or otherwise. That’s not on Felter’s agenda for the bastard.”
Enrico looked at Jack, who nodded.
Enrico shrugged.
“Perhaps if I am sent into Cuba, I would be able to learn something of my family.”
“Guevara’s not in Cuba,” Geoff said. “He’s in Africa.”
“What’s he doing in Africa?”
“My guess is that he wants to train the savages to do it right, the next time they try to take over the country,” Geoff said.
“I was in Stanleyville, Jacques, right after the Belgians jumped—before they left. I saw what happened there. Only God’s infinite mercy saved your mother and your sister.”
“And my wife and baby,” Geoff said. “It gave me a whole new perception of the efficacy of prayer.”
“Your wife and baby were in Stanleyville?”
“Yeah. And so was John Wayne here,” Geoff said. “He jumped with the Belgians.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“He’s a regular fucking hero.”
“Fuck you, Geoff,” Jack said conversationally.
“Does Colonel Felter understand what happened there?” Enrico asked.
“Oh, yeah,” Geoff said. “He knows all about it.”
“And that Guevara wants to start it all over again?”
“Yeah,” Geoff said.
“And Colonel Felter is still unwilling to have him killed?”
“The Lord and Colonel Felter move in mysterious ways, Enrico, ” Geoff said. “You better keep your thoughts about killing Guevara to yourself, or you’re going to find yourself out of his operation.”
Enrico nodded.
What that means, Jack thought, is that he will no longer announce his intention to kill Guevara, but not that he has given up his ambition to kill him, preferably slowly and painfully, but any way he can, just as soon as he has the opportunity.
The question is, do I tell Father Lunsford or Colonel Felter?
[ TWO ]
Office of the Army Attaché
United States Embassy
Sarmiento 663
Buenos Aires, Argentina
0800 2 January 1965
“Anything interesting?” Colonel Richard J. Harris, Jr., inquired of Master Sergeant Douglas Wilson when the sergeant major walked into his office carrying the thick stack of messages that had come in over New Year’s Day.
“The Pentagon has been heard from, Colonel,” Wilson said, and handed him a sheet of teletypewriter paper.
HQ DEPT OF THE ARMY WASH DC 1100 31 DEC 1964
ROUTINE
CONFIDENTIAL
FROM: DSCOPS (AVIATION)
TO: US ARMY ATTACHÉ US EMBASSY BUENOS AIRES
ARGENTINA
1. REFERENCE IS MADE TO “SPECIAL TABLE OF ORGANIZATION AND EQUIPMENT, OFFICE OF ARMY ATTACHÉ US EMBASSY, BUENOS AIRES ARGENTINA” AS AMENDED 22 DECEMBER 1964.
2. LT COL CRAIG W. LOWELL AND MAJOR GEORGE W. LUNSFORD WILL ARRIVE IN BUENOS AIRES 3 JAN 1965 TO DISCUSS IMPLEMENTATION OF REFERENCED AMENDED TO&E. SUBJECT OFFICERS ARE TICKETED ABOARD AEROLINEAS ARGENTINE FLIGHT 9790 WITH SCHEDULED TIME OF ARRIVAL 1130 HOURS BUENOS AIRES TIME.
FOR THE ASSISTANT DCSOPS FOR AVIATION:
RALPH J. LEMES, CAPT, SIGNAL CORPS
“I wonder if Colonel McGrory is going to come in today,” Colonel Harris wondered out loud.
Master Sergeant Wilson read his boss’s mind. Today was Saturday. It was very unlikely that Colonel McGrory would come to work on Saturday; he rarely did. And tomorrow, when these two paper pushers from the Pentagon would arrive at Ezeiza, Buenos Aires’ International Airport, was Sunday. There was almost no chance at all that Colonel McGrory would come to work on Sunday. If he did, it would be the first time either of them could remember.
“Colonel, why don’t I go out there and pick these officers up?” Sergeant Wilson asked. “Where are we going to put them?”
“Does a lieutenant colonel rate the VIP transient apartment?” Colonel Harris asked rhetorically. “In the absence of any opinion to the contrary, and knowing there’s no one in there right now, I have decided that this one does. He is, after all, about to give us not only an airplane but a twin-engined airplane. And pilots to fly it, and mechanics to fix it. Doesn’t that make him a VIP?”
“I would certainly think so, Sir,” Sergeant Wilson said. “What about the major?”
“I think that simple courtesy requires we give the major the benefit of the doubt, and put him in with the lieutenant colonel. You go out there at 11:30 and meet them, and when they’re through customs and immigration, which should take no more than an hour or two, you call me and I will be at the VIP apartment when you deliver them there.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And perhaps the lieutenant colonel and I can have a little chat before he gets to meet Colonel McGrory the next morning. Give him the lay of the terrain, so to speak.”
“Excellent thinking, Colonel,” Master Sergeant Wilson said.
“Great minds run in similar paths, Sergeant Wilson,” Harris said.
“What are you going to do about the Argentines, Colonel?”
Teniente Coronel Ricardo Fosterwood, aide-de-camp to the commander-in-chief, Argentine Army,