The Hostage Part 58

"Yes, sir."

"Well, then, I'll see you there," Winslow Masterson said, and started again for the stairs.

Castillo looked at D'Allessando. "You have wheels, Vic?"

"Not to spare, Charley."

"You have the Secret Service guy on your radio?"

D'Allessando nodded.

"Tell him that I need a Yukon here, right now, for I don't know how long."

"You can do that?"

"You can do that and we'll see what happens."

D'Allessando tilted his head slightly.

"You on, Ogilvie?" he said.

Mrs. Masterson looked at him with great curiosity.

"He's got a radio under there," Castillo explained.

"Mr. Castillo wants a Yukon at the Globemaster right now," D'Allessando said. There was a pause. "All he told me was to tell you he wants a Yukon here, now."

D'Allessando straightened up and announced, "On the way, Charley."

"Now tell them to find Fernando Lopez-he's my cousin, he's in the VIP section, and they know it-and bring him here."

D'Allessando bent his head again and repeated the order, and then said, "They'll do it."

Betsy Masterson's eyes met Castillo's.

"My father-in-law is just like Jack, isn't he?"

"Yes, ma'am, I was thinking the same thing."

"I guess it's the genes," she said.

[FIVE].

Estancia Shangri-La Tacuarembo Province Republica Oriental del Uruguay 2355 25 July 2005 Jean-Paul Bertrand watched the ceremonies taking place at Keesler Air Force Base on CNN.

They are really making a show of it, he thought, with somewhat grudging admiration. And then he thought, he thought, with somewhat grudging admiration. And then he thought, That's precisely what it is, a show. Jack gets himself shot, and they're acting as if he were the secretary of state, and all he was was chief of mission in a third-rate emba.s.sy. That's precisely what it is, a show. Jack gets himself shot, and they're acting as if he were the secretary of state, and all he was was chief of mission in a third-rate emba.s.sy.

The President arranged the show for his own agenda.

Jean-Paul got to watch not only Betsy and the kids this time but his father and mother as well. There was a camera long shot of the family walking behind the casket as it was slowly marched off the airplane.

Daddy looks fine, old but fine; not as one would expect of someone who nearly died of a heart attack. Mom must have her hands full with him. Jack's father looks just like Jack. And so does the older boy. What the h.e.l.l is his name? Do they call him "Junior" or "the Third"?

The cameras were trained, too, on the reviewing stand as the family took their places beside the President. The President not only kissed Betsy but put his arms around her in a compa.s.sionate hug.

If that's not for the purpose of putting the ignorant ma.s.ses who voted for him in a receptive state of mind for what he's going to say, then what is it for?

The secretary of state also embraced Betsy and kissed her, then did the same to Amba.s.sador and Mrs. Lorimer and then the kids.

Daddy at least had the dignity to look a little offended. G.o.d, how I loathe that arrogant little b.i.t.c.h! She's nearly as bad as the President!

"My fellow Americans," the President began, and Jean-Paul Bertrand almost switched the television off then, but curiosity stayed his hand.

"I come here tonight bearing two messages.

"One is from you.

"The American people offer their profound condolences to the families of J. Winslow Masterson and Sergeant Roger Markham, USMC, who gave their lives in the service of the United States.

"The second message is from me," the President went on. "It is to those who committed the cowardly murders of these two good men.

"I say to you that this outrage will not go unpunished. I have ordered . . ."

Jean-Paul Bertrand switched off the television.

It would have been nice to see more of the family, but if the price to do that is looking at that man while he mouths such nonsense, it is simply too high.

XIII.

[ONE].

Penthouse C The Belle Vista Casino & Resort U.S. Highway 90 ("The Magic Mile") Biloxi, Mississippi 2230 25 July 2005

When the dark blue, nearly black, GMC Yukon XL pulled up in the brilliantly lit drive of the hotel, the driver's door was opened by a doorman in what looked like the uniform of an admiral in the Imperial Russian Navy.

"Welcome to the Belle Vista Casino and Resort," he announced. "How may I be of service?"

"You can tell me where I can park this thing," the driver said.

"We have valet parking, sir."

"No," the driver said, and showed the doorman his Secret Service credentials. "I keep control of the vehicle. And I need it close, in case it's required in a hurry."

"Oh," the doorman said. "Is one of you gentlemen Mr. Costello?"

"My name is Castillo," Charley said, from the backseat.

"And you are Mr. Masterson's guest, sir?"

"Uh-huh."

"Welcome to the Belle Vista Casino and Resort, Mr. Castillo Castillo," the doorman said and opened the rear door. "Mr. Threadgill, the manager on duty, will be here momentarily."

Castillo and Fernando Lopez got out of the Yukon.

Fernando Lopez was an enormous man-six-foot-three, two hundred thirty pounds-with a full head of dark black hair and a swarthy complexion. He was wearing a dark blue suit, a crisp blue s.h.i.+rt with a white collar, a red-striped tie, and black ostrich-hide Western boots.

"If you want to get a cup of coffee or something," Castillo said to the driver, "I think this will probably take about an hour."

The Secret Service agent nodded but didn't say anything.

A tall, thin, elegantly dressed man in his late forties walked up to them.

"Mr. Castillo?" he asked and, when Charley nodded, put out his hand. "Welcome to the Belle Vista Casino and Resort, Mr. Castillo. My name is Edward Threadgill, and I am the manager on duty. If you'll follow me, please?"

He led them through the lobby. In a lounge to one side, three enormous television screens showed Air Force One taxiing toward a runway.

He stopped before an elevator, somewhat dramatically flashed a plastic card, and then demonstrated how the card operated the elevator door. He then presented the card to Castillo.

"He'll need one of those, too," Castillo said.

"Certainly," Mr. Threadgill announced, produced anotherplastic card, and handed it to Fernando. "There you are, sir. And you are, sir?"

"My name is Lopez," Fernando said.

"Welcome to the Belle Vista Casino and Resort, Mr. Lopez."

"Thank you."

Threadgill bowed them onto the elevator.

The elevator ascended, then its doors opened on a large foyer. Threadgill led them to one of the four doors opening off it, ran the plastic card through another reading device, and then bowed them through the door.

Penthouse C was a large, elegantly furnished suite of rooms. Threadgill threw a switch, and curtains swished open, revealing a wall of floor-to-ceiling windows offering what in daylight would be a stunning view of the Gulf of Mexico, the sugar-white sandy beach, and the highway running along the coast. Now, a few lights twinkled out on the water and U.S. 90 was an intermittent stream of red lights going west, white lights going east.

There was a basket of fruit on a coffee table, and beside it a cooler holding two bottles of champagne.

"If you need anything, gentlemen," Threadgill said, "there are b.u.t.tons in every room which will summon the floor waiter. There is of course twenty-four/seven room service."

"Thank you very much," Castillo said.

"Is there anything else, or may I leave you?"

"I can't think of anything, thank you very much," Castillo said.

Fernando Lopez waited until the door closed after Threadgill, and then said, "Knowing you as I do, Gringo, I'm sure there is some very simple reason why we are here in a suite normally reserved for really heavily losing baccarat players."

"Baccarat players?" Castillo asked.

"Yeah, this place is world headquarters for people who want to drop a couple of hundred thousand playing baccarat. You didn't know?"

Castillo shook his head.

"So what are we doing here?" Fernando asked.

"Thank you for not asking in the truck," Castillo said.

"That's the answer?"

"Masterson's father and I have to talk. We can't do that at his place-which he calls the plantation-because the widow's father has a bad ticker, and we don't want to upset him. He sent me here."

"What do you have to talk about? Wait. I'll rephrase that interrogatory: What the f.u.c.k is going on?"

"So I don't have to repeat everything twice, can you wait until he gets here? He should be here any minute, and I need a drink."

"Okay. I could use a little belt myself," Fernando said.

"What did that guy say about a floor-waiter b.u.t.ton?"

"There has to be a bar in here," Fernando said.

He walked to a panel mounted on the wall and started pus.h.i.+ng b.u.t.tons. One of them caused a section of the paneled wall to move, revealing a small but well-stocked bar.

"Eureka, the gold!"

They had just enough time to fix the drinks and touch gla.s.ses when Winslow Masterson walked into the suite.

"I couldn't get away as quickly as I had hoped," he said. "But they were ready for you?"

"Yes, sir," Castillo said. "I took the liberty of . . ."

"You're my guests," Masterson shut him off with a gentle wave of his hand. "And a drink seems entirely appropriate at this time."

He went to the bar and poured himself a drink from the bottle of Famous Grouse that Fernando had used.

"The economics of this place has always fascinated me," Masterson said. "G.o.d only knows how much it costs them to maintain something like this, and since they are obviously not in the business of being a friend to man, there has to be a profit motive. It would therefore seem to follow that their hospitality is offered only to those who have-or are likely to lose-an enormous amount of money at the tables. Where do such people- and so many of them-come from?"

"I was thinking just about the same thing, sir," Fernando said.

"Excuse me, sir, for my breach of courtesy. I am Winslow Masterson."