«Please, General!» pressed Cyrus. «This is important. What did you do?»
«You lawyers and chemists think you’re so smart, but you’ve got damn short memories.»
«Mac, for Christ’s sake—»
«Especially you, Sam. You’re the one who figured it out; of course, I was ahead of you, but I was proud of your off-scene analysis.»
«What the hell are you talking about?»
«Little Joseph, boy! He’s still there—»
«Who?… Where?»
«That hotel, the Four Seasons. I talked to him a half hour ago and he’s on top of things.»
«On top of what? You can’t trust that little bastard, Mac, you said so yourself!»
«I can now,» said the Hawk emphatically. «He flagrantly abuses his per diem privileges, a sure sign of an independent subordinate, and he tries repeatedly to provoke me—that’s a man you can have some faith in.»
«The logic escapes me,» said Pinkus.
«He’s crazy,» said Jennifer softly, her wide, disbelieving eyes on the general.
«I’m not so sure about that,» said Cyrus. «A hostile underling tells you where you stand. You’re not likely to get fragged by him because he’s done just that.»
«You’re crazy, too,» observed Devereaux.
«Not really.» The mercenary shook his head. «There’s a maxim that goes back to the Cossack wars. ‘You kiss the boot before you hack it off with your saber.’»
«I like it, I like it,» cried the actor. «A perfect second-act curtain!»
«Maybe I’m crazy, too,» added the daughter of the Wopotamis, «but I think I understand you.»
«I would hope so,» said Sam sardonically. «To clarify, Counselor, one does not throw suspicion on oneself before committing a crime.»
«Smart ass,» muttered Redwing. «I see your point, Cyrus, so what do we do?»
«The question is, what has the general done.»
«It’s quite acceptable,» said the Hawk. «And considering your background, I think you’ll approve… I’ve instructed Little Joseph, who, although advanced in years, is a born infantry scout, to survey the situation from all points of the battleground. He’ll check out their bivouacs, the whereabouts of support troops and their firepower, if there are any, your escape routes, if necessary, and the best camouflage you can employ reaching zero target.»
«Zero what?» exclaimed Sir Henry.
«No, no, Henry, I’m sure the general’s exaggerating!» interrupted Pinkus, staring at MacKenzie, then shifting his intense gaze to Cyrus. «You guaranteed there’d be no violence, no lack of safety procedures!»
«There won’t be, on either count, Mr. Pinkus. The general’s merely using military terms to describe this so-called committee’s hotel rooms and the proper attire—»
«You misunderstood me, Aaron, dear boy!» The actor rose to his feet, his profile (that’s «profeel») to the right, his jaw firm, his eyes glowing. «I welcome the assignment, a glorious pursuit—whatever it is. Remember, General, when we joined the Brits and slogged our way toward El Alamein!»
«Sure do, Major Sutton!… I just field-commissioned you up a couple of grades—command prerogative, of course.»
«I accept the rank, sir.» Sir Henry turned and saluted as the Hawk got out of his chair and did the same. «Bring on the bastards! Once more unto the breach and close the walls up with our Equity dead—Screen Actors Guild and AFTRA, too, of course. We fear no one—gets the blood boiling, doesn’t it, General?»
«You boys really were the best in the big Sahara. You had all the guts in the world, soldier.»
«Guts, be damned, it was the proper synthesis of classical technique and the best of Stanislavski, not that Method nonsense prescribed by fifth-rate gurus who teach that picking your nose is more acceptable than blowing it.»
«Whatever it was, Major, you survived. Do you recall outside Benghazi when the brigade—»
«They’re nuts!» whispered Sam to Jennifer. «They’re in a typhoon paddling a canoe that’s leaking.»
«Get hold of yourself, Sam! They’re both … well, larger than life, and it’s rather refreshing.»
«What do you mean by that?»
«Well, in a world of pin-striped legalizing wimps, it’s nice to know there are men who can still hunt the killer tigers.»
«That’s sophomoric, antediluvian bullshit!»
«Yes, I know,» said Redwing, smiling. «Isn’t it nice to see it’s still around?»
«And you call yourself a liberated woman—»
«Although I am, I don’t think I ever said it—that’s antediluvian. These old men aren’t, they’re simply reliving a world as they knew it. I acknowledge that world and what they did to make it better. Who wouldn’t?»
«You’re just brimming with Sunnybrook kindness, Rebecca!»
«Why not? The Court itself aside, I’ve won every point I raised. In fact, I won too damned much, which means I’m acknowledged.»
«With a little ‘mirrors and smoke,’ as our general called it. ‘Best efforts’ is still euphemism for ‘Okay, I’ll try, but if I don’t get anywhere, I’ll retreat. Fast.’»
«You mention that and you’ll find out how liberated I am, Counselor,» said Jennifer quietly, again smiling. «You won’t have anything left to soil your trousers with… Let’s break up the war stories, shall we?»
«Mac!» shouted Devereaux, causing both veterans of the North African campaign to look at him as though he were an ugly black worm emerging from a plate of red spaghetti. «How do you really know this Little Joseph will do as you say? You’ve described a slime—maybe one who won’t frag you—but still a slime. Suppose he tells you anything he figures you want to hear?»
«He couldn’t do that, Sam. You see, I talked with his superior officer, who I can tell you is very superior, on a par with Commander Pinkus and myself—with maybe a mite more influence where it counts.»
«So what?»
«So this very important person has strong personal reasons for wanting us to complete our mission, which we can’t do if we don’t get to the Supreme Court in one piece eight-seven hours from now and counting.»
«Eighty-seven what and what?» asked a confused Aaron.
«We’re in the countdown, Commander. Ground zero in roughly eighty-seven hours minus.»
«Is that anything like ‘zero target’?» the elderly lawyer persisted.
«Can you imagine, Major Sutton, this fella was on Omaha Beach?»
«Probably an enlisted man, General—»
«Yes, I was, and I carried a rifle, not a code book.»
«Zero target, dear Aaron, is the immediate objective,» explained the actor. «Ground zero, the zero not preceding, is the final objective. For instance, in the march to El Alamein we first had to take Tobruk, thus it was the zero target, Alamein ground zero. Actually, in the chronicles of Froissait—upon which Shakespeare based his Histories, along with Holinshed—mention is made of the terms—»
«Okay, okay!» cried an exasperated Devereaux. «What the hell has all this crap got to do with some slime called Little Joseph at the Four Seasons? To repeat, Mac, what makes you think he’ll do what you tell him to do? He’s lied to you before.»
«Obviously different circumstances,» said Jennifer before the Hawk could reply. «I gather he’s beholden to his very important superior officer.»
«Bull’s-eye, Miss Red. Like in whether Joseph goes on breathing or not.»