AllFreeNovel
Share Us
"I need to secretly move helicopters into Uruguayan airspace, refuel them, and fly them out of Uruguay."
"Using Estancia Shangri-La?"
"Using Shangri-La," Castillo confirmed.
"And what would the helicopters be used for?"
"One of our DEA agents in Paraguay is being held by drug dealers. My orders are to get him back from the people who have kidnapped him."
"You know who they are?"
Castillo shook his head.
"Or where they are holding this man?"
Castillo shook his head.
"Not even in which country?"
Castillo shook his head again.
"Then this man whom you have been ordered to rescue could be in Uruguay?"
"That's possible, but unlikely."
"Have you had the opportunity to meet Comandante Duffy of the Argentine Gendarmeria Nacional, Colonel?" Ordonez asked. "I know he was hoping to talk to you."
"I met Comandante Duffy this morning."
"Did he tell you that two of his men have been murdered, and two kidnapped, presumably by the same people who have taken your man?"
Castillo nodded.
"Did he tell you what he intends to do to the people who have done this? Or who he thinks may have done this?"
"He didn't spell it out in so many words, but he made it pretty clear that he intends to take them out."
"He intends not only to kill them, but to leave their bodies where they fall, as an example of what happens to people who murder gendarmes."
Castillo nodded.
"Much as you did with the people at Shangri-La," Ordonez added.
Castillo met his eyes for a moment.
Castillo then softly but angrily said, "Sorry, Ordonez, I can't-won't-let you get away with equating what happened at Shangri-La with the cold-blooded murder of Duffy's gendarmes."
"You're not going to deny that there were six bodies-seven, counting Lorimer's corpse-left lying in pools of blood at Estancia Shangri-La, are you, Colonel?"
"Actually, eight men died at the estancia," Castillo said, his voice rising. "I lost one of my men, and we damn near lost Alfredo. But we acted in self-defense. They opened fire on us, without warning. We returned it. They died. What the hell were we supposed to do, call a priest, give them the last rites, and bury them?"
"Jose," Munz said evenly. "Colonel Castillo went to Estancia Shangri-la with plans to take Lorimer back-alive-to the United States. Violence was neither planned nor expected."
"And you went with him, Alfredo, fully aware that kidnapping is just as much a crime in Uruguay as it is in Argentina," Ordonez said.
Munz, his eyes narrowed, nodded.
"And was making off with Lorimer's sixteen million dollars planned or expected?"
