killed or captured trying to destroy a fish farm in a country whose population is starving. It would be worse if your aircraft was successful in destroying it.”
“Where are you going with this?” Castillo asked.
“I think it would be much smarter, my Carlos, for Dmitri and me to go with you tomorrow than for us to stay here and watch the waves go up and down.”
“To do what?”
“To convince General McNab of the truth,” Berezovsky said. “And to make ourselves available, if that should become necessary, to the appropriate authorities.”
Delchamps grunted. “Let me give you a scenario, Dmitri. You go through agency debriefing, which means this time the use of the less pleasant methods of truth detecting, and they believe what you have to say. Which isn’t much. What you have told us is hearsay. We believe you, but that won’t count with the agency. What they are going to think is that here is the guy—”
“And his sister,” Darby interjected.
“—who humiliated the station chief in Vienna, and thus the agency. They conveniently will conclude that you are the embezzlers the Russians say you are, and have concocted this fantastic story, a la Sunev, to cover your ass, and the thing for them to do is turn you over to Interpol for return to Russia.”
“Neither of you is going to turn yourselves in to the agency,” Castillo said.
“If you think that through, Colonel,” Berezovsky said, “that is not your decision to make. How would you stop us?”
Castillo met his eyes. “How about reminding you of your wife and daughter in Argentina?”
“Did you notice how well my wife and Susanna Sieno got along? Even better than you and I, Carlos. Both women know of the roles their husbands play in the world in which people like you and I live. From time to time, when God wills it, unpleasant things happen.
“We are back, Carlos, to what we have talked about before. The sin of omission. If I went back to Argentina without seeing this through, that would be a sin. What happens now is in the hands of God.”
“Dmitri, if I allowed you and Svetlana to come with us to Florida, would you give me your word, swear to God on the lives of your family, you wouldn’t turn yourself in to the agency without talking to me first?”
Berezovsky considered that a moment.
“I so swear,” he said, and crossed himself.
[FIVE]
Svetlana was wrapped in a white terry-cloth robe—under which Castillo happened to notice she wore the lacey red underpants he had first happened to see in Vienna’s Westbahnhof—and leaning on the jamb of the bathroom door as she watched him conduct business on the telephone.
She asked with her eyes what was going on. He signaled for her to wait.
“I appreciate your understanding,” he said into the phone. “The animal is a symbol of the strength and devotion of the Lorimer Fund, and I can’t imagine Max not being at a board of directors meeting.”
Svetlana raised her eyebrows even higher in question, as whoever Castillo was talking to said something else.
“Thank you very much,” Castillo said politely, “but I think we can make do with the space in the larger suite for our meeting.”
The door chime sounded and Svetlana, in bare feet, ran quickly to answer it.
Castillo saw that it was a room-service waiter pushing a cart on which sat a champagne cooler and something else he couldn’t see.
“I’m afraid we won’t have time for offshore fishing,” Castillo went on, “but I must admit it certainly sounds like fun.”
The room-service waiter opened the champagne and Svetlana attacked whatever else was on the table by jabbing at it with a fork.
“A cocktail party at the pool is something we’ll have to consider when we get there,” Castillo said. “But that, too, is certainly an interesting option.”
Svetlana signed the room-service check and showed the waiter out the door, carefully fastening the lock after he’d gone.
She returned to the room-service cart, picked up two champagne stems with the thumb and two fingers of her right hand, then picked up something with her left hand and walked to Castillo.
“We look forward to seeing you, too, and will do so tomorrow,” Castillo said, his tone suggesting he was past ready to finish the business conversation. “Thank you so much for your courtesy.”
He hung up the telephone and said to it, “Sonofabitch wouldn’t stop selling!”
Then he looked up at Svetlana.
He started to say something else but could not, because she had thrust something into his mouth.
“Beluga,” she said, and showed him the label on the small jar.
“Wonderful,” he said a moment later.
“And Pommery
She saw something in his eyes.
“Not to worry, my Carlos, I am rich. I will pay for it.”
He touched his glass to hers.
“Exactly what is it that we’re celebrating?”
“Us. You and me. Being in love.”
“Sweetheart, what would I have to do to get you to stay here?”
She ignored him. “And after you finish the caviar and the champagne, I have a small present for you.”
“Did you hear what I asked?”
“It is something I know you like. . . .”
“Jesus Christ, honey. Listen to me, please.”
“No,” she said flatly. “There is nothing you can say, my Carlos.”
He looked at her for a long moment.
She flipped the robe open and then closed it. “What sort of a present, my darling, do you think Little Miss Red Under Britches has in mind for you?”
He smiled—
He felt a tightness in his throat, and then his chest heaved.
[SIX]
Portofino Island Resort & Spa
