“Oh, he protested bitterly,” Castillo said. “It was as hard for me to talk him into it as it would have been for me to talk someone who’s been wandering around the Sahara Desert for a month into having a glass of ice water.”
She smiled.
“And how do you justify
“I’d rather not tell you. You might decide that Sweaty’s profligate.”
“My Uncle Nicolai has one, Abuela,” Sweaty explained. “He uses it to fly-‘high rollers,’ right, Carlito? — back and forth to the Grand Cozumel from Mexico City and Miami. .”
Castillo thought:
“. . and when I saw the way Carlito looked at it, like a little boy watching an electric train in a store window. .”
She mimed this by opening her eyes very wide and letting her tongue hang out the side of her mouth.
Dona Alicia laughed.
“I know the look,” Dona Alicia said. “When he and Fernando were about twelve, their grandfather showed them a pair of Winchester.30–30 Model 1894 lever-actions that he said he was sending down to Hacienda Santa Maria. .”
Dona Alicia paused when Sweaty’s face showed a lack of understanding.
“The grapefruit farm,” Castillo explained.
Dona Alicia went on: “The rifles were for keeping the deer from eating our grapefruit. They were to be a Christmas present for them, but they didn’t know that. And both of them. .”
She opened her eyes wide and let her tongue hang out of the side of her mouth.
Sweaty laughed, then finished: “So I bought him a Mustang.”
“Grandpa told me that it was just as easy to fall in love with a rich girl as it was a poor one,” Castillo said. “And I took his advice.”
“I don’t know how you put up with him, Svetlana dear. But, on the other hand, his grandfather was just about as bad, and I put up with him for forty-eight years before the Lord took him.”
And then her face grew serious.
“Do you think the people at Hacienda Santa Maria are safe?” she asked.
“Fernando’s down there right now, Abuela, making sure they are.”
“And how is he going to do that?”
“He took some security people with him,” Castillo said.
“From Gladiator Security? Was that necessary? The police chief in Oaxaca is an old, old friend of ours. And, for that matter, so is the chief of police in Acapulco. Between them, I’m sure. .”
“Abuela, Colonel Ferris was kidnapped fifty miles from Acapulco,” Castillo said.
“So you decided that people from Gladiator Security were needed?”
“Not Gladiator Security. The people Fernando took to the hacienda are Spetsnaz.
“Russian Green Berets?”
“More or less. They’ve been protecting Sweaty’s cousin Aleksandr and his family in Argentina.”
“And Fernando took them there?”
Castillo nodded.
“Then he must take this threat very seriously,” she said.
“He does. You seem surprised.”
“He knows it will insult our people at Hacienda Santa Maria,” she said.
“Abuela, we’re trying to protect them. Why should they be insulted?”
“Fernando knows-and you should-that Hacienda Santa Maria has been in the family for centuries. It was a land grant from the king of Spain. For all that time, our people there have been fighting off people who wanted to do the hacienda harm. Indians, all sorts of banditos, even French soldiers when Mexico had a French emperor. And lately these despicable drug people. They won’t think they need any help.”
“Well, they’re wrong,” Castillo said.
“And getting back to where this conversation began,” she said. “Neither do I. I’ve been taking care of myself for a long time. I don’t need more people from Gladiator than are already here.”
“Wrong again, Abuela,” Castillo said. “From now on, you don’t go anywhere without people from Gladiator. One of them will drive your car.” He paused, and then added, “Which will probably cause your insurance company to heave a huge sigh of relief.”
She frowned at him and looked as if she were going to reply. But then her expression changed to a smile as Lester Bradley walked into the breakfast room. He was carrying a Brick.
“Good morning, Lester,” Dona Alicia said. “Did you sleep well?”
“Good morning,” Bradley replied.
“Of course he slept well,” Castillo said. “Nobody was snoring in his room.”
This triggered a thirty-second explosion in Russian from Sweaty, which Dona Alicia could not translate but obviously understood.
Castillo put up his hands in a gesture of surrender, but did not really look very remorseful.
“Sit down, dear,” Dona Alicia said, “and have some breakfast.”
“Yes, ma’am, thank you,” Lester said, then turned to Castillo. “Colonel, can I see you a moment?”
“Lester, we’re both retired. That means I don’t call you sergeant anymore, and you don’t call me colonel.”
“Yes, sir,” Lester replied.
“Try ‘Your Majesty’ on for size. If that doesn’t work, how about ‘Charley’?”
Bradley smiled.
“I. . uh. .” Bradley said, and looked at Dona Alicia.
“What’s up, Les?” Castillo said.
“Mr. Casey called a couple of minutes ago,” Bradley said, “to tell me Net Two is up and running. If you want to use it, punch two forward slashes and then the other numbers.”
“What’s ‘Net Two’?” Castillo asked.
“Mr. Casey said when you asked, I was to tell you to call Mr. D’Alessandro.”
He laid the Brick in front of Castillo and opened it.
Castillo took out the handset.
“Two forward slashes, and then the number,” Bradley repeated.
Castillo did so.
“What’s up, Vic?”
“Put it on loudspeaker,” Sweaty ordered.
Castillo either didn’t hear her or chose to ignore her.
Their conservation was brief, essentially one-sided, with Castillo doing most of the listening and replying with short answers. Finally, he said, “We’ll be in touch,” and replaced the handset in the Brick.
“What is ‘Net Two’?” Sweaty demanded immediately.
It took him a moment to frame his reply.
“The reason we now have two Casey networks is because we have to cut Natalie Cohen out of the original net, and we don’t want her to know that she’s been cut.”
“That requires an explanation,” Sweaty said.
“Let me tell you what she told Frank Lammelle,” Castillo said. “Natalie Cohen said that President Clendennen thinks we tried, we’re trying, to stage a coup d’etat. First we get him to appoint Montvale as Vice President, then we get rid of Clendennen.”
“My God!” Dona Alicia said.
“That never entered my mind,” Castillo said. “Maybe it should have. But that’s moot. Montvale and Natalie
