Thai Horse

‘Spears, for God’s sake!’

‘That was our front, a personal security service.’

‘How the hell did you get involved in this?’

‘Because Campon was too hot for the Secret Service to handle. The taxpayers would have raised hell. So I got the job.’

‘But Spears? He fried his brains twenty years ago lying around Santa Monica beach.’

‘Yeah, well, he and Hedritch’ll be protecting mailbags in Tomahawk, Wisconsin, for the rest of their lives.’

‘If you put both their brains together you end up with a half-wit.’

‘Look,’ Sloan said, his face reddening. ‘First I inherit this deposed presidente with two brigades cooling their heels on the Madrango border, .waiting to go back in and chase the Commies out. He needs weapons, he needs ammo, he needs air, he needs military a.d.v.’s, he needs every fuckin’ thing but the urge, so he comes up to D.C. looking for help and our leader starts calling in favors all over the Hill. He’s looking for fifty million bucks for Campon and I’ve got to baby-sit the bastard while all this is going on. Three weeks in Fort Lauderdale, two weeks in St Louis, a month and a half in Chicago, two weeks in a houseboat fifty miles out of Atlanta. All of a sudden he’s history and we got big troubles.’

‘But Spears and Hedritch?’

Sloan slid open the door to the balcony of the bright, airy room and stood with his back to it, letting the breeze dry him off. He sipped his drink and stared at Hatcher. ‘I had six men on this, pal. This Campon was no Boy Scout. Skipped the country with five, six mill stashed in Switzerland. A monumental hell-raiser with the morals of an alley cat. Burning up my control teams left and right. Spears and Hedritch were all I had left. But’ — he pointed a finger at Hatcher — ‘that’s also what made him valuable. He was General Macho Man and his men idolized him, idolized him. And we need Madrango back, it’s key to everything we’ve got going in Central America.’

‘So how did you lose him?’

‘He wouldn’t stay put. He liked the night life, the ladies.’ Sloan shrugged. ‘It caught up with him.’

‘So what’s plan Baker?’ Hatcher whispered casually.

Sloan looked at Hatcher suspiciously. ‘Who says I’ve got a plan Baker?’

‘You’ve always got a plan Baker, Harry. First thing you taught me: Always locate the back door. And Madrango’s been your baby since the beginning.’

Sloan sighed. ‘The back door is General Cosomil. Not as flamboyant or popular as Campon, or as young, but he’s dedicated. A good tactical officer. What we’ve gotta do is martyrize Campon so his men’ll line up behind Cosomil. Right now he’s under wraps. Ferris and Joyner head that control team and they’re the best I got.’

He took another sip and wiped his lips with the back of a thumb.

‘You going back to Washington?’

Sloan shook his head. ‘I’ve got it under control for now. The State Department’ll step into it now. My job’s to keep Cosomil alive until he can get back in there.’

‘Well,’ Hatcher said, ‘there’s always the bright side. Congress’ll probably give them all the aid they need now.’

Sloan paced the room for several minutes. He stopped and did some deep-breathing exercises.

‘That’s not my problem,’ he said finally. ‘Or yours. Let’s get back to our business.’

‘Hell, I forgot what we were talking about,’ Hatcher said.

‘You were running my boys all over the lot,’ Sloan said dryly.

‘Just some exercises to get back in shape,’ Hatcher answered.

‘Turn up anything?’

‘Not much.’

‘You been awful busy,’ Sloan said with a cock of his head.

‘From the look of Buffalo 1ill, I don’t have a lot of time.’

‘Any idea why Cody might be in hiding?’

Now, that’s a strange question, thought Hatcher.

‘You’re way ahead of me,’ he said. ‘I’m still trying to find out if he’s alive or not.’

‘Well, what do you think?’

‘If you mean have I made any earthshaking conclusions in the last seventy-two hours, the answer is no. I’m not a DA, I don’t have to prove anything. At this point I’m waffling back and forth. Sometimes I think Cody’s alive, sometimes I think this Wol Pot is scamming us all. It depends on the equation.’

‘Well, why do you think he’s alive?’

‘I didn’t say he was. I’m just not as sure he’s dead as I once was.’

‘Why not?’

‘Little things. I’ve got a gunner that now admits one of the men in Cody’s plane probably got out. I got an ex- POW tells me he heard about this transient prison camp and one of the prisoners was a VIP who could have been Cody — could have been. I got two wingmen — one thinks Cody was a crazy glory hunter, the other thinks he was the second coming. And that’s about all I got. Very hazy stuff.’