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"This is where I'm supposed to say, 'I'm perfectly able to climb a flight of stairs,'" Miller said. "But what I am going to say is 'You will be rewarded in heaven, David, for your charity to this poor cripple.'"
Tom
McGuire came into the living room first.
"Agnes told me," he said. "Jesus!"
"I only took the job because I knew how you hungered to see the natural beauty and other wonders of Paraguay," Castillo said. "You okay to leave right away for three, four days?"
McGuire nodded and asked, "Where we going? Paraguay?"
"First to Chicago, then to Las Vegas. It's kind of iffy after Vegas."
"I am always ready to go to Las Vegas on a moment's notice, but what's going on in Chicago?"
Castillo told him of the President's call.
"…And," Castillo finished, "I think a distinguished Supervisory Secret Service agent such as yourself can help reassure this guy's family, who are all cops."
McGuire nodded his understanding but said, "I think I should fess up right away, Charley. I have been successfully avoiding the drug business since I joined the service, and the only thing I know about it is what I read in the papers."
"I think, then, that this is what they call the blind leading the blind," Castillo said.
The door opened and a uniformed First Lieutenant Edmund Lorimer, Intelligence, U.S. Army, stepped in the room, came almost to attention, and waited.
Castillo thought he looked like a Special Forces recruiting poster, and remembered what the President had said about the First Lady saying that about him.
He's even wearing jump boots, Castillo thought, which triggered a mental image of a highly polished, laced-up Corcoran boot from the top of which extended a titanium pole topped by a fully articulated titanium knee.
"Good morning, Lorimer," Castillo said. "Come on in and sit down. We don't do much standing at attention or saluting around here."
"Good morning, sir. Thank you, sir."
"Colonel Torine you know, and Major Miller. This is Supervisory Special Agent Tom McGuire of the Secret Service."
McGuire wordlessly offered Lorimer his hand.
"Before these witnesses, Lorimer," Castillo said formally, "I am going to tell you-again-that anything you see, hear, or surmise here, or at any place at any time about what we're doing or have done, or plan to do, is classified Top Secret Presidential. Is that clear in your mind?"
"Yes, sir."
"Any questions about that?"
"No, sir."
"The President of the United States has tasked the Office of Organizational Analysis, under the authority of an existing Presidential Finding, with freeing Special Agent Timmons from his kidnappers," Castillo said.
"Jesus H. Christ!" Lorimer exclaimed. "Wonderful! Colonel, I don't know how to thank you!"
Castillo looked at him coldly until Lorimer's face showed that he understood that his response had not been welcomed.
"If you have your emotions under control, Lieutenant, I will continue with the admonition that any further emotional outbreaks will not be tolerated."
"Yes, sir. Sorry, sir. It won't happen again."
"Lorimer, to clear the air, have you ever been given an order that you were sure you were not equipped to carry out?"
"Yes, sir."
