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There was a pause.
"What kind of a deal, Charley?"
"No matter what happens in Africa, sir, I will retire at the end of this month."
"Even if you're right and everybody else is wrong?"
"Yes, sir. That was the deal I made."
There was another long pause.
"I'll get back to you--or Vic D'Allessando will--with the details of Mr. Leverette's travel," McNab said finally. "And now I'm going to have a word with General Naylor."
"I wish you wouldn't do that, sir."
"Why not?"
"General Naylor decided that he was doing the right thing when Montvale went to him with this. I'm sure it wasn't easy for him. He saw it as his duty."
Another long pause.
"That's the problem a good officer has to face every once in a while, isn't it, Charley? Knowing just what doing your duty really calls for?"
Castillo didn't reply, and a moment later one of the green LEDs went dark, signaling the call had been broken.
Castillo shook his head, then looked around at the others.
"Who was that, my Charley?" Svetlana asked.
"The man who heads our version of Spetsnaz," Castillo said softly. "Lieutenant General Bruce J. McNab. Who just decided to help me deal with the chemical factory, even though he's fully aware that may very likely see him standing beside me in the Thank You for Your Service and Don't Let the Door-knob Hi
t You in the Ass on Your Way Out retirement parade."
"I do not understand," she said.
"I'm getting kicked out of the Army," Castillo said, and stopped. "Correction: For what I like to think is 'for the good of the service,' I will go along with being medically retired as psychologically unfit for active service."
She looked at him thoughtfully but didn't say anything.
"Not to worry, Svetlana. I will receive a pension of twenty-five percent of my base pay. You may have to flip burgers in McDonald's to help out with our bills, but we can probably get by."
She ignored the comment.
"You work for this man? You are American Spetsnaz?"
"Not anymore. I used to be. I used to work for General McNab."
"And now who do you work for? This Ambassador Montvale?"
"You and your brother were right to be worried about the CIA station chief in Vienna," Castillo said, ignoring the question. "She probably would have left you swinging in the breeze, since she probably knew the SVR was onto you. What happened is that when she figured out that I had gotten you out of Vienna safely, instead of saying 'thank you' or keeping her mouth shut, which also would have been nice, she told the director of Central Intelligence--and also told a friend of hers who she knew would promptly tell an important journalist--that I had swooped in out of nowhere and snatched you and the colonel and family away just as she was about to put you in the bag and send you to Washington."
"So you are in trouble because of what you did for us? I will kill this woman!"
"Hold that thought, Svetlana," Delchamps said.
Castillo looked between them and thought: The truth is both of them are more than likely dead serious.
"Both of you drop that thought," Castillo said.
