a good auto-body repairman. I told you I'd give it to you."
"Thank you," Yung said.
"And one last thing, David. I really wish you wouldn't get on the phone and tell Colonel Castillo about our conversation."
"I'm going to have to tell him, Jose."
"Oh, I know. But if you call him tonight, your phones are tapped-cellular and regular-and I would rather not have a record of our conversation floating around. We both said, and are doing things, that we really shouldn't be doing. Let's keep that between us."
After a moment, Yung nodded.
Ordonez went on: "You'll have a few minutes to speak with Colonel Castillo-or someone close to him-at the airport tomorrow. Maybe if he knows what I've told you, he will tell me something he knows that may help me sort all this out."
Yung didn't reply.
"Can Castillo get the Munzes into the United States if their passports do not have exit stamps from Uruguay?"
Castillo could get them into the States if they arrived without passports.
"I'm sure he can."
"Then we will have to get them on the Gulfstream tomorrow without them going through the normal immigration procedures. We have to presume that-I like your description, David -these bastards may have access to our immigration computers. If there is no record of the Munzes leaving the country, perhaps they will waste a little time looking for them here."