«Yes, just one. Is this what the Council of Elders wants?»
«It certainly is. They’re guided by our advice and we are unwavering. So as you can plainly see, General Hawkins, even if your insane, utterly destructive scheme progresses an inch further, we, not you, will be in complete control so as to minimize the deleterious effects on an innocent people, of whom you’ve taken outrageous advantage. In brief, you’re out, you maniac.»
The expression on the Hawk’s face conveyed not only pain but deep personal hurt. It was as though a world he had nurtured with care and profound love had cast him aside, leaving a bereft, lonely old man, an abandoned champion who refused in dignity to give in to bitterness. «I forgive you your unwarranted suspicions and your intemperate language,» he said softly, «for you truly do not know what you’re doing.»
«Oh, my God!»
«The reputed Son of God fits better,» suggested Devereaux, going back to the bar.
«Chu gettin’ the shaft, Heneral?» asked Desi the Second.
«Then maybe deze gringos go out for some air, huh, man?» said D-One. «Through the windows, h’okay?»
«No, gentlemen,» protested Hawkins, quietly, heroically, the sepulchral tones of a saint in his voice. «This grand female has assumed the mantle of command, and the least I can do is to lessen that awesome responsibility—»
«Here it comes,» interrupted Sam, fingering his martini to catch an olive. «Shovel time, fellas.»
«Son, you really do misjudge me—»
«You threw me that one before, Mac. Somehow I couldn’t catch it.»
«Why not give me a chance, boy?»
«It’s your bunny pulpit, Br’er Rabbit. Go ahead.»
«Miss Redwing.» The Hawk nodded his head once, a senior officer acknowledging another. «I respect and understand your skepticism regarding my participation in the cause of the Wopotamis. So now let me put it to rest. As an adopted son of the tribe, I accept all decisions of the wise Council of Elders. Benefits to my person are irrelevant, I only want to see justice done.»
Jennifer Redwing was stunned. The anticipated, vicious battle with a megalomaniacal giant had been reduced to her straightening out a sweet, injured puppy dog with a lot of legal claptrap. «Well … General … I honestly don’t know what to say.» Jennifer brushed her dark hair back defensively, for a moment ashamed to lock eyes with her wounded previous adversary. «Please understand, sir,» she began, forcing her gaze on the old soldier who had given so much for his country—their country. «I’m extremely protective, perhaps overly protective, of my people because our history is rife with injustices, as are the histories of American Indians everywhere. In your case, I was wrong. I apologize. Please accept that apology, it’s meant.»
«He’s gotcha!» cried Devereaux, swallowing the remainder of his martini. «The raging lion is a wet pussycat and you buy it.»
«Samuel, that will be enough! Didn’t you hear what the man said?»
«I’ve heard a hundred variations—»
«Shut up, Counselor! He’s a great man and he’s just agreed to everything I wanted. Try to recall, if that gin-drenched brain will let you, your own words. An essential truth, remember?»
«You forgot the circuitous routes, Counselor,» said Sam, heading back to the bar. «There are bumpy roads ahead, fellas.»
And, naturally, the hotel telephone rang. Aaron Pinkus, shaking his head in equal parts irritation and anger, walked rapidly to the desk and picked up the intruding instrument. «Yes?»
«To who is this am I presently speaking to?» asked the high-pitched voice on the line. «The big Hebe lawyer or the big nuthouse general in the Geronimo beads?»
«This is Aaron Pinkus, and I’m an attorney, if that answers your question.»
«It’s good enough, yarmulke. It’s by your limo I found you.»
«I beg your pardon?»
«Well, it’s a long story and I’d like to tell you, but the Bam-Bam don’t like long stories, and to tell you the truth, you ain’t got much time.»
«I don’t understand a word you’re saying.»
«Well, you see, years ago there was this half-assed shamus who put the collar on me, but now we got a truce, and on account of the fact that he’s still got friends downtown, a lot of black-and-whites have been lookin’ for your limo, capisce?»
«What are you talking about?»
«Maybe I should then talk to the wild man, right? Tell the asshole to take the fuckin’ cigar out of his mouth and get on the Ameche.»
«I believe this is for you, General,» said Pinkus, turning and speaking slowly, hesitantly. «A rather strange fellow who speaks like a chicken might speak—as I imagine a chicken might speak.»
«Breakthrough!» cried the Hawk, taking rapid strides to the desk and grabbing the phone, then instantly covering the mouthpiece and addressing the others. «Old soldiers, even grunts, don’t fade away. They remember the days, my friends, because they never end!… Is this you, Little Joseph?»
«We gotta talk, fazool. Everything’s changed. By my side, you’re not the bad guys anymore, but the other bad guys are comin’ after you.»
«Be a little clearer, Joseph.»
«There ain’t time, fazool! The big man wants to set up a meet with you in a day or so, but he’s got to play dead for a while, so I’m your connection.»
«Play dead, Joseph …?»
«On my Aunt Angelina’s grave. It’s D.C. turf warfare and the big man temporarily lost… He told me to tell you that the gumbar whose back you spiked but whose neck you didn’t sufficiently break in the hotel lobby has spewed his guts out in some chemical factory in Virginia. By now they know you and your crowd are here in Boston and the silk underwear boys are unleashing—here, I wrote this down—the SFIs to go after you.»
«The SFIs? Hannibal in elephant shit! He said SFIs?»
«I couldn’t make a mistake ’cause he repeated it maybe three times and I didn’t know what it meant.»
«The animals of the world, Little Joseph. I taught ’em, so I should know. Special Forces—Incorrigibles. They’re still in stockades, still trying to kill everyone but the cooks and the nurses.»
«Now it’s you and your little group, fazool. It took me exactly thirty-one minutes to find you—how long will it take the fuckin’ commandos once they’ve arrived in Boston, which they may have already? Get out of there and call me here at the room-service palazzo when you’re out of the freak-heads’ fire… And don’t use that fuckin’ limo! It’s a fuckin’ landmark!» Joey the Shroud hung up and the Hawk turned to his troops.
«Evacuate!» he roared. «Explanations will come later; there’s no time for them now. Adjutants, hotwire two vehicles in the hotel’s parking lot and meet us at the southeast corner. ¡Vamos!» Mac looked harshly at Aaron Pinkus as Desis One and Two ran out the door, then forced his eyes on Sam Devereaux and finally Jennifer Redwing. «You ask me why I fight the mendacities of those in power, why I take up the sword against the corruptors and the manipulators, whether a century ago or now. Let me make it clear, goddamn it! An unseen, unelected government behind our government has let loose a pack of psychopaths with only one mission, the success of which will set them free to roam the streets… That mission is to kill us, all of us. Why? Because we raised the specter of a crime against an innocent, manipulated people over a hundred years ago that will cost the manipulators billions to rectify!»