"I had nothing to do with that, as you G.o.dd.a.m.n well know. The story going around is that some old company dinosaur did that."

"You sound like you think I had something to do with it," Delchamps said.

"Do I?" Castillo said sarcastically.

"Funny thing about those old company dinosaurs, Charley. You're too young of course to know much about them. But they really believe in what it says in the Old Testament about an eye for an eye, and if they do something like what happened to Demidov, they never, ever, 'fess up to it."

"Changing the subject just a little," Tom Barlow said. "I think we should throw this into the facts bearing on the problem: Just as soon as Sirinov and/ or Vladimir Vladimirovich heard that the Americans had taken out the Fish Farm, they realized that information had to have come from me."

"You don't know that," Castillo argued.

"In our profession, Charley," Tom said, "we never know know anything. All we ever have is a hypothesis-or many hypotheses-based on what we anything. All we ever have is a hypothesis-or many hypotheses-based on what we think think we know." we know."

"Touche," Castillo said.

"We all forget that at one time or another," Barlow said.

Castillo met his eyes, and thought, That was kind of you, Tom. That was kind of you, Tom.

But all it did was remind everyone in this room that I am the least experienced spook in it.

Which, truth be told, I am.

"One of the things I was tasked to do in Berlin was make sure that the Fish Farm got whatever it needed," Barlow went on. "It's not hard to come up with a hypothesis that Sirinov and Vladimir Vladimirovich reasoned that since Polkovnik Berezovsky knew about the Fish Farm and it was destroyed shortly after Polkovnik Berezovsky defected to the Americans, whose CIA had looked into the matter and decided the factory was indeed a fish farm, Polkovnik Berezovsky told the Americans what it really was."

"You knew what the CIA thought?" Charley asked.

"Of course," Barlow said.

"You had ... have ... a mole?"

"Of course, but you don't need a mole to learn things like that," Barlow said. "Actually you can often learn more from a disgruntled worker who wouldn't think of betraying her country than from an a.s.set on the payroll."

"Your pal Dillworth, for example, Alex," Delchamps said. "What is it they say, 'h.e.l.l hath no fury like a p.i.s.sed-off female'?"

"Eleanor is a pro," Darby said, again showing his loyalty.

"She pointed Roscoe Danton at Charley," Delchamps argued. "What hypothesis does that suggest?"

Darby looked at Delchamps angrily, looked for a moment as if he were going to reply, but in the end said nothing.

Castillo said, "What's your hypothesis, Tom, about the stuff from the Congo suddenly showing up at Fort Detrick?"

"Well, it's clear it's got something to do with this," Barlow replied. "What, I don't know."

"It could have something to do with Vladimir Vladimirovich's ego," Pevsner said.

"He couldn't resist the temptation to let us know that we didn't wipe the Fish Farm off the face of the earth?" Delchamps offered.

Pevsner nodded.

"If he's got that stuff, he could have used it, and he didn't," Castillo said thoughtfully.

"So, what's next?" Delchamps said. "I buy that stick-it-up-your-a.s.s motive, Alek, but I don't think that's all there is to it."

Pevsner nodded his agreement.

"So Charley has to tell those people in Las Vegas that he's changed his mind about working for them," Barlow said.

"Why would I want to do that?" Castillo replied. "The Office of Organizational a.n.a.lysis no longer exists. I am in compliance with my orders to fall off the face of the earth and never be seen again. Sweaty and I are going to build a vine-covered cottage by the side of the road and live happily therein forever afterward."

"There goes that soph.o.m.oric sense of humor of yours again," Pevsner snapped.

"How so?" Castillo replied.

"Vladimir Vladimirovich is going to come after you. And Svetlana," Pevsner said. "You ought to read a little Mao Zedong. He wrote that 'the only real defense is active defense.'"

"Did he really?" Castillo said. "I wonder where he got that?"

"Probably from Sun-tzu," Svetlana said seriously. "That's where most people think Machiavelli got it."

"Sun-tzu?" Castillo asked. "That's the Chinaman who turned two hundred of the emperor's concubines into soldiers and won the war with them? I've always been an admirer of his."

"It was one hundred eighty concubines," Svetlana said. "He got their attention by beheading the first of them who thought it was funny and giggled, and then he beheaded the second one who giggled, and then so on down the line until he came to one who understood that what was going on was no laughing matter."

"Does anybody else think Sweaty's trying to make a point?" Delchamps asked innocently.

"Let me make a point, several points," Castillo said seriously. "One, as far as the intelligence community is concerned, I'm a pariah. So is everybody ever connected with the OOA. They hated us when we had the blessing of the President, and now hating us is politically correct. I'll bet right now both the company and the FBI-h.e.l.l, all the alphabet agencies-have a 'locate but do not detain' bulletin out on us. They're not going to help us at all. Quite the opposite: If we start playing James Bond again, we'll find ourselves counting paint flecks on the wall at the Florence maximum security prison in Colorado.

"And, if I have to say this, we'll have less than zero help from anybody."

"I think you're wrong about that, Charley," Barlow said. "We know that-"

"Let me finish, Tom," Castillo said sharply. "Point two-probably the most important thing-is that any operation we might try to run would have to have a leader. And C. Castillo, Retired, cannot be that leader. What did President Johnson say? 'I shall not seek, nor will I accept ...'"

"You're wrong about that, too, Ace," Delchamps said. "I for one won't go-and I don't think any of the others will-unless you're running the show. And we have to go, since the option to that is sitting around waiting for some SVR hit squad to whack us. And, Romeo, what about the fair Juliet? You're going to just sit around holding Sweaty's hand waiting for the hit squad to whack her? Worse, drag her back to Mother Russia?"

"You don't know how the others will feel," Castillo said, more than a little lamely.

"Hypothesis: They'll all go. Any questions?" Delchamps said.

"Count me in, Charley," Alex Darby said.

"I wouldn't know where to start," Castillo said.

"I'm not sure if you've ever heard this before," Barlow said. "But some people in our line of work think collecting as much intelligence as possible as quickly as possible is a good way to start."

"And how would I go about doing that?"

"That's what I started to say a moment ago," Barlow said. "You were there, Charley, in that suite in the Venetian Hotel in Las Vegas when those people as much as told us that the director of Central Intelligence is either one of them, or d.a.m.n close to them."

"I don't remember that," Castillo said.

"The man who was a Naval Academy graduate quoted verbatim to you the unkind things you said to the DCI, something about the agency being 'a few very good people trying to stay afloat in a sea of left-wing bureaucrats.' Who do you think told him about that?"

"I remember now," Castillo said. "But I really had forgotten. That's not much of a recommendation, is it?"

"Charley, I said I'd take your orders," Delchamps said. "But ... You saw The G.o.dfather The G.o.dfather?"

"Yes, of course."

"Both Brando and the son-Pacino? De Niro? I never can keep them straight-had a consigliere. Think of me as Robert Duvall."

"Think of us both as Robert Duvall," Barlow said. "It was Al Pacino."

"I don't think so," Delchamps said.

"Can either of my consiglieri suggest how I can get in touch with those people?"

"Well, if you hadn't been gulping down all that Wild Turkey, I'd suggest you fly everybody to Carinhall in Alek's chopper. But since you have been soaking up the booze, I guess we'll have to drive over there and get on Casey's radio."

"No," Castillo said. "There's a Casey radio in the Aero Commander."

"It fits?" Delchamps asked, surprised.

"Aloysius's stuff is so miniaturized it's unbelievable," Castillo said. "But call your house, Alek, and tell your man to stand by. There's no printer in the airplane. And you'd better call down to the airstrip and have them push the plane from the hangar."

"Yes, sir, Podpolkovnik Castillo, sir," Svetlana said, and saluted him. Then she saw the look on his face. "My darling, I love it when you're in charge of things; it makes me feel comfortable and protected."

"It makes me think Ace's had too much to drink," Delchamps said.

"Aloysius, you think the offer from those people is still open?" Castillo asked.

Castillo was sitting in the pilot's seat of the Aero Commander. Delchamps was in the co-pilot's seat. Svetlana was kneeling in the aisle and her brother was leaning over her. Pevsner, Duffy, and Darby were sitting in the cabin. Max and Janos were standing watchfully outside by the nose of the airplane.

"I told them you'd change your mind," Casey said. "This thing sort of scares me, Charley. There was another beer keg of that stuff sitting on a road near the Mexican border in Texas this morning."

"Another one?" Castillo asked.

"Another one. They left it where the Border Patrol couldn't miss it. It's been taken to Colonel Hamilton at Fort Detrick. We're waiting to hear from him to tell us if it's exactly the same thing."

"Well, send me whatever intel you have, everything you can get your hands on. Everything Everything, Aloysius."

"Done."

"What shape is the Gulfstream in?"

"Ready to go."

"Tell Jake to take it to Cancun. They'll expect him."

"You don't want him to pick you up down there?"

"No. I'll come commercial."

Svetlana was tugging at his sleeve.

She rubbed her thumb and forefinger together, mouthed Money Money, and then held up two fingers.

"Aloysius, I'm going to need some cash," Castillo said.

"No problem. How much?"

"Will those people stand still for two hundred thousand?"

"Where do you want it?"

Castillo was now aware Svetlana was shaking her head in what looked like incredulity but could have been disgust.

"Send it to Otto Gorner and tell him to put it in my personal account."

"Otto will have it within the hour. Anything else?"

"That's all I can think of."

"Let me know," Aloysius Casey said. "And thanks, Charley. Break it down."

Castillo looked over his shoulder at Svetlana.

"You're going to tell me what I did wrong, aren't you, my love?"

"I meant two million million dollars. Now those people are going to think they can hire you for an unimportant sum. The more people pay you, the more important dollars. Now those people are going to think they can hire you for an unimportant sum. The more people pay you, the more important they they think you are." think you are."

"Well, my love, you'll have to excuse my naivete. This is the first time I've signed on as a mercenary."

"Well, my darling, you'd better get used to it."

"What you'd better get used to, Ace," Delchamps said, "is thinking of Sweaty as Robert Duvall."

[THREE].

The Oval Office The White House 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.