"Have a chair, Juan Domingo," Ramirez said. "You're probably going to need one."
"Mi General?"
"Let's wait until the others arrive, then we won't have to say everything twice," Ramirez said.
General Arturo Rawson; his aide, Capitan Roberto Lauffer; and Mayor Pe-dro V. Querro, Ramirez's aide, entered the room a moment later.
"O'Farrell?" Ramirez asked.
"General O'Farrell is not in the building, mi General," Querro said.
"Then we'll have to do without him," Ramirez decided aloud. "El Coronel Mart¡n has just come from el Almirante Montoya. Castillo called Montoya into the Casa Rosada this morning, where he told him: first, that he was disap-pointed that the G.O.U. did not fold its tent when Jorge Frade was killed; sec-ond, that the G.O.U. is planning to depose him; and third, that he knows this because someone at the meeting where Arturo was elected G.O.U. president told him."
"Who?" Per¢n said.
"I have no more idea than you, Coronel Per¢n," Ramirez said. "But I sus-pect an olive branch was concealed in Castillo's message: we fold our tent, and all is forgiven. Which gives us two options, as I see it. We either fold the G.O.U. tent; or we don't fold it, which means we issue the Blue Sky message this morn-ing, right now, and carry out Outline Blue."
"Do we have time?" Per¢n asked. "If Castillo had someone at the meeting, and it's clear that he did..."
"Mart¡n believes he has convinced Montoya that it will take at least two weeks to take action from the time we order it."
"And if Castillo decides to act today?" Per¢n asked. "For all we know, there may be Polic¡a Federal on their way right now to arrest us."
"I don't see where we have any choice but to issue Blue Sky," Rawson said. "We should have issued it over the weekend."
"We were seeking unity," Per¢n said. "We can't afford for people to have second thoughts at the last minute."
"If the order is issued, there won't be time for anyone to have any second thoughts," Rawson said. "Unless there is objection from you, mi General, I will order Blue Sky issued."
"We are never going to be any more ready than we are now," Ramirez said. "Issue Blue Sky, Mayor Querro."
Ramirez's diminutive aide came to attention, said, "S¡, Se¤or," and dialed a number from memory on one of the telephones on the desk.
"Querro," he said when someone answered. "Blue Sky. Blue Sky."
Then he hung up.
Ramirez looked at his watch.
"If things go according to Outline Blue-and if they do it will be the first time in my military career that anything has gone as planned-in a hundred and twenty hours, this distasteful duty will have been accomplished, Castillo will be gone, and Arturo will be running the country. May God forgive us all if we are doing the wrong thing."
"Martin," General Rawson asked. "Where's that airplane we were talking about?"
"Young Frade went to Corrientes last night on the train. We have made arrangements for him to land it at the airstrip on the Second Cavalry Reserva-tion in Santo Tome. With a little bit of luck-"
"My experience," General Ramirez interrupted, "is that it is better not to plan on anything going right. We better proceed on the assumption that if we fail, we will not have an airplane to fly us to Paraguay."
"Does the General wish to call off the arrangements vis-a-vis the airplane?" Mart¡n asked.
"That's not what I said, Coronel. What I said was that we should not count on the airplane. By all means, continue that operation."
"I have a man in Santo Tome, mi General," Mart¡n said. "When he receives the Blue Sky message, he will understand the need for quick action."
"Presuming I can leave this building without being arrested," Rawson said, "you know where I will be for the next ninety-six hours."
"The moment Castillo learns we have all disappeared," Per¢n said, "he will know what we're up to."
"With a little bit of that luck Coronel Mart¡n seems to have such faith in, Castillo may decide that the message he gave Montoya has reached us, and that we have decided not only to fold the tent, but to take the precaution of fleeing the country," Ramirez said. "But in any event, I don't think he will be looking for Arturo and Lauffer in the Italian Rowing Club in El Tigre."