them move your stuff and hers into my room and settle those bills. After we’re gone tomorrow, there will be people to relieve you and Solez and—”
“Got it,” Britton said.
“While I’m dealing with the hotel, Bradley will go where his billet is and pack enough clothing—including his dress blues—for a week. Then he will go back to the hotel, pick me up, and we’ll come back here.”
“Sir?” Bradley said.
“What?”
“My orders are that I’m not to leave you. And . . . why do I need my dress blues?”
“Because you have the sad duty, Corporal, of taking Sergeant Markham home and burying him.”
“The gunny didn’t say anything about that, sir.”
“The gunny doesn’t know about it yet.”
“Sir, I can’t go without orders.”
“You just got your orders,” Castillo said. “If it makes you feel better, call your gunny and tell him what I have ordered.”
“Yes, sir,” Corporal Bradley said, doubtfully.
One of the SIDE agents in the corridor followed Castillo and Bradley onto the elevator, and when the elevator door opened in the basement, two more men, obviously SIDE agents also, were waiting for them.
Castillo wondered how they had been notified; he hadn’t seen the SIDE man use a cellular.
Obviously, stupid, one of the other SIDE agents called and said we were getting on the elevator.
And since it took you some time to figure that out, it means you’re tired and not thinking clearly.
“Sir, I am the Major Querrina of the SIDE, with the honor of having your security—”
“First to the Four Seasons. And while I am in there, my bodyguard here is going to the Marine barracks, or whatever it’s called, to quickly pack a suitcase.”
Major Querrina looked dubiously at Corporal Bradley but didn’t say anything.
“When he’s done that,” Castillo went on, “he’s going to go back to the Four Seasons and pick me up, and we’re coming back here.” He turned to Bradley. “Where is this place, Corporal?”
“Just off Libertador—” Bradley started.
“I know where it is,” Querrina interrupted. “It’s a twenty- to thirty-minute drive from the Four Seasons. Is time important?”
“I want to get back here as quickly as I can.”
“May I suggest, sir, that we send the corporal to the Marine House in one of my cars? That will save time, and so far as security for yourself is concerned, there will be two SIDE cars with you.”
Or I could ride with SIDE, and send Bradley in the embassy car.
But if I do that, and these bastards want to—what did Tom McGuire say?—“send a message” by taking me out, then I might have two dead Marines on my conscience. And, God, I don’t want that.
“Major Querrina has kindly offered one of his cars to take you to the Marine House.” He saw Bradley’s face drop. “Corporal, you will go in one of their cars, which will bring you back here to the hospital. That’s not open for discussion.”
“Aye, aye, sir,” Bradley said, with a visible lack of enthusiasm.
[THREE]
El Presidente de la Rua Suite The Four Seasons Hotel Cerrito 1433 Buenos Aires, Argentina 2240 24 July 2005
“Why don’t you fix yourself a drink, Major?” Castillo said to Querrina as they came into the sitting room of the suite. “I won’t be long.”
“Very kind of you, sir. But no thank you. I have the duty.”
“I have it, too,” Castillo said. “But there are exceptions to every rule, and I have just decided this is one of those times.”
He walked to the bar and poured an inch and a half of Famous Grouse into a glass. He took a sip, and then held the glass up in a second invitation.
“As you say, sir, there are always exceptions,” Querrina said.
“Help yourself, I won’t be long,” Castillo said, and carried his glass into the bedroom and closed the door.
He found a socket for the cellular charger behind the bedside table and plugged it in. When he connected his cellular to it, he found that he wasn’t going to have to sit on the floor. He laid the charging cellular on the bed, and then started to pack.
It didn’t take him long, and he was just about to zip the bag closed when he remembered the bill he’d gotten at the desk. There was no sense carrying that around in his pocket for God knows how long, and he couldn’t just toss it, because the Teutonically efficient financial department of the Tages Zeitung demanded a copy of his bills to compare with what American