as soon as it gets modified at SCATSA, sir, I’ll bring it here. There was some talk about teaching me how to fly choppers, but that seems to have died.”
“Not died. Put on hold. When you get up here, Oliver will transition you into choppers. In addition to your other duties.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How close is Geoff Craig to finishing up down there? Do you know?”
“He rode down to Hurlburt with me when I picked up de la Santiago—”
“Today?”
“No, sir. On New Year’s Eve. We spent New Year’s Eve together at Geoff’s.”
“I thought Marjorie would want to display her new husband to the brass at the O Club.”
“First we went there, and then to Geoff’s,” Jack said, and then answered the question. “Geoff’s just about finished with the course, sir.”
“Nobody knows, of course, when this Guevara business is about to start. The possibility exists Felter may be wrong. If I wanted to take over South America, I think I’d start in Central America, or maybe Chile or Bolivia, not in the Congo.”
“I wondered about that, sir.”
“On the other hand, from the moment I met him, a long time ago, in Greece, Felter’s track record has been perfect. In the end, he’s usually turned out to be right, and everybody else wrong. So it behooves us to get this operation in place as soon as possible.”
“Yes, sir.”
“I wonder where the hell Zammoro is?” Hanrahan asked, and looked impatiently at his closed office door.
“Sir,” Mr. Zabrewski’s voice boomed over the intercom, as if he had been waiting for the question, “Mr. Zammoro is here.”
Hanrahan smiled at Jack and chuckled. He depressed the SPEAK lever on his intercom.
“Bring them in, please, Ski,” he ordered.
The door opened and a large, swarthy man in fatigues came in first, clutching his green beret in a massive hand, followed by Enrico de la Santiago and Captain Zabrewski. Zabrewski stood by the side of the door; de la Santiago looked as if he didn’t know what to do.
The large man walked to Hanrahan, came to attention, and barked, in the approved military manner, “Sir, Warrant Officer Zammoro reporting as ordered, sir.” He had a slight Spanish accent.
Hanrahan returned the salute. Zammoro remained at attention. Hanrahan gestured for him to relax, and turned to de la Santiago.
“I’m General Hanrahan, Mr. de la Santiago.”
“How do you do, sir?” de la Santiago replied, coming almost to attention.
“Ski, close the door, please, and stick around.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Zam, this is Lieutenant Portet,” Hanrahan said.
“How do you do, sir?” Zammoro asked.
“Lieutenant Portet, Zam, and Mr. de la Santiago are old friends. You two don’t happen to know each other, do you?”
“Yes, sir. We knew one another, in Cuba,” Zammoro said.
“Mr. Zammoro was a major in the Cuban Army, Lieutenant Portet, and you were, as I understand it, Mr. de la Santiago, a captain in the Cuban Air Force?”
“Yes, sir,” de la Santiago said.
“There is a special program, not very well-known, begun during the Hungarian Uprising of 1956, which authorizes certain foreign nationals to be taken into the U.S. Army if they possess certain skills and characteristics that convince a board of U.S. Army officers, one of whom has to be a general officer, they will be of unusual value to the Army,” Hanrahan said.
De la Santiago nodded but didn’t say anything.
“Mr. Zammoro is such an individual,” Hanrahan said. “The board of officers before whom he appeared were convinced that he was a bona fide refugee from Señor Castro’s government, rather than an intelligence officer sent to penetrate our Army. And the board of officers was convinced further that the skills acquired while he was a major in the pre-Castro Cuban Army would be of value to the Army, and specifically to Special Forces.”
“Yes, sir,” de la Santiago said.
“He was therefore permitted to enlist as a private in the U.S. Army, which required that he take an oath of allegiance to the United States, disavowing any previous allegiances, and that he swore to obey the orders of the officers appointed over him, and to defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”
“I understand, sir,” de la Santiago said.
“Shortly after Private Zammoro was sworn in as a private soldier—I believe it was the same day, was it not, Zam?”
“Yes, sir,” Zammoro said, smiling.
“It was brought to his attention that he was eligible to apply for direct appointment as a warrant officer, junior grade, U.S. Army, because of his linguistic skills. He is fluent in Spanish as well as English, as I believe you are,