There were other photographs. Felter was in some of them.

One showed Lowell with a good-looking blonde beside him and a baby in his arms, standing beside Lieutenant Colonel and Mrs. Robert F. Bellmon. And, Jack saw, a pert-nosed little girl who had grown into Marjorie.

"His wife was killed by a drunk driver,"" Geoff said, "the day he got a battlefield promotion to major and the DSC. How's that for a blow in the ass." "My God," Jack said. Felter pointed to a photograph of Lieutenant Colonel Lowell standing with Sergeant Geoffrey Craig wearing a green - beret, holding Ursula's hand.

"I took that," Felter said. "The day Geoff and Ursula were married. "

Jack looked at Geoff, who said, "Only for en famille discussion/the real story of how I met Ursula is that shortly after I was drafted, I found myself in the Fort Jackson, South Carolina, stockade, about to be locked up forever for breaking my basic training Platoon Sergeant's jaw."

"Really?" Jack asked politely, not sure that his leg wasn't being pulled.

"Really," Geoff said, nodding his head. "My father was somewhat hysterical and got in touch with Cousin Craig. Cousin Craig arrived wearing all of his medals to awe the local brass. A deal was struck and I was offered the choice between Leavenworth and becoming a Green Beret. So I went to Bragg, and met Ursula. And then, knowing that Ursula-not to mention me being in Special Forces-would send my father back into hysteria, Cousin Craig went with me to New York for the great 'Hi, Pop, meet the little woman' scene. We got married the next day. Colonel Felter gave the bride away. He was standing in for Ursula's brother, who was off doing something mysterious for the mysterious Colonel Felter."

"You do get around, Colonel, don't you?" Jack remarked.

Geoff chuckled.

"I just remembered, Uncle Sandy," Geoff said, "that Cousin Craig once told me that if you ever came to me and said that you had a little job for me, that I was to jump out the nearest window."

"Which brings us to the business at hand," Felter said.

"I think I'm going to have a drink," Geoff said. "Jack?"

"Please," Portet said "Sandy?" Geoff asked.

"I'll have a glass of wine-with the lamb," Felter said.

Geoff made the drinks and handed one to Jack.

"From this point," Felter said, "this conversation is classified Top Secret -Eagle."

"I don't have an Eagle endorsement," Geoff said." I don't even know what Eagle-is."

"You do now," Felter said.

"Eagle is the covering operation for the Congo."

"You do?" Geoff asked Jack. "Know all about this?"

"He knows what he has the need to know," Felter said.

"Which isn't much," Jack said, and then turned to Felter.

"Colonel, I don't mean to be" rude, but just who the heft are you?"

"He won't tell you," Geoff said. "That's classified."

"No," Felter said. "It's not." He took his wallet, technically a large Moroccan leather passport case, from his blouse and handed Jack a plastic-coated, photographically reduced-in-size copy of his appointment as Counselor to the President.

"Show it to Geoff when you're finished," Felter said.

"I'm impressed," Jack said. "I suppose that's the whole idea."

"What I don't understand is how a friend of Cousin Craig's can be that close to a Democrat," Geoff said as he handed it back to Felter.

Felter ignored the remark.

"Captain Kegg and Captain Askew were working for me," Felter said.

Geoff looked at Jack and said, "None of this seems like a surprise you, Jack."

"I've been filling in the blanks in the Jeppesen information," Jack said. The Jeppesen Company provides, with weekly updates, information concerning airfields and their facilities around the world. "Private strips, that sort of thing, about the Congo, and trying to get them-was trying-to get them prepared for flying over there."

"He and Pappy Hodges," Felter said. "And now that Kegg and Askew. . . are no longer available, we're going to send Pappy: And you, if you want the assignment."

Geoff didn't reply.

"I've already located another airplane," Felter said. "It should be here by now. SCATSA will install the necessary-avionics and auxiliary fuel tanks so it can be ferried over there. As soon as SCATSA finishes, you'll take it over there. Seventy..two hours, something like that. I realize that's short notice, but it should be an interesting assignment, Geoff, and I'm in a position to offer it to you." Geoff did not respond.

"Dependents to follow as soon as possible," Felter added.

"I'll bet it will be an interesting assignment. But why me?"

"You speak French, for one thing. You're well traveled. You'd fit in with the embassy crowd. And, as I say, I'm in a position to do you a favor."

"Oh, bullshit!" Geoff said. "I asked why me? I'm not a spy."

"All I want from you is to keep your eyes and ears open. I want you to be my eyes and ears on the spot. No espionage. I want to make that clear. I'm not sending you in there as an agent. That's the truth."

"If you want to tell me what's going on, what I'd be getting myself-and more, important, Ursula-into, I'll listen. Otherwise you can stick this job up your ass."

Jack's eyes widened. Lieutenants just do not talk to colonels that way, even if the colonel is called Uncle Sandy.

Felter's face showed no reaction.

"I have given you no reason to distrust me, Geoff," he said.

"Or to talk to me like that."

"That's not the case, I'm sorry to say," Geoff said levelly.

"What do you' mean by that?" Felter asked coldly. Jack saw that Felter was getting angry.

"You told us that Karl-Heinz was going to the jungle warfare school in Panama," Geoff said. It was an accusation.

Jack saw that whatever that meant, Colonel Felter had been surprised.

"What makes you think he's not in Panama?" Felter asked after a moment's hesitation.

"A friend of mine got on a UTA flight out of Brussels to Leopoldville," Geoff said. "And there was Karl-Heinz. On his way to Johannesburg, South Africa." Felter didn't reply.

Jack plunged ahead, warming to his challenge: "And what are we doing with at least three A-Teams in the Belgian Congo?" A Special Forces A-Team consisted. of two commissioned officers and eight to ten enlisted men, all of them at least sergeants.

"Your friend talks too much," Felter said, coldly angry. "And so, apparently, does Karl-Heinz."

"Don't worry about it," Geoff said. "The security of what I gather is Operation Eagle is intact. Karl-Heinz gave him the 'you-don't-know-me' eye in the airport in Brussels, and then when he found out they were one the same plane, on the planer I mean, there was time for him to tell my friend he hadn't, seen him."

"Obviously it's not intact," Felter said, "if you know about it."

"I didn't hear the word Eagle until just now," Geoff said.

"And Karl-Heinz hasn't opened his mouth."

"Your friend ran off at his, obviously," Felter said.

"Well, we were in 'Nam together and I guess he figured I wouldn't get on the horn to the Russian Embassy and guess what, fellas?"

"Have you told Ursula?" Felter asked quietly.

"No," Geoff said. "I didn't want her to worry."

"I was going to tell you, and ask you to tell Ursula, about Karl-Heinz tonight," Felter said. "And to impress upon her the, necessity to keep quiet about it."

"Were you really?" Geoff asked sarcastically.

"So far as Karl-Heinz is concerned," Felter said, "We believe that Michael Hoare's services as a mercenary will-be-required," Felter said. "If that happens I want somebody with him who can tell me what's going on."

"In other words he's a spy? Or an agent? Or whatever you call people like that?"

"Yes, he is."

"And the A-Teams? What are they doing?"

"For the moment, gathering intelligence," Felter said."

"What you and Pappy Hodges will be doing is moving them around."

"For what purpose?" Geoff asked. "I mean, what are they looking for?"

"Evidence "that the Chinese communists are moving into the Congo, or the Russians, or Chinese or Russian surrogates from any of a half dozen places," Felter said. "And to provide the STRICOM officer in the Congo with more information than he can gather by himself incase we have to intervene. The cognizant officer at McDill, incidentally, is a lieutenant colonel named Lowell."

Geoff's eyebrows rose at that, but he didn't respond directly.

"In other words you think something is, going to happen?" he asked.

"I have a gut feeling," Felter said. "No hard intelligence."

"Then why all the goddamned secrecy?"

"There are those, in Leopoldville, all over Africa, and unfortunately in high places in Washington, who would regard what I think It is necessary to do over there as outrageous interference in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation," Felter said.

"But not LBJ, I gather?" Geoff said thoughtfully.

Felter did not respond to that.

"Does that satisfy your curiosity, Geoff?"

"One more question. How does Jack fit in all this? Is he going to be there too?"

"No," Jack said flatly.

"It seems to me that you could do this a lot better than either Pappy or me," Geoff said.

"Yes, he could," Felter said. "But he won't go."

"What do you know that I don't?" Geoff asked Jack.

"I live in the Congo. My family lives in the Congo. When my two years are up, I'm going back there to live. I couldn't do that if I showed up there in a uniform or at the embassy. Then I would be a colon, an American colon maybe, but a colon. And so would my family."

"What's the big deal?" Geoff asked.

"Having our planes burned up. Or having a grenade thrown through the dining room window," Jack said. "Or maybe having my little sister chopped in little pieces by some patriot."

"Jesus Christ!" Geoff said. "I have the uncomfortable feeling that you're telling me the truth. And you're asking me to put Ursula in a situation like that?"

"And if you're dumb enough to get involved in this, Geoff, you stay the hell away from my family in Leopoldville," Jack said.

"OK, we'll make that part of the deal," Felter said. "But as far as Ursula-and Mrs. Hodges-are concerned, I don't see any real danger. You will have diplomatic protection of course. And in the worst possible scenario-"

"Which is?" Geoff interrupted.

"The fall of the Leopoldville government, and/or the fall of Leopoldville to insurgents, there would be plenty of notice, plenty of time to put a STRICOM OPLAN into play."

"There is such a plan?"

"Yes. It involves a battalion of parachutists to hold the Leopoldville airport during an aerial evacuation of American nationals. Diplomatic and otherwise."

"Would that work, Jack?" Geoff asked.

"For anybody in Leopoldville it would," Jack said. "What would happen to people in Bukavu, or Kolwezi, or Stanleyville is something else."

"You think it would be safe for Ursula to go to Leopoldville, is that what you're saying?" Geoff asked.

Jack thought it over for a long moment before replying.

"Yeah, I think so," he said. "My father would have shipped the family the hell out if he thought something was going to happen. And you'd be living in the embassy compound. Ursula would be all right. But the first time you hear that something's going on, get her the hell out don't-wait."

Geoff nodded.