W. Griffin: The shooters

"Yes, sir."

He's got it. His face is white. And I feel like a shit.

"You heard what he said, Ace, about the cat being out of the bag?" Delchamps asked, but it sounded to Castillo like a statement.

"Edgar, butt out," Castillo said.

"I was thinking about collateral damage," Delchamps said. "Who's he been talking to? Which of them has been running at the mouth? What are you going to do about shutting them up?"

There I go again, underestimating Delchamps!

"Let's go to the house," Castillo said, gesturing. "You, Ed, and Tony and-somebody go inside and get Sieno."

"Which one, Colonel?" Davidson asked.

"Both of them," Castillo ordered. "And, Jack, sit on Lieutenant Lorimer here. If he even looks like he's thinking of taking off, shoot him in his good leg."

There were two suites of rooms on the second floor of Nuestra Pequena Casa, each containing a large bedroom, a walk-in-closet, and a bathroom. The Sienos occupied the larger of the two. Castillo had taken the slightly smaller one for himself.

Castillo's bedroom had one chair-at a dressing table-and a chaise lounge. Susanna Sieno-a trim, pale-freckled-skin redhead who did not look like what came to mind when "an officer of the clandestine service of the CIA" was said-took the dressing table chair. Delchamps and Paul Sieno sat side by side on the chaise lounge. Solez wordlessly asked permission to sit on the edge of the bed. When Castillo nodded, and he had, Tony Santini sat beside Solez.

Castillo leaned against the wall by the door, and after a moment said, "The word that comes to mind is 'compromised'…goddammit!"

"It happens, Ace," Delchamps said.

"Okay, we shut down. We were going to the States anyway in a couple of days. Now we go now."

There were nods of agreement.

"I'd love to know how this happened," Castillo said.

"I'd say Uruguay," Susanna Sieno said.

Castillo looked at her, then made a come on gesture.

"The OK Corral shoot-out took place there," she explained. "And you jerked Dave Yung and Julio Artigas out of the embassy, which was sure to cause gossip in the embassy, and then they found Howard Kennedy's body in the Conrad in Punta del Este…"

"What's that got to with this Lieutenant Lorimer in Paraguay?" Castillo interrupted.

"The spooks and the cops in Asuncion find a lot of reasons to, quote, confer, close quote, with the spooks and the cops in Montevideo," she said. "Like the dentists who go to Hawaii for two weeks, all tax-deductible, to confer for two hours on how to drill a molar with caries."

Delchamps chuckled.

"I'm not sure I understand," Castillo said.

"I think Susanna is onto it, Ace," Delchamps said. "I'll put it in soldier terms for you. You know what R amp;R is, right?"

Castillo nodded. "Rest and Recuperation."

"Sometimes known as I amp; I, for Intercourse and Intoxication," Delchamps went on. "And we know how every second lieutenant is required to memorize, 'If indiscretions you must have, have them a hundred miles from the flagpole.'"

Castillo smiled. "Okay."

"I don't know anything about this, of course," Susanna Sieno said, "but my husband, who as far as I know never lies to me, says that healthy young men not lucky enough to be accompanied by their wives on an assignment to someplace like Asuncion have unsatisfied physical desires…"

"When you were in short pants, Ace, and I was in Moscow," Delchamps said, "I used to confer with my professional associates in Vienna every couple of months. It wasn't smart to accept the female companionship offered to horny young spooks by the KGB in Moscow. Getting the picture, or do I have to be more graphic and make you blush?"

"I'm getting the picture," Castillo said.

"So try this scenario on for size," Susanna Sieno said. "Agent X, of the firm, or the DIA, or the DEA, or the FBI, checks in with his peers at the embassy in Montevideo. This satisfies the requirements of his temporary-duty orders. He spends an hour in the embassy, and then it's off to the sandy beaches and the bikini-clad maidens of Punta del Este. So Agent X asks, 'Well, what's new, Willy?' "And Willy says, 'Nothing much here, but you heard about Jack the Stack Masterson getting whacked in front of his wife in Buenos Aires?' "And Agent X says, 'Yeah, what was that all about?' "And Willy says, 'God only knows, but what's interesting is that a Washington hotshot-I don't know this, but I heard that he's an Army officer sent by the President-has taken over the investigation.' "So Agent X goes back to Asuncion and tells this interesting story to the boys. And then Agent Y goes on R amp;R to Montevideo.

"'Willy, tell me about Jack the Stack's murder and the hotshot.' "To which Willy replies, 'I don't know much, but it's getting interesting. First, Dave Yung, one the FBI guys, gets jerked out of here and onto a plane for Washington. No explanation. And then, two days ago, right after Yung mysteriously disappeared, they find an American, who worked for the UN, and six guys all dressed like Ninjas, all dead at an estancia named-would you believe it?-Shangri-La. Nobody has a clue what that was all about.' "So Agent Y, his physical desires satisfied, goes back to Asuncion and tells his pal, Agent Z, what he heard in Montevideo. Agent Z then takes his R amp;R in Montevideo, where he asks Willy-or Tom, Dick, and Harry-'Tell me more about the six dead Ninjas and the UN guy.' "'Curiouser and curiouser,' he's told. 'Turns out the dead American was a drug dealer and Jack the Stack's brother-in-law. There's a very interesting rumor that a special operations team, probably run by the hotshot-he's an Army officer by the name of Costello; we found that out-whacked the Ninjas and maybe also the drug guy-his name was Lorimer-and then they jerked another FBI guy, Artigas, out of here. No explanation.'"

Susanna paused.

"End of scenario," she said after a moment.

"Good scenario," Castillo said.

"These are all bright, clever guys, Charley," she said. "Trained investigators."

"With diarrhea of the mouth," Castillo said.

"Nobody told them all this was Top Secret Presidential," Sieno said. "Call it shop talk."

"No excuse," Castillo said.

"It wasn't as if they were running off at the mouth in a bar," Delchamps said. "These guys were swapping gossip with people they knew had the same security clearances they did. Arguably, their sharing of such information could hold a kernel that would prove to be a missing piece of a puzzle they were working, one they otherwise would not have had…"

"That's not an excuse, Ed, and you know it," Castillo said.

"I didn't say it was right, Ace. I said I think it explains what happened. I think Susanna's right on the money. And it explains the young man with the titanium leg coming here. His pal got snatched and now he's desperate…"

"I didn't hear about that," Susanna said.

"What he said was his pal, a DEA agent, was snatched a week ago," Delchamps explained. "And, though he didn't say this, I'll bet nobody in Paraguay is doing anything at all to get him back that might annoy the host government in any way. So he came looking for John Wayne here."

"So the question then becomes 'What do we do about it?'"

"About getting the DEA guy back?" Delchamps asked.

"The DEA guy is not my problem," Castillo said.

"No, he's not," Delchamps said. "Write that down."

Castillo flashed him a cold look.

"Meaning what?"

"Meaning for a moment there, Ace, I thought you were starting to think you really are John Wayne, flitting around the world righting wrongs," Delchamps said.

"My primary concern is making sure this operation isn't compromised any more than it already is," Castillo said.

"How are you going to do that?"

"Well, first we're going to get out of here. There's no reason we can't move it to the Nebraska Avenue Complex. Or is there?"