El Coronel, forced to open the safe at gunpoint, does so, and suddenly turns, blazing automatic in hand, and puts a round right between the eyes of the bad guys. Oh, horseshit!
He pushed the manila envelope to the side and picked up the pistol. The hammer was cocked and the safety was off. He ejected the clip, then worked the action. A stubby, glistening.45 cartridge arced though the air, bounced on the tile floor, and came to rest on a rug.
Jesus Christ! Loaded, cocked, and safety off! And obviously on purpose. El Coronel was not the sort of man to leave a loaded, cocked pistol around, safety off, through carelessness.
Enrico picked up the cartridge and handed it to Clete. Clete put the car-tridge into the magazine, then inserted the magazine into the pistol, letting the slide slam forward, chambering a round. He put the safety on, then carefully laid it on the rug. After that, he picked up the envelope and untied the string holding it closed.
It contained two Argentine passports made out in names he didn't recog-nize, but carrying the photographs of Dave Ettinger and Tony Pelosi. He glanced at them quickly, put them back in the envelope, then put the envelope on the floor beside the pistol.
Then he reached into the safe and took out the document. When he did so, he saw that it had been lying on half-inch stacks of currency.
What the hell is all that money doing in there?
He started to pick up one of the stacks of money, then changed his mind.
I don't think Claudia would be all that concerned about money, not even this much money.
He looked at the document. Its light-blue-like the blue in the Argentine flag, he thought-cardboard covers were blank. He turned to the first page. Neatly typed in the center were the words "Esquema Azul"-Outline Blue.
Jesus! What the hell is this?
He turned to the next page. It was once as neatly typed as the title page, but there had been a number of corrections since, in both pencil and ink. He had lit-tle doubt, however, that it was an index to the rest of the document. Turning to page three removed any doubt about what he was holding in his hands.
PART ONE STATEMENT OP PURPOSE
The purpose of OUTLINE BLUE is the seizure, in the name of the people of Argentina, by the Group of United Officers of all elements of the Government of Argentina; to depose the incumbent President of the Republic and all officials holding appointed power under him; and to govern the Republic of Argentina under Martial Law until, at the earliest feasible time free, honest and democratic elections may be held.
Jorge Guillermo Frade
Coronel, Cavalry, Retired
President, Grupo de Oficiales Unidos
No wonder Claudia wanted to lay her hands on this before I did!
But if she knew about it, that means she's involved with this, too, and up to her ears!
I wonder where, if at all, Humberto fits in. I don't think he knows about this.
He quickly flipped through the folder. It wasn't exactly like an American Operations Order, but it was organized very much like the last Operations Or-der Clete had seen-'"Movement of VMF-221 From Ewa Marine Air Station, Territory of Hawaii, to Guadalcanal, Solomon Islands."
Who was to do what and when was spelled out in numbing detail. The con-sequence of the "who" listed in Outline Blue was that it was a list of all the of-ficers, all over Argentina, Army and Navy, who were involved in the planned coup d'‚tat. Officers who could be tried for treason, if this document fell into the wrong hands and Outline Blue was nipped in the bud.
"Did you know what this was?" Clete asked.
"S¡, Se¤or Clete."
"You think Se¤ora Carzino-Cormano did?"
"Of course."
"Humberto Duarte?"
"I don't think so."
"Is there someplace else we can hide this?" Clete said. "She's liable to show up here any moment. And I want to read it."
And decide what, if anything, I'm going to do with it.