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"What the hell does that mean?"
"Colonel," the Naval Academy graduate said with a Texas twang, "what we are is a group of people who realize there are a number of things that the intelligence community doesn't do well, doesn't want to do, or for one reason or another can't do. We try to help. And we're all agreed that you're just the man to administer the program."
"You've got the wrong guy. The intel community hates me, and that's a nice way of describing it."
"Well, telling the DCI that his agency 'is a few very good people trying to stay afloat in a sea of left-wing bureaucrats' may not have been the best way to charm the director, even if I happen to know he agrees with you."
"Colonel," the man who owned the glitzy hotels said, "this is our proposal, in a few words: you keep your people together, keep them doing what they do so well, and on our side we'll decide how to get the information to where it will do the most good, and in a manner that will not rub the nose of the intelligence community in their own incompetence." He paused. "And the pay's pretty good."
"Carlos," Dmitri said, "you don't want to learn to play golf any more than I do. And maybe we can do some good on another occasion."
"Think it over, Charley," Davidson said. "I'm in."
"Fair enough," Castillo said. "I will."
I am being dishonest again.
This sounds almost too good to be true.
"Where's Sweaty?" Castillo asked.
"Freddy put her in the Tsar Nicholas II Suite," Casey said. "He thought she'd like it. It's even got one of those big copper teapots."
"Samovars," Castillo corrected him without thinking. "Where is it?"
"You go up the stairs into the foyer. There's three doors. This is the center. You and Svetlana are in the right one. I'll give you a call in a couple of hours, and maybe we'll have dinner and hoist a couple."
Max was already waiting at the top of the stairs.
Svetlana kissed Charley and held him and told him he needed a shave.
"I usually shave while I'm in the shower, Sweaty."
"Is that so? How interesting. Can I watch?"
