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When was the last time I checked the battery?
He took his cellular out and looked at it.
There was still some battery charge left but not much.
He saw Betty’s eyes on him.
“I’m going to have to charge this soon,” he said.
“I’ve got a plug-it-in-the-lighter charger in my purse,” Betty said, inspecting the fitting on Castillo’s phone. “It’ll probably fit your phone.”
When they reached Market Street and the unmarked car, Castillo got in the passenger seat beside Betty. She fished in her purse and came out with a phone charger and handed it to him.
XII
SPRING 1991
[ONE]
Office of the Deputy Commander U.S. Army Special Warfare Center Fort Bragg, North Carolina 0930 6 June 1991
Second Lieutenant C. G. Castillo, who was the aide-de-camp to Brigadier General Bruce J. McNab, the deputy commander, USASWC, answered the phone in the prescribed manner:
“Office of the deputy commander, Lieutenant Castillo speaking, sir.”
“What’s his name?” the caller inquired.
“What’s whose name?” Castillo responded, so surprised by the question, and the manner in which it was asked, that he almost forgot to append: “Sir?”
“The deputy commander’s name?” the caller said.
“Brigadier General McNab is the deputy commander, sir.”
“Senator Frankenheimer would like to speak to General McNab. Can you get him on the phone or is he, too, ‘not available at the moment’?”
“May I ask what this is about, sir?”
“No, you may not. If he’s there, Lieutenant, get him on the phone.”
“One moment, please, sir,” Castillo said.
He went quickly from his desk to General McNab’s of fice door, rapped his knuckles on the jamb, and waited for General McNab to acknowledge his presence, which he did thirty seconds later by glancing up at Castillo from the sea of paper on his desk with a look of exasperation.
“They just nuked Washington, right?” General McNab inquired, not kindly.
General McNab, who disliked being interrupted when he was thinking, had on going into his office instructed Lieutenant Castillo that only if one thing happened was he to be disturbed.
“Sir, I think you should take this one.”
General McNab considered this for at least two seconds and then pointed to one of several telephones on his desk. This was an order to Castillo to pick it up so that he would be party to the conversation. When Castillo had done so, McNab picked up another telephone.
“General McNab,” he announced.
“You are, I understand, the deputy commander of the Special Warfare Center?”
“I am.”
“I am led to believe the commander is not available at the moment?”
