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"-was garroted," Castillo finished, "with a metal garrote."
"Interesting!" Weiss said. "Stasi?"
"And that might explain what Major Vincenzo and the others were doing at Shangri-La," Castillo said. "Maybe he didn't come from Cuba for that. Maybe he-and the others-were already in Paraguay."
"And," Delchamps added, "since Lorimer wasn't involved with drugs-they wanted to shut his mouth about what he knew of the oil-for-food scam-and Vincenzo was, that suggests there's a connection. Somebody who wanted Lorimer dead was able to order Vincenzo and company to do it."
"And we have the two dead FSB lieutenant colonels," Castillo said.
"Ed somehow neglected to mention two dead FSB officers," Weiss said.
"I didn't think you needed to know," Delchamps said.
Weiss rolled his eyes.
"Who were they?"
"One of the colonel's crack pistol marksmen, a chap named Bradley," Delchamps said with a straight face, "took down Yevgeny Komogorov-"
"Of the FSB's Service for the Protection of the Constitutional System and the Fight Against Terrorism?" Weiss asked drily.
Delchamps nodded as he went on: "-in the Sheraton Hotel garage in Pilar, outside Buenos Aires. Colonel Komogorov was at the time apparently bent on whacking a fellow Russian by the name of Aleksandr Pevsner-"
"Pevsner?" Weiss asked, incredulously.
With an even more imperious gesture than Castillo had given, Delchamps held up his hand to signal he didn't want to be interrupted.
Castillo laughed.
Delchamps went on: "-when Bradley put a.45 round in his cheek"-he pointed to a spot immediately below his left eye-"and then Lieutenant Colonel Viktor Zhdankov was found beaten to death in the Conrad Casino and Resort in Punta del Este."
Weiss's face showed surprise, and perhaps revulsion.
"Not by us, Milton," Delchamps said. "Do I have to tell you that?"
"By who?"
"He was found in the company of a man named Howard Kennedy, who also had been beaten to death. There's a rumor going around that Kennedy was foolish enough to have tried to arrange the whacking of his employer, Mr. Pevsner."
"Either one of them could have been running Vincenzo," Castillo said thoughtfully.
Weiss considered that, then nodded.
"All of this seems to fit very nicely together," Weiss said. "But the bottom line is that nothing is going to be done about it. The Cubans-if they said anything at all-would say that Vincenzo hasn't been in the Direccion General de Inteligencia for years. The Russians will say they never heard of either Zhdankov or Komogorov."
"What's your point?" Castillo asked.
"The name of the game is to make the other guys hurt," Weiss said.
"Okay. But so what?" Castillo said.
"Let me return to Basic Drugs 101," Weiss said, "since bringing these bad guys before the bar of justice just isn't going to happen. Neither of you has any idea what happens to the heroin once it gets to Argentina, do you?"
Delchamps and Castillo shook their heads.
"The intellectually challenged station chief in Asuncion has figured that out," Weiss said. "Has either of you ever wondered how many filet mignon steaks are in the coolers of a cruise ship like, for example, the Holiday Spirit of the Southern Cruise Line? I'll give you a little clue. She carries 2,680 passengers, and a crew of some twelve hundred."
"A lot, Milton?" Delchamps asked innocently.
