replies that 'the itinerary is finalized.' Another statement from Terrell. Applewhite replies that someone is more resourceful than originally thought, and that a regrettable but not damaging connection has been made. Applewhite listens and then asks, 'Take no action' followed by the phrase 'And Agent Perry7' ' Andy looked hard at his old friend and placed his palm on the papers.
'This is all about you becoming a target, Kevin. Are you sure you want to keep pushing this?'
'For now, it's just talk, Andy,' Kerney said, thinking that the last thing he wanted, with a baby on the way, was to put himself at risk.
'Let's keep watching and listening before we overreact.'
Kerney smiled reassuringly at Andy, who shook his head in response.
'Moving on,' Kerney said.
'Clarence Terrell may be supplying the intelligence community with a new toy. Let me tell you about SWAMI.'
Charlie Perry's in-flight reading consisted of a briefing document on Enrique De Leon Drugs were his bread and butter, but De Leon dabbled in the theft of historical artifacts and fine art. Kerney had spoiled two of De Leon heists: a cache of mint-condition nineteenth century military equipment discovered in a secret Apache cave at White Sands Missile Range in southern New Mexico, and millions of dollars in twentieth-century art taken from the New Mexico governor's suite. De Leon attempt to have Kerney whacked had failed, but he'd succeeded in eliminating a number of competitors, and was now jefe numero uno in northern Mexico.
Applewhite and Perry disembarked at the El Paso Airport. A special operative from the El Paso Drug Interdiction Intelligence Center logged their arrival and handed the information off to an army criminal investigator. Perry drove Applewhite across the bridge into Juarez. A U.
S. Customs agent pulled the videotape of the crossing, made a copy, and sent it by courier to an intelligence officer at nearby Fort Bliss.
On a dirty, gaudy, crowded Juarez street a DEA undercover agent wheeled his taxi three cars back behind Perry's car and reported the start of his surveillance to a special army intelligence drug-interdiction unit at Fort Huachuca, Arizona.
With Applewhite at his side Perry rang the doorbell at an opulent house on a tree-lined street close to the Juarez mayor's mansion. The DEA taxi driver broke off contact and ended his surveillance as a CIA deep-cover agent snapped front-step photos of Perry and Applewhite from a slow-moving car passing by. The undeveloped film would be flown to Headquarters, Air Intelligence Agency, at Kelly Air Force Base in Texas.
A stocky, balding Mexican Army general wearing civilian clothes and a wire opened the front door. The feed went to an upstairs room, where a U. S. State Department counterintelligence operative manned a remote receiver. Wordlessly, the general ushered the two agents into a mahogany-paneled library and closed the door.
'Senor De Leon has asked me to cover the preliminaries for him,' the general said.
'What preliminaries?' Charlie Perry asked, casting a glance at Applewhite, who merely shrugged.
'No De Leon no meeting.' He turned on his heel to leave.
'Let's hear the general out,' Applewhite said.
Perry swung around, gave Applewhite a harsh look, and nodded abruptly.
The general continued.
'Senor De Leon wishes me to inform you that you will be paid five hundred thousand dollars for the elimination of Kevin Kerney, half today and half upon completion of your assignment.'
'Where's De Leon Perry snapped.
'The task must be done in such a way as not to draw attention to Senor De Leon While he has full confidence in your discretion and abilities, if at the end of your assignment he believes otherwise, he will not release the balance due you.'
'Forget it,' Perry said.
'This isn't going to work, General,' Applewhite said, 'unless we include De Leon in on the proceedings.'
'If you agree to these terms, the ground rules for meeting with De Leon are as follows: You will be searched by my aide for weapons and listening devices. He will then drive you to a place outside the city.
There you will finalize your agreement with Senor De Leon in person and receive your first payment.'
'Why all the hoops?' Perry asked.
'Senor De Leon is a cautious man who wishes to make sure that I am thoroughly embedded in the transaction. Since you are unknown to him personally, and he is accepting you on the basis of my recommendation, my complicity in the operation is required.'
'Let's get on with it,' Perry said.
Applewhite sat up front with the general's aide. They rolled south past the Juarez Airport, through a couple of ugly shanty towns, and into the desert-a vast, dusty, windblown expanse that made Charlie yearn for the Beltway, traffic congestion, and mobs of people.
On a dirt road they pulled up next to a black Lincoln limo. A driver got out and opened the rear door. The general's aide got out and stood at attention. De Leon emerged from the backseat. Perry half expected the young officer to salute.
Thej'e/e's brown curly hair stayed put in the wind. The lips below his narrow nose carried a smirk that widened as Applewhite stepped out of the car.
'I want particulars of how you plan to proceed,' De Leon said to Perry, dismissing Applewhite with a look.
Applewhite shot him in the face, wheeled, pumped two quick rounds into the driver, and delivered a coup de grace to the back of De Leon head.
'Jesus fucking Christ,' Perry said.
The aide stepped to the Lincoln, fetched a suitcase, and took the semiautomatic from Applewhite's outstretched hand.
'We must leave now,' the young officer said.
'Jesus fucking Christ,' Perry moaned.
'Get in the car, Charlie,' Applewhite said, leading Perry to the aide's vehicle, 'and I'll bring you up to speed.'
She got in the backseat with him. Perry leaned his head back and closed his eyes, his heart thumping in his chest. The car made a U-turn and accelerated.
'Here's the way it plays,' Applewhite said.
'By midnight some very factual reports from a variety of reliable intelligence sources will be sanitized, assembled, and analyzed at the Department of Defense. Those reports will prove beyond a doubt that you and you alone entered into a contract with De Leon to assassinate Kevin Kerney, and that you murdered De Leon to ensure his silence after accepting a quarter-million-dollar advance to do the job, which by the way will be deposited shortly in an offshore account you recently opened. Should you ever decide to purge your guts to the Bureau about what really happened, both the general and his aide will be called upon to give statements corroborating what I've just told you. I guarantee that should you decide to try to disprove these accusations, you'll spend the rest of your life in a federal prison.'
'Why kill De Leon Perry asked, his eyes still shut.
'Because the opportunity might not have presented itself again, and it makes some important people on both sides of the border very happy.'
'Kerney's next, isn't he? No matter what he does or doesn't know.'
Applewhite patted Charlie's knee. It made him recoil and open his eyes.
'Don't concern yourself about that.'
'When do you ice me?'
'Not to worry, Charlie. You get to go back to the Beltway after all.
There's a nice desk job waiting for you at the J. Edgar Hoover Building.
Your new bosses are looking forward to working with you.'
Charlie didn't believe her.
'You're a lying bitch.'
Applewhite jammed a thumb into a pressure point on Perry's neck and his chin hit his chest. She punched a syringe through Perry's trousers into his thigh and emptied the contents. The fast acting drug would keep him
