The cover story for the operation was that the helicopters were being ferried to an unspecified Latin American country as part of a military assistance program. In this connection, the Ronald Reagan was to be prepared to strip the helicopters of their existing U.S. Army paint scheme and identification numbers and repaint them in a paint scheme and numbers to be furnished by the senior officer of the flight detachment.
Castillo deleted the question marks after RRAC??? as there was no longer any question that the USS Ronald Reagan would be the means by which the helicopters would go to South America, and he deleted AV??? because he now knew that the ship would be available.
He left the question marks after When??? and Where??? and ETA U??? as he and Colonel Kingston had agreed there was no sense in guessing when the choppers would go aboard the Reagan, or where, or when the Reagan would be off the coast of Uruguay. The choppers would be flown as soon as possible from Rucker to SOCOM at MacDill, and from MacDill to the Reagan. They would have a communicator with them. He would be in touch with both Castillo and McNab-and Kingston and everybody else with one of the AFC radios-and his information would be up to date.
Castillo deleted Or??? because that entry asked at what other location the choppers could be flown off the Ronald Reagan if they found for whatever reason that they could not do it off the coast of Uruguay. That was settled. Off the coast of Uruguay was the only place it could be done.
Castillo turned to (2), the translation of which was:
Other Options?
Maybe C-5
Maybe C-141s
How many 141s would be necessary?
Where could they land?
Now that the Ronald Reagan was going to ferry the choppers, it was no longer necessary to give consideration to using a C-5 Galaxy or two-or more-of its little brothers, the C-141 Starlifter transport aircraft, to get them to South America. That would have posed all kinds of problems-including coming up with a cover story to hide where a C-5, one of the largest aircraft in the world, was headed and why.
Castillo deleted all of (2) and turned to (3), the translation of which was:
What about Aleksandr Pevsner?
Where is he?
Does he have any connection with these drug people?
Where's his Bell Ranger helicopter?
He renumbered (3) to (2), then shook his head and sighed audibly.
Then he held down the CTRL key, typed "ENC," and thus encrypted the file. He saved the file, then closed the top of the laptop.
He took the manila envelope containing the photographs from beneath the computer. He pulled the image of Randolph Richardson IV and himself from the envelope.
He looked at it.
Problems don't go away by ignoring them.
And, oh boy, do I have a doozie of a problem here.
Perhaps unconsciously, perhaps by habit, he raised the lid of the laptop and began to deal with this problem as he did with most others with many facets. That was to say, as a Staff Study.
But no clever little abbreviations this time.
I can't afford to fuck this up.
He pushed the NEW key and started to type.
FACTS BEARING ON THE PROBLEM: THE MALE CHILD KNOWN AS RANDOLPH RICHARDSON IV IS IN FACT THE BIOLOGICAL CHILD OF MRS. BETHANY RICHARDSON AND C. G. CASTILLO, HAVING BEEN CONCEIVED OUT OF WEDLOCK SHORTLY BEFORE THE THEN-MISS WILSON MARRIED RANDOLPH RICHARDSON III, WHOSE NAME PRESUMABLY APPEARS ON THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE.
DISCUSSION: CONSIDERING THE RAMIFICATIONS OF THE ABOVE, AND INASMUCH AS THE HUMAN ANIMAL IS CAPABLE OF UNLIMITED SELF-DECEPTION, THE FOLLOWING MUST BE TAKEN INTO CONSIDERATION: (1) BWR PROBABLY HAS CONSIDERED THE STRONG POSSIBILITY THAT HER FIRST CHILD WAS CONCEIVED IN THE DALEVILLE INN WITH CGC RATHER THAN WHEREVER THE HELL SHE WAS ON HER HONEYMOON AND BY RRIII. SHE HAS DECIDED THAT:
A. HER LIAISON WITH CGC DID NOT OCCUR DURING HER FERTILITY VULNERABILITY AND HER HONEYMOON WITH RIGHTEOUS DID, AND THAT THEREFORE, RRIII IS THE FATHER OF RRIV. OR, B. MORE LIKELY, THAT LITTLE WOULD BE GAINED, AND THERE WOULD BE A GREAT DEAL TO BE LOST, BY FESSING UP.
C. WHY DIDN'T SHE TELL ME?
II. BECAUSE SHE KNEW THERE WAS A GOOD CHANCE I WOULDN'T GIVE A DAMN (WOULD I HAVE?) III. BECAUSE I MIGHT HAVE RUSHED IN AND ANNOUNCED I WANTED TO DO THE "RIGHT THING," WHICH MEANS EVERYBODY WOULD HAVE KNOWN WHAT HAPPENED; THAT, FOR ONE, THERE WAS A CERTAIN HYPOCRISY IN HER VIRGINAL WHITE BRIDAL GOWN
(2) WHO ELSE KNOWS OR SUSPECTS?
A. RRIII WOULD HAVE NO REASON TO SUSPECT ANYTHING AND PROBABLY WAS PROUD AS HELL WHEN PEOPLE THOUGHT THAT HE MADE HIS BRIDE PREGNANT ON THE HONEYMOON.
I. IF HE SUSPECTED LATER (CHILD DOESN'T LOOK LIKE EITHER OF THEM) IT WOULD BE HARD FOR HIM TO ACCEPT.
II. IF HE SOMEHOW FOUND OUT (INCLUDING IF BWR WAS OVERWHELMED WITH GUILT; OR GOT PLASTERED AND LET IT OUT IN A FIGHT; ETCETERA) HE WOULD EITHER HAVE TO KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT OR BE FACED WITH THE HUMILIATION OF HAVING IT WHISPERED UP AND DOWN THE LONG GRAY LINE THAT CGC HAD IMPREGNATED HIS VIRGIN BRIDE. SINCE THAT WOULD AFFECT HIS CAREER, HE WOULD KEEP HIS MOUTH SHUT.
III. OR, EQUALLY POSSIBLE, BWR TOLD HIM, AND THEY DECIDED BETWEEN THEM THAT THE BEST WAY TO DEAL WITH THE PROBLEM WOULD BE TO PRETEND IT HAD NEVER HAPPENED. (BUT IS IT POSSIBLE FOR ANYONE TO SIT ON SOMETHING SO EMOTIONALLY CHARGED FOR THAT LONG-13 YEARS, MORE OR LESS, DEPENDING ON WHEN SHE TOLD HIM?????) B. GEN amp; MRS. WILSON-UNLIKELY. NEITHER OF THEM WOULD SUSPECT THAT THEIR PRECIOUS LITTLE GIRL COULD POSSIBLY DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS.
C. HER FRIENDS-UNLIKELY. THERE ARE SECRETS AND THERE ARE SECRETS-AND THIS IS NOT THE KIND TO BE SHARED WITH GIRLISH GIGGLES.
D. ABUELA-OH, GOD!!!
I. IF ABUELA COULD TAKE A TEN-SECOND LOOK AT A BLACK-AND-WHITE PHOTOGRAPH OF A TWELVE-YEAR-OLD SHE HAD NEVER SEEN IN HER LIFE AND FIRMLY DECLARE, "THAT'S MY GRANDSON. HE HAS JORGE'S EYES," OR WORDS TO THAT EFFECT, THEN…
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE IN HELL THAT ABUELA DOESN'T KNOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
OR MAYBE SHE HAS SAID SOMETHING-INDIRECTLY-WITH ALL THAT TALK ABOUT ME NOT HAVING A FAMILY??? AND GETTING A DOG??? BUT A DOG IS NOT THE KID…
"THE KID"???? HE'S YOUR SON, YOU ASSHOLE!!!! YOUR BLOOD, THE FRUIT OF YOUR LOINS, THE WHOLE GODDAMN NINE YARDS!!!!
Castillo stopped typing, looked at what he had written, ran the cursor over everything to highlight it, and then put his finger on the DELETE key.
This is not going to go away by sending it into cyberspace!
Then he held down the CTRL key, then typed "ENC." He saved the now encrypted file as FATHERHOOD and turned off the laptop.
IX
[ONE] Aeropuerto Internacional Ministro Pistarini, Ezeiza Buenos Aires, Argentina 0525 9 September 2005 Colonel Jacob Torine, USAF, turned from the left seat in the cockpit of Gulfstream III N379LT toward Lieutenant Colonel C. G. Castillo, USA, who was standing in the doorway, and pointed his index finger toward the passenger compartment.
Torine ordered, "Sit."
Colonel Castillo complied with the order.
Captain Richard M. Sparkman, USAF, suppressing a smile, then retarded the throttles a tad, waited two seconds more, then greased the aircraft onto the runway.
"Nice," Colonel Torine said to Captain Sparkman over the privacy of the intercom. "Your other option, of course, was coming in hard and/or short or long and having Charley remind you of it for the rest of your natural life."