fighter or perhaps something from an aircraft carrier. That way, the samples could get to Fort Dietrich much more quickly than they could aboard our aircraft, and doing so would leave our aircraft there. I am trying to think of some way to get some of the human bodies to Fort Dietrich so that thorough autopsies can be performed. The first problem there is to get them to Tanzania without them contaminating human and plant life along the way. And, of course, we can’t hide them in the parrot cages.”
The President flashed a concerned look at everyone in the room, particularly the DCI and DNI. When no one had anything to offer, Castillo thought that the look changed to a simmering anger.
“Colonel, please think your answer over before replying. In your judgment, should the laboratory—this factory, fish farm, whatever you want to call it—should it be destroyed?”
Colonel Hamilton did not think his answer over long.
“Mr. President, what we have here is a fairly large and well-supplied laboratory and an even bigger manufacturing plant. I would recommend the immediate destruction of both—I repeat, both—sir. I am amazed that the processes involved have not already gotten out of control. If that happens, Mr. President, it will be a hundred times, perhaps a thousand times, more of a disaster than Chernobyl. Living organisms are far more dangerous than radiation.”
“Colonel, I’ll be talking to you soon. Thank you very much.”
“Mr. President, it has been an honor to speak with you.”
“Uncle Remus,” Castillo said, “get the colonel’s samples in Jake’s hands as quickly as you can.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Castillo out.”
“Colonel Castillo,” the President said. “From your . . . I guess ‘tone of command, ’ one would suppose that you consider yourself still in charge of this . . . what did Hamilton call it? ‘Operation Fish Farm’?”
“Yes, sir.”
“Sadly, that is not to be the case. You’re just too dangerous a man to have around. Too many people have their knives out for you, and some of them have involved the press. I can’t involve the press in this. You understand me, Colonel?”
“Yes, sir.”
“You are relieved as chief, Office of Organizational Analysis. You will go someplace where no one can find you, and you will not surface until your retirement parade. Understood?”
It took Castillo a moment to find his voice. “Yes, sir.”
“After your retirement, I hope that you will fall off the face of the earth and no one will ever see you or hear from you again. Understood?”
“Yes, sir. I’ve been thinking of learning how to play polo. Or golf.”
“The same applies to everyone in the Office of Organizational Analysis. Understood?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I don’t know how much of that sixty million dollars you had is left, but it should be enough to provide reasonably adequate severance pay to everyone. If it isn’t, get word to me and we’ll work something out.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Since we understand each other, Colonel, before you disappear, I think you have the right to hear this.”
“Hear what, sir?”
“Mr. Secretary of Defense, you are ordered to take whatever steps are necessary to get Colonel Hamilton’s samples from where Colonel Castillo will tell you they are to the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute at Fort Dietrich as quickly as possible.”
“Mr. President,” Cohen interjected, “you can’t just fly warplanes—”
“I’ll get to you in a moment, Madame Secretary. Right now I’m giving orders, not seeking advice.”
She started to say something but didn’t.
“I think we are in this mess because I’ve listened to too much well-meaning advice,” the President went on. “In addition, Mr. Secretary of Defense, you will immediately prepare plans to utterly destroy this hellhole in the jungle.”
“Sir, Colonel Torine has prepared some proposed op orders,” Castillo said.
“Give them to the secretary, please,” the President said. “I’m sure he will find them valuable in preparing the plan, or plans, I want presented to me yesterday.”
Cohen again tried to reason: “Mr. President, you’re not thinking of actually—”
“And what you are going to do, Madame Secretary,” the President interrupted her, “is return to Washington, where you will summon the ambassador of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to your office. You will tell him (a) that you are sorry to have to tell him that without the knowledge or permission of his government this—what did Hamilton call it?”
“ ‘An abomination before God,’ sir,” Castillo offered, earning him dirty looks from the others.
“That this abomination before God has been erected on his soil, but (b) not to worry, because his friend the United States of America is about to destroy it and no one will be the wiser.
“If he gives you any trouble about our airplanes overflying his country—or anything else—tell him his option is that we will destroy this abomination and
“Natalie, say, ‘Yes, Mr. President,’ or I will with great reluctance have to accept your resignation, then have the bastard appear in the Oval Office tomorrow and tell him myself. They knew goddamn well it was there. Palms were greased.”
After a long moment, the secretary of State said, “Yes, Mr. President.”
The President turned to Castillo.
“I hope this eases the pain of getting the boot a little, Charley.”
“It eases it a great deal, sir. Thank you.”
“For what? For defending the United States from all enemies, foreign and domestic? That’s what I was hired to do.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Is there anything else I can do for you before you start vanishing from the face of the earth?”
Castillo had seen this question coming, too, and was prepared for it.
“Yes, sir. Three things.”
The President made a
“First, sir, I would like to see Corporal Bradley here promoted to gunnery sergeant in the Marine Corps. He loves the Corps, but obviously, tainted with this, and knowing what he knows, he could never go back. He’ll have to take a discharge.”
The President pointed to the secretary of Defense.
“Do it,” he ordered, then turned back to Castillo. “And?”
“I’d like to see Berezovsky and Alekseeva taken off the Interpol warrants. They didn’t embezzle any money. And three, I would like myself, and anybody else connected to me, to be taken off the FBI’s ‘locate but do not detain’ list—and any other list we may be on.”
The President pointed at the DCI. “You can take care of that. And since the Russians have not defected to the CIA, I want the CIA to take no action to encourage them to do so. Understood?”
The DCI did not appear the epitome of happy. “Yes. Mr. President.”
The President looked at Castillo.
“I’m sorry it turned out like this, Charley. But bad things happen to good people.”
He put out his hand.
Castillo shook it, then he and Bradley walked out of the room.
[THIRTEEN]
McCarran International Airport
Las Vegas, Nevada
