"Do you hear what he called me, Cy, this
Jolly laughter fills the room. Katie's iconoclastic boom is the theme music of insiders. More delegates arrive. Groups break up, re-form. "Why, Martha,
Someone has given the signal. A dry clatter as delegates toss their paper cups into trash bags and troop to the projection room. The lowliest, led by Amato, head for the front rows. Farther back, in the expensive seats, Darker's deputy in Procurement Studies, Neal Marjoram, shares cosy laughter with a ginger-headed American espiocrat whose name card reveals him only as "Central America ― Funding." Their laughter fades with the lights. Somebody funny says, "Action!" Burr takes a last look at Goodhew. He is leaning back in his chair, smiling at the ceiling, like a concertgoer who knows the music well.
Joe Strelski embarks on his address.
* * *
And Joe Strelski as a purveyor of disinformation is word perfect.
Burr is bemused. After a decade of deception, it has never occurred to him until today that the best deceivers are the bores. If Strelski were wired from head to toe with lie detectors, Burr is convinced, the needles would not flinch. They would be too bored. Strelski speaks for fifty minutes, and by the time he has finished, fifty are as much as anyone can take. In his word-heavy monotone, the most sensational intelligence is turned to ash. The name of Richard Onslow Roper barely escapes his lips. In London he had used it without compunction. Roper is our target; Roper is the centre of the web. But today in Miami, before a mixed audience of Purists and Enforcers, Roper is relegated to obscurity, and when Strelski trails a half-hearted slide show of the cast, it is Dr. Paul Apostoll who gets star billing as
Strelski now logs the wearisome process of pinpointing Apostoll as
"The basis for Operation Limpet is intelligence indicators from a variety of technical sources to the effect that the three leading Colombian cartels have signed a mutual nonaggression deal with each other as a prerequisite to providing themselves with a military shield commensurate with the financial muscle available and equal to the twin threats foremost in their conceptual thinking." Breath. "These threats are, one" ― another breath ― "armed interdiction by the United States at the behest of the Colombian government." Almost done, but not quite. "Two, the growing strength of the non-Colombian cartels primarily in Venezuela and Bolivia. Three, the Colombian government acting on its own account but with the hands-on encouragement of U. S. agencies."
Amen, thinks Burr, transfixed with admiration.
The history of the case appears to interest nobody, which is probably why Strelski supplies it. Over the last eight years, he says ― another slump in interest ― several attempts have been made by "a variety of parties lured by the cartels' unlimited financial resources" to persuade them to get the habit of buying serious weapons. French, Israelis and Cubans have all pressed their cases, as have a bunch of independent manufacturers and dealers, most with the tacit connivance of their parent governments. The Israelis, assisted by British mercenaries, actually succeeded in selling them a few Galil assault rifles and a training package.
"But the cartels," says Strelski, "well, after a while the cartels kind of lose interest."
The audience knows exactly how the cartels feel.
