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McGuire looked uncomfortable.
“Charley, I work for him,” he said.
“Yeah, I heard.”
The chime bonged again.
Castillo gestured for McGuire to open the door, and he did so.
The Vice President of the United States walked into the room and looked around. He saw Roscoe J. Danton, John David Parker, Lester Bradley, Colonel Jake Torine, Major Richard Miller, and CWO5 Colin Leverette, all of whom he knew, and in the sitting room and dining room maybe ten more men he didn’t know. No one was wearing a uniform, but Montvale correctly intuited they were all soldiers.
What the hell did Castillo do, Montvale thought, bring half of Gray Fox up here?
“Now that I think of it, Mr. Vice President,” Castillo said, “I do seem to recall telling you that if you were in the neighborhood anytime, you should feel free to drop in. So welcome, welcome!”
“What the hell is going on here, Castillo?”
“Actually, we’re getting ready to go to the interment of a friend. You may have heard . . .”
“What I would like to know is how you heard. Did that goddamn McNab tell you?”
“I have not had any contact with General McNab—to whom I presume you refer—for some time, now. You can ask him yourself; I presume he’ll be at Arlington.”
“Then how the hell—”
The chime bonged again.
“I wonder who else might be calling?” Castillo said. “Mr. McGuire, if you’d be so kind?”
McGuire opened the door. The secretary of State stood there.
“May I come in?” Natalie Cohen asked.
“Yes, ma’am. It’s always a pleasure to see you,” Castillo said.
She took a quick look around the room and smiled at the few people she knew.
“Let me get right to the point, Charley,” she said. “You’re not thinking of going out to Arlington, are you?”
“I’m going,” Castillo said, and gestured around the suite. “We’re all going.”
“That wouldn’t be a wise thing to do, Charley,” she said. “Have you considered that?”
“Are you and Vice President Montvale here to try to talk me out of going to my friend Mr. Salazar’s interment?”
“Is there somewhere we can speak privately, Charley?” she asked.
He indicated the door to what turned out to be, when she and Montvale and Castillo walked through it, the master bedroom.
She closed the door, then turned to the men and said, “What is said in here goes no further. Agreed?”
Both men nodded.
“I understand you’re aware, Charley, of the meeting in which it became apparent that the President thinks we have been engaged in a coup d’état that would see Charles in the Oval Office?”
Castillo nodded.
“The fact that that’s absolutely untrue is really irrelevant; that’s what the President believes, and it’s what we have to deal with. Understood?”
